"Anna Banana"

Well Ryan now, affectionately, calls his little cousin Anna from time to time, Anna Banana these days. So she's gone from "Baby Anna" to "Anna Banana"... you know, cousins, never know what they'll come up with next, but he means well and says it so cute that for now it's fine. We watched Anna for a few hours while my sister got her hair done and Ryan was SO excited to see her! He even ran out the door when they pulled in to greet them! Here they are on the floor playing around. Ryan found the blanket and decided it was a good one for Anna to lay on when she comes over so we washed it and had it ready for her!

We got Ryan's old exer-saucer out of the closet for her, too, so she enjoyed that... however, I'm almost positive Ryan enjoyed it even more than she did. I think he was making a driving sound in this picture. Everything these days is a gear shifter or steering wheel! Boys!
He got out a BIG stuffed puppy that his Papa got for him and wanted Anna to play with it. He realized she was too little to really play with it so he wanted her to sit on it and then he wanted to take her picture on it. I explained that he'd have to take it because she's too little to sit on it by herself. Well, as you can tell, she didn't want to sit on it, but Ryan did get a quick picture before I picked her up.
All better! Look at that belly on me!
We had a very fun time with Anna and she even took a little nap in Ryan's old crib since we kept it up for our next baby. She's starting to teeth, so she was a little more serious than usual for her, but we still had a good time and Ryan was so sad when he came down from his nap and she had left. I assured him we'd see her again very soon! :)

Silly Daddy & Ryan

I just found this picture on my camera- Ryan & Jeff must have taken it this morning while I was sleeping in!! Silly boys. Looks like Ryan had a case of the giggles! :)

Family BBQ!

Jeff's aunt and some cousins from CA were in town at the same time for different reasons so we decided we should all get together for a bbq while everyone was here since it doesn't happen very often! The weather was wonderful and we couldn't have asked for a better day for it. A big thank you to my sister-in-law, Beth, who helped me repaint our deck railings the day before and therefore enabled me to also finish staining the deck floor in time for the bbq! Jeff had taken Ryan with him for the day which also helped me get it done since I didn't have any interruptions! Anyhow, we had a wonderful day all together yesterday and some very yummy food!

We put the kids table up on the deck which worked out great and the kids always love getting to sit together at their own table!
After lunch, they broke out the potato gun! This was new to me, but apparently it was like a tradition that they always had it and shot it off at different family gatherings on Jeff's mom's side of the family. I'd never seen it before so we interesting to see how it worked. We are all happy to report that no ones car got hit and Jeff's cousin, Mark (to the right) was very careful with it and with all the little kiddos running around. It was actually pretty loud when it went off, but after watching some of his older cousins do it, Ryan wanted a turn at it and was begging Jeff for a try! Here they are getting ready to shoot it off- we were all laughing as you can sort of tell in this picture that Ryan was using his left hand to cover his ear and his right to set it off. He got the biggest grin on his face after he did it!
Jordan & Ryan working together. When everyone was done, Jordan picked up the empty box that had the potatoes in it and put it in the wagon behind Ryan's "loader tractor" so they could move it away. Very cute teamwork! :)
After they had their fun with the potato gun, they got out the lawn games and played for awhile. It was a really fun day and so nice to get to see everyone again and catch up. Hopefully it won't be so long before we get to see them all again!

Hot air balloon

The other morning after Ryan had breakfast, he looked out the window and was telling me about a balloon and pointing up in the sky. I thought maybe he meant he saw a parachuter as they do that alot near our house, so I went to check it out. Turns out it was a hot air balloon just out and above our house! We watched it for a few more minutes and saw it get lower and lower. Turns out they landed in our neighbors field across the way from our house. I hadn't seen one around here in forever so was neat to see and interesting to try to explain to Ryan how they work!

Time for a Hoe-Down!

