Trey's 2 YO Checkup

Yesterday was Trey's 2 year checkup at the pediatrician. He did great! He did have to get his second hepititis A shot, which did not make him happy. He screamed "Boo Boo" at the nurse as she gave it to him, but a couple of suckers afterwards help heal the hurt. When we got home and he saw Daddy he pointed to his leg saying "boo boo". Too cute! His official stats are: 36 inches tall (86th %tile) and 27.13 pounds (46th %tile). Needless to say, he is tall and skinny, just like Daddy! He asked if Trey was understood by others (not family) 50% of the time and I said no b/c he just really started talking about 2 1/2 weeks ago. He strung a three word phrase together for the first time yesterday, so we are making progress. We also did the autism checklist, which he passed (I wasn't concerned in that area....I know what autism looks like!). So as for his language we just wait and see how he progresses. He is saying some cute phrases like "Ewwww, goss" (Eww, gross). He got that from the girls. My favorite new word is "pilbow" (pillow). When I lay him down for bed he tries to be cute by patting his pillow saying "mommy, pilbow" wanting me to lay down with him. He is a charmer....of course, I don't give in....anymore :).

Baby Shower at PF Changs

I had been thinking for a while now that Alyssa needed a baby shower....not necessarily for little Ty, but for her. What woman who's body is working overtime to not only care for her, but for another human as well, doesn't deserve to feel special? That was our goal this evening for Alyssa. Heather and I got together to plan (she is the one in the picture with me and Alyssa). She made the cake (isn't it too cute???)...great job, Heather!!!! We decided on one of Alyssa's fav places to eat, P.F. Changs. Heather and I had never eaten there and we decided what a perfect opportunity to try it out! It was SOOOO good. I don't know why I had waited. With so many of us there, we were able to try all kinds of different things. Possible anniversary dinner....hmmmm?? The shower was very laid back and lots of fun, with yummy food/cake, presents, and lots of girl talk. It has been awhile since I have had that sans children! Ty got lots of cute clothes and a baby blanket that his great Grandma makes all the babies....Alyssa even got one as a baby. We got Alyssa a frame with Ty's name on it for everyone to write a blessing on the matte for him. We put his ultrasound pic in there until he comes out! My hope for Ty is that he realizes how blessed he is with Andy and Alyssa as parents and how much love his family (and extended family/ friends) have for him, before he even gets here! Check out Alyssa's blog for more pics (Alyssa and the boys)! We took a ton!

Trey's Party

Notice the hand prints

I apologize in advance for not having a slide show...slide.com is still not working right. Trey had a great party yesterday afternoon. It stormed yesterday morning, but the sun turned back on in time for the party! We had the waterslide out, the trampoline, and a baby pool all set up for lots of wet and wild fun! Trey was having a good time. We cooked out hot dogs (which Trey loves...what kid doesn't?) and had yummy cake, ice cream, and popsicles. Trey was so excited for everyone to sing to him, however, as you can tell by the pictures, he used the cake to brace himself to blow out the candles! He was a little upset to have all that icing on his hands, but enjoyed his "mawnmow cay" (that's Trey for lawnmower cake). I had found this miniature lawnmower on Ebay (what can you not find on there??) and bought it for his cake since he LOVES lawnmowers. He had a great time opening his presents and couldn't wait for his Uncle Roo and Daddy to open them fast enough! Thanks to all those who helped make his day so special!

Happy Birthday, Trey!

Today is Trey's 2nd birthday! I made a yummy crumb cake for breakfast (he actually blew out the candle!). His birthday party will be tomorrow. We are having a cookout/water party for him this year. I can't believe how big my baby is!!!

Look At Her Go!

Look what Lily did this evening! She rode her bike WITHOUT training wheels! She
is still a little nervous doing it, but she managed to make it down the entire driveway with her feet on the pedals and keeping her balance. She was so excited! Next thing you
know, she will be racing her sister around the block!

O.M.G!

Let me start off by saying, I have a new teaching job...same grade, different school. I am very excited as I will be on a better time schedule, plus less gas usage...a HUGE plus! I got a call from my team teacher, Krista, concerning many, many boxes of stuff....inside the boys bathroom....that belonged to my classroom. My classroom used to be at another elementary school, but now they are clustering the classrooms, so it was movcd. They packed up EVERYTHING but the kitchen sink and sent it to my school. Having no real room in my classroom, they put the boxes in the boys bathroom. It takes up the ENTIRE bathroom with very little room to walk. I am slightly overwhelmed at this point. I went in to see for myself and have been going for a couple of hours everyday just to try to make a dent in all of it. However, my biggest problem is that my classroom still has stuff/desks/chairs etc in it that I don't want/need and they are not in a big hurry to move them out.....so, that leaves me not able to do a whole lot which is frustrating as school starts in a few weeks! I am trying to not to feel frustrated, but whenever I go into the bathroom, I cringe, thinking where in the heck am I going to put it all??? It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to worry about putting 20 kids in my room **sigh**

Florida

Just so that you are prepared....there are ALOT of pics on the slide show, so get some popcorn and settle in!

