3rd Grade Field Trip

Last week Kaylyn had her class field trip to The Alabama Theater and to The McWane Center. At the Alabama Theater we saw The Alabama Symphony Orchestra perform "Symphony in Spaaaaaccccceeee" which started out pretty good, but got to be long and boring. (Really, how interesting can the orchestra be??) Anyway, the kids got exposed to some culture, but were glad when it was over and they got to go next door to The McWane Center. The symphony and the McWane center were a package deal and the place was PACKED with kids. Seriously, they were running EVERYWHERE! They had a good time and got to see lots of cool hands-on things at the museum.Waiting for the symphony
The McWane Center

Riding on Two Wheels

Last weekend Luke decided it was time to lose the training wheels. Chris took off his training wheels, put him on the bike, and held the back of his seat for, literally, only about 30 seconds and Luke took off riding. He is now riding everywhere with his newfound freedom of two wheels. He also learned he can go much faster on two wheels and he's a little dare devil! Now he just needs to learn to use the brakes!

Good Job Kids!

Wow! It's been a LONG time since I've updated! I have no excuses.....

Anyway, on to the point of this post....

Both kids got their first report cards for the year last week. Kaylyn made straight A's and Luke had mostly S's (satisfactory), with a few P's (progressing), and one N (needs improvement). Kaylyn is so proud of herself. She works hard in school and we usually have no problem getting homework done in the evenings. Luke's areas which are progressing were: talking, paying attention, staying in his seat, and following directions. The one N he received was number recognition. These are all areas I knew he would have some trouble with. He's still getting into some trouble in school for not wanting to do his work in class, but he hasn't pinched anyone lately or stolen any fruit roll-ups! One thing has become more evident to me since school started...Luke will most likely go to Kindergarten again next year. It's a maturity thing. Luke can learn what he needs to know to go to first grade but he is a "young" Kindergartner since his birthday is the week before school starts and he's barely 5 years old. There are several kids in his class who have already turned 6 and this makes a big difference in elementary school. I think he would struggle through school in every grade if we don't let him repeat Kindergarten.

Kaylyn is loving her dance classes this year, even though the competition teams have stepped it up a notch! This year she has 3 hour classes instead of2 hours and there will be 3-4 competitions. During competition season she will have 2 3 hours classes per week. She wants to do a solo this year at the recital....we'll see....

Chloe is still progressing more and more everyday. She's learning new words and her babbling is mixed with words. She understands just about everything that is said to her and is following directions. She has also developed some major 2 year old attitude! Everything has to be done HER way! The wrath of her 2 year old temper will befall anyone who thinks differently!

I am trudging through my LAST semester and have a major case of "senioritis." I never thought I would have senioritis at the age of 31 years old, but I do! I'm just ready for December 10th to hurry up and get here so all of this will be OVER!

Chris is still in and out of Mobile. The job there is supposed to be finished by the end of November. Hopefully that will happen, but there will be other traveling jobs to come. Who knows where...Oh well, he has a job and we are thankful!

ER Beach Trip 2009

This past weekend we had our annual ER beach trip. SO much fun! This year there were only 5 of us......Miranda was working, Michelle had a wedding party, Staci was busy delivering a baby (Congrats Joe, Staci, and big brother Trevor!). Anyway, you get the picture. Even though we had a small group, I think this year was the BEST year ever! We left the hospital early Friday morning and, even though we stopped 5 times on the way (don't ask), we were on the beach by 2:00 and stayed there til dark.

After beach time, we went to eat dinner at Hammerhead Fred's. LOVE that place!

After dinner, we headed over to Pier Park were we spent the rest of the night at Tootsie's. We had the BEST time! The band was great and we just hung out and had a good 'ol time.

Hanging out at Tootsie's Saturday it pretty much rained ALL. DAY. LONG. We made it to the beach for a little while, then it started raining, so we went to the hot tub for a while. We finally gave it up and went back to the condo. We left our chairs on the beach because we planned to go back to the beach. While we were in the condo our chairs were stolen....all 5 of them, in broad daylight, IN. THE. RAIN! Oh well, it's the risk you take when you decide to be lazy and not drag them around!
Saturday night we went to eat at Margaritaville. Had some good food, listened to some good music, and were entertained by some pirates on stilts. After dinner we went back to Tootsie's and hung out for the rest of the night.

