water balloons

 Kandace chose waterballoons off our list a while ago but the weather hadn't been great but as soon as we got a nice day, Michael bought some on his way home from school and filled them up before we even got home.  Yay for Michael.

27 weeks prego! My baby app on my phone says the baby is 2 lbs and the size of a cauliflower.  Awesome! Our summer has been going really well.  Our schedule is working well and one of the best parts about it is the kids' room is staying pretty clean every day.  Until today, the weather this week has been great and we've been to the pool every day. I am so happy with the improvement Stetson and Kandace have made in the water.  I told them before summer even started that when we went to the pool we'd have to stay in the kiddie pool since I didn't think I could handle all of them in the big pool but we've actually been able to go to the big pool quite a bit.  I hold Janelle, Stetson swims by himself and Kandace does too if she stays close to the side.  She swims pretty well just takes up a lot of her energy. :)  We got a summer pass and I love that we live so close.  I'm glad to have something to do every day that the kids love so much.
Stetson has tried all slides and love it. He spends most of his time doing that, actually.
Yesterday a friend from our ward met us at the pool and played with Kandace almost the whole time.  I'm going to upload those pics off my phone when Michael shows me how. :)
Now that swim lessons are over I'm back to spinning.  I was going to go back to bootcamp but they're re-doing the gym floors so its been moved to the park and they're doing some crrrrrrazy stuff like running bleachers in the blistering hot sun.  I think I'll wait 'til its back in the gym. :)
I signed the kids up for the summer reading program a while ago but was having trouble logging their hours.  Finally the librarian helped me fix that and so yesterday the kids got their journals and have been doing scavenger hunts at the library, worksheets and other stuff to get their summer reading hours.  They get all sorts of prizes for completing the activities.
 

swimming lessons

 We took swimming lessons at the YMCA this year.  With our scholarship and member discount it ends up being only $23/kid which is a steal of a deal.  I should put my kids in more sessions because they're progressing so much but we'll see.  I wanted to get them all at the 9 session but Kandace's class was full so hers is in the evening while Janelle's is at 9 and Stetson's is at 9:45.  Janelle missed the age requirement for the beginner class just barely, so we were in the 6-36 mos mommy and me class which she LOVED.  I got to get in with her which was fun.  She is a crazy girl full of energy and personality.  She got lots of attention during lessons, that's for sure.
Stetson did the intermediate class and did awesome.  He can swim the short length of the pool by himself, tread water and float and all sorts of fun stuff.  He's almost independent in the water which will be a happy day for me.
We've been going to Rose Park pool a little bit (weather hasn't been great) and I think it will be nice when I can just send him to the big pool and not have my hands so full.  I don't have pics of Kandace's class yet.  I'm taking her tonight so I'll get some then.

 Stetson loved lessons and was super cooperative and receptive to his teacher.  He always had a huge smile like this on his face.  Michael calls Stetson's swimming style "controlled drowning."

me and my little show stopper.  She loves the water too and had a great time.  Lessons were right during boot camp and spinning so I haven't been for a while and am super excited to get back at it if I can handle it. :)

missionaries and West park ward

Every time we're in a new ward I eventually fall in love with it and can't imagine being anywhere else and then we have to move and I get super bummed. :(  This ward has been no exception.  Little Emma Croft from our ward got baptized last week and it was the highlight of my week.  How lucky am I to belong to a church that inspires and uplifts me on a regular basis if I choose to let it.  I felt such a sweet spirit there and felt so blessed to be a covenant making member of this church and to feel the Holy ghost.  I felt that warm assurance from the Holy Ghost that the speakers were talking about that night.  I feel it every Sunday, too and wish I could bottle it up and feel it in my home all the time.  Something to work on. Stetson was asked to give the closing prayer and I was super proud of him for doing such a good job.
We also get to have the missionaries over for dinner a lot which is great.  My girl Janelle L-O-V-E-S the missionaries.  She calls them "mine missionaries" and points to them in church and talks about them a lot.  We are grateful for their example and for the spirit they bring to our home.

catching bugs

 We have a summer list of things to do that the kids get to chose from all summer.  I was going to let them take turns choosing one thing every MWF but lets face it, this mom can't keep up yet so we're doing 1 thing per week. :)  Last week Stetson chose catching bugs.  It was fun to see how excited they got about ants and rolley polleys.  I heard Riverfront park is a GREAT place to catch bugs so we'll have to try that next time.

