A year of photos. . .

I didn't take many photos this week, so I thought I'd go through Andy's cell phone photos from this past year and pick out a few.  It was so fun to see how much the kids, especially Curtis, have grown.

This one is from my birthday last year when I turned 31.

Silly girl playing outside in her mismatched pajamas.  

Back-to-school dinner the night before she started kindergarten.

Our little kindergartener!  We lost that jean jacket about a week later.

Little brothers waiting at the bus stop on Bella's first day of school.

This is at my friend, Jen's house.  But I have no memory of what Andy was doing there.

Playing at the park.  So many of the cell photos were from various park playdates. 

Busy, busy, busy.

Seeing double?  Andy went down to Texas last November for a conference and was able to connect with Tom while he was there. 

Beautiful fall leaves.  Simply gorgeous. 

All bundled up and ready to go somewhere.  Looks like I'm driving.  I have no idea who is in the passenger seat.  Andy must have been in the back row. 

Popsicles and a movie

One can never be too safe?

More park outings.

I believe we ate lunch at Burger King one Saturday.  Bella put the crown from her kid's meal on her chest and said, "I'm putting this crown on Jesus's head in my heart."

Awesome sunset.

Seeing the laundry room from a whole new perspective.

Chili night!

Sitting with Papa while we were back in Wisconsin over Christmas.  Look at that chubby face!

Ready to go play outside.

Crazy hair!

Rosy cheeks!

This must have been shortly after we discovered some educational You Tube videos.

King and Queen of the mountain.

Helping out with some spring yard work. 

One of those random moments when the three of them were close enough to get their picture taken together.

Goodies from Gaga and Papa.

Yet another trip to the park.

On the market for a new hat.  This place only had Phillies gear.  We ended up buying him a hat from Old Navy. 

Family painting.

Graydon's favorite nap spot (until recently, now that Curtis is napping in this room). 

Future piano player?

These are Bella's hands playing with the alphabet rocks.

I think we were rolling a pencil back and forth across the table.

The kids like to pretend to drive sometimes.

By the look of the shorts hanging over their heads, 

I'm guessing that they were playing in their closet.

Water ice day at Bella's school. 

We spent the afternoon with some church folks who live a little further away from the hustle and bustle than we do.  For a little bit, I may have just forgotten that we were in New Jersey.

Pants optional. 

Eating some frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog. 

Trying out the rocking chairs at Cracker Barrel.  I think this was on Father's Day.

A young Vince Lombardi?  This was taken at Lambeau Field in the remake of the former coach's office. 

Cooling off on a hot summer day. 

This one made me laugh.  I have no idea what was going on here.

This is a picture that Bella drew of Dad and Jesus.  (She has since learned the correct way to write a "J"). 

School, iPods, and potty!

We threw Bella a special dinner on Back-to-School Eve.

I found a free printable.

Andy picked up some flowers that we put in our pencil vase.

The only thing I made here was the banner.  Cakes are not my thing. 

And then we put up the banner that has helped us celebrate many occasions over the years. 

Bella ate off of the "You Are Special' plate.  She chose the meal:  meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Curtis kept saying 'Happy Birthday' to Bella.  He was a little confused.  And when he saw her crown, he wanted to wear one too. 

After dinner, kids were bathed, jammies were put on, stories were read, and lights were out!  It was a school night!

Bella woke up the next morning and was ready for school about an hour early.  Every few minutes, she continued to ask if it was time to go. 

She was very excited about eating lunch at school this year.  She told me that it would be like eating at a restaurant every day!

One finger for FIRST grade!!!

On the way to the bus stop.

Off they go!

This is Bella's teacher this year.  She seems friendly.  We'll get to know her a little better this week at Back-to-School night. 

Time to go to class!

