The Van Becks: Enjoying the nice summer weather

We have been busy enjoying the summer weather - we went to a friends cabin on July 30 and 31st, we had Paige for a few days and went to a splash park near her home, we spent last sunday at the lake and yesterday all day too! It has been nice to spend time near water when it has been so hot!

We spent all of last weekend at home (the first all summer), and I have to say, we were bored! (well I was I guess) Since I am home during the week, staying home on the weekend too just means more of the same for me. Kind of like if you never left your job on friday afternoon. I know my job is different than an "out of the home" job but I still like the feeling of keeping busy on the weekend so I am not doing the same things over and over. Even though being busy and away on the weekends requires me to pack up the whole house, it is worth it to get me and the kids out of the house and spend some QT together with Daddy. Otherwise we just spend time cleaning, doing laundry, etc. and that is no fun!

A few weekends ago we had both of our hometown days so the kids had a blast with 2 parades, fireworks, kids games and seeing cousins from both sides. It was nice to spend the weekend with family and seeing old friends.

The kids are enjoying their last few weeks of summer. This week they have bible camp and they both love it! Avery especially loves it because they do art projects and that is her favorite thing to do. Olivia and Izzie are really playing a lot with each other - they make each other laugh, get things for each other, etc. It is really cute to see. Izzie is walking pretty well now too. She still crawls but I see her walk and walk more each day. She has said a few words - Hi, Cheese, Good, and Yeah! She loves her babies, playing on the steps (going up and down) and climb up on anything she can. Olivia is really starting to act like such a big girl, she tells us stories and helps so much with Izzie. I am kind of embarrassed to even say this but a few times she has woken up in the morning and says "Mom, I want TV on, watch Hannah Montana"! Avery likes all those Disney shows and Olivia has caught on to them too. The other night Izzie was screaming because she wanted ice cream and Olivia says to her "patience Izzie, patience". She also tries to help teach her sign language. We have been working on please and more because she tends to just scream for whatever she wants. She has done please a few times but really refuses to do any of them most of the time. We will just have to keep trying. I figure with all of us trying to help her she will catch on pretty soon.

The kids at the cabin in July

Izzie and Olivia posing and saying "CHEESE"