First Day of School!

Sunday night we brought out the books for Carli.
We all slept good. Woke up great! And we were ready to welcome the new school year!
They all got dressed and ate at the back to school table. It had their school colors and mascots.
Austin was very ready to go back to high school!Couldn't wait to get on that bus!
Tyler, not so much ready to go to eighth grade. He walked slowly to the bus.
Carli did surprisingly well. She never whined or complained. Very cheerful! She was ready to give her teacher her apple.She couldn't wait to use her rest towel (not sure why it looks this way? It's hot pink, orange, light pink, and purple).
She was anxious to put on her new outfit and take her back pack and lunch box.


She held my hand only in the parking lot. She walked in front of me all the way to her classroom.
She went straight in, gave her teacher a hug and her apple and headed to sit in her desk.Okay, that was too quick and easy! She did WONDERFUL! No clinging. NO TEARS! I didn't even cry! Unbelievable!
So, the kids were off to school and Anthony and I? We went on our annual back to school breakfast date! We've been going since Austin started school...12 years ago!
Anthony then went to work and I headed to home to a very quiet house.

HOLD ON!!!

FIRST, a look back at Austin's and Tyler's Kindergarten pictures, cause this momma is feeling a wee bit sentimental this morning.I can't relive their kindergarten memories without mentioning that TYLER cried all day long, every single day, for three straight weeks! Aw my sweet Boo Boo!

NOW, onto today. It is the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, I love the first day of school!
BUT WAIT!!! HOLD ON!!! I'm not ready for one of my kids to go this year!

I thought I was kind of ready. Turns out, I'm not!
My last baby is starting kindergarten TODAY!

How did this happen SO FAST?

I obviously blinked! Everyone says,"DON'T BLINK! Before ya know it, they'll be off to kindergarten!" and it is so very true! I KNOW THIS! I've sent two other kids off to kindergarten! I mean, man, look at how tiny my boys were! They were such babies! It seems like just yesterday! Now they're 17 and 13!!
And yes, each time I cried. TODAY is NO exception!

I'm happy for Carli to be growing and thriving!! I know this next phase in life is going to be so fun! I loved elementary school with the boys. But it just happened too quickly. She is totally my lil' shadow/my side kick. I'll miss her. I know she'll do just fine! SHE's SO READY!

EVERYONE, here's to a HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL POST TOMORROW!
Hopefully I'll get good pics of everyone and everything.

Happy Birthday Chris

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO! YOUR SIS LOVES YOU!

All done!

Carli had "Meet the teacher" last night. She already met her at our home visit, but this was a chance for them to bring their school supplies, see their classroom, meet their classmates, and us to fill out paper work.

Carli brought her teacher some personalized hand sanitizer.I also took her teacher this paper to fill out. Being a mom of a 17, 13, and 5 year old, along with teaching preschool for six years, I know quite a bit about teacher gifts, and this makes gift giving so much easier (Here's the link if you'd like to go and print out one for your self.Carli and Daddy sitting at her desk. I forgot to get one of her and I and then her and the teacher.The secret room in the library. It's where the librarian reads to the classes.

And this would be Carli's 2nd tooth. She lost it last night 15minutes before we left for meet the teacher. As with the first tooth she lost a couple of weeks ago, this time was just as traumatizing for her! D-R-A-M-A! But this time, she managed to spit it out and not swallow it like before!

So...
Check ups, clothes shopping, supply shopping, schedule pick ups, athletic gear pick up, meet the teachers, haircuts, DONE! Last time for Tyler hanging out at "teen night". No more staying up very very late and waking up very very late!! No more eating all day long. It's time for ROUTINE! I'm ready. Austin is ready. Tyler is not ready. Carli is back and forth. It's been a good, lazy summer (but and extremely hot and dry! ICK!). We're all done! Bring on the school year!

School shopping!

