Family Fun Night with the Kragt's

Every year, the family across the street takes Skylar and James to Family Fun Night at their church. It is like a little carnival and the kids always have a really good time. They get to play all kinds of games, get their faces painted, eat yummy food, and so on. Here they are with all of their prizes!

Outside at last!

Today was a really nice day out (finally!) and mom had worked hard all day cleaning up all of the winter poop in the backyard, so we really got to enjoy outside! It was a little windy (when isn't it in northwest Iowa?), but who cares?

Kellen and Brennen played a long time together on the see-saw. These two can be best friends, but they can also fight like crazy. Lucky for Mama, they were having an "on" day.



James and Mama played some football.

Skylar and a friend played on the slide and monkeybars!

When Papa got home from work, it was Hop on Pop time!

Weekend update:)

Sorry group, no pictures! I left my camera at home. On Thursday, Ross (JT's brother) came up to visit us for a night and we had a really nice time just talking. Skylar and Ross and a fun time together and she wrote a poem for him which I thought was really cute (I kept her spelling).

Lets take a vacation
With lots of genaration.
And swim in the pool
And be so cool!
And we'll go to the ocen
With lots of sun locen

Ross drove them to school on Friday morning which they thought was pretty cool (why I don't have pictures, I don't know!).

Anyway, then we went up to the lake house for the weekend. Jt had a big list of things that we wanted to get accomplished and he did a really good job of it. It was really nice weather and the kids had a lot of fun just throwing stuff into the lake. JT got our water pump all cleaned out (the metal buoy had broke and there was a disgusting amount of rusty gross debris in there), our water tub filled, the tractor fitted for moving instead of scooping snow, and all of our Adirondack chairs put together! The kids broke out their new bikes that they got for Christmas and tried those out. All and all we had a lot of fun. We just can't wait for when we can actually get in the lake! Apparently neither can Piper. She escaped from the house and ran right into the freezing cold lake. She didn't stay in for very long, but then she ran away soaking wet for a few hours. She must of been freezing! Oh well, her own fault.

Midwestern's weekend has arrived!

The big weekend finally arrived. We took just Skylar and James to Omaha for the weekend and we all had a really good time. We started out by going to the Olive Garden on Friday night on our way down to Omaha. The kids really love the breadsticks and Skylar is crazy about their calamari. When we got to Omaha we had to go right to the hotel and get to bed since Skylar had to be up early for the big meet. She did not swim very well this weekend, but it was a good learning experience for her. She had a awesome first swim (25 breast-she placed 12th overall and dropped 1 1/2 seconds-that's out of 50 kids,most of them 8) and last swim (100 IM-dropped 2 seconds!). All the rest of her swims were, ah, pretty bad (added between 3-4 seconds). Not really sure what was happening, but oh well. Anyway, here is the pool where she swam.

Getting some encouragement from the coach.

More encouragement from a teammate.

On the blocks, ready to swim!

Kicking a little butt in her 25 breast!

After her Saturday morning swims, we went to the Amazing Pizza Machine. It was really great. The kids just loved it. It is like a Chucky Cheese, but 100% better. The food is much better and there are rides and so much more for the kids to do. They really loved it! I would recommend anyone with kids that is going to be in Omaha should go there. It was a lot of fun! A little bowling. . .

Skee ball...

A very serious game of Deal or No Deal...

Agggg... I just opened the case with 400 tickets (the highest)!

Gopher Bashing...

Riding some rides...

Meeting Coswell...

More Rides...


It really was a ton of fun! After that, we went to a movie (Percy and the Olympians), then we had a delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Then when went back to our hotel and the kids swam in the pool for a little bit and then we all crashed in bed! Back up early and to the pool on Sunday! Skylar was swimming really bad, so JT tried bribing her in her 100IM. If she beat her time, he would buy her this stuffed animal that she really wanted. Guess what, she was moving in the water. I guess we found out what gets Skylar motivated! We were really happy that she finished on a good note. A little disappointed in the swimming, but overall, we had a fun weekend!

A sick Kellen:(

Of course, since JT is gone, I get a sick kid to take his spot in the bed at night. He is coughing so much that I don't want him to keep Brennen up all night, so he gets to sleep with me. OF course, then I really don't get to sleep that well...

A do nothing weekend

It's been a long time, but we had one of those weekends where we did absolutely nothing! It was relaxing, except for the fact that the kids usually completely destroy the house and it takes me a whole day on Monday to clean things up. I would show you a picture of the mess, but some of you might faint at how bad it gets (and I might be just a tad embarrassed!). Anyway, I did manage to catch a rare moment of all three boys playing well together!


Hey Brenne, the 80's called and wants their hairstyle back....

A picture of JT's new farm. This is where JT will be living this summer. There are currently two houses with 308,000 birds in them and another will be populated next week. The breaking plant is scheduled to be up and running in September.

The Girls Go to Nashville!

Skylar and I went down to Nashville for the weekend to visit Mormor and meet Little Lena. She is a very cute baby and Skylar wanted to hold her all of the time. Skylar is quite the baby hog and no one else can hold a baby when she is around. I did get a few precious moments in though. We had a great time talking, eating, and playing games (Agricola-my favorite!).

Skylar and Mama meet Little Lena (we came right off the plane, so excuse Skylar's hair-it is a little out of control).



Here is us at a great Indian restaurant.


Back at home and just a little tired! Me at 28 weeks. I can't believe I 'll be having another little one soon!

Two dancing boys and one tree climber

These boys just love to dance. Kellen has two moves. The first you can see in the first clip-it's called run side to side. The second move, and my personal favorite, is a strange sort of version of the chicken dance. I am not sure why the hands have to be in the armpits, but it is a patented move of his!

We really have had some nice weather the past couple of days (the 30s). Today we could have been outside without a coat! James took the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and used a big snow pile to climb a tree!

New Roomies and a Piano Recital!

Brennen moved into a big boy bed last night and is now sharing a room with Kellen. This morning, they woke up together (more like Kellen woke Brenne up when he got up) and they were laughing and giggling so hard. I did not have the heart to open the door and break it up, they were having so much fun together. Later when I opened the door, I was a little surprised at the mess. I have no idea where they got a 1000 count box of cable ties, but apparently, they are really fun.

Skylar had her first piano recital today. Everyone knows how much Skylar likes to talk to people, but shockingly, she does not like to talk in front of crowds and she was very nervous. She told me that talking in front of adults makes her get stage fright. Anyway, she got over it and I thought she did a really good job!

Never Too Young To Be A Vikings Fan!

I really can't think of anything cuter!