First Days of School

Jacob and Caleb started school on Wednesday, August 24th. Jacob started 2nd grade and Caleb started kindergarten. They were so excited. I had mixed feelings- I was excited for them, and knew that they were definitely ready, but there's always a part of me that's sad when school is back in session-especially since kindergarten is all day here. The first bell rings at 8:10 and class starts at 8:15 so they start the day early.

They each picked out their outfit for the first day of school.

Back in July when we were in Utah for the 4th of July, Jeff took the boys up to BYU to walk around his old stomping grounds. Before they left, he let each of them choose a BYU backpack. I was a little surprised since we've never spent more than $10 on a backpack for our kids, but they were all so excited. Wednesday morning when I had all the backpacks laid out ready to go, Jeff came walking into the room, got a big grin on his face and said, "That just makes me proud!"
We took a couple more pictures on the 2nd day of school too because I decided I wanted some outdoor pictures.
One of the reasons we were excited by our new house was because of it's location to the elementary school. We're just up around the block- so close that the kids can walk. Caleb was a little disappointed that he didn't get to take the bus to school, but I like being able to walk them to and from school and let them have the chance to walk to and from school with friends too.

Emily was all ready to go on the first day of school too.

She was so excited that afternoon when the boys came home that she immediately went and plopped herself down on Jacob's lap with her blanket. She loves her older brothers and is so excited when they come home. She often cries when they leave for school.
Matthew started preschool a few days after the older boys. I really debated putting him in preschool. I kind of wanted to just keep him home with me. I finally decided at the last minute to try and enroll him in a local preschool that many of my friends recommended. It's a very popular school that's been around for years and has a great program with fantastic teachers. I didn't know if he would even get in because they usually fill up, but when I called they happened to have one spot left in one of their afternoon classes, so we went for it & Matthew has been so excited. He goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 2.5 hours. You might not see the excitement from his first day of school pictures though. He didn't want to smile for me, he was just ready to go to school!

Plus, he was distracted by all the cool bugs on the ground.

He finally gave me a total cheeser grin and then was off to his big boy school! I admit, I cried after that one.

And Emily? How do you think she feels about being the only child (at least three days a week for 2.5 hours).

Maybe sad?

Well...

Personally, I think she's kind of enjoying it....

But she is always very excited to see her brothers when they come home from school. Here's to another year! And how in the world did I get to this point where three of my kids are in school!?

My Birthday

I don't know how I got so lucky, but I was completely spoiled on my birthday this year. Best part- Jeff was able to take the day off! It doesn't get much better than that. I'll admit, I started the day off by sleeping in- until like 9:45! I took full advantage of the special day! Sounds pretty lazy, but that pretty much never happens- even on Saturdays I've been up before 6am to run, and it was also the last day of summer vacation. That was probably one the best birthday presents, and I enjoyed it! :)

When I came down, this is what was set up. Jeff made an amazing breakfast with crepes & all the toppings, a huge bowl of gourmet fruit, chocolate mik, grapefruit juice, and donuts. The whole place was set with a cute birthday tablecloth, matching pink cups & utensils, and party hats for everyone.
The kids were so excited about the whole thing they could hardly stand it. They had helped Jeff put the whole thing together and had fun playing with the noise blowers and party hats.

Jeff even had cards that they boys filled out for me. He meant to get birthday cards, but ended up getting RSVP cards instead, but I loved how cute it was when the boys wrote on them. I really loved Caleb's RSVP "I will be there." It still makes me smile.

We did the big birthday breakfast this year instead of a birthday dinner. So to fit with the theme, we skipped cake and did birthday donuts instead, everyone had one donut. Maple bars are my favorite, and they worked with the candles pretty well! It still seems like a pretty big number to be sitting on the donut though. :)
We didn't waste any time getting to the presents. I was fine to wait until that evening, but the kids were ready to open presents right then, so we did- pajamas, no hair done, no makeup and all!
Like I said, totally spoiled! They picked up some fun treats- oreos and captain crunch, a new blow dryer- my last one was about 6 years old and ready to die, a set of pots & pans, some clothes,some pajamas, and a new Garmin GPS! (My old one finally started to give in and wasn't giving accurate readings)

Jeff had arranged for me to go get a manicure and pedicure that afternoon (my very first ones!) but they ended up having to cancel the appointment because they were short on workers. I was already out to go, so I stopped and ran a couple errands and then headed back home. Even though it was a Tuesday night, we had some friends who had our kids come over for a little while so Jeff and I could go out for an early dinner to eat to celebrate. It was the night before the first day of school so we didn't go out real long, but we were able to enjoy a yummy dinner at Texas Roadhouse and get some pants at the store for Jeff on the way home.

We were back pretty early so we could get kids all ready for their first day of school the next day, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm so grateful for a husband who loves me and puts so much effort into a birthday. It was one of the best birthdays ever!

(Jacob's a pretty good photographer, and the kiss photo wasn't planned-Jacob thought that was pretty funny. :)

Friends & Summertime

It's been a long, great summer. We couldn't have hand-picked a better neighborhood. Within two weeks of moving in, we knew all our neighbors up and down the entire street as well as the neighboring street. There are 29 kids just down our cul-de-sac street and our kids have loved running around with friends all day. They're all good kids and have a lot of fun together.

