Twins?

I totally freaked out when I saw this!
The first picture is a picture of my dad and his sister, Alice from many years ago.
The second picture is a picture of Michael....

Check out my dad and Michael...

OH MY GOSH!!! Don't you think they could be twins?? The resemblance is CRAZY, don't ya think??

Let's Go Fishing!

The girls have discovered their fun thing to do this summer...FISHING!

We took them out to Heritage Park on Father's Day, but we didn't catch ANYTHING :(
That must be because we didnt' take Paw Paw with us (He was in Florida). So the girls and I gathered up our backpack, picked up Paw Paw and Kiki, armed with real worms and Lauren's Dora fishing pole (of course!) and Paw Paw's tackle box and off we went. We probably caught 25 fish....a few sunfish, bluegill, crappie and even a catfish and bass. The girls loved it--even though Lauren had to take a break and head to the playground.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th!

We started the day with an early bike parade at mom and dad's neighborhood, and then off to our friend's Troy & Nicole's for some fireworks and fun!

Butler County Fair

We just got back from visiting Jon's family in Iowa last weekend. We went up because the fair was in town. This carnival is totally the small town fair that you'd think it would be...carnies, carnival rides, games and lots of food. It was so much fun, even though it was pretty cool for June...we wore sweatshirts and jeans!

It so fun for the girls to play all weekend with their cousins!

Parkersburg

As many of you already know, Parkersburg Iowa was hit with a F5 tornado in May. That is the small town that Jon grew up in. It was devastating to hear about all the damage. Jon still has a few relatives that live there. Fortunately, his aunt and his uncle and their families were not injured, however they bost lost their homes. We saw all the news footage and some pictures and couldn't believe what we were seeing.

We went back to visit Jon's family this past weekend and I can't even explain to you how awful it was to see this small town that I have grown to love over the past 14 years. Parkersburg really was THE small Iowa town. It was so cute and so "Normal Rockwell." Seeing it in person was unbelievable! There are no trees left, everything is FLAT...there are only foundations where homes used to be. We heard so many stories of people who were in their basements while the tornado came into town...people's hearing aids being ripped out of their ears, second stories of people's homes being picked up and moved into their front yard, and even Jon's aunt's return address labels were found in Wisconsin! Amazing!

Aunt Carol's house used to be Grandma Gussie's before she died, so it was a very special place for all of us to gather for Christmas dinner, but unfortunately there wasn't anything left after the tornado. Jon's uncles house was also destroyed (its the first picture up at the top)...it used to be a 3 story home. He was at home in the basement when the tornade came through...it only took 39 second to go through town. When he and and his wife came up from the basement, he thought that maybe a window or two had been blown out...what a surprise to find his house was hardly standing.

There is quite a bit of rebuilding going on, but its very slow. There were over 300 homes that were completely demolished and there are only about 5 homes that have begun rebuilding. While we are so thankful that Jon's family was not hurt, it really brings home how thankful we need to be each and every day, and thank God for our families and our blessings.

SUMMERTIME

So, yes, school's been out now for about 6 weeks...we've been awfully busy, but it doesn't seem that we've done that much. How come I'm always tired?
This summer has gone by so fast....I can't believe its already JULY! Abbie and Lauren have really been enjoying their summer...they have even gotten along really well, but I think that's about to change!

The big news this summer is that Abbie is finally riding her bike...all by herself! We bought her a new bike last fall and only got out one time to teach her. But lo and behold, she was ready to go in June! She still doesn't like to use her brakes, she'd rather just jump off the side of her bike---yikes!

I'm SOOO bad about blogging...

Geez! Almost two months without blogging! I told you that I wouldn't be good at this. Seriously, I think about it all the time...how I just took all these pictures and how I need to upload them, but somewhere along the line I get sidetracked...hmmm, I'm really going to try and do better. Don't be surprised if I end up up posting 4 times today....Be careful what you wish for....:)