They Told Me I Needed To Post An Update......

......so I did.

Chloe Update

With all the drama from Luke this week I completely forgot about my intentions for posting an update on Chloe's progress.

Sidenote: No trouble from Luke today! Crossing my fingers for lessons learned.

Now, on to Chloe. She came to stay with me for the day this week. Her speech is coming along excellently. Last month she had her 6 month post-activation evaluation for speech and the results were great. At that time she was at 6-9 months for speech development, which is right on target for her. Since her "hearing birthday" was the day of activation, December 31, hearing-wise she is now 8 1/2 months old. She is still constantly babbling with some words mixed in. She follows direction when told to perform certain task, such as "Chloe pick up your toys and put them in the box." She understands what we tell her, which means her speech will continue to develop and she will soon catch up to her developmental age. She is also repeating phrases and saying 2 word phrases. The other day when we got home, Crimson was there to greet us. She was very excited to see my monster-dog. The next thing that came out of her mouth "Hey Kwinson." Pretty darn close, if you ask me! She has also learned to say "thank you," or her version "thank-ye" and "Uh-ooohhhh." Other words in her vocabulary are:

hi
bye
mama
Daddy
Paul
Daisy (her dog)
Kay-Kay (Kaylyn)
Nana
Pop
Paw-Paw
eat
side (outside)
bite
please
up and down
finish (new word as of today)
and every almost-two-year-old's favorite word: No


She has also developed a full-blown two year old temper. Unfortunately, Tuesday I got a taste of her little temper. She was waaayyy past-due for a nap and had gotten fussy. There was no distracting her or making her happy. I decided it was nap-time, she had other plans. As soon as I took her processors off and gave her a paci, ohmygoodness, the drama. She tried to put her processors back on, the paci went flying, she thrashed, and screamed, and head-butted me right in the nose. It was a battle of wills - She meant she was NOT going to take a nap, and I meant she WAS going to take a nap. I eventually won, but not without battle wounds from my fight with the little wild-cat!

Sorry, no new pics of her. My camera battery died :(

Trouble AGAIN!!

It seems my youngest offspring is having trouble adjusting to the regimen of Kindergarten. Yes, Luke found himself in trouble at school again today. His crime: helping himself to some Fruit Roll-ups in the concession stand. His punishment: a trip to the Principal's office where he received a paddling. This wasn't his first offense of swiping Fruit Roll-ups from the concession stand. This summer he got himself in trouble for the same thing when he was at the school "helping" Pop and Nana get ready for the new school year. Anyway, sticking with the house rules, he was in trouble again at home this evening. He may be stuck in his room until he graduate's high school!

We Were Off To A Good Start.....

Well, after the first full week of school we were off to a good start....until today. Luke made it 3 whole days before getting in trouble at school. However, today I guess he decided he would test the waters. He had to sit in the corner for a while today because he pinched another child. He doesn't even know who he pinched, because he doesn't know the other child's name. He said the other child, A.K.A "that boy," pinched him first and they both had to sit in the corner. Soooo, because he got in trouble at school, he was also in trouble when he got home. House rules. Hopefully Luke's, trouble-causing days are over. Since this is probably wishful thinking on my part, next week we'll shoot for 4 days without getting in trouble.

Kaylyn is still doing well in school. The dreaded 3rd grade homework started this week and so far, she's been doing it without a fight. She's decided to make it her job to keep up with Luke's happenings at school, mainly for the sole purpose of getting him in more trouble. She was more than eager to report to me today about Luke's pinching episode and the disciplinary action that followed. We've had a talk about the fact that she is NOT her brother's keeper and I have other methods of finding out whether or not he's had a good day at school.

In other news, I started my LAST semester today. Come on December!

Reports From The First Week of School....

