Sienna pro pics

I made the black and white picture. Sienna is now 17 months old.


I just dropped Bradley off at school. He wanted his kiss as soon as he got out of the car...so I wouldn't embarrass him with a kiss in front of his new friends. As we were walking down the hallway he very quietly said "I'm so excited". It was adorable. When we got into his classroom, he found his name right away. The teacher's aid showed him a worksheet and gave him a few instructions- he got right to work, so I said good bye.
Good news for me; I got the job at GoDaddy.com........I start on August 11th. I'm sure I can keep busy until then!

This weekend

Sienna had a playdate with a boy born 2 weeks before her. Check out the difference!
Baby Mattson is so sweet. So is Sienna, but here is her sassy side:


It's hard for me to face, but our first born is starting his first day of "Kinder Steps" school tomorrow. We went to "meet the teacher night" on Friday and snapped some pics:The first one is Bradley in a school hallway, next is in his classroom and the tower is the school's bell.
We hope you are all doing well. My sister's kids are visiting Arizona, I'll have pics in the next blog. Take care!

Close to a year later

I promised to keep you updated. It seems we have been busy! I recently quit my job at the preschool. I found it hard to give my all to kids I didn't love. It sounds crude, but I have to be honest with myself. I was losing my patience with my own kids at home, and that's when I decided to drop any career in childcare/education. My kids deserve the best of what I have to offer. No sloppy seconds of a run-down, aggravated-with-children mommy.
So I applied at a company that you can buy/build websites through. The job title is technical support/sales of inbound calls. I am waiting to hear back from them. The interview went well and was very long and positive. The company pays well and has tons of benefits and incentives.
The kids are growing, growing, growing. BOTH of them just had growth spurts within the past week. Sienna started to fuss when we'd put her shoes on because they were too tight. We took them out to the Mills mall today and restocked some pieces of their wardrobe. Here are the shoes:
Bradley starts school next week! He tested into Kindergarten, but since he still takes naps and is used to having me at school with him, we decided to hold off on all-day kindergarten for a little while. He can always be bumped up when the teacher and Charlie and I decide the time is right. I am sure he'll do great.
It is very exciting and eye-opening that our first child is starting school.
We are very happy with our new house and neighborhood. The night sky is so beautiful out here, further away from the big city. You really come to re-appreciate the desert's natural art. You can see some of our house in these pics:
And here is a video of Brad "surfing" in the living room

First One

Thank you so much for the idea, Melissa! This seems like a great way to let you all in on the comings and goings of our house.
Where life is at for us: Charlie is doing great at work and his little weekend job as a bartender is proving to be quite successful!

I teach a 4 year-old preschool class. Brad gets to go to the school for free! It doesn't work out very well for us to be in the same classroom for too long....so I try to let him be ;) School agrees with Brad; he looks forward to going. He carries a blankie that my mom made in his backpack. The monkey on the front of the backpack comes out for easy snuggling at naptime. He is almost 4 years old! His birthday is October 17th, so we're going to be planning a party very soon. (Take the Poll). Sienna is such a "good" baby. She is eating jar food now. Her favorites are sweet potatoes and peaches. She babbles up a storm! Crawling is just around the corner...she can crawl backwards and pull herself up to a sitting position.

Yes, her ears are pierced now. She cried for less than a minute (then was laughing). I was a little bit nervous, but it went well! She's big and strong like her brother; in the 97th percentile (47% more than average) for weight and the 100th percentile (50% more than average) for length.

The animals are doing good. Our newest addition, Marty, fits in very well.

How did we do in APA Nationals in Vegas? We did fairly well...there were over 700 teams from the USA and Canada there, we placed 129th. It was alot of fun (and stress), but most of all, it was an awesome team achievement. Charlie and I play on the same team one night a week, and are each on a seperate team on different nights. Hopefully we'll bring home some more MVP trophies this session ;)

We plan on renovating our kitchen in the near future. I think the tile backsplash will be the most challenging part of it all.

So this is our blog! Check back often, check for a Poll on the right-hand side of the page, leave your thoughts!! Thanks for checking it out :D