For the Grandmas, Sue and Sue,... and all the other family too!: The last few weeks:

It's been a busy and not-so-busy few weeks around here! Busy because of Kellan...my hands are just full these days. Not-so-busy because it's summer and we are doing NOTHING but staying at home, having friends over to play and swim, and eating dinners outside. Love.

TLDR Picture count:
45 pictures of Kellan sleeping
45 pictures of the kids all over Kellan
45 pictures of the kids swimming
45 pictures of Jonas doing thing outside the house with the kids.

Haha! Or at least that's what it seems like. :) . I'm pretty sure ALL of my pictures this summer will either be the kids swimming, from the vantage point of the patio, or Kellan sleeping, from the vantage point of my arms on the couch. Ah, well.

Layla with some of her friends from ballet class...their last practice of the year together.

My snuggle bug

The back of Layla's father's day card for Jonas

The inside of the card

The front of the card: Grandma and Grandpa made the cover, haha!

Kellan, from about 6:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Or at lest that's how it feels many days.

Playing baseball with Papa on Father's Day

They love it.

I came downstairs one morning and they were all sitting on the couch, listening quietly to an audio book on the Kindle. Be still my beating heart. Love them.

Nursing. Up until just this week he ONLY wanted to nurse when he woke up, when he was hungry. Sigh. He wouldn't nurse to sleep, he wouldn't nurse for comfort. That is NOT helpful in a baby. So he cried a LOT for the first two months of life. Thankfully, now he's "allowing me" to nurse him sometimes even when he didn't just wake up. Sheesh, baby. :)

All day, every day.

In which Lisa does some arts and crafts. With two "ingredients."

"Hot Rocks" became "Paint Rocks"

1. Collect rocks from your back yard.
2. Heat them at 200 degrees for 10 minutes.
3. Melt crayons on them in fun designs.
4. Be annoyed how much this did not work easily like it said it would on Facebook!
5. Decide to paint the rocks instead, as it's less dangerous and faster anyway.
The end.

Some finished products.

Every day my Dad tells Finn a "Finski" story. It's about a Knight named Finski who learns all of these moral lessons...haha. Finn LOVES them. LOVES.

Swimming with my friend Catherine Joseph's kids.

Swimming with Tallie and Rosie

Tallie checks out Kellan.

The girls looking at Layla's new prize

Cora, totally naked, watching the World Cup with Jonas. It's how she rolls these days. I can't keep clothes on her.
I regularly spray down her WHOLE body with sunscreen in the mornings, because I just never know...

Milk drunk

Me trying to figure out where to look at my phone so it looks like I'm looking AT the camera. :)

So many sleeping baby pictures.

This is the felt board for Kellan's one month picture.
It sat in the box for a month.
I never got around to it.
#4Kids

Kellan turns TWO MONTHS!

Smiling at Layla

SO. MUCH. LOVE.

Resting on the porch after swimming, scraping the bowl for cake batter...

Sleeping prince, take #457

Last weekend was a BIG weekend for Cora.
She learned how to swim under water on her own and hold her breath for a LONG time.
She learned how to pump herself on the swings...thank you sweet Jesus!!! :)
She's feeling mighty proud of herself these days.

The only regular "thing" we do this summer is take Layla to swimming lessons on Tuesday nights.
And by "we" I mean Jonas. :)
Tuesday nights mean ice cream!

Swimming with the Richoff kids!

Kellan on the table of the back yard, where he will spend half his life this summer.

4th of July photos. HOW CUTE ARE MY KIDS???

Kellan's faces...haha! He is...um...learning? Haha. :)

CORA, on the other hand, knows exactly what she is doing. :)

...and again...

Swinging with Henry

Taking a nap on Papa

Cousin fun with Henry

Papa makes everything more fun.

Mem goes to our church, is the art teacher for the older 2 kids, AND knows some helpful craniosacral therapy stuff. She came over to work on Kellan a bit and see if she could help his crankiness.

Getting some head work done...with the concerned sister nearby

The eyes say "Mom, HELP."

Layla enjoying summer by listening to audio books.

Birthday dinner for Renee, Anja, and Eamon.

Strong women leaders unite! :)

Aggressive love

New Mothers: Get the Wonder Weeks app for your phone. It costs $4 or something like that, but it's worth it. It'll let you know when you can expect your baby to generally be cranky, and for how long, and WHY (based on science). Awesome. I've found it to be about 85% accurate with Cora and Kellan. I didn't know about it for the other two kids.

Layla drew this using J's phone, making a representation of her tap costume.

Layla with her tap and ballet teacher

The "Different Drum" tap girls.

A few smiles from Mr. Kellan:

The patio

Layla is back in swimming lessons all summer long, on Tuesday evenings. She's in Big 3 now at Foss, so the lessons are 45 minutes long, and there are 5 kids in the class (bigger size now). It's her and 4 boys, and she still loves it.

Jonas took the kids to see the Incredibles 2, and this was the only picture he took...haha. They all had a great time.

On the way back from IKEA, Layla and Cora fell asleep. That's when you know #summerswimming has been happening in the back yard.

Kellan crying on the patio table...haha. The Candle lamps from Ikea.

Jonas took the 3 older kids to the MN Zoo before our membership expired. I'm likely not going to renew it again until Kellan is down to one mid-day nap every day. THEN I can figure out trips to the Zoo again. Been there, done that, know the system...haha.