Reports from the first week of school are in. From the 3rd grader of the house: "School's good." Yeah, Kaylyn, don't give up too much information. When asked "What did you do at school today?" The answer is "Worked." Hmmmm.... I'm guessing we're going to have to play 20 questions. She finally gives up some answers when asked direct questions. She's really excited about seeing her friends and is quickly getting back in the groove of the school routine. The dreaded 3rd grade homework starts next week. Ugh! In other news from Kaylyn's world, dance classes officially started back on Tuesday. This year the competition team is really stepping it up. She will have 3 hour dance classes instead of the 2 hour classes she's had for the past 2 years. We will also be going to more competitions this year. So far there are 3 on the schedule; Birmingham, Panama City, and the other is TBA. Looks like we will have a busy Spring!

From the Kindergartner of the house: "I had fun at school today." When asked "what did you do at school today, Luke?" The answer is: "I colored, and cut out my pictures, and glued, and played ball in gym, and we didn't get to go to the playground today, and ate lunch, and snack, and walked in a line, and sang songs, and.....(the list goes on for about 10 minutes.) When asked "Who did you play with/sit by/talk to?" The answer is "That boy and that girl." "What are their names Luke?" "I don't' know." Yeah, we've got to work on those people meeting skills.

Both kids have had a great week. Kaylyn's happy, even though she's not offering up any details and Luke tells every little detail (with the exception of his friend's names!). So far, so good. Fingers crossed the remainder of the year will go as well as the first week.

Check out Luke's picture from the first day of pre-school last year. It was his first time in a new school and he was scared to death.

Holy Moly! What a difference a year makes! This year he was all smiles and just happy to be there. Last year he was one breath away from bursting into tears (he didn't, but in this pic he sure looks like he's fighting tears). I also can't believe how different he looks. Check out how blonde his hair was! I didn't realize how much darker it had gotten until I looked as these pics!

Back to School!!!

It's that time of year again! The kids headed back to school this morning and were so glad to be back. Kaylyn was happy to see all of her friends and it didn't take her long to get caught up on all of the happenings of the summer. Luke was only there for about 15 minutes this morning. We just turned in the 82 forms I filled out last night and got his bag and folder and headed back home. He won't go back until Thurdays and is SO disappointed. He has been looking forward to starting kindergarten all summer and could hardly wait for the big day to get here. He woke me up at 3:oo this morning and said "I gotta brush my teeth and get dressed so I can go to school!"

This pic was taken outside of Kaylyn's classroom. The big 3rd grader here didn't want Mom to walk her into class this morning (sniffle, sniffle)

Luke plopped right down at his desk and was ready to work! When I told him it was time to go home he said "But, but, but, I just got here. I don't want to go home yet." Oh well, he'll go back Thursday and then will be in school for at least the next 13 years!

Meet The Teacher!!!

Tonight the kids got to meet their teachers for the year. They were so excited and can't wait for the first day of school, which is tomorrow! (Mom's pretty excited too!)Luke and Ms. Jones. He is SO ready for Kindergarten and is looking forward to making new friends. He really liked his teacher. He said "She's nice and pretty too." He's become quite the little charmer! Tomorrow he will only go for about an hour and then he will either go on Wednesday or Thursday for a full day. This year the school system is staging in the kindergarten classes. Half the class will go on Wednesday and the other half will go on Thursday, then the entire class will go on Friday. We'll find out tomorrow which day Luke will go for the full day. Either way, I'll be missing his first full day because I have to work :(
Kaylyn and Ms. Cain. Kaylyn is in for a bit of a surprise this year. Third grade is the hardest of the the elementary grades because SO much new material is introduced this year. Multiplication, social studies, science, more in-depth reading (along with AR reading), and vocabulary, to name a few. She's a little nervous about all of the new work, but I know once she gets settled in, she'll have the hang of it in no time!

The Countdown Is On!

- Backpack: check
- Lunch bag: check
- 70 count notebooks (2 red, 2 green): check (surprisingly hard to find)
- 48 crayons: check
- 3 plastic folders: check
- Elmer's glue: check
And the list goes on.

