A Day at the Zoo

I love summer.
I love the sunshine, the long days, the water, the dirty feet, the sweaty, smelly kids, the smell of sunscreen, the flowers, the popsicles, the long walks, and the ZOO!!

We bought a season pass to the zoo this year along with a couple of other friends. We enjoyed our first trip with Christy, Leighton and McCabe. It was a fabulous day with friends!

Quinn checking out the monkeys
Quinn checking out the sea otters

The boys liked the HUGE turtles (not exactly sure what the were) we just called them HUGE turtles. I seriously could not believe how big they were!

The Blank Park Zoo is pretty small but just the right size for a two year old. Quinn and Leighton enjoyed all the animals but I think their favorite was the sea lions when they were being fed. They jumped and splashed and kept the boys entertained! Last night after dinner Quinn kept talking about the sea lions so we looked up some YouTube videos about sea lion shows and ended up watching Shamu at Sea World for about ten minutes! He was fascinated!

Quinn could not wait to tell Daddy about how tall the giraffes were! We got to get pretty close to some of them!

Quinton just LOVES animals. He is fearless. He wanted to swim with the sea lions and pet the tiger, although neither of those were possible, he did enjoy feeding the goats! Without even hesitating stuck his hand right up there to feed them.

Leighton was a little more timid but Quinn encouraged him to keep trying!

Next time I need to bring more quarters!The boys enjoying looking on from their strollers!

Today after our morning play date with friends we came home and filled up the pool a few inches and they all jumped in with their clothes on. Lets just say each of their diapers weighed more than they did! We thoroughly enjoy our new deck and our pool (thank you Aunt Amber) fits perfectly on it! I think that it will get tons of use! I always love activities where all three of my kids are in one place and all happy!

Just a couple of pictures of my sweet twins!

My sweet handsome youngest!

I keep Myla's ear piercing cleaner in the diaper basket in the living room so I don't forget to clean them and yesterday I was making lunch and came in the room to see Quinn "helping" me. He decided that Myla's earrings needed cleaning so he took it upon himself to "Help Mommy." What a sweet helpful older brother!

Since the babies Bumbo chairs are also their high chairs we bought some trays for them so now I can put puffs or snacks on the trays for them to learn to feed themselves! Bumbo chairs are a pretty neat and very helpful thing! Plus they happen to be Viking's colors... I think that it is a sign of who they will be cheering for in the fall...Don't tell Dan!

I love Rex' smile! It can always make me happy!

The Rude family is doing great! Summer is treating us well. We are looking forward to many more sunny days and trips to the Zoo!

Pierced Ears!

Myla got her ears pierced!
She looks just as lovely as ever! I always wanted to get her ears pierced and Dan really didn't mind so yesterday while running some errands we got them done. She did fabulous! I was sweating and Quinn was worried, at least until the nice lady gave him a sucker! She barely cried as soon as I gave her a yogurt bite everything was fine! She hasn't even been bothered while I clean them. I am pretty excited and she has been all smiles since she got them so I'm pretty sure that she LOVES them!Check out her sparkly ears!

Chewing on some of Quinton's screws while showing off her new earrings!My bright eyed boy!

Rex and Myla continue to grow and change. They are so delightful to be around. They had a follow up in the NICU last week and did great! Rex has better fine motor skills and did well picking up Cheerios and putting them in his mouth and Myla still continues to be a little muscle woman (with cute ears). Both are looking great though. Rex is just over 19 lbs and Myla was around 14 and a half. The love to talk, chew on everything and giggle.

Our deck continues to be wonderful! We have gotten a little yard work done. I planted my first flowers... ever! I happen to think they look fabulous but I am no gardener! I'm not even sure what kind of flowers I planted, just picked some pretty colors! We plan to put a border around our flowers, just not sure what yet!

I planted some seeds in the pots on my front steps. Does anyone know if I need to pull out some of the buds so it allows the others to do better?

Dan and I planted a garden! Green beans, lots of tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, spinach, not sure how any of them will do. Neither Dan nor I have a green thumb but we are giving it a try! Any gardening advice is welcome!

I purchased a storage chest for our new porch. I will hold bubbles, ball, chalk, all the outdoor toys! I love it because it makes things look cleaner! Plus it took about 2 minutes to assemble! I love things like that!

We had our monthly birthday celebration at the Grandma and Grandpa Rude's house! Quinn enjoyed all his cousins and loved Barney!

My dear friend Yvonne and I enjoyed Saturday morning at the farmers market. Yvonne pulled Quinn and Noah in the wagon and I pushed the babies in the stroller. It was wonderful to get to spend the morning with such a good friend and Quinn thinks Noah (age 5) is the coolest kid ever! They got to ride on a train, shared a smoothie, ate some kettle corn (my favorite thing about the farmers market) and Yvonne and I enjoyed a coffee. It is such a fun environment. Lots for the boys to look at. I think there are more dogs than at a dog show walking around Des Moines on a Saturday!

Myla enjoyed the front seat for a while, Rex was sleeping in the back!

Yvonne and Noah enjoyed a smoothie together!

Quinn is such joy and a talking machine. He seriously talks nonstop about anything and he remembers EVERYTHING! He is my brave little boy and loves worms worm worms worm!

