Good sleeper

I have often been told by friends and family how odd it is that my children seem to be able to sleep anywhere, anytime, and with any amount of noise around them. Although that is not true for all my kids, it certainly is true for K. Here are a few examples. In the first one, she is half on the chair and half on a shelf. The second picture isn't really an odd place but it makes me laugh every time I look at it, so I had to post it. It makes me wonder what she was doing before she fell asleep, or what she was dreaming about. The third is at the pool. Every time we went to the pool she would play for a while, then set up her little bed and take a nap. I love the sleeping pictures! Kids always look so sweet when they sleep.

Lucky 13!

I know we are almost back to July again, but I'm trying to go in order and catch up on all the things that have happened in the past months. Na turned 13 on the 4th of July. She is now officially a teenager. For the 4th, we always do some kind of family activity which includes going to see fireworks, but her birthday is definitely a highlight every year.

Scout Camp - June 2009

This was a very productive scout camp for my boys. It was a week filled with lots of studying and writing, swimming (that's J trying to float on his back - he has no body fat so his "float" is just his head!), boating, rifle-shooting, rock-climbing, and of course, eating, sleeping, and generally getting very dirty. Ultimately, both boys finished the week having completed about 7 or 8 merit badges each. That is quite an accomplishment. It helped to have their dad there to make sure they were on task and where they needed to be the whole time. It wasn't a relaxing week for S, that's for sure, but he achieved his own goal that week, too. He trained for and passed all the tests to become a certified BSA lifeguard. It was a lot of work, but he was glad he pushed himself to do it. One of my favorite pictures from the week is the one in the middle. Apparently they weren't even posing for a picture. That's actually what they did when they got back to the church parking lot. Another favorite part of scout camp for me (insert a sarcastic tone here!) is always the lovely smelling loads of laundry I get to do when they get back. It's a very unique smell that's for sure. One that is hard to discribe. Anyway, I do love that they get to go every year.

She's growing up!

Ni turned 9 back in June. She really enjoyed her day. The rest of us did, too. After all, we got to eat cake! That is one of the benefits to having a large family -- more opportunities to have cake and ice cream throughout the year. I've been going through photo albums lately and trying to organize my piles of pictures. It has been fun to look back at old pictures of the kids and see how much they have grown. I have been pretty good at enjoying all the different stages of life so far, but they go by so fast and seem to be picking up speed. To quote Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." That's a great line and has taken on new meaning for me. Anyway, I'm glad Ni is one of mine that I get to watch grow up. She certainly keeps me on my toes and can be quite entertaining.