Growing up

Chase started Kindergarten on Wednesday.  Just saying it causes a small pain in my heart.  My baby is growing up.  Thinking of the moment I would drop him off would almost bring tears to my eyes. It is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives.  Five days a week, up early, reading, writing, arithmetic, homework, folders, packing lunch bags.  The day finally arrived and as I looked into his sweet eyes I realized that there is no more baby in him.  He is all boy and growing by the minute...

When we pulled up to school one of his best buddies arrived at the same time and had picked the same color shirt as Chase.  As I got back in the car and drove away I realized that in their excitement to see each other and the chaos at the door of his room, I wasn't given the opportunity to process his big day and the tears did not flow like I had imagined they would.  Whew! One less public mommy meltdown the better ;).

So far I have done well at packing his lunch bag and filling his water bottle, checking his homework folder and completing the worksheets with him.  One week (half a week) down and we are in full motion.  Chase is attending a private school, New Covenant and we are excited about his level of excitement for school.  He wasn't too excited about homework the first day but quickly realized that it was manageable.  He only goes half a day (8-12) so he comes home ready for lunch and tired from the morning activity but seems to be adjusting well.  This mommy is adjusting to getting up early as well and getting life in motion before the sun comes up.  Here's to a great year!

Henley 4 months

Henley Faith turned 4 months old on August 11th.  We made our trip to the doctors office to see how she has been progressing and the doctor was pleased.  I was hoping for a little more weight gain but I am glad that she is doing so well.  She weights 11.5 lbs putting her in the 4th percentile and is 24 inches long putting her in the 30th percentile.  She is officially my little peanut.  The doctor requested that we work up to two cereal feedings in a day between now and her 6 month appointment so she got her first taste of rice cereal.

 
Much like I remember her sister at that age, she didn't care for the cereal.  She has not yet figure out the whole spoon thing so she probably gets a total of two spoonfuls right now.  She still has the tongue thrust so everything that goes in, gets pushed right back out.  I am not in any huge rush for her to be eating because baby food is a pain but we will keep trying each day.  Here is a picture of all the kiddos before Kevin's cousin Brian's wedding reception (more to follow on that)...

Chase and Leah sure do love their Henley and Henley loves them in return.  In the last month Henley has become very active.  She has started grabbing for toys and playing with them.  Her favorite toy right now is her feet.  Good thing she always has them with her.  She also likes to roll over onto her tummy and then eventually get mad about it.  She can roll back over but doesn't do it as readily as she goes onto her tummy.  Usually half way through the night she rolls on her tummy and then sleeps that way the rest of the night.  She is full of joy, willing to share a smile with just about anyone.  She also likes the sound of her own voice, talking and squealing whenever she can.  She has adapted well to a two nap a day schedule and for the most part enjoys going to sleep.  She still loves her bath time and loves any attention that she can get.  We are blessed with this sweet little angel.  It has been 4 fantastic months!

VACATION!

Last summer we had just moved back to Anderson and spent most (at least Kevin did) of our time renovating or working on our house.  So this summer we were thrilled when my parents invited us to join them for a week in sunny Florida!!!  They rented a three bedroom condo right on the beach and we were all very excited but first we had to try to fit everything in the van…

Luckily Kevin is super packer!  We didn’t arrive until after dinner time Saturday evening so we held the kids off until Sunday for some beach time.  I think Kevin was as excited as they were because he was up with them in the morning and ready to go.  Each morning we claimed our little spot on the beach and set up tent.  

Kevin played with the kids all day with only a short pool side break for lunch.  They built sand castles….

The masterpiece...

Found sea shells...

 and swam in the ocean...

Henley was dressed and ready for the beach as well.  

She chilled in a cool chair my friend Melissa let us borrow with Grandma and Grandpa chilling close by…

Grandma took Henley out to sea for a little dip….

 We also had a very cool float that my friend LeeAnn let us borrow for Henley that she enjoyed but I didn't get any pictures of her in it.  Kevin taught the kids how to fly kites.  Chase was so excited...

 We learned from day one to force the kids to take more breaks (or at least a break) so Mom and Dad can get a break as well.  Henley was excited to get to wear her other bathing suit...

She passed out for her morning nap with Grandma...

Kevin created an in-sand babysitter so he could sit down for a few minutes.

It did take them a few minutes to break free.  Grandpa brought his fishing stuff down for the kids and Leah couldn’t figure out why he was fishing off the balcony.

He was just getting his poles ready but unfortunately the fish were not biting. The kids still enjoyed feeding the bate fish to the birds. Monday night was really windy so Kevin took chase down to the beach after bedtime for some night time kite flying.  The bird kite was really hard to fly...

By Tuesday we were all in need of a little break from the beach and the sun and luckily for us it happened to be a rainy, overcast day.  We decided to take the kids to Smugglers Cove for a little game of putt putt golf.  We had so much fun with the kids. Kevin worked with each of them on their swing...

 Leah had a cute little butt wiggle to go with each putt.

Chase got a hole in one...

Henley chilled with me and took a little nap...

This place had extra cool factor because they had baby alligators that you could feed...

Both kids enjoyed feeding the gators and we luckily didn't loose anyone to them. We were happy that Tuesday was the only gloomy day. The break gave us a short rest and we were geared back up for some more beach fun and swimming.

Wednesday night we took the kids to a little store that I grew up visiting when I was a kid called the Candy Kitchen.  We let them go wild picking out whatever candy they wanted and they had the time of their lives doing it.

Time goes by way to fast but we made the best of every moment in Florida and really enjoyed our time.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful week!