End of August Update

The summer is flying by and either we are being lazy and don't have  anything to blog about, or we are too busy to have time to sit and blog.

Here's a quick update of what we've been up to.  Most of these pictures  are taken with my cell phone, because honestly, it's the only "camera" I  ever have with me on a regular basis.

Both kids went to the dentist for a check-up.  Addie insists on wearing her "jewelry" whenever we go anywhere, including the dentist.  You can kind of see her purple necklace up by her neck in this picture.  Davis also went for the first time and wasn't quite sure what to think, but did great.

He wasn't too happy here.

He warmed up though!

Loves her accessories. Thank you, Fancy Nancy.

The movie theaters around here do free kids movies in the morning during the week.  I took the kids to a few of them and they loved it.  It was so fun and they did great - I went by myself with both kids and had no troubles.  (I just had to make sure to time the potty breaks correctly!!)

The kids would get really excited when the lights would dim and the movie would start.  I took this picture and it had to flash so it's really bad but you can see how excited they are and their little dance moves. 

One of our very best little friends has Juvenile Diabetes and we walked with her and a group of our friends in the JDRF Walk for a Cure a few weeks ago.  It was hooooooot, so hot, but the kids did great and this is the only picture I got of the thing - getting our face painted at the end.   

Davis got cookie monster and Addie got a rainbow.  I have no idea why D is barefoot here.  Nice.

Jeremy and I continued what is now becoming a summer tradition and saw a great concert with a band we have been wanting to see for a long time - Weezer (last summer it was Coldplay).  Rivers came off the stage and came right by us - ALSO like Coldplay last  summer, except Rivers just walked up and Coldplay was flanked by  security. 

{Following detail may only be interesting to Britt}

It was soooo good, they played an amazing set, tons of old stuff.  They also sang a bit of GaGa's Pokerface mashed up ("Glee"-style) with MGMT "Kids" (LOVE this song - google it now if you don't know what i'm talking about - but do yourself a favor and play it from there and don't youtube the video it's FREAKY and weird.)  Anyway, where was I?  It was great and so fun to just be with Jeremy.

We were the oldest/most dressed out of everybody.  I'm thinking there's a big diff between attending a rock concert in Idaho versus a college-town in the midwest.

The "W"

Oh hi, that's Rivers Cuomo (lead singer) RIGHT BY US.  Unfortunately we had no cups of beer to hold up for him, but we still got a great picture!  Ha ha.

End of show.

As for Jeremy, he just had his first call shift - 36 hours.  It wasn't too bad for me - he said he got 4 hours of sleep, which is more than the residents working overnight, so he can't complain.  The kids seem to miss him when he's not here and are acting up, but preschool starts soon as well as gymnastics for Addie so we will start getting into a good routine.  His resident likes to round early (6:30 am) so he has to leave to pre-round by 5 am.  But, he is doing great and the director of the Internal Med residency keeps telling him to consider it, but it's his first rotation, so he has lots to go through before making a decision!

Neighbors

I think I have mentioned (once or twice) how much we love our neighbors. It truly is like a stereotypical Midwest feel in our neighborhood. People pop open their garages, sit in their driveways and visit while all the kids run around together. We have loved it here.

A couple of weekends ago, our next door neighbors invited the kids over to play in their sprinkler, which my kids loved. She was thoughtful enough to take some pictures of it. (I was at home basking in the quiet....see, I told you, NICE neighbors!!!)

Our next-door neighbor girl and across-the-street neighbor boy both turned 8 in June. We gave them each a certificate for a birthday ice-cream cone, which they redeemed a few weeks ago. Addie has been in heaven - these kids are so nice to play with her even though she's only 3 1/2 and I think Addie will be heartbroken when summer's over and school's back in!!!

New Developments

These pictures are probably not interesting to anybody, but a few people have asked to see our new house. I have to laugh, because we live in one of those neighborhoods where all of the houses have one of five floor plans, so it's really not all that different from our last house.

The main difference is it's a true split-level, so we more space divided between two floors, as opposed to three in our old house. It's nice to have a bigger basement with room for the kids toys and the TV/couch. At first I wasn't sure about having the TV downstairs, but we almost never turn it on now. It's actually been really nice.

The only things we have done besides paint some rooms (just realized I didn't get a pic of Addie's room, but she's sleeping, so I will have to get one tomorrow or something) is take the carpet out of the dining room and lay down laminate wood floors. It has totally saved my sanity not having to vacuum after every meal. Anyway, it feels about the same as it did before. We love our neighbors and neighborhood and can't believe how lucky we are to have found this little spot on Mormon Street! (Yes, our ACTUAL street name is Mormon Street.)

