Summer's End

I can't believe summer is almost over (with the heat we're still having you wouldn't know it)! I guess I should explain the lack of posts over the past couple months. Things have been a little busy around our house! After our vacation at the end of June I came home to a new and exciting and slightly overwhelming church calling...Primary President (gulp). My first thoughts when the Bishop called me in were...Isn't this a calling for grown ups?...Wait, I don't have a big house and a mini van!...and are you sure I'm the person you meant to call? (even the Bishop was double checking his notes to make sure this was right). But after I got over the initial shock and organized myself a little I was actually pretty excited about it. I've always loved children and I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. The kids are a lot of fun and they are so eager to learn about the gospel. Tressa LOVES having me in primary every week. I've caught her pretending to be primary president a few times at home. One time she was even playing primary with a girl she met on the Burger King playground, who I'm sure was not a member, but she was just going along with it anyway...it was so cute. So, basically a lot of my blogging time has been spent preparing sharing time lessons, getting my presidency organized, etc., etc. But things are slowly getting easier and faster now that me and my counselors are a little more organized and have some experience under our belts.

Jason has been a busy boy too! He spent most of June and July in an intensive study course preparing for his final FAA exam. He had to quit his job to do it because the schedule was so intense. Mind you, the exam he was preparing for was quite intense too....involving an oral exam with an FAA official who can ask you whatever he/she wants to (out of a bank of oodles of questions) and can grill you as long as they please (Jason had heard horror stories of people who had 8 or 9 hour orals, luckily his was "only" about 3) followed by a flight with the official which is like a driving test (in the air), but again the length of the flight, the number of maneuvers, and the questions he/she asks you during the flight is all up to the examiner. It's a miracle that anyone can pass that test! I'm so proud of him for doing it! He passed the exam at the end of July and is now a flight instructor at Riverside Flight Center.....which means he is building hours quickly and actually being paid to fly...woohoo! He is loving it. Once he has 800 to 1000 flight hours he can start applying for the airlines. It really is wonderful to have a light at the end of the tunnel. Way to go sweetie! It is all going to be SO worth it in the end.

Of course we managed to sneak in some fun things this summer too! Here's are some highlights from July and August.

Softball

Jason played on a softball team this summer with a friend from school. The kids loved going to the games and running the bases afterward.





They are his biggest fans! (I kinda like him too.)





Blue Bell Creamery Tour

We toured the Blue Bell Creamery with some friends from the ward for a playgroup activity and sampled the yummy ice cream afterward. The kids had a blast.

Mmmmmm....ice cream.



Friend, Melissa with her youngest (of 5!), Luke. I love this picture. His shirt pretty much sums up how he's feeling right now!



The boys.



The girls.



Friend, Heather with her two youngest (of 4, soon to be 5!), Landon and Mason. They were such good sports about wearing their little hats!



The Berzas twins.



Those Turner kids have always been so sweet to my kids. Here's Claire lovin' on Corbin.



Best Buds sharing a second (or maybe third) scoop of ice cream.



Corbin trying to wipe his own face...so independent these days.



"I scream for ice cream!" (Actually she just smiled and wore this cute little hat, but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it.)



Swimming Pool

Cannonball!!!



Teaming up on Daddy...get him guys!



They LOVE swimming! (If only Tressa had done swimming lessons at the end of summer...when she's used to the water and actually enjoys it...I'll have to remember that for next year.)











Water Playground

Running...



jumping...



splashing...



catching...




smiling...



getting soakin' wet...



and just having fun!




We spent many a day at the water playground this summer. It was a great way for the kids to cool off.

Ducky Pond

There's a duck pond across the street from our apartment that the kids love to go to. There are always tons of ducks and geese at the pond and they aren't shy about waddling right up to you if you've got food. I think they might be the best fed ducks in town, but if we go too long without seeing them Tressa will let me know..."Those duckies must be getting really hungry!" We go there so often that we can even recognize some of the ducks and we know which ones swim together, etc. We really should name them and call them our pets!







A Visit from each Grandma!

My Mom is a teacher and Jason's Mom is a school nurse, so they both made it out to see us this summer before they had to go back to work. We LOVE it when Grandma comes! The kids love spending time with Grandma and Jason and I love the break!

Grandma Jennings



Grandma Briggs



We love you both and miss you already!

Zoo

We got a family membership to the zoo this year so we've been taking advantage of it (when the weather's not too unbearable). Here are some photos from our most recent trip to the zoo with the Laceys (I have three friends named Lacey) and their kids.

Tressa and Corbin feeding the birds.



