Happy Birthday Lucy

We already celebrated Lucy's birthday but today is her actual birthday. It's amazing she is already 6 years old!! She is growing way too fast. We love Lucy and couldn't ask for a better child. She is so helpful, happy, kind, thoughtful of others, loves to laugh, smart, cute....I could go on and on. Happy Birthday Lucy we love you and are blessed to have you in our family!!

Busy Week

The following posts are from last week.It was a very busy but fun week. We had a friend from the ward over on Monday night for dinner and FHE (yeah Natalie you know we love you!), on Tuesday night we had other friends come to visit for a night and then on Thursday we had our neighbors exchange student from Cazachastan (sp?) staying with us for the rest of the weekend. And, we had a family party Friday night for Lucy and a birthday party Saturday. Our house is trashed right now and could use a good cleaning. In fact, I should be doing that instead of blogging but I'm too tired. We'll do house cleaning tomorrow. Besides if I clean it tonight it'll be a mess by 7am anyway - right?!?!?!

Visit from our friends

Our friend's from U of M (Spencer and Jenny) came to visit. They just stayed the night but it was so good to see them. It's been a LONG time and now they have the cutest little twin boys! They were good sports to pack up the twins and head to the soccer fields with us so we could watch Lucy's game. Thanks Spencer and Jenny for stopping in to see us!

Party Time

We had a really fun day on Saturday as we threw a party for Lucy's 6th birthday. Her birthday isn't until later this week but we will be heading out of town so celebrated it early. She had 16 kids at the party and it was lots of fun. My friend has a side business setting up this moon walk for parties. I tutored her daughter this summer so we got a good deal on the moon walk and snow cone machine. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we had TONS of fun! I think all the kids at Lucy's party slept very well Saturday night. After everyone left Andy and I even enjoyed getting in it and jumping with the kids. And, once again Andy was wonderful getting ready for this party. He helped plan all the games and actually took care of all of that during the party. I just had to monitor the kids in the moon walk. Thanks Andy!!

Cake Time! Thanks to my sister - in- law we had a great idea for a cake. It's a doggy dish. Lucy wanted to do all animal games at her party so this went perfect and was the easiest cake I've ever had to make. (Thanks Rachelle!)

Wow this was better than Christmas for Lucy! She loved all of her presents and her friends gave her some really nice gifts. Her room has been a wreck since Saturday . She moves from one gift to the next and Ethan has enjoyed playing with all of her new stuff too.
Here she is with a few of her presents. She got a new doll house for her birthday which she has LOVED and she just got this doll from her grandma and grandpa.
The snow cones were a huge hit!

Lucas couldn't get enough of the snow cones and had 3!!

This picture is so funny to me! Everyone was long gone and here he still sits chomping away at his snow cone! (That's him in the blue chair!)

A wet day for a walk....but well worth it!

Today we did our first JDRF walk for a cure. With the help of our family we were able to reach our goal and raised some money to go towards finding a cure for diabetes. We also participated in a 5K walk that took place about an hour and a half from our house. We woke up to LOTS of rain (I'm not talking about a few sprinkles!). We packed up and headed to the walk in hopes the rain would be gone. Ha! It was a nice thought - but didn't happen. So, we put on ponchos and raincoats and did the walk anyway. It was great. Our kids were such good sports even though they were soaking wet and cold. We are truly grateful for the contributions made by our families. It's amazing how much progress has been made and continues to be made in the diabetes world. I marvel each day at Ethan. He is such a good sport to be pricked all day long and have a minimum of 4 shots a day. He does it and rarely complains. We have learned a lot about diabetes and caring for Ethan over the past couple of years. We were grateful to be part of this walk today and look forward to doing it each year!

Our sweet Ethan

Lucas didn't know what to think of the day. We woke up to no electricity due to the weather. So, we got ready in the dark with flashlights. Then we drove a good distance only to cut holes in a garbage bag for a poncho and put it on him. He didn't like it but settled into the stroller where he sat in the rain for over and hour. I wonder what must have been going through his mind!!!

Just like the rest of us, Lucy got nice and wet. Good thing we had a change of clothes for everyone in the car!

The kids had fun walking and riding in the wagon when their legs were tired.

First day of School

Last week was our first week of school. However, it definitely didn't go as planned. Lucy and Andy woke up on the first day of school throwing up. Fun! Fun! Fun! We thought she was better by the next day but apparently not because she stayed home the rest of the week sleeping next to her barf bowl! Ethan did make it to his first week of preschool. However, it also did not go as planned. Unfortunately there were some misunderstandings in regards to his diabetes care and we have spent the last 2 weeks working through some things so he can continue to go to preschool. Although we were off to a rough start things are looking up and both kids seem excited about being in school. Ethan is bugged that he can't ride the bus yet. I keep telling him just one more year.

Here they are on their first day of school. Ethan was feeling like such a BIG boy. He chose his outfit. It wouldn't have been my first choice but you know how they are at this age.....so independent!!

Ethan is so excited about school he needed his picture taken 2 days in a row!! I had to break it to him that we weren't going to be taking pictures each day before leaving for school!
Lucy showing off her "cool" backpack. Funny how it is almost as big as she is!!
She loves riding the bus! I was heading out the door her first day back to school to go pick her up at the bus stop. It was her teacher on the phone telling me there had been a problem. She had Lucy with her who insisted she was to be on the bus going home but the teacher had her on the list of "walkers". Good thing our shy Lucy spoke up because that would have been a VERY long walk home! She is definitely not in walking distance! Luckily a friend from church happened to be at school and heard what was going on and offered to bring Lucy home.

One last hurrah!!

To finish our summer we spent labor day weekend camping with our friends the "C" family. We LOVE them so much and had a wonderful time. They have twins who Lucy and Ethan have so much fun with. Emma is such a tom boy and she is Ethan's best friend. And Erin is much more girly so hangs out with Lucy. Here they are roasting hot dogs for dinner.
Lucas and Sarah spent plenty of time in their booster seats stealing food off of each others trays!
Here's the whole crew. We had fun hanging out and swimming at the pretty lake right near our camp site.
Sean was the official pancake flipper with a little help from his dad!
Sarah had to get in on the action. Even though she can't walk yet she still wanted to get in on some biking!! ha! Ryan and Sean gave her a good ride.

Goodbye to Stephanie!!

We love Stephanie and unfortunately had to tell her goodbye as she is starting college. It was not a fun day. She's like a sister to me. She has been our babysitter ever since Lucy was a baby and you really can't get better than Stephanie. She has been wonderful to our kids. She has so much love for kids but not just ours. You should see her at church. It's like she is Santa Claus. All the kids hover around her and wait their turn to sit on her lap or get some attention from her. And she is wonderful to give everyone attention and make them feel so special. Good luck at school Stpehanie. We miss you!!!

County Fair

Lucy entered the county fair this summer. She entered a painting and some photos. She enjoyed doing it and did a great job.

Ethan and Stephanie at the circus at the fair

Lucas had fun playing in the fire truck at the fair!

We all had fun going and seeing Lucy's stuff in the fair. Andy met up with us after work.

Lucy is pointing to the painting she entered