The third tooth is gone

She's gone and done it again. I think I know what she will want for Christmas. In the tradition of doing things early she has lost another tooth. I just can't believe she's reached this milestone already. She was very excited today when she was the first one to put a tooth sticker on the tooth chart as school. She bumped her mouth at school and it caused the tooth to loosen even more. It was wiggling from left to right. I got a piece of dental floss, wrapped it around the tooth and gently wiggled it out. She had some pain and blood but was too excited to make me stop. She is much braver than I was!

Our cute school boy!

Let's go to school Mom.

"Jack, make me a bear face."

I just want to kiss that kissy face.

I suppose there will be a day when he won't want me to call him that anymore.

Jackson's first activity at school.

He came home with orange pait in the corner of his right eye and in his hair but he did point out that his hands were clean. He had washed them.

Today was Jackson's first day of pre-school. He was excited but you would never know it. He's just like that about things. Especially things that we make a big deal of. We had a conversation in the car that went something like this -

Me: "Jack, are you excited to go to pre-school? "

Jack: "yah"

Me: "Do you want me to stay with you for just a little bit or just leave? "

Jack: "You can just leave."

Plain and simple. He didn't think twice when I dropped him off. It was pretty cute, we were there as the first time pre-school parents were hanging out in the hall looking all anxious and wanting to "rescue" their child. I took Jack in, he washed his hands and picked up the paint brush. I walked out to eager parents who could hear their kids crying, at least two of the kids were crying. I could feel the anxiousness of the parents as I walked out and headed for the door knowing my kid was just fine. It was fun for Jack! He's learning a lot at home about self restraint and consequences. It's taken a few weeks but I think he's catching on. I hope pre-school helps. His teacher did say he was great at cleaning up. Good to know that he can do that when I am not around.

Seriously? Seriously.

This is the latest proposed new Olympic sport. If this doesn't take you back to the last time you watched Rad then I think you need to go rent Rad.

My Kindergartener

September 1, 2009

Here my Mia Girl is sitting in her new classroom on the first day. She was 1 of 4 girls out of the 8 kids that were there the first day. I am anxious to see how many more girls there will be. There will be a whopping 24 kids in her class. Not something I am thrilled about but hey, she already can read and she is so motivated to learn, learn, learn! I did get a bit sad while walking her in. We were holding hands and I was thinking about when she was little. Man, I miss those days!! It was so much easier on so many levels. But, they have to grow up. I am just trying to soak it all in. She took a cold lunch but after eating in the cafeteria and seeing the oven wedgies/wedges. she is all for hot lunch. I am so very happy I don't have to fix lunches!!! She was not unhappy about me leaving and because Tues. is a short day she was very upset that she didn't get to take a nap. She was even more unhappy about not being able to go Wed. Thurs. I hope her enthusiasim will be lifelong. I signed up to be a room parent. I am excited to take this task on! I am also going to take part in the PTA. I suppose I don't feel like my life is busy enough but I love the thought of being involved, especially in the community.

Well, wish me luck!

Southwest Redemption

Because I am on vacation I have been out of touch with a few things but I did check my email the other day and had a pleasant surprise. For all of our stress and lack of sleep Southwest sent us 3 vouchers for $180 each!!! yahoo, now, I just have to use them by next year about this time. Where shall we go? I really was pleased to see that they compensated us for the fiasco. Kudos to Southwest airlines. They are my favorite airline right now. You can still check 2 bags for FREE with them also.

Year One

Time flies. It's hard to believe our little Cole is already one year old. Since the day he was born he has made our home a happier place. His bright blue eyes and big smile will always make our days brighter. We are so grateful he is our son.

Are we there yet?

Friday about noon we all headed to the airport for our fun adventures in Idaho. Colin helped us with our luggage and they gave him a pass to go to the gate with us. It was great! I was certainly nervous. Our flight to Las Vegas was uneventfull and the kids LOVED it. We landed and were all set to eat some dinner at Pizza Hut then head on over to the kids play area. We couldn't find Pizza Hut on the map so we ate Burger King. I knew it was expensive to eat at the airport but they wanted almost $10 for a chicken sandwich combo. That's how it is though.

