Doin' the Pool

Holdrege has a pretty nice little pool and we spent quite a bit of time there. It's fun to see how the kiddos grow from the beginning of the summer to the end!

All three older boys were pretty timid at the beginning of the summer, but they really started growing some fins by August. Dominic especially loved jumping in and going under. The other two were also jumping off the side. Actually, it was much easier when they were all scared of the water.

And Patrick cannot NOT dance! He just has to if he hears music. There was lots of music at the pool!

A wedding for a great couple :)

Sr. Mary Guadalupe professed her final vows recently. It was a beautiful Mass and gather afterwards. I was so honored to cantor at the Mass. Sr. and I entered the convent at the same time 9 years ago. It was fun to look back on our lives and see how God has shaped our stories. Our lives are very different now, but God had (has) amazing plans for both of us!

 Congrats, Sister!!

We're Goin' to the Zoo

It would have been pretty tough to fit in a real family vacay with all the house stuff going on this summer, so we did a mini trip to the Zoo in Omaha. Good stuff.

Leo was in his stroller the whole day, lovin' life and being awesome, as usual.

 Every single person in the Mach family was there. I don't even remember the last time we were all together. It was awesome!

Jack-attack with his Godfather.

I loved this picture!

The kids loved the mist-ers!

 Penguins were, of course, a favorite.

Well, almost everyone looking at the camera :)

Photo Shoot

D took, literally, over 800 pictures on my camera. A few of the Leo ones were pretty cute.

Don't you just want to squeeze those chubby cheeks??

Really, though, they aren't very squeezable at all. He is just a solid mass right now. I suppose he'll lean up a bit when he starts walking. Right now he is crawling all over the place!

And he already loves to wrestle with Dad and the boys! He'll fit in just fine around here.



County Fair

County Fair's a pretty big deal around here. We promised the kiddos that we would take them to the rides one night. Unfortunately, we had to take our a second mortgage on our home just to buy them 2 rides each...

Good times, anyways!

Yep, you noticed right, Patrick is not in any of the above pictures. It is hard to peg his little personality. Often, he seems like the fearless one, but he wanted nothing to do with the rides. He just watched from the sidelines with little Leo.



And we got to see a magic show that was pretty far over the little's heads, but it was a fun summer-y thing to do!



A Little Boy Story

After playing in the backyard alone for a while (don't worry, it's fenced in), the three older boys came running inside excitedly, screaming over each other: "We found a toad! There's a toad! A big frog out there!" They were so thrilled, it was adorable. About 10 minutes later, they came back in, all yelling over each other again, only this time Jackson was holding the toad and soon it hopped out of his little hand right onto the kitchen floor. Patrick, D and I were not going to be picking up the toad, so Jackson chased after and grabbed it, dropped it again and then picked it up. I finally convinced them to take the toad outside so he could be with his family!

They are also all so into all kinds of super heros. They run around the house in their super hero capes all day and say things like "Up, up and away". Our Superman movie from the library has actually spurred some interesting questions about good and evil. I'm really loving all the stereotypical boy stuff! I know there is much more to come!