August 2014

Only a week later, here I am!  

Ethan and I read together most nights before bedtime.  We just finished My Father's Dragon.  Which we loved.  Here he was predicting what he thought would happen next. 

The kids were sitting for family night and Jovee came down and plopped right in between them and laid back. Also pictured: New couch pillows. :)

I've been waiting for this day!  The day that Ethan would be both able and willing to read to Leah.  Sooo nice. Because Leah would choose to be read to all day long if she could.

I finally took the kids to Skyzone, a trampoline jumping place- I've had a groupon to use for a long time.  They had a blast and got really sweaty. :)

Tuesday was also our anniversary. 9 years!  Ross was out of town, and we still haven't celebrated it, but we will! I'm glad to be married to this guy.  He does a lot for me and the kids, and I especially notice it when he is gone for a couple weeks. :)  I got a good one.

I took the kids to Fritz's for a peaceful meal.

We went to my parent's on Wednesday.  Although she looks a bit unsure here, she did love grandpa and grandma a lot.

 We went to City Park, where we tried out a spider web.

 And they have a really great splash pad.  This is the first time I've taken my kids to a splash pad that they've totally embraced and gotten drenched.  Leah would stand under the bucked that tipped onto her head, and Ethan's favorite were the water guns. It was really fun to watch.

 

Ross got home Friday, and Saturday morning we helped clean the church.  We've started a new family tradition of getting doughnuts after cleaning.  It is a really great tradition.

I just thought she looked cute in this one.

What we've been up to this summer

Our Ethan boy has started taking piano lessons.  It is very sporadic, as our schedule or his teacher's causes a cancelled lesson frequently. And his teacher will move soon, but for now, he's getting a little taste.  He picks it up pretty well, but doesn't like to practice (already!).  Typical.

Jovee had fun crawling in and out of this box.

 Ethan stayed at his grandma's house for a week with his cousin Matthew, so the girl's and I got to do some fun things by ourselves while he was gone.  For example: we biked to the Farmer's Market.  I say 'we', but I mean 'I'. They didn't do much work. :)

 And we got frozen yogurt.

 And Ross hung up a really awesome swing in our backyard.

 Jovee has become a little climber.  She has so much fun!  But it stresses me out. Obviously she's not very careful.

 Ethan has learned how to do the monkey bars.  He kept trying over and over to see if he could get further.  I love that quality about him.

 Sometimes we are classy and use a storage tub as a kiddie pool.

(Blurry) baby feet in flip flops are super adorable.

 Another picture from blueberry picking.

I went to City Market for antiquing and lunch with some friends for my birthday. 

We missed Mitzi.

 

Ross and I went out for some delicious Indian food at Korma Sutra.  Our first time, and it was really really delicious.  And then we had strawberry shortcake with the kids for dessert.  I felt very loved.

The kids participated in the Deanna Rose Farmstead's Chicken Run.  They both did well, although not well enough to earn a trophy, much to Ethan's dismay.  They did earn medals and got t-shirts though.  It was a lot of fun.

 

 I guess Jovee is too cool to get her picture taken anymore.

 Ethan has turned into a really great swimmer, and in Overland Park, that means you get to go down the slides!  He does this over and over now.

Jovee put on Ethan's hat and started dancing all by herself.  She makes me laugh a lot.

 Morning light and bedhead.

 Ross has been gone a lot this month, so we've been keeping very busy. We tried out a new pool in Shawnee, and my friend Elena and family came with and she was so very helpful.  It was kind of a big pool, and it was tricky keeping an eye on everyone.  Plus I was able to go down the slide with the two older kids, which was a lot of fun.

 Jovee is walking and super happy about it!

 We went to Parkplace in Leawood with a friend and listened to some fun kid music.  The kids got their faces painted and even got up to sing along to some of the songs (into the microphone!). Thanks for the picture Carrie!

 This last weekend we took a trip to St. Louis to visit my brother Sam and his family.  We stopped in Arrow Rock along the way.  It's not exactly on the way-- but it's worth the little jaunt away from I-70.  Such a cute little town.  Everyone was super friendly and accommodating.

