Corn Picking!

You know you live in Nebraska when you find yourself doing this...............

Yep that's right, got to pick ourselves some corn this week! 

Andy talked his uncle into planting us a little patch of sweet corn in his fields a few months ago, and Sunday we got the call.....THE CORN IS READY!  So we recruited some corn picking people and headed out to Ashland!

Andy absolutely loved every second of it, and was a corn picking machine.  I got into as well, it was a really fun experience and I think if you live in Nebraska you have to do it at least once!

Coop even got in on some of the action!

He mostly hung out with Aunt Mary though and got to do fun things like pet her goats, play with Jesse the dog, and go on little rides (slowly) on the ATV!  He's a farm boy at heart ;)

Out in the fields

Jesse even helped us out some

Even got cousin Andrea in on the action too, and at almost 8 months pregnant!  She was amazing, I can't say corn picking would be the first thing I would want to do with 6 weeks left to go, but she loved it!  (and we really needed her help too ;)  )

After we picked for a couple hours on Sunday and Thursday night, the fun didn't stop there.  Then we got to process it, and because we had so much of it, we cut a lot of it off the ears to freeze for later!

What a fun experience!  I think I learned more about corn than I ever thought I would know, and now we have corn to eat all year long!  We also got to share it with neighbors, co-workers, family, and friends.  Andy loved running around the neighborhood handing out bags ;)

Thanks Uncle Kevin and Aunt Mary for helping us out with this!  And big thanks to John and Kristel and Andrea and Ryan for helping with the harvest!!!!!

Grand Beach

Oh how we love love love being up at Grand Beach.  It takes us back to our highschool days when we were dating and would go up almost every summer weekend with our families.  In case you don't know the history of the place, Andy's parents had a place up there first and my parents immediately fell in love with the community while visiting Wayne and Suzi one summer weekend at there place.  That also happened to be the same weekend Andy asked me to Junior year highschool prom on the beach, but's that a whole other story......Anyway my parents soon purchased a lakehouse there as well and now Coop has his grandparents in the same place (both in Naperville and Grand Beach).  And they just happen to be BFF as well.  Pretty special, not many people can say that ;)

One of the hardest things about being away from Chicago is missing the chance to go up to Grand Beach.  Such a beautiful, peaceful, serene place.  We love everything about it, and are excited for Coop to get to enjoy it as well.

Here he was on his way from the airport to GB a few weekends ago......look how excited he is!

Sweet, sweet memories........and God willing many, many more to come.

A different kind of 4th

This might be the first 4th that we have actually been at our own home and just together as a family.  Although I feel like we should be doing more today since it is a holiday, with it being the middle of the week and our last couple months being so hectic, we decided to just lay low. We started the morning watching our neighborhood parade, which just consists of everyone who wants to walking, pushing strollers, wagons, or riding bikes through the neighborhod and ending up at a park for donuts and fruit.  They had a clown for the kids and an old man singing.  Fun to get out and chat with the neighbors.  The rest of the day was supposed to be either spent at the pool or doing something fun as a family, but looked a  little more like this......

Ugh, yep the drain in the storage room clogged.  Therefore the next couple hours were spent declogging.  Happ 4th Right?    Now we are sitting here with our air off  (b/c the air conditioner was draining water into the clogged drain) in this 100 degree day staring at the drain praying it starts working!  

LUCKILY the last few weeks have been full of festive events to celebrate at!!

Andy participated in the Warrior Dash which was a 3 mile run/obstacle course

Off to the East Coast for Michael Connell's wedding, which was in Old Saybrook, CT

The reception was in a beautiful white tent right on the water

Beach Walk with Grandpa

Painting with mom and the Sapp girls

Aunt Heather came to visit for a week - here she is with Andy doing a little rabbit hunting in our backyard!

Coop with his two favorite boy cousins, Grif and Sawyer.  We love when these 3 are matching!

Our Little Firecracker

Just in time for the 4th, Cooper has turned into a little firecracker these days!  Let's just say that sweet little face you saw on last post has learned how to make an angry look and shake his head NO.  Although it's probably the cutest thing I have ever seen when he does it, it is showing a new stubborn side of him that I am not used to!  Oh Coopy.....

Will share some pictures of our latest adventures soon.  We have bee to the East Coast, spent a week with Aunt Heather here in Omaha, and had daily laughs at new things Coop does every day!

Our little Family

Forgot to share Coop's one year pictures that our wondeful nanny took!  Our soon to be 14 month old is as busy as ever these days......crawling, climbing stairs, dancing (he looooves to dance), attending weddings, and flirting with those baby blue eyes of his.  Somehow we did manage to get him to sit still for a few moments to capture these shots.....

Stages

So I am truly starting to see and understand there are stages to this crazy thing called life.  I guess I have always heard people say the cliche "this is the stage of life you are in", but this weekend it finally hit me.   I guess when you host a baby shower at your house and four of the girls there are pregnant, two have newborns in their arms, and you look around and realize you are basically the only one able to have an adult beverage, it's pretty obvious.  You are in the wild stage of parenthood!

But as Andy, Coop, and I were taking a little family walk tonight, we were talking about how much we love where we are at right now.  We couldn't imagine a place we would rather be.  Sure there may be sleepless nights, poop blowouts, weekend nights spent at Costco or on the couch instead of out on the town, bumped heads and lots of tears, and I could go on..... but these little moments get easily forgotten when you wake up to this sweet little face every morning......

And we are so lucky and blessed by God to have such amazing friends to go through this stage with.  Some near (Omaha), some far (Thailand), and others somewhere in between (Cali, Indiana, Chicago, for example) Although I have to say I almost feel a little bit left out right now because everywhere I turn I have pregnant friends!  There are so many little miracles from God in those bellies we just can't wait to meet.

So to all our friends~we cannot thank God enough that you are in our life and we can watch our little kiddos grow up together.  Here's a pic from last night of two of those amazing friends...

                                               The happy Parents-to-Be Ryan and Andrea

Wedding Wonderfullness

"Don't blink, cause just like that, your're 6 years old and you take a nap, and when you wake up you're 25 and your highschool sweetheart becomes your bride....." 

A little Kenny Chesney for you to sum up my feelings in the moment.  I can't believe Kristel is married and the wedding is over.  The weekend went so fast and was so jam packed but was it oh so wonderful.  It's hard to not have a good weekend when you all your family is sleeping under one roof together again in the home you grew up in (plus one extra boyfriend, a girlfriend, a fiance, and of course Coop man)!  Not only that, but the rest of the weekend we were surrounded by extended family from near and far, old friends and new, and our NECC church family!  If you haven't caught my drift yet, the wedding was WONDERFUL!  A few pictures to share with you from the blessed event.  Congratulations John and Kristel, we are so happy for you!!!!!

While the girls were getting their hair done upstairs, the boys found other activities to keep themselves busy.......

A bridesmaid and a ring bearer

 

These two were adorable together, they made the perfect ring bearer and flower girl
(right before our cousin Lazor walked down the aisle, her turned to me and said "Wait, no one ever gave me the rings!", Poor guy was not impressed when I explained the rings tied to his pillow were not real)

The Stunning Bride

The Honorary Ring Bearer (looking a bit disheveled here!) 
Although his walking skills were not quite up to par for the big day, Dad carried him in and he was perfect the whole time he was up front - could be because dad forgot and let him keep his pacifier in, but oh well!

Heather serving up some McDonald hamburgers that were passed around at the end of the reception!

Swinging with Grandma at the lake the next day (isn't my Grandma/Mother of the Bride so pretty?)