Due Date!

Today is SEPTEMBER 1st!

(It is midnight, as I write this.)

Today is my official due date!

I am ready for this baby to come!

Spring piano recital

Ok, so I am sitting here SO BORED waiting for this baby to come. September 1st is my due date and these days are going by super slow. I never posted the pictures from the piano recital we had last May. I like to follow in my piano teachers footsteps and do two piano recitals a year. It is quite a challenge to get all the songs ready at the same time, but they always turn out great. I believe this is Maddie's 2nd piano recital. Too bad you can't see the faces too well of all the little performers. I have done the last few recitals in my home, but this one was done at our church in the Relief Society room. I had all the students come up for a final bow.

Here are all the girls that sang my favorite Disney song of all time. "At Last I've Seen the Light," from Tangled.

Josh did an excellent job. He had both pieces memorized and doesn't seem to get too nervous up there. I am proud of him for all his practicing. 15 minutes a day seems like an eternity for him.

I have decided to not teach through September and October, but I just can't turn away such fun and darling students now that I have grown attached to them. I plan to keep my students and find a way to make it work with 4 kids. That will be tricky but it has been a lot of fun teaching too!

Our dream.

One day, Dave and I have the same dream.......

An awesome memory!

The whole family at the Indy 500!

Josh and cousins.

Josh has been losing a lot of teeth lately. He lost his first front top tooth in Utah. His grandpa kept calling him, "Toothless from Tokyo." Josh has told me a few times that he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy, so finally I said, "You are right. There is no tooth fairy. Here is two dollars." (I am embarrassed to admit I gave him two dollars for a tooth, but I don't think Josh would take any less. He is very into saving money these days.) His next tooth he lost in a swimming pool a few weeks ago. The tooth fell out in the pool. Dave went searching for it but couldn't find it in the water. Two hours later, the lifeguard came and found us with Josh's tooth in his hand! What a life guard!! He waited for all the kids to leave the pool and then searched until he found it. Last week Josh lost another tooth. He won't put it under his pillow, he just reminds us every day how much money we owe him. When he keeps bugging me, I just write him a check. I can't believe how old this little guy thinks he is. He likes to check his bank account online and gets excited when he has more money in his savings than we do in our checking account!
Below is a picture of perhaps Josh's biggest fan! This is his cousin Will who just recently moved to Denver, Colorado. Will and Josh have developed the sweetest cousin bond over the last two years. This summer we drove through Denver twice to stay with our Ford cousins. Jessie decided to make it a surprise for her kids. She told Will that a very exciting thing was going to happen later that afternoon, but she couldn't tell, they just had to wait. Will was guessing all kinds of things, "Is Toys R Us coming past our house with a truck load of toys to drop off?" "Did I win the grand prize on the cereal box?" "Am I getting a new pet?" When we showed up at the Ford's door, the look on Will's face was truly priceless. I can't even describe how happy he was to see Josh. Tears started coming down my face as I watched Will run towards Josh and give him a hug. Will says to Josh in all sincerity, "Josh you are the greatest cousin I could ever ask for!" We love you Will! Of course Jake and Naomi are pretty awesome too!
Here we are with more of the Orme cousins on the 4th of July. I wish I could have captured the whole row of them eating their ice cream cones at teh baseball game. These are not little boys anymore, they are growing up so fast!

We had dinner with the Nebeker cousins in my grandma's backyard while we were in Utah. Josh is the oldest of all the great grand children. Every time we come back to Utah, they pick up where they left off. I love that my kids can have such wonderful cousins to be with.

Maddie wanted to show a little leg on this one. I like your green cape too Maddie.

Back in school

We are now in our 2nd week of school, but I wanted to post some shots of the first day for Josh and Maddie at TPCA. Joshua in 2nd grade, and Matts is taking on full day kindergarten! They are loving it! (And so am I!) When they look so cute together, you would never imagine they fight, right?

At least I know they do love each other too.

Actually, I must admit they are pretty amazing kids.

I love them more than they possibly know.

Summer Garden

We are still trying to get the hang of this whole garden thing, but it sure is fun learning a little more each year. This year our favorite veggies were the snap peas. My kids couldn't get enough of them. We still have the pumpkins to look forward to.

With me being pregnant this summer, (and in Utah for most of it) Dave did at least 90% of the work. Hopefully I can get down in the dirt a little more next summer.

Oh Tyler!

Fun times! There is a certain cupboard that must to remain closed at all times. This is why. Dave is the one who decided to take a picture the last time it happened. I can't count how many times this has happened. Over 10. So, my little man loves to dump all the cereal and basically swim in it.

The one most memorable time he did it, it was 5 minutes after a speech therapy session. I had a particular speech therapist whom I was not too fond of. She liked to hang around for an extra 30 minutes to chit chat about nothing while I was trying to get dinner on the table. So, Tyler went downstairs, and this woman continued to talk about something personal going on in her life as I started to get that feeling, "What is Tyler doing right now?" (I get that feeling a lot.) I couldn't make my escape downstairs fast enough and when I walked in the kitchen 5 boxes of cereal were dumped all over the floor. I was......really upset.......more upset than normal! I looked at the therapist as she started laughing and I didn't say a word, but I gave her a look that I did not find this funny! She said, "Oh my goodness, one day you are going to laugh at this!" Yea, one day I will, but not when it was the 3rd time that month!!!

