July '10

July has been a VERY busy month with A LOT of family time!

Jordan, Joy, Timothy, Arie, and Lydia came to visit for the 4th of July weekend (Saturday morning through Monday afternoon). It was so nice to be able to have them up for several days. Saturday morning we went to the 4th of July parade in Shell Rock. Having never been to this parade, we weren't sure what to except but we were all impressed with how good the parade was. There were a lot of fire trucks from nearby towns, unique floats from local businesses, and A LOT of candy!

Here's everyone watching the parade.

Alice watching on her own lawn chair next to me. Surprisingly she sat there quite well through the whole parade and seemed to enjoy it.

Timothy is getting so big; he'll be starting Kindergarten this fall!

Arie is growing too and is as cute as ever!

I didn't get a good picture of Lydia. She is ALWAYS on the move and had a lot of new things to explore at our house. Her and Alice are going to make quite the team of explorers someday (not to long from now given that Alice has become quite the explorer herself this month).

I got this table for Alice when she started pulling herself up. She was wanting to pull herself up on the coffee table which I decided wasn't very safe until she was more accomplished at this new skill. The table was her favorite toys for weeks and she pulled herself up next to it and played with it A LOT!



The following Thursday and Friday my brother came up to visit because he had a break from his classes (he's going to seminary at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis).


The second weekend Jameson's parents came to visit (Friday night through Sunday afternoon).
Here is Alice enjoying some time with Grandpa Roose.


After Jameson's parents left we packed up and headed to my parents for the week. Jameson had to take a class on campus for his MBA (which he is getting through St. Ambrose) so he had to be in Davenport for the week so it worked out great to stay with my parents for the week. It was nice to have time to spend more one on one time with many of my relatives.
Here are a few pictures of Alice having fun at Grandma and Grandpa T's.




Alice spending some time with Great Grandma Granger.

During our week in Davenport, my mom and I took Alice to the pool for the first time. She wasn't sure what to think of it and seemed overwhelmed by all the people and new things to look at and new noises to try to figure out. In the end she seemed o.k. with the water but didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.


The last week in July, Jameson rode RAGBRAI with my dad. Saturday morning my parents came to our house and then that afternoon we all drove together to Sioux City and dropped off Jameson and my dad.

Family picture as we drop Jameson off.

Jameson and Dad dipping their tires in the Missouri river.

The girls!

After having a tasty supper with the guys at a church in Sioux City Saturday night, the girls headed to a hotel in Storm Lake for the night. The following morning we took Alice swimming at the hotel. The water was a pleasant temperature and she loved it! (Unfortunately I don't have any pictures b/c the guys had both cameras). I actually got tired of the pool and ready to leave before she showed any signs of wanting to leave. After checking out we headed toward the lake and watched for the guys to ride in.
Here is their camp in Storm Lake.

We had supper with the guys before heading for Cedar Falls. Here's Alice and grandpa.

Beekman's Homemade Ice Cream



Potter's Hill


Dipping tires in the Missouri river.

Celebrating a successful completion of RAGBRAI.

All in all it was a good week. Monday my mom and I spent the day at home and did some shopping in the afternoon. I'm not much of a shopper by myself (except for garage sales) so I enjoyed shopping with my mom. Jameson enjoyed putting in a hard weeks work and riding amongst corn fields for a week.

June

This is the first time (June 8) that I found Alice sitting up in her crib.

The second weekend in June my parents, Uncle Paul and Aunt Carol, and cousin Christine and her friend Jess came to visit. Saturday Paul, my dad, and Jameson installed 9 new windows on our main floor (all except our living room picture window). It went well and they look great! Again, we are thankful for help from our wonderful family.

Grandma enjoying some playtime with Alice.

Alice successfully making her first few crawls!

Jameson getting Alice to crawl by motivating her with the laptop.

Jameson congratulating Alice for her new achievement :)


Alice learned to pull herself up to standing next to the couch, ottoman, and coffee table. Here she is standing by the couch.

This is the first time I found her standing in her crib when I went to get her after nap time. I found it absolutely adorable and was so proud of my big girl! She also became quite fond of her new skill and (unfortunately) now practices it almost every time I put her in her crib- not so cute when she is supposed to be going down for a nap or to sleep for the night.

When I am in the kitchen, Alice loves to crawl over to the piano bench and pull herself up. After standing up she then looks up at me and waits for me to open the lid and turn the piano on. She then proceeds to reach /move over to the keyboard and press down on the keys- so cute! She also still loves to sit on my lap or next to me in her highchair and play with me.

After putting Alice to bed, Jameson, Jenessa, and I have been enjoying the beautiful evenings by throwing frisbee until dark (and sometimes a little past dark until we decide we really can't see it anymore)

May

6 month picture (she turned 6 months middle of April).


In the past I have held Alice on my lap occasionally when I was playing piano. Now that she is interested in pushing the keys herself, I decided to push her high chair up to the piano and let her play. She played for about 15 minutes this day and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself!

Alice looking out of our front picture window. I think this picture is adorable.

Alice playing outside.

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This is the first time I found Alice asleep on her tummy when I checked on her during nap time. (May 13)

Alice has learned to scoot!!!



Our garden! We planted 6 tomato plants (3 big, 2 roma, 1 cheery) 4 pepper plants, green beans, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, and spinach.

April #2

April 16/17 my parents, brother, and cousin Elizabeth came to visit and helped us get most of our house painted. We sure appreciated all the help!!!




Alice joined in the fun outside!

Here's the finished look. We still have to decide on a trim color and paint the trim, but we really like the color we chose for the house.

We also spent time playing with Alice.

Here's a super precious picture that Elizabeth took of Alice.

What a productive weekend. Thanks again to my family for visiting and working!!!



Alice updates:

Alice is sleeping through the night and has her first two teeth! I haven't got a good picture of her teeth yet, but I'll post one when I do. Both of these notable events happened the week she turned 6 months old (that should make it easy for me to remember years from now if asked). When we went to the doctor for her 6 month check-up the next week we found out she had her first ear infection. Fortunately it was caught at the beginning and after a few fussy days/nights she was back to her normal, cheerful self and sleeping through the night again.

She is now sitting very independently.

Alice likes to play with strings, ropes, etc. Since these things no longer come on baby toys, she spent a long time playing with my shoe.

Alice loves to 'help me' when I go through the mail. She loves crinkling paper, especially the envelopes that have windows. Here she is crinkling part of an envelope.



Other Updates:
Jameson has finished his MBA classes for the spring- HOORAY!!! He is now 2/3 of the way done and at this time next year he should be done! This summer he only has to take 1 week long class in Davenport, which will work out wonderfully b/c we'll spend the week at my parents and I'll get good, quality (& quantity) with them.

Now that he's done w/ classes, Jameson has started playing Ultimate Frisbee with the Waterloo Ultimate Frisbee Team. He played in college and is looking forward to getting in better shape and doing something he enjoys in the evenings (instead of going to night class). When the weather is fit Alice and I will go and watch and spend time playing outside.

I'm still teaching 2-5 year old Sunday School (thanks to Jameson who takes Alice to adult sunday school with him). I really enjoy teaching as I find that anytime I teach something I learn new things myself. I think that part of the reason I love teaching so much! I've also been working with two homeschool students on geometry this year. That is wrapping up but I've really enjoyed doing that this school year and plan to again next year.

I have been enjoying getting outside to enjoy the beautiful weather when I can. I've taken some nice walks w/ my friends Cindy and Rose and their girls. Here's a picture of Alice and I on the swing at the park where we had lunch one day.


Here is Alice playing with her friend Lily.


Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!