Happy Birthday Cora!

Dear Cora,

Today was your birthday.  It is hard to believe that you are already two, and yet you seem to have been two for months already.  You are still the baby of the family, but you are really no longer a baby in any way.

You are smart.  You are already counting objects, and recognizing letters, and familiar games.  You follow complex directions with purpose & ease.

You are creative.  You play house, and build beds for your "babies".  

You are so sweet.  You go out of your way to make mommy & daddy happy.  I hear the word "o-tay" from you way more often than the word "no".  You only become a little devil when your sisters are around.

You love your siblings.  You always worry about who is there and make sure everyone is included in the fun, even "deen-tin" (Lincoln).

You are brave.  You are absolutely wholeheartedly convinced that you are every bit as capable and grown up as your sisters are.  You will mimic their every action, word, and game they play -- even if some of these things are not exactly safe for a pint-sized two year old.  You are constantly amazing your movers & shakers class instructor, and your gymnastics class instructors with how strong you are, and how well you follow every direction.  You learned to swim with a life jacket an entire year before June & Roxy were able to do so.

You are brave & strong, you are smart & determined, but most of all you are our one-of-a-kind, they-broke-the-mold-when-they-made you, precious baby girl.

Just as I say with all of my kids, no matter how old you grow, you will always be my baby.

Love you forever and ever, my Cora-belle,
Mommy

School starts!

7/31/14 - First day of preschool for Roxy & June!

7/31/14 - First day of 1st grade for Lincoln!

So far everyone is loving school & glad to be going each morning.  We are still adjusting to the early wake-up schedule, so we have a bunch of exhausted/cranky kiddos in the evenings.  But we will get there eventually.   

Bonus:  I have a sore throat, so I am probably coming down with my first cold of the school year.  I am almost certain that Lincoln is the culprit (as usual), and I will be his first familial victim.  Such is life!

Road Trip 2014: Family Reunion & Grandma's 90th Birthday

We had a good time at the family reunion.  We were glad that we made the extra effort to be there.  It really was important to Great Grandma Eleanor that we were there.  She cried a little when she was thanking everyone for coming.  It was sweet.  Here are some group shots!  The first two are of the entire group with Joe & I swapping places.  The last one is of the Smith family; Grandma Eleanor's direct descendants & their significant others. 

Road Trip 2014: Spartan Beast in Midway, UT

Here are the pictures I was able to capture of Andy during his first ever Spartan Beast race!  This one was held in Midway, UT at the 2002 Winter Olympic's Biathlon course.  It was pretty awesome terrain, spectacular mountains, and a very gorgeous little town.  A great & adventurous visit to Utah, at the very start of this year's long road trip to Oregon!

This one was my favorite of the entire bunch.  He just looks so happy at the finish line!  :)

Here are the rest in order of occurrence...

Hello Baby #5!

Yep!  You read that title right!  We are excited to announce that baby #5 of the Arizona Blatchford clan is on his or her way!  Baby is due to arrive Halloween 2014.  So most likely he/she will be a late October baby.  

We decided to do things a bit differently this time and wait to find out the gender until the baby is born.  We tried this with Roxy, but the ultrasound tech kinda ruined the surprise by showing us everything.  Not so much this time though!  Our tech was awesome & even turned off the monitor so we couldn't sneak a peek (which I totally would have done)!  

She also worked really hard to get us a profile picture.  Baby really didn't want to cooperate & was facing down so the angle was not ideal.  She worked for about 10min to get baby to turn it's head just enough to get this profile picture.  One of the best because it almost looks like he/she is sucking their thumb!  So cute!!  

The most important thing though, is that from all accounts, baby appears to be a healthy & happy 11oz & measuring right on time!  Only one measurement was at 18wks, but all of the rest were right on time within a couple of days of 19wks 5days, and the tech didn't seem concerned about the one smaller measurement.  I will be able to ask my doc what she thinks next week at my normal OB check-up appointment.  At this point though, all of our previous testing CVS/TSC/AFP and now this anatomy ultrasound, have all come back normal.

Happy Father's Day & Birthday Weekend!

Andy got some new & updated D-A-D pictures for Father's Day yesterday!  June also gave him a cute craft from school.  A picture of her holding a surf board, with a yellow popsicle stick frame saying "Surf's Up Dad".  

He also got a combined father's day/birthday gift from June & Roxy.  He got to go to the circus with them on Friday.  He said that the show was awesome!  June loved the lions & horses, and Roxy loved the popcorn!  ;)

And then from me, I got him a le cruset baking dish & made him a nice salmon dinner with a yummy Costco carrot cake.  I was also going to make him a nice breakfast on Father's Day, but it turned out that we didn't have enough eggs.  So I told him I owe him an omelet.  :)

I think it was a pretty good weekend for everyone!! 

Summer Time

One of the best parts about summer time is pool time!  Andy, Cora & June decided to take a sunset dip this evening.  As the day was the hottest yet here in Tucson (108 degrees), it was still over 100 degrees as the sun went down.  

We have been in the pool almost everyday since the temperatures rose above 90 two weekends ago.  And Andy was so excited to show June "the coolest thing ever" -- going down the slide into the pool.  June is the only one who loves the slide at this point.  Lincoln is okay with the slide, he prefers to just jump in and splash around himself.  Roxy is scared of the pool, and barely gets in with us at all, so the slide is out of the question.  And Cora loves the pool, but is kinda scared of the slide right now.