Back to School

Noah started back to school. This year brings many changes: school starts a 1/2 hour earlier, he gets to ride the bus to and from school, he gets to buy school lunch, he is a big 1st grader, and he goes to school all day.

He insisted on riding the bus to school on the first day. He also insisted that I didn't meet him at school that morning. You see, he is a big 1st grader and can do it "on his own." I finally gave in and let him do it on his own. I felt okay about it since we got to go to the school and meet his teacher a few days before school started.

He went to bed easily the night before and set his alarm.

He got himself up and dressed by the time I was out of the shower.

He was even eating breakfast. It is so nice that Daddy is still home in the mornings to help us all get ready for the day.

He was so anxious to get to the bus stop and start his new adventure.

I made him a little cheat sheet for his pocket. I didn't want him to forget his teachers name, room number, bus number, and bus stop. I also made him take a few pictures out front. Before we headed to the bus. We are so lucky that the bus stop is so close to the house and with the way the route is set up he gets to and from school about the same time as he would if I took him. It makes my life so much easier. I love it!

Out in front of the house...

A close up...

Waiting at the bus stop...

Here comes the bus...

On the bus and on his way to school. I love that the bus driver has the girls sit on one side and the boys sit on the other side. She also assigns seats. She runs a tight ship and I know she has the safety of the kids at heart.

A picture before school started, courtesy of Erik's mom. She was there and made sure he got where he needed to go...

Getting off the bus at the end of the day. He loved every minute of his first day of school.

Zoe didn't really like him being gone all day. She was ready to pick him up by 11:30. Too bad he wasn't as excited to see her at the end of the day, as she was to see him. He came home in such a mood.

Later that night he informed us, "Don't you know I'm a big now? That means I can stay up as late as I want." I didn't now being 6 was so much different than being 5. I have also heard a ton about "independence,"...."that means I get to decide and do things on my own." Boy does he have a lot to learn. I guess I need to learn the "school" and "class" rules as I seem to break them all the time.

I know this new schedule will take a little getting used to. Hopefully we will all survive this transition period.

Happy Birthday to Me

I too managed to celebrate another birthday recently. The two weeks leading up to this year's event were very memorable, but not in a good way. It is a time I'd rather forget, but don't think that is realistic or possible. I was mentally and emotionally drained along with not feeling the greatest physically either right up until the day that none of us knew how much celebration would be going on this year. I managed to pull myself out of some of it the day before with a little bit of positive news and a lot of determination.

I was woken up the morning of my birthday by Noah and Zoe overly excited for me to open up the gifts they had picked out the night before. As Noah so cleverly put it, "You have to open it now, as I keep thinking about telling you what it is." So, with a couple of texts and phone calls to Daddy I opened my first gift. A popcorn maker. I'd been wanting one since Christmas time, but never purchased one. The next day I would open the "popcorn seeds" (as Zoe puts it) and some Kettle Corn Seasoning.

My morning didn't stop there. The kids and I had a lunch/play date scheduled with the Christensens', or at least that is what I thought. I went over there with the understanding that her kids were dieing to see mine since both families had recently been on vacations that over lapped and they hadn't played together in over 2 weeks. But when I got there Jalyssa had a babysitter waiting to take care of all the kids and we were off to an afternoon full of mystery.

Our first stop was lunch at Round Table. We were the first people there and got to pick our favorite pizzas. Next we had a little time to kill so we walked around Walmart. Then she took me to get a Vanilla Creme at Starbucks before surprising me with a pedicure at the Electric Sun Salon. I felt a little guilty as they weren't able to do 2 people at the same time so she had to sit there and watch me. However, I really enjoyed every minute of the pampering. I was so glad I had recently shaved my legs.
After our afternoon of fun I was on my way to meet Dan in Reno. She had arranged with him to keep the kids that evening so we could go out. In the end she ended up keeping Noah and Zoe overnight.

Dan and I had a nice dinner at Claim Jumpers. It was even better since it hardly cost us a dime. I had earned a free $50 gift card that we used. I had a Roasted Artichoke and a Steak Flat-bread. Dan had a Roasted Chicken Dish. We shared a yummy Lemon Italian Creme Cake. It was so good. Then we were off to do a little shopping.

We decided to head to Old Navy and try and get a few things for Noah. School was starting Monday and he had outgrown all of his pants and some of his shirts. Plus we had a few valuable coupons set to expire. We had a lot of fun shopping and were ready to check out when the electricity went off. Luckily they agreed to hold our items until we could return. Turns out a good portion of Reno was without power too. I was so glad we decided to eat first and avoid the Friday night dinner rush, or we would have gone without.

Since, most of Reno was dark we headed back home and stopped at Osh-Kosh in Legends at Sparks. We found better quality pants there for the same price. I even talked them into giving me the coupon price without producing the coupon. I explained we hadn't planned on going there, but the power was out in Reno and I know I was emailed a coupon. I guess they were more than happy to have me spend my money there. We also stopped at the Gap Outlet where we found some shirts for both boys on the clearance racks. We found shirts for Jack for less than $1 and Noah's were around $2. Unfortunately they had nothing in Zoe's size.

I know kind of a crazy date activity, but it is so much nicer to be able to shop without kids. Then it was time to head home and pick up Jackson.

Saturday was spent finishing up the Back to School Preparations and a big Costco trip.

After church on Sunday the festivities continued. We had a nice BBQ chicken dinner with roasted corn on the cob, tomato salad from the garden, and potato salad. Dessert consisted homemade Vanilla Almond Ice Cream (Shelly Egberts' recipe) and Brownies from scratch.

