Five Already

William was so excited for his birthday this year. All year he has been asking how long until August and once we got to August on the calendar he kept counting the days. He was very excited to tell me what he wanted to eat for his birthday and what kind of cake he wanted. Of course he said that the best part of his birthday was going to be the fact that he starts school right after his birthday. Here he is at breakfast. He chose Swedish pancakes. He was very excited about his game and said he couldn't wait to put it in the closet. That is where we keep the games and when he asks to play a game he will ask for a closet game or a computer game.

He is wearing a pirate patch because he picked pirate plates at the dollar store. He had a pirate pinata too but I don't have a picture of that. Maybe I'll put video of the pinata on later. Here is his new art set.

And the giant coloring pages to go with the art set. I'm guessing the art things were a hit because he has been coloring and drawing non stop since he got them. He also got an apron from Grandma Luke. He was pretty excited to get one just like Mommy`and Daddy. I don't think Caitlyn has caught on to what she might be getting for her birthday. William also got toys from Uncle Ian and Aunt Becky and from some friends.

William decided he wanted a dog cake this year. I bet you were thinking it would be a pirate theme, but you would have been wrong. Grandma Luke gave us a book of cut up cakes so I let him look through and pick one. He wanted it to look like Bolt, so this was my attempt. I have to confess, we bought the icing.

Here he is blowing out the candles. He had an awesome birthday, that's what he told me anyway. Now he just can't wait to go to school. Of course, he is more excited for the second day because the first day parents get to go find out about school but the second day he gets to go by himself. It should be an adventure.

Haircuts

Thursday was haircut day. Brandon needed his cut and William got a haircut before school started. Brandon also decided he was tired of me complaining about my haircut and sent me off to get mine cut. I have to say that some of the complaining was justified, Britton likes to pull hair. And not just mine, she grabs Caitlyn's any chance she can get. She would deliberately reach around to get my hair and she managed to pull out a handful a couple of times. The rest of the complaining was just me complaining, and the fact that I am just not used to dealing with long hair. It was the longest I have ever had it. So here is a picture of how long my hair was. Seriously the longest I have ever had it. And the darkest. I used to have blonde hair, but three kids later it is definitely brown.

So here is the back after it was cut.

And here is the front.

I had six or seven inches cut off. Yes Britton can still reach some of it, but not as well and she can't get the grip on it that she could before. And it is easier to blow dry. The long hair took forever. Of course now I can't complain about my hair so I will have to find something else to do.

Tinker Bell

So Brandon took a week off, we had our anniversary, Brandon's birthday and William's birthday so you would think that is enough right? Well you would be wrong. We also had a house guest this week. Now before any of our relatives say "Hey I've never been invited to stay at your house" this house guest took up a lot less room than you are thinking. Tinker Bell came to stay for most of the week. We puppy sat for one of Brandon's colleagues. The kids were really excited, they have both said that they want a dog, and she got to sleep in their room which they thought was great. Tinker Bell was very tolerant of Caitlyn. Caitlyn loved to make sure Tinker Bell was comfortable, would put blankets around her so she could take a nap. They would sit in the chair together while watching a movie or TV. Both William and Caitlyn loved taking Tink on walks to the park.

Tinker Bell adopted this chair. If no one was sitting there, or she wasn't following someone around, she would be laying there. I also found that if I acknowledged her at all she was more than willing to jump up and make herself comfortable on my lap. We had a great week with Tinker Bell, we hope that she has a great trip, she really was a sweet dog. We probably won't be getting a dog anytime soon but it was a good experience.

Brandon's Birthday

Brandon had a birthday! So Brandon's birthday is the day after our anniversary. I know, weird timing and it makes it confusing sometimes. But now he is 28, unless you ask him cause he can never remember, and it was the start of his week off. He got to choose his meals, which made William excited to choose meals for his birthday, and now Caitlyn wants to pick out meals for her birthday. Here Brandon is with his presents. A new apron, running gloves, and a seat cover for his car to protect his seat from sweat. He claims he had a great day, I'm hoping that is true. Happy birthday honey. Love you tons.

Happy Anniversary

Aug. 23 we celebrated our sixth anniversary. It doesn't seem like that long ago, and that means that William will be 5 and starting kindergarten. I don't know how I will handle that. We found some friends willing to watch the kids and we went out to eat to celebrate. It was nice to have some time without the kids, and eating in a restaurant is nicer without them also. We did most of our celebrating Saturday since the 23rd was Sunday. That was also helped by the fact that I am terrible at keeping secrets and I love to give gifts so I really wanted to give Brandon his. I got him some new running clothes and a Dirty Jobs DVD. He, the sweetheart that he is, got me a book and a crockpot.

Here it is. My very first crockpot. It is sad to say that we have been married six years and this is our first crockpot.

Brandon also got me this beautiful bouquet. He was helped out by one of the girls that he works with. Thank you Hailey, they were gorgeous. I can't believe that I have been married to such a wonderful guy for six years. Time does fly. I love you honey.

Pictures from our Summer

Summer is coming to a close and I realized that I have so many pictures on the computer of things we did this summer that I haven't shared. So, I apologize for the length for this post, here is the abbreviated version of our summer. Caitlyn is potty trained. She finally got it down in the middle of our summer, end of June. It is scary to me how grown up they look when they stop wearing diapers and you have to cinch in their pants.

The kids did the reading program at the library. They had a lot of fun with it, this tiger mask was Caitlyn's favorite prize. William liked the free movie ticket.

We had a great family reunion up at Mom and Dad's. Here they are with the grandkids after church.

Clarice and Shawn showed off their prowess on the sand dunes. We only spent a couple of hours out there but it was long enough for some people to get a sunburn.

Grandpa was great at playing with the kids. I'm not sure what Kendyl is showing him but she is very intent.

Boys will be boys. I'm not sure who won, but Shawn wasn't able to push Paul over the edge like he was trying to.

Eric was the winner of Chubby Bunny while we were camping. I'm sure that isn't much of a surprise.

Paul and Aiden were telling scary stories around the campfire.

The kids and I went up to Mom and Dad's for Dad's birthday. They enjoyed the pool, Britton liked it best when the other two weren't splashing her. Mom was nice enough to put warm water in the pool for them.

Caitlyn was actually brave enough to jump over the crazy sprinkler by herself. She thought it was great once she finally tried it.

Mom washed off the deck and the kids helped her mop it off. They thought it was great fun.

William was very meticulous.

Dad blowing out his candles, he pretended that he needed help from the grandkids.

So that brings us to the middle of August, with more to come what with birthdays and such but this is long enough. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our summer.