July iMoments

I took this picture the night before Joey was blessed. He was all bathed and sleeping in my bed and my heart just wanted to freeze the moment. He's growing up way too fast.

Joey is determined to be a thumb sucker! And I caught the little stinker in the act! :)

And this was too adorable. Joey held on to Danny's ear for almost a half hour while he watched our show with us. This kid is so cute it almost hurts!

Can you tell a lot of our moments are Joey Moments? :) Johnny absolutely loves his little brother. Every day he asked me to take a picture of them together. I love it.

I've been working hard to involve the kids in the kitchen more. They are all so interested in cooking, and they want to help all the time! I'm just not very patient and would rather do it myself. But Sophie wanted to handle dinner one night, and she made us grilled cheese all by herself! They were the best grilled cheese I had ever had.

Our older kids know who rules to roost around here. Claire decided to make it official one morning. "All Hail King Joseph!"

We haven't been able to make it to the garden nearly as often this year, but we still try to go once a week and help Grandma and Papa out. Watching these kids work on a garden project in their swimming suits was just too cute!

Johnny got his first bee sting while we were swimming at the school one afternoon. It was highly traumatic for him, since it really came out of no where! I was glad to know that he's not allergic to bees, though. :)

Early on in the summer I bought popsicle molds, and the kids and I have put them to good use! We made Healthy Strawberry-Lime popsicles, Airhead XTremes Rainbow posicles (pictured), and Cake Batter popsicles. It's been so much delicious fun!

Claire, Sophie, and Johnny all completed their next level of swimming lessons this month, which makes two completed sessions this summer. I was told at the beginning that all the kids would likely have to repeat the level, which was normal for every kid. But all my kids passed!! Little fishes they is. :)

And with the garden producing, the zucchini and summer squash are coming into my kitchen in force! We've had a lot of sautéed zucchini as a side with dinner, as well as plenty of zucchini noodles. But we've done A LOT of baking this year, too! We've made a few batches of Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins and a Browned-Butter Zucchini Coffee Cake which were both huge hits. But my personal favorite is the Glazed Lemon Poppyseed Summer Squash Bread. It is to die for! I love summertime!