Holy Cow! I had forgotten how frustrating school supply shopping was. Not to mention, new clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, etc. Whew! It's over now and school starts in approximately 37 1/2 hours. These are Kaylyn's school supplies. Luckily, Luke's are included in the classroom fee. We'll show up on Tuesday and they will be neatly placed in his desk. That's my kind of back to school shopping!

A Post That Is Looonnnggg Overdue....

A couple of weeks ago, we had a special visitor in the ER. Addie stopped by for a visit!! She has grown so much seen the last time we saw her. Of course she was showing us all her beautiful personality and was all about showing us her newly painted piggies! Mrs. Rita came by with her toy cart and Addie picked herself out a HUGE baby, then she thought the baby needed to eat so she got a bottle out of the cart to feed the baby. It was hilarious! She kept feeding the baby and I am sure she's been a good little mommy to her newest addition. The best part of the visit was when she demonstrated her newest milestone for us....she WALKED! (or I should say she RAN). Just another milestone her parents were told she would never meet!

Spring Valley Beach!!

Today we took the kids to Spring Valley Beach and we had a GREAT time. That place ROCKS!! We will definitely be going back soon.

The Half-Pike was the favorite ride of the day. We rode it several times and even the kids loved it!

Me and Kaylyn
Paul and Sam

Chris and Luke

Party Time!!

Last night we had Luke's birthday party at my parent's house. Candace cooked some yummy chicken taco's and we had cake and ice cream. He chose a monster truck cake this year and couldn't wait to dig in to it.
Eating cake!

Checking out his birthday presents.

Apparently when your child turns 5 years old, they grow up over night....literally. Today Luke was tired and grouchy and pushing all kinds of buttons. Finally I had enough and made him take a nap. He wasn't too fond of this idea and decided he was going to fight the nap tooth and nail. After much arguing he went to his bed only to come out about 10 minutes later. He thought he would trick me into thinking he had been asleep (for the whole 10 minutes he was in there.) He thought of everything. He had messed up his hair and his bed. He walked in all squinty-eyed, trying to look like he had just woken up and said "I had a good nap." Little did he know, his sister has already tried all of those tricks!

Tomorrow we're off to Spring Valley Beach for some water park fun. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have a good day.

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

"When's my birthday gonna start?" has been the question of the week. The big day is finally here! Yes, my baby boy turns 5 years old today, at 7:00 pm, to be exact. I can't BU-lieve he is already 5 years old AND will be starting Kindergarten in a few days (that would be 12 days and counting!) Seriously, one day we were anxiously awaiting his arrival on a HOT July day, and I blinked and now his 5! How did that happen?! If anyone out there knows the secret to slowing this growing up process down a bit, please enlighten me! He has grown up so much this past year and is becoming a little man.
Over the past year he started to pre-school in "big school" which was a big change for him, and he loved it. He played Tee-ball for the first time and now is considering trying out for the majors. (Just kidding, but he was so proud of himself). He was a cowboy in his pre-school play and had to talk in front of a group of people....MAJOR accomplishment for him, because he is my shy child. He got to fly on an airplane for the first time and he went to Disney World for the first time, where he got to meet his favorite character, "Plu-dog". He loves to wear his cowboy get-up EVERYDAY. Another major accomplishment this year was conquering his fear of swimming pools. Now he will actually get in the pool instead of just hanging out on the steps and loves to jump of the diving board. And last but not least, HE CUT HIS
HAIR, which resulted in a new do for him!

To celebrate his birthday, we will be having a small family party. I had planned to take him to the park today, but it's raining, so that won't be happening. Instead he chose to go eat lunch at his favorite place in the whole world....McDonald's and we're going to the Natorium to swim. Saturday we are taking him and his buddy Sam to Spring Valley Beach for the day. He can't wait for that!

We're Still Alive.....

