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Archive for July, 2008

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.