The First Day of School

What an exciting day for Joseph and Jessie!! The first day of school! This was actually a few weeks ago, it isn't so new anymore, but they are still enjoying it (thank goodness)! Jeremy was able to go with me to drop the kids off. Jessie's school starts 10 minutes earlier than Joseph's this year so we got to visit her school first and then his next. Look at their sweet, happy little faces!

Here is Jessie in her little classroom with her teachers Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Wanda. I'm not even sure she said goodbye to us that morning, she just ran into the room, smiled for a picture and ran straight to her seat! I hope she'll always be like that with school. Wouldn't it be GREAT??!!!

Joseph loves, loves, loves his teacher!! She is great. She is so calm with the students and explains things in such an amazing way to these kids. I can't believe my little boy is in the first grade!

Did I mention that this was an exciting day for the kids? It was exciting for me as well!!! Janie and I didn't even know what to do with ourselves when we got home from dropping them off. She just kept asking me, "Mommy, where's Jessie?" "Where's Joseph?" In fact, she still asks me everyday after we drop them off where they are. We've had lots of time to play blocks and do some fun things just the two of us!!!

Our Superheroes!!!

Ever since we got the "dress-up" box out the kids spend much of their time dressed up as characters other than themselves. It keeps them entertained for hours!! This day Jeremy happened to be home at lunch and decided to take some shots of our superheroes!!

Janie is 2!

In honor of Janie's 2nd birthday I thought I'd post of few shots of her growing up!

Here she is in her blessing outfit, but not on her actual blessing day because we barely even got to church on time that day!!

They look so chunky when they don't have any hair don't they? I always look back at my kids' photos and ask myself if they were ever really that chunky.

In this shot she was trying on Jessie's Halloween costume. I guess we didn't get too many shots of her between just a few months old and age one, oops!

This is typical Janie. She is so funny most of the time. She just loves to play and be silly! She had Joseph's Power Ranger mask on and probably would've slept in it if I had let her!
This is a shot daddy got of her this morning before church. We were all making a big deal of her and singing "Happy Birthday" and stuff like that. I asked Jeremy to take a few pictures of her in her dress, which you don't really see here, and Joseph went up to her, gave her a big hug and said, "Janie, your first picture!" I guess he meant that it was her first picture as a two year old!

Yummy cupcakes make a great birthday for our sweet girl!! I asked her if she wanted cake for her birthday and she said, "YES, CAKE!!" and then she started to sing, "Hap Bitday to you!"

Last, but not least is a little video we got of Janie when she was about 8 months old that just makes me laugh my socks off! Enjoy!

WE LOVE YOU JANIE!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Japanese Dresses

Before we left Okinawa I bought these cute little dresses for the girls, but they haven't worn them until a couple of Sundays ago. So, here they are, my little girlies in a photo together, both looking at the camera at the same time!!!

A Red, White, and Blue Celebration!

So, for the 4th of July we decided to go to the zoo!! We have some friends in town and the kids have been having a blast together. It was a 2.5 hour drive there and then we spent 5.5 hours walking around and seeing all of the different animals and exhibits. The most patriotic part of the whole trip were the kids red, white, and blue shirts, but it was a lot of fun!

I think Jessie would let someone snap pictures of her all day as long as she could be making silly faces!

Janie absolutely LOVED the animals! She just kept running from one thing to the next making animal noises. It was so much fun watching her discover and explore. What a cute little bug!!
When we weren't inside looking at the animals Janie was finding other means of entertainment. I would say, "ready, set, go!" and she'd run down the hill. Look at that happy face. She was pretty much perfect all day long (accept the 5 hours of driving...)!

Here is a shot of my little man. I looked at him today and thought to myself that I just can't believe how grown up he is and what a wonderful, sweet boy he is. He is such a great helper to me! Jessie would rather play with him than anyone else and Janie just adores her big brother!!

I laughed when I looked at this picture because look at the girls. Jessie was just loving being there and kind of doing her own thing. Now, look at Janie. That child wouldn't be anywhere near us when we let her out of her stroller. She ran for about 3 hours of our time at the zoo. WHY didn't she sleep in the car on the way home?????? Those are our friends in front of us so I wasn't too worried about her escaping.

Here are my three red, white, and blue babies checking out the Sea Lions. Time sure does fly, I was thinking that in just a couple of years all of this "little kid" stuff would be over and I would surely be missing it!

This is a great shot of all of the kids together (minus Jacob)! They were trying to stand up on that lizard, but it was hot and so they couldn't touch it. They kept holding onto each other trying to balance for the photo. This was about the best we could get! Ethan and Jessie really had so much fun together during this trip. I looked over at one point and they had their arms around each other's necks and they were just being best buddies. Joseph and Kayla also enjoyed each other. I kept hearing Joseph ask Kayla if he could hold her hand.

All in all, it was a beautiful, HOT day! I guess by the end of the day there was a little more red, white and blue than we had expected. Red faces, white clouds, and blue skies made for a fun Fourth of July!

Later that night we took the kids and watched some fireworks here in town, which was a lot of fun. It was cute to hear the kids ooooohhh and aaaaahhh at the colors and sounds!

Swimming Anyone?

We decided to get the kids a little pool because they want to swim everyday and I already take them to the pool in the evenings for swimming lessons. This way they can play in the pool during the day and go to the BIG pool at night. Here are just a few shots of the kids the first day playing in their new pool.

Wow! I sure am glad that Jessie's goggles match her hairbow!! I guess when most girl things are pink that isn't too hard to arrange. Who wears goggles in a kiddie pool anyway? Oh, that's right, we do!!Big brothers DON'T lose!! She got him so now he is going to get both of them! What would we do without a brother????

Just a short clip of some fun in the sun!

Bum Biting!

Janie is our only child that seems to think that biting is ok. She doesn't do it very often and not even when she is mad, just at random. So, we were sitting reading scriptures the other night and Jessie was laying on her tummy on the floor. She and Janie kind of started goofing around and Janie eventually ended up laying across her. Well, Jessie started SCREAMING and I realized that Janie had bit her right on the bottom! Janie is very sweet though and she always says "forry" (sorry) when she hurts you. I pulled Jessie's pants down a little so I could see the damage Janie had left. I said to Janie, "You gave Jessie an owie, come see." She came over to see Jessie's owie and I asked her, "What do you say to Jessie?" I fully expected her to say, "forry," but instead she said, "Poo, Poo?" I guess she said the first thing she thinks of when looking at a bare bottom!