Day 1 of gymnastics for Layla:

Ha.  Guys, this was the perfect starter class for Layla.  She has only 3 other kids in her class...and let's keep in mind one of the most important points:  it only cost me $35.  ;)

Her teacher is a college student in gymnastics at Hamline University, and she's very kind and patient. Layla had a lot of fun, but it's interesting to watch...she is much more timid and unsure of herself when learning a new skill, and I can watch her and see she is worrying that she can't do it very well yet.  But, her general love of the "sport" usually win out and she still has a great time.  It's not like swimming, though--that she clearly has a natural talent for and just "gets it" when the instructors are talking.  This takes a bit more work for her.  (and believe me I use the term "work" loosely here.  ;) )

It's at a local rec center, and from now on I'll be outside with Finn and Cora while her class is in session, so this was my only chance to get a few videos.  Maybe I'll try to get one at the end of day 5 too and see if she's any better by then.  ;)  

Finn's water slide:

Cora helping me call the older two down for breakfast:

A possible blog development:

Many of you may not know this, but in a week or so we're having a young woman from our church and her son (under age 2) move in with us.  She's going through a divorce from a very  bad guy, and is having a bit of a hard time financially, so we wanted to help her out with that...and give her a safe space to stay as well.

She'll be living with us for at least 6 months, maybe more, until hopefully her divorce is finalized, or by some massive miracle there is deep change in the man she is married to and there is some movement towards reconciliation.

Because of this, and mostly because of the fact that they may make it into pictures and videos in this blog, or having me mention them on here, I am considering making this blog private.  It's a hassle to do, and annoying to readers I know, but keeping her safe from this guys is a top priority for me.  He does not know she will be moving in with us, and we all want to keep it that way.

So we'll see.  That may be coming up.  If you happen to come here some day in the next few weeks and can't get on, just email me and I'll give you any directions you may need.  Again, this may not happen as well...I'll talk to her about it...just giving you all a heads up.  :)

Thanks!

Lisa

Play today:

Cora discovered the rocks behind the pool area.

Me, trying to get Finn to talk about the play yesterday.  Ha.

Layla loves diving for rings:

A fun first!

Yesterday I took Layla and Finn to see "Peter Pan, the musical" at the Children's Theater in Minneapolis.  It was their first play!  Fun, fun!  (Jonas got to take both kids to their first two movie-theater movies, as I was with infant/nursing Cora during those times, so I'm excited I got to do a "first" like this with them.)

It was a really nice time.  :) The Children's Theater does an excellent job at everything, so it was fun to have that be their first experience, especially since the kids already know the story.  In fact, Layla leaned over to me a few times and said something like "That's not what happened!!"  But she was going more on the movie, not the story.

 We were sitting up VERY high, way in the back, because those were $10 seats, and frankly I just wasn't going to pay more than that before I knew that my kids could even sit through a 2 hour play.  Okay, if I'm honest, you're going to be hard pressed to get me to pay much more than that, EVER, but I guess I could imagine paying a bit more if I was taking only 1 child.  ;) Live theater is so much fun, and both kids sat through it all no problem, but I was glad Finn's seat was on the end of the row as he can't sit still to save his life (so at least his constant moving wasn't bothering anyone else).  Sometimes I wonder about him and formal education, and how he'll do with all of that... ;)

Layla was also a bit worried that we were so high up--she did NOT want to lean over the bar and look down below us, where as I had to practically keep Finn from climbing over 3 or 4 times.  I understand this, and so does her Papa.

Cora stayed with Grandma while we were gone, which was a rather long time...probably 4 hours.  In her entire life, that may be the longest Cora has ever been away from me!  :)  I generally don't leave my infants alone (other than with Jonas), especially when nursing, until they are old enough to WANT to be away from me that long...but Cora did fine.  She was 1-on-1 with Grandma the whole time, and they swang, played in the sand box, played in the water, and took a walk on which Cora fell asleep.  When we got back Grandma was sitting in the back yard with a sleeping Cora in the stroller, so she even woke up to us standing over her.  What a luck girl, to have such an attentive family! :)  Thanks for the babysitting help, Grandma!

