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We had so much fun the first time we went to Stewart Heights Park Pool at Colin & Taylor's birthday party, that on a whim I decided to make a trip back there this afternoon after the twins' nap, since it was so warm and nice. My Dad wanted to come in and be with the kiddos anyway, so it worked perfectly to have him join us for fun in the "big water" as Daniel likes to call it.
Grandpa is monitoring all threee boys here. I had the idea to have him bring the life jackets they have for them for the boat, so that they would be just a little safer with all the other people in the water. The rule is that an adult has to be at arm's length of any children seven and under, and so our three fit the bill for sure!
Josiah was doing pretty well on his own though and with the life jacket, I think it made him more confident to try certain things, like floating for instance. He had his googles, but only truly used them once underwater when Grandpa dunked him. Needless to say, he didn't like being dunked, so the googles were just for looks apparently! I really think it was good for Josiah to have a positive experience with a pool though and that bodes well for the day when we will get him some swimming lessons I am sure!
This shot typifies the twins' glee about being in the water. Caleb would wade out as far as his little feet would take him and then he would get scared and gasp for air (though he wasn't sinking) and freak out a bit until he was "rescued." I would hold the twins by the front of their jackets and pull them along in the water together and they really enjoyed that. As a side note, baby girl was asleep most of the time in her carseat, which was in the stroller. I found some shade and parked her there and Grandpa and I took turns going in the water with the boys.
A nice close-up of sweet Caleb-ee!
A nice close-up of Daniel-ee!
Almost every year, we attend the Milton annual summer picnic in the park complete with a parade, bouncy houses, free food, & other fun activities. The boys are looking off into the distance at the parade that is coming down the road. It is a small parade, but the kids enjoy it. Mostly political party candidates walking with signs, councilmen and leaders of the town in cars, and the police and fire trucks. 
The local Boy Scouts troup set up this suspension bridge near the parade route and Josiah went over it by himself, not once, but TWICE! First, he went over with Daddy watching and then Mommy insisted we get some pictures and convinced him to go on it again. He is giving his shy, "I'm proud of myself, but don't want to admit it," smile here.
And as always, our sweet Caleb-ee was very quick to find a stick and is saying, "A STICK," here to let me know!
Naomi slept through most of the festivities, but her eyes popped out from sleepy land for a bit when the loud trucks honked their horns or blared their sirens. She took inventory and looked like she might cry, but Mommy comforted her and all was well.
There is this rather steep hill at the park that the kids all slide down on cardboard scraps. Daniel would lose his cardboard piece and then proceed to do as pictured and scoot down the hill on his bottom. Can we say grass stains? Umm...yeah! Caleb actually figured it out by the end and was going up by himself and coming down on the cardboard. He couldn't be more proud of himself! In this picture, the twins are in the front and Josiah is at the top of the hill.
To top off a fun day in the park (after our hot dog and chip meal), Daddy got some snow cones to share. The big plus about all this activity was that immediately upon arriving home, we had three tuckered boys who all went down for a nice, long nap!
Later this evening, we went to Colin & Taylor's 4th b-day party (Thanks to my friend Sarah for inviting us) at Stewart Heights Park Pool in Tacoma. I wish I would have taken some pictures, but I was busy swimming with the boys. Daddy stayed dry and watched the baby, but he also took some video of us all in the water, and we have that posted on FB (it is too big to post here). The boys absolutely LOVED going in the water though! And afterward Daniel kept saying, "I wan(t) BIG WATER!" Caleb was shivering he was so cold, as it was in the evening afterall, but as long as we stayed about chest high in the water, he was OK. Josiah was walking around the wading pool telling me, "Look Momma, I'm swimming," and we informed him that indeed that was not swimming! The one thing I couldn't get them all to do was to dunk their heads in the water. I plan to take them back a few more times if I can this summer though and get them more experience playing in the "big water." Here is a link to the video on youtube.
August 9th marks the date of David and my 7th anniversary. We decided to celebrate the Saturday before though as Monday night isn't exactly the best day for us to go out. My parents came to watch the boys and they took them to the Pt. Defiance Zoo (see pics below). We went out to Wild Ginger (Asian fusion type restaurant) in Seattle for lunch, then to see the movie "Inception,"and then to the Cheesecake Factory afterward for dessert. Naomi tagged along for the ride and was a real trooper! Quiet as a mouse during the whole date! The movie was OK, but it made me thankful to know what reality REALLY is and thankful that I don't have to hide or escape real life to look for happiness. (I know....super deep thoughts by me, but whatev.) And I found it ironic that when we went to the Cheesecake Factory, we were greeted with, "Welcome to the Cheesecake Factory...the happiest place on earth!" I was thinking...umm...not so much!! Happy anniversary to the best husband for me and thanks be to God for directing me to him! What a blessed gift my husband has been to me. I have grown and changed a great deal (for the better of course) over the past seven years and a good part of that is due to his leadership, encouragement, love, and prayers for me. Thank you honey for all you do for me and for our family! I love you!!
When we got a picture with Miss Naomi, two of our boys were dying to have their pictures taken too, so Caleb and Josiah got their shy smiles on to pose with Daddy.
Here is a nice picture of my Dad with his oldest and youngest grandchildren. He likes to call Naomi his "little sweetums."
Josiah had fun climbing on the jungle gym at the zoo.
