Yesterday, Asher got his first turn at the kiddie pool. He loved it after he got himself accustomed to the water temperature in his own way!
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| step 1: grab a cup |
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| step 2: dump it on your head |
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| step 3: laugh about it! |
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| Freshly squeezed water! |
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| joy |
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| our busta man |
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| His fav thing to do: stand up and jump… |
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| then fall down! |
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| Ella and Asher having a blast! |
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| Then Asher got stuck over the side of the pool when I put his floatie on |
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| But Ella saved the day! |
Happy Mother’s Day weekend!
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| My mom pregnant with my brother! I was 2 1/2 yrs.old |
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| James with his mom! He was pretty amazed at her! |
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| The first moment I became a mom! June 3, 2004 Rilyn showing off her pipes! |
Ella had the honor of the first swim of ‘kiddie pool season’ this year at our house! Since we are in the low 90s already, I think the time is right! I signed up Ella for ‘advanced swimming lessons for ages 3-5’ in June since she did so good last summer, but now I’m having second thoughts…what do you think? 🙂
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| I asked Ella to swim |
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| Choking after holding her breath under water |
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| trying to back float |
It was sure fun taking pictures of our little cutie!
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
The End
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| I’m foreseeing lots of this with my girls! |
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all my teacher friends out there! I’m not just saying this because I used to be a teacher (well maybe I am!), I believe being a teacher is the second hardest job in the world-second only to being a mother! 🙂 Imagine having a hard day as a mom with your kids. Tough right? But maybe you can just pop in a movie and close the play room door and tell them “mommy needs a break.” Well teachers sometimes have a tough day times 10 (2 kids x 10), plus all the kids are the same age BUT with very different abilites on the way they learn and behave. Then throw in paperwork such as turning in lesson plans, progress reports, report cards, individualized education plans for children with special needs, behavior plans, testing reports… Don’t forget the pressure from parents, the principal, and the state to be at your best every day!
So to show our appreciation for Rilyn’s teacher, Ms. Kerley, we are inviting her over for dinner tonight! Rilyn is over-the-moon excited! We bought her favorite dessert, drink, and favorite flowers (thanks to the PTO who handed out papers with each teachers favorite things on them). We love Ms. Kerley and I just really appreciate her organization, routine, gentle spirit, and love for her class.
Here I am at my first teaching job out of college! Teaching 3 year olds at Carver Early Childhood Center in Bryan, Texas. Can you tell I look exhausted?!? (And those high waisted pants with short shirt combo wasn’t working for me!) In this picture it is teacher appreciation week and each child brought me a flower that day! You can see my beautiful bouquet in the middle! That was a very hard year for me, but days like that make it all worth it!
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| May 2002 |
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| Rilyn’s kindergarten class picture! |
There is a reason I chose ‘date parties’ as my theme which I will get to in a second. Here are a couple date parties from college where James and I had to dress up. Seriously, I have tons of pictures from formals and date parties in college! James was in BYX (Brothers Under Christ) and I was in ASC (Aggie Sisters for Christ) at A&M so that generated a lot of silly themed date parties!
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| ASC Shindig-May 1998 |
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| BYX ‘Blue Collar Bash’- James was wearing hisold Golden Corral uniform! Check out his earring!! 🙂 March 1998 |
Now this next date party picture is significant. This was the BYX E.R. date party in April of 1999 and it was my ‘brilliant’ idea to dress as a very pregnant wife about to give birth. Cute idea, right? Well, James broke up with me about 2 weeks later for 7 months. Now, this date party costume definitely was not to blame, but I couldn’t help but think how stupid I was after the fact! You can almost see the look of fear in James eyes in this picture! Like, “What the heck? Julie looking pregnant is freaking me out!!!!” 🙂 Anyway, another reason this picture is significant is the guy in the picture with us, Noel Johnson. He is one of our best friends from college. He is going to be on a Travel Channel reality show tomorrow night called America’s Worst Driver. So fun! (9 p.m. central time) We are very excited to watch him and we hope you will watch too!
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| BYX E.R. date party-April 1999 My handmade shirt says “Somethings Cookin’
In The Oven”James’ shirt that I made says “Proud Papa to Be” |
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| And just for kicks, here is another picture of Noel with Carson and James. Yes,
James is my HUSBAND in this picture and I let him bleach his hair AGAIN! He obviously still had another year of college left!! July 2001 |
Rilyn had her ‘good behavior’ kindergarten field trip yesterday. It was fun to go with her and see her play with her friends at school. We went to Extreme Fun in Austin which is a bounce house place. Rilyn especially had fun jumping in the germ foam pit!
