Thursday, June 16th, 2016

Well tonight for supper I had some leftover soft shell tacos, Elizabeth had some leftover cheese tortellini, Nolan had some yogurt... some candy... and part of a PB&J sandwich.  None of that was very interesting.  The interesting part was that Maxwell had solid food for the first time!  Elizabeth fed him some squash baby food, which happens to be the first solid food that Nolan ate back in 2013.

Maxwell taking a bite of squash.

I think he likes it!

Sunday, May 29th, 2016

It's Memorial Day weekend, and Elizabeth and I took the kids up to the farm to spend it with Eben and Amy.  It ended up raining quite a bit, but Nolan really had fun playing up there.  Grandpa Eben took him for a tractor ride, and Nolan even got to play with some baby kittens.  The main reason we went back though was to pay our respects to Lynn for Memorial Day.  I am going to try to leave a different type of flower at her grave every year (for either Memorial Day or Mother's Day).  Last year I left a a bouquet of daises, and this year I planted some Asiatic Lilies.  The Lilies I left this year were "Paprika Sunrise" as they were yellow in color with a reddish speckle on them.

Here are the flowers I left this year.  They should be a perennial that is able to grow back every year.

Nolan watched us leave flowers there, so then he started picking some dandelions and laying them be Lynn's grave.  It was pretty cute. 

Sunday, May 1st, 2016

Today marks little Maxwell's 3 month birthday!  That's right... he's now 1/4 year old :)  Today he had his 3 month photo shoot:

It's fun to compare Maxwell to Nolan's three month photo shoot, which I blogged about HERE.

Sunday, April 10th, 2016

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow Maxwell will be 10 weeks old already :)

As for today, we had a fun and relaxing Sunday with the kids.  For supper tonight we all went out to Pizza Pit just to get out of the house a little.  At this point, anytime we can escape the house for a while seems like quite the accomplishment!  Let me tell you, it's a lot more difficult handling two kids than it is one.  After supper, we walked around central campus for 30 minutes or so.  It's always enjoyable taking in the scenery of the ISU campus.  We walked by the Gerdin building, the MU, down the long walkway between Beardshear hall and Curtiss hall, and up past Lagomarcino hall.  There were lots of trees and flowers starting to bloom.  On our way back to the car, we even stopped into a lecture hall at Gerdin and watched a "Paw Patrol" cartoon on the big screen.  Nolan enjoyed that quite a bit :)

Yesterday we took the kids to the Iowa State Block and Bridle Animal Learning Day event.  They had a big display of different animals... pigs, cattle, baby goats, sheep, baby chicks, and even dairy cows that people could milk (we didn't take the time to actually milk them though).  Nolan had a fun time running all over and looking at the animals.  I realize all of these pictures are with Nolan and not Maxwell, but it was just easier for Nolan to pose with the animals.  Max spent most of the time napping in the stroller.

Nolan checking out the pigs... he said "the pigs sleeping".

Nolan with some baby goats.

Nolan observing some cattle.

Elizabeth and Nolan with the goats.

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!  Today I celebrate 32 years since I was born... way back in 1984.  How has my day gone?  It started off pretty nice.  Elizabeth bought a Casey's breakfast pizza which I was able to enjoy for breakfast before heading off to work.  I had my usual very busy day of work... and because it was the last day of the month it was extra busy as we needed to have all of our charges turned in before we left.  So I stayed later than usual to get all of my paperwork done.  Then I came home and had some good cuddles with the two best little boys ever :)  For my birthday cake, Elizabeth made me a New York style vanilla cheesecake from scratch.  She was worried how it would turn out (since she had never made one before), but of course it was delicious.

Here I am holding Maxwell and posing with my birthday cake :)

We only had one candle, so pretend there are 32 candles instead...

Saturday, March 19th, 2016

IOWA STATE ADVANCES TO THE SWEET SIXTEEN!!!!

Today I was happy to watch the Iowa State Cyclones advance to the Sweet 16 by defeating the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans, 78-61.  The Trojans were champions of the Sun Belt conference this year.



Senior Georges Niang led the Cyclones with 28 points tonight.  The game itself was very enjoyable for me to watch since Iowa State held a double digit lead for most of the game and caused me a minimal amount of stress.  So far this year there has been a lot of drama in the tournament as 10 teams seeded #10 or higher have won a game.  That included #15 Middle Tennessee shocking #2 Michigan State, and #11 UNI hitting a half court shot at the buzzer to upset #6 Texas.  This same Little Rock team defeated #5 Purdue in double overtime on Thursday.  You can never take a team for granted during March Madness!

Of course, all of the tournament fun began on Thursday when the fourth seeded Cyclones defeated the 13-seed Iona Gaels, 94-81.  This was another stress-free game to watch as Iowa State led almost the entire game.


Iona is a small college located in New Rochelle, New York (about 20 miles from Manhattan).  This year they were the champions of the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference).
Up next for Iowa State is a battle with #1 seed Virginia next Friday.

Saturday, February 27th, 2016

Today was a great day.  For starters, it was an unseasonably warm 60 degrees here in Ames!  That is a heck of a lot better than the usual winter weather we get this time of year.  We were able to actually hang out in our yard as I started the grill for the first time this year and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch.  Then, later on this afternoon, I took Nolan with me to watch the Iowa State men's basketball team defeat the Kansas State Wildcats, 80-61.  Nolan actually behaved really well throughout the whole game (which was nice for a change).  He even clapped along with the crowd many times.  I believe that this was Nolan's sixth time in attendance at an ISU men's basketball game.  The last game I took him to was this year's regular season opening game against Chicago State.
Today was also the second time Nolan has been to a Big 12 conference basketball game (his first was the epic Melvin Ejim - 48 point game vs TCU).

Tip off between Iowa State and Kansas State.

Cyclones win, 80-61.

A number of Cyclones played well today, so it is hard to pick just one player of the game.  I suppose that I would go with Jameel McKay as he scored 14 points and pulled down 17 rebounds.  Kansas State is typically a physical team that focuses on rebounding, so having that many boards for McKay is impressive.  Matt Thomas also had a big game for Iowa State.  He scored 20 points for the Cyclones, and impressively had a four-point play in the first half.  They were joined in double figures scoring for the Cyclones by Georges Niang (17), Monte Morris (11), and Hallice Cooke (10).  Sadly, this will be the last time that I get to watch Georges Niang play basketball in person at Hilton Coliseum.  I will not be able to make it to Senior Night to watch his last game this coming Monday.  His Cyclone career has been a lot of fun to watch over these last four years :)

This marks the fourth time that I have seen Iowa State defeat Kansas State in basketball.  The previous times were in 2013, 2012... the Royce White game winner, and way back in 2003 when I was a student at ISU.