Pizza!!
Cheesin'!

Sierra got a Little People train set from Ma and Pa for her birthday.

Here is Sierra all dressed up in her new clothes. Thanks to Aunt Becky and Uncle Eric for the dress and the shoes.

Sierra turned 2 years old today. She celebrated with the five of us by opening some gifts and dining out. As you can see, she loves baby dolls.
In a couple of weeks we'll be having a cookout with friends and family who can make it to celebrate her birthday as well as mine since I will be officially over the hill.

Sean started preschool this week. He loves it. His favorite thing to do inside is the nesting dolls/cups. His favorite thing to do outside is the great big sandbox. The preschool uses Montessori principles so he will be doing a lot of hands on learning. This is the same preschool that Callie attended in '98/'99.

Sierra and Sean enjoyed the summer with Callie home. They played a lot of dress up. Sierra was walking around the other day with Sean's clothes on her shoulders and head and asked me to help her with them. So here is her dress up costume.

Cuddling cousins.

Sean was making up a story for Raelyn using King David's puppet.

Here are the kids enjoying a beautiful day outside.

Sean was entertaining himself with the hula hoop and a blue stick.

Sierra attempted once to get the blue stick from Sean but he won the tug of war leaving her angry and slapping her knees.

She kept her eye on that stick for some time. She waited patiently for any opportunity to get the stick.

Sierra finally got the break she'd been looking for. Sean put the stick down and walked away. She picked it up while he wasn't looking and made a mad dash across the yard with the prize.

6th Grade!

Callie was very excited to start 6th grade today. We went to school and met her teacher last night and saw her room.

I went in Sierra's room to get her out of her crib this morning and I couldn't find her anywhere. Sean was missing too!

I like this picture of Callie and Sierra. They were playing dress up. I cannot post the picture I took of Sean or else it might be used to blackmail him when he gets older. :)

Sierra is getting more use out of some of Sean's outfits than he did. She doesn't seem to mind as long as I give her some pigtails.

Sean has his own tomato plant this summer thanks to Pa and Ma. Here he is with his first very own tomato. He had some for lunch. Sean is the only one in our home who likes tomatoes but Pa and Ma make sure he gets them every so often.

Like brother like sister. I don't normally see much of a resemblance but in pictures like these, I can see why I get a lot of comments about how much Sean and Sierra look alike. We also get a lot of comments about how much Callie and Sierra look alike.

I told Sean that I was not going to take his picture while he was sticking out his tongue. He politely obliged so I could snap this picture. I did not realize, of course, that Sierra had already begun copying Sean just as I snapped the picture. She copies just about everything he does. Once she begins potty-training, she will be disappointed to learn that she cannot stand up to go.

I was trying to sneak a picture of Sierra with Mr. Potato Head but she realized it just in time to scrunch her nose and give me a big "Cheese!".

Less than 3 weeks until 6th grade for Callie.

Fire destroyed the main building of Brands where mom recently "retired" (but was still working part-time) and where Jeff had worked several years. It appears to be arson.

Sean had a little accident with a fence post a couple of days ago. Fortunately, it wasn't worse.

Sierra smiles...

Here are some natural Sean smiles....

More Windy City pics. We did visit the beach on our vacation. This was the 31st Street Beach in Chicago on Lake Michigan. The water was 65 degrees and there was a very cool wind blowing. It was about 8:00pm Central time. Now that we are on Eastern time with Daylight Savings at home, it was nice to visit Central time when the sun is where we expect it to be throughout the day and when it gets dark when it is supposed to. ;-) In other words, we still have not adjusted to the new time zone. It is just weird for it to still be daylight past 9pm.

Sean is going through a phase where he gets these funny looks on his face when he is trying to smile for the camera. He puts such effort into it and it still turns out like this. At least for now, us girls are not having any problems other than bad hair days. :-)

See how big everyone is getting!

More Aquarium pics.

On our first night, we decided to find someplace to eat.... our excursion took us all the way around the outskirts of O'Hare Airport. It was pretty cool seeing all the huge jets coming in to land and those taking off. About every 20 seconds. Sean really enjoyed that since they were much bigger than what we see at our local airport.

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago was very nice. We did have to wait in line for an hour to get in, but it was worth it. There are a lot of people in Chicago.

Callie, Sean and Sierra got to touch Sea Stars in this touch pool.