It's raining it's pouring!

Well, we finally received our much needed rain for the summer (all in one straight week of rain!). The crops appreciated it. We even heard a mighty thunder and lightning (queeny- as reece would say, as in lightning mcqueen from the movie, cars) storm this week. We didn't lose power, but we temporarily lost the kids' pool (found it the next day in the neighbors bushes). It was a neighborhood mow-the-lawn-fest following all the rain :) As a result of all the rain, we had loads of tomatoes (including ones from Grandpa/Grandma Meyers' garden - thanks!!!). I tried out my canning skills again. The big boys helped as you can see in the picture.

The weather even cooperated for us to enjoy Presley Scott Widener's 1st birthday party in Grand Haven. Good to see the Blauw girls again and their kids! We headed to Grand Haven State Park to enjoy another beautiful sunset and stroll on the beach. The beach days of summer are slowly fading away....................

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Where has this arctic air come from?!!!! We recently visited our friends (the Newenhouses) out at Grand Haven State Park this past Friday and had to dress in pants and long sleeves! It was a beautiful sunset, though, and we still managed to eat ice cream on the pier despite the chilly night. We had to cancel a few of our weekend events with friends as the weather was not cooperating. Not quite boating weather - sorry Missy :( We do need the rain. It's too bad it has to come for a week straight.

The fruits of our labor

So.............this isn't my typical post (no children or pets in the photo, but I thought the tomato line-up was a fun picture). I've been a little domestic lately in trying some new things. This is our 2nd year of planting a garden. We planted beans (wax and green), green peppers, jalapenos, lettuce (that came back from last year), and several varieties of tomatoes. Anyone who has ever harvested cherry tomatoes knows that they all seem to ripen at the same time. We had quite an abundance of them as you can see in the photo :) I looked online to figure out what to do with this crop. I tried oven-drying them. Nine hours later (and a warm kitchen) I had a ziploc bag full of those shrivelled little things. We'll see how they taste in pasta entrees this fall/winter. I also taught myself to can - really quite easy, just time-consuming. I did a handful of jars of salsa - it's edible :) I think it tastes fine, but Tim would like something with a little more "fuego" (fire in espanol) to it. We'll try again next summer!

PT for our little QT

As most of you probably know, Jackson was born with a cephalohematoma (in English, "bump" that went from soft to calcified) near the crown of his head. The doctor has assured us this is common and no real treatment is necessary. Most likely his head will conform around the hardened spot and be fairly inconspicuous. Tim also noticed that he prefers turning his head to that side as well. Because of laying on that side, his head seems to be more flat on that side. I mentioned this concern to the pediatrician at his 2mth visit and he said to simply stretch his neck and give him lots of tummy time (which he ABSOLUTELY hates - Tim can tolerate the screaming better than me). We decided to get a second opinion from a physical therapist which diagnosed him with a mild case of torticollis (stiff neck). We will see this doctor once a week for 5 weeks to evaluate Jackson's progress. He also gave us specific stretches to do with Jackson. He's quite sure he should be fine since we "caught" it so soon (thanks Kim for giving us your first-hand advice :) We're hoping these stretches and tummy time will increase his neck strength and diminish the flat spot on the side of his head. The pediatrician did not recommend us to the "helmet program" quite yet. He wants to wait and re-evaluate Jackson at 4mths.

Michael Vick meet the Meyers'

As some of you know my college roomates and I spent the weekend relaxing at the beach WITHOUT kids in tow................we had a wonderful time catching up on "girl talk." The husbands spent the day playing with the 7 kids and 2 dogs (Harley and our friend's dog, Ike, a Daschund). We spent several hours at the beach without a single call from the men.........we assumed all was well until I made the phone call to check up on them right before departing from the beach. That's when Tim explained THE INCIDENT. Apparently Harley was duking it out with Ike (who's about 1/40th of her size) over who knows what . Both dogs are recovering quite well. Harley even earned the priveledge to wear a lampshade to prevent her from constantly licking her wound. She would be fine without it, but she insists on biting off her bandaid. I'm not sure what's more amusing..........watching Harley bump into everything or watching my boys trying to feed her treats and just setting them in her lampshade (which she tries to eat out of and then they fall to the floor and then the boys pick them back up and set them in the shade and again, and again, and again......). Sorry again to Matt and Kim for any Shaken Dog Syndrome Ike endured. We're just happy no children were involved. Good times, despite the dogs this weekend! It was great to catch up with you all and spend some extra time with the Roberts and Nutts.

Where has the summer gone?!!!

I'm still trying to answer that question in my head :) Here a few recent pix that somewhat sum up our summer. Our June was busy with Lucas attending VBS at our church for the first year. He had so much fun (and mom got a sneak preview at what life will be like when he attends preschool this year). We also celebrated 2 birthdays in June with a party at our house - fun times! July was spent in Minnesota over the holiday, catching up with friends through various play dates, hanging out at local parks, attending a couple West Michigan Force football games to watch Uncle Mark play, trips to the beaches (Holland and Grand Haven), and adjusting to life with three boys.

We've made it through the summer so far without any trips to the emergency room, well almost (we did visit Uncle Sean with a broken jaw this past weekend at Spectrum Health). We did have a near visit with Jackson as well this past weekend when his older (but not oldest) brother landed on him. Lucas gave us a play-by-play of the incident as we did not see it happen. He seemed to recover quite fine from it - so fine, he's still sleeping WELL through the night. He had his 2mth checkup today and topped both the height and weight charts at a whopping 90th percentile. We're still wondering if this is really our child :) He's almost the same size at 2mths old as Lucas was at 6mths old. I just hope he and Reece don't have to share clothes!

We feel so blessed with 3 healthy, happy, handsome little men!!! What a joy it's been watching them grow and interact with each other - Jackson is now able to watch his brothers and their antics. He'll be chasing them around soon enough - they grow up way too fast!

God bless!

Tim, Whitney, Lucas, Reece, and Jackson