Ian's Fieldtrip/Preschool Party to Peter Piper Pizza

For his last day of preschool, Ian had a pizza party!  Not only did he get to eat pizza, but he got to see how it was made, make his own, and then enjoy the goodness.  He had a crazy year with a bunch of crazy boys and Eliza.  We love preschool!

 

LtoR:  Timmy, Sean, Eliza, Ian, Ryan, Kase

 

 

 

 

When the pool's closed...buy a slip'nslide!

The kids had been begging for us to take them swimming for several weeks before we finally gave in.  We got everyone dressed, sunscreened, and loaded only to discover that the pool was closed due to human contamination.  Man! Luckily, they have an awesome Dad who was willing to pull into Walgreens to see what they had.  $10 later, they were a slippin and a slidin.  Hours of fun in our own backyard.

 

 

Carter and his best friend, Bryant Griffin

 

Isaac was at a birthday party and Summer was a chicken.  Boy did they miss out!

There's a Bear in here!

Carter earned his Bear rank in cub scouts!  I think this is the first time we didn't squeak it in right before a birthday.  He finished with four months of arrow point earning power still to go.  We're so proud of him and his accomplishments!

 

 

 

 

He looks like he was running from my kiss, but I know he wanted it!

A girl of many names

 Artist

"Just wait until you see this!"

 

 

 

 

Fashionista

 

Handyman

 

 Taste Tester

Shoe Model

Sweetheart!

15 months!

My sweet Summer is 15 months old today!  Her biggest accomplishment would be that she now walks about 50% of the time.  We're making progress!  Lucky for us, she's had her climbing skills perfected for awhile now.  I definitely have to keep my eye on her.  I was looking for a pacifer this morning to lay her down for her nap and we came across the jackpot under her crib.  Heaven!  We sure do love and adore her!

Little Boys Don't Stay Little Forever

We had the GREAT opportunity today to have a backhoe working RIGHT outside our front door!  How do we get such luck?  Ian was quick to grab his backhoe and get to work also.  As I watched him play, I started to think about the "good ol' days" that I thought would never end.  Why did they have to end?  When the older kids were little, we had nothing to do but play in the dirt with trucks for hours, go to parks, libraries, museums, playgroups - something different every day.  I realized that I need to relax every now and again and embrace my last two little ones.  Enjoy some things that I never do anymore.  I might get crazy and even pull out the finger paint.  Well, maybe baby steps....

August

Farewell

The Jones' left us!  After three years of keeping me sane and alive, they decided they were ready to move on to real life, get a job, yada, yada.  Jake finished his residency in podiatry and then off they went - without ever really consulting my feelings on the matter!  Fortunately (or possibly unfortunately for them!), they moved just a few streets down from Cari so we can still stalk them now and again.  I haven't been able to decide who will miss them most - me, Eric, or Isaac.  Jake was Eric's sanity as much as Natalie was mine, and Isaac and Caleb were best of buds.  All of the kids loved each other, of course, but they were quite the interesting mix of relationships.

 Isaac and Caleb

 The big boys

 The little boys

 The sweet girls

All the munchkins, minus Parker and Katie.  We'll miss them, too!

 

First Day of School!

Another school year!  Hooray!  I'm usually pretty sad to see the summer end, but I have to admit that we were all pretty ready this year.  Ashlyn, especially was very anxious to start school!  We had a count down for many days before Kindergarten started.

 Ashlyn ready for Kindergarten!   (my family - think back to family pictures in front of the temple and you'll appreciate what a great shot this is!)

 Isaac - 5th grade already?

 "Do you want to be late on your first day of school?"

 Carter - 2nd grade watch out!

 Ian - ready for a house and a mom all to himself!

 The sun was bright.

 We gave one of Isaac's friends, Matthew a ride and he was a good sport to jump in on a picture although he had already done his duty for his mom.

 Ashlyn in front of her classroom.  She has Ms. Kornacki this year.

 Ashlyn was so excited that one of her best friends, Rebecca, is in the same class!

 At her desk and ready to go!

 Carter in front of Ms. Terpstra's room.

 Isaac about to enter the world of Ms. Baden.

 Ian just happy to be alive!

 Coming off the bus for the first time.  Big moment that was almost as exciting as kindergarten itself!

We love, Marvin, our bus driver!

So far, so good for all of the kids.  Ashlyn thrives at school and comes home with best behavior marks.  Carter is still reporting that recess is his best time of day, although he will slip music in every once in awhile, and Isaac came home the first week of school and said, "Mom, I LOVE 5th grade!  I'm not so bored all the time now!"  Here's to a great year!

 

Potty Training!

I promised Eric that I would start potty training Ian as soon as school started.  I was able to get out of it the first week, but then ran out of excuses.  It's not something that I really look forward to, and although Ian was more than ready, I still dreaded overcoming his fear of the toilet.  Big first step.  Luckily, he's a boy, so we got around it by standing (once I was able to get him near it, weird kid.)  Number two was a whole other matter, but no one really needs the details of that!  The first week was a pretty typical, miserable experience - but then he got it!  A few more accidents here and there, but we've been accident free for several weeks now!  In fact, I think the last accident he had was on Kimmie's new carpet.  (Sorry again!)  He has never wet during nap time and only occasionally at night.  We are pull up free and I am basking in the glory of my diaper free, new favorite child!  Why couldn't they all have been this easy?

 He's pretty darn cute in his undies, too!

Lost Battle

Isaac has taken to sleeping with a number of large stuffed animals.  We have failed to understand why he is willing to give up his bed, but he insists on it.  We keep telling him that one night they're going to completely boot him out.

 Since we knew he'd never remember, we made sure to document the night the animals won.

 

Fearsome Fighter

We finally broke down and bought Carter his own sparring gear for karate.  He's been wanting some for a long time.  Would you believe we don't have a single picture of him wearing it?  However, we have our super fierce, super victorious fighter.