Happy Birthday, Alison!

Happy, happy birthday, Alison, dear! I hope that your day was wonderful! We wish we could have celebrated with you! {why didn't we think of celebrating while you were here??} I told Jacob last night that it was going to be her birthday, and the first thing he said when he woke up this morning, "Call Alison. Happy Birthday?" He has been talking about Alison all of the time! 

You're great, Alison. We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

momentous

While at the park today, Jacob yelled, "I need potty!" Knowing that I didn't have much time to make the walk to the potty, we opted for the tree. We've tried it a few other times and he didn't like it. But, after seeing Noah do it, he thought it was time! And he did it! He was so excited! He was very proud of himself!

I don't know if I'm jinxing myself, but this potty training experience is a little better than I thought! He tells me when he needs to go...and goes when I tell him. We've had a few accidents, but that's expected. But, he's only in diapers at night time, and wakes up dry. It's a bit of struggle to change out of that diaper into underwear, but he's getting there!

Yay for potty training! And yay for no kids in diapers fulltime until August!!

happy father's day

We have a pretty special Daddy. In fact, Noah and Macie have been making pictures all day that say, "I love Daddy"! He's received many cards today! Adam really is a great dad. My kids adore him and countdown until he gets home. It's quite the occasion when Daddy does come home. When your six year old says that his Daddy is his best friend, you know you've got a good one! Thanks for being such a good daddy, Adam! We love you!

And to my Dad, thanks for everything you do! We love you and miss you already! 

We are so spoiled to have such great men in our lives. We have so many great memories of dads and grandpas. Macie came to me in tears this afternoon and said, "I miss Papa." I was a little shocked. But, I'm sure as we're celebrating fathers it really became real to her today. I explained to her that we still have memories of Papa, which is something that we will always have. And we will get to see him again, we just have to be good. And then she looked at me gave me a big smile and nodded her head. She understands. We love you, Papa. 

So, Happy Father's Day to our Dads. And to all of the wonderful father's out there.

fluke?

I sat down with Jacob yesterday to count the diapers. We realized that there wasn't enough for the baby. So, Jacob decided to wear underwear. There were a lot of tears shed because of how the underwear felt, but he did it. He didn't want to the baby not to have diapers! I had been doing laundry and I heard his little feet running downstairs, and then he yelled "I did it!". Sure enough, he had gone all by himself. And then the second time I heard his feet running across the tile, he did it again! I was shocked! And then we ran a few errands. We made a stop at the bathroom in Target, and, like a champ, he went potty. And then we stopped at the Post Office {which always takes a while!} and Trader Joes. Still dry. We got home and had a minor accident. But then he stayed dry for the rest of the day, and even took a nap without a diaper! At first he was hesitant to wear the diaper to bed, but since he usually ends up in our bed anyway, I didn't want to risk it! And so he wore the diaper, but woke up dry and headed to the bathroom first thing in the morning after he told me "I go potty". So, maybe this time will be the time? I don't know, though, it seems too easy. But, maybe third times a charm.

curlers

I love curlers. I love Macie. Don't you??

disneyland with cousins

My entire family came down. Erin and I packed the kids up and headed to Disneyland to spend a day with them there. They stayed down another few days before heading north so spend a few days at our house. It was fun. We hadn't ever been with any cousins before, so they kids loved it! This was the first time Jacob got excited about being there. He didn't like the inside rides though. They made him nervous. He's more of an outdoor ride kind of guy! He loved Dumbo, the carousel, and the teacups...and Buzz. {because who doesn't love Buzz?} He got to ride Matterhorn for the first time, too. He loved it. The older two refused to ride, but Jacob didn't know what was coming! He had a permanent grin on his face after getting off. He talked about it for a long time. He's still talking about it. He does actions of what the ride did and gets so excited and starts talking really fast and very animated. He loved it. I'm hoping this means I may finally have another roller coaster rider in the family. The other two? Yeah, not so much. I have to bribe them to go on things. They won't even ride Pirates, silly kids. We had quite the funfilled day and actually did quite a bit. Including riding the two new rides: Star Tours and Little Mermaid. Star Tours was only a 15 minute wait, and Little Mermaid was about 45. Not too bad. 

However, walking to and from Disneyland twice, having three kids, and being 29 weeks pregnant was not a good combination. I was hurting for days after, but it was still a good time!  

{the pictures are in no order...and there are very possibly WAY too many pictures. But it's 2:40 AM, I don't care! ;-)}

I had to add this picture which shows off the belly. My mom tried to make me hide it for the pictures...so this one's for you, Mom!

last day.

It's official, Noah passed Kindergarten! I wasn't worried that he would, he's such a smart kid...and so ready for First Grade. I, on the otherhand, don't think I'm ready for all day school! I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Noah LOVED school. Nine times out of ten he would already be awake at 7 to get ready for the day. He may have taken a little longer some days, but he was a trooper. He asked me this evening if he still has to do his hair every morning! Ha, I told him that he didn't have to for 8 more weeks...he got pretty excited about that! He made a lot of friends this year and has learned so much. He loved his teacher. She was great. I look at how far he has come this year and it amazes me to think that this kid who could have cared less about learning, really, has learned to read, count way past 100, add and subtract, write complete sentences, sound out words to spell, and even write his long last name! He's done so well. And I'm very proud of him!

Good job, Noah!!

one year later.

One year ago we said goodbye to one of the greatest men. There hasn't been a single day that the image of Papa hasn't been in my mind. There hasn't been a single day when the kids haven't asked about Papa. There hasn't been a single day when we haven't laughed about something Papa said or did. We really love Papa. We know he is with us and watching over us, and laughing with us. His phone calls to see if the kids could come out to play or just to check up on us are truly missed. But, his legacy does live on. The kids wiggle their eyebrows, we all tell stories ending with "and they laughed", we eat hot dogs at Costco and never forget to say "And only $1.50", we listen to Jazz music, we play the bongos regularly, and we try to spoil his wife. It's been a rough year. Lots of tears and lots of memories have flooded through us. But we will never forget him. We never want to. And now it's "back to the salt mines"...{with maybe a Costco lunch later! ;-)}

We love you, Papa. We miss you everyday.