Monday, September 5th, 2016

Happy Labor Day 2016.  It's always nice to have a three day weekend and have an extra day to "relax".  Today the relaxing is mainly giving the kids some TLC as they are both sick.  Last Friday Maxwell was diagnosed with Hand Foot and Mouth disease.  He's got little blisters all over his hands... poor little guy.  Then just last night Nolan started to get a fever, so I'm guessing he has it now too.  So we are trying to give them extra cuddles and some rest because apparently there is not much you can do for it other than to let it run it's course.  It should clear up in 7 to 10 days.

This past Saturday I attended Iowa State's first football game of the season, and the first under head coach Matt Campbell.  The team did not look very good at all, losing to the UNI Panthers 25-20.  Besides the disappointment of the game, I did enjoy myself quite a bit.  The weather was beautiful, and I was able to tailgate from roughly 11:15 AM up until the 7:00 PM kickoff.  I met up with the Wide Right Natty Light group (Kyle Perkins, Dan Becker, Tim Nevins, etc), but later on I was joined by a couple of old Freddy Court neighbors, Kaitlin & Erin, along with Kaitlin's boyfriend, Zach.  We played plenty of games... flippy cup, beer pong, beer ball, and some Frisbee game.

This was the fourth time that I have seen Iowa State play UNI in football.  Sadly, the Cyclones are only 2-2 in those games.  I've seen Iowa State win in 2015 and 2011, but then the Panthers have won this year and also in 2013.

Tim, Kaitlin, Zach, Erin, and myself.

Here I am greeting Kaitlin and Erin.

Zach and I were the beer pong champions :)

Here is the view from my seat of the game.

Friday, August 26th, 2016

Today I am writing about Maxwell's first sporting event at Hilton Coliseum.  We were able to take the whole family to watch the ISU volleyball season opener against Wichita State.  The Cyclones ended up winning in straight sets: 25-16, 25-21, and 25-20.

Maxwell, Mommy, and Nolan getting ready for the game to start.

Here is the opening serve between Wichita State and Iowa State.

Maxwell got to meet Cy!!

I was looking back through my blog, and the first time that Nolan attended an ISU sporting event was on October 9th, 2013.  Similarly, his first sporting event was an ISU volleyball game.  Even better, the Cyclones won that match in straight sets against another team from the state of Kansas (Kansas State).  Nolan was also able to meet Cy that night as well.

Monday, August 1st, 2016

I just wanted to point out that today is special for us because little Maxwell is now 6 months old!  He's changing so much now.  He's basically army crawling now, but he can't quite crawl normally.  He can get up onto his hands and knees, but he will only wiggle around.  He still needs to figure out how to coordinate his arms & legs to crawl.

Maxwell at 6 months old!!

Another fun thing about today is that our friends Dan & Anne Becker welcomed their second child today as Lara Mae was born this morning :)

Saturday, July 2nd, 2016

Today we had a family photo shoot with Destri from d&orfs photography over at McFarland Park.  We have such a happy little family :)

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.