Joshua had his ortho follow-up appointment on June 10th and everything looked great with his arm! We were so happy that he recovered so quickly from his broken arm. His water-proof cast sure was a conversation starter :).
On June 18th, we finally got to have some professional photos taken of the boys by our awesome neighbor. We wanted to wait until the cast came off. They turned out really well!
On June 21st, we went to a half-birthday surprise party for Theresa. it was a lot of fun! Brian and I also went to my friend Sam's wedding that evening.
Towards the end of June, Noah, Evan, and Joshua started swim lessons again with the wonderful Ms. Melanie. This was Noah and Evan's third summer of lessons with her and they both did amazing! They were swimming the length of the pool by themselves in no time. This was Joshua's first year taking swim lessons and he did amazing as well! Ms. Melanie kept talking about how he was like a little fish and none of her other three year olds had ever told her to "go farther" out into the water before like Joshua would do when she asked them to jump in and swim to her. He really loved it and became a fast swimmer.
The weekend of June 28th-30th, we took our annual trip to St. Louis to visit family. We had a blast visiting with all of our family there!
On July 17th, we drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a laid-back family vacation. The boys' Grandma Cathy, Uncle Sean, Great Grandpa Bob and Great Grandma Lynne joined us. We got to visit the Mall of America (which we loved), eat at the Rainforest Cafe, and visited Minnehaha Falls (where we rode bikes, ate a picnic lunch, and the boys got to play at a park there). We also went to a Minnesota Twins baseball game and had a ton of fun at Target Field. The last full day we were there, the boys got to ride a bunch of rides at Nickelodeon Universe, which is a huge theme park right in the middle of the Mall of America. They even got to meet two of the Ninja Turtles while we were there! It was a great trip.
The rest of July and half of August were full of more swim lessons with Ms. Melanie, until she went back to school. We also went to a wedding at the end of July.
Noah and Evan started soccer at the very end of July. They were on a team with 8 other boys, and their coach was Coach Destiny. They were the green ninjas. They practiced on Mondays and Wednesdays and had games for eight weeks beginning in August. They really had fun getting to know all of their teammates and being a part of an actual team.
Noah and Evan's first day of Kindergarten was on Wednesday, August 20th at Longview Farm Elementary. They loved it right away! Their teacher's name is Mrs. Mautino, and she already seems to love them!
Joshua started preschool on September 2nd. He has Ms. Miki, who is the same teacher Noah and Evan had two years ago. Joshua really loved school from the beginning as well! He is hard to get information out of about what he does at school, but he seems to be making some close friends. He also started soccer that following Saturday, September 6th! He is a light blue jay and LOVES IT! He scored about 12 or 13 goals in his first game alone...let's just say he's much more motivated than his brothers have been when it comes to soccer.
We celebrated Grandpa Mike's, Adrian's, and Aunt Max's birthdays in September (AJ turned 1 on September 8th!). Brian and I also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on September 15th. He bought me 7 beautiful red roses that were on our island when I got home from work that day :). Our church turned 50 years old this September, so there were a lot of activities surrounding that milestone, one of which was a 5K that I got to participate in. We also went to the circus on September 18th!
October was a big month for our family. On October 11th, we found out that John and Theresa are going to have another baby! The baby is due on May 23rd and the whole family is so thrilled that there will be another grandchild/cousin/niece or nephew :). The boys continued playing soccer, but Noah and Evan's season ended on October 12th. They really had a great season and we were so proud of how far they came. They each scored at least 2 goals this season! Joshua's preschool class took a field trip (his first ride on a school bus!) to the pumpkin patch on October 8th. He loved being there with his friends! I attended with him. Noah and Evan's class took a field trip to the same pumpkin patch on October 16th. They also had a ton of fun with their friends! I was able to join them as well. We celebrated Mia's 3rd birthday on October 18th with a Halloween themed party. It was a ton of fun! Noah and Evan's soccer team pizza party was October 20th. We really loved that they were a part of such a fun team this season! They made some good friends. On October 22nd, we had Noah and Evan's parent/teacher conferences with Mrs. Mautino. Needless to say, they are both doing fantastic! They are well ahead of where they should be with reading, and their fine motor skills just blew their teacher out of the water. She said they are amazing artists and their handwriting is fantastic. They are both very well behaved in class and she said they are both very sweet. I am so glad they're having a great experience with Kindergarten! They've already made so many new friends that they talk about all of the time. They've really matured just in these last couple of months. Joshua's last soccer game of the season was October 25th. He had a blast this season, and there were WAY too many goals to count :). Halloween was fun this year (it was on a Friday, so that made it even better). Noah was the silver power ranger (Orion), Evan was Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy, and Joshua was Batman. They all looked great and had a ton of fun trick-or-treating with Abby Walling and then hanging out with Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle John, Aunt Theresa, and Michael & Mia.
