July has been filled with tons of fun and lots of swimming. We started the month celebrating Thad's first birthday. This year has gone so fast that we cannot believe he is already a year old. We were blessed to be able to also celebrate Isaiah and Uncle Amos' birthdays too. It was a fun time. Jeff made a sandbox/Toy Story cake to suit both boys' interests.
Thad also had his first haircut and learned to walk this month. There is no stopping him now. We call him our billy goat because there is nothing he won't try to climb. He is great at getting up but then yells until someone will come and help him down. He even climbs up the ladder to the playhouse...4 feet off the ground!
We enjoyed spending time at the Alma Aquatics Park with friends and family one evening. Elijah loves going down the water slides. He is fearless and after having to pull him off the bottom of the pool a few times we decided to enroll him in swim lessons. He has had 5 so far and is doing well. His favorite part of lessons is getting to jump off the diving board. He is definitely a little fishy.
We finished the pergola just in time to celebrate the 4th of July with 35 friends and family members from our church. There were 15 kids and chaos reigned. There were plenty of brats and potato salad to go around. The kids had fun swimming and having balloon sword fights. Our neighbor is a clown with the Shriners and he and his wife blew up balloons and made all sorts of awesome things for the kids. The adults enjoyed talking and playing yard games.
Jeff completed three weeks of summer training for the teaching program he is going through. He will continue to have classes one Saturday a month through next May. He has two more major tests to pass and a big project before he will be done with the program.
The newest member of our family joined us this month. We adopted "Murphy" a male Bassett Hound from the humane society. He is so much like Bailey that they could be twins. He fit into our family perfectly. He is well mannered, laid back, and great with the kids. Besides being potty trained, he also walks well on a leash. What more could you ask for?
We spent as much time as we could with the Anderson's this month before they leave for Albania. We were able to visit at their house and also have Isaiah over for a few sleepovers. It was so cute to listen to the Eli and Isaiah as they whispered and laughed in the bunkbeds at bedtime. In just a few short days, their plane will leave for Albania. We will miss them TREMENDOUSLY but are so thankful for the time we have got to live close to them. Please pray for them as they begin the next leg of their adventure and start life in Albania. Please pray for us too as we miss them already!
That is all for now but come back next month to see if the hot spell ended and to hear how life is going for Eli in preschool and Jeff at high school.
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