1st Day of School!

I had every intention of taking lots of pictures yesterday- unfortunately the day started out like this.

Yeah, Emily wasn't exactly feeling it. I knew it would be rough when she wouldn't touch her breakfast. She did pose for this one though right before leaving the house.

Emily was the first one to be dropped off and had a pretty hard time. I had to physically carry her to her desk and she would take off over and over. She was not a happy camper, thus the rest of us were not happy campers. Eventually we snuck out, and I checked on her before I left the school- thankfully she was sitting quietly at her desk.

Abby went right to her class, hugged the teacher and sat down - she was super excited to start her first day of kindergarten!

Cole and I then headed to the gym to de-stress. We had a nice (and quiet!) day - took a trip to the store, played some, made dinner, then it was time for the older ones to come home.

The bus coming home was about an hour late, but they all had smiles coming off the bus and couldn't wait to tell me how much fun they had!


Abby had too many favorites to name - She said she went "wee wee wee all the way home" on the bus ride home today. Emily said, "Mom, you were right. Kindergarten is so much fun!"

Getting to school today was so much easier.

End of Summer

I'm sitting here looking at my fantasy football team once again. Yesterday was the draft and I must say I think I have a good chance of winning this year. Also wondering if I made the right choice drafting a QB in the 1st round which usually is a big no-no for me. But it was Drew Brees - helloooo - so I'm sticking by my choice right now. Geaux Saints!

Anyway, I know none of you probably are that interested in my draft - so thought I would put some pictures up instead. :)

Sticking to the subject of football... Austin started up once again. He is on the Cardinals team, and let me tell you - this is a really serious team. They have playbooks and all - for 2nd graders! And it is 4x a week. If I would have known that I probably wouldn't have given Austin the choice - it would have been soccer instead. He has practice Tues/Thurs with games on Friday and Sunday. Crazy! Not to mention the games and practices have been in intense heat. One kid even suffered heat exhaustion the other day.

I missed his first game today and am totally bummed. We had to be there by 4:30, it was already 100 degrees and there is no way Cole (or the girls for that matter) could have been out there that long. On James and Austin's way home they called and informed me that on the very first play of the very first game Austin scored an 80 yard touchdown run!! That kid may not have height on his side, but he is super fast. Here he is before the game... future Larry Fitzgerald.

James took a few days off last week. We went and made some art creations one of those days.

Family fun on three! A little pep talk before our adventure.

Take a look at this creation. I named it "schizophrenic bunny." The rabbit, not the girl.

That is our little Abby. I overheard her asking Emily yesterday why grandparents are so nice. She replied back, "Because God made them so, and Jesus, and Mary Poppins."

Hmmm.

Anyway, back to the artwork.

Austin made something pretty practical - a sports cup to put on his desk to put various items in.

Emily stuck to what she knows best - princesses.

Here they are on our bed one day last week.... all four of them!

Happy baby. Next week his entertainment is leaving him. Poor guy.

School starts tomorrow!! I have such mixed emotions about this. The kids have been getting on each other's nerves terribly, so on one hand I am happy for the break - on the other hand I am going to miss them! More on their first day tomorrow.... Time flies.

3 months

Cole - you are 3 months old now!

You are turning into such a good little sleeper. You are still sleeping in your car seat at nights and I can usually get a good nap out of you in the afternoon if I put you in your swing. At night you have slept a few times from 10:00-6:00!! Every time I think you have it down though, you'll wake up at 2:00 the following night. You like to keep me on my toes.

Look - you even took a nap in your bassinet once! Too bad it was just for 30 minutes.

This is you falling asleep on your dad one night. You make these funny little dinosaur noises when going to sleep.




Your favorite song is head, shoulders, knees and toes. You smile every time.

These 3 follow you around everywhere. I know you are going to miss them when they go to school next week!


Emily likes to put pretend tiaras on you... and real ones too.


You took your first trip to the gym last week. The teacher told me afterwards that your brother and sisters would not leave your side because they didn't want any other kids giving you any germs. I was obviously very happy about this!

We have finally started seeing real tears from you when you cry now. It is the most pathetic thing and we think you even look cute even when you're crying. I don't think you like us smiling back at you at some points-it gets you madder. You have a blocked tear duct right now. It doesn't seem to bother you, but it drains and gets all crusty - yuck! Look at your poor little eye!

