Celebrate

We started August off with Adri's birthday. We visited Longwood Gardens with Jason's family and Adri had a great time playing in the childrens' garden with her sister and cousins. We went to Gramma Nancy's for dinner and presents. Nancy made spaghetti but accidentally made the sauce with salsa instead of Ragu. It was . . . interesting.

Adrienne and Alli

Chillin' with Daddy

The face she makes went I ask her to smile

We had to put her up on the counter so she could blow the candles out without any help from her cousins

Three years old!

Exploring the childrens' garden

Time for presents . . .

Adri had no patience for dinner. She played with her cousins and opened presents and ate brownies and played some more. She loved her presents and now rarely sleeps in anything other than her new Ariel night gown.

Modeling her newest addition to her princess collection

Adri also had a check-up at the doctor's office. We practiced before we went and she did very well. She commented later that she liked the 'pink lady',' also known as the nurse. The nurse was very sweet plus no shots were required for us this visit. I'm guessing that next year the pink lady is going to go way down on the list of people Adri likes.

Now that Juliet has a whole year of life under her belt, she has decided to start doing some growing up. She has finally started walking. It seems like she saves most of her walking for when Jason comes home from work, as if she doesn't want him to miss anything. Soon after she started walking, well there's really only one logical step for a girl to take after that, she wanted shoes. She LOVES shoes. She gets upset when you take them off her feet and then tries to put them back on herself.




She is also talking. Her repertoire includes: thank you (da doo), mama, good girl (guh grrr), grampa (ba pa), grrrrr, and le nez (ne nay). It doesn't sound like much to other people who hear it but to us it is quite intelligible and sophisticated. I'm pretty sure she has given up on sign language and is now making her desires known by pointing and grunting. It translates about as well as sign language so I'm not going to push the issue. Then, after twelve long months of growing it, I finally cut her hair. It was not the disaster that was Adri's first haircut so that alone was enough to make me happy.

I'm not sure what she's thinking here, but I'm guessing it's naughty

I had an interesting month of work at Hallmark. For starters I found out someone stole my paycheck and cashed it. Then I did some research and found out it was my next door neighbor! We have mail slots in our doors and my check must have been delivered to her by accident. Then, NOT by accident, she signed my name on the back and deposited it in her bank account. Oh, the shame of it all. I had to file a police report and yadda, yadda, yadda, I got my money back. Now I'm just worried that I might cross paths with her, since she is still my next door neighbor, and things might be, hmmmmm, awkward? The good news is that, while working at Walmart one day, one of the Walmart stock guys tried to ask me out on a date. I had sensed that he was flirting but promptly talked myself out of thinking that as it was very unlikely that anyone would ask out a 28 year old Hallmark girl who is wearing a wedding ring. Well, it turns out it's more likely than I thought and I had to tell him no. Although it's nice to know that if Jason ever dumps me I'll have some high class dates lined up.

Jason, who claims he will NOT dump me, had a great month at work. He is being encouraged by his manager to look into positions in the IT group. This would mean more opportunities and challenges for Jason as well as more money for our family. We couldn't be more thrilled that he is at such an awesome point in his career! And while I am at my awesome career on Saturdays(working at Walmart) Jason and the girls have so much fun that I wish they would wait until I could come along. They go on picnics at the park and visit the library and all sorts of other things. Plus, he gets Juliet back in time for a nap and then cleans up the kitchen for me. What a dream boat!

She may not look it but Adri was ecstatic to have her Aunt McKenzie paint her nails

Juliet couldn't get enough of her Uncle Jarom

He even convinced her to give her Aunt Alixa a kiss

The second week of August we spent altogether at our Winn Family reunion. Jason's parents invited us all to their house to spend the week and we each had a day to plan something fun to do. We went to the beach, had a bridal shower for Jason's sister, the boys played golf, the girls went shopping and we all played whiffleball (I was voted mvp, and NO I'm not kidding), went bowling and went to the temple. The only bad new was that Jason lost a shoe and we're pretty sure it's either in the parking lot of the DC temple or the DC zoo. Jason is currently at the mall shopping for new shoes.

Adri's first attempt at bowling:

Juliet's first attempt at bowling:

The day after the reunion ended Jason had to give a talk in church. He took that opportunity, as he usually does, to mock me in front of our whole ward. I was sitting on the front row with the girls and so he made sure to shush me in the middle of his talk when Juliet got too fussy. I then stood up in front of the crowd and took her out into the hall. I haven't heard someone get such a good laugh from a sacrament meeting joke in quite a while. It was hilarious and people made sure to tell us so all day long.

Cheer Bear gets some good lovin'

Soon after it was our anniversary. Jason and I have been married for 6 years and we actually got to go on a date to celebrate the occasion. Nancy took the girls for us while we dined at PF Chang's then went to the movies to finally see The Dark Knight. We had a great time and so did the girls. When I look at the actual number it sure seems like we've been married a long time but the longer I'm married the more I can't even remember what it was like to not be married to Jason. It's like, wasn't he always there? It reminds me of the song at the end of My Fair Lady, I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Perhaps it's a little cheesy but I think that it's just part of what makes you love someone.

"Here's my belly button!"