BAKER'S BIRTHDAY!

Saturday was Baker’s 4th Birthday! It is so hard to believe he is 4, he just seems like my baby yet and 4 sounds so old.

We had a great day together as a family. Right away in the morning we started off with giving Baker his gifts. Deegan was happy to help him open and Baker was very excited for the process and for his fun surprises. We of course had to fit in a family 4-wheeler ride too…all 6 of us on one 4-wheeler :) What a site, but one of Baker’s favorite things. I also had to go to Bellingham to get a friend a baby present and I took Baker with and let him pick out a couple new books; oh and he talked me into a couple other fun little things for him too. He is such a sweet talker I couldn’t resist :)

Yesterday we had family over for a Birthday party. I wanted to make Baker a special cake even though he isn’t able to actually eat it. He loves cars, trucks and trains so I made him a pick up truck cake. I am so far from being gifted with any sort of crafty/artsy ability so this was the best I could do. He looked excited by it and we gave him a piece of cake and he did a great job of squishing it between his fingers. He even brought a big handful up to his mouth – oh how we wish you knew how and could safely chew and swallow! He got a taste of some frosting though and we also put a bunch of whip cream on his tray while we were all eating so he could play around with that and have a taste of something.

Baker you continue to light up all of our lives. At some point pretty much every day I seem to get stressed out and all it takes is a moment with you and you can calm me down and bring me peace. You are the happiest, sweetest child in the world. You want so much to be a part of everything that is going on around you and it saddens us that at times you are wanting to do more then you are physically able. Despite that you giggle and wiggle your heart out and everyone around you loves every second we get with you.

I often think of this cute little poem when I play with you – Precious and priceless, so loveable too; the world’s sweetest miracle baby is you!! Then I just ran across this and thought it was something you would like to tell people: Blessed are those who stop and listen to my chatter. You may not understand me; but I love when people talk to me, for I long for companionship, too.

Praying for many more Birthday’s with you Baker!! We love you more then you could ever comprehend!!

Enjoying the new fishy lava lamp and turtle night light we got him

his cupcake on his birthday...he got to squish this too

The cake

I love this boy!!

He is excited about the cake :)

Hmmm, I am going to squish this

He wants to eat it so bad

See he got a little taste of the frosting.  I just had to pull a couple small pieces of cake out of his mouth but he stayed safe and had fun!

TALAN AND DEEGAN ARE 6

Yesterday was Talan's bday and today is Deegan's birthday. Yesterday we went bowling and to their favorite restaurant - Red Robin. Today will most likely include mini golf and maybe the park and a picnic. Can't believe these boys are 6. This coming weekend we will have some of their friends over for bday party. We are so blessed with these 2 boys, they really are remarkable. Hearts of gold. So kind, generous and caring. Talan told me he wanted to give me his birthday presents and that he would share them with Baker and Madden too (before he knew what he got but he probably would still hold to it if we asked, which we won't of course)). He always wants to make others happy. They are THE BEST big brothers in the world. They care for Baker with such love and compassion and they include Madden (most of the time) when they play. Deegan always wants to help me clean and you will often find him vacuuming and picking up toys when I ask. The love to help me dust and want to help in the kitchen. Even though it may be faster and easier on my own I love including them and I can only pray they want to help mommy forever. I get a lump in my throat when I think about how blessed we are with all 4 of our boys but today as I focus on the blessing of 6 years ago and the magic and joy and miracles that came into our lives I am humbled knowing that God chose us to raise and mold them into the best little men we can. THANK YOU GOD FOR our little family!!

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO.....

Summer always seems busy and goes by so quickly.  Thought I would update on just a few of the highlights from the rest of our summer.
Let's see; since my last post we have done more camping trips starting with a trip to Stanwood with our friends the Brinks and Ahlers.  Small little campground but we loved the park that we could walk to that had such a fun playground and the lake at the campground was shallow so far out so the kids could really walk around and play in it safely.   Love my girls Sara and Kim, first trip camping together but hopefully the first of many.
Then was the Concrete KOA with Jeromy's mom and dad.  We love this campground and the kids always have so much fun.  There is so much to do including the jumpy pillow, pool, mini golf, playground, bike rides, wagon rides, duck races, and then the KOA always has a different theme each weekend (it was mystery theme this time ) so they made face masks, had a treasure hunt and more.  This was a favorite spot for sure.