I can almost laugh about it, but not quite. Maybe when I don't mind spending $20 on all new cereals.

The most recent little sneaky thing Tyler did actually did make me laugh. On Monday night we decided to eat dinner out on our back patio. While I was teaching piano lessons, Dave set up the table and chairs and all the place settings outside and started the BBQ. (sweet husband!) It was a beautiful night and we sat out there eating and talking for quite a while. I looked down through a crack in our back porch, in between the wood slabs, and what did I find?! About 10 DVD's that I have been searching for over the last 6 months. DVD's to the library, DVD's to Blockbuster, DVD's from friends, all kinds of DVD's that mysteriously went missing. Tyler decided putting them through the cracks in the back porch was a really fun idea.

I love my Ty!

Spring soccer and summer recap

I figure I should get all my old pictures up before I start taking new ones of our soon to be Orme baby #4. These were taken on one of Josh and Maddie's last games through Pike soccer. Maddie's first soccer season. She did great!
Dave coached both teams which was even harder than he thought. Two practices a week, two Saturday games, tons of emails, in charge of snacks, group soccer picture, getting trophy's, and keeping all the kids and parents happy, etc... I can't say I was much help, so I think Dave deserved the trophy last season.

It is fun to see a different side of Josh when he plays sports. He truly loves it!
Maddie mostly loved it because she made a new best friend on the team.

Tyler also doesn't want to be left out of the action.
This was Josh's last season with Pike soccer. We just started the "Indy Burn" team for this year. It is year round, two practices a week, games and traveling tournaments. And, Dave is excited not to be the coach. Dave plays indoor soccer with the Indy Burn coach for Josh's level and thinks he is excellent. This is going to be a big step for Josh with soccer.
We have already had two games and 4 practices. So far, so good.

These two little blondies are quite hilarious together.

And now for a quick summer recap...
It has been an awesome summer! I can hardly believe the kids will be back in school this week. Josh is excited about having a male teacher this year. His name is Mr. Cook and all the kids love him. Maddie will be in full day Kindergarten with Mrs. Lehr. She is the same teacher Josh had. She's great too! Tyler already started school last week and happily jumped back in as if he had never left. And now......this baby will be here before we know it. I am getting more and more excited.
So, I do not possibly know how to catch up from our big summer out in Utah. We kept busy doing all the things we love and spending time with all the people we love. Too many activities to name them all, but a few of my favorites include: A weekend at Bear Lake with my cousins, a night at the Alta cabin with my family, riding horses in Midway with the kids and the Ormes, spending a day up at Snowbird with Tyler and Maddie while Dave and Josh skied on July 2nd (there was a record amount of snow this year!), Raging Waters (Now bought out by Seven Peaks Resort), Maddie and Tyler's swimming lessons at Steiner for two weeks, BBQ at my brother's house, lunch up the canyon with friends, movie and shopping with my mom, baptism, wedding shower for Dave's cousin, wedding dinner, baseball game on the 4th of July with fireworks, spending time with old friends, and endless hours of cousin time for my kids.

Yes, I am addicted to Utah summers.

Tyler's last day of school.

My kids are officially out for the summer. Josh and Maddie have been out since the beginning of the month, but Tyler just finished up today. I finally got some pictures of him on the big bus that comes to our house every day. It is so great to see him excited to get on it everyday. I think Tyler is learning a lot of great things in his new preschool. He will start up again in the same class the 2nd week of August.

When I get overwhelmed by how "busy" Tyler is, I just have to remind myself how grateful I am for the happy boy I have. Some of the fun stuff Tyler has done in the last 3 days are: emptying a box of cereal on the floor (I should be keeping track. We have passed 20 boxes for sure.) Finger painted with ketchup all over our kitchen floor and chairs. (Now that he can open the fridge, he finds all kinds of stuff.) He broke our mini DVD player and VCR this week. (3rd DVD player, 2nd VCR. Yes, we keep them out of reach, but he is a climber and drags chairs around to get up high.) A few weeks ago he shoved Popsicle sticks into our vents in the mini van. The car was smoking when we turned on the AC. Dave spent a few hours taking it apart. There are two daily things that upset me the most. #2 Tyler throwing anything he can find off the table. Usually food and drinks flying as far as he can send it. #1 The CONSTANT struggle to keep his diaper ON! It is his mission to take it off 20 times a day. We have tried so many tactics to make this difficult for him, but I think it is time to pull out the duct tape.

But Ohhhhhhhh, we love this boy! Tyler has never had more than a 5 second temper tantrum. He might get upset for one second, but then he instantly reverts back to his happy self. And, he keeps us all laughing.