Fall Is Here...

Well our first couple weeks of fall have been quite nice. After the fog burns off, we usually end up with a fairly warm and sunny afternoon and evening. The leaves on our trees are falling quickly and the kids have been enjoying that. It's so nice when they think a chore is fun! Jessie, Ben, and Josh (as well as the neighbor kids) all love raking and sweeping the leaves, jumping in them, being burried in them, and throwing them at each other. It has kept them busy for hours. Here are some fun photos from Monday, when they had a day off of school.

Soccer

Ben is playing soccer again this fall. He is really enjoying himself. Here are a couple photos from his first game.

It's A Girl!!

Well, I'm finally 20 weeks and had my ultra sound today. The baby looks healthy (as far as the ultra sound tech would say) and we got a good look and found out we are having a girl. Jessie is very excited to finally have a sister. Ben was a little sad, but I think he'll love her bunches once she's born. Josh doesn't have much of a concept of baby, except that Mom's belly keeps getting bigger... We got lucky today because they are testing a new machine and it does 3-D images. Usually when women go in for 3-D ultra sounds, they are a lot further along in their pregnancy so the baby has more fatty tissue below their skin and you can make out their facial features better. I think these are still amazing, though!


This one is harder to see the facial features. The bumps on her face are pieces of umbilical cord floating around and getting in the way of the ultra sound. We get a great view of her arms and hands, though!

First Day of School

Wednesday, September 6th, was the first day of school for the Monroe School District. Jessie entered 4th grade and Ben entered Kindergarten (what a big milestone!!!). Ben and I attended a 1 hour orientation with half of his classmates and his teacher during that morning and that's all the school Ben had. He said it was his "practice" first day of school. Of course I had the video camera out as well as the digital to take pictures of the exciting morning. Jessie and Ben's school doesn't have bus service (we're all 1 mile or less away), so we got out the stroller for Josh and headed out for school by 8:30 a.m. After this week, I will not be planning to walk with them. Jessie, Ben, and two neighbors will be walking together and they don't need Mom hanging around. I do have to pick Ben up at the end of his half-day morning kindergarten class, however. For now, I plan to walk (I need the exercise), but once the rain starts it's harder to keep Josh dry in the stroller and then when the baby comes things will get even more complicated, so I'll probably drive (I'm not sure if I'll feel guilty or not...).

The school kids at home.

Brother Josh was right there to join in the excitement.

Here they are in front of the Fryelands Elementary School building.

Ben in his classroom during the orientation.

This is all of us as we headed out for Ben's first "real" day of Kindergarten on Thursday morning. Mike stayed home until the final send off to take pictures and give words of encouragement!

Well, so far so good. They are both planning on going to school again tomorrow, let's hope it stays that way!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Evergreen State Fair - Labor Day
Every year, the Evergreen State Fair is held the week up to Labor Day. It is held in our city of Monroe (the kids think this is a good thing, but mostly all we see is the bad traffic that it brings!). We went this year on the last day, which was Labor Day (the last hoorah before school starts...). Here are some photos of the kids having lots of fun.


Josh, since he is such a tall 2-year-old, was able to ride all the "kiddie" rides that most 3-year-olds are barely tall enough for...



Tolt McDonald Park - Carnation
On Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, the extended Matyas family met in Carnation, WA for a picnic/BBQ dinner. We ate good food and the kids loved being outdoors with lots of open grass areas to play in, as well as a really cool bridge to walk over to the other side of the river. Here are some photos from that day.

Pinewood Derby

Saturday evening, we attended a family church activity that was a chili cook-off and pinewood derby. Anyone was allowed to enter a car in the race, so Mike and Ben worked on a car together (as practice for when Ben is in Cub Scouts). Ben chose to decorate his car similar to spiderman's new costume in the movie Spiderman 3. Here is a photo of his car, called The Spiderman 3 (it's the one in the middle), which won the "Coolest Design" award. We all had a lot of fun watching the cars race and to see how Ben's car did. He didn't win, but he did pretty well for his first time!

Horse Camp

Jessie attended half-day horse riding camp again this year from August 7th - 11th. They always put on a little show the last day and here are some pictures of that. This year, Jessie rode Bella, who was a dark bay arabian horse. Jessie had a lot of fun, as usual!

The Eby's Come to Visit

Since Cameron was going to Portland for two weeks for work, Annie and Cam decided it would be fun to drive there as a family and then they could come visit us (we're about 200 miles north of Portland). So, Annie and the boys arrived on Thursday afternoon. Cam rode the train up from Portland Friday night and returned Sunday morning. Annie and the boys stayed until about noon on Wednesday. It was really nice to spend some time with them.

The weekend was extremely hot with temperatures in the mid-90's. We don't have air conditioning, so it was pretty miserable. We tried to stay cool. Since Jessie was swimming in the neighbor's pool, the boys decided to play in the sprinkler. I guess Josh thought it was too hot for his diaper and shorts because he quickly took them off...

Look at those handsome cousins!

On Saturday, we took the Eby's into Seattle. Cam had never been here before, so we took them to Pike Place Market and then headed north to Mukilteo to the beach. Here's Josh throwing rocks.

Everyone enjoyed getting their feet wet (or more) which cooled us down!

Ben enjoyed seeing how far he could throw his rocks and practiced skipping them, too.

Jessie with her collection of pretty rocks.


On Monday, we took Annie and the boys to Flowing Lake. We all had a great time there. The water was really warm, so didn't cool us down too much, but enough. Here's Ben and Josh working on their water hole.

Mermaid Jessie.

CJ enjoying digging in the sand.

Josh taking a break from swimming.

Jessie taking care of her cousin, Colton. He is such a sweet and happy baby!

Ben and CJ enjoying their favorite summer treat - Otter Pops!

One last picture of those handsome cousins before the Eby's head back to Portland.

Trying to get one photo of everyone together is always challenging. Good-bye Eby's... we loved having you here!

Look Who Turned 2!!! (July 18, 2006)

Today was Josh's 2nd Birthday. Wow! It's hard to believe that he is two already. Time flies by so fast. After dinner we celebrated with cake and ice cream. We've had a great two years. Josh is a busy boy, but a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday, Josh!


You can't see his finger, but it's in the frosting of the cake...


He's so proud that he got the frosting before his piece of cake!


Jessie and Ben loved helping Josh celebrate his birthday.


Joint Birthday Party for the two Two-Year Olds (July 15, 2006)

On Saturday, we all joined at Farrel McWhirter Park in Redmond to celebrate Josh and Jayme's 2nd Birthday. It was cousin Jayme's actual birthday with Josh's being only three days later. The weather was beautiful, the location was great, and we had a lot of fun. The park has a couple small barns with farm animals to see, trails to walk in the woods, swings to play on, as well as lots of open grass area to run, run, run.

Birthday Boy, Josh.


Birthday Girl, Jayme.

Josh taking his first bite of his cup cake.

Both Josh and Jayme enjoyed their dessert!

Present time.


Twin cousins, Emily and Audrey, giving Josh some help.

Jessie really enjoyed the animals, especially the horses!


Photographer, Jessie, needs to work on getting her whole subject in view, but it's cute anyway!