grammie turns 60!

Terry's mom turned 60 this weekend. . . and was in town to celebrate! We enjoyed a little cake to not only celebrate her 60th but also cousin Joey's 4th, Grant's soon to be 6th and Terry's soon to be 38th! The adults enjoyed a little dinner at Bravo without children (thanks to our sitter Sarah, who was brave enough to watch 6 kids)--yummy food and great company. During the day, we all headed to the Monon Center in Carmel for a little fun in the water. To finish off the weekend, we ate a little dinner at Bub's on the Monon trail Sunday evening--the just have the best burgers! Check out a few of our fun water photos:

joey turns 4!

Our nephew, Josiah, turned 4 today!! We enjoyed a super fun Speed Racer birthday party last night. . .lots of games, kids and some really great cake! Happy B-day, Joey!! Check out his homemade race car for one of the relay races--cool {and you've got to LOVE the tongue action! LOL!}!

moritz boy pix

Check out a few pix of the boys that my cousins (StudioU) took !

BTW--any of you Chicago people. . . StudioU will be in town October 3-7. . .and are booking appointments now!

chigger mania!

So, remember our awesome outdoor day in Iowa??? It has now turned into chigger mania in our house. These red bumps started showing up on the boys on Sunday and have gotten progressively worse. Today Grant woke up with a 101 fever and no other symptoms. My mom called and said it was an allergic reaction to chigger bites and sent me a link to read. No where in the link did it say that you have to kill the chiggers!! Thank goodness our neighbors who told us that info. around 8 tonight. Terry ran to CVS and they did not have any Chigger Rid, so the pharmacist said to use clear nail polish. Half a bottle later everyone had their bites covered. All the boys and Terry have them in many undesirable places!!! Poor things! I guess I am the lucky one--no bites. . .or am I the unlucky one?--I had to apply the nail polish in all of the undesirable places!

iowa

We headed of to Iowa on Friday for my cousin's wedding. The boys were super excited to go and agree that it was a great trip!
When we got to Iowa City, it was amazing to see where all of the flooding had been, the aftermath as well as all the restoration that has started. We had a bit of time before the wedding, so we visited the Antique Car Museum of Iowa. . .


That evening Andy and Jonna got married--a great ceremony, awesome desserts and it was great fun to catch up with family. Everything was perfect, (BTW--we loved the music you guys used in the ceremony and for the slide shows!!) even after having to change the location of both the ceremony and reception because of flooding. {They are going to have some blonde hair and blue-eyed kiddos!!--don't ya think?}Saturday was HOOT for the boys. My aunt and uncle live on 9 acres with a pond--every boy's dream!! Luke was tall enough to drive the tractor by himself--I guess all the years of tractor driving in our back yard on the little John Deere were great practice!
Uncle Jamie was helping Cole look for worms in the garden. . .
. . . and off to the pond.Andy and Jonna aren't leaving for their honeymoon until next week, so we got to enjoy having them around on Saturday--of course the boys loved it--it's awfully sweet of a bride to be putting worms on a fishing pole with her manicured nails--thanks Jonna!
One of Cole's MANY catches of the day!Check out the snake.
I think my cousin Greg spotted this one and Luke wanted to show off both of the catches

The boys honestly fished for hours--3 or more. By the time they were done, they were taking the fish off the hooks by themselves!The fish were biting like crazy--you didn't even need worms--check out my cousin Troy fishing with a hook attached to a pop can--funny. Troy and his wife, Heidi, are professional photographers and do an AMAZING {They took some pix of the boys this weekend and I am sure you will get to see them soon ;)} job. See for yourself!

10 years

Today is our anniversary! It's been 10 years. . .don't we look young in this photo? We are headed to Iowa for a wedding tonight--how appropriate! We were blessed to have taken a trip to he Mayan Rivera back in Feb. to celebrate.

Thanks for an indescribable 10 years, T. . . I can't wait to see what the next 10 bring!

cousin camp-out

The kids topped off their great weekend with a cousin "camp-out." Uncle Joe and dad stayed in the tent in the backyard. . .now that is the way to camp! You've got to love the conveniences of home.
Everyone enjoyed roasting hot dogs and making s'mores as well as plenty other activity: a baseball game in the court, catching fireflies--check out Cole and Joey doing this--don't you love Joey's cowboy boots??! Before bed we caught Conner Praire's fireworks and some sparklers. The best part of the event, though, were the Dunkin Donuts in the morning!! mmmm.

our red, white & blue

Our family enjoyed a visit from our old neighbors this 4th of July. . .Lauren is almost a year older than Luke and Colin (don't you love that red hair!!) is Cole's age. Having them back made me feel like they never left and made me sad that the kids don't get to play together on a daily basis. After a full afternoon of playing, we all headed downtown to the Indians game. . .it was a bit cool, but no one seemed to mind--at least it didn't rain! The game was fun to watch and the fireworks after were great.

Lauren has ALWAYS been a dog lover! She and Luke used to play "dog" all of the time! She fell in love with Wrigley and was asking for a cockapoo by the time they left on Saturday!

grace's adventure

Our niece, Grace, is headed to Cincinnati tomorrow for the World Piano Competition. I have the privilege of doing her hair for the big day, so today she came over for a "trial run." When the hair was done, she looked SO pretty and Lisa mentioned that maybe she should get her ears pierced. Her immediate answer was, "no." She really has no desire. I asked her a few times too, trying to convince her that she would look great & that I would even go with her. There was no convincing. As she was getting ready to leave, I thought I would try one last attempt. "Grace, if you get your ears pierced, I'll take you to get some ice cream!" Grace's response, "Icecream? Sure, I'll get my ears pierced!!!" She is too funny. So, later this afternoon WE ALL (sibilings & cousins) headed over to the doctor's office to watch at her request. It is fun to see her look so "girly!!" We're proud of you Gracie! and thanks for having ice cream with me!