Claire's tumbling recital

I'm really trying to get updated on technology. We recently got a new video camera that uploads to youtube and somehow I was able to post it to my blog. I know a lot of people out there are probably saying "duhhh", but it was a real milestone for me. Anyway, this is Claire's tumbling recital from Saturday. The video really lost some quality during the upload. If anyone knows how to correct that let me know.

What we've been up to

I can't believe summer is gone and fall is upon us. Actually, this morning I thought winter was here. This post contains pictures from the summer up to Halloween, since I can't quite seem to find the time to post more often. Here we have our little princess, Bat Girl with her little bat dolls, and a famous pit crew member of Lightning McQueen

Our neighbor girl Hannah invited Claire to her birthday party at the American Girl store in Chicago. Claire and I got to go and have lunch. It was quite an experience that I'm sure she'll always remember.

Our vacation this summer was to southern Indiana. We stayed at a cabin by Patoka Lake. Some of the highlights were swimming, spulunking (cave exploring), going to Holiday World, boating, train riding, and enjoying each others company.

This sign was at the closest gas station/store. Needless to say we did not dine there.

The kids actually got to see Santa at Holiday World. He took the time to talk to them and everything. We were listening closely when he was asking what they wanted for Christmas.

We also got a retaining wall and landscaping around our house this spring. This picture was taken sometime in mid summer.

Another highlight for Claire was her first year in 4-H. Here she is with her steer, Oreo. She did a wonderful job, placing first in the class and winning beginner showman. She also was in creative writing and photography.

Hope and Kidest hanging out close to the time that Kidest left for Lebanon

This is one of my favorite pictures. Brock and Toby on the beach at The Dunes State Park chasing seagulls. These two guys are such great buddies. Toby now lives across the world in Lebanon.

We had a friend from church take our family pictures last Friday night. They are definately the best family pictures we've had in a really long time. Amazingly enough they were taken at a cemetary. Hope, being true to herself, wouldn't smile for anything. Finally, at the end of the photo shoot I remembered a line from her favorite book 'Who put the Pepper in the Pot'. She couldn't help but start smiling and giggling.

Birthdays and more!

The last few months have been enjoyed by celebrating birthdays. Claire turned 9 on May 18th and celebrated with a few friends. We had the typical "girl sleepover" with everything from spa treatments to gymnastics. Notice how Claire's hair changes with the pictures. She's now into experimenting with her hair. I think she's really just bored with stick straight hair. The pictures on her cupcake tree are ones she had taken of her dolls. I surprised her with this on her actual birthday, not the sleepover weekend. Posing in Mom's old formal, doesn't quite fit yet.

Claire and a friend at VBS

Brock turned 4 on June 12 and couldn't be happier. This is his shy, yet very excited face at his birthday party at the park. He wanted both Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train again this year for a cake. It wasn't too hard since he has more than enough characters to pick from. On the 12th he wanted to stay up until his actual birth minute (10:01pm), so we let him. As I was rocking him for bed he said, "Mom, I didn't feel anything happen. I still feel like I'm three." Too cute!

Hope brushing Cookie's hair. One of her favorite pastimes. And yes, she did name her doll Cookie, which is better than the other one who is named Jish.

Brock also got to have a sleepover for his birthday. Cousin Toby and Brock had a great time racing cars, playing farming, and doing art projects. They even stayed up late just chatting in Brock's room. It was so cute standing outside the door listening to them. They are such great buddies.

Brock really hamming it up for his birthday photo shoot. He doesn't quite fit in Daddy's old jersey either.

First Day of Summer Vacation

Claire is officially out of school for the summer! She has been planning for a while now a big trip to Disney with her girls when she got out of school. This, of course, is all in make believe land. She has for months been researching the Disney Parks and what it takes to plan an actual trip. If we ever decide to take a 'real' trip there, we should be all set. This included everything from the airport, airplane, hotel rooms, different Disney rides, etc. To be honest she has more fun planning the event than actually doing it. Partially this is because in her head she has planned her siblings to be part of her play, but in reality they never do what she wants them to do. Here are just a few of the pictures that I thought were too funny from her 'trip to Disney'. This is a couple pictures of her girls (Carly, Sonali, and Kaylee) with CinderellaHere is the progression of Tigger and the girls. It goes from Happy to be Tigger, to take the picture quick, to get these kids off of me!

