Little Man Tate

Today was Tate's first day of Mother's Day Out! He did wonderful!! Everyone in his class likes him, especially one other little boy who left his mark on Tate by biting him on the hand. He's a trooper though, the teacher said he hardly even cried...that's what having 2 older brothers and 1 older sister will get you!! He is getting so big already!!

Tate Approves...

Cookie Time!!

So here is Anna helping me bake our weekly batch of cookies! I am not super slick with this blog stuff to figure out how to re-arrange the pictures to be in the right order, but I figured you could piece it together. She helps me every week...she normally puts in the sugar, eggs, salt, baking soda, and flour and then, of course, she tests the dough. We have fun and I am glad that we do this together every week...hopefully it will be a good memory she makes of her childhood days!

She is wearing an apron that was my moms when she was a little girl. We have our aprons hanging on the wall in the kitchen...it is always our first order of business. We usually end up sharing our baked cookies with friends, which also makes it so much fun to bake them. We love to see how happy it makes them...Corey not so much, he likes the cookies too!

Charlotte, the Friendly Spider

This is a picture of Anna's wall in her room. She has a beautiful flower light and a little piece of red electrical tape looped on the wall. Our story begins on Saturday afternoon in Anna's room. Corey, myself, Anna and Tate were all hanging out in her room while daddy put up a curtain rod. When suddenly Anna saw a small little spider crawling up her wall...she screamed "a spider...on my wall...get it daddy". Corey rushed to pick up one of Anna's little shoes to smash it on the wall. He attempted to squish this spider multiple times, but it just wouldn't die...due to the fact the shoe's tred wouldn't allow for a smooth squish. It was at this point that I stepped in and said "maybe we should give this spider a name and let her stay in Anna's room to be a friend...she clearly wants to stay". We then decided we should name her Charlotte. Anna's attitude changed and she created this home for Charlotte on her wall, lovingly made of red electrical tape. We haven't seen Charlotte lately, but if she does need a place to call home, Anna has got it covered.

Back to School Again!!

Today was the day...the boys went back to school...Noah for the first time in Kinder and Luke to the 1st grade!! Luke doesn't seem to like to smile for the camera so much, but I figured this is truely him so go ahead and take the picture instead of battling with him to smile nicely. Those of you who know Luke I think would agree.

Noah was a little anxious this morning. We had a few tears at the breakfast table over some of the minor details that make up kindergarten, like rest time, lunch time, recess, not being able to read, not knowing anyone, school supplies, and the list goes on. He was getting so worked up that his tummy began to hurt and his throat wasn't feeling so good. This happened frequently last year while he attended preschool three days out of the week. But once we got there he was all smiles and sat right down in "his" seat, kissed me and daddy good-bye and started his day. He is in the picture with his teacher Mrs. Pino.

Luke had no problem going to his class. He is excited about a lot of things related to being in first grade, but a big one is that his class is the only first grade class upstairs. Apparently if a child is in a certain grade they have to be on the first floor due to fire code stuff. But his class got special permission to be upstairs and they are located right by the stairs. He was happy to see some of the kids from his class last year were going to be in his class this year. He was already displaying what his teacher last year called "impulsive" behavior...I am hoping due to his excitement. First impressions mean a lot, but he wasn't catching on to that quick lesson I was trying to teach him. He is fantastic just the way God made him and it is my issue that I want him to behave perfectly...I am learning to love his "impulsive" behavior because it is not always bad, he is just being a seven year old boy and that is great!! He is in the picture with his teacher Mrs. Sharer.

What we DO....

Luke and Noah just LOVE legos!! So they are constantly building with them in their room. The latest idea was to build lego cities. So they create, and create, and create...sometimes I am not sure if it is actually part of the city or just legos that have not been picked up. Either way they are very proud of their designs. Our neighbors come over frequently, Bowh and Kong, and help with the creations too! I am glad they have some good friends to come over and enjoy playing like this with them and not just want to watch t.v. or play video games. School starts on Tuesday for both Luke and Noah...Noah is very excited, Luke not so much.

Thursday, August 13th 2009

Not a whole lot occured today, but the day isn't over yet! My wonderful friend Sara Hicks watched my kiddos while I went to a few Doctor's apt.s...friends with just as many kids as you are great!! You love when more kids come over because they play with yours and you usually don't notice the number of children has doubled...I mean when you have four, whose counting after that. I am just mowing through my laundry and thawing out chicken for dinner. My goals for the next week is to drink 8 glasses of water daily and to make 3 meals for dinner each week. I am going to try that cook all the main ingredients, like the meat, in one day and create easy, simple meals for the following days...maybe even a meal swap with friends. That may be a little more coordinated than I can handle, but maybe. I was told to stop drinking diet drinks because of the sodium in them. That I should just drink a regular soda...that burning off those calories would be easier then trying to get rid of retained fluids from the sodium. I like regular soda better, but I am not completely sold on this...any thoughts?
The count day of days until school starting has begun for me and the boys. I am excited for multiple reasons, but they are not for multiple reasons. School is great!! I just had the best experiences and time at every phase of school I was in....college included. I hope my kids enjoy it too. I guess I can give a little credit to my parents for that, oh, and God...thanks you guys and Big Guy! Well this is kinda lame, but it is me...love you all and thanks for staying connected to me!