Today the kids & i went bowling.  It was the first time for Jakob and Josie's second time.  We met up with 3 other families at the bowling alley.  The kids were all really good & did great on the bowling alley.  We only had 2 minor accidents.  Jakob wasn't watching where he was going & fell down the little step.  He was walking backwards ... something he should never do.  And poor little Abby tried to lift a ball that was a little too heavy for her & fell over with it & bonked her face. 

Jakob was so excited to throw the ball down the alley.  A few times we had to guide him to the correct lane, but other than that, he did great!  In the beginning, he stayed up by the alley & did a sort of dance while the ball slowly rolled down the lane.  By the 5th frame, he was getting tired & liked the air blower better.  

Josie did great, too. It was her second time, so she acted like she was a pro bowler.  Of course, she got the high score with the kids (77), which only strengthened her belief that she was the best.  UGH!  But, i'm happy to report that she was her sassy self at the bowling alley.  She talked with all the other kids & grown-ups we went with.  SO, that was good.

 Here's the pict of jakob liking the blower.  We all enjoyed pizza & root beer, too.  I know the kids had fun bowling, but they may have had more fun drinking the root beer with everyone just as much (or maybe more).  I do have a picture of all the kids, so stay tuned for that one ... it's really cute!!  

My mom & dad surprised us with a visit to the bowling alley, too.  They wanted to see the kids in action.  After bowling we went to their house.  Jakob rode with them & fell asleep on the way (it's a 10 minute drive).  He was beat!  All that bowling really wore the kids out.  We might have to do this more often!

Ok, so it's been a long while since I've posted anything out here.  Maverick is 5 months old if that tells you anything.  So per request I figured I would toss our Halloween pics out.  Camden loved it this year.  He was Spiderman and loved going from house to house asking for candy.  He thought that was pretty cool.

He surprisingly did great putting on his costume and sitting still to put on all the face paint.  He'll be 3 at Christmas, so for a 2 and a half year old to sit that still was pretty cool. 

Maverick "dressed up" as a giraffe and was very cute.  He was asleep two houses in, so he was great.  And the giraffe costume was heacy enough that it kept him nice and warm all night.

Click read more to see the pics a little bigger.

It's our family tradition (from mark) to go to the County Fair when it rolls into town.  Last week was the fair, so the 2nd night it was open we met our friends there (with their 2 kids).  The kids had a BLAST!!  And we did, too.  Picture on the left shows what josie looked like when we got home.  Jakob fell asleep on the way home, of course.  Both kids came home with whistles, crazy yoyos, light-up stuff.  It was so much fun!  Josie went on the kid's dragon roller coaster and had a huge smile on her face the whole time.  Jakob really enjoyed the motorcycles (i think the same ones that mark went on as a kid).  Jakob thought it was so funny that his motorcycle was popping a wheelie. 

After many months of waiting, our new son arrived on Tuesday June 24th at 10:34pm. 

He was 8 lbs 1 oz, and 20 inches long.  Mommy and baby are doing great. 

After a lot of debating, we named him Maverick Michael... 

So far he's a very good baby.  Doesn't cry too much, **fingers crossed**, and he's eating very good.

Mommy actually said that the birth and delivery went pretty good, so that's great. 

Anyway, back to the baby, I'm sure that I'll write some more about him and upload more pictures later. 

Click the read more icon to take a look at a couple more pictures.

Today Mark took Jakob to a kid's fishing program at a state park near our house.  Josie was signed up for it, but she refused to go with him this morning.  That girl is something else.  Mark would've had to literally drag her out the door if he was taking her. 

I asked jakob if he wanted to go & he was so excited.  "yah, i wanna go fishing, yah, let's go".  I think he was waiting in the van before mark even had his shoes on. 

So, the boys went in the rainy weather.  They ended up not fishing because of the rain & thunderstorms.  The event served lunch & then gave out prizes.  Every kid there went home with a prize.  Mark said there was some really nice stuff.  Our nephew Michael won a "big prize" of a new bike.  I guess he was really excited, especially since it's the 2nd year in a row that he won a bike! 

For all of you out there with toddlers, you will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say toddler translations.  Camden is almost two and a half, and he talks and talks and talks....  Unfortunately, Sharla and I are sometimes the only ones that can understand what he's saying.  So, I've decided to help out a little bit, and provide some toddler translations for Camden.

I'll start off with Norn on the bob.  This one he says clearly, and it's when he is eating his corn on the cob.  It's hilarious, norn is his word for corn.  Sharla and I tried a throwback to the Beavis and Butthead days and asked him to say "Cornholio".  He says "Nornholio" great now, but the first time we asked him he said "Norn A-hole", which made Sharla and I just bust out laughing.