It's hot Hot HOT!

Monday is was so nice out Everett begged me to set up the pool. While I set up the kiddy pool I let them play in the sprinkler :)

Don't mind me coaxing the kids into the freezing cold water, it was 94 degrees out.



While the pool was filling they just played in the baby pool with no sprinkler.

I Love Spring!

I especially love Spring at my parents house. Spring means baby kitties to hold. My mom said Everett could name this little kitty so meet Gordon.(From Thomas The Train)


I don't think we named this one but Everett did inform me that his name ISN'T boots, spots, raindrop, Thomas, or Gordon.

Emma and Yukon like to fight over the ball. It's Yukon's ball, but Emma swears it's hers.


***Again with the Camera Phone

She's Getting So Big!

Cody's Parents got Everett this four wheeler and for a good week to two weeks Emma didn't even look at it. I knew the day would come when she got a enough guts to ride it, after all she's Cody's daughter.
She does pretty good, we have to leave it in LOW! (when it's in high she about flies off the back.) She has no clue how to stir, but she does know how to stop before she runs into stuff so that helps :)

Everett didn't think it was much fun to share his toy with his sister.


But he warmed up to the idea and started to "help" her.

***Camera Phone Pics...Big Shocker

Still Our Mini Vacay

Since I'm sick of blogging about The House On The Rock here is a link to my Facebook album with all my pictures in it click HERE.

After The House On The Rock we went to an awesome Brewery, this is a picture of Cody's "to go container."


On our way home we stopped at the Gunder Burger. This is a picture of Cody's ONE POUND burger. I order the 1/2 a pound and only ate 1/2 of it and wouldn't you know it, Cody ate all of his!

The House On The Rock ~ Music

This Video is four videos compressed into one.


The man who designed The House On The Rock also designed a bunch of instruments that played themselves. We would have to put a token in and they would begin to play, it was awesome. Also The House On The Rock is home to the worlds Largest in "home" Carousel.

New Hampton Park

Cody wanted us to come for lunch today, so we had lunch with him. Then i surprised the kiddos by taking them to the BEST park EVER. The wood park in New Hampton :)

Can you spy a little boy hiding in the park?

I wish that for the sake of the blog when I took pictures of the kids they would look at me, but like always they were having way to much fun to stop for a photo opp.

I know her shoes don't watch, but I didn't think flip flops would be very fun to walk around in pea rock in.

I Can Do Anything You Can

Going Up

Coming Down



*** Once again I forgot my camera so these are camera phone pics. I should almost get another camera just to keep in my purse I swear lol!

House On The Rock ~The Infinity Room

The driveway leading up to The House On The Rock.

Looking up at The Gift Shop and Entrance Building.

The House On The Rock has a room that looks like it goes on forever, The Infinity Room. This room is suspended from the main structure with no supports underneath. I was all about seeing this room until I got there. The room was build in the 1960's... 50 years ago, 50 years is a long time for something to just be hanging out gravity would have to kick in sooner or later. These are the thoughts that are going threw my head as I walk out further in this room. Then as I'm looking out the window a man walks by me and the room starts moving up and down. And that ended my ability to go any further. Cody knows my fear of heights and gladly took the camera to capture pictures as he continued down the room. Form what I saw it was very pretty and Cody said it was awesome!




The Room is made to look like it goes on forever, it really stops at the cement block you see.


Infinity


Cody looking down threw the block


This is a picture of the Infinity Room that they had hanging up.

Our Get A Way

The last time Cody and I went somewhere ALONE, was the Summer of 2004 we went to the Hot Springs in Saratoga, WY. We didn't have a Honeymoon because Cody had just switched jobs and he couldn't get the time off. So you can imagine how PUMPED I was to go somewhere for our 5 year Anniversary. We decided to go to The House On The Rock in Wisconsin. This weeks blog will pretty much be pictures of our Adventure :)
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OUR DRIVE

Our drive was rather easy, we were on hwy 18 pretty much the whole time. We stopped at a couple little shops on the way, and enjoyed the rolling hills of Eastern Iowa/ Wisconsin(I live in the WRONG state, Wisconsin is so beautiful).




These little guys were at the cheese shop, I wanted to free the pretty turtle. But the Snapper and the Eel were fair game to anyone that wanted to eat them!

We stayed at The House On The Rock Inn, it was very nice! We got a king size suite with whirlpool :)



It had a kiddy pool, a indoor adult pool, a outdoor pool, and a hot tub. I will admit when I saw this pool I wished I would have brought the kids, but I knew they would have fun with their Aunt Ashley also!


*** Coming tomorrow The House On The Rock

Play Dates Are Hard On A Kid

We went over to the Sonne's last week for a play date. When we got home Everett crashed sitting up. He's such a Cutie Pie :)

Wild Hair

Emma wakes up with some pretty crazy hair somedays. The day these pictures were taken it was raining, her hair was frizz central! Luckly she's gotten better about keeping hair pretties in!



Rett thought he would jump in for the picture also :)

5 Years and Counting

Five years ago today Cody and I were wed :) Here is a quick overview of our wedding. We picked the 14Th of May because it was the first 14Th that landed on a Saturday. We started dating on the 14Th of February so I just liked 14's. Coincidentally Rett was also born on the 14Th (July).


