Whirlwind of a post...

I realized the other day that not much has been mentioned of Kaylee and Jake on our blog since the arrival of Anden. And although Jesse and I have tried not to push them aside, I'm sure at times they feel that way. So, this post will be strictly dedicated to Kaylee and Jake. Don't worry though, Anden has a checkup Monday so I'm sure I'll have an update on him very soon.

So let's begin! We've had a very busy summer thus far. Kaylee has really gotten to be a pretty good swimmer/doggy paddler this summer. She jumps off the end of the dock (no lifejacket) and is able to swim back in without any help. Jake has gained a lot of confidence as well. Although he still wears a life-jacket, he will now jump off the end of the dock which is new this year. Last year he was terrified if his feet were not touching the ground, even with a lifejacket.

We've also made several trips to the library. Kaylee has a list of books she's read. She's keeping track of them for her summer packet for school. Jake has also enjoyed Kaylee's new ability to read as she will often read his books to him as well. They've also attended several of the parks and recreation programs at the park in Ferdinand.

There is also gymnastics on Thursday mornings. Kaylee continues to do well with that. She's working really hard at learning to walk on her hands (she's up to 9 steps on her hands) as well as perfecting her "bad side cartwheel".

This past week, Jake started attending summer speech. It lasts for three weeks (four mornings a week for a half and hour.) Recently, he surprised us by shouting out Kaylee's name correctly. Normally he says "Aylee" and leaves off the "K" sound. He's sure come a long way.

We had a good 4th of July last weekend. The kids got to see some fireworks after Jesse's ballgame Friday night. Then Saturday night, we had some friends over and just sat around the campfire. We had some sparklers left over from a couple years back that they had fun with.





We had Jesse's cousin Abby over this past weekend. She is the same age as Kaylee. They had a good time together and played really well. Here they are with their Easy Bake Oven goodies. They turned out much better this time than they did the first time we used the Easy Bake Oven. Somehow when it was packaged and shipped one of the plastic spoons ended up inside the oven. We didn't realize it until we started smelling burnt plastic.



So that about sums up the summer thus far. We are gearing up the 4H fair next week, so that will make for a busy week. Kaylee is a member of the local Pre-4H Club. She is taking a ceramics project and a felt-coloring project. She worked really hard on both of them.

Hopefully I'll have time Monday to check back in and update you on Anden's checkup. Take care!