Alexander's 2nd Birthday

Alexander had such a great birthday. On his birthday, we went to a bookstore and got us all some books. Then we went to a little boutique toy store. It had toys out to play with all over the store and the boys loved it. Then we went to lunch with my parents. And we had cupcakes at a local cupcakery. They even gave us a candle for Alexander's cupcake. They were delicious! He had waffles with fruit and whip cream for supper. It was a great day! The next morning we opened presents because Daddy was stuck at work and didn't get home in time (sad he missed the day's festivities). Yesterday, we had a few families and my parents over for a birthday party. They colored pictures of Elmo, danced, made animal sounds, and found bugs with their new bug collecting kits (fake bugs, of course). Alexander is fascinated by bugs, so I thought this was a perfect activity for his party. We had breakfast for dinner for the party since that's what Alexander could eat all day. Everyone loved it. Here are some pictures from the week:

























Alexander reading to Lamb

I guess it’s about time I update our blog since so much has been going on the past month. We did buy the home medical equipment repair business, so Bob has been in the St. Pete area all week, every week. He comes home once during the week and on weekends. It’s about 3 1/2 hours away. It’s been a bit tough on Glenn; he misses his daddy (I miss him, too). Things are going well. He’s getting it to work more efficiently, and then he has hired someone to do marketing to grow the business.

I have been hired by Kaplan University to teach online health sciences courses at the undergraduate college level. I finished my training and am just waiting for them to assign me a course to teach.

Glenn has finished preschool! He’s actually in summer school for about 6 weeks, 3 days a week. But that’s just because he’s doing so well, they wanted to make sure he retained what he learned during the school year and set him up for success for kindergarten. He started today and is riding the bus to and from school since it’s further away than his usual school. He was so excited about going on the bus this morning. Hopefully he feels the same way after a couple of weeks because he’s on the bus for almost an hour both ways.

Last week, we stayed in Orlando so that we could see Bob every day. We had a fun weekend with him, and then he went to work every day, and drove back every night (about an hour and a half commute). Glenn even went to work with him on Friday. Apparently he had a lot of fun with the paper hole puncher! The boys and I went to Sea World a couple of mornings. It was too hot and we got too tired to stay longer than that. We went to the whale and dolphin show both days because Glenn loved it (I was impressed, too) and Glenn’s afraid of Elmo (the other show in the mornings). Otherwise, we didn’t do a whole lot because the boys and I had summer colds. I even lost my voice completely for a whole day. The boys thought it was funny, and it was difficult getting their attention since they couldn’t hear me. We did get in some fun pool time. There were a lot of pools to choose from where we stayed. And they had a fun nature walk where we saw birds, a snake and raccoon.

On Sunday, we went to the beach for Father’s Day. It was a beautiful beach day. This is our first real trip to the beach this year (the other time was just to take pictures in the early evening and then we left). Our friends have introduced us to a more private beach that is great for shell hunting. We even found a starfish, but threw it back in the water because it was still alive.

We’re looking forward to my parents coming down next week. They’ll be staying the summer in their future snow bird house, which is around the corner from us. We’re also looking forward to many more trips to the beach and pool. We’ve been enjoying lots of cucumbers from our garden and my parents’ garden. We’ve also had some strawberries, squash, peas, and green beans. I also have a very nice herb garden and love cooking with fresh herbs. We have more veggies that aren’t quite ready yet to harvest, but look forward to eating them, too.

When I wrote this in the morning, I was being attacked by a horse as I sat on the floor of the play room. Alexander was tapping me on the shoulder with his horse on a stick (sounds weird, but you know what I mean). He’s so goofy.

Alexander wearing his daddy's boots


Glenn was awarded the "friendliest student" by his class. He also was given a friendship award and reading award.

Beach Photo Shoot

We have a friend who has many hobbies. One of them is photography. He invited us to do a photo shoot on the beach last weekend. Not only did he capture some great shots, but the editing is beautiful, too. Here are some of my favorites. There are fewer pictures of Glenn because he went into the water too far, too soon. His pants were soaked! And Bob wasn't playing along as well.

A lot has been going on in the past month. Bob is leaving his current job in two weeks and buying a home medical equipment repair business. We're very excited. The company he works for right now got bought out and the new people don't mesh with his business ethics, so he decided it was time to look for something else. It will mean a lot of traveling for a while, but it'll be worth it. I also have a change. I am currently in training to be an online health sciences instructor for Kaplan University. I will be able to do it from home when I have the time to do it since they are online classes.

I have a lot of pictures to share.
My diaper baby!



Gardener Glenn


I repainted the play room and dining room last month. They are so much brighter now and we're really enjoying our new rooms. Here's the old color of the dining room:

New Dining Room


Old Play Room

New Play Room


We went to Orlando with another family early in April. We went to Sea World and did some shopping.

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. The boys got their Easter baskets when they woke up this morning. Unfortunately, the dogs got both of the boys' chocolate bunnies while we were getting ready for church (they were hollow, so I think the dogs will be okay). We had an egg hunt at church, then the church service. I sang in the choir, and I think it sounded pretty good. Then we went home and did our egg hunt in the front yard. Then we went to the county fair. Bob had that idea. I hadn't bought food yet for Easter dinner as of Friday, and he suggested we just eat at the fair. It was fun and Glenn got to eat lunch with one of his good friends who happened to be there at the same time. After we had a quick nap and dinner, the boys did some yard work. Here are pictures from our day:

Glenn in his new gardening belt and gloves:


Alexander wasn't so sure about all the clothes he had to wear:


All dressed up for church:


Egg hunt at church


Waiting for the service to start:


Glenn hunting super fast


It took a bit to get Alexander to decide to hunt for eggs, but he had fun once he got into it. This egg was a bit out of his reach:


Glenn found a lot of eggs


Alexander eventually figured out that we were looking for eggs because there was candy inside. At that point, he'd open the egg, eat the candy, and then throw the egg into the street.