Matt's Confirmation

On Sunday, May 22 we headed up to P.C. for Matt's confirmation. Andy helped out with the ceremony and Matt was even asked to read a passage from the bible in front of the congregation. Afterward we headed over to Becky and Mark's for a dinner and cake. We had a nice time together.

A Royal Wedding!

I knew we would be attending my second cousin's wedding on May 21st, and so when the Royal wedding was on TV I recorded it to let ET view parts of it. I asked him if he wanted to see a "real" prince and princess get married. He quietly watched it for a while and I knew he was quite amazed. Afterward I told him we were invited to a wedding and so we took out Jay and my wedding album to show ET all about the day we were married. Needless to say he was pretty excited to go to Stacy's and Josh's wedding after all this talk.

When we sat down in the Sanctuary ET started asking where is the queen? It was then that I realized he thought Stacy and Josh were another prince and princess (or King and Queen - who knows). Ha!

It was such a GORGEOUS wedding and we had a truly wonderful time! It was great to see that the Lord is the true foundation of their relationship.

Here you can see they did things a little different. While they performed the wedding, the bride, groom and wedding party all faced the congregation, and the Pastor's back was to us. If the Pastor had something to say directly to us, he would just turn around for a bit. I just thought this was such an awesome idea!


Jay and I were so proud of the boys. We were a little nervous about having to keep them under control during the ceremony or during dinner, but they were so well behaved we didn't have a single issue! It was a lot to expect from a three and a one-year-old.




Of course having so much of the family together and all of us in our nice clothes there were many pics taken...






ET amazed me! He was so social with anyone and everyone. He talked with the grown-ups and played and danced with all the kids on the dance floor (kids he didn't even know).
Nate also was so wonderful for us. He didn't even mind when Great Grandpa Jim came over for a little cuddle and a hug. :)


While dancing, a slow song came on and ET went to go dance with Stacy. He totally initiated this on his own and he was utterly star struck! I think he thought he was dancing with the queen!!! :)



It was such a beautiful wedding and we were so happy to be a part of their special day!

One rainy day...

Last Friday it rained nearly the whole day. We had a birthday party for a little girl at the daycare and she brought in Popsicles to share. The rain didn't stop us from getting out and enjoying our first Popsicle of the year!

The kids wore their paint shirts to protect their clothes from melting juice. :)


Later that evening the rain subsided for a bit, so I took the boys on a walk around the neighborhood. Just as we were almost back to the cul-de-sac the rain started coming down again. Luckily it was still so warm outside so we just hung out in the garage and played for a while. It was so much fun to watch Nate walk out to the driveway to feel the rain. He was learning for the first time just what rain really is. It was so sweet to watch his little mind take it all in. :)








Big bro' giving little bro' a ride on his trike. They came up with this on their own. :)

An Update of Nate...

Nate is now 16 months old. He had his 15 month check-up a few weeks ago and here are his stats:

Height 29.25 inches (94%)
Weight 25.3 pounds (57%)

His growth is staying right on track to where it has been (tall and skinny). The doctor was a tad worried that he is not talking more than he is. I guess I am not too worried because he I know he understands nearly everything and follows commands so well. He definitely thinks he knows how to talk though. Nate will carry on a conversation for a while with you, just all in gibberish. Two words he says very clearly though is "All clean!" He also says: Ni Ni (for bedtime, but only when he wants to), and Ma Ma & Da Da (but not to call us, just when he is babbling). One absolutely adorable thing he has been doing lately is singing. He LOVES to sing! If you ask him to sing a song, he will break out in a tune so loud it will make you laugh. :) He also still loves to dance, and will hold hands with a friend while dancing (so cute). He still L-O-V-E-S markers as well. He will sit for a while just coloring (which is interesting because that is the polar opposite of ET).

There are a number of other things he is doing as well, just too many to list. So here are a few pics of him just being cute...











He just recently started going down the slides facing forward, rather than turning around to slide on his belly.

ET CAN...

This fall all of the kids in the daycare proudly learned the "Fifty Nifty United States" song. If you are unfamiliar with this song, it is a song that lists all of the states in alphabetical order! The kids have performed it many, many times since learning it. After learning the song so well, I thought we could work a little bit each week with identifying where each state is. So far ET can identify 23 states on the map! So far he knows where the following states are...
Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Florida, Mississippi, New York, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Tennessee, Colorado.



Also, new this spring...ET CAN PUMP while swinging!





Seriously, what a guy! We just love this little man!

Emmett's 1st ABC's...

This will be a long post, but I truly wanted to document these pics for ET's and my own memory. In September 2010, ET started his "official" first year of preschool with me. I say "official" because it isn't until each child turns three that I take things a little more seriously with my expectations of each of them. Each week the children worked on one letter of the alphabet on handwriting paper. My expectations of a three-year-old is for him/her to get his/her handwriting to resemble the letter being taught the best that he/she can. I do not expect him/her to write it neatly on the line until he/she is four or five. At the end of each week, I would choose one sheet of ET's that I thought was the best to save. We finished in March so I am a little behind, but regardless I am proud to show you ET's work...


























I can't say ET really ever truly enjoyed doing these (sometimes it was like pulling teeth), but when he did well I could tell he was very proud of himself. You can tell from the pictures, he caught on pretty quickly. This fall I will want him to write his first and last name and keep the letters between the top and bottom of each line.