Life at the Keever House

My babies...all four of them...before school this morning.

This year Wyatt has Mrs. Reitveld for first grade. She is actually the wife of another pilot that Josh has worked with. She's super nice and after a week of class, so far so good! This year should be interesting and quite the jump from Kindergarten. Wyatt will have weekly spelling tests, penmanship tests and a weekly Bible memorization verse! I can't wait to see what all my little man learns this year!

Wyatt and Rea took two rounds of swim lessons this summer. First they had lessons at the local Parks and Rec just like last year. After two weeks of those, I wasn't happy with their progress. They were still very timid around the water and refusing to do most things the instructors asked them to do. So, I called a local swim school that I had heard people raving about. Thankfully, Hammond's Swim School had two openings. The kids then did two weeks at Hammond's. Can I just say that those people might be miracle workers. The progress that my kids made was astounding! We will definitely be going back next year...and Loyal will join them!

Poor Loyal...the little brother with a big sister. I forsee many more tea parties in his future...

Um...how do I have a six-year-old? What happened here? I swear, I just had him. He was just toddling around in diapers, dragging his blanket behind him. He's in first grade!!! Sigh.

Wyatt is getting so big. He had a massive growth spurt this summer and is showing no signs of stopping. He still loves Lightning McQueen but has started his love affair with Legos. He loves to build and rebuild all sorts of things. His Nana gave him an iPad for his birthday so he's pretty much glued to that whenever we'll let him use it. His favorite thing to do on it is to look at maps of places all over the world. He's going to be the ring bearer in my brother's wedding in a few weeks, so he's been working on his dance moves. Lets just say the reception should be interesting. This boy is smart as a whip and has a memory like I've never seen. He's also incredibly sweet and tender-hearted. Unless his sister has taken something from him or irritated him in some way--then he can be a bit tenacious. We're still working on the not fighting thing... He is so much me and then so much his father. It's amazing how that works. I can't wait to see what kind of man this boy will be...

The day after we returned home, the kids and I got to go up to the squadron to watch Josh get his promotion. Maybe one day I will blog about the details of this, but it was a long, hard-fought battle for Josh to get this promotion. And becoming a Commander is well deserved for him. I was so proud watching this all happen and I was on the verge of tears. His skipper even made the comment that promoting Josh was one of the highlights of his tour at VFA 122. The kids had no idea what was happening. They were just excited to be at the squadron. They love visiting daddy at work. I am so proud of my husband and so thankful to the Lord for bringing him through.

We very rarely get a family picture these days....life is a bit like herding cats, really. But while we were in Ohio, Josh's sister-in-law took a great picture of us. We had just dedicated Loyal at my in-law's church, then gone out to a big family lunch (Keever, party of 19) and stopped by Mount Jeez to take some pictures. I'm so glad we got this one!

Since Josh is working and getting his MBA, our chances to travel have greatly diminished. There is a three week period in the summer when the squadron slows down and he doesn't have class...so that is when we go. The last few years, we've used this time to go home...to all of our homes. This year we flew to Ohio for a couple of days before driving to Georgia and then to Alabama and then back to Ohio. We spent about five days with my dad, five days with my mom and about eight or nine days with Josh's family. While we were in Alabama, we dedicated Loyal at my mom's church...then in Ohio, we dedicated him again at Josh's parents church. All-in-all it was a great trip but not long enough. I can't wait for the day when we get to do this more than once a year!