We've been at Nana's this week. Mr. Jacob got to meet his great-grandparents for the first time and Hannah and Ashley have been swimming in Nana's pool all week long. We went to see Shrek on Tuesday, they got a manicure and pedicure on Wednesday, and we had a cookout today with lots of family. Tomorrow we make the long trip home. I'm dreading the drive. 
Ashley has graduated from pre-Kindergarten-- yay! She will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and is so excited. As a matter of fact, on the morning of graduation, she had her 5 year physical. She was the proud recipient of 2 shots and a mean blood stick. She was so brave and took those shots like a big girl! Later on, we rushed directly from swimming lessons to graduation. She was so cute in her little cap and gown. They wore swimsuits underneath and performed a special "Octopus Garden" song at the end. Big kudos to The Goddard School staff-- the ceremony was very well done and such a memorable experience for the kids (okay, the parents). Many pictures to follow.
I'm putting together Jacob's baby book and I am in need of quotes to use. I'm using a mix of a template from the Shabby Shoppe and some plain pages that I have. Since I've been out of the scrapbooking world for the past few years-- I'm at a loss. So this is a call for quotable quotes... if you have a favorite or two, I'd love it if you would put it in the comments section below or email it to me. Thanks!
The theme of our Father's Day weekend was Barbeques' Galore. It was eventful, but relaxing at the same time. We kicked it off on Friday evening with a bbq Happy Hour with our good friends-- thanks Amy and Colin for having us! The kids played happily and the adults had drinks, a burger, and chatted for a couple hours. Then on Saturday, Marc played golf and the rest of us watched Hannah's gymnastics show. She did a great job-- we were very proud of her. After the show Nana had to leave to head back home-- but we'll see her soon. We'll be heading down next weekend to stay with her for a week! Then off we went to another bbq at our friend Mike's house. We celebrated little Michael's 13th birthday and were pleasantly surprised to see our friends' Bruce, Tina, and Katrina there! After dinner, Bruce provided some muscial entertainment as we all sat back and relaxed. Then on Father's Day, we all got a treat-- sleep! We slept in (Jacob included) until 9:30. Later, Marc tried out his self-purchased grill and Omaha steak gift and the rest of us enjoyed the fruits of his hard work :) It was pretty warm so the girls put their bathing suits on and swam in the little pool. We had a very nice weekend-- now its time to diet!
The girls finished up their first full year of gymnastics this week. They both really enjoyed it! Ashley is in a class called GymKids where they work more on motor skills and just have fun. Her teacher's name is Miss Ashley-- so she gets a kick out of that! When Hannah turned 6, she moved to the Girls Recreation class and has really taken off. She does a perfect cartwheel, knows how to do a kickover, is working on a handstand, and learned a roundoff... at least these are the things I know the names of :) She has a show on Saturday where her class will do a little routine. It was optional and I was so proud of her when she told me that she really wanted to participate. I'll be sure to post pictures of that later. After next week, they are taking a break for the summer but looking forward to starting back in the fall!
Poor little man is showered with love and affection from his adoring older sisters from the time he wakes up in the morning until the time he goes to sleep at night. The only break he gets is when they are at school. I thought that the novelty of having a baby brother would wear off after a few days, okay a few weeks, but these two are going strong after almost 4 months. There isn't a morning that goes by but what they don't ask me to hold him at least three times. And they still fight over who gets to do things for him. I'm thrilled that they love him so much and someday when we look back on baby books, I'll have to make sure and tell the J-man how much his big sisters really loved him! Here's a few pictures of Hannah playing with him in the yard after school. I'll make sure and get some with Ashley next time! 
I forgot to post this last week. Hannah's kindergarten class had a recital-- it was so cute-- the entire Kindergarten (125 or so kids) sang songs for the parents. Here's a link to download a bit of "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands". It's a pretty big file, so it might take a minute to download or might even time out if you are on dial-up. My camera didn't like the fluorescent lighting inside-- but we took this one afterwards. I'm not in front of the camera very often-- so this is a rare shot of me with the girls.
My mom is coming tomorrow to visit. The girls are so excited-- they love it when Nana visits. She hasn't seen Jacob since he was born (my fault-- but to my defense we are going down to visit in two weeks) so she's in for a big surprise to see how much he's grown and changed in 3 1/2 months. I found this old picture with Nana on my hard-drive-- me with long hair and pre-highlight days-- and Hannah when she was 3-- she's changed so much!
Jacob is officially rolling from belly to back. He's done it accidentally a few times, but now every time I put him on his tummy, he rolls over to his back. I'm sure its only a matter of time before he rolls from back to tummy and then we're in trouble! Here he is on Ashley's quilt (time for mommy to make a more boyish one for Jacob) for a short-lived moment before he rolled over (caught in action in the picture below).
Shortly after Jacob was born, it was evident that we were dealing (once again) with GER (gastro-esophogeal reflux). Same symptoms as Ashley, constant spitting up and discomfort when resting flat. The pediatrician started him on Zantac and life at our house has been pretty normal with one exception. He has been sleeping in his carseat-- naps and at night. When a newborn can sleep 6-8 hours straight, especially one with reflux, my thoughts on the matter are "Don't mess with a good thing". However, Jacob is a big boy and at 3.5 months is reaching the upper limits on his carseat. It's time for mom and dad to more agressively work on getting him out of that carseat and in a bed. Over the past couple of weeks, we've been starting him out for the night in the carseat and then migrating to our bed... I know, I know...baby steps. So last night in our bed he slept...peacefully. Now if only we can get him in his bed sleeping like this.
Here's one more taken a little bit later as he stretching from a long rest... making that cute, squishy baby face! Funny-- I don't think I've ever seen a baby that doesn't do this-- you know the stretch, arch the back, and sometimes when mom and dad are really lucky, pass gas :)
My great aunt passed away yesterday. She had been in the hospital so I think everyone back home expected it. The thing about moving away from home is that you remember people as they were the last time you saw them, not as they might be in the present. I never saw her in the nursing home or hospital which in some ways is nice because I don't want to remember her that way. But the sad thing is that the funeral was planned quickly and I don't have time to get there to say good-bye. I thought that the best thing that I could do was to put a few thoughts in this blog as my personal tribute. "G" was married to my grandmother's brother, but was more a part of our family than any other "outlaw". In fact, my mom said that she had NEVER seen my grandmother cry, not even last year when my grandfather died. A couple weeks ago after seeing G so sick, she cried. G was in many ways my grandmother's best friend. When I was a child, we lived next door and I stayed with G on many ocassions. These are just some of the memories that I have of my great-aunt, "G":
She was a great lady and I will miss her. I didn't have a good picture to post, but I love this one of my daughter inspecting her locket.
Hannah just loves to be a "covergirl" and tries out new poses and then looks at them on my camera display and tells me whether they are keepers or not. 
Lately, we've also had some issues with backtalking and sassing-- so while these pictures are cuter than cute-- they remind me of this behavior-- which is not. Anyway, enough of my philosophical rambling.
