I celebrated my 26th birthday earlier this month and Dad called a few days before to let me know that he would be in town for work on my actual birthday.  The kids were VERY excited for Papa Tim to stop by and I was glad to catch up.  Unfortunately I didn’t get the camera out while he was here :(  However, I did get to enjoy a nice cup of coffee on my birthday with my Dad!

Thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts, I had a great day! 

On a funny side note, Tim took the kids to get me a gift card from Michael’s.  While there, Emma picked out some lovely stickers to add to my gift.  She was so excited for me to open “my” gift that she forgot it was “mine” and immediately asked for the stickers she picked out.  Of course, she made me a lovely sticker collage with them.  I wonder why she picked them out for me?? :)

A couple of weeks ago Emma got to bring home the “basket” from her preschool class.  Mrs. Howe explained that when each child gets to bring the basket home, they are to bring back a snack for each child in the class and that child gets to be the “leader” for the day.  Emma was VERY excited about bringing the basket home!  We made (well, mostly I made/decorated) cookies for her to take to class.  Apparently, they were delicious because Mrs. Howe said the children inhaled them!  Each child got 3 cookies each; a bat, a pumpkin and a ghost!

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s been 2 months since I’ve updated our blog.  This is me attempting to get it back to shape.  October has been unbelievably busy for us.  Between school, work and all of the birthday parties for friends this month we have been going crazy!

Everett is almost 11 months old, he’s crawling and cruising around furniture.  On occasion he’s stretching really far, without letting go, to get between the furniture!  Emma is almost FOUR!!!  She knows her alphabet (by recognition of each letter) and all of the sounds the letters make.  If you ask her what letter a word starts with, she can answer you (correctly, most of the time ;)!  She’s loving preschool and especially her teacher, Mrs. Howe.  She’s especially looking forward to Halloween and “trick or treating” at school.

Tim and I are doing well.  In fact, we are both losing weight and we have changed our lifestyles a little bit.  Tim has lost 16 lbs and I have lost over 30 lbs.  In addition to being more mindful of what, when and how much we eat, I go to the gym regularly and Tim is using the Wii Fit in the evenings and continues to ride his bicycle to work.  Tim is actually doing a weight loss challenge through work, “Lose a turkey by turkey day!”  The idea is to lose 10% of your body weight in 10 weeks (by Thanksgiving) and he’s almost two-thirds there at the halfway point!  I have been on my B-12 injections for a few months and am truly starting to notice the difference.  I am doing them every week at home now so I don’t have to go into the doctor’s office during cold and flu season. 

Anyways…enough about us…onto the kids!

Grandma ReeRee came to visit:

We got the kids a bubble machine for the bathtub!!  They LOVE it!

Spencer’s Birthday

My friend Kelly’s son, Spencer had his first birthday this month.  I made the “OSU” themed cake for his party!

Photos taken by Joel Culberson.

Everett was too cute, we were supposed to wear our “team gear” to the party!

Little Everett…he’s into everything now!!

Obviously, he LOVES Baby Einstein!!

Emma and Lucas on the Trampoline

Emma started pre-school on Thursday.  It was a one hour orientation to meet her teacher and her little classmates.  She was a little hesitant at first, but by the time I came back to pick her up she was crying because she didn’t want to leave! 

The best part about Emma’s pre-school is her teacher Mrs. Howe, an EIGHTY year old lady that has been teaching pre-school at her house for over FIFTY years!!  It really is quite neat.  She lives in a cul-de-sac that has a turn around area in it, so I don’t even have to get Everett out of the car to drop her off or pick her up…she just hops out and then the cars all wait in line when it’s to come back and pick them up again!  She has an entirely different building from her house that the class is taught in and she even has playground school grade equipment for the kids to play on in her ginormous back yard.  Emma was thrilled when she found out there was a bunny and a turtle that needed to be fed. 

The woman is truly amazing and I commend her for the work that she does.  In fact, one of the little girls in Emma’s class found out that her dad was in Mrs. Howe’s pre-school over 30 years ago…same building, same class and apparently same toys!  It is very neat and I am thrilled that Emma is getting the opportunity to go to her.

I didn’t get too many good pictures as Emma was to excited to stand still long enough for me to take them!

Saturday evening we attended the DTC softball picnic.  This year the boys won their division, and they have the trophy to  prove it!  Tony got Tim a nice acrylic plaque for his excellence in “sports writing” for the team.  Emma especially had a nice time swimming in Clay and Amy’s pool!  Way to go team!

On a side note, Emma was jumping off of the diving board and she wasn’t even holding her nose!!  There was no hesitations, she just got up there and jumped!  (She was wearing her floatie suit of course!)

We took Emma bowling for the first time this weekend.  I think she enjoyed it.  They had a cool little ramp for her to roll the ball down and the bumpers popped up each time her turn came around.  We met one of her little friends, Mackenzie, and her parents there, so she had a bowling partner.  She only threw one ball down someone else's lane once ;)  As soon as we got there she was asking for a “snaaack” not surprising, Emma seems to have a hollow leg.

She thought it was pretty neat we had to “borrow someone else’s special shoes” for the occasion.

Mom came down to visit the Saturday before Father’s day and then we decided to make a surprise trip to Missouri for Father’s day and the Monday after.  I think everyone was pretty excited when we showed up, Emma was definitely excited to see everyone!  Happy Father’s day to all the wonderful dads and papas in our lives!

Mom and Emma swimming in our little pool:

Emma in the “scuba gear” that mom bought her…brace yourselves, this is hilarious!!

With the Hunter’s on Father’s day!

Emma and Uncie Chase playing “dueling guitars” and “dueling pianos” (Emma got shy on the piano) :)