Mobile

Luke is completely mobile now. He actually took his very first step on June 6th and then on June 19th he took four steps without any promptings. Now he walks everywhere and crawling is a thing of the past. My baby is growing up!

I just love watching those awkward first steps. And I love the facial expressions - such excitement! He know he is accomplishing something great :o)

Walking can be dangerous business though. I don't think his head has been bruise-free since he took his first step!

Little Minds

A few weeks ago as we were putting the kids to bed, Brian tried explaining to Ashlyn and Trent that even though it was night time here it wasn't night time everywhere. He told them that it was morning in China. Trent didn't seem to understand or care what Brian was talking about. However, Ashlyn had a light bulb go off. You could see it in her eyes.

"That is so incredible! China is nocturnal!"

Ashlyn is such a light in our lives. She still keeps us laughing every day with the things that she comes up with. I love what goes on in that mind of hers. Unfortunately, I haven't been as good about writing those things down lately.

Ashlyn is growing up way too fast for me. She will be starting kindergarten in just over a month and she already has her first "forwarding tooth" (aka: her first 'loose tooth').

She is so smart and very easily picks up on what she sees and hears. She can see a movie once and quote lines from it a few weeks later. Like the time Brian came home from work one day and asked her how her day was. Ashlyn responded, "Well...I dissected a frog."

Huh?!

After a little thinking, we figured out that it was a line from 'Incredibles'.

Ashlyn is a really good sister. She loves her brothers and she and Trent play really well together, which is good because they are with each other all day, every day. However, they definitely have their moments and some days are worse than others.

I love watching them play together, Ashlyn with her horses and Trent with his cars, using there imaginations. One day as they were playing, things escalated into an argument of sorts. Ashlyn held up her hands and said, "Wait, we're just pretending to fight, right Trent?" I guess sometimes the line between real and make believe can be a little blurry.

One of my favorite stories about Ashlyn happened about a year ago. It was summertime and there were a lot of flies in the house due to doors being left open as kids went in and out. It became a nightly routine to pull out the fly swatter. Pretty soon Ashlyn and Trent joined in the effort to combat the flies and would run for the fly swatter when they saw a fly in the house.

One night as we were about to sit down for dinner, Ashlyn spotted a fly and ran for the swatter. She approached the fly slowly with both hands gripping the handle. As she raised the swatter above her head, she said, "Say your prayers fly!"

I just love my girl.

One more thing. Next time you see her, ask her to whistle for you. It's pretty awesome.

I'm Tired

Holy moly the last four days were nuts! But, it was the good kind of nuts. We definitely had a fun-filled Fourth of July weekend, but we wore ourselves out! All of my kids slept until 9 0'clock this morning - a rare thing that only proved just how super jam-packed the weekend really was. I actually did very little picture taking this weekend, mostly because I kept forgetting my dang camera. But, sometimes it's actually nicer to 'be in the moment' rather than trying to 'capture the moment'.

Here is the rundown:

Friday - A trip to the splash park, and a picnic/movie at another park - "How to Train Your Dragon"
Saturday - Haystack dive at Riverton park, carnival rides, and fireworks.
Sunday - Patriotic pedicures for me and Ash, feeding horses, hot dog roast in my parents backyard, fireworks, and a campout.
Monday - breakfast and camp clean-up, birthday party for Ashlyn's friend Addison, a trip to the airport to pick up Grandpa, and a Bees game followed by more fireworks.

So even though I'm tired, all the activities were a lot of fun and the kids had a great time, which is all that really matters. I'll be honest, I've always liked the 4th of July, but it hasn't ever been at the top of my list as far as holidays go. However, this year was so much fun and I enjoyed myself more than I ever have before, which means that Independence Day just may creep up on my list.

I only had my camera on Sunday night. Here are a couple pictures that I did take:

This is the third year that we've had a family camp out in my parents backyard and it has become a fun little tradition.

Jen and Jeff and their kids joined us on Sunday and Jen was nice enough to bring a box of glow sticks. Little did we know that the glow sticks would prove to be more entertainment for the kids than the fireworks!

Don't let this picuture fool you - they only sat in here and watched the fireworks for may 3 minutes, then they were off to have more fun (and fighting) with their glow sticks!

Fireworks are definitely 'a man thing'. At least they were entertained, even if the kids weren't!

One more thing that happened this weekend, Luke developed a nasty rash that started out small on his face, neck, and chest Sunday morning. It got progressively worse throughout the day and he was covered by Sunday night.

I tried to capture it, but these picture don't really do it justice. It was bad! I did call the pediatricians office and the on-call doctor said it was most likely a reaction to his recent MMR and chicken pox vaccinations. He didn't have any other symptoms and it didn't seem to bother him, so we have just let him ride it out and it has slowly been going away.

I am really hoping for the rest of the week to be quiet and restful. We could all use it!