hot hot hot!

Last weekend was pretty toasty, and it was the perfect day for us to be at the cottage!  We spent as much time as we could in the water, and it was wonderful.  With all the warm weather the water temp is great, and Jackson loved being in the water, too.  Each of my boys did great in the water, and we had such a fun day!  Levi kept wanting to swim out to the raft, and Logan and Caleb got into jumping off the pontoon boat in the middle of the lake.  (Levi swam out there with us, but didn't want to jump off the boat.)  Logan was brave enough for jumping right away, but it took Caleb a while to work up the courage.  It was pretty funny: we were about to all get on the boat and get going back to shore, when Caleb all of the sudden said, "Alright, I have one more thing to do..." and it jumped right in!  Then there was no stopping him.  And then Alyssa decided she wanted to jump in, too, so the kids really got going and had a good time.  It was even hot enough that I was jumping in - I know, imagine that!  ;)  It was so much fun that the kids begged to do it again after supper, and so we just had to go back out.

It's been a busy week here just managing day to day life.  Tending the garden, mowing the lawn, cooking, laundry, getting groceries, keeping a teething baby happy...  On Wednesday I got an oil change in van.  It's been overdue, and I hate doing it, but finally decided I shouldn't wait any longer.  I purposely chose Wednesday, so that we could walk across the street to the farmer's market.  The boys had fun walking around a bit, and for the most part things went fine.  The whole thing took almost two hours, and we were getting a little antsy at the end.

Looking forward to a fun weekend as my sister is in town and we've got lots of family activities planned!

keeping busy

We are enjoying summer, but it does seem to be going by somewhat quickly.  Mike has been having a pretty good harvest season so far.  The usual ups and downs, breakdowns, employees coming and going, and lots of after-hours phone calls in Spanish.  :)  Yesterday he got home an hour earlier than normal and it was so unexpected it had me flustered!  Getting through the long days with four little boys is a huge mental battle for me, and I've got myself pretty well conditioned for his normal arrival time.

Last week Caleb was able to attend soccer camp at Unity Christian and he loved it!  The first day was cancelled due to storms, and the next few days were quite warm and humid, but that didn't seem to slow him down.  I have no idea if he's any good or not, but he sure plays hard and I love to see that.  He seems to always have a great attitude (not getting upset when his team loses, or when he can't do something), and that is going to serve him well.

Logan had another craft time at Michael's this morning.  This time we took my niece Alyssa along (and left Caleb and Levi with Harold), and I think he really enjoyed having that special time.  Logan has lost EIGHT teeth now!  (Caleb has lost four.)  A few of his adult teeth are coming in pretty good already, otherwise his mouth would be quite empty.  The other night both Logan and Caleb pulled out a tooth within minutes of each other.  Logan is our thinker and always has questions about something.  Love that he's so observant and inquisitive, but I have a really hard time dealing with all the questions!  SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.  How things work, why things are the way they are, how things were made, etc., etc., etc...

Levi.  My sweetheart.  Did you know it's entirely possible for a child to skip over Terrible Two's and Thunderous Three's, and have Ferocious Four's come in without any warning??  I was so lulled into complacency with his easygoing spirit that this shift has been rather shocking.  I KNOW the sweetheart is still in there, he sneaks out from time to time, it's just hard to find in the midst of the craziness of big brothers being home for the summer, and baby brother requiring lots of my attention.  I gave the boys haircuts last night, and I'm pretty sure Mike wanted Levi's shorter, but I just couldn't bear to cut that beautiful hair off.  He gets the perfect blonde highlights in summer.  I'm pretty jealous of Caleb's hair, too.

Jackson is scooting around a fair bit.  I really need to work on gates for the stairs soon...  He's still very vocal, especially during meal time - we're working on not talking/spitting while he's eating.  He has been sleeping well at night, and mostly doing decent for naptimes.  Last week we had to work on him being okay with Mike putting him to bed, and thankfully it only took one night of lots of crying, and the next night he did much better.  I went to a friend's softball game and Mike said Jackson cried for about an hour at bedtime.  It was Mike's suggestion that he put Jackson to bed again the next night to see if he'd do better.  I couldn't be home and listen to him cry for me, so I went out again, but he went to bed much better!  Love it that he needs me, especially as I know it won't last for long, but I've gotta be free to be separated from him sometimes!

State of Jackson

Jackson recently passed the 8 month mark (wait...what?!), and we are just having too much fun with him!  He is so interactive and vocal, he fits right into this family.  :)  His big brothers can sure get him laughing, and that warms a mothers heart to watch.  (As long as big brothers aren't doing their super annoying baby talk with him...)  He laughs, squeals, squawks, and growls a lot - I can't get enough.

After weeks of struggling, Jackson is finally doing better taking solid foods.  For a long time he just wasn't interested no matter what I tried - he would maybe seem excited before starting, but then barely eat anything.  But now he actually gobbles up what I give him!  We've tried several different fruits and vegetables now, and I think we'll just be careful with the bananas thanks to a not so fun constipation incident.  Poor guy.  :(  Jackson generally nurses four times a day now.  Boy, that's a far cry from the newborn schedule!!!  Hardly seems like anything compared to the first several months.  And, he generally doesn't take as long as he did for the longest time either.  Phew!  Ain't nobody got time for that!  :)

Overall, Jackson is sleeping well.  He almost always sleeps through the night, and there's been some times that he sleeps until 7am, which I much prefer to the 6:15/6:30 wake ups.  :)  Just that little bit of extra time helps my perspective of the day.  Also, the last few days he has taken a solid morning nap, and a solid afternoon nap!  Up until then it had kinda been a morning catnap, decent afternoon nap, and maybe another evening nap.  This morning I put him down for a morning nap around 9:30am, and I had to wake him up at 11:45am to go visit Mike at work - that's completely unheard of for him!
Jackson has been pulling himself forward the last few days.  Watch out!  Baby on the move!  He is ALMOST ready to sit up on his own, so close.  He has two bottom teeth and looks pretty cute when he smiles.  :)  He is mostly in 9 month sized clothes.  He likes being outside, and actually likes laying in the grass.

We sure do love our newest addition, and can't imagine our family any other way!

boy mom

We have lots of everyday adventures around here with four little boys - some have become so normal that I forget about them!  And, when it's always on to the next adventure, it's easy to move on and lose track of past events.  :)

This past week had a bunch of crazy things.  Monday was a day of Levi eating dog food (I've caught him snacking on it different times...); Caleb, Logan, and Levi getting a toad stuck in the spout of my watering can; Caleb and Levi both getting stung by a bee; and Levi cutting his finger pretty bad on a toilet from the cottage that Mike was breaking up to put in the trash...  Rough day for Levi!  Tuesday Logan got bit in the finger by a shrew, and then he and Caleb killed it for me.

On Thursday Logan lost yet another tooth.  His mouth is getting pretty empty!

Friday our nephew, Luke, had open heart surgery.  I was able to spend a little time at the hospital with Tom and Tera while they were waiting.  Then Saturday afternoon Mike and I were able to pay a visit.  He is doing well!  Also, Friday evening Mike and I took the kids out for ice cream for our anniversary.  :)

Today we went up to the cottage for 4th of July activities.  Mike is staying overnight with Caleb, Logan, and Levi, but I came back home with Jackson.  So much I want to get done in the peace and quiet!!  But, sleep is starting to win out...