Fun with our Shelley, ID friends

Caleb, Luke, Sam, Mariann, and Olivia. Guess who's taking the picture? We are enjoying some delicious Reed's Dairy ice cream.

We were lucky to go and stay with our friends in Shelley, ID. We rode the shuttle bus up to Blackfoot and Mariann, Caleb, and Sam met us there. We went home with them and had so much fun. We got to go swimming, play at their house, and we can't get together and not have a trip to Leo's Place (a place kind of like Chuck E Cheese). We also got to go to Reed's Dairy, (the best milk and ice cream you'll ever find), went to the movies, had a BBQ, visit the Idaho Falls Temple Ground's and so much more. It's amazing that we really only got to spend 1 day with them. We had so much fun and it was so sad to say goodbye. But since Matt's favorite team is the Detroit Lion's (and you have to be a loyal fan to keep saying that after last year's season) we think they need to come visit us here SOON! Thanks for all the fun Matt and Mariann!

Hot Days, Water Days, Days with Friends

Luke picked up their soccer ball to play with and it had the biggest snail he had ever seen on it. Julie's Mother-in-law told him to kill it- he was shocked! He did realize how much damage they cause to their trees and such. Speaking of trees, they had an Apricot Tree, with lots of ripe fruit on it. Luke was in heaven climbing the tree and eating lots of Apricots. Livvy got to go out with Juli to their HUGE garden and pick carrots out of the ground, wash them and eat them. Yummo!

We were so excited because we were able to get together with some of our bestest and greatest friends from Kalamazoo in Utah. Juli, Paul, Max and Addison. While Paul was working, Juli and I took the kids to the Gateway Mall and let the kids play in the water park. It was such a hot day, a great day to play in the water. When our friends were in Kalamazoo, we used to get together the first Sunday of the month and eat Sushi. It became Luke's favorite. Therefore when he heard we were getting together in Utah, he immediately asked for Sushi. Paul and Juli came through, and Luke and Olivia were in heaven. It was such a fun day. I keep trying to get Juli and Paul to move back here, anybody know of a job we can entice them back here with?

It was fun catching up with Juli, and seeing how much Max and Addison have grown (especially Addison). It was sad to leave them, but a few days later they came over to my brother's house and ran through the sprinklers with us. We love having great friends!

Ty and Gus

Neil and Luke riding the scooter.

TY

Gus

Luke was being a goof and wiped mud over his lip. We decided he did a great Jeff Foxworthy imitation! :)

My brother Neil picked us up at the airport, and we got to stay with them for a few days. Olivia had so much fun with Ty. They played so well

together. Luke was adorable with Gus and loved to make him laugh. Luke is such a big help with babies. Luke also had a blast riding on Bernie, my brother's scooter. He thinks we need to get one for home. I even got to take Bernie out for a spin.

Frequent Flyers!

So my 2 young ones have been on a plane more times in their young lives, I think I can't even count for Luke anymore. Olivia has flown I think for 4 trips back home to the west. For Luke it's way more than that. This is our flight back to Idaho this last summer. We left for our grand vacation on July 17th, 2009. We flew with Angella and her girls. She had the calm young group of 3, and I had the rambunctious group of 2. Olivia did very well, she was sitting in the middle seat and was so excited for take off because Luke was. When the plane started to go fast to leave the ground, Olivia became very nervous. She reached over and grabbed my hand and hung on for dear life. She didn't cry, she didn't need to be held, she just wanted to hold my hand for comfort. It was one of the sweetest moments I've had. Once we got in the air and we were flying smoothly she let go and was fine. When we hit turbulence, and again at the landing she reached over and held my hand again. I never want to forget that. I hope that she always that she can come to me, and that I can be a comfort to her. It was a precious moment for me. I can't even really explain my feelings in words how it felt, I just hope that she knows that I will always be there for her.

We were very happy to reach Utah. We left Michigan with low 60 temps, and stepped off the plane with 100+dry heat to meet us. It was a shock to the body. Luke was excited to see the mountains. We sure love the west.

Tool Time

Ryan was putting together a bookcase and Olivia thought she needed to help him. It was so fun watching the 2 of them work together.

Am I ever going to blog again?

