Tuesday, August 16, 2011

First Day of School!


This highly anticipated day has finally come! Skylee started Pre-K today!
Here in Georgia, Pre-K is funded by the state Lottery for kids who turn 4 by Sept. 1st, but she'll be going into kindergarten in 2 months when we move to California where she meets the Dec. 1st deadline for turning 5.

We have been getting things ready and prepping her for what to expect for months, and up until yesterday, she sounded like she was getting ready for another trip to Disney World! Last night we went to the orientation and that's when she got a little nervous with all the parents and siblings chaos. After realizing that she wouldn't know anyone, she was a little apprehensive. We did have a great time shopping for her backpack and lunch bag and some clothes earlier in the day though!
This morning I woke her up at 6:20 to get her dressed to make sure she was on time. She had forgotten about the chaos from the night before, and was really excited to see how a normal school day would be.
Up early for hair and wardrobe
She insisted on her nails being painted before she left, blue sparkles, of course!
Ready to go!
The Hello Kitty backpack we searched everywhere for and snatched up the last one from Target, all the way in FL ;)
"Tangled" soundtrack to her life, the right music to kick of this special day
Almost there...
I walked her into her classroom, where her teacher, Mrs. Karen, met her. In her southern accent she greeted Skylee with a loud "Oh honey! Don't you just look beautiful!!!" Skylee had arrived! :) I'm glad she wasn't embarrassed by all my picture taking, I'm sure that will come in years to come, but I've taken advantage of all I can for now.
I made Skylee's skirt and headband for her first day, and lucky for me, she loved how it turned out. I have a couple more things for the school year I'd like to make up for her still, and now that my house is so quiet, I have no excuses. We just can't believe she's in school now, but we know she's going to do great!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Disney Adventure


Last month I took my kids to Disneyland for two days before we had to come back to Georgia for the Summer. Thanks to Ryan's Dad, Skylee already had an annual pass and Parker is still free so I only had to pay for myself to get in :) We tagged along with my Mom, and Jennette's crew for all the fun. Here are some pictures from our day spent at Disneyland:
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribean
Train ride

Carousel

Cookies :)
Casey Jr. Train
Storybook
Churros :)
Such a fun day! We took a couple days to recover and then spent a day over at California Adventure. I loved being there with my Mom and Jennette (and her kids), and making great memories with my own kids.



Wednesday, July 13, 2011

My Girl

Monday was a lazy around our house, it was my clean up after Sunday, day. I heard Skylee "playing" upstairs, when she came down she told me she was upstairs making my bed and insisted I come up to see. Sure enough she had, and it was pretty darn good! Then she told me she cleaned her room, and Parker's! She did a really good job on each of those too. I could tell she really wanted/needed some positive affirmation, and she deserved it all. Later that day while I was cleaning up after dinner, I heard huge thuds coming down our wooden stairs. Soon after the sound stopped Skylee showed up in the kitchen doorway where I was in her skirt, somewhat matching shirt and a pair of my heels. She was begging for me to find something that she could do to help. Skylee is usually pretty good about helping to pick up her toys and doing small things, but this day was totally out of the ordinary. I was sweeping and that's where I was going to end for the day. Skylee decided that the floor needed to be mopped and started mopping all by herself. She would crack me up when Parker would be running around the house and if he came by a wet spot, she would warn him and tell him to turn around. She's such a sweet little girl. I'm hoping next time she gets in one of those moods, I can have more that needs to be done :)

Beach Day

Ryan had the day off yesterday so we headed to the beach crossing our fingers that our day wouldn't be ruined by rain/thunderstorms. Our crossed fingers worked, it was a beautiful day in Fernandina Beach! The kids had a great time playing in the sand, finding shells, and jumping waves. It was really hot outside, but the water was perfect temperature for cooling off.

-love that sand on my lens...




