The Cathcarts

We are excited about some new additions for our friends.  Last week, a day after Jaxson’s birthday, our friends and neighbors across the street had a beautiful baby girl.  Her name is Amisha and has Miah as her big sister.  She is a very pretty baby.  We look forward to watching her grow up.  I’m also excited for my friend Erika Holmes (Leerberg), who also had a baby girl today in Austin, TX.  Her name is Evelyn Jayne and from what I’ve heard everyone is doing well.  Congratulations!

Since we now have an Olympic Gold Medalist living on our street, our neighborhood got in the spirit to welcome her home.  Brandy, Jack’s mom, got balloons for all of the mailboxes on the street and a lot of people, including myself, pulled out our non-existant artistic talent and made signs.  It takes a lot for me to do something like that, but I thought that I could do something for an Olympic champion. We were expecting her home yesterday evening, but she took a detour to the Late Show with David Letterman before coming home, so she didn’t get home until after 10pm.  Hopefully now that she’s home, she can get some well deserved R&R.

Our sign welcoming Shawn home.

This past weekend we went back to Gowrie to spend some time with the Cathcart family.  On Friday evening we enjoyed a great supper with Lisa, Karl, and Laura and also Joe and Marilyn, Brad’s Aunt and Uncle from Springfield, MO, who came for the weekend. It was great spending time with them.  They hadn’t seen Jaxson since he was six weeks old at Andy and Mindy’s wedding.  We came back to Des Moines on Saturday evening so that we could help Devon celebrate his 15th birthday.  We ate supper at Chili’s and then went back to Heath and Tanya’s house for some cake and ice cream.  Jaxson had a lot of fun playing outside with all of the kids and watching Kade play drums.  I guess he got so excited that he was jumping on the couch and fell of face first twice and didn’t even care.  What a nut!  On Sunday we enjoyed going to church and once again Jaxson behaved quite well.  He liked that we were sitting next to two cute girls so he "flirted" with them throughout the service.  While at church, I got to thinking that I will be able to register Jaxson for preschool pretty soon.  I can’t believe it!  I’m going to be registering my baby for school!  Our church has a preschool and I would love it if he was able to go there.  I contacted the gal in charge of it and they start the registration for next year in November.  Crazy! 

Uncle Karl and Aunt Lisa

Celebrating Devon’s birthday

We found this chicken hat that we got at our wedding while cleaning out the basement.

We can’t believe that our little boy is two years old already.  He has been the greatest joy in our lives.  Everyday he is fascinating us with something new and funny.  It is so fun watching him learn and grow everyday.  To celebrate his 2nd birthday, Brad and I had a little party for him again.  Of course we had to give him some more presents because he is such a good little boy.  He had fun opening the gifts that we gave him and when he was done, he kept saying "more." 

Our whirlwind weekend started off on Saturday morning when we took Jaxson to get his two-year-pictures taken.  He did such a good job and we got some good pictures. 

Getting ready for football season with a TOUCHDOWN!

After getting pictures taken, we headed off to Jack’s 2nd birthday party at his house.  He had a truck themed birthday.  We all had a great time watching all of the kids play and Jack open his presents. 

Jack’s cake that his mommy made for him.

YEAH, it’s time for cake!

Silly boys

Then it was home for naps for all of us.  Then we went to the Clive Aquatic Center with our neighbors, Matt and Miah.  That was the first time that Jaxson and I had been there and of course he loved it.  He loved watching Daddy go down the big slide and off the diving boards, he’s still talking about that today.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to take my camera with me since it was out of batteries since it’s been working overtime lately. Then it was home to continue working on the basement, which is coming along nicely. 

Jaxson loves to help me with everything.  Now that he has his own stool, he likes to help with dishes.

Today, I put in my one shift at the hospital.  I had a good day and it was nice to be back, but it was even nicer coming home again.  The boys had gone next door to Maxwell’s 1st birthday party.  So I headed over there for some more cake and ice cream.  What a busy weekend full of time with friends and cake and ice cream.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

So Brad went back down to the olympic party for Shawn Johnson after we brought Jaxson home and put him to bed.  When he went back down, Channel 13 news was there interviewing people and Brad made it on the news.  They didn’t interview him, but you can see him standing next to Shawn’s grandma in the background helping hold up the tent because it was raining and hailing.  I just watched her win another silver medal for the floor exercise.  Let’s hope she can bring home a gold!

Most of you probably know by now that Shawn Johnson lives just nine houses down the street from us in the cul-de-sac.  So of course the olympics have been the big buzz around here.  A family down in the cul-de-sac rented a HUGE TV and put it in their garage and has been having a potluck every night that Shawn has been competing.  We went down to the big party tonight and had a lot of fun, but it’s too bad that Shawn didn’t start competing until 10:00.  We brought Jaxson home around 8:30 to give him a bath and put him to bed and Brad headed back down for a while and ended up getting hailed on.  So far it looks like she’s doing well tonight and hopefully she will end up with at least one gold to come home with.

The two Dorito boys.

Our carpet and sink are now in and it’s lookin’ nice.  It was so nice to go down there lastnight with no shoes on and stand on the soft carpet.  Jaxson loved taking his trucks down there and running wild with them.  Brad got the new TV out and running, so of course he’s happy.  We’re looking forward to getting our couch tomorrow.  Then all we need are the small finishing touches.

Well, where do I start.  I’m just happy to report that we have made some major progress in the past week.  Last week we made it out to Homemaker’s to pick out a new black leather couch, which is coming on Friday.  On Sunday, Steve and Kris made another trip down here to help us paint the basement.  We were very surprised and pleased to get it done in about six hours.  The color is a cream/brown and is very calming in the basement, which will be perfect for a daycare huh?  A third plumber came by this morning to give me an estimate for putting a sink and vanity down there for me.  I liked this guy.  He told me that it will be done for less than $200 as opposed to the $500-600 that the last guy told me.  So the sink is being put in on Thursday.  The carpet is coming on Wednesday.  Tonight, we went to American and bought a 46 in. flat screen that will be mounted at some point. Finally, things are starting to fall together.

That’s me getting a nice kink in my neck.

Jaxson doesn’t turn two-years-old until the 19th of August, but we had his birthday party today to celebrate.  This year we had a fire truck theme since he is completely fascinated with them.  He loves seeing them and he is constantly making siren noises and playing with his fire truck toys.  I made a fire truck cake for him, which ended up turning out quite well and tasting good too.  We had all of our immediate family down to our house for a little party.  Jaxson got the hang of opening presents right away, but after about ten presents he had had enough.  He was more interested in playing with the presents that he had already opened.  He got so many great gifts.  His problem now is trying to decide on which toy to play with first.  I think that we all had a great time this evening and I know I have one really tired boy in bed right now. 

Jaxson is seeing his cake for the first time and wants it NOW!

The boys enjoying a mid-morning snack while watching the Olympics.

Jaxson blew out his candle like a pro.

Jaxson got a big boy bed set with fire trucks on it.

Yeah, a bubble mower!  Now we don’t have to push the neighbor’s mower around.

Taking it for a test drive.

The birthday boy with G & G Winter and Dru.

G & G Hendricks

G & G Cathcart

Great Grandma and Great Aunt Patty

Heath with his boys

Kade and Jaxson messing around. . . until 10:30 at night.