First Day of School

Patrick had his first day of preschool for the 07-08 school year. He is at San Tan Montessori again, but in a new classroom with a new teacher. Ms. Teresa seems awesome so far and I am excited about the new year. Many of his friends from last year are in same class with him again. In fact, his best buddy, Evan is in there! He will attend Monday/Wednesday/Friday mornings. So Aaron and I will have about 3 hours together! I think today went well. He came home covered in FLOUR! They had a flour sifting activity. That meant more laundry for Mom as he couldn't keep that shirt on and had to change. You'll notice the Bengals jersey he wore for his first day. (Compliments of Uncle Bernie and Aunt Teri)

Silly Willy Stories

Patrick just completed another class with Ms. Kathi. This was a fun one. They read "silly" stories and did projects/activities to go along with the books. They read How I Became A Pirate ( I think that was it anyway) and got to dress up as pirates.

Camping in Flagstaff

Well, we survived our first camping outing alone. We stayed at a KOA in Flagstaff, about 3 hours away. It had bathrooms and showers! (This was a must for me!) We arrived about 5:30 Friday night and Mike got everything set up and then grilled brats for dinner. Patrick enjoyed the playground right across from us. He wasn't thrilled to go initially as he thought that the Schuhmachers from WI should join us too! (We had only camped with them before.) He got over that though when he met a new friend at the playground. It was a bit chilly at night dropping into the 50s for sure. Not too bad though. It was nice Sat. morning when we got up, but by about 11 it began to rain. We sat in the camper and Mike read and I cropped photos. That part was ok. When it let up we headed out to see the Meteor Crater. That was interesting. Too bad the weather didn't cooperate. It was rather windy and rainy by the time the guided tour was to take place and they cancelled it. Oh well. We drove back into town and ate at the brew pub. Back at the camper Mike and I played the Archie Bunker card game. It was rather fun. I began raining again and I had a hard time sleeping with the continual PING PING on the camper. The boys didn't seem to have any problems at all. Just me I guess. Not fond of it at home and didn't like it there either. Luckily it stopped raining before morning so things weren't too wet and we could get packed up. Headed toward home and stopped at Montezuma Well. That was interesting. Maybe we'll see the castle next time. It POURED part of the way home and then by the time we hit Phoenix it was blue skies and over 100 degrees. Overall it was a nice time. We have another trip planned the second weekend in August with another attorney and his family.

Three Months Old

Our baby is three months old today. His smiles are coming more often and are so cute. He has rolled over both ways and is now sleeping better in the night. He actually had a six hour stretch the other night. He is also getting a tooth. We can see the edge of it coming through.
He is sporting his second Harley onesie and is holding onto his Grand Canyon bear! (compliments of Uncle Dan!)

Janis Joplin - Cry Baby (live in toronto 1970)

Play this w/ screaming baby in background. Really, it works.

Summertime Fun and More

Aaron in his "Car" in the pool. Patrick loves it too so likes to share it.

Patrick sure loves his brother!

Aaron is looking cool in his shades riding in his fish boat.

When it's 100+ degrees in AZ you have to find something to do in order to keep children occupied. So we spend LOTS of time in my parents' pool. Patrick LOVES to be in the water and plays hard while in it. He and Papa play games and race. Patrick likes to cheat in order to win and then gets mad when Papa wins. He says he doesn't like it when Papa "cheats." Aaron likes the water as well and is often asleep in the water at some point or another. Papa is pretty good at getting him asleep in the pool! He's very content and when he's sound asleep enough we put him in the recliner on the patio to nap. It's a good thing Aaron likes the water or we'd be in trouble! Patrick would be in the pool ALL the time if he could. When not in the pool we try to find fun things to do indoors. As shown in a photo above, we went to Build A Bear Workshop with Patrick's friend, Evan, and Evan's sister, Reagan. They made Shrek that day and had a great time. We have also gone to McDonald's to play at the play area for some fun. Patrick is in his second level of swimming lessons and is doing well. Tomorrow night he begins VBS for the entire week for 2 1/2 hours each night. This will be his first experience with VBS. Hope it goes well. I begin teachigng Study Skills camp at Sylvan on Tues-Thurs nights this week and next. Pray it goes well and that the boys do well. They will be with Nana and Papa or Daddy depending on the night. I hope Aaron takes the bottle better than the last time I worked. I have only been away from him twice so far. So I am excited about teaching the camp, but not about being away.

