So let's play a little catch-up. Here's a rundown of some of what's been happening 'round these parts.
Scott Altman
The astronaut Scott Altman came to my boys' school. Let me remind you that they attend Scott Altman School. Nora and I got to sit in on the school assembly where Scott gave his motivational speech. Then each class got their picture taken with Altman, and Nora and I got our picture taken with him.
I admit I was a little starstruck (pardon the pun). I knew Scott Altman was from Pekin, Illinois (our hometown), and that he was an astronaut. I didn't realize that he was in the Air Force first (apparently all astronauts start out as pilots), and he flew the planes in the movie Top Gun. He talked about some of the tricks they did in the movie. How cool is that?!
Scott Altman and his family (plus lots of important people in suits) were at the school to dedicate this new bronze bust of Scott. Pictured above are Scott's wife, his mom, him, and his dad. I had a nice chat with his parents while he was taking pictures with all the classes.
You may remember that I found a recipe by Sharon Altman (Scott's mom) in my grandmother's recipe box. I wrote about it here.
New Nephew
I got a brand new nephew! My brother and his wife had their third baby, a beautiful boy named Harvey.
He is seriously so cute. And he was born on my brother's (his daddy's) birthday!
The Birds
We had two bird nests on our front porch this spring, one belonging to a Sparrow family and one belonging to Mourning Doves. Both nests were on top of the columns of our porch.
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| Jared giving Nolan a peek at the Sparrow nest |
The Sparrows had three babies hatch, and two of them died before they were fully grown. There was also a Robbin egg (at least it appeared to be) in the nest that never hatched.
The Mourning Dove laid two eggs, and one never hatched. Her baby seemed to be doing well until one day I found it dead in the nest. That was the end of our fun little bird adventure. Jared removed both nests that night (the Sparrows were already gone), and we still need to power wash the bird poop off our porch.
Homecoming Outfits
I had the privilege of helping my friend Megan make outfits for her kids to wear when they welcomed their daddy (Megan's husband) home. He has been deployed with the Air National Guard for more than two months.
These little cuties are the kids who call me "Uncle Jessica." It's projects like these that make me so grateful that I know how to sew and can use that to bless people. I really enjoyed
Jungle Theme Baby Shower
I host church bridal and baby showers along with two other ladies. Our most recent shower was a baby shower for a friend expecting a baby boy. The baby's nursery is decorated in a jungle theme with neutral colors, so we wanted to use that theme for our baby shower.
I was super excited to find a great set of baby shower supplies at Hobby Lobby that matched our theme. One of my jobs was to make and decorate cupcakes, so I bought cute cupcake liners.
I bought one package of the matching cupcake toppers, but I didn't like that they only featured two of the jungle animals. Plus I knew I was making 48 cupcakes, so I made the other 24 toppers.
For the homemade toppers, I bought the round stickers from the baby shower section. Then I cut out circles of leopard print paper and zebra print paper. Then I cut out slightly larger circles of green paper. I adhered them all together and hot glued them to lollipop sticks.
Glow Sticks
While I was at Hobby Lobby getting baby shower supplies, I spotted my favorite ever glow sticks. I snagged a box at 40% off. These babies will be tucked away until the 4th of July.
These glow sticks are super bright, and I don't think we've ever had a "dud" with them. Plus they come with connectors to make glowing glasses and bunny ears (as well as the usual bracelets and necklaces).
New Camera
I got a new camera!!! One of my goals for this year was to learn about my camera settings and work on taking better pictures. I haven't been able to work on this goal because my camera has had an issue with not focusing for quite some time. I've been extremely frustrated because I can't ever take the pictures I want due to my camera not working correctly. I told Jared the thing I wanted most for Mother's Day was to get my camera fixed (if possible), so you can imagine how ecstatic I was to receive a brand new camera!
When I had my Etsy shop, I used to sell fabric-covered padded camera straps. I think I may still have one of the fancy cushy camera straps around here somewhere, so I'd love to cover it with pretty fabric and finally have my own pretty, comfy camera strap. One of these days.
I've already read half of the camera manual and fiddled around with different settings. I'm still holding out hope that someday I'll figure it all out and be a better photographer.
Spring Dance Recital
Nora had her spring ballet recital. It was a fairy tea party theme.
The recital was on a Sunday afternoon (really?!) that was already a crazy busy day for us. Once I saw my girl up on that stage, I managed to relax and enjoy every second. :)
Nora's best friend Dakota was in her ballet class. You may recognize Dakota from the Homecoming Outfits picture. I love these two girls together!
Sick Week
We had a rough week with Nolan being super sick. He had Fifth Disease, which is a common childhood illness with a characteristic rash. After his little body had been busy fighting the Fifth Disease for about a week, he also picked up Strep. That caused a secondary rash. He had a horrendous headache for a week and was generally run down.
He cocooned himself in his favorite blanket, asked me to come sit by him, and he drifted off to sleep.
We had multiple visits to the doctor, far too many trips to Walgreen's, and almost a week home from school.
Nolan learned a very painful lesson during his sick week: people can be cruel. Once Fifth Disease progresses to the rash stage, it is no longer contagious. Strep is contagious, but after he was on antibiotics for 24 hours, he was no longer contagious. We had to go shopping for things Nolan needed, and we had to take Griffin to school everyday and pick him up. Everywhere we went, people stared. Many people also asked questions, made comments, and expressed their disgust at Nolan's rash, even after we explained that he wasn't contagious. I was surprised by people prying and basically wanting to know Nolan's medical history. Nolan was upset by people being scared of him. We discussed how this was a learning opportunity for us, to help us be more sensitive to other people who might not want to be stared at or made to feel bad for looking different.
Family Visit
Jared's brother Kevin and his family came for a visit. Kevin is in the Air Force and hasn't lived near us in at least 10 years, so we only get to see him and his family every year or two. Kevin's family arrived the day of Nora's dance recital and were here through Sick Week. We still made the most of their visit, and our kids absolutely loved their time with their cousins.
You can imagine that it's not easy to get a picture of Kevin's four children and our three children all together, looking at the camera, and smiling. We did our best. I took tons of pictures over the week, but I'll just share a couple here.
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| Our 3 kids, Kevin's 3 girls (in matching outfits) and 1 son (in the plaid shirt), and our niece Addison (Jared's sister's daughter) |
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| Jared and his kids with Kevin and his kids |
We really missed Jared's other brother Joel and his wife and two boys. Can you imagine trying to get more kids in the pictures? :)
I think this pretty well catches us up for now. Today is Nolan's 8th birthday party, so I should have a blog post about that some time in the next month or so...
Jessica
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