the phone call

I was enjoying a shower this morning and heard a knock on my bathroom door. I always hear their requests because you never know if they really have a problem. Well, today Ansel came in and said someone had called. I asked who it was and he paused, then I heard someone on the phone say "Cindy." Then Ansel repeated "Cindy." (I didn't see the phone in his hand and I assumed he was no longer on the phone.) Cindy told me that she was deciding if she should wait on the phone or just hang up and call back, ha ha ha. Anyway, it's usually Isabel who answers the phone if I'm not around. It was really funny to see Ansel do it and successfully! He must have seen Isabel do it so many times that when the phone rang he thought...Oh, this is what I should do.

July 4th

We had a fun 4th of July. The fireworks out here in Kansas are so much better than the legal ones out west. Joseph's favorite holiday is the 4th and so we usually get a ton of fireworks. This year we scaled back a lot, but since we are here in Kansas we still had our best show yet. We got some artillery shells. Those are the kind that you shoot out of a launcher and "real" fireworks shows have them. We got six that shot up into the air 70 ft and then exploded out about 50 ft. Also, we were not the only ones in our neighborhood to get some sweet ones. It was pretty cool.

We went to another "tea party" rally and Joseph ended up being the featured speaker. So, that was pretty exciting and went well. It's posted on youtube. This is the link to the highlights. The full version (about 30 mins) is also posted too.

Happy Forth of July!!!

more photos

Lincoln has started crawling!! We had to get the gates up already. Look out...here comes Lincoln. It's cute when he follows me around the room or house. The first time he crawled was when I was leaving. I kissed everyone goodbye and he started crying and trying to crawl to me. It was so cute I decided I would have to be late to where I was going.


Isabel LOVES playing with Lincoln. She especially likes it when he crawls on her and grabs her face. Which is great because it's also one of Lincoln's favorite things to do too.

I came downstairs to check on the kids playing and Isabel had made a "piano." I thought the set up was pretty cool and we all took turns playing the piano.

eating

Lincoln has started eating rice cereal and he loves it! He doesn't eat it every day, but he is really starting to get the hang of it. These photos are from his very first "meal."

sitting up

Lincoln has done some sitting up. He also gets on his hands and knees like he is about to crawl. We've got the baby gates ready anytime he is!

the kids

We are trying to get a settled into our house. It's been exciting to get all our furniture and stuff back, but a little overwhelming to unpack and find a place for everything. But, it's been fantastic. Joseph and the kids got me a surprise patio swing for my birthday. As Joseph was assembling it, Isabel was playing around outside near him. He put the bench swing onto the base and Isabel said, "dad, i think you put it on backwards." He took a closer look and saw that the support bar which goes behind the swing was in the front. He chuckled and had to thank Isabel for her help. We thought that was so funny!

Ansel is such a good big brother. I was in my room getting something and Lincoln started to cry out in the living room. Ansel says, "Oh no! It's Lincoln, I better go make him happy." He runs out there and starts jumping around in front of him. Lincoln LOVES to watch Ansel dance/jump around. And no one can do it quite like Ansel does. Joseph, Isabel and I have tried to soothe Lincoln with this same technique, but Lincoln will continue to cry until Ansel comes to do it. It's nice to have him around and wanting to help.

Lincoln is getting so old. He is six months now and loves to lay on his stomach. He will get up on his knees sometimes too and we're tell him: no, don't crawl yet, it's too soon! But, he absolutely LOVES his tummy time. Lincoln will always smile back at you when you smile at him (and he's in an okay mood). He likes grabbing his toys and shaking them them and putting them in his mouth.

Well, I better get going now, but I'll try to post some photos soon!

reading

I was just reading a book with the kids (curious george at the aquarium). As we read it the first time Isabel named some sea animals in the tanks: these are goldfish and these are just green fish. Ansel wanted to read the book again and this time he named the animals: these are goldfish crackers and these are green goldfish crackers. I thought that was pretty funny. Goldfish crackers are a popular snack at our house.