Pics from August

It's been a while but here are some pictures from August:


Hitting up a State Patrolman for a quarter before hitting the tollway in Oklahoma at 12 am or so.

A visit with our friends in Sioux Falls, SD. We spent Sunday with the Grubers on their last day of "official" vacation. We got a family picture at the falls.

We stayed with Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Tim in Emery, SD.
We spend a weekend with Aunt Cathy and Uncle Bob in Madison, WI. It was fun to catch up with them and pretty eventful with a flooded basement at 2:40 in the morning.
A stop for dinner with Debra and a tour of her really cute house.
Now that is a Pizza! Real Chicago style, in the Chicago area.
Can you guess which famous people once lived in these houses? Hint: They are all in Illinois. (Leave your answers in a comment, I'll follow up with the correct answers in a few days)

A
B

C

Branson, Missouri
Fun Water fountain

The Arkansas Ozarks, on our last day.

A big sorry and a Dr Appointment

OK so the slide show thing only works if you have a Myfamily.com sign in. Sorry. It is really cool though because the slide show of Lindsay's birthday "get together" runs while Lance and Lindsay are talking about the day she turned 4. So I apologize to those who do not have a myfamily.com sign in!

Today both girls had their annual Dr appointment. These visits are always fun because you get to find out fun things like where they stand in the percentiles (where they stand among a hundred other children their age) and how they are developing not to mention the fun of the shots. Can you guess which girl is in the 92nd percentile for height and which is in the 75th? Would you believe that Leslie is only 3 inches shorter than Lindsay? I guess that gives it away. And I guess we know which girl will take after which parent! I should have known the way Leslie eats like Lance and Lindsay eats like me. Also, Leslie's head circumference is in the 97th percentile. Both girls did really well in their appointment today, even with the shots. The girls are healthy, I couldn't ask for anything more!

Lindsay's 4th Birthday Cake

More Birthday Fun

Sarah and Tyson came over tonight to go the pool and do some much needed catching up. They brought the girls a cookie cake.

Thank you for the blue icing!!! It was the best!

I can fly, I can fly, I can fly, I can fly!!!

What movie??? Lindsay has gotten into Peter Pan this summer. Here we are pretending to fly to never-never land.

Dum Dum Da Dum

Yeah!! Brent and Kristin are now man and wife, and Lindsay made it down the aisle, almost. It was a great night and Kristin was beautiful!! Lance was so excited for his brother he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. The rain threatened to ruin pictures but with some pink umbrellas and an awesome photographer, the pictures will be amazing! (The photographer is my friend from College, check out her work at http://www.maijakarinphotography.com/ she is amazing!! And if you check the site, you will probably see some familiar faces)

Some funny stories:

At the rehearsal Lindsay noticed a sign on the pavilion doors that had a crossout circle with a doggy in it and she said "that means no doggies in here." Then she turned to the other sign that had a smoking cigarette with a crossout circle and she said "That means you should put your tray tables up." So Funny!! I guess you can tell our little four year old is a seasoned traveller.

At the wedding, Lindsay took some coaxing to get her down the aisle. I walked with her a way and then faded out hoping she wouldn't notice that I disappeared Then she stopped in the middle of the aisle and covered her face. Some how she got to where she needed to turn and then Grandpa Gordie caoxed her onto the stage. She was too wiggly during the ceremony so I brought her to my seat and then when it was time to go back, I put a pack of the mints from the table in her basket and told her that she could eat them when she got back to the end of the aisle. She Made it all on her own that time, but covered her face the entire time, not wanting anyone to look at her.

Well, Brent and Kristin are on their way to Jamaica tonight. Lance and I were talking about how great it would be to be in their shoes taking their first steps together with nothing but possibility ahead of them. We are starting to feel a little like old married people these days. :-) But loving every minute of it.

Us with our buddies the Grubers

Lindsay and Leslie playing 'it's a jolly holliday"
Kristin, about to see Brent.

