July Phone Favorites

The months are slipping by and the fun continues. Here's our July Phone Favorites.

 Sprout napping is a blessing and a curse. Quiet time is divine but you pay for it ten fold on the back end when it's bed time. Sprout is hands down my worst sleeper. He just don't sleep as long as the others. He's got the wiggles and is always on the go. I love how precious he is while he sleeps though.

Papa and Gram got Roo his very own boat! He was a pretty big fan!

Trying to draw again. Guys, I may not be a people artist. People are HARD!!!!

Climbing the stairs is the highlight of his day for sure!

Do you remember E taking this picture with Sprout when he was about Roo's age? I adore it!
 

Projects with Gram.

The chicken fort! The kids have the best time swimming with friends on Tuesday and Thurdays.

One afternoon while I was turning o the hose I noticed some sticks laying very straight in the A/C vent. I called Papa over to inspect and a little house finch flew out the vent at me. The whole vent was blocked so we were going to have to remove the nest. Upon first inspection Jakob told me there were no eggs in the nest and I felt a little bit better about our endeavor. 

Then I looked closer and my heart broke!!! six itty bitty little eggs were in the nest and Mama bird was losing her marbles. I felt so bad. We placed the nest in the tree and Mama immediately came to inspect.

She sat on the deck yelling at us and as soon as we left. She went to the nest distraught. Daddy bird came back and they had quite the talk. Jakob translated. Daddy: What the hell happened I was only gone for 10 MINUTES?!?! Mama: They ripped our home from the vent!!! And on it went. In the end they abandoned the nest and I was so sad. I'm sorry sweet birds.

Love that perfect little face in the window!

Went to a few river locations to help Papa pick a spot for family pictures. The locations were beautiful!

Love those little braced feet!

Beautiful clouds and rainbow on our way to Jakob's lacrosse game. 

Loved seeing how happy Roo was in the tub. I don't ever do bath time with the kids so this was extra cute to me!

Lit a candle for O.U.R's End Human Trafficking Week. 

My eyes have really been opened up to the horrors that are going on in the world. Children are sold for sex, labor and for organ harvesting and it is mind blowing. The more I learn, the sicker I am and have since stared backing away from some of the stories I came across for mental health reasons. I feel like it still needs to be spoken about and people need to be aware, donate if you can and watch for signs of it in your own life. THIS is the fight! There is nothing worse than harming a child. Period.

Sprout wanted to dance in the rain.

So that's what we did!

Then Duke and E went and jumped in the rain and it was magical! 

I had to steal a picture from my IG of the milky way this month. There were a lot of astronomical events that happened this month that were pretty cool. 

I was also featured on MBM! I was low key freaking out. It was pretty cool. They later posted another post quoting me which was even cooler. 

And that wraps up month 7 of 2020 and I am blown away at how much we have done already. SO fun. Okay August... what you got?!

Adventures with Grammy & Pa

We had planned on doing nature week 2.0 for summer camp this week but it ended up raining ALL WEEK LONG! (Major eye roll!) So one brief sunny morning we headed out to the river to explore. We came across this huge hawk just hanging out on the basketball hoop. He wasn't afraid of anyone, just sitting there posing for a picture. Pretty cool!

 

 Because of all the rain, the water was really high and the current really strong. So we had to keep a close eye on the tiny humans.

Duke and I crossed the river, one step at a time. 

Gramma followed with a nervous E and a wiggly Sprout. I raced out the help them before the water took Sprout away. 

We made it! it was a fun adventure. 

We got another break in the rain so Mom Tobler and I headed to the Nelson-Atkins museum to explore the grounds. The museum was closed because of COVID but the grounds were beautiful. I have never been before. 

There were so many fun things to look at. I really need to explore my city more! 

Our adventures were few and far between but we did have some and they were awesome!

Fun with Grammy & Pa

 

 The weather wasn't the best for Grammy and Pa's visit but it really helped us focus on projects. We got so much accomplished this trip! The roses in our front flower bed were dead. I had the missionaries pull them out a few weeks ago and when Pa & Gramma arrived I knew they would be the ones to ask about plants.

Pa had some pretty good helpers!!

 

Teach them how to work Pa!!! 

 We ended up putting in five different types of bushes and I am really excited to see how they grow next year. Grow babies GROW!!

We also had an epic nurf gun battle and Duke was in heaven!!!

 Peanut didn't want to participate but didn't want to miss the action either. 

Some children were used as shields. 

 Like I said, It was pretty intense! 

We got dressed up for home church.... sort of.

They jumped....

... we played games ...

...and they played music!

Then we worked and worked some more. Just when the boys decided they were ready for a break, I'd throw another project at them. 

We went for a nice refreshing swim that was more like a polar bear dip for some. 

Chicken fights!!!!

I love pool days!

There was more music and it warmed my heart! 

Then Pa and Gramma went back home and our hearts broke a little bit. It has been nine months since we have seen them. That is the longest we have gone without a visit one direction or the other and I didn't quite realize how much I missed it until they were at the house. As they drove away I sat in the living room and just bawled. We had a fun and productive trip and we cannot wait to be together again!