Jack feeding the birds. Look at Corbin's face in the background. Hee hee! Not looking too sure about being close to animals with claws, beaks and wings.



Lacey & Riley.



My little monkey.



The rest of the gang on the train.



And for those of you that made it through this unbearably long make up post...you will be among the first to know my exciting news....I am pregnant! We just told our families yesterday, so it's officially okay to let everyone else know now. I'll post more about this later, but I'm due on March 15th. So now you know why my tummy has been sticking out a little more than usual and why I didn't get in the pool at the party last Friday...if you saw me in my swimsuit there would have been no hiding the fact that a baby's on the way...or you might have just wondered what the heck I'd been eating lately!

Wubby (Blankie)

Many of you may know that Corbin has a special blankie that he calls "Wubby". He's had it since he was a baby and he's pretty attached to it. We have one spare Wubby that we got as a result of a meltdown in the baby aisle at Target one day when he saw a blankie identical to his on the rack. He really thought it was his and wouldn't leave the store without it. He likes both blankies and he sleeps with both (so I guess it doesn't really do any good to have a spare), but the funny thing is that he can tell them apart and he really prefers the original Wubby.

I usually try to be pretty sly about washing his blankie so that he doesn't really know that it's gone, but I forget how well he understands me now and I made the mistake of telling Tressa that I needed her to get out of bed so that I could wash her and Corbin's sheets. Corbin was standing right next to me when I said that. He looked up at me in panic clutching his blanket and said "Wubby?" I replied, "Yes Corbin, Mommy will need to wash your Wubby too." Huge crocodile tears suddenly formed in those big brown eyes and his little lips turned down in a really sad frown. It wasn't like a tantrum or anything, he was genuinely mourning the temporary loss of his blankie. He was crying so hard that I felt really bad. I started showing him the stains on his blankie and told him that his blankie really was very dirty, but that I wouldn't wash it if he didn't want me to. I tried to tell him how nice it would be to have a soft, warm, clean wubby to sleep with that night. He just kept sobbing. I went about my business getting the sheets off the beds and started loading them in the washer. I figured I'd just have to wash his blankie another day. When I came back down the hallway with more sheets to load he was up on his tippy toes tossing his blankie in the washer, trying to stop crying. It was so dang cute! I gave him a big hug and told him he made a good choice. He started to calm down a bit and kept saying "keen wubby".

Later that day I went to check on the sheets to see if they were dry yet. He followed me to the dryer and waited. When he saw his blankies he sighed in relief, snatched them up and took off. After I finished making the beds I found him on the couch snuggling with both wubbies...happy as a clam.

Happy Birthday Corbin!

I can't believe my little guy is already 2 years old. Happy Birthday Bubba!



We spent most of the day on Saturday celebrating with him. In the morning we took the kids to one of those playgrounds will all the inflatable slides and such. He is very active and loves jumping, running and playing ball so he was in heaven at this place!



The rest of us had fun too!




After lunch and nap time he opened his presents. I had them all set out with a bouquet of balloons in the middle of the living room to surprise him when he woke up. He was SO cute and shy when he came out. He had this look on his face like "is all this for ME?!" What a sweetie!



For dinner we took him to Incredible Pizza (a lot like Chuck E Cheese for those of you who aren't Okies). He snarfed down his pizza and had a blast riding the rides and playing games.

Enjoying his "woo beer"....



Riding the "too too"....



Afterward we unveiled his car cake, which he was very excited about, and sang to him.



He kept snitching the frosting while we were singing, it was so cute. I'd have to say my favorite part of his birthday this year was hearing him tell me how old he is. He'd stick all five fingers out and say "Doo"!

I can't believe how fast he's grown! Here's a picture of Corbin on his blessing date (about 2 moths old). I wanted to put a newborn picture up, but I don't have them on my computer and couldn't figure out how to post one from my shutterfly account...ughh...maybe I can figure it out and update this later.)



Here he is on his first birthday.



And here's my handsome boy today!



Love you Corbin!

Fourth of July Fun

Here are some pictures from the 4th. I took the kids to the park for a picnic during the day (Jason had school...even on our nations birthday!?)










Jason isn't much for crowds and our kids are sometimes scared of the noise that fireworks make, so we came up with a good solution this year. We loaded pillows, blankets and snacks in the back of Jason's truck and parked it at the top of the hill at our apartment complex just before dark. We were high enough up to see several shows at once, but far enough away that the fireworks weren't too loud. While we waited the kids had fun throwing poppers and playing with glow sticks.







The next day we took them swimming and went to a neighborhood party. They always plan a fun theme and go above and beyond with the food and games. It was a blast!