OK Here Goes!

It's been a while. I knowwww! I have been so busy and yet seemingly we haven't done a darn thing in forever! It's so hard to remember what we've done in the past month and actually blog about it but this is my feeble attempt at recalling what's happened :)

Isaac: Turned 30! He wasn't thrilled with the fact that he's not just a 20-something now but the air rifle pellet gun he got from my parents should help him get over it. I told him the older he gets the better the toys are :) Then he graduated from EMT school, hooray! He passed and did very well after 5 weeks of class time, ride-alongs, and lots of studying. I'm so proud of him and all he has accomplished for himself and our family over this last 6 months, he's worked so hard and needs a break! He also had his first fire, and second :), and is still working very hard at studying while working his new, now and forever, 24 hour shifts. We love the schedule but will have to do some tweaking for a while until we find a right balance for all of Isaac's time.

This is a picture of Isaac in front of the house that was on fire (his first fire), and a piece of wood from the house. His chief gave him both of these and we both this it's pretty neat to have around for memories. What a nice guy to think of Isaac this way!

Me: I'm crafty. Literally :) I've been thinking up lots of new projects to keep me busy and have almost completed Jeanine's new room to last through her toddler and childhood years. After EVERYTHING is perfect, I'll post pictures of the whole room, but for now you can use your imaginations. I also participated in a late spring consignment sale which was kind of a bust and not worth all the work I put into tagging and preparing my items, but at least I sold a few things. As always, I've been busy with the kids and the house, and am growing quite fond of Washington as the weather gets better and prospects of more family in the area are blossoming.

Jeanine: is 9.5 months old now, wow time flies! She's crawling, pulling up on furniture, has one tooth with another on the way, and is the sweetest little girl I've ever known. She waves, she claps, and she loves to tease people that maybe, just maybe, she'll let them hold her...but then she doesn't. Last week she had a 9 month checkup and weighed 19.3lbs (50th %ile), was 28.5" tall (75th %ile), and still has a cute little 20th %ile head :) We are quite fond of our precious girl! She loves her sleep (like John) and is very much a daddy's girl and will only go to him if he's anywhere in the vicinity. She's also still allergic to dairy or cow's milk protein, and we're struggling daily with finding foods for a one-toothed, sensitive tummied little porker to eat :) Jeanine has also just begun "the scrunch-face" smile and loves to scrunch up that button nose when she's laughing and smiling. It's so adorable and I hope she doesn't grow out of it any time soon! Oh yeah, the only word she'll say consistently now is Daddy. She loves to babble all day long but when Isaac is home, she just shouts out "yaddy, yaddy!"

John: is growing into such a fun, intelligent, loving little boy! We adore him every day as he grows and learns. Right now he is very much enjoying every second of the day in the backyard, though I've been sending him out front more often than not since last week when we discovered massive mounds of ants making their way all over the backyard. There are anthills everywhere and literally ants upon ants upon ants crawling everywhere in the sandbox and gravel, and a little bit in the grass, eww! Tuesday is our yard day and will be spent getting rid of ants and weeds and fertilizing the yard, so hopefully things will get better soon! John just had his first "real" (not done by mommy) haircut 2 days ago as well! I had been letting it grow out so that we could see what he looks like with a real "little boy" haircut and it was well worth the wait, he's adorable! He sat in the chair very quietly and solemnly and watched in the mirror as the lady at WalMart cut away. John loves to make his sissy laugh and smile and most of the time there is harmony in the house when they play. Of course we have the occasional selfish bout when it comes to John's toys, but we're working on that, he's only human after all. John loves riding his bike out front and decorating the entire driveway with sidewalk chalk :)

Johnny asleep on the couch on Mother's Day. He slept like this for 2 hours!

I also came to a major milestone in my life as a mom when we left the children overnight with Isaac's mom (here at our house) and went for an awesome 2 day/1 night run up to Orcas Island! We left on Memorial Day Monday at about 9am and got to spend 2 whole days together without the kids! We came home Tuesday night late since I was really sick and so was Jeanine. I was sad at times and definitely missed them but we're all better for it and had a great time. I was able to relax and only use my brain for myself (which never happens)! I thought it might short-circuit when I got home and had to turn it back on to take care of the kids, lol! I am also so impressed with the amazing beauty of Orcas Island and the San Juans Islands. What an awesome part of the country, I recommend everyone go there at least once! I have pictures from that but they're on a disposable camera at WalMart right now, getting converted to digital. I'll post those as soon as I get them back. OK well I think that's it. We're pretty caught up now so hopefully I can get back on track and post more often, if only I'd actually take pictures throughout the week. Sometimes I go 2 weeks without taking one picture, that's so bad! Thanks for reading, don't forget to comment so we know we're not just posting for strangers to eves blog :)