God is Awesome!!

Please lift up Katie in prayer!! Katie is the niece of a friend of mine. God is doing unexplainable things in healing her. He is truly producing a miracle!! Check out her website. God is truly AWESOME!!!

http://katiebloomprogress.blogspot.com/

Ugly but Yummy

Here's an interesting recipe for an easy and quick dessert. It's kind of ugly, but was quite good. The cake was quite dense, but would be a great last minute something!

Microwave Cake

Just follow the cake box directions to make, pour it into your Pampered Chef micro cooker (the large one) that you have sprayed with cooking spray, take a can of frosting, scoop out about a half of a can and place that in the middle of the uncooked cake mix. Don't put the lid on, place in the microwave for about 12 minutes, flip over onto a plate, after letting it cool a bit. The frosting will be at the top of the cake and will pour out around the cake. So yummy.

Adventureland ...

So after our trip home in the rain storm on Saturday night, we slept and loaded the van back up and headed back to Des Moines for a day at Adventureland. Matt's friend Greg had called on Saturday with four tickets to Adventureland, but they had to be used the next day. Why not? How often do you get free tickets to an amusement park. We weren't really sure exactly what the kids would be able to do, but boy were we surprised! The kids could both do just about everything. Rylie even rode two roller coasters. While she didn't think they were too high, they were a little fast for her. But, I think we have the beginning of a roller coaster lover. Walker would have loved to ride also, but he's still 5 inches too short, maybe next summer! The crowd was huge, but really the lines were pretty short. The longest we waited was 30 minutes and that was the first ride of the day, other than that, it was maybe 5 minute waits.

The kids' favorite ride of the day was the Frog Hopper, a miniature Space Shot. They loved riding it with their arms in the air!! Walker got to ride the Galleon with Daddy and Rylie ventured onto the Lady Luck with him. I think Matt did a good job of instilling his ride excitement onto them. They had a BLAST!!

After 11 1/2 hours at the park, they finally decided they were tired, Matt and I had decided we were tired a few hours before! Once we got back to the van, we changed them into their jammies and headed home. They were both passed out by the time we got home and they went straight to bed. They haven't stopped talking about it all week! I think they'll be ready to go back next year!!

Rylie waiting for the Raging River

Walker and Daddy in line

Walker got a LITTLE wet on the Raging River. He spent most of his day wet on water ride after water ride!

Rylie and Daddy on the flying dragons.

Walker and Daddy taking on the Chuck Wagons while Rylie and I rode the Outlaw Roller Coaster.

Sibling love on the Infant Ocean boats

Rylie checking on her passengers!

Walker on the Frog Hopper

Rylie and Walker on the airplanes

Walker and his Galleon ride. I know you can't see his eyes, but check out that smile!! He loved being all the way in the back, they sure went high.

Rylie on the Lady Luck with Daddy. I'm sure glad she can do the spinning rides without getting sick like her mom.

Front car, second seat! Gotta love the Tornado. You can see her ponytail flying backwards as they get ready to go down the first big hill!!

Iowa Cubs

Saturday evening, we loaded into the van with Matt's parents and headed south to Des Moines. We were going to an I Cubs game. Matt's mom was able to get tickets through work, complete with supper and GREAT seats. It was Cubbie's birthday, so the kids got goodie bags to take home and Culver's was giving out Cubs hats to the first 2000 people through the gates. We had a lot of fun, even though the Cubs lost when the game was called due to a DOWNPOUR. We had gotten out of the stadium and onto the interstate before we got into the rain, but I'm sure some people got soaked.

And yes, Herkey was there also!

Fishing ...

Matt took Walker fishing on Wednesday and boy did they have a great time. Walker is quite the fisherman. He learned to cast the line on his own and reel the fish in when he caught one. They picked a great place to fish. No sooner would Walker throw his line in, he'd have fish fighting over it. Matt said it took an average of about 30 second between fish. Once each fish was caught, they had to take it off the hook, pet it and put it back in the water. Here's a picture of Walker's first fish of the day, he was so proud.

Rylie Anne

Yesterday was Rylie's 5 year well child check up, so I thought it would be appropriate to have a post just about her. Rylie came into this world on June 18, 2003 at 9 lbs 1.2 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Rylie was not a very happy baby, but she quickly became a joy and a very easy child to raise. Rylie is a bubbly, talkative, tentative, loving, smart, inquisitive, daring, helpful, sensitive, beautiful, sweet little girl. She is such a joy and blessing to have in our family. At her appointment yesterday she was 46 lbs and 45 inches. So, she started out in the 90-95 percentile for both height and weight and has stayed there. Rylie will start kindergarten this fall and we will start a whole new phase of parenting! I have included a picture from each year of Rylie's life. Wow, has she grown!

Rylie less than one day old

Rylie one year old

Rylie 2 years old

Rylie 3 years old

Rylie 4 years old

Rylie 5 years old

No Fear!

This week has been Walker's week for swimming lessons. He has been taking Puddles Jumpers to be exact, this just means that I have to be in the water with him. The only problem with puddle jumpers is that Walker has NO fear of the water, so I have quite busy all week. He loves to jump in and doesn't want to be caught. After this week, he swims with his face in the water while kicking and moving his arms, can safely get himself to the edge of the pool, and he got to jump off the diving board. I think his teacher, Miss Dee, was surprised when Walker asked her if he could do it, but she was great and let him. In the following video, that's her in the water catching him. He loved it so much the first time, he had to do it again. Enjoy the video, we sure enjoyed watching him do it.

Wiped Out!

I forgot to add this one yesterday, but it's worth it's own post. This is what Walker looked like at the end of our day on the 4th. He fell asleep about half way through the fireworks and was out for the count. We have no idea how he slept through the loudest , brightest finale we'd ever seen, but he managed it. Even being transferred to the stroller and the bumpy ride back to the van couldn't wake him. He was pooped. I guess that's what no nap and lots of rides will do to a boy.

4th of July

Matt had the Fourth of July off this year, so we got to do family stuff all day. We started the day with a trip to the city of Gifford for their annual parade. They put on a very nice parade every year. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. After lunch at home and packing up the van, we headed north to Clear Lake for the rest of the day. We had a great time riding rides, playing games and eating junk food. What a great way to spend a day!

Walker decided he wanted to go down the big slide with Daddy, so here are a few pics from that. He loved it. Rylie couldn't be convinced to try it!

Rylie on the carousel. More her speed!

Walker had fun, but does look kind of bored.

We went on the ferris wheel as a family. The kids loved being so high, and you could see all the way across the lake from up there.

Somehow I got stuck on the spinning ride. Usually not a great idea, but it went slow enough for me!

Some good ole cars action!

Summer Fun ...

We LOVE summer around here. Swimming, no school, walks, softball, water, bikes, birthdays, fun, you name it, we love to do it. Here are just a few pictures of some water fun this summer. Walker loves to be just like his sister, so what she does, he does.

Taking the Plunge

Well, I'm doing it. I'm taking the plunge into the world of blogging. I love reading everyone else's, maybe you'd like to read mine. Everyone know how bad I am at sending out updated pictures and keeping everyone informed of our day to day lives. This will give you all a chance to keep track of us! Let's start this off right with some newer pictures of the kids.

Here's Rylie on her 5th birthday. How in the world can she be 5 already?

Walker at the zoo. He'll be 3 in September.