Back to School

We succesfully started a new year of school. This year, with a third grader and a first grader! The boys were very excited about the first day of school, except for the fact that they had to wake up at 6:30 a.m.... they were still a little groggy during breakfast.

My big first grader was actually embarassed of me when I walked him to his classroom. Isn't he too young to be embarrased of me? He still managed to have a great day.

Ammon also tried to tell me that he is "too old" for his mom to walk him to class. Despite all the protests, I walked both my boys to class, took pictures of them in the hallway and gave them GIANT hugs before leaving the school.... I know, I'm embarrassing.

Love those smiles. I was so ready and so excited for school to start until yesterday morning. Seeing these two smiling on my front porch made me want to keep them home with me.

Little sis is already telling me, "when I'm THREE I can go to school like the boys," because the boys both went to preschool when they were three. I haven't had the heart to tell her that she still has THREE years before she can start Kindergarten, which means we won't be going to preschool until next year... when she's almost four. She was pretty content that she got to be in the picture anyways.

After dropping the boys off, I had a "back to school brunch" at my house. We had a blast celebrating the first day of school with about 20 other moms and their non-school age kids, and lots of yummy food. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures during the party... but here's what it looked like after. I know my empty, dirty kitchen doesn't make it look like it was very fun, but it was. :)

Ready or not....

Today is the last official day of Summer vacation. My boys will be heading back to school on Monday. I am really excited.... okay, I'm not going to lie, I'm ecstatic. It's been a long, HOT Summer. As ecstatic as I am, I'm not sending them back to school without some reservations. My biggest one being that I have a THIRD GRADER... a third grader whose classroom is on the "big kid" side of the school, a third grader who no longer thinks it's "cool" to wear shirts with a collar, a third grader who is halfway done with elementary school, a third grader who is embarrased to be seen with me at Meet the Teacher night. My biggest reservation about having a third grader is the fact that I REMEMBER THIRD GRADE. Up until this point I was hoping my kids would just forget all the mistakes that I've made. But I have real, vivid memories of third grade. I remember my fabulous teacher, Mrs. Terry- and Colby remembers having a big crush on that fabulous teacher (yes, we were in the same 3rd grade class... and YIKES- are third graders old enough to have crushes?) I remember all the actions the Laytones did to "Hooked on a feeling," when they came and performed at our elementary school (and we have never, ever done those actions while singing and doing the dishes. And I do NOT have "hooked on a feeling" on my ipod) I remember riding my bike around the neighborhood and playing ghost in the graveyard and sardines in our fabulous backyard. Reservations or not, come Monday morning I will be sending a third grader and a first grader out the door to start another year of school. And we are as ready as we are going to be...

We made apple shaped cupcakes,

We got all of our school supplies, and drove to every store in town looking for 9x12 inch colored construction paper (luckily it's not a very big town).

I know one girl who is going to miss these two boys... strike that, I know TWO girls who are going to miss these two boys.

LOVING....

Lately at our house we have been LOVING....

1. Tap shoes.

Abbi wants to wear these all the time.

2. This sweet note from Carter's Kindergarten writing folder,

Makes me smile.

3. Bowling!

With good friends in a nice air-conditioned bowling alley.

4. Popsicles,

In the FRONT yard, where the shade is!

5. Pandora Radio

Love this. Enough said.

6. These yummy lemonade popsicles.

Perfect treat after spending the day at the pool... and they are only 100 calories a piece so there's not too much guilt involved :)

7. Homemade tortillas.

You can find the recipe for these babies here. They are easy and delicious!

8. This picture....

Why so serious, Abbi?

What are some of your favorites lately?

Earings!

Abbi has been asking us for the past couple of months when she can get "earings like mommy." She told me last week, "You're big and I'm big... so I can get big girl earings like you," that seemed logical enough, plus she gave daddy her big puppy dog eyes and it was a done deal.

Yesterday, we took her to the mall and let her pick out her very first earings.

She was really excited about getting earings, until the girls at Claire's started messing with her ears, then she seemed a little unsure.

She was upset for just a couple of minutes after they pierced her ears...

but it was nothing that a sucker, a sticker and hugs from all "her boys" couldn't solve.

Abbi was so excited to go to church today and show her new earings to her nursery friends. When we picked her up Colby asked her, "what did your friends say about your earings?" she said, "they didn't say nothing." We all got a good laugh out of that one. Oh how we love this little girl, and her new pink flower earings.

Summa, Summa, Summa, ti-ime!

This Summer we have been busy....

Swimming with friends,

painting the playroom,

Eating popsicles,

Playing with frogs,

more swimming with more friends,

Swimming by ourselves,

Splashing on the slip and slide,

drinking from the hose,

hanging with our family,

reading a good book,

and wading in a creek,

No butts about it... we are having an awesome Summer!

