so much fun!

We had a GREAT summer! It is amazing how FAST it flew by!!! We were able to enjoy lots of family time, a few great trips, lots and lots of swimming and... a MOVE! Yep, we made the BIG move, just across the river. We are thrilled to call Vancouver, our new stomping grounds.

 

As summer came to an end, we all geared up for what we knew would be a busy Fall season! And... we were right! Both kiddos are LOVING school. Still hard to believe Jackson has started kindergarten!!! He is doing great. He has made both Brian and I so proud. He has made many new friends, overcome some BIG fears in regards to attending a big elementary school, is on track to becoming a great reader and loves math!

Not only is he doing fantastic in school, he is also showing us what a fabulous athlete he is! He started TBall at the beginning of September. He really seems to love the game of baseball, and works so hard at each and every practice and game! It's amazing to me, when watching him, how much his skills have drastically improved in just a matter of a few weeks.

 

Maggie is attending Pre-K this year. She seems to really enjoy her new school, teacher and is also making many new friends. Her days are a bit shorter at school, than Jackson's. But, I've enjoyed having some one-on-one time with our sweet girl. She loves to read books, play with her babies, paint (or really any type of art... the messier the better!), dance, sing and all things girlie!

She will be continuing with dance class, starting in October.

 

We moved at the beginning of August, and thankfully were still able to head over to Sunriver for a little mini vacay, less than a week after our move.

We, as we do every year, had a WONDERFUL time!

 

Both kiddos took swimming lessons (3x p/week!) all summer ... and were so excited to show off their great swimming skills at the fun pool in Sunriver!

 

We had fun this year in the bouncy houses and riding driving the bumper cars!

 Heading into a maze of bouncy houses!

 

 Jackson cruising down a fun and FAST bouncy house slide!

 Mommy going down the same slide... it was fast!!!

Maggie having fun at the Sunriver Artists Bazaar. She made and brought home a few great works of art!

Boys and their Bumper Cars...

Maggie and Jackson taking a little train ride through Sunriver Village

Little Lady ready to hit the pool!

Jackson is ready to go too!!!

 All ready!

Fun times at Ft. Rock Park... We love that the home we rent in Sunriver is walking distance to such a fun park!

 Faster, Faster, Faster...

More Pool Time... and some pretty cool tricks!

Couldn't resist sharing this great shot of our good friends (Jeff and son, Hayden) going down one of the BIG slides! We were so happy to see them, (along with the rest of their sweet family) and be able to spend a fun afternoon at the pool together!

We've been blessed with amazing weather, lately. Especially for Oregon and this time of year. But... today is the first day that it's really beginning to feel like fall. The temps have dropped, the sky is grey and we've had some rain... I think fall is officially here... to stay.

I'm looking forward to a wonderful fall season, and although it's already shown to be BUSY BUSY BUSY... we are all ready to go!

All our Love. The Weeks Team.

Summer is ... here!?!?!!

Summer is ... HERE.
I could try to come up with a bazillion excuses reasons why I have neglected posting to our blog for so long...
But, rather than attempting to play catch up...
Catch up of the past 8 (8?!?!?!???!!!) months, I'll try and start from here... today... now... and hopefully fill in the gaps here & there.
I'm not making any blog posting promises... but, am really really going to try to update more often... (more often, than say 2x p/year).
Last week was the LAST week of preschool for both Jackson and Maggie. It's so hard to believe we've already come to the end of their school year. And... the end-of-preschool::hello-ELEMENTARY(???)-school-this-FALL for Jackson!!! Yep, our sweet guy officially GRADUATED (!!!) from preschool last Sunday. He had an AWESOME school year, and has grown so much! He, truly, is no longer, our little guy, rather our amazing sweet BIG GUY!!

Jackson William, approx. 3 months old young

(ok... we all know he was NEVER truly our little guy... he was an amazing sweet BIG guy from the start...  Exhibit A: photo above, just in case a reminder was needed...)

 Preschool Graduation

June 2, 2013

Jackson William, 5.5 years old young!

Jackson's preschool graduation was really great. It was so fun to see how excited the kiddos were, to hear them sing songs they've been practicing, and of course... receive their "graduation diplomas"!
Their head teacher, Ms. Tonia had asked parents a few weeks prior to graduation to send her a photo of our "soon to be graduate", when they were just a babe... Exhibit A (above) is the one Jackson and I picked. Ms. Tonia put together a very sweet slide show, which included each graduate's photo as a babe, as well as a photo she had taken of each kiddo, during their last week of school. Amazing how much they've all grown, yet still look so much like their baby pictures. It was so fun to see not only all the baby photos, the last week of school photos, but so many GREAT photos of our kiddos having so much fun throughout the entire school year. We have really LOVED St. Matthew's Preschool, and feel so blessed to have had both kiddos attend preschool there, this past year. We couldn't have asked for a better fit for our amazing (and very different personalities!) munchkins! Next stop for Jackson: Kindergarten this fall!!!!  *sigh...*
Maggie will continue at St. Matthew's this coming fall, in their Jr. Academy Program (more deets on that to come!)

