Monkey Firsts

Sharin' our first day of school pictures...

Em up bright and early, ready for the bus to take her to 7th grade (which means she was "too cool" for mom to drive her as tradition has dictated on the first day haha)
Trevor, ready for all the fun and excitement of 5th grade, his last year of elementary school!

And Carter's "first" for the week was first time sleeping in a big boy bed! We said goodbye to his crib and moved him to the bottom bunk of Trevor's bed. We also *sniff-from-mom* said goodbye to afternoon naps since bedtime was becoming too much of a battle. So he's really, totally, officially a big boy now!!

Just for nostalgia fun...a pic of Carter 7 months old in his crib
and Carter today all snuggled into his bed for his first sleep as a big boy!

Monkey Teeth!!

So it's been a pretty eventful couple of weeks teeth-wise around here...

Trevor got top braces last week
Emilee got full braces today
And Carter had his very first visit to the dentist, complete with full cleaning with the "buzzy toothbrush."

Say cheese!

We got professional pictures done this week. I've really been wanting to get the kids in as they have some important outfits I wanted to preserve for posterity. We found Emilee this shirt that says "Total Girl 1997" a while back. We were so excited as she was born in '97 and she just loved the shirt. And Trevor and Carter finally got their first official matching outfit from their Grandma Cathy (it's so hard to find them matching things as they are in two differnt sizing zones)!

Here's our very grown up and beautiful girl...

And here's two crazy cute brothers...

And these shots were "just because." Target has had this motorcycle out in the foyer for weeks to entice parents to come in for a shoot. And thought it isn't my cup of tea exactly, Carter had been dying to get his picture on the motorcycle. So here's Rough Tough Biker Carter :-)

Summer is comin' to a close...

Since a "back to school" post is almost due (like TOMORROW!) I need to catch up with how we finished up summer vacation. These are not going to be in perfect order cuz I'm just gonna load 'em up quickly...

I don't exactly have an explanation for this one...except Carter was cracking us up with his method of looking through his viewmaster and I just had to share.
Carter has TOTALLY gotten into going to Lowe's Build and Grow workshops on Saturday. It's so cute to watch him use the little hammer and create a neat project.

The boys and I went to an indoor play land to let off some "it's too hot to play outside" steam. Carter loved the slide
and Trevor had a blast on the zipline!
So we had gotten our monthly coffee shipment and I'd opened the box and walked out of the living room and then heard "MOM!!!! LOOK AT MY TOWER OF COFFEE!!! TAKE MY PICTURE!!!" It's hilarious as he's been really annoyed when I pull out the camera lately and this pic is of his own prompting.
So my garden was a rough go this summer. We had ONE of about seven squash plants actually take off and fruit (and then unfortunately it met an accidental demise). And finally our pepper plants are starting to produce something. It's putting truth to the rumor that we'd heard that they love extreme hot and dry, as that's exactly what we've had for two straight weeks. My beans never really got anywhere, and my tomatoes are FINALLY starting to turn orange...
Emilee went to volleyball camp this summer and here's a pic of her working on her overhand shot. Stay tuned for more volleyball as her competitive school season starts next week.
Art stopped by for a visit as he drove through town with a load and took us out to lunch. It was great to see him!!

Carter and I enjoying a train ride at the local amusement park.
We were invited to a friend's birthday party at an ICE SKATING RINK. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal except it's been like 932 degrees outside for weeks (ok, mabye really only 105-110, but you catch I mean it's been HOT)...so it was AWESOME to go into a chilly ice skating rink and bundle up and have cool fun for an afternoon. It was also Carter's very first time on skates and he did great! They have these funny walker type thingies for toddlers and he loved hanging onto that while I zoomed him around the rink!
This is one of our family's favorite activities to do together...fishing! We are ZERO so far for the season, but we are having fun trying!!