Rhett-
*Got straight A's in school again this past quarter!
*Is just about half way done with his Master's already!
*Working on his thesis project non stop. It's great for him!
*Hopefully had a great Father's day with his parents in town and blessing his baby!
*LOVES to cook lately. He's been making sweet and sour chicken, pizza on the bbq, aju sandwiches with roast from the crock pot, home made bread pudding, and chicken with home made bbq sauce! mmmmm
Traci-
*Had a GREAT birthday!
*Had a GREAT mothers day!
*Trying to keep up on house cleaning and keeping children entertained
*Got a new vacuum cleaner and a steam vac carpet cleaner! LOVE them both!
*Went to Kirtland for the first time ever. AMAZING! And if you ever go, you have to eat at Mary Yoders. Mmmmmm.
Bennett-
*Had his 5th birthday
*Graduated from preschool for good! He can't wait for Kindergarten to start!
*Played tball and LOVED almost every minute =)
*LOVES playing Wii and playing on the computer
*Is obsessed with Ninja Turtles, Ghost Busters, and his sisters =)
*Is learning how to tie knots with his daddy
*Has been a HUGE help with doing his chores when he's asked to. He unloads the silverware, kids cups/plates/bowls, he takes out our recycle garbage, he brings down and sorts his laundry, he puts soap into the clothes washer, he checks the mail, and he's been great at cleaning his room.
*Got 1 of his 6 year molors and a part of another tooth right behind it. I have NO clue what it is. we'll talk to the dentist in Oct. about it unless we need to go in before that...
*Has 2 loose teeth. One on top and one on the bottom.
*Is learning how to read the different color/number words
*Swam in Lake Eerie! and LOVED it!
Jordan-
*Has not had much of an appetite lately, and has lost about 3 lbs. I'm not sure if that's a good thing...
*Is starting to really like therapy! She cries until we get there, and then she's fine.
*Is starting to say words! She actually says *parts* of words-- for the word book she'll say "ook". The same thing for look, she'll say "ook". She will very clearly say "NO" and "Yeah". For milk she says "ilk". We're so excited that there's some progress in this area
*LOVES to learn new signs. She probably knows more than 50 signs and is learning new signs all about school right now.
*Is learning to use a speaking device (a computer touch screen that speaks what you point at) so hopefully if she qualifies she'll be able to use this at home and at school and not just half hour a week during speech therapy
*Should be getting her new wheelchair sometime soon! It's one that she can push the wheels. Hopeufully this will encourage her to be more independant!
*Is really enjoying being outside more and trying to do more "big girl" things
Shelby-
*Is 5 months already! Wow! It seems like we just found out we were going to have her!
*Rolls over all the time!
*Has been trying to cut her 2 bottom teeth for the last month and a half and is MISERABLE
about it!
*Had her baby blessing on Fathers Day! VERY special for us.
*Is such a good baby, unless she's in the car =)
*LOVES to munch on her hands and feet, and is drenching her shirts because of it!
*Puts everything in her mouth, right when she gets ahold of it!
*Is starting to voice her opion on things and tries to have little conversations with us =). LOVE it!
*Is starting to get interested in what we're eating (I'm going to try holding off on solids until 6 months... we'll see!)
*Loved meeting her Grammy and Papa Lindsey when they came out for the baby blessing!
*We are so happy she came when she did. We really can't imagine life without her! She's just wonderful =)
Like I mentioned above, we had Shelby's baby blessing on Father's Day. Ellis and Connie (Rhett's parents) were able to make it out here along with Jim and LaRaena. We were so glad they came! Connie and her friend LaRaena drove out and got here the Tuesday before the blessing, and drove in with a HUGE rain storm. We're so glad they made it in safe. Dayton roads + construction + night time + loads of rain + unfamiliar streets don't make a good combination and we're so so blessed that they made it. Ellis and Jim flew in on Friday night. The blessing was on Sunday and it could have gone better =). Shelby was fine up until Rhett started the blessing and then she was NOT happy. Needless to day, the blessing wasn't very long but what was said was very sweet. We had multiple people comment afterwards that they didn't understand why the parents of the baby crying during the baby blessing wouldn't take their kid out of the chapel! How rude of those parents to stay there and let their baby cry! Oh wait. It was the baby being blessed that was screaming! Too funny. Connie and LaRaena left on Monday morning. We wish they could've stayed longer but they had to head back to AZ. On Monday night Shelby got pink eye which wasn't good timing because we were planning on leaving the next morning for Kirtland. We took her to Urgent Care and got some drops so she could feel better and we could still go on our trip! Rhett wasn't able to come since he had labs he had to teach and a class discussion to be at. So it was Ellis, Jim, Me, Bennett, Jordan and Shelby. We headed off to Kirtland to visit all the church sites out that direction. It was AMAZING. It deserves its own post so I'll go into more detail some other time but it was really neat. We also got to go to Lake Eerie. Very cool! We made our trip just a 2 day event but it was plenty for the kids, and for us too =). Ellis and Jim were able to stay the entire week. We went to a few MetroParks around here and the Air Force Museum which is always neat to go see. We also went to an Air Force show called Tatoo. We got there pretty much right when it opened around 5 ish. It's SSOO hot and humid, and no clouds in the sky. We stayed for a couple hours and then left. We were able to see some flyovers from our house and we saw the firework show from our backyard so we didn't miss a whole lot. We took Ellis and Jim to the airport on Sunday night and then tried getting back home but were diverted off the freeway somewhere in Columbus because of a big accident on the freeway. We tried going around but got lost, and a gas station clerk gave us directions back to the same ramp of the freeway that was closed down =). So we hung out in a parkinglot until the freeway opened back up. We left our house at 3 to head to the airport and didn't get home until after 7. We didn't stress about it though. No point when you can't do anything about it! Anyways, we're so glad we were able to have some family and friends there for Shelby's (and Rhett's) special day! We love having people come visit and wish we weren't so dang far away from everyone!
Well, that sums up what's been going on with us! Hopefully now that I have things updated a little bit I'll stay on top of things (no promises!). I'm on Facebook now and I have to admit, I designate a lot more of my internet time to that =(. Actually, I haven't been doing much of either lately. I'm really trying to spend more time with the kids and getting out and about more and keeping up on doing housework and whatnot.
I hope you're all doing well! I'll try to find some pics to add...
Bennett in Lake Eerie
Shelby and Jordan in their cute matching outfits. Thanks Grammy!!
Bennett doing his recycle chore. He has empty boxes on the top of his swords.
I LOVE this picture!
Do I eat my foot or my dress?
The dress of course! Tasty! Thanks Grandma McBride!
Shelby looked so beautiful in her dress. We really felt like Grandma Kerry was there with us since she made Shelby's beautiful blessing dress. It was perfect!
My 4th of July kiddos. We really missed our traditional 4th of July neighborhood parade this year but I dressed the kids up for the day anyways =). Don't they look cute?!
