Halloween

I LOVE Halloween! I am a firm believer that everyone should be scary! So you can imagine my excitement when Jaya gave me one more year of fear and wanted to be a vampire queen! I dread the year girlie choices win her heart. I just don't know if I can tag along with a princess to trick or treat. Cohen was her vampire king who HATED his cape! His feelings about it changed in the evening when he realized the reward of wearing it and using three simple words at peoples doorsteps.

And the night ended just as it should...perfect.

"Back" to School

It's back to school again and Jaya is going to kindergarten!

Jaya's teacher is Mrs. Mueller and we are ready for a great year!

Kindergarten is exhausting!

Sunburn

I guess I didn't rub in the sunscreen very well for Cohen.

He is being very tough about it.

Summer!

Summer is here! We are loving it already! Due to snow make-up days our last day of school was Saturday!

Liesel decorated her classroom in red white and blue and served pancakes for breakfast.

Jaya and I helped decorate and eat a couple pancakes too.  It was a dirty job but somebody had to do it. 

Saturday night we went to Jackson Noftle's bike-a-thon/walk-a-thon to raise money for research about his disease Histiocytosis you can read about on his mom's blog here. We had a great time walking and talking. After we walked we ate dinner and watched my dad in the dunk tank.

What a great sport! He went in quite a few times! There were a lot of accurate throwing arms out.

Including a very cute granddaughter with a great arm like her mother!

They also got the Mayer, Jackson himself, the football coach from Connell, and one of Connell's greatest players who was responsible for a lot of football heartache around this town, Wiley Allred, Royal's coach, to take a turn. Great sports, all of them.

Here's Jackson taking his turn.   This was the face he made when his dad moved his little cousin about three feet from the target.

This is Connell's coach. 

Jaya's Five!

Our precious little Jaya turned 5 on Sunday. We can't believe it! The last five years have been so wonderful! Time flies when you're having fun.

















We celebrated with lots of Jaya's great friends at the bounce house Saturday night. We were so glad so many kids came and had a great time.











Well some of these pictures aren't the greatest but they can't all be winners can they...

Life after Christmas

Jaya tried ice skating. She got to use this great glider to stay up! Where were those when we were kids?


Cohen is a really picky eater but lately has been trying all kinds of foods! Here is testing out pizza.


We went to Chucky Cheese for our Devin's birthday last Saturday. Of course there are no pictures of the birthday boy since he had a lot of work to do. Including mastering every game there and getting his hands on the cutest cake in the world made by his mom before I could get a picture. It was a great time.


The Miss America Pageant was on the other night. As soon as Jaya saw it was on she said to pause it and she ran to put on a dress up dress.


Naturally Cohen went with her and chose this "Cat in the Hat" hat and Cleopatra dress!


Justin was a good sport and laughed but took the dress off his man child soon after. I don't think he knows I took pictures to document the event or that they made it on the blog! I don't think Grandpa Jack will like it either. But sometimes you just gotta laugh!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nutcracker

Jaya my mom and I went to see the nutcracker Saturday.











Jaya wanted a picture with as many of the characters we as we could find.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cohen vs Handcart

Cohen fell on a handcart yesterday. Within minutes of falling he had a knot the size of a ping pong ball between his eyes. Liesel, Jaya and I immediately packed into the car and headed to the clinic in Moses Lake. That was the longest drive of my life despite Cohen laughing and talking the whole way. The doctor said everything looked good, but he did say to wake him and check his pupils every 2 hours through the night. So just another mishap behind us with a great bruise to remember it for a while. He doesn't have black eyes yet but we are expecting them to appear soon.


When they do I think I'll compare it with my great black eye of '99!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Halloween a week later

We love Halloween and are firm believers in dressing scary. Even if it means Jaya was the only one dressed up scary at her preschool Halloween program.





And Cohen was a great Chuckie!

Mischeif

I caught Cohen doing this to Jaya this evening
after she fell asleep on the couch.

They love teasing and playing together.



















He really does admire his big sister.
They are so lucky to have each other.














Although he is sure to only ever fall asleep in places he knows he cannot be reached by her ever growing arms.

Lookin' Good

These kids made those clothes look great all summer...

Six Years

Justin and I have been married 6 years today.

We were married on Friday the 13th simply because it was a day that our location had open, it has turned out to be lucky for us. Since today is Friday the 13th again, it's an extra special anniversary. There should be a name for an anniversary that falls on the same day of the week as the original. Maybe "The 6 Year Anniversary" and in another 6 it will be "The 12":)(Very original)

I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband and father to our children. Everyday I love him even more. Our love only grows stronger as time goes by.

It has been wonderful six years and we are excited to see what the next six will bring.

sErvINg Of FRuIt?

Jaya's Swim Lessons

Jaya started swim lessons this summer. Unfortunately this is the only picture I took, since I spent the rest of the lesson begging her to get in the water and participate. It was a long ways from her telling me how she was going to jump off the diving board by herself just like I had done fearlessly with no one to catch me at my first lesson. To think, I actually thought it was a bad idea for my mom to tell her about me doing that and being such a daredevil. Now, I just wanted her to trust her teacher and have confidance in herself. Although, she did perk right up, when Justin showed up unexpected. What a wonder husband and father to realize how important it was for Jaya, and want to be there with us. We love him so much!

Jaya's Playdate with Papa

Jaya had a playdate with just my dad today since they haven't seen eachother much lately and he goes on vacation next week and back to work after that. She wanted to be fancy for her big day so we put these curlers in and she asked if I would take a picture of her sleeping with them in her hair. They worked pretty well.
(Maybe too well.)
I think Papa felt a little underdressed.