Ten Years

Matt and I celebrated our tenth anniversary on the 22nd. We've actually been together for twelve years now. Sometime this week, we are dragging out the scanner and I will scan in some of our old wedding photos. Until then, you'll have to be satisfied with this oldie from grad school. This one is from 1998, I think. Yes, there was alcohol involved that night.

And he we were on Friday night, when we went out on a much needed date. Many thanks to Ali for babysitting. We had a lovely dinner and saw the movie Inception, which was really good.

Vacation Bible School

Luke attended Vacation Bible School at Immaculate Conception this week. Last year he cried for two days and we dropped out. This year he LOVED it. It helped that the theme was "Putting on the Armor of God" and the whole week focused on a being a knight for Christ. Luke knew a few kids from Sunday school and met more of his future classmates. He made great crafts and learned lots of songs that they performed for us this morning. I think he looks a lot like his Nan in these videos.

Upgrades

We inherited the swingset in our backyard from the previous owners of our house. It was nice to not have to buy a new one, but it has required considerable repairs, updates and upgrades over the past four years. This is what it looked like when we bought the house:

First upgrade in the summer of 2007. We needed two baby swings! Matt replaced the tarp and ladder and added the woodchips:

In 2008, we replaced one of the baby swings with a big-kid swing:

And this week, Matt straightened and reinforced the main structure, doubled the length of the swing arm, added the support frame and added more wood chips. Now there are two big-kid swings and a twirl-about and there's still the baby swing on the other side. Good job, daddy!

Michael's Conversation with Auntie Katie

Katie: What do you want to be when you grow up, Michael?
Michael: (unintelligable)
Katie: a doctor?
Michael: noooo. I wanna be (unintelligable)
Katie: a teacher?
Michael: nooo. A (unintelligable)!
Katie: a killer whale?
Michael: YESSS!!!!

Vacation: Part Three

Sunday was Kayla and Kyan's Baptism. Chris and Katie are their godparents. Ange's parents found Kyan the cutest outfit with this great little hat. Here he is with Stephen and here's Kayla with her godmother:

After the service, we went back to Greg's for more swimming and lots of eating. Katie was working the first day we were all at Greg's, so she finally got to meet Justin on Sunday.

Luke and Chris were in deep and serious conversation.

Michael kept asking me to take pictures of him with his inflatable toys.

Justin and his Granddad:We tried lining up all the cousins, but by then my camera was dead and the light wasn't good enough for my bloggie to take a decent still. Hopefully one of my SILs got a better shot. I'll post it when I get it.

Vacation: Part Two

We spent Friday and Saturday at Matt's Dad's cottage on Georgian Bay. Last time we were there was in January and it was the coldest we've ever been! What a difference six months makes. The weather was beautiful and the water was warm. Jon, Allie and the girls came up, too. The cousins had some great bonding time, especially Luke and Claire who really enjoy each other's company. The kids were outside until 9pm and up until 11pm, but they were busy making memories, so who were we to get in the way?

Matt's dad put in a new dock this year. The end of it is a floating dock that rolls on the waves like a boat. It's really nice. Michael didn't swim, but he waded and looked for rocks and seashells. This is his new favorite outfit: Spiderman jammie shirt, Thomas swim trunks and crocs on the wrong feet.

Matt bought his dad a Bean Bag Toss (aka Cornhole) set for Father's Day. Cornhole is super popular here in Ohio and Matt loves the game, but hates the name.

Justin spent a fair bit of time in the front carrier as I chased after Luke and Michael. Maeve is too heavy for Jon to wear her on the front anymore, so Allie rigs him up backwards with Maeve on his back. Totally ingenious.

The kids love this little grove of beech trees. Dad and Sylvia are putting up a gazebo in this spot soon and I'm not sure if they will keep the trees, so I thought I'd better get a picture.

Unintentional artsy shot. Karate moves on the rocks:

The five "big" cousins on the dock: Jacinta, Michael, Luke, Talia and Claire. Such a beautiful picture. I think Allie got the same shot on her fancy camera, which is a good thing as we'll definitely be framing this one.