We kept our wedding party small, I'm kind of sad I didn't have a couple other people in it. But I'm sure those people understand :)

I had the CUTEST flower girl EVER! Jenna Knecht

Since that date we have had a couple milestones:
We Bought a House

We got a dog

We Had a Baby

We Got Another Dog

And they had puppies

We Got A Brother In Law

And We Had a Baby Girl

Kind of a busy 5 years if you ask me. :) This weekend Cody and I are going to house on the rock, just for a little get away. We got an awesome deal on tickets, our room, and massages so it should be fun:)

All About Everett

When Everett was in preschool they were a little worried that his speech was delayed. I took him for the AEA Speech Screening and while there she recommended a hearing test. We got the results back for both tests and He can hear just fine. As for speech you can be rated low, moderately low, normal, moderately high, and high. Rett was rated between normal and moderately low. Everett's speech teacher thinks that over the summer he will "mature" and it shouldn't be a problem but she still wants to do another evaluation in the fall. He is still a MONSTER in size compared to most of his peers. He lives to be outside. His sandbox is his favorite "toy" while outside. Grandma Jackie recently got him a Power Wheels Four Wheeler that he loves to drive all around the yard. He has a new friend that he likes playing with Zack Sonne, Randy's son. He has become much more aware of feelings lately. He is generally concerned when someones sad and will frequently tell me when I have "hurt his feelings"(ex: "mommy you hurt my feelings for making me come inside!") He is still a WONDERFUL eater as his favorite foods are fruits and veggies. Getting him to drink anything other then milk is a BATTLE! He still naps 3 to 4 times a week normally from 3 to 5. He knows most of his colors and can sing his ABC's like a trooper. I can NOT believe how good of a memory he has. He can go back atleast a year right now, which just blows my mind! He hasn't worn diapers in well over a year (PRAISE THE LORD) and rarely ever has any accidents. His daddy is his HERO. He becomes more and more of a little man everyday I can't believe how much he's grown up. I still fear for 5 years old :( (when he's not a baby/ little kid anymore).... & That's what I know about My Little Man!

Way Back Whensday

Emma & Ambree, Emma 2 weeks and Ambree 9 weeks. (look @ yesterdays post to compare how different they look now.)

Friday Play Night

The kids and I were invited to our Friends Dan & Ashley's house AKA Camden's house for a play date! Ashley and I normally switch back and forth from who's house we are going to go to. Ashley cooked supper for us and it was awesome..."Hamburger Surprise" is what she made. I brought DQ Ice Cream for dessert, it was a big hit. It's so fun to watch all the kids interact with each other :)

Eating their Ice Cream. (to get the big kids to look @ me I held out four fingers and asked them how many figners I was holding up...so they copied me LOL)

Em was taking some massive spoonfuls

Ambree and Emma playing with a piggy


****These are Camera Phone pics again as I am a horrible blogger and forget my camera :)

Mothers Day and Mothers Days Gifts

For Mothers Day I thought it would be fun to make garden stone with the kids hand prints in them as gifts. I went to K-mart (I hate Kmart but that would be a totally different post) and got two kits, the kits said it made four each... that was a lie! So to make the most out of it I convinced Cj to at least help me attempt to make them. The plaster dried before one kid, let alone the second could put their hand in it. Cody decided it would be much easier to buy Quick-Crete and I suggested buying "flower pot water catchers" as the molds. This worked SO MUCH BETTER! And was cheaper than what we spend on the plaster ones. (I was able to take one of them back.)
Cody mixing the concrete (told you he's good to have around)


It decided to rain right before we started "our project" so we had to resort to the garage. I know it's a mess I'm sorry.

The kids didn't seam to mind the mess

This is after they put there little hands in them. It was a two person job so I'm sorry there is no action shots of that :)


All done, aren't they pretty? Rett helped me paint the hands and Cody pointed out as we were walking up to his mom's house that Rett painted six fingers on Emma's hand. Awesome lol

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We had alot of people we had to hit for Mothers Day, My mom, CJ's Mom, and my two grandma's. We tried to fit everyone in Saturday so we could spent Sunday at home, we weren't successful. Saturday we went to My Grandma Lou's where my parents were building a new hitching rail for her.(my dad had stole Everett earlier in the day and taken him to Grandma's with him) After that we went to Grandma Ila's where my uncle grilled for us.(mmmmmmmm it was yummy) Then on our way home we stopped at Craig and Jackie's house. Sunday we woke up late :) that's a wonderful Mother's Day gift right there! Then we got ready and headed out to my parents house. My mom made lasagna(I know how crappy she had to cook on Mother's Day but no one makes it as good as she does.) Cody, Dad, and Rett went mushroom hunting and Mom, Ash, Em, and I stayed at the house and talked. My sister had to head back to Iowa City so we all called it a day there. Cody and the kids wanted me to pick out some flowers for my birdhouse at Thiesens but nothing really caught my eye so we were home bound. Cody decided he should mow before the rainy week ahead. While Cody is mowing the front yard I will move everything(TOYS!) out of the way, and pooper scooper. Yes!, pooper scooper you could say I get the shitty end of the deal lol.(I really don't mind) After that was dinner and then a movie. We watched Hachi (I'm not sure on the spelling on that) its a SAD movie about a very loyal dog! I had a great Mother's Day and I hope all the other Mommy's out there did too!
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(I would insert something mooshy her about my mom, but she doesn't like that soo) Thank You Mom for everything I love you!