Peanut Butter and banana

I'm sitting here eating a BPB and figured this was a good time to update my blog, before mopping the floors. (Don't be jealous, you know mopping floors is a blast!)

Our most exciting news is that we're heading to Yellowstone National Park next week! Pray for us, as we are being daring and taking 2 kids, under 2, tent camping, for a week.... Go ahead and put the "insane" sticker on me now. God is really blessing us, because one of our good friends is lending us their bike trailer. We wanted to buy one for the trip, but now we don't have to. Then, some friends from church offered to let us borrow their 8 person tent, so we don't have to buy a new one! We're very thankful and incredibly excited. Now, I just have to remember to pack everything, like towels and sheets, food, etc. The things I Don't normally take on trips.

As for the kiddos... Hannah is sitting up really well, and trying very hard to crawl. Jon said she crawled like 2....legs? Not sure what you'd call it, yesterday. Then today, I set her on the kitchen floor for a moment (I don't usually since it's hard) and she laid down and pulled herself across the floor, to get the oatmeal lid that Zach had left. I was shocked! She has also been slowly cutting her top teeth. One came in last week, and one the past few days is finally poking through. Then I noticed she has a third one trying to poke through up top! Needless to say, between teething, and a possible growth spurt, I'm not getting much sleep, as she's been getting up 3x a night! UGH! She thinks she's a newborn again or something. She's also FINALLY eating more solids. We're up to about 2 to 2 and a half jars a day! That's a big improvement haha. And she's finally decided she wants to start eating puffs... we're still working on that fine motor skills part of picking them up with 2 fingers though. She also loves to pull herself up on things now, and I'm usually finding her standing in her bed talking when she wakes up. So yeah, she's growing up, too fast.

Zach is being Mr. Mischievous like always. For example, today, he had the oatmeal container, with spagetti pasta sticking up out of it, like a flower arrangement or something. Yesterday, he got out of the bath, and while Jon was grabbing a diaper, he ran in to the dining room, stood on Hannah's highchair tray that was on the floor for some reason, and peed on it.... yesterday he also brought me a sweet potato and a plastic fork and said "Pease! and my most recent favorite, I recently found that he had poured his snack in his potty chair and was eating it out of the bowl...yeah.... But at the same time, he's so sweet. He constantly asks me to hold Hannah (but only for 2 seconds, then he pushes her away haha!) He loves to give her kisses, or his stuffed animals... he rocks them like I rock Hannah (and nurses them lol!) He will randomly just crawl on my lap and go "Ahh" and rock back and forth, so I will rock him. He's a very sweet little guy, but a total boy.

As for me, I think I mentioned before that I'm doing a Beth Moore Bible study on Esther and OH.MY.WORD. FABULOUS! Who know that 10 chapters of the Bible contained SOOOO MUCH!!?! Amazing! I'm also about to take over our weekly playgroup at church. I'm really excited about that opportunity, to be back in my "element" some what, doing what I love.

Anyway, that's about it for the past two weeks. Here's a few pictures.

Standing up

Zach wanted her in the stroller so he could push her.

Fourth of July outfits
This is Zach's newest thing, laying on the coffee table
with one of his blankets and saying "awww...Night night"
(Yes, it's Hannah's blanket)

Busy busy

Wow, lots going on for us this summer. We returned from FL about a month ago (Yeah, it's been a while since I updated). We had a great trip, and picked up our new suburban. We LOVE it! The DVD player was great for traveling back across the country and keeping Zach entertained. While in FL, Aimee got to eat at the Loop and we got Firehouse, two important meals when in FL. We spent Sunday in St. Augustine with my parents, part of it with Tim and his girlfriend, Sarah, and the other part with Andrew and Katie. While there, we attended mass at the Cathedral, visited the Fort, the mission, got ice cream, and shopped on St. George Street. We also spent an great evening with Viviane, Mike and Story, and Aimee got to eat lunch with the girls one day.

On our way back, we spent some time in MO with Jon's family. While there, we had some BBQs, went to a park, went to the Bounce house place, ate at the Mongolean BBQ restaurant, and got to replace the alternator. Thank God it went out there instead of on our drive there or in the middle of Kansas.

On Father's Day, Jon also celebrated his 26th birthday. So to surprise him, I got some friends to come babysit, without him knowing, and took him hiking at Red Rock Canyon. We had lots of fun and then went to The Loop for dinner. Sadly, it's not the same Loop as in Jax, and this was Mexican. It was ok food, but Jax's Loop is much better!

Jon also just learned that he passed his test for Tech Sgt that he took in Feb! This is a big promotion, as it's one of the hardest tests to pass, most people take it 3-4 times, this was his 2nd time taking it. It's also a huge pay increase. Sadly, he doesn't actually get it until NEXT July.

Along with work, he will be finished with school a year from now, meaning he can go ahead and apply for OTS (Officer Training School). He has to lose a lot of weight and have his application in by Dec. We should find out by mid-March if he made it the first time or has to reapply. If he made it, he could be going probably as early as Aug or Sept of next year! This is exciting and scary for us. I am also working with him to lose weight on my own.

As for me, I've been doing a Beth Moore Bible study, Esther, at another church over the summer. I've really enjoyed seeing what God has to show me through Esther and Beth Moore really has a great way of making you dig deeper. I also just attended one of their summer MOPS meetings and really enjoyed it, and hope to participate in MOPS in the fall. The kids and I have also been going to the park most Wednesday's with our church's playgroup. This is always a nice break in the middle of the week.

Zach is growing much more independent and learning to listen to mom. I've recently started telling him if he doesn't stop, he's going to bed (as timeout). I've had to put him in bed once today, and ever since, he's done what I've told him to. He's being mischieveous still as well. FOr example, the other day he put creamer in a bowl of corn I was defrosting (Creamed corn haha!) but then he also has his sweet moments, like when we were praying at dinner the other night, he took his dog's hands and folded them in prayer. He's been playing pretend a lot lately. That is so much fun to watch.

Hannah is growing so fast. She's 7 1/2 months already. She has her bottom 2 teeth and is trying to cut the top one. She's sitting up really well and trying to get down on all fours. Crawling is defintely in her near future.

Well, this gives you an idea of what is going on for us this summer. I hope everyone else is having a great summer!