Maggie's 3's Preschool class, the last week of school.

Her teacher, Ms. Cathy is truly wonderful.

Can you pick Maggs out?

She's the sweetie standing to the left (blue shirt) of Ms. Cathy.

What a bunch of cuties!!!

Maggie had a fabulous year (her FIRST year!) of preschool. She absolutely LOVED school, made great friends, adored and is adored by her teachers. She learned so much that sometimes I can't believe she'll ONLY be 4 years old in July!
She has also grown SO MUCH ... especially just in the last 4-6 months. Her legs seem to be growing a mile longer every other month, and at times I find myself just in amazement over the conversations she has (both with me, with Jackson and of course, with herself, her "babies", her "animals", etc... ha!). Next stop for Maggs: Jr. Academy at St. Matthew's in the fall!!!!
We have LOTS more pictures (and so much to catch up on!!!) to share! My goal in keeping things updated around here is to try to keep things short & sweet... in hopes I won't feel completely overwhelmed and in turn... let what feels like my middle name, guide me... PROCRASTINATION!
Hope you're enjoying this amazing gorgeous sunshine... we're LOVE LOVE LOVING it! We were able to get out and plant some flowers (and carrots... we'll see how that goes... ) yesterday. Looking forward to getting out in the "garden" (we don't really have a garden, as much as a shaggy lawn... ha!) again this afternoon.
Much Love.
The Weeks

September... errr... make that October, already???

I can't believe September October is here...!!!

(this post started at the very beginning of September... but, obviously life has been busy... and I never had a chance to finish this up, before October was suddenly here!!!)

as well as (noted below), serious computer issues.

It's amazing how quickly time passes, especially summer time! Overall, we had a really great summer. The kiddos both enjoyed LOTS of park time with Mama and Daddy, Nana and Papa, and playdates at the park with friends. They both absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE being outside. Both love to ride their bikes, go for walks, and play with their "very best friends", our sweet neighbor girls who live across the street.

 

(note: apologies on the quality of some of the photos... our computer is having BIG issues... as in it is ready to "bite the dust" at any given moment. we are lucky when we are able to get it to turn on, and actually going... but, downloading photos is another story. we, thankfully, (just in time!) were able to get all of our photos off of the computer onto an external hard drive! Whew, I can't even imagine losing 5+ years worth of photos ... it would've been a sad sad day...). also, this is the reason in which I haven't been able to blog much (ok, amongst other reasons... :p), it's all up to the computer to decide whether or not it will be my friend or not... lately, not too often. thankfully, today though!!! (fingers crossed it doesn't crash at any moment, as I'm probably jinxing myself by saying a word about it!)

PARK FUN!





Jackson took swimming lessons all summer, and absolutely LOVED being in the water and learning how to REALLY SWIM! The second round, we were able to get him in a class at the pool across the street from our house, which was GREAT! No commute, other than walking down the road to the pool, and walking home. Maggie enjoyed taking Ballet this summer, and honestly, I don't even have the words for how incredibly adorable she was. She has truly become our little Ballerina, and practices daily (even with ballet class over! :p)

 

Brian was (as usual, nothing has changed on this front!) SUPER DADDY this summer!!! I am still struggling (some days much more significantly than others, with my Addison's). In turn, making life in general difficult, but the hardest part is missing out on things with Brian and the kids... because some days my body just chooses to not cooperate. (side note: unfortunately, my body really decided not to cooperate mid-September... leading me to a stay at Hotel 'de St. Vincent's Hospital for 3 days...). Needless to say, I was so HAPPY to be home, after that. I've learned to really live each day, just as that ... day by day! And, really truly enjoy the days I feel healthy and well, and even on the not so great days, to try and focus on all of the positives and blessings in my life... as there are way too many to even count!

With that said, again... I could not have been more blessed with such a wonderful husband, who not only is Super Dad, but also Super Husband!

Not only has Brian been beyond supportive, but Brian's parents (AKA: Nana & Papa) have been beyond supportive, loving, thoughtful, caring and so incredibly helpful. I'm not sure what we would do without them!!! They have come at (literally) a moments notice to help me with the kiddos, to take the kiddos to their home (so I can be home and rest) or staying here with the kiddos, and allowing me to take the time I need to rest, relax and work on rebuilding my strength. One great thing that has come out of all of this is that both Jackson and Maggie have built incredibly strong bonds (which wee already there) with both Nana and Papa. That is definitely one thing I am incredibly thankful for throughout all of this (Addison crumminess!), the very strong bonds both kiddos share with their Grandparents, and continue to build!

