The Anema's: Vacation!

It's been a crazy month (okay, it's just a crazy life!). As you can tell, I haven't had much time to update the blog. I will say I think this month is the first time we've said, "this could be getting more manageable." By "more manageable" I mean: I have less "I need to do deep breathing to get through this day" moments. The big changes we've noticed that make it easier are that the boys want to play more together now. Even Tyler sometimes. We took down the gate at the top of our steps so they can all go up and down freely now, and they love it! Derek will usually go down first, and Tyler loves to go down to play with him. Sometimes the others follow. Evan and I even ate dinner one night without any kids upstairs. We kind of didn't know what to do! We were sitting down, talking, and actually taking time to chew our food. These things do not ever happen at our house! :)

Evan, Tyler and I went to a lake in MN over the 4th of July weekend to hang out with Evan's parents who were camping up there. We had such a great time! My parents stayed home with the babies, which was SO amazing of them. And Evan's parents made the trip so nice for us, too. They took care of Tyler lots of the time, made us meals, etc. It was a great breather!

Here are the boys having a car wash. Give them all rags and a bucket of water, and they all get to work! :) D, M, A

We love being able to get outside! They boys love the swingset! As you can see, we've already replaced two of our baby swings with big swings b/c now that the babies have seen Tyler swinging like a big boy, they all want to, too. They were all fighting over the one big swing we had, so we switched them out!

Derek...he loves swinging on his tummy the most. He does this a lot of the time we're outside.

Here's my dad helping Micah swing.

Micah man...I just think they look SO big when they do this! They are 19 months now...unreal!
Micah had his last helmet appt. this week, but he hasn't been wearing his helmet for the last few months. His head has been growing in the right direction on it's own now, so he's officially graduated from the helmet. I'm really glad we did it, b/c his head shape definitely rounded out, but I'm glad we're done, too. Now the babies think it's really fun to play with his helmet. I kind of wish they all had one to wear outside and around the house. ha! Someone always (that's not an exaggeration) has a bruise, bump, big lip, etc.

Snack time with grandpa Ken! Andrew, Micah, Derek

Andrew is my dad's little buddy. They LOVE each other! It's the sweetest thing ever. Andrew will always snuggle by my dad. It's kind of crazy, but we've always said that Andrew is like my dad in a lot of ways: He has dimples, he likes to snuggle a lot, the more blankets he can have on him/under him/around him...the better, and he frequently has bad hair days. :)

Micah eating. This is his strategy: Two spoons, head down, GO! Micah loves his food!! I love that about him! He's always the one saying "Mo, mo, mo!!" (More!) The babies are talking so much more now. They are putting phrases together, learning names, and I am actually starting to understand what they're telling me. It's the sweetest, most fun, amazing thing to watch. And they do have this one little phrase that they say to each other that I have no idea what it means, but whenever they say it, the other ones laugh. They have so much fun together. The first thing Micah says when he wakes up in the morning and the last thing he says at night is, "Derey?" (Derek?) They're always so concerned about where the other ones are. Sweet.

Andrew, Derek, Micah. Drinking water out of the sand/water table. Yes, I try to stop this. No, it never works, so I've given up. There are lots of things you loosen up on when there is absolutely nothing you can do to control it x3.

I let the boys come up by the counter now sometimes to watch me cook, etc. They LOVE it! This was the first time I let them come up, and I told them to keep their hands on the counter so they couldn't pick on their brothers, lose their balance, etc. And they listened! :) I can see many cookie baking times in our future like this! How blessed am I? Look at these cute little helpers! M, A, D.

And here is Tyler joining the party. The babies were now banging measuring cups on the counter, and Tyler was directing them.

These boys love their daddy!! Lots of hugs!

And here we are cruising in the choo choo wagon with our shades on. It's still so fun to see people's reactions to us coming down the street. It's like people can't help but smile when they see these little guys. The other day an older lady who we didn't know, was stopped at a corner waiting for us to pass, and I said, "everyone wave to say thank you!" and all 4 boys started waving. She got the hugest smile, and waved and watched us for a long time. It's amazing how much joy these boys can bring to people just by being together. Pretty special. T, D, A, M

How cute is Micah?

Andrew...He's so sweet when he's not biting his brothers. He's been in to that lately. :)

Micah has now taken over Andrew's bad hair days. I would like to tell you this is only bed head, but unfortunately that is not the case. This is kind of an all day hair style right now. The only sure way to get it to stick down is to rub a little syrup from the pancakes in the morning on it, which happens frequently.

Tyler...such a big boy!

Here is Tyler and daddy getting ready to go fishing. They were getting their tackle boxes all ready. Tyler was SO excited to go, and he loved the lake! He played in the sand with all the diggers there for most of the time, and he loved swimming, too! We have hardly been able to take him swimming since last summer the babies were so tiny and we were confined to our house, and the year before I could hardly walk since I was so huge pregnant. So....he's just learning now, and really loving it!

All ready to go!

Grandpa Marv, Tyler, Evan

We took Tyler out fishing a couple of times, and he really liked it!

And back at home...This was our sandbox. This did not work. There was lots of sand throwing and fighting in this confined space. So.....

....Super Daddy built us another, huge one! It's been a huge hit with all the neighbor kids, and Tyler spends hours every day playing in here. The babies really like it, too! The first time they went in it, Derek threw sand (of course), and Andrew picked up a handful of sand behind his back, smiled sweetly, and walked over to Micah and put it right on his head. He's so sneaky!