 The kids enjoyed their 'frozen treats'.

 We ate at a restaurant there around 2:00.  It was completely empty except us, and we basically shared one plate between the 4 of us.  Despite that, the server and owner were so kind and gave the kids these little key chains for eating all of their food and having good behavior.     

 Also it was rather an adventure getting to Sam and Kia's.  I had 10% battery life on my phone, and really no clue how to get there without it. (Curse dependency on technology!) So I took a wrong turn onto the wrong free-way, and then off the free-way.  Thankfully though, I saw a Best Buy and was able to gather the children and go in, buy a car charger for my phone, and be on our way.  I'm thankful that worked out the way it did.

So the next day we all went to the St. Louis zoo.  It was pretty warm, but luckily the zoo is mostly really shaded. The kids liked it a lot, although they did get tired from a lot of walking.  And Leah would NOT stay near us ever.  Everywhere we went she wandered off and around corners and was totally oblivious.  I would say it's because she's kind of spacey, but really she's been very ornery lately and pretty much refuses to do what I ask her. All the time.  Parenting her is really exhausting.  But she's definitely a lot of fun.

 We made cookies yesterday.  Ross is usually the baker, but I was proud of myself that I took initiative while he was gone and made them anyway.  Ha.  They were pretty good too.

That was a pretty long post!

Catch up: January 2014

Jovee had a bath in the kitchen sink.  The first and only time.  

6 month mini- photoshoot.

Leah sews for the first time. She was thrilled.

Ethan came in and started a full and complete conversation while wearing his Darth Vader mask.  I think he forgot he had it on.  But it was really funny.

The kids enjoy a pillowfight. Until it ends in tears.

Jovee Turns One!

This little bald baby turned 1 year old a couple of weeks ago.  We were up in Lincoln with Ross' family, and we celebrated both our Nation's independence and the first year of this little one.

Jovee is a pretty happy girl.  She has recently become very opinionated about a LOT of things, and has taken to screaming quite a bit to let you know she's not okay with whatever is going on. She has also been cutting in her top teeth, so her personality change may have something to do with that.   Overall she is still a lot of fun.  She is so quirky and loves to make funny faces and do funny things to make everyone laugh.  Her personality reminds me a lot of Ethan's as a baby.  We'll see how that plays out later.  She is in the 30th percentile for height and weight.  She can take a couple (or more) of steps at a time, but does not try very often.  She has become a little climber and enjoys climbing into dresser or kitchen drawers.  She is a great snuggler, but it is limited to after nap time. Ross and I like to race into the room after nap to get the best snuggles.  She is definitely a daddy's girl.  She loves to play with him and as soon as she sees him after it's been a while she reaches for him right away.  She has recently become a very picky eater. Which I'm hoping is a temporary teething issue.  It's hard to fill her up, and she is consequently grumpy.  She has a funny way of babbling- she makes noises that sound like sentences.  She often sounds like she is asking us questions, and usually has her eyebrows raised if she is.  She likes to say 'hi' to people we pass on our walks.  Or if she isn't totally comfortable with someone she gives them the furrowed eyebrow stare-down.  She loves to play and chase us around.  She loves her siblings a lot, but has become more vocal if they get into her space too much. (All the time.)

Her first words are: hi, uh-oh, Ma, Da, Ba (bottle), done.  We are working on signs, because she seems to pick it up pretty quickly.  My other kids weren't that into it.  My other kids were also not as bald as her... so who knows when she will get hair!  

 There is a firecracker in the cake, but it was promptly removed before we gave it to her. :)

 She went straight for the strawberries and blueberries first.

Such is the life of the third child.  Try to get some attention to yourself and these two swoop in.

 She didn't last too long.

 When she was happier and well rested I took her back outside to take some more pictures.

 Such a sweet girl.

Pictures from the 4th.  One day I'm going to make all the family spell a word with sparklers.  Right now that is not that exciting to them.