These kids

It's a good thing these kids are cute!  They are really pushing our buttons lately.  Ha!

The 2017 Solar Eclipse

After seeing awesome videos today from people who were in the 100% eclipse areas, I totally want to get myself to one someday! 

One of my sisters was one of those lucky people.  She said it was so awesome and the crickets even started chirping when it got dark.  What a unique experience!

We didn't get ourselves any special eyewear for the partial eclipse that we got here, but our neighbors did and they were kind enough to treat us to the show.  

Brett's teacher had glasses for all the kids so they got to go out and view it at school.

I figured I'd make the most the occasion and I whipped up some partial eclipse sugar cookies.  

The kids thought they were pretty cool, and so did my parents when I took some over to them tonight.

Solar Eclipses.... I'm a fan!

Happy Weekend

I spent a nice morning at the pool with these two cuties today.  

Two kids sure seem like a lot less than four!

We have more swimming and some cousin time coming up this weekend.

And some good news...my sisters are flying out for a weekend in September!  I'm so excited!!!!

Happy Weekend!

Camille starts preschool

This morning I followed this little girl of ours around the block to her first day of preschool.  We are so lucky to have a great teacher right behind our house!

And I'm so lucky to get to have a few hours each week now for one-on-one time with Tyler!

Ready to go on her bike.

Our cute next-door neighbor friend was on his way to school too.  

Camille looks like a giant here!!  Our friend is pretty tiny and Camille is tall for her age, so it's funny to see the two of them together.

She pulled up to her teacher's house and was ready to go without looking back!

Can you tell she's excited?

She wouldn't tell me what she did there, but she said she liked it so that's good.  

Happy Weekend

We are so ready for the weekend!  This first full week of school has been hard on everyone. 

Keith and I BOTH accidentally slept in this morning.  Keith NEVER sleeps in!  We must have needed it.  But we sure had to hustle to get those boys to school on time.  Luckily they were already awake.  

Brett will be happy to have a break from school for a couple days.  It's hard for these little ones to get used to all day Kindergarten.  He likes school, but he's been an emotional wreck all week and that's hard to see, and hard to deal with too!

Here's to a relaxing weekend!

The day we finally gave in and got bunk beds

Last week I'd had it with the boy's beds.  They took up a lot of space and kept sliding on their tile floor and dislocating the center posts underneath.  Plus they (mostly Brett) kept cramming junk under their beds.  One night after getting Tyler to bed I came out and found that one of the beds posts were knocked out...again.  That was the last straw.  So I told everyone to go to the family room and I went to work taking apart those beds and cleaning that room up 'til it sparkled.  I laid their mattresses on the floor and called it good.  And they actually liked it a lot.  Then we started thinking about bunk beds.  I really didn't ever want to go that route, but in the end it made sense in this space.  And when we went to look at them they were on sale.  The kids were ecstatic when Keith paid for them.  That was last Friday.  The beds came in today and we picked them up before dinner.  Keith had a meeting for church so I got Tyler to bed and built these bad boys myself.  It took a little over three hours.  He came home at the end and tightened everything up and screwed in the slats.

Everybody loves them!  They are super sturdy and look great in their room.

Now there is so much more open space in their room!  We are going to be figuring out a Lego table to fill some of that up.

Brett says their beds are a pirate ship and he sleeps in the bottom of the ship.  Ha!  I love it!   Here's to many nights of great sleeping and hopefully no junk under the bed!

Camille starts dance class

 Camille and her cute cousin started their dance class today.

It was the cutest thing to watch!  This is the first lesson/school thing (besides church) that Camille has done and I was excited to see how she followed instructions.  She did great!  She even changed out of her tap shoes and into her ballet slippers by herself and put them all in her backpack at the end of class.  

Now if we could get her to keep her stuff at home organized like that!  ;)

I think this class, along with starting preschool next week, is going to be great for this go-getter girl.  She is happy to be doing something of her own.  And with all the boy stuff she's surrounded by here at home, it's fun to have her doing something more girly.

And going with a cousin makes it even better!

First Day of School 2017

Boy were these two boys ready for the first day of school this year!

School started last Wednesday.

On Tuesday morning, bright and early, the boys proudly appeared in our room dressed and ready to go.  They had even eaten breakfast.  They were bummed when we told them they were a day early!  Ha!  We told them that was a great practice for the real day.

Here they are on the real first day of school.

 Camille had to get in on the excitement too, of course!

Here are the boys playing with our cute next door neighbor friend.  Grant was so nice to play in the "little kid" area and make sure Brett knew all there was to know about the first day of school.

Luckily one of the other moms got this cute picture of Grant with his two best buddies.  They were so excited to be in the same class together again this year.  And they got the teacher they wanted!  Score!

Here they are after their first day.  I was a little worried about Brett throughout the day because he can be timid and unsure about new things (to the point of tears).  When I went to pick him up the first thing he said was, "I LOVED IT!"  It brought a few tears to my eyes and made me so happy!  I love Brett's face in this picture below.  He looks so excited!

We started off the year with our annual Back to School Dinner.  I wised up this year and held it the Sunday before school started instead of the actual night before the first day.  That proved to be too crazy and rushed last year.  

I tried to keep this years festivities special yet simple and short.  For our dinner this year we had Taco Salad.  Easy peasy.  Then we had our Family Home Evening for the week (which we usually hold on Mondays).  I had prepared a lesson about putting on the whole armor of God.  I even purchased some really cool "paper dolls" on Etsy and laminated them for the kids to put together.  They loved those!  But they quickly lost interest in the lesson and were being rude, Keith had to leave halfway through to put Tyler to bed (who was losing it), and after a valiant effort to refocus the kids attention I left in tears.  Sometimes it is just so frustrating to put effort into something and not feel appreciated!  You know?  Keith came back and after I convinced him that I needed a time out, we all got together and talked about showing respect and listening during Family Home Evening.  So I guess the kids got two lessons that night!  Then Keith gave each one of our kids a Father's blessing to help them with this new school year.  We ended the night with yummy ice-cream cones.

A couple days into school, Brett proudly told me, "I had on the whole armor of God all day!"  Yay!  I guess they weren't totally tuned out.  ;)