Okay, it's my fault....I've done it again......it's been FOREVER since I've updated. I know, I know, BAD BLOGGER! What can I say except, life is crazy right now. Although, as crazy as it is, nothing is going on worth blogging about. How is that possible?! Anyway, here's the catch-up version of our lives:

I'm FINALLY finished with clinicals! Those pretty much took up my ENTIRE summer, but they are over now and I am so relieved. I had to play catch-up twice this summer between the Disney trip and Kaylyn's hospitalization I got SO far behind with getting my hours. Getting 90 hours and working and doing all these crazy projects for community clinicals and keeping up with my other class in 7 weeks (that's all the time I had left after Disney and our stay at Hotel de Children's) just about drove me crazy but I made it....AND I managed to do it without pulling my hair out! Whew! What a relief! I have one more project I'm finishing up for community clinicals I have to turn in at the end of the week and this semester will be O-V-E-R!! Only one more to go....Come on December!

The kids have been great this summer. Just hanging out. They've been staying with Candace this summer and Kaylyn has really enjoyed spending time with Chloe....Luke....notsomuch. Don't get me wrong, he loves Chloe, but Chloe loves to aggrevate him and she wants to boss him around and he get's a little tired of it.

Kaylyn has been taking summer dance classes this summer and is in dance camp this week. She gets to start taking hip-hop this year and really loves it. She was showing me some of her new moves the other night and her cute new dance. She just found out today, that her class will be dancing with "the big girls" at the dance recital next year and she's so proud of herself. I'll try to get some video on here soon of her new moves. Some friends of ours invited her to go with them to Louisville, KY next week to the Six Flags there and to see some of the sights Louisville has to offer. She's REALLY excited about the trip. I'm a little nervous. She's never gone that far away from home, without a family member, for that long. I know she'll be fine, but I'm still a little worried that she'll get homesick and I can't go get her. Well, I guess I CAN go get her, but it's a 9 hour drive, so I couldn't get her very quickly. I've never really worried about her going places because she's such a social butterfly and it's never really phased her, so it didn't phase me, but she's gotten pretty clingly lately. Hopefully she'll have fun and not get homesick. If so, I may be looking for someone to ride shot-gun to Louisville! After her trip, it will be back to school. She'll be in the 3rd grade this year. Can you believe that?! She's growing up too quickly!

Luke has just been being Luke. Funny as ever! He says and does some of the cutest things lately. The other night when Kaylyn was showing Candace and I here new dance moves, she decided she would practice doing "the splits" (she's almost there, but not quite). Anyway, Candace told her she used to put on "stockings" so her feet would slide easier when she was learning to do the splits. Luke disappeared to his room for a minute and then came in and said "I've got my stocking on my feet."........He was wearing a Christmas stocking on his foot. He's also been going through some regressive behavior. I guess it's from spending so much time with Chloe this summer. He's been talking like a baby lately and when you tell him to stop with the "baby-talk." He deepens his voice about 10 octaves and starts talking like a "man" as he says. Oh, Luke.....Who knows what he will think of next? We are getting ready to celebrate his 5th birthday on Thursday. He's really excited about that. We will have a small family party on Thursday night and then we are taking him to Spring Valley Beach on Saturday. He can hardly wait!

Chris has managed to make it nearly 6 weeks without being sent to Mobile to work! That's a record! Hopefully he will be able to stay home for a while longer. We know he will eventually have to go back, but we hope it won't be soon.

I guess that sums it up. I'll have some new pics on here soon. I promise!

No He Didn't!!

Yes he did! Notice the mack-truck-sized gap in the front of Luke's hair?? And the left side of his head??Yes, Luke decided he'd try to give himself a haircut last night. I walked in his room just in time to see him whacking away at his hair with a pair of Kaylyn's school scissors. I gasped "LUKE!! NOOooooooooo." But it was too late. The damage was done. I told him we would have to go get his hair cut off this morning. He cried. I cried. Julie, the beautician cried. All morning while we were waiting to go, Luke kept sobbing "I don't want my hair cut off." "I'm going to look funny." And my personal favorite "My head's gonna be cold." Maybe he's learned his lesson.
Here he is getting those beautiful curly locks cut. All of them. Falling to the floor. At first she thought she may be able to just give him a trim to blend it in. But as she started cutting, the left side was much shorter than she thought and there were straggly curls sticking out everywhere. As she gave me the look that said "I don't think this is going to work." I said "just do what you've got to do to make it look right."

