more pics in Protivin

................here are some more pictures from our visit at grandma and grandpa Lentz' house in Protivin. The top picture is of my grandmother (Parker and Nathan's great-grandma) and Parker. My grandmother is such an amazing woman! She is in her later 80's and still lives on her own on the farm. She enjoys being outside and growing strawberries in her garden. Her face just lit up when we came out to visit her. This was the first time that she saw Nathan, which was very special. She enjoyed watching them run all over the place outside and couldn't believe how much Parker had grown. She said that Nathan looks like me and that Parker looks like Leland. I told her, yup, Nathan is my mini me and Parker looks just like Leland.

My parents decided to have a birthday party for both Parker and Nathan when we were home since their birthdays are pretty close together. My mom got these individual letter candles that spelled out Happy Birthday and we lit each letter. After we sang Happy Birthday to Parker he tried blowing out all the candles. He got some help from grandma who was sitting behind him. Grandma made Parker special cupcakes with Lightning McQueen and Mater pieces on top of the cupcakes ( as if Parker didn't need any more sugar!) and boy did Parker love those!

The next picture is of Parker being my big helper by placing the clothes pins on the clothes while I was hanging them up to dry. You don't see much of this happening down here in TX, so it was nice to have the fresh air dry our clothes. I didn't think that Parker would want to help me put the clothes up, but he thought it was the neatest thing. Needless to say it took my longer to put the clothes up, but if Parker had fun with it, it was all worth it to me.

My dad works on farm machinery on the side and when we were home he was working on this combine. He told Parker one morning that when he finished working on it that he would give him a ride in it to return it to the owner. He was so excited to ride with grandpa. It was so cute to see Parker climb up the ladder on the side to get into the combine. He had the biggest smile on his face when my dad started up the combine and they were on their way on the road. Parker wouldn't stop talking about his experience in the combine:)

I finally figured out how to use the timer on my digital camera and I captured everyone. Lucky for me we were all looking at the same time! The boys had such a great time in IA, it was hard to pack our suitcase and head back to TX.........................