Iowa Boys!

This past weekend, my family {except for Gina & Jay} found ourselves across the

Mississippi River at my sister's place in Illinois.

The reason...a surprise 40th birthday party for my brother-in-law.

Success.  :)

Of course, I took a few pictures of the kiddos.

Today, you get to see the Iowa boys.

Next week will be the Illinois kids.

Beware....

CUTE PICTURES AHEAD!

:)

Check out the boys' rides!

Carson has a love/hate relationship with cats.

He will find them, hug them, carry them around for a while...

then throw them down or even kick them.

{Maybe I laugh...but I then try to correct him on how to treat cats.}

Mitchell wasn't liking the grass very much...

just a little bit dry.

Carson must have been thinking...

"Mitchell, I love you so much!  I must pinch your cheek!"

 

 "What's he doing on my back?"

"Oh well, I'll smile anyway."

Yup.  This last picture might be my favorite of the boys to date.

I know Mitchell is kind of hidden, but I still like it.

Next week, the Illinois kids!

I hope to post about the Little Prairie Girl Barn Sale on Friday!

{That is...if I can get some pictures taken Thursday.}

At the Farm! Friday: More Farm Kids

I must confess...

I don't share enough pictures of my older sister's kiddos.

It makes it hard when I don't see them nearly as often.

Since my mom watches my brother's 2 boys,
I always see them whenever I visit the farm.

1 week from now, I will be hanging out with these kiddos across the big muddy river!

 

 

 

It's going to be a crazy loud fun time!  :)

But I'm excited to see them!

And I hope to take lots of pictures!!

Even though they don't live on a farm now, I still consider them farm kids.

They visit the farm often enough.
Their dad and mom both grew up on farms.

Plus, both dad and mom work for John Deere.

So that makes them farm kids in my eyes. 

:)

At the Farm! Friday

So all the kiddos have been at the farm this week.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to head back there to visit them. 

But, I wanted to post one of my favorite pictures from their little photo shoot.

:)

Don't they look like they are really saying 'WE LOVE OUR AUNT!'?

Yup.  I think they are.  :)

 Well, maybe I added the little writing to the side.  

But still, I love the picture...even without the kiddos declaring their love of me.

 I will be enlarging this picture for myself.  It belongs in my home.

And, because kids and feet are usually fun. 

Especially with pant legs of the bibs rolled up.

Lastly, because this truck is sitting 'out back', and needed some photo love.

Happy Friday!

Nifty Nephews!

I think it's time to show a little nephew love!

These little dudes are great!  I love it when I can see them, which doesn't seem like enough.

{However, it is more than my 'Germany' sister.  I'm so thankful for the time I do get with them.  Sometimes, it's even sitting in front of a computer at the farm, talking to Gina.}  :)

This guy {oldest brother, kid #2 from sister #1} is a bit of a jokester....and maybe a trouble maker.  :)

I can't recall a definite name that he calls me.  He likes to make them up as he goes.

 

This dude {middle brother, kid #3 from sister #1}is just too sweet and cute.

He likes to call me 'Cole!!!!!'  {Think....screaming my name in a high-pitched little boy voice.  But it's cute!}

This sweetie {little brother, kid #4 from sister #1}is one happy & content baby.

You know when he's hungry, he doesn't like to sleep because he'll miss out on the fun, and he's happy to just sit and watch his sister and brothers play......while sucking on 2 of his fingers.

I don't even know if he knows who I really am!

 

This kid is total farm kid!  {Soon-to-be-brother, kid #1 from my favorite brother}

Bumps and bruises he gets from playing too hard don't faze him.  Rain or shine, he wants to be outside.

He calls me 'Tolleigh'.  I learned this with my last visit to the farm.  :)

Cheese!

Sometimes, it's hard to get pictures of these dudes.

They never want to stop long enough for me to get a picture.

And sometimes when they do stop, the pictures can be fun!

 

Life is great being an Aunt!

Life is the BEST being an Aunt!  :)

Farmboy Love

How can you not look at this face and just love it??

While at the farm on Saturday, I was taking some pictures of this little farmboy and a boy I was wrangling, and didn't even realize I took this picture until I loaded them to my computer.  As soon as I saw it, I laughed, but fell in love with it.  I did a couple of actions to it as well. 

But that look on his face....love it! 

I feel like he's thinking....'Aunt Nicole, can we please go play?  Stop taking my picture!'

Oh, little farmboy, you are just too cute!

Seeing Green

When my sister and her family were visiting the farm back in June, the kiddos had their eyes checked.  The end result...my niece and oldest nephew need glasses! 

I guess they are joining the family trend of needing some form of vision correction. 

