4th of July

The past 4 years Rick has been in charge of our church's 4th of July picnic.  It has been a great activity for the ward to look forward to every year.  Each year, no matter the heat, more and more people have shown up.  This year even with Chicago's HOT summer we had about 130 people there. 

(It was about 115 outside.) 

We invited our Grandpa Somers to join us this year as Grandma was traveling.  He was a great extra hand as Rick was busy keeping everything going.

 

Bishop Kosiek wanted to have a kite flying activity and even in the heat it was fun to see the wind could get them high.

Rachel, in the blue skirt, was flying one of the Bishop's kites since ours was broken.

 

Way to go Rick!  Another successful picnic!

Anson and Aaron play Tee-ball

This spring/summer the boys signed up for tee-ball, Rick's heart flipped a beat.  Because of the boys being 6 months apart they were in different leagues.  Anson was in coached pitched and Aaron was in tee-ball, huge differences between the two.  Aaron was the oldest on his team and loved going to everything from practices to games.  Because every kid hit off a tee the games were looooonnggg. 

Anson on the other hand was one of the smallest and it made it very difficult to pitch the ball in his tiny strike zone.  For Anson's league each kid was pitched 6 balls and there were no strikes.  They just had to hit one or they were out, so it was pretty hard for Anson.  At the beginning of the season both boys were going strong and I bounced between them in practices and games.  About half way through Anson was discouraged and it was a long last half of the season.  I heard him once say he like baseball and his favorite position was on the bench.  But had an excellent coach, who spent half of each practice helping him and the other half with him doing a drill right by his side. 

 
Amazingly we had 8 of the 10 games at the same time at the same complex so we could go from one game to the next depending on who was playing or at bat or just stand between the two fields and watch both. It really helped not having 2 practices and 1 game for each boy at different times during the week. 

It was a busy season but when the season was over it was bitter sweet.  Aaron loved every minute of his team and even Anson was disappointed his team didn't continue on in their playoffs. Go Mud Hens (Aaron) and Cubs (Anson)!

Rachel's princess class

So this summer I realized I was running my kids lives and wasn't giving them much vote on activities they were involved in.  My son asked to try Tae Kwon Do and I stopped myself when I realized it would be 8 months before I had it in my schedule to let him take it.  So this summerI told the kids they had to take swimming lessons but then they could each pick one activity.  Rachel picked a Princess, Fairies and Castles class from the Park District.  It is in her new Preschool class room and with one of her teachers so I felt a little bit better about paying someone to teach her about Cinderella.  It turned out pretty cute.  It met 4 times, once per week, and they learned about a different princess and made a craft about her each week.  The last day they met they had a tea party.  Here is Rachel all dressed up for her tea party at her princess class.

She loved every class and what 4 year old girl wouldn't! 

Spring Break at Branson,MO and Kansas City, MO

So going through my pictures I realized I never blogged about Spring Break.  We drove down to Missouri this year and stay in Branson for almost a week.  After our week there we drove back via Kansas City to see my cousin, Rick Blackham, his wife Andy and their 3 boys.  We took advantage of their wonderful hospitality and also were able to see the Kansas City Temple Open House.

We had a wonderful time in Branson.  We invited Rick's parents, Diane and Dennis, to come with us.  There is so much to do there and it is all family friendly.  Branson really strives to have a Christian family environment so everyone can enjoy every activity together.  We stayed in a huge home on the lake.  Everyone loved the theatre room in the basement where we watched movies and played Wii to our hearts content.  When we got out of the home we had so much to see and do.  Here are some pictures.

 We went on a dinner/show cruise on the Branson Belle, a big steam boat.  Andrew loved the geese outside the ship.  Excitedly he yelled, "quack, quack" at them all night.

 Us talking to the Belle's captain.

 Andrew and I on the loading deck before we load.

 The boys on the Belle's deck.

 Our family enjoying the Belle's ride.  They had an amazing show of comedy, magic, a men's quartet, and the world's only air flying-violinist/soprano (she was amazing).

 Here we are enjoying the hot tub at the house.

