Peter Pan & Tink

So this year for Halloween I got the nutty idea that it would be fun to make my kids' Halloween costumes. I think they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself, however I did learn that making them yourself is not necessarily cheaper and takes a lot of time. It's a good thing that I work in a room full of sewing machines because I was finishing Ada's costume during my lunch breaks and after school on the last few days so that I could get it done in time. I even used it as an example when showing my students a few of the skills they were learning in class. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone.

We went to Thankgiving Point on the day of Halloween because they had a Pirates Cove set up at the Dinosaur museum. I figured for as much as I invested in these costumes, I wanted some cute background pictures. Sadly, none of them quite turned out as I hoped. Here is Ada not cooperating because the pirate giving the tour scared her and she just wanted to go home. The first picture is about the happiest face we could get out of her.

Ada was much happier after taking a nap before we went out trick or treating.

Of course they loved trick or treating. Here they are enjoying their loot.

Here they are enjoying more of the treats of Halloween while "helping" me make cookies.

Ok, I know I've put plenty of pictures but I had to include their alternate costumes too. Ridley had so much fun playing in a hand me down vampire costume that we got. Too bad it was on the smallish side or I might have considered just having him wear that one for Halloween.

We also got some adorable pictures of Ada in a Cinderella costume at the Cornbelly's pumpkin festival. We went there at the beginning of October when they were having a Pumpkin Princess competition. We happened to be walking by a costume shop shortly before it started. They asked us if Ada could dress up in a costume to go on stage at the beginning of the pageant to help advertise as a sponsor of the pageant. She made such a cute Cinderella that I would have bought the costume on the spot if I hadn't already bought stuff for Tinkerbell.

New (and Old) Pics

Here is a picture of the Gutke brothers at the U.S.A. vs. El Salvador soccer match. I also posted a couple of action shots over at my blog.

I also noticed that I never put any of the pictures from when Paul and I drove across approximately 1/2 to 2/3 of the country a few months ago.

We began our trip at the gateway arch itself, where I met up with Paul.

We made a stop at Nostalgiaville USA.

We also caught a baseball game in Denver. The Rockies sure were terrible back then. They were in last place and lost pretty bad to the Dodgers in this game. They fired their coach after this series of games against the Dodgers, and since have been one of the hottest teams in baseball. They are 4.5 games behind the Dodgers and are currently in position to at least get the wild card for the playoffs. I think their turn around was because Paul and I went to this game.

Portrait Time

Fun in Moab

The first week in June, our family spent the week in Moab with Spencer's family. Believe it or not, I have never been there so it was really fun to see the sights. I didn't get a lot of major hiking in because of the kids but that worked out just fine. Ada & Ridley both loved the trails we went on and had fun climbing on the rocks.This one is of Ridley shortly before he fell into a cactus. He was so independent and was loving running around. I noticed the cactus just seconds too late. I felt SOOOOOOO bad. I actually was able to grab him before he fell in all the way but his hand and leg still got it. Fortunately he had pants on so a lot of the prickles stuck there and not into his leg. It was very sad. :(


A large portion of the hike consisted of me noticing that Ridley was sucking on a rock and trying to get him to spit it out. (If you look close you can see him sucking on a rock in the above picture.) He is such a playful kid. I've noticed that it's a game for him now to put things in his mouth. One of his favorites is Ada's hair clips. He will actually wait until he has my attention so that I will see him put it in his mouth and then he takes off running while laughing. He does the same with rocks when we are outside. I think he has even more fun spitting it out than anything. He makes this little spitting sound, sticks out his tongue, and makes a big deal about it.

What's this - a post from John?

I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I'd throw some pictures up. Sorry to bump the cute baby pictures.

Last week I took Jocelyn out to the golf course by my office to play some golf with me. We went out at the very end of the day when there was hardly anyone else on the course, the green fees are cheap, and the heat is subsiding. When I say I took her to play golf with me, what I really mean is I went out to play golf and she came with me to ride in the cart. While I was golfing, she walked around by the greens and tee boxes and took pictures of all the fun things she saw while we were out there. Most notably, the course is packed full of wild bunny rabbits that pop out of the desert to eat the grass. Jocelyn loved it. She did get to do some golfing - I let her practice her putting on the greens, and I even let her drive the cart in the middle of the fairway, which she thought was awesome. But mostly she was just happy to be out with me and seeing all the cool scenery on the course. Tallie gets to go with me next week. Here are some of the photos Joci took.

Here were the first rabbits we saw. During the nine holes I played, we probably saw at least one hundred rabbits - no exaggeration! More bunny photos later.

On this one, you might have to look closely but we spotted a couple of partridges running through the desert with a ton of little cheepers following behind. There are a few cheepers up above the rocks with the big partridges, and several more below on the rocks.

Here is some proof that I was actually golfing.

We gazed upon some greenside geese with their goslings (notice my wonderful chip shot which almost went in for a birdie).

Another shot of the geeze after I tapped in for par.

Here are some more bunny shots:




Jocelyn had a fun time, and can't wait to go again. She enjoyed the golfing almost as much as she enjoyed the bunny watching. We are going to get her a putter that is her size so she can do more golfing next time.

Champaign 2009

This weekend, Mom, Dad and Grandma came to the plains of Illinois. We had a good time and were glad they came. Bailey enjoyed meeting her grandparents for the first time.

We also got to go to graduation. Here are pictures from that.

The night before graduation there was an open house dinner at the school. During dinner there was a terrible storm where it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning. Mom said it was a storm like the ones she remembered from living in Oklahoma with tornados. Well, sure enough, the dean got up and announced that there was a tornado warning and that the sirens were going off (it was too loud in the room with hundreds of people talking during dinner to hear the sirens). Apparently a tornado touched down about 20 miles away. We were asked to wait it out in the basement of the school. Here we are doing that.

And finally, here is Bailey enjoying her beautiful new Quilt from mom.

Bath Time

I've put quite a few pictures of her over at our blog, but I guess Bailey needs to make her debut on the family blog. Sorry for so many pictures of her. We think she's fun.

She is smiling more, but never on purpose. Usually she's making faces and a smile just happens.

YAAAWN!