Emily's 4th Birthday

Emily's birthday was August 16 and she happily celebrated with family. We started off with a scavenger hunt around the house when she got up.

Emily was showered with gifts from many people who love her so much!! We are so blessed to have wonderful family. Our kids don't even know how great they have it to have grandparents and aunts and uncles that care so deeply about them! Thanks, family for making Emily's 4th birthday a special occasion for her!

Emily got a baby diaper bag. It was quickly stuffed with all kids of things. She seems to be a bit of a pack rat these days :)

This card sings Happy Birthday to Emily with cat meows! Emily has nearly (but not quite) run the batteries down we've heard it so many times!! :)

Jake gave Emily a slip-n-slide. Both kids rushed to put on their suits after opening this one. Pat was as excited as they were to see if it would work. Even though it couldn't have been more than 75 degrees the evening of her birthday, we had to set it up and try it out. Jake slid until he was almost blue! They especially loved getting pulled to the end by Pat & Matt!

Grandma Marie is 99!!

We got to celebrate a special birthday a few weekends ago. Pat's Grandma turned 99 years old on August 11. What a treasure to be able to get to celebrate with her. Her kids hosted an evening of celebration and most of her grandkids were around. She happily posed with her great grandkids. Our kids were excited to help celebrate a special birthday!!

Jake is always up for a little cake!

Table Rock Lake

We thought we'd share a few pictures from our fun and relaxing days on the lake... here's a few in no particular order, I'm still on vacation and didn't want to think too hard!! :)

Pat and Jake enjoying some time together.

Emily's piggy-tails have spent a lot of time flying in the wind while Gramps drives fast on the lake!

Pat and Andrew rented a wake board for a day. Karen and the boys got pretty good at getting up, they may need to buy one for next year to perfect all their tricks and fancy moves...

Pat, working hard to get up on the wake board. >>>

Pat and Emily on the jet ski.

Jake and Amy took a ride around on the lake together too!
We are spending a lot of our time doing this...

cooling off in the lake is so refreshing!

Amy and Emily took a ride on the tube! Emily really did enjoy it, she was covering her eyes because the water was splashing in them.

We put both kids in the tube together, they seemed to enjoy it, however, once the tube was just a little way from the boat, we couldn't see their faces, they were so deep in the tube!Emily and I took the jet ski and went exploring. We found a quiet cove and spent some time watching for jumping fish. I'm not sure Emily ever saw any, but I saw several fish jump up to catch water bugs floating on the smooth water.
Jake is such a dare-devil. He's starting to jump right in when we're watching, even if we're not close enough to catch him. (he ALWAYS has his life jacket on whenever we're even near the water) He has really gotten the hang of swimming this way. As soon as he hits the water, his little legs are kicking! :)



This is a little view of what our days have been like... the kids are loving it!

A day in our life!

I can't think of a good way to tie these pictures together except to just share them with you and let you have a little peek into our lives! Enjoy!

Jake and Emily have really enjoyed eating sweet corn this summer! Jake really was getting into this bite!

Emily is starting to pose for pictures which makes catching the perfect picture easier :)
Jake found some snowboots Sunday morning while I was trying to get kids ready for church. He was so pleased with himself!
While getting ourselves ready for our trip to Table Rock Lake next week, I was asking Emily to try on her suits to decide which ones to take. Jake wanted to be a part of the fashion show too.
Our two clowns! This was my only chance at this picture because right after I took it, the kids both fell on themselves and their big shoes.

Jake is sporting some underwear. Off and on this summer I've tried to get him interested in potty-training. Tonight he was willing and even excited to put on his Elmo underwear. He is wearing a helmet that Brant shared with him the last time we spent an evening with the Brouillette's. Jake thinks it's a football helmet.

This one's for Brant, who is also known to run around with only a few articles of clothing on! :)

Pat thinks his parents have a picture just like this of him squating by a little truck and working on it with just his underpants on. Like father like son?!!

Fourth of July

Each year seems to get easier with our kids for this noisy holiday. This year both kids seemed to get excited when they heard firecracker pops and booms. We enjoyed our neighbors show on the 3rd and invited a few friends over for the fourth. It's amazing how 16 kids (ranging in age from 6 months to 9 years) can make the same number of adults feel outnumbered!!



We set up food and ate outside. Thankfully, the weather was wonderful. Not too hot and no rain to send us all inside!

The kids spent their time splashing and playing in the water while they waited for time to pass so they could watch fireworks. Sliding down the slide is really a thrill when you're all wet!The kids were almost as excited as the men when it was time to start the fireworks. We told the kids their boundry was to stay on or behind the blankets. Like true kids, they all were right on the edge for much of the show the men put on!
Emily loved having all her friends over and enjoyed the fireworks almost as much!

Day with Gramps & Grammy

The kids always enjoy spending time with their grandparents, but there is something magical about going to their houses. We went to spend a day with Grammy (Amy's Mom) in Inman this week. She had just gotten two new kittens. Emily and Jake loved them, and thankfully, the kittens were very patient with the kids as they figured out how to pick them up and hold them. Jake still was picking them up in akward places when it was time to go home, but once in awhile he held them gently! Emily is convinced that kittens like to be held like people. She kept sitting this one on it's hind legs and holding it's arms. The kitten was so patient with her. It would run off once in awile, but it always came back out for more! A highlight about being with either Grandpa or Gramps for Jake is getting to ride tractors and big equipment! Here Jake is figuring out how to blow the horn on Dad's big Semi-truck!! Once he descovered this, he just would hang on to the rope and let out long honks!! He's a boy through and through!!
We helped Dad get the jet-ski ready for our trip to the lake in a few weeks. Dad had to replace the battery. I think he had forgotten how "helpful" kids like to be. They kept peeking their heads in as he was trying to work in what I'm sure is ordinarily small quarters, they are even smaller with two small heads looking in first!! After he got the battery in and charged, the kids and I took it out on their pond to check things out. Each kid took two rides with me. We started out very tame, but by the end, I was even making waves to splash through, Emily let out a little giggle each time we got wet! Can't wait for the lake!!

Rolling Hills Zoo

Last Friday, Pat took the day off so we could take a day to go visit the zoo in Salina, the kids enjoy seeing animals of all varieties, so a trip to the zoo is always something to look forward to!

We really enjoyed the chimpanzees quite a bit, they were very active while we were watching them. Jake really liked how close he could get to them. Here we see how massive this one was in comparison to little Jake. It's amazing that he can be so close and Jake wasn't even afraid of his size and strength.

We also spent a long time watching the cougars. There was a man talking to Charlie while we were there, Charlie (the cougar) must have had this man stop by frequently because he really reacted to what the man was saying. Jake was fasinated by the growling sounds and the size of this big cat!!

The kids liked these big tortoises. They never moved, but Emily talked to them awhile. I wondered if they would bit the little fingers getting into their space. Apparently not today...

These camels were the one of the last animals we enjoyed. Pat enjoys reading the facts about each animal, so we learned that the humps aren't for excess water storage, they are fat storage. They can go many days in the dessert without food and can loose up to half their body fat as they cross the dessert, using the fat stores to keep them alive. You learn something new every day!! :)

We decided the most noticeable difference between this zoo and the Sedgwick County Zoo we usually visit is the closeness we could get to the animals on exhibit, and that at SCZ there seem to be more animals, allowing us to not notice all the walking we do as much. The Rolling Hills had us all worn out after a morning of walking, but we really enjoyed our time as a family!