I tried to get video of the kids saying what their favorite parts of the play were, but Layla's 1-word answer was "everything!" and Finn's was "flying!", so...those were boring videos.

Next up, I think Jonas is going to take them to see "The Jungle Book" at the Stepping Stone theater sometime this fall.  We have SO many great theaters around here, and it's fun to be in a new stage of life with my kids where we can experience it all again with them, through their eyes.  Yay for city art and culture!

When the cat is away...

...all hell breaks loose.

Just kidding.  Sort of...

So, Jonas left on Wednesday evening to head out to D.C. for Ben's wedding, and by Thursday evening I was already shot.  Ha!  Single parenting, man.  It's for the birds.  I've got a lot of people in my life who do it regularly, some by choice and some NOT by choice, and I've felt a greater desire to pray for them these days.  Sigh.

Cora adds most of the ..."spice"...to this fun time.  She is teething again, two more bottom teeth, and one juuuuuust poked through, maybe yesterday?  Not sure.  One more to go for this round.  Man it's awful for her.

This is not Cora, just a googled image of a cute, crying, teething baby...but it very well COULD be her.  Her hands are in her mouth constantly, but she doesn't seem to find much joy in chewing on any teething toys these days, or chewing cold things, etc.

Her naps have been all over the place this week because I've done so much more driving than normal.  So, for three days this past week she has taken TWO naps.  No bueno, man.  No bueno.  That majorly messes up night sleep, and then Mama gets dangerously close to losing her marbles if she can't have any down time before bed.

And, to add some fun in the mix, Wednesday night Finn threw up twice.  He sleeps on the top bunk, and changing the sheets on the top bunk (twice, in the middle of the night) is no easy trick.  I ran two loads of laundry at midnight and 1:00 a.m., getting to sleep that night around 1:30.  Needless to say, if you know me even a tiny bit, you know I can barely function on sleep like that.  Gross.  ;)

This reminds me...I need to go switch the laundry pronto...

Finn is fine now...in fact, he seemed completely fine by the time he woke up the next morning, but I kept both kids home from VBS that day (and today, just because they slept in so late this morning).

Do you remember this is our little tradition with Jonas??  ;)  Jonas leaves to do some fun trip somewhere (and this is by no means a slam on Jonas at all, because if he were home he'd be the best help and hands-on dad I could ever ask for...but we rarely get sick when her is here, darn it!  Only when he is gone...), and at least 1 of us, sometimes all of the rest of us, gets sick.  I know it's going to happen, so I just give it to the eventuality of it all and ask my Mom to spend the nights with us when Jonas is away.  I have zero fears of being alone at night (with or without the kids), but I just can't do ER runs by myself with three little kids, so my Mom sleeps here.  It's such a big help on those nights, like Wednesday night, when having more than 1 set of hands is super handy.  Thanks, Mom!! :)  

The only "up side" to the puking on Wednesday night was that it was NOT happening on a plane, where Jonas was at that moment in time, or somewhere like on a bed at Scooter and Laura's house.  I would have felt awful if we/he had infected the wedding party!  (like we almost did 2 Christmases ago when both Jonas and I were so sick on our way out to/first days in D.C.  Phew...sick while pregnant is for sure at the top of my list when sickness is the worst, but sick while traveling is not far behind, truth be told).

Right now in D.C. everyone is setting up for the rehearsal dinner / wedding, and it would be so nice to be there, hanging out and helping out, but...such is life.  (Maybe some day we will be super rich and can all fly anywhere we want, anytime we want, OR, maybe some day I'll get a part time job with an airline so we can fly standby as a family all over the world.  Sounds awesome, right??  That's for sure a "when the kids are all in school" job, though.)  We wish everyone the best, great weather, and a good time out there!  :)  Cute wedding story:  Layla was very sad she couldn't go see Uncle Ben get married.  She has been very into wedding talk lately, and "who is married" talk, etc.  Jonas showed them out wedding photo album and she looooves it.  Anyway, she was mostly sad she couldn't go because then she wouldn't get to see Patricia's dress, and she wouldn't get to see them kiss!  Ha!  She asked Jonas specifically to take a picture of them kissing, but later on she came to me and said "Mama?  Do you think Papa will remember to take a picture of them kissing?"  This was a very well-founded question, as Papa's memory is not the best, so I sent Uncle Ben a text and asked if he had a few pictures on his camera he could send our way.  He did, and Layla was super happy and said "Aaaawwwwwwwwww!" to each one.  Such a cutie.  Such a GIRL.  :)

