october general conference

This year for General Conference, the kids and I set up their own little "stations" with coloring packets, paper, markers, scissors, etc.  They came up with the idea of the laundry baskets all on their own.  Pretty inventive. :)  They did a great job listening while the Prophet spoke, and coloring/playing quietly during the other talks.  I love General Conference weekend, and it gets nicer every year as the kids get older.

chris's 6th birthday

On September 30th, Chris turned 6!  I can't believe he's in kindergarten, and SIX!  Crazy.  Anyhow, his birthday was on a Thursday this year, and he got spoiled.  His school does birthdays up nicely!  He had his name said on morning announcements, and got to wear a crown all day.  

this kid never looks at the camera!

Dave and I brought him Sonic for lunch, and later that afternoon Naomi and I brought blue sugar cookies and juice boxes for his class.  They're not allowed to bring homemade treats, or cupcakes (I guess they're too messy??).  So, I got mine from Walmart.  Although I would have liked to have been able to make his treats myself, it was nice to just buy them and take them up to the school.  

He requested homemade pepperoni pizza, salad, and cooked carrots for dinner.  Ouma, Oupa, Jon, Katie, Jacob and Lily all came over to help him celebrate.  

Scooby Doo was the theme this year, so that's how I did his cake.  Don't laugh too hard at how the writing turned out.  Lately, by the time I'm done with the cake, I don't feel like filling up the icing bag to pipe the writing in properly, and just use those gel writers.  They don't work very well!

The next day, he got to go up on stage at Friday Live (something they do every Friday at his school), and get sung to.  He looked so little and cute up there.  We also had his friends party that day.  He wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese's this year.  It was so nice; all I had to do was bring the cupcakes and balloons.  No games to plan, or food to make, or mess to clean up!  I forgot my camera (I really have been doing better, I promise!), so the only picture we have is this one that Dave and Naomi took together.  I love it!  

Even though it's not documented in pictures, everyone had a good time.  A lot of pizza was consumed, games were played, cupcakes eaten, and presents opened.  

naomi starts preschool

Okay. Here I am catching up again. I'm starting all the way back in September, and hopefully, I'll be all caught up soon.

Naomi started preschool on September 7th. She was so excited to get to go to "Chris's school", and be a big girl. She is so excited to grow up, which is cute; I do try and help her see how much fun it is to be a kid, though. She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am - 2pm, and is in the "Monkeys" class (which suits her just fine!)

The first day, we packed up her backpack with her green folder, lunchbox, snack, and cuddly things for quiet time. We had already dropped off her nap mat, and she chose her pink baby and pink blankey take to school that day (she gets to choose one stuffed animal/baby, and a blanket or blankey to bring every day). I forgot to take pictures of her first day, and I'm pretty sure that's one of those things I'll have mommy-guilt about for a long time. It was a bad year all-around for that, if you remember the non-backpack picture of Chris's first day. Thankfully, I have been pretty good about the pictures since then. I'm getting better at remembering the camera. Yay!

We got to school, and unloaded her backpack together. She has her very own cubby, which is so much fun. Up top is a section for the lunchbox, and the baby, blankey, and napmat have a section underneath. The folder goes in a bucket, and the snack has it's own bucket too. After we got everything where it belonged, she found her popsicle stick with her name on it. She gets to put her stick in a pocket, which is on a poster inside her classroom. That way they can all see which friends are there that day. It's also helped her recognize her name (which she can write all by herself now!). Once she had her stick, I signed her in, and gave her a big hug and kissed her goodbye. She went in without a problem, and had a great first day. I was a bit emotional, which was surprising to me since I didn't get emotional at all when I dropped Chris off for kindergarten the first day. Part of it is that Chris was SO ready to be in school. Another part was that Naomi is my baby, and I can't believe I'm already taking her to preschool!

She's been having a great time, and is making new friends, and learning a lot.

naomi, on chris's birthday (with pizza face :D)

ben's homecoming

Dave's youngest brother, Ben, returned home from his mission at the beginning of September.  Unfortunately, Sam (Dave's other brother) and his wife, Tanya, missed their flight out.  So, they weren't there as Ben got off the plane, but they did make it a few hours later.  The kids had fun decorating a sign for Ben.

not sure why i'm not smiling, but here we are. so excited he's home! not pictured: jonathan, katie, sam & tanya

mama and her baby.  can you tell she's happy to have him home??

about to meet with the stake president

I'll spare the guys, and not post the next pictures.  Not that they don't look good, I just don't think they'd like it very much!  The first thing they did after Ben had been released was to go and get him a swimsuit, and take him swimming at our pool.  Fun times!  We girls stayed home to get dinner ready, so we could head out to our next adventure...

Dallas soccer game!  Who hoo!  It was a blast!  Ice cream and cotton candy kept the kids happy, and the rest of us had fun cheering and chatting.  The game ended with a spectacular fireworks show - one of the best I've ever seen.  We had some serious fun!

The next day, Sunday, we all attended church together.  It was the first Sunday of the month, so it was fast and testimony meeting.  It was really nice to get to hear all the guys' testimonies, and be all together.  Monday we headed up to the lake for a picnic, swimming, and sand castle building.  We didn't get to see him for very long, but it sure was a fun visit.  Welcome home, Ben!

balloon festival

In September, we went to a balloon festival that is held every year around here.  It was so fun to see it all.  We went with Jonathan and Katie & co., and also met up with our friends Jared and Melissa and their kids.

getting ready to lift off

a pirate

i know this is sideways, but it's too much of a pain to change, and too cute to leave out :)

a shot of the boys, by naomi

light show after it got dark

arboretum

The Tuesday after Chris started school, Naomi and I took a trip to the arboretum.  It's so hot in August around here, that they only charge $1 to get in.  Tuesday was our last chance to take advantage of that, so we went for a little adventure - just the two of us.  We had a lot of fun.  It was a great mommy-daughter thing to do.

explored cute little houses

walked under beautiful trees

saw all sorts of beautiful flowers

and fun water features

checked out the kid-sized pioneer houses

chris starts elementary school!

Chris started kindergarten on the 23rd of August.  I can't believe he is old enough to be in kindergarten!  The Thursday before, he got a chance to meet his teacher and see his class room.  His teacher is really nice, and things have been going great so far.  On the first day, Naomi and I walked him to his classroom and got him settled in.  I explained to him that I would be there after school to pick him up, and gave him a big hug and told him I loved him.  I didn't get emotional that day; mostly, because I felt that he was so ready to be there, and had been so bored at home.  I did have a bit of a time the next few days, though, when I had to drop him off at the front doors.  After the first day, he had to make it to his room by himself.  He did do carpool drop-off at preschool last year, so it wasn't a totally foreign concept to either of us.  I guess it was just that there were so many kids, and he's expected to find things on his own a lot more.  I kind of felt like I was feeding him to the sharks.  Fortunately, that's just my over-protective motherly instincts kicking in.  He has done great, and is loving school.  I am realizing how important it is to make sure he has the skills necessary to make the right choices, since he's home so much less, and making his own choices so much more.  I love this kid, and am so grateful to be his mom!