First Day of School

Owen and his teacher!

Owen had his first day of Preschool today! He has been wanting to go to school all summer. He talked about it all the time. So he was very excited to go. This week is new student orientation so he will go everyday this week except for Friday. Today he went for an hour, tomorrow will be an hour, Wednesday will be 2 hours, and Thursday will be 3 hours. Starting next week he will go on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 3 hours. When I dropped him off this morning I went to give him a hug and say good bye and he told me to go. So I guess he was not nervous or upset that I was leaving him. How ever Ava was really upset that we were leaving Owen there. She cried all the way to the van and most of the ride home. When I picked Owen back up he said he had a lot of fun and he wanted to go again tomorrow so I guess he enjoyed his time. On the way home I asked him what he did at school and he said he went fishing. So he must have done some type of fishing activity!

28 weeks

I had my 28 week check up today. My exam went well. My Doctor said that my belly measures right where it should be. She said I may feel huge, but she said I am right where she wants me. Last month when I was in I had gained 10 pounds and I was really concerned about it, she was not. She just told me to slow down but said she didn't think I was looking like I was gaining weight in other parts of my body. I felt much better to hear that I only gained 2 pounds since my last visit. Today's visit also included the icky 1 hour Glucose test. I was pleased to find out that my clinic did away with the icky orange drink and switched to a much easier to swallow lemon lime flavored glucose drink. I heard back from my clinic that I passed my test and all is well in that area. However, they did find that my iron is pretty low. So, I had to have Luke stop on his way home to buy some iron pills for me. I am officially out of my second trimester and into my third!

Hiding

I told Owen he better hide because the tickle monster was coming over for a visit. So hide he did. He made a little "nest" with pillows and hid under a blanket. He gave himself away though by leaving most of his favorite blue star blankie out in the open for the tickle monster to see!

Owen and Ava

While we were outside this afternoon Owen and Ava stopped playing for a few minutes for me to get some pictures of them together. They aren't perfect pictures, but it is hard to get the two of them to cooperate long enough to take pictures together. It seems impossible to get them both looking at the camera while smiling at the same time.

Yummy

Our garden has produced many delicious veggies for us this summer. Luke and I are excited because our tomatoes are finally turning red. We have been looking forward to tasty ripe tomatoes all summer. But, the kids favorite by far is the carrots. Every time we go outside they both head to the garden and ask to have a carrot!

Bowling

Owen went bowling for the first time on Friday night and LOVED it! We left Ava at home with a babysitter (Uncle Kurt) while we went to Caleb my cousin/God child's bowling birthday party. We enjoyed visiting with family, eating pizza and birthday cake, and of course knocking a bunch of pins down. Owen did an amazing job being patient while taking turns with all the other kids who bowled with him on the same lane. Luke and I bowled too! Our final scores for the evening were, Owen 64, Luke 102, and Jill 119. As we were walking out to our car Owen asked if we could go bowling again tomorrow!

Uncle Kurt spent the whole weekend with us. We really enjoyed spending time with him. Owen and Ava just love their Uncle Kurt. Owen was really excited because he even got to have a sleep over party in our living room with uncle Kurt on the air mattress Friday night. Both the kids were bummed when they woke up Monday morning and went downstairs to find that Uncle Kurt was gone!

Rain

Owen was so excited to see that it was raining again on Thursday morning when he woke up because he finally got to use the "combrella" Daddy brought home for him Wednesday night. On Wednesday morning he was really upset with me when we were running errands, because he didn't have a "combrella" to keep him dry when we were getting in and out of the van.

Swing Set

In the last week Ava has taught herself how to swing on the swing set on her belly. She pushes her feet back and forth to get herself going and also likes to add a twist in the swings chains for a little extra excitement. She thinks it's lots of fun and I love that she can do it on her own. It is the first thing she does whenever we head out side to play. She is getting to be such a big girl!

Clean Closet

Wow do you see how clean and organized that closet looks! I thought I would share this picture with you because in a month it will be a disaster just like the rest of the closets in our house. For those of you that don't know closets are my major down fall. My entire house can be clean and organized on a daily basis but my closets never are. It is not unusual for stuff to fall on top of you when you open one of our closets. If you look closely at the carpet you will see a stain. That stain is from Owen who was playing in our closet about a year ago and found a container of toner. He got it open and spilt it on the carpet. Have a great day!

Our night away!

I did it! I left both of my children for a full 24 hours for the first time. I have never Ava over night before and have never left Owen by choice. I have been gone over night away from Owen 3 times and it was when I was in the hospital when Ava was born. Then back to the hospital over night when Ava had jaundice. And, once again over night in the hospital when Ava had her seizure. So really if you ask Luke or I have never left them over night before because I was forced to do so then. But this time I planned to leave them and it was my choice! I have to say I was really nervous about doing it, but every thing was just fine.

To be honest I was more worried about leaving Owen then I was Ava. I knew Ava would do just fine, but Owen's night time sleeping is what worried me. Owen is not a good sleeper never has been since birth. It is and always has been a struggle. We have even talked to his doctor about this several times and have been told that he will probably always struggle with sleeping. He never seems to fall into a deep sleep and when he does he wakes up in the middle of the night from having bad dreams. He constantly moves and kicks all night and is known to get up and roam but is not fully awake of and he talks while he does this usually making no sense. In fact we still have his bed against the wall and have to have one of those toddler side bars on his bed otherwise he would fall out. I wake up quite often from hearing him ram into the side bar or into the wall.

