September

The night before school started I made this dinner for the boys to get them excited. Jon wasn't home for dinner so I texted him a picture of it and asked if he could tell what it was. His guess was a boat? Seriously? Isn't it so obvious that it's a pencil?!!

Jake started first grade this year. I was a little worried about how he was going to handle being there all day, but he had no problem with the adjustment. After a long fight with the school district through the summer, I finally got Jake fully included at our home school with a one-on-one aide. He has the same aide that he's had for the last two years so it was nice for Jake to see a familiar face when he got to school. His teacher and resource teacher are awesome and so far Jake is doing really well. We love everyone at Arroyo Vista and are so glad that we made the decision to have him go there.

Nathan started Kindergarten this year and had been looking forward to this day for a long time. He loves to learn and thankfully he loves school! His teacher is awesome and is really helping Nathan learn to follow the rules which is something he needs to be reminded of often! Academically he is doing awesome and is already reading, writing, spelling, adding, subtracting, etc.

Nathan with two of his friends from church, Kali and Sage.

This year was Nathan's second season of soccer and he improved a ton from last year. He scored at least one goal in every game and really seemed to be understanding the game a lot better. It was a lot of fun to watch!

Max really wanted to go to a baseball game so we took him and the boys to an Angel's game. Max and Nathan loved it and even though big crowds sort of freak Jake out, he was so brave and sat there the whole time. I was so proud of him! We stayed for a couple of hours and couldn't leave before getting ice cream sundaes and little wooden Angel's bats. It was a fun night!

The Rest of the Summer

This post will be nice and short since the moment we got home from the cabin I started feeling morning sick and the rest of the summer was spent laying on the couch and taking Zofran so that I could get through the day. The boys spent their days destroying the house (that Jon got to clean up every night) and occassionally doing something constructive like building a fort for all of Jake's animals and then categorizing them and lining them up!

Aunt Annie and Aunt Heidi took a road trip down to Cali with their friends from Utah so we met them one afternoon at the beach and were able to hang out for a little bit and catch up. The boys LOVE their aunts and are always excited to see them!

I tried to keep the boys busy so I signed them up for some little summer camps. Nathan took a week long golf camp with a few of his friends and loved it. Not sure how much he actually learned, but he did get a cool red shirt! His form actually doesn't look that bad!

Nathan is really into money right now so he was begging Jon during the summer to help him set up a lemonade stand. So one Saturday Nathan and our neighbor, Caden set up a little stand. All of the neighborhood kids came and brought them business (Jon may or may not have been slipping the kids quarters to help pay for it) and I think they each ended up making $3.00 or so. Not bad for a days work!

And that's seriously it. The boys took swim lessons from their Aunt Bethany and I occassionally set up a little pool in the backyard for them to swim in, but basically I was too sick to do much else. It's definitely not going to go down in history as our funnest summer ever, but we made it through and by the time school started I was starting to feel a lot better. Oh, and we did find out at the very end of the summer that we are having a GIRL, so we for sure ended on a good note!!!

Happy 7th Birthday, Jake!

So my goal is to get all caught up on my blog before this baby gets here. That gives me 7 weeks to catch up on the last 6 months! We'll see how it goes...

I think I left off with Jacob's 7th birthday which was on July 15th! We celebrated at the cabin this year. A few days before his actual birthday we had a little party for all of the July birthdays. We had cake and ice cream...

Carli did her traditional spotlights...

And everyone opened presents. Jon was pretty excited about this shirt that Rob and Bethany got for Jake! Much better than the Lakers jersey they gave him a few years ago.

My dad got a new boating hat!

On Jake's actual birthday he woke up to balloons in bed.

All of the cousins made signs for Jake and my dad and decorated the cabin. It was so nice!

Jake was really excited to see all of the decorations!

The two birthday boys...

Jake loves horses and he loves stickers so this book was perfect for him.

Once we got home from the cabin we gave Jake his big gift- the Razor Rip Rider 360. Our neighbor has one and Jake always wants to ride it so he was really excited to get his own that he doesn't have to share with anyone!

He also got this little water slide thing that I'm pretty sure popped soon afterwards, but it was fun while it lasted!

7 things I love about Jake:

1. He has the best smile and gets so excited about things. He loves positive reinforcement and will pretty much make us give him five, thumbs up and hugs whenever he does something good!

2. He loves animals, stickers, climbing on the monkey bars, swimming and playing with his dad and brothers.

3. He tries really hard. He is doing well in school and is doing grade level work!

4. He gets so excited whenever Jon or I come home and repeats over and over again, "Mom, it's you! You came back! Give me a big hug!"

5. He loves babies. He is so sweet with Becky's babies and always wants to look at and talk to any baby he sees. (Let's hope this love continues when his little sister gets here!)

6. He has a big heart. If I am ever crying he is always concerned and tries to make me feel better. If someone gets hurt he wants to make sure they're okay.

7. He is my first born and has a special place in my heart. He has a lot of challenges and does the best he can with them. I am so proud to be his mom and have the blessing of raising him.

We all love our Jakey Jake and are glad that he had a great 7th birthday!!!

The Cabin, Part 2

Better 3 months late than never, right???

Wednesday at the cabin was spent getting ready for the Family Reunion kick off barbecue that was at our cabin that night. We had to cook, clean, bake and get everything set up. Around 6:00 all of our aunts, uncles and cousins started rolling in and it was so much fun to see everyone. I hadn't seen a lot of my cousins in a long time so it was fun to catch up.

Here is a picture of all of the first cousins that were there...

Nathan and his cousins have so much fun hanging out. I think they were making chocolate milk for everyone in this picture!
























Thursday we had breakfast at the Seamon's cabin and then spent the morning making crafts and playing games. The boys don't really know their second cousins so it was fun for them to get to know them better!



Thursday afternoon we took turns going golfing. It was actually Jake's birthday (more on that later) and so I took him with me. He was so good and loved hitting the ball around! Once we were done Jon met us there and he took Nathan with him and his group. Max is still too little to take out, but he really wanted to go!

Friday morning we had breakfast at the Warnick's cabin and then all went floating down the river together. This is only the Carl Warnick side of the family. There were 4 other major families there as well that we saw on Thursday night and Saturday morning. I'm proud to be a part of such a great legacy!

Friday night all of the first cousins went out to dinner. When we got home it was pouring rain so we let the kids all go out and play in it. Who doesn't like playing in the rain?!!

Funny story... when we got to the cabin we noticed this bird's nest nestled into the top of the front porch. All week long we were all very interested in watching the mother bird find food for her babies and watching them grow bigger everyday. On Wednesday one of the baby birds fell out of the nest and onto the dirt next to the porch. We were all standing around trying to figure out how to get the bird back into the nest when out of no where Max came running through the circle and kicked the bird. Everyone was mortified (especially the kids) as we watched the little bird flail for a little bit and then eventually stop moving. We waited a while to see if it would come around, but finally Jon had to 'relocate' it to the forest. The poor little bird never even saw Max coming. For the rest of the week Max walked around saying, "I kick bird. I kill bird." It was actually pretty funny!

On the way home we saw this rainbow going all the way across the sky. The kids were pretty excited about it!

And my favorite part of going on vacation... all of the laundry I get to do when we get home!