Having Fun at Gram & Grandad's house

Here are some pictures of the kids having a tea party with Gram, playing soccer and then climbing, hanging, swinging and jumping from their tree. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon!!

my commute this morning....

this morning I took the back route to work via dirt roads on my mtb........I saw some deer, wild turkeys and this beautiful sunrise (although this picture doesn't do it justice)

some pictures

here is a pic of the kiddos with their Easter baskets and some pics of a couple rainbows during last weeks rain...

snow in April !!!

last Thursday it started snowing about 2pm or so and snowed til dark.

Had to ride home in it, fortunately most of it melted since the ground was warm.

Here's a picture of me when i got home

SUPERMAN!!

This little guy goes by the name of SUPERMAN!!! You see, sometimes he thinks he can FLY........well, he found out Tuesday that he can't!! He decided to jump off of a large-tree-tire-swing at its highest point. We're not exactly sure how he landed, one of our friends was watching the kids and she had her backed turned, all she heard was a bunch of screaming. He broke his wrist clean thru both bones, doctor says he'll have to wear a cast for about 6 weeks. Anyways, hopefully next time he will learn how to land better.

Breckyn's Birthday Party

sorry for the lack of posts, we've been extremely busy and we no longer have internet access at home because DSL is not available in our area.

Anyways, we had a great time Saturday with family and friends for Breckyn's birthday party. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

she learned to do this from Mommy, can you believe that?????

Happy Birthday to our little Breckyn!!

Well, Breckyn turned 2 the other day, doesn't even seem possible.....time just flies.

Here is a picture of her puckering up........as you can see she learns from the best!!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BABY!!

bye bye apartment!!

Well, today over lunch I met Julie and the kids at the apartment so we could do the final cleaning before we turn over the keys. I have to say, I am not disappointed one bit......BYE BYE APARTMENT!!

Here is a picture of the cleaning crew!

finally moved!!

well, we're finally moved in (not unpacked). The move went fairly smooth, I had 5 guys helping me Saturday move the apartment and storage unit and I was amazed how fast we got that done. We were finished by 2pm, but I had to go back myself to get a few miscellaneous things. Julie had 3 helping her unpack the boxes, her Gram, Aunt Jan and friend Rebecca. The kids stayed at my parents house for the weekend so we could get all this done. Kellyn ended up with an ear infection early Sat morning at 1:30am so my Mom (Nana) was up with her for a few hours. Oh, and she also had diarrhea :), lucky Nana huh? Last time we moved (2.5 yrs ago), we ended up taking Kellyn to the minor emergency ctr with a high fever. She must not like us to move or something psychological like that.

Here are some pictures while we're resting and eating lunch:

Finally started packing

Well, we figured with only 2 days til we close on the house we better get to packing. we've made a little progress as you can see but there's a lot more to be done. Amazing how much stuff you can fit in a 900 square foot apartment!


Julie has decided that she hasn't missed 95% of the junk we put in the storage unit, so i think we'll be having a rather large garage sale pretty soon and Goodwill will inherit a windfall. Our new motto is going to be simplify, simplify, simplify!

The house is nearly done, today they did touchup painting, put on door knobs, put a final coat of lacquer on the wood floors, etc. It's looking pretty good.

We have the kids ready to be shipped off to Nana and Papa's house on Friday afternoon and a crew of guys coming over Saturday morning, let's get moving already!

3 days and counting......

til we close on the house. Have not packed one single thing yet :) We are so ready to move out of this apmt.

Here are some pictures of the deck progress and also one of our fireplace they finally completed

hiking in Kansas?

Sure, why not? Julie went to a women's retreat last night and today, so this morning the kids and I went on a little spontaneous hiking trip. We probably ended up walking 2 - 3 miles, which is quite a bit for these little munchkins!! We went to the Chisholm Trail Nature Center here in Wichita and we had a great time hiking the trails and enjoying the great weather! The kids were pretty tired after our little jaunt. Here are some pictures:

not much, just workin

Went for a run this morning for about 3 miles, the first time in about 2 months due to my ankle sprain, so it was slow goin. It felt pretty good, but I could definitely tell I was favoring it. Speaking of running, Julie has been training for the annual Easter Sun Run 10K coming up in about 4 weeks. She's hoping to finish this year :)

worked on the deck last night, here are some more pictures.

have a great day!!

progress on the deck

my Dad came down this weekend to help me work on the deck, here are some pictures:

finally....ice skating pictures from last weekend

here are some pictures of our ice skating adventure last weekend


here's Julie, Preston & Kellyn gettin ready to hit the ice





me & Presto




here are the girls watchin the zamboni do its work



Breckyn was keepin an eye on the action from the game room

slow blog day.....so here's a short biking story from last summer

It was July 2006 and the temps were hovering around 100 each day, sometimes getting up to 105, needless to say very very hot. It probably wasn't the smartest thing for me to do, but our local MTB club was holding a 95 mile dirt road ride down in Chataqua County Kansas, which is a very beautiful area. It was a supported ride, so I knew if I was to get into trouble help would be right around the corner. Also, there were many bail out points so you weren't of course obligated to ride the full 95. Well, it was a very tough day, but I made it the full 95 miles in about 8 hours. There were times where I was shivering (in 100 degree temps), not a good sign. I tried to stay well hydrated which wasn't a problem until close to the end. It became hard to put anything in my stomach. If you think Kansas is flat, come ride with me down in that area, and you'll come away with a different perspective. Here is a link to quite a few pictures of the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14973939@N00/sets/72157594203510248/

footings

oh, so exciting!!! a posting on footings!!!! woohoo!!

just thought i'd post of pic of my progress on the deck, a friend of mine, Todd, came to help me last night with getting the footings poured

here is a pic (sorry for the lack of good picture, it was late when we finished)

lots goin on

Sorry for the lack of posts.....it's been extremely busy. Today after work I hope to get the footings poured for the deck on our house so that they have time to cure before Saturday. If that happens, then my dad will be coming over to help me work on it on Saturday.

Last Saturday we went ice skating here in Wichita at the local rink. It was a first for the kids. I'll try to get some pics posted. Preston was quite the dare devil on the skates, he picked it up pretty fast, but not without many bruises. That kid fell so many times!!!!

Our closing date on the house is now set for March 16th, only about 2.5 weeks away. My my, how time flies!! Just seemed like yesterday we were moving into the apartment. Thank goodness it has gone so fast!!

everyone have a great day!!!

worked on my new deck today

the deck materials for our new house were delivered yesterday so i started working on the deck today


pretty much just got the ledger boards attached, here are some pics (yes, I am a very slow worker!!!)