Memorable Moments

Can you tell he's not happy? He was just beginning to pout about something, which he does a lot of these days!!! and I wanted to catch it on camera.

This sweet shot was taken as the kids were riding horses one cool morning last weekend. Blake was loving on Gunsmoke and had climbed up on the fence to reach him and talk to him. 

Destin 2013

Well I've been waiting to write about our trip to Destin, Florida until I had everyone's pictures... but I will just go ahead with what I have so far before I forget too much. The whole family stayed in one big condo at the beach for a week following Labor Day! I was so glad to be able to spend time and be together with everyone.

At the airport in Houston, eating breakfast... we left Midland at 6:30 AM, yikes! Thankfully the excitement of going kept the kids in high spirits. We met up with Katie and her kids and Travis at the Houston airport and we all flew into Florida on the same flight.

"Is that our airplane, mama?" "Look another Southwest airplane!"

Most days were spent eating breakfast together, going down to the beach, playing, digging in the sand, swimming, eating lunch, napping, going back to the beach, playing, digging, swimming... 

It was just so beautiful and so relaxing!

cousin love!

watching the sunset before dinner at "the Back Porch" one night

Easton hit his wall so we could not get a family picture...

as evidenced by this lovely shot

looking at the fish at Bass Pro Shops... Easton did not want to take his eyes off them to look at me

catching hermit crabs

all the big cousins!

playing miniature golf

It was a great trip! We ate great food (seafood, fried fish Hector, Travis and Poppa caught and a restaurant cooked for us, Ruth's Chris steak!), spent lots of time together, Blake practiced swimming without her floats in the pool thanks to watching Santi, Poppa, Grandma and Blake got stung by jellyfish (we think), and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

School Updates

All is well lately and we are settling into the school year routine... Blake goes to Pre-K on MWF and needs several hugs before going into school (her teachers take the kids out of the cars at drop-off so they walk away from us and don't feel like they are being "left"). She does well, but always tells me several times how much she missed me at school, and prefers "mommy days" to "school days."

She goes to speech once a week (she originally qualified for a whole calendar year, so she'll go through Feb.) But she is doing so well that we'll probably switch to every other week, and or stop altogether. yay!!

Blake also started ballet this fall, once a week, and enjoys it. She loves being a ballerina. The other day I received a phone call from the director saying that she was "too advanced" for her class and could be moved up a class. It was nice to hear and made us so proud (even if it's just out of the 3 & 4 year olds!) so now she'll be taking ballet and tap. 

Easton still cries every time I drop him off at school. His teachers are good about greeting him and being prepared to take him from me and occupy him quickly. He goes twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays and will stick out his bottom lip, start to pout, and tell me he wants to stay with me whenever school is mentioned. But he always does really well after I leave and he gets involved playing. His teachers say he is a very well behaved little boy (Grammy told me he would be, just like his daddy!) so I know drop off will get better and better.

First Day of Mother's Day Out

This little boy has been excitedly talking about going to school for months now... MDO started last week, but today was Easton's first day since we just got back from Florida. Blake's school starts at 8 and MDO doesn't start until 9, so we had a little time to kill in between. He even cried a couple times when he would ask "slush now momma?" and didn't like my answer that no, it wasn't time yet. (He picked to get a Sonic slush after school as his first day of school treat... he didn't understand why he had to wait until after school)

It was a cloudy, windy day so picture time was a little hard with the sign...

We walked in and put his stuff in his cubby and he excitedly ran to play with the toys that were out, while I spoke to his teacher. We hugged and kissed goodbye (still happy) and as I was walking out the door, I heard "momma!" being screamed as he ran up and grabbed onto me. He was crying and screaming for me so loud... (broke my heart) but his teacher quickly pulled him off me, as I said bye again. I, of course, cried once I got in the car, and was nervous all day as I wondered how he was doing.

Thankfully, his teacher said he had a great day and stopped crying as soon as they went out to play, and stayed happy the rest of the day. Once he saw me, he immediately made his sad face (which is what Blake always did, she didn't cry at drop off, but would immediately be on the verge of tears when she saw me at pick up), but we started talking about all the fun things he did and side-stepped the tears that were coming. Here's hoping for a good year!

Cuties

For the majority of the summer, we went swimming everyday! Sometimes twice a day... we love having a pool. Ever since Blake broke her arm, we have been abstaining from swimming as a matter of solidarity. (I did not want to hurt her feelings unnecessarily, and Easton had no problem waiting for Blake to get better, so that's what we did!) Now that her splint is off, we are back in the pool!

Today they were all ready to get in the pool and they needed to wait for me to change. I found them laying together like this on our bedroom floor. Then Blake insisted on a "silly face picture" so that is what the 2nd picture is! You can tell from tan lines that while they are both darker than me (yay!), Easton takes more after his daddy than Blake.

First Day of Preschool

Blake started school today in the 4 year old Pre-K class. She has been really looking forward to today, for school starting plus getting her splint off. (it had to be done during school because of the upper extremity doctor's schedule)

I'm so thankful that she loves going to school! We have been talking about and praying for her new school year, and she's once again blessed with a great teacher.

(and Blake if you're reading this one day, you have to wear socks to school and you picked out the color! so that's why you have blue socks on with your pink Toms)

She was only there for almost 2 hours before we had to go to the doctor (which took forever!) and she was very nervous about them removing the splint. She was worried it would hurt again. So there were tears, but she was very brave. She is 60% healed and we are to follow her lead in beginning to regain her range of motion. There will be another checkup next week to check her progress again.

And just for fun, here is the first day of school for Pre-K 3!

Selfies

We were just being silly taking pictures of ourselves tonight...