Photo montage

Here they are! The three musketeers! 

ZACK! 

GAVIN! 

CHLOE! 

Zack's favorite activity at church is playing his guitar with Papa. 

When you run out of toys, the laundry basket always makes for good fun. 

Keeping those little minds sharp, even during the summer! It's workbook time!

The fourth of July. Look at those cute smiles! 

Playing horseshoes on the Fourth of July. I think it was a tie. 

Thanks

Hello friends! 

With just a little over 24 hours until we say, "I do" things are feeling a bit busy and crazy right now! Just wanted to send a quick note to say thank you for all the kind words and well wishes. Chuck and I are very excited to be gettin' hitched and joining our families. I will post a few pictures of life around our busy house and will post more when we return next week from our honeymoon in Disneyland ... sans children! :) 

Much love

-- M

Out of the mouths of babes

One thing is for sure ... Chuck and I are challenged daily with the day-to-day workings of a family of five. Making meals, getting dressed, giving baths, etc etc. However, we have also discovered that laughing will be a large part of our lives. Laughing not at the kids, but at the absolutely hilarious things to come out of their mouths. There are have been a few times where we were left nearly speechless with the phrases that emerge. I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few with you.

THE FOURTH OF JULY:

My parents hosted a party at their house and my sister and her husband were there, along with Chuck's parents. Unfortunately, Chuck woke up with the stomach flu so he had to sit this one out. No worries, I packed up the car and the three kids and we were off. We pass the school each time we leave the house, so the kids wanted to know why they weren't going to school. I told them it was a holiday and we were celebrating America's birthday so they didn't have to go to school today. Zack wondered if we needed to sing "Happy Birthday" and started to sing but was quickly told by the other two that it wasn't necessary. Then everybody joined in and we sang anyway.

After we arrived at my parent's house the kids immediately jumped into the activities awaiting them. About 30 minutes later, Chuck's parents arrived. As soon as they stepped out of the car Gavin shouted, "Happy Fourth of July" to which Chloe responded, er, yelled, "It's a holiday!"

CHLOE:
Chloe loves to sing and talk. In fact, she could sit next to someone she'd never met and carry on a conversation. Actually, she'd probably just talk and not allow the other person to say a word, but you get the idea. One thing that generally makes us laugh is that she will come up with the most random statements to share and then completely contradict herself. There have been several occasions where Gavin has asked, "What are you talking about?" Chloe can't really answer that question, but the exchange makes us giggle.

The other day while riding with Chuck in the car Chloe was rambling on about pink unicorns, or something. She was getting a bit loud about it so Chuck asked her quiet down. Her response: "Dad, I have to speak the words that are in my heart." Now what do you say to that!?

Chloe also imitates words and phrases that she hears ... even if she doesn't understand them. Actually, if she doesn't understand what was said she will usually substitute her own words. Little Einsteins is favorite around our house. At the end of the mission, the Einsteins usually say, "Mission Completion!" Chloe's interpretation: "Mission on the Cleveland." :)

ZACK:
Zack is completely in love with technology. He was given the chance once to send a text message ... well he just hit buttons so that a completely mish-mash of letters and numbers were sent to the other person. Now if he sees my phone he tells me that he needs to send emails. He usually follows it with, "I have some, Mama. I have to send some emails." Makes me smile every time.

The other thing Zack does that makes us smile is his excitement and repetition. For example, Chuck and I are sitting on the couch. Zack asks me if we can watch a movie and I say yes. He will then turn to Chuck and say, "Mama said yes, Chuck! Mama said we could watch a movie!" He does that with anyone sitting around him. It's like, "Did you hear that? Did you hear the good news?!"

GAVIN:
We are astounded on a daily basis at Gavin's ability to learn song lyrics. He can hear a song once or twice and then sing the main melody. He doesn't just learn the words, but also the tune ... and he's usually right on key! Our latest songs in the car have been the Fisher Price alphabet song. Each letter has a song and the kids love to choose different letters and sing the song. It didn't take very long for Gavin to learn the "C Song." Of course, his singing it repeatedly means that we all get the song stuck in our head! :)

Out of the mouths of babes ....

Much love,
--M

Our busy week ... :)

I suppose that starting the blog was a good idea, but finding a spare few moments to type out the events of the week has proved more difficult than I would have expected. I'll do the best I can with the few minutes I have ... :) 

This week I spent most of my time at the Sacramento Convention Center in training for one of the classes I'll be teaching. The class is called AVID and last week was the summer institute. I learned quite a bit , but also found that attending any kind of convention from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. is exhausting. I have little room to complain though ... 

Chuck spent the days and afternoons at home with all three kids. He found time for riding his bike, although since the smoke has been so bad most of his training has been inside on his trainer. With Nationals just one week from today, he's had to get a bit creative in his efforts to ride. This morning at 6:30 a.m. Chuck and his friend Chris (who is also training for Nationals) headed up to Donner to try and escape the bad air. It will be nice to get to Vermont next week just so we can breathe some fresh air! 

On Wednesday, Chuck had all three kids home all day. They built some wild forts in the living room with lots of blankets and pillows and also managed to do some "school work." In an effort to keep their little minds fresh, we purchased a workbook for each of the kids. With two in preschool and one entering first grade, it's a lot of color, but BOY is it FUN! :) 

So, let's see ... tidbits about the kids: 

GAVIN: I'm not sure there is enough food in our house to keep this guy satisfied! From the time he got home on Friday (about 12:30 p.m.) until bedtime, he never stopped eating. He must have a hollow leg because I'm not sure where all the food is going! Funny story: Today Chuck was telling me how much Gavin loves corn. I believed him, but nearly fell out of my chair when Gavin said he would choose corn over chocolate chips! THAT'S impressive! As always, Gavin is enjoying building with Legos and usually leads the charge when it comes time to build forts. Gavin was the top reader in his class last year and we've been spending time reading books and practicing. 

CHLOE: She had the big event of the week ... her first haircut ... EVER! It was a lot of fun! The hairdresser took off about four inches and Chloe enjoyed every second of it. She got her hair washed and even had two mints when the process was over. She loved how soft her hair was after it was all done. When I kissed her goodnight on Friday she wanted to know if her hair would still be "cutted" when she woke up in the morning. Her hair grows fast, but I don't think it can make up four inches overnight. :) 

ZACKARY: Ahhh, yes, Master Zack. It seems that fruits and veggies are the enemy! Zack has decided to stage a protest again fruits and veggies and has managed to turn most mealtimes into some sort of tearjerker. I know this will pass, but it's exhausting. Zack is having fun at his new school and wears a red shirt (usually with Cars on it) nearly everyday. He continues to sound out words and likes to tell us what letter most words start with. 

That seems to be the gist of things around the house. Summer is about half over, but we still have Nationals, and something else. OH YEAH! The wedding is now less than TWO WEEKS away! :) 

I'm still trying to figure out all this new-fangled technology, but will try to post pictures soon. 

Much love. 

-- M

Welcome to our life!

Greetings friends and family! 

There have been several of you who have been asking about our life here in Grass Valley. In an effort to reach as many of you as possible, I have decided that blogging about said life would be the best way to accommodate everybody's schedule. I will post as time allows and you can read as you are interested ... or not ... it's up to you! 

For those of you not familiar with a blog here are a few details. Posting to a blog means that I am simply going to share stories of our family doings. It's an online journal basically. You can post comments after the posts or just read the blog and forget the comments. It's going to be a nice way for us to share our lives with all of you. 

I will post more soon. Happy reading! 

I hope you enjoy our stories. 

With love, 

Megan, Chuck, Gavin, Chloe and Zackary