TA-DA

and just like that she's 8 months old!

From flat to sitting.

From Rolling to crawling.

From crawling to standing.

From no teeth to two teeth.

From baby food to finger foods.

From cooing to Dada, Bubba, Mama.

From looking at the stairs in this house to climbing them.

From this little bundle of joy that needed us for everything to this little lady who has a mind of her own!

8 Months have passed....and my oh my how things have changed!!

That was yesterday

Yesterday
She only said, da da da and bu bu bu.

Today
I walk into the room and I hear Ma Ma Ma Ma. My heart smiled!

Yesterday
She had a toothless grin.

Today
She has a pearly white peeking through.

Yesterday
She only crawled.

Today

She surprised us all and stood up tall.

Yesterday
She was just a little baby.

Today
She is a little lady.

THAT WAS SO YESTERDAY!

What is cute and adorable with pink and brown all over?

Need a Hint?


Of Course it is!!!

Without a doubt, it is my Ellee Bean

Ellee,

Your perpetual shining smile brightens my everyday.

I love you!

Buses And Jitters And Tears, OH MY!!!!

On one hand, the kids slept like rocks. On the other hand, Mama did not. All I could think about was that my kiddos were going back to school and "Did we do all of the fun stuff that we could have done over this summer?" When I got past the, "there is nothing I can do about it now if we didn't", I started thinking about how quiet my house was going to be when I came back home from being the ridiculous Mom taking hundreds of pictures on our first day of school. It made me very sad and, to be really honest, a little scared. Sometimes I like peace and quiet, but today I didn't like it, I didn't like it, not one little bit.

6:30 rolled around and I rolled over and put my feet on the floor determined to be happy about this day. By 7:00, I was waking up the boys, getting them dressed, putting shoes on, combing hair, trying to feed them breakfast that they wouldn't eat due to the first day jitters, brushing teeth and rushing around trying to get Miss Ellee ready, too. We made it with 5 minutes to spare.

We were told that the bus would arrive at the corner of our cul-de-sac at 7:57, so out the door we went. As always, we stopped to take a picture under the tree in the rain.

Then the dreaded walk to the bus stop. Do they not know that it's hard on a Mom when they decide that riding the bus is much cooler than having your Mom take you to school on the first day?

The bus arrives. This is when I realized they were just as nervous about this day as I was because they couldn't just give me a natural smile. They were smiles masking their jitters, but that was OK because I was having trouble smiling today, too!

On the bus they went.Sigh.....I made it through that! Daddy, Ellee and I raced to the school but we didn't make it into the building before the bus arrived and the boys got off. In fact, I had to get Caden out of his classroom to take the next picture because he was already at his desk before I even knew it.

They gladly did it, even though I'm sure deep down inside Caden was thinking, "OK, enough already, Mom."

We made it to his desk and with one last look, behind his nerves he let me know that he was going to be OK. It was going to be OK to be in Second Grade with Mrs. Carpenter as his teacher and that I was free to go. I told him I loved him and that I was proud of him, choked back my tears and walked out the door. It would be very uncool to cry in front of his friends!

So then it was time to take my last little boy to Kindergarten.

He was a bundle of jitters and didn't really want to walk through the door, but he managed to muster up the strength to do it and we went in. He found his seat and Mrs. Fager got him busy right away, so that he wouldn't notice my eyes welling up with tears and the lump in my throat.

It was a tough morning for this mom. It wasn't long before the same little boy I left at Kindergarten earlier in the morning came home on the bus for the very first time, a little more grown up than he was when I left him.

He stepped off the bus, hugged my neck and before I could ask him anything about school he said, "So what's for lunch, Mama?" That's more like it, I thought to myself, we can talk about all of the unimportant things later. Mac & Cheese is what he wanted for lunch on his very first day of "REAL SCHOOL," so Mac and Cheese it was.

After a couple episodes of Spongebob watching, he decided he was ready to tell me about his day and it was a full morning of all kinds of stuff, but the best part is when he got to draw a picture of himself and color him green. I love Green Reeces and can't wait to see it hanging in the hallway.

Caden arrived home at 3:50 and was very excited to tell me about his day and all that he did. The most favorite part of his day was that they got to go outside for at least one recess because it had stopped raining. Why would I have ever thought that the best part of his day would be reading or math? He is a sports kind of kid and all summer long he worried about whether or not they were going to put the soccer goals back where they belonged by the time school started. So of course his favorite part of EVERY DAY always has been and always will be recess. I'm just sure of it.

It's a tradition in our house that on the first day of school they get to pick some place fun to go and eat. So Red Robin it was. Great food and the best chocolate milkshakes ever for dessert.

