Sports Camp

A good friend of mine, Marla, decided to host a sports camp this week. Emma got to participate. Each day seemed to get better for our little girl. Tuesday was soccer and football day. Emma told me that she and another little girl left the sports to play in the shade. She did like kicking the ball around though.

The next day was softball, kickball and basketball day. Emma was in charge of treats, so we brought otter pops and watermelon. Emma was the only one from her team to score a goal during the kickball game. Emma loved it.

Today was the last day...Track and Fitness. I watched the first part as the kids ran around a track cut into the grass in Marla's backyard. Emma was hilarious. Some of the kids were running as hard as they could, but my little girly girl was more worried about form than speed. She started her run in the "runner's stance" with one knee on the ground and then jogged down the track. Her performance was complete with huge smiles and "Miss America" waves. They ended the day with fun running games. When I asked Emma what part of sports camp she liked the best she said "all of it." It was a great experience for her.

Broken Baseball Bat

For Family Home Evening at the end of July we went to a Baseball game. Dave got the tickets from work. Nathan and I spent a good part of the game walking around rather than watching the action. I had fun with him. He lights up when people talk to him and we got to talk to a lot of people (mostly moms with little kids).

I really wanted Dave to write about his highlight of the night, but he hasn't gotten to it. I'll do my best to describe it. We were sitting on the first base line in the 13th row. One of the players must have hit the ball quite hard because his bat broke into two and flew into the stands. Dave was the lucky one to catch the top half of the bat. Someone from Guest Services brought him the bottom half of the bat later on in the evening. I was actually grateful to not be there when Dave caught the bat because I probably would have panicked. We had our mitts to protect us and the kids from balls, but bats are another story. Dave was excited though. He was able to get the player to sign the bat at the end of the game. I think Dave felt like a bit of a celebrity on the way home. People kept talking to him and one girl even asked if she could touch the bat. Emma and Nathan both enjoyed the game.

Speaking of baseball, Nathan looks so handsome in his baseball outfit. I have wanted to put this outfit on him all summer, but it hasn't fit. It still does not really fit, but the pictures are adorable.

Garden Fresh Peas and Our Little Pea "Nut"

I love this time of year when my garden starts to produce yummy vegetables. Tonight I picked a whole bunch of peas. Dave and I sat and shelled the peas while Nathan ate them as fast as we could get them out of their pods. It reminded me of shelling peas and snapping beans when I was a little girl. It was always a family event.

Nathan looked so cute stuffing his mouth full of peas. He likes his vegetables and usually chooses to eat the green vegetables on his plate before anything else. Tonight we ate steamed zucchini for dinner and Nathan kept wanting more.

Nathan is really fun whenever I go out to work in the garden. He jumps right into whatever mud he can find. He's my little helper. We usually garden early in the morning before bathtime:).

Family Pictures

Joel took these great pictures of our little family. Thank you, Joel! You did a great job.

We used our neighbor's backyard as the location for these pictures. I have always loved her backyard and she was more than willing to let us use it. We are going to include some of these pictures in our adoption profile which is almost finished.

Day at the Zoo

Our niece and nephew, Sarah and Ty, spent a couple days with us this week while their parents were on a little trip with the youth from their area. We loved having Sarah and Ty here. Sarah and Emma act like sisters. For the most part they are inseparable. Ty is wonderful with little Nathan. Ty takes good care of him and Nathan loves the attention.

We have stayed busy with several different activities. Yesterday we went to the dinosuar museum twice. We had to go 2 times because we didn't see everything the first time.

We also had a bubble experiment and party in our backyard yesterday. Several neighborhood friends came over. We made giant bubbles out of homemade bubble solution and straw wands. It worked pretty well. Ty made the biggest bubble that day. The interesting thing was that the day before I tried the bubbles and was able to get much bigger ones. I challenged the older kids to figure out why. We wondered if it had to do with temperature and humidity levels since the day before was much cooler and more humid. Emma was excited to try out our new inflatable swimming pools. The kids all enjoyed playing in the water.

This morning we started our day with a trip to the park and then went to the zoo. We all had a great time.

Everyone enjoyed different parts of the zoo. Dave's and my favorite part was the bird show. The kids all loved that as well. Even Nathan sat still for the bird show. It is rare for Nathan to sit still. He clapped his hands together and made excited sounds. I think Sara and Emma liked the Elephants and Rhinos best. We saw one Rhino very up close. Ty wanted to visit everything. He has such a desire to learn and I enjoyed seeing him take it all in.

We are winding down the day with popsicles and a movie. What a fun few days!

Chalk Family

The other day Emma was drawing with chalk on the side walk. I loved her drawing and took a picture of it. It is a portrait of our family. Every time Emma draws a picture of our family Nathan is wrapped in a blanket. Later that day Emma drew a frame around the picture. Three days later we are still enjoying her artwork in our driveway.

Sticky Summer

Emma and Nathan have discovered the joys of the ice cream truck this summer. I never noticed before how often it comes into our neighborhood. We have chased the ice cream truck down two times this summer. I love these pictures of the kids eating their treats. They look so happy! Nathan thought it was fun to share his popsicle with Dave.

Little Pinchers

This is Dave. I think I will try this blogging thing as well. I think it is safe to assume that all posts are from Tanya unless otherwise specified as she is a much better writer than I am (but we won't discuss who has more time to blog :-)) . I wanted to share a funny story about Nathan and his little pincher fingers. Nathan is always picking up very small specks of food, dirt, etc off of the ground with his thumb and index finger and usually sticks them in his mouth. He has been doing this for quite some time and is very good at finding stuff on the floor that the vacuum doesn't find. He is an obedient little boy, however, and will usually bring me the items he picks up if I ask him to. Saturday, Nathan and I were in the garage and I saw Nathan pick something up off the ground. I asked Nathan to bring it to me. Very obediently, Nathan walked over to me and handed me...a live bug! Not at all prepared for this, I overreacted by screaming like a girl and threw the bug on the ground. The real embarrassing part is that there was a large group of people directly across the street that heard me. Wait, maybe the real embarrassing part is making this public information in a blog.

Things I love about my kids

I was just thinking about all the fun, cute little things that make life worthwhile. I love watching Nathan and Emma play together. Nathan started this little game where he turns in a circle, falls down and giggles. Now Emma does it with him. Nathan likes to follow Emma around and Emma lets him do it. Nathan cries when Emma shuts her bedroom door on him because she has small toys out that she knows aren't safe for him. I love watching them as brother and sister.

Emma and Nathan both have such distinct personalities. Emma can be quite the sweetheart. Today Dave was sleeping on the floor with a roll of toilet paper under his head as a pillow. He had taken the toilet paper from Nathan who was making a mess with it. Emma saw Dave on the floor and found a couch pillow for him. She picked his head up and replaced the toilet paper with the pillow. How thoughtful!

Then there is Nathan who can't get enough of the world. He is curious about everything, especially the toilet. It is only a matter of time until the toilet gets clogged. So far I have found several toys, a toothbrush (yuck!) and an apple with little bite marks in it floating in the toilet at various times. We have to make sure we keep the doors to the bathrooms closed at all times.

I love these sweet memories and the kids that make them.