Beautiful Wedding

My brother got married this month, and we are so happy for him and his new bride, Nicole. The wedding was beautiful from beginning to end...gorgeous bride, handsome groom, and the most adorable ring bearer and flower girl I ever saw. (I happen to be the ring bearer's mom, but I am totally convinced that last statement is true regardless of any partiality I might posses!) We are so thankful for the blessings that God has richly provided for Jonathan and Nicole. My photos don't do their wedding justice, but here are a few anyway!

Isn't that groomsmen on the far right particularly dashing?

These two are amazing dancers. Wow!

Daniel enjoyed his turn dancing with the beautiful bride too!

Love this photo of my parents!

Summer Fun

This July has been a steamy one. According to one radio report, this is the hottest summer since 1980, the year I was born. Despite the extreme heat, we have had some fun times.

The photos below were taken on the final night of t-ball practice for the summer. Daniel really enjoyed it and especially had fun palling around with his friend Grant.

This summer we bought Daniel a Slip 'n Slide. He has had so much fun playing on it, though he is a little hesitant to do an all out run, jump, belly slide. So, he just scoots up and down it and enjoys playing in the water.
Notice how it looks like Brian is bowling in the above photo? Well, to some extent he was...with our son as the ball! Daniel loved getting an extra push down the slide to increase his speed!

The Fourth of July is always a big to-do in our little town. We participated in quite a few of the activities this year, beginning with the kid's fishing tournament on Saturday morning. Daniel caught three fish--a small, medium, and large one! Daniel believed his participation ribbon meant he got first place. In addition to fishing, Daniel did the pony rides, the bow shoot, the treasure hunt, the bounce house, and watched the parade (accruing a whole bag of candy). It was a fun weekend! Daniel was so taken with shooting a bow and arrow, that he has now acquired one of his very own. I keep saying, "Really? He is only 3!"

The treasure hunt consisted of digging for quarters in the sand. Daniel was the very best treasure hunter of the bunch and managed to get about $4 in the short time they were allowed to dig. He took it to Wal-Mart and spent it the next day!

June Celebrations

In June we had many reasons to celebrate with our families. First there was Father's Day, followed by my grandmother's birthday and Sara's birthday (both of which happen to fall on the same day). Here are some photos of our families together!

Brian opening his Father's Day gift.

Three generations of men

I didn't take any photos of my dad on Father's Day, but I wanted to include him too! Here he is letting Daniel drive the combine!

The photos below were taken at my Grandma Ruth's birthday celebration.

Four generations

Great-Grandma Irma and Daniel

Great-grandpa Johnnie and Daniel

The photos below were taken in KC when we celebrated Sara's birthday.

Mother and daughter

Birthday girl getting some help from two of her favorite men.

At T-Rex Cafe

Fun at the pool

Flat Stanley

Some of you might be familiar with the children's book, Flat Stanley. I have never read it but am somewhat familiar with the story. Stanley is a normal little boy until one night, his bulletin board falls on him and squashes him flat. He quickly finds that there are some perks to being flat. For example, he can travel around the world very inexpensively, being shipped in a large envelope.

This summer, our local library did a Flat Stanley activity. The kids colored, cut out, and laminated a little man, who we called Library Larry (instead of Flat Stanley). Library Larry went with us on all our summer travels, and then we took photographs of him in different places and sent them to the library to be displayed.

Here are some photos of Daniel and Library Larry!

At the zoo

Measuring Library Larry's wing span...3 inches!

Riding the train

Combining wheat with Poppy

At Cabela's

At the T-Rex Cafe

At Moon Marble company

Conversations with Daniel

Daniel: Mommy, I've got to tell you somethin'.

Me: What's that?

Daniel: There are some mean flamingos in America.

Me: Really?

Daniel: Yeah. Some in Africa too.

Me: How do you know about these things?

Daniel: Ohhh, I just made them up!

I'd say!

It has begun...

Daniel has started playing on his first organized sports team....and he is only three! Yesterday was our first t-ball practice. Daniel is one of the youngest on the team, but he seemed to have fun, so we will go back next week. When asked what he liked about practice, he said his favorite part was batting and wearing the helmet. He also liked running the bases "in the right order."

Star Wars Day

Some friends of ours hosted a Star Wars Day at the local library. We took Daniel and had so much fun! He made several Star Wars crafts, built with Star Wars legos, had a caricature drawn of himself as a Jedi, shot some Star Wars guns, and won some awesome prizes. His absolute favorite part was the light saber battles. He didn't let being the smallest one out there bother him one bit. This child is way more outgoing than I ever was, though the man dressed up as Boba Fett intimidated him just a little!