Jack enjoying the potato salad...
Dinner was followed by more gifts...This lovely thing helps make my house smell good.My good friend Shelly gave this to me:
This quote means a lot to me. It goes right along with a conversation I had with her on my actual birthday. (she didn't know it was my birthday at the time and gave me a hard time for not telling her) It goes right along with the positive thinking I am working on these days. Plus can't we all use a little more faith?

Tuesday, my friend Brya took me out to dinner and ice cream. Then we sat in my driveway and talked for close to 2 hours. It was so nice to have an evening out and catch up with her. It seemed like we hadn't talked in months and had so much to catch up on. Plus, I think both of us were stalling hoping the kids would be in bed before we got home.

This is what I came home to:
Jack's favorite past time is making messes. At least the other kids were both in bed.

I was spoiled rotten this year. Thank you to all who went out of their way to make me feel special and important. And for helping me find a reason to celebrate.

Dan's Building Project

Look what I have out my back door...
Dan has been working hard all summer building a deck. As you can see it is about 95% completed. He still needs to build a railing for the upper level and a step for the lower level. Then we will be ready to stain it.

He's done most of the work on his own. Our good friend, Erik Christensen, was kind enough to give up a Saturday and help him build the frame for the lower level.

People have been surprised that he actually built it and they can't believe how large it is. I'm sure it won't look so massive once we put a table on it or put the BBQ on it.

We will have so much fun entertaining on it next summer. I've really enjoyed sitting out there in the evenings once it starts cooling down. Plus I love having less dirt to look at.

A different view...
Look! We also have gutters now. I love having such a handy husband.

11 Months Old

Well another month has managed to pass by in the blink of an eye and my baby is one step closer to being a year old. I can't believe it. Where does the time go?

This past month Jack has really become a daddy's boy.

His vocabulary now includes "oah" for Noah, "dad", "dada", "daddy", "ba ba", and "dat" for that, while pointing at something. Zoe swears he says her name too, I'm not so sure. He jabbers all the time, especially in the car. I wish I knew what he was saying.

He is getting better at pulling himself to a standing position and walking along furniture and walls. He has been my earliest crawler, but latest walker. I don't think it helps that Noah and Zoe try to help a little too much.

He loves giving kisses and still thinks Zoe is the funniest thing ever.

He loves to snuggle up with both Noah and Zoe when they lay down on the floor. He crawls over to them and lays his head down on their face, tummy, or whatever is convenient.

He loves emptying any and all drawers he can get open. Same goes for cupboards, closets, baskets, bags, and so on.

He loves a good game of "peek-a-boo". Most of the time this is all it takes to get him to stop fussing or crying.

He is full of smiles and has very expressive eyes.

He can even raise his eyebrows at you.

As you can tell, we think he is the cutest thing ever.

Some pictures from this past month:

Look at those big blue eyes.
Loving Daddy's pasta.
Zoe entertaining him. She loves pushing him around in her car.As you can see, he doesn't always stay seated.
Playing in the playroom with the older kids...
At least this time he is playing independently and not destroying their track.

Everything goes in his mouth these days. Including crayons.
We have this sweet older gentleman at church that hands out tootsie rolls to the kids every week. Somehow one ended up on the floor and Jack got a hold of it. He knew exactly what to do.I spoiled his fun right after I took these pictures. He doesn't have enough teeth to chew it properly.

DMNS Part II

Noah insisted on having possession of the camera during the dinosaur exhibit. He snapped several pictures of the different dinosaurs. As he put it, "People would love to see them on our blog." Thanks to their recent discovery of the PBS channel and the show "The Dinosaur Train," they were familiar with a lot of the different species. They were even able to answer a few questions asked of them by the museum curator. At the end of the exhibit we even got to watch a group of archaeologists cleaning fossils.

Here are some of the highlights according to Noah:

Zoe didn't want to be out done by Noah. So,
she decided to take the camera and document
The Egyptian Mummies Exhibit.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science

On day 5 we visited the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. I scored a good deal on admission through Groupon, for $50 we got a season pass to the local Fleischmann Planetarium. It just so happens that they are part of a larger network and our passes are good at several locations, Denver being one of them. Our pass is also good at the Exploritorium in San Francisco, the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in Salt Lake City, and a handful of places in the Sacramento area.

Noah had been looking forward to the trip to the museum ever since I told them that they had a huge dinosaur exhibit. Dinosaurs are one of his favorite things at the moment. There was also a large exhibit on Insects, Outer Space, Wildlife, the Human Body, Gems & Minerals, and Mummies. If you wanted to you could pay extra and see a special exhibit about Pirates, choose from a number of IMAX films, as well as planetarium shows. It was a very educational day. I'm so glad the kids loved it. I think it would be fun to go without them sometime as there was a lot of exhibits I would have liked to spend more time at.

Some picture highlights:

There was a large dinosaur to greet you right outside of the parking garage.

Noah and Zoe fit under him...

Comparing feet...Auntie Lori even got close to the dinosaur...

A view from above...
Zoe loved the insect exhibit and insisted that I took some pictures of it. I personally was freaked out about the size of some of these bugs. They were real, you could see the pins holding them in place.

Jackson checking out the polar bear exhibit.

Zoe seeing what it would be to have ears like a deer.Daddy got in on the action too.

As I mentioned there was a special pirate exhibit. We didn't pay to see it, however we enjoyed the pirates they had throughout the museum.

The boys...
Just Jack Jack...

This was Zoe's favorite pirate...Zoe seeing how she measured up to the smallest dinosaur on record...

We decided Jack was more his size. But he actually looks huge compared to it...

Noah loved the Woolly Mammoth skull...

Jack enjoyed the puppets at the reading nook inside the Dinosaur exhibit...