Before the start of school, I wanted to be all caught up on my blogging. Here are some of the fun and/or recent happenings that I haven't shared yet:
1) Our garden is doing great! Mostly. That is, coming from me, who doesn't really know anything about gardens, that is. Our tomato plants are huge and are just starting to give tomatoes. Yum! We've had some delicious green beans. The first bunch we picked I immediately steamed and pureed for baby food for Kate. She loves it! I cooked up the first batch for us last night for dinner and Kenneth declared them the best green beans he had ever had. (I just sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil and then added a bit of water and the lid to flash steam them and then sprinkled them with a little kosher salt. They were pretty good.) We had a pumpkin growing. For some reason, our cucumbers and zucchini are flowering beautifully, but not growing anything. Not sure what that is all about. We have some peppers coming on and the carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes seem to be happily developing under the earth. Our poor row of corn keeps getting blown over with the heavy winds, so hopefully it will survive. Here's a couple of pictures of our garden at this stage:
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| Carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and Grant, with what else but a stick |
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| The other view of the garden- poor corn still bent from the winds |
2) "That's cool!" This video was taken a couple of months ago and we keep saying we have to share it, it is so funny. I am sure it is one of the videos we will revisit regularly because it makes us laugh. Grant decided he wanted to do stunts with the scooter and Kenneth taught him to say, "That's cool!" after he did it. What a funny man!
3) Our baby birds have left the nest! We had some crazy rain/wind storms and we weren't sure how the baby birds in our hanging flower basket would fare, but they did okay. They moved to under the foliage during one storm and then slowly over the next couple of days, all three left the nest. We never saw them fly away. It was fun to watch them grow.
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| When the eggs started being laid |
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| Just hatched! |
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| So small and helpless. See that funny mass in the neck of the one? That's food! |
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| "I want more food!!" |
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| There's another mass in the neck if you look closely at the one lying down. I love their 'hairdos' at this stage! |
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| Getting bigger. "Give me MORE food!" |
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| Getting the feathers in on their wings |
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| Growing up! Certainly filling that nest. |
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| Hiding away under the foliage. Stayed there after the storm. |
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| Closer view. |
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| All grown up and flown away! (Did you notice my plant coming back to life in these pictures as well?) |
4) I mentioned a few storms and let me tell you it's been crazy! We have had so much rain, we have had a lot of flooding. Luckily, we haven't had any troubles with our home, but our VAN was flooded! It was sitting in the parking lot at Kenneth's work and the water level got so high it flooded the interior of the van! Kenneth had to wade out to the van in knee high water and then had to bucket water out before he could try to drive away. Then we went to a friend's house to use his shop vac and got another 7-10 gallons of water out! He had to try 3 entranced to our neighborhood before he could get home the roads were so flooded! Our own street looked like this for a little while:
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| The kids walking in the road right in front of our driveway |
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| The little canal just across the street from us. It's usually empty. |
The kids also had fun with umbrellas outside during the rains we've had:
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| Happy Children! |
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| Here is the parking lot at work. Our van is to the right. |
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| Another shot. Poor truck. Our van is way in the back. Too bad they're not boats, eh? |
One downside to all the rain is the amazing amount of mosquitos swarming everywhere. It's quite unpleasant to be outside unless you stay in constant motion.
5) Kenneth took the kids to a Rodeo. It was a late night for them, but they loved it! (Kate and I stayed home) Here's one shot of Emma and Arianna in the ring to play one of the children's games.
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| The girls are right above the man's head who is holding the little boy in the foreground. |
6) This past week I got terribly sick. Like I couldn't move or take care of the kids or even walk sort of sick. It turned out to be Mastitis. No fun at all. Kenneth had to take a day off work to take care of us all. He's not so good at feeding me when I'm sick, though. Sweet little Grant would bring me food. Cereal, an apple and handfuls of baby carrots. He told me that he was going to feed me lots of vegetables so that I would get better. I tried texting for food, that didn't work. I ended up creeping down the stairs and scrounging, but I definitely did not get enough to eat. It's funny that it took me getting sick to realize how much and how often I am used to eating. The day I started feeling better (after being on the antibiotic for 24 hours) and was up and around again Kenneth commented that it looked like I was loosing weight. I said, "I am! Because you weren't feeding me!" To his credit, he did a great job taking care of the kids and working some too during that day he was home.
7) Welcome Gleaner Fans!! Kenneth took me on a date! No kids! (Too bad Kate woke up when she was supposed to stay asleep and screamed for the poor babysitter for about an hour.) We went to the Product launch of AGCO's newest line of combines. (To some of you it may seem like I am speaking a foreign language. Combines help farmers harvest the wheat and corn. AGCO is the company Kenneth works for. Gleaner is the name of the Combine. Got it? Alright.) I must say it was pretty cool. We had hors d'oeuvres and then they started the show complete with bagpipes, a history of the machine, and the unveiling. I must say, I kind of got choked up watching the videos of the harvesting of all that wheat- all that good food for so many people and all (I am so cheesy, I know). And I was certainly on the edge of my seat for the unveiling. The anticipation almost killed me! They are pretty cool pieces of equipment. I even got to sit in one.
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| Smoke effects and everything! |
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| Behold, the Gleaner! |
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| My handsome date. |
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| Bird's eye view of the event |
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| I kind of liked being in the driver's seat of a tractor with Kenneth as the passenger for once (Just kidding- I will definitely leave all driving of heavy equipment to him!) |
They are such large machines that climbing back down the ladder to get back to the floor was slightly scary. (I am not generally scared of heights, but I did kind of have to take a breath and make sure I was putting my feet in the right spot!)
8) Last, but certainly not least, my Katy-did is 6 months old!! (I also call her Kate, Little bitty, Diddy bitty) I can hardly believe it! Time has certainly flown by with this girl's life. And let me tell you she is a mover and shaker, this one. She is already crawling. For this family, that is unheard of. Of the older three, the first to crawl was at 8 1/2 months old. That was Arianna. Emma was around 9 months old and Grant didn't crawl until 10 months old! She is even pulling up on things, too. She pulls up on the box of books, on the couch, on the stairs, in her crib, you name it. She is very busy. And fussy lately! She is kept occupied for a few minutes crawling around a pulling up and then it seems like she just wants to be held. At her 6 month check up she weighed 16 pouinds. She is right around the 50% for weight now. Slowing down now that she is moving. She is eating solid food. So far she has had: sweet potatoes, banana, homemade barley cereal, green beans, peach Cheerios, and a little bit of watermelon. She has liked it all. She's doing great sleeping at night. She usually goes to bed between 7 and 8 and sleeps until between 5:30 and 6:30. She still takes 3 naps a day most of the time. She's a sweetie and we all still adore her (of course!). Here she is:
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| Arianna can't do this much longer! |
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| One of the first times she ate solid foods. |
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| Standing at the stairs- got there all by herself. |
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| Pulled up on the exersaucer |
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| Pulled up on Daddy, drooled on Arianna. All in a day's work |
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| While I nurse Kate, I read to them. We are reading the Little House on the Prairie series. Right now we are on book five, On the Shores of Silver Lake. These are really some of the memories I will cherish most. |
And to say goodbye, a shot of a famous Kansas sunset. They really are very pretty.
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| Gorgeous Kansas Sunset |
We plan to start school next week, so keep a look out for our first day of school post. Arianna will be a Kindergartener! (Here at home, that is)
