First of the Summer Catches

Torin is all about catching different creatures. Last year he got a couple of snakes, his caught a skink and the number of frogs, dragon flies and toads is too much to try and count. However, this summer he started off with his first toad. Him and his friend Collin took it upon themselves to show the toad the pool, the garden and a few other places until we told Tor to put the poor thing back in the weeds. Before we could do that Torin insisted that we needed to get a picture of it which turned into Collin, Ella, Vaughn and Madelyn being part of the picture too. It's these photos that I love the most...kids in the backyard on a warm summer day..

Collin, Torin and the first toad.

Vaughn wanting to be part of the picture

Ella, Madelyn, Vaughn, Collin, Torin and toad

Some thoughts on Tor

First of all I cannot believe that I am blogging that my first born child turning 7 today. The first few years of his life it seemed like life was going fast. His first year I was so excited that my baby was turning 1. The party and seeing him dig into a cake was just so fun to experience. The next few years just didn't seem crazy to me. It was amazing to see him growing into a big boy. I think it was when he turned 5 that I started to realize that my baby was growing up way too fast. Then I woke up today and realized that my baby was turning 7 and that he really wasn't my baby any more. Seven, just seems way too old to me. How did this happen? There's a part of me that literally tears up. I want to stop time in it's place and just hang out with him, hold him and love him to pieces. At the same time life with Torin, even though challenging at times, can also be so rewarding. He's got a heart for God and for his family. I was told recently though that I am now was his #2 girlfriend. I know deep down I'm still probably #1. I snuggled with him tonight and cherished every second of it. Things I remember about Torin this year....he learned how to ride a skateboard, he became a big brother again and loves every second of it, he played his first season of youth hockey where they took second in their jamboree, he was a teenage mutant ninja turtle, he got his first WBL sweatshirt and literally wore it almost everyday, still loves to cuddle with his little blankey, ran a 2k and a 1/2 mile race, shot a bow and arrow that would resemble Robinhood and finished the first grade. All in all it was good year!!

Prior to that he celebrated his 7th birthday with a few of his close friends for a hunting party. I'll admit that I don't have a ton of pictures of the party as I took this time to just be in the moment versus trying to capture the moment. I did have to get a picture of the cake and then one of all the boys with their faces painted. It was a great birthday with a scavenger hunt, shooting target practice, army gear relays and of course face painting, cake and presents. It really was a great night and I think that all of the kids had a great time. When Torin went to bed tonight he told Bjorn that was one of the best birthday's ever. I guess the backyard party with just a few friends is still in fashion :)

Photos of Berc at 6 mos

Well I saved some money with Berc's 6 month pictures by taking them myself in my neighbors basement. I know it sounds crazy but they actually turned out pretty decent. Good enough to print and put up on the wall at least :) Hope you enjoy the pics...

So this one is obviously not in a basement. It's the next best spot

for pictures....the tree in the backyard :)

I just love his expression in this pic.

He truly is a happy little baby...

His big boy pose....

Protective Brother

Torin and Vaughn definitely have their differences. I personally have come to the conculsion that besides looking like brothers that these two children have nothing else in common. From the day that they were born they have been different.

Initially, Torin was in love with Vaughn. Everything about him was "cute". As Vaughn got a little older Torin would test the boundries of roughness with his brother. Come to find out that Vaughn was one tough cookie. As the years have progressed there have been more fights with one another than there has been loving moments.

However, no matter what comes between these two Torin will always be concerned and protect his younger brother. Last Saturday Torin had baseball practice so Vaughn, Berc, Bjorn and I went over to our friends Amy and Ben's to have Vaughn try out a tag-along bike. The kind that is attached to the adults bike, sort of a tandem but smaller for a child. I wanted to purchase one but wanted to have test it out first to make sure it would be worth it. Vaughn did great and loved every second of it.

We bought the bike from Amy and Ben and of course the next day Vaughn wanted to go on a family bike ride. Torin on the other hand was not really sure about Vaughn doing this. He told him "Vaughn I know that you did this yesterday but I didn't see it and well I'm just sort of nervous for you to ride it. I mean, if you fall off it's really going to hurt you." Torin studied the bike over and you could just tell that he was thinking whether or not his little brother should do this. Vaughn got on the bike and we headed off. Torin was amazed and shouted to Vaughn "WOW, Vaughn you are really doing it. I'm so impressed with you. Good job Vaughn. Mom I was just so nervous for him."

I told Torin that no matter what their differences are in life that he is always going to love Vaughn and look out for him. Torin agreed saying "Yeah, sometimes I fight with him when he takes my toys or hits me but I am just nervous about him getting hurt. Like when we were in Florida and he kept going so close to the edge of the pier. I was so afraid that he was going to fall in that I could hardly look at him."

The tenderness that Torin has for his brother is pretty cute for only being 6 years old. Don't get me wrong Torin will give Vaughn a good punch or kick from time to time but he will always look out for his little brother.

ATTENTION: MOVING BABY

It's official the little man is crawling. At about 6 1/2 months it started with the army crawl and was quickly replaced with what we termed the butterfly move. He would get his body up so that his arms were straight and throw himself forward. Seriously, he can move pretty fast doing this. The last few days the knees and hands have connected and he is non stop moving. All of sudden we are finding ourselves saying over and over again "Bercan, no, no.." As he is going toward a cord, stereo equipment or whatever it is that he shouldn't be by.

His other cute move is that he does the downward dog yoga move. He will have completely straight arms, butt in the air and legs slightly bent...I'm working on him getting them straight :) I know this is only the beginning and am praying that he is not like his father walking at 9 months. It's just not something that I have the energy for right now :)

Concerned Heart

We do not watch the news with the kids and rarely do we talk about the bad news that occurs with the kids. Maybe it's a way of sheltering them from the sinful world that we live in but some of it is just not appropriate for their age. I'm not sure where Torin heard about the Maplewood Police Officer being gunned down last week but he definitely knew about it.

He was talking to Bjorn about it the other day and asked if his soon to be Uncle could ever be shot like that. His soon to be Uncle is in law enforecment. Bjorn tried calming Torin in saying that he really didn't think that it would happen to him or that is was less likely to happen to him. Obviously, this really didn't calm Torin as his reply was "Dad, do you have Dion's work phone number? We need to call him at work and talk to him." We haven't done this yet but it was interesting to see just how concerned that Torin is about the people that he loves.

Auntie Cole is engaged!!!

We are all excited that our Auntie Cole got engaged to our soon to be Uncle Dion but really Torin is the MOST excited. I don't think that I have ever seen him this excited about something. Don't get me wrong Florida was pretty exciting but the way that he talks about Dion is just something that is special. When he talked to Auntie Cole on the phone he wished her congrats on the news as he is super excited to finally have Dion as an Uncle.

He told Bjorn and I that it was really weird because whenever he talked about Dion to his friends at school he always called him Uncle Dion, and now he was really going to be his Uncle. Literally, any time that he talks about it he just grins from ear to ear about it.

He also had some suggestions for Auntie Cole on how he could help out and what he was going to wear. He thought the colors should be black, white and red. He thought a red bow tie would be good. Not sure where he gets this stuff from but it's quite funny. Just the other day he was telling Nana about the red bow tie that he was going to wear for the wedding. She informed him that it didn't fit into the color scheme of the wedding. I don't think that he was very satisfied with that reply :)