Loving the nice weather

It's nice and cool...but not that cold! Kylah decided to model her winter attire this afternoon while I was putting her clothes away.

Can she be any cuter?

Spending some time outside playing in the wonderful 70 degree weather. I actually had to put a jacket on Kylah for church this morning!
The kids love being pulled in the wagon. Joey loves being a big brother and taking care of Kylah in the wagon.

Joe went to help out his family in Kansas this weekend, so the kids and I were solo. We had a good time and played with some good friends, but we were sure glad to see daddy this morning!

Joey's new phrase of the week is, "Mommy, am I a big brother?" To which I must reply, "Yes, Joey, you are a good big brother." As I type this Joey is riding his motorcycle up and down the sidewalk. Everytime he makes it back to the driveway, he gets off his motorcycle, comes over to Joe and I and asks, "How you doing guys?" Then he gets back on his motorcycle and tells us he's going to his new house??? No clue what he's talking about. Kylah is sitting in her little car happy as can be.

We just tried to get a picture of Joey is his ginormous helmet, but our camera battery just died.


Speaking of winter, Joey is also anxiously awaiting the snow (again, I have no clue). He keeps asking me if it's snowing yet. I had to tell him yesterday that it would be a long time before it snows because it has to get really cold outside. He asks, "like five more sleeps?" I said, "no, more like 100 sleeps." Like before with waiting to golf, he seems to understand that this means a long time! :)
We are definitely going to miss this nice weather when the snow comes!

And the answer is...

...earwax I cleaned out of Joey's ear.

We were becoming so tired of hearing Joey say "what?" every other word, so I decided to take him to my office to see if he couldn't hear because of wax. (Our patience runs a little thin when we have to repeat ourselves fifty times...) Well, I got those two huge things out of his ear, so we're hoping that's the answer!

I think a few of you guessed correctly, so congratulations, you get 500 points! :)

By the way, I loved all the surgical specimen guesses. Joe has a cyst I need to remove one of these days; maybe I'll take a picture of it and put it on my blog after I take it off! :)

What?!

Whoever guesses what these are gets 500 points! Go ahead...cast your votes.

Here they are with a penny so you know the size.

I'll tell you tomorrow what these are!

Goooooooooooooooooooo!!

There's this game that Joe and Joey play called "Go." Yeah, I know, I know, we're really good at naming games... Anyway, Kylah has always watched from the sidelines with a little giggle when Joey gets thrown in the air. Well, now it's her turn!

Standing up at the wall (using the wall for a little help, mind you), waiting for daddy to say 'go.'

Ok, she can't quite run to daddy like Joey does, but she definitely gets the gist of the game...

And up in the air she goes! (She's wearing her cute dress we got for her in Jamaica!)

Joey wanted to get in on his "go" game too. (I'm not quite sure why Joey doesn't have pants on. I think we were swimming and then came in to eat, so I didn't bother dressing him all the way????)

Anyway, this is the stance against the wall waiting for daddy to say 'go.'

Daddy throws him a little higher than Kylah!

I love that laugh of pure joy on his face!

Handsome Joey

Joey has been asking to "be handsome like daddy" when we dress him in the morning. By this he means he wants to wear a collared shirt. On Sunday morning, he not only asked to be handsome, he also asked to wear a tie. I obliged. Look at our handsome little boy!

Handsome Joey and mommy.

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In other news...we have a bumblebee nest in our backyard. I've noticed a few here and there, but on Sunday when Joe mowed we realized we had quite the infestation of bumblebees. From what I read, they don't attack unless they are provoked. But, since the kids run around in the backyard, I plan on getting some bee killer today to get rid of the nest.

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I just snapped this picture of Kylah while I am sitting here blogging. You gotta love the mismatched pajamas, the belly sticking out, the upside down book, and my little girl totally engrossed in the book!

The one where Joey was so sweet

Tonight I witnessed the sweetest thing Joey has done to Kylah to date.

I was putting Kylah to bed in her room, just rocking her in the chair. Joey came in the door (in a burst of energy like usual). He realizes I am rocking Kylah. He gets quiet and comes over to the side of me right by Kylah's face. He starts singing to her in a sweet voice and gently rubs her cheek: "Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sle-ep my sister." He was pretty much on key too. Seriously, so sweet. And, Joe walked in while Joey was singing to Kylah, so he got to witness it too.

The one where we went to Ohio

We spent last weekend at my parents' house in Ohio. We had a great time. Minus missing one of our flights on Friday due to the thunderstorm in Omaha, travelling went well. All of my brothers and my sister-in-law Esther were there as well. (Kelly, Michael and Gina weren't able to make it this weekend.) The guys did a lot of golfing (shocker!). The girls took the kids to do some fun things. We took a lot of naps. We ate a lot of food and ice cream. All in all, a great weekend!

Like usual, I had a hard time cutting down on pictures, so enjoy them all!

Joey and Gramma playing volleyball out by the pool.

Glad to be at Gramma's and Papa's!

Kylah's eyeing the pool. It didn't take long for her to get in!

