Sonja's visit over Labor Day

A quilting friend of mine that I met online over 3 years ago, came to visit family in WI and on their way back home, came out of their way thru Iowa to see me and my family. What a treat it was, to get to hang out with her and her family for a couple days!! We sat around and had a picnic on Sunday night and just chatted.

Monday we got up and they took the kids and I metal detecting!! Mason was pretty excited about it, but then the newness wore off and he just wanted to play in the park. I have a feeling in a couple of years, his attention span will be longer and he will enjoy something like that!! They sure have found some great treasures on the beaches of South Carolina, where they are from!! Makes me want to find a beach and a metal detector and go searching. But we know that a beach is a LONG ways from Iowa and we don't own a metal detector, so that idea is out the window. After that , we decided to go bowling. We have never taken our kids bowling, however Mason went bowling at a birthday party last year. I've not been bowling in many many years, and my mother is even on a bowling league!! Guess we need to get out more as a family and enjoy some bowling, as we had a great time.

Its kind of hard to see in this picture, but there are automatic rails that come up in the gutters when its the kids turn to bowl. Then goes back down when the adults bowl. I'm thinking I should have said I was 5 to see if that would have helped my score any?!?! Probably not.


Mallory spent most of her time on the floor.. either rolling the ball at a snails pace down the alley or just sitting there watching the ball move!


Mason had a good time too

After bowling we came back to our house and went thru my quilting stuff and showed Sonja what I've done and what I've been working on (which isn't much) . My kids had a lot of fun playing with her kids, Taylor (17) and Austin (13). Mason wanted to run and run and run, pretty sure her kids were completely wore out when they left us!!!
This is a picture of Sonja and I..
And here is a picture of the kids. We took them to Hickory Park in Ames, and I do believe they loved it!! It is one of our favorite places to take people, as its different than what you can find in other parts of the US, and there is usually something on there that everyone would like!! AND it helps that it sure is yummy and cheap!! :)

Aunt LeaAnn gets MARRIED!!!!

August 21st, 2009 is the ACTUAL date they became officially married, but the ceremony was held this year, August 21st 2010 on their one year anniversary. Last year didn't fare so well for LeaAnn and her health and they ended up getting married in the hospital. Even though 2009 wasn't a great year for LeaAnn health wise, she did gain a husband (whom we adore) and a new last name, so all wasn't bad! AND we all gained a new family member in Dudley! We love him, and to say the kids love him is an understatement! Whenever Dudley and LeaAnn are around, the kids basically want to be with Dudley, not LeaAnn. Poor LeaAnn is now second fiddle to Dudley! Its pretty cute, though.

August 21st, 2010 was not a cool day :( and can we just say about 150% humidity to go along with this temp!!!
Here is the beautiful couple ! We love you both!!! And even with the heat, we had a great day!!!

This is most of the LeaAnn's family (LA is my dad's baby sister so its my dad's side of the family) We were missing Mary's husband Marley (Mary is LA's sister) and their daughter Amy.
Of course pictures and wedding time could not go off without a hitch from one of my kids. Not sure who thought it would be an ok idea to tie the wedding rings to the pillow, but someone did, and you know what happens when a little boy is standing waiting for pictures and isn't paying attention.. yep you guessed it, he unties the rings and doesn't even know it! Talk about freaking out for a little bit. Thankfully they were found and they did NOT go back on that pillow

Little Miss Mallory made a pretty cute flower girl and loved carrying around those flowers!!!


The wedding took place in my sisters back yard overlooking my parents pond. Was a great setting for a wedding.





A picture of the bride and groom and all the guests!!


This is my immediate family
Tony, Mason, Lisa, Mallory, Dad, Mom,Kristin(sis), Darcy(sis),Baby Drury (still growing), Pete (BIL)


The night was completed by some fireworks!!! We didn't get our annual 4th of July fireworks show, so we thought the wedding night was a perfect night to watch them!!

