First Days of School

Katelyn started 3rd grade on August 26 and Jacob started Kindergarten on September 3. Katelyn is an old pro at the first day of school thing. She loves school and was excited to start 3rd grade. We hope she has a great year!

Sending Jacob off to Kindergarten was harder than I thought it would be. But with his diabetes, there is an extra thing to worry and obssess over for me. He didn't seem to sure about getting on the bus, but he climbed on anyway.

Maya Finally Gets Her 1st Haircut

At the age of 2 years and 9 days old, Maya finally had enough hair to get her 1st haircut. It was looking a little too mullet-ish, so I finally had it cut. And since I wanted it to look decent, we took her to the salon.

Here she is BEFORE:

During the Haircut:

And here she is AFTER:

Maya Papaya Turns Two!!

On July 31, our Maya papaya turned 2 years old. I call her my baby, but she really isn't a baby anymore. Although she still loves for me to hold her, so I am still going to think of her as my baby.


After watching both her brother and sister's birthdays earlier in the summer, she was excited about her birthday. She and I went to the party store and picked out her birthday balloons. If anyone touched her balloons, she would yell at them, "Mine." And she loved getting presents and having cake... well, she actually only ate the frosting. She loves frosting and will only eat the frosting portion on a cupcake too. Silly girl. After she opened all of her presents, she was still very possessive of them. Katelyn and Jacob kept trying to play with her new toys and she would get so mad and yell "mine" at them again. It really was funny. She got some bubbles, bottles for her babies, a shopping cart, some clothes from G&G Blaisdell, a new ball, and a Doodler (the kind with a magnetic pen that erases).

Blowing out her birthday candles.

Opening presents.

Here she is getting mad at one of the kids because they are playing with her presents!!

Baptism

On July 11 Katelyn was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both sets of grandparents came out for the occasion, along with Brent, Emily and Matt and Julie with kids. She was super excited and I was super stressed out. But everything came together and went really well. The only thing that slightly marred the day was the torrential rain that started coming down. We had a barbecue afterwards at our house with friends. It was a great day for Katelyn and we are so proud of her decision to be baptized.

This is the whole family that came for the baptism.

Katelyn with G&G Blaisdell, Brent and Emily.

Katelyn with G&G Bertasso.

Happy Birthday Katelyn

July 5 was Katelyn's 8th birthday- it seems like yesterday she was born and then we sent her off to Kindergarten. And now she is 8 and ready to get baptized. We just had a family party this year. The big things she wanted for her birthday were rollerskates, the movie High Musical and the Troy and Gabriela Barbies from High School Musical. Since her birthday was on Sunday, we waited to go out for birthday dinner until Tuesday, when G & G Blaisdell and Emmy could go with us. Katelyn chose to go out to Olive Garden.

Fourth of July

Our 4th this year was pretty low key. We invited some families from the ward over for a barbecue and fireworks. The food was great and the fireworks were mostly smoke, since that is all you can buy here in Ohio. Everybody had a good time though and the kids had so much fun playing with their friends. Maya decided she didn't want to wear a shirt for most of it, so she is half naked in the pictures!!

Trip to the Science Center

David had Friday, July 3 off of work, so we went to visit the Science Center. It was our first time going there and the kids LOVED it. We took a lot of pictures, so I did a slide show so they wouldn't take up so much space. It was a great way to spend an afternoon together as a family.

Summertime Fun

Last summer the kids discovered the joy of a Slip n' Slide. At some point in June this summer, we had some friends over and we got it out for the first time. The kids had a blast. I think they were out there for about 2 hours. I love that my kids love to play outside.

Maya loved playing in the water, but she wasn't interested in going on the slide.

This is one of my favorite pictures. She decided to just lay there and let the water sprinkle on her and she has such a big a smile on her face!!

This was Maya's first chocolate popsicle and she loved it. I loved it when she would try to put the whole thing in her little mouth!

