"Eight!"

Our little boy is now 8, can you believe it?  Crazy how fast the little ones grow.  This makes me think back to when I was in second grade and thought "is this school year ever going to end?"  Well, the school year is ending soon and soon our 8 year old will be a 3rd grader.  You will see that we have done a lot this past month and hope that you enjoy the pictures of our adventures. I do want to share a conversation that I had with Jayden that made me just smile.

Me:  So Jayden, now that you are 8, what do you think you will do while you are 8?

Jayden:  Spend time with Grant and Claudia, Claudia will turn 1, I will go into 3rd grade, I get to play flag football, I get to do Karate, I'm swimming this summer...

Me:  Do you think you will get to do anything fun this year or try anything new?

Jayden:  I don't think so, but maybe!

So I guess we will have to change his mind and let him have tons of fun and try some new things, since summer is almost here!

Teacher appreciation week was the first week in May so the kids and I treated Mrs. Cust to some fun, homemade gifts.

We feel so blessed to have Mrs. Cust  teach Jayden this year.  She has pushed him to achieve anything he set his heart to and made him believe!  How awesome!

 
We decided to have the two neighbor boys over for a sleep over for Jayden's birthday.  The kids had a blast having tons of fun and staying up until 11:30 at night.

The boys ate us out of home of a whole box of pancakes for breakfast!

Jayden chalked me a picture of what I look like to him.

 

Jayden's birthday cake or should I say birthday pale?

Blowing out the candles

One of my favorite pictures of Grant!

 

This year we headed to Chula Vista in Wisconsin Dells for a little water fun.  Jayden loved this slide and wanted to race Jeff multiple times.

 

Sunset from our room.

Playing such a fun game of air hockey.  Crazy shaped table, but way fun.

Oops, Jayden wanted to ride the cart so we took advantage of it.

 

Tired after two big days at the water parks.

Grant's first sucker!  What am I suppose to do with this?

Playing outside at the Claffey house and where do you find Jayden?  In the tree!

 

Grant loves to play by the tree too.

 

Almost as tall as Auntie!

 

For all the years we have lived in our house (7 years), I never took a picture of our flowering trees.  They are so pretty, but the flowers don't last very long.  Usually the rain and wind take them away quickly.

What a better day that having a half day and spending it at the farm.  We even brought a friend this year (Beck) to plant the garden.

The boys found some time to go Froggin'.

Going for a ride in the Ranger!

Jayden and I!  Love this kid!

 

Claudia was baptised and it was a beautiful day.

Sprinkler fun.

Water balloon fun!

Well, I think that is enough for this month, I'm sure I will have a lot to blog about next month.  Enjoy the beginning of summer and we will see you again next month.

Until next time,

Jeff, Heather and Jayden

April showers...

April is here and almost gone.  Mother nature has been teasing us with warm temps one day and the next snow.  We have had showers some days and nice inviting sun the next.  May is right around the corner and we are getting excited for some special boys 8th birthday!  Jeff has the itch to get out in the boat and cast a few lines to see if any fish will bite.  So far on the two trips he has taken, only the bottom feeders are going for the bait.  School is getting closer to the end and it saddens me to know that this amazing school year will be over.  Jayden has had an amazing teacher and has grown so much; we are so proud of him.  And our family has grown one person larger with the addition of our new little niece Claudia.  We hope that you can find some fun looking at our adventures we have had in the month of April.

Whoops, we did have a get together at the end of March that I forgot to include in last months posting.  Here are the kids enjoying some cousin time.  Can't believe how fast everyone is growing.

Us girls.  Love that us cousins still get together almost every month.

 

 

Family picnic that turned a little silly!

When I went to my parents one afternoon, I couldn't believe all the robins in their neighbors yard.  The picture doesn't even capture how many there were, but I tried.

Who's a big brother?  GRANT!!!

Introducing Claudia Grace Claffey!  Congrats to my sister Nicole and Mike.

The Claffey Family.  I feel that the next few years are going to be crazy, but a lot of fun.

 Proud big cousin!  Jayden knows his responsibility is to be a great role model for all his little cousins.

Grandma and Grandpa Stoffel bought him new PJ's for being a great helper.  Jayden said "Daddy, look, Grandma bought these for me for being such a great babysitter."  Love how kids interpret things.

Can't get enough of this little girl.

Jayden checking out Grandpa Stoffel's new boat.  Think we found the new caption of this ride!

 

 

Winter in Spring.  Thought these pictures were pretty. Let's hope that Spring comes back.

Grant took over the camera. He just wants anyone's phone or camera so you have to watch out.

Picking Jayden us from school in fashion!  We thought it would be a great surprise for Jayden, which is was.

Decorating eggs.  Grant was more interested in smelling Claudia's feet though. Maybe next year he will show more interest.

Jeff took Jayden on two Easter Egg hunt.

After the egg hunt they took a little trip to Bubholz nature preserve to check out the new dock and the snakes. 

 

Easter 2014.

Jeff was able to get out in the boat and fish a little.  He decided to go on a little adventure himself and find where a little creek would take him.  Well, it took him to a really neat place to take a picture.

Jayden found deer tracks in the yard after school.  He thought that was pretty cool.

Here is proof that the deer were really here.

Cousin's just hanging out, watching a movie together.

So happy to see us girls, the "triplets", together again.  Linds made it home from China safely with her family and Nat was able to be there with her new 1 week old. They acutally had a few other of their kids there too.  These girls are amazing mothers...between the two of them, they have 11 children 9 and under.  Their parents are so lucky and blessed to have 6 grandboys and 6 grandgirls.

Congrats to the new babies!  Nicole with Claudia(3 weeks old), Natalie with Theo(1 week old) and Danielle with Reuel(3 weeks old).  Claudia and Reuel share the same birthday which is pretty cool.  It was great to be with the family again.

Girls night out!  We decided to celebrate Kristin's birthday with dinner and drinks which turned into a night out with friends.  It was great to spend quality girl time with no husbands or children.

We even ran into Jeff and Chad's Uncle Buck!  What a trooper to put up with us girls.

Buck's girlfriend Liz was there too.  At this time I think we were feeling pretty good and I decided to turn to water.  Pretty sure I was the best one out of the group.

It was so nice to hang with my great friend Teresa too(her husband Chris was there too).  We had such a good time to just hang out and have no worries!  Love girls night out!

Our family wishes you a Happy Spring and hope that everyone has a great May!  Our May schedule is going to book up quick, but looking forward to the many adventures to come.

Have a wonderful May!

Jeff, Heather and Jayden