It's so fun to see your kids playing together and getting along so well!

Boys vs. Girls

We're officially in 4-H now!! Claire got her first steer for the fair yesterday and couldn't be happier. She was able to get in with him (Oreo) and love on him a lot. However, he didn't want to walk much since it was the first time he had a halter on. He's going to be staying at Grandma & Papa Schuh's for now, which means lots of trips to their house. Claire's friends, Megan and Kelsie, also have starter steers at Grandma and Papa's so it should be a fun adventure for the three of them.

Another funny story of boys vs. girls today. Brock and Hope wanted to go outside to play this morning, so I got them all ready. They were down playing at the play set when I looked out to check on them. I saw them standing side by side with their pants down. Brock was trying to teach Hope the fine art of going potty outside. Needless to say it didn't work quite as well for Hope, and some clean up and explanations were in order.

Easter Fun!

We had a great Easter weekend! It's so much fun when the weather starts to show signs of spring and the kids are able to run free again.

We were able to get outside on Saturday afternoon and do some much needed yard work. Claire decided at some point to go in and make supper all by herself without telling us. She came out to say supper was ready, which was a surprise to us. She had made an original recipe which included hard boiled eggs (Easter eggs) cut into small pieces, small pieces of sugar snap peas, lettuce, and sour cream all rolled into tortilla wraps. Not bad with a little ranch to dip it in!

Easter Sunday was a long, fun, sugar filled day. Breakfast at church followed by a great Easter Drama!! Lunch was at Shelly's uncle and aunt's house complete with lots of kids, playing, and egg hunting. The evening meal was at Mark's parents with another group of great people, food, and more egg hunting. By the time we got home, the kids were so wound up from lack of naps and extreme amounts of sugar and activities, that bedtime was anything but normal. Hope was still up at 10:30 not ready to settle down. However, this morning Claire said to me "thanks for such a fun Easter, Mom." Makes it all worth while!!

Fun with Curls!

I tried curling Hope's hair this morning for the first time. I remember doing it on Claire about the same age. I was surprised at how she didn't mind the curlers in her hair. When she's relaxing she likes to suck her right thumb and play with the back of her hair, so we had to make sure we left some back there without a curler. She was pretty happy with the results. Kind of reminds me of Bozo the Clown, only cuter!

Hope's Birthday!

Our little girl is growing up. Hope turned 2 on the 29th and had a ball at her party. We had quite a full house for her party, 35 total people with about half of them being kids. She's really not "into" anything right now except NOT wearing skirts and dresses. She always insists on wearing pants so I decided to make her a jeans cake. Learning how to hold up two fingers!!

Growing into Mommy's old formal.

Claire

Mark and I were in the middle of a home improvement project in our basement the other day when all of a sudden we heard a man's voice upstairs calling our names. The next thing we saw was a girl dressed like a crazy Colt's Fan and her bus driver Russ. Russ, a huge Colts fan had decked himself out on Friday to hype up the game. I guess he decided that he'd have fun with the last two kids on the bus. So he dressed them up in his wardrobe and brought them in the house to show the parents. Needless to say, we were quite surprised! Claire has loved Russ from the start, she even asked to invite him to her b-day party a few years back. We reminded her how blessed she is to have Russ as her bus driver and friend. We all have memories of our bus drivers, but mostly Mark and I's aren't this fond. What great memories she'll have to tell her kids about Russ and his Big Old Bus (what we like to call it around our house). And now to the part where we like to be proud parents. Claire got a letter a couple weeks ago saying that she had artwork that was chosen to be part of an art expo at Saint Joseph's College. Yesterday there was a ceremony to recognize all the artists (grades 1-4 with 8 area schools participating). We were so impressed with the professionalism that was given to the kids and their art work. We were also very proud when we arrived to her schools section and her art teacher greeted us and said that Claire actually had two pieces chosen. Her "jungle" themed one is pretty hard to make out in the photo but the the "repetition design" shows up well. Thanks Mr. Geleott for being a great art teacher and inspiration to Claire. Isn't it fun to see the talents that the Lord has blessed your kids with?