Fun in the Sun at Kentucky Lake

We spent an awesome weekend as a family at Kentucky Lake. Karen and Dave Maschhoff invited us and two other families from Bradley's office down to their gorgeous lake home for the weekend. We had such an awesome time! Their home is huge and beautiful and we had our own suite to stay in with private balcony, etc.

The kids all had so much fun swimming in their infinity pool (waterslide) and boating. Lauren even finally got brave enough to jump off the back of the boat without me having to catch her every time! I never did get her talked into going on the jet ski but that's okay. Maybe next time! Blake loved the pool but was not crazy about his life jacket. His way of coping with the bulky thing confining his neck was just to sleep. God bless him! This has been a big week of firsts for him with his first pool party on Thursday at our friend's Carrie and Jason and then this weekend. The adults enjoyed some quality time in the hot tub after all the kiddos were asleep last night which was wonderful!

Karen cooked us three wonderful meals and then took us all out to eat today at Patti's Restaurant. The food was amazing and I can't wait to go back with our extended family. Thank you Dave and Karen for a wonderful weekend! Thanks also to our good friend Aaron and Selena and Cliff and Ann for making the weekend so much fun!

Pedicures

On Wednesday evening we headed out for a "girls night out" with a group of moms and daughters from our old neighborhood. We went out for dinner and then indulged ourselves with pedicures. It was Lauren's 1st time so I had to take pictures. The girls had so much fun and even talked the mommy's into getting their nails painted too! They were all so proud of their designs on their big toes and thumbs. I'm just hoping I don't get asked to do it regularly. She's only 4 and at this rate she'll have more pedicures by age 6 than I've had in my whole life!

Fair Days!

We traveled to Grandma and Grandpa Bartlow's this weekend to enjoy kids day at the Hancock County Fair. It's always fun to be go back to your hometown and see people you grew up with and to meet their kiddos. It's amazing how much people change yet stay the same. Lauren had a wonderful time with her cousins Addison, Brenna, and Braden. They loved riding rides, playing games, and eating fair treats like elephant ears and snow cones.

The Cousins!




Enjoying the rides!


Lauren at the pedal tractor pull.

Blake's Tricks

Blake's top fascinations these days!

10. Floor vents - still can't leave these alone

9. Night lights - he can pull these out of the outlet like a pro - he even managed to break Lauren's!

8. Lauren's piano - banging on the keys is great fun!

7. The dishwasher - what kids doesn't love the dishwasher

6. The refrigerator - as soon as the door opens, he races to see what he can reach. I'm just waiting for him to pull things off the shelf!

5. The shark - my quick floor sweeper is definitely a hit attraction. He loves to push it around and even tries to ride on it - it's quite funny.

4. Outside - Blake dearly loves to be outside. It's so cute to see how he races for the door and starts waving bye bye as soon as you say let's go outside.

3. Throwing his sippy cup - I think he should be a discus thrower when he gets older for the distance he can get on this thing when he's finished drinking!

2. Tractors - I think this will be his first word. He gets so excited when he sees them and even whines when I put him to bed until I read his tractor book.

1. Windows - there is really no point of wiping off the handprints - he loves to bang on the windows and tell me about what he's seeing in the distance.

I'm in a hurry to get things done - my theme song these days!

10 things that have happened at the Wolter Household since the last posting!

1. Celebrated the 4th of July weekend with The Diesen and Gaines' Families. We had a great time watching the kids throw pops and light sparklers. Blake was unimpressed by all the commotion and was more interested in sleeping.

2. We went to the Magic House on July 4th. Lauren thoroughly enjoyed it and is asking to go back already! We got there a little too late for her to do everything. Blake was unimpressed by it all but that's okay. Lauren was too scared to do the ball that makes your hair stand on end so Blake and I did it instead!

3. More get togethers with friends. We have been fortunate to visit with many of our friends and family this past week. We enjoyed the day in Red Bud last Sunday with the Heller Family. This Sunday we spend time with Bradleys High School friends and welcomed the Casey Family visiting from Arizona.

4. Blake has taken up the art of "biting it" on the floor regularly. He gets to crawling so fast that he falls and ends up biting his lip! Poor little guy has had two bloody lips in the past week!

