Now back to our regularly scheduled shenanigans during the month of July.

Blueberry picking is a favorite and requested event every year.  Okay, the heat does produce quite a few grumblers but the reward of blueberries throughout the year to enjoy is well worth all the complaining and the thirty or so minutes of complaining.
This year, Emmie worked super hard to get the blueberries and to snack on them.  

We had a lot of random things going on in June! Zoe decided to go for the ultimate sour sno-ball from our local sno-ball place.  It turned her tongue electric blue! Emmie decided to put a lego piece in her mouth.  And promptly swallowed it.  We never saw  it come out the other end but we’re pretty certain it did.  I took her to the ER because we always freak out when it comes to Emmie’s airway…stupid tumors. Not the exact lego…just a replica. Tobin because…cuteness. This girl is absolutely adorable! Tobin learned to crawl into cabinets. The boys on their “guys night” with junk food and a movie. Lego time means everyone pretty much gets along. Miss Kristina is back in town!  Tobin was thrilled as you can plainly see. Emmie was a brave girl during her ophthalmologist check up.  Her strabismus (eye turning in) is not correcting with plain glasses.  So, we went to the next step, bifocals. Of course, that meant another eye dilation.  She was so brave and a stop for an icee and Target Dollar Spot cleared up the tears.

Tobin made friends with Ringo, the robot vacuum. Building with Suspend.  It’s a super fun game but also fun to just see how you can balance the sticks. Malachi wanted to write a note to Papa when he heard that he was sick.

Mark’s birthday/father’s day present was the farewell concert of Third Day.  Since nursing babies probably won’t enjoy loud concerts, he asked his college roommate.  They had an absolute blast and got to catch up quite a bit on the drive to and from the concert. Lulu is scared of storms.  There were quite a few in June. Tobin got to work sanding the floors in the school room. He was paid in cuddles.
And naps. Best purchase of the swim season were these spray bottles.   White and a belly crawler…nope. You’ll have to zoom in but that passenger seat kind of freaked me out before I realized it was a mask. A stuffed Malachi stuffed with stuffed animals. Smudge, the cat, he likes to visit this cat in the mirror. Every day. Emmie cuddles never get old. We love sno-balls! Liam rescued a turtle that somehow wandered into our backyard. A huge tower. Funny story:  The kids were playing with these and two little girls walked by with their dad.  The girls slightly freaked out.  I apologized to the dad but the dad just lost it laughing.  

Emmie twirling in her new brace!

Emmie with her ballet teacher, Miss Mallory!

Emmie had her first ballet recital (and it happened to be on our wedding anniversary).  She was beautiful and loved every second of it! I think she fell in love with the stage! I even got her hair up in a bun! Emmie takes ballet with a group called Steps of Grace.  This is a great ballet group for ALL kiddos no matter their level of ability.  What’s wonderful to me is that her ballet teacher is an occupational therapist and there are volunteers that work with the kids who are in school to be occupational therapists.  Emmie has grown, no doubt, because of her ballet class and we look forward to the next year of dance!

Welcome home work for Baby Tobin (and Mama)! Zoe had a rough month of testing.  She took the SAT and PSAT for the first time.  We celebrated with our favorite eat out place!  I’m so proud of how hard she is working in her first year of high school. She also got some great blue highlights. Lulu and Tot welcomed Tobin with lots of sniffs and licks and made sure to cuddle up with me to protect us both.
Silas built Tobin his name in legos! Emmie loves her bracelets. Everyone enjoyed visiting Tobin while I recovered. Emmie took a good nap on daddy during church. Tobin’s first family outing.  All twelve ventured to the library.
S’mores night! Pumpkin carving Scary face pancakes at IHOP are free on October 31st.  We love free food.  Especially when you can play with it.

Daddy took the kids and dogs for a walk.