A Taste of Home in Iowa

I wrote about all of the pictures earlier today and it got deleted, so this will be short and sweet...Ugh!
This past weekend we went to Iowa for the Texas A&M football game. We stayed with our friends and their parents so it was nice to have the grandparent touch. We've stayed at their house twice before and they are so warm and inviting. We had a taste of family/grandparents and Texas, two things we are missing most right now. Saturday morning, the kids enjoyed playing after a nice, big breakfast.

Big brother and baby sister.

Jack and Cade, friends since they were 4 years old.

Emalyn loved the baby dolls and especially that little wooden box with doors.

Maddi and Liam showing off some dance moves. Maddi and Liam met in kindergarden. It's hard to believe they are in fifth grade now.

I love this picture of these two.

And I also love this one of these three!

Iowa State fans with Aggie fans. They all get along so great, it makes for a fun time together.

Rachel's dad, Dean, was a Chemical Engineering Professor at Iowa State University for many years. Her mom, Ardie, worked in students services. Ardie gave us a quick tour of campus Saturday before lunch. I wouldn't be surprised if Cade or Jack ended up being an engineer one of these days.

The kids had a blast touring campus and thought it was like a big playground.

We learned the first computer was invented by an Iowa State student or faculty (can't remember). Who knew?

The McDonald family and Ford Family.

The kids wanted to go inside the library but since they were acting like monkeys outside the library, we figured they weren't really in the "quiet library voice" kind of mood and didn't go inside.

There are statues/sculptures all over campus. The kids tried being sculptures too.

Reinacting the Shrek sign. Jack is Shrek, Liam is donkey, Cade is the prince and Maddi is Gingy.

Campus was so pretty at this time of year. It made Brett and I realize our kids have never seen the A&M campus. Maybe soon...if it works out for us to move back to Texas!

The beginning of our race. Me against the kids.

Me and Cade are exactly the same. Maddi is on the same foot too. Funny.

Hands up! I won the race kids!

We cut our tour short so we could beat the crowds to a famous bbq place called Hickory Smoke. We lucked out and got seated right away. Food was great and astmosphere was fun. Kids loved the candy station. Maddi couldn't believe that you pay for your candy on the honor system. We explained that it's a true test of ones character. Kids had a blast picking out their 50 cents worth of candy. I have to add that Emalyn's outfit looked ridiculous. Her dress was so short, I should have put jeans on her, but only had leggings so she looked W.T. Oh well...

Next stop...tailgate! My favorite little girls in the world enjoying their juice boxes.


Family photo in front of the stadium. We learned from Ardie that the stadium is named after Jack Trice. He was the first African American on the Iowa State's football team. When they played against Minnesota, they were so hard on him, that he actually died after the game.

A bunch of pictures of Emalyn and Maddi doing their sisterly thing.








Classic Emma face.

Maddi took a bunch of pictures of the boys playing football. It was such a perfect day for a football game.




Emalyn spending some time with Cade. She's enjoying her ring pop that she bought from the candy bar at lunch.

She kept messing with Cade and taking his hat from him. He would try to hide it but she'd get it back. Emalyn is a lucky girl to have such a good big brother and sister.

Pretty much as soon as the game started, Emalyn fell asleep. She only slept about 15 minutes and then woke up saying "fall down." When she watches football she says "uh oh. fall down" when they get tackled. She was such a trooper all day, especially since she barely napped.

She LOVED the popcorn!

Touchdown for the Aggies! They won the game but it wasn't as much of a blowout as expected.

The kids enjoying the game. It was a friendly rivalry, especially between Maddi and Liam, both trash talking each other.

Miss Thing eating more popcorn.

And now enjoying her b bops.

The Aggie yell leaders. People who didn't go to A&M can't quite understand what they are. I know, it's odd. It's funny to hear other peoples comments about them.

We saw some guys in white pants playing football on the field where the boys were playing earlier as we were walking back to our car. We figured they had to be the yell leaders in white pants. Sure enough, it was them. They were nice kids. Holy moly that one guy was tall! After the game, we stopped for some fast Mexican food at Taco Time, one of Rachel's favorite places in town. It was pretty good. My bean burrito had sunflower seeds in it. Odd. You just never know what you'll get for Mexican food in these parts.

Sunday morning, we had a lazy morning before packing up and heading back to Illinois.

Still obsessed with her crazy pjs.

"That was fun." Emalyn always says that when we come out of a store or when I pick her up from child care at church or the gym. That's what we all thought of our time in Iowa.

So many fun things to do at the grandparents house, including a doll house. It was so nice to have a weekend as a family and with friends. I'm not sure that we'll ever go back because Texas A&M is leaving the Big 12 for the SEC next year. We will always have fond memories of Iowa!

