A visit to the Theta House

On one of the Sundays we were in Iowa, we met for dinner at Great Plains for pizza. The A/C was broken, so it was really freaking hot in the restaurant, so that's why we look like we have all run marathons. Anyway, Brynna loved walking around the house and seeing where mommy and a lot of her friends lived for three years. I posted a few more pics of rooms that have been remodeled. It's looking so modern. I like it but then again I miss the "homey" feeling the living room used to have. I guess it probably did look pretty outdated to the new girls! I guess now they are working on the 2nd floor, renovating "New Second" and putting new carpet in the entire 2nd floor hallway. We had a nice chat w/ Mom Terry, who I still keep in touch with on at least a monthly basis. She is doing well and loves that the house is SO FULL! Mannnnn so many memories at this house. *sigh* WARNING: Lots of photos!

Oh..and isn't the new sign BEAUTIFUL?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


















Future Theta? LOL I hope so!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

This post is a little overdue. My Grandma Ruth turned 80 on July 24 and we had a BIG party for her on Saturday at my parents' house. It was a really nice party and everyone was able to make it. After hearing about a really cool idea from Megs, I decided I needed to do this too. I asked G'ma to write down her life story or as much as she could remember and told her what I wanted to do with it. I recorded her reading her life story and then I scanned a bunch of photos she gave me and we put it altogether in a cool movie using iMovie. Originally, I wanted to do all of the editing myself but the version of iMovie I had would not allow me to do what I wanted to do it. So, Dj did all of the editing for me, which I was grateful for. It took a lot of time to do, but the end product is really cool. We showed it on her b-day and everyone really liked it. Anyway, I'll have more pics to post later from the actual party, but thought I'd post a couple of my grammy. Yes she's in a swimsuit in one of the pics--she loves to swim and tan in the summer and comes up to our pool to soak up the sun.


Happy Birthday, Grandma!

A little girl's best friend

Brynna has a new love in her life. Her name is Zoey and she's got four paws, about 6 inches tall, black fur, and a ball full of energy. Zoey belongs to my parents and is a Schipperke. She is a really good dog and Brynna has fallen in love with her since we arrived in IA in early July. She wants to know where that dog is 24/7. She wants to let Zoey out....let Zoey in, give Z. treats, and pet Z. She gives her kisses and hugs constantly and likes when she sits with us in the big reclining chairs. Zoey loves Brynn b/c she eats all of her crumbs that fall off of her high chair. Z. loves Bee b/c B. gives her so much love and attention. She is a wonderful kid-friendly dog.

I don't know what she'll do when we have to leave for home and say goodbye to Zoey dog.

Visiting Grandpa and Great Grandma Wilma E.

On Thurs. I drove over to Humboldt and took the kids to see Grandpa Dennis and Great Grandma Wilma. Brynna warmed up to G'ma W. right away and I think it's b/c she remembers her staying with us in January. Baylen, of course, is not picky about who holds him and had a good time playing with G'pa and G'g'ma both. G'ma W. kept mentioning how much of a chunk he was, and indeed he is. I think his thunder thighs are among the biggest baby thighs I have ever seen LOL. :) Anyway, we had a nice time visiting and left around 5 that afternoon.

Fun in the Tractor with PaPa

A couple of days ago, Brynn and PARKER (thanks, Briana for catching that error!) went with Papa in the tractor to help feed the cows some hay. They had to take Elmo with them along for the ride, so he could have some fun too! The kids had a blast! Here are a few pics!

she did it!

Fun for us tonight in the pee/poop department....Brynna came up to me and told me, "potty on potty chair, mommy" so I asked her again if she had to go potty and she nodded her head. I took her in thinking it was going to be another false alarm....but..she peed in that potty!!!! I was so excited and so was she! It was so cute b/c as soon as she started peeing, she held her mouth open and was like "Whoaaaa!" haha...it was so funny! I made her a little chart and we put a kitty sticker on her first little spot. She thought that was pretty cool...then I taped it in the bathroom next to the toilet. I put some real undies on her after that, but she peed in them pretty quickly afterwards...I don't think she was quite empty when she said she was finished the first time. oh well...we have progress and that's all that matters!

