Happy Birthday Michael!!!

Wow, 14 years old!!!  He has really grown a lot in the last year.  He has matured a lot and grown a ton - he's now taller than me by a few inches and fast approaching his dad.  He has a heart of gold.  He is super close to his mom - he's often the first and only one to know when I'm upset and he's always there with a hug.  He has more energy than anyone I know and loves to be on the go.  He loves swimming, being with friends, being outside, camping, fishing, sticks (oh the sticks!!  Our garage is full of them, even though we keep throwing them out.  Somehow more appear.), watching tv, playing computer games, and playing Wii.  He's a big tease, a great big brother (Caleb absolutely adores him and the feeling is mutual).  We love you Michael!!! Happy Birthday!

The earliest digital picture I have of him is when he was 8, so we'll start there.

Proud to be the first to hold new baby Elizabeth:

 

5th grade graduation:

 The start of an awesome relationship with his new baby brother:

Trophy from his first 5k:

I think I have a few out of order, but you get the idea.

This was from a few weeks ago.  He caught a frog at a nearby stream and wanted to show it to me.  I locked the screen door and took a picture from the safety of my house.  I don't trust Michael and frogs around me. 

And from today (notice he has a stick with him?  See what I mean about sticks?!)

 

And look how much he's changed in a year.  This is from exactly one year ago.

Nathan on the Pioneer Trek

Nathan went to Trek this year.  For those of you who don't know what that is, they take the youth from our church and recreate the experience of the Mormon pioneers moving west.  The kids dressed up in clothing the pioneers wore and pulled handcarts across the plains of Oklahoma.  Nathan had an amazing experience.  They hiked 17 miles over the course of 3 days in the blazing hot sun.  When he got home, I asked him how it was.  He surprised me by saying he had a great experience and a fun time.  I don't know if I'd describe that as fun, but he really did have a great time.  He came home smiling and happy and sunburned.  His face is sure weather-worn.  I think it's cute actually.

Here he is at 4am (too early to be awake!) heading out to start the trek. 

I should have taken pics of him when he got home so I could show before and after, but it never occurred to me then because he was so incredibly dirty. 

Happy Birthday Lydia!!!

Lydia is now 8 years old!!!  Lydia has the most contagious giggle ever.  She loves language and words and word play.  She's very determined... once her mind is made up there's no changing it and no stopping her.  She's a perfectionist.  She loves drawing, coloring, doing arts and crafts, Littlest Pet Shop, fairies, zebras, monkeys, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, and dancing.  Happy Birthday Lydia!! We love you so much! 

And some pics from her birthday party.  We're having family parties this year.  Lydia wanted a swimming party.  So we went swimming as a family, then had pizza while we watched a movie and had cake.  She got gel pens and black paper, bubble gum, and $20.  And yes, they're all in pjs because they just got back from swimming and had a bath.

 Anna found orange sherbert lip gloss and bought it with her own money.  Lydia was excited and I thought the whole interaction was so cute - melted my heart.  I don't know who was more excited the giver or the receiver.  Anna was so proud of herself for keeping it a secret for 3 months - that's a hard thing for Anna!

Michael at Scout Camp

Michael went to his 3rd year of Scout Camp.  He was gone for 6 days (way too long for a camping trip if you ask me), and he had an absolute blast.  He has all the merit badges he needs so he got to pick whatever sounded fun to him.  He said this was the best year of Scout Camp and he loved everything about it (except the bug bites and the mud.  Michael doesn't like mud.)  He went swimming, archery, and C.O.P.E. which is kinda like an "extreme sports/team building challenge" type thing.  He did all sorts of crazy things: climbed a 40 foot tree, jumped from one tower to another, and went on an insanely long zip line where they started from like 40 feet up.  Here he is on the zip line.

Swimming

Yay, an update finally!  There hasn't been much going on to post about since school got out.  We've spent a lot of time at the pool so I thought I'd share some swimming pictures.

Michael is at Scout Camp all week if you're wondering why there isn't a picture of him.

Pretzels for snacks.  Caleb got really excited when he noticed, "My pretzel is a smiley face.  See the eyes and the happy mouth."  I never noticed that pretzels look like faces, but if you look closely, they do!

Nathan the Shark making Katie and Anna scream and cling to each other for dear life.

A funny story.  I bought the kids a little bucket set that has a watering can.  Elizabeth decided to fill it up and make a trail around the perimeter of the pool.  It took her awhile since it was really small and she had to keep going back for refills.  When she was nearing the end she got excited and told me, "Mom I'm almost done."  I didn't want to tell her about evaporation.  She got to the end and was so perplexed and put her hands on her hips and said,  "Hey, were did my trail go?!!"

Katie told me, "Mom teach me how to jump.  Take off my floatie."  She wants to jump in the pool so badly, but doesn't know how to jump.  I stood on the side with her and kinda threw her in the pool, but she didn't like it.  So Anna tried helping her jump off the stairs.  Do you notice something about this picture?   
Katie learned how to smile for the camera this week!!!!

Making "soup" with "apple juice and blueberry juice".  Anna also made soup with her friend using "garlic water" and made onion rings using diving rings.  The little pool is warmer so it was the "fryer" to cook the onion rings.  I love their creativity!