Monday, July 25, 2011

Titus and his birthday gift

Here's a video of Titus' birthday gift.  Unfortunately the initial video of us giving him the gift and him going on his first ride is on our memory card that seems to have died.  I can't get anything off of it, though I'm still trying.  Anyway, here's another video on a new memory card, along with a couple pictures.  Please be sure to notice the new calf high John Deere socks he's sporting, courtesy of Papa and Nana.  His old ones were about 2 sizes too small and had multiple holes in them.  And thankfully they had the foresight to get him 3 pairs  so hopefully these will last longer, with them being worn virtually every day of course!







Saturday, July 16, 2011

A few pictures


It's a little hard to see, but we had a rainbow in our backyard after an afternoon rain.  It was one of the coolest things.  I've never seen something like that.  I was at work, so fortunately Colleen snapped a couple pictures of it.


Apparently there really isn't at pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, though, as we would have had two of them if that were true!


A cute one of Lydia and Katelyn playing on the couch.


Lydia after playing in the sprinklers over at the Stivasons on the church grounds.


 Titus showing off his muscles.


One of the toy sprinklers the kids were playing in.


The kids (and us) really miss playing out back with the Stivasons, so we try to make it over when we can.


We're grateful for the trips down that grammy and grandpa make.  They are special times, and we wish both sets of grandparents lived closer to make these occasions more frequent.


Playing at the park with cousin Keegan.  They had quite a fun time.


A little out of sequence here, but Lydia enjoying licking the spatula and making quite a mess of it.


Katelyn, Titus and Keegan on a tire swing at the park.




Lydia got her chance to ride it too.


A couple pictures of cousin Cayden.




Cayden and Elise, the two youngest grandchildren.


Grandpa enjoying holding his two youngest grandchildren, though I'm not sure how much Cayden is enjoying this!


Our three oldest peering down the slide at the park.


A sweaty Titus sporting his John Deere gear.  Hmm, I wonder what might be in store for him when he turns 4 in a couple of days....:).


It was a cool rainy day and the kids wanted to watch the rain through the door.  Not sure how this helped the bug population in our house, though.


Lydia absolutely loves watermelon.  If we would let her, she could down 4 or 5 slices easily.  We usually have to stop her from eating the rhine and everything.  "Only the pink, Lydia."


Not that it is a surprise, but our kids so far have expressed quite a bit of interest in sports.  Our garage is filled with balls of all kinds, and the kids usually are playing with them when they are outside.  Titus here is showing off his throwing arm.  Good pitchers run in my family, and Titus appears to be following in that line, as he has quite the arm.


Batting, on the other hand, he hasn't quite gotten down yet.  He's got to keep that swing level instead of chopping down!


Even Lydia wants her turn at hitting, though so far she hasn't graduated from the batting tee yet.


Katelyn has proven to be a pretty good batter.  She hasn't gotten her throwing down just yet like Titus, but she's become quite a good hitter.


Elise at  her three month photo.  I think she has been the smiliest of our four kids so far.


Titus, sporting the suspenders, and Lydia watching Katelyn hit the ball.


It seems this boy either has a tractor in his hand, or a ball (or two).


Here's Katelyn keeping her eye on the ball.


I've already got the boy pitching to me, and he does a nice job.  For some reason the kids like to pick up the batting tee and peer through it when other people are hitting, hence Katelyn.


Not a great picture, but this visitor was rummaging through our trash the other night.  It's a raccoon in case you aren't sure.


Katelyn helping Lydia catch a firefly.  We've really had a pleasant summer so far and the nights especially have been quite nice, so this is a fun activity for the kids just before bedtime.


A good one of Titus ready to snatch a firefly.  So far the kids have proven to be quite gentle with the bugs.  Not too many casualties so far.


"Look Dad, see my firefly?"


Katelyn usually catches them for Lydia and passes them off.  Lydia tries hard (see the video on the previous post), but they've proven to be a little too elusive for her so far.


Lydia looking down at one that Katelyn had caught for her.


Colleen tried to lay Elise down in the crib the other day (Lydia still sleeps in the crib with Elise in the pack-n-play), and Lydia was not amused.  "Me crib!  Me crib!"  It won't be that long, though, before it's Elise's crib and Lydia will graduate up to the toddler bed.


Elise holding her head up.  She's rolled over front to back, but hasn't been able to get that arm out of the way to roll back to front, though she's trying really hard!


Smiling with Daddy.


Lydia and Titus playing on the couch.

A few videos

We've enjoyed the nice pleasant summer evenings so far, and one of the things the kids have enjoyed is catching fireflies at night time in our backyard.



Elise laughing with Katelyn taking the video.



This is what we've worked on a little bit the last two evenings, and it didn't take Katelyn long to catch on.  It's one of those fun moments as a parent but also a little bittersweet when you realize your kids are growing up quickly!