Well am I? Will I make the time once the kids, and yes I did use the plural term kids, go back to school? Let's hope I can. I want to remember the fun things we've done this summer. I want to remember the sweet moments like when Livvy grabbed my hand on the airplane when she was nervous. I want to remember the adventures Luke created with the amazing daring spirit he has, (not to mention the road rash that was all over his face).
So yes, hopefully I shall return to post our many adventures.
School starts soon.

We're Finally Back

We're back and I've got a lot of catching up to do. But who knows when I'll find the time. Here's a link to watch a slide show my friend made of the kids at their latest photo shoot. They had a blast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxmTeSUJI40

Hope you enjoy, and I'll catch up as soon as I can.

Cuteness

Today I was looking at some letters with Olivia. She knows the majority of her capital letters, but we've never really looked at lower case letters. I showed her a "b" today and asked her what it was. Her answer, "a up-side-down P." Of course being her mom, I thought it was cute.

Cherry Picking 2009

These are just such lovely shots of myself that I am so happy to post them...but it's for the journal you know. We went cherry picking at a farm in Mattawan with our friends Derek and Alicia. We didn't get many pictures, but the kids, especially Luke had a blast picking cherries. Luke didn't "need" the ladders. He was in it for climbing the trees. He did pick a bunch of cherries.

Olivia was mainly into running around, needing to go potty, and getting injured. Olivia at one point was running with so much joy to come and give me a hug. She didn't see the bucket I was wearing (I'm not sure how she could miss it), and ran smack into it. She hit her open mouth pretty hard, I was scared we would have a loose or missing tooth, but luckily it was just blood.

That left Ryan to pretty much pick by himself. We got around 20 pounds. I've never put up cherries before, I remember when my mom would bottle them, but I can't remember if I liked them, so we decided to just freeze them.

When we got home, I was washing the cherries and Olivia pulled up a chair and helped for a good 30 minutes. I made her take off her shirt so she wouldn't stain it with the cherry juice. She had so much fun, and she actually was very helpful.

Swimming Lessons 2009

The kids are all set and ready to go. We found some GREAT lessons at Brittany's Swim School. The kids loved being there, and it was so nice, because they accept 3 years old. Even though Olivia is a month and a half shy of 3 they let her attend. They both loved it, and I loved it because of the great progress the kids made.

Luke was in level 4 and he did a great job. I can't believe how well he is swimming. He is our fish.

These are the bars they used to help the kids practice their form when swimming.

Above is Luke doing an awesome backstroke!

Below he is doing the freestyle. Look at how far he's getting his arms out of the water!

Of course there's always time for free time. Luke was a diving fool. He was constantly running and diving off the diving board. The teachers were amazed he was diving every time he got on the board. Of course I could never catch a dive on camera, but his very last jump I was able to catch his silly fall (done on purpose) off the diving board.

They also had a slide that was fun to go down.

Olivia was in the level 1 class and she loved it. On the cold days, I tried to convince her not to get in the pool, but she insisted that it was her turn and wanted to go in. There were 10 kids in her class and 4-5 teachers. She loved almost all of them, but there was one she didn't want to do anything for. For Miss Brittany though, she would do anything. She felt very comfortable with her.

Above the kids are doing their Ring around the rosies. Instead of "all fall down" they would pick to do things like "stick our ears in the water, put our hair in the water, go under," or other fun things to get them ready to swim.
Here Olivia is sticking her face in for her friend Brittany

Livvy didn't really enjoy jumping into the water, but she did to show Dad how big she was when he came to watch.

Livvy was so proud to jump off the diving board. You'll notice that she really was thrown off, but she thought that was good enough. We were all so proud of her for doing it.

At the wall they would do Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, and they would help them "fall" into the water.

Brrr, a few of the days we had swimming lessons the temperature was in the low 60's. Luckily even though it was so cold outside, the pool was heated up to 88 degrees. It was the only way the kids didn't turn into Popsicles.

We loved swimming lessons here, and hope to return again next year. The kids want to go again after our trip.

World's Largest Breakfast Table

For those of you who don't know Battle Creek, which is just up the road from us is the Cereal Capital of the World. Kellogg's is there. What more needs to be said?

Each year there is the World's Largest Breakfast Table where you can go and enjoy free cereal, juice and bananas. I'm really not sure who hosts it each year, there are a number of cereals that are served. This year it almost wasn't held because of the lovely economy, but area merchants stepped up and sponsored it so the show could go on.