Fake Father's Day!

Jonas, my Dad, and Jon Horsman will all be out of town on Father's Day, so we're celebrating today!

Our "small family" tradition is to skip church and go to Wabun splash pool and park, then have a picnic.  It's a great tradition.  Perfect weather here today for all these things: 80 degrees, sunny, and a few lazy clouds in the sky.

Picnic time!  Processed foods to the rescue!

Gosh I love her pursed little lips so much.

Layla really wanted this photo.  :)

And now we are off to celebrate with my family!  I'll load a video of the water play later on today, after kids are in bed.

All sorts of summer water fun on Friday:

I opened up my camera today and saw these pictures.  My first thoughts were:

1.  How can I not remember taking these????

and

2.  Dang, I'm getting better on the camera when it comes to taking pics in harsh lighting!

Ah, nope.  Haha.  :)  Renee was here watching all the kids on Friday morning while I did church errands, and she used my camera.  Sigh.  Someday!  ;)

Her own biggest fan.

He calls the puddle jumpers his "swim trunks."  

Cora knows how to climb the slide all the way up to the fort.  Sigh.  She is 13 months!  My summer is over.  ;)

We removed the bottom step on both ladders in hopes of deterring her.  Nope. 

MOTIVATED child.

Ms. Swimmer!

I forget when the "everything always goes in the mouth" phase ends?

Being busy / keeping busy vs. rest and sabbath:

I have many, many thoughts on this topic, so this is my reminder to come back later and blog about it in depth...or maybe slowly add to it over time.

Our pastor is on sabbatical right now, and so sabbath, and rest, and sabbatical, and business have all been a hot topic for sermons art church.

In addition to that, Jonas and I have been thinking about this topic and talking about it, in relation to what does keeping the sabbath holy look like at our house, for months even before this sabbatical began.  It's been very interesting, and very convicting, and very encouraging at the same time.

More to come later, I hope.

For my reference later:

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/practical-faith/most-ignored-commandment

Graduation of my "first babies"

Meet Joe and Will Keith...my first babies. :)

When I was 16 Patty Keith was pregnant with twins, babies #6 and #7 for her.  She asked me if I would stay with her other kids when they were in the hospital as we only lived 3 blocks away from them at the time.  She went into the hospital and delivered two healthy baby boys, and I spend 2 days with her kids.  When I brought the kids to the hospital to meet their new siblings Patty looked at me and said something like "Um, Lisa, I think I'm going to need some help here.  Are you free this summer?"  

And that's how it started.  I was there the day the Keith twins were born, and I stopped nannying for them 5 years later, when they entered kindergarten.  (I worked every week day during the summers, until college, and then after school during the school year, and on weekends in college as well).They have now graduated high school.  Wowza. How fun to see them so grown up and mature! They are both much taller than me, no huge shocker. 

 I absolutely loved being their nanny.  :)

Here are a few more pictures from the graduation open house (tis the season, right?  Thank goodness all my friends are married by now...wedding season makes for an equally busy summer!)

Chris, doing his traditional thing of trying to get babies to stand on his hand...

...Cora was a big ol' NO GO. ;)

Holly gave Layla this dress 7 years ago!  I love it so much.  :)

I refused to let her run into the alley.  I'm such a meanie.

Boy did she love Patty's dog.  She hasn't been around many dogs, and we basically had to leave after a while because I couldn't keep her away from the poor puppy!  

What a face!  Love her.