eating and elections

Our friend,Walt Rogers, is running for State Senate this year. He worked at the church with me for years, and is leaving ministry for politics. Luke and I have helped a bit with his campaign.

This is Walt & Boaz hanging out a couple nights ago.









The last few nights (Friday-Tuesday), we have had people at our place working on some mailings for the campaign. I've enjoyed having the free time to be able to say 'yes' to all this! Tuesday night, there were 20+ people here until after midnight!! It was fun to host everyone and be able to help out in this way.

More people working on mailings... Luke in the background working on stamping. Boaz enjoyed hanging out with the candidate!!

On another note... Boaz just recently began trying to feed himself bananas. These are a couple funny pictures from his last attempt.

We have a fun routine going most mornings. Boaz and I enjoy sitting in the recliner together, snugging and sharing a banana. I think it's his favorite part of the day. He gets so excited when we walk to the bunch of bananas in the kitchen!

He enjoys bananas so much that we think it's his first word- other than mama and dada. We swear we've both heard him say "nana." It happened again this morning when I was cutting his banana into pieces... that makes 3 times I've heard it now. I'm pretty convinced??

Man I love kissing these smiley cheeks!! Even when they're smeared in banana!

fall photos.

Monday was a beautiful day here... perhaps the last beautiful day we'll see for awhile. Boaz & I spent as much time as possible enjoying the outdoors that day. In the afternoon, I decided we needed to get some fall photos around the neighborhood. Here's what we came up with! (there are a lot of pictures here... I just couldn't choose!!)

This last photo was me looking down at him after he lost his balance and fell in the grass! :)

"ehhh"....the hunt for Ozzie.

Our dog Ozzie is great. He's such a good dog. He rings a bell on our back door when he has to go outside to potty. Yesterday he told me he had to go, so I let him outside. He does a really good job of staying in the backyard most of the time. We have to keep an eye on him, because he occasionally likes to go 'wild' and run to the front yard and pee on the utilities box.

Yesterday, he decided to show his independence and ran around front. I had Boaz in my arms, so we took a shortcut and belined through the house and out the front door to chase him down. However, when we got to the front yard, Ozzie wasn't anywhere in sight. I was puzzled. So I naturally started walking around the house calling for him. "Ozzie! Ozzie!" Each time I yelled "Ozzie," Boaz- my little helper- yelled with me!! His sounded more like "Ehhhh," but he was yelling it with me! "Ozzie!" "Ehhhh!" "Ozzie!" "Ehhh!"

Ozzie was around back, patiently waiting at the door to get inside. But even after I found him, I kept yelling "Ozzie!" because my little helper and his yelling were too cute to stop! Great work finding Ozzie, Boaz!!

the big game

This past Saturday, Emily & Greg came with their kids. Grandma & Grandpa Glace came to babysit all of them while the four of us went to the UNI/North Dakota State football game. Greg is a NDSU alum, so we had a fierce rivalry going....

Here's grandpa reading to Hannah, Ellie, & Boaz. Ellie is keeping Boaz entertained??



Cousin Zachary is exactly one month younger than Boaz. This time next year, they will be wrestling instead of sitting still!








The boys laughing at Grandpa...


















Greg, Emily, Luke & I leaving for the game in our respective team colors.



Notice how forlorn Greg is looking?? See the picture below for the reason!! :)











GO PANTHERS!

We had a fun time at the game and hope to make this a tradition when NDSU comes to the dome. It was great to see Emily & Greg again and we think that grandma and grandpa had fun with the kids! I bet they were exhausted by the end of the night!! Maybe as exhausted as the Mighty Bison after 4 quarters in the dome??

big chairs & wooden spoons

Our little boy is 8 months old today!! The time is going incredibly fast. He's sitting up like a champ and can get anywhere in the room he wants to be- though it's not pretty! He's not officially crawling, but scoots himself all over the place.






These pictures were taken in the giant chair at Simpson's Rooms4Less- where Grandma Bartlett works.

Boaz perfected using his pincers to pick up food on Friday (the 10th). He's enjoying his puffs and loves to feed himself. Finger food will also make the nursery a breeze. Boaz stayed in there the whole hour for the second Sunday in a row!! He had a blast playing with the other kids. He got fussy once, but the puffs saved the day!




Daddy and Boaz snuggling on the chair...

Boaz & I have enjoyed lots and lots of walks this week... squeezing in all the time we can outside before we are blessed with Iowa winters. Boaz has also enjoyed his toy car this week. He sits on it and Luke pushes him around the living room.

We have all kinds of great toys, but as you'll see below... sometimes the best ones are free...
(I'm hoping Boaz will use these skills to be a drummer like mommy!)

while daddy's away....

.... Boaz wears soccer shirts!! :)

(sorry, daddy.)

new hat...

It's been awhile since I posted! Last week I finally started to feel like I'm a stay-at-home mom! I'm absolutely loving it. It's been beautiful here, so Boaz and I have been taking long walks, playing outside a lot, and taking in every last moment of nice weather... we all know that Iowa winter is around the corner!

A couple weekends ago, 3 friends and I went to Des Moines for a 'girls day.' We went to Jordan Creek, ate dinner, and had a great time hanging out together.

While the girls were out shopping, the husbands had the kids all day! Luke did awesome with Boaz... they watched lots of football together. I did great with my budget and limited myself to 2 purchases from Plato's Closet (a thrift store). This new hat was my one 'splurge' of the day... although 1/2 was funded by a friend's gift card she needed to use up. (thanks, kris!) Boaz actually loves to wear it. I think he knows he looks really cool!! :)




This past Saturday, we went to Eldora and spent the day with Grandma & Grandpa Glace. We had to get a photo shoot on mom's porch. He did this pose all by himself... doesn't he look deep in thought? I think he looks more and more like his daddy every day. They are two peas in a pod. Boaz even sticks his tounge out when he's focusing. (luke does that when he signs his name on stuff!!)

Boaz is not quite crawling, but so close! He has developed a little scoot that I need to try to get video of soon.





On Sunday, the Mulligan twins paid us a visit. Boaz, Grady, & Ella had fun rolling around and watching Ozzie for entertainment.

One BIG milestone for Boaz... he stayed in the nursery at church for the entire hour on Sunday!! We were so proud of him. They flash your kid's number up on the big screens during the service if you have to go get them. For the past 2 months, it was inevitable that 5-10 minutes into the service our number would pop up and we would take the walk of shame out of the community center to get our screaming child. Hopefully those days are over. :)

Boaz LOVES his baby food. He likes anything we feed him. He's like a little bird... opens up really wide between each bite. It makes me laugh every time.

He has been fighting his bottle lately. He refuses to drink from it and would rather have the real thing. We're trying to get him to use it, so Sunday Luke and I both had bottles of milk with our lunches to 'model' it for him!! (the silly things parents will do!) He did actually put his in his mouth and chewed on it, but no drinking. We wondered if the bottle hurt his gums with this new tooth he's working on, so I did an experiment... I put a little juice in a bottle. And he drank it!! What a stinker. Some friends have given me recommendations, so we'll keep trying different approaches. I'll let you know when he takes one again!