The Birthday Girls

Jessica, Anna, Courtney

Last Saturday the Waymeyers and Alex were able to come up for a joint Birthday Party for Jessinca (11 on Oct 9), Courtney (8 on Oct 10) and Anna (7 on Oct 14). Anna enjoyed an extra special birthday party with her cousins and Aunt and Uncles and everyone had fun together.

Some more pictures from the day:

Courtney with a gift.

Anna excited about the painting pony gift.

All the kids working on a sticker scene.

They're both out!

Just a couple of days after her first front tooth came out, her second one did, too. Anna was eating dinner when it came out and didn't even notice that it did. Later that night I thought she was sounding like she had more than one tooth out in the front so we checked (I hadn't noticed, either) and, sure enough, two were gone! After a short search Anna actually found her tooth on the ground near where she had been eating dinner!

Batting Cages

Derek found a local treasure, the Norco Batting Cages. He took the boys down yesterday while the girls were at Kathy's shower. They all had a blast at the local 'dive'.


Ready to face the 40 mph pitch.

Attempting to make contact. Derek said they were pretty fast/high for him, but he tried joyfully and made contact with a few. Caleb, Derek thinks you should go when you're here Saturday for the girls' birthday party!

Another Lost Tooth

We were eating breakfast Thursday morning and Anna was saying her tooth was too loose to eat anything. She has been saying her tooth was loose since before we left Arizona, so I gave her my standard reply: tear it into pieces and chew it on the side. She said it was too loose for that. Derek checked it out and agreed it was pretty loose but Anna didn't want him to do anything about it. A few minutes later Anna popped up out of her chair with a very excited look on her face... she got it out herself!

Baby Shower

Kathy had a baby shower today and we were able to go! Anna had been so excited to go to Aunt Kathy's when she found out about baby showers, and Leah came along on the girl date. Baby Johnson is now only about 5 weeks from being born... cousins, aunts and grandma's are excitedly waiting!

This is the cake.



The food spread. The girls had fun picking their own food and, I think, single-handedly ate all the black olives.



Opening one of the presents.



Not the best shot of Kathy, but for you who can't see her in person this is a pretty good belly shot! (sorry, Kath)

Still Taking Out Plants

This is what the back fence looked like when Derek toured the place for the inspection.


This is how it looks now. The fence looks taller because you can see the last post instead of it being covered by overgrowth and whatever was down there. We still have a loooong way to go in the yard, but we're working on it. Our goal? Grass and a very easy-to-maintain landscape!

Doing Some Learning

We are in about our 8th or 9th week of our school year. It is sooo nice to be in a schedule again and to have an everyday pattern to our life. AND it is fun to watch them learn a little something. This year has been harder than most because we are doing new things, I have more students to keep occupied and Luke is not taking a morning nap like he did the first two years of his life. I really like to take care of as much school work as possible during the morning hours but he is making it a little more difficult and I've realized that I need to take care of some things in the afternoon, while he naps, or when he is engaged in something else for awhile. I am working to train him to do some things for certain periods of time and having the other kids read to him or play with him. I think if I can get that worked out, we'll all benefit from a few more minutes of focused school time in the morning!


Luke, learning how to sit on a blanket and be content.

Anna is doing very well at her schoolwork. She faces most new challenges with joy and usually works hard at what she has to do. She really likes all of her schoolwork but especially loves to read. She is a great and fast little reader and I'm sure the little Norco Public Library will be used a lot to expand her reading selections. Jack is a bright little kindergartener. Mostly he's doing first grade work because he flew through the kindergarten stuff last year. Both of them have good math minds (thank their Dad and grandparents for that one) and enjoy breezing through their math books... mostly! Jack is about to cross a hurdle with his reading, I think. He is nearing the end of his reading lessons and can read quite well, but didn't often pick up a book to read for fun. The last couple of weeks I've found him doing just that... reading when nobody asked him to or just for fun. I hope it sticks!

I was a little concerned about Leah when I realized she didn't really know her sounds/letters and numbers as well as I thought she should. Part of the problem is I compare her to Jack, who is only 15 months older than her but is advanced for his age. Part of the problem may actually have been that she got lost in the shuffle on some of those things. But my concerns have been a little relieved as she seems to be picking things up well and doing really well with the workbooks and things we're doing. She's an observant little girl, and very literal. She often corrects me if I don't say something accurately enough for her. I think it is funny, so much like something I would do... or even like her Uncle Alex. I hope I continue to think it is funny!