Another recent outing to the BMX track....

As the older boys ride around, JB loves to run around the track, which is actually a pretty good workout with all the ups and downs.

Jbird has found a new talent....catching flies. I know, not the most sanitary thing, but he sure is proud of himself every time he gets one!

One day recently I was at the airport working for a bit.  The boys called me to tell me that the screen had fallen out of the down stairs window.  Upon returning home, seems that one of the boys was standing on the windowsill, opened the window and leaned into the screen.  The screen of course fell out and seems the child fell out too.  Fortunately it was only about a 4 foot drop and he was able to land on his feet.  Whenever I leave them alone, I tell them no phone and no door.  Now I have to add no windows to that list!  So thankful for God's hedge of protection!

A quick warning....

I was working on some future blog posts.  I pulled up the actual blog and saw that there are a few random words in some posts that are in blue and double underlined.  Please do not click on these.  I am trying to figure out the issue.  I think it has something to do with an add-on that has attached itself to one of my programs.

So, I thought I set this to post this past Wednesday, on the 7th but just realized it never posted...argh!

Guess who has a birthday today (Wednesday)......

Happy 4th birthday! (Before pre-school got out in May, they celebrated his "summer" birthday, so poor kid has been waiting a long time for his actual birthday).

I love how in the mornings as you are waking up, if you see me walk into your room, you will roll over and wait for me to scratch your back.  How you quietly wait for one of us to pick you up and carry you downstairs.

For some reason, you have given up on napkins and just prefer to wipe your hands on top of your head.

You are working so hard on wheelies on your bike - anything your brothers do, you try to do better.  You hang with them when they are wrestling, shooting baskets, running through the field...you name it and you are trying it.

You are rocking therapy.  You can now string 15-20 words along - I am not always sure what you are saying, but you do.  You have one of the best work ethics of any (now) 4 year old I have ever seen.

Here is a picture that he drew at therapy recently. The therapist was totally shocked. Before we left on vacation he could not do it and it had her pretty concerned. Once again you pull through Buddy and surprise us all!

When we were in Ohio my niece (who is special ed major) noticed that he always drew his faces upside down. In the past he has not been able to put body parts where they are suppose to go.

The kids wanted to do VBS this week, so we celebrated his birthday (a day early) with a few friends at McD's.  It was chaos.  There was a family of four that came in...2 kids, a woman who was either an 'older' mom or grandma and then this lady's mother.  They eventually left the play area because it was too loud.  I almost thought they were irritated with us, but hey, they were sitting in the play area (although they were being very loud and we did have a few kids with very high pitched screams.)

The night before I set out to make a birthday cake.  Turns out the box mix I had in the pantry was brownies and not cake.  So, opted for brownies.  Figured it would be less of a mess anyway - as brownies normally don't crumble.  I made it in a 9 in round pan.  He wanted a batman cake but the creativity was not really flowing.  So, I printed off a batman symbol, laid it on the 'cake' and then sprinkled powder sugar around the symbol.  The middle of the cake was the black symbol and everything else was white.  It looked pretty cool.  At McD's I gave the camera to B.  I asked him to take pictures.  He was trying to get a picture of the cake, but because he is not real tall, he could not get a great view.  So he asked me to tilt the cake up, I did.  He asked me to tilt it up again, I did.  He asked me to tilt it up again, I did.  At that point, the round little cake slid off the plate, hit the chair and then proceeded to roll around the playland floor like a tire.  It was hilarious!  I ran after the 'cake' and managed to grab it before someone stepped on it and before it landed flat on the ground.  I looked at the other mom that was there with me and we both decided it was fine to cut off the edges.  It tasted yummy and no one knew the difference.

This was after the roll around the floor!

The boys are at VBS this morning and I am going to pick huckleberries with a friend!

B had a blast at camp.  They had a climbing wall, rotating climbing wall that could turn at angles, archery range, BB gun range, boating, camp fire programs, super good skits, geocaching, first aid, geology, forest rangers and ready men - although he forgot what ready men are.  He has been telling me about all the skits they did.  (The kid has a memory and does not forget a word of the skits.)

He came back dirty..they did not have showers there.  He even came back with money left over.  He bought a really cool pocket knife.

The other two boys had fun...they fished, played baseball, watched a movie and had the latest campfire of anyone!

This evening, we had a big party.  It was to celebrate our church sending off a family to the mission field and our church celebrating what God has done over the last 8 years.  (Ironically, the church I use to attend in North Dakota celebrated 125 years this weekend and my current church celebrated the end of 8 years.)

The family that hosted the party lives in the country and made a 100 foot plus slip n slide.  Here are some pictures....

Here is Jbird...you get a sense of the length of it

Here is a little bump they made so the kids could catch air.

Here is B, see all the mud just to right of the slide that the kids would sometimes end up in.

This is the full length...top to bottom.

Then they jumped on the trampoline...not a bad view for jumping.

A great evening celebrated with some very special people.

Off to bed...tomorrow starts a busy, fun week with Vacation Bible School and lots of play dates with friends!

