Fire Station Visit

So while Parker attended his first day of Kindergarten, Tyler and I went with our park/summer group to the fire station for a tour! It was pretty fun, however most of the fire fighters weren't there until closer to the end because they got a call before we got there. Tyler hasn't ever really gone anywhere or done anything without Parker so he mostly clung onto me and was shy with everyone and didn't even want to stand with the large group of kids to look at the fire truck. It was like he didn't know what to do without his sidekick, he has gotten better now though...I think he still had fun doing something instead of just sitting at home hanging out with me the whole time!

 This is the fire truck they use to go up into the hills/mountains.

Fist Day of School

What?!? Really? Has this time really come?! Why YES, yes it has!! Parker has officially started Kindergarten on August 21, 2013. I still can't believe we are at this point already. He has been so excited for like the past year to start kindergarten. He had a rough week and a half or so but now that he knows the rules and how he is supposed to behave,
these last two weeks have been AWESOME!!! He seems to be loving every minute of it. We walk him to school pretty much every morning, which is about 2 blocks or so. This is the first year that his school is starting Full-day kindergarten but they are easing them into the transition. They are starting out with half day until November and then it will switch to full day for the rest of the year. Both his teacher and I are really starting to see changes in his focus and work ethic. She told me the other day that he is starting to become such a hard worker and she is really excited to see what the rest of the year will bring!! Here is to our first year of school!!!!

 

All done for the day!

 

Birthday Time Again

Part 1

This year Parker and I were able to celebrate our birthday in Arizona!! It started out with going to listen to my brother's homecoming talk and ended with cake and presents. Parker turned 5 years old, which is just crazy! He has been on a Lego Chima kick lately, so this year we got him his first "real" Lego set, which he just loved. Although, I'm not sure who loved it more, him or Chris! Chris was in heaven! He also got some money which he used to buy a Nerf gun and something else of which I really can't remember! I got some money and a Magic Bullet, which I LOVE!! I have been using it almost every day for smoothies and we have just started making milkshakes, which are so delicious!

 Our camera stinks on the indoor setting so these next few are blurry :( I'm really bummed they didn't turn out better!

 Even though this is so blurry, his face just shows truly how excited he was about his newest gift! 

 The boys helped make the birthday cake this year...didn't they do such a great job? It was so delicious too!! Can never go wrong with Funfetti Cake!

Part 2

And well, since we have pretty much made this a tradition, we decided to go to Red Robin for our birthday dinner when we got back to California. We just love that place and the free ice cream sundaes always make it that much better!

Say What?!?

Yep, that's right!!! We are expecting another baby!!! I am due on March 8, 2014 and we couldn't be more excited. The boys change their mind weekly about whether they want a brother or a sister, I am definitely hoping for a little girl, but will of course be happy with another boy. We announced our pregnancy while we were in Arizona. I even made the shirt that Tyler is wearing!! I have been a lot more nauseous with this pregnancy, so much so that we may have eaten out more WAY MORE than we usually do because the worst time for me was in the late afternoon/evening time, right around dinner time. I just couldn't bring myself to make dinner, every thought of making something would just make it worse! Now that I am in my second trimester I am doing much better and I have even been able to start cooking again!!

Rest of Summer Update...

As I sit here at my computer looking at all the pictures I have to blog about, the task of trying to catch up is very daunting...SO I think to just catch up I am going to do a brief summary of the rest of our summer. A few things deserve their own longer posts, but for the most part, I'm going to try and keep it as brief as possible!! Enjoy!

Splash Parks:

The boys and I went to a few different splash parks this summer with our group of friends. This one so far has been our favorite! It is in Pleasanton, which is about 30 minutes north of us. There was also a huge play structure to play on.

Family Reunion

Chris' family on his dad's side had their family reunion in Boise. It was a very short, but fun trip. We spent A LOT of time playing in the water since it was so HOT there! We went swimming at our hotel, at Chris' aunt and uncle's house and his cousin's house and played on a slip and slide at his other aunt's house. Chris and his siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins were able to complete several projects around his grandparent's house as a birthday present for their Grandpa to help him out. It was fun to be able to spend time with everyone and the boys sure were tired out by the end! 

Chris and his brother and son...the boys sure loved playing with their uncles and cousins!!

Arizona Trip

In August the boys and I flew down to Arizona to visit my family and then Chris came down at the end of the week for a couple days. Even though it was HOT, like we are talking record breaking temps, it was still so fun! We got to see my brother who had just gotten home from his mission in California and also meet our newest little niece...who is so adorable!!! I just wanted to take her home with me! We went swimming, shopping had a double in-home date with my sister and her husband, hung out with Chris' sister and some of her family and played a whole lot. Every time we go down there it just increases my desire to live there, despite their freakishly hot summers, there is just something that draws me to that area! Maybe it's the cheap cost of living compared to California and the insane desire to buy a house, which is pretty much impossible for us where we live now. :( Oh well, maybe one day! 

 Having a BLAST with their uncle Carsten!!

 Smores around a campfire...oh yes we did!! The boy's idea :)

Siblings :) 

And well, that about sums up the rest of our summer before SCHOOL started for Parker!!! We sure had a packed, fun filled summer, and now we are ready for fall!!!

Tyler is 3!!!

Tyler turned 3 on Friday, July 12!! I still can't believe my baby is getting so big...definitely not my baby any more! For his birthday I met up with our friends at Happy Hollow Zoo and we basically just rode on the rides, played, saw part of a puppet show and had lunch. Didn't see any animals this trip! Later we picked Chris up from work a little early and surprised the boys by taking them to Chuck E Cheese's. They had a blast going from game to game and ride to ride. They each got about 50 tickets which was plenty for them and they both picked the same prizes, go figure!

All the fun ended when we were waiting to redeem our tickets and Chuck the Mouse went up to Tyler, who was "playing" a game, to say hello! He was not expecting that and when he looked up and saw the mouse standing right behind him he jumped back like 2 feet, with a scared expression on his face, and then proceeded to run all the way around to the other side of the room screaming/crying until Chris could rescue him!!! He didn't even want to walk past the game he was playing and wouldn't let Chris put him down at first! It was both hilarious and sad at the same time. Now when we ask if he wants to go to Chuck E Cheese's he quickly responds with "NO!!" haha

On our way home we went to this delicious restaurant that we love going to called Whisper's for dinner. Since it was Tyler's birthday we let him get a yummy Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries and whipped cream (it's not on the kids menu and he ate almost the whole thing!) It's seriously so good! Then we went home and did presents and cupcakes!!

 The only way to eat a cup cake...eat the frosting first!

 His main present this year was a new balance bike. We have been hearing such good things about them, we figured why not, makes sense to me to just completely bypass training wheels! 

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!! We love YOU :)