Crawling, Standing and Weddings Galore!

How embarrassing that it's almost the end of July and I haven't updated this in 3 months! What have we been keeping busy with these days? Well, long story short, our little man has gotten to be quite active and time is no longer our own! On top of chasing John around the house, we have traveled, seen those we love start their own married lives together, finished a busy school year and completed our last summer of grad school!

The fun (chaos?!) all started when we finished our spring grad school class the middle of May. We could finally mark another one off the calendar countdown to graduation! The following weekend, Mike and Jeanna celebrated their upcoming marriage with their MN reception. It was great to have them home for the weekend and they enjoyed their time with John as well, as he had changed a lot since they had seen him!

During this time, John was learning many new things, such as making clicking noises with his tongue, blowing his lips out, finding his "singing" voice and even clapping his hands and playing patty-cake. John was also on the go with the army crawl! Nothing was safe! He started saying "dada" on June 5, was sitting up in bed after a nap on June 10, and said "mama" and waved good-bye on June 11. By June 19, he was pulling himself up onto things. What a month!

Phil and I headed to NYC May 27, the weekend following Mike and Jeanna's party, for his brother, Tim and Crystal's wedding. We had a fantastic time in the busy city! John was able to stay at my mom and dad's for a long weekend, while we had our first weekend away. It was a great trip, but we definitely missed John and all his new found fun! While we were in NYC, we experienced the crazy cab rides, a Broadway show, great meals and of course, lots of laughs!

After returning from NYC, we had our last week of school. It was chaos coming back to our final four days! On top of it, I found out I was moving classrooms the Monday we returned, so I had to clean out, pack up and move my room in 3 days! Yikes! Needless to say, the days were long and my time was not my own! The classroom move went well and I can't wait to have a classroom this year with more space, lockers outside the room, and things reorganized. Who said cleaning out isn't fun?

The school year ended Thursday, June 4 and we couldn't wait for summer to start! Well, in between grad school that is! However, before we could start grad school, we had two more weddings to celebrate! On Saturday, June 6, my good friend Allison was married to Matt. I was blessed to be part of their celebration and Phil and I were able to celebrate with them Friday night and Saturday. Their day was wonderful, even with the rain and chilly June temperatures! Sunday, June 7, we were able to celebrate again with Tim and Crystal in MN for their reception with family and friends here before they started their residency in CA. We really enjoyed our time with them that weekend as well, but June definitely began as a whirlwind for us!

Once Monday, June 8 hit, we had a couple of days to ourselves...to pack, do laundry, and get organized for a trip to Indiana! We were off early Thursday morning to celebrate with Mike and Jeanna and have a wedding weekend at Notre Dame. It was a beautiful weekend full of celebrating! Of course, John looked extremely handsome in his tux, but don't worry, he'll have an opportunity to wear it again the end of August when Steve and Katie get married!


Steve was giving John a pony ride in the hotel. Uncle Steve is so much fun!

When we returned from Notre Dame, we immediately started grad school and have had class all day, every Tuesday and Thursday through today! We are done! It has made for a busy six weeks trying to keep up with two classes, the papers, and projects, while also having time together and with John. Phil is working with his dad again this summer as a roof inspector, so when he was not at class, he was filling his time with tar, gravel and lots of heat! However, his farmer's tan is coming along nicely! I have tutored on Wednesday mornings and have loved being able to be home more with John. We can't wait to start our summer now that class is done though! We aren't even willing to think about going back to school and starting workshop yet!

I promise we will do a better job of updating the blog again now too! We got ourselves an early Christmas present last week and purchased a new camera, so now that I have time to sit down and figure out how to upload the pictures, I will put the most recent pictures of John online! We love how fast the camera is and our ability to get the quick, cute moments of John that our other camera missed. One has to be fast, or he's on to something else these days!

We hope you are enjoying your summer and finding time for the quiet moments in life!

Here are some pictures in order from April when we last posted to the middle of June. Enjoy!

John was helping do the laundry...

So sleepy...

I love my new bat and ball!

John went through a phase for a few days when he didn't want to sleep in his bed, so for an afternoon nap, when mom was desperate, we tried the carseat. Success!

Too cute!

Hmm...what are you plotting now, John?

John is sitting up on his own!

After some cuddle time with mom in bed on an early Saturday morning, John was so comfy on dad's pillow that we had a nice 2 hour nap together! Bliss!

When trying on John's tux to alter it before Mike and Jeanna's wedding, I couldn't help but see how cute our chip 'n dale would be with his bow tie on! Wouldn't this be a great picture for his graduation picture board some day?

Peek-a-boo!

John was helping me with laundry again! However, this was right before he almost tipped himself over by trying to stand up in the basket!

John loves to read his books, especially after he has eaten. He also loves to peek with his books!

John is now a bit squirmy after his tubbies, so we have to be quick with getting his diaper and jammies on!