Paige's first day...

My Paigey girl started her second year of preschool at Happy Hearts.  And she was excited!  Mostly to see her friend Adam again.  She really missed him.  (We'll see if she makes any girl friends this year :) 

She wanted me to curl her hair "like a princess" and then half way through decided it was taking too long and made several attempts to escape.  I got it as best I could without burning her with the hot curling iron.  I think it's pretty cute.  I wish she would let me curl her hair everyday....

She's not too sure about her new teacher yet....

But that's just Paige and her stranger anxiety...

Weird to think I now have 3 mornings a week to myself.  That's almost 9 hours of me-time!  Hmmm....I'm thinking I better take advantage of that before little baby boy joins our family.

Look Mom! No hands!

Summer 2010

Here's what we did all summer long.....

Caiden got pretty comfortable on the kneeboard....

....and Paige in the water with Papa...

Fun times at the pool.....

Both kids took swim lessons....Caiden was the smallest and youngest in his class (by far) but he actually kept up with the big kids quite well. I was super impressed....

He was so excited to learn to jump off the diving board with no life jacket and no help in the water...Yay!  He definitely walked away from swim lessons a stronger and more skilled swimmer....

And this girl....

 .....she owes me 25 bucks!!

This is the girl that doesn't liked to be splashed, or put her head under water...just float and twirl in her bright pink floaty.  We did the Mommy and Me class, which was all moms and their kids no older than 18 months, and then there was me and my 4 yr old.  A little awkward. 

I did my best to convince her to try to blow bubbles....

and after 2 weeks this was the best "jump" I could get out of her....

.....could be impressive if the water were more than 6 inches deep.

Oh well.  It's not like I'm trying to raise an Olympic swimmer here.  Maybe next summer....

It's a.....

BOY!!  Today I had my ultrasound and we discovered that we are having a boy!  Casey and Caiden are especially excited and Paige is doing...ok.  She wasn't overly thrilled when I told her it was a boy, but she didn't get too upset either.  I told her she would still help me feed the baby and hold the baby and dress the baby and she said "Can we buy him new shoes?"  Why, sure! Whereas Caiden insisted that he didn't want "two sisters that will bug me forever".  So everyone is excited and I am most happy and thankful that everything and everyone appears to be healthy.  The radiologist still has to review everything in detail and then report it to my doctor, but I'm thinking all is well. 

It is amazing how technology has improved even in the last 5 years.  We sat and watched this baby's thumb go in and out of his mouth.  Already taking after his big brother!  Caiden was also sucking his thumb in his ultrasound.  We got a picture of it but it's not very clear.  Even with the advanced technology, I still sometimes felt like Rachel on Friends as the ultrasound tech. would point out different things like "here's the kidneys" and "here's the stomach" and "here's the bladder" - uh-huh, yeah I see all of that too.  Not!  One thing about this baby is that he is situated very low.  The guy had a hard time getting all of the measurements.  He had me rolling from side to side and I kept feeling the baby kick back when he'd push on my belly.  I kept thinking myself, even before the ultrasound, that this baby felt really low.  All the movements I feel are much lower than I remember in my other 2 pregnancies.  My doctor says the uterus is up where it's supposed to be; this baby just chooses to situate himself very low down.  My bladder is not too appreciative of this.  So hopefully as he gets bigger he'll move himself up a bit. 

Speaking of big, Caiden took one look at the picture and said "whoa! he has a big head!"  I also noticed that, but I'm choosing to overlook it and deny it because the thought of giving birth to one more big-headed baby is just too much for me to handle right now.  So here's to our newest little boy to be!

First Grade

Caiden had a successful day of first grade.  We had met his teacher the day before and he was super excited that 2 of his friends from last year are in his class again.  So once he had on his favorite new Lego Batman shirt and a packed lunch, he couldn't get out of the door fast enough. 

We parked and walked him to his class.  Once inside, I saw a roomful of silent, nervous, adorable little first graders (and only one hysterically crying little boy).  Natually I had to take a picture of him at his desk.  Love the "seriously, mom???"  look....

So I hung out for a few minutes until Paige kept saying "Can we go now???"  Then....it was time to go.  I stood outside and just felt like I didn't want to leave.  I wasn't necessarily sad, but I just felt like I wanted to stand outside the builiding for a minute.  Probably would have if Paige hadn't been pulling me to the car.  Anyway, I kept myself busy all day occasionally thinking/stressing whether or not he was having fun.  Then....time to pick him up.  He gets in the car and says "First grade is fun!!"  Yay!  Thanks to lunch and 2 recesses, he loves, loves school.  I don't hear much about what they learn, but I hear about everything that goes on at lunch and recess.  He is so funny!

