H's sisters

These are H's sweet adorable sisters on his birthday. I cannot get over the fact that L is how old Ek was when H was born. It just does not seem possible that I could have seen her as a "big" sister. I remember thinking she really was big-- she could walk, talk, feed herself- I guess that was enough to be big in my book- out of necessity! Ek was definitely big enough if her life now is any indication of how well she has taken to it-- she is an amazing big sister. She played Little People with H for like 3 hours today and even included L at times and found her alternate games. Wow, she's good. H is a very blessed little boy to have her as his big sister. And sweet L, well she will just get to keep on being the baby. I think she likes that role pretty well as well.

Happy Birthday H

It was such a joy to celebrate H's birthday yesterday. I love a Sunday birthday. Mom and Dad were here, so Ek slept in his room and was the first to wish him a happy day, which she was very happy about, and Mom and Dad were second. Ek said she thought he had grown during the night! H was convinced he had grown too and wanted to check it out to where we measured last week, he couldn't understand why he wasn't bigger and even said later in the day that he though his feet still looked 3. He opened his gifts from us at breakfast-- a new football jersey, basketball shorts, a concrete bulldog for his room, a tiger stuffed animal and baseball boxers. Mom and Dad gave him new rainboots and a book about a GA bulldog. Ek gave him a teddy bear from her room! Mom made him French toast and we stacked four bites, stuck a candle in it and sang to him. Ek and L wanted to be sung to too, so we sang 'happy day' to them. Off to church where he wore his new jersey and shorts and was wished happy birthday many times. Memaw and Big Daddy and Aunt Meri were waiting for us when we got home from church to have lunch, we had a very nice visit. After a nice nap, it was time for his wonderful party! He was so excited about his swim party and had a ball. Grandma and Papa gave him a new train set, Dave gave him several new t-shirts like he and J wear, the Polhills gave him a skateboard and a boomerang, the Browns gave him 101 Dalmations, the Kellams gave him a Bingo alphabet game, and Rhonda gave him a ice cream gift card. When we got home he was so excited to play with his new toys and quickly built a train and played 4 rounds of bingo. We had a really sweet moment during Bible story time. They were so tired but Ek wanted to read a Bible story and it was the story of the Crucifiction. Midway through H looked at me and said "Mommy, is sin in our way?" There was a great visual gospel presentation during Backyard Bible Club with God on one side, man on another and a boy in the middle who was sin. Sin didn't let man get to God until Jesus came to take the sin away. I think it beginning to make some sense to H. He was asking some great questions about sin. J prayed last night and then H asked to. The first thing he prayed was thanking God that Jesus took sin out of our way. Big 4 year old thinking about big things. 

H is a great boy. He is playful, always up for playing ball, playing outside, and is very active. He is very generous and kind. He is thoughtful and affectionate- he gives great hugs and kisses. He loves to read and is getting very close to knowing all his letters. He is very excited to go to Trinity next year. He loves to laugh and smile and is very ticklish. He is very focused and self motivated. We are so thankful for our H and are loving to watch him grow up. 

H's party

Because it is freshest on my mind, I choose to begin H's birthday posts with his party. We had 3 family friends, kind Rhonda and H's amazing grandparents and uncle Dave to the pool for some swimming, pizza and cake. It was so fun! We all swam and swam, it was so hot outside by the pool was pleasant. The kids really played well together, they played train, torpedoes, football, and mostly just jumped in and romped around in the water. H said he loved the pizza and "cake" which for him was really just a huge amount of icing that was the frog on top of the cake. We are very blessed to have wonderful support and help loving and encouraging our H. He has some great friends, and we are blessed to be great friends with their parents. 

Done

Done! Well today we did it! My first tri. John, Mike and I left before dawn to go over to Indian Springs State Park with Dad along as our cheerleader. We were really excited. I was so determined not to panic in the water, but, i did. I did not swim well,not near as much free style as I wanted, but I got it done. The bike was so much fun! The course was hilly but really nice, I passed a lot of people  and was hoping to pass some that I got behind on the swim. The run was hot! And they ran out of water, so I walked so for fear of getting way too hot. So I finished the swim in about 15 minutes, started the bike at about 20, started the run at about 1:15 and finished at about 1:45. Very close to my goal and I'm just so thankful to have been able to do it and finish it!

If I didn't know better...

... I would think my kids wanted a dog. They LOVE playing with their stuffed animal dogs. For the last week, it has really picked up. I have found dogs eating and drinking out of various dishes around the house, seen the kids take the dogs for walks and scooter rides, they played dog groomer, and last night they were giving away free dogs for a dollar (!).   I asked them yesterday to get their favorite dogs for a picture and they came up with a bunch! I took a picture of just the dogs for them to see which ones they had at this moment and Ek was behing me getting their attention and trying to get them to smile! What will they think of next?

