Pardon the haze over the picture as my camera was adjusting to the temp of  100! I loaded up my four, and his brothers kiddos and we headed to a splash park. My cousin Di and her twins joined us. The park was so busy we were not able to have much of a conversation but I think everyone had a great time. These park builders think it is a good idea to place a sand filled play area right near by. You can about imagine the fun and mess water and sand provide.

Cormac, PJ, Delia, Maggie, and Kayla finding the sand in the water.

 Sweet Delia just a swinging!

Ahh yes the joy of water and sand! I think the kids would have carried water and played sand all day long. Once again a good time had by all!

Miss Lauren is the best

 So our babysitter is just awesome!! She really goes above and beyond with the kids! She not only braved it and took them to the swim trials, she also then took them out to lunch and then off to the Children's Museum. I tell you these kids are having a great summer thanks to Miss Lauren's energy! The kids really love her and so does anyone who meets her. Her parents should be proud of their little girl as she a very special person!

Swim Trials

Swim trials are here and we are all enjoying ourselves completely!
 Pete's folks bought tickets for the week so we are all getting in on the trials. The energy inside the Centry Link is indescribable. We have two different swimmers parents behind us and that makes a person more excited as well.
These photos are from the first swim Phelps and Lochte this week. We are fortunate to have Pete's brother and two of his kiddos here enjoying the week with us as well.

big family reunion

 My dad's family, his brothers and sisters and families, had a reunion for the first time 2 years ago. If was a success so we did it again and once again we had a great turnout and a wonderful time! I think we counted something like 123 people or so. We had people in from Colorado to Florida. It was a weekend of games, food, conversation, and fun.

This is Brie as a drowned rat, we had a pretty good rain in the afternoon but that did not spoil anyone's good time!

 Who says adults cannot play kickball. It was adults verses the kids and I think both teams had fun.

PJ found a few minutes to get in a few snuggles with grandma!

 Maggie did a good job of entertaining Maci Jo.

 Makayla was in heaven, a yellow solo cup, sand and an imagination that does not stop!

Brie as an EXHAUSTED two year old! She and Eric bonded during our time at Gerling camp.

Gerling Camp

My fantastic niece Jill had my top three kids this past week. Her church does a bible camp for a week and Makayla, Maggie, Matt, and Nate were able to attend that this week. She took them at 9, got them home, feed them dinner, took them to the pool, back home for baths, snack, and a nightly devotion(which they all really liked). She did this everyday! what a woman. I joined the fun on Wednesday. Everyone had a great time and the kids all did very well. On the flip side Pete and I were home with only Brie Sunday thru Wednesday. Brie did ask where the kids were and I told her they were at Gerling Camp(Jill's last name). If I had told her where they really were she would not have been happy. As it was she too got in on some of the Gerling camp fun and enjoyed herself a lot!  A HUGE thank you to Jill for all her work and too Eric as well for putting up with three extra kids plus Brie and I. We love you and your family and look forward to Gerling camp in 2013!

Family wedding

 I had a niece get married and everyone had a great time. Beautiful day with an awesome dance! The kids are old enough to get out there and dance now so we had a good time.

 Brie got a lot of compliments on her cute dress that twirled very well. She was a ham and happy to get the attention.

 2 nd cousins and best of friends! Kenzie and Maggie always are able to find fun when they are together.

 There were beautiful flowers are the wedding and by the end of the night my girls had collected many, many flowers that the bride said we could keep. We now have a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my dining room table! Thanks Jessica and Todd!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy ever! We love him dearly. No one gives better tickles, or hugs!

The kids thought he needed a hand opening the gifts we wrapped for him. PJ was good at telling him what was in the package prior to Pete opening it. He was wrong once and said "oh yea that is in the other box."

 Happy proud kids = happy proud daddy!

