In June we celebrated my 31st birthday at Disneyland. Joined by Aunt Cindy, Aunt Michele, Uncle Derick and his girlfriend, Cintia, it was one of the best days of my life.

Then onto Bozeman for July 4th and a wonderful visit with Grandma Norma & Papa Rick. 

 

Over to Mt. St. Helen’s to visit Grandpa Rick & Grandma Peggy.

Then a nice, long stay at Aunt Denise and Uncle Joe’s in Portland.

Many, many pictures below if you are interested in looking at all our vacation photos. Better than being trapped watching a slideshow, right? I’ve also added pics taken way back in, oh, April. I have to apologize for the lack of updates… mostly to my kids, as this is for their benefit more than anything. It’s just that we’ve led such exciting lives in the past few months I’ve found it difficult to carve out proper blog writing time. Ha ha. Not really… your mom’s just a slacker. Love to you all and happy summer.

One at a time, starting with James. The leader of the pack has been a busy, busy man. He’s been working his tail off in real estate, which is no small feat considering the state of the economy. Prior to the holidays he was studying like mad for the GMAT exam, which he passed in mid-December with a promising score. His first days of ‘09 were spent writing application essays for MBA programs at UCLA, USC and Stanford. He’s also working on an app for UC Berkeley. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that he’s accepted into at least one program, but feeling confident as he’s already received an interview request for the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. Hooray! This is a very exciting time for our family, and we’re looking forward to figuring out which part of California will be our next stop.

As for me, when I’m not editing James’ essays, tending to the kids or mopping the floors, I’m dreaming about Annalise’s quilt. I’m so excited to have finally started this project for her. That makes me an honorary granny long before my time, doesn’t it? I completed Tommy’s right before Christmas and it really was a fun endeavor. There were never enough hours in the day for me to work on it…if only the house would clean itself! I put together a design for our little lady’s quilt last week, shopped for fabrics (love this local boutique) over the weekend and this week I hope to get started on cutting the pieces (which is my least favorite part). In other news, my dad was very sick upon his return home from his Christmas visit with us. It was really hard to be so far away while he was ill, but he’s on his way to healthy now. Thanks for all the prayers.

Now onto the kiddos (the real reason you check this page!). Tommy started at a new school earlier this month, Faith Lutheran Preschool. It is much closer to our house (3 miles and no traffic instead of 10 miles and a million stoplights), and he’s fitting right in like he’s been part of the class all year. The program is much more tolerant of his wiggly nature and we love that it is a faith-based program. It’s like he’s going to Sunday School every day! Instead of three 6-hour days per week he now attends for three hours each morning. It’s shaping into a nice routine and he is genuinely happy with the change. He’s still obsessed with planes, mac & cheese and a new fave, WordGirl. We anxiously await his 4th birthday…they magically become obedient and pleasant at age 4, right?

Annalise is still grins and giggles 90% of the time. She’s been dealing with a rough bout of teething this month…#11, #12, #13, #14, #15 and #16 have made their appearance since Christmas (those numbers don’t correspond to a teething chart, all you dentists, just calling them out chronologically). It’s been a misery for our poor girl (her only relief is a splash of Tylenol and teething tablets), but now all she has left are her two-year-old molars. She’s pretty much running at this point, gleefully chasing Tommy from room to room. We need to invest in some climbing gear for her (think carabiners), as her newest hobby is scaling the couch like a nimble ninja. She loves to climb up there with her brother, notably standing on the end tumbling distance to the tile/head injury. And she grins. The sense of pride that beams from her face is absolutely amazing. She’s picking up a new word here and there, too. Lately she’s been focused on “D,” such as doggie, duckie, daddy. Oh, and she’s very good at “No” while shaking her head. I think Tommy had more words by this point, but this girl is too busy laughing at her brother’s antics to worry about what to say.

That’s 2009 for the Wedewers thus far. I’ll work on posting some recent pictures in the not-too-distant future, and I’ll try to do so thoughtfully. The picture purges are a great way to get it done quickly, but not the best way to document our family history, which is the primary purpose of this site. Making a note to add “historian” to my list of hats. Nighty night!

I’ll add captions as time allows, but seeing as it’s taken me a month to post this much it might not be right away!

Tommy the back seat driver.

Enjoying dinner at Mimi’s in Victorville. Tommy can’t get enough of the meal-spoiling bread before his food arrives.

Annalise enjoys her “Busy Bread” before our meal.

Playing in Aunt Cindy & Uncle Jeremy’s living room before we head down to the beach.

Enjoying Hermosa Beach in the shade.

Bottled water is funny!

Not much of a swimmer…he prefered burying the stroller wheels in the sand.

Taking her first dip with Uncle J.

Lots of giggles when the waves came up.

Annalise chowed on favorites and new treats. She dined on baby-sized pancake pieces, quartered blueberries and egg yolk. She and I make a great team with eggs…I *try* to stick to the whites and she eats the yolk (no whites until she’s 12 months old).

Tommy saw me snapping a pic of his sister and insisted I commemorate his breakfast, too. He munched on silver-dollar pancakes, scrambled eggs and OJ.

None too amused when I pointed the lens in his general direction, our chef glared at me with a mouthful of syrupy cakes over the morning paper. If he drank the stuff, I’d say he needed some coffee!

When the tables turned I HID! No way would he get a shot of me that early in the morning! Annalise thought I was playing peek-a-boo and started to giggle.

And here are the Chocolate Chip Cookies we ate after our real breakfast. Click on the link and try this doggone recipe. It’s well worth 36 tortuous hours of dough chilling.

I love Sundays!