Yankton Family Vacation Part 1 (July 11-17)

Every year the kids look forward to the Yankton vacation more than anything! We go with a big group of people. Not many who are family and many who we only see this one time a year but it is a really fun group of people to go with. One of the kid's favorite parts is that Yankton=endless water time. They love the pool and this year the pool was even more fun because the boys were good enough swimmers that they didn't need life jackets as long as an adult was sitting right next to the edge. They jumped in like maniacs and retrieved dive toys for hours on end.

 

Caleb

Robb throwing Caleb in the pool

 

Bryce (he looks so grown up in this picture)

Robb is going to jump in with Bryce on his head.

Abby had a great time in the pool too. She wore her life jacket most of the time but she was still able to tootle all over the pool and get where she wanted to go.

 

Abby and AJ playing at the beach. Brook was with her Godmother this year so Abby missed her playmate but AJ was pretty darn fun too.

Exciting News for our Family!

We are Excited to Announce that we are expecting baby Lutz #4 in early February.
We found out on June 2 and we were both a little shocked and surprised. As most of you that read this blog know, we had to do fertility treatments for our other children so this was a very exciting surprise. I am not nearly as sick this time as I usually am so that has been a blessing. We decided to keep the news to ourselves for a little while and decided to tell the kids at 11 weeks after we had an ultrasound. We got mixed responses from the kids but I think they are all excited now.
When we told the kids Abby of course was super excited! She has been asking for a baby since she was able to talk. She was born a little mommy and will be quite the helper. Bryce's reaction surprised us a little. He was probably the most excited of all the kids. I think his excitement ranked right up there with mine when I saw that second blue line on the test. He jumped up and down and screamed like a maniac. He immediately wanted to know if he could feed it, play with it, hold it, sleep with it and if it could sleep in his room. It was really cute how excited he was!  Caleb on the other hand doesn't like change and us springing this on him was a bit too much of a surprise for him. The poor kid cried and kept saying "I don't like having to be careful" " I just want to be able to ride my bike and go boating". I think he may have overheard his dad a couple times list the fun things that he won't get to do as much if we were to have a 4th. Luckily just like his dad he came around to the idea pretty quick after we explained that he would still get to do fun things.
We told our parents and close friends and family at about 12-13 weeks. It has been fun announcing all of our kids but I think the element of surprise made this one especially fun. We had mixed response from family too but mostly positive. After all if we are excited that's all that really matters.