The Downtown Church (click to see the website), the church that Dan is a pastor at, is doing a thing called Mission to the City this week. It is a mission trip to Des Moines. There are just under 200 people from our church, a lot of them took work off for the week, that are serving Des Moines for the week. They are doing free car washes, handing out free breakfast to people going to work, helping out at the goodwill, helping at different shelters, and many other service projects. It is an exciting thing for our church and Dan and many others have put a lot of hard work into planning and organizing this event. The end of the week is a free concert by Phil Wickham (click to listen to a song) at an outdoor theater in Des Moines right along the river. It should be a wonderful event and we are expecting over 2000 people to attend. Phil Wickham is a great musician. His music is full of truth shares the incredible love of Christ with those who listen to his music. This week should be an awesome opportunity to reach out and love the people right in our own community and to share the love of Christ with them. The Des Moines Register wrote a nice article about it in the paper this week, you can read it here. You can be praying for our church this week and that the Lord really uses all the things that we are doing to impact eternity!

My Singing Fisherman!

We had quite a trip in Arkansas. It is always fun to share our kids with Nana and Papa. Papa decided to teach Quinn how to fish while we were there. Quinton has become quite the independent boy and of course wanted to learn how to cast the fishing pole on his own. He was doing pretty well for a two year old. While casting and reeling it back in Quinn caught a 23 inch catfish! We were all shocked and Quinn was thrilled. He has told everyone back in Iowa about the "huge fish flopping around."

Quite a HUGE first catch!

While fishing with Quinn you had to be on guard when he was casting!

Fishing with Daddy

Quinn has become quite the singer. He made up a song the other day about how he was "sitting on the new porch with mommy and daddy"
We have sung "twinkle twinkle little star" around our house a few times but I didn't know that he knew the words as well as he did until he was singing it the other day.

Our deck was finished when we got home. It was a fabulous surprise! According to all our neighbors it was put up fast and diligently. It is huge! We are now on the look out for some patio furniture and some outdoor storage for all the balls and bats, chalk and bubbles. We have already gotten a ton of use out of it. It will be such a fun place for our family to gather! We will be working on some landscaping in the weeks and months to come.

Life with my Wee ones continues to be busy. This morning while playing with the hose outside Quinton accidentally soaked my whole backside and gave Rex and Myla a good washing! The babies didn't get too upset just looked stunned and confused. After playing with the hose for a long time that we picked up about ten worms and showed them to the babies showed them the sandbox, gave them new homes in the dirt and then gave them a drink from the hose. Quinn is fearless when it comes to picking up slimy worms. Then we made lunch to eat on our new porch and in the process of walking out to the porch and while eating dropped the plate of chicken, ketchup and blueberries not once but twice. Oh, it's days when your pants are wet and your floor has ketchup all over it that you just have to laugh and be so thankful for the children that make your pants wet and cover your floor in ketchup!

Adventures in Arkansas!

Well, We have been non-stop since we arrived in Arkansas Sunday morning. We did our usual drive through the night. We have found a lot of success traveling while all our Wee ones are sleeping. Dan and I eat sunflower seeds and drink 5 hour energy drinks, it's always an adventure!

Quinn is quite smitten with his Nana and Papa. I have not been counting but I am pretty sure that Quinn has said "Nana" or "Papa" hundreds if not thousands of times. He is constantly asking them to go here, play this, do this, go upstairs or downstairs, he has them on the go!

We have been fishing, hiking, boating, playing with play food, legos, little people, listening to the guitar, watering Nana's plants, kicking the soccer ball, hitting the baseball, rock climbing, you name it, we've done it!

Rex and Myla cooled down this afternoon in a big bowl that my sisters and I used to play in as babies. Kind of a fun family tradition you could say!

Myla looking sweet as can be!

Rex and Mommy

Forcing a hug with Quinn

Rex keeping cool!

Myla splashing around

After all that splashing around Myla was exhausted!
Dan was exhausted too...Papa, Nana and Quinn getting ready for a hike!

Quinn showing off his wet shorts after splashing around!

The Rude girls!

Nana and Rex

Quinn and Papa catching some fish... Quinn even touched it!

My one request for Papa was for him to build us a tee for hitting the baseball. If you know my dad, you know that he would come up with quite the contraption! It is even adjustable for when he gets taller! Quinn doing a little baseball practice!


Quinn got to eat some of Papa's famous popcorn... I think he enjoyed it!

Trying to steal another Quinn moment.

Myla looking sweet

Trying to capture the three Wee Rudes

Myla always seems to have her tongue out these days!

Rex and Mommy enjoying a boat ride!

Despite the sad look on Quinn's face he actually really enjoyed driving the boat with Papa!A man moment!

Quinn is good luck with the fish according to Papa... They have been catching quite a few. I think Quinn thinks that this one is a little big!

Quinn and his walking stick!

Myla and NanaRex... in a laudry basket with a soccer ball...

Quinn loves the play food at Nana and Papa's house. He graciously gave Rex and Myla some burgers to enjoy!

Saturday before we left for Arkansas Dan cut down all the ugly bushes in front of our house and tore down the front porch. Our front porch was rotting and falling apart so we are putting on a new BIGGER porch. A friend of ours builds decks so he is hard at work while we are on vacation. We are excited to see it when we get home!!

Quinn had quite a fun time helping Daddy. He had his drill out and hammer! He was such a hard worker!Still enjoying our vacation, just wanted to post some pictures. Enjoy our beautiful family!