This week, we officially moved Curtis into Graydon's room.  Previously, all of Curtis's things were in Graydon's room; but now his bed is too.  Our guest room is becoming an official guest room again.  And with Curtis in with Graydon, it means that Graydon can no longer have quiet time in his room while Curtis naps.  So Graydon now spends quiet time in our room.  Many times, I would peek in on Graydon during quiet time and find him asleep on the glider in his room.  It seems to have carried over to our room as well.  This boy must find chairs to be pretty comfortable.   

For the past 9 months or so, Bella has been asking for an iPod Touch.  We told her that if she wanted one, she'd have to save up for it herself.  And that is what she determined to do.  She did her chores and was very excited to get her allowance each week and tuck that money away. 

We counted her money last week and she had $50.11.  Andy and I discussed with each other how proud we were of her and how we wanted to reward her for the diligence that she has shown.  So we decided to match what she had saved.  Then we threw in another option for Bella: continue to save up to buy a new iPod Touch (about $200), or look for a used one on Craigslist (about $100).  She opted for Craigslist. . . and then Andy got to searching.  After a few days, he found a really good one and secretly picked it up.

That evening, we created a little iPod store at home.  Up until this point, Bella didn't know that Andy had already gone and gotten the iPod.       

This was her expression when Andy welcomed her to the iPod store and told her that we had one in stock.

The thoughtful consumer checking out her merchandise.

Time to exchange money.

This was, by far, the biggest purchase that Bella has ever made.  I am so proud of her for saving up for something that she wanted; which meant denying herself the little toys in the dollar section of Target or things like that.  She made a goal and stuck to it!  

We downloaded a few apps for her and I put some Vacation Bible School songs on there for her.  She won't have access to the internet, that's something that Andy and I will still monitor with her.  But there are some great educational games that can reinforce what she's learning in school - so I'm happy about that!

And last, but certainly not least at all. . . Curtis is potty training!!!!!  He went potty on the potty chair for the first time this past Tuesday night and has gone about 4 or 5 times since then.  Today, we just had the potty chair out in the living room and had his pants off.  After a while, he came running to me, "I did it!  I did it!"  Sure enough, he did!  We're all very proud and excited!

Summer days

Take me out to the ballgame!

We did just that this past Tuesday evening.  Our church sold Phillies tickets as a fundraiser for our Vacation Bible School.  

The Phillies were playing pretty good all evening.  At the end of the ninth inning, the game was tied 5-5.  Being that it was already 10:30pm and that Curtis had bypassed the tired phase and went straight to crazy-hyper-silly, it was time for us to pack up. 

It seems we left at the right time.  As we were leaving the ballpark, we overheard that the Mets scored a bunch of runs which brought the score to 9-5.  It's always a bummer when the team you're rooting for loses, but we still enjoyed our night at the ballgame.

Andy bought a new VeggieTales movie for the kids: The Princess and the Pop Star - so we had a movie night.  Bella got everyone situated in their own space with their blanket, pillow pet, and stuffed animal.  

All set!

Hat season is just upon me.  I'm adding lots of new hats to my shop, but before I could, I needed the help of a few little models.

Bella is a pro.  Most of her photos look like this.  She was easy.

Curtis would only wear one, though I did manage to get what I needed from him. 

I caught Graydon on a good day - he was a great sport about wearing all of these hats on a hot August day.  But I did get the most outtakes from this little guy. 

I'll let you all know when the shop is officially updated!

On Saturday, we filled up the little pool in an attempt to cool off on a hot day.  And then an amazing thing happened - the ice cream truck came by!  Since we live on such a busy road, the ice cream truck never stops in front of our house.  We can often hear its music from the neighborhood behind us, but are too far away to locate it with any accuracy.  On this day, however, the music was loud and close.  We quickly grabbed some money, loaded the boys into the wagon, and made our way through the church cemetery to the street behind the church.  But just as we were about to reach the cemetery gate, the driver took off!  Andy and I started shouting, "Stop!"  "Wait!"  But he must not have been able to hear us over his loud music.  Fortunately, he stopped just a block down for some other customers and we managed to catch up.

And the kids all enjoyed the first ice cream truck experience in our whole five years of living here.

  Success!