Evansville for Fall Break and Other Happenings

We had a lot of fun down in Evansville for Dave's fall break.  Got to help my mom with some stuff, then went pumpkin patch-ing with Dad and Kyra on Saturday and spent all day Sunday at Ben and Tony's eating and watching football!

Gotta love a good hay ride.

Ike doing some pumpkin picking.














Last weekend, Josh and I took the kids to Brickworld in Fort Wayne.  It was a super awesome Lego exhibit that had vendors and you could play with cool stuff people had built.

Dave was only a tiny bit excited.















Ike showing off his creation with some Duplos.  He may have gotten into a fight with another kid over some figures...

Playing with some cool remote-controlled cars.












On Friday, Dave got to get out of school early to go laser-tagging with some cottage boys.  Lucky kid!

Playing arcade games at the laser tag place.

And here's Ike being his adorable self.













I will say, the time change is really wrecking the moods in our household!  Ready for the kids to get used to it so we all can get some better sleep (and have less grouches around!).   I can't believe it is November already, this year has really flown past.  We are definitely taking advantage of this awesome weather and playing outside all week...gonna be a hard transition to winter for the kiddos this year!

Visit from the Smiths

The week before last we got to see all the Smiths for a whole week!  It was so fun to see the boys enjoying lots of quality time with their cousins-they sure do miss them.  I didn't do a great job documenting the whole trip, but I got some good pictures of the kids together at least :)





Managed to sneak in a group picture...the bench is getting a little small!














Dual mowers.

We borrowed our neighbor's golf cart a lot (thanks Mike!).

Sisters looking adorable.

Sophie learned to ride a bike!









On Sunday we hosted a get-together in our backyard as a kind of pre-Thanksgiving.

Grandma Bertie with Ike and Brooklyn.

Zac got Chad with a water balloon.

Pretty sure they were laughing at Chad.  :)

Notice how sweet Sophie is smiling vs. Ike's grimace?

So much fun to see all of them!  Can't wait to visit them in Florida (hopefully soon!).

Ike Turns 3!

Well my baby turned three.  Ike is such a joy to be around and absolutely hilarious to parent.  It is so difficult to keep a straight face around him, especially if he's in any kind of trouble (which is often!).  He loves tractors (check out this video of him riding in a combine!), playing outside, hanging with the guys in the maintenance shop (some of his best friends are pushing retirement!), and going to the library (to get books about tractors and trucks of course).





I just love this squinty smile!  Here's a video of him talking about his birthday.















Brothers in their jammies.

Someone was excited about his birthday celebration at grandma and grandpa's.

Posing with his Paw Patrol cake and some of the cousins.

The boys with Grandma D.

Ike has really gotten into puzzles lately.











While I am sad that he's growing up so fast, he is just so much fun to be around right now.  He can hold a great conversation and loves to joke around.  Ike also can throw a mean fit when he sets his mind to it.  He is also not super into sharing lately, but we are working on it  :)  Can't wait to see how much he grows in the next year!

Quick Trip to Kansas and Evansville

 Ike and I had a great weekend traveling around and seeing lots of family!  We spent a significant amount of time in the car, but Ike was a trouper.  Jake and Bre's wedding was gorgeous and we had so much fun visiting with people we don't get to see very often :)







Tony and Ike at the wedding.


















Borrowed my mom's boots for the occasion!


















Dad with Uncle Steve (father of the bride!) and Uncle Tim.

Dad and Kyra at the wedding.

Love the walk down the aisle!

Ike being chased by Uncle Joe.

Grandpa took Ike on all of his vehicles!  So many to choose from  :)








Such a great weekend, but we were sure wore out!  Glad to be home and gearing up to celebrate Ike's birthday tomorrow.

Visitors and Museum Fun

 Another quick update before Ike and I head out on an adventure :)  We are heading to Kansas with my dad, Kyra, and Tony to see my cousin Bre get married!  Yikes I feel old!  Anyway, here is what has been going on with us lately.

Saturday we got to hang out with the Slaughters.  Ike was beside himself with excitement!  I will admit I was a little excited too :)  It was so nice to see them and we had lots of fun chatting and playing. At one point we had 8 staff boys in our house!  I will just say that it was loud.  Very loud.





Lewis, Ike, Dave, and Sam all jammied up and ready for bed.









Our neighbor has had a friend in from England for the past several weeks and Ike has grown very attached to him.  In fact, he went over there today to ask if Ian could come over to play, haha!  Ike is not going to be happy when he heads home this week!








Ike and his new pal.













Saturday (before the Slaughters came over) I took the boys plus Kyson to the museum in town.  They were having a free fun day and it was a ton of fun.

Looking fierce in their uniforms.

Ike hit up the train table as usual.













You know we had to eat some free cake.










I did a better job taking pictures of Ike the last few weeks.  He is getting so big and mature (well for an almost three-year-old).  Can't believe his birthday is less than 2 weeks away!  Ugh.  And in case anybody missed it, he has learned to ride a bike without training wheels!  Where did my baby go?

Please get the 4-wheeler out!?

Loves playing with this shape game.

So tired Sunday after not getting enough sleep Saturday night.  Stayed up late with his buddies.

Mowing with his "glubs".  Those are my Christmas socks in case you were wondering.

Double-decker piggy back ride.

September So Far

Whew I am behind!  I think I am having some trouble adjusting to only having one child around during the day to pester for pictures. :)  Ike and I have also been tackling some home improvement projects so that has also kept us busy!  Dave is doing great in school...still struggling with eating a reasonable lunch but we are working on it!

Our big project has been painting our back deck.  Josh power washed it for me and then Ike and I got down to business.






Bennett stopped by so I could put him to work!














Notice Ike's all brown outfit for painting.













The after picture.  I also painted the back door (as well as the front door!).  Looks so much better.

Last week Josh and Ike helped a group on campus who was picking up sticks after they knocked trees down.

Last Sunday we met Josh's parents for picnic near their "broken house" (the house they are fixing up in Wabash).  Near the picnic area there is a cool waterfall with a stream to play in.

Dave exploring in the stream.














Josh took the boys to visit Grandma Bertie in Logansport.  Cuteness!








Finally, today we had Dave's bestie Alec over after school for a bit.  I filled up lots and lots of water balloons so they could have a war.

The before picture.

Ike always does this...he cannot resist biting the balloons to see what happens.

They had some pretty good chase scenes :)

We had a pretty busy Labor Day weekend also, but I missed out on taking pictures!  We enjoyed two delicious cookouts-one with staff on campus and one with a cottage.  I love having nights off of cooking!!  I think we are all looking forward to some cooler weather in the upcoming week-maybe it's just me but I am tired of these 90 degree days.