Matt's 10K and Grandma Jan & Aunty Mel's Visit

On Sept 15th Matt and his friend Patrick ran the 10K (6.2 miles) at the Air Force Marathon.  They didn't train much at all for it but they did great!!  Just over 1 hour - Good job guys!!!  :)

Great job!!!    

and then.........

Grandma Jan and Aunty Mel came to visit us!!

My mom and sister Melissa came out to Ohio to hang out with us for my birthday and (more importantly) for Connor's first Primary Program.  We had a lot of fun!  We made pottery, had a fun birthday, watched Connor's soccer game, went to Clifton Mill and had a girl's night while Matt and Connor went camping for the Father and Son's campout!    Girl's night was a lot of fun, Briella did awesome!  She even enjoyed shopping with us!  We're teaching her young.  :)

 We went to Build a Bear after my birthday dinner.  My mom was getting Connor a belated birthday present.   It was his first time there.  

 Aunty Mel got one too!  :)

Connor loves his bear and LOVED going to Build a Bear with Grandma and Aunty Mel.

Birthday dinner at Spinoza's!  Delicious pizza place!  :)  Yum!!

 Birthday cake at our house afterwards.  Yummy homemade carrot cake!  :)

 

 Visit to Connor's Preschool

 Connor and his teacher Mrs. Morter.  We LOVE her!  She is fantastic!  :)

Our visit to Clifton Mill

 Grandma and Briella playing dinosaurs!  :)

 The restaurant has the best breakfast there and the BEST pancakes ever!  They are HUGE, as you can tell.  

We got the seasonal pumpkin pancakes with cream cheese icing - oh my goodness - Heaven!!!  :)  

Connor's delicious '2nd breakfast'.  (That's what he calls brunch.)

It was so fun to have them come visit!!  We love you lots Grandma Jan and Aunty Mel!!!

Guess what......Baby Booth #3 on the way!

We're adding another munchkin to the bunch!  I'm 11 weeks pregnant and doing as well as can be expected (sick and tired).  We're really excited to be having another baby and feel so blessed.   When we went to the doctor last week I thought I was 9 weeks along but then she did an ultrasound and said I was actually 10 weeks along.  Surprise!   It wouldn't be that big of a deal but instead of being due April 19th I'm now due April 14th.....we're suppose to move around the end of March so an earlier due date is not necessarily better (in regards to moving).    This will make moving fun!!!  :)  

Firsts......

Connor has had some new adventures lately.  Quite a few firsts!  Here they are:

First Bike!

 He was pretty excited!  He had to earn it by getting 14 stickers (2 weeks) for following his bedtime steps and staying in his room until his clock is yellow (his clock turns yellow when it's 'morning' - 6:50am according to us!)  But it didn't take him 2 weeks like we thought.....it took most of the summer.  (Exhausting)  

But he did it!

 So proud!

First Day of School!

(I can't get this pic to turn the right way - believe me I've tried everything. Sorry you have to turn your head.)
Connor's started preschool this year.  He goes 4 days a week for 2.5 hours each day.  He LOVES it!  His teacher is fantastic!  She said he's doing awesome and that she's going to start teaching him to read 3-letter words!  So exciting!  He wants to read so bad.  Fun, fun!!  

First Soccer Team!

Practice

Connor's the one in the red shirt, green shorts and blue socks.  I promise he dressed himself!  :)  This is at practice - Thursday evenings. 

It is pretty fun watching the kids.  It's 4 and 5 yr olds 'playing' soccer.  :)  

He does a really good job listening to his coach.  Too bad we're not big fans of the coach - I wish they would teach him the basics and the rules, and not just stand there and watch them try to figure it out.  (Matt is going to try and help out if the coach lets him.)

First Game!

Obviously they are the white team.  Connor is #6.  Remember blue socks.  :) (That was my number in high school for volleyball!)  

The game was hilarious!  He started off as defender and didn't move for the first quarter.  They just weren't sure what to do.  

Then after the quarter we told Connor to go after the ball.  We said,  'you can run after the ball, it's ok.'  'Just do what Brock does, follow him.'  Brock is #9 (above) and he's by far the best one on our team - he knows what he's doing.  

