Bringing Home A School Friend

This year the kids in the class get to bring home dolls......there is a boy and girl.......Sidney got to take home the girl, Missy at the beginning of the school year.

I was in the class that day too, so Grandma was watching the boys.......everyone got a chance to hold the doll.

Sidney had fun......and we got to do a write up about her adventures.

Kendall was hanging out for awhile too

the girls were having fun playing with Daisy too.

"Tee Hee"

Fun in Class

The school year has just started it seems and I've had the chance to volunteer in Sidney's classroom twice already. I love being there and seeing what they are doing and watching her interact with the other kids and get to do all kinds of activities and fun projects. She loves school : )!

Sidney love, Love, LOVES to paint.......well, any art project she can get messy doing! I had a hard time getting the other kids over to paint as Sidney and Kendall did not want to stop painting.

The girls were playing house during free time with another little girl that was in their class last year......Sidney is the cat, I think Kendall was the Momma.

story/share time.....Sidney has been playing with this little girl a lot this year.......they were in class together last year, but now they seem like best buds.

The kids all love to lay down during story time. Kendall was laying on the teachers lap....it was so cute. One of their regular teachers was out that day, so that gal that does lunch bunch came in to help.......she has 7 of her own kids (including a set of twins), that have gone to preschool at our church too.

Story Time

We had story time a while ago at a friend's house with the MOMS Club.....

I thought it was so cute......the girls were all in dress-up and having fun! Sidney always LOVES getting together with her friend J, whom she's known since before she was 1. Every time I tell her that one of her "old playgroup friends" will be there she gets so excited : )

Another Special Thank You

I'm still working on editing some recent pics......and have been trying to upload some CD's to load on my iPod that I've had for months..........I joined the gym (a three month membership) and need to catch up with the times.........Man, is it time consuming....and I've only done a few CD's.....there just never seems to be enough hours in the day.....and my kids always want to climb all over me (I guess I shouldn't complain about the loves, but it makes it hard to get anything done.)

Anyway..........My Mom watched the boys the other day, while I took Sidney on a fieldtrip with her school..........needless to say, the house was trashed! I had warned her, as we've been on the go a lot lately and I just haven't had the time (or the energy) to work on the house much. When I got home I couldn't believe how much she had gotten done....and played with the boys here and there too! The last of the laundry was folded, all the clutter in the kitchen (my piles - which I had to resort, but hey, at least it looks good, huh?), she even scrubbed the lid to our kitchen garbage can! I couldn't believe how clean it is!!!! I wipe it all the time with a Lysol wipe and I think I've actually hand washed it before, but it never seemed to really come clean......I'll have to get my Mom's secret, because it looks brand new : ) THANK YOU MOM!!!!
It inspired me to get quite a bit more done around the house yesterday.......and cut down a little on the overwhelming feelings.........but it seemed the more I looked around and did things, the longer the list of things to do got! I was in a mode, and working on sorting things well into the night (and catching up on SYTYCD & The Biggest Loser), and of course, when Mommy goes to bed late then the kids seem to be up at night......Sidney was up from 4:30-5:15am and then up at 6:30am........and amazingly, the boys slept until 10:10am! Man, oh man, why couldn't Sidney sleep in too? (especially since she usually does when she's in our bed)
Oh, I thought I would share too that Sidney is doing really well in the morning, making her bed and opening her curtains without anyone even asking her! After all Mommy's requests.......one day she just decided to start doing it!

The MOM

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this is just too funny......I haven't had time to work on any pictures, but I thought I'd share this. I hope you enjoy it......the kids love watching it again, and again and again.....

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, I can't believe it's almost Halloween already?! We have been busy this fall......we have something almost every morning. Sidney has school 3 days a week and I've already volunteered in her class twice so far (and took the paint shirts home to wash them) and we did a VIP poster for Sidney that they put up in the class............each child gets to be the VIP for two weeks......completely separate from when their birthday is. Coming up this week.............a field trip! Combine that with two separate playgroups, the boys story/craft class, Sidney's dance class, now Sidney's cheer class, the boys soccer class and various other seasonal activities and we barely have any time to sit still! It's a mixed blessing........the kids like to be on the go and get out and do things...........but it makes it hard for me to keep up on the things around the house........add to that that Sidney and Carter had a cold for over a week........and now Cameron has the flu. I have a bunch of pics I haven't even edited yet, and more that need to be uploaded too................I just haven't had the time (and am too tired - like usual)...............I'm not sure when things will slow down, but I'll try to keep up to date as much as possible.