Some friends of ours, Brian & Christina (to the left in this picture) won 6 tickets for a hoe-down out in the country at an auction to raise money for our local community college and invited us and another couple to go with them! We were told we should dress up as there would be a contest at the end of the dinner. I could only get so creative so I got a cheap cowgirl hat and wore my denim (maternity!) skirt and Jeff had absolutely no free time that week to find something to wear so she just went as a country boy in his John Deere hat. The food was catered by a well known local caterer and was fabulous and the band they had was really good, too. We had a really fun time together. Here's the group! (minus Lindy as she was taking the picture!)

Jeff & I- he didn't care for this picture as his mouth was full of steak...oops!
Later in the evening with no food in our mouths! :)
Friends and neighbors, Chris & Lindy

Busy baby!

The other day while I was watching Anna, my belly just started moving around like crazy (which it actually does on a regular basis these days!) and I had my camera sitting next to me and was able to catch it on video! Here's our busy little boy in action already!

Birthday Party!

Yesterday we went to a birthday party for our friend, Leonie! They had it at their family property out by the river not far from our house. I sadly forgot my camera, but Ryan and all the kids had a ball. We didn't end up getting home until after dark, but Ryan still got a bath because he DESPERATELY needed it... as you can see from these pictures. He's filthy!!

He had dirt in every possible cravas of his little body, but like he says "it all washes"! I think he's heard me say that to him a time or two when he's been dirty. :)
Happy Birthday Leonie!!

Pressure washing!

I've been wanting to pressure wash our deck for almost a month now.... but have been patient. :)

Jeff has been super busy on the farm and hadn't gotten around to bringing it up to the house so we could get our deck cleaned off. Last summer I painted the railings and throughout the year, the paint has been peeling off the top and bottom part of it. SOOO annoying! Anyhow, Jeff came early this morning and started cleaning it for me! Now that it's all cleaned off we can do some touch up painting and get the floor stained again. Yay!

A day at Auntie D.D.'s house!

Yesterday my sister-in-law, Beth, I did some back-to-school (or in Ryan's case, start-of-school) power shopping! My sister took Ryan for me so I could some some kid-free shopping and it was very nice! It sounded like they stayed very busy, but had alot of fun. Auntie D.D. (Darcy) said that Ryan was a big help with Anna. :) Here are some of the pictures she e-mailed me from their day.

They even did a "project" Ryan said!
Some new green letters for his room! Auntie D.D. touched them up a little bit when he was done, but he did a great job!
Before their project they took the doggies for a dip in the river and Ryan, not surprisingly, got pretty dirty so they came back and decided to clean off on the slip-n-slide!
Ahh, air drying in the warm sun. Even better, after they came in from outside, Ryan to got to take a bubble bath is his Auntie & Uncle's jetted bath tub! What a lucky duck!

Anna was here!

A couple days ago, Ryan & I babysat my niece, Anna, while my sister went to town and ran some errands. Here's the sweet little girl- she's almost 4 months old!

Ryan loves "baby Anna" and giving her kisses and hugs and talking to her. It's very nice that we're able to see her so much so that Ryan can get some baby practice in before his brother comes!
Kiss, kiss, kiss.... :)

New baby pictures!

This morning I had my 29 1/2 week appt. It was pretty uneventful as all I needed to do is have my blood pressure checked, get weighed and pee in a cup! :) Jeff was able to come this time so that was nice- he hates missing my appts. but wasn't able to make the last two because he was out of town for both. For fun, my doctor did an ultrasound for me to see what position our little guy was in because I've been feeling some slightly different movements this time that I don't remember from being pregnant with Ryan. Ryan was breech from about 32 weeks on which has alot to do with it as this baby is head down so far so I'm getting the feet in the rib cage area and liver. Sometimes it takes my breath away for a split second when he kicks just right. Oh well, he's totally worth it! :)
My doctor has a 3-D ultrasound machine so we were able to get a pretty good look at his face... here he is!

Again, our scanner isn't working so I had to take a picture of a picture which is why it's not the best, but this is a profile shot with his hand up to his mouth- sweet baby boy!
So I go back in about 3 weeks when I'll be 32 weeks and then start having appts. every 2 weeks and then every week when we get closer to his due date! We'll be looking into a date pretty soon for my c-section! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going- it's crazy!!

