Timber Creek Fall Festival

My parents' subdivision had their annual Fall Festival for all the kids and grandkids.  I know one thing for sure...Jack had a great time riding the train.

 

They rent this train every time and this year they definitely got their money worth!!

 

 

 

 He sat in the caboose for no less than 45 minutes.

 

 

 

He would wave and yell "Hi" at every person he passed. It was kinda cute.

 There was a mom there of another 16 month old boy.  She was AMAZED he would sit still so long.  Jack loves to take any opportunity to pretend he's in his own parade....in the shopping cart at the grocery store, in the car with the windows rolled down, in the stroller, you name it.

My weirdos...





Just a few of the cousins that made it.  what a crew!

No photo session is complete without a silly face shot!

Jack 15 months

My boy had a 15 month appointment.  Everything went well.  At one point I was complaining to the dr that he still wasn't walking.  As I'm going on and on Jack is playing in the middle of the floor....he stands up (on his own) and walks across the room.  Seriously!?!  Oh well. 

 

Here are his stats on 9/4:

Head circumference: 18 inches = 58%

Weight: 24lbs 6 oz = 48%

Height: 31 inches = 71%

Weight for length = 55%

 

 

 

This boy makes my heart happy.

Fun Firsts!

 

We met Elijah's 1st grade teacher at Meet the Teacher.  He was SO excited to start first grade.  The first thing he noticed was that there were class pets!  A guinea pig and a turtle!! His best friend, Koby, is in his class too!  It was all so exciting!!

 

First day of First Grade!!

Elijah was up and dressed, waiting in the driveway almost an hour before it was time to leave.  He wanted to wake up to an alarm this year.  We got him an alarm with a radio.  He wakes up to Air1 (Christian station) and is usually dressed before Beau's alarm wakes him up.  I hope his love of school lasts forever!

Sadie had to wait until after Labor Day to start her Preschool year.  She was ready!!

Jack didn't know what to do about all the excitement and was a little confused when it was just he and I left alone.  

Of course my girl had to strike a pose!  I love her and her wonderful personality!!

Still waiting on my boy to walk officially but he's taking his first steps!!  Not sure what Elijah and Sadie were doing in this picture but I was trying to get a few pics of Jack taking some steps.

Another first for Elijah: Riding the bus home!!  Elijah has been begging us to let him ride the bus.  We realized it would actually make Thursdays go a lot easier so we let him ride the bus on Thursdays.

Is it possible that my boy is old enough for this!?!

We've had a lot of firsts around here!!  Its been really exciting!!

Brother's Day

Right around the time of Mother's Day and Father's Day Elijah asked why there's not a Brother's Day or Sister's Day.  We didn't really have a good explanation so the conversation lead to us putting Brother's Day and Sister's Day on the calendar.  Well, Brother's Day was August 24th!  Elijah was so excited!!  He said there had to be gifts (since I got chocolates on Mother's Day) and we had to have his favorite meal (since I did that for Beau on Father's Day).  The Friday before Beau had come across some inexpensive Hawaiian Falls tickets so we took Elijah and Sadie.  Well Elijah thought that was for Brother's Day. 

 

When they woke up that morning  I had a gift for the boys and a big breakfast!

 I love these boys!

 

I love that basically putting anything in a bag with tissue paper makes it a great gift!  Elijah got a action figure carry case (from a garage sale) and some Star Wars underwear and Jack got a movie (ha!  all stuff I had in the "gift closet"!) 

 

I made Elijah's favorite: Potato Soup.  Nothing like soup in August!  Then we did Elijah's other favorite...Family Game Night!!

 

And to top it all off our cat, Sparkly Girl had her kittens on Brother's Day!!  What more could Elijah ask for!!

I love these boys!!  Happy Brother's Day!



I left my heart in San Francisco!

Beau and I treated ourselves to a special trip to celebrate our 10th Anniversary!!  We made it!!  10 years!!  Woohoo!!  We each picked our top 3 places we wanted to visit and both of us had San Francisco on our lists so that decided it!!  We decided the best time to go would be August.  That way all Beau's "busy season" would be over and it would be miserably hot here in Texas and we could enjoy the cool of San Francisco.  It was a great decision!

