Michael's Second Birthday Party! and Nicole's 4th bday photo

Our little man Michael is turning TWO on the 24th! I can't believe how grown up and cute he is! I am grateful for his example of determination and sweetness and hope to keep up with his energy!

Nicole had her fourth birthday photo shoot and she was so silly the whole time! She would obey and stand in the perfect pose but then start sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth or give a silly grin. I have no idea why she decided to do that (maybe it was the photographer making ridiculous noises trying to make her smile) but at least she wasn't crying like in her first several birthday photo shoots. We finally caught some good pictures in between her silly faces!

For Michael's bday I made Cookie Monster cupcakes! Marshmallows cut in half with reeses pieces stuck on for the eyes, coconut dyed blue for the fur, and chips ahoy cut in half fit in the mouth. Michael had a fascination with pulling the eyes off.

We've found several frogs around (Someone put a big one even in the mailbox! That scared me to death!) and the kids don't want to hold them, but they love chasing them and getting them to hop.

We did a slip n slide for Michael's party and it took a long long time for anyone to actually slide. The kids loved playing in the water though.

The end of the slide had a nice little pool of water that felt so good because it was pretty hot outside! You can laugh because it is not 120 like AZ, but we felt hot in 90 degrees!! :-)To help Michael, Jim did a throwing slide with Michael- who LOVED it!!

Michael loves jumping! Splashing in water is just an added treat!

Here comes Michael! It was SOOOO hilarious to watch his big grin while he tried to stay above the water.

Ryan also had a little help sliding!

Jacob being introduced to electronics by his cousin Megan. Lake is home from BYU Idaho getting ready for his mission!

I could hear Jacob laughing while his cousins played with him, they are so good with him!

Nicole was dying to eat a cupcake all day long and was SO happy to finally get a bite!

We love having family nearby to visit and my kids LOVE them so much!

The kids had a hard time sitting at the table because they were so wet. Michael kept slipping under the table!

Yes he liked eating the eyes! Michael is not as much of a sweets lover as Nicole and me. He at the toppings -including the frosting- and then went back to playing.

Opening his big Tonka truck that he hasn't stopped playing with since he laid eyes on it!

Checking out the capabilities of his dump truck. Life could not be better.

Josh really wanted to hold Jacob- I thought it was sweet how on his own he wanted to sit there and hold a baby. Jacob LOVED all of the attention!Last night Jim and Mark went to a Jack Johnson concert and had a blast! Rebecca and I had fun with the kids and she was so helpful with reading to Nicole and playing Nicole's version of hide and seek where she tells you where to hide and then goes around pretending she doesn't know where you are hiding ("is she in the fireplace? No...") until she finally decides to "find" you. Nicole has come a long way- the first time she had a babysitter was when Mark and Rebecca watched her and she screamed like the world was dying for a LONG time which must have been torture for them. It is so nice that Nicole is friendly and talkative now and would probably love it if they babysat her.

School Time!

I love the back to school sales...especially with my grocery couponing! I got this all for 38.17 and even got back a $10 off coupon for my next trip!

Preschool has started! We do the weather, days of the week, scripture mastery (just little clips of good scriptures to memorize), Nursery manual lesson for Michael, Nicole's reading lesson while Michael colors, a science experiment/craft/baking based on a theme for the month, singing time (primary songs), and finally a scripture story/library books/make our own story time. This takes about two hours and we all really enjoy the quality fun time together! In this picture, Nicole is making muffins all by herself, only doing what I tell her to do. I thought it was a positive, fun way to reinforce obedience to what I say. Nicole wore her "back to school" clothes Grandma Ostler sent :-)

Today our theme was about loving family and we played together and I tried to get a picture of all three kids together. CRAZY. Michael really wanted to pick up Jacob.

Nicole wanted to be the star of the show.

Jacob was happy to get out of it alive.

But aren't they cute?

And they sure love each other! Nicole seems to always know what Michael is saying (or in the case of wanting more cookies, what she hopes he is saying- more!)

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...