Anna's 5th Birthday...on the 4th!

We had Anna's party on the 4th of July weekend again this year. It works out well with all the fun stuff going on around town. This year, Anna wanted a butterfly cake. I made way too much cake, so Binga also made her a lady bug cake!

Not my finest example of cake decorating, but Anna loved it:) The "recipe" called for candy sticks as the "body" but I couldn't find any. And yes, Aaron was the first to point out just what the Twix looked like.

Time for presents! Aunt Cara & Uncle Terry gave her TOM & JERRY!!! The kids love Tom & Jerry.

And Aunt Cara made her a beautiful blue butterfly dress.

Papa & Binga got her a keyboard! Can you tell she's excited?

And she finally got her big girl bike!!

What a beautiful birthday girl!

The sidewalk in front of our house is the worst possible sidewalk to learn to ride a bike! It's uneven and bumpy. And of course, after I gave her a pep talk about how the training wheels would keep her bike from tipping over, etc etc etc. And then what happens? HER BIKE TIPS OVER!!

So Jacob took a spin and then she was ready to try again.

These two love watching harvest videos. Seth and Aaron dream up big plans for a custom cutting crew :)

Early Saturday morning, these guys (my brother Jamie, Doug and Aaron) ran the 5K. None of them (or me) slept well that night so since I was up at that ridiculous hour I took them to the starting line.

I'm not sure how many people ran, but it was a lot.
We did get to see the parade in some rain, but most of the other festivities, including the fireworks, were canceled because of the rain. :(

Harvest Time!

Since our whirwind trip from Iowa to Colorado wasn't crazy enough, we made a stop on the way home for wheat harvest (Aaron dropped us off and then came back on Saturday)! I wasn't packed for it (meaning I didn't have our boots), but luckily I had packed a pair of jeans for all of us and tennis shoes. Who cares, right?! The kids, as always, had a blast and loved every minute of it. So did their Mama, even though her pregnant body didn't tolerate the little jumps seats :(

He was talking 90 to nothin'! So very excited to see the "bombine" :)

Uncle Terry even let him drive the combine! :)

Anna rode the tractor with Aunt Cara.

Aunt Cara also spoiled him and fixed him mac & cheese for lunch since he doesn't like sandwiches (whose kid is he, anyway?!)!

Anna loves sandwiches!

Stopping for a quick lunch break. Terry, Aaron, Marisa, TJ, and Cara. It was super, super hot so the kids and I ate in the pickup :)

As soon as Marisa and TJ (my cousin & his girlfriend) showed up, Anna attached herself to Marisa for the rest of the day!

This was actually the first wheat harvest Aaron has been a part of! I had forgotten that and didn't tell him to make sure and wear jeans. At least he didn't wear his sandals! ;)
Uncle Terry also let Jacob drive the tractor. Except Jacob was more concerned with keeping the deer on the steering wheel facing the right direction...so they zig-zagged their way across the field!

There's not much better to me than harvest. And I'm so happy that my kids get to experience harvest (even if for a shorter time) like I did growing up. Those are some of my favorite memories of childhood.

Anna's Colorado Birthday

While in Colorado, we celebrated Anna's birthday with family out there. Grandma put together a B party for Anna and Great Grandma J--butterflies, bubbles, bears, and balls. It was lots of fun!

The kids made butterflies with paint and strings. (after they dried, we cut the paper into the shape of a butterfly) Anna's & Jacob's are now hanging up on their bedroom wall.

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

Great Aunt Georgia helps Jacob and Anna.

Eliza-their cousin somewhere down the line-is such a sweet, sweet girl!

She is in no way related to me by blood but if you saw a picture of me at this age, you'd think she was my daughter!

The bear cake! They also played a game with balls, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

And to finish off the party, Grandma put on a puppet show for the kids. They were enthralled!!!
Anna, John, Jacob, Eliza, and Toby

One evening, Jacob and Toby were playing around and Toby just crawled through Jacob's legs. They thought it was pretty funny so they did it over and over again!

