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Last week just flew by for us. We had Ron, Jeryl & Joni here to visit while at the State Fair, so that was fun. Anya enjoyed having the fresh faces to play with and Josiah loves anyone who will hold him, so both kids were in heaven having them here. Thursday, Jason & Paul (our neighbor and also our shipper extraordinaire) had to go to Kansas City for a meeting, so that left me solo overnight with both kids for the first time. I am happy to say it went well but we were all glad to see Daddy come home Friday night (especially Anya)!!

This weekend we didn’t do much but watch the Olympics. In fact, we have pretty much been watching nothing but the Olympics at night–even the Cubs have been put on the backburner. We were so excited to see Shawn Johnson get the silver in the all-around and are keeping our fingers crossed for a gold for her on the balance beam. Anya is completely fascinated by the gymnastics–good thing there has been a lot of that on TV!

Other than watching the Olympics, our weekend consisted of going to church and napping. On Sunday we got a visit from Jason’s uncle Jerry and 3 of his 4 girls, Mandi, Nikki & Kari–it was nice to see them and they had fun meeting Josiah and watching Anya be goofy.

Tonight we are (again) watching the Olympics and we just got done eating homemade ice cream. It was so good–Jason has been itching to make it for several days now and finally got it done. Yum Yum!!

This last weekend was another busy one for us. Saturday we headed out to the State Fair with the kids. Josiah made it about 5 hours before he started to get sick of the heat, so he did pretty good. Anya had a lot of fun looking at everything and everyone and eating anything her little heart desired.

Sunday we went to church and then in the afternoon we headed out to the Altoona aquatic center with our church group. Allie (Jason’s cousin) went with us since her family is in town for the state fair, so she was the perfect playmate for Anya in the water. They had so much fun splashing around and jumping off the side of the pool. Josiah even got to kick around in the water for a few minutes before he decided a nap was in order! After the pool, Kenny, Brooke & Kaitlyn joined us for brats on the grill–it was alot of fun. Anya was one tired girl when they left and was asleep on the couch before we were done cleaning up the dishes from supper!

Being so busy, the weekend just flew by and now it is Monday again already. I am filling in today at work for the other pharmacist at our store who is on vacation, so I go in at 2pm. Today is Anya’s first day in her new room at daycare–it is called “The Busy Bees Room” which is for the young 3’s kids. She was a little apprehensive about the switch since she had grown pretty fond of her teachers in the older 2’s room, but once she got there, she was ready to go! Josiah has been doing really well at daycare also and they always get a kick out of his squeals and his crazy hair. One of the girls there calls him “the Fonz” b/c of his crazy hairdo—and he just laughs at her!

Here are some pictures of our weekend.

I am trying to figure out how it got to be August already….what happened to June & July?

We had a good week around here. No major storms and only 1 trip to the basement when the tornado sirens went off last Sunday, so that was a big improvement from all the storms we had the week prior. Work went well for me this week….I am loving my Tuesday/Wednesday schedule. It is the perfect balance of work and home and I don’t ever feel burned out from either one. Thursday night we packed up the kids and the van and ventured down to Indianola to go to the National Balloon Classic. It was such a hot night–still 89 degrees when we arrived at 6:15pm and it didn’t get any cooler when the sun went down. But, despite being hot (and Josiah being cranky from the heat), we had a lot of fun seeing so many hot air balloons in the air at the same time. They had 4 fun shaped balloons there this year: a tree, a penguin, the purple people eater and a space shuttle. Anya was particularly fond of the purple people eater–I think it was my favorite too, although the space shuttle was pretty cool as well! It was a neat experience, but I think everyone’s favorite part of the night was the ride home with the AC on full blast!

Another highlight of the week was seeing Josiah roll over for the first time. Anya and I had laid him down for some tummy time and just a few minutes into it over he went onto his back. He must have thought it was fun b/c he did it again 7 more time! Anya thought it was hilarious to roll him over on his tummy and watch him work his way over time and time again. Finally he got tired from all his exercise and had to take a nap! We also tried giving Josiah rice cereal for the first time this week. In the last week or so he has really started drooling a lot more (which is a sign he is ready for some carbohydrate in his diet), so we gave it a shot. It went pretty much as expected–he didn’t really know what to do with the cereal and most of it ended up on his face or bib. So, we will keep trying and see how it goes. We also finally found a hook-on highchair to use for him that will work with our table, so I was happy to get that in the mail yesterday and try it out. It was nice having him at the table for supper last night and breakfast this morning—he just sits there taking everything in.

Tomorrow (Sunday) Papa Jim & G’ma Barb leave for their 2 week trip/cruise in Alaska. They have been planning this trip for over a year now and are so excited. Safe travels Mom & Dad……we can’t wait to see the pictures!

Here are some pictures of all the weeks events!

Today Anya had her 3 year checkup. It was an easy appointment because it didn’t involve any immunizations or finger pokes…that made for one happy little girl (and her mommy)!! She weighs 33 lbs and is 37.5 inches tall—so in the last year she has gained 5 lbs and grown 3 inches. The doctor was very happy to see Anya potty trained and was blown away by her vocabulary and how clearly she spoke. Before the doctor came in, Anya had to get undressed and put a gown on–it was so cute to see her in such a small gown but she thought she was quite grownup wearing it.