But at least they look great in them!

(I was hoping to get a picture of everyone that wears glasses/contacts, but that didn't happen.)

While they were on the Nechanicky Farm, they had many 'red' tractors to play with, with a few 'green' tractors mixed in.  But while with their other grandparents and aunts/uncles/cousins, they are surrounded by green!

Do you notice the weights on the back end of the tractor in front of Big Daddy?  :)

It's a good thing those kids are in the pictures....
to make the tractors look better. 

:)

Backyard Water Fun

Saturday, while my sister and I ran to town to run some errands, Grandma had some fun with the kiddos. When we finally made it home, I grabbed my camera and caught some fun shots.

Too bad this is what this little guy thought about the homemade waterslide/sprinkler...also known as Grandma.

Even though the kiddos haven't had the opportunity to go to the pool, I think the fun they had in the backyard was enough for now.  :)

Life on the Kid Farm, Part 2

To continue my previous post of Life on the Kid Farm.....on to the farm girls.

On this Friday, it was extremely hot outside. So there was only little spurts of playing outside. But while the farm boys took their much needed nap, here's what the farm girls had fun doing. I think this was the highlight of their day. :)

Here's a close-up of Jac's face. Notice the specks on the left side of her face? Yup. She wasn't being very careful about sneaking some bites. :)

And here are the cookies the girls decorated for me. They were yummy!

On a side note....did you noticed the pink and purple Nalgene water bottles in the pictures of the girls? Well, if you are looking for a good water bottle for your baby through whatever age, these are great! They have a stopper in them so are spill-proof, but it can be removed for the older kids. All the kids from a 9 month old - 6 year old enjoyed drinking from them. My sister picked them up at the Scheel's stores in both Waterloo and Cedar Falls, since one of them did not have enough. I found them on their website, but they are not available online right now. Bummer. Maybe another sports/outdoors store will have them. So go find yourself....I mean your kids or niece/nephews one. :)

Life on the Kid Farm

It's a busy day on the kid farm today. Lots of work on the machinery/equipment.

Whoa! Watch out for the livestock!

Well, here's more of the livestock.

This is the most ferocious animal of them all......Drake. (Who would guess that one little farmboy was so frightened of this beast.)

And yes, the livestock will even over take the farm machinery/equipment.

Every good farmboy knows he needs to drink plenty of water....or eat plenty of ice. With temps in the mid/upper 90s, hydration is important.

No matter the size, you can always be a farmboy.

Here's another visiting farmboy for the day. (His shirt is perfect for the day: Step 1. Crawl, Step 2. Walk, Step 3. Drive a tractor)

Now back to the farm machinery/equipment.

The best tractor of them all.......full-pull power!

I'll see what I can do about a post for the farmgirls.

Day of Bashes!

Happy Father's Day to all you dad's out there. If you would like to see what I made for my dad, head on over here (my craft site) to check it out.

Since my sister and her family are here from China, we are having a bit of a party here at the farm. Guest list: Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell, Aunt Nancy & Uncle David, Great Aunt Mildred, Adam & Lindsey, mom & dad, 5 from China, and me.....and via internet: Gina & Jay!!!
For dinner, we had a fantastic ham glaze/juice that I made that I'll post about later.

Here's where the second bash of the day comes in. Around 3pm our time, 10pm Germany time, Gina called to tell dad Happy Father's Day. It was also around the time that we were going to eat Jac's birthday cake that mom and I worked on (it will be posted at the very bottom). So we logged on, and did a video chat. Jay and Gina got to see the birthday cake, the soon-to-be birthday girl, and they even sang Happy Birthday with us. So even though they are half a world away from us and seven hours time difference, they still got to be 'here' at the farm for about 30 minutes. (It was past Gina's bedtime.)

Now on to the cake. Jacquelyn is in LOVE with the Disney Princesses. Her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, because she's pink. Enough said. If it's pink, she likes it. For her cake, she also wanted a Sleeping Beauty cake. And boy, was that difficult. Mom made and froze the dress form cake where you just insert the torso of a doll in to the cake. (People might make fun of it, but it works......and much cheaper than buying one.) I asked Jac what colors she wanted, and here is what she said....pink dress, with golden hair and a golden necklace with pink shoes. Well, we tried to accommodate. First problem....didn't have just a doll torso, so we used a Barbie. By using a real Barbie, we had to add two more layers to the cake so her legs would fit. In the end, it turned out just fine. Jac liked it, and it tasted great. But with decorating a cake at 1opm at night, after a busy day of making food and other stuff, we just wanted to get it done.


Here's the look of the cake pre-frosting.

And here's the final product and birthday girl.