In a Nutshell

To all of you who faithfully check our blog - though I am woefully unfaithful at updating it - thanks! Everything around here has been crazy busy, coupled with chasing a now 1 year old around, I barely get to check my email. No complaints though - I love it all!

So, I decided to take a few moments and give a very swift overview of the last four months since my last post. Hopefully, I will be able to add a few more details soon. Here goes:

My last post was in April, so we'll start with May. Too long ago to really remember. We celebrated Mike's birthday at the beginning of the month. He chose to go to the Hu-Hot Mongolian restaurant for his bday. The food was excellent, and we have been back several times since. The rest of the month is a blur, except that I designed my first webpage. I have much more work to do on it, but it's been on hold for a little while due to the chaos!

For June, belated shout-out to Jen for her birthday (yes, I did wish her a Happy Birthday before now!)!

Mike had two weeks of shut-down from Deeres, so we flew out to PA to visit my family, and show off our beautiful baby girl. It was definitely a whirlwind trip. We were there for 5 days, and we spent each one of them in a different part of the state. We put over a 1000 miles on the rental car just travelling from place to place. Just a note - while we were in Philly, we went to Geno's and Pat's King of Steaks (rival cheesesteaks, both claim to be the original); we decided Geno's was better overall, but Pat's had better bread.

The next week, our car all but died. We were at the point where it would cost more to fix than the car was worth (I know many of you can probably relate to this). So, it was car shopping. We have never had to go to a car lot to buy a car before and every cliche about greasy slick used car salesmen was swimming in my mind (Mike's parents came along to intimidate. . .er bargain with the salespeople). We ended up buying the first car that we looked at (God was definitely leading here). I was so sick I could barely stand up, tornado sirens were blaring, and we bought a car. It's a 2002 Chrysler Town and Country. Very nice and quite a step up for us.

I'm sure more happened, but my mind is not what it used to be. . .

July brought Aayla's first birthday!!! I can't believe she's one already, but everybody is right - it does go by so quickly. We had a party for her the week before her birthday with friends and family. It went very well, and of course Aayla discovered that she LOVES cake.

For her birthday, Mike's family went with us to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. We had a great time and Aayla loved all the animals. I was afraid she might not enjoy it much, but she does love animal so much - it ended up being perfect. Jen came up for the family birthday and stayed for two weeks, so she got to help us celebrate too, which made it extra special!

As far as August, it has just begun. Not much to report, and I am too tired to anyway. Since I know that I can't post this without pictures, I'm off to find the camera and upload a photo or two. The good bday pics are on other people's cameras, so I will have to post more later.

Oh, and Aayla update. She is now enjoying solids, she was a late bloomer in that area, so we are working to catch up. At her last checkup, she was just over 23 lbs and 30 in tall. She has been cruising all over the house for forever, took a few steps on the fourth of July (and just about every day since then), but has yet to decide that walking is more than just a novelty act. She says two words: "Daisy" (of course that would be her first word!), and "Hi". Grandma recently taught her "Bob" and she's really close to "momma"!

Aayla enjoying the "rides" the the mall.


Forget a milk moustache, Make mine whipped cream!


A rare photo of all members of the elusive m.ertl family with the seldom seen cement pygmy giraffe family