There were some days where the kids would literally be running around all day long. You know they're are having a good time, when they come in in the afternoon, sit on the couch for 3 minutes and end up like this.
It takes a lot to get Matthew this tired. I thought it was too funny, I especially love how Emily wanted to hop in the picture as well.

Some things I remember the kids enjoying this summer.

Jacob: riding his bike, playing basketball, hours of baseball with friends, playing 'Go-Go's' (picture below), riding his scooter, swimming, reading everything- sometimes disappearing for hours to finish a book, playing street hockey, being our garden helper, playing games.

Caleb: riding his bike, roller blading, baseball with friends, learning to read, playing "Go-Go's", favorite color green, , playing at the park, going to the gym, sometimes declaring "worst day ever!" Not that he had a bad summer- but if there was ever a time when he was upset about something, he would say that pretty dramatically. Sometimes it was hard not to laugh.
Matthew: chasing birds, riding his 'tractor'(little car that looks like a John Deere tractor), playing with the big kids, catching grasshoppers! He wants to go out everyday to catch grasshoppers- they usually don't live long but I'm definitely not sad about that, eating plain peanut butter sandwiches- no jam, only peanut butter, favorite color blue- everything blue! He only wants to drink out of blue cups, blue bowls, eat blue popsicles, and sometimes only the milk with the blue cap. When we finish a book or story, he always ends with a heartfelt "Amen!" I guess he thinks that's what we're saying when I say, "the end." I love it!

Matthew has also had his first crush this summer. There is a darling little girl who lives across the street named Varity. She's the same age and Matthew loves her! He blushes and gets shy every time he sees her and always wants to play. It cracks me up though, because he totally acts like a boy with a crush on her, he'll try to impress her by running around or doing crazy things. He told us once, "She likes my tractor!" Jeff and I busted up laughing, thinking of the country song "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." Fortunately, Matthew has gotten so he isn't so shy with her and they've become pretty good little friends. I love watching Varity and Matthew together. I need to get a better picture of them together.

Emily: playing outside, loves pushing kitchen chairs around and climbing up on them as well as the table and counters- and our table is a counter height, she loves going through my purse and pulling everything out, dancing, catching grasshoppers with Matthew- she's his right hand girl, following the big kids around, swimming, saying lots of new words "hello, hi, daddy, mommy, thank you, turtle, Lilah, night night, bye, doggy, diaper, teacher, hot, this one, here you go, etc", she's getting harder and harder at church- but nursery is only a few weeks away, her hair is getting longer everyday, and she's looking older all the time. My baby is growing up.

Back to School Shopping Trips

I swear the stores try to make summer end early- they put back to school supplies out on display in mid June. I don't like seeing everything out so early, but when we get to August I definitely look forward to taking each of the kids on their special 'Back to School' shopping trip. I love taking each of them by themselves to get a couple things. They really didn't need a whole lot (other than the mile-long school supply list...) but it's still fun to pick out a couple things and get a bite to eat together.

Matthew was the lucky one who got the first trip- actually Jeff had a little break between patients, so I took him when I could. He was pretty excited about his new Lightning McQueen shirt, and ice cream cone from Dairy Queen.

I ended up taking Jacob the same day as Matthew once Jeff got home from work. I normally let the kids pick out a treat or eat somewhere cheap, but Jacob had asked on his birthday to go to Red Lobster and we weren't able to go, so I let him go for his school shopping trip. Thank goodness they have cheap lobster on the kids menu- he'd been dying to try it forever, and was so excited to go to a real restaurant. We don't take kids very often for obvious reasons. Jacob thought it was pretty awesome- especially when the server let him touch one of the live lobsters.

Caleb was the last one to go. He always cracks me up with his pictures, I had to put in a couple of my favorite poses of his. He was so excited when he found a Mario shirt on the clearance rack at Target, and also thought it was pretty cool to get a kids' meal for lunch while we were there.


And we're done again for another year. I didn't take Emily- I figure she'll have plenty of time with me while the boys are at school. I'm so glad my mom started this tradition with us when we were kids. We used to draw names for the order we'd go in, and get so excited to see what everyone would find. It's so fun to go enjoy a couple hours one on one with each of my kids, and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Date Night

When you have little kids, date night is really something to look forward to. Now I can understand why my parent's enjoyed Friday nights so much. We've been lucky enough to find some good babysitters so we can go.

I had been dying to see the new Harry Potter and really wanted to see it in the theater. Jeff and I went one evening for date night. It didn't disappoint! Well, it was a little sad that it was the last movie, but we loved it anyway.

Jeff being funny.

Another night, Jeff got a groupon coupon to go hit at a driving range. I've actually never golfed (real golf) or even been to a driving range, so this was a totally new experience. You know it's bad when little kids, and gramps sitting in his car with his cane are giving you pointers! Ah well, I had fun anyway! Jeff does great and can really hit the ball.


Whether we're grabbing a bite to eat, catching a movie, playing sports, or even just running errands, I'm grateful to have a little time with Jeff!