"the Brie"

 So a very sweet little two year old dubbed  Gabriella as "the Brie" around Christmas time. The name has stuck and she is often "the Brie". I found these couple of photos which portray a very sweet precious little girl. Look into those eyes and you will see every ornery bit of her! Brie is good at high pitched screams and saying, "I do it myself", with a stomp of a foot. Not traits that I am proud of, nor ones that the older three displayed. I find myself apologizing a lot for "the Brie", though quite difficult at times we still love her to pieces!

Warrior Dash 2012!!!

Warrior Dash 2012!! the awesome GREEN team!





pretty sure we are the ones who started this adventure long about 6 months ago!(the doctor I work for and his phone nurse)

For those that do not know I and about 14 co-workers decided to do Warrior Dash. A race of 3.3 miles filled with 14 obstacles along the way. We definitely were not going for the best time, we were out to have fun. We most certainly accomplished our goal! What a blast, if you ever have the opportunity to do this you have to try it. I am happy to report that I was able to complete 13 of the 14 obstacles. I ended up with a few scratches and a bit of road rash on my elbow, otherwise healthy and feeling great! I hope we are fortunate to have it again in 2013, my goal would be to run a bit more of the course. Improve my time ya know! :~)

Tada!! I am done and one muddy mess! LOVE IT!!!

We had to get an after picture as well! What a blast, as I write this on Sunday night I can still feel my adrenaline going. This will definitely be a race to remember!

Ms. Lauren

We have been truly blessed this summer to have Miss Lauren as our babysitter! The poor thing started on Monday and immediately jumped into traveling to Camp Creation! She was pretty wore out Monday night but Tuesday was better and I think by the weeks end life was coming together. She has tons of energy and the kids LOVE her, as do the parents. The older three are staying home with her for the summer and they will take adventures to various places as the summer goes by. I left the camera today and asked her to take some pictures for the blog and she left me with these great shots. It is fun to sit down and night and see what pictures I will find. It is like opening a present!

We have officially turned her car into a nanny car with car seats and all!

 This girl is amazing because after a long week of camp and all the business of getting used to a new house, 3 kids etc...she still managed time to let the kids make brownies! From the photos I saw she allowed them to do WAY more of the brownie prep than this mom allows! Making brownies will not be the same I think. 

In closing THANK YOU THANK YOU for an awesome week! You put these parents at complete ease! You did a fantastic job and we are grateful for you!! You are a dream come true for us!

4 in a tub

 Four in a tub is not going to happen around here anymore! I need a comparison picture from just one year ago! I think summer is really making them all grow soo much! Makayla is definitely looking older as is Maggie. PJ and Brie are still toddlers but they are now reaching things I swear they could not reach last week. We measured heights and from 11 months ago  Kayla is up 2 + inches, Maggie is up almost 3 inches, PJ grew over 3 inches, I am not sure about the Brie but she came in at just under 36 inches this time. Does anyone know if it is true,that if we put a brick on their heads will it keep them from growing?

Camp Creation

 Camp Creation is the vacation bible school put on by Maggie and PJ's preschool.  Camp was this week and today I was able to be a volunteer. It was a very neat experience and I am happy I was able to be a part of it. It amazes me how much these little kids love JESUS. He is at work in each of them. I was in PJ's room of 18 little 3 and 4 year olds! a little crazy but a lot of fun. Thus I really only have pictures of the 3 to 5 year olds. PJ was in red, Maggie in blue, and Kayla was in orange. The girls are in the bottom picture but you may have to click on the picture and look just to the right of the teacher sitting on the 4th and 5th row. Maggie is over her left shoulder and Kayla is directly behind. My camera was having problems today so a lot of my pictures did not turn out.

Suessical

 My family came into town and we went to Suessical the Musical and it was very entertaining! We had such a great time. Cat and the Hat from Dr. Suess led us through various stories of Suess in a musical way.

The girls obtained autographs from a few of the characters, and were able to get their picture taken! lucky girls.

We then went to a local restaurant in the old area of the city and enjoyed each others company a bit longer. Thank you to each of you for coming into town and spending the afternoon.