Morning on the farm.

Despite living in a moral rural area than many in bigger cities, it's not often that we get to go to a farm! My good friend, Heidi, invited us to go to her parent's farm (where she grew up). It was a fun morning! The girls enjoyed seeing the barns, cats, tractors, and their beautiful garden. We were thankful for the invitation and for a great experience!

Got some sweet shots of our three beautiful girls in their garden.

We were doing respite at the time for a 16-year-old girl, so she was along too. She actually took these next few pictures. She was very into photography and loved experimenting my camera over the weekend. She was a big animal lover too, so it was fun to see her with the cats and enjoying herself!

Love this picture she got of Ellory in the garden- it was beautiful!

Fun to watch Norah with her friends! You could tell they were so used to being on the farm and my girls weren't, which was funny. Norah has never been a big animal lover, so she never held or touched their kittens. 

I love Norah's hand on Savannah's back in this picture. Grateful for a fun morning with good friends!

Lucy and Ellory's swim lessons.

Norah has done a couple different summer rec activities through our town (she was old enough this year to do a few things!), and Lucy and Ellory have been incredible sports about going to her activities and watching. So, when their turn came around for parent/child swim lessons, they were both so excited to have something for them! It was so cute. They talked about it numerous times and were so happy to go. They both did really well and are getting more and more comfortable in the water- both put their head under without issue!

Way to go, Lucy and Ellory! It is so fun to watch you grow!

The parent/child class is an introduction to water, it's not even an actual level, in case anyone was wondering. It's perfect for younger ones who are just beginning. They practice being comfortable in the water, getting rings, blowing bubbles, putting your face in, kicking, etc. 

Norah's blastball.

Norah was old enough to do a few summer rec programs in our town this summer, and it was a lot of fun! She did blastball (pictured below), which is like introductory t-ball, and sports central, where they taught them the basics of a different sport each week. Overall Norah did pretty well! It stretched her a bit, which was good. She was more shy at blastball because she didn't know anyone on her team, so she wanted Kley to help her each week, which was kind of cute. (Blastball was in the evenings, so Kley could come too!) Doing these things was a neat way to have her experience new things and learn group concepts and good sportsmanship. There were a few friends from her preschool class who did sports central too, so that made her a bit more comfortable.

Way to go, Norah! The first night, Kley even had to help her hold the bat and basically do it for her because she was too scared, but by the last times she hit by herself and even ran around the bases a few times herself. She was even more aggressive going for balls in the field on the last night!

She was so excited she got the ball this time!

Norah, we'll always be your biggest fans!

Baby Will and sparklers!

We were able to have supper with the De Jongs over the 4th of July weekend and it was fun to all be together again! Let's all take a minute to soak in the greatness that George Banks (Father of the Bride) was also captured in this picture with us. :)

We all love baby Will! We joked tonight that the girls are going to call him baby Will forever because that's what they always call him. Norah also randomly called him Little Willy once, which was so hilarious but not a nickname that Brett and Elizabeth want to stick I don't think! Lucy and Ellory were rooting him on eating his pears.

Everyone together makes me happy!

What a blessing family is!

Fun with Uncle Brett.

The girls were in awe watching the sparklers be lit!

They were a little scared at first, but then all held them and liked it! 

4th of July fun!

4th of July 2019.

Happy 4th of July! Very thankful for my family and to live in the USA! We had a very laid back holiday this year, which turned out to be really nice. We started off with the big Ver Steeg celebration (Kley's mom's side) in a nearby town on the 3rd. We went to the celebration there where the girls enjoyed some bounce houses (can't get enough of those!) and a train ride and then we headed to his aunt/uncle's house to eat with everyone. The rest of the weekend was low key, which was nice because all four of us girls had colds and Kley threw his back out. (I threw mine out about two months ago and now Kley did! Unbelievable and so painful. Welcome to our thirties I guess!) We saw the De Jongs a couple times, but didn't do big celebrations because Brett was busy studying for his med school boards.

How cute are these girls!? (I was actually quite please with how it turned out, because in past years they've all had cute 4th of July outfits, but I dropped the ball on that this year- oops! Thankfully I found a few old dresses in my clothes bins and everyone found something to wear. Norah and Lucy's dresses were a size too small, but could squeeze in for one day.)

Three beautiful girls!

They are getting old enough to just begin to smile on command more, which is adorable!

We never tire of bounce house pictures. Isn't is just great to watch your kids light up because they are having so much fun? :)

Train ride!

Lucy and Ellory are seeming so grown up this summer!

I always think it's fun to look back on posts from previous years and see how the girls have changed and grown. Check out 4th of July 2018 here and 2017 here. 

Three pool sisters!

Everyone seems to love to ask, "Are you going to the pool a lot this summer?" and for us, that answer is a big fat no. I can totally see how that would be fun for older kids, but I don't feel comfortable taking the girls by myself as they all need a lot of attention in the water. Our pool also doesn't open until 1:00, which is our nap/rest time, so whenever we do get the chance, we love to wait until evening when Kley can come too! We were able to make it to the pool on a Saturday, and everyone had fun! 

Neat God story- we were doing respite at the time for a 6 year old girl, and we had talked to a friend from our church who was also doing respite that week and said how it would be fun to do a play date. We found out later that our friend was doing respite for her sibling and they don't get to see each other often, so we did get together and they got to see each other! (With the proper okay from all parties involved, of course.) How fun! We met at the pool and had 3 adults to 5 kids, and it still felt like a lot of work to keep eyes on them all and keep everyone afloat, but we did it. We take water safety very seriously, which is why I don't take the girls to the pool by myself! And speaking of water safety, I was only able to have my camera out for a moment before I had to get into the water to help, but managed to sneak these three adorable shots! Love my girls!