July flew by!

We have had so much going on I am not sure where to start! Between playdates, dr appointments, visits from friends and family, and all sorts of outings, our callings Tues and Wed night, strep throat for Michael, the business, and preschool prep we have had a lot on our hands. I wish I had more pics to show for it! That's the way things fall though, so here goes:Jim finally had his ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Apex Chamber of Commerce. We also make a business blog and facebook page and are feeling technologically up to speed. Any suggestions are welcome if you come across our stuff. I just try to do what I learned in marketing classes and also mimic the patterns I've seen in other successful companies.

Luke and Doug were able to come for the ceremony and Luke stayed to surf on Saturday with Jim. It has been way too long since they were able to have a day of surfing like that, I was SO happy for them! Luke and Doug also picked up this train table and played like little boys setting it up from what I heard. I think this picture is evidence enough.

We are done decorating as far as we know. Just the arranging might change, but this is it. Snacks and drinks in the waiting room. Makes me wish all doctors offices were this cool! Just wait until you see the kid's room.

We got a fish tank and currently have neon tetras stabilizing the water. We'll probably add a beta, some ghost shrimp, and a plecco to eat the algae.

The gait room is pretty cool with all of the plants and the mirror. We added flower arrangements/pots to all of the rooms after finding 60% off deals at AC moore's custom flower arrangements. That pot in the corner isn't one of them, but you can see one on the waiting room coffee table. I guess we didn't take pics of all of the rooms that have more.

This room is the best. I could put my kids in here and they could play forever. Why doesn't every pediatrician do this? Put the toys IN the waiting room so all of the siblings can be occupied while the kid needing help can get individual attention from mom and doctor? We also got this TV and the dvds for Planet Earth (which are AMAZING by the way). I finished setting up the train table so as to use every possible train piece and all of the cool train pieces. Jim will glue it down and then this room will be done! The wall decals are really cute- I love the birds creating a border and there is also a tree and glittery butterflies.

We've had a few sprinkler playdates over the past few hot weeks of up to 100 degree temps. After they were done, Nicole and her friend Meadow (born on the exact same day!) dressed up in various costumes and galloped and growled through the house. Another sprinkler playdate got rained out- it was SUPER hot and the other two moms and I had NO idea it was going to rain. It started pouring after they were playing in the sprinklers for 20 minutes. It poured for the rest of the day like I haven't seen for a long time. I guess rain dances work?

Michael tagged along and will certainly enjoy it when Jacob will be old enough to run around with him!

Yesterday Jim took Nicole on a date to Lake Wheeler and they went fishing. Can you just imagine how interesting it would have been to watch them? And it was slightly raining the whole time. But for $4 an hour, they paddled out into the lake (Jim was paddling backwards for half of the time before he realized it and said he was pretty sure everyone was laughing at him on shore but that Nicole was LOVING being in the "captain's" seat) and tried to fish. Nicole really wanted to hold both lines, touch every lure before Jim cast, and laughed hysterically when their lines got tangled-which I'm guessing was more than once. So, as you can tell, they had a blast! Nicole came home dirty, soaking wet and shining with happiness.

I start teaching Nicole and Michael preschool on Tuesday and am really excited about the curriculum I made for this year. I changed up some things to make it better than last year and incorporate Michael too. Jacob is such a sweetheart and sleeps 12 hours now at night. I find myself feeling ready for bed even though he goes down at 7 just because my body is so trained to drop the second the kids are asleep!

Smiles, hand coordination, rolling are all on his agenda these days. At his 4 month checkup (which I missed and had to reschedule-yikes for loss of brain cells!) he is showing to be slightly smaller than Michael was. I find it interesting that Nicole is on the tallest growth curve of all our kids, I guess boys will catch up later. And all of our kids are skinny. Here are Jacob's stats:
Weight: 12 lbs 10oz (15%)
Length: 25in (55%)
Head: 15.75in (5%)
We always wonder if any of our kids will get dark like their daddy. But maybe they have my coloring and Jim's tall/skinny gene. For now, they are blonde hair & blue eyed, although I sometimes wonder if Michael's eyes are getting more green...