OH, AARON has ROLLED over again! This past week he rolled from back to belly. He doesn't roll often which is ok by me for now. Otherwise he'll be all over the place!

Fourth of July

We had a nice day. We headed over to my parents' house for pool time and grilling out. Mel and Brett joined us after a visit to Urgent Care (Brett hurt his ankle). The boys both really like the water. Patrick can spend hours in the water, but likes it best when there is someone in there to play with him. He invents games to play and also the rules that go with them. In the early evening we came home. Mom and Mel joined us to watch the fireworks. We were able to see them from two churches nearby. Aaron even seemed to be watching them and never flinched at the noise. Patrick thought they were pretty. It was a nice day to spend with family.

Aaron is wearing his "Fourth of July" outfit that Grandma bought for him. He's too cute!

Aaron's Bad Mood

Aaron fell asleep in a bad mood and wasn't afraid to tell the world how he felt.

Happy Birthday Chris

From the brother who tried to distract you from young college girl campers.

Grand Canyon

Ok, so we went on our first camping trip. We bought the pop-up in September in WI and it got out here in Jan. We stayed in it one night in WI, but didn't really have to get things ready. So this was a true first for Patrick, Aaron, and I. We met our friends Dan and Linda Schuhmacher and their children Josh, Alexis, and Abreanna along with Dan's Parents, Fred and Betsy Schuhmacher in the Grand Canyon. We left Monday morning. We were all ready to pull out onto the main road out of our neighborhood and Patrick announces that he already needs to go potty! GRRR! So Mike backed up and went back around to the house. I took Patrick in only to have him "dribble!!" We stopped a couple times on the way up, mostly because Aaron needed to eat. Upon arriving at the Canyon we set up, well Mike did most of it, and visited. They hadn't met Aaron yet so that was quite a treat. We all made dinner and enjoyed each others' company. The kids played very nicely and were thrilled to be together again. We couldn't have a campfire so our time sitting outside was a bit limited. It was rather chilly (30s and 40s) at night so we had to use the heater. The bathroom was right across from our site which was nice, although there were NO showers. I wasn't thrilled with this. There were showers available, but you had to leave the campground and drive down the road. Not my idea of fun. Aaron slept very well for his first night in his pack and play. The next morning Mike and Dan hiked a bit into the canyon. The rest of us hung out and got breakfast ready. The guys arrived back in time to eat. We then got ready to head to the tower lookout about 25 miles away. It was Aaron's first ride in a backpack. He did well, once he was fed! It was very pretty and the boys hike up all the steps with us. That night we ate up leftovers. Then we decided to head out to view the sunset. That was a neat experience. Mike was also able to look at a couple planets through telescopes that were set up for a star gazers event. The kids were able to shower in Dan and Linda's camper which was awesome. They were FILTHY as they had been playing in the dirt most of the day. They treated the dirt like sand and were using buckets and shovels. It entertained them, but boy were they dirty. Patrick's skin color was gray by the end of the night! The next morning the Schuhmachers all packed up and were off by around 8am or so and headed back toward WI. We took our time and packed up and headed home with lunch in Flagstaff and a drive through Sedona. We got home Wednesday about 6pm. Showers were much needed that night!Aaron trying his hand at driving in the McDonald's parking lot during our lunch stop.
Mike setting up the camper under the supervision of Abreanna.
Abreanna and Patrick switched chairs which they thought was extra funny for some reason. Aren't they cute? They got along well and both seemed to have "attitude."
Patrick's new shirt from Aunt Linda and Uncle Dan.

Joshua gets to hold Aaron.

Ball O' Ice Cream

Dan purchased the green ball you see that makes ice cream. It was a fun science experiment for the kids. They all helped add the ingredients. Once everything was inside, then they had to shake and roll the ball in order for the ice cream to form. They seemed to have a good time and the cookies and cream was pretty tasty!

Aunt Linda and her godsons.
Great picture - nice hand in there Alexis!

Aaron's first backpack experience.

Visit to the tower

Patrick and Abreanna holding hands and walking with Mike. Aren't they sweet???
Aaron sporting his new hat from Uncle Dan (Aunt Linda too)!
Aaron hanging out on our bed in the camper. Not sure how he's feeling about this right now though.