9 Years Later

Jacob turned 9 this July. Nine years ago I gave birth to a bright eyed little guy and the twinkle in his eye is still there today.

Jacob and his birthday cupcakes.

Video games always make a kid happy

Oooohhhh. . . Target card! What will he spend it on?

Pokemon

All the boys at the birthday party/sleep-over freeze mid-battle. Look closely, there is a little sassy girl in the middle of that mess!

6 Years - Where has it gone?

We celebrated Lizzie's SIXTH birthday this summer. Six year! Wow, time really has flown by.

Lizzie with her birthday cookies.

Think she is excited about this gift?

Littlest Pet Shops

Birthday party/sleep-over girls having a good time!

She loved the new accessories for her new bike

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

summer = water

My kids love water. There are days when I have to literally threaten them with grounding if they don't get out of the pool and come in and eat!! I am glad they enjoy it so much and I know it is great exercise.

Cousins swimming on vacation.

Jake playing sharks and minnows.

Woo hoo! A snorkel for her birthday

Hmmm. . .she swears the goggles were on right

Jumping!!

My crazy teenager.

Jacob's snorkel mask too.

He worked at learning how to dive.

Floating

But no time in the pool is complete without "one more cannonball!!"

Fourth of July

We visited family in southern Indiana over the 4th of July. We took lots and lots of pictures. Here are just a few.

The best pic we could get of all the grandkids. From Zach to Kelsey - ages 13, 9 ,6 ,3, 2 and 1

Zach was excited that we could buy and set off fireworks in Indiana. He loved setting them off. Here is one of them. We had one near miss before this one. One of the big ones went astray and went flying under my sister's car, then bounced out and back and forth between mom's van and Kelly's car. Luckily neither had any gas leaks!

Brian was in charge of the sprinklers. We had an "incident" with the sparklers as well. One shot a spark that burned Brian's leg. Another one shot a spark up under his glasses and singed his eyelashes!

Lizzie and her cousin hid and plugged their ears until they got used to the noise.

Starting off with bottle rockets.

Off it goes!

A trip to Indiana isn't complete without a round of wrestling with all the cousins.

Brycen loves birthday cake!!

A meeting of the minds on Mamaw and Papaw's porch.

Lizzie (all done up from a birthday party) rides along!

Doesn't she look ornery?

Uncle Jimmy tries to prove he still has it!

One of my favorite pictures of Brian.

Best Big Brother Ever!!

Lizzie got a new bike and decided she did NOT want to put training wheels on it. I knew it was going to be quite an experience teaching her how to ride without them. One morning, I was inside and the kids were outside playing when Zach tore through the door and said, "Mom, you have GOT to see this." My first thought was that someone had broken a bone. But no, Jake was patiently teaching Lizzie to ride her bike!! He was so patient and kind. It was sooo sweet! She doesn't have the entire thing down just yet, but with Jake as her coach and cheerleader, it won't be long!

Jacob patiently telling Lizzie what to do.

There she goes!!

Oops - the first of many spills.

The next day, he had her on the driveway riding!

Way to go Jacob! You are a rockin' big brother!!!

More Baseball

Well, the season is still not going well. Can you say 0 and 10? Or something like that? Ouch!! But we are hanging in there. Here are a few pictures from the last game.

Zach playing second

Zach at bat

Our friend, S, plays catcher and is good at not letting it get away

Zach on second again

Our cool friend, B, in right field!

The First Sleepover of Summer

Lizzie hosted her first sleep-over of the summer. Her good friend, M, came over to play and spend the night. It was a very busy night.

Arts and crafts

Catching lightening bugs

Polly Pockets

And some ice cream and rootbeer floats while watching Kit Kitteridge!