First Day of Kindergarten

 Getting ready to go pick up Helaina from the bus stop!

 Breleigh got to ride the strider bike to the bus stop!

 Helaina was the last one off the bus.  I thought perhaps she didn't realize she was at her bus stop.  The bus came back from the opposite direction so I thought she might have been confused.  This morning I told her to pay attention to when the bus stops and check to see if it's her stop.  She then said " I saw you guys out there but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to get off"  Yup...that's my girl! 

 I just love these running pictures.  I think she had a REALLY good time!  It was so fun to see that big smile!

 Check out those Kindergarten legs!!!!

Sisters hanging on the porch after school!  Breleigh can't wait until it is her turn to go to school.  Preschool starts on Wednesday for her!!! 

Easton was 8 months old on July 22nd.  He hit this momentous milestone while attending the Agan family reunion in Dubuque, Iowa.  At that time he was barely sitting up all by himself and we were calling him the laziest baby on earth and frankly I was starting to get a little worried.  What changes a person can see in a month.  Just after the reunion I took all three kids (Jim had to work- darn it) Up North to my parents cabin for a little Edwards family reunion.  My brother and almost all of his family from Colorado were there and of course my sister and her family were there in their own cabin.  My other brother was unable to attend with his family.  They just opened a nail salon and it requires a lot of attention.  They were missed.... a lot.   In all honesty it was the kids that were missed the most but if you ask me to say that in person I will deny it!  Hehehehehe  We had an absolute blast and I finally go around to snapping my pics of Easton for his 8 month picture up there.  Do you like his blue hat?  I got to the lake and announced that everyone was to be on the look out for a sandbox hat.  I wasn't having much luck here at home and I figured Up North would have more.  Turns out I didn't have to look far.  Heather trotted down to her cabin and found this adorable hat in her stash of stuff left over from Grayson.  It fit the bill and the price was right!!!!   I stole the tube idea from Heather.  Grayson had his 6 months pictures taken in the same tube.  The other side still says 6 months.  Just after the picture was taken the tube was used by all the cousins.  They didn't care what it said on it!   This picture makes me smile.  It really shows Easton.  He is smiling and happy and that is exactly what he usually is these days.   He smiles so easily and loves to laugh at his sisters.  He is sitting up like a champ and leaning towards toys on the floor and scooting backwards when he gets on his belly.  I am not eager for him to crawl so his slow progress towards that milestone is not making me unhappy.   He was such a good boy on vacation.  He went to bed later than he usually does and wasn't choosing to wake up until ten or after every day!  He shared a room with me.  I was in the bed and he was in his pack and play.  He was a great roommate.  We were roomies for 12 days!   He had no problem being passed off to my other family members.  He would fuss if I walked into and then out of the room so I just avoided that!   
Easton is a very happy guy but he is a terrible eater of solid food.  I will spare you from the most gory of details but solid foods have been known to cause some scary vomit sessions.  I will definitely be asking the doctor about that at his 9 month appointment! 
All in all it has been a great ride between 8 and almost 9 months.  He is growing so quickly and could not possibly be loved any more! 

Nails of Eden

Random Stuff

 What do you do when the weather is so hot you think you might have accidentally moved to Arizona?  You buy a wading pool!!!!! 

 Jim surprised the girls by sitting in the pool fully clothed!!!  Those bilibo's also make great seats in a small wading pool.

 There was just enough water for Helaina to back float.  Her buns were actually off the bottom!

 A few nights ago Jim called me out to the garage to "SEE" something.  Jim had taken the dogs out for their last potty break of the night and found two raccoons in the garage.  Parker chased one out but the other hid under the tool box.  We shut the garage door and went to bed.  In the morning Jim came back in the bedroom to tell me that we had apparently locked three more coons in the garage over night.  They spent their night pooping all over Jim's grill.  hehehehehehehe  Maybe I should mention that Jim didn't find that party very funny.  We haven't seen them again but we are read this time!  We have a live animal trap just waiting.  Of course, with our luck we will probably catch our neighbors dog or a cat!   

All three kids hanging out on the floor with a good book and some toys!  I think Curious George is on the TV! 

Easton is 7 months

Easton is seven months old!  EEEEEEKKKK!!!!!  So many months just flying by!    So, what is Easton doing these days?  I think I can finally say he starting to sit up a lot better.  The picture above is one of few times where I haven't placed a pillow behind him.  He doesn't always stay on his buns.  He seems to enjoy falling over and then just playing on his back for a while.  Jim and I just call him LAZY!!!  hehehehehe  I figure at this rate we won't have to worry about him crawling any time soon.   
Easton laughs and smiles VERY easily.  He is exceedingly ticklish too.  He is a squealer too.  Sometimes he just squeals for no reason.  He loves his dogs but doesn't have much patients for other dogs.  I don't think he realizes the noisy hairy thing that lives in our house is the same as the sweet quiet one next door.  We ran into the neighbors on our walk and they had their sweet Retriever with them.  Copper didn't so much as look as Easton before Easton was screaming with terror.  "Oh Easton, you can't be in this family and be afraid of animals!"
He is in LOVE with his sisters.  Helaina adores him so much.  Breleigh  loves him too and always calls him, "Mr. Man" but doesn't have the patients for him like Helaina does.  (it's an age thing I am sure)  There are a lot of smiles and giggles in our house right now.  Easton is a good baby food eater.  We haven't branched out too far with other foods.  He tends to gag on anything new and since gagging usually leads to a full fledged vomit session I have avoided trying anything new while we are out and about!  YUCK!!!!