Then they decided to switch places. It didn't work quite as well since Toby's legs are a bit shorter than Jacob's (and Jacob is just bigger than Toby!). Silly boys!

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That was our whirlwind trip to Colorado! We were so glad to see Erick's family before they moved overseas!!

Oh Anna

My parents are staying with the kids this weekend while Aaron & I are at a wedding (woo-hoo for 2 nights without kids!!!!!). They took the kids out to the farm to visit. Last night, Dad texted me...he said Anna was setting up the dominos & Jacob kept knocking them down before she was done. Exasperated, she finally plopped down & with all her dramatic flair said "I can't believe I'm going to have another brother!!!!!"
Sent from Jennifer's BlackBerry

Colorado Trip Part Deux

Now back to our Colorado trip this summer...we spent a couple days at Grandpa & Grandma Wallman's house up in the mountains.

Jacob's favorite dessert, by far, is Great Grandma J's creamlas (I have no idea if that's even how it's spelled!). They are a super delicious, so soft and moist, so light and fluffy that you could eat a dozen of them, Swedish cookie! Jacob quickly learned that they don't last long. So he eats them as fast as he can! :)

Father-Son pastime...playing catch :)

Aaron's nephew, Toby, hanging out.

Jacob is telling Grandpa that the glove just isn't working for him...he's a leftie!

Mama, dis dove not wurk!!

Cars is a favorite among the boys in this family. Jacob and Toby loved watching it together!

I have the cutest video of these two be-boppin' along to Grandpa's song, but I promised not to post the video, so this picture will have to do! :) He was singing his version of "Maybe Baby" that he rewrote for Toby right before he was born. All the grandkids love to listen (and sing along) to Grandpa and his guitar!

Jacob's 3rd Birthday!

The month has been busy enough, so we added Jacob's birthday party to the mix! :) The highlight of the year for the new 3 year old? This...!

When we asked what he wanted for his birthday cake, he said "uhhhh...bombine!...trater!...heemi!!!!" (combine, tractor and semi). Aunt Cara (we love her!) said she would make him a John Deere tractor cake. When Jacob saw their pickup pull up, he yelled "my trater hake!!!!!!" :)

The ONLY person he gave the perfect smile to for this pose? Aunt Cara!

Jacob giving Hudson (or is it the other way around??) a thank you hug for his Cars tin and Matchbox cars!

I really wish you could see Jacob's face (although Seth's is a pretty good indication!). He about flipped a lid when he saw that it was John Deere! :)

Time goes way too fast. It doesn't seem like it was three years ago when I was holding this boy for the first time! He is such a joy (most of the time! ha). I love him to bits!!!

Seriously, his family knows him so well...John Deere and Cars!

Wait a second...something's wrong here! Why do I have the doll and she has the tractor?!?!?

He can hardly wait to blow out the candles!!

Waiting for the song to be over so he can blow them out!

Wearing his new John Deere hat just like Great Grandpa Elmer! No doubt he's got Stinemetz blood in him! :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jacob's First Day of Preschool!!!

First a few pictures from the end of Anna's first day...

I snuck a picture through the classroom door/window of Anna. Such a studious little girl!

Anna with her friends Makenna and Kelsey. She went to preschool with Makenna but she's in the other class. But she's also known Kelsey for a long time and she is in Anna's class. It will be fun! Anna's highlight of the day...Recess and playing with Makenna! :)

My baby's first day of preschool!!!!! He was SO excited! Excited doesn't even describe it...look at his face! What a squirt.

He was telling me that it's hot outside--he meant that the sun was really bright, which it is in our backyard in the morning!

He found wheels!!! No tears, no clinging...he could hardly wait his turn to go in and put his backpack away! Of course, with all those toys, what 3 year old wouldn't want to run in and play?! I can't wait to hear all about his day (what I can decipher anyway!). As you'll hear in the video, he's there for speech! :) He has improved so much since April when he started speech therapy. And actually is right on where he should be for his age, but because of the way he leaves letters off etc. he is very hard to understand which makes him seem a lot farther behind. Anyway, he's making great improvements and is a little parrot full of questions (to which he repeats every answer!).

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