a few more July moments

It has been a great month - full of fun, laughter, sharing, adventure, and friendship. One of this month's highlights was a gathering at our house for the children that will be in Lincoln's preschool class in September.




I love this one of Anndra and Lincoln's friend eye-ing each other:



Todd did more canoeing with co-workers:





We've continued to enjoy time with Brooke:



We've made lots of trips to the pool. Anndra calls swimming "doo-imming"



Of course, we've also had to get creative with indoor activities since the unbearable summer heat has made it difficult to spend time outside.









Family Room 'Bowling'












Finally, you know you're in the height of the summer swelter when even the squirrels are too hot to run and play:

Unusual Beach Day

Monday was an adventure! I headed to the beach with our 15-year-old babysitter and 5 kids (my three plus two friends). However, when we got there we found out that a tropical storm was building somewhere out on the ocean and the resulting high winds made for treacherous waves and a killer rip-tide. Lifeguard trucks were driving up and down the beach announcing that it was a 'red flag day' and not to enter the water.



Well you can imagine the disappointment on our little tykes' faces. But we tried to make the best of it (some succeeding better than others). Parker and his friend got busy building in the sand...





...but Lincoln was in denial - he insisted on wearing his swimming vest even though he couldn't swim:



The other thing that made this trip to the beach unusual was that we forgot the bag with the sunscreen, hats, goggles, clean clothes, diapers, and Anndra's swimming suit! THANKFULLY, Parker's friend had sunscreen in her bag (otherwise, we would have had to leave after about 20 minutes to avoid being burnt to a crisp!). It was too windy for our umbrella so there was NO hiding from the sun. I decided to let Anndra 'swim' in just the shorts she was wearing (so she'd have a clean/dry shirt to wear on the way home).

Anndra and her buddy hanging out with the babysitter:







One of my boys was pretty grouchy the entire day. In this picture, he was doing the "I'm NOT going to look at the camera, Mom" thing:



In contrast, my other boy was giddy. Nothing could wipe the smile off of this guy's face!

A few anecdotes

Parker

Parker is having so much fun exercising his imagination this summer. He has been doing lots of reading and enjoys getting lost in the worlds his books describe. But the best part is how these worlds inspire the adventures, projects, games, etc. that he chooses to do when he's not reading.

For example, he loves to draw dragons and create all the 'rules' that govern them - like what powers they have, what can hurt them, what makes them stronger, and so on... the ones that he can ride, the ones that Lincoln can ride, the ones that are enemies...

The other day he said, "I'm one quarter mutant, one quarter wizard, one quarter potionist, and one quarter vampire." And then a little later he said, "Well those are the things I pretend to be, but what I REALLY am is a special effects expert."




Lincoln

Lincoln LOVES to ask, "Why?" All day long... no matter what we're talking about... we can't move on from a conversation until he's asked "why?" at least a dozen times. It usually doesn't bother me too much. I actually kind of like trying to come up with explanations he can understand - like it's a little game between the two of us.

But sometimes he asks "why?" when I give him an assignment, and I have to say, "I don't have time to explain right now - I just need you to do it." Well the other day right after Parker and Lincoln finished their morning chores, I asked him to do something (I think Anndra had spilled some water and I told him to get me a towel from the kitchen). And instead of saying "why?" he said, "But I already DID my jobs."

I could tell he wasn't trying to get out of doing work. He just honestly wanted to know why I was giving him another chore to do. So I answered, "This isn't a job - this is a favor - and because you love me, you should want to help me out." A big 'light-bulb-coming-on' expression came over his face (like "Ooooh, now I get it!") and he ran like lightning to get that towel.




Anndra

Anndra is talking more and more every day. She has been a lot happier lately and I think it is because her improved speech has eased her frustration from being less-able to communicate. One of her cutest recent phrases is: "Got you!" She likes to run across the room, grab her blanket (or teddy bear or doll) and yell, "Got you!" - as though this inanimate object had been trying to run away from her. Silly girl.

Months ago when she was just saying her first words, we liked to make up little tricks to get her to say these early words. One trick was to push her in the swing way up high over our heads and hold her up there saying "Ready...?" - we wouldn't let go until she said "Go!" Now fast forward to a family scripture study last week. Like an echo, she was repeating each word of a sentence: "...and [and] they [they] stood [stood] ready..." at which point she paused and - instead of repeating the word 'ready' - looked around with a smile and squealed "Go!"

She is also becoming a great little helper in the kitchen. Every time she hears me start to cook something, she runs over to the table, pulls out a chair, pushes it over next to me and climbs up. She takes it all very seriously. You can see (below) the concentration on her face as she stirs the eggs for the french toast we were making. What a doll.



I love these kids!!!

A step forward

Anndra recently progressed to a new level of participation in our family scripture study. Instead of just "listening" (goofing around while we read), she repeats some of the words of a verse:

Short but Sweet

The kids and I drove up to Alabama last week to visit Jess and her family. I took these pictures on our way as the sky cleared after a storm.



The trip was very brief (2 days), but we had such a good time. Thanks for (once again) being a superb hostess, Sis! And for giving me more time with my darling nieces.



One of the best parts of the trip was enjoying the pool:




Parker and Jane goofing around in the water:



Lincoln and Maren jumping in:



Anndra and Kate sticking to the shallow end:



The mamas staying shaded in sun hats:



In the afternoon when it was too hot to go outside:



In the very early morning, we went to the playground:



The sunrise was beautiful:







I caught Lincoln doing a silly little dance



Maybe in his mind it was martial arts, but to me it looked like a dance:



I finally switched the camera to video to catch the last of it:



What a great kid.

More Happy Times in June

This post is for a few things from the last month that I haven't had a chance to put on the blog yet. For example, some friends invited me to go with them to Orlando to visit the temple:




Also, we went to Parker's school for his end-of-the-year program (it had a 'luau' theme and he was dressed as a Fire Dancer):



One of the activities at the school that day was a sunglasses-making craft. Anndra modeled the glasses Parker made:




We've had some great moments of silliness:







...including a DOG PILE on Grandpa Paul!




We tried out a free splash park in a neighboring town:







We will definitely be going back!




Backyard adventures:






Finally, Anndra has become obsessed with DORA. She loves her Dora pajamas (hand-me-downs) and her Dora life-jacket... and the other day she saw that her cousin has Dora shoes and immediately wanted to try them on. She can name all the characters and loves to point them out in her Dora books. But I think the most interesting part of her obsession is her new fascination with backpacks:



It's plain to see she wants to be just like Dora!