Hooray Hinze

Nate's sister and her family drove up from Dallas to visit us. We had a short, fun-packed visit.

Nate got the basement all gussied up for the kids. They loved it. Especially when they arrived at 1 in the morning after been strapped down in the car for 8+ hours. And the adults loved having someplace where the kids could run around and burn off their excess energy.

Friday was spent recovering from the trip and playing at home. Savannah and Will fought it out on the Wii.

On Saturday we divided and conquered. The boys went to see the church sites.

First stop: Adam-ondi-Ahman

Here's Rod's obligatory in-front-of-the-Spring-Hill-sign-photo.

Will stood in a corn field.

Stop #2: Far West

Rod stood in front of the Law of Tithing sign in his "Capitalist Pig" shirt.

Stop #3: Liberty Jail


Back in the car, Rod asked Will what he was doing, and Will said, "being sad." Will knows that Liberty Jail is the most depressing Church History Site.

Stop #4: Independence

Will shows off his spacemen at the Temple Site.

Meanwhile the girls (and Beckett) went to the Deanna Rose Farmstead.

Savannah wondered why baby boy Beckett was allowed to come with us.

First Stop: The Historic Schoolhouse

Stop #2: The Dairy Barn


Stop #3: The Pony Ride

Stop #4: The Baby Goats

Stop #5: The Mini-tractors


Stop #6: The Nature Walk


Stop #7: Back to the Baby Goats

Savannah could have fed the baby goats all day long.

The girls and the boys met up at home to get ready for trunk-or-treating.

Zebras and Standing

So far Beckett is a baby with very few, but very intense, interests. If we had to chose only two words to describe Little B's first 4 months they would be, without question, zebras and standing.

Beckett's love of the zebra has been well documented on this blog. His interest in the awesome black and white stripes has waned somewhat as his ability to see colors has increased. However, this has not stopped us from taking full advantage of Beckett's first love. I couldn't resist this cute zebra outfit that seemed made for our baby.

His grandparents have gotten in on the zebra-fun as well. Here Beckett sits in his zebra outfit, on his zebra blanket, with his zebra stuffed animal-- both gifts from his Grandma Dorothy.

While the zebras' popularity may have diminished, standing, Beckett's other favorite thing, has lost none of its glory.

Beckett started standing at 5 weeks. Now he will hardly ever sit down for Nate. Almost every time Nate carries the boy, he insists on standing. Below Nate gets lots of love (dare, I say too much) while Beckett Hops on Pop.

All this standing has helped Beckett become an expert at this baby trick. Here he shows off while giving you a sneak peak at his Halloween costume.

Beckett's love of standing has also helped to make this new toy a hit.

In the past month we've seen Beckett's interests slowing expand to include a tiger that sings to him, an elephant that rattles, the taste of his hands, and, although he prefers to stand, he is now not entirely opposed to sitting.

(Beckett was placed here for photographic purposes only.)

At 4 months he is, all in all, a really happy boy. (Although, Jessica, he obviously has his moments.) He recently decided that tummy time is not so bad (as long as his tiger is singing to him) and has rolled over 5 times from his stomach to his back.

He's also a big boy. At his 4-month check-up he weighed 15 lbs. 4 oz. and was 25 in. long. (75% for both.) I can hardly believe that he's gotten so big so fast.

Nascar

Kansas has a speedway that showcases Nascar every spring and fall. It's a really big deal here. I took my dad to the qualifying rounds since he happened to be in town. Now, if you know anything about my dad, his attendance at Nascar is also a really big deal. He played along though, and even checked out that fleet of vendors at the entrance with me. I think if you ask him, he'll admit that the cars were truly amazing to watch.

There were two things that impressed me about my trip. The first was the noise. Everyone said it was loud, but I had no idea how loud those cars really are. If you have been to Nascar, you know what I'm talking about. Thankfully, we brought ear plugs.

The second was the wind. It was so windy that I had a hard time keeping my hat on. We had to lean into the wind just to stay on our feet. I guess that was just part of the joy of living in Kansas, but I imagine it made it hard for some of the cars to qualify.

Next time I go to Nascar, I'll have to do the full weekend gig, complete with audio and video devices to catch all the replays.

Fall Festivities

Recently Nate and I took a trip to the Louisburg Cider Mill. Louisburg is a little town about 25 minutes south of us. They have this famous cider mill where they make cider (obviously) and doughnuts and rootbeer. Doughnuts are one of the only treats that Nate truly loves, and he especially loves an old-fashioned doughnut. That was our motivation for the trip. There's a big Fall Festival every year at the Cider Mill, but, unfortunately, it was a little too big for us this year.

Truly it was not this crowded last year.

So, after a very brief stay we went to take a walk at the Arboretum.

I don't think I've ever seen the Arboretum looking better. We found this really tall grass.

Sculptures are sprinkled throughout the grounds. This one was our favorite.

Beckett showed off his baby tricks.

Blessing Day

Beckett's blessing day started bright and early. Actually more like dark and early. Beckett was wide awake at 5 am. I guess it was all the anticipation.

Church starts for us at 9 am, so we certainly had plenty of time to get ready.


By the time we got to church Beckett was really tired. He had refused to sleep at all between 5 and 9. And, of course, that meant Beckett was cranky. He was finally just falling asleep when it was time for the blessing, and so he complained through the whole thing, but he sure looked cute.


Here he is with all the people that came for his big day.

Papa and Grandma Stephens with Uncle Aaron:


Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie:


Stephens Men:


Later that night everyone came over for dinner. Beckett showed off for his Uncle Aaron with some big grins and some good standing--something he's loved to do since he was 5 weeks old.


Thanks everyone for making the trip out to see our big baby.