Shelby's Birthday & 1st day Kindergarten

Ok, so rather than trying to put all these pictures in one long post, I broke them up into a few posts (see below posts). I think that was the problem I had the other night (and why I have all that whitespace in my 8/18 post, I have tried to delete it & can't seem to!!). I put way too many pictures and poor blogspot couldn't handle it! It seems this will work better.....it already has seeing as I got these posts on very quickly and the other night it was taking forever to type one sentence!! It goes backward in chronology, Shelby's birthday, then Joshua's and then some summer pics.

Before the party started, Shelby being funny girl. She was soooo excited for her party.



We had a bowling toss game to play, we used tennis balls and the kids really seemed to enjoy it!
We also had another game called "Pin the fin on the shark" (like pin tail on donkey). The kids seemed to have fun w/these old school games....hooray!



Princess cake....CRAZY story on this. I ordered it Wed. before Shelby's party, scheduled for 9am because party was at 10:00. Drew goes to pick up at 9:15 and they have NO cake for us. He talks to baker & confirms what we need and they tell him come back in 30 minutes. He comes home & tells me, I am in a panic. We have no cake???!!! But he assures me all will work out, that one way or another he will get her a cake. I just could NOT believe it. Then he goes back to get it, still working on it, so he asks to speak to the manager. Very calmly explains we have a party & little girl expecting a Princess cake, which I had ordered early in the week AND confirmed on Friday (when I went to order balloons). Long story short, the manager ended up giving us the cake for free and Drew made it back just in time as kids were arriving. Whew!! That is the 2nd year in a row I have had problems w/my cake being ready. Last year, different place, but same problem; I arrived and it wasn't ready. What am I cursed?? Drew suggested next year we order it for day ahead and just put in fridge until party. I'm seriously thinking that might be the way to go.




Shelby getting ready to hit the pinata!!
Thankfully we had a couple of older kids (our neighbors) and they were able to really whack that thing good to get the candy out. Drew was wondering if he'd have to step in & help because we didn't want to be stuck outside in the heat for long while the little kids kept hitting it. :) But Ayden got it going & then Tyler, our anchor, hit it real hard and all the candy came out.



My scrapbooker friend, Crystal, had the FANTASTIC idea of having the kids pose with the bowling banner, isn't it cute??!! SO can't wait to scrapbook this page!! Thanks Crystal!!



1st day of Kindergarten @ FCA....my baby girl is SO big!!! (sniffle, sniffle....boo-hoo!)

Joshua's 1st Birthday

Yummmm.....cake....it's really best to just stick your whole hand in there too.

I maybe should have rethought the blue icing, it was everywhere, very messy. And I forgot to strip him down too. But thankfully the icing came out of his clothes, so guess it all worked out.

Oh, all these presents, what do I do?? Thankfully his big sister & cousin Mason were there to help unwrap. He honestly had no idea what to do. But the big kids were more than happy to jump in, unwrap gifts & help him play. Whew, crisis averted. :)




He really likes this firetruck toy from Mason, Aunt Kellie & J.R.
It has buttons that make sounds & everything!!
He likes those best and hits them again and again and again......and again.
Anything to make NOISE. :)

Silly pictures from summer.....

Joshy pulled the plate from the table to his tray, I hadn't realized he could reach that far!!

He loooves nutrigrain bars but oh what a mess! ALL over his fingers.


Shelby's lost tooth, kinda hard to see but that red spot is where it was.
Waiting any day for the 2nd one to go, she just can't wait!!

And now arriving, Princess Shelby!!!

Drew will HATE that I put this on here, but it is too funny!! He loves playing w/Shelby's princess crowns, it is so funny. I will say though, he had camo pajamas on but not sure if that makes it better or worse. Ha!!

Birthdays, Teeth & Starting School....

I will try to catch up as best I can. I'm having trouble w/blogspot too, so this may be short & a better update later. We had a good winter, very healthy with a couple of great snow days. Shelby graduated preschool in May & also had her year end Kindertots basketball program. Nana & Papa came to visit & attend. It was so neat to see all the skills she'd learned.

Spring seemed to be a blip and it seemed we were in the hot days of summer very early. Shelby & Drew went to the beach club a lot (our local pool in the neighborhood, there actually is sand for the beach! Both kids took swimming lessons, although for Joshua it was really just getting him in the water, but he loved it! Shelby really enjoyed her lessons & it's been neat to see how well she's doing in the water. And Shelby made friends with 2 neighbor boys and spent evenings outside riding her scooter until dark. And while Joshy got his top & bottom teeth, Shelby lost her first tooth, boy was that exciting for her!! She has another loose tooth that she checks often to see how loose it is.

Joshua turned 1 on July 4th and boy did he enjoy cake! He was very messy and had a lot of fun with that. He also loves ice cream, his Daddy shares with him and he likes it! Shelby turned 5 just a couple of weeks ago. We had a princess party at the house, played games & hit a pinata. It is so hard to believe she is 5, it seems like only yesterday I was a sleep-deprived, stressed new Mom trying to manage just getting a shower each day. How far we've come!! Joshua began crawling in the Spring and is attempting steps now. He stands alone and will lean forward and then CRASH. So, still much to learn there. Shelby started school this week...we are homeschooling 3 days using the A Beka program and then she attends Faith Christian Academy 2 days for their enrichment program (art, music, PE). We work on the core subjects at home and while it was challenging & tiring this week, it was also very exciting to see her learning. We are teaching her cursive writing and looking forward to learning to read.

Ok, well that just about catches things up....life is very busy with figuring out our school schedule, but we're excited about this year and all that it may bring. Oh yea, guess I could update on Drew & I, we do have things going on outside our children! Drew upgraded the lift kit on his Jeep, yes made it higher. He also recently got a promotion at work and while it means working longer hours it's been a great thing so far. I am also still busy with various ministries at church in addition to my Mom/Wife and now teaching duties. I'm going on a scrapbooking retreat for Labor Day and look forward to getting away & enjoying my hobby. Plus football is starting, we are SO excited about that. Boomer Sooner!!

Yes, he still does the "hook 'em horns". *sigh*

Yes, she loves playing my iphone....angry birds is her fav.

Tea party with jaguar...the rings stand was her centerpiece.

Such a messy boy!! He loves to put messy hands in his hair.

He was so proud of himself crawling up there. Think he will be our climber, oy!!