A great looking group The Bauslaugh Family
Blind flower girl

"Practice"

I can't tell you how proud I am of the little girl in this picture. Lindsay is the BEST flower girl. She very carefully throws out the flowers at the rehearsal on Wednesday. Now, if only we could practice 3 times on Saturday, it would be great!! :-)

House/Doggy Sitting

While we are here in Washington, we are house/doggy sitting for some friends. I'm calling it doggy therapy for my dog-fearing children. Total emersion therapy at that. It seems to be working:

Pics from Chelan

Leslie Lounging in the pool

Leslie catching the water dripping from her swim diaper

Lindsay playing with her shadow

Lance and Bobby on the tubes.

Look Ma, No Hands

A walk with Great Grandpa and Grammie and Auntie
Sno cones with daddy

Boat ride into town for BreakfastSad to say goodbye!

Week at Lake Chelan!

Anyone who knows us knows that Chelan is our absolutely favoritest place on earth. So you know that a whole week at Lake Chelan was a dream come true!! We spent the entire time either on the lake or at the pool with a few naps in between. SO MUCH FUN!! We will post the pictures as soon as I can find my camera cord.
This week we are getting ready for the big wedding and house/dog sitting for our friends Kim and Brian. (more on both later)

Happy Birthday America!! And Grammie, and Aunt Linda!!

Wow, today is a day for birthdays. And as (mom) Grammie says, "The fireworks are all for me!" And knowing my Grammie, I'll bet she was absolutely thrilled to have a baby on this day.

Fun in Washington

The girls have been havng fun In Washington. Here are a few pictures of our visit so far:two cute girls in their matchy matchy outfits!

A visit with the Greatest Aunts!

We celebrated Papa Jim's birthday with a little bowling. Lindsay had lots of fun. We had a lot of time to watch the ball go down the lane. :-)

Lindsay's Big Bat

Last Wednesday night we went over to some friends as we were celebrating Drew's fourth birthday. Drew is into baseball big time. He and his dad play in the yard all the time. While we were there, we decide to go out a play with all the kids, each taking turns at the plate. Knowing that Lindsay does not understand how to hit, we passed on her turn. After she watched some of the kids hit the ball, she worked up the courage to give it a shot. What you see in the video is her FIRST swing. You can tell it was her first swing by my amazement and by Kyle (Drew's dad) falling over after delivering the pitch. We had a ton of fun. Also, she does not slide into home. She happens to fall down at the right time with one leg out in front. And for Katie to get the whole thing on tape.....that was pretty cool too. We were pretty excited!



Sorry for not updating in while. It has been tough while in Washington and out of our normal routine. Stick with us as we will get back at it.

Our trip to visit alive and dead relatives.

It sounds boring but really, it turned out to be very interesting. I remember listening to my grandmother drone on and on about how we were related to this person or that person, blah blah blah. (With all do respect, Grammie) But I really shut out much of what she said, I was being polite and trying to show interest, even if i didn't feel interested. When Grammie died, my mom took up the cause and like her mother, often bored me with facts about distant relatives that meant very little to me. So I have to say that I was completely surprised that I truly enjoyed our trip to see dead people.
I guess now, I am going to have to stand up and say, "My name is Katie, and I am interested in geneology." There, I said it. As geeky as it sounds, I enjoyed researching our dead ancestors. Really, it is researching history, with a name and a face to it. My mother's family goes back to the Mayflower, so researching her family, means researching American history. I have always loved history, but I think this geneology stuff really makes history more interesting because you can place your family in a historical perspective. I really Geeked out! Anyway, here are some pictures from the last week, including my short visit with friends and family before I left for Ohio.

Lindsay and Leslie Scare Lily.

Mom, Jan and I at a gravestone, the guy that ook the picture wasn't really familiar with digital cameras, we were lucky to get this one. Milan, OH This guy lived next door to the Edison's when Thomas A. Edison was a young boy. Maybe he gave Edison the idea for the lightbulb??

