Josh Loses his 1st tooth!!!!

Yay for Josh!  He lost his first tooth during quiet time at school today!

Water Play Time

So, as you might have guessed, it is still hot in Houston.  Unfortunately, the neighborhood pools are closed for the year, so we have to find our own way of staying cool.

Yesterday the boys and our neighbor Maryann and some of her friends decided to play on the slip and slide to stay cool.  I don't have pics of that, but I have adorable pics of Jake giving Jill a ride.  She adores Jake and he is SO wonderful to her.

Josh's Very First Soccer Game!

This year was Josh's first year to sign up for soccer.  He has been very excited to play after watching big brother play for a few years.  He finally got his chance!  He plays on the Memorial Drive United Methodist Church team on one of the Kindergarten teams.  They named their team Tornados!  He had a great game.  He had 2 assists (1 as goalie, man that kid can throw!) and stopped several goals!

Josh was pumped that he got #1!

How cute can you get?

Getting ready for drills.

Josh and teammates celebrate a goal! (Josh had the assist)

Josh the goalie stops the ball

And unleashes!

Jill Finds the Fruity Pebbles!

Enough Said!

Some Random Pics

So, not much has happened lately.  The boys are in school all day and Jill and I just hang out, so I thought I would post some funny and cute pics .

Michelle and Scott did come in town last weekend for a way too short visit, but it was great to see them!

Sneak preview of Jill's possible Halloween costume.  We'll see.  We have several cute ideas.  This was just so cute I had to post it!

My mom wanted so badly to get a good pic of the grandkids, but getting 4 kids to smile, look at the camera and stay still just isn't easy.  So here are some of the funny ones. 

Just Crazy...

As close as she ever got. Not too bad.

Trip To Connecticut! - Part 1

We just got home from an extended Labor Day trip to visit our family in Connecticut. It was so nice to get away from the hot weather and enjoy temps in the 70's for a change! We even wore jeans and sweatshirts sometimes! Not in Houston the first week of September!

We had tons of fun seeing family and doing neat things that we don't get to do in Houston. I am going to try to include as much as I can, but since I am a lame-O whose camera batteries were never lasting long, coverage was spotty! Plus I tried to take video too, but since I can only do one at a time (shame on me!) we have pics of some stuff and video of others.



We flew into New York City and I took this pic of the skyline as we were driving across a bridge going to Connecticut. I just liked it!




One of our first fun activities was picking apples at the orchard. The kids will tell you it was lame, but they had a good time. Plus there is not much opportunity to do this where we live so we had to take advantage! (p.s. Can you believe we are all looking at the camera and smiling!!!! This might be the highlight of my trip!)



Judy and Poppy make the long walk to the back of the orchard to pick with us.




Jake picked high.




Josh picked low.




Jake lets Jill see what all the fuss is about.




Jill gets a ride on dad's shoulders.



The store at Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel, CT.

All done!

Trip to Connecticut - Part 2

Later in the trip Aunt Maureen and Uncle Paul came over from Rhode Island to visit. It was so great to see them again, it has been since Jake was little.


We had a fun weekend hanging out with the fam, cooking, eating, swimming and going to the Newtown Labor Day Parade. Obviously I can't post all the parade pics I took, but here are some to give you a flavor. It is a huge parade and the only one in the state, so people come from all over to watch and all the politicians show up to be in it. The governor was there!

The kids favorite part was the people throwing candy at you!






Jake, Josh and Nikki get ready to watch the parade.

The adults enjoying the parade. Aunt Maureen, Uncle Paul, Justin, Judy, Poppy and Joan.

Here we go!

Always a crowd favorite, the Shriners driving the cars!!!

Check out this video!







Very cool, and something I have NEVER seen in a parade before. This is an army helicopter being towed on a flatbed!



Dad and the boys chill and watch the parade.

Okay, these guys caught me off guard and it was loud!!!

The Mattatuck Drum and Fife Corps. It was founded in 1767 and is still around today. Very neat and Poppy's personal favorite.

Jill snoozes on Judy.

Trip to Connecticut - Part 3

These are some random pics that didn't fit under my other posts. Super cute!


Jake and Jill with Poppy




Aunt Joan introduces Jill to fresh steamed lobster. Jill was interested.




Jill and Aunt Joan at Judy's house.



Jill and Aunt Maureen.

Jill hanging with Nikki. She loved playing with Nikki.

Jill takes a step!

The video is a little crazy, but about 30 seconds in, you can see Jill take her first step! Very exciting!

Next week she will be 10 months old.

First Day of School

Today was the first day back to school for the boys. Now I know some moms celebrate, but I am going to miss my kiddos. So is Jill. She is a huge fan of her brothers and I don't know how I am going to keep her entertained all day without them!

We first took Jake to his 3rd grade class. I cannot believe he is that old already! Then we took Josh to Kindergarten. I wanted to do it that way so I wasn't blubbering in the 3rd grade room. Good idea.


Justin, Jake and Josh on their way in.



Jake smiles for 1 picture. That is all he promised.



This is what I got when I tried for number 2. He wanted his family outta there!



Josh hung up his backpack and posed for a picture by his name.

Auntie Courtney was ready, too! How exciting to have family at our school this year!

VOTE VOTE VOTE!

Hey Guys!

As Uncle Sam would say, WE NEED YOU!

My little sister Michelle was just presented with a WONDERFUL honor- she is listed in a competition of the best high school volleyball players in Texas. It's called "UIL Volleyball Team of the Century" and she is nominated! What an honor!

But it doesn't stop there- we need to vote for her!

Go this website http://www.uil100.org/vote-volleyball.php and vote for Michelle Moriarty.

There is only one vote allowed per computer, but you can vote until October 31, so keep passing it along so we can get as many votes as possible!

Tell your friends! It's fun to look through the names (well, fun if you were a high school volleyball fan ever!). They also have a high school football century team, and that's super fun to look through also!

Thanks for your help and Go Michelle! :)

Camp Week!

So, this past week was a big one for the Hyland Family. Jake had his second round of camp down at the Museum of Natural Science. This time it was Jedi Academy. He had a total blast. Here are some pictures from his graduation ceremony on Friday. He graduated from a Padawan to a Jedi.

And some pretty important people attended his graduation.

Here are a few guests, Darth Vader, a storm trooper and Chewbacca.

Here are some more, a Sith Lord, another storm trooper and a Jedi Master.

Jake graduating and receiving his congrats.

All the new Jedi pledging their loyalty to the Force.

My little Jedi!

Josh, on the other hand did not have camp and was feeling left out. He actually told me that Monday was the most boringest day he had ever had. So, I was feeling kinda bad. But then my mom invited him to come to Camp GranDeb for the day on Wednesday. That was a real treat. 3 hours of board games!!! Woo-Hoo!! as Josh would say.

The assortment of games played.

Josh's big Scrabble word. He was so proud!

Woodburning fun!

Then, since Josh wanted more, GranDeb encouraged my sister Courtney to host her own camp, Camp CoCo for the day on Friday. Another treat, she took Josh to the Children's Museum. It has been completely re-done and Josh had the time of his life. Another Woo-Hoo!! Here are some pics of that.

Josh the Chef. He really loves cooking with me at home and Courtney said this was his favorite part!

The Many Josh.

Driving the ambulance.

And I don't want Jill to feel left out since she just stayed at Camp Mommy all week, so here is a super adorable pic Courtney took on her cell phone on our way to Birthday lunch for me at Chuys!