Playground Fun

Take a look at this park. I don't think I have ever seen a park this big before. My sister-in-law was the one who recommended this park to me. It was definitely a hit with all the boys. It is huge and full of slides, climbing walls and anything else you could want.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch while we were there. We will be heading back soon I'm sure.

Fourth of July

We had a nice long fourth of July weekend. Saturday morning we headed outwith the 2 youngest kids to the Des Moines Farmer's Market. From there we went to the Urbandale parade. The boys loaded up on candy. At one point one of the people in the parade walked right up to Brodie and Drew and dumped his entire bucket of candy on the ground for them. They were so excited! Instead of jumping up and down yelling for candy like everyone around us they just sat there and waved. I guess they sorta stuck out. Either way they scored more than their share of candy.The evening was spent with my dad and step mom, grandparents, and my step brothers and sister. We grilled, celebrated my grandmother's birthday and watched the kids play in the kiddie pool. That night we headed to Prairie Meadows and watched an amazing fireworks show. The weather was perfect and we sat before and after the show and let off sparklers.
It was a long day but it was good times.

Sunday, July 4 we got up early and headed to Farragut Iowa to visit Will's Aunt and Uncle. It rained the entire day. We had a great time visiting his cousins, some we had never met before and playing cards. Will's aunt provided us with amazing food and we left that night feeling happy and full!

Monday we had a somewhat relaxing morning before we headed to Colo so Will could help his step dad with his deck. They made huge progress and the end is now in sight for the deck! Woo Hoo.

Will and I have been having fun attending different local farmer's markets. Last week we went to Polk City. We got there a little early so the kids had fun playing at the park on the town square.We love the variety of the Des Moines Farmer's market but it is just so crazy there! We go about every couple weeks to stock up on cheese. We buy our cheese from Milton Creamery. Their Prairie Breeze cheese is the best! This past week we also bought some homemade peanut butter. Then of course we just had to compare the different vendors selling crab rangoons. One of my favorites!

I have been trying to grow most of my own veggies but with all this rain the garden isn't doing so hot. I did pick 1 cucumber tonight, 5 onions and 3 raspberries.

I am hoping to purchase a large batch of locally grown sweet corn to cut and freeze to have for the winter. I would also like to find some peaches and/or pears that I could can as well. I love having fresh fruit and veggies from my garden, or locally grown gardens in the winter time. It also saves me from having to buy it at the stores.

Brodie has recovered well from his surgery. Yesterday was a long day but he was a big boy and handled everything really well. When he got home he put together his new Lego set from mom and Dad (a gift for doing so well). And in the afternoon he took a nice long nap. I am so thankful that is over and he is feeling pretty good today.Yes, I love sleeping photos.

Yesterday I made my first ever butter. So easy. I used cream that I bought the other day. All you do is shake it and pour off the buttermilk. It took about 20 minutes, that's it! So cool.Will and I have also been busy dehydrating herbs. We have dried oregano, sage, basil and parsley. Pretty excited to use our own fresh herbs in our cooking.

I'm antsy tonight. Brodie goes in for surgery in the morning on his boy parts. I know it is a common procedure but the thought of it still scares me. They have to put him to sleep, do the procedure and then the recovery. The recovery is what I worry most about. They said he will be in a lot of pain. That is the worst part. I just hope we can make him feel ok and be comfortable.

Ahhh, anyway today was a busy day. After we picked Jake up from weight lifting we headed north 30 minutes to get chicken feed. This is the only place that carries the feed I want for the chickens. Once they reach 18 weeks there is a place closer to home I can buy their food.

After that we headed 30 minutes west to visit a local creamery. That was fun. We ended up buying some milk, ice cream, summer sausage, raw sugar and cream. I am going to make my own butter. The kids thought it was a really cool place and the people who own it are really nice.

After a few more stops we headed home. This evening I baked 2 loaves of bread, cleaned out the chicken house, worked in the garden (my peas are officially dead and my tomatoes are following), took the family to the neighbors house for a swim, ate our local ice cream for dessert, put kids to bed and here we are. Sigh...

I guess maybe I should get some rest.

Baby Update

We had an ultrasound yesterday. Here are just a couple of the hand full of shots we got of our little one. We got to see our baby in 4D which I thought was cool. I have never had an ultrasound where they did that before.The baby is growing really well. It weighed in at 14oz and is 6 inches long from head to tailbone. The doctor said everything was developing the way it should and it looked "very happy". We are sticking with the due date of November 7, which puts us at 2o weeks 4 days. It wanted to sleep the entire time we were looking at it so the tech had to shake my belly a bit to get it to move around. Baby didn't seem to mind too much it would kick a bit and move it's arms but not flip. Finally at the end it turned so we could get the profile shot you see above.

We declined to find out the gender. It will be a surprise for everyone in November!

Hope all the father's had a nice Father's Day. We had a great day here. I got to spend time with both my father, father-in-law and grandfather. We had a fish fry from all the fish we brought home from the lake and invited everyone over. It was a nice evening. Unfortunatly due to my baby brain I didn't snap any pictures.

The kids and I celebrated with Will in the morning. I made a coffee cake and eggs for breakfast. For his gift we got him an appointment to put a hitch put on his Jeep so he can pull the boat, something he has wanted for awhile.

This will be a busy week for us. We have lots of doctor appointments and we are having a garage sale this weekend. I really need to get busy!