Mascara Mess

Every morning Ryker crawls into my bed to wake me up. I never really know what to expect. One morning he came to my bedside and said "here mom" handing me a sopping wet diaper that he had taken off himself, another morning I woke up to corn meal all over the carpet. But most mornings him comes straight in (before causing a mess) and asks for breakfast.

The other morning Ryker woke up VERY quietly and, again, decided to entertain himself for a while before he woke me up. When he came into my bed he said "Look!" He had mascara ALL over him...and our bed and when I got out to the living room I found out it was on our couch too. Ick! I was so angry...but laughing so hard. I told him "Ryker, mommy is VERY angry at you, go stand on the linoleum and say cheese!" I was laughing so hard it took a few tries to get a picture.

He ended up taking a LONG bath and we had to scrub and scrub to get that icky black stuff off of him.

Hello Again!

Stavia turned six months old on Monday. She also got a new cousin that day. Her name is Stella, hopefully they'll grow up to be great friends!

Here is the Birthday girl!She is pretty aggressive so she won't always be in her brothers shadow, but he likes to get his picture taken so he kind of steps in on occasion.

5 Week 5K

Last Sunday, my sister, my mom, and I ran a 5K here in Iowa City. One night Anna and I were talking and decided that we should start running and do a 5k. We checked online and found a 5-week training program and it just so happened that Iowa City was having a 5k run EXACTLY 5 weeks from the day we decided to check into training. We knew it was meant to be. We ran and ran and trained and trained. (Okay, it wasn't really that intense) Race day arrived, October 5, 2008. I didn't go very fast but I had a goal of finishing faster than 30 minutes and I accomplished my goal. Anna beat me by several minutes, my mom crossed the finish line approximately the same time as I did. So, I ran a 5k when Stavia was 5 months old, maybe I can do a 10k when she is 10 months old? How many 'k' is a marathon???

The week in review

Our week at Grandma and Grandpas house is nearly over. Here is a quick look at some of the fun things we got to do!

We went to Le Mars, IA for Blue Bunny Ice Cream.

Grandma helped Ryker try to ride his bike.

Stavia is working on her crawling skills. She tries so hard to get around.

We got to see the last operating steam engine in the US.

Stavia got to watch her daddy install a storage shed for our aunt and uncle.

Jed is putting the finishing touches on the shed.

Here is the final project.

Other things we did but didn't take pictures of: watched the cubs lose, toured the new Hom Furniture store in Sioux City, and visited with several old friends. Ryker also got to go to golf practice with my grandpa. He is a retired athletic director, but he still coaches boys high school golf. Ryker got to go ride around on the cart with my grandpa for a few hours of practice. When he got home he was so excited. He walked around saying, "golf,golf,golf,golf...." It was pretty cute.

Stavia's 5 month Birthday!

Stavia sitting in the grass. She kept trying to eat it. I guess grass can be listed as her 3rd food?



So last Saturday (The 27th) Stavia turned 5 months old. I took some pictures outside because the weather was awesome! And because it's the perfect time of year to take pictures that feature Iowa's beautiful landscape.

Stavia is so tiny I almost couldn't fit her and the top of the corn in the same picture!

I think this when she was actually sampling the grass to see if it was worth eating.

Here are the big brothers that will always have her back. (Can you believe I got a picture of all of them looking at the camera at once?)

A walk down memory lane.

This is my beautiful grandmother!

I have had plenty of time to blog this week because we are visiting my grandparents. They LOVE to play with my kids all day and they are willing to wake up with them in the mornings so I can stay up late and play on the computer. They spoil me and the kids. (I really appreciate it guys!)

Anyway, one of my favorite pass times at my grandparents house is to look at old pictures. This week I've been working on the never ending project of labeling all of them. I was able to visit my great grandparents and great great grandparents gravesites today. I went with my grandpa and his sister and they gave me some helpful and fun family trivia.

One thing that I found interesting is that my grandpa has triplet cousins. The part that makes it crazy is that they had one son, Bob, and then 10 months later had triplet sons....4 kids under a year old in the same house!! Then a year later (Or 2) had another child. I'd be pulling my hair out. So to continue the craziness...all the triplets are 82 and all still alive and living in the area where they grew up and the other two siblings are there too. So today when we went to the small town of Kingsley, IA to check out the gravesites we stopped in at Ed's Cafe...the local coffee hot spot. And SURE ENOUGH my grandpas cousin was there. Not one of the triplets, but Bob the oldest. So we got to chat a little and that was really cool.

So in honor of my day of labeling and learning history I decided to scan in some old pictures for any family members that follow my blog. These are for you:

My Grandma and Grandpa Lyle on their wedding day. They are a super cute couple to this day. This year they celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary.
Here is my aunt Lori, homecoming queen!

This one is much more recent. My grandma, my cousins, Katrina and Erica, and me on piano...or organ or whatever instrument that is. As you can tell, I kept up on my musical talent.