In November, all three boys took three weeks of swim lessons at the Lee's Summit R7 Aquatic Center (recommended by Ms. Melanie). They were Mondays and Wednesdays for those three first weeks of November. Noah and Evan took Level 2 classes and passed them! Joshua took level 1 and passed that as well. We might take them back in February for the next level of classes. They really loved the lessons at that place (much more than the ones at the Longview CC rec center that they took in May). On November 8th, we saw the Disney movie Big Hero 6. We all loved it! On November 13th, the boys had Grandparents' Night at their school. They took Grandpa Mike, Grandma Mary, and Grandma Cathy and got to show them all around their school. I think they liked it a lot! We celebrated Michael's 6th birthday party on November 22nd. He had a Power Rangers themed party...the kids had so much fun! Noah and Evan also got to go to a school friend's birthday party that next day at Paradise Park. They loved it. Thanksgiving was November 27th and it was great to hang out with the whole family :). The 29th was the Smithville Thanksgiving, which was great as well.
We celebrated Brian's 31st birthday on December 5th at BD's Mongolian BBQ with Cathy, Sean, Tony, and the Wallings. On December 6th, poor Joshua got a stomach bug (Noah had unfortunately had a touch of it a few days before) that kept him from going to a play with Noah, Evan, Grandma Mary, and Grandpa Mike that they had been so excited to go to. Noah and Evan had a blast, but Joshua was forced to stay at home with us and actually ended up throwing up from about 10:00am until about 6:30pm. It was not a great day for him. Brian ended up with it that following Thursday and was sick for most of that day. On December 13th, we celebrated Brian's, Theresa's and my mom's birthdays. Evan, Joshua, and I went Christmas caroling with our neighbors when we got home at around 6:00pm that evening. Joshua's Christmas program was December 18th (Mom and T's birthday) and he did AMAZING! He sang, danced, and even helped with a speaking part with a few other people. We all loved watching him perform and he says he had a ton of fun! Noah and Evan's program was the following day at their school at 9:30am, but I was very disappointed in it. They only got to sing one song, and Noah ended up standing directly behind the music teacher, so I couldn't really see him much at all. Hopefully they'll have some better programs in the future. On December 20th, we made tamales at Grandma Mary's during the day and then went out for Sean's birthday that evening. Christmas Eve was pretty laid back; we went to mass at 4:30 and then to the Miller family Christmas celebration at 6:00pm at Tony's house. The boys got all kinds of awesome things including huge Lego sets, scooters, a Zoomer Dino, and more. We came home and put cookies and milk out for Santa, food outside for the reindeer, read "The Night Before Christmas," and the boys got in bed. They even thought they saw Santa's sleigh while we were outside putting the reindeer food out. The next morning, they woke up at 7:00am and we came downstairs to see that Santa really did come! He brought Noah a Battle Rover (that's about as big as he is) and Millenium Falcon lego set, Evan a Bat Bot and Lex Luthor/Superman Lego set, and Joshua a Paw Patrol lookout tower with all 6 paw patrol figures and also a Luigi toy. The boys made out like bandits that day. They also got sweatshirts from us (Captain America for Noah and Evan, and a Big Hero 6 one for Joshua), light sabers from us, and Disney Infinity for PS4 from us (and all sorts of the figures that go with it). That day, our family came over at 3pm to celebrate. The boys got so many more toys and awesome gifts! It was a fantastic Christmas!
The next day, we went to see Night at the Museum 3, which the boys really liked. It was a good family day :). Tonight is New Year's Eve, and we plan to spend it with the Wallings. It should be a fun time! We hope that 2015 brings us as much joy as 2014 did. We are SO BLESSED!
