Summer Fun

I haven't blogged in a while, not really for any good reason. Not a whole lot going on, I guess. Here's some pictures from the last few weeks, most of which have been on instagram so I apologize if you follow me there.

I have a whole lot of crazy pictures of all my kids on my phone. Some selfies, some they take of each other. But they're all so silly.

 Back when it was warm and beautiful weather, we enjoyed the lake

The kids were scooping up water to play in the sand and scooped up this leach!! Ack! 

 She still has occassional accidents, but she's doing great at the whole potty thing. Still wears a pull-up at night and nap.

 Brynlee is always picking flowers. Tyler is a big bug-collector. He likes to watch them interact once he puts all varieties of insects/spiders in the jar. He says "let the battles begin!"

Brynlee made some beautiful crowns out of tree bark, then taped on flowers, leaves, etc. I am often impressed with my kids' creativity. :) Of course she had to make one for each of her sisters too.

 Oh boy we've had a lot of cold and rainy days! Certainly not my favorite. But we find indoor activities to fill our time. These sumo boppers they got for Christmas from Grandma A. are sure fun. Even though someone always ends up hurt :).

 I painted a large rectangle with chalkboard paint on a wall in our game room. It's a fun thing to have in there and they all love it. They like to "play school", the girls even line up their dolls and stuffed animals to fill up the classroom. I love having our own house to do stuff like that.

My mom sent us a package with these adorable matching skirts for the girls, and a beautiful quilt for Madi and Kelsey's bed. I'll have to get a picture of that too--it's so cute!

Kenny taught Tyler how to play chess and now that's all he wants to do! I wish there were someone else around to play with him during the day! Lol. But he's really got the hang of it and he loves it.

I found this taped to his door. I thought it was so cute. He also put up another paper as a "sign-up sheet" and it has columns for people's name, age, and weight. He likes to gather his sisters together around 10 a.m. and lead them in little workouts. These kids crack me up.

Sometimes I am totally stopped in my tracks by how sweet my children can be to each other. They really are each other's best friends, and it brings me so much joy to see them helping each other out and being sweet and kind. Of course it's not like that 24/7. But overall they really have great relationships and it makes me so happy as a mother. For example, Brynlee sort of learned how to ride her bike without training wheels last summer. But it didn't last for very long and she was scared to try again this year. I wasn't able to run up and down the street with her like I could last year, so Tyler just sort of stepped up and filled in. I would get her started off at our driveway and she would ride down the street. Tyler would run all the way down there with her until she stopped and help her get back up and start again to come back. One time they were down there at the end of the street for quite a while. By the time they got back, she was able to start pedaling and go without any assistance, because he taught her. And Madison helps push Kelsey around on her little bike because she hasn't figured out the whole pedaling thing. Or they just jump in and help each other out with their chores, or Bryn gets Kelsey dressed in the morning without me even asking. It makes me really excited to have this baby boy join our family. I know that all his siblings are anxious and excited for his arrival. They will treat him well and be great examples to him. I feel so blessed to have children that have such good souls. They teach me so much every day.