Back to School!

Lance Eric.  First day of fourth grade.  Good luck sweet boy, remember your father's blessing.

To be brave, kind and look for the kid that needs a friend.  You are a powerful example to those around you, look for ways to shine.  Have confidence in yourself, and remember how loved you are!

Update on the year so far....

  Lance's teacher called me yesterday afternoon just to tell me how much she enjoys having him in her class.  He's kind, respectful, helpful, disciplined and a good example to others.  Then she asked to talk to him because she was doing a new seating arrangement and wanted to give him the option of choosing where to sit.  I could not stop smiling, is there any greater gift as a parent than to hear those praises?

Luke Williams.  First day of second grade.  Remember your father's blessing.  You are blessed with the ability to bring joy and laughter to others.  You are infectious with happiness.  This year will be huge for you and like you always do you will rise above your challenges, love you Loubird.

Update on his year so far....

A few days ago his teacher and I were exchanging quite the emails.....

Jenny and Eric,

 

Luke has been asking me about Fire Drills since the first day of school.  He seems to be REALLY nervous about having one.  Our first fire drill is scheduled for tomorrow, and I wanted you to be aware of that.  I will talk to the whole class about the importance of the drill, and that it is just a practice.  Is there anything else I can do to help ease his anxiety about it?

Hi Mrs. Blair,

Your email made both of us smile.  Luke is both amazed and, in some cases, a little terrified by nature.  For example, he is terrified of thunder storms but loves to watch them through his window.  We will talk to him tonight to try to give him some reassurance that everything will be OK and that it is just pretend.  Even in the face of things that cause him anxiety, he will usually step up to the plate when the time is at hand.  But we will thank you to keep an eye on him just to make sure he is OK.

Oddly, he wants nothing more than to be a firefighter when he grows up :-).

Thanks for letting us know.

Oh good!  He has seriously asked me about fire drills and earthquake drills every day!  On Friday he told me he wanted to stay home sick when we have a fire drill but he said "We don't stay home from school in our family". :)  It sounds like a mixture between fascination and a little bit of fear :)

 

-Mrs. Blair

 

Hahaha this whole thing just made me laugh.....his teacher is a gem!

 

Baby girl's first day of preschool!  K remember your father's blessing.  Have fun in this new phase of your life, be confident, kind and respectful.  Bring some shine, sparkle and rainbows to the new little friends you are meeting.  Your delightful little self is a breath of fresh air and we love you so much princess!

Update on here year so far.....

this picture says it all!

She adores preschool, gets so sad when it's not her day to go, bounces to the car after school usually telling me some unrelated story about her friends the princesses.  Is learning how to put sounds together and really kills it with her learning to read flashcards.  Show and tell is a little goofy because she brings the oddest things like McDonald's toys or baby bottles or a brothers Lego piece she found in the car.

Love these kids, hope it is one amazing year for each of them!

It's not Disneyland....

like my kids were hoping for this summer,

but it was still fun just the same.....

County Fair!

And Lagoon!

Maybe next year kids!

10 Months Old

Look how big my baby is getting!

Actually that should say look how big my baby is getting:(

2 more months until we will be celebrating a little one year old.

It's so crazy I remember so vividly my memories of last year at this time.

The changing of the leaves, the summer sun that just kept on giving to which I was incredibly grateful that I could keep on wearing flip flops for my oh so fat feet.

The steady kicks, doing yard work with my big old belly getting in my way, the anticipation of the holidays overshadowed by the anticipation of a newborn.

It's just so sad and yet exciting that it's another year and here she is almost one, it's gone by so fast.

I can't remember did I say she was crawling last month?

When did that start, but yeah she's all over the place and into everything.

It's funny because daily I see her little mind working learning new things generally things she shouldn't be doing.

Just yesterday she realized the kitchen has cabinets with oodles of things she can pull out and get into trouble with.....on goes the baby proofing.

As Luke would say "this is a problem".

She is fabulous at climbing up the stairs.....

But coming down....well she's good at that too.

If that means falling down head first.

I hate baby gates so we have been trying to teach her how to turn around and come down on her belly but I guess she is a slow learner?

Because it doesn't happen.

But thankfully she does realize it would be a disaster if she attempted in on her own and will just sit at the top of the stairs patiently waiting for a ride down;)

It helps that she has the toy room landing at her disposal to play with while she waits.

The puzzles are her favorite!

