Megan's Last First Day of Preschool

Megan misses the birthday cut off to start kindergarten this year.  While most people agree that she would be ready to start, we are also just fine with her waiting another year.  I was thinking the other day about how much taller she is going to be than the other kids but that's okay.  She'll be a great rebounder!  She is going to preschool two full days a week and will be working on pre-kindergarten material.  Her teacher tells us that she will be reading before she's through this year and will be having a little bit of homework too! 

Here are some pictures of her first days of school:

This is Megan in 2/10 when she first started going to school.

 Megan at the beginning of the school year in 9/10.

 And here is our little girl growing up so fast in 9/11.

Practicing With Our New Camera

We were lucky enough to be handed down a Canon Rebel camera.  It's been something we've always talked about wanting but never thought we'd have.  It's been really fun trying to learn about it and practice.  If the kids were sick of getting their pictures taken then, they seriously are now!  So now it's all about aperture, light, shutter speed, motion and getting it all in balance.  Sometimes......

Mom's 60th Birthday

Mom turned 60 this year!  Tami held a family dinner on the actual day and then on the following Saturday we had a small family gathering at her house as well.  Thanks Tami for all of your party planning and Happy Birthday Mom!

Mister enjoying his cupcake.

Family friends, Dave and Kaci

Grandma and Megan

Connor enjoying his cupcake

Birthday guests

It was also the Ducks' first game day so we had some eagerly awaiting fans!

Grandma Terri with Henry

Thank you everyone who came to make mom feel special!

Joshua Turns ONE!

It seems amazing to me that Joshua is already a year old.  It seems like yesterday I was being told that he STILL was not ready to come out.  It has been such a fun year with him watching him grow and change and watching him interact with Megan.  She has been a really good big sister and while she has found little brothers can be a little annoying, she loves him so much.  And you can tell that he loves her.  They crack each other up!  Having a summer baby actually allows for outdoor birthday parties!  We took full advantage and with the help of family we work hard and long at getting the backyard ready to entertain.  We had a full house of family and friends, some that we hadn't seen in a very long time and it was so fun.  The kids were able to run around while the adults visited and Josh barbecued, I'm sorry, Traegered burgers on the grill for everyone.  It was a great day and I didn't even cry this time!!

Our sweet Birthday Boy Mister.

Mister with some of his Aunties. 

I conveniently wore a dress so I made Josh open presents with Joshua.  He made quite the haul!  Thank you to everyone!  He actually has "boy" toys now! 

Joshua's first quad from Grandpa and Grandma T! 

All of the goodies! 

This was Mister's cake that Daddy and I made for him. 

This was his very first ever bite of cake!  I almost smacked my friend's hand away one day when she tried to offer him cake at a wedding shower a couple of weeks earlier! 

And boy.....was it worth the wait!! 

The birthday loot! 

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us and those who met up with us before or after.  He is still enjoying all that he got and we will have the memories forever!  Now off to plan sissy's 5th birthday.  Yikes!

July Wrap Up

July started out with a trip to Mossyrock to camp with the Schwartz/Sands families.  It was Joshua's first camping trip and it was definitely made much easier by using the ol' huntin' trailer that Josh and Jay got for....well...hunting.  We fixed it up A LOT and it made for a very cozy camping trip.  It was so nice to have a place to put the kids down for naps, stayed just the right temp and offered a little more privacy than a tent.  It's about a 2 hour drive so we had some cat nappers in the back but those naps didn't last as long as we would have liked!

 I finally had to come to terms with the fact that I was not going to be able to keep Joshua clean and finally just let him crawl around in the dirt.  There he found all sorts of fun and ended up with all sorts of dirt in his mouth.  It's organic.

 One of the best parts of Autzen.

Mister crashed out in the trailer.  (Megan just said, "That's cute and adorable!") 

 On the way home, crashed out. Yes!

 We got home on July 4th and waited a VERY long time for fireworks.  Joshua was not the trooper we had hoped.  I think everyone was very tired from our weekend!

In other news, Josh and I have been working very hard to get healthy.  I finally decided on Valentine's Day that it was time.  I started Weight Watchers and soon after that and losing about 10 or so pounds, I started running.  Josh followed suit and we are both 20-30 pounds lighter and much more fit.  I was invited to a wedding in July and I had it in my head that it was a good goal day for me to work towards and show off my hard work.  I was able to buy a dress I never would have worn before and I felt great in it too!  And the shoes....oh the shoes.  They are fabulous as well.  Sorry you can't get a better view of those!

Megan got to hit Broadway again and see Mary Poppins on stage.  She is so cultured!  She was very excited and loved it!  Aunt Kathy bought her her very own Mary Poppins umbrella too!

Megan has been asking about learning to ride her bike without training wheels. I've sort of been putting it off.  I just see visions of road rash and tears.  Then I found a package containing gloves, elbow pads and knee pads.  SOLD.  We gave it a go once but it was super hot and we had a tired, hot, cranky baby watching from the stroller and he was not having it.  We haven't had a chance to try again but hopefully soon.  If it will keep her off of the skateboard she's been asking for, I'll do anything!

I bought a deal on Groupon (or another of those sites) for John's Incredible Pizza and we finally used them last month.  The kids had a great time and the deal was well worth it!  The food was great, the entertainment was awesome and not at all as expensive (token wise) as I had anticipated.  Even Joshua got to ride on a couple of little rides.  We also got to hear him scream when we took him off of them.  Here is Megan and Josh on one of the full size rides.  I got sick watching them spin around in it.  I was waiting for Megan to lose all of her dinner when she got off but she said it was SO FUN!  Just like her daddy on that one!

The little princess picked out a tiara from all of her game ticket winnings.  Shocking.

Here's a picture of little Mister out shopping with Mommy.  Inevitably he is forced to try on cute hats so we can take pictures.

Stacy was in town for 2 weeks and we were able to fit in a trip to the zoo with all of my family (minus Kelly and Josh).  It was Joshua's first zoo visit.

We have a picture of Megan at about 6 months sitting on a tractor just like this at the tulip festival so I had to try to recreate it with Joshua.  He is just the cutest little guy, I have to say!

One of very few mommy and baby pics.

Megan on our way to see the lions.

Brother and sissy playing the drums together.

We had a nice visit with Stacy, of course it went way too fast.  We were very lucky to also have her here for Joshua's FIRST birthday!