There's no place like HOME!

For me (Kristy), there is no place like home (i.e. Kansas). It's always a great trip and I often have little responsibility for cleaning, laundry or dishes. It's such a nice break from my every day routine.

This year, we left Wilson's and went straight to Kansas. It was a short trip with a stop at a park and a surprise stop to meet up with Nana and Papa!

While we were still at Wilson's, I was online looking for a park on our way to Nana and Papa's house with a picnic area and a restroom. While I was naming out loud some of the options to my Sister-in-Law, my niece, Kaelyn, suggested we stop at Electric Park. She was curious what an "electric" park might be like. So, Kaelyn, thanks for the suggestion. It was a really great stop for us!

 

 

After lunch, we had a short drive to an outlet mall to meet Nana and Papa for a little shopping, eating frozen yogurt, and playing in this fountain. By far, this fountain was the highlight of the stop for Joshua. See the last picture? Joshua's saying, "Where did the water go?"

We visited the zoo and Nana held an alligator so Eli (in green) and Micah could pet it. The alligator didn't like the extra attention, but the boys thought it was great!

Eli and Micah's Star Wars obsession was really just beginning this summer. When they found Papa's Star Wars Monopoly game, they had to learn how to play! They actually did a great job with all the math and Paul said, "I think if we have Star Wars, we could teach them anything!" He may just be right!

 

The boys' favorite stop in Kansas is always the children's museum. There's so much to explore and do, and with 4 adults with 5 kids, they can all go their own directions, so there's little compromising. It's really a win for everyone! 

Here are Joshua, Eli and Micah outside the museum.

The 5 grand kids!

Amory, Nevaeh, Eli, Joshua, Micah

The "big kids" decided to hold hands and walk in together. So sweet!

I also love how Amory and Neveah had matching shirts, so Eli and Micah chose matching shirts, too! These boys really love all of their cousins!

Painting the wall is everyone's favorite activity.

Amory and Joshua had lots of time together exploring and playing, 

while Eli and Micah were building cars with Paul in the construction area. 

One evening, Taylor and Roxy came over for dinner. Joshua took a real liking to Uncle Taylor and now when he sees a picture of Taylor, he says, "Tay-Tay." :-)

As always, we had a great (and much too short) visit with our family in Kansas. Because of #4 (or Mac, as Uncle Taylor now calls him), we won't be making another trip until next summer, but we're already looking forward to it!

Wilson's Resort

Do you remember this blog post about our gift to Bob and Kay? Well, we finally got to go to Wilson's! (You may have to click on the pictures to enlarge, especially those with multiple pictures.)

Since Wilson's is a fishing resort, there was a lot of fishing!

 Eli even got good at baiting his own hook.

Sometimes the fishing wasn't so good, but sometimes it was!

 I think I caught the most unique fish. The line was wrapped all around this stick. I pulled in the fish and the stick! 

Paul caught the biggest fish of the week with this catfish!

Joshua couldn't fish and didn't always like wearing his life jacket near the water (have I mentioned he has no fear of water and LOVES all water?!), so he spent a lot of time playing on the playground

 and swinging with Aunt Rebecca. (See him signing "more" in the second picture?)

 When Micah and Eli weren't fishing, they learned to play shuffleboard.

We even had time for some play-do.

All the kids got to swim in the lake. Joshua and Kaelyn are with Paul in the first picture while Eli, Micah, Britton and Kaelyn are with Paul and Rebecca in the second picture.

 We did a few smoke bombs on the 4th. 

The 5 Cheney grand kids!

Kaelyn, Britton, Eli, Micah and Joshua

We even got a picture of all 11 of us!

 On our last full day at the lake, we rented a boat large enough for all of us. Paul, Rebecca and Mark got to water ski and the kids took turns tubing. We all had a fun morning. 

Here's Micah as we're heading out--he sat in the back with Britton, Joshua and me.

 Here's everyone else.

The kids had a great time tubing, especially Britton and Kaelyn. I think they would have stayed out there all day if we would have let them!

Our little ones were getting pretty sleepy on the way back to the resort. Actually, Joshua did end up napping a little bit on the boat. Kaelyn, Micah and Eli snuggled up with Grandpa on the way in.

 There were a lot of stairs from the cabin where we stayed down to the lake. Micah and Eli were good big brothers and helped Joshua up the stairs for the last time before we left.

The Cheney family back at their favorite family vacation spot. 

This was a really fun trip for everyone. We hope we can do it again soon!

Swimming Lessons

Everyone took swim lessons our last week in June. All three boys love being in the water and our swim teacher is so patient and encouraging, so swim lessons are lots of fun for Eli, Micah and Joshua.

