Orange Grove, a Gator, and a Baptism

Yes, I'm still playing catchup. I recently made a goal to be completely caught up with blogging this fall's events by Christmas Day. We will see if that happens!

So, our good friends, Joe & Cassie Klatt, asked us to be their little boy's godparents. Case Perry Klatt was born in June and we had not even gotten to meet him yet, but were really excited to go down to Orange Grove for his Baptism and to hold that little tiny guy! We also had not been down to Orange Grove since...last Christmas. But, fortunately, Vic's family comes to us on a regular basis and we even get to see our OG friends occasionally throughout the year. Honestly, to go off topic for a minute, I have no idea how the year has gone by so fast. We have 52 weekends and still that is not enough time to spend with everyone! Anyways, so we loaded up and had a fun weekend. We got to see Mandee and Derek's new house almost completed, hung out with friends and family that Saturday night, go to the deer stand (the boys) and then witnessed Case's baptism Sunday morning before heading to lunch at their house. It was a fast but fun weekend! I only have pictures from Saturday night and don't even have one of little Case!!! I'll have to fix that situation in the future!

So, on Saturday night, the Seidels cooked dinner for the Stechs, Seidels, Klatts, and Powells. Also, Mandee and Derek brought over their kids' John Deere gator. It is really cool! It is battery operated and takes some serious hand eye coordination and quick reflexes to stop, go, turn, etc. for little kids. But, Beck and Ben have had some practice because they were great at it! I was super impressed with little Ben, who was only 23 months and he could really handle it. As soon as I would be worried he was about to run into someone instead of stopping fast, he would just stop. He knew what he was doing! Atticus has not ridden one of those before and ended up just riding shotgun all night or chasing it when it wasn't his turn. Being so cautious, he tried a couple times to push the pedal and steer, but would need more time to get the hang of it. Grace, on the other hand, was not allowed to ride in it because she couldn't hold on and I was afraid she would fall right out while they were flying around the yard in it. Of course, that just made her mad. It's tough to be the only girl and the smallest in the group. The cutest thing of the night though was when all the boys were off doing something else and all of a sudden, Janice yells to me to look and little Miss has crawled into the driver's side and looks up at us and grins as big as she can. She was SO happy to finally sit in the gator! Our cute little Aggie kids had so much fun that night!

 I love this little ponytail! 

 Her "cheese!" faces!

I'm pretty sure she is telling Beck that she really wants to drive the gator. I'm pretty sure he is not going to move over for her.

 Here is Derek showing us how these super cool little cars work.

Another "cheese!" face.

 The gator got stuck in the mud.

 Here is one of Grace's attempts to get to that gator so she could ride too! 

 And here is Grace complaining that Ben is sitting on her car.

So Ben solved that problem and got his own car.

  Atticus LOVED riding on that gator all night. You can tell how hard he played by those little red cheeks! 

Arleigh & Iris (the little girls) came but they were much more ladylike and didn't want to play rough and tough like Grace and the boys.

 We had to make a rule after this picture that nobody could ride on the back...little Ben fell out of the gator right after this picture was taken. No worries - he was ok.

 Beck and Atticus.

 Grandpa and Atticus. Cute picture!

Here is Grace with that "Haha! I finally got my way and got into this gator!" face!

Then, big brother joined her. What a fun night!!!