After her appointment we celebrated with an ice cream cone from McDonalds—yum yum!

It has been a busy week and I haven’t even had the chance to post about Jason & my newest toy—the iPhone 3G! Jason has wanted an iPhone since they first came out a year ago, but our current cell phone plan wasn’t up until this June. So, when we heard they were coming out with the new and improved iPhone 3G, he could hardly wait for July 11th to get here (this was the first day the new iPhones went on sale). He was like a kid at Christmas—a new iPhone that was twice as fast and half the price of the old iPhones. Yes, we got up at the wee hours last Friday and went to stand in line to be one of the first to get the new cell phone–and we did. It was very lucky we got there when we did because Jason scored the very last 16GB phone they had in stock after standing in line for almost 3 hours. I opted for the 8GB and, I have to admit, the phone is pretty impressive. Now, we can check our email and surf the internet wherever we are. Plus, it serves as an iPod, has GPS, a 2 megapixel camera and about a zillion other cool features. Anya has already figured out how to play some of the game applications we have for it and I have had fun putting some of my favorite tunes on it to play whenever I feel like hearing them.

Anyways, I could write about all the cool features for about a month. You will have to check out the apple website and take a look for yourself.

Isn’t this just too cute…..

I found Anya reading her new favorite book to Josiah the other day. She even made sure he could see all the pictures!!

Sunday was a big day of celebration of us….it was Anya’s 3rd birthday and Josiah’s dedication. We had all our immediate family here to help us celebrate and it was a very special day! Josiah was dedicated at Evangelical Covenant Church by Pastor Steve in a very nice ceremony. In tradition, Josiah wore the baptismal gown that Papa Jim, myself and Anya have all worn–it was very special. After church we headed back home to eat lunch, open presents and watch the kids wear themselves out playing outside! I was ambitious and decided to make a cake for each celebration–Anya wanted an Elmo cake and I made a simple cross cake for Josiah. They both turned out OK and tasted even better–so I consider that a success!

Here are some pictures from our very big weekend. Thanks to our families for being here to help us celebrate both occasions–Anya & Josiah are truly VERY lucky kids.

We had a fun and exhausting 4th of July weekend. Thursday when Jason got off work, we packed up the van (to maximum capacity I might add) and headed north to Okoboji to stay at Cutty’s with the family. It is crazy how much stuff a newborn requires when you leave home for a few days. Anyways, Anya was so excited to stay in the camper and we were so lucky to have had beautiful weather the whole time we were there.

Friday we went to Armstrong to enjoy all the 4th of July festivities they have each year–lunch at the church, the big parade, watermelon in the park, the kiddie tractor pull and the fire-fighter competition. Anya & Aubrey had so much fun at the parade seeing all the floats, fire trucks, tractors and of course gathering all the candy. The girls hated to see a piece not collected (especially Aubrey) and Anya was eating the tootsie rolls just as fast as Aubrey could get them off the ground. They were quite the pair. After all that excitement, we were ready to head back to Cutty’s and get out of the sun and relax. Friday night we had a full crowd at the camper–12 people to be exact. The camper is pretty spacious considering it sleeps 8, but it was a good thing we had the tent for the overflow people—Zachary, Noah and James thought it was a lot of fun sleeping in there. Saturday we celebrated Aubrey’s 2nd birthday at the camper and the kids had fun swimming, playing bocce ball, ladder ball and just running around. Sunday Jason & Papa Jim cooked us a delicious breakfast on the fire grill and then after a little more swimming we re-packed up the van and headed home. It was such a fun weekend we hated to see it end, but we were all thoroughly exhausted and glad to be home. I am amazed at how good Josiah did out of his normal environment–he just rolls with the changes and is content watching all the excitement around him. We discovered this weekend that Anya takes after her mom in having skin that mosquitoes just love to bite—she is one big mosquito bite from her neck down to her toes. Luckily after a few doses of benadryl and some hydrocortisone cream, she isn’t itching quite as bad as before. Here are a few of the 4th of July pictures we took over the weekend.

Today we hung in the house most of the day since it was so hot outside. Anya was still pooped from her busy weekend and took a 4 hour nap! I finally woke her up in time to have a quick snack before heading off to her last tumbling class. She really had fun doing the tumbling and will miss seeing her new friends Emma and Sophia every week at class.

The rest of the week will go quickly, as they all do, and then it will be on to another fun and busy weekend as we are celebrating Josiah’s dedication and Anya’s 3rd birthday on Sunday. We are looking forward to the big celebration!

We spent this past weekend in Winfield with G’pa & G’ma McArtor and Aunt Joni and had a great time. We got to see a lot of Jason’s family which was a nice treat. Friday night we spent at a girl’s high school softball game watching Jason’s cousin Katelyn play. Saturday we just hung out and Papa, G’ma and Joni got lots of quality time with the kids. Sunday we headed to Washington to get together with the Miller side of Jason’s family. It was the first time in a long time that all of Jason’s cousins had been together. There have been quite a few babies born since then, so it was so fun seeing everyone again and meeting the new members. Anya had a ball playing with the other little girls and G’ma Jeryl’s newest puppy and Josiah was content rocking the afternoon away with Great G’ma Bertie. It was a very fun weekend and we had one pooped out little girl when we got back home on Sunday night. Here are a few pictures of our weekend events.