We visited the Titanic Museum there in Branson.  We couldn't take pictures inside but it was pretty amazing.  We all got to take part as we were assigned people who were on the ship.  Most of our people survived.

We visited the Table Rock Damn and fish hatchery.  They grow a million trout every year! 

There was a mini golf place at our resort that ended with the ball being swallowed by the fish!

Rick, Diane and I went to zipline one afternoon while the kids were taking naps.  It was so much fun! We enjoyed a lot of shopping and so much more in Branson.  We look forward to going back soon.

We went back home going through Kansas City, MO where my cousin lives.  Here we are with Rick Blackham's family, Andy, Connor, Daniel, Rick and Garrett.

 We took the opportunity to go through the open house with the older kids.  Our temples are sacred places in our faith.  Once they are dedicated we only allow those with recommends to go inside.  This is to maintain a high level of reverence throughout the temple.  Anson and Aaron went inside the Chicago temple when Anson was sealed to us as a baby but that was so long ago they don't remember.  Because this temple hasn't been dedicated we were able to take them through were able to show them similar rooms to where we were sealed and talk to them about how important temples are.  We believe families are meant to be together forever, not until death do us part.  Once a husband and wife are sealed they will be together forever and all of their children born to them after will automatically be with them.  Since Anson was adopted this additional step was necessary so that he will be our son now as well as after we die.  A heaven would not be much of a heaven without all of us there.  We rejoice that temples are near by us so we can make these bonds and covenants and teach our children about them.

Our church has a lot of history in Missouri.  One location is Liberty Jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith was wrongfully imprisoned for several months.  Once they realized they could not hold him wrongly forever they let him so.  The months were very difficult for Joseph as Liberty Jail in winter was very harsh.  He did a lot of praying and received important revelations during this time.  Here Rachel is in the reconstructed jail with Joseph in the background.

 On the way out of town we stopped by Adam-ondi-ahman.  It is a special field where we believe the Garden of Eden once was and where the Savior will come again.

It was a wonderful week with family and we all had a wonderful time being together and seeing wonderful things in Missouri!

Andrew turns 2!

Well our cute little Andrew is a two year old.  Ugh, I mean yeah!  The terrible twos and threes are not my favorite but maybe this time around will be different.  Anyway our little guy has had an explosion of words and new skills.  The best of which was learning the word "cheese" right before his birthday.  This helped with picture taking immensely. 

 What do you get the third boy, he got Winnie the Pooh figures and a book from Grandma and Grandpa Blackham.

 He got a car track/slide toy from Tia Medalith and Uncle Alex.

 He wasn't so sure about the slippers he got from Grandma and Grandpa DeMille until this moment when he figured out what they really were.  Now he leaves them on all day.

We gave Andrew a magazine style bookcase, which he loves.  He is rediscovering all of his books since he can now see them lined up.  The kids gave him some cars.

 We love our little guy.  He loves to play with his siblings, play outside and all things boy.  His first tune he sung was Star Wars.  He loves to have "sissy" and the boys read him books, wrestle, play light sabors, cars, legos, anything they are willing to share, including princesses.  

We love our little Andrew!

Kristen Graduated High School

So the purpose of this blog post is to congratulate Kristen and my parents for graduating high school and getting 5 kids through 36 years of life.  My oldest sister Amanda was graduating high school when my mom was 9 months pregnant with Kristen.  So way to go to them for all of the years they've dealt with the highs and lows of parenting.  They've had 4 teenaged girls and 1 boy during this time.  Of course Kristen has accomplished a lot especially during the last few years.  She heads off to BYU in the fall, which we're all thrilled with.  She is a very accomplished flutist and piccolo player.  She has also been Metea High School's Drum Major the last couple years.  Here are some pictures of the weekend of her graduation.

 

My sister Ashley and her family came to town for the graduation and we got to have them at the Memorial Day parade with us.

 Here is Andrew and Kensie "sharing".

Kristen is the closer of the two Drum Majors.  This is her last parade here in Naperville. :(

We love you Kristen!  Way to go on all your accomplishments.  We are so excited for all the fun you'll have a BYU and also in the BYU Marching Band.  Good luck!