On Friday I got the boys ready and headed over to my Mom's house. I met my sister Vikki there and rode with her to a funeral which was a little over an hour away. A friend of our family sadly decided to end his life. He was a teacher at our private school and alway has a smile and a hug. On happier thoughts I had a real nice drive with my sister - she's a great person to talk to and I enjoyed our day together. On the trip home we stopped at Walmart, a garage sale, and meijer We also stopped so my sister could look at a boat. Saturday was pretty much spent shopping and getting things ready for our camping trip since Jared is gone on work this week. Jared had another project he worked on and I stained the stool he had build for Jacob. Our washing machine wouldn't work right and then Sunday it started smoking. It was time for a new one - Adam in on top of our new washer below. Jared made the box into a fort for Jacob to play in. Jacob's favorite thing to say lately is, "Mama look" or "look Daddy". After Jacob was in bed, Jared and I folded laundry. I kept going in Jacob's room putting things away. When I'd walk into his room he would say, "your back" with a big smile.

This morning we went with Jared to my parents to pick up his car. He left for work and the kids and I stayed there. Adam slept on the couch while Jacob ate his breakfast. When his cheerios get down to the last few bites he always says, "Mama help". He has a hard time getting the cheerios on the spoon with more milk in the bowl. I took Jacob out to play in the sandbox and sat with Adam under a shade tree. It was a beautiful morning. My mom came out and hung close on the line. Mom and I went to ToysRUs and then to the grocery store. I had a Dr appt this afternoon. Jacob was really tired from going to bed late and getting up early. My Dad said Jacob could stay there with him. He slept the whole while I was gone. Jared meet me there after work. It rained alot this evening. Jacob was watching the rain out the window and turned to me and said, "outside, rain". I put on his raincoat and boot and took him out to play in the puddles. He had lots of fun throwing rocks, running, and kneeling in the puddles. Jared was inside with Adam and he started to get fussy like he was hungry. I went inside to feed him and Jared went outside with Jacob. Jacob had fun bouncing on Daddy's belly. He was having so much fun he came and took my hand saying, "come, look". He is becoming such a Daddy's boy - he didn't even want me to change his diaper - he wanted Daddy to change him:( Jacob sat on his little potty this evening. He kept saying, "I poop" and looking down in the potty.

July 4th, 2007

Today we went to the fireworks in our town. We got some close seating across the Tridge. It was around 8pm when we got to where we were going to sit. Later there were people lined up back to back crossing in the Tridge - I was glad we had gotten there early. There was a band playing before the fireworks started. Jacob was sitting in his stroller when the fireworks started. He soon moved to Daddy's lap and held my hand most of the time. He really enjoyed them the entire time. Adam was awake in my lap at the start of them but quickly fell asleep. When leaving there was alot of people lined up to get across the Tridge but it didn't take long and we were on the road. When we got home we lite sparklers. Jacob seemed to think they were really cool but he wanted to stay a couple feet away. He would hold them when I helped him but he was still a little scared. I decided to stick one in the end of him stick and then he didn't want any help holding it - he could do it himself. He loved to go back and forth and do circles with it. It was a great evening for our family and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!

We got on the road to the fireworks at ~6:30pm - which was 1 1/2 hrs later than we had planned. The weather was perfect. When we got there we tried to get pictures of all five Grandkids together - it can be a challenge to get them all to look in the same direction at once. After that was done, Hailey asked her mom if she could take Adam because he was kinda heavy. The kids dance to the music that had playing and waved their American flags around. The sun was shinning bright and Jacob doesn't like it in his eyes so he decided he wanted to sit in the back of Mel's double stroller. Lately in the car he has us prop up a blanket in the window to keep the sun off of him. He says "Mama light". If the blanket falls down he will just put it over his head. We do have the shades for the windows but he seems to like his blanket and has fun with that. He stayed in that stroller for quite a while. When he did finally get out, he and Hailey played with bubbles. We watched the skydivers jump out of the airplanes. When Jacob sees or hear an airplane he covers his head and says, "Bareplane". Several months back, he and Papa saw a low flying airplane doing loops in my parents backyard. That plane was flying so low that the pilot waved at them and Papa had Jacob cover his head. Jared bought the girls and Jacob all glow necklaces. When the fireworks started Jacob wanted to sit with Papa. Then he came and sat on my lap and wanted me to hold him tight. He loved the fireworks and would shout out the different colors. We got rained on by ashes and stayed lite and landed on the guy in front of us. Adam slept through the entire fireworks display and did not wake up til about 5am.

