We celebrated Sonya's 5th birthday yesterday. She woke up and announced that she was still the same size. It was a fun day.
A month or so ago, when I noticed that we had special music coming up in church, I asked the fam if anyone was interested in doing something....All of the kids have sung with us a few times, but no one was jumping up and down to do it this time...except Sonya. She was very willing. I tried to talk Olivia into singing with her, but she wouldn't, which is interesting because Olivia is far from shy. I have discovered, being a performer myself, that there are different types of shy...I can be fairly shy in some situations, but singing in front of people (even hundreds) doesn't phase me. Anyway, Sonya chose to sing "I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart." She's been singing it her own way for so long, and we always laughed at how she sang it, so it was tough to change her habits at the last minute :) I'm proud of her for following through on it, and singing with such great joy. I hope she will do it again.
Renee took our family picture on Thursday. These were a little overdue...by several years, I think. And I think I know why--it's quite an ordeal getting 6 people picture-ready and focused enough to cooperate! These 6 people, anyway! Aaron and I did quite well, thank you very much, but the other 4....well, there were moments! Thank you, Renee, for your patience.
One of the only non-goofy ones of Sonya (or was it the only one?)....she was trying out various facial expressions and we finally got this "natural" one.
Olivia did pretty well....her main issue was that she wanted to play with the "necklace" on her shirt.
Of course, Paul and Miranda weren't too pumped about the whole deal.
Paul had his first day of jr. high today, Miranda had her first day of her last year of elementary school, and Olivia started first grade. All 3 came home basically happy with how the day went. Of course, how hard is the first day?!? I had more work to do when they got home than they did, that's for sure--between filling out an info sheet for each one, signing various and sundry pages, and reading through info about each of Paul's classes, it took some time! Sonya will start preschool after Labor Day.
My tall Paul. He had his 7th grade physical a couple weeks ago and found out he's in the 97th percentile for height for boys his age. 
Miranda didn't fuss about me taking this picture! Amazing!
Olivia said that her teacher talked all morning :) But she was pretty bubbly about the whole day, so I guess she got over the fact that in first grade there's no snack, no rest/video time, and no centers. She'll survive.
Ready to go! On another note, even though I didn't take a picture of him, Aaron started his 14th year of teaching, and I started my 15th (although I took a couple yrs. off when Paul and Miranda were little). Time flies!
Miranda is covering her face, not because she's scared, but because she noticed me with my camera.
Stinky cow!
Aaron's parents, sister, and her kids came last week for a few days. We spent some time at the lake, and even camped overnight. I kinda got back into taking pictures, so I have quite a few from this trip....hope I don't bore you to death, but I'm having trouble narrowing them down!
Ok, I have LOTS of excuses as to why I haven't posted in about 6 weeks....really, I do!!! I have taken some pictures, but not very many, as my camera is being a pain. It usually takes several tries to turn it on, and by the time I get it on, whatever I was taking the picture of (usually the kids) has moved on to something else. Also, back on July 6th I got my tonsils out. It turned out to be much less of an ordeal than I would've imagined, but I still didn't take many pictures during the month of July. We spent most of that month at the pool, taking swimming lessons, and just hanging out during the hot afternoons.
These pictures are actually from June....when we got together with my family at Ft. Rob. I guess I posted them on facebook, and forgot to post them here for some reason. There are more on facebook...I just put a couple here. We had a super time with my brothers and their kids, and my parents. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for another memorable get-together!
