The REST of June...

Seeing that it's summer, it's no surprise that things are busy, but June turned out to be a VERY eventful month for us. You've already read all about Sycely starting ballet school and the Mrs. Alaska pageant earlier in the month. For our family, there was much more excitement in store this month!

We've enjoyed some sunshine here and there and that's given us a chance to do some backyard cookouts, including some with friends and family. Nothing says summer like s'mores! The girls have been enjoying the backyard and I'm excited to see how this year's garden will fare-so far everything's coming in nicely.

Cookout with the Gibsons

Sycely made her first banana split last week, and it sure seemed like she spent more time (and enjoyment) making it than eating it, but that's fine by me! She's of course, still loving ballet class and I've started planning her ballerina birthday party. No surprise that's her theme of choice this year. As always, Sycely's spening alot of her time dressing up and role playing and you never quite know which character you're going to encounter. Sycely sure loves being Mommy's helper. She enjoys folding and putting away laundry (Ella likes emptying the dryer-and the laundry basket!), loading and unloading the dishwasher, wiping down the table, vacuuming and mopping and of course her favorite "chore" is still baking with me-muffins, cookies, cupcakes, whatever!

Sycely's first banana split

Sleeping Beauty

Ella is quite the chatterbox these days. She's waving, and saying "bye bye" and playing patty cake and peek a boo now. She also now says, "gentle," "moo," "baa," "meow" and 'bow wow wow" a host of animal-sound associations she's working on mastering. She's crusing along pretty much any surface and seems to be working on getting brave enough to take the "leap of faith." Sometimes she forgets to hand on and will turn and reach for something and do a little wobble before she remembers to hold on. She's eating up a storm now that she has so many more food choices and I expect she'll make a weight jump at her next check up. She still thinks her sister is the funniest thing around and half the time I don't even know what they're doing but it sure does send them both into uncontrollable hysterics-no complaints there.

Ella's 11 month picture

Lem's off at summer school, teaching two sections of Economics and playing softball. I'm teaching skating lessons, wrapping up planning for the Governor's picnic and working on getting both the girls' birthday parties organized. I've been posting alot of stuff on Craigslist, unloading lots of baby stuff and clothes of mine and the girls, etc. We've been turning a pretty good profit so far, plus there's more room in the house and the garage!


We took the girls out to Kincaid last week to show them where we got married and followed that up with dessert at Tastee Freeze. We've been enjoying some dates, including our anniversary and 10 year high school reunion (more on those in separate postings) and are looking forward to a long 4th of July weekend, a visit from grandpa and nanny Kate, a family reunion in two weeks and a visit from Aunti Eris.