The Last Week all at Once

We haven't been great bloggers lately so here is the last week starting Sunday to Sunday starting with the remaining pictures of Jackson's birthday.

The "ootball"cake.
Yesterday we went to the Ithaca downtown for Apple Harvest Festival. We had caramel apples, snocones, kettle corn, and people watched. About 30,000 people attend so it was pretty crowded, but fun nevertheless
Jackson has been way into lining up all the cars in the house. It is great since is keeps him so occupied. Not sure if this is a sign for some OCD tendencies though?!?

After church it rained so I had to recover the grill. Lifting the grill cover off the ground unveiled a salamander hotel.
Here are three of them.

Peanuts and Birthdays . . .

Today’s is a mixed post . . . I forgot I had the packing peanuts picture on my camera until I uploaded Jack’s birthday photos. So here goes . . .

When I was in Utah I had our china dishes (which we had kept at my Mom and Dad’s) here. We did the “pack and ship promise” with UPS and it was great—everything arrived intact. Everything also arrived packed in TONS of packing peanuts.

The kids went CRAZY.

It took me 2 hours to clean up all the peanuts. Too bad that with kids fun=huge mess!

Last night Jake put together Jack’s new trike and I blew up a ton of balloons (hilarious, this morning James got up and said listening to me blowing up balloons helped him to go to sleep last night because it was like a lullaby . . . ?!)
Jackson was SO excited about the bike and helmet which he calls his “hat”.

The bike and helmet are both a bit big, but it will be good that they fit next summer!
Happy birthday to our little Jackers—the boy whose very existence is a tribute to miracles.
Five things we love about Jack:
1. His undying love and devotion to his older brother
2. His toddler way of making us notice the little things in life
3. His hugs and kisses and “I love you’s”
4. The funny way he prances around when he gets excited about something
5. How excited he gets when a member of the family arrives home (or when we pick him up from nursery on Sunday!)

Reading, Writing and 'Rithmatic . . .

Well, Wednesday was (finally!) the first day of school. James was very ready to get back to studying and having fun and excited to make new friends.

He went out the door with a big smile.
He had a big send-off with all of us at the bus stop with him!

I offered to drive him the first day, but he wanted to ride the bus, and he jumped right up there!

He had a great first couple of days--he loves his teacher, Mrs. Magnolis, and the kids in his class have been very nice. With the exception of some girls who teased him at lunch and wanted him to chase them at recess. Oh dear, he already has girls after him!

Hope everyone else's school days are going well . . . .

New Bike and Luchadors

This is my new bike. An 08 Fuji CCR2.

Ithaca to Bountiful 2011!!

A pleasure having Becky and the Boys back in town. I was especially excited to recieve the gift that Kimmie got from her trip to Mexico. Unfortunately we had to wait a day because the plane from Detroit to Ithaca was full and they decided to leave two bags in Detroit until the next flight. Those two bags happened to be Becky's luggage. Anyway, they arrived last night thus allowing a high flying Luchador Libre tournament with our new masks.

I especially enjoy the tassles on my mask.

We were having an ugly face contest. . . I won

After my weekend providing medical coverage for a low-budget WWF style wrestling performance (that's another story) I learned some sweet moves.

Bring it on.

Taste of Utah . . .

Well, here's the long story! I forgot my camera charger and got to Utah to visit and realized my battery's dead! So I've been relying on the "kindness of strangers", or rather my family, to take photos! So I don't have access to most of them yet, but I wanted to update the blog because our last post is SO old. We have been to Cowabunga water resort, camping with my family, had a barbecue with Jake's family and had Sunday dinner/late birthday for me with my family. So, here's a couple of photos and I'll post more later!

Jackson has had a great time playing with his cousin Lola. It's cute because they're exactly the same size (even though my little Jack is 6 months older). They're also both learning to talk, so listening to them is hilarious.

My very talented sister Melissa made me a birthday cake (I don't even remember how long it's been since someone made me a cake!). It was cute and delicious, with a dulce de leche filling.

We're having a great time even though we're missing Jake!!