Past Due Catching Up- July stuff

I kept thinking there weren't but a handful of pictures or things we have done over the past several months (besides Christmas) but as I went through things, there was much more there than I realized. 

So here are a handful of things from JULY~

Part one-  my friend Ruth has a laundry detergent business.  She makes an all natural product called Selestial Soap.  She has been a great friend to me over the past couple of years and I love her to death!  Anyway-  she got her hands on an old fashioned wringer-washer.  I was keeping a couple of kids a little bit over the summer and Kelly is autistic and his favorite (obsession) thing is washing machines.  So they were in HIGH heaven!

Filling her up with water from the hose!

Loading some sheets to be washed

 Watching the agitator moving around

the boys checking out the motor underneath!

Kelly and Macy checking out Ruth's laundry detergent in one of it's stages

time to pull it through the wringer to squish the water out!

It really was a fun thing to do-  we hung them on a clothes line to dry.  In some ways, I would almost prefer to do laundry this way!!

 

 

So moving on to....  Special Needs Kids Day at the Cherry Festival!

We went to the Festival a couple of times but never really took many pictures- Stacey and I took the three kids down there though on that day.  It was really cool- everything is free for the kids that day and they have LOTS of stuff set up specifically for them! 

 

took the shuttle into town

 Stacey and Macey

Caelan in his sunglasses, waiting for the bus

 Caelan fed the camels and goats some carrots- no fear!  (I am not a fan personally!)

Great big bubble wands

and then a little basketball...

 

 And that great big smile above??  Watching this kitten below!

I couldn't believe I got him to ride the ride-  I think only because it was a TRAIN!

And of course... having Mommy right beside you must be a comfort too!  I loved him having his little hand on my leg the whole time!  So sweet.....

 

 

Next up..... Friday Night Live in downtown Traverse.  During the weeks after the Cherry Festival is over and before Labor Day weekend, Traverse City has Friday Night Live downtown-  they shut down several blocks of Front Street and have music, vendors, etc.  It's always just a nice way to get out as a family and enjoy where we live!

 



 



Fishing Game with Daddy...

And we caught a....

BALL!  :)

This girl did face painting-  and with Caelan being so particular about things, we were REALLY surprised that he let her paint his face-  and actually finish it! He sat very still and patiently while she painted a "red racecar" for him!

 Here is the finished art work!

 Checking out the beautiful caterpillar that will turn into a butterfly!

 Petting a chicken

 This school bus moved all around, had moving eyes and would talk to kids.  He wasn't quite sure about it-  but he did go back to it later.

A little break for some Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.... yummy!

 And then LOTS of fun with musical instruments! 

and on our way back down the street-  he started running back toward that school bus! 

 

And here are a couple of random pictures... 

 

He came across these 'listening ears' that he made during his first week of school LAST YEAR and of course looks super cute wearing them.

 and last (for July) but definitely not least-  Bear!



Caelan's 4th Birthday!

First of all I cannot BELIEVE our little boy is FOUR!  They aren't kidding when they say that the time flies by.  It has been an awesome four years and there isn't a single second of it that we haven't enjoyed.  We are so blessed with the life of this sweet and precious child.  God is good.  Thank you Barbara for trusting us with your son-  we pray for you every day! 

I know, I know... pictures! I'm gettting there!

We had a much bigger party this year- there are a lot of people at church who just adore Caelan and have gone above and beyond in embracing him and loving him.  So we had family of course which included David's mother "Grandma Anna" and this year, Pat's kids were in town so Erin and Grace were there as well.  Tom Bonhoerst stopped by for a few minutes (Catholic Human Services).  And then lots of folks from church!  It was an awesome day!  The weather was perfect- about 80 degrees (last year was sweltering) and a nice breeze all day! 

I made the cake(s) this year-  Matt baked, I decorated.  Not too bad for my first try. 

And this year we have a TON of pictures!  Usually I am so busy hosting and taking care of everything that pictures get forgotten.  But this year one of our guests took the camera and took over 300 pictures!  There are about 150 posted in the Facebook album.  And that doesn't include some of the ones from Matt's dad's camera. 

So here is the link to the Facebook photo album of Caelan's 4th Birthday Party-  enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3738235847980.2143513.1038643382&type=3&l=7bc4e32348

 

 

Blogger vs. Facebook

One of the reasons I often avoid posting/updating the blog is because it takes FOREVER to upload pictures into and I have little to no patience with it.  And I honestly don't have a lot of time to sit and do that.  Poor excuse, I won't deny.  But the fact is, I can download a couple HUNDRED pictures into Facebook within minutes.... and blogger allows FIVE to be updoaded at a time and it takes several minutes to load each of those few.  Again, very time consuming and frustrating. And when a person takes hundreds of pictures of their kid (who us?) on a regular basis, there are a lot of things to post!  Blogger has never been a user friendly format-  even typing a post is difficult because there is only a very small window to type in.

The nice thing is, Facebook does provide a link to those photo albums so I can post that link here.  It allows people to see the pics while still keeping my Facebook account private. 

AND.... as I have discovered tonight-  blogger has FINALLY made some much needed changes.  All of those things I just griped about, have been fixed.  Selecting pictures and uploading them is MUCH faster and the window for typing a post is now a realistic size-  like a word document now.  I am sooo happy with these changes!!  I often feel so bad because I don't keep this blog updated as often as I should.  It has taken me less time to go through 4 or 5 months of pictures and create updated posts than ever before-  I was able to do in about 2 hours what previously would have taken several!

