Celebrating Javonte's Birthday at Granny's Pantry (Icecream!)
We drove up to Battle Lake, MN after work on Thursday, August 13th for an extended long weekend with everyone on Paul's side of the family. We also were excited to celebrate brother Javonte's golden 15th birthday! We had so much fun being with everyone and catching up, and even getting a chance to see GeeGee Sandy and Paul's cousins Morgan, Wyatt, and Kopel. We had so much fun playing in the lake, jumping off the water trampoline and swim raft, and being wet as it was a perfectly hot and humid summer weekend. We are so thankful for such a wonderful family and for Grandma and Grandpa T graciously hosting all of us!!!
One highlight for all of us was going to the races on Thursday night. Paul's Uncle Kelly drives race car #42, and it was fun for all of us to cheer him on. Furthermore, our racecar/Lightning McQueen lover (Colton) got to experience his first REAL car race!
Larkyn was LITERALLY all smiles the whole time!
The older two with Grandma and Grandpa - intently watching the races! Colton was surprisingly stoic the whole time - just taking everything in but not missing a beat! Summer was an exhuberant cheerleader for most of the races! Both kids had fun picking favorite racecars and seeing how they did!
It was really fun watching the cars slide around the corner and try to pass each other!
Larkyn kept turning around, smiling, and clapping!
Racecar Super-fan :)
We settled into Grandma and Grandpa's trailer and the kids had fun bunking together :) Much of the weekend was spent....
Playing with the cool tracks at Grandma and Grandpa's trailer
and the other cool toys...
eating super good food
playing bean bags
playing Farkle
Playing at the park (here Uncle Jordan was fishing for "Summer-fish" and "Hug-fish"...he caught a Summer-fish and was getting ready to grill it :)
Family 18-mile training run for the Twin Cities Marathon in extremely hot/humid weather and then jumping in the lake!
Colton has SERIOUSLY been an amazing sport as we have focused a lot on his two sisters this past month (both had birthdays) and so I want to take a post a write about some of the things my little buddy has been up to...
Colton has been having a lot of fun with his soccer! Each Tuesday night he runs hard, has lots of smiles, and enjoys doing the cheer for his "Bears" team. He has gotten several "lucky" goals, but is definitely more "polite" on his soccer team (hesitating to take the ball from someone) as compared to when he plays with his sister in the backyard! He still has several more weeks, but here are a few mid-season pictures...
Daddy helped coach Colton's team one week when Coach Nikki was out of town
Colton and Coach Nikki
Colton and Laney waiting for their turn to sub in
I love this boys face! Each time he scores he comes RUNNING to me for a hug with a hugest smile on his face, like this picture!
Walking to take team pictures (I will post these when they come in the mail)
I love the outlet soccer provides for Colton's energy! Here is a cute random video of one night before dinner, Colton set up the hose on the watertable to make a sprinkler and just ran around in circles! I couldn't help but smile and take a video...
Colton has truly grown up in the last few months with his manners, kindness, and putting his older sister in front of himself without me asking. I am so proud of the little boy he is growing into!
The kids completed the next round of their kindness charts...
which meant they got a movie date with each other DURING quiet time :-) I have TRULY seen a huge different in how Colton treats his sister, and I LOVE it!!
He is also such a sweetheart with his little sister and loves her to pieces. He loves to make her laugh (which he does quite well) and is very intentional about going over and saying hi to her or loving on her :)
Colton still LOVES Lightning McQueen - we got to stop and see him in WI on our recent roadtrip :)
Colton LOVES to play with water, and will entertain himself for a very long time with the canal/water directing portion of two splash pads we have been to, along with this water table. It is fun to watch his mind work!
This month he has been doing awesome at writing his letters, and now has officially made all 26! He is a fast learner. He has also been doing amazing at memorizing his verses of the week this summer. Our goal at the beginning of the summer was to memorize 1 John 4:7-21. We are currently up through verse 17, and he can say most of the 11 verses in a row with only the first word to start each. I knew Summer could do it, but I am actually really impressed that Colton has been able to do so as well. He is still the sweetest little cuddler and is really improving his empathy (Summer is rubbing off on him!) and will intentionally thank me for "all the work I do" and various other things. He is the sweetest cuddler and giggler and I am so grateful God chose to give me a son...and not just any son, but my Colton buddy. Love you, bud!
Well, it is offically week-old news now, but Larkyn is 13 months! While she is still the sweetest thing, she is starting to exercise her will and her ideas more frequently now. If she doesn't want to be set down, or she wants a toy that her siblings have, or she doesn't want to finish the food in front of her, or she wants food she sees on the table....she will let us know it! It is still relatively easy to distract her, however, for the most part.
She has spent much of July traveling or in the car, and did way better than I would have anticipated given her history of carseat travel ;). She is now a pro at feeding herself in the car, which makes the trip smoother for everyone!
She has a new hobby after she wakes up from a nap, which includes...
Taking the diapers out of the green holder on the left side of the picture...
and poking them through the slats on her crib...
yeah....I did that ;)
She is still doing a strange sort of army crawl, but prefers to walk anytime someone offers her their fingers (she still needs to hold onto hands to balance).
She does her own laundry now...when we say, "Larkyn, lets do your laundry", she will pick up her dirty clothes, and with our help holding her hands, bee-line it straight for the laundry chute. She loves throwing the clothes down and shutting the door! She also loves helping get herself dressed- she will hand me her shoes over and over until I put them on :-)!
She is talking a TON. Most of her words are some sort of intonation repeating the phrases "da", "ba", "pa", "ma" but she does get some other sounds in there. Some of her "words" to date are:
There are more, but they are really only understood in context. She will point and babble but without the object and the pointing I would have no idea what she was saying!! I made a little video incorporating some of the words she is saying and how she says them...