 

Nana with 4 out of 5 of her Grandkiddos

(Michelle, Nana's oldest granddaughter (our oldest niece) - wasn't able to join us :(  ).

She's a working & college girl, without much time to spare!  

September is was a BIG month for birthdays in the Weeks' Family. Uncle Jeff, Nana and Uncle Bruce all have birthdays in the month of September. It was so fun to celebrate all 3 birthdays with one really fun and special birthday party!

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mom/Nana, Brother/Uncle Jeff and Bruce/Uncle Bruce!!!!

 

Last week Over a month ago, we went on our (2nd Annual) trip to Sunriver, for our last mini-vacay for the summer.

We all had the BEST time! The new water park, SHARC had just begun being built last summer when we were there, so we couldn't wait to check it out! It was SUPER FUN! Both kids, and Brian & I loved it. It definitely made Sunriver all the more fun, if that is possible.

We spent a LOT of time at SHARC, had some bike riding and bike trailer riding fun, lots of game playing including ping pong!

Little Lady ready to hit the Pool... in style!

Our silly guy sitting on the logs that lead to the "BIG" rock...

One of the many FUN parts of Sunriver Village!

Who's ready to hit the trails?

"let's rock this ride"

~Jackson Weeks, age 4.5 (2012)

Visiting the Horses on our Bike Ride

Hello Horsey... or Mr. Ed????

We also were so lucky to see our great friends, the Kleine Family. They live in Bend (we have some fun pics of our time with the Kleine's ... yet again, I'm a bit worried to do the download and then put on external hard drive, right now... but, will hopefully gain the guts soon, or it'll be a while before sharing... sorry!). We had so much fun the first day we arrived, swimming and playing with them at SHARC. And... we were so happy they could come to the Sunriver house for an early dinner to share with us on our 2nd day! They are such a fun family. Jackson and Maggie LOVED playing with Hayden, Katy and Lauren. Not to mention the super fun scooters they brought along for J & M to try out and play with!!! :)

Having fun & checking out the marina ~ one of the many stops of the bike ride!
 

It was definitely hard to come home, but we know we'll be back next year!

Amazingly Beautiful Nature surrounding us...

(my very favorite part of Sunriver... it's SO GORGEOUS!)

Mama and Maggie on our last night in Sunriver... Daddy and Jackson took us out to a yummy dinner, and then we hit Goody's the super yummy Candy/Ice Cream/Soda Fountain shop afterwards. A great way to spend our last evening!

(ps. I do promise Brian was with us!!! I took a ton of photos, and he is in many of them... but again, these are all photos from our phones. Maybe he'll be brave enough to upload them to our crazy computer...???)

 

and... in coming home, we had more excitement to come...

Yes, it's true... we have 2 (!!!) Preschoolers in the HOUSE!!!

I can't believe it!

Both kiddos are attending St. Matthew's Lutheran Church Preschool. Jackson is in the 4's/Pre-K Class, and Maggie is beginning her very first year of preschool in the 3's class.

Jackson's 1st Day of Pre-K, at St. Matthew's Lutheran Preschool!

(He goes to school 3 days p/week)

More "1st Day of Pre-K" pictures, once we got to school...

By this time, Jackson had been such a great sport, but was ready to get inside and start school!!!

 Amazing how much Jackson (and Maggie) have grown in just 1 year!

The above photo was taken on Jackson's 1st day of Preschool (in the 3's class) last year, where he attended Christ United Methodist Preschool.

*Maggie just popped in for the photo op. She didn't attend preschool last year, she had just turned 2!

Miss Maggie's 1st Day of Pre-School!

(in the 3's class, at St. Matthew's Lutheran Preschool ~ she goes to school 2 mornings p/week)

Of course, they don't go on the same days... that would leave too much spare time for this Mama... not sure what I would do... HA!!! Joking aside, it's been fun on the days I have felt well, to have that special one on one time with each kiddo.

With school in full force, we've been busy, busy, busy!!! One kiddo or the other needing to be at school by 9am, and then picked up at 11:45am. My MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) Group has also begun - with last Friday being our first meeting. I'm really looking forward to a great year of MOPS, as the past 2 have been fabulous. This year, I have taken on an "extra role", in being a Discussion Group Leader. It's a fun "job", in that I'm able to get to know many of the MOPS members much better, and I also am responsible for my small group (of 8 amazing women, 4 of who are brand new to MOPS!).
And... of course, lots of birthdays, celebrations, preschool gatherings, etc. are coming with the Fall Season!

We miss and love you all! We hope to catch up with many of you throughout the holidays!
Love,
The Weeks Team