Join our Team (or donate)

After spending the first 70 days of Blake's life in Iowa City and what we continue to go through with him, we are connected to Iowa City, the hospital, and to the Ronald McDonald House for life.

As many of you know, Aaron and I have been in the process of being healthier by running and eating (me more so than Aaron on that one) in hopes that we can possibly be a transplant candidate for Blake. We run for Blake and we wear t-shirts with Aaron's original twitter hashtag #keepfightingblake on them when we run.

This coming May 6, we will be participating in our first run in Iowa City. This run is for the Ronald McDonald House and all proceeds go to helping them stay up and running. The house runs on donations and we want to help any way we can.

You can come and run or walk with us if you want or you can be a part of our team by giving a donation. No matter how big or small, $5 is as great as anything, we would love for you to donate.

Here's how you can help. Go to the link below: if you want to join our running team and participate click on Join our Team and follow the directions. If you want to just give a donation click on the tab General Team Donation and follow the directions.

Follow this link to our #keepfightingblake team page.

We thank you all for any and all support you have given us through this first year. We will continue to try and give back in any way we can and that includes participating in this run. Feel free to pass this along to anyone who may want to donate to the Ronald McDonald House or who may live in the Iowa City region that would want to run or walk with us that day. Again, thank you!

Spring Break!

Spring break weather was amazing! Honestly, you couldn't have asked for anything better. We spent tons and tons of time outside.

The little guys loved this plastic tractor. They discovered that it has a horn that kinda-sorta honks.

I love baby feet!

In honor of St. Patty's, excuse me, St. Patrick's Day, we did a craft in the yard. Jenna got mad at anybody that would say "Patty's" and would correct them that it was "Patrick's." Little Miss Rule Follower!

We put down a shamrock and let the kids paint whatever colors they wanted around it.

Jenna's, oddly enough, ended up looking like Ireland's flag.

Aaron, Jenna and Brody did some yard work. They raked up a ton of leaves and bagged them up. On that note, I helped with the front and of course there was a garter snake in there. EW! Snakes everywhere. I killed it. It wasn't pretty, but I did it. I know, I know, they don't hurt anybody but they freak me out.

And Aaron and I may have had some green beer. :)

With grilled hot wings. It hit the spot!

What better thing to eat and drink when you're watching basketball? We were so torn with the nice weather in wanting to be outside and wanting to be inside for March Madness. This is what Aaron did a lot of break...

He runs the March Madness pool at the school and had to go through sheets a lot.

Our friends, the Cossolottos, stopped by to see us on Sunday! They moved to the Iowa City area in January and we always love to catch-up with them. Andria is a big of picture nut as I am. I liked this picture...

Sunday afternoon I took on the challenge of walking to the city park with all four kiddos by myself. It was a good "wear 'em out" sort of activity.

Bowen (L) and Blake (R) love the swings!

It's the only place in town where they can swing at the same time.

Jenna was scared to climb up this thing.

And they have a sand volleyball court, so all four of the kids played in the sand. Yep, even the babies.

The kids were burying the twins' feet. It was funny to watch

their facial expressions.

Bowen and Brody - two peas in a pod.

They would have stayed in the sand all day if I would have let them.

My favorite photo of the entire weekend. All four of my blessings.

Content and happy. :)

The Marsh

West Marshall is on spring break from Thursday through Monday. On Thursday, Jenna, Brody, my dad (who had come down for Jenna's birthday), Bailey and I decided to go to the marsh to let Bailey run around.

What a nice, even hot, day for a walk in the sunshine.

Jenna was hilarious. She kept telling me, "Mom take a picture of me like this." She's a creative little thing.

We took time for a group pic. Don't mind the squinty eyes because they were staring into the sun. haha.

We walked through grass. And a cornfield.

And Brody lost a shoe. :)

Then Brody was soooo tired and needed a break.

When we walked through the cornfield I found some ears of corn. The kids figured we could feed the squirrels at our house, so then it was like a scavenger hunt to find ears of corn. I'm in love with this picture of Brody.

He ran out of hands. So we shoved a couple of ears in each of his pockets.

I was surprised at Jenna. She really got into it too.

It was a great day for a great walk. This day, I was thankful for beautiful weather and hanging out with family.

Birthday Bikes

Our first born and precious baby girl turned six (6!!!) on Wednesday. Jenna was so excited for her birthday. We had an early out as the kick-off to spring break.

Aaron and I told her that she could open her "small gifts" before school. She was pretty excited and was able to wear/use everything she got at school that day.

We knew that Jenna needed a newer, bigger bike because she had outgrown her other one. Brody is at that age where he needs his first one.

For those of you that don't know, Jenna and Brody are exactly two years and two weeks apart. Because of the similar bike gifts, nice weather and because he's such a nice guy, Aaron decided to give them their bikes at the same time.

They were pretty darn excited. Jenna and Brody immediately took them outside and started riding them outside. After they showed them to our neighbor, Jon.

Jenna loves her purple streamers. And so do I. :)

She's such a cheeseball.

Brody actually did ride his bike, I'm just not sure why I didn't capture a picture of that.

This bike is just him.

Jenna said..."Take a picture of our shoes." So I did. She was the birthday girl.

Then Jenna wanted to ride Brody's bike.

And then they spotted a helicopter.

All in all...an awesome day!

Ten on Ten

I am officially a Project 365 dropout. Oh well. It just wasn't the right time. I saw this idea "ten on ten." You take ten pictures over ten hours on the tenth of the month. Ok, well I didn't take one every hour, but here are ten pics from March 10th! :)

Waffles for breakfast. Aaron was the chef.

Bowen sitting in the big boy chair. Chilllin. :)

Aaron and I got to go to Ames to get Jenna some presents for her birthday. I obviously couldn't show Jenna's presents, so here's a little something I picked-up. I may just have a problem/obsession with cute water glasses/containers. This was so summery, I couldn't resist.

Naptime. Blakers loves to cuddle with his blankies.

I went for a run in the afternoon. A tad windy, but otherwise nice.

Aaron took on the task of copying over a bajillion of our photos from last year. It took 3 hours!

Brody shooting some hoops. He looks so determined.

That's my girl. Practicing her dribbling skills.

Brode wanted to dunk it.

Just another night at our house. Masks required when getting Blake's dialysis machine set-up. Brody was my big helper.