It's a hand-me-down

We know it's pink and purple but it still rides fast and Noah doesn't care one way or the other. It came from Grandpa and that's all that matters.



Taking a break with Tanner and Grandpa. Noah had to lay his bike over on the grass just like Tanner's.

Sarah loves the men in her life

Grandpa Pingel putting Sarah to sleep at Christmas time.


Uncle Jim with Sarah and Rachel.

Grandpa Lindberg with Sarah, up close and personal.

July 12, was a grand day

Rachel can hold her bottle by herself.

Noah's first visit to the dentist

Listening and watching a little TV before the cleaning begins.

Getting all polished up.

Open wide

The yellow paper that is so prominent in the pictures... A certificate for a free hang-ga-burger from "Old McDonald's." He held for the entire appointment. Either he didn't want to lose it or he didn't trust his daddy to hold it.

The appointment went great. He got his teeth cleaned just fine and then cried for the dentist. Which in the long run was fine because his mouth was open wide for him to look at this teeth. No cavities, good room for his big boy teeth to come in and limit the strawberry milk. Do you know how hard it is to tell a cutie like Noah "no strawberry milk"? We're working on it. See you back in 6 months.

Our Daredevils...

She thinks she's so funny!

Look at me in the bouncy seat....
Standing up!

Little (I say that jokingly) Miss Sarah, climbing the stairs.

Both girls are getting around quite well. I think maybe a little too good. Rachel has everyone convinced she will be walking before she is 10 months old. She pulls up to anything and everything and has started "cruising". She is definitely taking after her mommy... I liked to cruise too, only it was Broadway in Council Bluffs and I was in high school.

Sarah is finally getting her big belly up off the floor and beginning to crawl instead of doing the army man crawl. Thank goodness for the hands and knees, maybe her clothes won't get so dirty from pulling herself on the floor everywhere.

Blowing bubbles

James and Rachel blowing bubbles.... It's real bubble gum!

She loves her daddy!

Update on the house

Our GQ pose. Yep, that's right, our new address. Noah is leaning on the south side wall of the garage. Isn't he soooo cute?



Look from across the street. There will be a house built to the right of our house which hasn't been started yet.

The garage entrance. The little mound on the left is the front stoop.


Forms for the basement walls.

Basement walls poured.

The back of our house. Walk out basement. Sliding door and window.



"livable basement portion"

Storage (maybe home office) and 3/4 bath area.


My little photographer Noah took this photo of me. He is getting pretty good at the digital camera.

There you have it the update. Now we wait for the other street of homes to be finished so they can start on ours. It will probably be pretty slow going now until about October when the framing will begin. Seems like a long wait but I'm sure it will be here before we know it.

Noah, the Bobble Head doll

Noah with his daddy's motorcycle helmet on.

He was ready to ride his "motorcycle."

He is always so brave when James starts up his motorcycle but then turns to mush because it is "too loud". Poor kid. I hope someday he won't cry when James turns of his motorcycle.

A day in the sun

A day at the pool with "our cousins," as Noah loves to refer to the girls. Gina and Veronica were staying over with Aunt Doris, so I thought it would be fun to have them all come over for a day at the pool. Mom drove them over along with Megan and Hailey. It was fun. We got pizza for lunch, enjoyed the pool here at the complex and had fun playing. I hope we can do it again sometime.

Veronica, Gina, Noah, Hailey and Megan (L to R)

Rachel and I in the back.

Rachel's first time in the pool. She really liked it, even though it was a little chilly.

Aunt Doris and Sarah, Grandma P and Rachel. Sarah was just happy as a clam to stay in the shade with Grandma and Aunt Doris.

Sunning themselves before we went back to the townhouse.

I guess this is what a mother-of-three looks like at the pool. SCARY!

Doing dishes

Thinking about helping with dishes...


Going in...

She looks so small. I guess she felt bad for daddy having to do dishes all by himself. Note the yellow gloves. No dish pan hands in this family!

Fourth of July...

It was officially their first fourth of July. They took in a party at "Auntie Jenny & Uncle Boomer's" on July 3rd and promptly slept through all the loud booms and screamers. They did make it through the night without a single mosquito bite. That's better than mommy who had to put band aids on the bites so I wouldn't scratch them.

Then it was off to Underwood for the big celebration. Here's a few highlights...

• Parade at 10:30 a.m.
• Grandma Pingel saved Sarah from a flying piece of candy.
• Daddy not so lucky. He was hit in the nose by a flying Now and Later and needed a little pressure to get the bleeding to stop. No ambulance was called and he was still able to light fireworks with Spencer and Tanner until 12:00 a.m. (yep, midnight)
• Ventured into the beer garden with mommy to see her high school buddies and have a nice cool refreshing margarita with family.
• Took a nice long nap for Mommy and Daddy at Grandma's house.
• Enjoyed the 2nd Annual Underwood Variety Show. Daddy was the MC, again, complete with his wonderful jokes. Enjoyed music from mommy's buddy, Andy Dofner, from high school. Grandma was in charge and she did a great job.
• Headed to the beer garden for a second round of drinks...well, mommy had a second margarita.
• Got sprayed down with smelly bug spray and settled in for the Community Fireworks display. Grandpa was in charge and boy did he do a great job. The girls watched intently, they never jumped at the loud booms and were wide eyed until the finale was complete.
• Headed home for beddy bye at 10:30 p.m. and crashed.

It was a big day for the girls but they were troopers. Noah had a few highlights of his own.

• July 3 - Spent the day with his cousins, Aunt Dixie, "Aunt" Lace and Grandma at the zoo.
• Stayed overnight with his cousins.
• (insert Parade, beer garden, and nap from above here)
• Noah was the only little boy in the yard at Jim and Dixie's picking up candy so he had a full bag of candy once the parade was done.
• Went on the blow up slip and slide with cousin Tanner and his friend, Colton.
• (insert Variety show and fireworks from above here)
• Lit fireworks with Daddy and his cousins until 12:00 a.m. (yep, midnight)

He too, had a great day.

Now, we are now preparing to head out to visit Grandma and Grandpa Lindberg in California in a couple of weeks. We will be celebrating Grandpa Jim's birthday with him and enjoying the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield.

Hope you all had a great fourth and blessings on a great rest of the summer.

Cute Pics...

So here's just a small sampling of the photos from the kids' photo shoot. I was disappointed with the photographer until I saw the finished shots. The kids sure got their photogenic-ness (is that a word?) from their daddy. Pretty cute.