Missouri

The kids and I traveled up to Missouri last week to spend a whopping 5 weeks with grandparents and their cousins, aunt and uncle. I'd have to say that so far the boys are having a lot of fun. Josiah and Gaber love playing with their cousins and spending time with lola, lolo, papa and mima. I really wish we lived closer so that they could do this more often. Tara warmed up to her mima super fast. As soon as we picked my mom up at the airport she seemed to remember her. No fussing around her or clingin' to mama like she usually does. She has a lot of fun with all the "new" toys at mima's and lola's house. I think a change of pace is good for all the kids. With all this fun going on we still miss home and miss daddy. Josiah has told me twice now that he misses his daddy. I wish Jeff could have come with us but he does have to work and we are thankful that he has work!
Since we have been here Gaber has been sick but it looks like he is getting better. Every time we travel he ends up constipated and all the issues that go along with that. He also ended up with a fever and now he has some gunky eye problem, hoping its not pink eye. Tara woke up this morning with diarrhea and on Sunday she had a bug bite that swelled up and was very warm to the touch. Just seems like one thing after another, but we are pushing threw all of this and still having fun. Pray for the kiddos that they will get healthy/stay healthy and enjoy their time. :)
That's about it for us. Jeff could blog about a lot if he were into blogging. He took the teens to church camp last week and I heard that they had a blast and we had one saved and they are all just on fire for God right now. Wishing I was there to be a part of it but I can pray for them while I'm here in MO. Pray for Jeff because he is lonely for us, poor guy, and is counting down the days for us to be home. :)

Pictures

Gabe and Josiah on the 4th playing with sparklers


Daddy with Tara on the 4th


Josiah and Tara hanging out


Gaber at swim lessons


Cheezin' for me under the water

Swim Lessons...A Waste of Money but not Time

While Josiah was at church camp Gaber went to swim lessons. He was already doing well on his own but he really wanted to take the lessons and so we signed him up. He had to do the mommy and me class since he was 5, it was well below his level but I was told they would work with him on some upper level lessons too. Too make a long story short, the swim lessons were a waste of money but not time. Does that make sense? It was a waste of money b/c you could barely classify the class as a class because the teacher barely spoke a word to him or helped him. Out of the 5 classes he went to he was probably instructed for about 5 minutes. I would have to say that even though I don't think it was worth the money, it was worth the time b/c Gaber was so excited to go and to have that time with me all to himself. He enjoyed being "taught" and practicing his swim skills. :) He did improve a little, no help from the instructor. He learned that he can swim farther if he uses his arms and he learned to come up from breaths of air. All this said, we could have accomplished this down the street at our free pool, but I don't regret the time spent with him.
I will post pictures soon hopefully. I keep saying that after I blog and I just don't get around to it, but I will seriously try to do it this time. :)

Camp and the 4th

Josiah went to church camp for his very first time. I was a little nervous about letting him go, he is only 8, but I knew he would have fun and hopefully wouldn't be too homesick. We picked him up last Friday from his week at camp and I think he had about a million stories to tell us. He talked about the food, the preacher, the sports and swimming. He had so much fun! I was told he had a few times where he was homesick or once he thought he got left behind so he started to cry, but other than that he did just fine! I also heard that he was pretty good at basketball once he learned the rules. I guess at first he got upset because he wasn't getting the ball so his counselor explained how it works and then he did great! :) I think his team went to the volleyball championships but lost by a couple points. He also was very excited to order his own meals and pay for them by himself! Now when we go out to eat he wants to order and pay!

The 4th of July was a lot of fun this year. We started the weekend on Friday night at the park down the street from our house. We had fun with our friends and their kids, letting the little ones play with sparklers and the big kids play with the more dangerous stuff...even setting the grass on fire a little bit. Then finally around 10:30 we got to watch an awesome firework show. Tara was scared at first, she came running to her momma, but soon was mezmorized by the lights. Saturday we took the kids swimming and then Sunday we had church. After church that night we went to Pizza Hut with a few families from church and then back to the church to shoot off fireworks. Again the kids got to play with sparklers and some of those things you throw at the ground and they pop. Then the big kids set up a little display and had fun shooting off some bigger ones. I sat on the side with a lady from church holding the lighters and throwing some fireworks of our own at the guys. :)

It was all a lot of fun. I will try to get some pictures up soon.