Pool Party!

Our cousins, Madi and Matthew, came to play today and we had a blast as you can see. By the way, Matthew is 7 months OLDER than Luke, and Luke easily outweighs him by probably 10 pounds and maybe a couple inches in the height department at least as well!!!

Swimming Lessons Week 1

On your mark, get set...

In we go!!

So, what I have learned from this week at swim lessons is that Luke (who hated water before the start of this week) now has no fear of it at all! He jumps in freely, and doesn't like me holding him at all! Anna, is still timid and nervous about jumping in (she is in level 2) and Jake (who is the youngest in his group) also has no fear of jumping in and will swim unaided (well aside from all the floatation support). Sorry about the blurry photos, but they are funny to see in order of getting ready and jumping! Thanks to daddy for doing such a good job at taking photos for us!

Picture Perfect!

It's days like today that my kids prove that I actually do know how to take pictures!!!

The Boys Photo Sessions....

My plan was to bring Anna and Luke individually for their respective year photos...Jake decided he wanted to come with me to do Luke's...and look at who stole the show!? I don't know what I am going to do for Luke, he is a helpless cause!!! He has a great smile, I just can't "pose" him for the pictures and expect him to show off that great smile. Anna was unwilling to go, hopefully during the boys naps she will be more cooperative! Enjoy!

Having a Good Time

Anna had her friend, Kayla over to play today. It was pouring rain, so they played a lot of games instead. Their favorite was Pretty Pretty Princess. They wanted me to take a picture of them all dressed up in their jewels!

4th of July Parade!!!

Happy 4th of July! I brought the kids to the parade in Grandville (that thing lasted 1 1/2 hours!). Mike is helping put a floor in at Uncle Danny and Aunt Noelle's house today (can't wait to see it!) so I am solo. The kids had a blast watching all the fire trucks, cheerleaders, horses, bands, ponies, motorcycles and anything else you can think of come through town. We got as much candy as we did at Halloween (and I wasn't prepared for that!). The craziest thing was that I was standing next to another dad with a little one the exact age as Luke...for the record that little boy is HUGE like Luke (yeah, he's not the only big one!) anyways, it turns out that I knew them from NICU, they had a little one born with no kidneys a few years ago and this is the sibiling (and there is one more on the way, who is also healthy!) I just thought it is such a small world that I would run into him like that! Happy 4th, I am going to take a nap now!

Independence Day Celebration 2008

Forest Hills had fireworks tonight, and since we are lucky enough to have family that live right across the street from the "launching pad" we went to watch. Luke, as we figured, was VERY frightened! Jake and Anna were busy "ohhhing and ahhhing" the whole time. I have to work the rest of the weekend, so Happy Independence Day to all!

Our Day at Soccer...

Not very exciting photos from soccer, Jake was better than last week. (I think he liked the girl instructor, as he was being a goof-off!) So, a couple hours after soccer we get this storm (a very WINDY, RAINY storm that scared the crap out of Jake and Luke). Anna was fascinated (isn't she always). Well, we lost power at 2:57pm, what do you do with 3 kids when there isn't much light and no Dora the Explorer? We tried reading books, playing games, we even fixed the train table back to its original form...which Luke LOVES! Then we decided, it was time for dinner (good ol' McD's!) and by the time we got home Grandpa and Grandma R. were here to rescue our filling crock (as our sump pump was obviously not working!) Yeah for generators! We were the only ones on the block with power! At any rate, the power came back just after 2am, so all is well again. The kids are still talking about living in the dark! (as if!) Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Summer Fun in Our New Pool!

We got out our little plastic pool at the end of the week (last week) and found a big hole in the bottom. (That didn't go over well!) So, we went to Target and found a new pool (inflatable, augh!) Saturday before I left for work we assembled it and the kids got to play for about 2 seconds before it started raining. Sunday was cold, so no playing for that day and these photos are actually from yesterday. Luke is not a fan of water, so I skipped putting his suit on...as you can see, I should have put it on because he decided to be brave and give this pool thing a try. (and liked it too!) Today it was much warmer, so I actually put his suit on and he was not ever close to interested in being in the pool or even using the slide, whatever! The big kids just screech and have a blast! Thank heavens for our third stall driveway we put in! We are also bike riding every morning, Anna is a professional now on her bike in every way! :) Jake is also a pro and ready for the next size up bike, as he has to work twice as hard as the rest of us as keeping up on the rides with such a tiny bike! Tomorrow is our second day of soccer, we shall see if Jake likes it better, last week he was very shy and not really willing to be involved! Hopefully daddy can interest him better than I did last week! Hopefully I remember my camera this time!