Arts and Crafts

Miles has finally started showing more of an interest in coloring and lately, drawing his own pictures. He definitely has a boy's eye for art - like this drawing that he explained to me is his Dad with a gun and bullets.

He is a bit older than Claire was when she started drawing people, but he adds a lot of details in his pictures that she never did in the beginning. The circles on the smile are teeth, he draws eyes with pupils, he uses different colors for hair, and his people almost always have arms and legs. Claire didn't add arms to her drawings til last year. Miles' preferred subject is Matt - while Claire usually chooses to draw me, or the whole family. I'm just glad he is interested in coloring, drawing and painting now. It makes me think he will be ready for preschool in the Fall. He is going to the fabulous teacher that Claire had - we already have our spot!

And here's a cute one from Claire Bear - my scan cut off the end of her name, she spelled it right. :)

Happy Birthday Matt!

Well, this is the year we are officially in our mid-30s - no more denying it. Matt just turned 35. Weird.

Time is flying by. And it's going even faster since the UNLV semester has started. Every week is so busy and scheduled and before you know it, we'll be 40. Ok, maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit. Let's just enjoy 35. Happy Birthday Matt!

You're Not Going to Believe This!

Claire came downstairs last night and said - Mom. Dad. You're not going to believe this. And then she showed us her tooth in her hand. She was messing with it all day - it's only been loose for a few days and she's already yanked it out. Matt said he used to do the same thing as a kid - at the first sign of a wiggle he would pull them. She's excited, and we already get to use the tooth fairy pillow for a second time. I promise to not post a picture of every tooth she loses, but she's our first so it's still exciting. :)

She's Mobile!

I'm going to go ahead and say Penelope is crawling, though not very fast yet and not very far. She can get to anywhere she needs to go through a series of rolls, rotations and lunges. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth and then moves her arms and legs forward a few times before going back on her belly. I am ok with this speed - I can still keep her in a relatively small area. But I know that fairly soon, nothing will be safe and I will have to seriously improve our baby proofing efforts. I am seeing choking hazards left and right. As Claire and Miles get older, their toys get smaller. A stray Barbie shoe could get us in trouble. Maybe this new development will help me be a better housekeeper too. :)

Sick House

So tired of having sick kiddos - when one gets better, the next one goes down with something or other. Now just the big kid (Matt) is still under the weather. And he can't miss school - apparently grad school is serious or something.

Favorite Disney Tradition

One of my favorite stops each trip to Disneyland is to the little silhouette shop on Main Street. Since this was Penelope's first trip, we definitely had to have her silhouette done. Her hair was particularly curly that day, so I was curious how the picture would turn out. The same woman has been there every time we've gone for the past five years and she is a pro. She takes only 2-3 minutes to cut out the shape using tiny scissors - and I love how she did Penelope's hair. 

Penelope Jane

Papa Hiller's Birthday

We celebrated Papa Hiller's birthday a few days earlier, the get together disguised as a football watching party. We played a fun game where you had to ask questions to figure out what was on the card strapped to your forehead. We looked silly, but it was fun.