David Cook Concert

So last Friday, July 17th, Dan and I drove down to Sioux City to see the David Cook concert. It was so awesome!!! We had pretty good seats and Dan has his camera with so we got some really great pictures. It was probably the most fun I've had in a long time. I think Dan even enjoyed it. LOL My only complaint was that it didn't last long enough. The warm up band played for about 45 minutes and David and his band played for just over an hour. I'm hoping to get tickets to the Mitchell SD concert on August 29th. I don't know if Dan will be able to go or even wants to go yet, but I'm crossing my fingers. Enjoy the pictures!

Tomorrow is the day!

Dan will finally be home tomorrow! I thought he was going to be coming home on Wed., so I was a little off. LOL!!! Anyway, we are planning to pick up some balloons and have a welcome sign ready when we pull up tomorrow. He is actually already on his way, but he won't get into Sioux Falls until tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully all goes well and he's here on time. :)
He sent a package when he was in Oman. It arrived today and was full of fun surprises. The girls had a blast going through it all. I included a couple pictures of some of the neat things he sent. I'm not sure what the second picture is, so I'll have to ask him tomorrow. LOL
We are all really excited to have him home! Can't wait!!!

4th of July/Birthday

We had such a good time over the 4th of July weekend! The kids and I stayed out at the Casino for two nights. Friday the 3rd it rained. That was kind of a bummer, but we watched the fireworks display anyway. :) They had some games for the kids and food too. That was all moved indoors.

Saturday the 4th we grilled out at my parents. We spent the day playing lasso golf and eating. :) I got some nice cards and $ for my birthday and Dan sent flowers. That night we made s'mores around the fire pit then Chris and Zach shot off some fire crackers.

Sunday we headed back to Sioux Falls, but we took a little detour through Curry MN. They have a train museum called "End O Line Railway". It was a nice day and the kids had fun. Brayden of course was in HEAVEN. :)

Western Fest

Finally getting around to blogging about Western Fest. Sheesh time just gets away from me! Anyway, it was the 24-27th of June. I put the girls in the kiddie parade with their cousin Nick. They didn't win, but they had some tough competition. :) They sure looked cute though and of course Brayden was all decked out in his cowboy custom for the big parade.

My 15 year class reunion was that weekend too. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to go. I didn't have a babysitter and there was just too much else going on. Maybe I'll get to the next one. :)

Brayden turns 3

Brayden turned 3 years old on June 24th. I didn't get a chance to blog until now. Things have been so busy! Anyway, on his actual birthday we spent the day in Granite and the girls were in the kiddie parade for Western Fest. We celebrated his birthday on the 27th with a Thomas themed party of course. :) We had it at grandma and grandpa's house and it was lots of fun. He got a lot of Thomas and train gifts. He was in heaven!

Brayden is such a crazy little boy, and he is definitely ALL boy. He is constantly on the move and I am so amazed at how different boys are than girls. :) He is obsessed with trains. He can name every Thomas engine and every part of a train. I don't know how he does it! He loves to watch the History Channel when they have specials on trains. His favorite is "Extreme Trains". He also loves any book or puzzle that has anything to do with trains. He recently fell in love with Tinkerbell - LOL. This came completly out of the blue and just cracks me up. He loves to watch the Tinkerbell and Fairies movie and has a tiny Tinkerbell figurine that he loves to carry around.

Our days are usually spent watching some type of train or Thomas movie and then playing with trains all day. He also loves the outdoors. He draws trains with the sidewalk chalk, rides the scooter, plays in the sandbox and swing on the playset. He also loves to swim and go for bike rides. He is such a joy to watch as he grows and learns. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store. :)

Father's Day

So it's not the most exciting Father's Day for us. We aren't doing much celebrating since Dan is still gone. We will be heading back to Granite on Friday for 5 days, so we'll celebrate Father's Day with my family next weekend. We miss you Dan and hope you are having a good day. Wish you were here!!! The one small perk of having dad away though:

I made chocolate cookies today and Sydney said she was so glad I made them because she'll finally get one before daddy steals them all. :)

Sick Kiddos

Well we will be going on day 4 for Sydney being sick. The poor kid has missed her first 2 days of theatre camp and it doesn't look like she'll be going back tomorrow. I made a doctor's appointment for her tomorrow. Lyndsey was sick for about 3 or 4 days last week, but she wasn't nearly as bad as Sydney. Sydney's temp has been as high as 103.8! Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow or we'll get some answers and help from the doctor. This sure has been a crazy summer!

Pretty in Pink

This is what happens when you let your 7 yr old sister decide what you are going to play. However, he was very proud of himself. LOL Poor thing is going to hate me when he's older!

O'Fallon Weather

Wow! It was always so stormy when we lived there It seemed we were always in some kind of watch or warning. Tonight they had a tornado and damage from straight lined winds. I hope everyone is ok. Looks like some damage to homes, businesses and schools. Lots of clean up and power outages. What a pain! I'm also thankful we don't live there right now. If we had damage to our house, I don't know what I would do without Dan for 2 months!

Painted Exterior

The painters started today - wooohooo! I agonized over the color for a long time and thankfully it looks good! It used to be a dark blue and I wanted something lighter and neutral. It was hard to match that ugly red brick, but now I don't think it looks so bad. It will be awesome once Dan is able to stain the wood and we get some decent landscaping. :)

Rainy, Cold Weekend

Well it turned out to be a really crappy weekend, weather wise. There was snow in the Black Hills and ND. Sheesh! So we made the most of it. We ended up going to the Washington Pavilion for the first time and then to Chuck E Cheese's. Wooo hooo! LOL The kids had a great time with their grandparents and cousins, but unfortunately Lyndsey was a little under the weather. She's had a bad cough and is really tired. She seems to be feeling a bit better today. I took the girls to VBS and I haven't gotten a call to come and get her yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Lyndsey lost a tooth today

So Dan goes to Iraq and Sydney loses her first tooth. Now he's off to Saudi Arabia and Lyndsey loses her first tooth. Wonder where he'll be when Brayden loses his first one.

She was so excited! She's been working on it for awhile and she can't wait to see what the tooth fairy brings!

Dan is gone

Well Dan left today for Saudi and Oman. He'll be gone for about two months, hopefully less if they can get things done sooner. Please pray that he will be safe and that the kids and I will manage ok without him. I've got some things planned for us to pass the time and when he returns we get to go to Disney - yeah! Can't wait.