6 months old

Aaron had his 6 month check up today, 16lbs, 5 oz and 27 inches long.  Luke was a peach the whole time and when the Dr gave him a package of smarties he said thank you, ate one, and then gave one to me and to the Dr, no prompting.  Such a sweety, makes me look so good!  Aaron loved the Dr too and just kept looking up at her adoringly and giving her sweet little smiles the whole time she was listening to him and holding him.  Gotta love a doctor with great kid skills.

Too funny!

Luke and I spent some time drawing on his dry erase board this afternoon and this is what he drew.  I asked him what he had drawn and he pointed at the mouth and told me, "see, der is some teeth!"  I said, "Oh, did you draw a monster?" (one of his favorite subjects lately).  Luke said, "No!  Dats a nice guy!  See, it's Daddy!"

Winfield 2011

So, Winfield this year was a very different experience from the usual.  For one thing plans kept changing about who was going to go, for how long and for which days.  Originally I was planning to go Friday and Saturday like we have been the past few yrs.  Then I quit my job and my new job pushed back my start date so funds were getting tight and Greg decided not to go at all and just let me go for one day.  I was wanting to go on Saturday and catch a ride with someone, but when I talked to my parents they said they also wanted to go only one day, but on Friday instead of Saturday.  We made plans for Luke and Aaron and I to ride with them to Winfield on Friday, but as we got closer to the day the weather looked gloomy.  Thursday my parents called and said they had decided not to go to Winfield at all but that they knew my cousins Melanie and Greg would be going just for Saturday and maybe I could get a ride with them.  Mellanie and Greg said sure so I decided to leave Luke home and just take Aaron with me because I wouldn't have as much help carrying things or watching the boys without my parents.  Friday morning I woke up to the phone ringing and ringing.  My parents had been up a lot the night before changing their minds!  They wanted to go on Friday after all but only from 3pm-10pm, did I want to go with them.  It was a hard decision but eventually I decided to stay with my plans to go with Mel and Greg and to send Luke with my parents on Friday.  That way Luke would get to go but I could hopefully go for a longer day and it was supposed to be more rainy but 10 degrees warmer on Saturday.  My parents and Luke had a good time, but it was cold, overcast and misting the whole time so they ended up coming back early.  Saturday it rained a bit on our drive there but by the time we got there it was clearing up.  It was a little chilly but not too bad and we headed to stage one to look for the rest of the Regier clan. 

The first to get to stage one that we saw were Dwayne and Ruth!  We also saw Ken and Amy and family, Daniel and Sarah, and Miriam with some friends of theirs, and later still Peter, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while we sat with them. 

We got to Winfield during the Mark Allen Wade Trio's set and stayed for Tom Chapin and Friends, Hot Club of Cowtown, and Michael Martin Murphy with Pat Flynn.  During the last group Aaron was pretty tired but having a hard time sleeping because of how loud it was so he and I went and walked around a little and that seemed to do the trick.  Then Aaron and I went over to stage 3 to hear the end of the New Song Showcase, where the winner of various new song categories get to preform their songs on stage.  (By that time it was sunny and nice and warm, Aaron was down to a t-shirt and he had started with two sweat shirts and a blanket.)  There was a pretty funny song called "I wanna be your Barbie" that won the humor category and the last group that won the "none of the above" category looked like they were having a blast up there.  I wished I had taken a picture, because they were all 50+, were wearing shirts with the sleeves ripped off or overalls, and had LONG hair and beards.  They may have not been the tightest band I have ever heard but they sure were a fun group to watch and I wouldn't be surprised if they show up at Stage six sometimes. 

After them Beppe Gambetta came on stage.  He is one of my all time Winfield favorites, I never get tired of his sets.  He is a very talented flat pick guitarist and sings a lot of really beautiful songs both in English and Italian.  He is also a really great story teller.

Halfway through Beppe's set I spotted Andrea, Jill, and some more of my cousins down front so we went to sit with them.

After Beppe finished we all headed back to stage one.  Andrea held Aaron some more while we listened to Kenny and Amanda Smith and then I went to get an Indian Taco for my supper and came back in time to hear Marley's Ghost.  

We have a picture of Luke gnawing on an apple at his first Winfield too, just look at pics in Sept. 2008.

By the end of Marley's Ghost's set it was starting to rain and the announcer told everyone that some severe weather was coming through and that they were going to shut down the stage until it had gone on past us.  Everyone was running for their cars and I was with Jill Schmidt and some of her friends and had no idea where Mel and Greg were.  I tried calling Mel but she didn't answer her phone and she apparently tried calling me but for some reason my phone was going straight to the answering machine.  Then I called Ben and he was with Mel and Greg and they said they were headed to their car.  Jill and her friends and I had already headed out towards their car which I thought was in the same basic area as Mel and Greg's car and just then I thought, I better start looking in cars that look like theirs because all I could remember was that it was white!  I had no idea other than that.  At the moment I thought that I was just about past a white car so I turned back and looked in the back window and sure enough, there was Aaron's car seat in the back seat!  Thank goodness!  Mel and Greg made it a minute or two later and we took off.  All the Regiers were planing on going to a local church, but when we got there it was locked.  The Regiers decided to head to a gas station but we decided to start heading home and then if it got a lot better we could always turn around when we got to Wellington, just out of the path of the storm.  When we got to Wellington we saw a beautiful double rainbow!!!

And sunset...

