Last Sunday was our church picnic. They always put out these really awesome slip and slides for the kids to enjoy. Heck, I think most adults wanted to join on the action too, but only a handful actually did. It looked like a lot of fun! Owen really enjoyed it.
First he started out with the cautious slide.
Then decided to go straight for the BIG kids slide
Eventually he settled for the slide with the little kids.
Sorry - no pics of Asher - he wasn’t having the best of days.
Summer is coming to an end, sadly :( Now that September is officially here, our daily routine will be back in full force. For the last 3 years we’ve been spoiled with doing our own thing with no mandatory events or obligations unless we chose to put them on the schedule, BUT this year Owen is starting preschool. That means, a consistent schedule, which is great because my boys thrive on routine! We have a busy fall coming up, Owen starts football, preschool, and swimming lessons and Asher is starting music class. BUT before we dive right into Fall, we spent the last days of August doing good ol’ fashion summer things. A few examples:
Mr Freeezies!!! We cleaned out our freezer of them!
Sticky kisses!
Playing outside on the play set - although we will continue to do so until it snows!
Sandbox fun!
It was pretty hot and humid the past few weeks and it finally go to Owen - he NEVER just crashes like this!
A saying that my good friend and I always stuck with in our basketball days at the gym, “First ones in, last ones out!” That is exactly what we did this summer at our Aquatic Pool. We were there the first day it opened and almost everyday the weather permitted throughout summer. Of course we spent 5 of the 7 last days it was open last week there as well! We closed the place down with a good record attendance, I think. AND we only had one #2 accident in which everyone had to evacuate and leave the pool for decontamination!!! (that is not including all the different times I KNOW for SURE my kids have done #1 in the pool 
Owen became quite the fish this year and I am so proud of him.
Asher also made some good progress too.
The alligator crawl!
The steps were a popular hangout place for Asher- although he never really got used to going down the frog slide itself.
Finally Owen LOVES the dark slide! He calls the two slides either “open” or “dark.” The last day the pool was open, I forced Owen down the covered, dark, much faster slide. He kicked, screamed, and threw a fit, but then he loved it! We went on it 20 times in a row - not kidding! This was after we went under at the end of the dark slide!
I absolutely LOVE summer, but I REALLY LOVE a good Wisconsin fall season! Very much looking forward to NO MORE mosquito bites and the Packer football!
As Jill has already mentioned, our trusty ol’ Canon SD1000 camera has stopped focusing. This would explain Jill’s relatively small number of posts over the last few weeks (I say “relatively” because she is a prolific blogger).
After a couple weeks of searching, I finally found us a new camera. Because we have two little boys (and a really little girl coming soon), I decided to go with a waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, and freezeproof camera for obvious reasons. Surprisingly, there are quite a few manufacturers making cameras like this, and they’re really not much more expensive than regular cameras (if you find a great deal online).
We’ve tested out the camera’s waterproof capabilities at the Omro pool the last couple days.
O-Dog posing for me underwater…
Asher in doing his “I’m just lounging at the pool” pose…
Throwing the ball to Mom (with a nice follow-through)…
A cool half-underwater shot that shows both of the boys…
And a self-portrait…
The great thing about this new camera is that it takes HD video. Here’s me and Owen going down the “open slide” as he calls it. He’s gone down this slide about a hundred times, but he’s kind of scared in this video because I was only holding him with one hand so I could hold the camera.
Because I am getting VERY antsy sitting here waiting for our adoption number to start moving (its been really slow lately) I decided to occupy my time with projects around our house. I have made a pretty big list of things to do, so hopefully it will get me through the upcoming fall months. The first project was doing the BOYS bedroom. I have been wanting to do this for SO long but Asher was just too little. The time has finally come that they are now sharing a room. I have played with this project a million times, first trying Asher’s room, then re-arranging Asher’s room with the both of the boys in there, then finally decided that I just could not get myself to eventually paint over Owen’s room and make it girly. I just loved his room from day one when we finished it 5 months before he was born. So I decided that the boys will change rooms and share Owen’s room. I LOVE how it turned out. The best thing about this project was all the little projects that went into it. Mostly everything I made, painted, and glued. The theme is sports - and obviously it was so much fun and easy to do!
Here is Owen’s side of the room. I decided not to repaint his letters, as those were the ones he had since he was a baby.
And Asher’s side of the room. Same with his letters, but they blend in so well, I am thinking that I might add a bit of color to them yet.
Asher’s side wall is a bit bare yet, I have a painting in mind I may try and get up yet.
Here is Owen’s side of the room. Asher will, in time, have medals to hand on his hooks too.
