Can't Keep Up!

Somehow, time for blogging has slipped away from me!  I still feel like it's a fun and important way to document life for our family but man, it's hard to find 20 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time.  This morning I stayed home from church.  Poor Kyle has hand foot and mouth.  He's been fever free for 24 hours but is still infectious and not feeling super great due to the sores in his mouth.  He napped for an hour this morning while Victor and the big kids were at church.  So  I had one hour of quiet.   I played my music loud while baking pumpkin muffins, making black bean soup, and singing.

 Now baby Kyle is up and fussy so I am writing this with a sad baby on my lap.  But, since it's been two weeks since I've updated anything I'm going to try to at least upload a few photos before the noisy crew returns.

We are on month into summer.  Summer has been fun.  I think this is my favorite summer with the kids so far.  When your babies are all little (3 and under) summer is really no different than any other season.  But, now that Erik and Lainey are in school and big enough to do fun things with that changes.  

I have LOVED having my kids home.  We haven't done anything big but that's been nice. 


 Erik and Lainey have gone to a couple weeks of morning camp at the Catholic Church near our house.  They LOVE it.  Especially Erik.  He would spend every minute of every day at camp if I let him. He is taking all sports classes - La Crosse, Baseball, Soccer, and Golf.  Erik loves all sports and confidently tries news things.  It is so fun to watch.  I told him he reminds me of uncle Daron, since Daron loved all sports too, and he got a big grin on his face.    Erik is particularly interested in baseball at the moment.  He's read the first three chapter books in a mystery series about baseball.  I've ordered the next 3 books in the series since it's not available at our library.  (BallPark Mysteries)  He reads them over the course of a day or two.  So fun!

Lainey has done science camp, VBS, and next week will go to art/dance camp.  She also likes camp but doesn't complain about being picked up at noon. :)  She is very quiet, but very social.  She loves going to friends houses and having friends over.  She hates having her hair combed but loves it if I put curls in it or do my hair the same way I do hers.   I can hardly believe two of my kids will be in school all day every day just one month from now.  It makes me sad!  

Both Erik and Lainey can swim fairly well now.  Lainey can swim a long length of the pool and jumps in off the diving board by herself.  (While I watch very, very closely.)  

Carson learned how to ride his bike without training wheels (3 years, 3 months!).   He is my little buddy at home.  Always smiling and laughing about something.  He LOVES his toy planes from the movie Planes and carries them everywhere.  His mean big siblings like to hide them from him.  I am now making them pay him a dollar if they hide the toys from him so hopefully that behavior will be curbed soon.  

Kyle is a busy, busy baby.  He always wants to be by me and follows me everywhere I go.  It is very sweet, but also a bit inconvenient.  He has a great sense of humor and tries to make us laugh.  I love it.  He still nurses a lot and eats limited solid foods (especially with the hand, foot, and mouth).  He LOVES the pool more than any baby I've ever seen.  He desperately wants to be able to swim on his own which is funny.    He is still adored by Lainey but he does not like being picked up and grabbed by his siblings and yells at them when they try.  Poor kids.  They just love you Kyle! 

Some of the things we've done this summer include.... zoo, canoeing, American girl doll store outing, Blue Crabs baseball game,  nature park, War of 1812 reenactment, lots of swimming and bike riding.  It's been a nice summer so far.

Here are a few photos from the past month...