4th of July

Ryan is in the baby bjorn and liked the 4th of July too. It was a beautiful night, almost chilly. We had a wonderful holiday weekend. We had some big outings to Omaha as a family and Ryan slept five hours one night, so we went to Omaha the next day too trying to duplicate another five hour night. We were not as successful the second night, but the time we spent together as a family was well worth the sleepless nights.

The sparklers were much more fun this year for Colin. He enjoyed writing his name in the sky and we also stayed up late watching the Omaha sky - we can see lots of firework displays from our deck.

Our small bag of fireworks were certainly a big hit with Colin. He thought Matt's firework display was amazing. The neighbors kind of mocked us :-)

Colin hanging on the rim of the basketball hoop!

Colin swimming at Aunt Jody's pool

New Friendship

Jacob Croatt, son of Jodi and Matt Croatt, came over to meet Ryan. Jacob was born in April and has a few pounds on Ryan. They played well together and will be great friends in the future.

Matt has been home since the beginning of June and went on his first overnight last week. This week he was gone for 3 nights, a major challenge for me and the boys, but we survived.

It has been a very busy two weeks. Ryan was baptized on Saturday June 25th and I have lots of pictures, but my memory card says it is damaged. I feel bad that I am not updating the blog like I did for Colin, but two little ones is much different than one! If I can recover the pictures I will certainly attempt to get caught up.

Matt's parents and sister came to visit this past weekend and meet Ryan. He must really love them, because he allowed us to sleep from 11-5 two nights in a row. After Grandma and Grandpa left he turned back into a normal newborn. We are getting 4 hour stretches of sleep, which is pretty good. Colin is doing great with Ryan and is a big help. He is going to be a wonderful big brother.

We have been blessed with family and friends helping these first two weeks, so a big thanks to all of you.

Big Brother giving Ryan a sweet kiss.

Colin posing for his athletic picture - NO SMILING!

Our New Addition

On Wednesday June 15, 2011 Ryan Joseph Steele entered the world abruptly at 8:07am at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He was 7lbs 3oz and 19.5 inches long. Matt and I are so happy that we have another healthy boy. Ryan already loves the pacifier which has saved me already. The nurses keep talking about a zombie stage that the baby will go in because he will be so tired from the delivery, Ryan is no where close to that. He is very alert and enjoys being held. Ryan is just a few days early, his due date was June 21, 2011

Colin is very excited about being 4 years old and a big brother. Colin continued to tell us that is was a boy and he just knew it, well he was right.

One of my first moments with Ryan.


Ryan under the heat lamp.

Colin really warmed up to Ryan and tried to tickle him. He wants to know when we get to keep him? Ryan and I will be coming home on Friday, June 17th.

Spring Concert

This year, Lauren and Logan (cousins) graduated from pre-school this year and are going to kindergarten. Next year, Colin will be joined by his other cousin Haylee and good friend Ben at pre-school.
Colin finished this year of pre-school with a spring concert. He was not all that excited about going, but he had fun once we got there. The summer is starting out chilly but Colin is still wearing shorts to bed and all day as often as possible.

Colin's First Field Trip - Fontenelle Forest

Colin, Lauren and Logan at the Montessori field trip to Fontenelle Forest


Logan and Colin take a break from playing tag to pose for a picture.

Colin having lunch with his friends from school, Dylan and Christian

The students pretending to be rabbits.

The frog was being passed around for everyone to pet!

Colin relaxing in the log tunnel

Colin playing in the stream which ended up with wet shoes.

Close Up

Trip to Minnesota

Robb, Melissa, Adam, Colin, Matt and Anne....the Steele gang missing Katie. We will have two more additions in the next family picture. Katie and new baby Steele.
Whitney giving Colin a goodbye hug. They were both VERY tired at the end of their exciting day.

Pete and Whitney Wanning came to the track meet in Eden Prairie on Saturday morning. I elected to stay home because it was 45 degrees and raining. Not exactly great track weather. The Wanning's came over after the meet and we got to go to dinner with them at a fun restaurant. Colin and Whitney played great together. In the picture above, Whitney was tucking Colin into bed.

Matt was inducted into the Eden Prairie High School, Track and Field Hall of Fame this past weekend. We went up to watch him and his siblings be inducted. Matt was a high hurdler and also ran the 300 hurdles in high school. His record of 14.4 in the high hurdles still stands at EPHS. Each inductee was asked to say a few words to the current high school team, Matt of course was very comfortable with this and enjoyed giving some advice.

Colin sitting with Grandma at the Hall of Fame banquet.