Penis

"Mom...it is really kind of sad you don't have a penis. Having a penis is fun. I am not sure I can hang out with you much anymore."

Love this kid.

State Fair

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Ingrid and I took the kids to the state fair. It was a long ride there and back in one day but I am glad we did it. The kids LOVED seeing the animals and LOVED climbing on the tractors. We ate yummy food ( I finally braved the line and tried a pork chop on a stick). We did a LOT of walking and it was pretty warm. We pulled a wagon with the boys in it and pushed a stroller with a pretty little girl in it.
Hayden's highlight every year is seeing the sheep getting sheared. He doesn't talk about sheep shearing during the year but as soon as we walked in that is all he could talk about. Funny how he remembered from last year. He also loved cotton candy. Maybe we can make that a state fair treat.
I had to feed Elsie and some point during the day so I pulled up a chair, covered us up with a blanked and fed her. Not thinking I was making a statement or anything a older woman passed by me and smiled at me walked a few more steps past me....turned around looked me in the eye and said "good for you". Not sure where most women feed their babies at the state fair but evidently you don't see many doing it in the building next to the little hands on the farm. :)

Gabrielson Reunion

Most of our Gabrielson crew. There were 4 other Gabrielson families and ours was by far the largest.
A few of the cousins. We used to spend the summers in Clear Lake together growing up. Oh the memories.


We gathered on a farm in Britt Iowa with 240 Gabrielson relatives. It was a blast seeing everyone. We ate a yummy catered meal from my cousin. Watched the kids play and chatted. It was a HOT day and it flew by and I didn't feel like I got to chat with everyone. Still had a great time. Wish my dad was there. Such is life. We stopped by his graveside on our way home. Elsie had never been there. He would love this Grandpa stuff.

New Van

Sooooo.....I have always told Joey that as soon as he gets a new job we are going out to look at vans. He negotiated for the new job for 3 days. One day I thought he was going to take it....the other not. So needless to say I held up to my end of the bargain and we went looking at vans. I had been tirelessly searching for a month online and found a few good contenders. After 2 days of looking we found one and are now the proud owners of a Honda Odyssey. Oh the room....oh the comfort. We said goodbye to the focus and hello to a car payment. Haven't had one of those in 5 years.
Worth it????? YES.

New Job

Joey accepted a new position at work. He is now going to be a field service engineer specializing in GPS. His new boss referred to him as the GPS guru. Basically he has to know every product his company sells and then has to go help the customers fix any problems they can't fix. So this new job will involve a lot of travel. He is excited. It is the perfect job for him. Every day is different and keeps him on his toes. The position involves domestic travel and lots of international travel as well. He will be a military adviser which will require 2 weeks of military training...weapons and all and maybe travel into hostile territory. Ummmm with that all being said I am very supportive of his promotion and say bring on the frequent flyer miles!!!! :)
Joey went to AZ a few months ago for 2 weeks and we managed just fine. They say if he travels domestically he will be gone for a few days at a time and no more than 2 weeks internationally. We will have to see how it plays out. He is very excited and I am excited for him. Today was supposed to be the last day at his current position...still a position that he loves and hates to leave......however his bosses boss got wind that he was leaving and put the kabosh on it for a few more weeks. Apparently the company's goal can not be met if Joey doesn't write software for this one project. Don't they have like 200 software engineers in this division for that? Oh well.....he gets his new title in a week and will get paid even though he will be doing his old job for a maximum of 1 more month. That is when the fiscal year ends.
It is a new adventure and we are both excited to see where it takes us.

Catching up

The last month has been crazy. It is hard to believe that the summer is winding down and before I know it Hayden will be in preschool 3 days a week. I am looking forward to getting back into a routine. We got a taste of fall like weather last week and it really put me in the mood.
Elsie has been doing more and more lately. She is now 7 months and sitting up well. She is liking her belly time a lot more now and usually spends it pushing herself up to see where he brother is running to. She is jabbering A LOT. And laughs and sequels at most everything her brother does. Hayden loves kissing and hugging his sister.
Hayden has kept me busy this summer. He runs from the minute his eyes pop open in the morning until they shut at night. Whew....the energy this kids has. It is full guns ALL DAY LONG. Our neighbor girl is going into 7th grade and came over at least once a week for the past month to play with Hayden while I cleaned or ran errands. It was nice break for the both of us.....Hayden LOVES playing with her.
Hayden participated in a sports camp this summer and loved it. He learned hockey, basketball, t ball, soccer, and tennis. He loved it and you could sure tell he was in his element. Dare I say we have a sports dude in our family. Guess Joey and I will have to learn some sports stuff. :) I think this fall we are going to try either flag football or soccer.

Baptism

Grandparents.

Elsie and her Godmother Aunt Jen. Her Godfather was home with sick kids.


Our typical family portrait. Still a stinker with pictures. :)








Elsie was baptized today. It was such a wonderful event surrounded by 40 of our friends and family. Every time I host a gathering in our cozy home I swear I am going to just invite a few people....never happens. Every time right before our guests arrive I get nervous thinking how the heck all of these people will fit in our house....but it always works out.
We ordered pizza here after the baptism and had salad. We are truly blessed with our families and our friends who we think of as family.
I haven't crafted for a while and totally got the itch to do so. I made a banner for Hayden's birthday and decided to make one for Elsie. I made some pinwheels (thanks for the idea Missy) and even found the energy and time to make a ribbon topiary...all of which will go into Elsie's room when she gets one once the upstairs is finished.
Our good friends the Bellows family came down to help us celebrate. They spent the whole day with them. We took the kids to the splashpad and came back to our house for dinner and more playtime. We had such a good time catching up and wish we saw them more. Or even better wish they would move to Iowa.....or even better yet move to CR.

Hula Party

This morning at 10am sharp Grandpa was here to pick up Hayden, Faith, Noah, and Sara for the 2nd annual Hula Party. Grandma P has her house decorated full on for the luau. They play games, swim, eat, watch movies, and play. They keep the kids for 3 days. It is both great for us and great for Hayden. :)
Thursday night Joey and I met my old friend Kyle and his fiance Mackenzie for dinner at Zoey's in Marion. It was a great time and so nice to catch up. Kyle and I have been friends since 9th grade. We went to college in the same town (Minneapolis) for a while until I moved back to Iowa and we are glad to have him back in Iowa.