Gymnastics and a whole lot more!

There's not much to write about for this post, it's just a lot of random pictures from our life lately. We have been soaking up the last days of summer before school starts. This little munchkin is headed off to Junior Kindergarten on September 1st, and she is so excited. She's grown up so much lately. If it seems like you've seen a lot of pictures of her in this dress, it's because she wears it all the time. I had to make her stop wearing it because it's coming apart, and it needs some fixing. My seamstress services are few and far between, and they take a long time to be completed, so she might be able to give it a rest.

Wierdo...Those are some sports cones she decided to wear on her ears.
These are faces that I see all the time. Rydge whining because Jaycee's picking on him, and Jaycee's acting like nothing is happening. I don't know why kids think it's fun to pick on the younger kid, but it's heartbreaking for a mother. The other night he was "in her way" so she just decided she would stand on his wrists and ankles. Does anyone know of a good punishment for the mean older sibling? Sometime I just want to give her a taste of her own medicine, but that's not very effective. FYI: Rydge is wearing the necklace because Jaycee put it on him. We don't make him wear girl stuff.
This is Jaycee's first day of gymnastics picture. It all started on the 4th of July. We were watching the parade, and some of the gymnastic academies had their gymnasts walking along doing tricks to advertise. They had people going along to the crowds handing out fliers. Afterwards, Jaycee said, "I am going to be in the parade because they want me. The lady handed me a paper." It was so cute. So, she got into a gymnastics class, and loved it. We actually had to miss her last class because we had the family pukes. All of us were too sick to even get out of bed.
Look at Lance. That is the face of one relieved medical student. He lost a couple years off the end of his life because of his boards test, and this is the day he got his score back. His hard work paid off, and he could finally take a deep breath and somewhat relax for a minute. I say "a minute" because it was back to reality very soon after that because he was already in a very busy rotation.
I just had to take a picture of these cute little boots on Rydge. They're Jaycee's cowboy boots, and he decided to slip them on.

What is it with kids and their parents' shoes? It's so cute.

We are very slowly working on Jaycee's words and writing. She's coming along, but I think I'll leave the rest up to her teachers. She gets bored when I try to help her.

Last but not least, Rydge started walking a week or so ago, and it's so much fun to see him so mobile. He really loves his new tricks and has already advanced to carrying anything possible around the house. For example, golf clubs, balls larger than he is, bats, food, etc. So, this is his zombie walk with Jaycee maulilng him at the end.

Water fun!

So, lately it has been extremely hot in Wisconsin--almost to the point of unbearable--but it's so bad to complain about it being too warm outside considering we have to practically hibernate during the unbearable winters here except to gather food from the grocery store when we are feeling brave. Still, some days are too hot even if you're going to play in the water. Being the boring adult, the plan is to just watch the kids swim, but it all comes down to whether you want to be soaked with sweat from sitting there, or have a little fun and cool off in the process. We joined in on the slip 'n slide, but opted not to take pictures. I have made sure to take pictures of Rydge and Jaycee's water fun, though. Rydge isn't completely happy about hanging out in the cold water. He'd rather wander around our 4'x4' yard and crawl all over the thistles that have taken residence there. The other boy in some of the pictures is Drey. He and Jaycee are pretty good playmates, and they had a great time on the slip 'n slide. Drey was very unsure of the safety of the slide, but after seeing Jaycee go down it a hundred times, he decided to give it a try. Of course, being the tough guy, he had to run across the whole yard to get his momentum.



Hopefully no one thinks this is harsh, but we sent Rydge down the slide, and he seemed to enjoy it. He never cried, so it means he had fun, right? I'll show you his run, then you can decide if he liked it or not. I love the face he gives.

I didn't want to leave Jaycee out, so here is her run down the slide as well.

I'm a little partial, but his smile is to die for. I love it.

Happy times

Ever since Lance started rotations for his third year of medical school, time has been flying by. My days are all a blur, and I have found myself wondering what I am doing with my time. I really can't look back on the day before and say some big thing I accomplished. I look at my house, and it's not exactly clean,to say the least. Sometimes there are more important things to do besides the housework, like playing dollies, or hide-and-seek, or coloring. I look at my kids and keep thinking that this time with them goes by so fast, and they are at such fun ages. I'm somewhat saddened when I think about sending Jaycee to Junior Kindergarten in a month just because I never imagined she would grow up so fast. There are so many things about having kids that are frustrating and make me want to scream, but there are so many more things that make it so worth it. I love staying home with my kids. The other night I was leaving for just a few minutes and I had both kids screaming their heads off because I was going out the door. It was heartwrenching for me. Ironically enough, they survived my little 15-minute absence. I love these times with young children, and hope time will slow down a little bit so we can enjoy it even more. I think you've seen this picture before, but take this picture, for instance. Look at that adorable face. I had a huge mess to clean up, but he was so cute. He had to feed himself, and there wasn't any way to stop him. I swear he knows when I want the house clean because that's when he starts pulling things out of the cupboards. It's all just part of the life of parenthood and I wouldn't trade any of these moments. They are priceless.We've been having a lot of rain lately, and we just had to go out and enjoy it. Meghan went with us to play in the rain, too, but I didn't think to take a picture of her with the kids. She was nice enough to snap a picture of us. What fun times.

I've posted a video before of Jaycee's dance recital, but this was at our ward talent show. She got a second chance to try and dance a little faster (the last time she didn't move because she said she was just dancing slow and everyone was going too fast) and we bribed her with anything she wanted if she would just dance. She actually did a really good job, and I almost cried because I was just glad she actually moved and didn't suck on her hands the whole time. I was so proud. That's just like Jaycee to do something because there's a reward involved. You can't really see her face, but she's the one on the end.