Isabella's 7th birthday!

Today was Isabella's 7th birthday - it was Logan's too (5 years old). We sang Happy Birthday to Logan on the phone (since he lives in Kansas City)! We had a fun late afternoon/evening at Isabella's house. She had a Hannah Montana party! The kids all got to play in the pools, on the swingset, with the 4 wheelers, etc.

Happy Birthday Isabella!!!

(Hannah Montana theme)

Kelly going down the water slide in the pool (with Papa's help!)

All the kids took turns....and Papa got really tired!

Helena and Kelly eating at the toddler swing!

(They thought they were hot stuff!!!)

Eagle Point Park with the Herrig's

The Snyder's and the Herrig's spent the afternoon at Eagle Point Park. It was a fun afternoon playing at the park, feeding the fish at the fish pond, and kicking a ball around. Brian and Matt left to go to KFC and get dinner for all of us. It was a fun day!!! (Kelly also got her birthday presents from the Herrig's too).

Madison and Ana helped Kelly open her birthday presents. She got an Abby stuffed animal and an adorable dress!

Kelly and Madison eating there ice cream treats!

(The ice cream truck came through the park...Kelly got Bugs Bunny and Madison got Bratz)

The girls stopped on our walk by the river so that we could take a couple pictures.

(Ana and Kelly are holding bread to feed the fish at the fish pond!)

Kelly (2), Madison (5), and Ana (4) feeding the fishies some bread!

The fish pond at Eagle Point Park!

Daddy and Kelly feeding the fish! Slide fun!!!

Jen & I would say...1, 2, 3, GO....and the girls would slide down together!

Washing our boat!!!

Brian and I pulled our boat out in our driveway today during Kelly's nap to get it ready for vacation in a couple weeks. When Kelly woke up, she wanted to help!!! She got all wet....helped Daddy scrub, and had fun cleaning the boat. Now when she goes in our garage she says: "CLEAN BOAT!"

Washing the boat with Daddy!

"This is fun!"

Daddy and Kelly scrubbing the boat!

Play-Doh with Grandma

Tomorrow I am ending my second week working at Loras Sports Camp. All of Kelly's 6 grandparents have helped watch Kelly while I coach little kids how to swim! :) I love my time back in the pool!!! Thanks to all the grandparents for helping out while I get the chance to coach again.

This is a picture that Grandma Murray took while watching Kelly on Wednesday. This is the second week in a row that Grandma was able to take Kelly to the library for her weekly "Wee Read" toddler program. This is a program that I started with her in January. After going to the library, eating lunch, and taking a nap....it was PLAY-DOH time!!! Kelly loves all her arts and crafts!

Kelly's birthday present....A SWINGSET!!!

Kelly and Benjmain got to play on Kelly's new swingset this morning for about an hour! They both had a great time. Brian worked hard for the past week, including Father's Day, to get Kelly's swingset put together before her birthday party. Everyone had fun on it yesterday and Kelly and Benjamin had fun on it this morning too!

Kelly climbing up the rockwell.....she got better with each try....but she still has a little ways to go!

Cousins....our best attempt at getting a picture of the 3 kids together (just wait until we have another one in December....it will be even harder!)

Benjamin (2 and a half), Daniel (8 months), & Kelly (2 years old)

Benjamin and Kelly sitting at the lemonade stand!

Going down the slide!

Kelly has always loved to swing!

Kelly's 2nd Birthday Party!!!

We celebrated Kelly's 2nd birthday today with lots of family and friends. The kids ESPECIALLY had a wonderful time! We had pizza, veggies, chips, and munchies for lunch.....followed by Kelly opening her presents, and a fun game of pin the nose on Elmo! Then it was time to head outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. The kids played with Kelly's new swingset, a couple pools, and her new sandbox too. We stopped for a little bit to sing Happy Birthday to Kelly and eat cake, cupcakes, and ice cream. It was a wonderful day!

Kelly is so excited about her Elmo cake & cupcakes!

Our family!

Kelly's ADORABLE cake!!!

The results of PIN THE NOSE ON ELMO!

Benjamin saying GREAT JOB to Kelly after she finished her turn at "pin the nose on Elmo!"

All the kids had FUN playing in the two pools we had set up in the backyard!

Peyton, Isabella, and Kelly playing with her new sand/water activity table!

Taking a few minutes away from playing outside......so that everyone could sing Happy Birthday and let Kelly blow out her candle!!!

(She blew it out the first time!)

Kelly turns 2!!!

