June

We really started getting into the swing of summer in June.

Strawberry picking and the beginning of canning:

We spent the bulk of our summer at the pool of course! Some memorable highlights are that Chiara jumped off the diving board by herself for the first time and Asher is pretty much a fish going under the water and jumping in at every opportunity.

Little Buddy Boy had his half birthday and we celebrated by riding the frontrunner to the train museum.  He was very pleased as he is obsessed with trains and sports and cars (all represented nicely at that particular museum)

 

Must Be Santa!

Annual Santa visit! 

Family Pictures

It took us almost a whole day to take a family Christmas picture where everyone was looking at the camera and not crying...in the meantime here are a few of the others:

Asher at Two

Little Buddy was plenty spoiled this year with the presents. He loved his Karaoke machine, doodle mat, bath toys (a "ehpane" and "bot"), he was also thrilled with his new track for his cars since that is his obsession.  Mostly these days you can find him with two or more cars clutched in his chubby little hands.

  

Another favorite is trains, so we decided to take him down to the Heber Creeper for the Polar Express.  He was thrilled to be on a real "choo-choo"

This little guy can be quite the ham when he wants, he still prefers to let his true personality mostly shine at home in his comfort zone, but he has begun to open up around others and show off his daring ways.  We have had a hard time the last few months, Asher has really wanted to talk and feel understood and his pronunciation was just not quite up to others patience level so we have endured some tantrums of frustration and crankyness from our usually easy going little buddy.  Luckily, it seems that we have turned a corner with verbalization and he is starting to get much more articulate.  Although he still is as stubborn as can be it is a relief that he finally feels understood and can be reasoned with a bit more.

To get us through the hard times we are all very happy that Asher has his beloved blanket.  This boy is like Linus with that thing.  If I would let him, he would drag it all around with him everywhere we went.  He has by far been my best sleeper due to the fact that the minute you hand him his beloved blanky he will cuddle up and lay down.  Asher is a sweet cuddly boy and he loves to "nuggle" with blanket and anyone else who will sit with him!

Little Ash is such a sweet part of our family.  He keeps us all laughing and on our toes with his antics, but he adds such a special joy. We just love this little boy!

In An Old House In Paris...

That was covered in vines,

Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines...

The smallest one was Madeline.

She was not afraid of mice,

She loved winter snow and ice,

To the tiger at the zoo,

Madeline just said Poo-poo!

And no one knew quite so well

How to frighten Miss Clavel.

Until the day she slipped and fell.

Poor Madeline would now be dead

But for a dog

who kept it's head...

The dog loved biscuts, milk, and beef,

and they named it Genevieve...

One day the Spanish Ambassador

Moved into the house next door.

Look my darlings, what bliss, what joy!

His Excellency has a boy...

Pepito is our pride and joy

The world's most wonderful little boy.

Lots of fun with a Madeline theme for Halloween this year.  We celebrated once with Kelly and Lance and the kids at their trunk or treat

Then we also celebrated at the Trunk or Treat in Colorado at Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's (more about that later).  Finally, we went Trick or Treating on Halloween night. Unfortunately we only got one family picture (too busy having fun!) and it's not very clear (cell phone at night not a good combo)

That's all there is

There isn't any more.