Nate's 4th Year Portraits

Ok, they were done a little bit late -- thankfully their looks don't change all that drastically month to month anymore :)

Brothers - June 2006

Colin 5 1/2 years old

VBS 2006

Today was the last day of Vacation Bible School for Colin. Our parish purchased a Catholic VBS program from "Growing with the Saints" so the children learned about St. Patrick this week. They sang a few songs for the parents today before mass. It was very cute ;) Colin had a good time all week - but was a little nervous this morning about the performance. He told me when he woke "I don't need to go today - it's a short day and we're not doing much except that silly song." Once he had some breakfast, though, he decided not to miss the last day.

In the first picture, he's singing a song about St. Patrick and the blessed trinity, wearing a bishop's miter that he made earlier in the week.

brothers

Colin on 6-26-06

sunflowers

Here are the sunflowers in our garden. I'm going to try something different in the fall - but I think these turned out okay for now. Since everything else is suffering from the heat right now, it's nice to see this burst of color out there.

fence

I forgot to post this a couple weekends ago. Here's the new fence that cuts through our yard. The pool company wanted us to wait until after the pool was installed . . . but then also wanted me to make sure no pets or children were ever in the yard, 7 days a week, where they needed to work. For six weeks.

Umm, okay, the fence took care of any potential problems there! The area where the pool is going is still larger than many Arizona backyards.

It definitely changes the feel of the yard, but it's well worth it. We aren't required to have a fence, but we think it is the safest solution for our family. If only Maricopa County didn't take so long issuing permits we'd be swimming by the 4th of July! As it is, I think we'll be lucky to be swimming by Labor Day.

more orangutan pictures

I wish I would have remembered my long lens the day I took these shots - but they're still good ones of the baby orangutan at the Phoenix Zoo. The boys wanted me to post some more, so here they are ;)

Father's Day at our house

We had a busy Father's Day yesterday. After church, we headed to IKEA where we enjoyed swedish meatballs for lunch. The boys practically ran down the stairs to get into the child play area after that and Bo & I wandered around IKEA buying various things. We picked up the boys and then headed next door to our gym for a swim and then to the movie theater to watch "Cars" (the boys enjoyed it, but I thought it was boring as all get out and WAY too long. The best animated movie I've seen lately is "Madagascar.") A stop at Krispy Kreme and then home for a light dinner and bath & bed. Bo then worked some more on the living room floor -- he's getting all the 1/4 molding around the edges this week.