My Little Monkeys

Ty climbing the rope in gymnastics. He took forever, but he finally made it to the top. 

Elias climbing the rope in gymnastics, he didn't quiet make it to the top.  But he showed off some major monkey skills

Oliver

 Welcome baby Oliver

 born 10/12/11 at 6:40pm,  9lbs 11oz,  22in. 

Madeline and Ty were very excited to hold the new baby,  Peter and Elias were not so interested in touching Oliver. 

My wonderful neighbors Sara and Angela 

Baby Oliver.....? we haven't given him a middle name yet. 

Ready to go home

Wonderful grandma and Oliver

(thank you grandpa for loaning out grandma for 2 weeks)

 All settled in!

big boy

Peter has moved out of his crib and into a bed.  The transition has gone pretty smoothly.  Peter loves being in the same room as his other two brothers.   

 And since Peter thinks he is a big boy because he sleeps is a bed, he thinks he can be naughty like a big boy!
I was in the process of refinishing this set of drawers(this is the final product). I just finished all the paint stripping and sanding so I got out our cans of primer and paint.  Peter was outside wathcing my every move.   After opening the primer, I found the it was no good any more.  I opened the paint and it was just fine.  I threw the primer in the trash and I was doing that Peter picked up a srew driver and started to try and open the can of paint just like I had.  I needed to go inside and brush my teeth before we left to Homedepot, so I got a hammer and made sure the lid was on very securely. But nothing is safe from an English boy. 

After about 2 minuets, this is what I came back outside to..... A little boy who was very proud of himself.  But he knew somthing was wrong, becasue he immidiately threw down the paint brush. And if painting the driveway wasn't bad enough.....

 In the two minuets I was gone, he had painted my car also.  Luckily it was the tire, mirror and windows that he felt needed the paint job, so it came off no problem.

 And just to prove his skills,  when we got home with the new can of primer, he immidiately grabed the primer and ran from the car. He picked up his weapon of choice, a screw driver.  With in seconds he had the can of primer open.  I still had my camera on me, but I had to snap this quick and get the primer from him before damage was done. 

So if anyone has trouble opening a can of paint,  Peter can do it no problem!!

Reuion

We went to Washington State near Mt. St. Helens for a week for a family reunion.  We had a great time exploring the area, and spending time with family. 

We hiked through a lava cave.  It was awesome.  I had never been in pure blackness before.  It is crazy to not be able to see anything.   

This is a brother-in-law Randy, on the hike to the cave entrance. 

Desending into the cave,  Russ, Ty and Elias.

Inside the cave we turned off all the lights and took a picture.  It was scarry and exciting to have complete darkness.  Russ (brother-in-law) Randy, Madeline, Ty, Elias, Chris, Peter (in pack)

The cave had a few tricky parts like this 8ft verticle drop.  A few places that we had to crawl through, and some tricky boulders to manuver around. 

We found someone to take our picture so I could join the picture. 

Our cabins that we stayed in were right near a lake.  One of Chris' sisters brought her wave runner.  We all had a great time on the lake.

Madeline and Chris on the wave runner.  She loved the wave runner, but just about broke Chris' ear drums with her screaming when they reached 40 mph

Peter just liked being outside, but was never a fan of the water, boat or wave runner. 

Chris' cousin broght his boat Madeline Ty and Elias enjoyed just riding on the boat. 

Elias was the only one brave enough to dare the tube dragged by the boat.

Madeline having a good time on the edge of the water.  This girl is still a big chick,  She wasn't sure what lurked below in this lake water. 

I didn't go on the boat,  but I had a great time taking the wave runner up to 60mph.  I am not sure this is an appropriate activity for someon 31 weeks pregnant,  but I had a great time. 

We loved visiting with family.  This is Sally (chris' mom), and Wendy (chris' sister) with Peter.

 Peter had a tough time adjusting to all the people.  But he learned to love his Papa pretty quickly, they were best buds by the time the week was over. 

This is GG, or Grandma Marion,  She hosted the reunion for all her children, grand children, and great greand children.  There was about 89 people who attended

This is Elias's new best friend, his uncle Ricky.  He had to have uncle Ricky spike is hair like him.  And the hair stayed in from Friday until Sunday when we made him bathe. 

The air plane trip was pleasant as long as Peter was sleeping.  The rest of the time it was a challenge, but only because of Peter.  Ty, Elais and Madeline were perfect angels on the air plane. 

Kiki

My niece Kiki came to visit us. She lives in Hawaii so we don't get to see her very often. We had so much fun while she was here.

We went to the County Fair and saw lots of animals.

And got our faces painted...

did a hoola hoop contest, kiki barely had to move to keep it going, and never dropped the hoola hoop.  She gets her hoola skills from her Aunt Adele who apparently still loves to hoola hoop!

We did rides, but not very many.  After I promised the kids they could all pick a ride to go on, I was shocked to find out that they were 5$ a ride per kid!

With Kiki here, I did the girls hair.  Madeline doesn't let me do her hair very often.  Kiki wanted me do her hair everyday, and I loved it! It was good peer pressure for Madeline.

What would be summer without making flower necklaces. 

The girls had a blast swimming together. 

Madeline and Kiki made me jewelry

Peter, who is not a very big fan of strangers, warmed up to Kiki very quickly.  After just a day, Kiki was his new favorite person.  But really... who could not love this sweet little girl?

Adele, my sister, flew over to visit Kiki while she was here, and we all love having Adele over. 

It was nice for the kids to have someone else to hang onto in the pool besides me.

We went to the children's museum, where the girls learned to climb walls.

We went into the butterfly-room, and saw hundreds of butterfly's.

We visited our neighbor Marice who has the most incredible tree houses. 

We LOVED having Kiki visit Rochester.  Our house felt empty when she left.  It was sad to see her go. 

These two two silly girls have been best friends since they were 1 year old.  Madeline is already making plans for her next visit with Kiki. 

family photos

We finally took family photos, and I am sooo happy with how they turned out.

My niece Kiki and madeline are 6 months apart and have been bestfriends since they were 1year old.  Kiki stayed with us for the past two weeks and we loved having her here!

The boys!

Madleline

Ty

Kiki

Peter

S. Elias

all my wonderful babies!

And this is my wonderful sister and photographer!!