Update Time

We have really been enjoying our summer and I haven't taken very much time time to post about what is going on with our family. Hopefully this post won't get too lengthy. But, that is the beauty of Blogging, you can just stop reading whenever you want and I will be none the wiser.

Painting

Ever since we moved into our house, I wanted to add more color to our house through accent walls, decorations, curtain, etc. The problem is that is all seemed too everwhelming and expensive. A few months ago, though, I realized that we could do a little here and a little there and it didn't seem too daunting after that. So, I talked with Andrew and we decided to start with painting a few accent walls. After pondering and discussing for a while, we decided to do a light blue accent on the back wall in our living room and a dark red color on the back wall in the kitchen/dining room. I loved how it turned out and can't wait to add more color through curtians and other decorations.

Family in Town

In the middle of August Andrew's sister, Anna got married. All of Andrew's family was in town. We had alot of fun having everybody here. For their wedding, Andrew and I decided to make them a personalized game board complete with personalized checkers. I was very pleased with how it turned out. I got the idea for the present on the website The Thirfty Chick.

The day after the wedding, we all went to Settlers Park which has a really big playground and a splash pad. The kids and some adults had fun getting wet.
Keagan's First Birthday Invitation

This past week, our next door neighbors little boy turned two. Keagan got to attend his very first birthday party by himself. It was a fish theme and Keagan seemed to have a great time. I took a picture of him before he left, but forget to take one when he got home.

A weekend with Daddy
This past weekend was the first weekend in a long time when we had Daddy at home with us for the whole weekend. Boy did we have fun! On Saturday evening, we went to Katherine Albertsons Park, walked around and fed the ducks.

Lots of Bananas
When Andrew came home from work on Thursday, he brought home a box full of bananas. We have been trying to use as much as possible before going they go bad. We've had bananas in our cereal, in shakes and banana splits. Then I went online to look for things to make with bananas. We found a recipe for Strawbana Bread, which turned out really good. The recipe can be found on Smithalicious. We also made regular banana bread that day.

When we were making the Strawbanana Bread Sunday morning, Keagan was watching a cartoon. I asked him if he wanted to come unwrap the sticks of margarine, which he loves to do. He came into the kitchen and said to me "I don't have time to help". But a little later, when it came time to lick the bowl, he had plenty of time to help.

Deker's Hair
For the past month or so, I have started to notice some changes happening to Deker's hair. Usually, after baths and stuff, I would brush Deker's hair down and in the past month or so, I have started noticing it curling in some spots. I finally came to the realization that Deker is starting to have curly hair when one morning after Deker's bath, I combed it down and then once it was dry there were several spots when it curled on its own. So...I guess we now have two curly headed boys.

Time to Walk

A few weeks ago, Deker started taking a couple of steps. It started with me standing him up, backing away a few steps and he would take 2-4 steps and then fall. After experiementing with that for a few weeks, Deker started to test out the walking waters even more. This past Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 26), Andrew was at work and the boys and I were downstairs. Deker was at the coffee table and he walked to the entertainment center, touched it, turned around and walked back to the Coffee table. He did that quite a few times (probably at least 6 or 7 times) and then stopped. Then Friday while we were all home, he started doing the same thing. He did that same route about 5 or 6 times and then started going longer distances. He would go from the coffee table to the piano and back. Then from the coffee table to the kitchen table and back. It was so fun to see him testing it out and realizing that he can do it. Here is a video we took of him this morning out on our driveway.

Reading the Comics

Andrew likes to read the comics in the Sunday paper. The past couple of weeks, while Andrew has been reading the comics, Keagan comes up and wants to read them with Andrew. The past couple of weeks I have heard Andrew trying to "read" the comics to Keagan and this is what I have been seeing along with it.

Our First Family Campout

Per my previous post, we went on our very first family campout this past weekend. We left right after breakfast Friday morning and got back Saturday afternoon. We wanted to do a short one our first time so we could see how me and the kids did. We all had a great time. The kids had fun playing in the dirt or anything else that Daddy was using and I had fun watching them and relaxing. I was very grateful for the little cart that Deker has to push around. It kept him from crawling around in the dirt too much. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Deker and his "cart".
Andrew forgot the hammer so he was using a rock to pound the stakes into the ground for the tent. Keagan thought he needed to do that also and of course, Deker thought he needed to help as well.

While Deker was trying to take an afternoon nap, Keagan found me sitting in a camp chair with my feet up on an ice chest, so he decided he needed to do the same. He pulled his chair and the other ice chest over and sat down beside me.
Deker playing with the firewood
Of course little boys think that hammocks are to swing on.
We packed up camp after breakfast on Saturday morning so that we could stop and do some fishing on our way home. When we got there, Andrew got his fishing pole in the water and I was watching/holding it while Andrew was getting Keagan's fishing pole ready. Andrew looked over and said "You've got a fish!" Because it was my first time fishing I said "Really? What do I do now?". We caught about 4 - 5 fish, but they were all pretty small and so we let them all go. But here is a picture of me and my first fish and then pictures of Keagan and Andrew fishing.