Those window treatments are actually fabric tablecloths I found on clearance at Target.

Wood floors/nasty carpet that is staying for the time being.

Little basement/TV area.

Also happening lately is tons of summer storms!!

There was probably a thunderstorm (loud, midwest style thunderstorm) every night for a week a few weeks ago. One time, I got to the gym, left Jeremy at home with the kids after dinner. I popped in my headphones, but got tapped on the shoulder by the lady next to me. I took them off and realized the tornado sirens were going off, so they made us all wait in the locker rooms until it stopped!!!! I got home that night and we had no power from about 7 pm to 2 am. (No power=no a/c, so we were happy it came back on!!!)

Anyway, my neighbor got a great shot of this rainbow that came out after the storm - it really was beautiful.


The last new development around here is that DAVIS is POTTY TRAINED!!! That's right! After 3 1/2 years of having somebody's diaper to change, I AM DONE!!!!!! Wow, I think I'll end on that happy note!!!

Swimming Lessons

We signed Addie up for some swimming lessons when we got back from our trip to Idaho. She is my cautious girl and really needed some encouragement to try swimming, which was discouraging since both Jeremy and I were lifeguards and swim instructors!!! So, we signed her up for lessons. I told her about her lessons and she said "Mom, when I'm older then I'll do swimming lessons." Ha ha! Nice try!

She actually loved the lessons, she had a fabulous teacher named Jasmine (Addie loved that she had a princess name!) and her class had four girls which she also loved.

What really helped her take off was having her wear goggles. We went swimming with some friends a few weekends ago and their older girl had goggles and Addie tried some and was going all the way under - which is a huge deal for this terrified little girl! Anyway, here's some fun pictures of her last day of lessons. We are so glad we did them!!

Davis really wanted to try the goggles and so I let him put some on - this is how he looked when he did! Our poor boy with a big head - I think those are a little tiny for him!!! Ha ha.


This is a much better look for you, dude.

Don't See This Every Day...

After a LONG day yesterday, I put Davis to bed and was going to let Addie stay up for a while with me so she could actually see Jeremy since he's been getting home late.

We were hanging out downstairs when Jeremy called me and said to look out in the backyard. I ran out there and this is what Addie and I saw:


Apparently when Jeremy was calling me it was directly over our backyard. He said it almost hit some power lines. He pulled in to our neighborhood and said the two women in the chase car were trying to pull the tethers down and were struggling, so he got out of his car and helped pull it down. Luckily it landed in our neighborhood park (right up the street) and everything was ok.

WOW! Not a typical Monday. I'm glad Addie was up, she thought it was so neat and kept talking about how it looked like the "big balloon on Thomas (the Train)."

Trip to Idaho & Utah Pictures, part 1

We just returned from a fun filled trip to visit our families in Idaho and Utah. It started when my best friend Jentry flew in on Saturday and we left on our trip out west. Jeremy stayed behind for the first couple of weeks to have uninterrupted study time for his board exam. The kids did amazingly well on the trip and it was so fun to catch up with each other's lives (there's lots of time to talk on a 16 hour road trip!!!)

We made the trip to Boise unknown to any family and were able to literally knock on their doors and surprise them, which was soooo fun. My phone had a lot of the pictures from the first part of the trip, but then it got dropped into a sink of water....so these pictures don't have all of the fun stuff we did, but when I get the pictures from our family, I will post those too.

Cleaning Out

We are moving in two weeks so we are using this as an opportunity to get rid of things we don't need or haven't used in the two years we've lived in this house.

Jeremy cleaned out all of his notes from the first two years of school:

One of very best friends graduated with his Doctor of Physical Therapy last weekend and we braved the hooding ceremony with 4 (1/2) kids between us. The kids did a great job, but after it was over were happy to run loose. Jeremy took some great pictures of Davis after the ceremony while he was running around. He even got the infamous Davis scowl on camera. Hilarious.



I told my dad yesterday that I have always loved my kids, but I am starting to realize how much I like them! Does that make sense???

Davis is the most polite two year old, which just makes me laugh. When he wants Addie to move, he will say "Excuse me, Addie." I heard him say it yesterday just out of the blue while they were playing and I was cleaning up. It totally cracked me up. He is also very liberal with his "Please, Mommy"s and his "Thank you, Mommy"s. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I'm enjoying it while it does.

We have a crazy few weeks, but I will be sure to get pictures up of the new house - although it's only two doors up, so it will look very similar to the one we're in now!!! :)