7 Month Whirlwind

Hi Everyone!! As it turns out, the busier I get the lower the ol' blog falls in my priorities. I apologize, as I know that it is important to keep our friends and family updated especially as everyone is so spread out. So, I will now attempt a 7 month, super condensed catch-up and work MUCH harder at keeping the next update sooner. :)

The kiddos are growing and learning and it never ceases to amaze me. As you can see in the pics we've been trying to keep up and keep them busy.

Raimi continues to move quickly through violin and has attended 2 violin workshops/camps already this summer. The last one was a week long and she had 3 different recitals. She was selected for the Honors recital, you can see it here . We've also got the Orchestra and the Final though Raimi's hard to see in the final. She is such a great big sister and Evan asks all day long for "Reemie". There is no one in the world that he gets as excited to see. She loves to read to him and he cannot get enough books. Though we've told her repeatedly that she needs to stop growing and stay 6 1/2 forever, she refuses to obey and keep sprouting up and up. She's lost a ton of teeth, the last at gymnastics just last week via an elbow to the mouth. :) She took it all VERY well and the tooth fairy gave her a little extra for her pain and suffering. :) She spends a lot of time in the pool and loves to dive for treasure. It's impressive how fast she can find a tiny little jewel on the bottom of the pool. :)

Evan surprises us every day with a new word, new concept or new place to climb. :D He is the stereotypical boy, with all his climbing, jumping, running, throwing, and building. He loves his Legos, books, and cars though too. He's named everyone in the house including Duke(DooDoo). He got his first haircut and we said goodbye to the baby curls but I will admit it was looking a bit too 80's mullet & needed to get done. :) He is a total fish and can't get enough of the pool. With his vest on, he swims completely independantly and loves to copy Raimi and put his face in the water while he does it. He climbs out and jumps in at least a hundred times. The bigger the splash the better. :) He's going to "school" (aka Mother's Day Out)for 3 hours on Tues and Thurs morning. It took a few weeks to get used to it but he loves it now and it's a great break for me! :)

Chris and I continue to be the same :) We love hanging out with the family and feel so blessed to have such great kids, such great times and a good life. God has truly been good to us still. Chris is still working at Pegs though they forced him up to the top floor. He'd rather be down in the trenches. :) He's caught the photography and video bug and doesn't get the time to spend editing and playing like he'd prefer but he's got a great eye for some cool pics and I'm hoping to get some of his stuff online soon. He takes everything in raw mode now which might not mean much to some but basically, it all has to be tweaked before publishing so therefore I am completely out of the family photo handling business. :)

That's all I can think of for now, I'm sure I missed a hundred things but like I said, I'll try and keep updates going more regularly and with more detail.

We miss each and every one of you that we don't get to see and hope God brings us together sometime soon.

Catching Up

Well again, this is a summary, catch-up post. I wanted to get some new pics out that have our Christmas and some cool random stuff in general. Chris has been playing around with photoshop and learning some stuff so I put some of those out here. I think they're really cool and he's having fun tweaking, which if you know him, is kind of a summary of his whole personality. :D

The kiddos are awesome! We had a GREAT Christmas break with Raimi here a lot of the time. She is a gappy 6 year old with 7 whole teeth missing. We love the toothless grin. Evan is running around and into EVERYTHING. If he can climb it, stand on it, pick it up, push it or find a button on it, he's game. It's cool watching his personality come out and he's awareness of himself. He gets very proud of himself for his accomplishments.

The Mayes crew suprised us with a visit before Christmas. We were in the living room and suddenly the door opened and in walked Keagan and Skyler. My brain could not comprehend what was going on...it was a very bizarre moment. :) We were SOOOO excited. Turns out God blessed us with lots of bad weather going north so they were stuck with us until the 26th. HOORAY!! We had a blast!

Anyway, check out the new pics in Cute Kids and the Christmas and Photoshop albums. Keep in touch!! :) LOVE YOU ALL.