Friday, June 13, 2008

Summer and River

So, not to brag or anything, but I think my children are some of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen! Summer will be 6 years old next Friday and will be graduating Kindergarten on the 23rd. Making her an official 1st grader! That's hard for Clayton and I to wrap our brains around! She is already doing some reading and lots of writing. She is still an avid drawer and colorer. She spends most of her down time during a day playing school or drawing pictures. She's an excellent big sister and has learned to read River's mood a bit more. She also has a way of making him laugh more than anyone of us. Summer has slept every night with her stuffed animal Scooby Doo since she received it for her last birthday. Some nights I come to bed and she has surrounded herself in animals, but Scooby is always one of them. She took the death of the little duck quite hard, and the timing is bad with the end of school being here. She cries pretty hard every night. Its been about a week, we buried the duck in the yard and have created a little garden for morning glories to grow in it. I told her the duck's body with help feed the flowers and help them grow and that she can remember him when she sees them and hopefully smile. But, she is still very sad and told me last night that she will really miss all her teachers. So, we'll see how she feels once summer vacation has started.

River is growing super fast! A few of his favorite words are: "hi dada", "hi dude", "night,night", "bye bye truck", "mailman", "drink", "no!", "couch read book" (meaning, come sit on the couch mom and read me this book!) "all done!", "plane"
He loves to eat almost anything and everything. He loves to do puzzles, play with trucks and cars, going outside, playing in the pool and bedtime. He has given up some of his snuggling and teases us with kisses, meaning he offers to give one and then retracts from you when you get close for one, or sticks out his tongue for a lick instead! He loves the animals and talks about them often throughout the day. He talks about his dad going to work and Summer going to school during the day as well. His language skills are growing faster than I can keep up with and sometimes I have to ask him to show me what he means. But, mostly we understand each other. He's still a pleasure to be around most of the time and is a super smiley guy.

River's turtle backpack

River wanted to put this backpack on today and insisted on wearing it on our walk. He spent probably half the day with it on. He took it off for lunch. Very cute, I think.



Thursday, June 12, 2008

A river video I took a week or two ago and forgot to post

A video of little baby black bear from earlier in the blog-- dad, I zoomed way in and was far away and safe from harm

RIP- our little Common Merganser, "Quackers Obama"

This little guy was resecued by my sweet husband last Saturday. He was struggling and almost drowned with no parents or brothers and sisters in sight- the duck, not Claytie. He lasted at least until midnight the next day. He died somewhere between midnight and 4am when I woke up to check on the little guy. Summer has cried for a long time every evening since.


Cookie time!

I was cleaning up one evening and found that T-Rex here had a snack still in his mouth from earlier in the day. River must have thought he was hungry!


Along came the bear...

...and he decided to stay a while. This baby bear, 2 year old cub, came to hang out in Sylvia's garden for almost the whole day on Wednesday. He showed up around 8:15am when I was supposed to be walking Summer to the bus stop. He stuck around, eating food from Sylvia's feeder until about 2pm. At one point he lay down on the ground and ate while laying down. It must have been such hard work!



Saturday, June 07, 2008

YES WE CAN!!!!

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Jed and Sarah's Wedding: Flower Girls!!

Giving me their silliest faces.
Showing off their purses.
Showing off their special shoes.
Waiting patiently to go and be in the wedding!

Jed and Sarah's Wedding

Getting ready at Sarah's house.




Jed and Sarah's Wedding

Let's walk to the park!





Jed and Sarah's Wedding

"I'm getting married today!!"


Mother and daughter
"It's time to be in the wedding!"
Now, I have no pictures of the wedding ceremony because we were all a bit busy then. Clayton was one of the groomsmen, Summer was a spectacular flower girl, I performed the ceremony and River was at Buff's house.

Jed and Sarah's Wedding

"Just Married!!!"
Gabriel, Clayt-o, Justin and Lynda
The bride and one of her flower girls!
Coudl they be any cuter?
A little after-wedding lay down to ground from the stress of the last few months of getting ready for a big ceremony and planning to take care of close to 100 people.

Jed and Sarah's Wedding

My amazing artistic daughter took all of these!





Jed and Sarah's Wedding






Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Jed and Sarah's Wedding


River gives Justin a high five.
River and Summer both spent HOURS on the dance floor!!