July in Pictures

I hardly remember July. Tom turned 31! We celebrated the 4th of July at a parade in Afton with Scott, Nikki, Scott and Natron. We (Conrad) got hand, foot, and mouth disease, which made for a very sad baby. We traveled. A lot. Three of four weekends to be exact. I had six sessions. We spent time at both sets of grandparent's. We attended the Floyd County Fair. Tom left us for a week to serve as a Business Development Specialist at a business leadership camp for high schoolers so we took off to Omaha to spend time with Becca and the boys. We saw friends and family. Gwendolyn wrapped up dance class and continued going to her camps. And as you may have seen on here a few days ago, I found out I was pregnant with baby #3. Between the constant packing and unpacking, traveling, and morning sickness, it was an exciting and exhausting month!

Family Pictures:

Love Conrad's ever changing facial expressions. And kids in jam jams.

He must have spent the entire day in his pj's. Wouldn't surprise me. (It also must have been a chilly July day? Weird.)

Daddy's birthday! Gwendolyn colored him a Cinderella and Prince Charming picture b/c she said daddy is her prince.

He's about to open his shirts...and the pregnancy test is telling him we're expecting is on the bottom of the box. My heart was racing!

Surprise! He found it! (Video coming in different post.)

They have no idea what the pregnancy test meant, but it was fun to look at.

Baby #3!

Happy 4th of July!

Nathan's wave absolutely kiiiiiills me.

Uncle Scott bought her her very own ice cream treat. Which promptly melted all.over.the.place. She loved every second of it.

So fun telling John and Trisha our baby news! 

Love looking back and seeing this.

We enjoyed going to concerts at Woodbury Lakes and loved when Tenley could join us. She sometimes got a little sleepy, which was super cute.

Playing outside...

I can't help myself. I never get sick of seeing these two standing side by side like best buds.

On our way to Omaha, we stopped and stayed the night at the Richardson's in Grimes. Praise Jesus they welcomed us at the VERY last minute for an overnight stay. It was perfect to break up our trip to Omaha since I was traveling alone, and of course we loved spending time with them and catching up!

OMAHA!

We missed daddy and I felt like absolute poo, but thankfully Becca took great care of us and helped as much as she could with her own wild and crazy life. We arrived on Sunday and left for home on Friday.

Wouldn't be a trip to Aunt Becca's without french braids.

I had several people say Gwendolyn looks like me in this picture...finally they see it! :)

Omaha Zoo with Weston and Wyatt!

Zoos make us sleepy.

Jumping on the "jumperoo" as she called it. Definitely a favorite activity of the week!

They played so hard, baths were a nightly thing.

Piper and Champ got a LOT of love from my kids. She's still talking about how cute and soft they were. And how Wyatt pulls Piper's tail.

He wanted to touch those moving trains SO badly!

Keeping an eye on the tracks...

Next stop: the air and space museum!

Grandma and Grandpa came to Omaha to hang with us too.

Playing in the super fun pool Grandpa brought with them. Too bad the weather wasn't a bit warmer while we were there to take advantage of the neighbor's pool. (Not that we minded the cooler temps.)

And on our way home from Omaha, we stopped in Ames so I could see William John Tillo! He was as sweet as could be, and not even lying....totally snuggled up in my neck. 

See...he loved me.

So tiny yet so strong!

Gwendolyn:

We had a rough month or two where she became very upset at nap and night time because she "didn't want to be alone." I thought for sure it was a sign nap time was ending, but yet she was still so tired. I looked online and saw the suggestion to let your child sleep with the video monitor reversed so he/she could still see you. It worked like a charm and gave her great comfort. I made it clear that I'd come in and check on her before I went to bed and then I'd shut the monitor off. She still occasionally asks for the monitor and says "but I won't be able to see you" but I tell her it's not set up anymore and that's enough for her. Ha.

Singing Frozen on stage at the Woodbury Lakes summer concert series on Wedneday mornings. Such a fun summer activity!

We decided to give KidCreate Studio a try. What a fun place! She was dropped off for a three hour class Friday morning class called "Hamster Habitat" where she (having a lot of help) created a clay hamster and a hamster cage complete with a water bottle, food bowl and wheel. So fun! 

Gwendolyn wrapped up her summer dance class. I think all in all she enjoyed it and greatly improved over the 7 weeks. She had to change her shoes all by herself in the middle of class, and I observed that she has pretty fantastic listening skills. So proud of her!

I love a good comparison. 

Last summer vs this summer...

She was just a baby! Ahhh! *tear

We celebrated her last dance class with some frozen yogurt. New favorite yogurt/ice cream topping.....colored marshmallows! So good! (Great choice, girl!)

Conrad:

Upon returning from our trip to Duluth, Conrad came down with a fever and was sent home with a 102 temp from daycare. Poor bud. Turns out he had been exposed (five days earlier) to hand, foot, and mouth disease and I knew as soon as Kathy called and said he had a fever that that is what we were probably dealing with.

Sick baby snuggles are bittersweet.

That lasted a good three days and the bumps never got horrible, which was a huge blessing. Thankfully he never got them in his mouth (that we know of) and he really only had a few blisters between his toes and on his finger tips. Thank you, Jesus!

Brown Bear Brown Bear was on repeat for weeks.

He started standing on his own! Until he got tired of course.

So snuggly and he loooooves his daddy.

But he loves his mama too...

Him standing on his own while wearing stripped jam jams makes my LIFE. 

That was July!