The finished product. He doesn't even look like my little boy anymore. *sigh* We did manage to escape the dreaded buzz-cut, which I thought was our only option. Luckily his hair is thick enough to somewhat cover the gap in the front, we'll just have to keep getting it trimmed until it catches up. Oh well, it's only hair. Yes, I know it could be much worse. Yes, I know it will grow back. And yes, for those of you who are actually happy about this haircut (Ahem....Paul and Pop) it will grow back, hopefully soon!

Can You Tell He Dressed Himself?

This is Luke's newest preferred attire. He insists on wearing this cowboy get-up EVERYDAY (usually with shorts and a miss-matched shirt). This kid just cracks me up sometimes!

4th of July Celebration!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July. We had a fun but loonnnnggg day. We started the day by going to Chris' Aunt Brenda's house for a cook-out and swimming. We were here for most of the day. The kids had a great time swimming and catching up with their cousins who they don't get to see very often. By the time we left they were completely exhausted and water-logged. Last night we went to watch Thunder on the Mountain, which is always an awesome fireworks show. This was quiet an eventful part of the evening because Chris locked his keys in the truck! Not the first time this has happened. You would think he would have learned his lesson after locking his keys in the truck the first 9465 times :) Anyway, we finally got them out with a coat-hanger and a screw driver just before the show started. (I'm telling you, he's done it so many times, he's an expert at breaking and entering locked cars!) Oh well, no biggie, he got them out, and we weren't stranded in Birmingham...

When we got home last night, we discovered that Crimson had decided to take a hike. We've had a problem with her jumping the fence lately, but she's never left sight of our house. When we got home, she was no where to be found. So, off I go, driving around looking for her (at midnight). Didn't find her. I was hoping she would have found her way back home by this morning, but she hadn't. Off I go again, driving around looking for her. I found her about a mile from the house walking down the road, and covered in mud. Of course, it was one of those times I had left my phone at home (you know...because, I never have it when I need it). Since she was covered from head-to-toe in BLACK mud, I couldn't put her in the car, didn't have a phone to call Chris to come and get her in the truck, I was afraid if I left her to go home and get the truck she wouldn't be there when I got back...what to do??? Have her follow me, of course! I drove home at about 4 mph with her trotting along side the car....I had no idea my car would go that slow! Just kidding....that's a joke about me and my driving habits! Anyway, she's home now, and hopefully will stay there. Any ideas about how to keep a 75 pound golden retriever from jumping a 4 ft fence? Maybe last night scared her into staying in there, she hasn't gotten out at all today!

All of the younger cousins enjoying the pool
Armed and dangerous! I don't know about everyone else, but I think the inventor of these water-soaking-gun thingy's needs their tail whipped! Anyone else agree?? The kids spent most of the day shooting each other with these things, which isn't that big of a problem, but when they got bored shooting each other, who do you think they turned to?? I think I was shot IN THE FACE with these things about 800 times yesterday!

Yes, that is my son who, until last week, was TERRIFIED of water. I'm talking, we had to pry him kicking, screaming, and clawing off the steps, and once you finally got him off the steps, it was survival of the fittest. He usually won, with the loser of the fight having battle wounds as proof of his victory. That was, until, Paul decided to just throw him in the middle of the pool. Once he realized his life-jacket would keep him afloat, he became an instant water baby. You'll even notice in most of these pics he's jumping, voluntarily, into the pool! I'm so proud of him for over-coming this fear. Although I have mixed emotions about it. On the one hand, I'm glad he can have a good time at the pool instead of just watching from the steps as everyone else is splashing around the pool. But on the other hand, I now have to constantly worry about him around water, when before I never had to worry about him voluntarily jumping in a pool.

Kaylyn has always been a little fish. She's really become a strong swimmer this summer.Totally loving Thunder on the MountainI attempted to shoot some of the fireworks. These are not the best fireworks pics in the world, in fact, they really don't look like fireworks, but I thought they were cool pics.