ONE bouncing baby on the way!

If you haven't already heard the good news...there is a baby on the way! Today I had my first trimester screening and got to see the little one bouncing all over the place. Here are some pictures from the ultrasound.

Here you can see the full body view of baby

Look closely and you can see the little face

Here is the belly shot, on the bottom is the heartbeat, 171 beats per minute (much higher than the boys, could that mean something???)

God's creation is amazing, wouldn't you agree?

To answer the most popular question I've heard...yes we are going to find out the sex of the baby, on my birthday:) Our due date is on Matt's birthday, March 12th. So we are hoping for an arrival early March. We'll keep you posted!

pumpernickels?

Matt was so excited to have a really big garden and grow lots of tomatoes for his salsa. I requested that he grow some pickles so we could make dill pickles. It appears that we planted the pickles a little too close to the pumpkins and ended up with...pumpernickles?

My wonderful hubby knew how excited I was to make the dill pickles so he surpised me yesterday morning by picking up a bag of pickles from a local market.

We cut some into spears and others into slices as we were boiling jars and lids and the dill mixture. It is quite a process. Our kitchen was the Buntrock pickle factory for a couple of hours.

After all was said and done we ended up with 10 jars of dill pickles. I can't wait to try them!

Great America

Grandpa Mark, Grandma Jill, Nana, Buppa, Cousin Amy, Dylan and Summer went with Casey to Great America on Monday. According to them, our Casey is an amusement park junky. His favorite ride was the Whizzer roller coaster (one of my favorites too!) He had a blast splashing around at the water park and going on any rides he was tall enough for. Grandpa was a real trooper and went on almost all the rides with Casey. What fun memories!

Annual Reed Luau

For the past seven years Leah and Nick have had a Luau every summer. Everyone brings a dish to pass and Nick cooks up some meat on the grill. This year Matt's parents were in town for the fun. Here are some fun pictures from the day.

Group photo

Casey swinging to the moon

Caleb loves riding around town in this hot pick ride!

Riley and Hailey looking festive!

3 generations of handsome Buntrock men

Caleb loved playing catch from way up high

Lucy got a turn too

7 years

On August 1, 2003 Matt and I started our adventure together as man and wife. We decided to go to Door County for our honeymoon (we called it a minimoon). That was our first time in Door County and we fell in love with it. Since then we have gone back at least once a year and stayed in some type of a condo or B&B. Every visist to Door County would bring us to Peninsula State Park to hike, bike or use the beach. We had always wanted to camp there but since it is the most popular state park, it is hard to get a site!

This year I did it, I got a site! The trick is to book it on the first day they will allow you to, something like 11 months in advance. So to celebrate our anniversary this year we took the boys to Peninsula State Park to camp!

We had beautiful weather. Each morning we took a bike ride on the Sunset bike path before heading to the beach until naptime. The boys had a great time and I think they loved the park as much as their mom and dad. It is fun to visit a place where we have made so many "married" memories.

I love you babe! Every year gets better. I can't wait to see what year 8 has in store for us!

Camp ZOOM

Casey was blessed to attend an amazing camp at Elmbrook church this week. Camp Zoom is offered for 5 weeks during the summer. Each week they study a different Bible charactor. This week's charactor was Jonah (one of Casey's favorites).

Monday-Friday from 9-noon Casey was able to participate in the following activites: stories, puppet plays, games, worship and centers that included drama, art, building, language and games. They had two water days, a hot dog day, and two bounce house days!

There were 100 kids in the camp and each was assigned to a color group. When you dropped off your child you got a wrist band that matched theirs. Casey had a wonderful teacher named Miss Lizzie. Every morning when I dropped him off he went right up to her to say good morning. He was so excited to be there.

This morning was parent day. We were invited at 11:30 to participate in worship and story time with the kids. Caleb enjoyed it and it was so fun to see what Casey had learned this week. I was very impressed.

I am so glad that he can be a part of this camp for the next 2 summers. The best $45 I ever spent!

Annual Change Pointe Camping Trip

Every year since 2004 our Sunday school class has been going on an annual camping trip. This year we returned to the campground where it all started...Governor Dodge. This was the "party site". Then there were four other sites that we set up our tents on.

It is so much fun to camp with all of our friends. The kids have a blast playing together and the adults have a lot of fun learning even more about each other through the campfire chats at night. Matt and I were bummed to have missed the campfire chats due to our headcolds.

The weather was pretty hot so we spent the day on Saturday at the beach. When I say day I mean 9am-3:30pm!

After rinsing off the lake water we headed to Stephan's Falls, one of my favorite sites at our beautiful WI parks. The boys enjoyed running around in the canyon and exploring the waterfall. Unfortunatly Caleb tripped and broke open his upper lip. Poor baby.

Sunday morning after packing up we decided to stop at this airplane that is right down from the park. You are able to do a self guided tour for free. Caleb didn't care for it, but Casey found it to be interesting.

Caleb slept the entire ride home....

Great Grandma Shirley

The past 6 days my grandma Shirley has been staying with us at our home. The boys love having visitors in the house (especially ones that give them chocolate)! Our favorite memories from the week include:

• Grandma's homemade dinner on Monday night
• Swimming in the pool together
• playing games
• and our favorite...going to the beach!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

I can't believe that my baby is two! Because he only weighs 25 pounds soaking wet and is such a cuddle bug, I feel like he is still my baby.For his birthday we celebrated with family and some of his favorite pals. He really seemed to enjoy the attention and didn't mind letting everyone help him open gifts. He is such a sweet boy, I hope he stays that way!

I thought it was great how Casey was so excited for Caleb's big day. When I went to get them out of their room that morning Casey helped me sing "Happy Birthday" to him. Then he couldn't wait to give Caleb the gift he had gotten him, a new train. When you ask Caleb what he got for his birthday he will say "cho cho".

Casey loved watching me put the finishing touches on the Mickey Mouse cake, and licking the frosting out of the bowl.

The party started out with some descent weather. The kids couldn't wait to get wet. Caleb couldn't take his eyes off of Riley long enough to smile for a picture.
We had to do some rearranging of things once the rain decided to join the party. The kids ate their dinner in the garage. It worked out well.


Pinata time!

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to..."


Notice Caleb is in his "birthday suit" in all the pictures. He kept getting his outfits wet (pool, rain...) He sure looks cute!


Happy birthday big boy. Mommy, daddy and Casey love you very much!