I love the ruffles on the bum of Maya's swimsuit- in face, that is why I bought it. I just had to take a picture of the ruffle bum because I think it is so cute. And it is the only time in her life that a bum ruffle is cute!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

My (Sharyn) birthday was next in June. We celebrated by going out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen- one of my favorite restaurants. I wish there was one closer to us. And then we headed home for cake and ice cream. I love my birthday for the simple fact that I can eat all the cake I want... because it is MY birthday and MY birthday cake!!! LET ME EAT CAKE!! Although, I will share with you if you ask nicely!!

Jacob turns 5!!

The first part of June brought Jacob's 5th birthday and he was so excited. He got to have his first birthday party. In an effort to keep it simple and cheap, we took the kids swimming at our neighborhood pool. It turned out to be a nice, hot and sunny day. The kids had a blast. During one of the breaks at the pool, the kids sang Happy Birthday to Jacob and had cupcakes. Then we headed back to the house where they took turns hitting a pinata. Check out the pictures below....

Here are the kids at the pool after they at cupcakes.

Maya loved her cupcake

Here is Jacob taking a swing at the pinata.

And here are the boys waiting for their turn to hit the pinata.

And the best part of the pinata is scrambling for the treats after it breaks!

From my Baby Boy to my 5 year old boy....

For Jacob's birthday we had a family party and then later got to have a friend party. It is amazing how fast the time flies by. I remember when Jacob was born, I was so surprised he was a boy because David had me convinced it was a girl!! I remember asking if they were sure it really was a boy- I guess I needed to see the proof for myself. And then we had to come up with a name for him, since we only had girl names picked out. But I remember feeling so excited to have a little boy. He was such a great baby, so easy going and happy. He made us laugh all the time as he grew into a toddler. He was always up to something and his antics cracked us up. He was fearless and curious and busy and we were sure that he would bring us our first trip to the ER. Fortunately, he did not!!

And now he is a big 5 year old and will be going to Kindergarten this fall. He has survived 21 months as a diabetic. And he loves his sisters, most of the time.

Jacob loves pizza and that was what he wanted for his birthday dinner. I love an easy meal!!

His favorite color is red and he wanted red frosting, but this was the best we could do with what we had. And he decorated it himself.

Spring Break at Niagara Falls

For Spring Break this year, David took a couple of days off and we headed north to Niagara Falls. We found a hotel on the Canadian side that was right next to the Falls and had a water park attached to it!! We had a great time and the kids loved the indoor water park. We saw the falls, went to the water park, took a ride on the Sky Wheel at night, ate at the Rain Forest Cafe and just had a good time. We had wanted to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist, a boat that takes you right up next to the Falls, but they hadn't opened for the season yet. Instead, we did the Cave of the Winds. We got to go down to the base of the American Falls.

This was the view from our hotel window. You can see the American Falls.

Both Katelyn and Jacob loved the slides at the water park.

Maya wasn't too happy to be in the water.......

Maya preferred to just sit and watch!!
And just because I know everyone is dying for more pictures, I've included the slide show below!! Enjoy.

Piano Lessons

As I have mentioned before, Katelyn is taking piano lessons from a Sister in our ward. Jacob and Maya get to go to piano lessons too, since they are in the afternoon after school. At the end of some of the lessons, Katelyn and her teacher sit down on the floor and do some theory. Well, after a few times of seeing this, Jacob and Maya decided they needed to do theory too. So, now everytime the teacher sits on the floor to work on theory, Jacob and Maya go right over and sit down too. They do some clapping of rhythms and some games to learn notes. Jacob and Maya both clap along and Jacob insists on playing the games too. Her piano teacher is so nice and always includes them both and even lets Jacob take turns learning the notes and rhythms. I almost feel badly, because we are paying for one child to take lessons and yet Jacob and Maya are learning too. Below is a picture I took of them all sitting on the floor doing theory at piano lessons a couple of weeks ago.

And here is Maya just being goofy during piano lessons.