Another Nephew!

On September 9, I became a favorite Aunt again!  :)

I got to meet this little guy just a few days later.

Luckily, work took me over to eastern Iowa, so I spent 2 nights at the farm.  

It was perfect timing to be there!

The little dude was born about 3 weeks before he was scheduled.

And he seemed so little!

BUT....he had some skinny {and long!}arms, legs, fingers, and toes!

 

I got to hold him a couple of times.  But grandma hogged him most of the time!

 

Great Grams & Gramps were also there for a little while.

Grandma {my mom} had gone shopping the day before and hit the jackpot at JCPenneys.
She spent $2.57 {I think} and got LOTS of stuff.  At that rate, who wouldn't want new clothes instead of garage sale clothes?

Anyway....Carson LOVES Great Gramps 'walker'.  After he looked at the clothes he'll get to wear, he decided to hang them up.....on Great Gramps walker!

It started with hanging up 2 shirts, then he wanted to hang up everything else.  It was cute!

  

While at the farm, I took Carson on a couple of tractor rides, a 4wheeler ride, and checked the cattle.

Plus, I don't know how many times he said my name. 
'Coleigh!' was pretty much said every other sentence.  :)

CHEESE!

 

Big brother loves his 'baby brudder'!

However, 'baby brudder'

 

Random post, I know.

But I told Gina I'd take pictures of her nephews, so needed to post them.

Just too bad I'm the favorite Aunt again.

:)

Love ya sista!  You'll get to see them all soon!

Dog-Gone Good Weekend

February 12 is a very special day to me. 

It's my BIRTHDAY!

This year, I turned 31 years young.  :)

But to begin my birthday weekend,

I had a pet wrangling job I got asked about last week.  So I have been spending what extra time I do have in the company of these pups.

{Sorry about the weird eyes....it was actually kind of dark, and I didn't want the dogs to go too crazy by turning on more lights.  And yes, they were just sitting like this.  I quickly grabbed my camera before they decided to move!}

Anyway, my birthday celebration started out on Friday night.

After a last minute invite sent out to some friends, we had supper at my favorite Mexican restaurant. 

Following that up, I went to another friend's house for a late night kid wrangling gig, so the parents could go out.

Saturday night was a fundraiser for some other friends.  They are in the process of adopting 2 boys from another country. 
It was an enjoyable time.  Great food, great friends, good music, and it was my birthday!

I had the pleasure of assisting with decorations.  I will post about that later...hopefully borrowing some pictures as well. 

Sunday I headed northeast to Cedar Falls, for my youngest nephews baptism.  I was a 'stand-in' God-parent, as the official God-parent lives in North Dakota.

Carter was sure one handsome little dude!

After the baptism, everyone went back to the farm for dinner, dessert, and chatting time.

But eventually, we all had to make our way back to our own places. 

It was a great birthday weekend!

REUNITED!!

At about 9:30 this morning....German time....my sister and her husband were finally reunited after Jay spent the year serving our country.

  

Gina waiting patiently to go to Jay.

Together again!

If you'd like to read the story, head on over to their blog. 

I wasn't even there.  But seeing the pictures on the blog and their web album did make me a little teary-eyed.  :)

Over the River - 2

  While heading across the Mississippi River last Friday, it was a dreary day.

  

Finally by Saturday afternoon, the sun decided to shine!  What perfect timing, since the Fall Festival was being held outdoors.

Port Byron is right along the Mississippi River.  Main street runs parallel with it.  So while my sister and 3 of the 4 kids went on the hay ride, I decided to go take some pictures.

I have a feeling I am going to like this town.  :)

Over the River - 1

This past weekend, I took a trip across the great Mississippi River, to spend some time in Port Byron/Moline, IL, with my oldest sister and her family.  It is sure nice to be able to cross just a river while in a car, instead of having to cross the ocen in an airplane.  (Not that I got to visit them while overseas.)

I have a feeling there will be many weekends roadtrips ahead.  :)

My niece and me.

My sister's youngest son.  About 2 months old.  My nephew number 4.

 

My sister and son #2 enjoying a cake walk activity.

Andrea and the oldest two walking for a 'cake'.

(For this cake walk, you picked boxed cake mix and tub of frosting of your choice.)

Superman not wanting to participate in the cake walk.

Little Dragon Boy not enjoying the hood of the costume.

Who needs to color a mask when you can play with trains!

Bride's mask.

Superman's mask.

Well, Dragon boy has one too...he just didn't like it on his face.

A sleepy little pony.

But this pony has some cute feet!

Having a little fun in a crazy/colorful chair...

...while sister and brother get paint tatoos.

Decorating their own cupcakes.  (I wish I could have decorated one!)

A hayride through downtown Port Byron.

Finally, a picture of all the kiddos together. 

Not the best picture, since it was raining on me at this point.

It was a weekend full of playing with kids, enjoy the Fall Festival, helping my sister unpack boxes/sort things in the house, and even being a personal shopper for a couple of hours.

I can't wait until the next time I get to spend a weekend with them all!

A Happy Monday Indeed!

Once I am done at my school visit today (it is currently my break time, then one more group), I will be high-tailing it back to the farm! 

My reasons?

Spend a little bit of time in this....

 Hang out with these kiddos....

and meet this little fellow!

I'm looking forward to some good times at the farm!

China Family Arrives!

After a crazy night of waiting and emailing and calling and more waiting and walking around at the airport, my parents and I left Cedar Rapids not knowing when or where we would finally see our China family.  Due to the big storms in the Midwest on Friday, their flight from Beijing to Chicago got diverted to another airport in Rockford, Illinois, and eventually made it to Chicago.  After waiting and flights getting delayed numerous times, it was finally cancelled at about 1am.  Thanks to a taxi driver taking the family from Chicago to a farm in someplace, Iowa, we greeted them at 6am!!  The kids were a little wound up, and we were a little tired.  Thanks to Grandma and her garage sale-ing, the 3 kiddos had clothes to wear for the day...since their luggage was hopefully somewhere in the country.

It was sure a fun day of playing outside.  The kids went down for naps around 9:30am, and so did I!  I actually had 2 naps today....which is 2 more than normal.  Hopefully they will all be on Iowa time fairly soon. 

Here are some pictures from the day.

Jacquelyn....doing the typical 'strike a pose' for the photo op.  This is something she learned in China.  :)

Jacob...he just sat there and gave me his great smile!


Alex...since he doesn't remember us, it's been a little bit of a hard adjustment for him.  But he was sure having a fun time while playing.  Glad I could get a picture where he's happy!


Carson....he was happy to meet his cousin's for the first time today.  Even though we are a 'red' farm, he was a good sport and put on his 'green' shirt, since his China aunt & uncle both work for John Deere.  You can tell he's not too happy about wearing the shirt, but at least he has his Iowa State hat to redeem himself.


Also, I finally learned how to load some Photoshop Elements actions.  I'm still learning, but had some fun playing with these pictures that I posted.  Hopefully I can get the hang of it, and have fun with more pictures.

A Family Gathering

This past Saturday, my mom's side of the family gathered together in Waverly, IA. (And I was just there 2 days prior for a college tour for work.)

It was a great evening for the gathering. But some important people were missing...my Germany sister and my China sister. After eating, my uncle (and grandpa) took the kids and some of their moms on a hay ride. There were also some other games and activities, like an obstacle course....but I forgot to change my camera setting to action. So most of the pictures are rather blurry.

I didn't really get pictures of the families...but I'm thinking we'll have to do that next year. But here are pictures of the hay ride crew, as well as some shots from around the farm.