Poor Luke...

As I mentioned in the last post, our trip ended with Luke getting sick.  The trip started so joyfully, he was having a blast with his girl, Kacy.  On the way home we had a different Luke.  It was his first experience with a stomach bug, and it was rough.  He was sicker than I've ever seen him, just miserable.  Thankfully, it was only about 28 hours long, but once he got hungry and thirsty he wanted to eat and drink. We were very hesitant with that, and he was very angry about that.  Poor guy.  He bounced back well, and is now happy and healthy.  Unfortunately, that bug isn't done with us, I had a round of it myself and it was terrible!  I'm on the mend and hoping to bee 100% again tomorrow.  Now we're cleaning like crazy and praying hard that the others stay well.

 Tex was a good buddy while Luke was sick, I think they both enjoyed having each other on the floor.

Annual Summer Trip 2013

Our weekend away in San Marcos was a much anticipated trip for this summer.  This is our annual trip that we take with old friends.  We skipped last year because of Hannah and Brooke's births, but this year we were all in and ready for a great time!  We had some house issues a week or so before the trip, so we had to switch houses, but all seemed to be fine once we got there and saw the place.  Stonehaven Ranch was a beautiful piece of Texas, 200 acres, 3 houses, and a pool.  The houses were beautiful, a big house with 5 bedrooms, a good size living room, and a nice kitchen.  Then a small one bedroom house and a small two bedroom house.  It was a great set up for our group.  We chose the master bedroom mostly based on size, we needed room for two pack n plays and a spot for Isaac on the floor.  This room was a good size, had it's own bathroom, and a nice fireplace.  Perfect...or so it seemed.  Once we picked our room I started setting it up, got the beds set up and ready, everything in it's place.  Before leaving for dinner I walked back to our room with Cory to check the AC, well while back there we heard a funny noise...we went in the room to check it out, and a bird flew out of the chimmney into the fireplace in our room!  Uh oh!  We walked back to the front to tell Carl, then the guys all went back to check it out.  They were able to get the bird out of the fireplace and out the window.  Then they closed up the fireplace, problem solved.  We went on to dinner at Salt Lick, the rest of the group met us there, it was a fantastic way to start the trip.  I mean gosh, the guys got to eat all you can eat bbq, the kids had a lot of freedom to run around, and there was live music...what's better than that?  It was a great night!  After dinner we headed back to the house with a quick stop at HEB, while waiting in the car Carl and the boys got to see about 5 police cars come flying in the parking lot with lights and sirens going.  Lots of fun for boys!  We went back to the house after that, got the kids settled, and in bed.  Then we had some time to sit outside and catch up as grown ups, it was a wonderful evening.  Carl and I went to bed around 1:00, much later than normal, but no biggie, we're on vacation.  Well, apparently birds don't sleep like we do, we immediately started to hear them.  I learned that night that baby birds feed all night long, just like human babies.  Ugh!  Needless to say, we did not get much sleep that night.  The birds woke us all up with super loud chirping at 7:00, and if you know my kids you know that once their eyes open they are up and ready.  We quietly headed out to the kitchen to find the Hrobar boys outside playing, so we weren't alone.  It was a relaxing morning, just hanging out.  We did some swimming later in the day, and just took it easy.  It was so fun!  The kids all bonded quickly and played so well together!  It was so sweet to see them all running around having fun together. After dinner we did some more swimming, but our kids were exhausted after the short night the night before.  So they went to bed around 7:30 and we had a nice evening with the grown ups.  Oh, someone had come to get rid of the birds earlier in the evening, but they were unsuccessful, so we had to improvise.  Carl put a mattress in front of the fireplace to help muffle the noise, and we figured we were all tired enough to probably sleep through it anyway.  Thankfully that was true, we all slept much better, despite Hannah waking us all at 6:45.  So Saturday started early for us, too, but that's our life.  :-)  After breakfast we decided to head out and walk the property a little bit with our kids and the Hrobar boys.  I grabbed my camera to try to capture some fun memories, and thankfully I did get some great shots.  The kids had a great time exploring, Carl showed them the longhorn on the property, they all thought that was pretty cool...Hannah talked to him, of course.  Isaac spotted something and said, "Look that's like what Lightening McQueen crashed into!"  It was a cactus, he was right, so then Carl gave them a lesson on cacti.  Mason was so sweet with Hannah, he helped her pick through the rocks to find the perfect ones.  It was precious.  After our exploring we headed back to find the rest of the gang all waking up.  Then we had a slow morning, just letting the kids play inside, and they had a great time doing just that.  The big hit of the weekend was the nerf gun wars.  Just before lunch we were heading out to swim.  As we were about to walk outside, Luke got sick, not just a little, but a whole lot of sick!  Oh no!  After cleaning it up we headed on out, hoping that by some miracle it was just a one time thing.  Nope.  After a couple more instances, we decided to pack it on up and head home.  Having a sick kid is tough, having a sick kid away from home is worse, and we didn't want to stay there and end up with multiple sick kids.  Carl and Cory got us all packed up and loaded, so we hit the road as soon as we felt Luke was through the worst of it.  He did get a little sick on the way home, but mostly he just relaxed and slept a little.  Isaac was so sad to leave, we all were, but we knew it would be best to get Luke home.  So the weekend did not end as we had hoped, but it was still a great trip, we made some great memories, and had fun while we were there.  I'm thankful for great friends and sweet friendships that are blossoming.

The boys' newest hobby...

...fishing!

 Isaac casting!

 Hannah cheering them on, I think she approves of Isaac's casting.

 Daddy fishing, with an audience.

