Our online shopper

Things just aren't what they use to be.  When we were growing up, we had to get up to turn the dial in order to change the 12 channel option on the tv.  Now there are countless channels that can be changed with the touch of a button.  When we were growing up, a phone had a set limit of digits and was limited to making phone calls that were sometimes answered with a busy signal.  Now "phones" are equipped with games, GPS, and to-do lists and a message can be answered with a simple text.  Years ago, I would wait months to get to go shopping with my mom for day long trips to the mall where we'd stack up with essentials for the upcoming season.  Now shopping is at our finger tips with options galore on the world wide web.

 Avery is close to mastering this online shopping skill.  If I pull up a website for her, she now knows how to navigate through the different apparel and 'add to bag.'  The other night I left her alone for a while and came back to find the 23 items had been added to bag.  Most items were for her, in her size - 5T.  There were a few other items in the bag, t-shirts for her brothers.... in the right size.

For now the online shopping is harmless.  She is learning to pick things she likes, have her own style.  The trouble will come she learns how to 'Proceed to Check Out'.

Magic Snow White

Meet Snow White.  She is no regular Snow White.... she is magic.  Snow White doesn't like to stay in one place for too long.  She lives in Avery's room, but you never know is she will be sitting up on a shelf, standing at the edge of the bed or laying in the baby stroller when morning time comes around. 

So, here is the real story and I am able to type with Avery sitting right next to me since she can't read.  A few months ago, Snow White made her way into the suitcase for a weekend trip to Uncle Jason's.  Some how Snow White wound up under the guest bed and Jason discovered her when he was cleaning up the room.  On our next visit, Snow White (aka Jason) wrote Avery a note saying that she had missed Avery, but had a good time swimming at Jason's.  Her signature was absolutely authentic.  We all played along with the story and decided that Snow White had magical powers.  Ever since Snow White returned home with us, she has been mysteriously moving around Avery's room.  She doesn't have a pattern, you never know when you may find her in a different spot.  She's sneaky though, she makes sure no one else is in the room when she moves.  The look on Avery's face when she finds Snow White in a different location is priceless.  We'll see how long the magic continues!

 

A little at home R&R

Last week wore us out.  Getting home after 8pm every night plus planning for Mimi's retirement party Friday night at our house left our energy levels on "E".  Fortunately we had nothing on our social calendar for the weekend so we took advantage of the weekend to catch up on a little r&r.  Except for church, we never left the house, and we were all ok with that.  The kids caught up on a little time in the sandbox and blow up pool and Wes and I had a few catch up chores, but didn't create any projects that required any extra effort. Looking at the calendar for the next few weeks, we won't have too many lazy days to enjoy.  Good thing we were able to take advantage of it this weekend

Fun with friends

Avery & Presley

Avery & Kennedy

The Maurers & The Parkers

Water slide fun w/ Kennedy & MacKenzie

Austin, Caleb, Aver & Kade enjoying chips & salsa.  There are days Avery doesn't think she have to wear a shirt if the boys don't.

Addison & Colin taking the jeep for a ride.

Mimi is retired!

After working for 42 1/2 years in the same building, Mimi has decided it's time to start a new chapter in her life, one that doesn't involve spending her weekday hours at the bank. At the age of 18 Mimi started as a teller at what is now CHASE bank and worked her way up the chain to a high level position. May 31st was her last day and she claims she hasn't missed it yet. She's been a dedicated worker, but now will be dedicating more of her time to her flowerbeds, traveling, and family.
We felt Mimi deserved a little recognition for all her hard work and the number of years she put in so we invited friends and family over for an outdoor Italian feast. After a day of heavy humidity and scorching temps, the wind picked up and gave us a light breeze for a pleasant evening outdoors. We enjoyed a lemon chicken pasta, bread &bruschetta, mozerella balls and beer and wine. It was a perfect evening to enjoy a momentous occasion!

The Maurers

Chicken Fights

Busy week

It's Vacation Bible School time and we are all involved again this year. Yes, they asked Wes & I to come back to lead games. Whoo hoo! We are enjoying it, but not getting home until 8:30pm in a bit out of our norm. The kids are eating supper at 5:30pm before VBS, but insist they are hungry when they come home. So when we get home we are preparing a quick light supper, taking baths, reading books and getting to bed is a short amount of time and that leaves for a tired mom and dad when the alarm goes off the next morning. It's all worth it when we see their eyes light up when they tell us what they learned about Jesus.

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day to be best dad in the whole wide world! We love you soooooooo much!

Love - Austin, Avery & Caleb

Happy Fathers Day!

Swim lessons

Our kids LOVE the pool. I wanted to get the kids into lessons, but with work and instructor schedules I was having a tough time getting signed up. Then I remembered that Ali use to spend her entire summers in the pool teaching kids how to swim. I called for a favor and she agreed to do a few lessons in the evenings with us for two weeks. I was amazed to see how comfortable the kids were on just their first lesson. Yes, they have been in the pool before this, but mostly for fun. By the end of the lesson they were successfully using their arms to scoop through the water, kicking, coming up for breaths and to top it all off, they jumped off the diving board and swam to the side without any assistance. I was soooo excited.
I should note that these pictures were taken at teh last lesson. This is the only lesson Caleb decided to particpate in and he basically held onto his floatie the whole time and got a kick out of jumping off the diving board. We'll get him kicking and scooping next year.

Catch of the Day

Pool time.....

We invited ourselves to Uncle Jason's for Memorial Day weekend. Sunday after church we headed up to Austin with our thoughts on nothing except spending the entire day in the pool. We follwed that agenda to a T. I am not sure how the kids had the energy, but besides a few mandatory breaks they were full force in the pool from 12:30pm - 7:30pm. Mimi & Popo came to jon the fun along with Ali & Kelcie. We snacked all day and enjoyed the awesome holiday weekend.

As for swimming, I was totally surprised to find Austin swimming from one side to the other. Last year at this time, he perched on the sun shelf and stayed there most of the time. He's out in the water now, testing his limits. Avery is brave as ever. She was doing flips on her own by the end of the weekend. We'll see how Caleb progresses once swim lessons start. Right now he is pretty comfortable as long as he's in his froggy round floatie.