So I am going to post some links to the Facebook albums here.  I still have several other things to update everyone in and a couple more months of pics to sort through.  But at least I have filled in a lot of stuff already!!

These are from 2 months ago- just some nice pics outside:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3598191986971.2140483.1038643382&type=3&l=1be6fc7bd7

 

Also about 2 months ago-  Marissa is Caelan's friend.  She is the daughter of the people who used to keep Caelan- so the two of them spent two years together.  Marissa is in several other pics from other years but anyway-  since I quit work, they don't see each other as often and have missed each other.  So I picked her up for a play date one day and they had so much fun!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3594974986548.2140422.1038643382&type=3&l=64b8adb8dc

 

The next two sets require a little explanation-  we FINALLY found a church home after looking for over 7 years.  It is a brand new church that just started in January and we love it!  I will explain more about the church and provide a link to their website in a different post but these two photo albums are of events involving the church or church family.  One is the Memorial Day picnic and one is just a gathering of church family singing and fellowshipping at someone's house.  Both sets of pics are taken in May-  and I forewarn you, there are a hundred in each album and not ALL of them are of Caelan!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3595225872820.2140431.1038643382&type=3&l=1258f76262

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3612409742406.2140696.1038643382&type=3&l=c1caf50805

 

 

So I hope you enjoy looking at all of those!

Easter 2012

 Dyed a few eggs...

 Cutie pa-tootie, handsome boy!

 He's got his bucket and is ready to go!

 He is really good at finding Easter eggs-  he has a great eye!

 He dropped them... but that's ok, just keep going!

 Dropped 'em again.  But... yep, keep going!

 This dump truck is a great accesory for all the Easter eggs he found

Busted!

It appears that a certain little someone can reach the toilet paper while on top of the changing table.  Matt left him in there for a minute right after his bath and came back to this grand ole time going on! 

Oh Hi Daddy!

 But those eyes and smile just do us in!

Domestic Me

We often joke about my "domestic" side-  I have never cooked, it just doesn't work for me.  I just have never really had those home maker gifts so to speak.  But since I have stopped working and also since starting my vegan diet (more on that in another post) I have become a little more involved in the kitchen.  So one day when I was cooking and had put on an apron, Matt took some pictures of me being "domestic"

 Below is my cooking pose!  Haha!

But yes... I am actually cooking-  from scratch actually!  Potato dill soup-  yummmm!

Awful- Never Ever Again. Ever.

With the exception of two or maybe three times over the past four years, I have always been the one to cut Caelan's hair.  I love his hair-  I love the longer layer on top.  Well, he has a huge swirl in the back/on his crown and two or three major cowlicks in the front.  So when I was giving him a trim right before Easter, I was having a difficult time getting parts of it even.  It would be fine one way but then when I combed it another way, it was crooked.  So Matt said, well why don't you just buzz cut it.  I knew before I did it that I was going to regret it.  But I did it.  I buzzed it.  Matt didn't think I was going to actually do it.  I CRIED.  It look AWFUL!  And even though a lot of folks said it was cute, when I look back I still think it is the worst thing in the world.  He didn't look like my son... I didn't recognize him.  And I didn't like that.

So here I am right afterwards (excuse the pj's/bum look) and I am nearly in tears.

 The boys were obviously ok with it?

And you can see in his profile-  he also has sections where his hairline is higher up so it just looked.... TERRIBLE!!!

And everyone said, "Oh it will be so easy to take care of!"  Well, sorta-  to wash and comb?  Yes.  But as it grew out- it was a mess.  It didn't grow out well and has taken a LONG time to start looking "normal" again.  So again I say... never, ever, EVER again.

Snowman in the Sunshine

We had a really weird winter this past season- we never got a ton of snow and had some days that were very Spring like.  Caelan and I went on a trip down South in the end of February/early March.  While we were gone, Traverse City got slammed with a MAJOR snow storm-  power outages, roads closed, FEET of snow.  We were fortunate to be gone for most of it.  But then, a few days later most of it had melted away and it was unseasonably warm again.  So Caelan and Matt made this little snowman on the back porch- you can tell how warm it is because I am in a 3/4 sleeve shirt and we have on no jackets.

 Matt only got one or two pics before Caelan knocked it over- he thought that was fun

 Then he rolled it.... right off the porch

no more snowman.

Poor kid has a dork mom

We started potty training in January- and Caelan had outgrown all of the underwear he had.  When kids get into larger sizes there are no more "cute" underwear.  So at the suggestion of a friend, I bought basic white underwear and decorated them.  What kiddo wouldn't want these huh???

Actually, they turned out pretty cute and we get lots of compliments on them.  I look forward to the next size up!  And he enjoys picking out a different pair each day.

 We have an ocean theme with a crab, penguin, whale and dolphin (on front)

His name with a turtle- in mine and Matt's favorite colors

A Farm theme- with the word "Moo" on the front

and a Jungle them with a giraffe on the front.

I also did one with the alphabet, one with Curious George written on it and a monkey and another pair with a whole bunch of random animals on it.

Where Else?

I mean.... why would we look anywhere besides inside the Mac truck for the remote control??  And I am sure we had looked for it for quite a while!