celebrating Marcus Andrew, age 8!

Here's an overdue post in honor of Marcus's birthday! He is such a good boy and a great helper. He likes to make us happy. He likes to do what is right. He is a great reader and great at math. He likes to ride his bike and scooter and play the Wii and his new DS. Where does the time go? It seems like not too long ago he was my first little baby and now he is this tall boy who will soon outgrow his grandmother. It is definitely bittersweet sometimes thinking about how much he has grown. But, it is fun and exciting to watch him grow too and learn how to do different things and become more independent. We love him so much! He is a sweet, smart, loving boy and we are blessed to have him as our son!







our "little" baby boy!

spoils of the 4th

Way back during the 4th of July weekend, Andy took the older boys to Cicero's 4th of July celebration. They have vendors, a Civil War re-enactment camp, a pioneer village and a kids game/play area. Each of the boys got to get a trinket from a vendor. Here's what they chose...

Marcus picked out a metal pendant that has a design pounded into it. He looks exhuasted, doesn't he. He was coming off a couple days of having pretty late bedtimes.


Ewan picked out a wooden snake.

Cale picked out a spear. Yes, a spear, made out of a long stick with rabbit fur wrapped around the top to make it look more "real". Don't worry, it has a wooden tip.

They loved their new things. And, Andy took them back to the children's area in a separate trip. They bounced on a bunch of different bouncy things and saw some different animals. The best part is, that all this stuff is within walking distance of our house. Seriously, our subdivision was surrounded by events. I love the 4th in Cicero!

at the last doctor visit...

Kella had a great check-up last week. She weighed in at 11 pounds 2.5 ounces. I know she's gotten longer, but our favorite doctor had let our favorite nurse go eat lunch and was doing everything herself and forgot to measure her length. Kella's looking good. The doctor says Kella is very strong and has good head control. She can also calm herself down pretty well. Then our doctor got some cuddle time with Kella which they both enjoyed. No shots at this visit, that will be next time. She's getting so big-growing out of some of her 0-3 month size clothes. She's starting to look more like a little baby than a newborn. *sigh*

the 4th fun continues after dark

We kept the kids up to see the fireworks. Another perk about where we live is that you can see the fireworks from our front yard. It was the gathering place for several of our neighbors and their kids. One of the moms brought over some poppers, snake-things, sparklers and a couple bigger things that lit up for the kids. We put Andy in charge of the pyrotechnic display, probably because we had some matches. The kids liked it all. They created a small fire at the street corner and ran around with the sparklers. Ewan threw his back at Andy and then later apoligized for throwing "fire" at Andy.

Here are the kids, lined up, watching Andy light what we thought was a rocket, but turned out to be something that lit up and then made a bunch of noise. There were 3, and each was just as exciting as the first to the kids. The 4th of July is becoming one of my favorite holidays with moments like these!

4th of July parade

We took the kids to the 4th of July parade. I love that it took less than 10 minutes to walk there. The boys loved that the parade participants threw a ton of candy their way. They even got dilly bars from the Dairy Queen people. The candy helped keep Liam in the wagon for most of the parade.

Here's Liam-tough decision-sucker or ice cream. He chose the sucker.

Nothing woke Kella up, not the marching band or the old tractors.

What you can't see is that all their pockets are bulging full of candy. (sidenote-Marcus and Cale purposely picked the same clothes to wear. They have a lot of the same tshirts and the past several days they have been coordinating their shirts. I call them the "twins".)

This was my favorite float. Santa Claus. He yelled, "Ho, ho, ho. I'm on vacation."

After the parade, Marcus, Cale, Kella and I took the long way back to the house. We stopped at a free face painting booth. Marcus wasn't feeling a face paint, but Cale was for it. He got this nice starburst with some sparkle. It actually stayed on until Andy took the Marcus, Cale and Ewan to the bounce house area that afternoon (they had a blast, by the way, and got lemon shake-ups afterwards).

fireflies and hot air balloons

4th of July around here includes a hot air balloon glow. A bunch of hot air balloons get together and as the sun goes down it's fun to watch the balloons light up with their fire. People come out and bring their lawn chairs and just sit back and enjoy being outside in the twilight. The kids ran around and caught fireflies. Just a nice evening. A nice bonus-this took place behind our subdivision, about 100 yards from our house.


Here are some of the balloons. We were kind of far back, but it was still fun to watch.

Catching fireflies....





the ninja and the princess-aka Ewan and Delaney

another first-Kella's first balloon glow-she slept through it in her favorite position-being held

Marcus rode his bike around practicing trying to "pop a wheelie"

Instead of fireflies, Liam caught sticks.

Tomorrow is the parade and then fireworks in the evening! Not to sure who will be up for the fireworks. It's been a long few days at our house without some much needed naps and pretty late bedtimes.

Happy 4th!

Our friends the Bradds came to visit and for a few days there were 9 kids (age 0-8) and 4 adults at our house. It was crazy and loud and fun. And, it was fun to just have time to visit. A fair amount of the time, we stayed home and let the boys play in and around the house. Nerf guns, lightsabers, bey blades, the little pool were all things they enjoyed. We ventured out a couple times, too, to the park, dinner out and the splash park. Here are a few photos. It's hard to get all the kids to stay still for a photo, so these are a few action shots.

At the mexican restaurant. We called ahead to give the place a chance to prepare. The boys did well (thank goodness for videos on my phone for Liam). I'm pretty sure we got stares when we came in with all the kiddos.

Outside the restaurant-all the boys (even Cale, behind Adin)

We took everyone to the YMCA splash park. It was Kella's first trip to the Y. Here she is enjoying a little breeze underneath the umbrella.

And, here is Liam trying to get his hair wet? I'm not too sure, but he was having fun.

How cute! Cale and Abel were little friends during this visit.

We had a great visit! It was fun to visit and just have fun in each others' company.