Our trip to Florida this past week was lots of fun! We got there on Saturday afternoon (after traveling all night long) and the girls immediately went to the pool! I stayed behind to unpack and RELAX! Monday we set off to take Meghan off to her first day of Animal Encounter camp at Clearwater Aquarium. She had so much fun everyday working and learning about marine animals. She got to have a dolphin encounter on Thursday so that was really cool! The definite highlight! While Meg was in camp, we did different things to keep ourselves busy. We went to a beach playground (very cool), shopping (always fun), and to the aquarium itself. We also went to Tarpon Springs, this little Greek area. It was our second visit and we just walked around for a while. On Thursday, after Meg's dolphin encounter, we packed up and headed to Orlando/Kissimmee to stay for a couple of nights. Friday we just hung out, swam, and shopped. That evening, we had Mindy, Jim, their four kids, and Aunt Jane and Uncle Jack come over for supper and to help celebrate Trey's upcoming birthday. I made my yummy Oreo brownies (Uncle Jack had three helpings!) and Trey opened a few presents. He got a play drill, chainsaw, and a great John Deere tractor! He was in seventh heaven! Some of us took the older kids to play putt putt and then we came home, dropped in bed, then after what seemed like only minutes, we woke up to head out to Sea World. We have been there many times (the girls love it) and since we can get in free (military thing), we figured, why not? It was STINKING hot! I. was. miserable. The kids did really well considering. Meg, Lily, Katie, and I sat int he splash zone during the Shamu show and can I just say...I had NO idea that a whale THAT big could soak me so thoroughly! I honestly think I had no idea how BIG the actual Shamu really is! Needless to say, we were cooled off, but the girls were a little scared after the first soaking....(Shamu came back for more!). I am guessing they won't ask to sit in the soak zone again! We left for home early early on Sunday morning. We were home by 8pm, so all in all not too bad. Thanks for the great time, Mimi and Pop Pop (Poppy)!

Six Rocks!

Camden, a close family friend, turned 6 on Wednesday! We are not going to be able to go to his bday party this weekend, so we held our own at our house. The girls put up red and blue streamers throughout the house and we made brownies, and Camden's favorite, hot dogs! I hope we made him feel very special! The kids helped pick out the T-ball bat we got for him. I really think he loved it! Happy 6th Birthday, Camden!

Remembering Billy

I just got off the phone with my mom. My cousin (by marriage) died in Iraq yesterday. He was stationed in Hawaii and went to Iraq in December as an Army medic. We are not sure at this point exactly how he died. He leaves behind a wife (they haven't been married long). He was only in his 20's. I know he was brave and fought for our country with everything in him. I urge you to pray for his family and friends. We will miss you, Billy.

**Update: He was traveling with four other soldiers and their vehicle hit an IED. Billy was killed and the 4 others he was with were hurt. I am not sure how seriously, but so far only one fatality.

Date Night!

Daniel and I had a date night (last one was so long ago, who can remember the date) on Saturday evening when we went to see a MLB game. We had bid on a "family fun" basket which had these two tickets in it at the girls school spring carnival back in April. We bid on the tix mainly b/c Daniel really wanted to see the visiting team, not the home team play. So as you can imagine, he is one of three (I only saw two others) with visiting team apparel on. We didn't care! We had lots of fun and I enjoyed spending time with my husband w/o kids! We had decent seats, but I got a call today from the lady we got the tix from. She apologized for the seats saying that the umpires (her husband) usually get great seats but since it was a sold out crowd, the MLB messed that up. So she offered us two more tickets free when her husband umps again! I am very excited and now I know I have at least one other date with my husband soon!

**PS...I forgot my camera....again, but I did have my cell phone with me. I took some pics on that and I just need to figure out how to get them from my phone to the PC...hmmmm

Evening of the 4th

On Friday evening, we headed back to "W" to see the fireworks show. It was a lot of fun having most of the family there. Andy, Alyssa, and the boys came and Dan and Carol were there too. Trey took his "daddy ears" (which are the ear things Daniel wears when he mows) so that the fireworks wouldn't scare him, but he refused to wear them. Luke wore some too, which I think helped. Trey was tired as he had only slep about 30 minutes for a nap. So as you see in the picture, he was pretty tired. It was a great night with beautiful fireworks!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! So far, our day has been fun and very patriotic! We went back to our old "hometown", the big W to see the local parade that we love so much. As Trey has a HUGE love of lawnmowers and tractors, I did not want him to miss the lawnmower brigade. I was very positive this morning when I woke up to rain, that by 10am it would not be raining....and sure enough, as soon as the parade started, God provided a window of no rain, so that we could enjoy all the tractors, lawnmowers, and, of course, the neigh neighs bringing up the rear. Trey was in love with the neigh neighs (horses) and when we went over to the campground, the local college equestrian program was giving **free** "pony" rides. Naturally, they were not pony rides...Trey rode a horse that was taller than me....all by himself! He enjoyed every minute of it, laughing the entire way! He was not happy to be done and kept calling out "Neigh, neigh!". I had left the camera in the car (***stupid me!!***) due to the rain at the very beginning and we did not go back to the car before we walked to the campground. Oh well. The memory of it was definitely precious! I thought for sure he would have been scared being so high up, but he sat in that saddle and was so happy! He sure does love those neigh neighs!

I will try to take pics at the fireworks tonight....praying that the rain stays away!

Birthday Party #3

Lily had her friend birthday party last night at a local pool. I rented the shelter and there was a playground nearby for them to play on. It was a cool day (for June), but the kids didn't seem to care. They wanted to go swimming (although their teeth were chattering afterwards). Lily had a great time and so many of her friends came! She is such a social butterfly!