Vacation: Part One

We were in Canada last week and had an awesome time. We stayed with Matt's younger brother Greg in Toronto. Greg and Ange have a beautiful house with a swimming pool. The kids couldn't get enough of swimming. Jon and Allie came down from Ottawa with their four girls and we had everybody at Greg's one afternoon. It was so much fun. There are nine cousins now. Jon and Allie have 4 girls: Talia is 9, Claire is 6, Jacinta is 3 and Maeve is 7 months. Then there's our three. And Greg and Ange have 4 month old twins Kayla and Kyan. Chris and Katie don't have any kids yet, but there were plenty of neices and nephews for them to borrow.

In the pool, the 3-year-olds were all about the gear. Check out Michael with Uncle Chris and Jacinta with Allie--they are sitting in rafts wearing water wings. Jacinta has goggles and an inflatable killer whale and Michael has a water blaster. Too funny.

Ange was more low key with Kayla, although I got her to try on the water sling I borrowed later. Someone probably has a picture of me wearing Justin in the pink camo water carrier--it was surprisingly useful and I think Ange will be buying one. I'll get some more use out of mine this summer, although pink is not Justin's color.

Inside was Babies Central. Here are Kayla, Kyan, Justin and Maeve.

Tummy Time x 4 or How to Make 4 Babies Cry:

I love these last two pictures. It's not that they're great quality or anything, but they totally capture what it was like in the kitchen with brothers and cousins galore:

Proper Attire

for viewing the local fireworks show. For the record, I made Michael wear jammies because I suspect he'll fall asleep on the way home. Luke, however, chose to wear his all on his own. He also added the sparkly thumb ring and suggested they bring the stuffed dragons. Some days Luke seems like he's on his way to adolescence and some days he's just a silly little five year old boy! Thank goodness.

The J-man

Flirtin' with the camera and hangin' with the ladies.

Saucer Babies

Well, technically, Justin is in a jumperoo, not a saucer and the only picture I could find of Michael is blurry, but aren't they cute?

Safety City

For the past two weeks, Luke has attended Westerville's Safety City every afternoon. They rode around a miniture town on tricycles to learn the rules of the road. They also learned about fire safety, 911, poison control, gun safety, water safety and they memorized their addresses and phone numbers. Luke absolutely loved the program even though he didn't know any other kids there. On Friday, Luke graduated along with 180 other children! I can't believe that they called every child's name, but they did. Here is Luke getting his Safety City diploma.

Swimming lessons

Both Luke and Michael finished two weeks of swimming lessons today. I have to say that I am impressed with both of them. They were both the smallest and youngest in their classes. Neither one of them passed their level, but both made amazing progress. Luke went from not even wanting to put his head under last week to doggie paddling, back floating and tooling around underwater by the end of this week. Michael finally learned how to blow bubbles and was the hit of his class. He had all of the instructors wrapped around his finger and just had a great time. Michael even went down the slide by himself, which I somehow missed on video, but I did get Luke on the slide and Michael fetching dive sticks without actually dunking his head under.

A boy and his monster trucks

Same Outfit Pic

Justin's Baptism

Justin was baptized today by Deacon Campbell at Immaculate Conception parish. Our good friends Mike and Michelle Dougherty are Justin's godparents. We're godparents to their youngest son Benedict. Larry and Joyce Masek also came to the baptism to help wrangle the rest of the kids. We're godparents to Larry and Joyce's son Mark and they're godparents to Mike and Michelle's son Thomas. And Mike and Michelle are godparents to Larry and Joyce's daughter Maria. Confused yet? I think that it's easiest just to say that we're all family. Justin slept through the baptism and all of the other kids were great. We came back to our house where we joined by yet more godparents (Michael's godfather, Manuel) and friends and had a lovely afternoon that I somehow didn't get any pictures of.

Justin getting ready to get dressed.

I think the seventy dollar outfit has finally paid for itself after thee baptisms.

Larry with Mark and Thomas. Joyce was busy taking pictures and holding the partially sucked lollipops of Luke, Michael and Maria.

Justin didn't even wake up when the water was poured over his head.

Mike, Michelle, Thomas, Benedict and Justin.

Four of the godsiblings: Luke, Maria, Thomas and Michael

Our first family photo.

Happy baby.