Tuesday, July 3rd:

This morning Jacob wanted to go out to his air matress and tuck Barry in there. He lay down next to him and said they were going night night. I spent alot of the morning packing things up for the fireworks family outing tonight. Jacob took scoops of food to the dogs dishes and was happy when Truman ate it up. Then he asked if he could give them some water. I filled up the container and he carried it over to their dishes and dumped it in. Of course only have of the water stayed in the dish:) Jacob kept walking Truman over to his dish by pulling his collar and telling him to drink. He was so disappointed that Truman didn't want to drink. I helped him coax Truman to drink and he finally did. That made Jacob smile. My sister Vikki called and I was walking around talking to her when I noticed Jacob was being really quiet. I walked over to find him wetting his hair with the dogs water. I told him to wait there while I got my camera and thats the second picture you see. I cleaned the car and got it packed. I met Melissa at moms house and we decided it was time to give Max a "big boy" haircut. I got out my scissors and we took him to out on the deck. He cried the whole time, but I think did pretty well his age. He sat on a stool and hung onto my shirt the whole time unless he was trying to push my hand away. Melissa gave him a quick shower when he was done and he settled down in Papa's arms after that. We took the kids out to the swings and they enjoyed that. When we got inside they all ate snacks and then lay down for naps. I told Melissa that, while I had my clippers there, she should go get her dog and I would trim him also. She went out to her van to see how my gas was in her tank and locked her keys in there. I took her to her house to get the dog and their spair set of keys. We stopped at Grandpa's house to pickup my moms purse that she had left there earlier. I also stopped at meijer to take back something for my mom and pick up a few thing for tonight. Back at moms, Melissa held Champ while I gave him a haircut. It seemed like I got another little dog off of him there was so much hair. It was a quick job because it was getting close to leaving time. Jared was down in the basement playing Dad in pingpong when we got back.

Here are so pictures of the boys. Today we got Jacob a air matress for in the tent when we are camping. He wanted to play around on it like the toy from the carnival the other day.

Pictures from the Chippewa Nature Center

This evening we went for a hike at the Chippewa Nature Center. We took a loop trail that was 1.7 miles. It was such a beautiful hike and we had lots of fun. Much of the hike we walked next to water and listened to the frogs. Jacob thought the noises came from behind us and he'd turn around quick, point behind us, and say, "Ribett". Walking through the wood he found a nice stick that he carried for awhile. He would stop, hit the ground, and say "a bug, I got it". In the woods we saw a beautiful orange flower (pictured above) - we had never seen this kind of flower before but it was really pretty. Jacob started collecting rocks and putting them in his pockets. When we took a short break at the bench, he emptied his pocket and showed Daddy his collection. He put them back in his pocket and we continued walking. Jacob kept going over to the stroller saying, "A-am" then he want to rub his head and give him a kiss. We had walked over a mile before Jacob asked to ride in the stroller. Our single stroller was used as a double and it worked quite well. Jacob loved riding on the front and had a cute grin on his face. Jared and I saw what we think was a bunnie hop from the trail into the woods. The only thing was this bunnie was enormous - I mean HUGE. We both wanted to get another look but the thing was gone. I would have though I was seeing thing but Jared saw it also. When we got close to our car Jacob started saying, "No bye bye, No bye bye". When we got home we all had some ice cream. Jacob was excited because it we green. He kept saying, "Mama it goood" and he would tell me it was green.

Yesterday we went out for donuts and then walked around the mall. We took Jacob to play and Daddy tucked a blanket in the neck of his shirt. He did laps around the room. He is getting really good at climbing. He can easily climb up to the top of the grapes and onto the bed. He has also learned how to climb to the top of the car. He likes to sit in the wheels of the car where the kids can crawl through. While he was sitting in there a little boy wanted to come in also. Jacob pushed him twice before I could get over to him and correct him. During Jacob's nap today he fell out of his bed twice. He hasn't done that since his first nights in his toddler bed. He also fell out once during the night. I heard him fall out during the night and I went into him because he was crying. He was sitting on the floor and I guided him back into bed. He wanted to hold one of his books and quickly fell back to sleep. Jacob loves bananas. He was saying, "Nana, nana" and I thought he wanted my mom (thats what he calls her). He clarified it for me by pointing at the bananas saying, "yellow, nana". Today at church I took Jacob back to sunday school. He always walks up to the front row and has to sit in a yellow chair. He looks at me in his seat and smiles as I leave. When we got home from church Jacob got out of his seat and walked towards the house. He stopped to look at a hornets nest on the hose wheel I had thrown a couple weeks ago. Jared told me not to worry, that all the hornets were dead and he banged the thing on the ground. Out came four live hornet and they were none to happy. In the second to last picture Jacob wanted me to take a picture of Barry, his favorite stuffed animal. Now he is laying bed to take his nap. He is giggling, singing, and talking alot.

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