Our "little" 16 pounder...

Cannot believe this sweet little girl is in the 91st percentile! Carter has never been above the 10th!

The 1st Day

Carter started the 1st day of his 2nd year of preschool yesterday. It's amazing when we think back to how much he has changed since this time last year. He's has grown into the sweetest, most imaginative, HIGH energy little boy. He knows what he wants and he never forgets anything! I think he's gone back and forth between excitement about school (two mornings a week) this year and wanting to stay home with mommy. He made sure to ask if I would miss him... and then assured me that everything would be ok. His first day was great. Two of his best buddies from last year are in his class again. He was super excited when I picked him up... but a few hours later talked about just wanting to stay home. He's just like his daddy! :)

Before you look at the pictures... I just want to say that he picked out his shirt. I know he loves it... but his mommy does not! :) Dan's trying to help me let go of stuff like that.

Here he is (Just realized he wore the same shorts on his first day of school last year. They are 2T!!)...

All the males in our house heading off to school. It's up to Claire and I to do our part and make sure we get a lot of time in at the mall! :)

I'm totally not on top of things this year. Almost took him to school a week early... and didn't even think to take my camera to school yesterday. Thankfully I had my phone!!

Wouldn't even look at me to say goodbye...

I'm going to have to take my camera to get better shots... but they have done a ton of work to the play area. The playground and gardens are just beyond these trees...

and the chicken coop is behind the red barn that is under construction. You can see they are still finishing things up... but there is a little wooden bridge that leads to fun little buildings for the kids to play in...

They've also added this huge sandbox. Carter told me he played in it twice yesterday... and I could tell when I looked in his hair! :)

We're looking forward to a great year!

Our New Summer Home!

I still can't believe we have a huge trailer parked behind our house right now... but we do. Friday afternoon we left for a whirlwind trip to Ohio to pick it up. We spend so much time on the West Coast in the summer... that we decided it was time for us to find a way to travel easier (and hopefully cheaper) with two kids. After camping in a tent next to my sister and brother-in-law's awesome travel trailer this summer... we decided to start looking around. Dan found a great deal on the perfect trailer in Dayton... so we decided to go for it! We are so excited!! I really never thought we would EVER own an RV (I may have even made fun of them once or twice)... but when you haven't had a space that's really your own for almost 4 years... you'll do just about anything for a little privacy! :)

Here she is! We're thinking of having the same designs painted on the side of our Sequoia. :) Seriously though... we totally saw trucks painted to match their trailers.

We even ended up getting to spend some unexpected time getting to know each other. :) It's a long story... but we got to the RV lot at 10:45am and didn't pull out until 4pm. I kind of felt like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. There's nothing like hanging out in a completely empty trailer, in the back of an RV lot, in the rain with two kids. Thankfully Claire was able to take a few naps...

and we were able to find an Internet connection in the back corner of the trailer for Carter to watch movies.

Getting it home and backed down our alley at 11pm is another long story... lets just say it escaped with only a minor dent and broken light. I'm still amazed at how Dan was able to back it up without seeing anything! A huge thank you to Brian, Iain, Andrew, Malachi, Zoe, Josiah and Keith for helping Dan actually push/pull it into our backyard after church on Sunday!! It only weighs like 3600 pounds! :)

Starting the morning with a little CBS news... in our kitchen..

Our local CBS station is doing a 12 minute piece on Joe's Place this week. They wanted some shots of the boys getting ready for school... so their poor cameraman (Bill) had to show up at 6:30 this morning! It was fun getting to talk cameras, filming and news for a bit... since that was my first "real" job!! Bill was great... especially when Claire spit up all over him!

Some pictures from the morning...

The guys making their lunches... since they don't like the awesome healthy food at school. Our local paper actually has a great article today about our district and the changes they've made to the lunch program (our own veggie garden, chicken coop, and buying from local farmers ).

Bill following the guys and Dan to school (he also got some shots of Dan teaching this morning). They are going to do some more filming later this week. I'll be sure to post a link when the story airs!

