A little bit of this, little bit of that...

While Mike was out mowing the lawn he spotted a very cool beetle. We all ran out to see it, and I caught this sweet moment on camera. All the children are in poses that so well capture their personalities. Jake's back on his haunches, elbows resting on his knees, checking things out, Andrew has got the gumby body hunched down low, (aaaa! this pic was pre-haircut. His hair was driving me nuts!!), and Amelia is matter of factly showing Mike the mail. Mike is a good dad. I love him!

Here Amelia is humming Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and doing the hand actions. I'm not sure if the sweet potatoes run through the hair enhances her onstage look or not....

Jacob finished up his first soccer season. The lower picture shows him on one of the days he was goalie. He was awesome! A lot of balls were shot at him and he stopped them all. He was such a hustler. The minute he would stop the ball, he was alreading running to throw it back into play. He would toss it far over the other players, and one time he threw it so far, the other teams' goalie had to stop it from rolling into their goal. He was so proud of himself and told us that Coach Pat remarked- after he dove on a ball to stop it- that he did it just like a "PROFESSIONAL!!" (: He was all smiles. We are excited to have Andrew start as well.

And one last little bit: The other night the boys and I were entertaining ourselves by looking through a cake decorating book my mother in law gave us a LONG while back. As we looked through the wedding cake section, the boys started deciding what cake they would have at their wedding. I mentioned that their choices were nice and all, but they would have to see if it would be something the girl would like as well....

Jacob: Ok Andrew, let's look again and try to get something with a little more girly in it, but not too much girly.
(they look for a while, hemming and hawing)
Andrew: Here's a good one. It's pretty pretty, and I like it too!
Jacob: Yeah, that's good. Mom? Do the girls get to choose the other things for the wedding?
Mom: Jake, the girls traditionally get to plan the entire wedding.
Jacob: WHAT!? No fair! I want to plan my wedding!.........Well, if she plans the wedding, how could I help?
Mom: Maybe you could offer to go pick up the flowers from the florist, or get the tuxes, or (I can see that he is not listening to me and is thinking hard)
Jacob interrupts: I know what I can do! I'm really good at spreading out the table cloth at our house, so I will tell her that I am going to put the tablecloths on all the tables!!! (is very excited)

Brilliant!

And of course, as we sat looking through the catalog, I was reminded of the last time we sat down and looked through it.

Here's an update. My sister Lindsay made it for Jake and did such a cool job. So funny. (Okay, so I'm like a year behind in posting about it.) Still such a hilarious cake for a seven year old. He thought it was awesome.

Wedding Weekend

Mike's stepsister, Cara, got married this weekend to her love of nine years. It was a beautiful ceremony in a picturesque chapel, with perfect weather. We had a great time spending the day with all the family.

Jacob was asked to be the ring bearer. He carried little Roxy (Cara's dog) and the rings down the aisle. What a cutie! As he and I were waiting for his turn in the ceremony I could see Roxy and Jacob start shaking. He was nervous and was holding onto her for dear life! I gave his arms a break for a minute, then it was his turn. He did great!

Mike had the camera - and was sitting with the other two - so no pics, but I'm sure we'll see some later from the photographers.

And here are some we took afterwards...

Enchanted Rock

Went camping. Had fun. Hiked, went caving, explored the creek. Had a skit night around the campfire with the other scouting families (groan), ate lots of s'mores (mmm...), chased off raccoons in the middle of the night, got sunburned.....

Enjoy the pictures.

Amelia loves the feel of grass. Here she is playing while we set up camp.

Our friends

Ready to hike

Emerged from the cave. Some serious troopers.
Tight spots and pitch black couldn't stop these boys.
(With just a little help from their dads - wink.)

Mike is grabbing a huge handful of my hair in an attempt to keep the wind from blowing it across my face. The result is a little less than flattering.

Look at that view!

Family Night Fun

We all went to the swimming
pool, and when we got home the
boys changed into their pj's. I
then realized everyone in the
family was wearing blue, and
none of the kids had shirts on.
I had to take some pictures.

That's right, baby. Just try to
suck it in!