Happy 4th!

Happy belated 4th of July!!!

Well, things have been very busy around here!

First of all, we would love to welcome the newest member of our family - baby Jayden!! Our beautiful new neice (and cousin to Tristan and Pierce) and we can't wait to meet her! Congratulations Travis and Jana Kay and welcome to the world baby Jayden!!


In other news, Pierce is now officially on the move. I mean all. the. time. He's so excited he can hardly stand it. Which makes meal time and nap time a little difficult. I know, I know - I never thought anything would take precedent over food but it's true. This has opened a whole new world for him and he's ready to take it on! It's as if he's saying "Thanks guys but I'm much too busy for that right now. Please move out of the way." :) It's cute but a little frustrating. This is one of those things that we recognize will be funny - one day.

Tristan is still cutting teeth but 3 of the 4 that have been giving him trouble have finally broken through. We are still having some trouble with the early waking though - He usually decides to start his day around 5:45. This has made for a very sleepy Mommy and Daddy. But, to be fair, he's been fairly pleasant for operating on so little sleep!


Our holiday weekend was loads of fun -
On Friday we met our friends Val and Harvey at a local state park and Tristan fished with his new Spiderman fishing pole. (His first fishing pole, a Cars one, found a new home in the Atlantic Ocean...) There is a place at the park where you can only fish if you are 12 or younger. It was a beautiful area and a beautiful day and we had the whole fishing area to ourselves. It was so much fun!Friday afternoon we went to Rich and Megen's for some BBQ and fireworks. We all had a great time - Mark and I enjoyed some adult time while both kids had fun playing in the sandbox, swinging, and rolling around. Tristan tried sparklers for the first time and they were a huge hit!



Saturday morning Mark watched the kids while I went to aerobics. It's been 6 months and I figured it was time to stop kidding myself that this baby weight will just melt right off :) Mark has been so great about watching the kids so I can work out without worrying about the poor daycare workers at the gym. I've subjected them one time and it didn't go over too well... but it wasn't horrible either. I've realized that I really build these things up so much in my head and they're never really as hard or as bad as I worry that they'll be. Plus I'm pretty sure kids can smell fear.


Saturday night we had some new neighbors over for a BBQ. Their son Noah is almost 2. They are a very nice family and we enjoyed getting to know them.


Sunday was church and then Sunday evening we went to our last 101 class to join the church. We like it so far and are looking forward to getting more involved.

Oh - NEWS ON THE JOB FRONT! This is not official yet but the word on the street is that we'll be here the originally estimated 2-3 years. We are starting to talk about where we'd like to go next - possibly overseas? - before settling down somewhere more permanently.

That's all for now! Hope you're all doing great & had a wonderful 4th!!