After we ate we headed for the play area. We were headed in that direction when I realized we would have to pass security. An airport worker tole me that it would take about 45min just to walk there without kids. We only had two hours. The kids were very dissapointed. We found some moving walkways and Jack was in heaven. I am sure that there were many people who thought I was irreponsible letting my kids run around on them.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:30pm. I checked the monitors and it said it was delyed until 10pm. Ahhhh! We already had a 3 hour layover now it was going to be five and a half hours. I was frustrated and the kids were getting tired. Jack desperately wanted to play the slot machines. Imagine how that was going. I toyed with the idea of staying the night but really didn't want to fork out the money so we put a movie on and I got Cole to sleep in the stroller. Well 10pm came and they moved it back to 10:20pm. Thankfully Mia made a friend and she had older brothers so they were entertained. Take off time came and went and finally we took off about 10:45. The kids fell asleep right away with the exception of Cole. He needed a lot of covincing.

At some point late into the flight there was an announcement made about the Spokane airport being closed for construction and all the runways were closed. WHAT??!!! They diverted us to Portland and we landed about 1:30am. Don't forget the time difference. It was actually 4:30am for us. The kids were great. The airline gave us a food allowance and we had to be back by 4am to take off at 4:30. The line was very, very,very long and there were maybe 2 people working. It took about 3 hours to get something to eat. I had many other passengers give me help, watch my kids and more offer their assistance. I was taken care of the whole way by wonderful people.

We got on the plane a little after 4am and got into Spokane at 6am. It was so crazy and it often felt like a dream because I was so tired. I napped 3 times yesterday. I can't believe we survived adn I can't tell you how many times I wished we would have gotten that hotel in Las Vegas. Oh well. We are here now and having fun. The kids are loving being in the country with their cousins and Grandma. Grandpa will be home in about a week. They really love the 4 wheeler! We miss you Colin!

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Observations of a 5 year old

We all have physical flaws that we hate right? It's pretty bad though when your own kids point them out to you! On three separate occasions Mia has pointed out or asked me why my physical appearance is the way it is.
For example: "Mom, why is your belly big like that?" As she pats my stomach. My reaction is a bit defensive and I explain to her that I have had 3 kids that have stretched my tummy out and these 3 kids leave me with no time to exercise to get rid of the belly. She just says, "oh."

Then the other day we are all in the car and Mia plainly asks, "Mom, why are your teeth yellow?" Colin said they weren't. Mia said they were a little bit. I tried to explain to her that that is what happens when you get old and that because I nurse Cole I can't do anything about it right now.

And then there is my adult acne which seems to have been active lately with the heat.
"Mom, why do you have those owies on your face?"

I guess I can stop being self conscious because I think she may be conscious about it enough for the both of us. She is seeing my flaws more and more.

Oh, Sunday I had to take her out of Sacrament meeting and put her in a room by herself. At the end of church my friend asked me if I had seen the note Mia wrote to me on the chalkboard she had been in with her daughter just after Mia. I told her no and asked her if it said "I hate Mommy. " Sure enough, that IS what it said.

Mia is always upfront, that's for sure. She gets that from her Mom. Isn't being a Mom fun?

Kool-Aid anyone?

Today Mia wanted to do a Kool-Aid stand. I was hesistant and didn't really want to put the time in but Colin did most of the work. I helped with the poster. We just got the table, kool-aid and cups out and she already had 2 customers. We only charged 10 cents but one guy paid her 25 cents and the other lady gave her a dollar! She was very excited and the people kept coming. She wanted her friend to come over so I went and picked her up. I was glad I didn't have to sit there. Colin even got the deck umbrella out for them. They still got a bit of sunburn. They stayed out for a few hours. One customer came and got just two cups of kool-aid and gave the girls $5 and wouldn't take any change. It was crazy. All together they made $21. I did take $5 to go get more cups and ice. They want to buy games for their Leapsters. (If you are interested I found them at Target just last week for $35 for the original Leapster. It was $15 offon clearance. Hurry if you want one. I got them for our upcoming travel. Spoiled kids, I know.) We will be having another kool-aid stand on Thursday. I wonder if it will be as successful.