School!

Geez. Summer ended, school started. Enough said, the end.

Just kidding. Haha, like I’d end a blog about the first day of school after only a couple of words. 

Ok so anyway this was a big year for us because Piper started school (Pre-K, but still). And we were SO afraid for her to begin. Nervous because her anxiety this Summer has been heightened and she wasn’t accepting all the changes we had been making very well….. Nervous because she’s as stubborn as can be and when something goes against her wishes, she digs those heels in. Nervous because what if she has to go potty and doesn’t know where the bathroom is? Nervous over making friends. Nervous over getting in trouble.  Nervous over everything. As mom’s, all we do is worry about our kids. But my nerves were melted away at the end of the first day when her teacher said to me in all sincerity: “she was PERFECT. She is the sweetest thing and so precious. Just PRECIOUS.” Day 2 her teacher (Mrs. Cotton) told me she was “precious” and SO helpful.  Day 3 she laughed and said “I don’t even see how you could be nervous because she is just SO well-behaved and PRECIOUS!” (Southerners love that word;) ). Man, it never gets old hearing that your kid is well-behaved.  I am SO relieved.  Yes, its only 3 hours a day. But still. 5 days a week is a lot for a 4 year old. We will see how she does as the newness and excitement wears off…. But her teacher is AWESOME.  At “Meet the Teacher” I didn’t know how I felt about her.  It was a little chaotic in the classroom so she was probably feeling a little frantic and she’s an older lady so clearly I mis-judged her…. I wasn’t sure if she was “the right fit” for Piper. But talking with her each morning at drop-off and each afternoon at pick-up totally eased my mind and I’ve actually come to REALLY like her. Like, a lot. And other than tears the night BEFORE school, I didn’t cry this year! The night before, during prayers and discussions with Shawn, I bawled my eyes out. But when we said good-bye to the girls I held it in!  I’m proud of myself!

Now onto Lucy. With her ADHD we were nervous for a whole set of other reasons, but Meeting the Teacher was amongst my MOST nerve-wracking thing.  I sent in a form last year with a request for a quiet, calm and nurturing teacher. As a kid, I didn’t like those types of teachers. I LOVED my peppy, fun, exciting teachers. But I know for Lucy, those types of things are distractions. She needed the most quiet of them all. And the school listened to me! Her teacher, Mrs. French, is extremely calm and quiet and low-key. She is everything I could have hoped for for Lucy. What a blessing! We can’t wait to see what the future holds! Not only that, but she has already emailed me 2 times! Last year, communication was such an issue with Lucy’s teacher. As in, she did not communicate with me at ALL. This year I have high-hopes for a much easier year! I heard from other people who had Mrs. French in the past that she has the most patience of any teacher in the school! Plus she’s been there for 10 years so she has lots of experience. I am looking forward to seeing Lucy excel and hoping there are less tears from both her and I. At least we have her medication dosage established! I don’t have to go back each and every month for more evaluations. We went before school started last week and now she isn’t due at the doctors office to go over more ADHD stuff for 4 more months! My wallet can take a little break as well ;)

Lucy was SO excited to have her friend Xander in her class again. We love Xander and he lives in our neighborhood too! Yay!

Look at the comparisons from them vs. me in 1991 and 1993 :) Me and Piper's 1st day of Pre-K and Me and Lucy's first day of 1st grade!

Look at how proud she looks! She was so excited to tell me all about her first day at school. This is pick-up at the end of her day. It was so sweet! We have a happy Pre-schooler!

After school treats! Cheers to a successful 1st day of school for BOTH of them!

 Had to get some 2nd day pictures taken as well!

 And finally, our last day of the week. They were still excited to go- especially Lucy because it was her first EVER P.E. class. She carefully chose her athletic wear out so that she would be ready! She said she LOVED it. All they did was play Tag, haha.

 More pics from the 1st day.

So we are back at school and just chuggin’ right along. It was a successful week! It was only 3 days, but still a success!

Sully also had his 18month check-up and is 95% for weight, 77% for height, and 89% for his head. He’s a big boy! A busy boy. A Wreck-it Ralph, Energizer Bunny, Tasmanian Devil and Road Runner all in one. He is always on the go, always screaming, always terrorizing his sisters and Tasmanian-Deviling his way through every room he goes though. Always throwing massive fits when he doesn’t get his way, always studying his sister’s every moves and trying hard to mimic them, always doing the cutest things, always running everywhere he goes, always throwing food against the walls, always chucking everything in general, likes to pretend to be a puppy and a cat, laughs like Pee-Wee Herman, and is the love of my life. He LOVES having his teeth brushed (and loves to carry around a toothbrush all day), he loves to be tickled, loves to play, loves to dance, loves pushing little cars and tractors around all day, hates to have his diaper changed (still), loves to jump on the couch, loves to go swimming, and he loves food. He brings me food to open all. day. long.  He’s the busiest child I’ve ever had- and that’s saying a LOT because all of my kids are busy. Sigh. My life is nuts!

Lastly, since Shawn was home this past week, we took advantage of the girls being in school and painted their room. I know, we’ve lived here for over a year but it seems like we just never had the time! So we let them choose all their colors. They chose Pink walls and yellow accents.  I was on a budget for headboards so we came up with this and I think it turned out really cute! 2 "headboards" for under $30! One thing I love about Shawn- when we start a project, he doesn’t stop until it’s DONE. So painting their room and mounting the curtains was done in less than 24 hours.  He did most of the painting. I just did the edges of the walls (we still had kids to watch and keep away from the wet paint!).  Then while he mounted everything, I cleaned and rearranged the furniture back in place.  We’re a good team! Painting a room is more work than I remember it being….then again, the last time I painted anything, I didn’t have 3 kids at my heels :)

Oh yeah. I know I said “lastly” above. But THIS is really the last thing.

