Day 57. 2012.

So, you know those moments when your kids make you smile and you think to yourself, I want to remember this moment, conversation, feeling, forever?

Well, my little man gave me one of those moments today.

I am so thankful that I am a camera nut and always have it ready to snap away because this was too precious not to have a photo (or two) to go with it.

Tyson has always taken issue with me calling him my baby.

By the look in his eyes, you can just tell that it bugs him.

I don't even have to wait for him to say, 'MOM! I am NOT a baby! I am a BIG boy!'

Today, he brought out his buddy, turtle, and very matter of factly stated that turtle is now the baby of the family.


He proceeded to tell me that from now on when I need to say the word baby, I could say it to turtle but not to him.

'Mommy, turtle won't mind if you call him a baby and give him lots of hugs and kisses all the time. I asked him...' were his actual words.

This child of mine, my sweet baby (but please don't let him know that I called him that) makes my heart melt!

Day 56. 2012.

The fourth of July has historically been an extremely busy day for our family.

This year was no different.

Although the sweltering heat and humidity made some activities tough, we all still managed to have a memorable DAY!

Here are some highlights...

We made our own shirts this year, if you'd like to try them out for yourself (they are super easy and fun!) check out this LINK. Tanner is so good about sharing with his little bro.

Now, if you were to ask if he shares with his sister just as well...well, that would be a story for another day my friends!

They are 18 months apart and are in the fun love/hate stage of their growing up years! Do you see the two littles hiding out behind our chairs?

They DID NOT like any kind of loud noises or water squirting... 
pretty opposite from their BIG bro...
And sometimes I get lucky and get a photo with this {NOT} camera loving man of mine!

Love this little 'ghetto' boy... After the parade, we headed over to our friends house for a water party...they had such a BLAST! "Gotch-ya!" "noo you didn't!" Water balloon toss Love this shot! Brady is always so good about playing with the kids...don't know who has more fun, him or them?! To end our day, we headed out to North Dakota to visit with family and see some spectacular fireworks, which I have to add, I missed because my two littles were soo scared!

He just keeps getting bigger and bigger on me!

And for once, he was aunties boy and wouldn't go to Uncle Randy! (hehe, I was secretly thrilled!) Fun in the pool with the big kid, Uncle Nick...

Day 55. 2012.

It is definitely turning into the dog days of summer with temps in the upper nineties and high humidity this week!

When friends asked us if we'd like to go to the lake, we jumped at the chance!

All five kids were getting along so well that we had a hard time telling them that it was time to go home...I think we ended up staying for over four hours!

It was a fantastic summer day in the Minnesota sunshine!
    

These photos tell what a total difference there is between girls and boys...I asked these two to please let me take their photo, and this is what I got...

 

And then there were these two, all smiles and arms around eachother ready to strike a pose!

Days 54 and beyond...summer 2012.

We have had a fantastic, albeit a little wild and crazy busy summer so far and it seems to only be getting better!

Here are some of our highlights from the past month...


Isn't she gorgeous?! Her dad and I are more than a little worried about the future with this cutie... Doesn't he look soo old here!? I can't believe that I am about to be a mom to an EIGHT year old!! Ok, so then he goes and does something like this and I remember that he is just a little boy, no matter how big his britches get!
I know this kid of mine will break hearts someday!

I love that he was so into me taking his photos!

My boys, they look so much like brothers!

 I did try and get a good shot of all three in the corn field...didn't quite work out the way that I planned! And yes, thats my son playing in the corn field with his skid steer...can't tell what he wants to be when he grow up can you?! And my awesome hubby (who is the best dad on the planet!) is building this kick a@* swing set for the kids...

This is how we roll down here on the farm, calves hang out in our sandbox! hahah, ok, well only if you are a future fair calf and are being tortured, ahem, taught how to be led around by our young kids!


Meet our fourth child, Gordon.

He is the only kitty to have survived our family from last summer's batch (we actually don't know what happened to a couple of the others).

 He is so humanized that he climbed up the ladder to join us on the deck of the new swing set instead of climbing the post like a 'normal' cat would! We all LOVE him...

I have no reason what so ever to do any kind of landscaping in our front yard, umm, dirt pile in the next few years. Not with this little guy around! He's 3, need I say more?! He goes from crabby and mad to happy and silly in exactly 2.5 seconds!

I have been spending many hours finishing our porch, painting, painting, and you guessed it, more painting!

But it will all be worth it in the end when I get to hang this up...and live by these 'rules'

Have I mentioned that we have been raising caterpillars?

Well, they hatched today and the kids were uber excited!

There is still a lot of work to do on the swingset, errr, country kid paradise...but they LOVE it so far!

And WOOHOO!

I finished painting the rails (at least with coat numero uno...which is all the they will see this summer, I am SICK of the tedious job!) now onto the floor!

Lovin' her cats...and me, lovin' the porch I always imagined! Happy summer 2012 ya'll!