Beach Trip 2013

Before school started, we took a day trip with the Caldwell's to the beach.  We left early Saturday (8/24) morning and followed Justin down there.  We spent about 4-5 hours on the beach, showered before leaving, then had dinner at Dockside.  The entire day was a blast and it was so nice to get away before the start of school.  Neither Bryce nor I had our camera so here are some pictures from Nicole.

The weekend of September 14-15, we spent the night with the O'Janpa's at their vacation beach house like we did last year.  They spend the entire week down there (which would be awesome) but we cannot do that:(  Maybe next year, I will take Monday off from work and stay an extra night.  We left early again and got down there at 11:00.  We changed and hit the beach before lunch.  The kids had a blast and took great naps while the adults watch the Texas A&M vs Alabama football game.  It was funny because the big TV didn't work so B and Vic tried everything they could to fix it.  What ended up happening was they took a smaller TV from one of the bedrooms and hooked that up on the side.  It worked for us. 

After naps, we hit the beach again before dinner.  Vic grilled out hotdogs and hamburgers for us and they were yummy.  The kids of course had another awesome beach session.  A got the hang of body surfing and W just ran up and down the beach chasing Julia.  This ended with good showers, dinner, then bedtime for the kids.  All 5 kids (except for E) slept in the 'kid' room.  There were 2 bunk-beds so R & Bella took the top, Julia on the bottom, A on the other top, and W on the bottom.  It worked out great and they were so tired!  We adults talk and played some spades before we went to bed.

 Sunday morning, B made us all pancakes and patty sausage.  It was really yummy!  As soon as breakfast was over, we hit the beach again until it was lunch/nap time.  And again, after naps, once more until dinner time.  We had spaghetti that Kristen made and the kids gobbled it up.  It was sad, though, because we had to leave.  Of course the kids didn't want to leave, but B and I didn't either. 
We stayed as long as we could, and I think we pulled into our driveway around 11 pm.  What a fun weekend!

Vic and Bryce dug out a pool for the kids

mud pies

E will be in this picture next year

scary looking jellyfish that washed up next to the kids' pool!!!

Kids Update

As summer is over and school is starting back, I'm afraid my blogging is going to fall to the back burner.  I'm going to try to attempt to blog while I'm pumping (which feels like it's all the time), but I also use that time to look online and plan my lessons for school.  I would love to say that I could blog once a week, but that might not be the reality.  We have so much going on in our family and so much that I want to document, but just not enough hours in the day.  I will try though. 

Here are some pictures from our last few days together over the summer.  We went to the pool, we hung out, we watched football and lots more.  I love my family and praise God for them all.  Yes, it may be crazy and loud, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  When I come home from work and W & A greet me at the door, it doesn't matter if my day at school was bad or not.  When R gets home from school and she's excited to see me, I love it.  Even E nurses longer when I feed her at 4 (I believe it's because she misses me).  What can I say?  I love my kids. 

None of this would be possible with B.  He's amazing and anyone who knows us well, knows how great he is.  He's so involved and loving to me and the kids.  Most of the dads in our small group and awesome dads, but I'm partial to B :) 

First Days of School 2013

I can honestly say this was the first year I was not looking forward to my first day of school.  I wasn't as excited as I normally am about school for 2 reasons: I'm moving to 8th grade, and I'm missing my kids.  I believe it's a combination of both and accepting that Rin is now going to school and Ell is my last baby probably play a big part in it too.  But after a week of workdays, I got my room almost the say I wanted it, and worked on my lesson plans so now I'm ready to start. 

My first day of school was Monday, August 26th.  Since I moved up to 8th grade, I had several of the same students from last year.  It's both good and bad since I already know them and they know me.  I'm also on the same team as Kline and George.  That's a huge plus since I enjoy working with them so much.  I will miss my 2 math teachers from last year S & A.  We met every week about math stuff but they were more than co-workers.  They were my friends.  We shared everything with each other and the past 2 days have been hard not seeing them.  That's the biggest con about moving away from 7th grade.  I'm not the type to be down about things, so I'm making the best of it.  This is a chance for me to branch out and meet new people.  Buck is my team leader so I'm excited about working with him and getting to know him.  Up until now, we've only talked football, so this gives us a chance to get past the surface level knowledge about each other.  I'm sure throughout this year, I will post more about school and my new team and grade level.  Here's a picture of B taking me to school on my first day.

Speaking of first day of school, my mom got into the mix also.  Here's a picture she posted on facebook from a long time ago.  I think I might be in 3rd grade & Bubba in first grade....maybe?

And now for the big one: Rin's first day of Kindergarten!  She's been waiting for this day all summer and she's super excited and ready! The plan is for R to go with B in the mornings and eat breakfast/get dressed at his office.  She will do something quiet for a while and then he will fix her hair and take her to school at 9:00.  Since it was her first day, I left my school to meet them there.  Here are the few pictures we took....I should have been better about this!

Daddy's hair job.  It's awesome!

Little girl named Kelli that had the same backpack as Rin.  Rin grabbed her hand to hold while walking down the hall.  The counselor didn't have the heart to instruct them to let go to walk in a straight line.  So sweet!

Rin's room....it's way too much for me but perfect for K!

