Alas, A New Blog Entry! It'll be long... so sit down and relax!

It's been a busy few weeks. So I'll try to catch you up!

The beginning of August we went to California to visit Greg's family. Greg and I were able to go away for a couple of days to Catalina Island and leave the kids with the grandparents. We had a wonderful time away.

The kids enjoyed getting to know their grandparents too. It was special for them to have that time with them. They haven't spent much too time with their cousins, Christian and Conner, so were very happy to play with them as well. The kids had a blast at the beach. I think they could get used to riding the boogie board and jumping the waves!

Then we all went camping on the beach by Malibu. We celebrated Ryan's birthday there. The biggest highlight was going to the big D! Disneyland!! The girls were in awe of the rides, all the people, and Mickey Mouse! It was great fun!

Now is the start of our busy birthday season! On the 22nd of August, we celebrated Ryan's first birthday. The 30th was mine and Greg's 11th anniversary.
September 1st was Emily's 8th birthday. It's hard to believe that she is so grown up. She was looking for makeup yesterday to put on! What's next? She is a sweet young lady and loves God and her sister and brother. Since her birthday was on Labor Day we were able to have a day full of fun. We started the morning by surprising her with decorations in her room! She awoke to streamers on the ceiling. Then she had a special breakfast of belgian waffles. Next was a girl day with mom and the girls going out to see the American Girl movie, Kit Kittredge. And she requested lasagne for dinner. So it was quite the fun day! This year she is playing soccer for the first time. She had her 2nd game today. She is enjoying running around and playing.

We started homeschool the week of Labor day. It was a slow start but I think we are getting in the swing of things. On September 8th, the girls started the 1-day a week program at Rocky Mountain Homeschool Academy. Here they are posing for their 1st day of school shots. Aren't my girls pretty!

Abby wanted to pose as though she was walking out the door! She is the "strike a pose" girl!

I can't leave out Ryan. He is crawling everywhere. He just learned how to climb the stairs. Oh my! I can't walk up the stairs carrying him. He insists on getting down and climbing up himself. And I caught him climbing up on the fire place hearth. Gotta watch him closely come winter! And he loves to crawl under the table and chairs, climbing over the rungs. The other evening, he sat down there for at least 10 minutes, just laughing and enjoying the view from under the table! He also enjoys playing with a new birthday toy, a Little Einstein's Rocket! It makes lots of noise!!

Finally, today we celebrated Abby's birthday with a small party. In light of our recent trip to Disneyland, she wanted a Minnie Mouse themed party. She wore her Minnie mouse ears and we had some ears for her 5 guests too. I attempted something I have never done before. I made a Minnie Mouse cake! It was quite a feat, I tell you! I was nervous it wouldn't turn out. But, aside from Minnie looking like she was crying, because the icing was dripping, I think it turned out well, if I do say so myself. Here it is...

There you have it. A longwinded, blundering update. This next week, we'll wind up the birthdays with Abby's and Greg's on the 17th, and mine on Friday, the 19th. September is an expensive month. And it's only 3 months till Christmas... gotta start saving.