Happy Father's Day...

to the best daddy!

There were several more outtakes, but this one was my favorite!

The boys requested a ride on the "fast" 4-wheeler. Andrew was on the back, but he got off because it was a little crowded with three grandsons on board!

Even Hannah got a little ride. I think she liked it!

We celebrated Father's day all weekend. On Saturday evening, we went to Hutchinson and had a delicious Father's Day dinner with Grandpa and Grandma and the Eigstis. The boys all wanted a ride on what they call the fast 4-wheeler, and Grandpa couldn't say no! (Don't worry. He doesn't really go fast, but they know that he could and that's all that matters!)

And then on Sunday after church, we chillaxed in the cool air conditioning. It was a blistering 102 and no fun outside. Keith got to take a little nap and then played with the kids and read to them. I made dinner and by made, I mean picked up dinner from Two Brothers BBQ.

Thank you Keith for being such a wonderful father to our children. We love you so much!

Hannah - 8 months old!

"Hey guys, what are you doing? Can I play too?!"

"Look at me! I can pull up to stand!" (Her mother is heard softly crying in the background.)

The typical view of Hannah these days.

More climbing...

The dishwasher. I have a feeling this is not the last of these types of photos!

Hannah is now 8 months old. I'm not sure how that happened. I blinked and months on the calendar flew by! She is such a big little girl. She went from sitting to crawling in about a week. And this basically happened the week she turned 8 months. Apparently she didn't get the memo that we were not ready for her to be this mobile. The boys are adjusting to her mobility, slowly. They need to be constantly reminded to not play games on the floor and leave paper, shoes, or well, anything on the floor because their sister WILL eat it. She also immediately went from crawling to pulling herself to standing. Holy cow. She's going to be walking in another week at this rate!

Hannah is still an excellent sleeper and if we are home, she will on average take two, two-hour naps during the day and then sleep all night. (Now if we could get Jonathan to sleep through the night, we'd be all set, but that's a whole other post.)

This month she really took off in the eating real food department. She will usually devour a whole 2nd foods container at lunch and dinner. And then eat her body weight in puffs or graham crackers. She loves to feed herself. Hannah really wants to be big like her brothers!

Hannah is not making any of the normal baby sounds like dada, gaga, or baba, etc. So, yesterday I met with a speech therapist to talk about ways to help Hannah with her tongue thrust issues. If you look at every picture of Hannah, she is smiling or fake smiling and her tongue is out. This looks cute but is actually a problem. And it was mostly likely the cause of her eating/gaining issues at birth. And now it is affecting her ability to verbalize. It's not a serious problem yet, but left untreated could cause her serious speech problems later plus orthodontic issues. So, I came home armed with new tools and exercises to try to help "wake-up" Hannah's mouth and tongue muscles.

A lot of what the therapist talked about reminded me of sensory processing issues, only it is all focused on the mouth. One thing we need to work on with Hannah is introducing lots of textures. She is getting better with this, but when I first tried to give her real food, she gagged a lot. The therapist said this was normal, but to keep introducing them. She also gave me a little vibrating tooth brush for infants. It made me a little twitchy to hold it, but when I gave it to Hannah, she loved it and her whole body relaxed as she chewed on it.

The therapist also said that babies with tongue thrust often like extremes, like pickles or lemons. I thought that might be fun to try. So last night at dinner, I gave Hannah a little taste of my dill pickle. The girl went nuts for it! She screeched when I took it away. CRAZY! She sucked out ALL of the juice of the pickle. Great. Now I have to fight off another kid for my pickle at restaurants. Although, if it helps her, I'll sacrifice my pickle!

Happy 8-month birthday sweet girl. And once again, I'd like to remind you - slow down! There is no need to grow up quite so fast.

New backyard visitors

We discovered a little nest of bunnies in our backyard a couple weeks ago. It's hard to see them, but I think there were 4 little babies in this little hole. There were so tiny and their eyes were still closed when we found them. We probably wouldn't have found them if they hadn't made a lot of noise when the boys were outside playing one evening. And did I mention the nest was under a swing? I'm not sure what the mother was thinking when she picked this location!

The boys were really good about leaving them alone. I tried to explain that if we disturbed them too much the mama wouldn't come back and take care of them. They got the message and left them alone.

This picture was taken a week later. Keith was mowing the lawn and checked the nest before he started. He found only two bunnies in the nest. As he mowed, he watched one hop away. So I grabbed the camera and snapped a picture of the last little scared guy.

The boys got a good look at him and apparently he saw them too and took off.

The boys tried to catch him, but he hopped under the fence into the neighbors yard. And now our backyard is back to normal. Whatever normal is!

More Harvest Pics

Sondra took some pictures of the boys in the field, so here are some more harvest pictures...

Jonathan and Luke in the big wheat truck with Uncle Matt.

Grandma explaining the action to Jonathan and Luke.

Luke, Uncle Matt and Jonathan in the tractor.

Andrew in the combine with grandpa. He looks likes he's doing some sort of crazy dance, but I think he's just trying to get the best view of the wheat being "eaten" by the combine.

Andrew posing in the wheat truck.

Jonathan in the combine with Grandpa.

Harvest

Jonathan giving Adam a little love.

Luke wanted to hold Hannah, but she's not really into that anymore so he agreed to sit next to her instead.

My view out the side mirror as we dumped wheat at the co-op.

Luke and Andrew watching the wheat dump at the co-op.

Andrew and Jonathan in the tractor with Matt.

If you look closely, you can see Jonathan pretending to talk on the CB radio.

Why are the best photos always blurry?!

Hannah slept through most of the experience. It was way past her nap time. But she woke up right before we left and took a little picture in the field to show she was helping with harvest too!


Harvest came early this year thanks to the incredible heat and wind we've been experiencing. We loaded up and went to "help" with harvest last Friday. To say the boys LOVE harvest is an understatement. And what's not to love - big trucks, tractors and combines, Uncle Matt and Grandpa. What more could a boy ask for?

Fun with Cousins

Hannah checking on Adam and trying to swipe his toys.

Jonathan, Andrew and Luke in the pool.

We were supposed to meet some friends at the zoo last week, but since 102 was the predicted high for the day, we opted to stay at home and have Sondra, Luke and Adam come to play. We filled the pool and the big boys had a great time sliding and splashing! Adam and Hannah watched from the shade, but mostly stayed in the a/c!

Summer Fun

Summer arrived a little early this year. We've been suffering through 100 degree days recently, which is not normal or welcome for June! So we busted out the new frog swimming pool. The boys LOVE it, even when the water is ice cold. Hannah wants to join them, but she's going to have to wait until next summer I think.