Fore!

This is a word that needs to be in Caden's vocabulary.

This past Friday, Curt and the kids were outside playing and hitting golf balls. Cade has a golf club that Curt shortened just for him. Anyway, as usual, Cade wasn't paying attention and Keira wasn't paying attention and she wandered right into his back swing. Curt was worried Cade had broken her nose so he ran her next door to our pediatrician's house. Praise God for Dr Lance. He checked her out and decided her nose wasn't broken, but knew that the laceration would scar badly if not taken care of, so he took her to his office down the road and durabonded (basically super glue for doctors) her boo-boo closed. I was at work and didn't find out about any of the excitement until it was over.

Curt reports Keira was very brave through the whole incident and didn't cry at all once Lance started looking at her. There was a chance she'd have a big black eye due to the location of the hit, but this pic is nearly 60 hours after and she looks great! She's quite proud of her boo-boo and will tell anyone who listens that "Cade hit me with a golf ball" She's even got the pouty look down as she tells the story, as if she's still in pain. She cracks me up!!!

This is just another random pic from this morning. We're watching Ethan for a few hours and Cade really wanted to feed him his bottle. He's wanted to for awhile, but I've always felt Ethan was too small. I think Ethan can hold his own now, so I let Cade try. He did a GREAT job. He's such a good big cousin!!

Sarah's wedding

Sarah and Jeff's wedding was sooo beautiful. I never cease to be amazed at the talent and "togetherness" of Curt's family. Curt's Aunt Lora and a whole gaggle of helpers arranged all the flowers for the wedding and they were breathtaking. Curt's mom and Aunt Amy took care of the food for the reception - Amy in particular made a gorgeous table arrangement of fruit that I never got a picture of. It was almost too pretty to eat (almost, but not quite!! I was so hungry I would have eaten anything at that point in time. We pray for bountiful blessings on Sarah and Jeff's new life together and hope their life will be overflowing with love (and more cousins for Cade and Keira in a few years!! ) We know you'll have difficult times, but you can look back on these pics and remember the love that brought you to this place. Plus, we'll always have a room for you in Arkansas if you need to get out of Terre Haute!!!

This is my favorite picture of Keira from the wedding. Sarah bough Eowyn and Keira these cute hairpieces and baskets for their flower girl duties. Keira looked like an absolute angel. She even acted like one for most of the wedding and through pictures which was such a blessing. Cade shuffled down the aisle like a little man looking handsome as ever and Keira and Eowyn made it down the aisle and managed to even throw some petals (a bonus!). Thank you Jeff and Sarah for letting Caden and Keira be a part of your special day!!

The flower girls practicing at the rehearsal. We weren't sure how they'd do, so they got a lot of coaching and practice at the rehearsal.

This is Caden and Eowyn acting silly at the rehearsal dinner. Jeff's family hosted a wonderful dinner after the rehearsal and the kids were FULL of energy. There was a small stage in the room where we were eating that the kids ran and played on. I think they had just finished playing ring around the rosy here. It's so nice to see Cade, Keira and Eowyn run a play together. I just wish they could do it more often!! Luckily we'll see them again at Mark's wedding in a month, so good-bye was really more like "see ya later."
Could they be any more sweet?!! Another favorite pic
Yeah for Pops and Grandma Bets. We love you!!
Aunt Ra-Ra and Keira in the girls room waiting for the okay for Sarah to come out and get pictures. Sarah's dress was sooo beautiful and she was a glowing bride.
Keira loves her Uncle Mark!! You're the best!

Okay, so I have to admit I didn't really have it all together on this trip. We borrowed Cade's tux from a friend which saved a bunch of money. His only pair of black shoes are too small for him, so I had planned to go to the mall and buy him a pair of shoes before the wedding. We went to the mall...and I forgot about the no shoes thing until we were getting dressed for the wedding. We were already running late for pictures, so Sarah decided the kids should all just go barefoot and enjoy it. Praise God for a laid-back bride (You're wonderful Sarah!!!) That saved me from a last minute mad dash around a city I'm not familiar with to buy Cade a pair of shoes he'll probably wear 2 or 3 times before he outgrows them again.

We had a wonderfully exhausting day and the kids went home and took great naps after the wedding. It seems we've been going non-stop this vacation and loving every minute of our family time.

Ho-Ho-Holiday World

We headed to Holiday World on Tuesday. We checked the weather and that seemed to be the best day to go the the park, which also allowed us an extra day to make a stop-over at Hotel Willis. Pictures of that are pending.