I can't believe my first born is now school age.  She starts full time after labor day, but I think the biggest concept that I have to wrap my brain around is that she's growing up.  I'm not in control anymore.  Up until this point, I have controlled her friends, her activities, her surroundings.  I only have control over a few hours in the afternoon and the weekends.  We will spend most of that time doing church activities.  Small group on Tuesdays, Awana on Wednesdays, and church on Sundays.  God's gift of R has been awesome and taught us so much.  Our prayer now is that she will be the light of Christ in her classroom for others to see. 

Rin's 5th Birthday

5 years ago, Rin was born making us first time parents. I don't want to say we were clueless, but of course we were new to the whole scene.  Both B and I had nieces and nephews that we watched grow up, plus we had some friends who had just had a baby.  Together with those experiences and the parenting class we took from church, we felt as prepared as anybody to raise a child. One year later and a lot of change has happened.  Rin has another younger sibling, a girl this time, Noelle.  Rin loves sharing her room with Ell and is such a great little momma.  The other big news this time is that Rin will be starting Kindergarten this year.  She's so excited and totally ready.  I'm very happy for her and wish I could be a fly on the wall of her classroom.  She's going to rock it!

Here's how her 5th birthday went:
We woke up around 7 like normal.  We let her open her gift from Gran and Papaw because they facetime'd us to sing HBTY to her.  She got this cute pink brush that is supposed to be a detangler.  Then we had breakfast and got dressed, ready to head to the movies.

with friends: Baylor, Grayson, Wes, Rin, Abe, Julia  8/7/13

We saw Madagascar 3 with our friends and then had the Caldwell boys over for lunch.  After rest time, Bella dropped by to give Rin a drawing (they are BFFs) and played a short while.  Rin got to pick the dinner and invite one friend over for dinner so she picked beignets & Aiden.  Sheree' dropped Aiden off around 5:30 and they kids played for a while so B could cook.  Before dinner we let Rin play her new game Zingo, that her brothers got her for her birthday.  We first played it at Grayson's house several weeks before and she really wanted her own game.  It's very fun.  After dinner we let Rin open her presents and then played Abe's Bug Game.  We played games until it was time for Aiden to go home.  Rin had an awesome day and didn't want it to end.

Rin is extremely sweet.  She's very loving and kind.  Of course she can argue with her brothers, but she has a very tender heart.  She's very much a people pleaser and needs/desires words of affirmation.  For a 5 year old, she's very assertive and opinionated, which we love!  We are very confident that she will have a great year in school and won't be afraid to speak up for herself.  She's not shy and actually very outgoing when it comes to meeting new kids.  We have a new neighbor named Owen and Rin was the first to go meet Owen and his mom.  We expect great things from this little gift.

As I pray for my kids each day, my prayer for Rin is that she will start to really comprehend who Jesus is and what he did for us.  She knows the information about dying on the cross to save us, but she doesn't 'get it' yet.  We talk all the time, but my specific prayer for her is that she will live it at school.  We've talked about how she will say her blessing before she eats at school and that she still will pray even though the teacher won't make everyone pray; I pray that we are the Lord is setting a firm foundation for Rin because public schools need shining stars!

Sleepovers!

With 4 kids, it's not financially realistic for us to throw big birthday parties each year.  Last year we tried "just dessert" for our friends to come over, but it didn't turn out quite like I had imagined.  I made 3-4 different desserts, we had 30+ people over, and it was more work than what we wanted.  So this year we decided to let the kids have sleep-overs for their birthday in addition to a birthday dinner of their choice. 

Rin's birthday fell on a Wednesday so that following Saturday, we hosted her girl friends for a sleepover party.  Girls arrived at 5:00 and I brought them all the church (except for Emilie) the next morning.  Rin's princess guest list included: Bella, Julia, Lexi, Bree, & Emilie.  Once all the girls arrived, they requested to color so that's what we did while Prince Bryce cooked hotdogs for everyone.  We ate dinner (picked by Rin) of hotdogs and chips and cookie for dessert.  After dinner, Rin opened her gifts before playing dress up and having a dance party while all dressed up.  It was really cute!  Following dance party, the girls watched Tangled while I painted their nails. I believe we paused the movie about 8:30 to change from dress up to jammies and then finished the movie with some popcorn.  Bedtime was about 9:00, and I'm confident all the girls were asleep by 9:45.

Prince B made pancakes for the girls Sunday morning and we had them all up by 7.  They all had their church clothes packed so I dressed them and they ate pancakes.  Emilie's dad picked her up at 8, so after that, I loaded the 6 girls into Cherry and took them to church.  I'm proud of myself; I got to church with those 6 girls before any of their parents :) 

What were Abe and Wes doing this whole time you ask?  They weren't even here.  Originally we asked Keith/Jenni to take the boys since we would have Bree/Lexi.  They agreed, but then Nicole said she would take them for a boy sleepover at their house.  So, given the choice, the boys wanted to spend the night with the Caldwells so they could play with other boys.  I believe Nicole had 6 boys spend the night at their house (their 3, my 2, and Daniel 1).  From what I heard, they had a good time.  I know they watched a movie and all slept in Grayson & Baylor's room.  Abe slept with Baylor and Wes slept on an air mattress on the floor.  Bryce picked them up early Sunday before church.

 The girls were so good and it was a lot of fun.  I would do a girl sleepover again in a heartbeat!