PASwansons: June 2013

Say it isn't so!

We were going to do this months ago but I decided there was no rush. Then since she turned 3 we figured it was time. This crib changes into a toddler bed but since we had the bed and the rails we just decided to go for it. We have a mattress for under this bed too so it will be nice to finally be able to offer guests a room (that doesn't have a crib or fire truck toddler bed!) to use. Sad to see it go. But it's actually been a week now and she's doing great. She hasn't tried to get out at all so I think we'll be ok!

Last night in crib.

First night in bed!

I just had to add this at the end. We've been working on her name but I didn't think we'd gotten too far. She was making a Father's Day card for Nate to take in to Grandpa Ken's this morning and I turned it over and saw this, all by herself. I thought it was really good considering she did it all on her own!

Max "graduation"

So we had our first "graduation", which is funny since he has another year of pre-school at the same place! This year he did Tues & Thurs mornings and next year he'll do Mon/Wed/Fri. It was truly a blessing from God that we came across this one. We're so pleased with the program and the teachers. It was just what Max needed, some instruction, more bible stories, play time, songs, etc... he really warmed up to it quickly and it was a joy to take him there each week. We're excited for another year there to prepare him for the "real" thing, YIKES!

We love Miss Holly!

And Miss Gayle!

Vist to Emma and Luke's

We were supposed to meet at the zoo for Aliyah's birthday but since Nate was still pretty sick and had stuff to do at home and the kids' favorite place to go is Emma and Luke's house we just did a day trip down there for Aliyah's birthday.

She got a great new gift!

There was a really cute train festival in Manassas. They had awesome train set ups, one was all out of legos so Max was in heaven!

Water fun, it was a beautiful day!

Aliyah turns THREE!

Well, most 3 year olds don't get 4 birthday celebrations but she's pretty special:) We started the weekend before with a visit to Emma and Luke's (another post). Then her birthday was a Wednesday so we had a quiet birthday dinner and ice cream cake at home with some gifts.

Her request was a cake with her name on it, easy enough!

Then Grandpa Ken, mom-mom and some friends came over to celebrate more! Luckily the weather warmed up enough for the kids to have some water fun.

It ended the weekend after with a visit from Aunt Julie and MORE cupcakes! We sure love our little 3 year old!

What a blessing she truly is to our lives. She is SO full of life and happiness. She cheers for everything, even a nice day. She has a great vocabulary for her age. She loves to sing and dance and do everything big kids do. She hugs and kisses and says "I love you" all day long. She truly is a blessing from God and we're so excited to see all the plans He has made for her.:)

OBX for Ryan'sWeddng

We were pretty exciting for a wedding, a first for the kids. And excited for the first ever real Mogel family vacation. We weren't off to a good start, Max got sick right before we left. Ended up postponing our hopeful early start on a long drive to hit up the Urgent Care first. It turned out to just be a virus and we got drops for his eyes and headed on our way. The drive wasn't too bad, just long since we didn't leave till 9am. We got down there, took quick walk to the beach and settled in for the night. The next day of course Aliyah came down with what Max had but the drops helped her right away too. The weather was lousy so we just relaxed and visited with family at the beach house. By Friday Nate had it so everyone was pretty miserable. I somehow managed to miss it all, possibly from over sanitizing in hope we wouldn't spread it to anyone else in the house, but it's not too fun to spend a vacation with a sick family and non-beach going weather but it was great to spend time with extended family we rarely see and of course attend a beautiful wedding!

We did have one good beach morning (clouds ran though by mid-afternoon and it dropped a good 20 degrees). The kids enjoyed splashing and digging with each other!