This kiddo left today for his 2 night over-nighter.....

(Just last night I was looking at lots of pictures and amazing how much older he looks since November...his longer hair really makes him look older)

Why is this always his 'dafault' pose when I pull out the camera.....silly boy (he does it well though)

He was so excited, he had a hard time sleeping. He wanted to take his book and drawing supplies and I assured him he would not get bored on the van or at camp.

Last night we had a huge hail storm. Some of the pictures posted on facebook are crazy of the clouds. It hailed for 20 minutes.  It is coming down.

The hail was bouncing back up as it hit the ground.

The boys got on bicycle helmets, gloves and sweatshirts and went out there. Unfortunately, it took them so long to get dressed they missed most of the hail. But sure found out how it can hurt. Fortunately there was no damage that we know of, except leaves every where.

JR and the other two boys are leaving tomorrow for overnight camping. I get some down time. I have to work some (there are 3 families expecting their rental vehicles at noon....one of those vehicles is getting dropped off at 11:30, the second vehicle's party is departing at 1:30 and the third party departing at 2). Not sure how I am suppose to have all vehicles ready by noon.

Off to read books to the boys.

Today I spent the day kid-less.  A friend and I swapped kids and today was my day to play.
I did some shopping and then met a friend who wants to learn how to play tennis.  I was giving her some tips.  There was a lady teaching some kids on nearby courts and we started talking with her. Turns out she is the high school coach in the next town over.  I told her I would love some tennis partners and she promised she could hook me up.  (I think she even mentioned that one group was looking for a singles player for their league matches next weekend!)  I would love to get back into it on a consistent basis.

After tennis I had lunch with friends and then had to drive up the canyon for a 'work' meeting.  I was not home much, like I had originally planned, but it was a beautiful day to be out.

The last week or so my left shoulder has been giving me problems.  It was getting progressively worse - to the point that I was not using it.  I figured it was time to get back to my weekly chiropractic visits (have not been since before our road trip).  He checked it out and said something about the AC joint and maybe a pinched nerve?  Anyway, he did his stuff and I have probably 90% range of motion back!  It just amazes the body and how people that know what they are doing can manipulate things back to normal.  I am glad I went because I found out he will be out of town next week, so I could not have seen him next Tuesday.  And since I was not using my shoulder much, it was starting to freeze up on me and he said that can take a year to fully recover from.

This weekend B is going on his first weekend trip without mom or dad.  The cub scouts are camping!  I think he is really excited.  He was most excited about the climbing wall and the general store.  I can only imagine what he will spend his money on.  As long as he leaves himself enough money to have lunch on the drive back.  Hopefully he will change clothes (the last camp out with dad, he wore the same thing all weekend long).  With him being gone, JR is thinking about taking the other 2 camping - that would mean 24 hours home alone in my own house.  I could maybe finish a project or two without little hands disturbing my piles!

This Sunday is the last Sunday our church is meeting.  Will be very different but the boys are excited to try some of their friends' churches.

We recently went to a local pond....

The boys had a lot of fun.  We took one of the high school youth group boys!  After playing, they talked 17 year old Gabe into coming back to our house to play!  He also had dinner with us and I don't think I have ever seen my boys eat so much food - they were trying to keep up with Gabe and show him how much they can eat!

Off to bed!

Seems things are getting a little out of hand at our house. I am not tolerating all of the 'stuff'. Why is it so hard to teach responsibility to kids? We have a playhouse out back that is strictly for Legos, at least in the summer time. Yet, I repeatedly, day after day, find Legos all over the house. I finally had a brilliant idea. Every time I find a Lego, it goes into my Christmas bin. Then they get wrapped up and given at Christmas. It saves me money and it will be like a new toy to them. What gets me, is now when the boys find Legos in the house, they bring it to me and tell me to put it in the Christmas bucket!!!!

I find their clothes and socks all over the house. I told them that when I find their clothes around the house, I will put them in a bin that will get emptied every couple of weeks. If they run out of shorts and shirts, they will just have to wear pants and long sleeve shirts in the middle of summer. (The bucket has not gotten too full, but I imagine come school time, they will not want to be wearing the same clothes day after day after day.)

They proceeded recently to tell me that the reason they are not responsible with their stuff and put it away, is because I never taught them. Well, I have now started laundry parties. Every time I do laundry, which is only 2 times a week, I dump all the clean clothes out on the floor and they find their stuff, fold it and put it all away. The first time we did it they decided that a party was suppose to be fun, so they started throwing the clothes.

The clothes throwing party lasted 15 minutes and then they got to work folding and putting everything away!

When I ask them to clean now, they always ask if things have to be clean my way or their way...like that requires any thought :-)

We have a few bird feeders in our back yard and have enjoyed watching the birds. We would have 10-15 at a time, all lined up on the fence waiting for their turn to eat. I decided that I could not afford to fill the bird feeder every day, sometimes twice a day. So, now our seed is put out more sparingly, but the birds still come around. Here is the feeder we like the best because it gives us the closest view...birds on the window.

