the last 6 months

so it's been a while.  whoops!!  when we've both been working full time jobs with three kids, a house to keep up, sports to play and other extra activities, there isn't much time to post pictures and write.  most down time is spent on the couch watching tv or in my case, falling asleep on the couch.  having three preps this semester has kept me quite busy.  not to mention sometimes having the kids to myself some nights as garrett as been traveling a little more often.

 in january we left off with jay playing basketball.  they did pretty well.  jay didn't get a basket, but he was pretty good on defense and hustled a lot.  at the end of the season we had a small banquet after their last game.  this was a picture of the team and their trophies.

these winter months we were able to get some snow.  the kids played in it some until they were wet.  here is a shot of the kids in their snazzy outfits.  they each had tons of layers on.

 i've been busy since january.  through the week i would run 3 miles 2 to 3 times a week and then would do a long run on sunday's.  i trained for my first half marathon.  my goal was to beat 10 min miles, i beat that and came in at 2 hours and 7 mins and a few seconds.  pretty proud myself.  it was definitely a freezing day.

two weeks after the half, i was able to run in my first dash for down syndrome.  it was great to see so many families out there and everyone with down syndrome out there.  it was definitely a family atmosphere.

We had a great easter as well.  as usual, we spent the morning/lunch at my parents and then went to garrett's parents for the afternoon. the kids definitely had fun doing the easter egg hunts.  and of course we had pictures.

and here's a couple of pictures to capture the kids.  mason and taylor have become the best of friends. taylor is talking up a storm nowadays and copying everything we say.  its really cute.  hopefully mason will catch on.  jay will be finishing up the first grade in the next two weeks and has exceeded all expectations.  he is well above average for math and reading.  that's awesome considering he is one of the youngest in his class.  the other week mason went in for his 5th set of tubes.  you know you've been to the surgery center a lot when the nurses notice you and say how much bigger mason is.  this will be an on going thing with mason.  the last ones lasted almost a year.  we will see how long these last.

this year jay participated in awanas at our church.  this was the first year they had it.  since he was in the first grade and to complete the sparks part of awanas, students would have to do three books by the end of their second grade year, jay was able to do two books.  he memorized tons of scripture as well as all the books of the bible.  pretty proud of him.  even on the awards night, he was able to say one of his scriptures on stage.

we've really been enjoying the outdoors.  after dinner you find us outside our house on our bikes, hitting baseballs, and such.  nothing beats the great outdoors.

jay is playing baseball right now.  i don't have any pictures of ball games, but i did snap a picture of these two at the game.  this certain day we found out that these two would sit in their seats and eat suckers.  it made for a little less chasing around.

taylor loves these boots by the way.

until the next time i update, i hope everyone has a great summer and be safe.