10 Year Reunion

Ten Years already? I guess after 7 years of marriage and 3 kids it's okay to say Chris is 28 making it 10 years since he graduated high school. This is who turned up:

We drove pretty much non stop to get to the reunion. We missed the Friday night event but went to the Saturday night dinner and Sunday family lunch. All I have are pictures of the dinner.

Chris and me

Ashley and Joe Atkin, Sean Diehl, and my man:) (he went golfing with buddies that morning and got roasted!)

Joe was one of Chris' best friends in high school

They crack me up

Another friend Matt Stenshoel

I didn't get enough pictures, but despite the lack of pictures it was fun and good to catch up. I liked being from the same hometown. It wasn't awkward for me and I knew a lot of the people so it was fun for me to catch up as well. In a couple years it'll be mine.

New Do and Brothers

Our best neighbor ever, Aunt Terri, was reading to the boys on our back porch and Miles kept climbing the stairs so I took him in and was bathing him in the sink and decided to cut his hair (2nd hair cut).

Jared LOVES Miles. He loves to make him laugh and be hugged and kissed by Miles. Miles Loves to pull hair at times and thinks it's quite funny. Jared was in a great mood and laughed with him just as the picture below captured.

Love my boys!

Two Little Ears

Today I went to Home Depot and rented a carpet cleaner. My friend Linsey took the older boys to the park so it was just me and Miles and our downstairs. I wasn't sure if Miles would let me work the machine without clinging to me, which wouldn't work, so I decided to put him in the bjorn and carry him. He didn't complain at all. In fact he had a fun time discovering his ears are what allows him to hear. While I was cleaning the carpet I'd see his hands come up to his ears and cover them. Then he'd lift them off for a second and put them back on. Then he put one hand on one ear and then switch and take it off and put the other hand over the other ear. Then he'd pat his ears really fast and then slow. It was fun entertainment for me to watch my baby learning. I love watching my boys discover and learn new things.

Camping

I love camping and we haven't done enough of it. There's something about going somewhere not feeling pressure to do anything and being content sitting doing nothing but enjoying your surroundings and people around you. I also like the fact that I don't have to keep telling my kids no to tv, computer or wii. Every time Jared asked I said yes and he asked how. I told him if he figured it out he could do it; he only asked a few times. We went camping the weekend before Labor Day with our friends the Higginbothams to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. Traffic was horrible and we got there with just enough sunlight to set our tent up and start the beginnings of dinner.

Beth(Derek and Piper)

The next day we had a yummy breakfast of bacon and fried eggs (along with oatmeal and smores), explored, went to a crummy beach (yes that is the road you see in the upper left hand corner with no kind of barricade) and then out for a late lunch then headed home. Traffic again was crapy but it was worth it. I really hope we get another camping trip in before the camping season is over.

1st Day 2nd Year

In Chicago you have the option of going to preschool for two years before kindergarten (free might I add) so Jared had his 1st day of his 2nd year on the 8th of this month. Jared is very into his looks and cares what people think of him. I used to spike his hair just in the front but he won't have any of that now. He insists on wearing it straight down, boring... Jared had no problems going into the classroom and was excited. He was a little bummed after his first day though because they didn't get to play (It was just for an hour instead of the two and a half.) On the second day when I picked him up he looked at me and said, "I did a beautiful job today." He wasn't talking about a project or anything tangible, that was just the way he expressed his overall behaviour for the day. Every day after that he did fine until Friday. He got in line and I asked him for a hug and then after that he did not want to go. He ended up going home with me. I gave him two choices, stay and learn at school and go to recess or he could come home stay in his room til school gets out normally and all he could do was read and look at books.

He did better than I thought he'd do. I was worried about what I set myself up for when he still insisted on coming home. I was back in his room a lot of the time working on reading with him or reading a story to him but left him a lot too. He complained a fair amount and escaped a lot but if he didn't get right back to his room or did it a couple times right in a row I added a minute to the timer. Needless to say he went willingly into his class the morning and had a good time.

Miles Turned 1

I want to post highlights of our summer but I'm finding lack of motivation because it's a lot of work when you fall this far behind. I'm going to start with current events and hopefully here and there add excerpts from our summer, maybe chronologically, maybe randomly.

Our most recent exciting highlight is Miles' birthday:) Already?!?! I Love this boy and it's hard to imagine a year ago he was so little and new to our family.

He really is a perfect third child. He's mellow, loves his brothers, and self entertains better than any of my boys at his age. But one of my most favorite things about Miles are his hugs. He gives the BEST hugs. He just curls right in to me and lays on my shoulder for several seconds. The only problem is he rarely gives them to anyone but me making his brothers very jealous. Jared often wants to hug Miles and gets frustrated when Miles does not reciprocate his hugs.

Highlights of Miles in the last months:
Started crawling right on his 9 month birthday.
Got his first tooth while in Idaho (July 22nd or 15th?) (Right now he has 3 bottom teeth, 3 top teeth)
Took his first steps August 29th, currently he still prefers crawling to walking
Miles doesn't say any words but babbles all the time

1 year stats:
Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz 30%
Height: 29 1/4 in 40%
Head: 90%

Now for his big day:) His brothers had more fun opening his presents than he did (dump truck, wooden blocks, Signing book) but he enjoyed playing with them. Later we had our friends the deGuzmans over for dinner and cake and ice cream.

(Sophie, Jared, Anna, Miles, Peter, Spencer)

When it came to his cake he did awesome. I LOVE it when babies dig into their cake and make a huge mess. He didn't hardly eat the cake but he destroyed it. It was a really long process but I think he had fun. (I could've sworn I took a picture of the front of the bear the night before but I can't find it anywhere. It's a panda bear just like what Spencer had on his first birthday.) I wanted to put some video clips up but our internet is crapy so I decided it was time with or without the videos to do a post.

I am so grateful for this Angel child. Miles, I love you, I love you, I love you and so does everyone else in this house!

Idaho

I know I have a lot to post. But for now this post is for our dad who we haven't seen for 10 days and won't see until the end of the month. We MISS you Chris! Everyday Spencer asks for his dad and wants to go home to him. He really is the BEST! Here's a little of what we've been doing through pictures (really it's mainly pictures of my boys so Chris can see them). I LOVE Idaho!