Playtime

Lance recently finished up with some tests, and we decided to do a little celebrating. He came home early on Monday after his test and we went to some batting cagess and miniature golfing with his classmates Andy and Omar. I thought I'd throw a picture in of me hitting in the cages since I'm usually behind the camera. Andy was nice enough to snatch my camera and take a picture of my wonderful batting stance. My brothers, and husband as well, will probably cringe when looking at my stance, but I don't claim to be a baseball pro. Hey, at least I hit the ball, right?

I started out mini-golfing, but soon realized it's hard to switch back and forth with Lance holding Rydge. I also found out Lance loves miniature golfing, and I'm not that fond of it. I don't think I have the patience. I just want to hit the ball hard and hope it ends up somewhere close to the hole. That's not my approach for regular golf, though. Anyway, after two holes I gladly let Lance take over my club, and took pictures and walked around to get the baby to sleep. The course was really cool, though, and it took some real skill to get the ball in the hole. This picture is of Lance's celebratory gesture after hitting an amazing hole-in-one.

Jaycee was over by these flowers and gave this scared face when she noticed there were bees. She hasn't been too fond of bees since she got stung twice on the bridge of her nose by some hornets.

Lance came to calm her fears.

Omar was so nice to help her get some water to wash her hands.

The funniest part of golfing was Jaycee's utter disregard for anyone's ball placement. When she saw a ball on the green, she would pick it up, or kick it, or do whatever she wanted with it. I'm sure it was hard for the guys because they were kind of turning it into a little competition, and she wasn't helping them out any. She did have a fun time, though, and eventually figured out how to hit the ball further than a couple inches.

Another part of our playing was going to the Brewers games...wait, the Cubs games. Well, we didn't know who to cheer for (I ended up cheering for the Cubs because the Brewers didn't stand a chance after the Cubs scored 3 runs in the first inning, and the second one as well). The Cubs came to Milwaukee and we found dirt cheap tickets--15 cents each. Too bad they tack on all those extra fees, but it was still cheap considering that in Lance's family it's the trip-of-a-lifetime to go see the Cubs play baseball. We went as a family on Tuesday night, then Lance took Jaycee again the next night with Omar and Andy. I had to take pictures of Rydge's first baseball game, and those are the only pictures I got.

Jaycee wouldn't look at the camera for me.

Wednesday night, when Lance took Jaycee, they went early to watch batting practice before the game. Andy yelled to a young pitcher standing in the outfield that they needed a ball for the little girl. Pretty soon he threw one up to them, and now we have a souvenir. Jaycee was pretty excited, but Lance was more excited. It's funny how we try to make the players throw the ball for a kid, but it's really the parent that wants the ball. The child doesn't know the difference between a major league baseball and a plastic baseball.They're both just balls. Now Jaycee wants to go play with her baseball outside, and Lance won't let her.
Here are some pictures I've taken of the kids lately. Rydge is getting to be quite the smiler and laugher. He's such a good baby.

What a goof!

I had to put this picture in of Jaycee to show you the outfit she chose for the day. She's in a major phase where she is her own outfit chooser. She changes three or four times a day into different outfits, and changes her shoes five or six times a day. She decided she wanted to wear a dress that is way too small for her, and also wear her snow boots. Then she needed her jacket, even though I told her it wasn't very cold outside. After she fell asleep I drove around for a while, and stopped at a store while Meghan went inside (I didn't leave my kids in the car). You might be able to see in the picture above that she is dripping sweat down her forehead. I guess she was a little overdressed. The next picture is to show the double nap we had going on. That's the only time I can get them both to sleep at the same time--driving in the car.

3 months!

I really can't believe how fast time has gone by, but Rydge hit his 3-month mark today. He is such a good little baby, but at the same time I am very sleep-deprived. He's changing every day and smiles more and more. We can get pretty good laughs out of him if we surprise him, but he won't laugh more than once for the same thing.

He is really patient with Jaycee. Sometimes she just has so much love to show him that she can be very abusive. That's the look he gets on his face whenever she comes around. I'm sure he's wondering, "What is she gonna do to me now?"