We were able to go this year. It was fun, there were a ton of people there enjoying free breakfast, and the kids loved to see the characters up and down the streets. Luke liked the live bands that were playing. We were only able to get a couple of pictures...silly Mom forgot the camera, but luckily Dad came through with his phone.

And yes, I do have a black eye, the fun of soccer.

Summertime

"Oh we're very very busy and we've got a lot to do and we don't have a minute to explain it all to you, for on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday there are people we must see. And on Wednesday, Thursday Friday we're as busy as can be."
I think that's how the words go to a Sandra Boynton song on our Philadelphia Chickens CD we own. I think this song and the book, "If you give a Moose a Muffin" describe my life all too well.
So I keep thinking I'm going to take the time to blog, but I get sidetracked and busy, and then when I have down time, I'm just relaxing. Never say that you think that next week you'll have more time, because it's amazing how those simple words can come back and bite you. :)
So anyway, I can't wait to blog about swimming lessons, and our fun summer activities and our upcoming trips, but they'll wait- just like my laundry (although that does get to the point of needing to get done).
How's your summer going?

Jesus Loves Us

With Luke being out of school, we've had some adjustment periods trying to learn where the boundaries are. Luke has obviously with this had some times where I have been frustrated and have gotten angry with him. At these times, Livvy seems to feel bad for Luke, and while I'm reprimanding him, she'll say, "Jesus loves us. He doesn't want us to fight." She reins me in and reminds me that I too need to show love even when I'm upset.
But don't get me wrong, when Livvy's mad at Luke, she'll scream at him and hit him as many times as she can get in. hahaha. She's my little determined one. But she teaches us a great lesson when it's needed.

First

The other day after swimming lessons, I was trying to herd the cats, I mean kids into the car. We were having our friends over for lunch, and I was trying to hurry to get home and get the food ready as the kids would be starving after swimming. So I got the kids buckled in, and then went to tell Sarah that I would be heading home to start the food. Then I ran and jumped in the car and took off. Livvy started talking about where we were going, and I told her that we would be going home. She started crying and said that Luke wanted to go too. I told her that Luke would be coming. Then turned to look to see what she was talking about. There was Luke's car seat empty. EMPTY? Where is he? I thought for a second he was hiding in the back, which I was going to yell at him about, but Livvy kept crying about how Luke wanted to come too. I then realized that I had left him at swimming.
I whipped a "U"ey, and went on back. Soon, Luke came running to the car with a look of shock on his face. I asked him where he was, and he said that he had forgotten his toy and went back to get it. He said that he had run, screaming after me (the air was on full- for him, and obviously I didn't look out the side of the car to see him) and then he tripped and skinned his knee. He then went back to the house where lessons are at, and was going to ask to use their phone to call me. Lucky for him he had a sister looking out for him, because I had forgotten my phone.
At first he was a little put out that I would leave him, but then he laughed and asked if I was going to blog about it. I had a good laugh (after I got over the shock of having left him), and told him that if he EVER left the car again to let me know before he ran off.

Independence

I wished for a camera the moment I saw it, but I didn't have time to find one.
Olivia LOVES carrots. She'll eat them cooked if she must, but she loves them fresh and raw. Many a time I have come around the corner into the kitchen and found her pulling one out of the fridge trying to eat it before it has been washed or peeled. For this reason, I started buying the baby carrots again so she could eat them straight from the fridge. It appears that this one night we were out of baby carrots and so Olivia found a regular carrot. She has been scolded often enough about eating them before they're peeled, that I found reaching up as high as she could on her tippy toes peeling the carrot into the sink.
When she saw me she looked like the kid who got stuck with his hand in the cookie jar. She quickly aborted her plan and threw the peeler into the sink, dropped the carrot and ran off. I wish, I wish, I wish the camera would have been in arms reach. It was the cutest thing in the world.

Shiner

So here it is. My pride and joy for this week's soccer game. Isn't it a beaut?

I had to apologize to Ryan for all the wife beater jokes he's been getting.

My Sweet Thing

Please note the "Vanna" hands.

My sweet little girl was playing with these Easter Egg Dying cups and this is what she built. She said, "Look at my Temple, Mom."

Isn't she the sweetest?