So just after the next quarter started Connor was doing a great job standing as defender and then all of the sudden the ball came towards him and he started running after it!  :)  And he never went back to defender he just followed Brock all over the field!  :)  It was hilarious!  But great because I think he was understanding the game better.  

He got to throw it in a couple times. 

There he is following Brock.  

So after being in 3 quarters the coach asked him if he wanted a break.  He said ok and took a seat on the 'bench' and watched.  After 5-10 minutes he got up and just walked on the field and started playing again (I crack up just thinking about it!).  Apparently he was done with his break and wanted to get back in there.  But the coached explained that he needed to wait and let the other kids play.  It was all good, but funny!  Kids are so innocent and it's funny to see how they understand things.  :)

Connor loves playing soccer - but what he LOVES most is playing soccer with his dad in our yard.  :)  

Random pics from August and September

Here are some random pics from the past few weeks.  Briella is exploring so much more.  Oh so much fun!  

 She looks so innocent! 

 Yup, there are her true colors!  She found a Fig Newton. Jackpot!  Apparently she was really hungry and took matters into her own hands. 

 Briella loves being outside so much more now that she can stand and play with something instead of just sitting on a blanket.

 Connor practicing soccer.  He's been practicing 'heading' the ball.  Good thing it's a soft ball.  :)

So we bought this tent back in May for the Father and Son campout, but it got cancelled.  They rescheduled it for the end of September.  Matt thought it would be good to practice setting it up before the campout. :)  

It's HUGE!!  We got an 8-man tent - I know way to big, but our thinking was.... we got a good deal and we'll have it for a long time, so we needed something that would grow with our family.  We don't camp too often so it should last a while.  :)  (crossing our fingers)   

Connor and Briella loved playing in it - it's quite roomy and easy to put up.  Can you tell Briella is having a blast?!  :)  So cute!

King's Island

To celebrate the end of a fun summer we went with a couple of our friends to King's Island.  King's Island is an amusement park that has a waterpark too.  Matt and Connor went last year and had a blast so we all had to go this year.  :)  I personally enjoyed the waterpark the most.  The Tidal Wave pool was so much fun!  We laughed and laughed as we 'jumped' the waves.  (I wish we got a picture of it!)

 Connor and Michael on the airplane ride.

 Connor and his new friend.  He was so excited to tell me that he made a new friend.  (Good practice for school!)  

 Connor, Madison and Michael

 They LOVED this ride.  I think you're only suppose to have 2 kids per seat but they just had to ride together.  It was really cute.  The ride would whip them around the corners and go slower on the straight-aways.  :)

Happy Birthday Connor!

Happy Happy Birthday Connor dear!!!  Connor turned 4 yrs old yesterday!  He's growing up so much and it's so fun to see him understand and discover new things.   Here's a little bit about our birthday boy Connor.....

Height:  42 inches tall  (grew 3 inches from last year!)
Weight: 41 pounds

Loves playing outside and with friends.  He loves his little sister and is really good to her.  They make each other laugh like no one can.  (I love it!)  He finished his first year at preschool (it was like a Joy school program, rotating between different houses).  He loves Legos and books.  Each week we go to the library and he picks out at least 5-8 books and loves to just sit and read them.  He has the best dimples too!

I'm starting this new tradition (if you want to call it that) every year on the kids' birthdays.  I'm going to ask them the same 23 questions and see how their answers change.  It'll be fun to read through them all over the years.  :)  I took a picture of it so I wouldn't have to type it all out.  I hope you can click on the pic to zoom in and read it.  It's cute!  :)

Here's how we spent Connor's birthday!

 Woke up and had some cheesy eggs for breakfast with party hats and blowers.  

Then we were off to church.  Connor loved having everyone sing to him in Primary! 

We came home and after quiet time we made his cake.

 We've affectionately named it 'The green slime monster'.  He wanted a Funfetti cake with green frosting.  I thought I'd do a double decker cake but as you can see it wasn't the greatest idea.  (Don't worry it didn't slide off the plate).  Connor loved it!  He kept telling me he loved it and he didn't care that it was sliding.  :)  

 Opened presents before dinner

 After dinner (homemade macaroni and cheese, corn and watermelon) we had the green monster! 

 Linda Kuck (good friend from church) joined us for the festivities.  

(We love her!  She's part of our family!)

There's the gang enjoying the birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Connor!!

We love you lots!!