Back in session

School is back in session, again. I can't believe how fast summer went by. I know I say that every year, but every year it seems to go by faster than the year before. We had a fun summer with lots of swimming at the neighborhood pool, an overnight camping trip to Silver Creek Plunge, more swimming at the water park, fun times with the Crawford's, 2 sets of tonsil removal and much, much more.

Now it's back to business. Logan is excited about his 2nd grade teacher because she will have class pets.

Adam is now in Middle School. I can't believe he's already in 7th grade! It was hard for this mama to send her child to the wolves, I mean to middle school. He was very nervous about going, but also excited. So far, its been great.

Jenna is beginning her 4th grade with a very nice, loving teacher and is sad summer is over but getting into the swing of things with school starting up again. (Jenna really didn't want school to start because that meant she couldn't sleep in any more.)

And then there is our fun Allie who gets mom all to herself again this year. We decided that she needs to go to more library classes for kids and have lots of play dates to keep her entertained and so mom can get some things done. :)

Well on their way

Here we are already into November and the kids are in the thick of the school year. We are coming to a close of their first trimester and so far things are going pretty good. The kids have good teachers and good friends. Adam is doing great so far in 6th grade, maintaining his position in Honor Society and doing various assignments that go along with that. This will be his last year in Elementary School. I've been enjoying having 3 of my kids in the same school, the school that is in our subdivision and oh, so close.
In 3rd grade now, Jenna is gaining confidence every day and has a teacher that wants to make sure Jenna succeeds. She loves to play tetherball at recess and is getting better and better at it every day.
Logan enjoys being in 1st grade and although he doesn't always follow the rules at home, he is definitely a rule follower at school. In fact, he's really bothered by some classmates that don't follow the rules. He's becoming a great reader and is fun to be around. Logan often prefers to walk home with the popular 6th graders, which can sometimes drive his older brother nuts!

Poor Allie is stuck at home with me everyday. She cried and cried the first few days of school when I wouldn't let her go with the rest of the kids. She even had her shoes on and her lunch box packed ready to go.
We started her in a music and movement class at the library and with story time before and after class, she is satisfied that she has her own class to go to now. Allie is telling me often during the day that she has do get her homework done and that she's off to school.

Family Pictures

Taking a family picture is a lot harder than it should be. Getting coordinating outfits, bribing the kids to wear the outfit, finding the right place, have happy kids and a happy husband, etc. etc.
This year was no different from the rest. Sara does an amazing job at taking pictures and working with my family. We are so grateful she's willing to share her talent with us.
Here's some of my favorites:

"HEY"

First Day of School

Summer break went by WAY TOO FAST! We had some out of the ordinary things going on this summer. Jenna has been a rock star at going to her vision therapy twice a week for four months now. I've been dealing with Graves Disease since June so that put me inside way more than I wanted to be. However, we still managed to do some great things this summer and now we are onto school. Adam started 5th grade, Jenna is now in 2nd grade and Logan goes to Kindergarten. That puts me and Allie home by ourselves every other day. We try to have a great time, but Allie really missed everyone and followed Jenna around everywhere she went after she got home the first day of school.

 A few glimpses of our summer:

Months in Review

September was busy getting into the swing of school, homework and new schedules. I'm so proud of Adam. So are this school year he has set his alarm and gotten up on his own every day. This is a HUGE improvement from last year. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that if he's not ready in time, he has to go to school with his sister (which involves me taking him) rather than going to school with his friends. He is enjoying 4th grade and has really stepped it up...upper elementary is a lot more work!

Jenna had a rough start to first grade. She missed her Kindergarten teacher so much and just cried every day because she did not want to go to school. After a couple weeks of this and a visit with the teacher and principle, things changed dramatically and now she loves going to school. All it took was for her teacher to pull her aside and ask her how she was doing and if she was having a good day. Ever since, Jenna decided she LOVES her teacher and 1st grade really isn't so bad.

Logan loves going to preschool and I have found that I can get a lot done in the amount of time he's in school. Allie and I have great bonding time and a lot of different kinds of shopping gets done!

Also in September, Allie turned 6 months old! Time is going way too fast!

 October: Allie is now 7 months old and has found her very loud voice! We figure it is her way of saying, "HELLO!!! I'M HERE AND I CAN BE LOUD TOO!!!!"

 Sometimes all that attention makes her very sleepy!