Then there is the back wall by the closet.
And what is a boy sports room without a nerf ball hoop on the door! Best part, we got it at a rummage sale for 50 cents!!!
These are the first set of pictures I attempted to take with our new camera. So far, my opinion of it isn’t that great. It is extremely hard to get a clear shot the first time. It always seems to turn out blurry, but that may be because it is a water proof camera and I need to learn how to handle it better.
Here is the latest group of paper work we have been busy working on. It is our hope to get an interest free loan and possibly a grant to help defer the out of pocket cost for the remainder of our adoption. It seems as though we can still be hopeful that we will get a referral right around Christmas time or shortly after! Stating the obvious, that is only 4 1/2 months away!!!! Holy Smokes!!!
And for those keeping track of our #’s: We are UNOFFICIALLY 22! Hoping to be in the teens before the end of the month. There is a larger group traveling to pick up their children this week, so that will create more open cribs for more referrals very soon!
We tried to get some photos of the boys and a few of the family while we were in Michigan. It is so beautiful and there are so many places to take some really neat shots. I am not a very good photographer and an even worse photo editor, but it will have to do. The boys too were not all that cooperative, BUT between Grandma Lamz, Aunt Sheila, and myself we got a few that we were able to work a little with.
Owen 2010 (3.5 years)
Asher 2010 (19 Months)
Owen on the sailboat.
Asher admiring the sailboat.
Brothers forever!
Family walking along the boardwalk.
Family walking along the beach.
I like this one for some odd reason. We were walking down the sand dunes.
Owen’s cute little foot prints. We tried to get one of Asher too, but he wasn’t a big fan of the sand so we will have to try again next year.
Here is a shot of all the BOY cousins (actually cousins of cousins - so what does that make it…3rd cousins or something?) We have 6 boys all 5 and under!) Not to mention there are three more that are not in this pic that were not there. I can not believe we got them to all sit still for even one second on this log. Amazing!
Our sweet and wonderful family of four!! Just me and my boys!
BUT anxiously awaiting #5!!! It will no longer be my boys and I. I have always loved saying that, but now I get to proudly say, “me, my boys, and my sweet Ethiopian princess!” I like the sound of that too! Can you just picture her smack dab in the middle of the boys in the pic, of course with a big fat bow in her hair? I can imagine it already!
We got an email from All God’s Children last week with our new Official August #! We are now Officially #24. There was very good movement this past month and we are hoping for another BIG jump this next month before September. Courts are closed due to a rainy season over in Ethiopia right now and all of next month. This means that there will not be much number movement in September. We are hoping to be in the teens by that point!
We did not get a pic of the boys this month with the number for their baby sister for two reasons. One, I seriously tried but they are not cooperating these days, and the ones I did get were blurry. Second, our camera is almost dead. We are researching and getting a new one very soon!
This week we ventured up north to Door County, specifically Sturgeon Bay, for 2 days and a nights stay. Caleb is the Communications Director for the Oshkosh Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). They had a two day conference at one of the resorts so the boys and I decided to tag along for the adventure. Taking my two boys anywhere is MORE than what you would call an adventure - meaning that they are going through a very “trying” phase right now! BUT we managed through and found some things to do while Caleb was working.
First we went to a place called “The Farm.” The kids were free - even better yet! Our farm adventure is outlined in a the few pics below:
Owen climbing up the Kiln.
And inside the kiln.
Then it was on to feed the animals. Owen fed the baby goats and sheep their bottles without any hesitation.
Then he drew the attention of two babies!
Off to feed the other animals their corn. This lasted 10 seconds and the goat stuck its neck out of the hole and took Owen’s entire bag right out of his hand. Needless to say, that was the end of feeding the animals. The goat scared the pa-didle out of the poor boy!
Then we drove around till we found a beach and park to swim and play at since the resort pool was too deep for the boys to swim in. All Owen kept telling me was that he wanted to go to the beach. I am afraid we created a beach bum and I LOVE IT!! Now if only we could get Asher to like it!
The park was right across the street. We went to this beach both days!
I have one pic of Asher on the playground. Like I said earlier, BOTH boys are really, for lack of a better word, “difficult” right now, but Asher is in a whole other category by himself! SO, he wasn’t all that cooperative with pictures or anything else for that matter!
Overall, it was a good little 2 day trip. The boys were exhausted by the ride home that they actually slept most of the way. One of the best car trips for the Lamz Fam that we have had in a VERY long time! So, two days was plenty enough for this crew!!
PS: Sorry for any blurriness in the pictures, our camera is dying on us.