Last Wednesday, I gave Naomi her first bit of solid food, some very watered down baby oatmeal. She had fun tasting it, trying to reach for the spoon, and sticking her tongue out. At the end when she had had enough, she started to do the raspberry and tried to spray the oatmeal all over the place. I have some cute video of her too as I was feeding her with her brothers giving plenty of commentary in the background.
Naomi is our first baby that really doesn't seem to mind tummy time too much. She in fact rolls over often and hangs out there for long periods of time kicking her feet and trying to reach objects in front of her. She does get mad eventually and can sometimes roll herself back to her back, but most of the time I still have to help her get to her back at this point. She is already in 6-9 month clothes now! We get many comments from people about how calm and content she seems. Thankfully, I am glad she lives up to the meaning of her name (pleasant...though it also means beautiful and she is both). I was making the observation the other day that it made sense why the Naomi of the Bible changed her name to Mara....because people would associate the meaning of the name as they heard it and so the fact that Naomi was "pleasant" when she wasn't feeling so pleasant was probably salt in the wound for her, hence her desire for a name change to reflect her state of being (Mara means bitter).
We went to Bradley Lake park yesterday and met up with friends to hang out for a bit. Josiah's friend Hannah and Elijah came as well as Elijah's siblings and his mom and our babysitter Laura (Hannah's sister) and her mom. It was quite a crew and between all of us we had 9 children to look after. This picture was funny to me because Josiah has this satisfied look on his face holding Hannah's hand and Elijah appears to be upset about that, but the saying on his shirt says it all as if he is thinking, "Well it doesn't matter because 'I'm out of your league' anyway!" Later Josiah held his hand too and the three were very cute trekking along the trail together.
Daniel was showing his muscles pushing my friend Jasmine's twins in their stroller! He didn't go too far, but he actually was able to push them by his lonesome! Go mighty Daniel!
Adriel is in the back and he would holler at me everytime I stopped the stroller, but Mathias in the front was really tired and was falling asleep on our walk around the lake.
Daniel and Caleb were in their usual form exploring and having a grand old time. Caleb of course found a stick to carry around on the journey. I didn't include the picture, but there is a funny shot of Josiah and Hannah walking hand in hand where Josiah saw some poop on the ground and yelled, "Don't step in the poop," and guided Hannah away from it. Too cute! It was fun to be out with friends and all the kids seemed to have a great time!
My friend Mara made this LOVELY dress and hat for Miss Naomi and I just HAD to document the occasion of her first wearing of it! I recently moved her into her 6-9 month clothes as the 3-6 month clothes were getting to short for her long, little body. I have to roll up the pants and sleeves of some of the new outfits, but I like them to fit a litte looser anyway. You may not be able to tell too readily from the picture, but the hat is a little small for her. Our kiddos tend to have big heads (compliments of their Daddy), so the hat didn't stay on too long, though it was so cute! Thanks again Mara for the beautiful dress! When you hold her up in it the layers of the dress look like little pedals of a flower. So cute!
Josiah is being silly here. While we were gone one evening our babysitter Laura took these outside pictures of the boys. She taught Josiah to do the peace sign pose and of course he also had to have this other arm like a monkey, just to be unique!
Caleb is sporting his serious face here that he gets most any time he is really enjoying himself. We get smiles from him too of course, but this is his standard face when he is really concentrating on something.
Apparently, the apple fell from the tree and now he wants to put it back!
I did say I wanted to potty train the boys this summer, but this is ridiculous! Not what I had in mind Daniel-ee!
"Mom....please, no more potty training references on the blog....I may have a girlfriend someday that will read this!"
"I WANNA PLAY WEAPSTER!!"
We accidentally left the kitchen gate open and heard some shuffling around and came to find the twins playing in Naomi's playpen.
And here is our very under-pictured, loyal Autralian Shepherd/Border Collie dog, Echo. She loves to herd the boys around the yard, chew up any toys or paraphenalia left out in the yard, chase the ball with the master, lick and jump on any visitor that should come through the door, bark and whine at piano music (my personal "favorite"), and chase all the giraffes, shadows, or other creatures out of our yard. She is a very good family dog and we are blessed to have her!
We had so much fun the first time we went to Stewart Heights Park Pool at Colin & Taylor's birthday party, that on a whim I decided to make a trip back there this afternoon after the twins' nap, since it was so warm and nice. My Dad wanted to come in and be with the kiddos anyway, so it worked perfectly to have him join us for fun in the "big water" as Daniel likes to call it. 
Grandpa is monitoring all threee boys here. I had the idea to have him bring the life jackets they have for them for the boat, so that they would be just a little safer with all the other people in the water. The rule is that an adult has to be at arm's length of any children seven and under, and so our three fit the bill for sure!
Josiah was doing pretty well on his own though and with the life jacket, I think it made him more confident to try certain things, like floating for instance. He had his googles, but only truly used them once underwater when Grandpa dunked him. Needless to say, he didn't like being dunked, so the googles were just for looks apparently! I really think it was good for Josiah to have a positive experience with a pool though and that bodes well for the day when we will get him some swimming lessons I am sure!
This shot typifies the twins' glee about being in the water. Caleb would wade out as far as his little feet would take him and then he would get scared and gasp for air (though he wasn't sinking) and freak out a bit until he was "rescued." I would hold the twins by the front of their jackets and pull them along in the water together and they really enjoyed that. As a side note, baby girl was asleep most of the time in her carseat, which was in the stroller. I found some shade and parked her there and Grandpa and I took turns going in the water with the boys.
A nice close-up of sweet Caleb-ee!
A nice close-up of Daniel-ee!
