Fun Day

What a beautiful day it was yesterday! We had a family outing at our theme park in town. My brother's family and cousin's family joined us. The older kids rode the bigger kid rides while the little ones rode the little kid rides. Most of the day we were split up. Baby R. slept pretty much her first trip to the park.

C. riding the Carousel with her cousin.


C. with Bernie the dog.


C. with her two cousins.


Treat time after lunch.


R. and I relaxing in the shade while the kids are on the ride in the photo.


C. LOVES to ride the horses, as she calls them. R. and I take her while the the others are on a different ride.


The Space Shot was the ride the older kids couldn't get enough of. They rode it about 5 times.


C. waited ALL day to get a bag of cotton candy. I'm not sure who at more, she or I.


Can't leave without getting a funnel cake.

Garage Concert

O. likes to sing and dance. In her spare time, she and her friend will get together and listen to music and choreograph moves to the songs. Tonight they performanced in our garage.

Love Holding My sister

Big sister C. LOVES to hold and take care of her little sister. R. is getting to be more alert. She is watching the ceiling fan move in this photo. R. just had her 1 month check up. She weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces and 22 inches long. She has moved into the 80% for height and weight.

July 4th Celebration

Celebration of the 4th of July is always bring us home. My grandpa's birthday is also the 4th, and he turned 89 this year. This year we didn't celebrate at his farm like usual. Grandma finally decided that getting ready for the 4th was a lot of work and let my uncle have the celebration at his house. The kids had 5 hours to bounce in a castle bounce house and play with their cousins. Then around 9, it was firework time. This year was a record low in temperature I could ever remember. The low temp and drizzly weather didn't bother the kids.

Cousins with their matching shirts.


July 4th is also my brother and sister-in-law's wedding anniversary. Happy 11th Anniversary Chris and Sara.


It was too cool for little R. to be outside. She slept while it was supper time and stayed awake for the fireworks.

Looking at the pretties in the sky.

Last Baseball Game

Baseball season is over for A. He played on the White Sox and Phil was the assistant coach. This year was a learning experience with the batters trying to hit from a kid pitching. If the pitcher threw four balls, then the coach would pitch to the batter. A. played in all positions but catching was a good fit for him. He did a nice job of catching the balls and throwing the ball accurately to the pitcher. Still at this point in baseball, the kids come in at all different skills and abilities. Hitting the ball wasn't ever a problem for A. He consistently hit the ball in the outfield and ran quickly to the bases. A. also liked to steal bases. This was new for the kids this year in baseball.


Warming up before an inning.


Throw a strike.


Coach Dad had to come in to pitch.


A. just caught a ball in his glove.


About to hit the ball.


Running to third base.



Another run crosses homeplate.


Time to go home. R. slept through the whole game. This was her first game. The weather was perfect, low 80's.

Baptism Day

Today was R's baptism along with 3 other babies. Here we are at the back of the church at the baptismal font. Gathered with us today to celebrate were grandmas, Godparents Raye and Danny, and my sister-in-law, Sara.



Godmother, Raye, is holding R. while she is being baptized.









The Nord Clan



We celebrated R's baptism with a meal following the ceremony. Here is R. all tuckered out from all of the excitement from the day. Most of our celebrations are with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

Park Outing

This morning we went to our neighborhood park before it got hot.


Three weeks old today.


Right in our neighborhood park there are two horses. They come to the children every time wanting them to feed them grass. The kids always make time to visit the horses. It's a little country in the city.