Please ignore your "princess in training" bib leftover from your sisters. We don't take you out in public with it.

You're not into being cradled like a baby anymore. You constantly want us to sit you up so you can see all the craziness in our house these days!

You've discovered your tongue recently and are constantly sticking it out at us!

I can't wait to see how much you've grown at your 4 month old appointment next month! Well actually I can, you are already growing up too fast!

The 5th Beatle

Last Week

Gosh I am so bad about updating this blog lately. And about taking pictures. The days and weeks have been flying by - I can hardly believe summer is coming to an end soon. School starts in 2 more weeks, and our future little kindergarteners (and 2nd grader) are really excited. We are looking forward to seeing who their teachers will be this year.

Here are a few pictures I took last week. You'll notice that they are pretty random. And all around the house. We have been making the best out of being homebodies during the day, but we'll all be glad when Cole is older so we can venture out into the world again.

I introduced Austin to my Sudoku addiction. He solved his first puzzle all by himself.

I put the kids to work. We watched Annie a few weeks ago andthe song "it's a hard knocked life" keeps entering my brain. Cleaning windows and baseboards builds character, right? :)

Cole was introduced to his bumbo seat. He sat in there and the kids watched a Baby Einstein DVD for a good 20 minutes - they were all thoroughly entertained. James has just informed me that he wants an adult bumbo seat - he thinks it looks comfy. Hmm...

Cole looks like the Captain of a ship. And the others are just having a quiet summer day. Aah, to be a kid again!

Austin and I were watching 30 Minute Meals on the Food Network and he was wanting to try a new dish - it turned out really good. Austin is our picky eater, and I think it helps matters when he gets involved with the process.


While I finished things up, these 2 were rocking to some tunes with their microphones.

Abby made a whole bunch of sticky notes and posted them all over the house. At least it wasn't glue this time. We found them in the living room, in our room, in our bathroom, in the kitchen, in the hallway, upstairs and downstairs... everywhere but on the dog.

"Saffron luv you Cole"

"Abby luv you Austin"

Abby planted a lemon seed in hopes of a lemon tree growing - in 2 weeks. She explained to me that's all the time it needs - as long as there is plenty of rain and sun. Her exact words were "simple." She told us that God wanted us to have a lemon tree so we could make lemonade.

Summer Staycation #2

Well I thought that our second "staycation" was going to be a blast. Turns out not so much, but it was fun the hour or so it lasted.

The plan was to get up early, drive to Galveston, and spend the better part of the day on the beach. James has been dying to take Austin fishing - they even practiced at the lake in the neighborhood the night before and caught this catfish.

So they were both pretty stoked to catch some fish. We left the house by 6:00 a.m. - which is a major undertaking by the way. We got there around 8ish and James got the older kids all acclimated while I fed Cole. Then the boys headed out in the surf to fish and the girls played in the sand.


"Shark!!" It is the beginning of Shark Week, right?

Gladly, the wildlife still seems to be in good shape in Galveston. No effects of "the spill." Our thoughts and prayers to our neighbors to the east of us though.

I couldn't decide which one to put on here - the one with the hat or without.



I then decided to move the car a little closer to where the girls were playing. I turned the key... and had a sick feeling... the car wouldn't start.

After a brief panic attack I got James and Austin out of the water - Austin was upset because he was having a hard time in the surf, Cole was crying, and Abby started running up and down the beach screaming bloody murder because she saw a crab (which I have a hard time believing, especially since later she said it was yellow). Obviously the pictures don't reflect any of this. I wasn't in a picture-taking mood at this point. More of a "get me outta here" kind of mood.

We were on a pretty isolated part of the beach, but eventually James flagged down a car and a nice man named Rick jump started our battery. We left right there and then, which is good because I had visions of being stuck on that beach with 3 unhappy kids (Emily was still in a good mood) in 100+ degree weather.

So we got home and took the car to the Toyota dealership - turns out it was strictly a battery issue. James picked up some brochures for the new Sienna while he was there... didn't think the day would come where we'd actually consider buying a van. We were home by 1:00, picked up some fish to to fry (due to the lack of fish caught), and that was the end of our second staycation.