On a side note............I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to my Step-Dad, Greg, (Papa to the kids) for doing most of the over-seeding on our back yard!!!! Mommy and the kids will be soooooo happy when our nice, even, green grass comes in...............(and the lovely fertilizer smell is gone : )

The Boys

Random pics of the boys.....

I thought this was too cute! Carter LOVES these look and find books......he was just kickin' back, laying on the floor looking at his book..............all on his own.

Cameron......my cutie!

Ice cream..........YUM!!!! (Cameron)

cars & trucks...........all shapes and sizes

Carter and those fingers.......I'm convinced that this is why he is ALWAYS the first one to get sick.....on a good note though......the dentist said that so far his teeth still look ok...........Cameron, on the other hand, wants his paci ALL the time......and it is effecting his bite.......he has a large gap between his upper jaw and his lower jaw......BUT, she said that it can fix itself if we take the paci away.........sooooooo, we have been really limiting it to just bed time (and naps).......he fusses some times, but he's doing fairly well without it........

My Girl

Here are some random pictures of Sidney.............

One of the other Mommies, who were in the class that day took this and sent it to me.....I love it!!!! Love her beautiful smile! Having fun with her "old friends", that were in her class last year too.

Lovies for the puppy

More hugs..............Daisy is soooo tolerant of her and all her "affection"

I didn't remember if I had posted this one of her before or not....but I love it! Too cute!!!

Play Time

A while ago we met up at an open play time at the community center for playgroup....I was going to bring Sidney too, as she didn't have school that day, but my sister offered to take her to play with her cousin.......it was a good thing! The boys had fun, but I think it would have been a little young for Sidney......she would have been bored.

I thought it was funny..................they each got on their own teeter-totter, instead of rocking with each other..............I guess I have to give them some slack...........they've never even seen a teeter-totter before.

"rock, rock"

My Picky Eatters

I'm sure a lot of Mom's go through this.......you spend all this time making a meal, making sure it's well balanced and somewhat healthy.............and nobody eats it! These are the kids plates AFTER dinner.....

Carter ate his peas.....Sidney ate her peaches......Cameron.....ate nothing!!!! And it takes Mommy quite awhile to make lasagna.....that's not a frozen meal! The kids seem to be getting more and more picky and eating less and less.......what can you do????? If they're hungry, they'll eat, right?

ok, maybe I'm a little too lenient.....my kids don't really sit down and eat breakfast...they never really have......this was Sidney's breakfast one morning......first she wanted a waffle.....then she saw the left over pizza in the fridge.....then she wanted a jelly sandwich.....she hardly ate ANY of it! (I think I at least gave her brothers the waffle and some of the pizza......I probably kept her sandwich for lunch too...........but we seem to throw away quite a bit of half-eaten food : (

Reading to her brother

My kids all love books! I had gotten Sidney this set of "I Spy" books, because she likes to look and find things in pictures and it's supposed to help teach letters too.......Well, I think Carter & Cameron like them almost more than Sidney.....they're a little easy for her. They have ceratain ones they like and will bring them to me over and over again to have them "find" the pictures.....Carter especially likes them. The boys are doing really well with their letters and numbers too.....they can both count to 10, and recognize some of the numbers and can even recognize some letters too. The other day Carter brought a magnet up to me and said "Wha, Wha" (from the letter factory video where it focuses on their sounds).......it was an M, but I turned it upside down for him and got all excited " YES! W, You're right!"

Being such a great big sister and reading with Carter

Swimming with our Friends

This is the infamous day that I had my scare with Carter.........the kids had a really great time, despite Mommy's near meltdown.

the girls just always pick up like they still get to see each other all the time

playing with the little fountains

Carter is hording the cars....the boys and their cars!

It was one of the kid's birthdays......so we had cupcakes to celebrate.

Cameron says "Mmmmmmmm............frosting"

Carter actually looks at the decorations for a second before diving into his.