Sunday here in KC was very warm. I told the kids that if they made good choices all afternoon, that they could play on the slip-n-slide in the backyard. They invited some neighbor girls down to play, too. All the kids had so much fun. Especially Audrey, she had a blast. She would lay on her tummy and let us give her a push down the slide. She laughed and laughed.
Grandma, Aunt Jami and baby Ryder came down this weekend to visit. We had a wonderful time. Ryder has gotten so big over the last month. The kids had a good time holding him, feeding him, and just talking to him. Jocelyn is so grown up. She held him, made sure he had his pacifier, fed him a bottle, and just loved on him!
Eli also just held him and talked to him in the sweetest little voice. (Yes, he does have a sweet little voice…a QUIET voice that is. For those of you that know Eli… he does not have a quiet voice. Just on or off.) Audrey thought that she should be able to hold him like she holds her baby dolls. Anytime someone else was holding him, she would hold her arms out or just try to take him out of someone’s arms. 
We got a new camera and had to try it out as soon as we got it. Here are some pictures of the kids!
The kids love to play outside.
At our house, we love to have Root Beer Floats. Here are some pics of the kids enjoying their treats!
Wouldn’t you know it… the day that Audrey does things that are picture moments is the day that the camera decides to stop working! I usually keep my camera out on the kitchen counter to catch those “photo opportunities”. Yesterday was the end of the life of our camera.
So I will tell you about the moments that Audrey had and I am sure that she will do them again!
So… Thursday I was watching one of my friends little guys who is 4 months old. I had the excersaucer out so he could get in it. Audrey and Eli even helped me get it cleaned up for him. While I was giving him a bottle, Audrey decided to get INTO the excersaucer. She got in on her own. Spun around and around and around. Laughing, laughing, laughing… until she wanted out. SHE WAS STUCK. What do you expect, she’s almost 2. I was busy feeding the baby. I was going to let her sit there until I was done, but big brother to rescue. She went off to play. A few minutes goes by and it was awfully quiet (and that is never good with a toddler) and I was still feeding the baby. When I was done, I went to find Audrey. She was litterally a “work of art”. Oh yes, markers from head to toe. And the markers she found ARE NOT washable.
So 2 picture moments and NO CAMERA! I am hoping that she doesn’t get into the markers again, but I can handle her getting into the excersaucer again. AND I will be ready with our new camera! Thank you Brian for sensing the urgency of getting a new camera.
Baby Ryder is coming this weekend and we need to take some pictures! He is already 1 month old. Should be a fun weekend! More pics to come soon! We took some cute ones of the kids last night.
I think that Eli has been waiting for the day until he can play sports and go to practices like Jocelyn does. He played TBall in the spring and now he is playing soccer. And Brian is loving it. Brian grew up playing soccer and from what I have learned he was pretty good. Eli is playing once a week and it is a practice and then scrimmages after they practice. Nothing too organized, just having fun and learning along the way. He has had soccer 3 weeks and loves it. I watched him the other night for the first time and I was impressed. He knew that when the other team had the ball to run and defend the goal. (No one played goalie) Eli blocked a couple of shots. He really loves it and he is a fast little runner too. He is growing up so fast. I can’t believe he will be 5 in January AND going to Kindergarten next fall. 
Saturday was so crazy. Jocelyn and I were camping until 2pm. Brian ran errands with Eli and Audrey. Eli and Brian even got fitted for their tuxes for Uncle Mark’s wedding. How handsome they will be!! This is how our Saturday afternoon evening went:
2:30 – 3:30 Lori and Jocelyn shower and get that campfire smell off! Brian and Eli unload all the camping stuff. Aren’t they great!!
3:30 – left for a birthday party that started at 4pm. Now, this party was at 119th and Leawood (sorry to those that don’t live here… you have no idea where I am talking about) Should of taken us 20-25 mintues to get there. But no, I-35 backed up, we went maybe 3 miles in 40 minutes. Finally, we get off and go on a side road. Well, until that road was closed for construction. Sat for another 25 minutes. Finally, we arrived to the birthday party at 4:45! In all the years that I have lived in KC, I have NEVER dealt with traffic like that!
4:45-5:30 THe kids enjoyed the birthday party. It was at Little Chef’s Academy! I would highly recommend it. It is such a child friendly place and all the kids got to make their own little pizzas. Well, except our kids because they missed half of the party!
