Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Happy Birthday, Jake!


Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jake at his birthday party

Easter Egg Hunt


Claire, Grace, Jake, and Allison finding their Easter baskets

Happy Birthday, Claire!


Singing "Happy Birthday" to Claire at her birthday party.

July 2013

July 2013

July was a big month for Pete and I career wise.  Pete switched jobs to a different kind of engineering job that was shorter hours, more vacation time, more money and closer to home.  It was a decision that we both struggled with, but we are very happy with his/our decision.  I quit my PRN job up in Cleveland.  It was just getting to be too much to juggle and I wasn't able to be at home with Pete and the kids nearly as much as I wanted.

We started the month of July in Indianapolis extending the family reunion weekend into the middle of the week.  

Claire LOVES Jesi!


On the way home from our time in Indianapolis - Jake didn't want to sleep or be quiet AT ALL!



On July 2nd, Claire lost her first tooth!

One night we decided to take the kids to a Hibachi grill - they were very scared of the initial fire but enjoyed the rest of dinner.  Grace gobbled up the Miso Soup!

Claire took a spill and was not able to walk on her right foot for a few days.  We waited to see if it would get better and then finally decided to take her to the ER.  Nothing was broken - just a sprain.

We rearranged and cleaned up our basement just in time for an evening of tornado warnings.  While killing time in the basement, Claire and Grace put on a concert for us and sang "I'm a little teapot" and "5 little monkeys".  It reminded me of Beth and I's killer concerts! ;)

We got a tandem so Claire and I could take bike rides together.  She loves it and does really well, but sometimes when she shifts her weight I have to compensate!

Later in July, Claire lost another tooth!

One of the only sunny days in July, we got outside and soaked up as much sun as we could!


One Saturday, Jake and I ran a group of errands while Pete and the girls did some stuff at home.  Jake was getting a little tired of all the errands so once we hit Target and got some popcorn and lemonade, he was a happy camper!

We ended July with our 23rd Annual Beach Mo!  Again, the weather wasn't great, but we tried to make the best of it.  The kids were very good travelers.  


Thursday evening we met up with the Getty family and went to the park at Silver Beach and got some pizza.


Friday, Pete and I took the kids back to Silver Beach and played in the sand.  The water was FREEZING so nobody swam but we had fun playing in the sand.  Then we walked up to the carousel and took a few rides





Jake was loving his cousin Sarah.  He kept walking up to her and saying "baby" and giving her kisses.

Annual noodle picture

On Saturday, we braved the weather and headed to the beach.  We debated about bringing the gazebo because we didn't think we would be there long.  Thank goodness we brought the gazebo because a few moments after we set it up it began to down pour with sideways rain!  It was actually kinda fun, but we would've quickly traded the experience for a little sunshine.




June 2013

June 2013

June was a wonderfully fun month for our family.  First, we went to Dundee, Michigan and met up with our good friends, the Getty family.  We went to Splash Universe for an overnight and the kids had a wonderful time.  Here are pictures from our weekend...

Here is Jake proving that a time out can happen anywhere!



One night, bedtime reading was really funny to the girls :)

We took a family bike ride one day and stopped at Wendy's for some ice cream for the kids.

All three kids had dentist appointments.  The girls did a great job!  It was Jake's first visit and things were going very well...then the hygienist went to floss his teeth and he bit her!  It wasn't hard and she was fine but not my proudest mom moment FOR SURE! 




There was a fair at our local high school so we took the kids and it was so much fun!  The girls went on every kid ride.  Claire wanted to go on a big kid ride so without even seeing the ride I let her go on it.  She was so brave!  (Braver than I was!)  These two sweet high school girls let her sit in between them and this ride was CRAZY!  It was going backwards and loud and swinging Claire up and down really fast.  I ALMOST asked them to stop the ride because she looked so scared and sad.  She made it through and I made sure to greet her with excitement and a big hug!  Here are some pictures from the fair...




We had a garage sale in the middle of June.  It was successful but it was a lot of work!  Afterwards, we piled up the van and took the rest to Good Will!  The girls sold lemonade and popsicles!


Grace - bad to the bone!

We had some water fun over at Grammy and Opa's house!


We took the girls to get their haircut and the did great!




The last weekend in June we went to Indianapolis for an annual get together with my mom's family.  The weather was pretty gloomy but we had a lot of fun!






More pictures from the girl's favorite part of the fair.




More pictures from the water fun at Grammy and Opa's house.