Last day of Summer :(

It is the last day of summer.  It is 61 degrees outside.  And it is raining.  Hardly the way we wanted to spend our last few days of freedom.  What is with this weather??  It hasn't been much more than 70 degrees for the past few days.  If this is any indication that winter is coming early, I'm going to start crying right now. 

On the other hand, it is the last day of summer.  I can not believe my little Caiden starts 1st grade tomorrow!  I am feeling just about every emotion right now.  Excited for Caiden (only because he's so excited), and sad for Paige because she is really going to miss her big brother, and sad for me because he's just getting so big, and nervous for him because its a big school with big fat 5th graders and what if they try to mess with my boy???  Except that he's not nervous at all.  Just excited.  I asked him at dinner tonight what he thinks they'll be doing on the first day.  He says "um....probably go to recess...and see my old friends....and chase girls."  Nice.  Add worry into that mix.

So today, we went to meet his teacher, Mrs. Pruett (who I liked immediately).  She mailed a letter stating we could come today to drop off their school supplies and pick out their desk.  Caiden is in an actual classroom in the building, not in a portable.  Why is this worth stating?  Well, simply because when I was little and went to ghetto Woodlake Elementary I never once had a class in the actual school building - only portables.  Ghetto portables that leaked when it rained.  Then I went on to middle school excited to actually be in a building, but nope.  Only portables again.  It wasn't till 7th grade that I actually had a class in a building.  So naturally, I feel some excitement over this issue.  And kinda some jealousy too.  And proud that my Caiden is going to such a high class school as Knolls Vista, ha.  Anyway, he picked out his desk and his cubby and is super excited for tomorrow morning.  So I think we are ready.  At least we got a haircut out of the way a couple of weeks ago.

So....I think I'm excited, but probably around 2:00 tomorrow I'll be wondering where in the heck he is and why my house is so quiet and empty.   

Anyway, I'll be posting our "summer of fun" pics soon.  It mostly consists of 2 things - the pool and the lake.  It's what we do best.

Better late than never.....

For some reason it has taken me forever to get around to posting our 4th of July trip to Pagosa.  But better late than never, right? 

So, to begin I must give out an award to....The Two Best Travelers of All Time...Caiden and Paige....{applause and cheering}

Now, I have never claimed to have the most well behaved children (because that would be a lie) nor the most mild (because that would also be a lie), but I am pretty sure I do have the best little travelers....EVER.  We drove a total of 18 hours (just me and them, no Casey) and not once did they get out of their seats, and only once did they attempt a pillow fight which was immediately vetoed after I was hit while driving.  There was, however, countless "Are we there yeeeeeeettttt?" and "how much loooongggerrrrrrrr?"  But other than that, they completely rocked.  (And I feel I have to take some credit for that because I am one heck of a traveler myself and I'm pretty sure they got this awesome gene from me, which I got from my parents :)  So, a big thanks to the DVD player, Star Wars, Max & Ruby, handi-snacks, part-time passenger Aunt Kimmy, and Bon Jovi and large amounts of caffenieted drinks (for me) for making it all possible.

Now on to our trip....

We first stopped in Salt Lake at my sister's so we could attend the midnight showing of "Eclipse".  This was quite the experience as I discovered how seriously these Utahn's take their Twilight.  Oh my....it was crazy, insane, shocking, ridiculous, and absurd.  I loved every minute of it.

Then, on to Pagosa to Grandma and Grandpa Peart's.  Within hours of arriving the craziness

