iowa state fair x2

the iowa state fair was just in town and james, scotty boy and i got to go twice! the first time we just went with the three of us. it was pretty rainy so scott got to wear some of his new rain gear. he looks so old!!!the second time we went with our friends kelly and andy meuting and ryan callahan. scott was so excited to be back at the fair. as soon as we strolled him through the gates he just kept smiling and clapping. it was adorable. as soon as we got there we all took turns going on the rides. me, kelly and ryan went on the gravatron. its the ride that spins you so fast that you literally stick to the walls like a dead fly. i think i sort of look like a dead fly in this picture. then the boys played some games.

i was so proud of james for winning this nice little obama doll for us. (we decided it will make a great white elephant gift someday)
scott had fun in the kids area too. he sort of had a moment of over stimulation where we had to take him away from all the sugar and lights. it helped a lot.
here's a fun little movie of scott walking around the fair. i just can't get over how much i love him.

the best (and worst) part about the fair is there is food EVERYWHERE. there really is no desigated time for dinner because you're just eating the whole time. everything there is either deep fried, on a stick, or dipped in chocolate. ryan was the only one gutsy enough to try the turkey leg on a stick. yummy.

i went for the "dipped in chocolate"

a list of the things we all ate: funnel cakes, deep fried cheese curds, corn dogs, chocolate covered strawberries, turkey leg on a stick, ice cream, extreme tenderloin sandwich, polish dog... i think that's it.

here's a view of the fair.


and here's the gang after a day at the fair. it was seriously a blast! (it's no wonder that rodgers & hammerstein wrote a play about it!)

what does a cow say?

james and i were inspired by a recent blog post by our sister-in-law annie with a video of her daughter - audrey (that is only a couple weeks older than scott) making animal sounds when asked. up to this point we have had little to no luck with teaching scott animal sounds. but because of audrey's success we persevered and this was the result.

we are truly proud parents but it has to be said that he makes the same exact sound whether or not we ask him about a lion, cat, pig, or what have you.
also, we're still working on the whole "m" sound at the beginning of the "moo". maybe someday.

and this is just a funny little video of a typical evening when james gets home from school. (the only atypical part about it is that scott is starting to dance and it is hilarious!)
it is so fun to sit back and watch these two play. i seriously love it.

"corn"topia

my dad always used to say "nothing in life comes for free."
but i realized last weekend that my dad must have never lived in iowa.
it was the adel corn festival in which we were served endless amounts of free corn.
and it was the best darn corn we've ever hard to boot!we met up with our good friends christia and barry.
good friends.
good corn.
good times.i just love it when my little buddy snuggles up in my lap.
it makes all the extra baby flab so worth it.i made james stand in front of these people so i could pretend to be taking a picture of him when i was really sneaking a shot of them eating their corn. they are just so classic. and you just know these three (probably husband, wife and brother) have been going to the adel corn festival since they were born. i can imagine them sitting on those exact same steps sixty years ago.

a little boy and his green bucket hat

once in a blue moon i click the camera at just the right second.

oops!

ok, seriously... i'm usually a really good hair cutter. i've cut james' hair a zillion times! but i've never forgotten to put the guard on the razor like i did this time! james was a good sport about it though. between clenched teeth he kept telling me to take a picture because "someday this will be funny." we thought about shaving his whole head but decided in the end that it wasn't worth it.
the first question i want to ask myself is... how did i not realize what was happening - sooner???
like, i serioulsy shaved half way up his head before it donned on me. that is sad.
today scott got to play with his pal brody for a while and it made me think about how crazy it is that these boys were this small when they first started hanging out together. now look at them. they have so much fun together. when brody first came over he and scott were both SO excited to see each other. they seriously did some kind of baby chant and laughed and jabbered at each other for about ten seconds before moving into serious play time. it was hilarious!

here's a video of the two of them. i'm warning you... its kind of boring but its just a keepsake, you know?