Oh, how she has grown...

Kinsie on the day she was born!

Ten days old!
Three months old!

Six months old!

Nine months old!

Birthday Girl!

Our darling Kinsie is celebrating her first birthday today! It is very hard to believe that one year has passed by already, but we have loved and treasured every moment of this past year with our little angel! Her bright, loving personality has brought so much joy to our family! We will be celebrating her birthday with a family party on Sunday and are looking forward to having so many with us to celebrate this special milestone!

Busy Week...

It has been a busy week at our house! Kinsie has mastered standing up without hanging on to anything and is becoming more confident with her walking...she is now taking three steps at time! Caden has been very successful with his potty training and mommy reached a life milestone by turning the big 3-0! I can't say that the number has made me feel any different and more than anything I feel blessed for everything that has happened in my life in the first thirty years!

On Wednesday we went to Valley West Mall and Caden and Kinsie had fun playing at the children's play area. As you can see, Caden has no problem scaling the play figures and our little monkey Kinsie is not far behind him!

Piece of cake...

so far!

I have always wanted to learn how to decorate cakes and with Kinsie's birthday coming up I thought it was no better time than now to learn. So I am taking a cake decorating course and after two weeks of class this is my first product! I am actually pretty happy with it!

Who needs toys....

when you have tupperware!

Kinsie has discovered the joy of emptying the lazy-susan that houses all of our tupperware containers. Caden and she had a great time this morning playing with all of it (and I had such fun putting it all away!)!

Precious Cargo...

It is so fun to see Caden and Kinsie playing and interacting more with each other...I was a bit hesitant when Caden asked me to put Kinsie in his wagon so he could pull her around, but as you can see they were both thrilled with the idea! Kinsie clapped and squealed with delight as Caden pulled her around the house!

Watch Out, Here I Come!

Kinsie was very proud of herself when she discovered that she could climb up all by herself on to Caden's ride-on tractor and four wheeler! She is a very busy little girl these days! Although she is not taking steps by herself yet, she is walking around and behind everything that she can get ahold of!

Time with Papa...

Our children are very blessed, as are we, to have three of their great-grandmothers and two of their great-grandfathers still with them to spend time with. When we were at the farm this past weekend Kinsie spent a little time reading with her Papa Bill.

4th of July

I am still backtracking a bit with pictures so here are few from our 4th of July! We attended the 4th of July celebration at the Prairie Meadows race track in Altoona on the evening of July 3rd. The kids loved watching the horse races and the live band and fireworks were spectacular! Our fearless little Kinsie loved the fireworks and excitedly threw her hands up in the air and squealed with delight with each flash and boom! Our dancin' machine Caden loved the live music, but thought the fireworks were a bit too loud!

Caden and Kinsie also participated in our neighborhood children's parade on the 4th of July and we enjoyed a barbeque and fireworks at our house. It was a great holiday!

More Catching Up...

In June, the small town of Tingley, Iowa where I grew up celebrated its 125th anniversary. Caden and his cousins rode on a float in the parade during the town celebration. He thought it was so much fun to sit on the toy pedal tractor that was a part of the float!

More Catching Up...

In June we visited the Henry Doorley Zoo and the Omaha Children's Museum...it was a great trip and we look forward to going again next year.

The bottom photo is a picture of Caden eating corn on the cob for the first time this summer...this was the first time that he had actually eaten it off of the cob! He thought it was great and it made me wonder why I had not thought to give it to him on the ear before! Now anytime that we have it for dinner he makes sure to tell us that he wants it on the cob!

Catching Up!

Since we are just getting started with our blog, I thought I would take a step back and post a few pictures from our summer up until now!

In May, Caden and I went to see Elmo Makes Music at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. He LOVED it and we can't wait to go to another show soon!

The second picture is of Caden riding the John Deere Gator at Grandpa Curt and Grandma Terry's house. He couldn't be happier than when he is visiting the farm and having the opportunity to spend time with his family, the animals and ofcourse, the tractors!

The next two pictures are of Daddy's little helper washing the car and Caden and Kinsie having a little play time in the sandbox (this was Kinsie's first time in the sand!)!

Welcome Back!

Well, it has been a little less than two years since we left our original blog...a new house, new jobs, one energetic and happy two year old little boy and one beautiful little girl later we are finally back to blogging! I am posting a couple of pictures of our family...the first one is a picture of Kinsie and mommy on Mother's Day, the second is a picture of Caden on Mother's Day and the third is a picture of Cass and Caden on our trip to the Omaha Zoo in June.