On another note, Brynn finally decided that she wanted to swim in the big pool at my parent's house. I have a couple pics of her in it here and I'll post a video of it later! :) She wanted her daddy to know she was very brave! :) now she tries to get in by herself, by standing by the ladder, so we really have to make sure she is very well supervised and not running on the deck so she doesn't slip and fall.

he pooped haha

For those of you keeping up with my son's lack of BM's lately, he did two #2's today in a row! yessssssssssssss He is much happier this evening and that's a relief to everyone! We ALL hope he sleeps better tonight...right g'ma and g'pa? (Bless their hearts, they were up with him from 2-4 a.m. last night so i could sleep a full night). My mom had been telling me for the past couple of days to try the karo syrup and finally I had time to pump a bottle ahead of Bay waking up to put some in. I added 2 small drops into about 6 oz of brestmlk and about 6 hrs. later, success! You were thinking the same thing I was, Kati! :)

Fun at the Fair!

This was Brynna's second trip to the Greene Co. Fair and Baylen's first. We had a lot of fun looking at the different animals. Brynna loved the bunnies, chickens, ducks and geese the best. She was NOt a fan of the sheep and horses, mostly because I think she didn't realize how BIG they are in real life. :) haha She would NOT pet Daniel's cow, either. Parker didn't have any problem going right up to all of the animals though. He's a farm boy at heart, I think, just like his daddy. Baylen won "Least Hair" in the baby contest in the a.m. and Daniel won first place in his class with his first steer in the cattle show a little later in the morning. He ended up getting 3rd overall in the championship round with that first steer...so close! Here are a few pics from that day! (Some I already posted with the bouncy house/slide in a post a couple of days ago)

4 Months Old!

Baylen just turned four months old. Where the heck has time gone? I feel like I blinked, and bam, he's already past "newborn" stage. It doesn't seem possible. As he grows older, I am seeing more and more differences between him and his sister. I'll try to post more about that later. Nikki asked me the other night what differences are b/t boys and girls and there are many differences, which is another post in itself.

Lately, Baylen has been really fussy. I am not sure what the deal is with this. I don't know if he's teething, if it's b/c he's constipated, just really tired, a stomachache, his AR acting up, or if he misses his daddy. :( It's so frustrating b/c he will cry and cry sometimes for 30-40 minutes straight. I try everything I can think of to get him to calm down and nothing seems to work. If my dad or mom takes him, then he tends to calm down sooner. He has also not really had a lot of poopy diapers since we have come to Iowa. I don't know why this is happening...if it's the elevation/flying that screwed up his system or what. He went almost 4 1/2 days without going #2...this is unusual for him. I gave him a little apple juice mixed w/ water (an ounce) on two different days to see if it would help. It didn't seem to really work all that well. Now we are on day 3 again of no #2. My diet has not really changed at all, and he's been nursing very regularly, if not more than normal.

Another frustrating thing about this boy: he's not sleeping well at night. At first we thought he was just getting hungry and that was why he was waking in the night. I started him on a little cereal before bedtime and then we fed him a bottle of bm of 6-8 oz. But, he will wake up to get that "last nursing session in" before he'll go down. Last night/this morning he woke up at 1:40 and again at 5. He has been doing this really ornery thing lately too, where he'll get up at 5 and then want to be up and mess around. This is unusual for him. Lately, he is averaging about 7 hours of sleep TOTAL a night, which is not enough for a little guy. He's pretty big, so he should be able to stay sleeping a little longer than he is. This makes for a very TIRED mama...and grumpy. :(

This post wasn't meant to complain about little Mister....he is still a good boy. I love him so much and he's doing many fun things too like...
*lots of cooing/talking
*loves to be played with/interacted/sung to/read to
*gives kisses to mama
*has been squealing
*has been rolling over from both back to front and front to back a few times
*loves the exersaucer
*loves floor gyms
*grabs for rattles and other toys and puts them in his mouth
*found his feet and likes to play with them
*sits in my mom/dad's old baby walker and moves around the living room
*he is a MOVER
*loves tummy time and holds his head up really well
*scoots on his tummy by pushing his feet on floor
*smiles a TON...he is a morning person definitely
*can be pretty easy going when he's not fussy
*loves his paci
*Still in sizes 3-6 mo., 6 mo. clothing
*I've started him on a little rice cereal at night time but not sure if I'll continue it esp. if he's constipated....we'll see on that

Now, on to the pics..which one(s) do you like best?