By about 10pm, the kids were running on fumes. Mason has a talent in which he can stick about anything on his nose and it just sticks there (neither Tony or I can do this, so have no idea where it comes from). Notice the shiny sweaty face


And while he was off playing with bottle caps and the Knaack cousins.. Sister was doing this with Uncle Pete :)

Mason's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Hard to believe my little boy is now officially an Kindergartner, wait who am I kidding, he has been now for about a month (Started Aug 23rd). He was so ready for school to start and has wanted to go every day, 7 days a week. He isn't too happy when the weekend comes around and he doesn't have school, we will see how long that lasts! He needs to be at school by 8am, and he is usually up by 6:45am. THAT is just too early for this momma to function, so he usually plays in his room and gets himself dressed til I get out of bed by 7:15am. Sister has been up by 7:15 too, so I've not had to wake her, other than the 1st couple day.

I took some video of Mason before we walked to school (the school is about 7 blocks away, so we could technically walk every morning, but that would mean we would need to be ready to move out the door by 7:45 and that doesn't always happen)

This is the principal welcoming the 1st graders and kindergartners to school. The school only has 3 classes of kindergartners and 2 1st grade classes.

You can kind of tell in this photo that is about a head taller than most of his class. Will see how long it takes for others to catch up with him!!

The lady in the black tank top is his teacher, Ms. G. Mason loves his teacher and she seems like a great teacher!!!

Here is what Mason had to say after his 1st day of school!!!!

Sister didn't really miss him much, other than she thought he should be home for lunch, like he was last year. She is really excited when it's time to get him from school and looks forward to playing/picking on him at night!!!

Iowa State Fair 2010

Yep, we all were at the fair together...and had to make sure I got a picture to prove it!! For most of the fair, either I go with just the 'girls' in the family, or its the girls and the kids.. as Tony just doesn't enjoy the fair as much as I do. So why make him go if he doesn't want to go three days :) But he did come for an afternoon, so he got to see the tractors and animals and the few things he does enjoy. And of course Mason loved having someone look at tractors with him, since I really didn't want to


Aunt Krissy and Mallory

Not quite sure why it is so hard to get a good picture with the kids.. mind you, there were about 20 photos taken, and I just chose a few to display in the following sequence....

The butter cow...

Butter Green eggs and ham....

The BEST food at the fair... pretty sure I hit this stand all three days we were there

Amazing sand art

The kids painted a ceramic figurine.. they so enjoyed that!!

Look at this tractor built out of wood.. and it only got a Red ribbon! They should have gotten a Blue ribbon for sure!!!

She doesn't look very comfy napping.. but thankful she did.. would have been extra crabby without that nap...

Mason's new thing.. MARBLES!! He was just practicing and seeing how it was done, they actually had kids competing..maybe next year after he has a year to practice

The kids favorite place at the Fair

Planting her seeds....

Harvesting the apples...

Gathering the eggs...

Selling the corn to buy fuel to put in their tractor...

Her legs were barely long enough!!

Milking a 'cow'

Selling their produce at the Farmers market to buy their 'treats'!!!

They have a newer building that has AC in which they have baby animals being born and then penned up to pet and see.. another highlight , for the kids and I

I LOVE baby pigs.. love their smell, love their hair... wish I could just have a pet baby pig :)

We actually all did this as a family for the 1st time!!! It was fun!!!

Look at this brand new Horse show building... it is beautiful. AND it has quilt blocks around the whole thing, one for every county! What a great addition the state fair this year.















Another food favorite... Cheese Curds





What would the fair be without the Big Boar?!!?

Here are just some random pictures...

What would a trip to the Fair be without looking at all the awesome quilts!! THIS one I believe is the best quilt I've ever seen. YES this is a quilt, not a picture. They took a family picture, then turned it into a quilt.... the closer you got to the quilt, the more it just looked like little 1" fabric blocks, but the farther away you went, you could make out the people. AMAZING!!!

Here is a close up of the mom's jeans and green grass!! I'm still amazed!!!

And of course they have a little bit of tatting in there.. THIS was my favorite.. gonna have to see if I can find this pattern!!!!
















I Love mini's... pretty sure I'll never be able to make something that looks this good!!




















What a GREAT use for a wedding gown!!!! I know I'll never be wearing mine again, but I also know I'm not gonna be the one to cut it up and make a quilt out of it. I'd surely ruin it!!!!