Wheat Harvest

We may live in the city, but we live behind a wheat field.  We love it.  For many reasons.  First off, it is quite.  No pesky neighbors behind us (for now!!).  Second, we get to watch, from very up close, harvest season every year.  The kids go nuts when the combine starts to work in the field behind us.  Every time it passes behind our house, the kids, and Jake, all run out and watch it go by:)  Last year the kids called the combine a pinecone....this year it was a kim-bone.  Progress.  Jake likes to run along the fence and bark at the large farm equipment.  

But, that's not really even the point of this post.  We are fortunate enough to have farming in the family:)  Their Grandpa Ron farms with his family down in Udall.  It allows for our kids to get to experience something very neat. Now I say that, but we have sadly never taken the kids to the farm during wheat harvest.  Until this year.  We finally decided that the kids (well 50% of them) were old enough to really enjoy riding on the tractor and combine and would actually enjoy the trip instead of being scared.  It was a good call on our part.  We met up with Grandpa Ron at the farm and the kids were able to ride with him on the tractor to one of the fields they were cutting.  Parker even got to ride in the tractor for a little bit.  He is all boy and loves dirt, cars, trucks, ect, so he was in heaven.  But he did get a little scared riding in the tractor since Brian and I didn't go with him.  After that they got to go to another field and hop on the combine and help finish cutting a field.  Parker stayed behind, but was perfectly content just watching the combine.  We even got to see Uncle John driving one of the semi trucks hauling wheat.  It was a pretty quick trip due to feeding schedules and bedtime of our littlest:)  But it was still so worth it!  The kids even got to ride the four-wheeler with daddy a little bit.  It was crazy since they were all trying to finish up harvest, but we have plans to go back later this summer and spend more time when Grandpa can be around a bit more and we have more time. The kids are still talking about it.....I love to see their enthusiasm for things:)  I hope their joy for all the little things never changes!

First taste

My baby is getting so big.  And I'm not sure I'm okay with that.  But, I guess I'm going to have to suck it up and put my big girl panties on, because I don't see time slowing down anytime soon:)  Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things, but our dr. says we can start baby cereal at 4 months old.  I've had the baby cereal sitting in the cabinet for several weeks now, but I just keep putting it off.  While there are some milestones I'm okay with Sawyer reaching in a timely matter (sitting would be fabulous), I'm trying to ignore the fact that he's actually getting big enough for baby food! But, I figured there was no time like the present....so I bit the bullet and mixed up the mush for him.  

One would think you would get tired of taking a bazillion pictures of the same act.  Wrong.  I could take a bazillion pictures of this kid doing the most mundane thing everyday.  He's just that cute:)  And I'm not going to lie, I had a serious case of deja vu looking at these pictures because he looks so much like his older brothers and sister. No doubt whose family he belongs to!  Enjoy looking at our little messy mouth:)

Splash Park

We've been doing everything we can to beat the heat around here this summer.  Lots of swimming and splash parks/fountains.  It is a lot of fun this year because the kids actually like all of these things:)  Last week, we met some friends at a splash park in Valley Center.  The kids had a blast.  Parker, who is usually the one to run right now in, was pretty timid at first and stayed by my side for quite a while.  I think it was just because there were quite a few other people there that he didn't know.  Once he got in the fountains, he was having a blast:)

 Bff''s Eli and Grey running through the water.  I should add that these two haven't seen each other in a little while (well, probably only a week, but in their world, that was a very long time:)) and they were both going crazy.  One of those times I was thankful we were outside!

 My other friend's two little boys manning the gun.  Malachi was hilarious.  He is all boy and loves guns, and also just loves shooting water at people (can't blame him....it's fun if you aren't the one being sprayed!), so he was camped out here the whole time with his little brother in an all out water fight with another girl.  She was older than him, but I'm pretty sure he had her beat:)

 These pictures are two new favorites of mine of Parker.  He isn't totally in focus in both of them and I didn't even capture his whole face, but it just totally captures this handsome little boy.  He can be so sweet and serious at times....

 But he is also ornery-er than all get out.  And this picture just gives you a glimpse of his sweet little dimple.  Oh I love that smile:)  This one is gonna be trouble folks....mark my words:)

 Oh. My. Word.  This face.  This smile.  Those eyes.  I love this little man.  He's still too little to get to enjoy all the fun, but something tells me I'm going to have a very hard time holding him back.  He's going to grow up far faster than I am ready for him too!

 I love watching these two together.  Parker adores his big brother.  And they are already two little peas in a pod.  It is hysterical to watch them wrestle and play together.  Kamdyn is just as strong and can put up a very good fight with her brothers, but there is something very special about the bond of brothers:)

Swim Lessons

The kids completed their second year of swim lessons a couple of weeks ago.  Last year was pretty rough, so I had no idea how this year would go.  They got much more comfortable with the water by the end of swim season last year, but it had been so long since we had been in the pool, I had no way of knowing how lessons would go.  I gotta say, this year was the complete opposite of last year.  Last year, I struggled to get the kids to willingly go in the pool, and their individual 30 minute lessons were often long and we were stretching to get them to try new things.  This year, Kamdyn jumped at the opportunity to go first and wasn't afraid of dunking herself under water.  Complete 360 from last year.  It was so fun to watch them this year because they had so much fun swimming.  And they improved so much this year too.  Eli was jumping off the side like an old pro, and even started jumping off the diving board.  Kamdyn is a little fish and you had to slow her down:)  

Can't wait to see what next year holds for them all.  And then we will have the exciting adventure of putting Parker in too....that could be very interesting....that kid is a wild card:)