Jeromy and I headed across the border for the first time with the boys and took a little trip to The Greater Vancouver Zoo.  next time, note to self, take bikes for the boys.  We saw others doing this and what a great idea.  It is a lot of walking for little legs.  We had a couple strollers but not enough for all 4.  They toughed it out and we had a great time there.

Next was Oak Harbor City Park with my parents and my sis and her family.  Another favorite spot of ours.  You can't make reservations so it can be a little tricky but we lucked out and got right next to eachother.  The park is right on the beach so there is lots of playing there, bike rides, great playgrounds and little swimming pools and oh of course kite flying.  This year there was  Drift Wood Festival while were there and Jeromy, Dakota, Kevin and all the boys made a Pirate Ship and they won a trophy. They did a great job and we all had so much fun.   We broke our cheap kites the first day so we went and got a couple good ones and that was some fun entertainment too.

FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN...say it isn't so!  How can my sweet little twinlets be heading off to something that is for big kids?   Sigh, tear drop...they aren't old enough for this are they...YEP they are. The time is here to leave their mommy (for 2 days a week) and go to school.  They are going to have so much fun.  I look forward to hearing about their days and their new friends and the memories they will make.  I am so happy for them and I still have 2 at home and Talan and Deegan will still be home most of the time so toughin up buttercup as my hubby would say.  This is an exciting new adventure for them.   Tomorrow they will ride the bus for the fist time and I can only anticipate what it will feel like watching their cute little faces disappear in that big yellow bus.  Oh the tear drops will follow just as they did when I drove away from dropping them off at kindergarten their first day. 

LOVE THIS MOMENT

There are so many things Baker cannot do and of course we try not to focus on that but sometimes we can feel a little sad for him.  That is why when we find a "normal" activity that can be adapted so he can take part we get so excited!  The boys have had this Razor for a year and they absolutely love it and pretty much drive it every day.  Finally Baker got a ride in it and it was so incredibly special to see.  He has this great Special Tomato chair that has a chest harness and a lift between his legs that helps secure him in place.  This chair can strap in so many things - in fact I have talked about it in other posts.  Well we put it to use in the razor.  It strapped securely on the chair that is there and his legs barely fit behind the bar but they did and he was all smiles.  Talan and Deegan took turns driving him around and my heart melted.  Madden loves to drive this too but we didn't quite trust him to drive around Baker yet so far now he just sat in the back.    Little moments like this can just mean so much and we are so thankful for them.

11 years

Friday the 22nd was Jeromy and I's 11 year anniversary.  Crazy to think back and reflect on how our lives have changed in the last 11 years and how fast time can go!  We have been together 14 years and it is strange to think of a time without him.  I am so thankful for my wonderful hubby and for the 4 sweet little boys we have been blessed with.   On Friday night the 2 of us were able to get out on our own and go to the Kenny Chesney concert in Tacoma.  What a great time.  The concert was so much fun and the next morning we went to a park (forget the name) and had some nice relaxing time walking around in the peacefulness of the morning on the beach and then did some shopping.  It is rare that we spend some time with just the 2 of us and it was very nice.


I don't know why I look so giant in this picture.  It is at the concert, I must have been standing on a stair or something.  I really do not tower over him :)



Walking along the beach.

MORE SUMMER ADVENTURES

Let's see, since our last camping trip over Memorial Weekend we have had a few more adventures.

Baker and I rode in my brothers Truck (which he dedicated to Menkes awareness and Baker) in the Farmer's Day parade in Lynden.  Baker loves this.  He loves to see everyone waving and smiling at him, it is so precious and Brent is so amazing and thoughtful to do this for Baker.  He loves our little guy too.