For Labor Day Lance and his good friend, Andy, tried to fly fish in Wisconsin for trout. They had no clue where they were going, but they ended up having a great time, and caught a couple fish while they were at it. In order to make that fishing trip happen, they naturally had to go to Cabela's to get "vital" supplies. Turns out we spent three hours in the store so they could buy four flies they didn't even use. Taking them to Cabela's is like taking kids to a candy store. Of course we had to get a picture of them in front of the store.
Jaycee found this cool toy to ride on, and was very sad when she found out that she wasn't going to get it. She's just so picked on. She's in the stage where she is always saying, "I really really wish I could have _____. Maybe Santa will bring it for Christmas."
Jaycee is having a lot of fun going to her dance class. I don't know how much she is able to remember of it, but she pulled out this pose when I told her to do a dance pose for the camera.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Well, I wasn't going to do this because I never posted about my mom's birthday a while back, and I didn't want anyone to think I'm playing favorites, but I just want to wish my dad a happy birthday. I know that it's past 9:00 PM, which means there's not much left of his birthday, but that's kind of my style on birthdays and other special days. I'm not very good at thinking of good presents to give, and I'm even worse at remembering everyone's birthdays. I get that from my dad, I guess, because he hasn't done anything special for his birthday today. He went to work, got home, and then went to mow lawns, which is his summer job that carries on into fall until it snows. My mom also went to visit her parents, so she's not even there to celebrate with him. Pretty boring. Anyway, this will be pretty short and sweet, but I want him to know what a great dad he is. He worked so hard to get us things we needed and wanted growing up, and he still works hard. It was a wake-up call for our family when he had his heart attack last year, and I'm just so grateful he's still here. Thanks for everything you do for us. We love you, dad!

Funny kids!

Rydge has started to laugh, and it's the cutest thing, but it takes a long time to get him worked up to it. I got a video of him doing a very short laugh, and it happens right at the first. When I was recording I was waiting for him to do a longer laugh, but it never happened. That's why it's so long. There's really nothing exciting after the first ten seconds except Jaycee whining in the background (who knows what it was about?).

Since we've been back in Wisconsin, things have been pretty busy. It's great to be back, but we definitely miss our families. I really miss the help with the kids. Jaycee has had a hard time adjusting to the long days with just mom and the baby around. It has really brought out some sibling rivalry in her. Here I thought she had transitioned so well to having a new baby around the house...the problems just came late. She really is such a good big sister, though. She loves Rydge, and gives him hugs and kisses all the time...they're just very rough. She also thinks she's strong enough to pick him up by herself...which she's not. Whenever she is laying down by him she says, "Mom, take a picture!" That's why there are so many of her laying down by him. At least she'll take pictures, right?

We're trying to break her of the thumb-sucking habit, but it's going to be a long and trying process. I even told her that I had to get twelve teeth pulled when I was young because I sucked my thumb, but it didn't even phase her. I really did get twelve teeth pulled when it was all said and done--not to mention a couple surgeries--because my teeth were so crooked. That's no lie.
Rydge gave me such a cute smile.

I had to put this picture in to show what a fatty he is. That was at the first of August that I took this picture, and he's only gotten bigger.

Part of our busy life since we've been back is because Jaycee has started preschool and dance lessons. A couple of us are just doing an at-home school for our kids, and she went for the first time on Monday. I was going to take a picture of her first day at preschool, and get a picture with all the kids as well, but I was wrong on the time and showed up a half hour late. That's just par for the course for me right now...my brain isn't firing on all cylinders. It's because of a lack of sleep, I'm sure. So, I took lots of pictures of her first dance lesson. She had a fun time, and wants to wear her dancing outfit around all the time. I have a funny video that I took of the cute little dancers, but don't have time to upload it right now. I will have to do it later, hopefully.

Lance's fishing pictures

Lance took pictures over the summer of all the things he did, which include: fish on the Salt River, fish on the Snake River, fish on the Rearing Pond, fish Montpelier Creek, and so on and so forth. Aside from that, he was able to shadow some doctors and learned a lot of cool things about surgery. He also was able to deliver his firstborn son, and mowed lawns with my dad to earn some money. The reason I'm telling you this is because he made it a point to get these pictures so I could post them on my blog. He is a true-blue fly-fisherman and thought he might be able to convert a couple of bait fishermen through photography. Take a look.

I even got to go fishing a couple of times, thanks to the grandmas and other family members. The Snake River is really a beautiful river, and has some great fishing. A lot of people pay big money to be able to fish there. I can't hold onto the fish because I drop them every time, so my dad was holding it. But I really caught it.