Happenings

Last night about 9:30 Brandon was crying about an ear ache and I heard Micah give that raspy barky cough that never fails to send bone chilling shivers down my whole skeleton.  Needless to say I've been praying protection around Lisa and Brandon against croup and healing for Micah without hospitalization.  Thankfully he slept well last night but is coughing more today.   Pretty sure he'll be on the neb this afternoon a couple times.

In other news, here are some pictures of what's been happening around here lately:

Brandon has been off school since last Thursday for teacher's convention and curriculum day.  He missed it so much he coerced his brother into playing school with him.  Here Micah is taking a turn being the teacher and Brandon is having "snack" time.  ;)

The boys love taking turns holding Lisa and playing with her.  So precious to see them growing closer together as siblings.

Lisa has had some big changes.  She moved into the crib in the boy's room this week (and was promptly moved back out last night after I heard Micah's cough).  She's also loving the jumper!  This week she will be starting on solids too.  Growing up way too fast!

Saturday Bryan helped the boys carve pumpkins.  We didn't say anything about it but Brandon asked to carve one (must have heard about it at school or something).

And finally, Miss Lisa is four months old this week!  Where has the time gone?

I thought it would be fun to compare her poof pictures:

2 weeks

1 month

2 months

3 months

 4 months

She's also almost sitting up on her own already!

Blessings on the rest of your week.

Summer Salem Part 2

Friday the kids were really tired of running around so we made one quick trip to pick out Micah's fabric for his quilt and then were back at the house for nap time and swimming in the afternoon.  That evening we went to pick Bumpa up from the airport too.

Saturday was a hang-out day.  Lisa and I went back to get some more fabric and the boys hung out with Bumpa and Uncle Andrew.  In the afternoon the other three were back and we spent the afternoon enjoying some pool time.

All five boys studiously watching Howard the "cleaning machine" at work.

Sunday morning, since it was the week of his birthday, Brandon opened his present from Uncle Andrew and Auntie Cheryl.  He was pretty excited about it and held/looked at it a good portion of the drive home that day.

A quick family picture before we loaded up the kiddos and headed for home and the others headed for church.

On Monday Brandon put his new lego set together, first one he did completely on his own (with one or two "help" times from me) and he did it in a total of about an hour and a half!

Blessings

Down Time

A couple Saturdays ago, after some beautifully sunny weeks, albeit extremely stressful weeks, we decided to head out to the river for a hot dog roast. 

Sometimes despite the long baby-prep list yet unfinished, the crazy work schedule, the grueling duties that must be done, it's just as important to stop and play.

The gorgeous sunset made it all the more enjoyable!

Blessings

A Fun Shoot--Senior Pictures

We have had some absolutely brilliant sunshine and beautiful weather lately, which was especially nice Wednesday evening when I took some senior pictures.  Caira was a great sport, willing to try just about anything.  It made for a really fun evening.

Blessings

T-Ball and Other Doings

First practice was BRUTAL.  Brandon has a real and deep fear of change and new things and completely shuts down and/or panics.  We had tried to talk him through it as much as possible, but when we got to practice he simply refused to do anything the coaches told him to do.  I tried talking him through it yet again, but he just clung to me so eventually I ended up running the bases with him the first time...then he started relaxing.  This is the first picture I could take of him and you can see he's rather retisent but finally smiling.  At the end of practice they gave him his t-shirt and it was all over after that.  The t-shirt sold the whole thing to him and he has loved it ever since!

His team--the Blue Jays.  Their coach, Aaron, (the one in the matching t-shirt) is coaching because his daughter is the same way with trying new things, so he's really good with Brandon.  They both are very good with kids! 

Yesterday was their first "game".  They switched off hitting/outfielding three times, didn't keep score, and outs didn't count.  But they had fun!

Watching something far more interesting in the opposite direction the ball was coming from.  ;)

Look at that smile!

Micah and daddy had fun wrestling and being boys.

In other news...

We had marble-sized hail the other day that accumulated to about 1.5 to 2 inches in the back yard.  Bryan didn't get any at work...how odd is that.  The "storm" was accompanied by thunder and lightening which the boys found rather fascinating.  Micah has said several times since then, "Maybe thunder and lightening come back soon."

Last week Thursday the boys and I headed down to tromp around in the muddy tulip fields for a while and watch a glass blower work.  It was fun to get away from the crazy busyness we had going on last week.

Finally, the boys played at Grandma's house this week while I had my "baby doctor's" appointment.  Up to this point Brandon has always been the one driving the tractor and Micah climbs in the back.  When I said it was time to put toys away, Micah quick jumped on the tractor and uncharacteristically complying, Brandon jumped in the back and said, "Okay, Micah, you can take me for a ride."  Micah was totally okay with that and pumped those pedals all the way back around the garage with Brandon in the back...no small feat for those little legs!  I think riding his tryke to Bender Park the day before for the first time gave him the confidence to do it.  (Sorry, really bad phone picture, but it's what I had on me.)

Well, the sun is shining and my weeds are over a foot tall...guess where I'm heading... ;)

Blessings

February and March

A perfect capture of my children's personalities....they were both very proud of the "fort" they had built and Brandon wanted his picture taken with it, Micah, however, wanted nothing to do with the camera.

Brandon being the big brother and making breakfast for the two of them, including cutting the bread with a butter knife.

A rare and precious moment.

One Friday, after weeks of rain and cloudy skies, we had some brilliant sunshine and 52 degrees
so we headed out to the "blue boat park".  Even though it was windy enough to fly the kite by itself,
Brandon ran too--none of this standing still business.

Once again, Micah made it difficult to get a picture of him.

There was a free tee-ball clinic in Bellingham at the beginning of March, so to get a feel for whether Brandon would enjoy
doing a team sport here in town, we let him experience this first.  At first he refused to do anything until I pulled him aside
and reminded him how good he was at hitting the ball at home.  Then he decided to give it a try and loved every minute
with a ball.

He is a very strong hitter!

But when they gave him a bat to "pretend" hitting a ball and then arbitrarily run
around the bases--he would have none of it!

Just for fun at the end, they played "What Time is it Mr. Fox" and Brandon really got into that as well.

Tomorrow we begin a new season of life.  Brandon starts playing tee-ball on a team.  He's pretty excited but a little apprehensive as well.  It helped that the coach told us he should bring his own glove...that got him really excited.  Here's to trying new things.