Soccer

Today was Ian's first soccer practice. He is on a team of 3 and 4 year olds. They named themselves the Sharks.
Things we could do better next time:
1. No shorts with pockets (see pictures) - he actually asked me if they had belt loops and if he could wear a belt
2. maybe teach him what a soccer ball is and how to kick it
3. also, how to stand in a line and wait his turn



We had sushi tonight after Ian and Josie destroyed the house. Brooke and I even tempura'd veggies from the garden to go in it - it was delish. Now if Curt would just come home from China...

Crawling - for my dad.

Indian summer

Yesterday it was 83 so we went to the park after dinner. And we are still getting raspberries, zucchini, squash, lettuce and cucumbers (we are waiting for our pumpkin to turn orange - is that going to happen or is it to late for that?) in the garden.





Jamesy is pretty much always on the move lately. And he is cutting his first tooth - which might explain why he doesn't want to eat ANYTHING lately.

James is the new Ian

I imagined (or hoped) that James would always be my calm, sweet child - or maybe I just forgot already how entirely busy they are at this age. James is crawling everywhere, emptying bookshelves and drawers, is obsessed with the stairs, pulls himself up on everything, wrestles his brother and eats as much as I will put in front of him. He is also showing signs of having inherited the Leonard child "no-fear" disease, which for me is very very frightening.

He has dived into the pool a couple of times - and will sit by the sprinkler and play forever, sticking his face in and drinking the water.


I wish I could get a better wrestling video - James is usually laughing really hard while Ian is steam-rolling him.

E is 3

There are so many things I love about Ian at three.
1. he goes on playdates and asks me to leave him there when I come to pick him up
2. he asks me "you want me to..." about everything he is doing - for example "you want me to jump on my bed?" and also, "why?"
3. he wrestles with James on the ground and james laughs the whole time - in fact he always makes james happy
4. he will eat ANYTHING that I grow in the garden - it is very satisfying (for me)
5. he talks on the phone like such a big boy
6. when he gets in trouble or upset he tells me "me need a hug and a kiss from my mommy" and he calls me his snuggle bug
8. he rides his scooter with one leg in the air, and super fast. and he wants to go on a scooter ride at least once a day
9. he has a BFF, Josie that he could spend 24/7 with and they play perfectly together
10. he is happy and he laughs a lot.

Clean-up

I finally got new batteries for our camera - and I promise to start taking pictures again tomorrow (ashley). Until then, here are a few random ones I found on the chip.





I've been missing lots of fun things like Cami and Mike visiting last weekend (see above for the only picture taken while she was here).

Some more trip highlights...

There are so many hundreds of pictures to choose from and so many things we did in the 5 weeks we were at the lake. Here are some of the highlights that didn't make it into earlier posts:
Curt finally arrives.

Ian was totally sleep deprived and played super hard. He actually fell asleep at the table several times.

hanging out with my cousin corissa and her daughter payton.


Lindsay and Mike came to visit from DC - we love them, but we miss kimberly too.

The boys - connor, colton, ian, devon and cj.

Parker and uncle dave = true love.

swimming with grandpa. ian is the only one who calls it grandpa's lake and grandpa's house.

James' tongue.

Ian fell off the tubes a couple of times and wasn't very happy about it.


Some things we did:
Cami's bridal shower
Darien lake park
Whitney family reunion
Linds came to visit
The Jensens came to visit
Saw the sites in Palmyra
Hiked Fillmore Glen
Went to the temple
Cami got married
Saw two movies without kids
Got 100 minute massages at Mirbeau
Had a birthday party x3
ate at all our favorite places, ie. Dinosaur, Doug's fish fry, kabuki
played in the lake, a lot
spent time with my family

it was busy, but dreamy.

Oh yeah - and James learned how to army crawl. He loves his new mobility.

These two kids

Parker and Jamesy are about 4 months apart. Parker was incredibly sweet and gentle with James and James watched her longingly as she crawled circles around him. We always say that we hope they are best friend-cousins like cami and joe someday.



Both babies were super loved and spoiled by everyone at the lake.

On second thought, there was some occasional hair pulling...


Happy 1st Birthday Parker! We love you.

James' tattoo

He is too darling.

I pretty much love this guy too.

And someday can i please have a little girl as cute as this one?

Mini-golf

Turns out that Ian isn't really ready for games that require you to follow rules in order to not ruin it for everyone else. He doesn't care what we are doing as long as it is with Devon and Connor.

The birthday party

David 8/15
Ian 8/17
Parker 8/26

Having it the day after the wedding made it a little anti-climatic, but thanks to Nicki and a transformer pinata - it turned out to be a pretty good party.








Ian is totally in love with aunt nicki, asks where she is all the time and totally snuggles her hardcore whenever he can.