Yellow River continued..

Below are some other pictures from Yellow River. Unfortunately, I never got any of the kids walking in the creek because Anna was hungry! It was a great day and kids had a lot of fun!! Yes, we did come home with four trout.

Yellow River

On Labor Day, we took a family trip to Yellow River up past Guttenburg, IA. It was a great fall weather day and what a beautiful place. There were trout streams there to go fishing, hiking, picnic areas and streams to walk in. While Connor and Terry fished, the girls had a great time putting their imagination to use. Here are some highlights below. 

The "taco" meal and "leaf card" game.  

Tessa praying before eating her "taco."

Karley "flossing" after eating her "taco."

Leaf "card" game

Emma's cards on the table.

Josie teaching the kids the Leaf "cards" game.

Emma looking for the right "leaf" to play.

You had to roll an unbloomed orange flower and the number of lines that showed up you had to look at your leaves and see if you had the number of lines on your leaf that matched your roll then you could lay down your leaf.

Emma priming the stove for the "tacos."

Baking "tacos."

Our Blessings!

Backyard chalk drawings

Emma's and Josie's chalk drawing.

Emma: blowing a bubble and then the bubble popping!

Josie: Prince and Princess with a fire breathing dragon

Josie: Hot air balloon

Cooling Off!

The kids found a great way to cool off after school one day with the 90 degree weather we were having!All you need is a hose and swing set! They were also taking turns spraying each other in the face while swinging!

Look at Me!

Anna at 3 months

First Day of School

The annual first day of school pictures! Connor: 7th grade with Mrs. Belken... Emma: 5th grade with Mrs. Massey-Watters...Josie 3rd grade with Mrs. Welter and Karley kindergarten with Mrs. Weires... finally me starting my 17th year of teaching (WOW, that doesn't seem possible!).

Story Time

Karley LOVES, LOVES to hold Anna and recently she has been able to start holding her standing up and walking around a little. She also LOVES to sing songs to her and read her stories! She is a great big sister! Anna looks like she is rather enjoying the story.

Sleeping Positions

Honestly, you never know some nights how the kids are going to fall asleep at night or what they are going to sleep with. This night Josie decided to take a munch of pillows and make her "comfy bed" to sleep on. She must have been tired because she slept on the pillows all night.

Finding her fingers

Anna continues to grow and bring such joy to our family! She is really starting to take a liking to her fingers and more specifically her thumb! I have caught her recently sucking her thumb more so I have been trying to give her the pacifier, but she doesn't always seem to want it!

Our Three Year Old

On August 25, Tessa turned 3! Where did time go? She has been such a blessing to our family. She is a girl with many expressions, imagination and a sense of humor. She loves to help in the kitchen so here she is making pancakes for her birthday! Her day was filled with eating breakfast with the family, going to church, the parish festival and then to her godfather's (Tim) house for cake and some presents, since some of us had to help out at the festival. The Friday night prior to her birthday G. and G. Belken came by for a visit and gave her her first Barbie doll!!

Opening her presents from Karley.

Decorater

The other day I went in the front room to check on Anna and this is how I found her! Carefully decorated in her swing! This lovely decorating was done by the one and only Karley! Karley LOVES to take Anna's things and play with them or make Anna's bed look nice and neat! Anna enjoyed the whole process.

The bottom of the swing decorations!