The Joe's Place Connection...

All 3 of our graduates are still in and out of the house a good bit. I love it! I really can't believe they all start their 2nd year of college this month. Since we are such a new program it's been incredible to see how our relationships with them have grown and to see how they interact with our current boys. They don't know each other that well... but they've walked a similar road. It makes us all the more thankful for this home.

LOVE this picture! Jeff is dressed up for a meeting he had at a local university... and Roy is wearing the shirt and tie he wore that day to high school.

Jeff and Steven hanging out with Claire...

Don't mind her NEON green diaper! :)

It's not easy being a baby...

Photographers At Work

It's amazing how our photography business (click the link to check out our new website) has evolved in the last year. There are so many details to work out... best lenses to use in certain situations, lighting, location, website, blog, photo processing, logo, etc. About halfway through last year we heard about a new digital imaging lab, MpixPro that offered an AMAZING amount of incredible products. We decided to switch from the original lab we were using and have been so happy! While we we on vacation we saw they were having a contest looking for pictures showing photographers who use their lab out in the field working. We submitted our favorite... and this week we WON!! We are so excited! Our photo is now a part of the slide show on the main page of their website. We're also excited that this month marks the one year anniversary of 2reeves' photography. We're looking forward to seeing how we continue to evolve over the next year. Since I can't do a post without pictures... I thought I would include some favorites from a shoot we did with my twin sister and her family while we were in Oregon this summer.

It was so foggy that day! You can see Lexie (on the far right) is starting to disappear! :)

Happy Birthday, Fred!

Fred is celebrating his 21st today at his new school in Kansas! Here he is with Carter and Claire before he left last weekend...

They really are a happy bunch...

Last year we started the Joe's Place school year with just Ty're. A second resident moved in a day after school started... and then a third a few weeks later. Every new resident brings a good bit of change to the household... but it's totally manageable. Having new residents start at the beginning of the school year is different. It adds a good bit more stress for everyone. This year our three residents from last year all returned. It's been so easy... like they never even left! Everyone already knows the rules, how do to the chores, how to live together, etc. It's so good to have our guys back! Here they are yesterday getting ready to head out for the first day of school (why is smiling for a picture not considered cool at this age? :)).

Yesterday was also Ty's 15th birthday!! Poor guy is so sick! Didn't even touch his cake. :( We'll have to celebrate again when he's feeling better!

We are so in love with this little girl!!

It's amazing how much she has changed in 3 1/2 months!

 

It's that time of year again...

My desk doesn't always look this bad... it's just amazing how much paperwork there is to go through when you're getting ready for two seniors, a freshman and preschooler to start school!

Home with 2...

It's kind of crazy... but this week is the first time since Claire was born that I've been on my own with both kids. So spoiled!! I LOVE being married to a teacher! So far... it's been great. The only thing is we haven't had anywhere to be and the guys haven't checked in yet. We'll be adding our 3 teenagers back into the house on Sunday. We can't wait for them to be back... but it's going to make mornings a bit crazy again.

Anyway... here is how Carter and Claire spent the morning yesterday. He was playing safari and she was loving having him so close...

Poor safari guy almost landed on some spit up. :) We're going to have to start thinking of some new places for him to keep his tiny toys soon!!

We're finally starting to see a resemblance....

Carter is 2 months older than Claire in this picture... and Claire is a few pounds heavier... but we're finally starting to see some similarities...

Over the Grand Canyon and through the clouds to our St. Louis home we go...

After a month of traveling... we are home! We had the chance to spend time with family (Claire met 17 family members!) and friends, camp on the coast of Oregon, walk barefoot on the beach, kayak, stroll through the California Redwoods, drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, walk along Pier 39 in San Francisco, visit our favorite winery in Napa, stand at the place we first met, and have dinner at the restaurant where we had our first "unofficial date." We had an amazing time and feel so recharged and ready to start a new school year. I promise to do more updating... but until then... here are some pictures from the first leg of our flight as we flew along the Grand Canyon yesterday. Beautiful!