"Twinner" Outfits and Ty too

Kate wore a new shirt today.  I showed her a dress that she wore when she was a baby made out of the same patterned material  (no pictures to upload of the dress, since those were the days before we had a digital camera).  Kate thought it was pretty cool.

The baby dress now belongs to Hello Kitty.

And, of course,  I had to take a picture of Ty since I had the camera out.  Nothing like sitting in the road eating an apple.

Cosmo

While we were in Utah, we took a trip to Provo and visited BYU campus.  The guys went on a tour of one of the athletic buildings (I don't know what it was called since I was gone getting my hair cut).  Anyway...at the end of the tour they gave the kids a copy of the DVD, Cosmo, Back to the Future. 

Jack has watched this DVD multiple times since we got home last week.  He now pretends to be Cosmo (instead of Buzz, Andy, etc.).  This is fine, except that Cosmo kicks the bad guys in the movie, so we've had a few talks about that.

On Sunday, Kate made Jack this awesome Cosmo helmet. 

It even has a smiley face on the front.

This hat (that Jack LOVES and wears everywhere) was made out of a fireman hat that Kate cut apart and refashioned with duct tape.  Pretty creative.  Other kids will see Jack wearing it and say, "awesome helmet!"

I wonder if Jack will be disappointed when we go to a BYU football game and he sees Cosmo in person (hanging out with the cheerleaders).

First Grader

Kate started first grade last week.  She was so excited to start school again!

Kate loves her teacher Mrs. Brosha.  All of her close girl friends are in another class, but most of her favorite boy friends are in her class.  They are cute kids!  It's hard to believe that Kate is already in first grade!

Reunion Week

We spent a week in Utah with Dave's family.  We started out the week by going to the Emery County Fair parade and the Castle Valley Pageant.  We spent the week playing with cousins, swimming at the new Castle Dale swimming pool, trips to Walmart, visited the doctor with Jack (coughing and wheezing all night), cooked, ate, ran, celebrated our ninth anniversary, etc.

We took the kids over to some dirt hills to ride their bikes.

The kids loved playing dodgeball.  

The girl team

 

 Boy team

 

 We spent two days in Clear Creek all together.

The kids at the top of our early morning hike to the water tower before breakfast.

 

 

View of the town from the water tower hill

 

 The kids loved riding in the back of Grandpa's truck.

 Jack loved it too.

 

 The kids loved shooting Grandpa's gun

 

 

 

Most of the grandkids (minus three babies)

 

 Ty LOVED being able to scoot around on the dirt and get really dirty.

 

 The kids loved being with Grandma.

 

 Picking up bullet shells.

 

 Bullet whistles.

 

Catching snakes

 

Grandma planned a fun treasure hunt for the kids.  Kate and Katelyn were a team.

 

Austin and Jack were a team.

 

 Grandma gave all the kids fun prizes.

 

 Aunt Maggie made this great "J" pinata.

 

 The kids loved the candy that was inside.

 

 We all went on a hike.

Jack loves hiding off the hiking trail and scaring us.

 

The five baby cousins born last year

It was fun being with all of Dave's family together for the first time in three years.  The kids loved playing with all fourteen of their cousins!  It was a good time.  And we drove home on my birthday (after Maggie made me some fabulous chocolate birthday cookies).

Gutter Boy

Ty loves to be outside when the kids are outside and his most favorite place to sit is in the gutter.  Don't worry, I sit right by him and move him if cars come by.  Who knows what my neighbors think...

Little Miss Photogenic

Kate got her hair cut today, so I snapped a picture of her outside tonight.  This girl is so photogenic (and she has great hair).

Obi-Wan

Meet the new Obi-Wan (and yes, I did have to google how to correctly spell his name). 

We've been watching all the Star Wars episodes with the kids.  The kids LOVE them and Jack is a little obsessed.

Every Jedi has to have his own light saber, so here is Jack with his "light saver."  Jack said that if it's okay if he loses it because the older Jedi's will find it for him.

Jack Obi-Wan loves to fight anyone with his light saber, including his little defenseless brother. 

And, he's got some great Jedi-fighting moves (thanks to gymnastics class).

Summer

I'm so sad that summer is almost over.  We go to Utah next weekend and then when we get back school starts that week.  I'm trying to enjoy our last unscheduled fun-filled days.  Here are a few things that I've loved about this summer:

• listening to Kate read books and more books to Jack and me.
• spending hours at the pool watching my kids turn into little fish
• riding bikes waiting for Dave to come home from work
• playing at the park while Kate practices monkey bars
• playdates with friends (my friends and the kids' friends)
• spending lots of unscheduled time with my kids
• visiting family
• eating lots of good food
• Los Alamos weather (lots of rain)
• early morning runs

I snapped a few pictures of the kids last night while we were waiting for Dave to come home from work.

Kate was showing me her gymnastics skills

Jack and I (and Ty too) played a little game of soccer

One Year Old Ty

Well, now that Ty is officially one, he's decided to act older.  It's amazing to me the things he's started doing in the last week.

He was holding a ball the other day and said "ba".  Then after he gave it a hug, he threw it.
Ty has a fascination w/the stairs.  This morning while I was in the shower he sneaked out of the bathroom (I didn't latch the door) and was sitting on the top step when I found him.  He loves to throw things down the stairs too.  This is how Ty goes down the stairs. 

Step 1 -- turn around on the step

Step 2 -- sit on the step

Step 3 -- jump up and down and scare your mom to death (and no, he's not on the bottom step in this picture, I cropped the picture a little too much)

Step 4 -- try to get your legs out from underneath you w/out falling

Ty loves to be with the kids.  Whereever they are, he tries to go too.  That means if they are outside riding bikes, he wants to be out there too, not inside w/me while I try to make dinner.  Ty loves me to push him around on his little bike.  It's a great bum exercise for me. :)

Ty LOVES to play the piano.  I think it's from spending hours and hours sitting on my lap while I taught piano lessons. 

I taught Ty the sign for more the other day.  I've been amazed at how fast he picked up on it.  He's signed it on his own a few times and I haven't even shown it to him very much.  It's nice to know what he wants.