5:30 Left the party and drove to Kauffman Stadium. We had gotten free tickets to the Royals game. Our kids love to go to the baseball games. And we do to. We have been taking our kids since Jocelyn was a baby. The kids were wonderful and we had such a good time spending the evening as a family. We all cheered loud and sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Even Audrey tried to sing it. They Royals won. 2 homeruns… although please don’t ask Brian about them… he missed both of them because he was getting us food. He was pretty bummed that he missed them! This always seems to happen when we go to the games. As soon as Brian goes to get anything, something great happens. Not when I go… just him!
We got home around 10 and we all went to bed. Church at 8am!
On Friday the 19th, Jocelyn and I went camping with her Brownie Girl Scout troop. I am a co-leader for her troop and we have taken the girls camping several times over the past couple of years. However, this time it was WITHOUT all their moms. Well, except for Angie (my co-leader) and 2 other helpful moms. So there ended up being 12 girls and 4 moms. We decided to have the girls camp in the lodge for their first time away from parents. So we started our night at 5:30 with making pizzas. YES, we used the ovens. But the girls made them all by themselves. And they set the table, made the salads, and cleaned up too! Then we started a fire, because you can’t go camping without sitting around the fire and singing songs. We went on a night hike and tried making a new dessert… banana boats. They loved them. We started getting ready for bed at 10 and everyone was asleep by 11:15. We had them get to bed early, because 10 of the 12 are in cheerleading and had a game at 8 AM! We were all up at 6am to get them all ready. We had another helpful mom show yup at 7 to help us. Those 10 girls got back at 10am and we cooked lunch, cleaned up and went home!
Jocelyn and I both had a really good time. I am so fortunate that I get to spend that time with Jocelyn and her friends. I was never a Girl Scout growing up, but I think it is a wonderful program for girls. I would recommend it to EVERY daughter out there. Jocelyn has met so many friends this way and I have met a lot of friends too! Sorry, no pictures! I forgot my camera!
JOCELYN!!
Jocelyn had cheer practice tonight. They have practice every Monday evening for and hour and a half. At most practices, the coaches have a “SPIRIT stick” that they give to a girl for having spirit. The girl who is on time, in uniform, hair up, knows all cheers and chants, and has been practicing their jumps CAN get this award! I attend most practices… not really to watch, but to sit and chat with the other moms! It is 1 1/2 hours I have that I am not in charge of watching any kids! Pretty relaxing if you ask me! Anyway, this is supposed to be a story about Jocelyn, not me! During practice tonight, they practiced their jumps! One of the coaches said to me “Have you seen your daughters jumps?” I said “yeah, she practices them on the trampoline, but I really don’t know what a GREAT one looks like!” So she told me to come watch her jump, and everyone else watched it too! She did fantastic! Or in the coachs words “her jumps rock!” I haven’t seen a smile that big on Jocelyn’s face for a long time! She so needed to hear that! So at the end, all the girls stood in a group with the coaches and they said “The girl who gets the spirit stick tonight was on time, had the right uniform on, knew all her cheers and her JUMPS ROCKED!” The girls all yelled “It’s Jocelyn!” Many of the girls have received the spirit stick this year and some are still working toward it! That positive reinforcement is so important! We are so proud of her! They have an 8 am game this Saturday. Bright and early!
We woke up this morning and took our time getting up and going. Well, that was until we realized that kick-off was at 11, not 12. And we realized that at 10:20. We all got our Cyclone gear on and headed over the the OP (The Other Place). The game was not on tv here. For those of you that don’t know what GAME I am talking about… it was the Iowa State vs. Iowa game. The winner takes the Cy-Hawk trophy and bragging rights for the next year…that the Cylcones have from last year. We got to the OP at 10:50 and luckily got a table. We ordered food, more food, and more food as the game went on. All three kids were so good. Eli was very confused as to why there were so many Hawkeye fans! Whenever Iowa fans would cheer and yell, he would just look at them with. Jocelyn sat and drew pictures. And Audrey was a typical toddler and would not sit still. There were other kids around us. OP is a very family friendly place. The place was filled with Cyclone and Hawkeye fans. Actually pretty neat to see… even though our cylcones couldn’t pull off the win. Maybe next year!
By the way… Congrats to Grandpa Belden and Uncle Rexy- your Hawkeyes won!! I suppose it’s okay to take your turn with bragging rights!!
Belden Bunch 