So we're pretty much done with summer...This year, since we have THREE kids in school and in a school district that has no uniform (ugh), Anthony and I took each child to do their school shopping. It was very nice to have time alone with each of them, PLUS, there was no chaos and fighting! NO Tyler, a puppy is NOT on your school supply list! Although all of us have tried to convince Dad it is :(Carli's FIRST SCHOOL SUPPLIES!

We have everything bought for ALL of the kids! Haircuts just done! I believe we're ready!

Pictures tomorrow of Carli's "Meet the teacher" at school, Tyler's schedule pick up and "Meet the teacher, and Austin visiting his classroom.

Happy Birthday Kayce

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER IN LAW KAYCE! WE LOVE YOU!

Sweet lunch dates

One of my favorite lil' families were passing through town and so we met up for lunch. (Lindsay and I)
(Olivia and Carli)(Baby Julia)

I'm so happy Carli and I got to see them...we've missed them SO MUCH!

Remembering Grandpa/Great Grandpa

Today marks a year that we lost our Grandpa/Great Grandpa. We miss him so much.
We love him, we want to make him proud, we love each other, and those things are what has kept us strong this past year without him and will continue to do so.Yesterday, the family (this is maybe half of us-we were missing quite a bit) got together to celebrate him. We all had shirts made, ate a wonderful lunch and yummy cake. It was such a nice day! Everyone enjoyed it!Thank you Grandpa AND Grandma for creating this fabulous family!And a big thank you to Kathy, Penelope, and Sonja for dropping off Rapunzel. Carli thought she was so cute sitting by the door!

Girls night out

LOVE LOVE LOVE spending time with my Deyanira!!!
17 years of best friends/sisters!

Winding down/gearing up

Summer is winding down and we are gearing up for back to school. There have been dental check ups, physicals, eye exams. Tyler's school schedule will be picked up next week. School supplies bought and clothes shopping is about to start.

I've taken Carli up to her school a few times to start to get use to it. She loves it. You can see, she has made a friend, a first grader, who's mom is a teacher there. Carli has made herself quite at home and already knows where everything is in the school!She's already met her teacher last week,but today her teacher came to our house. They do home visits, which I'm not use to, but loved it! I'm feeling very comfortable and a little excited about her starting school! Especially since it was my elementary school!

Mother/Son road trip

This past weekend Tyler and I headed to the land of the pears. Ahhh, it was so nice to be back in our old town.We crashed at Rose's house. Roland was celebrating his 13th Birthday. We had a really fun time!
I enjoyed some great laughs/girl time with Rose and Delia. Sad I didn't get any pictures of us!The boys had fun bowling! 13 year old boys could really care less to have their picture taken.These two crazy cuties were pretty hysterical! We all enjoyed some unexpected birthday cupcakes! (lol! Yep, there's a story behind these!)The birthday boy!Rose's ice cream cake! YUMMO!We hated to have to leave...see, even the cat wanted us to stay, so he slept in my bag!
But, we will go back soon. I just HAVE to visit everyone!

Special Dentist Visit

(ME-5yrs.old)
(Shawn-5yrs.old)(Austin-5yrs.old)(Carli-5yrs.old)

What makes a dentist visit so special? The fact that MYSELF, my little brother Shawn, Austin, and now Carli have all gone to the SAME pediatric dentist! Moving back to our hometown has made finding doctors a little easy. So when it was Carli's turn for her dental visit, I knew just where to go!

Her dentist check up was perfect timing, since she lost her first tooth on the bottom already! She already has TWO FULL GROWN ADULT TEETH behind the baby one she just lost and one behind the baby tooth that is next to it which will be out very soon! The dentist said that if that one doesn't come out within a couple of weeks, we need to go ahead and pull it. Also, he said that she should be loosing her top two teeth not long from now, because she's got those adult teeth ready to come through. AND in the next four-six months, she'll be getting her permanent molars! Unbelievable! Not sure what I feel about that?! But I am proud that she is a member of the "NO CAVITY CLUB"! :)

105!

We've been frequenting our favorite snow cone place all summer! That's kind of all you feel like eating when it's 105 outside!