"Tiny Beach"

This past Saturday we went to Lake Michigan for the day. This was our first trip of the summer, mostly because of Olivia's leg. After we got back from the shore, Josh and I were really wanting to go back to the beach. And like my mom and dad say, "If you can't be on the Jersey Shore, this is a close second." The kids quickly made distinctions between Lake Michigan and the shore. Olivia called the lake, "our beach" and Esther has called it the "tiny beach" since we returned. The water was really rough, which made swimming for the kids out of the question. Josh and I took turn taking the kids in and found out quickly that we couldn't go too far with them, or getting back in was really tough because of the rip tides pulling us back out. One time I thought Josh was going to have to save me and Olivia. Other than the rough waters, it was a great day. Gideon took a long nap on the beach, the kids played great, and we enjoyed the quiet and each other. It was great to get away with no cell phones, no agendas, not even a watch. It was simple and wonderful.

Garrett found a piece of drift wood and made it his surf board for the day.

Garden Update

With all the fun vacation pictures, I haven't really wanted to blog about our garden. However, I am so proud of how well it's going, I have to get these pictures up.

Our first fruits. The green beans never even made it to the stove top, we ate them all raw, yummy! The tomatoes were on sandwiches for myself, Josh, Olivia and Garrett. Soooo good!
The cherry tomatoes are amazing and tonight for dinner we finally saved enough to put them in our salad.

Here are the three tomato plants before vacation.

Here are the tomato plants one week later - they went crazy! The big one on the right got so heavy that it pulled the wire supports out of the ground and my neighbor had to help my place posts and string around the whole thing.

Olivia helps show the enormity of the tomato plant.

Cucumber plants before vacation.

Cucumber plants one week later. It's not turned the right way, but you get the point.

Green beans before vacation.

Green beans, one week later.

Family Photo shoot

We'd like to thank Aunt Corrie for our family pictures this year. We had a fun time taking them and even more fun playing in the ocean with our "picture clothes" on. Hope you like them.

Vacation

We had such a great time on vacation this year. The Jersey Shore has been my family's vacation spot for almost 20 years, and think it only gets better! The kids were awesome the whole week and living with extended family went EXTREMELY well! We couldn't be more thankful for a week of fun and sun!

I do have to let you know, that I have no beach pictures. I know, how could I forget the camera? Well, I did. I am waiting for my sister to share her 300 pictures that she took, so I can make a video. Here's just a taste of our week.

Dinner time! All the kids are in the picture, Garrett is hiding in the far left.

It was so great to spend time with my niece Avery. She's so adorable and loving!

Totally a forced picture. While we were waiting to start our ride night I had the kids pose for pictures - I think the look on Garrett's face says it all.

Garrett loved every ride this year!

The superman ride was the longest wait they had and the shortest ride - Garrett got bored waiting and decided to see what the ride tasted like.

My cousin Lauren, husband and daughter, Ella were down for the day and rode with the kids.

Esther rode the Carousel with her P-Pop. All week we were at "P-Pop's beach." And the whole ride home she would say, "Home?" And I'd say, "Yes, we're going home." She would ask, "P-Pop's home?" To that I said, "No, baby our home." Then she would cry. She loves her P-Pop!

This is the best picture of all the kids with P-Pop and Grammy. It's not easy getting kids ages 5 years-8 months to look at a camera and smile all at the same time.

Olivia's leg and random fun

Today was the big day! We've been anticipating "hopefully getting her cast off" for a while now. We always used that terminology because we didn't want to have her hopes up and then have the Doctor not take it off. Everything checked out great and they let her take the cast off. She wasn't scared of the saw and only cried when they put ointment on her sores (from the cast rubbing). Those should heal quickly and she's on her way to walking without her cast. She's still a bit slow, but I know she'll be running around before too long.

This is how happy she is to have her cast off!

In other news, Josh cut Garrett's hair the other day, into a mo hawk. This was at Garrett's request and of course Josh didn't hesitate. I wanted to get the pictures on now, because we will be cutting it off before the shore, it would make a pretty funny tan line.

Garrett's "million dollar" hair cut. . . and million dollar bill that he got at the parade. It's really a corny tract on the back - but the kids think it's great that they have a million dollars!

Josh and I were trying to get a good picture of us and were giving the kids turns at taking them. Garrett had already had his turn and jumped in the picture that Olivia was taking without us even knowing. Sly guy!

4th of July

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Look at him go!

Gideon first crawled only a week and half ago, and already is all over the place. He's going to sitting really easily and is loving his new found freedom. I can't believe how big he is! Time flies!

What are you thankful for?

Thanks to my sister-in-law Erin, our family now has a new, so far successful, way of dealing with life. She recently blogged about how they are dealing with the "I want" bug in their home. Every time one of the boys says "I want", they have to come up with something that they're thankful for. She shared how it has changed the conversations in their house and the attitudes of the whole family. (Check out their blog via our link!)

