The longest post ever

So this is the catch up on everything over the last month post. Here is a sample of Joshua's artwork on our chalkboard wall in the playroom. I labeled everything so you could see what it was. There are dots for eyes as well, but they are hard to see.This is Luke's absolute favorite thing to do. He sneaks out the back door whenever I have it open and climbs into his car. I think this picture was taken at like 6:30am one morning when he ditched his bottle and TV show for some fun outside.
Another sampling of Joshua's artwork. Obviously the 2 on the left had some help. The one on the right did have some good suns that Joshua did all by himself, but then he decided he needed to "cover all the white" with brown paint - so unfortunately you can't see his talent!
Here are some shots from our 4th of July at the Davis'. We went over there in the afternoon for a BBQ and swimming. Then the rest of the group when to Grandma's house for fireworks -- we took our tired kids home.

Joshua LOVES his kick board. Right now it's all he wants to do in the pool and he does an awesome job of getting around on it.
Luke spent the whole time on daddy's shoulders and was loving it. He is currently not a huge fan of the pool, but slowly getting used to it. He definitely doesn't like the ducky pictured above, or anything like it. Joshua loved it at that age.
The cute guy drying off after lots of sun and swim.

Here is the blanket that I made for Kori's little guy coming next month. I was proud of myself, not because it's close to perfect - it's actually VERY far from perfect - but because I actually did it. It took me forever and my patience was tried, but I did it!

Joshua did swim classes at Beckman high school this year with his cute friend. To be honest if it wasn't for his friend I would have quit after the second day of cold water and freezing air. It took EVERYTHING for me to get in that water. For those of you who know me really well you know I am a wimp when it comes to cold pools, lakes, rivers, or ocean. Luckily by week two the air had at least warmed up making the cold water bearable. Joshua actually ended up gaining confidence this year and can swim a short distance by himself. If he would just let go of fear he would be able to do so much more.

Finally... Preschool. Joshua is starting preschool in the fall. He'll be going 2 days a week. Because of all the trouble we had with nursery, I thought it would be good to get him acquainted with his school early. At his school, they hold summer camps each week in July and August from 9am-1pm. So last week I took Joshua. He had a friend from church there with him - and I was hoping that that would make the transition easy. To my surprise Joshua had zero problems. He walked right in, sat down and started playing with the toys. When it was time for me to go - I said bye and that was it. He had an awesome time each day. By the 4th day he did say to me "Mommy I'm really going to miss you." But that was it. He liked it so much that I decided to send him this week too - But we're only doing 3 days. I'm so excited for him, he's becoming such a big guy. I also think it's great that Luke is getting some much needed one on one time.

Finally I have to say once again - Joshua talks non stop. Seriously if he is awake 12 hours his mouth is moving at least 10 of those hours. The first thing his teacher said to me when I picked him up the first day was "Wow, he really is a talker." I could just picture Joshua following the teacher around asking her questions about everything she says. One day I will capture a moment on video, because I don't know how to explain the intensity of his non stop questions/talking.