Family Up Date

Summer time, ah the beauty of summer. Lots of beach trips, hiking, camping, cook outs, days at the pool. Yep, that's what summer is to me. Even though I can dream of such events. What is our summer really like? Well to start off with, there's Ben's job.

Ben's job usually gets busy during the summer, as the summer APX team sell a bunch of systems, and the techs install all the systems. Ben's days should be full of service calls, and such. Instead this summer has gotten off to a very sssssssssssslllllllllllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwww start. In fact Bart and Travis have decided to join the APX summer teams as a Tech, and a Sales Rep. So when Bart's not on a job he hangs out with Ben. The two help each other with their jobs, just to make life more enjoyable, and more fun. But having a slow season right now gives Joseph and I more time with Ben. Its been really nice to have him at home with us. Joseph demands more of Ben's time so its a nice break on me. (hehe)

Liisi has chosen to help out some neighbor families by watching their kids for a bit. In May she was watching a little boy named Jake-Jake Cole. he's 3 weeks younger than Joseph, so they enjoyed the buddy-buddy time. And have now come to recognize each other at church activities. She have also been watching a little 4 month old (now 5 months old) girl named Brooke Gray. She has been a challenge, as Liisi has to remember how to handle a baby, after having a toddler on her hands for 16 months. Liisi will have Brooke in her charge at least until August, so it'll be a GREAT opportunity to get the hang of handling 2 kids, and getting Joseph over the jealousy of not getting all Mom's attention before Ben and Liisi decide to have another child.

Joseph has had to learn to share his precious toys with Jake-Jake and Brooke, and has had to learn how to share his Mommy with other kids. But he has done very well. There have been some rough times as Joseph has learned that Mommy gives Brooke more attention when she cries, so he tries it. But with added love and attention from Ben and myself when I don't have Brooke Joseph has learned he doesn't need to fuss to get our attention anymore. Joseph has been able to interact with more kids this year. Being older, and more independent, not to mention mobile, he is enjoying many summer activities. Such as pool time 2-3 times a week, a 3 miles walk for Mom, a 3 mile joy ride for himself as we join our walking group around Lake Johnson every morning at 8am, a weekly picnic with other mom's and their younger kids to Pullen Park. Which ends in play time on the slides, and swings and now the sand. Joseph loves being outside, and the one downfall about being on the 3rd floor of our apartment complex is he can't just walk out the back door anymore to play in the grass.

Its getting to be a busy and very fun summer. We'll be posting pictures as we take them. And a bunch more slide shows. So keep and eye out for them.