Botanical Gardens

The Monday after Ryan's family came and Nathan came, we went to the Botanical Gardens to take pictures. Unfortunately, Kim wasn't able to go because she got the stomach bug but was able to rest in a kid free house for a couple of hours.

 Ryan with Addy (left) and Hailey (right)

 Hailey and Kyra

After the gardens, we went to the Science Fair. Gramma and Grampa took all 6 kids while, Nate, Ryan and I went to the DaVinci exhibit. It was nice being in a museum and actually being able to look at the displays and read about them. After about 2 1/2 hours, we were called and told that they kids were done.  Chasing after 6 kids under the age of 5 is a lot to handle, Gramma and Grampa were good sports about it.

New Hair Cut

I got a new haircut and went pretty short this time. Also, this is the first time I have had bangs in a decade or so.  The biggest benefit to short hair is no one can pull it, especially Hannah!  I really like how it turned out.

Playground

There are very few fences in Iowa and mom's neighbor recently put up a little playground for his kid. Since he knew mom was going to have grandkids over, he said they could play on it also. Which was a wonderful way to give these kids a break from the car and house.

 Kyra wants to try the monkey bars.

 Hailey said she wanted to also, but chickened out.

 However, in the end she made it across.

 Also they had a lot of fun going down the slide.

Welcoming Cousins!

Ryan and Kim called right before they pulled up so that Grampa could have his camera ready.

First, a little background to the amazing thing that got capture on camera. Ryan is the oldest in the family. Then it's Kerstin, followed by me, and Kyle is the baby of the family. Ryan is about 5 years older then me.  His family lives in Texas and since I've been married I have only seen him 3 times before this trip.  Ryan is married to Kim and they have three children. Kyra is 5, Adeline (Addy) is 3 and Griffin is 5 months.

Hailey and Robert meet Kyra and Addy two years ago at Christmastime but there is no way they could have remember that. I've been pointing out pictures of them to my kids and Kim did the same so they are aware of who's who when they met.  But still, I don't think anyone expected this kind of greeting between the cousins. (Robert was still taking a nap)

 Hailey and Addy

 Kyra and Hailey

 Ryan

 Kim

Kim with baby Griffin

Handy Manny

The week of Thanksgiving it worked out that Nathan, and Ryan's family all came to Mom and Dad's. So to get ready, we needed to move some furniture around.  Here's Robert "helping" grampa by keeping the door shut while grampa took out the pins to the door hinges. Then Robert kept the pins in his pocket til grampa called for them again. 

Robert loved being a big helper and told me about it the rest of the day. 

Generally, if I need Robert to do something for me or with me, I ask him to be my big helper and he jumps at the chance.  He tries to be very helpful.  It seems like in that way, Robert is like how Kyle was as a little boy.  Kyle also loved helping around the house, being Mr. Fix-It.



Thanksgiving Tree

PottyBarnKids had a great thankful tree, where each day in November you write what you are thankful for and put it in a leaf pocket. However, it cost $70. Mom and I thought we could definately do that with less expense.

We had fun shopping for the materials and the main fabric that I'm using for some of the leaves and for the binding, Hailey picked it out.  We used a lot of WonderUnder or Fusible Web (it's the same stuff just different people use different names).  We also made the pattern ourselves.  We would have been under budget if we were more exact with how much fabric we needed but the biggest expense (and the biggest time saver) was the sticky felt letter and numbers. (We needed to get 7 bags in total just so we would have enough number 2s.) I'm glad we worked on this project together since we were about to personalize it more for my family and it has history on how we made it. This is also something I need to finish off at home.  My goal is to have it done by the end of May (with a lot of my other sewing projects I have started but haven't finished yet.) 

This is 2009's calendar from PottyBarn that we borrowed thinking it was this years but still got good ideas from, like the border and the size.

Hannah 11 Month (11-16)

Hannah turned 11 months while at Gramma and Grampa's house.  She was cutting 2 more teeth so she has 8 teeth in total now.  Hannah also has had no more seizures though I try my best to be consent with giving her her medicine.  She has recently start to say "mama" but mainly just babbles a lot.

Hannah also pulls herself up on things.  She likes to put toys in a basket or bag and take them out again.  She is one strong cookie especially due to Robert's rough house play with her.

Hannah is a joy to have in our family. She's a very good baby and still takes an hour nap in the morning and almost a 4 hour nap in the afternoon with Robert.  Hannah is also our biggest eater and loves to sit at the table with everyone. When she is fussy the answer is generally food with her.

In the video, I'm trying to get Hannah to say her new word, but you can only hear a little babbling at the beginning.  Taking videos with three children around is tough.