began (unfortunately I don't have pictures to document this, but must record it for memories sake).  While scary and alarming at first, it turned into hilarity once we discovered everyone was okay.  Caiden was with his cousins, Tanner and Lauren, out for a joy ride on the Ranger (a normal activity).  All of a sudden Caiden and Lauren come bursting through the front door in a half-crying/full-on panicked state screaming  "A REALLY S-SCARY THING JUST HAP-HAPPENED!!"  (I thought they had seen a bear - another semi-normal thing).  "What happened?!?!"  "Tanner was dr-driving the Ranger and was looking at a b-bird and then we r-rolled off the driveway" (sniff, sniff, panic, panic).  Initially we first thought that Tanner was stuck under the Ranger so Kim and I shot out the door and ran down the driveway.  Now I should explain that my parents don't exactly have a normal driveway.  It's one you basically need 4-wheel drive to get up and it's real long and windy and rocky and mountain-y.  We get down there and see that Tanner is just fine, except for kinda sulking around with a sheepish ah-crap-I-just-rolled-the-Ranger look on his face.  Then we get the whole story....Apparently they were making their way down the driveway when they spot an interesting bird and Tanner doesn't realize how close they are to the edge and the front wheel goes off.  He stops and attempts to reverse but can't get enough traction and Ranger slowly tips to its side and off the driveway.  No rolling, no tumbling, no bodies being thrown about, just a simple tip-over.  Simple to Caiden and Lauren?  Not so much.  There was lots of "I'm so mad at you Tanner!!" and "I'm never riding anywhere with you again" and "You need a licer's drivence!"  The panic looked on their faces and sound in their voices was pee-your-pants funny!!!!  But we eventually calmed them down and did a "yay for seatbelts" dance.  And within hours they were best friends with Tanner once again.  Classic.

Anyway, moving on, we did a little flying....(Caiden and Paige call it the "Who-dat" airplane, Ha!)

....please excuse me and my pajama attire.  My dad is an early riser...and I am not. 

Caiden got to ride co-pilot, which he loved and then once we were airborne, Paige sat on my dad's lap.  He did his famous "pulling G's" trick (where your stomach ends up in your throat).  Normally, this is a favorite of mine, as a kid and an adult, but I quickly discovered it takes on a completely different feeling when you're pregnant.  Not quite as fun as I remembered. 

Later, we attended Pagosa's 4th of July parade.  My dad started it off with his flying buddies as they flew in formation over the parade...

Can you tell what was Paige's favorite part?

Afterwards, there was the most amazing double rainbow...I have never seen a double rainbow before.  I didn't even know that could happen.  The pictures don't do it justice.

Then we waded in the San Juan river a bit....

THEN...on the last day there, we decided to go tubing down the River.  So we dropped off a few of the adults and kids (Caiden included) at a higher spot up in the river and the rest of us drove down a bit further to watch them come down.  It was taking a bit longer than expected and I had the feeling that there was some tip-overs resulting in uncooperative children.  (I think Caiden had met his quota for "tip-overs" for the week).  Sure enough, I was right.  It's not that the river was rough with huge rapids, it's that there was more than one person to a tube and the distribution of weight caused it to be...shall we say unsteady.  So there was not one, not two, not three, but FOUR tip-overs.  Caiden was D.O.N.E.  At one point, my dad said he stood up on a rock and loudly announced "I HATE THIS RIVER.  I'M NOT GOING ANYMORE!"  Against his will, they grabbed him and finally made it to where we were waiting.  And this is how he stood for a long time....

So, I'm thinking he's not gonna grow up to be a white water rafting guide....big deal.

Now, look to the upper left of this picture and you will see the largest "rapid" the river had to offer.  The adults took turns going over it....

Rodney makes it through....

Kim makes it through....

Kelley makes it through....

Grandpa makes it through....just barely...

And Grandma...wait a second...where's Grandma?  Oh, well she collided with another person and flipped right over....there's her head!

A great little trip!

A creation for me....

Have I ever mentioned how popular legos are in our house?  Well, they are.  Big time.  Caiden is the master of creations - spaceships, rockets, boats, cars, motorcycles, you name it.  And Paige has gotten quite into it as well, given the limited amount of legos Caiden "allows" her to play with.  Naturally, as a big brother he has allotted her all the legos he doesn't like, are broken, or suffering from some sort of deformation. 

But last night....as they were bouncing off the walls and contributing heavily to my pounding headache, I tried to distract them by requesting they build me something out of legos.  I was soon presented with a "house" complete with the most amazing features.  I just love their little brains!

And so here it is....

Now on to the features....Paige made sure I had a front door (thank you) and a back door (that's the gate-looking thing in the back).  To the left of the front door is a security system, also know as the "bad guy trap".  The red shooter-looking things blast them away and it also works on dogs.  Awesome!  The two things I'm most afraid of - bad guys and dogs.  Then, inside the home, see the blue piece with the white lego on top?  That's my bed and the white piece is my pillow.  And if you look closely my "blanket" is kept in the large white compartment.  This compartment also doubles as my "cool bathtub".  Then, take note that when I'm laying in bed I can watch iCarly on my very own "big screen TV".  And now for my very favorite feature - see the object to the right of the house?  Well that's my very own motorized robot that takes care of all my "outside" chores.  Now really, don't you wish you had a house like this?