Any way so we left! A guy Luke works with retired and was having a retirement party at 7:00 on Friday night and Luke wanted to go and really wanted me to go with him. So for the last month and a half I have been preparing myself for this separation from my children. My Mom came over at 2:00 on Friday and after going over all the directions and answering questions Luke and I left. Our hotel room was at a Casino about 10 miles from where the retirement party was. Several other guys that Luke works with and that I have gotten to know over the last couple years also stayed at the same hotel as us.

We had a fun time at the party and it was fun to hang out with Luke's work friends. I stayed up later than I have in a long long time! We woke up on Saturday morning and checked out of our hotel room by about 8:15. We drove about 15-20 miles and stopped to have some breakfast, do some shopping, and took a walk by the lake. Then we headed home because it was really hot and sticky. I enjoyed our time alone together without the kids. But, I was also happy to come home and see them. We didn't even call once to check on the kids. I wanted too a couple times but Luke said everything was fine and my Mom would call if something was wrong. Oh and Luke also suggested to call home two different times but I said no to him too!

For those of you that don't know the 9th was Luke and my 6 year wedding anniversary so this was kind of a anniversary get away for us too because we didn't do any thing special to celebrate our special day on the 9th.

We never went on our Hawaiian cruse honey moon because we used the money we had saved on buying our house instead. So we have talked about going for the last six years and to be honest I never wanted to go because I didn't want to leave our kids. But, while we were eating breakfast on Saturday morning I said to Luke I really think I could do that week long Hawaiian cruise now. And, if it weren't for all the medical bills we will be racking up before the end of the year I would have no problem going like in March of course I would bring out baby boy with us. He would be way to young to leave with someone for a week. But, we will have several thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay off instead. (Luke is having a over night sleep apnea test done next week, and then we will have the baby in November) So I guess our Hawaiian Cruise honey moon will have to wait longer. Maybe March of 2011 if we are lucky!

Wednesday

Owen feeding the giraffe!

Owen and his new friend Dustin

Us by the big turtle!

Five of the seven kids from our group

Ava saying cheese for me while playing in the water!

Owen playing in the water with his tractor

One last picture before we left!

Our neighbors Kristin, Alana, Kailey and Owen, Ava and I packed into our van Wednesday morning and drove to the Zoo! I of course made Kristin drive our van because we had to drive through the cities and I don't do that. We saw a bad 4 car accident on the way that had just happened the cops weren't even on the scene yet. Thanks to God we made our trip safely! We met Kristin's sister-in-law and three of her four kids at the zoo.

I'm not going to lie it was a hot day, but we survived. We did a lot of walking, Ava too! She did not enjoy being in the stroller so I let her walk most of the time. I don't blame her when she was in her stroller she couldn't see the animals. I was really impressed with all the things the zoo had to offer. I have not been to that zoo since I was in about first grade so it was all new to me. I definitely want to take the kids again some time soon with Luke. Luke hasn't been there since first grade either and was bummed that he had to miss it.

Any way some note worthy events from our trip... Owen got to feed a giraffe. We saw a lot of monkeys which are a favorite in our house. Owen made a new friend Dustin (Dustin is Kristin's nephew) who is going into first grade. Ava was happiest when she could run around with the big kids. I only lost Owen once. We got to see lots of interesting animals. We had a blast spending time with our big group.

All the kids fell asleep on the way home which made for a very peaceful ride. We saw another accident, not as bad as the first one we saw. Luke had dinner ready for all of us when we got home. After we ate the kids played in the pool while Kristin and I told Luke about our adventure. We said our good-byes to Kristin, Alana, and Kailey and went in to take our baths and go to bed early. Both kids fell asleep with out a peep instantly! I was exhausted myself so I went to bed at 8:30.

It was a great day! Fun had by all!

Friday

Luke had the day off on Friday and we were supposed to go visit our friends Troy, Nancy, Dillon and Jordan for the day at the lake. Luke and Owen were also going to go on a airplane ride around the lake. However the weather did not cooperate with our plans so we decided that the airplane ride just wasn't meant to be this summer since this is the second time the weather made it impossible for them to go on a ride. So, next summer the boys will go on an airplane ride instead. Since the weather was crummy we went shopping instead. Owen thought Lego land was really neat and wanted to go back one more time before we left for the day. Owen and Luke had a blast going on some rides. Owen was disappointed when we ran out of tickets but was a good sport and didn't throw a fit. Ava even went on a ride. She was over tired and a bit upset when she couldn't take her blanket on the ride with her. She let Luke know that she wanted her blankie the whole time they were on the hot air balloon ride. On our way home Luke had to make a stop for some supplies at Home Depot so Owen was happy. He was even happier to hear that it was a Home Depot he has never been to before. So, now he has gone to a Home Depot in 4 different towns. Isn't that exciting. He was bummed out when he realized he didn't have his Home Depot apron with to wear while we got what we needed.

This ride made me a bit nervous. I thought it might scare Owen because it was really jerky and went up and down pretty fast. But guess what? He loved it and thought it was great. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time and we could even hear him laughing!

Thursday

Thursday morning I took the kids to a park that I used to go to when I was younger. I call it the castle park. The few times that we have driven by it in the past he has asked to go there. Both the kids enjoyed playing there, but I was upset to see that they are not taking very good care of it any more. Most of the swings are missing, and there was a lot of garbage on the ground. A van full of older kids came so I decided it was time to go. It was lunch time so I decided to grab some McDonald's food and we had a picnic at another park. This park was very well kept and the kids had fun playing when we were done eating our lunch. Both of the kids took really good naps after playing at the park!

My mom came over for dinner and then we went to help her pick up her new car. After all the papers were signed we went and got ice cream treats to take to the park to eat. After we got home Owen and Luke decided to change the oil in Luke's car.