Hope you're enjoying your Summer too :)

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Singing In The Rain

One thing that I will miss when we move from the South is the rain storms. Almost daily we have great thunderstorms, crazy lightening, rains buckets, and loud rumbling thunder. It's pretty fun. While in CA I found these cute rain boots at Target on clearance for only $3.75 a pair! I knew the kids could get some good use out of them.Usually it's too dangerous to go outside during one of these storms, but today it was just rain. We had a great excuse to use those boots and splash around in the puddles on our little porch here. Skylee has always been my more adventurous one, no fear kind of girl, I knew she would love it. Parker is my more apprehensive one, he's not the kind to just jump into a pool or even go in the water at the splash park, but he warmed up to the idea and ended up having lots of fun. It's the little things in life!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

"Parker-man"


My baby is growing up. I really notice it on days he starts talking more like a kid than a toddler. While I'm so proud that he is learning and developing like he should, it makes me sad that my baby isn't really a baby anymore (relatively). Just this week he has started to pronunciate the "r" sound in some words, almost over pronunciates them, which is kinda funny. "CaRs" and "ShoRts" are my personal favorites :) He's also changed from saying things like "whas dat!?" to "Mom, what is dat!?" (of course in his sweet little voice). "I no wanna" to "I don't like it". He has been putting some great sentences together, which still catch me off guard that it's coming from him. I often wonder if I could just stop them from growing, would I ever get sick of them at that age and be ready to let them grow a little more before freezing their age again?! Random thought, I know... I feel so blessed to have such great kids, special little people that bring joy to my life and help me to fulfill my most important purpose in life. Being a mother is such a blessing.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Better (really) late, than never!



I won't even tell you how many attempts I made at trying to update this little family blog of ours. It's just pathetic. I guess I started to think that everyone was on facebook like me and kept up with us there, but I've learned otherwise.
We have made some pretty big decisions the last few months, specifically since the beginning of the new year. Currently, I am living in California with the kids while Ryan is still in Georgia working with the Coast Guard there like he has since we moved there over 3 years ago. We packed everything up in February and drove 4 ridiculously long days out to California. The plan was to see Alton before he left on his mission and instead of making two big/expensive trips out to CA (one to see Alton, and the other actually moving here for another job we anticipate) we decided to just to make one big trip. Based on the knowledge that we had at that point, things were looking pretty solid. As the last couple months have progressed, things of course aren't happening as WE planned them, but I have to have faith that it will all work out like it should.
The kids and I are missing Ryan, and our friends in Georgia a lot. We do love being so close to all our family and making some new friends too. We look forward every few weeks when Ryan gets to come see us, and I especially look forward to the help, and date nights!Parker turned 2 years old last month! To celebrate we had a double b-day party with his cousin Seth who is 3 days older. In proper 2 year old fashion, it was all about trains, and we had so much fun! The last two years with him in our family have been pure bliss. He had a little incident on the trampoline and fractured his wrist, but luckily that healed up really fast. Having your arm in a sling for a 2 year old is not fun! We're so happy it was for such a short period of time. He loves to be funny and make people laugh, he has so enjoyed getting to know his family here in California, loves playing outside, always wants milk, just recently given up his beloved pacifier, has a great vocabulary, has a great fake laugh, and loves his family so much. He is a typical little boy that loves to throw a ball, play with cars and trains, and get dirty. Anything round is a "baskeet ball", and I just love the way he says "yes" with a slight lisp on the end of it. He melts my heart everyday.
Skylee turned 4 years old in November, just goes to show how long it's been since I posted anything. She is a typical girl, maybe more dramatic than most, but still typical. She loves playing with dolls, princesses, wearing dresses or skirts, having a bow in her hair, loves to be tickled, can't get enough of reading, and she especially loves coloring. Skylee is also very thoughtful, she is always coloring a page or making a card for someone else, and offers such sweet prayers. She has been having so much fun with all her girl cousins since we moved here. There are 4 other little girls on my side of the family, it's almost like having sisters. She's a brave little toaster, she'll jump right into a cold pool or give just about any food a try (and usually likes it!) It's been so great to see her grow up to be such a happy little girl. We are so excited to see her in her first official dance recital next month!Ryan is almost at the end of his Coast Guard/military contract, and the last 8 months since he graduated he's been trying to line up a different career once he gets out later this year. For me, it's been such a roller coaster of emotions; things look hopeful, then disappointment- back and forth...it's starting to drive me loco. Before we moved, Ryan surprised me with a little 5 year anniversary trip to Washington D.C. He organized it all without me knowing about it, which included flying his mom to Georgia to look after our kids for the week. It was so sweet and a great opportunity for just the two of us to get away. We really had a great time!

As for me, I'm just in the middle of it all. Being a partial-single-parent has been an adjustment but, I have so loved being in California again, there really is no place like home. Since we've been married and in other states with the military, I missed spending time with my parents, my sisters and their families (and little visits from my brothers), old friends, the endless options of things to do in California, and great weather!
Of course a ton of things have happened since my last post, but there's just no way I'm going to go through it all. For now, generic will have to do, I'll just resolve to do better from this point on :)