Emmett Russell

Welcome Emmett Russell to the Family.  He is such a good baby, and fits right in with his big brothers.  He looks like a little clone of the others...except...he has hair!  It may even have a red tint to it.  We will have to stay tuned to see what color it will be.

Here he is at 2 minutes old.  What an amazing moment!

He cleans up well.  This is about 10 hours old.

                                                  Hanging with Daddy.

Emmett had lots of visitors.

Cub Scouts

Last year about this time Ethan came home wanting to be a Cub Scout.  I was very excited because I think that Cub Scouts is soooo good for boys, so we went to the first meeting.  Then I was reminded that we would have to sell popcorn.  Ugh!  Ethan and Isaac turned out to be great salesmen.  They loaded the popcorn in their wagon, walked down our street, and had it all sold in a couple days!  Well, it is popcorn time again, so I thought it would be fun to look back at the fun year of Cub Scouts we had last year.

Ethan's first time shooting a bow and arrow at Day Camp.  The first 3 rounds he completely missed the target, but after a little advice from the teacher, he improved dramatically.

Also, Ethan's first time shooting a BB gun.  He thought it was great, and has two new Christmas present ideas.  Oh no!  He'll shoot his eye out!

Here is Ethan carving his soap fish.  They had to earn a badge where they learned knife safety and learned how to carve.  He made a really good fish!  Ethan had the smallest knife of the group, but he ended up making the nicest fish.


The boys did a badge where they had to have a campout and plan two meals on the campfire.  It turned out to be a really fun family event.  Our whole family camped out with them.  We made scrambled eggs and bacon hobo packets over the fire for breakfast.  The first few attempts ended up on fire, but we found a way to make a decent breakfast.


This is the "Bridging Ceremony" where the Cub Scouts bridged over to the next level.  It was cool.  We had to put pins on each other and then he crossed the bridge.

Ethan is no longer a Bear, now he is a Webalo 1!  Way to go!

Owen's First Day of School

Owen had to wait two extra days to start Kindergarten.  Cody Elementary stagger starts the kindergartners, and he got to start on Thursday.  He and I had a wonderful 2 days, which were just like the old days.  We hung out, just the two of us, while the others were at school.  We played what Owen wanted to play, and got a few jobs done in between.  It was wonderful, and I will cherish my memories of those two days.  By Thursday, Owen was SO READY to go to school!



Owen has Mrs. Carter for Kindergarten.  She has to be the nicest teacher in the school!  I love her, and Owen is going to have a great year!


The boys waiting for the bus on Owen's first day!


Three cuties all in a row!



There goes my baby!!!  I am very happy for him!  A few tears were shed (by me) as Scott and I walked back home.  It is going to be good!

First Day of School 2016

Summer was so much fun this year, and no one was ready for school to start!  It started this week, and it is all good.

Isaac got the teacher he was hoping for, Mr. Grafenberg.  He seems really fun, kind and creative, so 6th Grade should be really fun for Isaac!  We went to get him new shoes for school, and he now wears a 10.5!  He is growing into such a fun, thoughtful kid.

Ethan got Mrs. VenHorst also the teacher he was hoping for.  After meeting her, I am excited about her solid experience with also a desire to try new things.  Ethan is a big 4th grader!  He was totally looking forward to having the "whole PE experience", which includes changing your clothes, taking a shower and putting on deodorant.

Isaac and Ethan started on Tuesday, August 24.  Owen had to wait until Thursday to go to Kindergarten.

Riding up to the bus stop!  I love it!

Here is the whole neighborhood!  Ready to go!

Off they go on another exciting year!

Vacation Bible School

This week the boys have been going to Vacation Bible School at church.  They love it, and want to go every year.  This year Isaac is too old to attend as a student, but he is old enough to be a Crew Leader.  He immediately said he wanted to do it, and he also wanted to be the Crew Leader for Owen's Crew.  That is SO sweet!  This year the theme is Cave Quest:  Jesus will Light the Way.  They have one of the hallways decorated to look like a cave, and have a cool stage decorated to look like a cave with lots of rocks and crystals.






On Monday morning Isaac was up early, and he was ready to go.  I love how excited he is about it.  This is a picture of their little crew.  It was a little early so two of the kids were not there yet.  Isaac's partner is Tyler, a boy he knows from RE classes.  Owen loves being in Isaac's crew, too.  He said he has the best leader there. 

When I picked them up yesterday they had talked about love, and the teacher said the kids should show their leaders some love.  I saw Owen give Isaac a hug, and then a little girl in the group gave Isaac the biggest, longest hug.  He is so good with little kids!






Here is a picture of Ethan's crew.  He was so pumped to be in a group with his friend Austin (in red) and Benjamin (on right in yellow).  Austin and Ethan both go to Cody and Benjamin was on Ethan's soccer team.  They have a fun crew.  When I asked Ethan how he showed his Crew Leader some love, he said he just gave him a fist bump.

VBS is one of my favorite things for the kids to do in the summer.  Our church makes it so fun, and I love them playing, talking and singing about Jesus and God's Word all morning.

Dry Ice

I like to do something fun with the boys on their last day of school.  Usually we do a picnic and play at a park.  This year I suggested putt-putt golf or bike riding on the river.  Isaac wanted to buy some dry ice and do science experiments, so that is what we did!  We found out you could purchase it right at Hy-Vee, and the boys talked me into a 7.5lb block.  We played with it ALL afternoon, and still had enough left to blow up a few bottles the next day.

















One of my favorite experiments was making the vapor bubbles.  You put some soap in water and then drop on your block of dry ice.  The bubbles that come out are opaque and disappear into smoke when you pop them.  So cool!



Here the kids are trying to float a bubble on top of the CO2 gas.  CO2 is heavier than air, so the bubbles should float on top.
















Here are the boys with one of our busted water bottles.  Their favorite experiment was filling a bottle with dry ice and water, and then watching the bottle explode when the bottle filled with gas.  It made such a loud bang, and they giggled every time!

Monkey Bars

One of Owen's favorite things to do at recess was the monkey bars.  He and his friends, Jayden and Lydia, worked very hard to learn how to cross the monkey bars over a few weeks in September.  His teacher commented how great it was that they kept working at it and encouraging each other.  Once they learned how to cross them, the kids started working on learning how to cross different ways, like skipping bars, going backwards, and going sideways.  Owen wanted to stop at the school this weekend to show Grandma and Grandpa Korte how he can do the monkey bars.  He can just fly across them.  He is so strong, and he knows how to use his body for momentum.