Shawn got a promotion! I’m so proud of him! This has been a long time coming because he’s been in the same position for 3+ years and wanting to “move-up” in the company. His manager didn't want to let him go because he’s such an asset to the team and moving up meant moving departments within the company.  So after a little tug-of-war between managers of departments, they finally made a decision and we came out the winner! We are so excited because not only will this be a little more money for us (which we are really in need of) but Shawn gets to stay home more!!!! Instead of 100% travel, it will now be 20-30% travel. DO YOU KNOW HOW HAPPY THIS MAKES ME???! The kids have suffered majorly, I have missed him as a husband just being there every week, and as a helper too.  I have been impatient with the kids too often because everything depends on me, and lonely without him home. So this is many prayers being answered.  I’m so happy and really, really proud of him.  And now I have an adult to talk to throughout the week. It’s funny how much you CRAVE adult conversation when you don’t have it day after day.  There were some months when the girls saw him for 36 hours in a 2 week span.  He was always gone and it was just really hard.  Anyway, his official start date is actually tomorrow and yes, he’s leaving for San Antonio for the week, but after that he will be home much more often and we can’t wait. Telling the kids was so exciting. All we had to say was “Daddy is gonna be home more often” and it was like fireworks exploding in their room. They screamed and shouted and jumped up and down on their beds. It was adorable. They ADORE their Daddy!!! They practically worship the ground he walks on. 

So all in all, it has been a great week! (Oh yeah, we even made it to the Aquarium!) 

I feel happy :)

Boise!

YIKES. I just looked through all the pictures I took of our 13 days in Boise and there are a TON. How do I even go about picking and choosing my favorites? They're all so cute! You guys....digital cameras and phone cameras are not good for me. I take WAY. TOO. MANY. PICTURES! Plus we did a lot of fun things and had a lot of good times, so of course I had to document all of that!

When your parents live on the river, you go boating (and get to tube AND wakeboard), your sister has a giant pool, all 4 of your grandparents are with you at the same time, your family is super fun to hang out with, your grandma's garden is an oasis of fresh produce and she makes the world's best donuts AND she has cows to feed, and your friends and all of our littles have play-dates, you take a lot of pictures!

So, rather than go into detail about everything we did over the past 2 weeks, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! (For the most part, that is!)

Ok, these next few pictures are worth captioning.  Shawn and I wanted to take the girls back to the Gazebo where he proposed to me! So we did.....they weren't very impressed, but WE liked it :) Also, that day I made sure to go to my favorite store in the world- SMOKY DAVIS and eat some of my favorite food ever (Beto's) AND we took Lucy to see the house we lived in when she was born! That window in the front of the house was a bay window in her sweet little nursery. It was such a special time! 

Look at Shawn photobombing the picture! HAHAHA! Also, below is KJ attempting to finish the Big Jud's challenge. He didn't quite make it, but he tried. That was a LOT of food!

These 3 girls had SO much fun together. Evvy is quite popular around Boise!

Sully fell asleep in Ninny's arms on the boat while I wakebaorded.  This picture is precious....but don't be fooled. This kid was a PILL while we were in Idaho. Holy smokes!

Malu (Mayu) was Coley and Jason's exchange student from Brazil 2 years ago and she came back for a visit! Everyone adores her!

She woke up like this! HAHA!

I met up with my two best friends in Idaho! Laura and Lana. It was a fun afternoon. I just wish we could have spent a little more time together. Next time we go to Idaho we are driving so I hope to be able to see a little more of my friends. Our time together is never long enough!

Matching Swag Lines! (Curtsey of Aunt Tip)

 This night was fun! Just my little family and I snuck away to a hotel to escape some of the chaos at my parents. Don't get me wrong, we were SO thankful that we were able to stay with them and we were having fun, but there were a lot of little's in their house and personalities were clashing and fits started getting a little out of hand. So we decided to let everyone decompress a bit and let our kids go crazy at a hotel.  Before we did that, we went up to "The Village" and hung out for awhile.  Everyone was happy and it was nice to spend some alone time with Shawn on the hotel balcony after our kids were tucked in and look at the mountains we've been missing! I love Idaho oh-so-much!

I LOVE this picture!

Also while in Boise, Aunt Tip pulled Lucy's tooth! It was SO exciting! It SO needed to come out (permanent tooth was halfway grown in behind it!) and I didn't think it was ready.  But Tip is a pro at this kind of stuff so she took over and we were all thrilled to get it out! Ninny told Lucy a story to distract her, and "pop!" Out came the tooth and landed right in Ninny's hair! Hahaha, it was so fun!

I hate goodbyes! Saying bye to my family is always so hard because I never know when I'm gonna get to see them again! We had so much fun getting to spend so much time with them and I will cherish these memories forever. My kids were a little extra naughty while we were there, unfortunately, but we still got to do so many FUN things and see so many people.  However, there still just wasn't enough time to see everyone. So NEXT Summer we are actually gonna be brave and DRIVE to Idaho so that we are able to stay in CDA for a few days and then go down to Boise as well.  We just have too many friends and family members in Idaho that we miss and want to see! My parents house is beautiful and their backyard is heaven for my kids (and me!). We felt right at home staying there and sleeping in their awesome and comfortable Murphy bed and we loved getting to spend quality time with them (I even found a new card game to love- Mille Bornes!).  Although we love Tulsa, Idaho will always feel like home to me.  That's why I like to call it "IDAHOME." Maybe someday we will get to move back??  Probably not, but I'll keep my fingers crossed:)  For now, we are home sweet home in Jenks and I am busy trying to play catch-up after being gone for half the Summer. School is just around the corner and I have so much to do from now until then, INCLUDING taking time to play and relax with the kiddos for just a few more weeks. It's good to be home!