Playing Catch Up

We've had quite a few visitors and a few parties to go to the last few weeks and have really been enjoying ourselves. I'll post a quick recap below of the past two weeks.

Vacation Bible School

The last week of June, Lenny attended vacation bible school every night from 6-8:30 p.m. He really enjoyed it. This was the first time (since daycare when he was 2 1/2) that he has ever gone to something like this where I have dropped him off and came back for him later. I wasn't sure how he would do but he really loved it. Each day when I picked him up though, he would ask me why it took me so long to come back to get him. It was fun listening to him talk on the way home and I loved to hear him tell me stories about Jesus. It was very cute. And he couldn't wait to get back home to tell daddy all about it too. Just today Lenny said to me that it makes Jesus sad when we do something we aren't supposed to do.

Everyday when we would drive to VBS, when we would turn down the first road to get there Lenny would say how much he loved this road. One day he said, "This is a beautiful driveway. We get to go over mountains and through the forest." The church is only 5 minutes from our house. :-) I'm really glad he liked the ride and the location because this is the same place that he will be attending preschool this fall.

Here he is with his VBS t-shirt on. The theme was Power Labs and the 4 and 5 year old class was called the squeaky beakers. I thought that was very cute.


Friend From Work

My friend Karen, who I used to work with, came to visit us too just recently. We had such a great visit with her and her son Brendan. Lenny was so excited to show Brendan all of his Thomas engines. I really hope that we don't wait so long to see each other again. She took some great pictures of the kids while she was here.



Nathan was being his usual camera shy self. This picture makes me think that he is saying, I will not smile no matter what you say to me.

Cousins Visiting

We also had a visit from Dominic's cousins and Aunt just recently. We haven't seen his cousin Rick and his wife Kathy for a very long time. It was also very nice to see Jeff and Aunt Angie. Brooke loved Rick. She wouldn't let him put her down. Rick and Kathy joked that they were going to take Brooke home with them. Lenny was not going to let that happen. He reminded them a few times that Brooke has to stay here with us. Anytime anyone jokes about taking his "babies", he makes sure that they know that he needs to keep them.

I'm so glad that Rick, Kathy, Jeff, and Aunt Angie stopped by to see us.


Fourth of July

We went to our friends Dale and Michele's house for a pool party and barbecue on the 4th. We had such a wonderful time. We hadn't seen them for some time and they hadn't seen Brooke and Nate yet.

As soon as we got there Michele asked Lenny if he likes monster trucks and then she said that Tyler has something to show him. Tyler showed Lenny all of his monster trucks. Lenny was very impressed. So was I, I can't remember exactly how many he has but I think it was in the 70s. Lenny is still talking about all of Tyler's monster trucks.

Here are the kids before we left.


Ashley has a pet rabbit and the kids really liked it. Brooke really loves animals. It took her a few minutes to get used to the rabbit but then I think she really liked it.


I'll tell you who Brooke really liked--Ashley. She had so much fun with her. It was cute because if Brooke walked out of a room, she would turn to make sure Ashley was right there. Most of the time Brooke made sure Ashley was holding and carrying her though. There were three girls there that took care of Brooke the entire time. Brooke loved all of the attention and the fact that the girls would do and get anything that Brooke wanted them to. Thanks Ashley for keeping Brooke happy all evening. :-)


Super shy boy Nathan wouldn't let anyone hold him. All of the girls kept trying throughout the night but he wouldn't have anything to do with it though. Although at one point, he turned to Ashley and held his arms up to her for her to pick him up. We were both surprised by that.

Dale and Michele have such a beautiful home and unbelievable pool area. We had a great time even though it did end up raining.

When we got back to our neighborhood there were leaves and branches all over. We kept saying to each other that we must have gotten a really bad storm at our house. We couldn't believe it. Then we walked in the door, looked at the back door and saw a soaking wet Wendel standing there wanting in the house. We left for the party earlier and forgot to let Wendel back in the house. He must have been so scared during the storm. He didn't look the least bit happy with us when he came in the house. We got quite a laugh out of that. Poor cat.

Old McZachary's Farm

Brooke, Nate, and Lenny had a birthday party to go to on Sunday. Their friend Zachary was turning one. Lenny and Zachary's brother Mikie are good friends. The theme of the party was a farm theme. Tracy, Zachary's mom, did a fabulous job! She always does. Everything was so nice and so well planned out. The kids all had a great time. On the invitation the kids were invited to "Old McZachary's Farm" for the party.

Here's a picture of the kids picking a duck from the duck pond. Nate is eating something from the feed sack.


Here they are sitting on some hay together for the group picture. I can never get a good picture of all three of them together. Can you tell? Luckily my friend Kim got a great picture. I'm excited to get a copy of that one.


Nathan's Big News

Excuse me for being quite frank here but on Saturday Nathan had a huge accomplishment. He pooped in the potty!! He is only 19 months old. The last few days, he has been telling me by pointing to his diaper. I would take him into the bathroom and sit him on the toilet. I think he was trying but nothing would happen. Then yesterday, he told me again and I took him in and to our surprise, he did it! He was so proud and so were we. Of course, Dominic, Lenny, and I were all making such a big deal about it. Nathan would get the little shy but proud look on his face. It was adorable. Brooke always has to try after Nathan but she hasn't figured it out yet. I think she just likes sitting on the toilet. Way to go, Nate! Don't worry, I won't post pictures. :-)