Happy Father's Day!

We had a very special Father's Day celebration for a very special father!  We spoiled Daddy with presents in the morning.  

Camden and Kade helped him to open a little bag full of driving range tokens.  With a driving range in the backyard of our new house, we know these will get used.

And then he opened a new pair of shoes from the kids.  Camden managed to keep this gift a secret for the past few weeks which is really impressive for her.  She's usually not the best secret keeper.

We've started a tradition of making Daddy shirts to wear on Father's Day.  Camden's shirt says "My heart belongs to Daddy."

Kade's appropriately says "My dad is cooler than your dad".

After gift opening and Derek's special breakfast request, we spent some time soaking up the great day and playing outside.

The we headed into West Des Moines and did a little shopping at the mall and had sushi for dinner.

T

We hope Daddy knows just how special he is and how much we appreciate him.  These are two lucky little kids to have such a great Daddy!

We'd also like to wish a Happy Father's Day to the other special dads in our lives - our fathers and our brothers!

Meet the newest members of the Wilson family!

We have an addition to our family!  Well, actually, we have at least 7 additions to our family!  We found a family of kittens living under our deck!  We've spotted 4 orange kittens, 2 gray ones and a mama kitty.

They are living under our deck and they usually pounce in the backyard right outside of the master bedroom window.  So we spent a lot of time doing this.

And this.

And we also spend a lot of time making kitty sounds and talking about cats.  These are things that are not typical in our house.  You could say we've all gone a little "cat crazy".

These cats have kind of taken over our lives.  Camden insisted on holding a "kitty concert" for them one night.  She played her maraca and did a little song and dance.  Unfortunately they were too shy to watch the concert.

So, what did we do when we discovered there was a family of kittens living under our deck?  We harbored them, of course!  We have adopted this lovely kitty family and are taking care of them as long as we are living in this house.  

I bought some cat food and bowls and have been giving them food and water each day.

We check on them quite frequently, but they are shy little kittens.  We usually only see them from the window.  As soon as they spot us, they run under the deck.

Many times when we come home, they are napping under the swing on our deck.  They typically scatter as soon as they see us.  But mama kitty sat pretty while I snapped a few pictures.  She was obviously fed up with the camera because she let out a little hiss right after this.

But they sure appreciate the food and water!  It's gone almost immediately after we put it out.  

We asked Daddy if we could take the family of kittens with us to the new house when we move.  But unfortunately the answer we got was a big, fat no!  So I guess we'll enjoy being cat people for the next month or two while we are still in this house.

I wonder how this will work next week when Sunny comes to visit for the week...

Minnesota!

Last weekend we went up to the Minneapolis area to spend some time with Derek's family.  It's been a long time since we have all gotten together and it was so nice to see everyone again!

Aunt Darcy had picked up some scooters for the kids.  They were definitely a hit!

Neither one has mastered the scooter skills yet...but we will keep working on it.

We went to Burnsville on Saturday to a kids festival and the kids loved it!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the best part of the event and that was the performance by Koo Koo Kanga Roo.   Derek's cousin Neil performed at the event and the kids had a blast singing along and dancing!  We had two very tired children when we left that afternoon!

Neil hooked the cousins up with matching Koo Koo Kanga Roo shirts!

We had such a relaxing and fun weekend.  We spent a lot of time just hanging out and catching up.

And we took advantage of having the whole family together and a beautiful scenery in Dan and Darcy's backyard and we took some family pictures.

The whole group all together!

Thanks for hosting us Dan and Darcy!  We had a great time - and hopefully it isn't another 2 years before we are all together again!

House Update - 4-6 weeks left!

The house is really coming along!  It's incredible to see how much it is changing every single day.  

The electrical is done.

The plumbing is done.

The windows are in.

The furnace and water heater are in.

The floor in the garage has been poured.

Next on the list is insulation and drywall and those should be started this week along with the siding.  As of right now we are 2 weeks ahead of schedule.  Our original timeline for completion was August 1st.  If we don't encounter any set backs between now now and the completion, the house could be done as early as July 15th.  Of course we are still telling ourselves August 1st so we aren't disappointed and we are trying to keep from getting our hopes up too much.

We have made most of the big decisions already and now we are working through the little details. In the last few weeks we have decided on granite, trim color and stone.  The next decisions to make are interior and exterior paint colors, light fixtures and flooring.

Talking through the electrical was probably one of the hardest decisions we have had to make.  We've had to make sure we have lights, outlets and cable/phone jacks everywhere we could possibly need them.  We needed to determine which lights needed to be on separate switches and which ones needed to be on 2-way and 3-way switches.  We also elected to have them do the wiring and install the lights in the lower level.  Initially our plan was to finish the basement ourselves after we moved in.  But it seems like we just keep electing to have more and more completed as the sub-contractors are there.  As of now, the basement has been framed, the HVAC completed and the electrical done.  We've gotten a bid on the drywall and are debating if we are going to have that done now too.  

This has been so much fun and we can hardly wait to see the finished product!  

Shades!

Sprinkler fun!

So what are we supposed to do when the temperature hits the 90s?  Get out the sprinkler, of course!

Camden took the sprinkler set-up task very seriously.

Kade examined the set-up and determined it was sufficient.

Then we waited for Daddy to turn it on.

Once the water started, it was go time!

Do the Zoo!

We had an awesome Memorial Day weekend!  On Saturday Derek and Jens went golfing, then we spent some time at Penoach Winery at River Valley Golf Course.  Sunday Grandpa Ken and Deb drove through Des Moines so we got to spend some time with them over lunch and then had the opportunity to walk them through our new house.  And Monday started at the zoo and ended with a barbecue at Grandma and Grandpa King's house.

Apparently everyone else in Des Moines had the same idea we did on Monday to go to the zoo.  There was quite the line to get in, but it wasn't so bad once we got through the gates.  It was a beautiful day for the zoo.  And they have a new dinosaur exhibit that we got to see for the first time.

Camden wasn't really loving the dinosaur exhibit because they loud and moved.  We told her they were just pretend dinosaurs, but she was still a little skeptical.  The last of the exhibits portrayed a large dinosaur being attacked by four smaller dinosaurs.  The big one is thrashing and moaning as the four smaller ones are biting him and digging their giant claws into him.  It was a bit graphic!  (You'll have to forgive my dinosaur ignorance...I really can't identify dinosaurs.)  I hurried us along past this one without directing the kids' attention towards it.

As we were walking out of the dinosaur exhibit, Camden said "Mommy, did you see those baby dinosaurs playing on their daddy's back?"  

"Sure honey, that's what they were doing!"

After the dinosaur exhibit, we hit up our usual favorite animals.  Of course we spent some time looking at the giraffes and ostrich.

And it just wouldn't be a trip to the zoo without feeding the fish.  This is definitely a family favorite.  Well at least a kid favorite and we go along with it.

Kade is even getting into feeding the fish this year.

Apparently Mondays are Member Mondays and you get a free train ride if you are a member.  So we waiting in line to take a ride on the train.  

I just love this picture of Derek and Kade.  You can see the admiration in his eyes as he looks up at his Daddy!

Which was followed by a giant hug for Daddy.

Kade loved the train ride!  He kept saying "choo choo" and he had a permanent smile throughout the entire ride!

Cam loved pointing out her favorite animals along the train route.  

Another fun weekend at the zoo!!