a trip to the petting zoo.

The Sunrise Petting Zoo is a cute little petting zoo that has so many animals for the kids to see and hold. We finally made it for our first visit of the summer. I'd been meaning to take the kids since the beginning of June, but we just never got there. We invited the Carlson's to come along with us.

Levi was so excited to see all the animals and wanted to hold everything he could.Isaiah and Jonah enjoyed seeing the animals and getting up close to look at them, but really had no interest in holding them.And Jayda was a little more nervous and just stood back to watch. She even encouraged Jonah to stay back too! :)Baby Silas slept through it all!There were so many animals to see. Here are the boys checking out the pigs. One of the pigs managed to open the gate and came out - I think the mommies were more afraid than the kids when this happened! yikes!Two little boys so excited, running around together.
Feeding the ducks
We went in with the goats and Levi thought it was really neat. He kept chasing them all around their area. The goats were really tame and didn't seem to mind.The donkeys.
Isaiah says his favorite animal at the zoo was the puppies, and I think Levi would agree with him. The boys kept going back to the puppies while we were there. I hope we make it back to the zoo at least a few more times before it closes for the winter!

welcome ragbrai!

My dad has been riding Ragbrai all week! (He's done this several years in a row!) This year the route came through Waterloo and Cedar Falls so of course we had to watch my dad come through! The past few years my Uncle Steve from Wyoming has come and rode the week with my dad. It seems like they really enjoy it together.We got there about 15 minutes before he was to ride by and the boys had fun watching the bikes all pass us (really Levi was more interested in the digger and dirt project that was going on behind us). It was fun to see all the riders and all the different bikes that came by, Isaiah was especially impressed by the triplet (3 person bike) that he saw. I liked watching all the recumbent bikes (where you are more on your back riding) I had no idea how many different types of recumbent bikes there are!As we were watching, Mark said, "I wonder if we'll see Chris and Brian" and we literally turned our heads and there they were! It was so crazy! They had been riding all week too. And then a minute after I took the picture above, Levi dumped a handful of sand/rocks/dirt on top of my camera and it no longer works - UGH! So I didn't get any pictures of my dad or uncle. But we saw them too! What an amazing thing! Way to go bikers!

my sweet boys.

The other day my boys were out doing an errand close to my work while I was working and surprised me with a quick visit and a beautiful plant for my desk at work. It brightens my day each day I'm there.

I'm so lucky!They each signed the card. Isaiah and his signature "I" and Levi and his scribble.Thank you boys!

family bike ride.

Isaiah loves to take his bike to the bike trail to ride. I'm not quite fast enough to push the stroller while he rides and we don't have a fancy bike carrier for me to pull Levi behind me - so he gets to sit in a funny old bike seat on the back of my bike (that I've had since 8th grade:) Our bike rides are a big hit for both boys. A week ago or so Mark and my parents joined the boys and me on a family ride. We all had a great time (once we got going -- I must admit I was a little grouchy about how long it took us to all get going -- sorry guys!). Unfortunately our ride was cut short when Isaiah's training wheel kept falling off - but we still got in a good ride. I have a feeling that pretty soon we won't need the training wheels anyway! As I had Levi on my back, I wasn't going to risk taking pictures -- so I gave the camera to Mark to take some for us - I'd say he did a good job capturing everyone! (Thanks honey!)
Just another thing I love about our house - how close we are to the trails!

Alisha's daycare - now enrolling - (just kidding)

On any given day at our house, it's not unlikely that you'll find an extra kid or 2 or 4 (or as you'll see below 5 extra) at our house! We love to have friends over! I find myself offering to my friends that I'm happy to have their children over while they have something to do (like a date with their husband!) I know how much it means to me when someone offers to watch my boys, so I like to do that for my friends too. My family chooses to sacrifice so that I can stay home most of the time with our boys and I know this isn't something that all families can or want to do - so I figure this is just one little way that I can support those who do work more than me (or just need a break!)

Many times Mark (and others) have commented how I might as well just open an in-home daycare center -truthfully I have no interest in this, but it is fun to think about and between Madison, Emily, Carson, Ashley, Caiden, Jayda, Jonah, Silas, Keira, and the many others we have around here - I could probably fill up fast! :) So, if you'd like to enroll your child in my daycare, just give me a call! HAha. But seriously, if you ever need a babysitter -- call me!

The other day we were lucky enough to have several kids come to play and what better way to entertain then get out the slip n slide and the sprinkler! I had fun watching all 7 kids scream and laugh and enjoy each other. Then I took some close up shots of the kids. I guess I must have been feeling artistic! :)

CarsonAshley

Emily

Caiden

Madison

6 kids ready for bed. Somehow I had them all but one sleeping by 8:45pm!
Can't wait for our next playdate -- hopefully it's with your kid! :)

at the park.

Before baby Silas came over (as I mentioned in the last post), we went on an adventure to the park. Isaiah continues to want to ride his bike so we've made lots of stops at this same little park up the street. This time Jayda rode the trike while Isaiah rode his bike. They looked so cute.The little boys were cute too, playing on the slides and steps.Jayda and Isaiah both climbed up to show me how high they could go, and then made some silly faces together while I kept snapping pictures.



Those two just light each other up, it's so sweet to see them together. It had been awhile since they had played together just the two of them and I could tell they were both has happy as could be!

Silas Timothy

On June 25 a special baby was born - Silas Timothy. He's the little brother of our best buddies Jayda and Jonah. He is so sweet and tiny. And we were lucky enough to have him come play at our house last week! The boys were so excited! They couldn't stop looking at him, touching him or holding him!

Levi was so sweet when he first came over. He went up to Silas and pulled his binky out of his mouth and tried to put it in Silas' mouth saying, "The baby needs the binky." This is HUGE for Levi considering his binky is about the most important thing to him (or maybe a close second to his blankie).

Isaiah held him several times. Each time he was so gentle and kind to him.

All four kids are so good around him! How cute it was to see them lay around him, and look at Levi with his arm around him.Congratulations Cliff and Lo!

To see some more sweet pictures of Silas, check out his Aunt Holly's blog.

coins

When I was pregnant with Levi, Mark and I went on a date to the pottery place for our anniversary. He was so sweet and painted Levi a bank shaped like a football. (I bought Isaiah a basketball bank when he was a baby - or maybe even before he was born). Unfortunately the football bank got broken :( (I was so sad that I saved the broken pieces to this bank for months and months until Mark finally put his foot down and said we have to throw the sharp broken pieces of pottery away) so when we had another special event (I think it was Valentine's Day) he painted Levi a new bank - a firetruck (they were out of football banks). That is equally as sweet, and perfect for Levi.

The other day Isaiah found a stack of loose change and so we got the banks out to work on filling them up. Isaiah quickly finished his pile, so he attempted to show Levi how to do it (after Levi had already put in several coins on his own:). After showing him a few times, he just sat back and watched as Levi finished his pile. What a good big brother.

big box

We bought a new dresser for Isaiah's room this week (which has actually had a complete makeover in the last few months-including a new closet -- more to come on this when we are all done!). The dresser came in a huge box. The kids have had lots of fun playing in this box. I took a few pictures the first time they played in it, by now it's about crushed and ready for the recycling center. It's the simple things in life that are the best!