EnJOY

    Avery and I messing around with the phone.

   Sneaking a little snuggle time with Wyatt.

    Deciding where to explore....

   Going....

    And returning...with a nerf dart find-score!!

    Busy exploring again...this time navigating around Daddy and the boys on game night.  Only a fire

    alarm may distract those three from their game night.

    She is in the shredding-paper-like-a-champion stage.

And melting our hearts with those lovely smiles-stage.

We are quite fond of her sticking-straight up hair.  And surprised by how big Wyatt looks in comparison in this picture.

She will give us a knowing smile as she crawls over to the receiver where she amazingly hits all the right buttons to shut off the system every time.

Jack giving her a look.

    And she gives him a look right back.

    New day.  New things to explore and learn about.

    Like awesome piles of toys!

    And those funny and curious furry creatures outside.

   I love this picture of Katy and Avery.  She gave us a scare last month.  Katy has had two separate

   blood tests showing elevated numbers relating to her kidneys.  The vet was sure she was in some 

   stage of kidney disease but her urine sample was OK.  Thank God.  So back to monitoring...

She will rarely stay in her activity center now that she is mobile.

                            The boys did a soccer camp in June.

    Wyatt preferred spending time at the end of the day on the sidelines.  Snacking.  The camp was more
    scrimmaging than drills and they haven't played too much so we will look into a different camp next
    time.  Ah well, they sure looked cute in their gear and they got some exercise.

    The boys have been enjoying time to play this summer.  They are in swim lessons twice a week and
    did a very fun "Super Hero" gymnastics camp last week.  Four days from 9 -3!  That is a long day!
    And they were loving all of it.

   Another weekly game day.

    Meanwhile, Avery discovered drawers.

    She still loves cheerios and puffs.  And avocados and bananas.

    The boys wrestling...

    And laughing.  Looking a lot alike these days.

    Peek-a-boo!

    Peek-a-you!

    She is still swimming in 6-12 month clothes.  Her tiny feet even fit into a 0-3 month boots at Baby    

    Gap the other day.  She is almost 10 months old-and 15.2 lbs of petite.

   She is very into the remote control right now.

    There are those itty-bitty feet I was talking about.

 
    She still has her two bottom white teeth and two just about to break through on the top.

    And those blue eyes are staying.

    Bath time is fun time...she loves to crawl around the tub chasing shampoo bottles.

    Our furry four-legged kids:

    Katy looks so worried about Bear in this picture it makes me laugh.

    Furry Bear (did I ever say that her name was "Furby" at the Mountain Home shelter where we  
    adopted her from?)...just before she started shedding.  Shedding doesn't quite describe it.  Pillow-ing.  
    Yes.  We could make pillows with the soft fur she loses...it comes out in clumps.

    Until next post folks......

Friends

Two of our good family friends are moving away from our small town.  We are not happy about it...but are happy to see them so happy.  I guess I didn't expect to be saying goodbye to people based on the nature of where we are...but after they both leave it will make four of our close family friends in the past year.  There was a wive's farewell last week and I had to get a pic with these two lovely ladies - although all I had was my phone.  Jen and I in a grainy phone pic...

...And Heather and I in a grainy phone picture.   What special ladies with huge hearts.  I will miss them both so much!  Heather had her (three!) boys came over for a twilight play date.  No, not "Twilight" the movie-just a late afternoon/evening play date.  Geoff was out of town and Heather's husband Phil was at a work event. Our boys have gotten into the habit of getting into their jammies as soon as they can (especially Jack)which is why they are in pajamas in these photos.  But it didn't stop them from running around, playing chase, and climbing hills and being active, adventurous boys.

We went to Bend and Portland this past weekend and got to visit with the other family (our old neighbors) that moved last summer.  Here are four of our six kids eating frozen yogurt and enjoying the amazing weather outside.

And speaking of amazing weather, we bumped into some squadron friends at a local park last week.   Jude, Wyatt, and Scarlett enjoying the blue skies.

4th of July

4th of July was busy~so I didn't get one photo on the actual day.  So I took a couple "4th of July" pics a few days later.  Our friends from Japan were driving through and we got to have them over for lunch a couple of weekends ago.  We get to see out of town friends from time to time because a lot of guys come through here for training.  But they were driving through for vacation.  Geoff and Lance deployed together a couple of times while we were stationed in Japan and were roommates.  His wife Emily had their first son in Japan and I can't believe how grown up he is!  Definitely not a baby anymore.  Emily made me a pasta dinner the night before I ran my first marathon (the guys were gone) and she ran the last few miles of the Naha Marathon with me.  We last saw them on Christmas Day 2003 when we took a mini vacation to Hawaii on our way back from Japan and they were stationed on island.  Nine years ago!  Our kiddos got along great-just give the boys some nerf guns and they are in heaven.

 I love this picture of W and A.

A group shot - A was turning red and getting hot after many attempts to get all three kiddos looking at the camera.

Happy Belated 4th!