Swimming fun!

The boys had a swim birthday party to go to, and they loved it. It was their first swim of the summer, since I tend to stick to the splashpad when I take them by myself.

Brandt is a natural fish. He can swim in the deep end, but knows to stay near the side in case he gets tired, then he can grab the side. He loves throwing pool toys to the bottom and diving down to get them. He has even started doing hand stands and backflips in the water. He would live in the water if he could.
Brayden is no longer afraid of the water. Well, he was never actually afraid, but he never wanted anything to do with it, because he was afraid it would get in his ears. He has gotten past that, and asks daily if we can go swim. He loves wearing a life jacket and grabs one on the way in the pool, I guess it gives him more confidence.
Bryson really likes the water as well. The pool we go to has a shallow end you can walk into the water in. Bryson stays at that end for the most part, but for some reason he seemed to be drawn to the deep end. He would sit on the ledge and kick his feet, he was people watching for a while.
Brennan wasn't sure what he thought about the water at first. He is almost asleep here, so I guess he decided he did like it after all. Instead of cake they did cupcakes for the kids. Bryson doesn't play around when it comes to eating. lol He tried to get the whole thing in his mouth in 1 bite.
This is what happens when you give a 2 year old a staining cupcake. lol

And when you give one to a 4 year old as well. lol

Minivan

Brandt "I know why it is called a minivan".
Dustin "Oh, ya why is that"?
Brandt "Because it carries many people".

Please pray for our puppy...

We found out today our puppy Marley has parvo. The vet said 70% to 80% don't make it. He said if we were super diligent she had about a 50% chance. I am going to trust God we are in the right 50%. We have to get up every hour all night and try to get her to drink Pedialyte and eat some special food. We will take her back in the morning for another IV. He said she is going to throw up and poo all over our house, but any she keeps down will help. She has kept the 1st dose down and it is now time to give the 2nd round, please pray it goes as smoothly. If she is still here in 3-5 days she should be ok. Please pray for Marley, our sanity, and our kids' hearts.

Update:
Sadly, even getting up every hour with her last night she was just too little and we lost her at 7 am in my arms on the way to the vet. She did wonderfully through 4 am even getting up to drink on her own accord. However, at 5 she was really struggling and I called the vet at 6:30 to meet me up there before they open. She was just too sick. This is very hard.

Kelly

Family reunion

This picture was taken at our family reunion this weekend. It was a Christmas present from my grandmother, and everyone got such a kick out of it. She was telling everyone to make sure they read the baby's bib before they left. haha

Need ideas...

We need ideas, even if you never post I'd love to hear your ideas. Brandt will be 6 in August and the last thing we need around here is more toys. With 4 boys so close in age we have toys coming out of our ears. There is nothing that they need and no place to put more. When Brandt was a baby we use to take the money we would have spent on his presents and we bought presents and food for needy families. We did it for several years. and it was wonderful. However, the older he got the more we thought he might be upset not getting anything and we have moved away from that. Some of our good friends did something similar at their kids' birthday this past year and donated pjs for needy kids instead of bringing the birthday kid a toy. I love the idea and would like to get back to doing something like that again. We talked to Brandt last night and he is excited about it, but has no idea what he wants to do. So I would love to hear any and all possible ideas he could have his guests do instead of bringing him another present.

Special time with great grandma

Dustin's grandmother lives in Minneapolis. She will be 91 in October and is in remarkeably good health. It was her husband of 60+ years that past away last October. We have not seen her since the funeral, and the boys hadn't seen her since about 2 weeks before that when we went to visit them. She flew by herself from Minneapolis to Austin to visit my mother-in-law. So last weekend we took the boys to Austin to visit with her, and it was such a special time. They are old enough that they remember her from our last visit and were so anxious to see her. We met them around lunch time to eat, and Brayden walked up to her and gave her a hug and told her she was so special to him and he wanted to sit by her. Completely unprompted, and you could just see her huge smile. All of the boys were so good to her, and would just walk over and hug her or kiss her just because they felt like it. It is hard with her being so far away, it is an 18 hour 1 way road trip, which we have made 4 different times, and then Dustin and I have flown 1 other time. The boys hated to see her leave, and hopefully it won't be too much longer before we get to see her again.

A funny story: She leaned over and told Brayden "we sure are buddies, huh." Brayden looked and her in all seriousness and said "we are not buddies, I am your great great great great grandson." I had to explain you can be both, and she isn't THAT old. lol



We love our Grandma J!!!

2 months old!

My sweet baby is 2 months old today. He is such a good baby, and we are very lucky. He has slept from around 11 pm to 6 am since he was 2 weeks old. The last few nights he has done from around 10 pm to around 7 am. It is amazing how much easier the newborn stage is when you are actually getting some sleep. haha He has started smiling and has even laughed a few times when he gets tickled. All 3 boys are head over heels in love with him, and we are very blessed!