Pool Time!

In our neighborhood, we have a community pool that we take the kids to in the summer. The kids LOVE it and so do we! At the beginning of the summer I insisted that Sam stay in the kiddie pool with Parker. As the weeks have past, I've let go a little and have been letting her go in the big pool. She feels so lucky and really, really has a good time. I can't believe she's big enough to go in the big pool! She does great. I don't even go with her. I stay in the kiddie pool area with Parker and observe from across the fence. At first, a little nerve racking, but not so bad anymore. She's a pretty good swimmer and there's lifeguards.

Well, here's some pictures from a couple times we've been at the pool so far. The first ones are from when I made Sam stay in the kiddie pool. The others are her being miss independant in the big pool. Why do they have to grow so fast?!

Sam and her friend, Elisabeth.

Parker has no fear of that water. Even in the big pool he's quite the daredevil.

Sam showing off a bit. She loves to jump in!

Parker is a little envious of Samantha's move up. He likes to get out of the kiddie pool and yell at the top of his lungs "Hi Samantha!"

Sam and her friend, Madilynn.

Just chillin', waiting for some action to happen on his side of the fence!!!

Our Growing Collin

Our "little" baby is growing up! I just thought I'd post a few pictures of the last few weeks. He's now 3 months old and we've been trying out some new things lately. We've introduced the exersaucer, which he's liking. He hasn't quite got the hang of all the fun toys, but loves to stare at them! He's holding toys though and really likes to chew on them. He likes to hang on the rings I have dangling from his carseat handle and fall asleep with them held tightly in his fist. It's pretty cute, actually. I've been helping him to roll over, so hopefully he'll get that in the next month or so. He's so round, I wouldn't think it would be a problem :) Anyways, he's getting so big and we're just loving him. He's been the best baby we've had, so far. I thought Samantha was a good baby (which she totally was!), but he's been even better so far. What a joy!

Fabulous 4th!

We had a fabulous 4th of July this year! We started early and took it into the wee hours of 11:30ish. Hey, that's late for us!!! Anyways, it was great! We started off by going to our annual Maple Hills Parade. Our neighborhood does a parade around the streets and it's so fun! Anyone can join in. We made our way over by the park, where it started, without realizing they come right down our street, in front of our house. So, we got to enjoy it twice! By the time we got home they were coming our way again. This meant LOTS of candy being thrown at us! After the parade, our community had a BBQ for the neighborhood. Great fun! We hosted this year's 4th of July with Jeremy's family, which we did last year too and it was great! We thought we'd go with it again this year. This may become a tradition, who knows? I enjoy having everyone over, so it's fine by me. So, after some family time, Jer's family made it to our house around 1:00 and we let the kids swim and we just hung out. Later on we got together with some friends and the guys played a wiffle ball game at the school down the street, while us girls watched the kids and chatted. We headed home and made a delicious BBQ dinner and had some yummy desserts (3 to choose from!), then played around with some fireworks in our driveway. They were little ones, for the kids mainly. After convincing our children that fireworks weren't scary we went to the park, down the street, to watch the main event. The "main event" consists of everyone in the neighborhood bringing their fireworks to the field and letting them off there. It's a pretty crazy thing, actually. Very loud, and can be a little dangerous. Collin got to stay home with Grandma Klein. There's no way we would bring such a little guy! Thanks Sharon for volunteering to stay with him!!! We always just sit on the sidelines and watch everyone else do their thing. We have one guy in the neighborhood who owns a firework stand, and he puts on quite a show. Everyone goes to see his stuff, pretty much. It's awesome! It's so loud though, my kids have to have their earmuffs. Ya know, the kind you do yard work in and stuff? Not the kind you play in the snow in :) It's really fun! I'm so glad we live in such a great area! The community is awesome and so united! I'm so thankful for our country and it's freedoms. We are so blessed to live here and have all that we do!

Summer Park Days: Week 1

Our ward has put together a weekly activity for "Mothers with Young Children" this summer. Different parks have been chosen for us to go to each week. Some even include swimming! Well, our first get together was Thursday (the official chosen day). We ventured out to Bellevue to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. We walked our way through the gardens to eventually get to a fun playground. It was nice for the kids to experience a little nature, but also play and get some energy out. It was great fun! Hopefully we can go each week and try out all the fun parks we have in our area!

