Class of 2012

My little brother graduated from 8th grade. He has always been a smart guy- I think he gets it from his oldest sister. ;) So he was the Valedictorian of his class, and I am so proud of him! At the ceremony he did the invocation. They had a slide show of pictures from when they were little. (I already picked a good one for the high school video...) After graduation they had a big party/dance for all the new freshmen and their families.

It is HARD to take pictures inside the school and in a DARK dance hall. Big-sister-goggle pics I guess you could say.

Jared:

the two highest-ranking students:

the invocation:

Dad and Jared:

Jared and Jodie (rare moment):

Jared and Chris (love this one):

Mom and Jared at the mother-son/dad-daughter dance:

My brother is crazy!

and um, so is my sister....

Chris had lots of fun...

dancing with girls. (breaking Mommy's heart)

He helped clean up, which he does not do at home.

Congratulations graduates! Best of luck in high school!

Memorial Day weekend

By some miracle, Buddy got three days off in a row. That almost never happens. We decided to go visit his family which is about 3 1/2 hours from here. We were going to leave on Sunday morning, but when Buddy got home late Saturday night we decided to just go then. He figured since he can't sleep for a few hours after he gets home anyway we might as well. Plus Chris would sleep in the car and when we woke up on Sunday we would be ready to do something fun. The first half of the trip was fine. I like staying up late, and we were just talking and listening to music. After a couple hours though we were tired. I dozed off a little even though I tried to stay awake and keep him company. When we finally made it to his sister's house we crashed out. We didn't wake up till his sister got home from church. We had fun that day though. We took the kids to the park to play. I guess everyone in town had the same idea, because for a tiny little town the park was really crowded! It was really hot but Chris got to get ice cream from an ice cream truck for the first time. We went out to eat a couple times and basically just hung out at his sister's house the whole time. It was a pretty nice visit overall.

Chris doing a little bit of rock-climbing:

our nephew Christian. He is getting so big!

Buddy and his uncle Gary. Gary had a stroke a while back and Buddy hates to see him getting old and feeling bad. But he will treasure a picture of them together one day, and besides he doesn't read my blog so it's all good. ;)

Hot Shots Soccer

Chris has been playing on a soccer team this spring. They have soccer classes for kids that are too young to play in the regular soccer leagues. Chris will not be 3 until the end of July, so we went ahead and put him in with the younger 2-year old class since that is more the age of kids he will be in school with. Plus, to be totally honest, since he is not in daycare or anything I was a little afraid he would not respond well to the structure of a class so I didn't want him to be behind with the big-2 and 3's class. Today was the last day of the spring season. We have had so much fun! Chris has really come a long way in the past couple of months also.

He learned how to wait patiently for his turn:

made a few friends (and flirted with girls):

lots of things on the obstacle course:

how to pass...

and SCORE!

What would a 2-year-old class be without a little bit of DRAMA?

This is his favorite part. They put their hands together and yell, 1-2-3...HOT SHOTS!

At the end he got his trophy. He was so proud!

butterfly

We were outside and this sweet butterfly kept following Chris. It was really nice and let him hold it. He thought it was pretty cool. I had to take a picture even though I was afraid he'd squish it. I am happy to say that the butterfly left us safely, off to "find his mommy butterfly."

happy birthday to me!

Today I am 25 years old. Or "too much old" according to Chris. I love my birthday, though I really am not crazy about the idea of getting older anymore. We will probably go shopping today, and then this evening we will eat with my family and a couple of friends. I think Buddy and I are going to go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall tonight. I've heard it is really funny.

Baby Emma.

Emma's parents wanted me to take a few pictures of them to give to their parents. I have a long way to go before I can really feel good about taking pictures for other people, but since I know them and need the practice I figured it would be okay. Emma is such a precious baby. She's 4 months old, and she has the most adorable smile. But she HATES cameras. No, she doesn't get upset like some kids do. But she likes to show the camera her "stank eye" or at the very least a little frown. So I took some of her with her mommy:

and her Daddy:

And when we were done, we headed back inside. When we got to the porch and my camera was down, wouldn't you know it, she was all smiles. I tried to capture them and this was the best I could get before the mean looks came back. Too bad her other arm was cut off.

Afterwards she played with her big brother a little bit and I managed to sneak up behind them.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to me, my mom, and all my mommy friends. Being a mom is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. My son brings me joy and laughter every day. I am lucky to have a mom who is like a best friend to me. To all the moms out there, you know what you do, and you deserve to be celebrated!

summer fun

It's starting to get hot. It's only the beginning of May so I know this is nothing compared to what it will be like in a couple months. Still it's in the mid-90's and it is pretty much too hot to play outside for most of the day. Today we decided to break out the kiddie pool in the backyard and let Chris swim. I think we need a bigger one though, because Buddy and I were not enjoying ourselves as much as he did.

prom 2008

Tonight Jodie and Jake went to prom. They are only sophomores but they were able to go with a group of friends. Becca and Kody came over too and waited for the limo to pick them up. Jodie was absolutely beautiful. She looked like a princess. Jake was fun and crazy as usual.

Jodie and JakeKody and Becca

Finally the limo showed up. It was huge! Everyone got out to take a few pictures then they headed off for their exciting evening. Have fun everybody!