 I love fall leaves. The kids do too. However, we do not have a lot of leaves falling from the 2 small trees we have, so the kids gather up the leaves from all the neighbors and bring them over to our yard. The neighbors love that all the kids get together and rake up their leaves and the kids love playing in the leaves. Ryan doesn't seem to mind too much that he has to rake and dispose of every one's leaves!

We got a pet. It was a cat. The thing is, Adam REALLY wanted a cat. He begged for years for us to get a cat. I hate cats. Ryan doesn't care for them. We got a cat anyway...for the kids. Ryan spent his day looking for a cat, buying the necessary things a cat would need and getting the cat settled. We named the cat Star and got her settled. The kids would kind of play with her, but not really. Oh, and this was a STRICTLY OUTSIDE cat. I was not going to have it in my house. Two days after we got the cat, we lost her. We looked and looked and could not find her. I called and told Ryan that we couldn't find her...anywhere! He told me to look under the lawn mover, which I did and there she was. How long was she under there...who knows? As a couple days went on, the kids weren't really paying any attention to their new pet unless a friend came over to see her. Ryan felt sorry for the little thing and would spend time with it when the kids went to bed. He asked me to please spend time with it during the day and get it used to being around people. I tried. I went out, tried to get her out of her box, put on a glove to pet her, she ran off, I walked back into the house. After a week of the kids not really paying any attention to the new addition, we took her back to the Humane Society. Luckily we had a 30 day return policy. 
Fast forward a few days and here we have ourselves a pigeon in our garage...it is tame and tagged. We tried to find an owner. Unfortunately before we could, the neighbor kids came into our garage to see the bird, took it out of the cage and gave it to another neighbor kid. The pigeon clawed the boys hand and he let go. Gone is that "pet." I decided we aren't pet people, unless it's a fish. And that's ok.

 
Jenna lost her first tooth this week. She was at school, eating lunch and was SO EXCITED!!!

Halloween was fun. We had a party that our nephew did on Tuesday then on Thursday we did the school party, parade and ended the day with Trick-or-Treating. Adam quickly divided his candy into what he will keep and eat and what he's going to sell. Then, I noticed he already made up his pricing sheet. I don't know if he really understands that everyone else just got as much candy and probably won't be in the market to buy for a while.

Ok, so that was a bit long!
Now onto the Holiday Season because you know Christmas will be here before we know it!

4th, 1st and Pre K

I didn't think I would be so sad to see the summer come to an end and see my kids off to school. I thought for sure I would be happy to watch them go out the door and not return for a few hours, happy and more educated. After all, the house would be quieter, and a lot less complaints and fighting. However, that was certainly not the case with me.

Adam and Jenna was were so excited to head to school and Logan was sad he couldn't join, but he did go ahead and packed is own lunch in his lunch box just like the big kids.

Let's just be honest, Jenna is struggling. 1st grade is different than kindergarten. It's longer, every day, a little more challenging, and the hardest part is she doesn't have her Kindergarten teacher this year. She REALLY wants to go back to Kindergarten so she can have the same teacher. She has cried every day so far and I'm hoping that soon she will be able to adjust and be happy to go to school. (This is so different for Jenna. Usually she has not problem at all going to school, or doing new things. In fact, on the first day of school she wouldn't give me a hug good-bye, she just wanted me to go.)

Adam on the other hand, loves school. He loves his teacher and although he says 4th grade is harder, he also says it's more fun. He has to really step it up now that he's in upper elementary school, but so far he's done just that. He was bummed, however, to learn on the first day of school that 4th graders no longer get an afternoon recess.

 

 Logan started preschool and LOVES it! He was upset when he learned that he wouldn't be going every day. On the first day, his teacher had each of the students (there is only 8 of them) make a cardboard car and "drive" to school. I am very impressed with his teacher and the way she runs her preschool.  

Although my kids are growing up WAY TOO FAST, I'm excited for this next chapter in their lives and the things they will learn. I'm sad to see summer come to an end, but look forward to the growth our kids will have this year!

More July fun, this time with the Richards

July was a very busy, fun filled month for us! We were able to see lots of family, have really late nights and lots of laughs. Here's some pictures of what the cousins did when they got together on "the farm."

 You may be wondering about this picture so let me explain. This year there have been SO MANY FLIES...so if you can't kill them all, you may as well try to see how many land on you at the same time and try to get more than anyone else in the group...and that is what they did.

I am really excited about this picture. A microwave? Yes, our new, working microwave. I didn't realize how much I used my microwave until ours went out 6 months ago. Hooray for a working microwave! :)