Happy 4th of July!!

 Our 4th of July trip home to Iowa was a great time.  We went to Uncle Nick and Aunt Courtney's first.  Colton was up close and personal with both Hunk & Deuce and he was all smiles the entire time.  Austin spent a considerable amount of time in Hunk & Deuce's pool in the back yard.  Friday Aunt Courtney and I took the boys to the splash park in Ankeny.  They both had a lot of fun and were extremely worn out when we headed home to eat lunch.  We went to Emmetsburg Friday and spent Saturday morning on a boat.  This was Austin's first boating experience but he had no fear of the water.  He jumped in and out of the boat about 20 times.  He loved swimming in the lake.  After the boat ride from Lundgren we headed to the beach and met up with Uncle Nate and Tacee.  We spent over two hours at the beach on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday we went to Fort Dodge.  Austin held a sparkler for the very first time.  He thought it was pretty neat and didn't have any problem running around with Kelsey and showing everyone his sparkler.  It was making Brian and I nervous because he wasn't worried about letting the sparkler burn down to his fingers.  Annie and Papa had a jeep for Austin to drive around their yard.  This was also super fun but Austin couldn't figure out how to steer so we did spend quite a bit of time making sure he wouldn't run into anything and getting him "unstuck" on several occasions.  We also celebrated Daddy and GG Sally's birthdays together.  Austin and Daddy blew out the candles 4 or 5 times!!  It was a great trip home and the car ride went well again.  Both boys were happy to be home as they were both tired of travelling and slept great last night!!

Here is a picture of Austin in his raincoat that his Uncle Nate gave to him for his first birthday!  It is still plenty big but he got to wear it twice in the last couple of weeks and thinks it is great that he has a raincoat to wear.  Every morning this week he has asked me, "Is it raining out mommy?"  Then when I have had to tell him no he gets very confident . . . "Yes, it is raining mommy.  I need my rain coat!"  Colton doesn't have a raincoat and Austin thinks Colton should have to stay in side when it is raining.  Very protective big brother.

Two brothers hanging out together.  Austin has been extremely attentive lately of Colton.  He likes to tell us things that Colton wants, "Mommy, Colton wants to go to the park", "Mommy, Colton wants to eat some food", "Daddy, Colton wants to play toys in my room"!  Turns out Austin always wants to do those things too!! 

Sweet Corn and BLT's!

Austin loves sweet corn!  He ate two ears and wasn't interested in the BLT's.  He did such a good job of holding on to the little corn holders and tried to get every last kernel of corn off of his pieces. 

Hi everyone!!  Colton has 4 teeth!!  He had three bottom ones for a while now and early last week a top one finally made an appearance.  So far lots of drooling has ensued.  I thought this was a good picture to show off the three on the bottom!! 

Happy Birthday Grandma Jill!

We have been celebrating Grandma Jill's birthday this week!  We made some brownies and blew out candles on Sunday night.  Colton went to bed before we blew out candles so we had to celebrate again on Monday night too.  Colton was more interested in his "baby cracker" (as Austin calls them) than in the candles.  Austin blew out the candles 5 or 6 times and of course we sang "Happy Birthday" to grandma every time!! 

Surprise Uncle Nick!!

Aunt Kim, the boys and I headed to Iowa on June 2nd for a surprise 30th birthday party for Nick!  There was a live band at the party and Austin thought it was the greatest thing.  He told me repeatedly that it was the best rock-n-roll concert he had ever been too!  Austin and Mason Griffin ran around together, dancing & drumming for the entire three hours the band played.  It was really exciting for Austin when the drummer let him play the drums . . . three times!  The next day we got to go to Uncle Nick's waterpark, which was another great day. It was the first day Colton had ever gone swimming and he loved sitting in the water.  Austin loved all the water slides and the lazy river.  It was quite a busy trip!!