Family Fun!

Emme's home!! She was gone ALL :) weekend, visiting my family! We left on Friday afternoon, and met my Mom half-way in Ft. Dodge. It sounds like they had a pretty fun weekend :) swimming, playing, and meeting Aunt Nikki for supper at Rudys' Taco's. Yum!! She told my Mom today while packing.. "ya know Nana, I do have extra outfits. I could stay for a few more days!!" I think my Mom quickly replied, "I don't think so Em, I have to go back to work tomorrow!"

So.. When we picked her up in Ft. Dodge today, we were met with HORRIBLE weather. We had to stop because the rain was coming down so hard, plus hail, plus lots of debris from the wind. I called my Mom to make sure that they were O.K., and they were stuck in Slumberland! She said the wind was blowing so hard, the roof was moving! The lights were flickering on and off, and the employees were all panicking running to the bathroom! She said after it stopped raining so hard they had to get a shop vac out and suck-up some of the rain that blew in under the door!! My sister Nikki called when we were about home making sure that we were O.K., b/c she said they were reporting tornadic activity in the area, and that even worse storms were to blow through! But, we made it home alright!

When we got to Cherokee, the sun was shining, and there was no sign of having any rain at all! After supper, we decided to take a walk and let Em ride her bike. Here are some pictures of our weekend! We hope everyone else had a fun weekend too!

Heartbreaker..

The other day, our favorite neighbors, Brad and Kathy Dirks stopped by. They were coming to tell us some sad news, they were moving. They wanted to let us know first before the "for sale" sign was put up in their yard. We can not express how much we love and appreciate our neighbors. Every Halloween, Christmas, Easter, birthday we've lived at our home Kathy has a little treat bag made up for the kids. At Halloween, we always pose the kids so that way Brad can take the annual picture. So you can imagine how heart-broken we were to learn the news. Emma wasn't present when they stopped by, soo... last night we were sitting in the living room and she saw the sign. The look on her face was complete devestation. We told her to sit down, because we needed to tell her. She looked like the whole world was crashing down. She had questions galore, and you could tell she was trying not to cry. I told her to come and snuggle with me and we'd talk, she got on my lap and sobbed and sobbed. After we got her ready for bed and calmed down, we walked over to the Dirks' home, knocked on the door and let her ask all the questions she wanted. We were there for about 2 hrs!!! Emma's finally calmed down, and she's glad to know they aren't moving away, away, just a few blocks down. We know that they are both sad for leaving their home, but all 3 of their daughters have grown, 2 of them married. So they don't have a need for their home. They are buying a building downtown with a store front, and restoring the upstairs to live in (how much fun!). We are happy for them, but sad to not have them as close by as we'd like. I told Brad and Kathy last night that we'd have to see the "potential" buyers before any offers were accepted!! :) Kathy said hopefully a young family with small children like us, or (fingers crossed :0) ) teenage girls!!!! How awesome would that be?!? Anywho, I thought I'd share a little tidbit :)

Best Buds :)

Here are some pictures of Emma and her best bud, Lydia! They absolutely love each other.. I didn't have my camera on hand when I saw them coming up the sidewalk, hand in hand and skipping! They have a blast dressing up as "princesses" and putting make-up and nail polish on each other.

Sunday Funday

"Don't forget about me mom..." :)

Ahh.. Brayden and Lucy giving love!!

Wedding Time! - Congrats Katie and Jim!!

The boys: Cody, Willie, and Kasey...

Sara and I, having some fun before cake cutting time!

A day at the fair!

We had such a busy day today! We helped Gma & Papa go get a new garage door! We helped Dad unload his car from last night, and FINALLY did we go to the Midway at the fair. Emma is such an adrenaline junkie, that girl scares us! She wanted to go on every ride that looped, went upside, and also very fast! After we were done, we got some yummy lunch at the Family Table.. headed back home and jumped into the sprinkler! That didn't last very long! So, we played in the sand box, slide, and horsey swing! We had such a great weekend! We hope everyone else did too!

Demo Derby!

Go Dad, GO!! Tonight was the Demo! Something we've been looking forward to for a while! We didn't want to take Brayden with us b/c he's too afraid of the loud noises the cars make! Emma didn't want to either when she found out our neighbors, Brad and Kathy were going to watch them. So Mom, Gma, & Papa had a fun night alone! The kids were really good for the neighbors, and we were really impressed. They've never been watched by anyone besides family!

Turkey on the loose!!

"Aren't I cute mom?!"

This is what we saw when we arrived at Grandma's and Papa's tonight! A turkey pearched up in the shed window!!

Hanging out :)

We shopped around today, had really good Carlo's! And celebrated Brittany's bday a little early!

Fireworks, and More!

We really hope everybody enjoyed their day as much as we did!

HAPPY 4TH!!

We've been soo busy the last few days, we are finally putting up some new posts! We had a great 4th! We went back home to Cedar Falls and spent the weekend with Nana, Aunt Britt, Uncle Blake, and Paul... Surprise! Even Great Grandma and Great Papa showed up!! We had soo much fun, we didn't want to leave!

Summer Lovin'

Once again we hung out and Grandma and Papa's house. We have tons of fun in the swimming pool, where Grandma is helping Em learn to swim! Brayden just hangs back and relaxes with the dogs.

Good Morning!

See! We do love each other every once in a while! Comment from Em, "Mom, can you please move now. We are really trying to enjoy watching our show!" Their show by the was 'The Backyardigans'!