5. Blake has moved on from his fascination with floor registers to climbing up to see out of windows and pulling up on anything that might support him! He's also figured out some of him push toys now so watch out world! It's amazing just how fast he can crawl and move when his big sister is chasing him!

6. Blake turned 10 months old! Wow where did the time go. He marked his special day by getting an ear infection. Fun, fun. I just hope this will end his 3 week long fever that we've been fighting. This topped off the week of him biting me each time I tried to nurse him. Needless to say we are weaning now. He doesn't even want a bottle - only a sippy cup. I guess I should be happy but it's kind of bittersweet actually....

7. Alice in Wonderland - We went to see the local kids production of this on Friday night. Lauren LOVED it and wants to be in the kids musical that our county puts on every year as soon as she's able - age 6!

8. Blake is a true farm boy. He dearly loves to ride on the tractor! Whenever Grandpa Floyd is over visiting he gets a ride which he thinks is great. Big sister Lauren follows behind on her John Deere power tractor which is very cute to see.

9. Lauren started a week of swim lessons. She even went off the diving board today by herself! I'm so proud of her. She's making progress each day and I hope by the end of the summer we might get her swimming!

10. It's County Fair time. We attended the Clinton County Fair parade last night. Grandma Vernitta walked in the parade with her work group so we went to watch and catch lots of candy.
We plan on visiting the fair sometime this week and then wrapping up the week by traveling to Grandma and Grandpa Bartlow's to attend kids day at the Hancock County Fair! Then just one more month until the state fair!

Catching up!

Wow we've had another whirlwind of activity in our family since our last post. Here is a recap of what we've been doing!

Grandma Marcia arrived on Thursday just in time to watch the kids while 15 of my youth group kids came over for pizza following a fun filled afternoon of bumper boats, go carts, and put put golf. It was a good time!

Friday morning, I left for the Ozarks early with two girlfriends to go shopping at the outlet mall for the day. Grandma Marcia held the fort down for the weekend and Grandma and Grandpa Wolter got in on the babysitting action as well. Friday night Bradley and I met up with the rest of the executive team from The Maschhoffs for a fun filled weekend. This was our first weekend away from the kids since Blake has been born almost 10 months ago! It was definitely needed. It was nice also to actually be able to drink more than one beer and eat a three hour long dinner! We spent the weekend boating, getting pulled over by the water police (twice!) and getting my eyes thoroughly opened at party cove. Mark my words, my daughter is never going to party cove until she's at least 30! Bradley and I came home on Sunday evening and we could not wait to see the kiddos.

Blake was a bit of a stinker for his grandmas while I was gone. He REFUSED to take a bottle the whole time I was gone. Now, this is the longest I've left him but he has never refused a bottle in the past with anyone. I wish I understand why, but I guess he truly does love his momma! Lucky for him he eats plenty of table food so he did not starve while I was away.

Monday night I took Lauren to see the Muny with her friend Kaylee and my friend Selena (Kaylee's mom). We saw Annie and Lauren loved it! She just couldn't get over the dog, etc. Today while in Walmart she was sitting on a bench while I was checking out. She kept throwing her feet in the air. I asked her what she was doing and she said the routine from Annie! Too cute! Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow...... One of my all time favorites as a kid and now my daughers!

Tuesday we traveled to Springfield for the day to visit my family from Texas. My Aunt Trina and cousins, Haley, Hannah, and Cade were here visiting. We had a wonderful time chilling by the dock and enjoying our unseasonably cool weather. While there Blake learned to pull up to standing on windows! He's only been crawling for 2 weeks and now were standing! Lauren got up close and personal with some of the fish Hannah was catching from the dock. Cade also taught Lauren all about things that 2nd grade boys do - scary! I wish they lived closer, the girls would be great babysitters for me!

Today Blake showed me more of his new tricks, pulling himself up to everything he could including kitchen chairs. Then once he was up, he pushed the chair around! Scary to think how soon he could be walking! Lauren walked at 10 months so we'll see if I have another "early" one on my hands. Yesterday morning, I caught him crawling up two steps on our back kitchen stairs. Ahhh - we must get the baby gates up soon!

Bradley has been working crazy hours again and is out of town today. I'm looking forward to this weekend so we can actually have some family time! We definitely need it! Only two more days until fireworks (we celebrate on the 3rd in our town) - yeah!!!