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| Rilyn being chased by one of her friends |
We took Asher’s two year portraits yesterday. My expectations were very low considering I’ve been through this twice before and they, (portraits at age 2), are always super frustrating. Trying to convince a two year old to stay on a boring white backdrop is hard. Then getting him to stay in one place and smile for a stranger? Ugh. But my OCD prevails and I must take birthday portraits of each child every year, within a week of their birthday, and it must be at Picture People with a white background. Then I hang the chosen portrait on my wall chronologically, (and yes, I bought 54 matching frames-18 years x3 kids)!
The fun really began when we got to the mall (a good 35 minute drive) and Ella announced that she ‘forgot to wear her shoes.’ Grrrr. Well, I wasn’t about to let her walk through the mall barefoot, (I’m a big rule follower-no shoes, no service!), so I put her in the umbrella stroller and carried Asher who was now tantruming because he wanted to go in the stroller. Pushing a 40 lb. child in an umbrella stroller is hard. Pushing a 40 lb. child with one hand because you have a toddler on the other arm is harder. Pushing a 40 lb. child in a stroller with one hand because your toddler is tantruming in the other arm is the hardest. (Did I mention I was also carrying a very overloaded diaper bag?!?) So needless to say, I was off to a great start!
The portraits were better than expected because I got two good shots of him. (I thought I might get one.) 🙂
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At Asher’s party, I had to take the opportunity to take a picture of the 5 kids that were born within 11 months of each other. You see, we all live together in the same neighborhood, all attend the same church, and all but one of both moms and dads went to Texas A&M together too! In fact, many of us were roommates with each other! I pray that these kids will grow up to love each other well and be best friends. Did I mention that we took this same shot in July of 2008 when two of them were newborns? I can’t resist comparisons, so here is the group shots!
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| Halle Peck, Malachi Suh, Asher, Gavin Collins, and Caden Richardson |
On Friday we had a little shindig for Asher’s 2nd birthday. He loves Elmo so choosing a theme was easy! We invited Miss Staci Gray, a local Austin children’s singer, that Asher and I see at the library once a month. We have both her CDs and he loves her music! Asher’s first private concert at age 2! This boy just might grow up to love music, ya think?
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| Totally reused this cupcake stand from Rilyn’s 2nd birthday! |
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| trying to be cute and succeeding |
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| Decor |
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| Miss Staci |
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| Asher is mesmerized |
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| Yay!!! |
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| a dancing fool! |
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| So this is my sister with James and Asher. I know I’m probably supposed to be in
this picture, but I just love being the one to take the pictures! Thanks Jessica! |
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| Cupcakes and ice cream-yum! |
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| tasting the frosting |
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| showered with gifts! |
Today is Asher’s 2nd birthday! He tantrums ‘challenges us’ in ways that we’ve never experienced, but also blesses us in ways that only a little boy can! Asher loves cars, his sisters, listening to music (especially worship music!), sleeping, Super Why and Elmo, having mommy hold him all day, and daddy chasing him around the house! He is a chatter box, (how can you not be when you have two older sisters who talk all day?) and loves saying, “Where’s the ball?” with both hands in the air. Or “I want this!” “Oh my gosh!” “I want to eat!!” He still signs ‘yes’, ‘please’ and ‘all done’ and it is so cute because he does it while he is saying the word now so as to add extra emphasis that “yes” he really wants that! (And if you don’t give it to me in one second, I will tantrum!) 🙂
I think if he really knew what was fully going on, (like that it’s his birthday!), he would say he had a super fun weekend with friends and family! Yesterday we had an Elmo birthday party for his buddies, he received lots of boy toys (now he can push a lawn mower outside instead of a stroller!), and his favorite singer, Miss Staci, gave him a private concert at his party! Today he endured both his sister’s soccer games, but not without many treats! Donut holes and cheetos for breakfast, unlimited goldfish crackers and french fries for lunch-with ice cream! (What a nightmare for any dentist/nutritionist/doctor/parent-take your pick!) But you only turn two once, right? I will be posting probably everyday this week with pictures from his party, his birthday portraits, etc. But for now, enjoy these pics from the soccer fields today.
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| From April 2010 |
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| From April 2010 |
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| From April 2010 |
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| From April 2010 |
the paquettes 