Who can go wrong with that? All in all it was a great first day of school for the boys and I am so proud of them.

Tomorrow is a new day and tomorrow will be better. That's what I am telling myself anyway!

Movin' And A Groovin' Crawlin'

7 1/2 Months old and she is on the move.

Watch out brothers! Here I come and none of your stuff is off limits ~ Love, Your Sister

The last of our memories from our final week of summer....

Tonight was Open House night at our fabulous Elementary school where my darling boys will be in 2nd grade, Kindergarten, and where I will be doing my part of screwing up nothing everything as the PTA President.

I realized that no matter how badly I don't want school to start or how badly I wish we would have crammed more fun stuff in to our last week of summer, it's going to happen and it's going to happen tomorrow morning. I will be ready with my box of Kleenex, camera, and an empty feeling when I walk out the front door of the school tomorrow and leave them there, so that their teachers can impact their lives in ways that I can not.

I'm just a Mom and sometimes that job is tougher than I ever imagined it would be. Not because it's a lot of work, but because my babies are my every day and it hurts to have to share them with the world, when they are all I know.

So while my heart hurts a little because tomorrow will be here before I know it and the routines will begin, my days last week were full of laughter, fun, smiles, and memories that will last forever. I am so thankful for each and everyone of them.

Wednesday is where we left off so we will begin with Thursday...

Bowling here we come! We met the Duling's for a couple games of bowling and believe it or not this was the first time we had got to spend any time with them all summer long. More proof that the summer has just gone by way to fast.

That evening I threw in a little surprise for the kids. They had been wanting to see G-Force. Not exactly a movie that I wanted to see, however, it was playing at the Drive-In along with Ice Age 3. So I dressed my kids in their PJ's, Daddy stayed home with Ellee, and my friend Tracy and I took 4 kids to the Drive-In.

So 2 movies later, 4 kids that wouldn't stop fighting for nothing and never did fall asleep, 3 trips to the bathroom and concessions (which rocks), 2 tired Mama's, and 1:15 in the morning, we pack them up and head for home. Another great day down!!!

Then came Friday. All week long the boys had been wanting to go to the NBC tournament so we decided that Friday would be a great evening to do that, so that is just exactly what we did.

We went and watched the Liberal BJ's take on the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. We cheered for the Liberal BJ's because they are close to my home town but they didn't win. They do, however, have a kid from Hugoton (another town close to where I grew up) that has been drafted to play for the Haysville Heat next year. That's right! Haysville is getting their own NBC team and we are pretty excited, being the baseball family that we are and all.

The boys were chosen to gather trash at the ball park, so armed with their trash bags they set out to do their jobs.

Caden came back with a dollar bill that some guy gave him as a tip for picking up his trash! He was thrilled!

They each were given a Wingnuts baseball for doing such a great job of picking up. So two baseballs and one dollar bill later you would have thought they won the lottery.

Ellee just loved being outside and enjoyed her first baseball game that wasn't her BROTHERS!!!

Saturday was a day for finishing up school shopping. While we were at the mall we realized that the carousel that my kids have been riding since Caden was a baby was closing on Sunday with no plans to reopen, so for old times sake we had to take one last ride and Ellee got to experience it for the first time.

The Tea Cup has always been a favorite. You can make it spin real fast!!! Ellee loved every minute of it!!

So there you go and just like that summer is over and we are off to school tomorrow. So with our nerves for change, and Mommy with her box of Kleenex we will happily go to school tomorrow and before we know it summer will be here again where more fun and adventures wait.

Not exactly the zoo!

While Tanganyika Wildlife Park isn't exactly the zoo, it was a perfect evening to spend as a family and I loved it!

If I could just have this in my backyard that would be great!
If I could just have flowers that looked like this in my front yard that would be great too!

Welcome too Tanganyika Wildlife Park

Which one of them is Ringtail? Reece thought it was real life Madagascar!

If I had to hold that neck up all day I would be tired too!

We finished our family evening outting at the Pride Of The Plains on the river. We love this place! Reece especially loves it because if the guy riding the bike that is carrying ice cream hits you, he gives you free ice cream. He discovered this while not paying attention when we were down there last weekend and got hit by the ice cream man. While the boys and I were enjoying our stroll while Daddy sat in the car with a tired baby, he says to me, "If I stick my foot out and get hit by the ice cream man he will give me free ice cream." Thank goodness the ice cream man was no where to be found!!! Gotta love that boy of mine!

Brothers are they!

What's a family night without a game of memory between 2 brothers?

No Game at all, when you have a sister who just wants to CHEW on the cards!!

I am so blessed with a wonderful husband and 3 amazing children and I thank God for them daily!