The "Michigan" Crisps have been doing this same thing, and we have added some other times to share thankfulness. For instance, after Olivia gets out of time out for hitting her sitter, she's got to tell me one thing that she's thankful for about Esther. And when Garrett was complaining about his dinner, because he HATES chicken, I asked him to share something he was thankful for. Here's how the conversation went:
Garrett: "NO, I don't want to!"
Mom: "Ok, you can go to time-out and while you're there think about something to be thankful for and share it with us then."
Garrett: "Ok, ok, I'm thankful for JESUS!" He says very angrily.
Mom: "OH, Buddy, He's a great thing to be thankful for! Why are you thankful for Jesus?"
Garrett: "Because He's in my heart." He says with conviction.

Back up to his seat he went and didn't complain about his dinner again. He didn't even fight eating it after that! Then we all took turns giving thanks. So a big THANKS to Erin for sharing a great idea in parenting.

Now some recent shots of the kids.

Garrett at the Salem Co. Pancake Breakfast. It was put on by the fire dept. and the kids had a great time touring the firehouse. Right after this shot was taken Garrett fell like a ton of bricks because the suit was so heavy. I wished I had the video camera!

Olivia enjoying more "inside" fun from her cousins.

I think she needs a barrette.

Gideon enjoying dinner. He's crawling as of Monday. When he gets really good I'll get a video of it. Right now we don't get much time on our card - so it would be hard to get.

Happy Father's Day and more. . .

We had a relaxing day at home to celebrate Father's Day. We didn't do anything really exciting - we don't like to make too big a deal of all the "card" holidays. The kids were thankful for "happy father's day" in their prayers, it was really cute. Here are some cute shots of the kids in the last week.

Gideon shows us how well he can turn around and get on all fours in his bouncy seat. I guess we need to buckle him in from now on.

Olivia helps Gid balance on his feet.

Garrett doing his 'butt' dance.

Es wanted her picture taken this way - she refused to put a shirt on, oh well.

On to more interesting news, Josh broke his pinkie toe on Friday. He was moving a ladder in the sanctuary and accidentally kicked it. I thought you'd like to see all the pretty colors that it's turned as of today. Nice, hu?

Why I love being a stay at home mom

I have to admit, this has been a tough week. We have VBS at church and I'm in charge of crafts. This means getting up and out of the house by 8:30 - which is new to all of us. This also means that for 4 hours, every day this week, I've got 25-35 kids that I'm instructing and hearing. Hearing them is the tough part for me because although I have four, loud children, I also have a routine at home every morning that gives me time to myself. This week I have to wait until nap time to get a "noise break". Today that didn't happen, Gideon didn't want to take a nap and neither did Olivia (she only naps two days a week, if she needs it, which she did). I called Josh 'fried' from the top of my head to the tips of my toes and he came home to relieve me. He stayed with the kids while I walked the dogs, in silence!

I say all of that to say this, even on the toughest of days, like today, I wouldn't change it for anything. I would hate to miss watching Garrett entertain Gideon by getting in his face than dramatically falling to the ground saying, "OWWW, you got me in the face!" And then hear Gideon laugh hysterically. I always want to be the one who kisses their boo-boos, listens to their frustrations about not being able to play because she broke her ankle, and watches them 'boogie board' in the pool. I want to be the one who hears their prayer requests every night and prays with them. I want to be the first one to hear child like faith from my kids, like last night after we tucked Garrett in, said, "You know what? We don't know what Esther's prayer request is, but Jesus always does." I don't want to miss the times when my kids are selfless, like yesterday when Olivia decided she wanted to give her friend her wallet, just because. Or like today when Olivia was doing her crafts, didn't even hesitate to let her friends paint one for themselves. I don't want to miss the snuggles after they get up from their naps. I want to be the one who overhears them playing teacher in their room.

Olivia: "OK, Can everyone say Olivia?"
Garrett: "Olivia."
Esther: "La."
Olivia: "Can everyone say Miss Olivia?"
Garrett: "Miss Olivia."
Esther: "La."
Olivia: "Good Job!"

I know it's silly. But I'm glad that I'm the one in on the silliness! After the day I've had, I'm glad that I have these things to look back on and smile and be thankful that my life is full of craziness and lots and lots of love!

My little "Bean"!

We did let Olivia try the pool the other day, with bags over her cast. It still got wet, which it can do, we just had to blow-dry the inside. It's a lot of work, but worth it to see her smile.

Speaking of smile. . . seriously!

I know, I know, he's going to hate this picture when he's older - but he's the one who pulled the "old man" waistline!

All lined up and ready for their mug-shot.

Olivia isn't scared to walk on her cast anymore, but still hesitates to do it. She gets places a lot faster by hopping. We are showing her tough love and hopefully it will pay off.

Another "old man" waistline for you. This time while pulling his pants further up, he was trying to pick his wedgie at the same time - what a goober. And yes, that is a watch on his ankle. He definitely keeps us laughing.

Esther's hair is looking really good here, because she thought she'd try shampooing it herself, dry. Yet another moment I wouldn't want to miss.

What a handsome guy - that smile makes all the screaming this afternoon forgivable.