The boys have gotten into setting up a small ramp out front (they wanted to make sure these pictures made the blog).

I hope before summer ends that JR can get a more permanent one built for them, so they don't have to keep hauling wood and bricks.

JB went back to the ENT for his ear. We finally got the go ahead to swim without the ear band. The doctor recommended we get another hearing test to make sure the ear drum is doing what it is suppose to be doing (he did not seem too sure that it would be doing the 'right' thing). We will have to wait another 2 months or so to get it checked out. Sure hope that it healed correctly, as far as how sound passes to/through the ear drum.

B went back to the ortho. We are in a holding pattern until some of his teeth drop down more. Sounds like the ortho is leaning towards putting a full set of braces up top - if we go that route, I sure hope it is a part of the phase we have already paid for.

Off to do some reading before time to turn out the lights.

The lazy days of summer. Other than therapies, we are sticking pretty close to home...at least I am.

Last weekend JR took B camping for 2 nights with the scouts. (Hope to get pictures downloaded from his phone at some point!). Amazing how much quieter it is with one gone. The other two and I just hung around!

One evening this week JR came home a little early and took J and JB fishing.
Here is the catch from the evening.

I was told J caught the short one and JB the long one. They were quite excited. I had to laugh because JB did not want to touch the fish and would scream if J held it too close to him.

The other day we hit the bike trail again.
Saw this spot of flowers - I love the colors.

B took this photo...I love big brother helping little brother!

Thought this was a cool picture that B also took.

)
I was messing around with manual mode on my camera.  Think I am finally starting to figure out some of the settings.  (I also found out that both of my neighbors have a photography (side) business and she is willing to help me learn my camera

Jbird loves doing what are called bunny hops (where you jump on the scooter and get 'air').  I love his
hair in the picture.  It appears he caught air, although hard to tell.

Two hilarious things I heard Jbird say recently....
He was eating some cottage cheese and trying to get JB to try it. He said it was like tiny marshmallows covered in cheese. Then the boys were talking about all of our trips out to Ohio in recent years and Jbird was recollecting the trip where he met Disney Channel!

Today the boys and I sat down and played a full board game of Sorry - start to finish! I think it is a first. Just love that they are getting old enough to compete with me!

Another quiet weekend in store! Just have a couple of hours of cards and a few hours of work. I really enjoy no schedule!

A quiet week. We have gotten back into the therapy flow with JB. All 3 of his speech therapists commented on how well he is doing and appears to have not missed a beat with our long trip. The occupational therapist was amazed at how well he is doing. (We have been working on some things). So great big high fives to the little man - who is just a few weeks away from turning 4!

B and JR are camping this weekend. It was a family camp out with scouts, but I am wiped out, so just sent the 2 of them. Sure am glad, with how hot it is here! They are going to private property that is suppose to have some great fly fishing on it!

We are soon on the hunt for a new church. After 8 great years, our church is shutting their doors on Aug 4th. It was a very difficult decision for leadership, but one that probably needed to happen. Will be interesting to see where God leads us next (not looking forward to the search).

Since before our trip, I have not been sleeping well. The other night for some reason I was chilled, so grabbed the electric blanket. I slept better that night than I have for a long time. I have slept with the electric blanket all week and woken up very rested. I know it sounds crazy, but for me, I am back to two blankets and an electric blanket at night - during the summer! We do sleep with the window open and the fan blowing, plus we have a middle unit so it never gets too hot inside.

B is getting at a place where I am wanting to provide opportunity for him to explore some of his interests. There are several things he enjoys (and I think could excel in if given some exposure/guidance) and now I am on the hunt for the local opportunities - once he narrows things down. The things currently on the list - cooking, drawing, photography and guitar or drums. He is also considering basketball in the winter. (Both boys want to play soccer again in the fall!)

I am hitting the afternoon lull....time to get up and get moving!

JB is a mad man on his bike. I decided we needed to get him riding on something other than the street (until he can learn to steer straight). So, we recently headed out to a walking/biking path. It was probably just over a mile each way. JB rocked it - he was the only one that did not get off at one part and walk his bike. Then we headed over to the little BMX track. Bless his little heart. He tried hard....but he fell

and fell

and fell

and fell (I got blamed for this one because I 'pushed' him into the grass)

and fell some more

He would struggle going up because he could not get enough speed.

He was successful at times though....

The best part, as we left, he was still riding - so obviously not defeated too much.

As we got back to the car, we did have one really scary moment. The kind of moment that could have ended in an ambulance ride to the ER...The kind of moment, that as a parent am thankful for those near misses. JB was riding his bike on the sidewalk next to the car. There are some posts stuck in the ground with heavy chains strung between them to give the parking lot a perimeter. He was not really paying attention and rode right into the chain. It caught him by the neck and he fell off his bike backwards. Fortunately, he was going just fast enough to keep himself upright (not very fast). The chain caught him right across the neck. Other than a little 'road rash' he is fine! (Reminded me of a guy in my sister's high school class who caught a thin wire while on a 4 wheeler...he pulled through but it was a long haul.)