Ryan's Graduation

We made a very short trip to Dayton for Uncle Ryan's graduation.  I wish we could have stayed a little longer so we could have visited a little more.

Getting ready to leave for graduation.

I was trying to bribe them with a juice but Eric was taking so long putting Ryan's present together before we left that I gave in and let them drink them out front.

Where's Ryan?

This is what Jared did for most of the ceremony.

Afterwards we went back and surprised him with his gift. (which was a bike that somehow I do not have a picture of....)

Then we finished off the afternoon with a walk to the park (which ended with us running back from the park in the rain).

Congratulations Ryan!

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Mallory Starts Pre-K

A few weeks ago Mallory started pre-school at a new school. I think she was most excited that she got a lunch box and that we get to pack her lunch everyday. When  I asked to take her picture she didn't want me to take one of her, just of her lunch box.  I can't believe how big she is, what happened to my cuddly baby?

With preschool apparently comes homework.  Her first homework assignment was filling out this poster all about herself.  It took us hours and she was so excited to take it in.  Little did I know it was just for the week and they were going to fold it up and shove it in her backpack the following week to send back home. 

Last, when we were shopping for fabric I thought it would fun for us to make one of these fleece blankets. Well, we ran out of time over the weekend to do it and Eric and I ended up staying up until midnight on Sunday putting the thing together so Mallory could take it to school to nap with.  The things you do for your kids, I swear.  I'm sure my mom had plenty of these moments too, I guess it's the circle of life. :) 

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Neighborhood Friends!

We have lived a lot of places and each place has something we've really liked about it.  I think the thing I like most about West Virginia is the number of kids in our neighborhood and the fact that since the community is smaller, even without coordination you are bound to run into a friend no matter where you are. 

Mallory and Noah painting at the downtown art festival.

Mallory has also really enjoyed playing with our neighbors and their really "cool" stuff :) We also watched thier cat and they have become obsessed with finding him everyday now.  They will definitely be sad when they move in a couple of weeks!

Unfortunately this trampoline didn't make it threw the storm (see "The Crazy Storm" post). 

There is a stream of water that creates mud up and down our street and all the little boys have rain boots they put on toplay in the

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Chuck E Cheese's

We went to Chuck E Cheese's one time when Mallory was really little and it was so disgusting that we never went back. When Mallory got invited to a birthday party there I hesitated on the decision of whether or not to go because I thought, if it was bad in Colorado, what was West Virginia going to be like. Surprisingly, it was actually well maintained and the kids had a great time.  Unfortunately, I liked it better when they didn't know what that building was, now that is all we hear about when we are in the vicinity of the building.

Mallory kept asking why there was a real Chuck E and a robot Chuck E.

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A Clean Car, Finally!

I don't think I've ever gotten as excited as I do now when my car is clean.  Everytime I clean it, I swear it is never going to get as a bad as it was before I cleaned it, but it somehow always finds it way back to a crumb-, toy-, paper-filled, sticky mess.  Eric's car on the other hand is spotless, as if no one has have been in it -oh that's right, no one has ever been in it.  My car would be clean too if I was the only one ever in it! Eric thinks if he were the one picking up the kids everyday that he would take everything out of the car every time and they would never eat in the car...do I need to even say anything more than haha!?!? 

I had to take a picture to prove we actually do ocassionally have a nice looking car :)

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Florida Keys 2012

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We went to Florida for the week for Uncle Dan, Aunt Lisa, and Natalie.  It was a very relaxing vacation and was one of the better trips we've taken.  The kids did great on the flight and drive to the keys and had a blast playing in the sand, the ocean, and the pool.  The guys had fun golfing, playing basketball and tennis, and fishing.  We also went to the dolphin research institute and to the turtle museum.  Mallory was so excited because there was a turtle named Mallory :)  Here is a photobook I made from our trip. It's not narrated, but it's the best I could do with limited time.  I plan to post the pictures at a later date so it prints when we print our blog, so in case you can't view the above, those same pictures will posted soon. Enjoy!

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Mallory's 2nd Year Dance Recital 2012

I thought about taking Mallory out of dance and trying another activity, but she loves it. She gets to be around friends, she doesn't have to get hot and sweaty, and she gets to dress up and dance on a stage. 

This is the chaos when I dropped her off - did I tell you how glad I am that I did not sign up to be the backstage dance mom????

It was so bright out I could not get a good pictures of her not squinting.

To get tickets you had to go on a Saturday and wait in line for 2.5 hours...no thanks.  Luckily we only needed two, so we ended up getting two tickets on an aisle after the fact without waiting in line .  Jared actually did really well and was captured in with all the music and dance.

Mallory thought it was so cool to put on makeup.  She just thought she was something else.  It's so weird to put makeup on a 4 year old...

I was able to record this video during the rehersal the night before.  It's a little all over the place because I was trying to keep Jared from running away, but you get the gist. (she is teh one in the middle in the back)  http://youtu.be/aSDaku1-8Rg

We are going to try out gymnastics this summer and we'll let her choose which one she wants to do for the fall.

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