Saturday afternoon nap

Her first nap in this chair :)


Funny thing is, just 5 minutes before we found her this way, she was coming out of her room to say she was done playing. John takes an afternoon nap every day. But Brielle has pretty much given them up besides once or twice a week. While John naps, Brielle has some "down time" and plays very well on her own. John woke up after only 45 minutes which is very unusual for him, so I was rocking him back to sleep. When Brielle came out, I whispered "shhh" so she wouldn't wake John. Well, she went back to her room. So why did she end up in the chair? I have 2 guesses: 1) her bed was so packed full of toys there was no room (TRUE) and 2) I don't think she was planning on falling asleep (maybe true)!

Welcome, Tessa!

We are so excited to welcome our new niece & cousin, Tessa Ann, into the family! She was born at 8:08pm yesterday. AND would you believe... Jolene & Terry arrived at the hospital just over one hour before that, around 7pm! Jolene taught at school all day, had a doctor's appointment, came home, made dinner, decided it was "time", then went to the hospital to have a baby... all in a day's work! Her siblings Connor, Emma, Josie, & Karley all got to meet her last night shortly after she was born.

Tessa is a cutie :) She was wide-eyed & alert when we visited tonight.


Oh my! Tessa had a busy room tonight when her visitors included 10 cousins, 3 aunts, 2 uncles-- all at once! Plus her 3 sisters, brother, mom & dad were there at this time. She was a popular girl today with several other family members stopping by to meet her.


Brielle was excited she had a chance to hold Baby Tessa.


Emma holds her little sister.


Tim, John, & Tessa.

What our kids learned on vacation this summer...

Brielle learned she can jump out pretty far to us, even when we're not right next to the side of the pool. Sometimes we 'accidentally' didn't catch her so that she realized she can land on her own. She didn't mind her face getting wet, especially after how excited we were- as in "WOW! Did you just do that by YOURSELF?!!!" She answered with a beaming smile... and sometimes a few seconds later, a sneeze to get the water out that went up her nose.


She also was excited to discover she can stand, walk around, & play in 3 feet of water on her own. This was great for Mom & Dad too :).
(This is the closest picture I have of her standing on her own.)


John, who loved jumping off the side EVEN MORE than Brielle, also learned he could float around & kick in this tube without our help. Check out that smile-- proud little guy he was!


They also learned about fishing...


including how to reel the fish in,


and how to hold it up so we all can see it.


And then when the fish is thrown back into the lake,
and the hook is empty because the worm got eaten,
then it's time to run to the bait container,
grab another worm,
and RIP! IT! IN! HALF!!!
(and "eeek!" says Mom, without Brielle hearing.)

Camping Trip flashback

Going back a few weeks, here are some of my other favorite photos...

Max


Damien


Lincoln


Willa


Jolene & Karley

"Grandma & Grandpa at the Farm"

John & Brielle always have so much fun visiting Grandma & Grandpa Berning, who they also call "Grandma and Grandpa at the Farm."


Grandpa runs with Karley & John.


Grandma, Brielle, & the kittens.

More about these kitties-- Brielle is IN LOVE! She even gave them names: Bella (the dark one) and DeAnna (the lighter one). Sometimes she calls DeAnna by the name Anna, depending on who asks her. Brielle says DeAnna has hair color like herself, and Bella has hair color like Uncle Terry. She has talked about these kittens almost every day since she first met them. She was very protective of the kittens, and worried about where they walked. She didn't want the cows to step on them! One challenge has been finding them when we have gone back, because the kittens have so many places to hide on the farm. We can't always find them- fortunately that hasn't upset Brielle because she figures they are hiding with their mommy.

(Thanks for the photos, Jolene!)

Her latest crush

Words cannot begin to describe this kitty-crush :)

Yellow Tubes

John & Brielle love to float around in these yellow tubes that we tie together. We drift around and use our arms to paddle us wherever we decide to go. John usually wants to go in one by himself. Brielle then picks one of our laps to sit on.

On this day, we were floating around when John was suddenly surprised by someone who snuck up behind him. You can see John laughing :).

The kids think it's soo funny when Grandpa Ted squirts water at them.

Then John & Brielle had fun giving Grandpa Ted handfuls of sand... over and over and over :).

Paddle Surfing

The water was like glass this day... so Alexia & Tim both took advantage of that and went paddle surfing.

Summer Girl

Here are a few recent pics of Brielle at Frentress Lake.

The River was pretty high-- in these 1st couple pics you'd usually see some beach in the background. The photos are from last weekend. Fortunately, the sandy beach is back now :).

Tie Dye Project

While we were at Timber Lake on vacation, we did a tie dye project with the kids. A shirt or tank top was made for all 17 grandkids. We also made headbands for the girls. Here's a look at our final product:

They are all going to wear them at the Family Softball Tournament in a few weeks :)!

Preview of Our Camping Trip

Just a couple of my faves... before I sort through the 500+ I took in the last 3 days:)

Brielle walks a pony on her own

Her enthusiam for the animals continues... :)

After I heard Brielle talk about a "John-cat", I learned from Ellen that Brielle had recently learned about how the boy cats are called "Tomcats". Brielle has named her own version :).

2 year old phone chatter

Tim & Jolene let John & Karley talk to each other on the phone recently.... funny.

Look what they found!

Last night, I was in the garage when I heard Tim say from outside, "Go show your mom what you found." Somehow I had a feeling it would be something like this...

By the way, when Brielle says she found it "downstairs", she means "in the backyard." :)

And she has learned from her Belken cousins that the proper environment for a toad includes water, rocks, & bugs!

Taking turns

We planted a locust tree on John's birthday.

Brielle watered it first.

John watched & waited patiently :)

He got a little closer to the water action.

And he finally got his turn!

"I did it, Mommy!"