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July

I promised you some pictures, so here you go! =)

We had a wonderful, friend-filled Canada Day weekend this year. We spent the Saturday at my parents' house (they were gone) with friends Amy and Colin and Dave and Karen (and their daughter, Anneka). It was nice to just chill outside by the pool and watch a movie in the evening. Colin took some amazing pictures that day. Oh, expensive digital SLR camera, soon I will be able to afford you...(I hope!)

Dave showing Judah a toad.

Judah hamming it up for Colin's camera.

I love these pictures of Asher.

We had some family time on Sunday of the long weekend, and then on Monday, went to Brampton to visit Rob's childhood friend Bob, his girlfriend, Dawn, and their daughter, Victoria. We took the kids to Chingouacousy Park, had a barbeque in the evening, and then took the kids out for a walk to the playground. It was a nice family day.

Judah on daddy's shoulders at the petting zoo.

cautious about the petting zoo

Rob, Judah, Victoria, and Bob

Both Judah and Asher started swimming lessons at the beginning of July. Judah has taken them before, but we want to build his confidence, because he was quite afraid of the water before the lessons started this time around. Asher enjoys the water most days, but sometimes gets hungry during lessons and then doesn't want to have anything to do with it!

He's not smiling in these pictures, but he really does seem to enjoy the lessons!

This may gross you out, but we thought it was hilarious, so I'm going to share it anyway. A few weeks ago, Rob went into Judah's room to check on him before we went to bed, as he usually does. He noticed that Judah was sweating (which is common for him), and moved him over a little bit. Well, he had been sweating a LOT...check out this profile that he left. ALL sweat.

Isn't that bizarre?

At the beginning of July, Julie came over to my mom's place with Micah so that we could swim and just hang out. Micah and Judah were splashing away in the kiddie pool, and got each other all wound up. Micah was screeching loudly, but then he got upset when he heard Judah doing the same thing, so we had to take him out of the pool. Silly guys!

splashin' cousins =) this is before Micah got upset!

Now for some random pictures...

my big sweetie is growing up so quickly!

Daddy with Asher

CHEESE!

soaking up the warmth on a beautiful summer day

Asher is such a smiley guy. We feel so blessed to see how far he has come since birth!
He loves to sit in his Bumbo chair.

chillin' together in their chairs

Judah drew this picture of a tree! I thought it was pretty impressive!

the artist at work

blowing bubbles with Uncle Dan

cuteness

Asher loves to watch his brother play. Judah can get him to laugh so easily!
I will try to post a video of this.

hi, mom!

silly boy

more cuteness

i also have a whole whack of pictures from our camping trip at the Pinery in July. i will post those separately!

Christian Paul

Congratulations to Colin and Amy de Raaf on the birth of their gorgeous little boy, Christian Paul. He was born in the wee hours of Sunday morning, August 19, 2007, and weighed in at 8 lbs 6 oz. He is beautiful and perfect. Praise be to God!

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what happened to July?

I can't believe it's already August!! I apologize (once again!) for the recent post shortage. I know I always talk about how busy we are, but it's the truth...and July was an exceptionally busy month. The second week of the month was VBS, the week after that was packing for camping, and last week was family camping (Breimer side) at the Pinery. This week has been unpacking from camping (I am SO sick of doing laundry! The Pinery was VERY dirty!) and re-packing for my trip with the kids to Dorcas camp (basically, a scrapbooking/sewing/crafts/Bible study getaway for women) next week. See what I mean? Busy. But that is a blessing. Our lives are full, and for that, we thank the Lord!

We are doing well. The kids are great, as usual. Asher seems to be teething (he drools CONSTANTLY!), but the teeth are taking their sweet time coming in. Judah teethed from about 4 months until over 2 years. I really hope Asher doesn't follow his lead! Asher is a real chunkster now. I last had him weighed three weeks ago, and he was 15 lbs 5 oz with clothing. I'm guessing he's around 16 lbs by now. Developmentally, he's doing great, too. He's SO close to sitting on his own. He can do it, and will for brief periods of time, but he doubts his own abilities so usually either tips over sideways or lets himself fall back. He is getting very strong, though. He spent a better part of this afternoon falling back onto the boppy pillow and then pulling himself back up to a sitting position, all on his own! He was also trying to crawl today; he was getting pretty frustrated that he couldn't move very fast. He manages to shimmy himself forward in a very slow creep (we're talking a couple millimetres per minute!), but apparently that wasn't good enough. He was shrieking away because he wanted to move so badly!

He still adores his big brother Judah. Judah can simply look in his direction, and Asher will beam or start giggling. It's amazing! And Judah is so amazing with him. He can make Asher laugh like no-one else can! It's great for all of us, because Asher gets entertained, Judah loves the attention, and Rob and I have a stand-in babysitter for those moments when we can't get to Asher right away. If their current relationship is any predictor, I think my boys will be very close. I really hope they stay that way.

Judah is growing up so much; I can hardly believe it! He loves to have conversations with us about anything and everything. He is SO curious! He asks many questions; his favourite at the moment is "what does a ____ say?", which he asks not just about animals and vehicles, but about random things like chips or trees. "Um...crunch?" We're waiting apprehensively for the inevitable "why" stage. He is growing physically, too. He grown quite tall in the past couple of months. "EEE small, mommy!" is what he tells me about the clothes he is outgrowing.

I am working on pictures for this post, but it takes so darn long, and I can't finish right now (and, since I'm a perfectionist, I won't post the pictures and their stories until they are complete...). I'll leave you with a quick family picture for tonight, but will update this post with pictures (and the stories that go along with them) in the next day or two.