I think this picture is adorable. Tony (Uncle T) sat down at the table to eat his sandwich. All by himself Joey brings in his little chair and plops right down by Uncle T so that he can have some too. Luckily, Tony was more than happy to share. :)

Joey was more than happy to be Papa's helper to make the fire in the fire pit for the night. He actually went back and forth to the pile of logs and brought them to the fire. What a good helper! (I think his motivation was talk of marshmallows...)

The fire's going, and now it's time to roast some marshmallows. Joey looks all business. Isn't that Tow Mater chair adorable?! Apparently my nephew Michael loves it as well, so it will be interesting next time they are both there together!

Joey loved getting to roast marshmallows and make smores out by the fire.

Kylah got in on the fun too. You know you're on vacation when you feed your 14 month-old smores! :)

So there's this game called 'Fact or Crap.' Anyone ever played it? We "played" it one night out by the fire after playing Cranium. We realized how dull and not fun this game was as we were answering some of the questions. It all started with someone throwing one of the game cards into the fire. Then, more cards into the fire. Then the game pieces. We couldn't stop! It was hilarious and so fun to burn this b-o-r-i-n-g game!

All of us got in on the fun.

Apparently this game is "crap" because my brother Andy proved that something they had as fact was indeed crap. Did that make any sense???

It's all gone. Hopefully my dad thinks the fun we had burning that game was worth the $20 he spent on it! :)

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Me, mom and Esther took Joey and Kylah to Young's Dairy Farm. This farm has so many fun things for kids, and some awesome ice cream!

Joey and Gramma feeding the goats. I would have gotten a picture of Kylah with the goats, but she was terrified of them!

They also had these fun tractors that the kids could climb on. How happy does Joey look?!

Driving together.

Kylah wanted to drive her own tractor. She is my little miss independent...which is what my mom said I was like when I was little...hmmm...

Joey, Kylah and Gramma got to ride the train!

A little blurry, but a cute picture of Esther and me.

Going down the slide with Gramma. This was shortly before Gramma turned away for a split second and Kylah went face first onto the ground. It happens... :)

Joey loved these "bikes." He concentrated so hard and just went around and around on the sidewalk.

After all the fun we got some yummy ice cream. Kylah stole Joey's cone while he went inside with Gramma. She loved it! Everyone kept stopping and smiling at her and commenting how her ice cream matched her outfit.

Esther was pretty brave to hold Kylah while she was eating this mess. But minus a few drips on Esther's leg, she didn't get any on Esther's clothes!

Playing Pitch with Uncle Aaron. We thought maybe Kylah could help Aaron and Esther win a game (just kidding!) But seriously...

My dad took Joey to his baseball field at his college earlier in the day, so when they got back they showed us what they worked on. Look at that batting stance!

We had such a fun extended weekend at my parents' house. We did miss Kelly, Michael and Gina! Joe and I always say how great it is to go to my parents' house because we don't do much concerning our kids. It's great!!

We are actually home for a few weekends now. We'll try to get caught up on laundry and house work and yard work. Who am I kidding, I'm sure it won't all get done! :)

Swimmin' and Golfin'

Today, a lady I used to work with invited me and the kids out to her lake house for some swimming. We headed out their with our friends Amy, Logan and Olivia. It was a little chilly at first, but turned out to be a gorgeous day.

Before we left, I put Kylah's hair in three pony tails. She was pretty cute! (Minus the cracker in her mouth...)

Kylah loved the water as she kept scooting on in. Don't you just love baby booty and chubby thighs?!

Looking like a beach bum.

Kylah and I had some fun on the floating trampoline.

Mommy and Kylah.


The three older kids looking for fishies in the water and froggies by the bucket.


I know it appears as if we are torturing our kids by making them be on this floaty, but really, they did like it.


Have I mentioned how blessed I feel to be able to work part-time so I can still have days like these with my kids?


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In other news...Joe came home with a fun present for Joey the other day.
It all started on our vacation when Dave was telling Joe he wanted to get a set of real golf clubs for Connor. Of course, that got Joe thinking how much fun it would be for Joey to have a set too.
I think Connor got his set for his birthday (hopefully Mere will blog about it and Connor's birthday in general...hint, hint).
Anyway, thanks to Craig's List, we got a used set of clubs for really cheap. I secretly think Joe was more excited to give Joey the clubs than Joey was to get them. (Don't tell Joe, though!) :)

Actually Joey was pretty excited to get "real" clubs like Daddy. Here he is pulling out a club.


I love the look of unbelief on his face that these were really his.


Can he look any older?? Anyone ready for a round.


Joey and Daddy went to the park right away to test out the new clubs. They had a blast, but Joe said he really isn't quite ready to hit the links with his new clubs quite yet. :) Maybe next summer.

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Well, we're off again this weekend. We are heading to my parents' house in Ohio for a family vacation with all my brothers and their spouses (minus Kelly and my nephew Michael who are visiting her family in Canada). Joey was a little sad that Michael wasn't going to be there. He has had a countdown of days until Papa's and Gramma's house for 7 days now. Tonight he informed us that he only had 2 more sleeps until he got to go to Papa's house! :)