Summertime

I have disappeared from cyberspace over the last month, so there is a backlog of pictures and stories to share! Here is a cliff notes version of our summer so far!

Calvin:
Calvin went to art amp at a local church/preschool and loved every minute of it! We are so thankful for this accomplishment for him. Before the camp began he asked us to pray with him about it...that he would be brave and try new things that he might like. He walked bravely into his new class without a moment's hesitation. I am so proud of him and thankful that God is making Himself so real in his life.

Calvin continues loving art. He took these boxes and turned them into a little dump truck. And yes, he is wearing my shirt in this picture. He had a brief stretch where I'd get him up from nap and he would be wearing my shirts, socks, etc.

He continues to spend a ton of time at the kitchen table cutting, pasting, coloring, and folding origami. He's recently started drawing, too. His artwork makes me smile!

And he's started jumping in the pool and learning to swim!

Jack

Jack is so funny and sweet. He's been singing a lot these days, which I guess means something for his speech development. He is saying everything he wants without much trouble, and the therapist he used to see really wanted him to sing, so check. This morning he was singing the line "Shout it out! God saves the werrrrrrld" enthusiastically probably 20 times while I was getting ready for the day. His little voice singing it has been in my head all day. Sweet.....kind of.

We've dappling with potty training, though I don't think he's ready. I did find this scene when I woke Jack up from his nap a couple weeks ago. Apparently he doesn't like wearing the diaper...that's a start.

When Jack put on this doctor's gear, Calvin told him, "Jack, all you need is your lunch box, and you'll be ready for surgery." Guess what Daddy takes to work everyday?

Luke

This is a terrible picture, but it is hard to capture..... Luke loves his little lion blanket, and he likes to push is little finger or thump through a loop on it. Something about it is so sweet!

He's into everything his brothers are doing these days. Even while they are sitting at the table coloring, he wants to be in his highchair playing with the crayons, too.

We have been amazed at how appropriately he uses toys. So much more so than his brothers. He pushes cars around the house (while making a motor noise), tries to put goggles on his eyes, works to put any shoes or socks on his feet, tries to stack lego blocks together, writes with pens I leave at his level.  

He's gotten strong enough now that he can push a lawnmower around the yard with his brothers! He loves it!

Our friends Amanda and Ellis came to visit us with their troop a couple weeks ago. It was such fun....the best kind of chaos!

Myrtle Beach Trip

We went to Myrtle Beach while Dan was at a conference. They boys loved the beach!

Grandma and Papaw

Ace and Jeffy came to see us, and we loved having them here! Jack found this box turtle in the front yard, so we rescued it.

Papaw spent a lot of time reading to the guys.  I love seeing Jack's little body next to Papaw.

Our newest three (and one month) year old!

Happy birthday, John David! We loved celebrating with you on your special day today!

Puddle running

When it kept raining and raining a couple weeks ago, I eventually just went with it. If it was sprinkling, or even just raining small drops, we played outside. We just had to get out! There was a lot of standing water as a result, so we had some fun with it. This puddle provided us about 20 minutes of entertainment....would have been more if we hadn't felt so bad for Luke stuck in the stroller watching! I think he enjoyed the show, at least!

Dan's photo shoot with Luke

Dan has turned into quite a photographer lately. He's taken these of Luke over the last few days. I think they really catch Luke's sweet personality. Luke extends his hands like this before he starts on the move with his gimpy scoot.

I love the wrinkled up nose that accompanies any excitement or smile!

The fact that Luke is hanging out in the wagon just melts my heart. Minutes before it was the scene of all the big kids playing at a cook-out on the fourth. As soon as he was able to get himself scooted over the action, the party moved on, but he just played by himself.

Workout

Calvin and Jack have been really into working out these days. They have been loving to talk to Dan about his F3 workouts for a while, but not until recently have they started participating. Calvin will demonstrate his favorite moves....burpees, bear crawl, mountain climbers, slide and glide, and bicycles. Calvin grabs wooden-train-whistles-weights and Jack grabs is wooden-train-track-weights, and they try to imitate Dan and I doing our workouts in the living room.

Calvin has been making up his new moves....I wish I could remember what he called this!

I caught this on the monitor of the guys doing a workout together in their room.

Dan loves to show off his push-ups and sit-ups with the guys. Here they are helping him by climbing on his back. 

Jack loved scaling this wall through a little bounce house obstacle course. 

And Luke is in this stage.....loves walking around as long as our quads can handle it!

 

Squash Bug Centerpiece

The garden has been a lot of fun for me this year, and what was especially was getting to watch some bugs on our zucchini plant, too. We'd stand at the window to watch them crawl around, mate, and lay eggs on the leaves. The boys and I were pretty entertained.

Then I looked up what the bugs were and found out they were going to kill my Zucchini plant. Sad! So, I've been vigilantly killing the eggs before they hatch in hopes I can beat them....not sure if that is possible.  In any event, we have a new centerpiece at our table....squash bug eggs and some newly hatched babies.  Calvin keeps asking what we are going to do with them now. I told him we'll "get rid" of them. He is not satisfied with that answer. I just don't have the heart to tell him I am going to kill them all!



Our garden has not been defeated yet! We've gotten some vegetables already, and it has been fun to watch it grow!

Here is Calvin's documentation of the food we've gotten so far.  I think it is fair to say that Calvin alone has eaten at least 15 of the 20 tomatoes we've harvested since he's counting/graphing them first (and Jack enjoys carrying them around "for Daddy" more than eating them himself.

We've had some classic summer days recently. We watched our friends move out of their house the other day. There is nothing better for our boys than a good moving truck with front row seats to watch the movers!

Calvin has been going to Kids Week (our church's vacation Bible school).  He had a love/hate relationship with the loud music/# of people/etc last year, though he thinks it is his school...when people ask where he goes to school, he says "Kids Week."  

This year he is LOVING it and participating!  I nearly cried the first night when I picked him up and he was standing on his own feet, singing the music with the people on stage while imitating their body motions.  We've been praying that God would help him not to fear because God is always with him. I think that God is showing himself to be real to Calvin in this area. He's been asking me to pray about it during meal and bedtimes, and he's always so excited to share that he enjoyed participating!

It has also been fun to have some time with just Jack and Luke. Last night we stopped by a local softball game on our way from dropping Calvin off. Then after I put Luke to bed, Jack and I have been reading book after book together. Calvin and I do this a lot while the other 2 are sleeping, but Jack is not as interested in it when there is other stuff going on. I love that time we have right now!

And, of course, we've been going to the pool. This look reminded me of when Jack was just a little guy and his hair was permanently like this. =)

And Luke has not been sleeping in the morning, so we've been more free to come and go. I love seeing this on the monitor!