Polka Dots

Here is Miss Leah on her 6 month birthday in a darling polka dot dress from Grandma Chapman. It's getting small for her so I wanted to squeeze her into it one more time for a few pictures. I will be taking her in soon to get professional pictures taken-as you can see, my photography skills combined with a bad camera and no PhotoShop skills equals not-so-great pictures. Either way, here's our cupcake halfway to 1 year of life!

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

When I was looking through pictures today I realized there's a lot we've done that I haven't posted yet so here's a quick summary of our summer so far...

We spent some time at the park (Leah is awake and happy-it was just very bright this day)


We took some pictures while the kids were awake and asleep


Isaac is beginning adventures in potty training and doing quite well!


Using his face as a test surface, Isaac learned that dirt and water make mud


We went to the 30th Annual Adel Sweet Corn Festival-it was the hottest day of the year, but Isaac actually ate corn for the first time in his life!


Leah sampled her first biter biscuit and loved it!


And a few pictures of Miss Leah who is getting cuter with each passing day!

The tooth and the tunnel

Leah is 6 months old today! (Pictures to come once she's awake, bathed, dressed, and bowed.) Last week we noticed a tiny red spot on her bottom gums-getting a tooth? "No, she's not even 6 months old," we thought. The red spot eventually turned white and now her first little tooth is feelable! I can't believe my baby girl has her first tooth already. Isaac was 7 months when his first came in. Thankfully, both kids have been heavenly teethers (we didn't even know Isaac was teething until we felt the tooth in his mouth!). Leah is just her happy little self-now adorned with a pearly white. As soon as it's really visible, I'll post some pictures.

Now, on to that tunnel-well, the light at the end of it anyways. The basement is really, actually, truly, about 2 weeks from total completion (not counting decorating or organizing time)!!!!!! We finally paid someone to finish the rest of the mudding for the walls and to do the texture-it looks great! We painted the ceiling and the bathroom on Saturday. The plumber was here this morning hooking up the water in the bathroom so we officially have 2 bathrooms (or at least we will once Jake hooks up the toliet). We ordered the carpet and it will be installed next Monday. Trim should be in next Wednesday and we'll paint and install that shortly after. Ahh...516 more square feet of living space. Plus an unfinished half of my basement back to livable and usable (it's currently housing everything that was on the fisnished side plus some stuff that will go back on the finished side plus everything that's supposed to be stored over there). I will no longer have 2 couches in my living room or a dresser in my dining room. What may be most exciting is that I won't have too look at white drywall dust ALL OVER MY HOUSE! As cute as little white footprints are when Isaac sneaks downstairs and then comes back up, my poor Swiffer wetjet can only take so much! Here's a few before pictures until I track down the during pictures and take the after pictures.

Old Nauvoo

Here's a few pictures from Nauvoo that were on the laptop that I rarely use.

Indianola Balloon Classic

Jake has lived here his whole life and I've lived here about half my life, but there are still so many "Iowa" things that we haven't done. One is the hot air balloon festival in Indianola. We finally went yesterday when the weather was beautiful (as it has been all summer-knock wood...the State Fair is yet to arrive). It was only $3 a person to get in and my sister and brother in-law joined us. There was a TON of traffic, which we didn't expect so we were glad to find out the wind had delayed the Mass Ascension we wanted to see. We were able to get food and find a place to sit (we missed the fact that everyone brings chairs or blankets to sit on-whoops!) and still see all the balloons go up. We think there were at least 50-we lost count. It was totally worth the $3. Isaac was able to ride a little train/tractor thing. He LOVED it! It looked quite bumpy and there weren't seat belts of any kind so I squashed in and rode with him. It was a fun night and now we can cross off one more Iowa thing from our list!

These are helium-filled balloons tied to a chair of some sort that a guy sits in-it was crazy!

Ahh, once again, I am really wishing for a better camera. Jake's reflectant uniform doesn't help the situation much either.


Isaac and Uncle Eric were best buds-Eric just went where ever Isaac led him-so cute!


And a few pictures of the balloons and me and Isaac riding along!

Rice Cereal

Leah is about 5 1/2 months and she seemed ready for rice cereal. So....we tried it tonight and she did great. (Forgive the poor quality of the pictures, we will be getting a new camera in the near future I hope.)

Considering Isaac's first experience with rice cereal, I'd conclude that Leah did a little better (maybe this means she'll be a better eater in the long run!)

Catch Up

Ahh, summer-always so busy doing so many things. I love it! Here's what we've been up to...

Isaac is finally brave enough to wander away from me far enough to enjoy the place centers at the malls. Here he is in action.


Kyler came over one night (now I can't really remember why!), but the boys had a great time together and enjoyed their Spaghetti-O's



We spent the 4th of July at Jake's parents' house. It was freezing! (Well, like 65°, but still it's usually like 30° warmer than that!). The kids (Jake and Josh included) made a giant slip and slide out of painter's plastic. It wasn't fast enough so they all lathered themselves in dish soap. Jake's whole side was shredded from the grass, but luckily it wasn't too painful. Sorry-there's no pictures of the wounds!


We went to Nauvoo the beginning of July (I will post more pictures of this later because some are on the laptop).


Here's the kids trying on Isaac's winter hats (they were out in case we needed them on our trip to Minnesota). Jake says Leah looks like a boy-he's probably right. But she's a girl through and through!


I made a waterslide for Isaac, which he loved very much.