We live right by a great neighborhood lake, and the boys have learned that fishing is a lot of fun!  They got new poles recently and practiced casting into the pool over and over again.  Thankfully, they catch at least one fish every time they go out to the lake.  This last time Isaac caught a fish on his first cast!  He was so excited!  They don't have quite the patience they need or daddy would like them to have, but they love it none the less.  I enjoy it as well, it's a fun family activity.

Soccer Camp

The boys both attended soccer camp during July.  It was Luke's first time to attend any kind of class or camp, so we were a little nervous about how it would go.  Both boys were so excited to be in soccer camp, they were thrilled to play soccer.  Carl was gone the first week, so Oma and Opa joined us.  We were all shocked by how well it went.  Luke went right out with Isaac and started warming up, or wearing himself out.  Ha!  He ran up and down that field over and over again, kicking his ball the whole way.  A friend of ours was there as well, and we were all shocked by how well he did!  I am so proud of him for jumping right in and participating.  During the warm ups Luke was trying his best, following along as well as he could, and Isaac was enjoying every minute.  There were a few moments when Luke didn't understand what to do, at one point he was standing there confused, Isaac noticed him and went to him.  He grabbed Luke by the hand and started showing him what to do.  It was the sweetest moment!  I am so proud of Isaac and the way he cares for and loves on his brother.  Luke did great during the camp, trying his best, until the scrimmage portion at the end, he did not like that.  He did not want to use another person's ball and he did not want to share his ball.  It was a rough ending to a great start!  Overall though, I think he did awesome!  Isaac did fantastic throughout the entire first day.  He loved every minute of it and really focused, did what was asked, and tried his best.  The second week of camp went abotu like the first.  Isaac did awesome through it all.  Luke did great for the first 45 minutes, then about the last 15-20 while they were scrimmaging he got nervous again.  Luke does really well when he can be independent and do what he is told on his own, but once he is forced to be with the group and told what to do he struggles a little more.  Week 3 was a little hard, the boys had spent the night before with Emmy and Gumby, so they were pretty tired.  Both boys shut down a little early and really struggled to focus and work hard.  They still had fun though and that's what matters.  Unfortunately, the last week, week 4 was not as good.  Isaac was sick, so he didn't get to participate.  I knew this could mean the practice cuold go great or it could go terrible for Luke.  Oma and Opa came to see his last practice, fully prepared that it could go either way.  Sadly, after a lot of coaxing from me and Opa, we could not get Luke on that field.  He would not kick his ball, he would not walk away from me.  So week 4 ended early, we left after about 30 minutes of Luke sitting on the sidelines.  So even though it didn't end on a high note, I am still so very proud of both of my boys!  Soccer is something that pushes them out of their comfort zone, as neither of them is aggressive, but they both did their best and had fun (most of the time).

2 Little Starfish!

 

I am so proud of these two little ones!  They worked so hard the last couple of months and are now great little swimmers!  Luke started out with a  big fear of putting his face in the water, but now he will swim face in, legs kicking, and going so fast.  He swims a little ways, then flips over to do a starfish (float on his back), and then flips back to his stomach to swim some more.  I was confident he would learn to kind of swim, but I must admit I didn't expect him to be swimming so well already!  Hannah had no idea what she was in for when we started this journey.  She never enjoyed her lessons, but by the end she would cry while the teacher held her, but then stop crying as soon as she was put in the water.  It was like she focused on what she was doing while she swam, but then as soon as she was safe in the teacher's arms she began crying again.  I am beyond amazed by how well she is doing, I know we still have to watch her closely by the pool, but I feel so much safer knowing that if she falls in, she can swim to the surface, flip herself to her back and float. 

 

I am excited for many more fun days of swimming in the pool with these two this summer...love them!

4th of July 2013

What a fun 4th of July!  We love keeping it low key on the 4th, just swimming, good food, best friends, and family. This year it was great, and we had the added fun of fireworks!  In the past the boys were too scared of fireworks to even watch them, much less set off our own.  A few days before Isaac told me he really wanted to get some and do our own.  I was skeptical, but he was persistent.  So Carl took the boys and they bought a few fun ones, all afternoon and evening Isaac asked when we could do them.  Although they were a little nervous with the big ones, they did great overall!  Isaac even helped light quite a few of them.  It was fun watching my boys, Isaac seemed so big!  (tear)  We are SO thankful for our family and friends, and the sweet memories that were made that day.

Father's Day 2013

My kids and I are so blessed to have 4 amazing men in our lives to call, Dad, Daddy, Opa, Gumby, and Grandpa.  This year we celebrated Carl on Father's Day along with his dad, Gumby.  We started the day with donuts for breakfast and then the morning at church.  After church we headed out to Pasadena to celebrate Gumby and Grandpa.  It was a special time with family, it was so good to see the extended family out there.  We are so thankful for the loving and supportive family God has given us.  My favorite moment from that day was as Grandpa was getting ready to leave, Hannah and I were talking to him, and she just randomly leaned over to kiss him.  He was so happy, then she did it again!  It was completely on her own, no prompting from me...she's never done that before and hasn't done it since.  He just smiled so big and said, "She is such a delight!"  It's a moment I'll always remember.

Unfortunately, my dad/Opa was in Holland on Father's Day, so we didn't get to celebrate with him that day, but he was not far from our hearts and minds.  We sent him the picture from above, and Isaac filled out a sweet questionaire for him.  We missed him so much, but were sure to share our love with him once he returned.

I am so thankful that Carl has so many men in his life to look up to and learn from; I know that he is the father he is today because of these amazing men surrounding him.  I love all of these men so much, and I hope they always know how much they mean to me and the kids!