Friday, September 23, 2011

the zoo.

every summer for the past few years we try to make it a point to get to the zoo at least once. 





we were waiting for this one little penguin to jump into the water... but it never did.  lilly to was a little disappointed.

nick and the kids took a train ride around the zoo.  max kept trying to climb out the side:)

for each of the kids first visit to the zoo we have gotten them a stuffed animal, lilly got a tortoise, max got a hippopotamus and for grey's first visit he got an alligator!
we were able to feed the giraffe, it was awesome.  i don't thing i was ever that close to one before.  the lilly and max love it:) 
lilly feeding the giraffe.

i couldn't believe how long it's tongue was!  that's only half of it in this picture!  you can see max was a little stunned by the size too:)

it kept licking my arm trying to get it's food, max thought that was really funny!
max was telling him to go down by lilly.
to be honest the kids were a little crabby, i couldn't really understand that... their bellies were full, they had enough sleep the night before and on the way there, the weather was a little rainy but nothing that should have affected their moods... i just kept saying to nick "what's with these kids, here we are at what should be a wonderful place for kids... what's with these kids?" despite that, nick and i enjoyed our family time at the zoo:)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

hugs:)

normally every day when nick gets home from work max will run to the door and say hi to welcome him home... and then just go back to what he was doing.  but on this day he must have really missed his daddy because he would let him go:)  they were the biggest, longest, tightest hugs i have ever seen a child give:)


lilly and grey even wanted to get in on the hugging action after they saw how happy it made their daddy.
so cute.

grey and me:)



lots of hugs and smiles in the this house:)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011

silly max.

max has turned into a little ham for the camera:)


i love this one:)


Sunday, September 11, 2011

4th of july.

wow! the forth of july feels like a really long time ago.  we had wonderful weather, a lot of swimming, a lot of s'mores and a spectacular fish fry.


my littlest man playing in the water:)

before this weekend i would have never guessed how much max loves swimming!  he was like a little fish and this life jacket was awesome, he was able to swim off on his own in any direction:)

riley and lilly.



max and daddy at the fish fry.
max and nick with the master fryer:)
just some of the minten family:)


max's first time keeping the headphones on in the car to watch a movie!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

compassion project.

our nephew jacob had a project at school about compassion, the kids leaned what compassion was and every child had a small plaque they had to decorate about what they have compassion for... jake made a "movin' for max" plaque.   he wrote a little thing about how he attended the Down syndrome awareness walk for his little cousin max and how he has compassion for him and others with Down syndrome.  how cool is that!  i know max would affect his family in a positive way, but i didn't know it would be so soon.  when jake told me he was going to do that for the project, i was so very proud of him... and max:) 

jacob and max:)

jake's beautiful piece of art:)
lilly and grey.
this place looked amazing!

Friday, September 9, 2011

lilly's first day

over the summer lilly took a pre-preschool summer class for three weeks.  i thought it would be good for her, at times around other kids she can be very shy.

she ended up doing great!  she made a few new friends and was very social.  lilly enjoyed every minute:) the class was only an hour or so long and they were able to cram in story time, art, snack, and recess... what's not to love:)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Grey's Baptism.

grey's baptism was on a beautiful day.  mass was wonderful, one other itty bitty baby girl was baptised with grey. 

during mass father took grey and walked around with him, he had the older members in the church bless him.
greyson with his God parents aunt val and aunt mel(nicks two sisters).

our family picture.

God Bless Greyson Jeffrey Pingel.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

catching up

so this is going to be my month to catch up on blogging from the months i have missed.  the summer has been very busy around my house, but we still were able to enjoy the nice weather and great family time:)

in the beginning of june we attended little chutes annual cheese fest.  the kids had a great time the weather was beautiful if i can remember correctly it was the first year in a long, long time that it didn't rain:)
grandpa elrick on the helicopters with lilly and max:)

daddy and grey.
lilly and max going into the fun house.

me going in after max... he was having to much fun in the ball pit to move onto the rest.
the kids at the parade.
grey was a little sad because he wanted max's sucker:)

like i said the weather was great... but all the food was even better:)