Finishing up July

July has come to an end and here's what we did during the month - 

Eleanor loves to change her clothes a million times a day. I love that the boys wore these Air Force clothes and now she does. :) Cute girls after church. 

Austin lost his front tooth and Adelaide is cutting her front top teeth - these two share the same toothless smile. 

I officially stopped nursing Adelaide - my last baby. Here's the last bottle I pumped. I'm grateful I could breast feed all my babies. Not only did I save money (formula is so expensive!), but I was reminded to stop and slow down and make time to cuddle my babies as I fed them. During the late night feedings, I'd think often of my Grandma Thomas and how she wrote in a letter to one of her daughters that she would have a lot of good chats with her babies during the late night feedings. 

Adelaide grabbed my finger as I fed her a bottle. We're pretty good little friends. 

We went to the money museum one rainy day. It's free and informative and the kids all enjoyed it. We ran into one of Eli's friends and his family at the museum and we had a nice time getting to know them. We even set up a lunch date and enjoyed getting to know this family better. 

One of my kids took this picture of my either cleaning out Adelaide's nose or cleaning a booger out of her eye. I don't like my kids to have crusties in their noses or eyes. 

She smiles and rolls and laughs and we're all obsessed with our baby cakes. 

We went to the park and the boys took over my job of pushing Adelaide in the swing. 

She turned 8 months old and is sitting up and she and Eleanor are looking more like little twins! 

Our neighbor Evan came over for a little play date - his mom just had a new baby so he came over and these two are cute little friends. 

The boys are taking piano lessons and practice all the time. They've learned a lot this summer and it makes my mother heart so happy hearing them play their songs over and over again. Eli and Austin participated in a soccer camp at the High School and Austin wore my Messi jersey that I bought while on my mission and I smiled from ear to ear. 

The camp was for a week and they learned a lot and got rid of lots of energy! 

Adelaide sure loves sitting up and playing on the floor with the big kids. 

I planned an Olympic Open Ceremony Party. We made empanadas, medals and a swimming pool out of blue jello. The kids were thrilled! I haven't planned a theme party for a while and I remembered how much I love party planning. I need to do more things like this for my kids because it was memorable for us all. 

There are several blackberry bushes close to our house and the boys walked with me one day to pick some to take back to our family for breakfast! We want to plant blackberry bushes in our yard. 

We spent Saturday afternoon with Grammy and Grandpa Volk. It's a joy having them close by!

One night before bed, Adelady was very smilie. 

We toured the steamboat museum with our neighbors. 

The boys are big Chiefs fans now and the tickets for a game are extremely expensive. My neighbor told me about tickets to a practice for $5/each and it was a great experience for us all. 

And finally, Austin was invited to a birthday party for his friend Juliet. He swam his heart out and loved every minute of swimming and eating ice cream. 

We're on the final weeks of summer and I always start getting emotional thinking about the boys heading back to school. We've continued to work on math and reading and exercising and piano practicing and swimming and cleaning and taking care of the yard....sometimes it just seems so much easier to let the kids watch movies all day, but I know it's hard work to raise hard workers. When I got home from my mission, I remember thinking how hard my mission was, but I realized that experiences that take lots of effort and work are always worth it in the end. I feel the same about motherhood. Most days I mess up and feel exhausted but then I take a step back and feel so much gratitude for my family. 13 years ago, I prayed over and over again to be directed to the best spouse for me and to be a mother. Prayers are answered because I'm living my dream!