July Catch-Up

This is especially for you, my dear mother-in-law, who told me on the phone today that she checks my blog every day and hasn't seen anything new in awhile. ;o)

Where have we been this past month? Well, here and there. The past month has been filled with everything from a wedding to VBS to illnesses (sinus infections and the throw-ups) to play dates at parks. We've also spent a lot of time at home and I just plain haven't been into blogging lately. :oP Sorry, folks. So, here's a few random pictures from the past month or so. (A complete post about my sister's wedding coming soon and the 4th and final installment to my Pennsylvania trip coming soon. I hope.)

We do only three days of VBS at our church, rather than the traditional Monday through Friday. It is soooo nice! This way all us moms who also help out don't get end up getting burned out and our children don't become exhausted by the end! The kids loved VBS, as always. Abby's an old pro at it, Ben did much better this year than last and did a lot better participating (my boy is getting older!), and Jake did a much better job being watched by the teen helpers than last year too (he only ended up back with me a couple times in the craft room :).

Abby and Ben with their friends Tate and Julia during snack time.

 A couple weeks later Abby attended VBS at my parents church and the boys and I had the evenings to ourselves. We spent a lot of time in the backyard and took a trip to a new park.

Ben's fedora is his hat of choice lately - I think because of the compliments he gets on it everywhere we go!

We visited cousin Aiden and I took his monthly pictures (how is it that I've had three babies and never new about these cool stickers my sister got to put on the baby's onesie each month?!?).

We got to go swimming one hot afternoon. Abby swam around all on her own for the first time (with water wings and a life jacket) - I was so proud of her! Ben wouldn't come into the pool for about a half-hour, but soon, through some slick maneuvering and guiding on my part, he got to the point where I could pull him around with his arms stretched out while he kicked...and then jumping into my arms from the side of the pool! I was so proud of him for overcoming his fear! Jake loved the water, as I suspected he would. It was his first time in a pool and I didn't even take his picture once! :o( Sorry, buddy!

We celebrated my Dad's 74th birthday, ever thankful for another year especially after his heart problems and surgery earlier this year. (as a side note: he is in Alaska right now on his first job since surgery - it took a ton of red tape and waiting for him to get his license back from the Coast Guard and he is glad to be making money again! He is also doing better physically than he has in several years!)

I thought it was fitting that the evening ended with him helping Stephen with a car problem - my dad's helped us all with our cars many a time over the years!

We went to a couple outdoor concerts with my mom - one the was the Army National Guard Band and the other was the Olympia Symphony on the Capitol grounds. After the latter concert, we, of course, had to walk around the capitol building (if you know my kids well, you know they love THEIR capitol!).

We went on a play-date with friends from our church at Percival Landing Park and Heritage Fountain. (For those who know my friend Kirsten from EBC, we also met her for a play-date at a park but I forgot to take pictures because we were talking together so much! I am excited that she is moving back to Olympia within the year! Yay!)

A couple other items of note that happened in July - I turned 31 and ran in my first real race (a 4K), and Jake started sleeping in the same room with Abby and Ben finally! It had been a few months since we tried it again, and this time everything went very smoothly, with only a few problems with daytime napping but almost no problems at nighttime - yay! It is so nice to have the study/office back to ourselves at any time of the day or night and the kids are really enjoying all being together in the same room.

Oh, and if you noticed someone is missing from our pictures and commentary...yes, it's that time of the year again and Kevin's gone just about every day now. I must say that I was truly blessed that he came home last night unexpectedly after being gone for about a week. Jake got sick in the middle of the night and I was so thankful for Kevin's presence to help clean up all the vomit in the crib while I cleaned up and dealt with Jake. Thus far, I have never had to deal with one of my kids as babies throwing up during the night on my own (during the day it seems not nearly so difficult to deal with!) - the Lord knows my limits and I am ever so thankful for this seemingly small and everyday blessing when Kevin is gone so much! (of course, it was not so much fun for Kevin who was only home nine hours!)

And so there you have it, our July in a nutshell!