Did June really pass by!

9 grandchildren with 2 more to join before Christmas

All the grand"girls"

Attempt at a family picture

Let's see........ we had an awesome Beckering Family vacation back in the beginning of June. Now... it's middle of July and I am finally getting some pictures on the blog. Wow, I am a little behind. Anyways, we did have an awesome vacation up in Leelanau. My family did the long drive this time and got to see some sights of Northern Michigan. We had wonderful accommodations (We rented 3 of Tim's brother Scott's trailers). We ate good. The kids had a blast and there was no major injuries or meltdowns. We went to the Sleeping Bear dunes one day and also spent a day in Traverse City. Time went too fast and now were all back to our own busy lives, but we cherish the time spent together. July has been good too. Hot, hot, hot! Even hotter when you're pregnant and have to wear TED hose all day. The kids have enjoyed going to a local beach now and then and we like to go in our wading pool with the neighbors. Sawyer loves the water and sand. He has taste tested every different beach we have gone too, but so far, has been unable to tell us which sand he prefers!! Sawyer is growing up fast. No walking yet, but he is crawling and walking by furniture. He will be 1 at the end of this month. How fast a year goes by. I am 23 weeks pregnant and counting. Feeling fine except for those nasty varicose veins. Praying they will go away at the end of this pregnancy. We had our 20 week ultrasound a couple weeks ago and, "no we did not find out the sex. First Ella said she wanted a girl baby, but now she tells me it is going to be a boy baby. Ella and Nathan enjoyed their first VBS experience this past week. They loved it and want to know when school starts. Oh boy! We head out camping the first week of August to the Christian Conference Grounds with Rachel and Carissa. Should be an experience being 25 weeks pregnant and camping alone with 3 kids. Thank goodness for good friends. Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer. Hope to keep up with blogging better too.

All about Sawyer

I can stand by almost anything

Mom, I loaded the dishwasher!

Can you believe I am almost 10 months old!

No this is not Sawyer with Nathan and Ella, but our cute neighbor boy Ryan. We often are found by their house or Ryan coming over to check out the "big" kids, Nathan and Ella.

Here is Sawyer pushing around a bus. It is so cute to see him starting to grasp the concept of pushing a toy around. He loves to do it with all of Nathan's toys.

May Musings

Sawyer fell asleep on top of his blankies, almost sitting up like

Ella and Nathan are watering the flowers

Enjoying a nice day outside.

Ella is getting pretty good on her scooter.

What a smile!

Dancing

We did some garage sales and I found this dance outfit for Ella so we decided to have a dance recital, but Nathan couldn't be left out, so here they are both dancing!

Sawyer's frustration

Sawyer is starting to walk behind toys, but gets very frustrated if it doesn't work out. Here is a taste of his frustration!

Sawyer's Dedication

Here is the best family picture we could get at Sawyer's dedication. Not easy!

Little blurry, but here is a haapy Sawyer enjoying his dedication party!

A quick shot after church

Ella helping dad put in the garden.

Our first garden!

We had Sawyer's dedication on May 1st. It was a wonderful time to express to God and family our promise and covenant to raise Sawyer to learn to love and seek God as his personal Saviour. Afterwards, we had a small get together at our house to celebrate.

We are finally starting to feel the summer weather. We have spent a lot of time outside. The kids love to ride their bikes, water the plants, and pick up flowers (dandelions). Sawyer loves it too, but we have to watch so he is not sticking leaves or grass in his mouth. We finally got our garden ready to plant and last night, Tim, Ella, and Nathan planted the garden. Ella thought it was so neat and spent the whole time out there with Tim.

News..News...News...

Spending some time outside

Face painting at the library

Glamour shots by Ella

Nathan doing his own posing


Thought I would send a quick update. I realized I haven't taken too many pictures lately, so here are a couple of the most recent pictures. As probably most of you have already heard, we are expecting number 4 in November. It was a slight surprise at first, but now we are very excited to have 4 Stuive children ruling the house. All our family was quite surprised (which we assumed). Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

Here is Ella dancing on Easter Sunday!