Independence Day!

We had a great Fourth of July weekend. Colby had three days in a row off, we celebrated with good friends and good food, and I was only slightly homesick for family and fireworks (which we had neither of!) We kicked the fourth off with a traditional July 4th breakfast of Creme Brule French Toast, Breakfast casserole, blueberry muffins, fruit slush, and sausage. Yes, it was just as good as it sounds. We had some friends over to help us celebrate. I was originally thinking we could all eat outside; because it was in the morning and our backyard still had some shade.... it turns out that in Texas in July it is still unbelievably hot and uncomfortable in the morning, in the shade. Guess who ended up eating outside??

They were still all smiles and didn't seem to mind the heat.

Funny though, the mason jars full of crayons that I had put on the tables to entertain the kiddos did mind the heat.... they were melted beyond repair!

We kept the adults, and the food, inside with the A/C.

When I saw all the melted crayons, I was really glad that we opted not to go to the parade.

I was perfectly happy staying home with friends, A/C and my fruit slush.

Contrary to what they think, my boys are not too old to do the "matchy, matchy" thing for holidays. It's just too darn cute... and in a couple of years they won't let me pick out their clothes for them so I've got to take advantage of it while I can.

Due to the heat, and a serious lack of rain this year, all of the fireworks in our area were cancelled. I heard a rumor that there was a minimum $250 fine if you were caught with so much as a sparkler. Bummer. Instead, we went to a friend's house and BBQ'd, let the kids swim and played "a minute to win it." We had such a good time, we hardly missed the fireworks.

Hope you all had a Happy Fourth of July!

We survived

Today marks the end of Colby's first year of residency. To be honest, there were times that I wondered if we were going to make it to this day in one piece. Lots of times I felt like this:

Many times I thought, "I can't do this, it's too hard." But somehow we survived the past year.

With lots of good friends,

a lot of hard work,

lots of prayers,

lots of faith,

a little bit of laughter,

and very little sleep.

I am so proud of Colby for everything he has accomplished this past year. I am married to an amazing person/doctor/comedian/power-point making, toe-nail clipping, surgerizing rockstar. Really, he is amazing.

Now only if we can survive the next two years.....

Gone Country

After a year in Texas, we've officially "gone country." Well, sort of....

The boys haven't quite figured out how to wear a bandana like a cowboy, but at least they are wearing them! Friday night we had our ward hoe-down. We had a great time eating, socializing, line dancing and even did a little slow dancing! I couldn't get Colby to dress up, and he didn't even get to wear his cowboy boots because I was using them for centerpieces. But we were had a great time with or without costumes!

But while the boys kind of fought "going country," Abbi loved the fact that she was a "Texas cowboy girl."

What NOT to feed your pet frog

BEWARE: This story is a mouthful.

We had an exciting Science lesson at our house yesterday. The boys caught a huge (TEXAS size) grasshopper in the backyard and tried to feed it to Sea Monster. It was about as big as he is, so my first instinct was to tell them "No," but my curiosity got the best of me. I wondered if Sea Monster would even try to eat the huge grasshopper and I wondered how he could possibly eat it. So we put the grasshopper in the habitat, I grabbed the camera, and we waited. Lucky for ya'll, we only waited three minutes. It turns out that frogs are just as glutenous as humans...

I was a little concerned about the grasshopper legs hanging out of our frogs mouth, so we kept a close eye on him. After about an hour, he had swallowed most of the grasshopper, but our poor frog looked like he was in some serious distress. His eyes were bugging out of his head, he was salivating and not breathing much. So I did what every logical person would.... I googled "what to do if your pet frog is choking on a grasshopper." I didn't get exactly the result that I was looking for, but I did learn that you are never supposed to feed a frog anything that is bigger than his head... ooops. Next step, I called Colby. Surely a doctor would know how to handle this situation (by this time Carter is yelling, "mom, don't let him die!") As usual, Colby didn't answer (he obviously didn't know this was a life or death situation) so I called my dad. My dad said, "Why don't you just pull the grasshopper out of his mouth?" Well, because I actually had thought of that- but let's be honest, we are talking about grasshopper legs hanging out of a half-dead frogs mouth... not really something I wanted to get my hands on. (but thanks dad for the fatherly advice!) Luckily, my little Ammon is fearless, and a bit of a scientist. He didn't hesitate to pick up Sea Monster and yank the grasshopper right out of his mouth. Immediately, the grasshopper, who miraculously was still alive, hopped out of Ammon's hand and onto my carpet. What ensued was mass chaos- picture me and Abbi screaming and the boys chasing the frog and the grasshopper around their bedroom. We all survived (even the giant grasshopper) and we all learned what NOT to feed our pet frog.