Easton is 6 months

Easton is 6 Months!  I am cheating on this one because it is technically getting VERY close to his 7month time but I wasn't happy with the first set of pictures that I took so I allowed myself a "re do".  He also just went to the doctor for his six month appointment so I figure I am safe, right? 

He is a growing, growing boy.  He now weighs 16 pounds and is making the doctor very happy with his weight gain.  He is eating bottles like a champ and baby food also.  He is not a fan of peas.  The first time I tried them he not only gagged on them but power puked them ALL OVER so I haven't been brave enough to try them again.  I can get him to eat all other veggies if I just alternate a fruit bite with a veggie bite.  I am counting that as a win. 

We made our first solo trip to Minnesota to visit family.  It was just me and the kids and they all did great.  Easton didn't sleep for long periods of time in the car but didn't spend too much of his time crying either.  While we were in Minnesota we were very busy!  My dad was so helpful.  He took upon himself to watch after the girls so my mom and I could go shopping on three different occasions.  The girls LOVED staying with Papa too.  It was a win win situation.   While we were visiting I got to do A LOT of fun Auntie things.  On Wednesday we picked Grayson up from school and went to Dairy Queen.   My favorite part of that experience was meeting the gym teacher.  He talked to Grayson and to me and it wasn't long before he asked me if I had gotten my hair cut?   He totally thought I was Heather!  I felt bad because he was embarrassed but it was funny!  Grayson's teacher had been told that I was picking up so he wasn't fooled.  Grayson's graduation from Kindergarten was on Friday during our visit so we were all able to go back to the school and see their performance and enjoy their celebration.   It was fun to see the kids perform and Grayson knew every word and action and participated with enthusiasm.  Please don't EVER let him lose that zest and zeal he has for life!!!!  I love the smile and hugs I get when he sees me.  Especially in a situation that is different.... like picking him up from school.  That little dude can read like a whip too.  He is NOT a beginning reader either.  He READS!!!!   We were sitting in Dairy Queen and in mid thought he says  "Bring home a dozen Dilly Bars today!"  I was like, what?  He was reading the sign outside on the marquee!   He is such a good reader.
We also were able to attend my niece Paris' piano recital.  WE were hoping to go out to dinner after the performance but it didn't even start until 7:00 so we got together at Paris' house for a light dinner.  The girls were more than happy there.  Paris has a large American Girl doll collection and we had fun looking at the dolls and clothes.  Paris did a VERY nice job on her piano piece and I enjoyed that part very much.  My brother was there too and while I missed seeing the rest of his family it was nice to see him.  He loves kids so he was infatuated with Easton and indulged Helaina in her coloring.  He picked all the colors for her to use.  The opportunity to be at these events don't happen very often so I felt blessed to be a part of some of them this time. 
We were also able to attend the First Birthday Party of Maggie.  Maggie is my sister's niece.  (that would be Grant's sister's daughter)  While I am technically not related to Maggie and her parents we actually like it each other.  I was glad that I got to be there for that one too! 
All in all it was a good time.  Time went very fast and I was sorry to say good bye but swimming lessons were waiting for us here at home. 
We will all be together at my dad's family reunion in the middle of July and then the week after that our trip to the lake for some more family fun. 

On a side note.... I just filled out my portion of a physical form for both girls so they can attend school next year.  I feel so blessed that I am able to mark so many of those questions with no!  We are so lucky to have healthy children!!!!   Thanking my lucky stars for that one.

All Dressed UP

 This is one of the better ones of all three kids.  Kinda hard to get them all looking at the same time.  We weren't sure if Easton would cooperate since he had been a VERY long time without sleep but he managed to do pretty well.  It is actually Breleigh that makes pictures a challenge.  She has a serious case of "goofy face" when it comes to the camera! (oh yes- Easton is wearing a tie!) 

 I took pictures of Helaina before I took her to school for her Spring Program.  She needed to be there at her usual time but the program wasn't until later so Breleigh still had her jammies on.  (Yes it was 12:00pm)  But, when the girl asked for her picture to be taken I did it.  I am so glad that I did because I think it is really cute.

 Here she is all dressed up ready to go to the preschool for the Spring program.  I thought she looked pretty cute!

 The kids made plates and this was the display.  Doesn't it look nice?  Turns out that those plates are dishwasher safe so Helaina can use it all she wants!  Pretty nifty keepsake!  Some of the Messiah Preschool Alumni (AKA- parents of present preschoolers who also attended Messiah as youngsters) talked about how they still have their plate.  I love it! The potted plant was really cool too! 

 Here's Helaina all dressed up in her finest.  I neglected to mention that my mom purchased these dresses for the girls.  I thought Helaina looked so grown up.  She wanted to know if she looked 100?  I guess if she wants to look 100 then 37 doesn't seem old to her!  Heheheheheheh!

It was a very fun day.  The teachers Messiah did not disappoint.  I cannot believe that next week is Helaina's last week of preschool.  We are off to bigger and better things.  Kindergarten is right around the corner and Breleigh will be the new student at Messiah Lutheran Preschool and Easton will be one lonely dude for 2.5 hours Tues, WEd and Thur!  
As I was standing in the fellowship hall watching Helaina, with my phone in one hand taking a quick video for Jim since he had to work, balancing Breleigh on a chair so she could see and rocking Easton in his car seat with my foot I thought... "WOW, how lucky am I to be able to stay home and be able to make it to all these events without worries"  We are SO BLESSED!!!!!!!