Mom and I at a civil war veteren's gravestone in Athens, OH. We actually have a picture of this guy. He walked all the way to West Verginia to join up because Ohio was too slow to join the Union for him.

A visit extended.

The original plan was this: The girls and I fly to Washington, they stay with grandparents while I go to Ohio on a trip with my mom and her brother. When I got back to Washington, we were going to leave the next day for Texas and then be in Texas until June 25th when we were going to leave again for Washington, driving this time. But things chaged. Lance and I decided it would probably save us time and money if the girls and I just stayed here until after Brent's wedding. So now Lance will also be more fee to make bussiness stops along the way here.
So we are here in Washington. An unexpected but fun turn of events!

Katie's New Toy

Katie got a new toy tonight. She followed the directions really closely!

Week in Review

We've got some catching up to do. I know it's been a long time since our last post so we will try to make it up to you.
This week the weather has been much better. We started out with some loud storms but no more getting caught in them! We have a cute/funny picture of the girls in one of the thunder storms. They huddled together in Lindsay's bed.
As the weather improved, the pool opened and we have tried to get good use of it. The girls aren't too sure about the big pool but they love the kiddie pool!
Other pictures from this week, fun faces at the table and Leslie got her head stuck, and a picture of John, which I think is pretty good!
We had a pretty busy week but this weekend is even busier. Lance is watching the girls while mommy scrapbooks all weekend. We also have two open houses so pray for our house to sell!!

A gift from Lance and yucky storm.

So Lance is in Washington to start his new job. The first morning that he was gone (yesterday) we received a fun gift from him. It was a cookie bouquet. The girls were very excited, and we only have one full cookie left.
Last night the girls and I went to our usual Wednesday night church functions. The forecast wasn't good and I instinctively thought maybe we shouldn't go, but I went against that (plus I just wanted to get out of the house) and went to church. by the time we got to the parking lot is was raining pretty heavy but not windy. When it was time to leave you would have thought we were in a hurricane. The rain was completely horizontal and you couldn't get 2 steps out of the doors without being nearly soaked. After an attempt to get the car that left me completely soaked (I could have gotten in the shower with my clothes on and would not have been as wet as I was last night) I was standing in the lobby not knowing what to do when a friend's husband (who probably saw me running around the parking lot like a crazy person) took my keys from me and pulled our car up so we could load up. I wish that was the worst of it, but it wasn't. We drove home through the storm, later I found that it was probably the worst of the storm. I have never been driving in a storm like that. The streets were like rivers. I now understand how people get stuck in this kind of thing. You can't even see the high water because it all looks like high water. Anyway, I prayed our way home and was glad when we got home that the power was not out so we could pull right into the garage. I think that next time, I will have to trust my instincts and stay put!
I had typed all of the above before our outing today. I think I should report on our crazy day today as well. We went to a thankfully uneventful playgroup today and on our way home I decided to check out Old Navy, not to buy anything, just to look. Anyway, when we got back to the car I somehow hit the lock button on my key chain and then after putting Leslie in her car seat and grabbing keys I closed the door and went to the other side to put Lindsay in her seat. The door was locked and the keys in my hand were only house keys! So I tried all the other doors only to find that they, too, were locked. So without wasting a moment, I ran inside and called 911 and they came to get Leslie out. I was pretty proud of myself that aside from shaking, I kept pretty calm. Lindsay and I tried to entertain Leslie with peek a boo but she started to get a little miffed at us just before the EMS guys showed up. She was probably in there less than 15 minutes but she was pretty sweaty when we finally got to her. It was warm, but at least the sun was covered by overcast clouds at the time. Anyway, you can probably guess that I am really ready for Lance to be back!

I will add pictures of the cookie bouquet later, I am too tired to mess with it now, and I am headed to bed.