Sam and her friend, Elisabeth.

One of the pretty waterfalls. Parker was fascinated by them!

Parker getting a little tired? Joseph thought he'd be my helper, along with his bro Chaz, who pushed my stroller the whole time! What would I do without those Jarman boys?!!

Cutie pies!

We finally made it to the playground. Collin enjoying the warm breeze.

Their own little hideout.

Garden Success!

I had mentioned in a previous post about us putting together a garden this summer. Well, we finished the garden box and got in the dirt and did some planting and... success!!! It's actually growing and looking like a real garden! The best part is our pumpkin patch. Sure, we don't need a whole pumkin patch for ourselves, but it looks neat (especially if we actually get pumpkins!) and we have a plan...Our plan is to be neighborly and share our wealth of big, hearty pumpkins. Our neighborhood is always putting out signs at the main intersection for free stuff and different neighborhood functions. We thought we'd put out a sign, come Fall time, for free pumpkins. Great way to get to know our neighbors, right??? Anyways, it's been fun watching our fruits and veggies grow. Next year we plan to make it bigger and better!

This is a half-view of our main garden.

Our pumpkin patch

My one and only strawberry plant that got eaten by a deer! In fact, I watched the stupid deer run down the street, in front of our house, at 2:00 a.m. Little did I know, at the time, that he was after my strawberries!!!!

Bittersweet Birthday...

We had a great time tonight with my Mom, Stephen, Tanner, his friend, Ian, and my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins! You see, it's going to be my brother, Tanner's, birthday on July 15th, but they're leaving to move to Idaho Falls on Friday...SOOO SAD! So, we decided to have a little birthday party for him tonight before they leave. We decided to go bowling, which is one of Tanner's favorite things to do. Samantha's never tried out bowling, so it was fun to watch her have a turn at it. Parker also got into the action.

Great-Uncle Matt scored MAJOR brownie points with the kids by helping them bowl. They were so excited!

The bitterness of all this is, obviously, that they're leaving. My family has always been just minutes away from me. Sure, I'll miss my mom. But, I think, even though I don't see Tanner a ton, I'll miss him the most. For those of you who don't know, Tanner is autistic. He's very special to me and watching him leave and start over in a new town, state, school...life...is hard for me. He's not one for change. He's happy where he is and I worry about him. Life hasn't been a piece of cake for him. He's finally found a wonderful, dear friend, Ian, who he loves. Ian is also autistic and watching them together is really great. Tanner has someone who he can feel 100% comfortable with and they've become really close. I hate to see them seperated and to have Tanner have to find that special friend again to hang out with. They've exchanged e-mails and phone numbers, but it's just not the same.

Sorry, this has become my big sob story!

I just want Tanner to be happy, and I know he will be in the end. He'll find that special friend again and he'll get used to life in Idaho. I'll miss them very much. I've been telling myself that "it's no big deal" that they're leaving, but it's starting to be. It's finally hitting me (as I sit here crying!) But, hey, it's not like I'm never going to see them again, right?

Anyways, on a lighter note, we did have a wonderful time tonight and I'm happy we were able to spend some family time together. Bowling, yummy food, family and friends, a happy birthday boy...what could be better?!!! Love you guys! I'll miss you

Farrel McWhirter Park

We had a beautiful Saturday this past weekend. Of course, Jeremy had a million things he needed to get done, from yard work to websites...I decided to help get out of his way and not distract him by taking the kids to one of our favorite parks around here. What the kids love most about it is that it has fun farm animals to look at and touch. They LOVE the goats! They also have pigs, cows, chickens, horses, turkeys, bunnies, and probably more (I just can't think of them!). The park only has a set of swings to play on, but has a great open field of grass for a picnic and also some fun trees to play in. My kids think it's great! SO, we spent the morning playing in the park and ended with a picnic. What fun!

Checking out the goats

Collin LOVED laying out on our picnic blanket!

Yum!

Cooling off on the swings

Being little monkeys on the tree branches...

SIDE NOTE: Sam loves that hat! She wears it alot, I know. It's in SOOO many pics I've taken of her recently! And she's really into necklaces. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of them :)