Regrets

Oh how I wish I had so many more hours every day and were more organized and diligent. Noah has been spending the last hour reading some of the things I wrote in a journal for him when he was a toddler. He is laughing and LOVING it and there are so many things I never wrote down, but even worse is all the things I have not written down for every kids that has followed him. It's so sad. All these precious moments completely forgotten. I want to do better so they can all have these awesome stories and memories. I mean seriously, poor Micah, and everything that comes out of his mouth is hilarious and he is full of notable mischief, and he may grow up with us all forgetting how much trouble he caused. Sheesh.

On that note, Micah came down yesterday morning telling my that Kaden fell out the window. I didn't really even pay attention to him to be honest. I was kind of busy, but in the back of my mind, I thought that might at least be worth checking on. So an hour or so later, Kaden is down here with me and suddenly says, "Mom, can I tell you a secret?" and I said "of course, and you should"....Kaden: "I opened my window this morning and jumped out because we were locked in the bedroom, and I jumped into the bushes, but don't worry, it didn't hurt my feet--and I told Micah to stay away from the window".....uuuuuuh. Our second story is HIGH, and those bushes are not soft and fluffy bushes. AND besides the fact he never should have done that, and I was just a holler away (I guess Micah is the one who locked them in, too)...he did it right in front of MICAH--NOT GOOD! So I didn't want to come down really hard on him since he did tell me right away and I am so glad he felt he could, but I did explain that he should never do that and the problem especially that by doing that he showed Micah something that would be very dangerous for him.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon....Noah came downstairs saying Micah had opened the window and pushed the screen out and almost fell out head first. AAAAH! We have lived here for over 2 1/2 years and never had to worry yet about windows. Then Kaden and I had another talk and he DID feel really bad. He just doesn't think sometimes. Sigh.

Our favorite playgroup

We had a playgroup at our friend's pool early in the month and it was such a great time for everyone that we decided to have it every week there in August. Unfortunately Hurricane Irene seems to have spoiled the last one that was supposed to be tomorrow, but it's been so great and so much fun. Taryn did get to get in the pool once, the rest of the times she took a blessed nap inside and we all had fun while she did her favorite thing...Here she is with our friend and neighbor Rebecca.

I wish I could figure out how to post videos on here more easily and faster, because it was a riot to watch all the boys jumping in together and coming up with different ideas of things to do and games to play.

That's my fearless boy. He actually started out like all my other kids, really not liking water on his face and afraid of it. We have worked so hard all summer (worked, as in gone swimming A LOT) to get him past it. Actually he was great the moment his 3 brother jumped in together and he wanted so badly to do whatever they do. But he really does need to just do it as often as possible to not go back to the fear thing.

Cartwheels

Look at that form...

More Micah

August randomness

Here are a couple of pictures before the month got really busy and fun and crazy with family visits and earthquakes and hurricanes. After this I was looking and have hundred of pictures for this past month so I need to break it way down to post on here. It's so hard! Here is Taryn almost 5 months old. She is such a good baby and hasn't had a moment to herself since she was born. LOTS of attention and company. I am worried about next week when school starts and she doesn't have Noah and Kaden to pick her up and entertain her all of the time. Instead she will have Micah who is very happy to play with and entertain her, but he is also very dangerous and they can't be alone together. Not a good plan. Maybe once he is the oldest in the house he'll step up to the plate, huh? =)
Love her smiles

See this is what happens when the neighbors stop to say hi...

And completely unrelated, here is the bug Noah caught. It was very large.

July July July

It seems like I blinked and July flew right by me. It's not even like we have had anything going on. It started with 2 weeks of swim lessons, and I was able to get all 4 boys into their lessons at the exact same time. That was amazing and awesome. I tried to put Taryn in the childwatch and swim with the boys every day and decided that the YMCA is the biggest blessing every for that reason. It's too cold in their for T, and it's way too hot outside for T, so we have been going to the Y as much as possible to swim and this month. Taryn does great in the childwatch and I feel better about putting her in there because it's their slow time of day and she gets oodles of love and attention while I get to give some extra attention to Ammon and Micah and my older boys get to have a blast in the deep end (they finally took the swim test and are SO excited to be able to swim and dive down there). Really we have just been taking it easy and enjoying each other this month and I don't know why it sped by so quickly. Here are the pics that might remind me of anything else we did..


Micah looks like a giant in this picture. I know it looks a little more like Christmas time with Micah's PJs but it sure doesn't feel like Christmas when we step outside...Ammon loving his sista.

Micah's 4th of July Breakfast. Oh see we did have a birthday/bbq at a friend's house on this day and then went bowling and did sparklers.

Taryn 4 months old

Noah loving Taryn. Lately I hear this discussion a lot from Noah..."Taryn doesn't seem like she is going to be a little sister. I don't count babies as girls or as boys. They are just babies. I feel like she is just going to grow up to be another brother. Mom, are you sure she's not going to be another brother?"

Stylin.

Smilin.

Discovering her tongue.

T's favorite finger to chew on.

This is a very significant picture for us and to explain it, I may have to admit that Taryn is a tummy sleeper and then I might get arrested or something. Anyway, she just MIGHT be a tummy sleeper and at 3 months when she learned to roll from her tummy to her back, it was very traumatizing and we stopped getting all of that sleep we had previously been getting. She rolls over and her eyes pop right open and she just cannot sleep on her back. Just as I was in the depths of despair over this, and after trying many things to help, I went to wake her one night from her evening nap and found her like this. At first I assumed she was on her tummy but she did look a little odd. Then I saw her dress and the thumb of her hand and thought surely she is not asleep on her back. I lifted her dress just to be sure and...

That is totally her belly button. I was SO excited. She CAN do it and now our nights and naps are getting better again and I find her on her side, and sometimes even on her back.

Our little turtle the boys found in the back yard this week. They kept him for an hour and fed him carrots and water. Then they let him go.

Look who found her feet! I love this moment in a wee babe's life. They are so delighted to discover those hands and feet and start awkwardly experimenting with them. So cute.

Kaden is such a good big brother. This little girl cannot make a fuss without having several people rush to talk to her and hold her and give her toys. I am trying to at least once in awhile have her be by herself and have to entertain herself, or one day I will be in big trouble.

Family time

We live for moments like these. We haven't seen JaNae and her family for almost 3 years! Yes, that is not a typo and it is very sad. So this beautiful little girl was just a baby when we last saw each other. No longer. JaNae and Aubry drove 2 days to get here and were able to stay for almost 5 days so we tried to cram in lots of good fun without overtiring everyone. Aubry and Micah at Jamestown Settlement.

Ammon

I'm sure the kids favorite part of Jamestown--the chickens. They had little babies with them this time!

Carving their canoe with oyster shells.

Here are the kiddos, minus Noah. He had scout camp all week, so we had to juggle that a little.

JaNae and kids on one of the ships.

Kaden....um

JaNae and Aubry

Fort Monroe

Rolling down the hill

Aubry taught her cousins the game of spotting all the fire hydrants.

It was so good to force us out of the house every day and find out the Taryn actually WILL still still when I am packing her when she has to. She did so good.

We went to Buckroe beach thinking it was going to be a rainy day, so we didn't dress appropriately. We just let them all dive in and play anyway and just had to improvise. The next day we did much better.

Yorktown Beach

Beach baby. Beaches are hard with babies, I have decided. But a beach tent, and getting to the beach at 9 a.m. or earlier helps...

Kaden asks for the camera every time Taryn smiles in the car. Here is his great shot.

I got to do Aubry's hair every day. And I am way out of practice for some reason. She has such pretty auburn hair though. Thanks Aubry for letting me play...