Isebella Anne Richter Arrived! And we had Seattle visitors!!

Isebella Anne Richter (Baby Bella) arrived on Monday. Mommy and baby are doing well.

We picked up Molly and Cullen in Chicago on Sunday and went to see Baby Bella. The boys really enjoyed playing on the farm. Uncle Tim picked YUMMY blackberries and raspberries for the boys to eat. The boys loved the berries...especially my piggy!He even liked to help Uncle Tim pick the raspberries...made mommy nervous with all the thorns. We are ALL way to young to have two toddlers and a newborn.

Great Grandpa Skip

On the way home for IA, we stopped to see Great Grandpa Skip in the nursing home. He looks great and is doing as good as can be expected. He was enjoying his pureed lunch of roast beef and apple pie when we arrived. Drew warmed up pretty quickly to him but still would not let Grandpa hold him. He likes to read books to Grandpa though. The last photo is a pic of Drew and Grandpa signing "I Love You" to each other.

Christmas in July

Last weekend we went to IA for my dad's family "Christmas in July". My parents hosted a camp-out at their place in Winterset. We had such a GREAT time. We all had fun camping, roasting marshmallows, swimming, tossing water balloons, playing washers and enjoying family.

"Mah, Go Paarrrk the Caarr"

No, I do not have a speech impediment. That is how Drew will learn how to say, "Mom, Go Park the Car".
It is OFFICIAL....Tim and I are moving our family to New Jersey in August. Tim was offered a job with a well-respected company and we have decided that the offer was too good to pass up. Tim will be working in a town called Paramus and we are hoping to rent a house in a town called Montvale.
We are going to miss all our family and friends, but we are excited for this new adventure. We are looking at it as a temporary move and we hope to end up back in the Midwest. Anybody is welcome to visit us! We are a 50-minute train ride from Downtown Manhattan!!
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this next step in life.

Rest In Peace

Yesterday, Drew lost his Great-Grandpa and Tim lost his Grandpa. He had failing health this past month. His infectious smile and giggle will be deeply missed! Grandpa Don, we know you are in a better place, but we will miss you!!!

Portland Vacation Part 3

Happy 4th of July! This is the Rockaway Beach parade. Alf made an appearance. It was the 100 year anniversary of the city on the 4th of July. It was a very fun parade with lots of silly characters!

The fireworks were "muted" by the fog that rolled in that evening. The little boys slept through the entire thing...we were shocked!

On Sunday, it was even colder than the previous two days so we went to a petting zoo in Tillamook. They liked seeing the animals and "BAAAAAing" at the goats.

We also went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory that day. It was very busy, so we had ice cream and went home.

Even though it was the coldest day so far, the big boys decided to try to "ride the waves". The water was probably only 40 degrees. They enjoyed themselves and had they more time probably would have been pretty good at it!

Portland Vacation Part 2

The first morning, the boys enjoyed giving Keegan a treat. Isn't it silly that they match?? This is July 3rd (our 5 yr anniversary) and we are going CRABBING!!! The ladies and little boys only went out for one round of dropping the pots and we didn't catch a single crab. The big boys stayed for a few more hours and it got better but they only caught one that was big enough to keep.

We had fresh crab for lunch on our anniversary. YUM YUM!!

Now time for fun at the beach. This was the 2nd warmest day we were there. The boys had a great time building castles, collecting rocks and just getting dirty on the beach.

This was the morning of the 4th. It was much colder that day and really foggy!

More pics to follow...