Ready For Christmas!

At least my blog is ready for Christmas! As for the rest of my crazy life....notsomuch. School is winding down....only 6, yes S-I-X MORE DAYS!!!!! I'm am so ready for it to be over. In the mean time, I'm writing 2 papers and getting ready for finals.....

The kids are great. They're just getting ready for Christmas and getting more excited by the day. Darling Daughter has now started receiving texts to MY PHONE! It's pretty sad that I have to relay text messages to my 8 year old. And I'm just the meanest mother in the world because I won't let her have her own cell phone, because you know "all her friends have one." She also informed me tonight that she needed her own email address. Just another thing which earned me the Meanest Mommy Of The Year Award. Ohhh, I don't know what I'm going to do with that one....

Stay tuned for our annual 52 Family Christmas get-togethers.... I'm already tired!!! Pictures coming soon, I promise!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today I am thankful for....

THESE GUYS!!!



I am so blessed to have two healthy, happy, and beautiful kids! I am also thankful for my family, my health, my home, heat in my home, clothes to wear, food to eat, a job to go to, and the list goes on.... These are the things that are easily forgotten in our hustle-and-bustle, materialistic world of today. I hope everyone can take time today (and everyday) to be thankful for all the joys in their lives. Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Her Newest Obsession

So, Darling Daughter has now discovered what every tween girl discovers at some point.....talking on the phone. When I say she has discovered talking on the phone, I mean she has become completely OBSESSED with it! We're talking full force, all out, hours upon hours, little girl gossip sessions. Seriously, she goes straight to the phone when she gets home, well she attempts to do so anyway....no phone until homework is finished. With that being said, she runs (literally) in the door, finishes homework with lightening speed, and starts speed dialing. Then comes dinner....you guessed it! She chokes down her dinner, rushes through a shower, then back to the phone. My 8 year old has suddenly turned into a 13 year old girl right before my eyes! I know she's got to grow up some time, but does she have to do it so fast???

Oh! I almost forgot to add her Christmas request to this post.....a CELL PHONE! I hate to break it to her, but there is NO WAY she's getting a cell phone for Christmas! I told her Santa had a minimum age limit on those!

A New Look

Halloween has come and gone, so that means it's time to change the look of the blog. Enjoy the Thanksgiving theme while it lasts, it will soon be time for Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween last night. We did our usually trick-or-treating routine. The kids had a great time and we now have enough candy to last us well into the next century! Here are a few pics from our trick-or-treating adventures....

Check out these two.....If you're not scared, you should be!

What a crew....Cowboy, Witch, and pumpkin.....

Our pumpkin wasn't too into the picture-taking last night

Look out Wyatt Earp!

Oooo-Ooooo Witchy Woman.....

Yes these are spider-web, glitter, fake-eyelashes. My little darling daughter thought she needed these to complete her costume. Yeah....those lasted about 10 minutes before she had enough and ripped them off, and to the garbage they went.....Lesson learned....

Kindergarten Class Field Trip

Last week Luke's class went to the zoo for their class field trip. All the kids had a great time and the weather was perfect (Yay NO RAIN!) We were just about the only people at the zoo that day, which was great. Imagine taking 60-70 five year olds some place. It would have been horrible if the place had been packed! We might have had to leave the kids in the cages with the monkeys! Candace and Chloe got to go with us and Chloe loved looking at all the animals. She kept pointing and saying "Loooook!"

The Lorikeets are always a fav. We were the first to feed them and they were HUNGRY! As soon as we walked into the cage they attacked! We had them on our heads, our arms, and our backs. I've never seen them so aggressive! So much fun!

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