 

We took the kids to Stephenville on a Wednesday morning and dropped them off at Camp JuPa.  Then we headed on to the airport to catch our plane.  We got there early enough that we actually got on an earlier flight.

When we got to our hotel we caught a cab and went to a little hole in the wall that Beau had seen on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  Then we had to call it a night...traveling is tiring!

 

 

Thursday morning we woke up early and spent the whole day exploring the city and its surroundings.  We first took a bus out to Muir Woods.  I took this pic on our way.

I LOVED Muir woods!  It was very peaceful and just amazing to see the huge trees.  Its like nothing you can imagine.  It was so odd to be so chilly in August, too!

I love this picture below.  I told Beau to go stand by a tree and put his arms out so we could show the kids just how big these trees are.  When I saw this picture after taking it all I can see is Sadie's face.  This is Sadie's exact face.  I love it!

I had to take a panoramic to even begin to capture these beauties!

On the way back we stopped in Sausalito for lunch.  It was such a seemingly peaceful town.  

Next we stopped for a photo op in front of the Golden Gate bridge!  It was a tad windy, if you can tell by my hair.

We even went for a walk on the bridge.  We only had about 15 minutes.  We didn't even get out over the water...that bridge is huge!!

Driving up the coast.  It was just beautiful.  I normally don't care for the beach because its hot and humid, but this was great.  It was chilly and no humidity!!  

Standing on an overlook of the city.

We walked around the city a bit that night after our tours.  We ate dinner in Chinatown and then stopped in a Ghirardelli shop for a dessert!!

Friday morning we got up and walked from Union Square to the Piers.  We had lunch overlooking the piers and then walked down them.  We had to stop at the famous Pier 39 to see the Sea Lions that overtook it years ago. 

We continued our trek up to Pier 33 to set off for Alcatraz.

We loved Alcatraz.  It was so interesting to listen to the audio tour and walk the grounds!  Now we want to watch all the Alcatraz movies!!

That night we went to a Giant's game.  Its so pretty sitting right on the water.

Saturday morning we got up, rented a car and drove to San Jose to tour Winchester Mansion!  It was so neat!!  We loved hearing all the stories behind the 28000 sq ft mansion!

Our rental car was an adventure all in itself!  It was so tiny!!  We had some wonderful Indian Food in San Jose...I think it was the best food we had on our whole trip!

We loved watching the fog roll in every evening.  It looks like snow avalanching down the mountains!  

We spent all day Sunday traveling.  We were exhausted, but so happy to see our babies!  It was such a great trip!!  Now looking forward to our 20th anniversary!!  I'm thinking Europe!!

Bowling with the Boys!

 

This summer we had a few different activities for the kids planned.  One fun activity was bowling!!  Elijah had never been!  We invited some other friends and had a great time! (Sadie got sick and couldn't come. Sad face.)

 

I love it when Elijah and Koby get together.  They really love each other.  No matter how long its been since they have been together they pick right up!  They are so cute!!

 

 Lori Anne brought Cade and Maci.  I snapped these pics of Lori and Cade together.  I just thought they were so cute!!  Cade really loved rolling the big balls!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Fajardo family is big into bowling so Fernando was a big help teaching Elijah how to bowl!

Elijah LOVED it!  We will definitely have to go back!

 Elijah said he wanted a picture of the score board so he could ALWAYS remember that he got second place on his first time to play.  He was really excited that he was only beat by an adult (therefore putting him in first place -among the kids- in his head)!  Ha!

Jack 12 months

I am so excited to make a collage of all these pics of Jack!! 

 

The older he got the harder it got to do this little photo shoot!

 

 

He thought it was a funny game.  I would put the owl in the basket with him and he would throw it out and laugh.

 

It did not go with my photography plans.  Oh well, he was having a blast!

 

And he was really proud of himself.

He is so much fun!!



 I love this face.  I kept on and kept on trying to get him to sit still on the blanket.  I finally handed him my camera to keep him still and he made this face.



And we're done here.

12 months!!!  We made it!!!

Here are Jack's 12 month stats:

22lbs 9oz = 41%

30 1/4"  =  51%

Head 18.5"  =  64%