Swimming

Yesterday was the last day of two weeks of swimming lessons from Rhonda. They had an amazing time and learned so much. They were already loving swimming and were ready for lessons, about two days before they began, H was on the steps at the pool and said, "mommy, I want to swim to you." and then just looked at me and said, "I don't know how." After 2 lessons, he was jumping off the side and swimming about 5 feet to me with his face in the water. H loves jumping off and swimming but is also so much more comfortable just being in the water and playing, and he loves to dive for rings. Ek made huge strides as well, she can now jump off the diving board and swim to the ladder by her self and started learning how to dive. They were both so disappointed lessons were over, Rhonda is so kind and encouraging and they just loved it! They also both got to be interviewed for the local TV station about the lessons which they thought was fabulous. Yeah for more days at the pool!

Why I love summer

I love breaks from school because it reminds Ek and H how much they love being togther, so this summer I think I'll have a "why I love summer" picture series beginning with this one. Today after lunch, I look up from my cleanup to see this.

Shoe follow-up

I must preface this picture by saying it is hot in GA! So if we are going to play outside we've got to early, so we were outside in PJs this morning when L's pants got wet by the water hose (another story) and she was wearing Ek's flip-flops. I couldn't resist snapping this picture, and I'm really glad I did.

Growing!

They are pointing to how tall they were last year...

My goodness they are growing!

May of 08 L was 26 1/2 inches tall, June of 09 she is 32 3/4

May of 08 H was 36 3/4 inches tall, June of 09 he is 40

May of 08 Ek was 41 1/2 inches tall, June of 09 she is 44 7/8 

H is 1/2 inch taller 06/09 than Ek was 07/07

Ek was 3/4 in taller in 09/06 than H was 05/08

H was 1/2 taller 07/07 than L 06/09

"If the shoe fits" does not apply here

Have I mentioned how much L loves shoes? Now maybe it just has something to do with learning how to put them on, but this girl is loving some shoes! Almost every time I look up she has a new  pair on, today I found her in full pursuit, she was actually looking for flip- flops, but settled for H's Crocs. But first, one more story-- because she is so crazy about Crocs, I decided to take her to Hallmark today to see if we could find her a pair that is not 6 sizes to big. She quickly got distracted by the ice cream truck toy and after I pried her away and drug her in Hallmark, her tune quickly changed when she saw the wall of Crocs-- she leapt out of my arms, ran to the wall and sat down to take off her shoes. She tried on many pairs that were on average 8 sizes to big and unfortunately we couldn't find a pair that fit except in black- nope! So somehow Ek talked me into a new pair of hot pink pair, which of course, L is crazy about. So on to the pics,

Looking, thinking, where are the flip-flops?

where flip-flops?
ummmm
these!
and off

Daddy

Guest post by Ek and H:

How old is Daddy?

Ek 37, no 60!

H 6

What is Daddy's favorite color?

Ek white

H blue

What is Daddy's favorite food?

Ek steak

H popscicles

What is Daddy's favorite thing to do?

Ek swim

H play football with me

What is Daddy's favorite thing to watch on TV?

Ek football and baseball

H football

Where does Daddy like to go?

Ek football games and baseball games

H to the mall

What is Daddy's favorite song?

Ek Holy is the Lord

H Holy is the Lord

What is Daddy's favorite Bible verse?

Ek Psalm 100

H be strong in the Lord

What is Daddy's favorite thing to say?

Ek I love you

H Lets go play football

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?

Ek go swimming- by ourselves

H play basketball

Where is your favorite place to go with Daddy?

Ek the pool

H to his office

What is your favorite time with Daddy?

Ek at bedtime when he snuggles

H read to me at naptime

VBS

I must say that I love Vacation Bible School too. I love taking church affiliated kids and loving them well, making them feel special, playing games, making crafts, singing songs that teach great truth and devoting a week to teaching them from the Bible stories, verses and truths. I just really like it. Since our church's Backyard Bible Club was so different I wanted my kids to have that experience too. So I offered to help at First Methodist and was so blessed to be put in music class with Christy. We had a ball. The songs were so fun, we got to spend time with our kids, sing and dance and smile and laugh a lot. I love seeing my kids peers in their environment and getting to know them. And I love that by the end of the week they had really learned some great songs. Fun week!

L juice

L made me sad this morning. She is growing too fast. We have been enjoying for months now that anything liquid that you drink is juice. milk, water, coke, coffee, and of course juice. I guess she heard H asking so often, she learned it from him. It made us smile. Especially when she would call J's coke "Daddy juice." and her baby bottle "baby juice." Well today it happened. I was stirring my coffee and she said, "What dat mommy? Mommy coffee?" sigh and frown. Yep, she's growing up. 

Happy Times

I love these pictures from Milly too. The kids just had a ball together as very obvious by these really fun pictures.

I am not usually fans of silly faces in pictures, but for some reason this one makes me smile.

I am afraid Drew was probably taking noes of H's height, it won't be long before H will have Drew right behind him!

Thank you J!

J got me an early anniversary present on Saturday night-- a new camera! (I heard "Price is Right" music in my head as I typed that!... and now you do too) It is quite a prize. I keep glancing around hoping to see something to take a picture of! Here is a shot from Sunday night. I am a happy mamma.

Have our cake and eat it too

One of my happiest moments of this summer has been the party we threw for Will who turned 5 on Monday. I got a cake that H accidently stepped on and had to be repaired and was repaired with an extra swimmer on it- hilarious. We went to the pool and swam and swam, actually kids and daddies swam, mommies watched. Here are pictures of the cake.