We stopped at a gas station and McDonald's/travel center.  Greg and Mel hadn't eaten yet so we all got ice cream cones to wait for the storm to pass and then decide what to do.

The storm did get most of the way past but it was still raining in Winfield according to family reports and we decided to just go on home.  It was sad to not get very much time at Winfield, but we didn't want to be cold and wet either, so we talked and listened to Bluegrass music all the way home.  This was the first yr I didn't get to hear John McCutcheon at all and I also really wished I had been able to hear the Wilders and Eileen Ivers group (she was the fiddler on River Dance).  Anyway, that was my Winfield Adventure this year!

Signing???

Aaron started signing milk tonight!  The first time he did it I wasn't hardly paying attention b/c my 3 yr old wasn't listening and I was trying to discipline him and then Aaron in my lap starts crying and I look down at him and he is holding his arm up to me and his sweet chubby hand is making the sign for milk over and over again!  I couldn't hardly believe it, but he did it again later. He had been sitting with dad while I got big brother to bed and when I came back he was fussing a bit so I picked him up and started playing with him on my lap.  Then I asked if he wanted some "nahnies" and made the sign for milk and he looked right at my hand and then laughed and looked up at me and raised his hand and made the sign back to me!  I don't think he quite gets what it means yet because when I put him to breast he really wasn't interested, but I do think he likes that he figured out how to do it.  Maybe he thinks it means "mommy" or something.  Anyway, I'm still in shock.  Not even 6 months and he is starting to sign back at me!

Laybor Day

Labor Day Sunday the hot weather finally broke so on Monday we decided to go to the zoo as a family.  I know, lots of crowds, not the best day to go to the zoo, but we really did still have a lot of fun.  We went to the different farms, the reptile house, fed the giraffes and went to see the bears in the North America exhibit.  The giraffes were definitely the highlight.  We also brought along some fun snacks that we don't usually have around the house, fresh peaches and carrots like usual, but also some flavored water, Doritos chips and some cookies!  Yum!

Farm Days

This group of pictures is from August 30th.  Since I haven't been working we have to schedule time for the boys to go out and see Gammy and Papa.  This day Luke wanted to play in the sprinkler and help water the flowers so Aaron and I sat and played on the porch while we watched Luke and Gammy.

Aaron discovered his feet the night before.

Grandparents!!!

Yay for blogger's new interface!!!  They finally updated and now everything works again.  Things I had been missing like spell check and being able to change the alignment of text and pictures etc!!!  I'm so happy!  Plus now I can do things like upload a ton of pictures at once instead of only 4 which makes it so much easier to get them in the order I want them and takes WAY less time! 

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Ok, so back to the real point of this post!  Yesterday we went to my Bartel Grandparent's house for the afternoon.  I always love watching my boys play with other people, but especially seeing Luke and my Grandpa is lots of fun!  They really get each other going.

 This beautiful Sunflower from in the ditch on the way to my grandparent's house.  I think I'll use it to make some cards.  (-:

 My grandpa has some trains that he already had out when we got there and Luke had a great time playing with him and the trains!  Unfortunately they are really touchy and after about 10-15 minutes they suddenly wouldn't work anymore, but I think Luke really enjoyed getting to see a train set that runs "by itself"!   

Ok, I know this picture is too big for it to be centered correctly, but it's one of my favorites from the day, so I wanted everyone to be able to see it!

Love a baby in overalls!

My Grandma said she thought this was only the second time she had gotten to hold Aaron, which is terrible!!!  She has seen him many more times than that, we have had lots of get-togethers and we go to the same church, but she always makes sure that everyone else gets a turn before she takes one.  I guess we need to get together more just us so that she and grandpa will get enough turns too!

After playing inside on all three levels of the house where Grandma keeps toys we went outside for a bit.  We kicked a ball around, played on the swings, and then went for a walk by the stream and Luke threw sticks into the little bit of water that hadn't dried up. 

My Grandparents have a very large property, Grandpa said originally it was 30 acres but they sold all but about 6.5 of it to their current neighbors and Grandma's sister and her family.  Usually it is always green and beautiful but the drought this year has really made it impossible for even my grandparents, the best gardeners I know, to keep it all alive and lush like normal.  Hopefully most of it will come back next year, but Grandma said she knows there will be patches where all the grass is dead and some of her trees and shrubs have probably died. 

Most of the creek was bone dry, but there were a couple of deeper spots that had a bit of water left and they were all covered with those little green water plants so that at first Luke thought there wasn't any water.  We threw in a rock to show him that there really was water there and he thought that was really neat so we spent most of the rest of our outdoor time looking for sticks for him to throw in. 

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My grandparents are super givers.  They were with my Great Grandma almost everyday while she was in the nursing home before she died and when she still lived at home they were there a lot of the time too helping Great Grandma take care of herself and the place.  They always have a huge garden and they give a lot of it away to their children and grandchildren.  They also come and work in the garden's of their children and grandchildren.  If there is any kind of work project they are there, and they are excited to do it.  They are also very involved in serving at the church too, though not in the flashy roles that most people notice.  They are behind the scenes kind of people, and they get embarrassed if you talk too much about how much they do for others.  I hope that I will be able to be there for my kids and grand kids the way they have for us, but I already know that their strengths are not my strengths and I will never be able to match up to their gardening or some of the other things they do.  Mostly though I just love them soooo much, and I know that they love me.  That is one thing I can give to my kids and grand kids someday, they will always know how much I love them, even if I don't come garden for them!