Kevin and Sonja's Joys

Look at me. I'm 4 months and the sofa is helping me stand. I love to smile! I'm enjoying all the water days staying out of the sun.



We all fall down.


Andrew and Christian are just about 24 hours apart.



I had Andrew on Jen's due date and she had Christian on her due date. This was our third time being pregnant together. We had fun hanging out and going on a pontoon boat.


This wasn't a water event but Ashleigh had fun riding a horse.



We had fun on our date at the ranch. She earned money selling girl scout cookies and rode a horse for her first time.



Every year we ride a canoe down a river nearby. It was quite tight with all six of us in one canoe.



Brynn was nervous we were going to tip over but we didn't.



Kamren made sure he was in front of the boat to take care of us.



Brynn went tubing for the first time by herself. She just loves to be like her big brother and sister.



It was such a gorgeous day for this.



I love watching the kids have so much fun.



Rhonda is so sweet to take care of us. She really is the kids adopted aunt.



After we go tubing she always has rootbeer and grapes for us. The kids love the treats.


We finally made it to the beach. It was a beautiful day and Andrew did great.



Kamren had a blast in the water and the sand with all of his friends.



Brynn loved playing with her girlfriends in the sand. They are all two months apart.



Ashleigh is best buddies with Sadie. It is so cute to watch them play together.



It was so fun to get together with friends. I couldn't have gone to the beach by myself. It's a lot of work watching all of the children in and out of the water.

Ashleigh had so much fun with some of her friends in Daisies to do a day camp with the Girl Scouts. She even earned a patch while she was there. We are grateful for this program and for her wonderful leader.



We still think Andrew looks like all of the children but Ashleigh is convinced that he looks just like her since they do have the same first letter in their names. Ashleigh continues to bless me with helping out with Andrew. I really couldn't handle four children without her. She is our little mommy.



Andrew is almost four months. How on earth can it go by so fast? Pregnancy never went that fast. I think sweet Andrew is starting to look like daddy. Oh, he is the greatest blessing in our lives. I am so happy he is in our family even though life is very busy with four.



Kamren, Ashleigh and Brynn have been very busy this summer with watching animals from rabbits, to fish, to cats, and dogs. I am so proud of them for taking care of all our neighbors pets and they're earning some money too.

When the children turn eight they get to open their own savings account. Kamren has been earning lots of money by caring for animals so he put some in his account. We have a deal that we match whatever he puts in his savings so we can encourage him to save and not spend as much. He put 20 dollars in the other day and we matched it, so now he has 40 dollars in it. I wish our savings would grow that fast! He is excited to save more money for his mission.



After each baby I try and do a physical challenge to help me get some baby weight off. I just did a sprint triathlon and I had so much fun doing it and training for it. I was able to do it in the same time I did 5 years ago. I was very happy. It was a 400 yd. swim, 12 mile bike ride and a 5K run. Ashleigh made me an adorable medal and the kids all made me a banner to congratulate me. I am so grateful for their support.

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The children seem to be growing a ton because they always seem to be hungry so I wanted to make something healthier to eat for a snack. I've been making lots of bread and trying different kinds of bread. I've done blueberry, blueberry zucchini, yellow squash, and banana zucchini bread. I use less sugar, less oil and more applesauce, and whole wheat flour with a few tablespoons of flax seed in it. It's a healthier snack for the children and very fast to make and they can make it with me. I like to make the bread in mini loaves so we can give a loaf away and then I cut the little ones up in slices and put it in a tupperware container so the kids can just grab one to snack on.


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Before we went to our second reunion this year, here are some of the things we did.



Ashleigh had so much fun with her friend Molly doing the Circus dance camp.



Three out of four have found their thumb. Kamren is the only one who never sucked his thumb. Andrew loves to suck on his left thumb to fall asleep. I was a thumb sucker too:)



Ashleigh thought long and hard about cutting her hair. She wanted it just like our neighbors and my sweet friend cut it for her. We love it!! It's so much easier to brush and do now without any pains.



We sure love the nature here. It's a tradition each summer to walk the nature preserve near our house. The weather was just right that day.



I try to take each of our children on a date once a month so Ashleigh and I went to see the musical Beauty and the Beast. We loved it!



Here's the wonderful Staples clan. This is our second annual reunion with the Staples Family. We are trying to do one every 2-3 years. We sure miss them already.



The kids had a blast with their cousins. They really enjoyed golfing together.



Grandpa Staples plays the harmonica beautifully so he bought all the older grandchildren one to start our own Staples Harmonica band. It was so fun to teach Kamren and Ashleigh to play. It was quite an impressive band.



These are the four cousins born within one year. There's three boys and one little girl born. Andrew is the youngest.



Here's Andrew all decked out in his sweet swimsuit. He never swam but he was such a good little sport going everywhere we did.



All the ladies went to the outlets for an afternoon and the guys did a golfing outing in the morning. It was so much fun to chat without any interruptions.




We had so much fun at the Wisconsin Dells. We sure enjoyed eating whatever we wanted at this all inclusive resort. Of course the kids loved the pizza and the flavored slushies.



We had a fun family home evening. The kids really loved learning more about who we are. It's quite busy with 17 grandchildren there.



We all dressed up in blue for our Staples family picture. The kids are quite worn out from smiling.





On the way to Wisconsin we stopped by the Jelly Belly factory. What a fun treat.



Brynn and Grace who are three days apart reaquainted themselves. They sure loved each other.



To start of the reunion some of the cousins checked out the Weiner mobile that was at our resort for a few hours.



Ashleigh decided to have one more cousin hot tub party in our room. Aunt Cori was so nice to blow bubbles for them too.



To finish our trip we went to the temple. Brynn asked me today if we could go again to the temple. It truly has a special spirit there.



I guess we didn't get tired out on our trip so we went to the zoo with some friends today. We really enjoyed the animals.