Rush Photoshoot

My camera is not the best and trying to get a one year old to sit long enough to take some pictures is, let us say difficult. Even so, we ended up with some pictures that I am happy with. I wish I had a cute hat for the motorcycle picture, but oh well. Some of them you can tell, I did not clean up at all, and yes I know his shirt is backwards. I did it on purpose because I liked the shirt but I didn't want the writing. We couldn't get a good picture of him standing alone not holding on to anything, so you get to see a bad picture. Anyway he apparently likes to stick out his tongue a lot but it is a cute tongue so it's okay.

Rush Turns One!

Matt catches Uncle Eric putting frosting on Rush's nose. His face wasn't dirty enough apparently.

Rush's birthday got to be a little bit scattered this year. We did some celebrating a few days early on the 4th since we had cousins there to celebrate with us. We gave him the awesome rocking motorcycle that I found at a neighbors garage sale. We also gave him a box of Kleenex to take out the tissues to his heart's content. On his actual birthday we did some fun stuff that the older kids probably enjoyed more. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for a while then we did McDonalds for lunch with my sister, and finally we went rollerskating. It was a full day of stuff that Rush observed more than participated. He did get to open more presents yesterday. I made him a blanket of fleece, he got some clothes and one of my favorite all time little kid toys, a ball popper. They are so fun! I can't believe he is 1 already. We are so glad to have him in our family. He is a fun boy and we love him.

He can stand for a few seconds on his own and can walk holding hands (I completely acknowledge that it is probably my fault that he isn't walking, I haven't really encouraged him at all, oh well). He feeds himself pretty much anything and is most happy when he is eating. He loves going up the stairs. Not a huge fan of down the stairs yet, but he's getting there. He loves playing in the bathroom, unrolling toilet paper and playing in the toilet. I was mortified the other day when Eden brought me his pacifier and telling me that she had found it in the toilet. I thought it better not to ask for any details and just sterilized it as soon as possible. He has his 4 front teeth (2 top and 2 bottom). He says uh oh and da da da da da. He sleeps through the night and has for months. He still gives open mouth kisses and loves being around his siblings. I think most of all he loves me, although Matt is not far behind. His smile has really changed since he got teeth. He crinkles his nose up a lot more. We all love him and can't believe he has already had his first birthday. Crazy!

4th of July/Take 2

So a smaller town near us held back their fireworks until the 5th so we decided to try again with the whole not getting rained on while enjoying fireworks thing. The kids enjoyed dancing to the music and playing the Hampsons who joined us for the fun. Gideon was being He-Man and the girls were being She-Ra which was of course not awesome, but they had fun. Rushmore was a pill almost the whole time. He was so tired since this was the 2nd night in a row that he was being kept up. His crankiness put a damper on the fun, but the other kids loved it. 2 days in a row with fireworks, can it get any better than that? Except now they have to wait a whole year for fireworks and I think they thought that they would be allowed to watch fireworks everyday since they got it 2 days in a row.

4th of July/Take 1

We kept on waiting and waiting to go to the field where we usually watch fireworks because the weather was getting progressively worse. We hoped that they would put off the fireworks until the 5th, but it was not to be. We ended up parked at the side of the road watching the fireworks in the rain. Doesn't that sound like drudgery! Well it was great fun. Gideon and his cousin Spencer yelled USA! USA! USA! the entire 20 minutes - 30 minutes the fireworks were going on. Except of course when they took a break to sing the National Anthem. These boys made it a very memorable 4th of July because they had a wonderful time even though they were getting soaked. Thanks Boys!

Also: Matt bought the kids She-Ra on DVD so I am mad at him.

8 Years!

So today is our 8 year anniversary. I can't believe that it has been that long and yet it seems too that it should be longer than that. I have a hard time remembering life BM(before Matt). It seems like we have always been together. Life together is not always rainbows and sunshine, but when it is, it is so wonderful. Married life is so much better and worse, fulfilling and lonely, beautiful and frustrating than I ever was able to imagine BM. Sometimes we fall out of sync and we have to work to love each other. Other times we are ridiculously in love. Most of the time we are somewhere in the middle leaning one way or the other. For the most part we are very happy together and life is good. We have learned a lot about forgiveness and being forgiven. We still have a long way to go, but I am so grateful to be on this journey with him. He makes me think about things that I've never thought about, he has improved my vocabulary and grammar even if I was a sometimes unwilling student, and he makes me laugh everyday. I love watching him teach our kids, tickle our kids, read to our kids, laugh with our kids and loving our kids. I still adore his hair and his laugh is still my most favorite sound in the world. He is my best friend and I am so grateful that in this whole wide world of people we were able to find and love each other. I love you Matt, and always will. Thanks for 8 wonderful years.