John's First Father's Day

Father's Day was a lot less busy as Mother's Day was this year.  We started the day off with egg bake that I made since it is one of John's favorite.  Then we headed to church and helped out in the nursery.  John was excited about grilling ribs, so we ate that for lunch/dinner.  The weather was beautiful!  John worked outside getting our garden area ready, doing other tasks around the home, and he got to enjoy relaxing outside in his chair too.  We face timed both of our dads as well.  I should also mention that we all got to sleep in!  Kaden didn't actually get up until nearly 8:00.  (He really woke up at 6:30, but I put him back down because I didn't want him to need a nap during church time.  I am still trying to figure out a good sleeping schedule for him now that our church time has changed and playgroup is early).  Later on in the afternoon, we all played in the baby pool together.  I was very forgetful about taking pictures of our day, but here are a few of us enjoying the outdoors.

And I let John stay in his outfit only because it was Father's Day, otherwise I would have made him change his shorts...they totally don't go, but he thinks they do because there is blue in his shirt and shorts. :)   John wanted to wear his Hawaiian shirt, so we also dressed Kaden in his Hawaiian outfit that his Memo made for him.

 

 

The Past "School Year" in Review

Yesterday was the first day of summer break for me...what a break?! To me, this whole last year felt like a break, being able to stay home and be with my son and my nieces.  Friday was my last day watching my nieces for the summer...and then I get to watch them again next year!  A lot has changed from the beginning of the school year until the end.  I started watching my nieces when Kaden was 2 weeks old, Maja was 9 months old, and Ellie was 3 1/2 years old.  Now, Kaden is 10 months, Maja is 19 months and Ellie is almost 4 1/2 years old.  It's crazy how much kids change throughout one year, which made my days, weeks, months and year always changing!  It has been fun to watch Maja's development since she is only 9 months older than Kaden, and I can get a glimpse of what my life may be like in the future for Kaden.

Kaden absolutely loves his cousins, and I'm sure they love him too!  It is fun to have them grow up together.  Growing up, I felt very fortunate to live near some of my cousins and we always played together.  I still love hanging out with all of my cousins, including those who I didn't live near growing up, but was able to visit often and then go to college with some.  I'm sure Kaden will have many fun memories with his cousins.

Ellie was at morning preschool 3 days a week this year.  I didn't have to bring her to preschool this year, but I did pick her up.  We also went to play group at our church most Wednesday mornings.  John comes home around 4:00, so he got to spend some time with the girls too!  Other things we (mainly Ellie and I when she was here) did were...chalk and white board drawings, coloring, baking, number and letter learning, play school, ABC book, stamps, Christmas decorations, bead jewelry, park trips and walks, safari habitat, hide the object, dance parties, games, hopscotch, doll house, blocks, reading books, cartoons,forts, and lots of imaginative play-library, witch, house, dogs, etc!  plus so much more including many diaper changes, breakfast, snack and lunch time, nursing, and nap time, clean up, etc!  Maja showed interest in many activities that Ellie was doing towards the end of the year.  We also listened to a lot of music!  I am already finding myself turn on the Disney or Sound of Music Pandora station because I miss hearing some of the music.

I have taken many pictures, but here are just a "few" to capture my time with the kids.  It's very difficult to explain my daily life through pictures alone, and I didn't take pictures of everything, but here's a snapshot of my life the past year.