Wake Surfing - She Does It!

 Addison decided that she was ready to master wake-surfing, and if there is anything we've learned about Addison is that when she is determined to do something, she gets it done!  So out they went, and sure enough - with about 6 tries, she was up and at it!  She was cute - she told Amy that after about 4 tries she wanted to quit, but she thought "I think I am starting to figure this out, I just need to stick with it and I can get it" and sure enough another 2 times and she got it!

Recently we had Jeff and Niesha over to hang out and do a movie night (ladies) / video game night (boys).  We went out on the soccer field and little Sadie took right to it - running all over and kicking several goals on Zachary!  Zachary would make a big show of missing the ball, once he fell to the ground in slow motion and she just laughed and laughed, telling us all about how fell down!  She is 2 years old and just deliciously precious - Amy now wants to have another little one - but someone would need to give us one because that would not be medically possible anymore! :)  Ha ha ha!  

She is going for the goal!

High five with the goalie after she scores!

Soccer has officially started - with 2 soccer practices during the week and then games on Sunday.  Fun to watch the boys, but always a little tiring with how busy life is!  Covid was nice for the slow-down pace that is for sure.  In Zachary's first game, he got a goal (2 actually)  - so he was quite pleased!

And while the boys are practicing, Addison is playing on the playground nearby - learning to do the climbing wall!

Addison is having fun learning to sew with Grandma - she got a little sewing machine for her birthday!

We have kept up our Sunday ritual of Grandma and Grandpa coming over to watch Little House on the Prairie - Addison is so precious, she sits with them each week and holds their hands - love it!

And once in a while Addison will snuggle up with her big brother too - this time it was with Kaleb!

Labor Day Fun in the Sun

 For Labor Day, we had a fun weekend here at home.  Amy has been struggling with sleeping this week  - virtually becoming an insomniac early on during Covid-19 and then slowly getting better as the months passed - until she finally found a functional medicine doctor that dug deep into what was going on and fixed the issue (neurotransmitter problems - likely due to high stress from work and life!).  Anyway, with that, Amy did not want to go away to spend the weekend on vacation because she never sleeps well in other beds, and it just hadn't been long enough of good sleep to take a chance -- so we stayed at home and had some fun around here!

On Sabbath, we headed out to the beach with friends - it was quite fun and it didn't rain at all, so we ended up staying until the sun went down - that was a first!

A mermaid Addison

This girl does love her self-ies

The boogie board isn't meant for surfing, but she was giving it a try!

Karis and Addison out there in the water - she LOVES boogie boarding right now!

Addison loved playing with the big girls!

This was the closest to a family picture that we got that day

"sleeping beauties" :)

Great chatting time!

Spikeball is always a favorite

On Sunday, Zachary and Kaleb had some friends over to play soccer - these are mostly the virtual kids at FLEC - it was commiserating that they weren't in school - giving them something fun to do!

And then on Monday we went boating with some friends, and while we were there they brought out their jetski - which Addison was over the moon excited to be able to ride on!

She got to "drive" (although clearly he was the one controlling the machine!)

Afterwards they went over to have pizza - while the adults had a lovely chat on the back deck!

And that weekend Addison really wanted to have a "camp-out" - so there were roasting s'mores over the BBQ and then a tent sleepover with Daddy in the bonus room.  Karis let her fall asleep and then bailed to the guest room which is there in the bonus room as well :)  We're getting old for sleeping on the hard floor!

Ready for their tent sleeping experience!

Not exactly the same as an open fire, but it worked!

Soccer Field Debut!

 The summer project was changing the very back of our 2 acre property into a soccer field.  We've shared a few pictures along the way, so these are just a few wrap up pictures and the finished product!  We had to level it by bringing in concrete fines in huge piles, spreading them out, then packing them down, be sure that it was flat so that a soccer ball would stay on the field while playing, and then bring in the recycled turf!  It was an all-hands on deck family effort (well, let's be clear, Amy wasn't out there but hey, she was inside working to help pay for it - can that count?! :).  But now the soccer field is done - it has been great, the boys (especially Zachary) have loved it, and have been outside on the field a ton since it was done.  It has attracted the teenage boys over to our house a lot more, which is exactly what we wanted - to be a fun hang-out place!

Working on leveling it with the concrete fines.  The lawn tractor came in handy

Then came the turf

And then it was rolling the turf out on the concrete fines

And flipping it over, straightening it, nailing it down

And then it was goals, nets to catch the balls from going past the nets, and voila - we're done!  

These are old pictures, but after Amy's mom's surgery, Addison loved to go over and play her little nurse.  She does love her Grandma!  Currently, Grandma is doing very well, and is up to walking 9000 steps per day - that is so awesome!  She is getting back to her life, and we pray that this chapter is fully behind her.

Nancy Nurse is here to the rescue!

Bringing her some water

In other really important, cry-worthy news - KALEB is now bigger than his Mom!  How can this be?  He has grown a ton this year and his voice has dropped!

We have a few other random pictures below:

She got a hammock for her birthday - she is quite excited about that!

Addison loves to play "family" where one person is the baby and one person in the mom.  In this picture below, Amy is supposed to be pretending to be the baby....this doesn't quite work for an adult to be curled up and tiny on a little girl's lap!!!

At the end of August, Kaleb had the fun of celebrating Evan's birthday - they went to an Escape room, and they succeeded in getting out - super good for them!

Other family time moments:

Riding his dad like a horse just doesn't work so well when you are this big!

Love the fact that our teenager will still hold our hand!