His little smilling face looked so cute in there

We went to the Lynden KOA (oh I know, big travel right...but we love it) with the Stauffer family.  The weather was not very good, lots of rain but that didn't matter to the kids.  They played in the mud and had a great time.  As before, they loved the paddle boats, golfing, swimming, fishing (dodging all the duck poop), playing on the playground and riding bikes.

Next was Father's Day.  We are so lucky to have 3 wonderful Father's in our lives.  My Dad, Jeromy's Dad and of course Jeromy.  They are all so wonderful and we are so blessed to have them.  Jeromy is such an amazing Daddy to our boys and they just adore him.  I am one lucky lady!  

My Dad and his 5 grandsons

Jeromy and the boys

No pictures with Jeromy's Dad b/c they are out of town for a few months on a canoe brigade

Next we took a trip to Wenatchee to visit Jeromy's parents on their half way point.  The boys enjoyed watching them canoe in and we spent time swimming and playing in the park.

This is a special needs chair that we bought for Baker and we have used it in so many places it is our best purchase for him so far - fits in his stroller, we can tie it on the wagon, can strap it in the bike trailer, can put on the ground to play in the sand and also on the tire swing.  So fun for him!!

We had a get together at our house for the 4th of July.  Last year we were camping but this year it didn't work out for us and Jeromy loves to do fireworks (and we love to watch them) so we had some friends over (The Stauffers, Langstraats and Ramermans) and ate together, the kids played and we watched the fireworks show.  Boy does it not get dark until late theses days - so all the kids stayed up super late but they didn't even act tired, not even little Madden.   In the past Baker has been afraid of the fireworks but not this year. 

You might be a redneck if you hook up your boat to your 4-wheeler to give all the kids a ride :)

Here is a picture of the bunch minus Baker (who is on my lap) and Kingston (sleeping in the stroller) and the Langstraat kids.

Then was a camping trip to Lake Goodwin with The Brink's and the Ahlers.  We had so much fun together.  The weather turned out to be much nicer then expected which is great.  This park has a great little "swimming" area for the kids...I say swimming lightly b/c it is so shallow for so far out that the kids can walk around and play in it and we feel pretty safe which is great.  There is also a great city park right next to the campground that we could walk to and they had a very fun playground for the kids to play in and also a very shallow swimming area.   The kids also love the speedbump that was right out in front of our trailers.  They are took turns trying to make jumps over it on their bikes.  We thought for sure someone would end up with stitches by the end but everyone stayed injury free.

The boys were all in love with Sparkey, the Brink's dog.  They kept wanting to take him for "walks" and cudle him. Very cute!

At some point early this summer Jeromy also replaced our deck.  We had/have Trex decking and our last batch was faulty and got recalled and it was peeling apart and didn't look good.  So Jeromy had the big task of taking it all down (we put it on Craigslist for free and wow when you put something up for free Holy Cow do you get a lot of people wanting it) and then he had to put it all on again.  Big job but as usual he did it so beautifully.  You will often find me bragging about my hubby and how lucky I am that he is so handy.  I really mean that, I swear that guy can build or fix anything and I love that.   He is such a hard worker, we are so lucky!  I hope the boys grow up to be just like him!

Here is Madden "helping Daddy" and he is drinking water out of an empty beer bottle, gotta love it right, he thinks he is super cool :)
A month or two ago Deegan lost his first tooth.  He has been wiggling it around forever and kept asking when he would lose it and one day he came running in the house so excited, tooth in hand, blood running down his chin, saying "look mom I lost my tooth" he was beyond thrilled :) 

The boys started their little 2 week soccer camp type thing at Bender Fields this week.  Hopefully they will enjoy that.  It is fun to watch them play.

Coming up yet - next Friday is Jeromy and I's 11th wedding anniversary and we are so excited to be going to a Kenny Chesney Concert in Tacoma and spending the night down there.

Then we have a camping trip to Concrete KOA coming up as well as one to Oak Harbor City Park.  We are looking fwd to both of those.