"Possitory"

Couple weeks ago we were having some issues with Nathan and pooping. Once I did give him a suppository, but it must have stuck fast in his brain. Here Nathan and Ella are playing and they are talking about giving their trucks "possitories"

April is here

Nathan's favorite meal of chicken nuggets

Ella dancing on the fireplace

Small nap in between play time

They love to build "beds" with our sofa cushions

showing off her lip gloss

Oh la la!!!!

We stand by everything now

Ella's favorite past time is coloring

8 months old

Big smiles and wild hair!

Hi everyone...posts seems to get harder and harder these days. We are doing fine here in Michigan. Still waiting for some good spring weather to arrive, but we have had a couple of nice days and the kids love to be outside. Their latest adventure is trialing out their new two-wheeled scooters that they got for Christmas. They actually do not do to bad on them. Sawyer is on the go. He is army crawling everywhere and now is into standing up by everything. He is pretty agile and can stand up by furniture and toys. Last night I had put him to bed and didn't hear anything for awhile then all of the sudden I heard some crying and went to check on him and found him standing in his crib. I think he first thought he was cool and then got scared because he couldn't get down. Tim had to lower his mattress so that he will not be able to fall out of bed. He is a good baby and has two teeth and loves to eat table food. He had his 8-9 month appointment and was found to be a little guy. His weight was 17lb. and 5 oz which puts him about 10-15% in weight. He is 50% in height at 27.75 inches. Maybe it is all his moving around. He never is still. So now we are trying to bulk him up. Luckily he eats whatever goes in his mouth. Tim and I have been busy at work and with the kids, otherwise nothing too new.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Minnesota

close up of sawyer

He was cutting teeth, so not in the best of moods!

The army crawl

February 2011

Our toy spaceship.

"Sawyer do you want to go to the moon?"

"No mom, I do not need to take a nap!"

Sisterly love

Brotherly love

Lots of smiles

I sit really good now

On our way to Daycare Esther's Valentine's Day party

Silly face and a moment that we are not sucking our lip

Ella with her hair all curled for church.

February has been pretty uneventful for us. We have had lots of snow and are anticipating spring (but know it's a long way off). Sawyer had his 6 month appointment and is making all his goals. He is 17.2 lbs and is 27 inches. That makes him 50% for weight and 75% for height. When I look back at how big the twins were at this age, it looks like Sawyer is taller and about the same weight. As of today, we can see one of Sawyer's bottom teeth trying to pop through. He has a been a little irritable and now we know why! He continues to army crawl all over. He can sit up without any assist and also loves to take baths with his brother and sister. He splashes in the water and thinks he is big stuff. The kids are definitely ready for some more outdoors time. They have some pent up energy that often times drives their mom insane! Ella now refers to me as, "Mother," in a tone that a 15 year old girl would say. So occasionally I will refer to her as, "Daughter!" Hope everyone else is having a good winter.

Nathan and Ella love to help with feeding Sawyer. I doubt whether Sawyer likes them feeding him.

January has brought the snow

Daddy helping Nathan and Ella make an igloo.

Sawyer continues to enjoy the new thrill of food. Here he has just finished eating some sweet potatoes. yummy!

A friend from work loves to spoil the kids. Here they are opening some belated Christmas gifts from her.

Yeah......another toy that makes lots of noise.

Snow is fun around here. We have enjoyed finally having some snow around here. Not so much the cold that we had this past weekend, but hey that comes with it, right! Ella and Nathan have gone sledding and today they helped Tim make a igloo. It is good to get some of their energy out by going outside. Sawyer is gaining speed on the floor. If he sees a toy he wants, he can inch his way across the living room to get it. He is pretty fast too! I'm sure, he'll be crawling soon. He sits up for small periods of time, but if left unattended, he will fall over--hard! He still has lots of smiles and is a good baby. He is finding his voice and is heard all over the house.