GIRL

I have gotten pretty bad about blogging.  I have a love/hate relationship with it and our computer is downstairs now and I don't go down there very often.
Anyhoo, May 12th Michael and I got to find out the gender of little Asay baby #4.  Kandace and Stetson were at school so it was just Michael, me and Janelle.  My midwife has an ultra sound teach who comes in and does them at her facility up in the heights.  He was very thorough and checked for healthy development and all those things checked out.  We also found out I'm due about 2 weeks sooner than we'd planned.  LOVE that.  And we found out we're having another girl.  I figured it before the guy even said anything.  I explained our surprise with Stetson and even though he didn't say he was 100% sure he did say he was 90 and that he saw no indication of it being a boy, but hey, you never know, right?  So with that being said, I sill have my baby boy clothes in the closet downstairs.
We are very excited and I feel incredibly blessed to be having what looks like another healthy baby.
I have baby bump pics on my phone but I can't dowload them.
I'm about 24 weeks and feeling good.  Lots of movement which is so exciting.  The thought of getting the tote of newborn girl clothes out is very exciting to me and I feel very lucky.
Because of scheduling conflicts I haven't been to bootcamp for what seems like a long time but I try to go swim in the evenings or do spinning if it fits my schedule.  My spinning teacher sent me a super nice letter in the mail telling me how she loves having me in class and that my body and my baby will thank me later for my workouts.  Felt good to have someone rooting for me.  :)  I went to go visit our friend in the hospital whose on bed rest and pregnant with triplets!  She's only a couple months ahead of me but she'll go way before me considering her circumstances.  Its been interesting and an eye opener watching how different our pregnancies are and its made me count my blessings because I can really do just about anything including take care of my kids, clean my house, and exercise almost to the same degree as pre-pregnancy.  We're excited to see their babies come and watch them experience being first time parents.

Memorial day weekend

 Here is our girl posing with some rhubarb from gma's house.  This girl keeps us on our toes and teaches us lots of lessons about parenting for SURE.  Maybe a post about that later.
Last weekend we went home for Memorial Day weekend.  We left Saturday morning and got there a little after lunch.  Just in time to help gma plant some flowers and then we had some crazy weather.  There was a tornado in Cowley and after that it rained and hailed like crazy for about a 1/2 hr.
Sunday we went to church with Asays and had an delicious dinner with everyone minus Christian & Jill's fam.

 The queen bee

 Janelle, Chloe & Britt sharing the rocking horse.

 Daniel & Michael win most photogenic

 Stetson found a scripture crossword puzzle at gmas that he was pretty hooked to the whole weekend.  I loved that gpa Asays took so much time to help him look up the scriptures and fill in the blanks.  Stetson loves riddles and games and gpa is a crossword puzzle expert afterall.

The whole gang

Frog and Toad

After Kandace's preschool graduation, we had Michael's parents and my dad join us for pizza at the park and then Lucky for us, Stetson's school play about Frog and Toad was that same day so Stetson had his fan club at his play.  Stetson did awesome.  He was MC and even got to play Toad.  I have videos on my tablet but I haven't figured out how to get those uploaded.  Stetson has had an awesome school year.  His teacher always says the greatest things about him.  A couple weeks after this Stetson sang Amazing Grace at his school talent show and made us so proud!

Kandace's preschool graduation

 Kandace graduated from preschool from the YMCA!  The year absolutely FLEW by and its kind of scary how fast the time passes.  Kandace loved going to preschool at the YMCA.  She loved having somewhere to go and things to do.  Her favorite days at preschool where Fridays because that was her swim day, and a week before preschool let out, they had a family swim day where she got to have one adult come swim with her so she could show off all her new swimming skills which were quite impressive.  I loved that swimming was a part of her preschool program.  Such a great opportunity.  Wednesdays were rock tumble and roll which was fun for both of us of course because I could watch her while I ran my laps in the Flanagan gym.  I sure got lots of workouts in this year thanks to the great classes at the Y.  Kandace's teachers were Miss Shannon and Miss Allyssa.  Kandace was really shy when her and her class walked into the gym but she was sure excited to see her gpa and gma Asay and gpa Simmons had all come to support her.  Congrats Kandace!