We loved, loved LOVED Holiday World. It was the cleanest amusement park I've EVER been to, it wasn't too terribly busy (I think the longest we waited for a ride was 30 minutes), and they have free drinks and sunscreen. Need I say more!

We had to take the token picture with Santa as we entered the park. This is us at 10:00 a.m.

Evidently Bunny Bread is a sponser. I've never heard of Bunny Bread, but Cade and Keira thought this was hilarious.

We could be spokesmodels (is that a word?) for Pepsi

Cade got to drive a car! Just a VERY scary flash forward to the future. At least these cars are on a track and can't crash!!! Keira also drove a car with me, but of course I'm the photographer, so no pics were taken. Just so you know, she's a terrible driver too...she had too much fun looking at the scenery. Typical girl!!

I think our favorite part was the water park. I didn't take many pics there because I didn't want to ruin or lose my camera. This was taken at the end right before we took the kids to get changed. I think they would have stayed there all day if I would have let them, but we promised them more fun rides, so they agreed to leave.

This is us at 4 p.m. No naps and still going strong! We did just have some dippin dots, so they are high on sugar at this point.

This little canoe ride was a major hit with the kids. I think the kids rode it 4 or 5 times because there was no line at it all day! YEAH!!!

I had to keep my eyes closed on this one to keep from getting too dizzy or sick to my stomach. I am getting so old!!!

The only real roller coaster the kids went on. Both kids thought it was wicked cool. Cade and Curt were in the front (Cade's choice) and everyone held our hands up as we went down the hill. Keira was so brave and said "that was cool" at the end. They've done us proud!!!
Last pic of the day. Curt and the kids with some random dog character in the kids area of the park...I think by some hot dog sponser. Who knows?

We left the park around 6:30 p.m. and headed home. I think Keira was asleep in her carseat before we even left the parking lot. We managed through a very busy day with no major melt downs and NO SUN BURNS on anyone (a miracle). We highly recommend Holiday World to anyone heading down I-64 between St Louis and Cincinnati.

Tie-dye playdates

What could be better than 5 preschoolers attempting to tie-dye while their moms are busy with infants? Having a great group of friends to share it with!!!!


A group of girls from work get together every week to have a playdate for our kids. I've been so blessed with good friends at work that I enjoy hanging with OUTSIDE of work. Our kids play together great and when we are all off, it's soooo much fun. This playdate was at Jenny's house last Tuesday and she was very ambitious and brave to try to tie-dye with the kids. It was partly mass chaos trying to not get permanent dye on anything but the shirts, but mostly we just had a whole bunch of fun.

This is most of the gang of kids. Lots of little ones and toddlers. Cade is by far the oldest, but he loves the little ones and babies so it all works out well. There is another little boy named Braiden who's four (he was too shy for the pic), he and Cade play together pretty well and all the other kids are Keira's age or newborn.

The shirts Keira and Cade made actually turned out pretty well. (Way to go Jen!!!) Cade used all the colors and made a "rainbow shirt" as he calls it. Keira's is just pink and purple and super cute. She asks to wear her "playdate shirt" for nap time and sometimes at bedtime. They are very proud of their work.

P.S. I'm working on the pics from our vacation and they'll be up soon. Just a quick update...the wedding was beautiful and we had TONS of fun at Holiday World. See ya soon!!!

Random pics

So the kids have been out of school for about 2 weeks now and I haven't lost my mind yet...I think this is going pretty well. Honestly, this summer has gone more perfectly than I could have ever predicted. The kids are gettng along great and suprise me daily by their escapades. This is Caden reading to Keira from her new seek and find book. I was taking too long getting laundry going, so Caden offered to read to Keira until I was ready. SWEET BOY!! Keira and I were getting ready in the bathroom one morning when Cade came in with the camera. I am a little uptight about my camera and don't usually let him touch it, but he seemed to have a pretty good concept of what to do, so I let him go to town. This is Keira cheesing for him. There are also some other great shots of Keira going potty, my booty, and Caden's nose, but I won't bore you with all those!!!
After Cade took a bunch of pics, I had to take a few of my own and got this great shot of the kids loving on each other.
I finally bought more bubble bath, which Cade was ecstatic about, so of course that meant the kids needed to get in the tub IMMEDIATELY. Keira says Cade looks like Santa Claus, but I'm leaning toward Davy Jones (the crazy octopus/squid pirate) from Pirates of the Caribbean. What do you think?
Ready or not here we come Aunt Sarah!! We've been practicing at home, and if this is any idea of how their walk down the aisle goes, we'll need lots of petals to make it all the way down. Keira tends to want to dump them all out in the first few handfuls. I guess we need a little more practice!