Micah (left) and Eli (right) practiced swimming with kick boards...

 and without! 

Eli

 Micah

They also practiced jumping in off the diving board.

Micah

 Eli

 Joshua also had a turn in the pool collecting rings,

 jumping off the side (more like walking off, really),

 and "swimming."

#4 Gender Reveal

 Eli and Micah (especially Micah) have been so curious about this new baby. They have asked a lot of questions and were hoping for a new baby sister. We decided to invite them to the ultrasound that could reveal the baby's gender. I was really hoping Baby would cooperate, but had a bad feeling going into the ultrasound that s/he may not.

As we expected, Micah and Eli were fascinated by the pictures of the baby moving inside my tummy.

 They had lots of questions about what they were seeing on screen.  It took a while for the ultrasound tech to get some good pictures because Baby was tucked in a little ball in one small part of my uterus--even though s/he had plenty of room to move around. (My bad feeling was getting worse and I reminded Eli and Micah that we can't make the baby move, so we may have a surprise baby.)

Finally, Baby uncurled and stretched out.

The tech got the pictures and measurements she needed. All looked healthy and well with Baby, then came the news we had been waiting for....

(Micah is on the left and Eli on the right.)

Even though they weren't thrilled at the time with the idea of having another brother, and it took some correcting gender pronouns for a while, Eli and Micah are now really excited for Joshua to have a buddy. They think it's great that Joshua will have a friend sleeping in his room just like they get to share a room. They also have been really active in our discussions on baby names. While we won't name this baby "Yoda" (sorry Eli) they have had some other great suggestions and readily offer their opinions.

I love June!

I don't know who is more excited about summer starting--Paul, me, or the boys. Either way, we always enjoy June and July. Typically, we spend most of June at home, (with Paul working summer school in the mornings) so we have a lot of time to play, explore, and catch up on some projects that were overlooked during the busy school year. Here are some of my favorite pictures of this June.

Eli (left) and Micah (right) took an extra bubbly bath in my tub...and made "Princess Leia" hair with the bubbles.

Every day Micah says to me, "Let's do a craft." On one morning, we looked through some of the crafts on my Pinterest page and found this one. The boys loved it--and it was something they all could do together!

 Joshua "helped" Paul make cookies and stole a lick of the batter before the cookies hit the oven. Silly boy!

 One evening, Paul suggested we go outside and enjoy the rain coming down. We did, and when it started to hail, Eli and Micah just had to go out and pick some up!

 Joshua loves water! He loves being wet and splashing in any water he sees, so he wasn't content to watch the rain for long without getting in it! (This was before the hail.)

We have had a plethora of slugs this year. The boys love to watch them and play with them. Eli was so proud to show me this particularly large one.

 Again this year, we braved the Texas heat to go pick blueberries. The boys are always such troopers and really do a great job finding the ripest berries.

 Joshua ate more than he put in our bucket. :-)

 Micah and Momma

One of the best things about June for our family is celebrating Paul both on Father's Day and his birthday.  On Father's Day, the boys made him a "What We Love About Daddy" book. It was full of pictures each boy drew about things they love to do with Paul and I wrote the captions for them. It's fun to see what they appreciate about him and the time he spends with them.

 Everyone was excited when Paul chose to grill Salmon for his Father's Day dinner. Paul's Salmon is our favorite family meal and the boys love to use the grill. 

 For his birthday, I made Paul this t-shirt to wear to Cross Country practice. Maybe his students won't ask him this question again this year. ;-)

We are so blessed to have Paul. He works hard and plays hard. He balances studying God's word, family, work and serving others all year long. He's often tired at the end of the day, but finds energy to wrestle and have light saber battles with our boys. Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday, Paul! We love you!

Surprise!

Surprise is right! Cheney baby #4 will be joining our family this November! My official due date is November 21, but we have a tentative plan for a c-section around November 14. So far, everything seems to be going well with this pregnancy. It has taken me a little longer this time to get past the nausea and fatigue that usually haunts me until week 14 of pregnancy. Now, (just over 16 weeks) I really feel like that part is behind me. Yea!

 Here I am at 15 weeks with my big boys sneaking in to "Momma's picture."

Eli and Micah have been very concerned about me and how I've been feeling. They have been compassionate and kind when I'm not doing well. They also have been very curious about this baby--How did it get there? Why did God give us another baby? How big is the baby now? (We have been following this fruit and veggie comparison chart.) We hope you'll follow this chart with us and keep our growing family in prayer!