My big boys are in swim lessons and they are doing amazing job. I started swimming when I was about 7 years old and swam for years. My family is really into swimming and we love spending time in the water over the Summer so it was a no brainer that I would get my kids into swimming really early on.
We started mommy and me with the boys when Jbird was barely a year old and they loved it. After our trip to Cancun, Mexico it solidified the fact that the boys were really into water and swimming as you can see in our Cancun trip part 1 and part 2. At this point we decided to get the big boys in swim lessons regularly. They swim once a week for half an hour. There are 8 levels total, Tman is on level 5 and Jbird is on level 2.
We started swimming consistently with Tman in March of 2015, check him out during his first swimming class. Tman loved it but Jbird was not loving it at all. We held of with Jbird until he was older. The boys are doing so well now and are both loving the classes.
Check them out swimming like pros in this video I compiled, I am so proud of my big boys. Isn't it so nice to actually see them in action? Jbird is way more comfortable now and check out Tman floating on his back and doing his backstroke. We have some future Michael Phelps on our hands over here ;).
I also took a gazillion pictures of course. My kids are my best subject I tell you
Jbird used to cry like crazy once I left the water and now look at my little confident boy
We have him in private lessons and I love that he is so focused
There is that smile, so happy my Jbird is loving the water
His favorite thing to do is doing canon balls
Hehehehehe, it's a blurry picture but I am loving the action shot
There goes Tman, he was constantly in the water doing something so you can barely see him
Look at my boys listening to the swim instructor, so proud of them
There goes that backstroke, Tman is really good at it now
Doesn't he have such a great form?
Tman swimming with the other kid in his group
Yeah, they are good. Check out Jbird in the background diving in :)
Are my boys adorable or what, check them out hugging it out when they were done
Swim lessons are going really well for my big boys. I am so happy that they are loving the water as much as I did growing up. I want them to be great swimmer and be comfortable in the water because it's such a great survival skill to have. If they really love it and want to do it competitively, I will be there to support of course but that's a problem for another day ;). Do your kids swim? Do you want them to learn?
My niece is 3 years old you guys, is that surreal or what. Weren't we just celebrating her impeding arrival at her baby shower, didn't I just announce her arrival like yesterday and didn't we just celebrate her first birthday? Time is sure flying by and luckily we are making the most of it.
Her actual birthday was on a Wednesday and since we can't ignore the actual birthday, we had a very low key celebration with immediate family only. We all met at my brother's house after work and enjoyed a nice cake with the family.
I love my peeps :)
I also love this picture of my baby brother with my baby girl
The day that we celebrated her birthday happened to be hubby's actual birthday :). Talk about a busy birthday celebrations week.
Hehehehehehe, he is funny my hubby
My mom chilling with our baby girl, are you loving all the yellow like I am
Twinning with my mini-me. This is by far my favorite thing to do right now
While we were outside, I wanted to take a few pictures. I love this picture my mom captured of me trying to set everybody up :) :)
It was all worth it to get this gem :), I love our six pack
My mom managed to get a picture with all her grandchildren
How adorable are Tman and his cousin, the birthday girl
My mom was trying to get a picture with baby girl and Tman jumped in :)
Then my niece jumped in too :)
Oh hello there Bean, my 3rd son chilling with hubby
It got a little warm so we started undressing Emilia, don't mind her screaming over there
My nieces chilling with my baby girl
Hanging out with my mom, sisters and brother H
While we were chilling on the deck, I taught Jbird about selfies. He loved that he could see himself in the camera. Then I told him to copy mommy's face but he was a bit skeptical about that game
But then he got into it and we got these awesome gems. Colgate commercial what up
Kisses for everyone, I love my Jbird
We had a ball celebrating my niece's 3rd birthday. Time sure flies when you are having a lot of fun. Happy birthday Christine, we look forward to celebrating so many more birthdays with you. It was a crazy busy weekend but surely one for the books.
Summer is my favorite time of the year because I love to be super hot all the time but Fall is a really close second. There are so many fun outdoor activities in the Fall and with 4 kids there is nothing better than being able to go play outside. We never miss the pumpkin patch as you can see here in our past outings in 2012, 2013, 2014 (I can't believe I didn't blog our 2015 outing.). Now that the kids are getting older, they actually ask to go, how awesome is that.
What I also love about the pumpkin patch outings is the fact that it's a great opportunity for awesome family pictures and we know I love taking pictures of my kids. This year my mom was out of town and couldn't join us so it was just the 2 of us with all 4 kids. It was chaotic and exhausting but I am so happy we did it.
We even managed to get a great family picture :). Check out our baby girl on her first of many pumpkin patch outings. I love my family
This particular farm had a huge maze and our big boy was hell bent on conquering the maze. We got lost in that maze for over an hour you guys. We walked over 3 miles. My Tman was super excited because we made him the leader and everyone else had to follow him. He even got a stick and he used it to keep his brothers in line, that kid I tell you
Telling his brothers they couldn't cross that line :) :)
Hubby carried the baby and manned the stroller. Is anything sexier than a man carrying a baby? I don't think so
While hubby took care of the baby, I chased the boys around the maze and the farm. Chilling with my boys
Check out my leader over there showing us the way out
We are really into making videos lately so I made a video of the boys walking through the maze.
After the maze, we went straight for the giant inflatable pumpkin that the kids could jump on. My boys were in heaven, this is their favorite thing to do. I just love this action shot of my boys, if you couldn't tell they were excited to get on this pumpkin
The smiles were never ending
They were running and jumping then running some more
Tman is a riot, look at him doing a crazy bounce and jump :)
My boys didn't want to get off the giant pumpkin. 20 minutes later we literally had to pry them of that thing. We promised them that we would come back to it and that's the only way we got them off
We then went on a hayride, we needed the rest or at least the boys did.
After the hayride I wanted to get a few pictures before we left because I could tell everyone was getting tired. Trying to pose all 4 kids proved to be a challenge, we did get this awesome gem of our 4 little pumpkins. I love these kids of mine and I just pinch myself every time because I can't believe they are all mine
Some nice lady saw us struggling and offered to take a family picture. I was so happy because hubby already told me not to even try to ask someone to take our pictures since the kids were kind of crazy. Thank you stranger, that was so kind of you.
I love this series of pictures so much because it really captures the chaos of our family. Come on guys, get ready for the picture
Then Tman over there starts to pretend punch his dad in the face, at least Bean is smiling
Oh there is that smile Tman, too bad Jbird is not really looking
We went back to jump on the giant pumpkin before we packed up to go home. We had planned to go pick a pumpkin and do more before we left but we were just so tired. It's really tiring dragging this six pack anywhere for a few hours. When we got home, we all took a glorious 2-hour nap. It was so well deserved.
Later that day, my uncle came to visit with his family. Before they came, I got these great pictures of my youngest babies
Check out Bean's sweet face, this kid is so adorable and looks so grown now
Check out my sweet baby girl in her adorable outfit. I want to put this girl in a tutu every single day :)
My uncle's wife and their youngest daughter. Emilia is going to have girlfriends close in age in the family, I am so excited for her
My cousin holding baby girl
And you know me with family pictures :). So many little kids in our family, such a blessing. Are you loving Jbird with his big cheese face there :).
We had a great day hanging out at the pumpkin patch. It was a perfect day for an outing and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. My boys want to go back this weekend so we told Tman that if he had a great week at school we would. Pumpkin patch for the win. Do you guys go to the pumpkin patch during this season?