Oh and also the wipes.

She pulls each and every one out if I don't catch her.

And  just the other day someone left the pantry door open to which she helped herself to a brand new box of 300 Ziploc bags, and yes proceeded to pull each of those out as well.

She's fun.

She eats more and more people food everyday.....cereal, waffles, pancakes, french toast.

Baby food for lunch always but she does share in with our dinner time and pretty much eats everything I attempt to give her.

As you can see by the lovely lunch all over her shirt in this pic, she really enjoyed it.

And also obviously K loves to dress up her princess in waiting.

She's dying for the time her sister is a playmate.

Still nursing this girl though not nearly as often.  Once in the morning and before her two naps and then again before going down for the night.

That's it.

She really needs to learn to use a sippy because I would like her to drink a bit more during the day.

She pulls herself up to everything obviously and scoots around furniture like a pro.

Not sure if/when she will decide to start walking.

It seems like she is close at times but I know it could still be months off too.

She did get a 3rd little tooth pop up this month making two on bottom one on top....evening things out a bit.

Oh the bink, still loves her bink.

Though I am pleased to say she never needs it at night I don't think it will be that hard to break it from her when I decide the time is right seeing as how she sleeps just fine without it.

Sleep is tentatively going good?

I feel so weird even saying it because she is just so not consistent but we have decided rather than waking up four times a night with her she is almost one and needs to figure this out on her own.

I put her down at 8:30 and do not go back in her room until 7 the following morning.

I would say 3 out of 4 nights we don't hear a peep out of her but on that random night she decides to fuss she goes at it for a good hour.

I sure do hop she learns here soon that mommy is not coming in to feed her so she might as well just go on back to dream land.

We are so close to that point, I know it won't be too long before it's consistent.

(HOPEFUL THINKING)

She's such a doll, sometimes I look over at her standing along something with her sweet little bob hair and smile so big thinking you are so tiny still and yet getting so big.

I love her so very much.

Loved this picture of her one and only ride at Lagoon this month.

She was the cutest thing riding around with Miss K, that smile never leaving her face.

She melts my heart with those big old blues.

She is so gentle and sweet, a cuddle bug to the core.

K has always been a bit of a bulldozer, but this girl is so dainty and ladylike.

I can't wait to see her grown....but do slow down a little squish!

August Instagram

Morning hotel play....

The Living Planet Aquarium....good thing we just watched Nemo!

Sunday morning at the Smith's.

Patty cake patty cake......

"See mom I can to wake up at 6 am, big brother will rock me back to sleep."

Squish was naughty last night but she's too darn cute to stay mad at;)

9 months in and 9 months out, that's really hard to believe.

Saturday......

Good morning Monday!

Celebrating birthday week with our Granny O!

I love to see the temple.....

Love my mama.....she is truly my angel.

I love the hand holding....always.

Daddy daughter date to the Ogden temple open house.  She's a lucky little girl, her daddy is the best date.

Nothing better than the heavy weight of a sleeping baby in your arms.

He makes REALLY good home made ice cream.

I got yelled at for whisking wrong.

Stairs can be daunting.

I think he missed his baby!

Sitting in an appointment finalizing all our implant decisions......there is a lot.  Which brand, what color, what processor, what receiver, which ear to do??  My mind is reeling from it all and coming away with even more questions than I started with.  We will be so glad to get the month of September behind us, surgery done and implant activated.  But for a brief moment when I held the long electrode in my hand and thought about how that surgeon would wrap those coils around his pea sized cochlea and how that would allow my Luke to hear.  I had to quickly wipe my tears away.....it's such a miracle and I am so grateful.

Back to school night for our little preschooler!  She wanted her hair like her mommy's.  I will be the first to admit hair is not my forte but she was pleased as punch and I was pleased as punch that in her world I am the most beautiful person she knows.

It's a wee bit chilly for a ward camp out tonight......

Family reunion time today!

The ruler of the roost is not missing her brothers in fact judging by the way she keeps trying to lock her sister in her highchair I think she'd like to ship her off to school too!

He's really a family favorite that George!

"Homework time" .....aka coloring books.

New year, new big girl dance class!

Why do I always find you right here?

A phone call at 12:58 from an unknown caller......"mom, it's a half day."  Whoops!  Left my poor boys stranded at the school for an hour, so sorry loves!

I've been missing him!

Visiting the cemetery......."hi grandma."