Father's Day

I love holidays, even the little ones.  I always try to make even the little holidays special with decorations and food.  I think Mother's Day and Father's Day are especially fun because the kids are in school and make fun crafts at school and church for us.  For Father's Day we make a special craft at home too.  

The "home" craft this year were tie cards.  The inside of the card was a questionnaire that the kids filled out and then the card had ribbon so Joseph could tie it around his neck.  He wore his ties proudly all day.  He wore Kimball's in the morning and Rebecah's after church.  

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful Dad.  Joseph is fun but firm and loving.  He does such a good job playing with the kids, involving them in his projects, and disciplining them with the perfect amount of love while still teaching the kids boundaries, respect and responsibility.  The kids affectionately call Joseph, D.O. which stands for "Daddy-O".  I actually think I started it back in Arkansas, but the kids call him D.O. all of the time.  It's cute. 

Kimball and Joseph with all of the fun things Kimball made for him.

Rebecah with the card she made at school and
 Joseph is wearing his tie she made at home.

2015 Soccer

Kimball played soccer again this year.  He loved being on a team and playing games.  His team wasn't be best in the league so their season record was 2-4.  Kimball got a little discouraged that his team only won two games, but we just kept telling him that the important things were having fun and trying his best.  His team did improve throughout the season and that was fun to see.  His coach was a first time coach so I'm sure she learned a lot too.  Kimball scored about half of the goals for his team this season.  It was always exciting to see him score a goal.  Kimball is eager for the season to start up again in the Fall.

Jumping up and down getting ready for the game to start.

Kimball watches a lot of European Football (Soccer) and so he has learned the "proper"
way to celebrate a goal...Running with his hands out. As Joseph pointed out...at least he
kept his shirt on!  This was just after he scored a goal.

This kick ended up being a GOAL!

We all enjoyed watching Kimball play and Rebecah said she might even want to play in the Spring.  I guess I'm a soccer mom!

End of School

School ended on June 24th.  I love the end of school.  I love seeing all of the papers and projects that the kids bring home.  I love the last few weeks when the teachers stop giving homework.  I love that the kids get "fun" days at school where they have awards assemblies, water activities, class parties and grade level parties.  I always loved all of the special things at the end of year so I get excited when my kids have them too.

Rebecah, the babies and I were able to join Kimball and his class for their end of year party.  Parents were invited and Kimball's teacher didn't mind that I brought the entire family.  The kids in Kimball's class would have been disappointed if I hadn't brought the babies.  Apparently, Kimball talks about Lincoln and Annika a lot at school so all of the kids wanted to see and interact with the babies.

Kimball received the "Perfect Attendance" award again this year.  Both kids worked hard and received top marks on their report cards so it was a good year for them socially and academically.

First day of pre-K

Last Day of Pre-K

First Day of Second Grade

Last Day of 2nd Grade

Together on the first day

Last day of school.

8 months old

The babies are 8 months old now.  Time continues to fly by without stopping.  They experienced the pool for the first time this month.  We bought an inflatable wading pool for the big kids, but the babies enjoyed it too.  Annika was so cute in her suit.  Lincoln enjoyed sitting with Daddy.

 

Joseph, Rebecah and Annika

Here is a little update on each baby.  Lincoln is just over 16 pounds.  He is in no hurry to be mobile which is very fine with me.  He is a good eater and sleeper.  He enjoys eating toast and Cheerios in addition to his fruits and vegetables.  I have him sleeping through the night now.  This was something new just this week...I just let him cry.  He cried about 45 minutes the first night and I was awake for every minute of it.  He always goes to bed without crying, but he would wake in the night wanting to eat so I finally decided to call it quits so I let him cry.  After the first night he fussed just a few minutes the second night, but not long enough to wake Annika.  The third night he didn't cry at all. Sleeping through the night has its trade offs...Lincoln now gets up for the day between 5 and 6 am. Not a big deal except that Annika isn't sleeping through the night yet.  Lincoln loves music and likes to rock side to side, especially when he is excited.  He has just two teeth.  Lincoln loves to sleep with his fleece blanket covering his face.  When I can, I uncover him because it makes me nervous.

Lincoln and Daddy

             

 

Annika is spunky and always on the go.  She is between 14 and 14 1/2 pounds.  She only eats when she is in the mood which isn't very often.  I'm lucky to get the recommended number of ounces in her a day.  She eats her solids well and likes Cheerios better than toast.  Annika is on the move.  She army crawls all over the house.  She has become a "mama's girl" within the last two weeks so she will crawl after me crying.  How sad is that?  Sometimes having two babies that want mom can be a challenge, especially if they both want to be held at the same time.  I have gotten fairly good at picking them up at the same time, but it is always easier to hold just one.  I love Annika's ready smile and her even temperament.  Now that Lincoln is sleeping through the  night we will begin to work on Annika sleeping through the night too.  She got two new teeth this month so she is up to 4 teeth.  Annika loves to sleep with a fleece blanket too even though it is getting to be summertime.  Annika goes crazy for UNO cards.  The big kids are on an UNO kick right now so sometimes we see how quickly we can play a game before Annika comes to eat the cards.

