Cell phone pictures- Exhibit D

Before Kyrie got her own room:

Cell Phone Pics Exhibit C

A New Little Friend
My mom is normally a Great Dane person, but she got a chihuahua to keep my grandma company(although my grandma isn't too fond of animals in the house). My mom is also involved as a board member for her city's humane society. For the past couple of years or so she has been fostering some chihuahua dogs.

Anyway, the last time we went to visit her, Kyrie fell in love with this foster chi. Mom tried to convince us to take him home, but we aren't really the chihuahua types.

So exhibit C- Kyrie and Cole

Cell phone pictures-Exhibit B

Christmas lights. I love them. One of my favorite things about Christmas. It's nearing summer now(although it is still pretty cold here), but I'll post some Christmas pictures anyway.

Before we left Seattle, I took Kyrie and Jayden(Mark and Isaiah had already come back to Pullman) to a botanical garden in Bellevue where they decorate the whole park with Christmas lights. Really beautiful. Here is a picture I got with my cell phone. It's a swamp with swans, dragonflies, lily pads, and all sorts of wetland flora and fauna.

After Christmas, I did a girls' outing with Kyrie and a couple of my friends. We enjoyed the lights in Lewiston at Locomotive Park.

Cell phone pictures-Exhibit A

I drank too much caffeine today! Have been doing a little bit of organizing in my desk. Ran across my micro SD adapter. Fun pics that I've never shared before! I found 50 of them that were worth sharing, but you won't be bombarded with all of them now. Let's see if I get around to a post a day with different pictures to share.

Exhibit A:

Schnuzzle with Mr. Giraffe

Jayden schnuzzles again at lunch time:

Kyrie's Starry Night

The last couple of days in Art, we have been studying Vincent Van Gogh. Kyrie got to try her own attempt on The Starry Night.

Sleepy Boy

Jayden schnuzzled again today.

Mother's Day

I didn't get a chance to post pictures from Mother's Day besides the family shots that turned out oh-so-nice.

I tried to get pictures of me and the kids, but as usual, Jayden wasn't a willing participant.

Mark did manage to get a shot when Jayden peeked his face in to say "cheese."

Mark got my friend to watch the kids while he took me out to lunch. We were going to go to Mongolian BBQ, but I had mentioned that I wanted to check out Red Bento sometime, and at the last minute, we decided to pull into the parking lot and go for it. It was a good choice. We had California rolls and yakisoba with shrimp. The food was delicious and the service was pretty good. I was a little chilled in there because they had the doors open to let all the smoke(I think they burned some food) out.

Afterward, we headed to the U of I arboretum. This is the place where I used to go for quiet time when I was in college. It was the place that Mark proposed to me. We went for a walk around the trail- walked all the way to the end because I knew of a bathroom, and needed to use it pretty badly. Remind me not to drink a bunch of Dr. Pepper before I go on a nature walk. ;)

We saw a few bunnies.

Self portrait

The barn at the end with the bathroom. ;)

It was a beautiful day.

Why You Haven't Seen a Picture of Our Whole Family Together For a Couple of Years

I'd like to present exhibit A.

Just barely sit down and Jayden already proceeds to kick off one shoe and struggle. I try tickling him, but it's not helping. Isaiah doesn't look at the camera.

Exhibit B:

Isaiah looks at the ground while Jayden goes for the other shoe. Mark's smile starts to slowly fade.

Exhibit C:

Isaiah still looks away. Jayden is still not happy. Mark says,"Okay, we've had enough." Kyrie still has her pose.

So my apologies to my aunt who has been begging me for a family picture for a while now for my grandma's memory scrapbook, but you might have to deal with individual pictures. Or wait until my youngest outgrows his dislike of getting his picture taken- which could be 10 years from now. ;)

3 year check-up

I took Jayden to his 3 year well-child visit. I was kind of apprehensive about the visit today. I know that Jayden doesn't like anyone messing with him. I have to sit on him to brush his teeth. Hair cuts are not fun. I didn't expect today to be any better. It wasn't. He didn't want the pulse oximeter on his finger. He struggled when they were taking his temperature. We were already off to a bad start. If you are a faithful blog reader, you will know that the tears come too easily for me sometimes. I was already tearing up when the nurse took us to the room. We talked about my concerns with Jayden- mostly about how he was behind his peers in speech. Jayden played with the fun toys they had in the room- happy and seemingly oblivious to what was going on.

The dr. came in later, and we talked for a little while. We went over the things that he does say- fortunately, I had been compiling a list, and he was impressed with the fact that he identifies shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and even some words that he can read. He watched Jayden playing with the IPod Touch and commented on his fine motor skills. The doctor put my mind a little more at rest when he said that he was less concerned about Jayden's speech than I was. He did a quick check of Jayden(and Jayden showed him exactly how much he dislikes being messed with).

We will be going back in a few months to see if there has been more progress, but I have already enrolled Jayden in Headstart for the upcoming year. He will have access to a Speech Therapist there, and I'm hoping that having a little more interaction with peers his age will be helpful.

When we got home, I took his carseat out of the car. He has reached the 35 lb limit for rear-facing in his seat, so we'll be turning him around now. We have chosen to keep him rear-facing for an extended period because studies have shown it to be safer and more effective than forward-facing. I used this opportunity to wash the car seat cover(that thing was dang hard to remove), and now I will have to go re-install the seat so it will be ready for Mark to take the kids out tomorrow(I will be working crowd control for graduation all day). But here are a couple of obligatory pictures.