Opposites

This year's check-ups. So amazed at the differences in siblings -- Emma one of the smallest and Jake one of the biggest! At least it's not the other way around!

July 24, 2015

Captain Hulk!

Super Heroes Rock. Cousins Rock. Sharing Rocks. Meet Double Captain Hulk.

Cooper and Jake

July 18, 2015

They're all dressed and ready!

The rare occasion when everyone was ready for church and I even had a spare second to grab some pictures! 

July 12, 2015

Lucas is One!

Lucas is one and getting a brand new car!

He loves his little buggy -- dances to the music, and loves to go in and push buttons.

The kids picked out a double chocolate birthday cake!

And Lucas thinks it's hilarious when they blow out his candle! Contagious little laugh!

 Dissection of the birthday cake...

A lot of the cake ended up on the floor, and smooshed down in his high chair -- but he had a lot of fun with it until he decided he was done. 

Happy First Birthday to our sweet little Lucas! He gave us quite a scare when he was born, definitely keeps us on our toes, and we love him to pieces! I love watching the kids play and laugh with him, even when he's being a bit of a pest, he still manages to leave us all laughing with his goofy personality. They adore him and fight over who gets to try first to get him to talk/laugh -- he loves all the attention. Lucas wants to be wherever his siblings are, and has the biggest smiles when they're around. His first words are Dad, Cheese, Shoes, and Mom.

July 12, 2015 

Trampoline

We had been debating getting a trampoline for a while -- pushed it off after Emma's trampoline incident, but then decided to get one "for Lucas's birthday." Alright, poor third child and we already have too many toys, so we get a gift for the family and call it his birthday present.... Good thing he loves it too!

His first chance to play on the McDonald's toys -- he loves that too. What kid wouldn't?

July 11-12, 2015

4th Of July

Day trip down to Twin to see the cousins and Fireworks. I came in to find the cousins playing "good food, bad food." I wish I wouldn't have asked what they were doing... because it was gross. Two would be blindfolded and someone else would grab something from the kitchen that tastes good or bad, and feed it to the blindfolded ones to see if they could guess what it was. Kids got spoonfuls of bbq sauce, mayo, and who knows what else. I prevented one of them from getting a spoonful of garlic seasoning, took my picture. and got out of there... yuck. 

Most of the time was spent outside playing on the tires, swings, sand, and tramp. Much more to my liking -- and their tastebuds'. 

 Pepper (my sister's dog) used to love climbing all over Lucas when he was little and defenseless. Now Luke loves Pepper and likes to go after her and pull her hair. It couldn't have been that bad, because Pepper kept coming back.

    

Jake Loves Raspberries. Every time my mom comes to visit, she always brings a tub of raspberries with Jake in mind. He was so excited when Cooper showed him where the raspberry plants were.

We had planned to go to CSI for fireworks, but most of the families decided to just do our own fireworks in the fire pit at the house -- so we had some dinner, fireworks, and no hassle with parking. Another nice evening with the fam :).

July 4, 2015

Swimming

We did two sessions of swimming lessons this year at the Meridian City Pool. Jake got pretty comfortable in the water, except for his face. He refused to do bobs with the first session instructor, but the second session instructor just started dunking him twice each lesson. I Loved It. 

 On Friday's they do Pirate/Princess Safety days. They have to walk the plank (diving board) in a life jacket. Jake didn't want to jump, so they bribed him with a ride on the inflatable boat. He jumped right in. Smart boy.

 Emma did great -- I was so surprised at how well she has progressed since last year. She's turning into quite the little fish. She was pretty nervous her first time off the diving board, but then did it over and over again. She loves to be in the water!

With all the swimming lessons, and all the time we spent at our neighborhood pool, the kids have continued to get better. Emma can swim across the pool on her own, and Jake will do bobs on his own (with encouragement or a bribe) and swim for a bit on his own with a kickboard. Quite the improvement since the beginning of summer. 

Emma won a free pass to Roaring Springs from school for reading, so we went the end of June. I gave Jake the choice of staying with Lucas at the babysitters, or he could come but under the condition that he would ride one big slide with me. He came and was barely tall enough to go on one. We found the most family friendly one -- a tube that all 4 of us could go on at the same time. We kept telling him that it was the slowest one of the big ones, and he was fine all the way to the top -- until he saw it in the water and decided he didn't want to do that anymore. Too late. I picked him up, set him in with me, and we were off! At the bottom, he declared, "That was too fast!" We all loved it.. Jake may have been a bit terrified. I think once he was on the big one though, he enjoyed all the little kiddie ones a lot more -- which he went on all by himself. Emma loved every part of it! She wasn't tall enough to go on the others she wanted to, but maybe next year if we can get her to grow one more inch! She repeatedly went down the little ones on her tube though. We all had a blast in the wave pool and playing around in the kiddie pool -- will definitely go again when we're able.

And Lucas gets plenty of water time too. He loves the little splash pad and our neighborhood pool!

June-July 2015