We had a "mini" celebration for Kelly's 2nd birthday tonight at Happy Joe's in Dyersville! Brian and I both worked all day (Loras Sports Camp started yesterday for me) and we wanted to spend a little FUN time with Kelly on her birthday! We invited all the grandparents to come too and 4 of them were able to!!! (Her party for all family and friends is this Saturday)! Kelly had a great time playing games, opening a couple presents, eating pizza, having everyone sing Happy Birthday to her, and eating ice cream! She told everyone that she was TWO today, while holding up both of her pointer fingers! IT IS SO ADORABLE!!! Look for more pictures from her Elmo party this weekend!

Kelly was all excited when they brought her a "circus funny face sundae"! She enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday to her and loved the horn noise that they make at Happy Joe's! She ate almost the entire sundae too!!!

Kelly taking a little time out to say "CHEESE" to Mommy while playing the popcorn game!

Kelly with Grandma and Papa Murray

Kelly with Grandma and Papa Snyder

Kelly's 2nd trip to the bank....with her piggy!

This week (in between all the rain/thunderstorms) Kelly and I went to the bank. This was Kelly's 2nd trip to the bank with her piggy! She doubled her money from the last time!!! This time she had $30.00 in her bank, and last trip she had $15.00. So, my almost 2 year old has made $45.00 off all her Grandma's, Papa's, and parents!!!

The **WORST** day of my LIFE!!!

For those of you who have been trying to call over the past three days.....I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you. Friday morning started a CRAZY, SAD, and very FRUSTRATING weekend. Dyersville has been hit with heavy rain A LOT this season. It never seems to let up! All of that led to the crick by our house overflowing over the banks.....and into our basement! The crick has overflown a couple times earlier this spring, but never as bad as on Friday.

Brian and I checked our basement at 7:00am and our pump was running....but we had no water. Brian then went to work at 7:30am. I am having a garage sale this week 6/5-6/7, so at 8:15am I set Kelly up with an Elmo video and I was going to try to bring up a bunch of the garage sale stuff that we had marked (since it was going to have to come up in a few days anyway). Well, the first picture tells the rest of the story. In 45 minutes we went from having NO water....to it being up to my shins and eventually up to my knees. To make matters worse....it was sewage water...gross! For those of you who are wondering, I called my doctor to see if I was ok...since I am 13 weeks pregnant. She said she was unable to give me a tetnus shot...because it could hurt the baby but as long as I didn't have any open cuts or sores, it should be fine. Yes, I will still probably worry until at least my 20 week ultrasound....but there is nothing I can do now. The smell is what got to me the most!!!!

We had a lot of helpers......thanks to all the grandparents for helping during this tragedy. Grandma and Papa Murray came and spent all day Friday helping do what they could along with taking turns watching Kelly. Grandma and Papa Snyder helped on and off on Friday and Saturday as well, and Papa Mulgrew was here ALL DAY Saturday moving out things and cleaning too. It was a mess!

We do have flood insurance so they will be helping with the rest of the clean-up and we will probably get a new water heater, furnance, and water softner too. We have an insurance adjuster coming out on Wednesday afternoon. The cleaning company will be out later this afternoon to clean, sanitize, dry, etc.

The worst part (not including all the work and the major headache) is that our contents are not covered!!! We lost A LOT! Most things can be replaced, but we do not have the money to replace them. We lost some of Kelly's baby items (swing, bouncy chair, playdome, etc.) that we won't have for our second child. We lost our brand-new treadmill, a new twin matress, a queen matress and boxsprings, all the furniture (couch, 4 recliners, a couple other chairs), our Christmas tree, wedding presents (badmitton, bocce ball, sleeping bags, tent, luggage), etc. We did save a lot.....since most things were in Rubbermaid containers....so that is a positive. The pictures will tell the rest of the story.

** On a happier note....I had my 12 week ultrasound last Thursday....the day before the flood....and everything looks good so far....and there is only ONE baby too! Pray for me that the flood and sewage doesn't cause any problems for our unborn baby!

What I saw at 8:15am when I went to go check our basement again. It was already covering the 1st step at the bottom. It eventually got above the second step, before it started going down.

Our flooded basement!

Sad, sad, sad!!!

Our biggest monetary loss....our brand-new treadmill that we bought as our Christmas present to each other a few months ago. (The motor is totally underwater)

Kelly's "soon to be" big girl bed"! We managed to save the daybed wood frame before the water got too high along with the top matress. We lost the trundle and the lower matress! The lower matress was BRAND NEW!!! (This is the lower matress)

This is the most sentimental thing I lost....a doll dresser that my dad made me as a little girl....filled with 3 cabbage patch kids dolls, a doll bed, and a TON of doll clothes. I was looking forward to Kelly playing with these someday! (I am going to try to save some of the clothes)

Our garden that we just planted last weekend!!! I could just cry!

One of the trees in our backyard....the cornfield is now our backyard!