Three for Thursday

Three things that have made me laugh this week:
1. This crazy girl. I could take multiple pictures of her each day with all of her funny things she does and wears. This was taken in the car today as I drove Maddi and 3 other girls to dance. Emalyn refused to put her shirt on and I refused to let her wear pjs (I had to teach a class after the carpool) so she went naked. She wanted to be naked. She's a nut! It was 44 degrees outside and raining but it didn't seem to faze her. A nut, I tell you. And stubborn. And I love her. And she makes us laugh.

2. I was telling the kids they would leave school early Friday for our trip to Iowa. Maddi and Cade's reaction couldn't have been more different. When I told them we were leaving at 2:00, Maddi wanted to know why they couldn't just skip the whole day. Cade was upset that he was going to have to miss library. He wanted to get more books because he's already read all of the books in his class library. Such a nerd, and I love him for that. And that pretty much sums up Maddi and Cade, and I wouldn't change either one of them. I love them both for who they are.

3. I'm making a Milky Way cake later today to take to Iowa with us (we are going for the Aggie football game). It has 11 Milky Way bars in it! It's so good and I can't wait to eat it. I'm going to make a 9 by 13 to take and a smaller square pan for our family to eat before we leave Friday. I thought that would be rude to take a half eaten cake but I also don't have the willpower to wait to eat it until Saturday. And that's sad, but true. No willpower at all here!

Always Exciting Around Here

It's always exciting around here, never much of a dull moment. Here are some of the most recent things we've been up to:
Maddi went back to the eye doctor and poor thing had her eyes dilated again. She got these cool glasses as a souvenir. I've never had mine dilated and I hope I never do. Her pupils didn't look normal until Sunday afternoon and her appointment was Friday afternoon. The result of the visit is that she's going to try contacts for distance and wear them all the time. She will also get reading glasses and will use them for reading, etc. They want to do a bifocal lens but can get the same effect by doing the contacts and glasses. It might help her to wear contacts because right now she pretty much only wears her glasses for reading, etc. and that's not really what they are for, they are for distance. Her vision hasn't changed and her eyes are healthy, so that's good.

The kids had their Fun Run at school last week. I wasn't planning on going until Cade asked me to come the morning of it. We only got to see Cade run because Maddi's time was during Emma's nap. We watched Cade run his laps and cheered him on and then left before the dance party and popsicles. Emma was not a fan of the fun run. It's hard to take pictures or talk with other parents when she's saying "Mommy hold you" and trying to climb inside of me to avoid contact with strangers.

I found this little angel emptying the forks and dropping them on the floor. I've had her stand on the chair a few times to watch me cook and she decided to use the chair to get into her favorite drawer, the silver ware.


She was not a happy camper when I made her pick up the forks and moved the chair away. I don't mind her playing with the silver ware, but dropping it on the floor, I do mind.

This is the from the first day Emma embarrased Cade (and me too, a bit). She insisted on putting on her pjs when she took a nap. I could not get her to take them off after her nap, so she wore them when we went to the dollar store. At least it was just the dollar store. There are colorful people there most of them time and they aren't 2 year olds.

A closer look at the bottom half. Oh my!


These pictures are from another day and another outfit of pjs. Her signature look is two different shoes/socks.

It should be noted she's wearing 4 pj tops here. That's also becoming a signature look. We thought two shirts was bad, but now it's 4. Really Emma?

And she insisted on carrying all of the puppies and kitties. And we couldn't help her. Stubborn, I tell you.

She finally put down all of the animals and was playing in her kitchen. She's so stinking cute but so stinking rotten too!

This was Sunday at Cade's swim meet. She was so happy and was running around laughing as we were killing time between events.

She was smashing her face on the window and cracking up. It was so funny.

And then there's more pj pictures. These are from last night. She did this all herself. You can see she was having trouble with the arm holes.

And then started crying, but she would not let me help. "No Memma do it", she would say.

She has two yellow shirts and now it' time for the green shirt.

Still trying...

...got it over the head, now how to get the arms in?

She hasn't quite mastered the pants. She doesn't know to pull them up in the back too. If I try to help her pull them up, watch out. That really ticks her off. She'll scream and then take the pants off and start over again.

She was so proud of herself and posed for me to take her picture. This is the child that broke the mold, for sure!

Another day of pjs. Blurry from my phone. She gets giddy with excitement when she can put on her pjs.

Upside down and backwards...that lead to some major frustration!

Taking a break from the pj mess to unwrap some "b bops". She loves to unwrap them and then carry them around. She might take a lick or two and then she throws it in the trash. Another blury phone picture. I should add that she wore her pants around her knees like this, with both legs in one hole, until they finally fell down. I should also add that Cade and I took her to Target like this too for a quick trip. We threw a coat on over her and she added her one pink and one purple shoe. What are we going to do with this goofball?!?