The sprinkler saves the day

Ah, the life!

Mr. Sponge Blob in the driveway:).


What do you do when the natives are restless and getting antsy? Pull out the beach ball sprinkler for some fun in the front yard. It works for at least 10 minutes, 15 tops.

Noah's birthday

Jake giving the pinata a big ole whack!!
The Peterson boys and The Kluver boys...SO CUTE!

Spittin' out the candles
Batman Noah, Batman Eli, and Batgirl Grace

Pretend this cake picture isn't upside down, I couldn't figure out how to flip it :)

Batman!

Noah officially turned 3 on July 22nd, but we celebrated his birthday down here on Sunday. It was a traditional Grandma Cathy blowout complete with party favors and a Batman pinata. The Kluver's were there too...love that little Jake and Chase! We had a great time, and are all glad that Noah has made it to age 3 without serious injury :)...haha. I love you my Noah <3!!

Bowling madness

The bowling pin they gave Matt at the bowling alley since it was his birthday. Everyone signed it :).

Uncle Sam and Matt opening Matt's presents

Spiderman showing me his web-finger moves

Matt's up with his fancy orange ball! Check out the t-shirt Grandma had made for him...it has a picture of Matt from his first birthday party on it :).

Noah having a small bowling meltdown on the clean bowling alley carpet :)

Noah's up! The ramp and the bumpers were great for the kids...and the adults wished they had them most of the time, too.

Eli's turn!

Matt and his best friend Hunter

Matt had a bowling party at Grandma and Don's today. We all went bowling and came back home for a great dinner and cake afterwards. It was so much fun, the kids had a blast bowling! Our little Matt will be 12 on Monday, where does the time go?!

Birthday celebrations in Galesburg

Grace surrounded by her loving cousins. She adores these boys!

The kiddos playing baseball in Grandmother and Grandpa's yard

When we got home, we made a quick turnaround and went to Galesburg for the day. We celebrated my birthday (July 7th), Connor's birthday (July 17th), and Matt's birthday (July 27th). Everyone was there except our girls Tabitha and Melissa. All 7 of the boys went to a movie, then we had dinner and cake...yummy!

Visiting the Stickling's

Henry, Dave, and Tyler

From North Dakota Tyler and Rich drove down to Golden, CO to visit Dave, Susan, Henry, and Maya. They went to see a Wilco concert at Red Rocks in Morrison, CO. They had a GREAT time...Red Rocks is so beautiful. The torrential downpour of rain right before the concert was a bit of a downer, but the concert was well worth it!

More North Dakota

The cool double rainbow after the storm

The weird lenticular cloud we saw during a thunderstorm

Benny in the Indiana Jones hat he got in Medora

Ben and Grace in Medora

Driving through the Badlands

This darned stubborn cow did not want to move off the road. There were cows all over the road on the way to Medora.

A pretty North Dakota sunset

Seriously, the best picture I could get of all 4 of them in front of a canola field. Ben was crying, Matt's eyes were red and swollen from allergies, and Grace has a problem with looking directly at the camera for some reason.

Ben looking for rocks on the butte.

The memorial angel and Gilman's grave up on the butte.

Looking at a badger hole

The gang up on Flagstaff Butte

Up on the butte with the Rainy Buttes in the background

Wow, it's been over a month!

Playing some table ping-pong

Preachers Eli, Grace and Noah giving the sermon :)

All the kids at Daglum Lutheran Cemetery. Rich, Joel, Jim and Tyler mowed & trimmed the whole thing (which actually isn't too huge LOL).

Cousins in the back of the Jeep

Grace driving the riding lawn mower (yikes!)

I last blogged on June 23rd, that's just crazy! The card reader I use to upload my pictures wasn't working. That and the fact that Rich got a job offer in Bismarck, ND; we put our house on the market; we have been to North Dakota twice since then; the kids have had swim lessons, camps, VBS (two of them!); we sold our house (after 8 days and 16 showings); we bought a house in ND; and we've had a couple of birthdays thrown in. Lots and lots and lots going on, can you say STRESS? But I'm going to try and keep my blog well updated from here on out, especially since we'll be way too far from grandparents, parents, and siblings.

I'll start with a few pics from our ND trip to Grandpa Jim's. Joel, Heidi, Eli and Noah came over too, it was very relaxing and the kids had a great time! I've discovered that if I move the pictures to put them under the text, they won't enlarge when you click on them. So I left the pics up at the top and added some text to them.