I love her facial expressions in these pictures:

 "We have a nodder!"
 For those who didn't catch the movie quote, that was from CARS.  

It's almost as if she is saying:  "You caught me crawling!"

Yes, we know she has red hair.  There is red hair on both sides of the family.
 I'm asked about her hair almost every time I leave the house.  I love her hair though.

I'm so grateful for our babies.  I couldn't imagine my life without them.   Kimball has gotten very good about changing wet diapers and will frequently change the babies in the morning and get them dressed if I'm busy.  Rebecah is good at making the babies laugh.

Rebecah's Preschool Graduation

Rebecah's preschool graduation was on Friday, June 12th.  The school year has flown.  Rebecah enjoyed preschool and made a lot of friends.  I didn't feel like I was as much a part of her preschool year as I was last year since she just took the bus to and from school.  She will continue to attend preschool until the last day of school for the district which is the 24th of June.

Here are some pictures from her special day.  

She looks so grown up!

Walking in for the ceremony.

Going to receive her "diploma".

Standing with her class.

Posing with her diploma.

With her preschool teachers:  Ms Desirae, Mrs. Allison, and Ms. Nicole

The graduation ceremony was about 15 minutes in length and then the rest of the time there were inflatable toys to play in and other carnival games.  Each child was given a book about Kindergarten as they left.

In the obstacle course jump house.

Playing a game.

The babies were good sports!  Aren't they cute?

Playing beach ball with Mom.  One of her favorite activities.

Rebecah is so excited to start Kindergarten in September.  I think she is ready for her next big adventure.

Whetstone Gulf State Park and Joseph's Birthday

We celebrated Joseph's birthday toward the end of May on the 24th.  Our celebration actually started on the 23rd with a hike at Whetstone Gulf State Park.  Joseph wanted to go hiking so we borrowed two baby carriers and off we went.  It was a cool day with temps in the upper 40s to lower 50s so it was nice not being hot.  Kimball refused to wear long pants and long sleeves so he actually complained the entire hike about being cold.  It was very un-Kimball like because I don't remember him ever complaining when being on a hike.  Hopefully he learned his lesson about listening to Mom and Dad when we recommend dressing warmer.

The hike wasn't as pretty as I thought it would be.  We were supposed to be hiking above a gorge.  Joseph said we just didn't go far enough since we turned around early for the cold one.  Rebecah did GREAT on this hike.  If you remember last year when we went hiking I would have to bribe her with snacks, but this year she didn't complain until the very end and she said she was cold just once.  We were actually walking through a really windy part of the trail so it was cold.

The babies did great.  Lincoln started off on Joseph's back, but he ended up in the front carrier with me.  He is a Mama's boy after all!

Here are some pictures of our trip.  My favorite pictures are the selfies Joseph took with each of the babies!

Annika and Joseph.  She is such a trooper.  She rarely
 complains or cries, but when she does....watch out!

Lincoln started off all smiles, but I think he was just too uncomfortable in the back pack.

Along the trail.

You can't see us very well.  Since we both had to carry a baby we didn't want to be burdened
with our nice camera so we just used the camera on Joseph's phone.

Sitting by the stream at the base of the trail.

After our hike the kids played on the playground.  This was Kimball's
favorite part.  He waited a long time for the chance to use this.  

Joseph's actual birthday was Sunday.  He requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I put cream cheese frosting on them and they were quite good, if I do say so myself.  We ended up eating lunch with a Cambodian woman from church.  She fed us so much food we just had fruit and cake for dinner that night.  We had to make sure we got the "good stuff" first.

The birthday boy.  I think he looks pretty well preserved for 34!

I love this picture.  Annika is so excited to see the candles.
 She wasn't as close as she seems to be.

 Joseph requested a chocolate cake with a Reese's filling/frosting.  It consisted of chopped Reese's peanut butter cups, cream cheese and cool whip.  I was glad he requested this because I had been in the mood for it and almost made it for Mother's Day until he said he wanted it for his birthday.

Not the best of Lincoln or Joseph, but we get so few pictures
 of ourselves holding the babies so I wanted to include it.

We are so glad that Joseph is our husband and father.  He takes his roll as patriarch of our family very seriously and he works hard to provide for us.  The kids love all of the time that he spends with them. We always miss him when he is at work.  I couldn't imagine my life without him by my side.