Finally Some Pics

We've had a very productive weekend. Heath re-did the steps on our back deck since some of the old boards were splitting and it was becoming hazardous. We also got our laundry done and all put away (may sound like an obvious accomplishment to some but at our house if you get the laundry done AND put away, it is a big deal), upstairs carpets cleaned, entire upstairs cleaned thoroughly, garage re-organized and straightened up, and we even had time to mix in some swimming and grilling out and good family fun! Ah, it feels good to have all that stuff done!

Now, we're on the countdown to our vacation!!! Less than 3 weeks and we'll be at the beach in wonderful Panama City Beach, Florida. We can't wait!!

Here are some pictures I found on my camera to share...

Kendra loves to swim when it is a small and confined area with not alot of noise around.


Grandpa took us fishing at Uncle Don's pond. Gabe was the first to catch a fish. He wasn't about to TOUCH it but he was proud to hold the pole. Kendra wanted to touch it, poke its eyes out, etc. Ah, two completely different kiddos!


This is my niece Callie tearing into her 1st birthday cake.


Callie and Kendra ended up wearing the same pajamas the night of Callie's party so we couldn't skip that photo opportunity!

And then we turned Pam's treadmill into a jungle gym...

This was the girls at Holiday World. We only rode 2 regular rides since it was so hot. And I didn't get the camera out at the water park.

We had a sports store go out of business in town so Daddy got the kids some official baseball equipment. They have been loving it ever since!!

Heath took the kids out on the dance floor at my cousin Donna Ochs' wedding. Gabe would run and jump on his back...

And Kendra would run in circles around him.

We spotted this baby deer on the way to preschool one morning on our street. The kids were in awe. We had to have sat there for 10 minutes watching it and listening to it "cry for his mommy". Kendra still asks to see the picture of it on a regular basis.

Here was Kendra's birthday cake...gotta love DORA!

This was Gabe and Aunt Beth on the 4th all decked out in their RED outfits!

Here we tried to get all of the Ochs Grandkid's to sit still, look at the camera, and smile...so I found victory in the fact that I caught them all with their eyes open and looking remotely my way ;)

We hit the parade in Effingham on the 4th since Dieterich had postponed theirs. The kids were quite the little flag wavers!

This is Kendra on her new bike. We desperately wanted a 10 inch bike that didn't have brakes on it so it would pedal like a tricycle. It took quite a bit of searching and one wait in the return line at Wal-Mart but we finally found a whole bunch of these bikes at K-Mart in Effingham. Perfect size for Miss Kendra!

Kendra actually had 2 birthday cakes...this was her getting ready to blow out the candles with Heath's family. She loved the ice cream cake too!

And lastly, Kendra's doll baby had just dirtied her diaper so Kendra was caught in the bathroom teaching her how to go on the potty. I promise this was totally candid and I had nothing to do with it. Kids have such imaginations it is amazing!

Slacker

Sorry I've been such a terrible blog updater. There just never seems to be enough hours in the day...and I know it isn't going to get any better anytime soon! I don't have any pictures to post today...though I'll tackle that soon. I got a new camera a few weeks ago and haven't even posted any pictures with it...shame shame!

So...what has been going on with us? We've been back and forth to Newton 4 weekends in a row, that's what! And I've mixed in a trip to KY for work, a trip to Holiday World, etc. So let me summarize our happenings for you. We were in IL for Father's Day weekend...the guys put a roof on my Dad's ranger for him and we surprised him with that and then we headed back to Evansville for a quiet Father's Day with Heath. I'd done my homework to try and get him a good surprise present but I can never seem to pull it off by myself. So he's supposed to be picking himself out his present one of these days and getting it for himself. We did grill steaks that night though and have a nice evening to ourselves.

We also celebrated my niece, Callie's 1st birthday. She was an adorable birthday girl. She was fairly dainty with her cake at first but by the end she still ended up with it all over her. She is changing so fast too! Her hair is coming in really thick and dark and she's getting around pretty good these days. I kind of miss the days when you could sit and hold her though...she doesn't sit still long lately now that she's figured out she can do what she wants!

Beth, Pam, and I and our husbands/kids all went to Holiday World on the Monday after Father's Day. It was a perfect day to stay in the water park all day. The heat index was like 115 or something...yikes! Gabe absolutely loved everything. He is a water bug if I've ever seen one! He went down lots of water slides and did everything he was big enough to do pretty much. Kendra is still not a big fan of the more intimidating water...I say this because she loves baths and kiddie pools and could care less about getting her face wet or anything else but when we go to a big water park, she gets a bit timid. She did love the area where you can run around in the jets and play! It was nice to have my sisters and the guys along to help out and I think we all enjoyed ourselves! We'll probably try and go back before the summer is over.

We made another trip to Newton for my cousin Donna's wedding. A good time was enjoyed by all if I do say so myself! And then this past weekend, we celebrated Kendra's 2nd birthday! She had a really cute Dora cake and was big enough to blow out her candles all by herself this year. Grandpa even lit them twice so she could do it a second time. Too cute! We actually got to celebrate twice since we were in IL on her birthday...we had an ice cream cake with Heath's family a couple days later. We had hoped to celebrate the 4th in Dieterich at Pam's house with the parade, festivities and fireworks but the rain got in our way. We did find a parade in Effingham to take the kids to and they seemed to like it. Too bad we couldn't have stayed until Sunday when all of the Dieterich festivities were re-scheduled for...sounds like it was a good time!

And that brings us pretty much up to current day and time. I am growing rapidly. I keep telling Heath that I'm afraid I'm going to explode this pregnancy. I swear I'm as big already at 23 weeks as I was at 35 weeks with the other two. Yikes! The cooler weather was a welcome change this past week and I'm not so sure I'm ready for the heat to return. I guess we all knew it would happen though...it is July afterall!

Hopefully I'll get some pictures loaded soon...