Making hay...

...finally! We got a new baler a couple weeks ago and I think Jeff got a few days out if it and then it broke down. The worst part was that the parts had to be ordered and took a few days so that wasn't good, especially when you already have the grass cut and ready to go. Luckily besides one day of some showers, it's been warm so it should be fine. Jeff was thrilled to have it fixed and working again today!

See, we don't just have John Deere... sometimes we buy red (Case) equipment, too. :)
Jeff asked if I could bring him some twine to the field with me so here he is setting it in the baler- Ryan watching attentively!
When Jeff was ready to go, Ryan BEGGED me to let him stay with his Daddy and Jeff said it was fine so they're out "workin' " as Ryan would say. :)

Got blueberries?!

Our friends/local farmers dropped off 5 flats of these yummy blueberries today! Ryan was so excited to come up to the door and see them sitting there when we got home as these are his favorite kind of berries! We'll share some of them with Shelby as they are her favorite, too, but I think what ever is left over we'll freeze so we can enjoy them through the winter.... blueberry muffins sound good!

I was there!!

When I got home and looked through ALL the pictures I took while we were on vacation (and I took alot!) I realized I didn't have a single one of me with Ryan or Jeff. My friend e-mailed me the other day a few that she'd taken of us so I thought I'd put them on here.

Shelby, me & Ryan at the pool.

Ryan & I on a boat ride! Whew hew!!
We even went putt-putt golfing one night as a family with the rest of the group- of course this is the only picture I have of it since I forgot my camera, but that's okay. Can see my growing tummy in this one, too! :)

more fair!

After the roller coaster, they went on the air plane ride- they definitely got the giggles on it!

Shelby had her eye on the slide from the moment we walked in so we did that next and, of course, Ryan had to do it with her, too. I was a little unsure of it as it's the first time he'd ever gone down something so big by himself, but the height requirement was way shorter than he is so I let him go. Shelby said she'd help him. :) Shelby loved it but Ryan wasn't totally sure of it once he was coming down- he laughed when he got to the bottom and said it was "so scary"! The look on his face coming down was priceless!
It was hot out so we made a stop by the lemonade stand and got some refreshing pink lemonade before we hit a couple last rides.
Both kids were really good all day so they both got some cotton candy and were very excited about it! Here they are, waiting for our shuttle bus to come by to take us to our car!
Ryan LOVED riding on the "school bus"! And I loved that they came and picked us up at our car and dropped us back off so we didn't have to walk so far. I don't mind walking, but with 2 kiddos along, the ride came in very handy!

The fair!

Today I took Ryan and my niece, Shelby, to the fair! What better way to start off the day there than with some greasy fair food! Can you really say you went to the fair if you didn't have an annual plate of curly fries??? :)

A little later we swung by the dairy bar and got a couple chocolate milkshakes... you know, gotta support the dairy farmers! :) While the kids enjoyed them, we sat and watched our friend/Ryan's babysitter, Stacey, warm her horse up.
Stacey & Pepper
Then the kids couldn't get to the rides fast enough! First they wanted to go on the "dragon ride" which was a kiddie roller coaster. Here they are getting ready to take off! Little cuties! :)
Umm, do these two faces not speak for themselves?!!

more at the lake

I bought this floatie toy to bring with us camping last week and we never used it, but it came in handy at the lake because both Ryan & Jordan really liked using it. He stayed in the kiddie area, but swam around in it like crazy, back & forth. I didn't dare take my eyes off of him for a second as I'm not sure he could touch the bottom very well in a couple of the spots, but he just floated and kicked around, having a great time!

He was laughing in this picture telling me he was doing the back float!
Not sure who he was pointing at, but thought it was a cute picture.
Ryan and Jordan chatting in the water (Caleb's in the background) about something.
While we were there Ryan my friends with a little boy for awhile and they built a sand castle together... and then Ryan later attempted to knock it down by stepping on it... was nice while it lasted! :)
For our plans for the day totally changing, they seemed to work out for the best and the kids all had a great time!