pinch those cheeks??

Oliver is growing so fast...he is a little over 5 months now, and probably weighing about 18 lbs plus some...I LOVE squishy chunky babies...and all three of mine have been the same. Every time I pick my baby up, I want to squish his little face into mine, and pinch those little cheeks....check out his latest 5 month picture!

OLIVER 5 MONTHS *click on the link to the left*

Father's Day...

Well, another father's day is past us tonight. We had a fun, but very relaxing and quiet day. This year daddy got a nice grill!! We had a grill that had been past down to us, but that one gave out a while back. We replaced that one with a tiny travel size charcoal grill, which worked fine to cook a single steak. We were overdue for a new grill, and made a great father's day gift. We actually got it yesterday, so daddy and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning putting it together...needless to say both of us were NOT ready to be up at 7am when little Oliver was wakeful and ready to play! The older two were up just a bit after Oliver this morning. In any case, we did manage to make it to the early service at church, and then headed to Peoria for sushi. Daddy wanted to eat sushi on his day...so we obliged! Tonight, we tried out the new grill and had some very yummy steak and pork chops. Now we just need a nice picnic/patio table, and a ceiling fan in the patio so that we can enjoy summer night dinners on the patio. Looking forward to more yummy "carne roja" as Katherine calls it!! The girl likes her steak pretty rare!! :)

Hope that everyone had a wonderful father's day. I'm thankful for my husband. He's a wonderful daddy to our kids, patient, kind, understanding, and loving all wrapped in one!

I have to apologize for the lack of photos lately. I ususally do all my photo uploads at night after the kids are in bed, but I can't do that when I've got a little monkey camping out in my office. Oliver's temp room downstairs is the office, and he goes to bed about 8pm...so I'm limited as to how much time I can work on pics at night. I'll try to post some later.

Swimming

Wow...it's been busy lately!! The kids will be starting their second week of swimming lessons tomorrow, and they are having so much fun. They enjoyed it last year, but this year is even better. While they are still a bit hesitant to doing some things, they really marvel in having done them after the fact. Katherine is super excited that she's doing bubbles, and doing bobs under water. Joshua is super proud of himself for getting his head wet in the pool (if you know him, you probably know that he absolutely hates to have his head washed). Both kids are doing well learning to swim. They are both enjoying the water for the most part. And both have been so brave as to jump off the diving boards many times the first week. Katherine even managed to muster up the courage to jump in from the high dive--she did awesome, even if she was jumping with her instructor. Here are a couple of videos of the kids jumping off the diveboards.





and just because I can't leave out my little guy...here is happy Oliver

Think about your answers...

So, Katherine is 4 and her curiousity these days is a bit more advanced than the simple, and endless "WHY" questions that come at 2 years of age. Lately she's been asking some really tough questions, that I'm not sure how I would answer. So, if I could remember them all I'd write them all down. For now, you are getting her latest two questions that make me go...."Hm...."

We've talked about when God calls us to Heaven, so yesterday we were driving in the car trying to get to swim class on time, and out of no where she says: "Mommy, when people go up to see God, how do they get there?"

We also talk about lying and how we are not supposed to tell lies. We talk about God knowing when we are truthful and when we are lying, and how He can punish us...in fact we were talking about lying yesterday afternoon, and I said to her "You know Katherine, even if you are lying to me, God knows and He can punish you..." She looked at me very seriously and said "But mommy how is God's hand going to reach me??"

Oliver is almost 5 months old!!

What is he like???

Need I say more???

can you say H A P P Y!

Tulsa Tough Race

Daddy and the big kids got to ride yesterday in the Tulsa Tough. It was HOT day, but they rode and enjoyed it nonetheless. First off, in the morning, was daddy. He signed up for the 100km, and rode with a friend. He successfully finished 50miles in the heat, before his legs cramped up very badly. In the afternoon was the kids race, and both Joshua and Katherine were super excited!! We had just gotten Joshua's big boy bike the day before and he managed to get in enough practice to not stall by accidentally hitting his brakes!! The kids did great, and unfortunately 2 blocks was just way too short for them, especially Joshua. He got off the course crying that he didn't want to stop riding his bike!! Here are some pics of the kids at the race...