Happy Halloween!

October '07 -

Here are a couple of pictures from Halloween. Lexy was an Angel and Nathan was Superman. We had a "trunk-or-treat" at church despite the rain and the kids got lots of candy.

GOTCHA

September '07 - To give a little background for the following pictures my Grandaddy and I have always enjoyed cutting up and playing jokes on each other. For the longest time we would just lick our finger and make a mark on the invisible score board in the air. Somehow about a year or so ago it turned into something even bigger when he mailed me an empty package with nothing but a piece of paper in it that said "Gotcha". So now we take turns trying to one-up each other.

When my grandparents came to visit this last time we had everyone over for dinner. Before they arrived Aaron and I were trying to come up with some different "Gotcha" ideas. We were having grilled steak and chicken for dinner so I decided to make a "road-kill" steak. I looked up a picture of a raccoon on the Internet and created my little friend within about 15 minutes. (I have to brag a little because even I was impressed). Anyway, when they arrived at the house Grandaddy handed me a gift, as well as the kids. Not even a bit suspicious, I opened the gift and found a real score board - complete with skewed results. We all know that I have more points. :) That was his gotcha. I was so glad that I had come up with something to get him right back. When we sat down for dinner I asked him if he would like steak or chicken. When he said steak I took his plate and came back with a road-kill steak. YUM! GOTCHA Grandaddy! I love you!

A Big Boy Bed!

Sept. '07 - Nathan starting showing a real interest in Lexy's "big" bed and kept saying that he wanted to sleep in it. So, like the potty-training philosophy I thought if he is ready we should go for it, right. *Note to other parents...stay with the crib - especially if they can't climb out yet! Anyway, it was Labor Day weekend and I thought that if we put him in the new bed on Friday night we would have an extra long weekend to adjust to any sleepless nights that might come from this transition. He actually did really well for the first few weeks. I think in the beginning he didn't realize that he could actually get out because he would sit on the edge of the bed and holler.

At the end of September we took a vacation (as seen on our video). After we got back from our vacation everything changed and we had mornings starting at 6:30, then 5:30, then 2:30. AHHHH! Then came the time change which made 2:30 into 1:30.....Who's idea was this time change thing and why are we still doing it???? Nathan is not one to quietly go back to bed when he is told that it is not time to wake up. He screams at the top of his lungs. So even though I knew that the only way to get him to realize that he wasn't allowed to come out of his bed was to have him scream for a while, I tried to do it the nice way so that he wouldn't wake up Lexy. The early wake up is much better, but we still have some mornings when he gets up around 5:30. Hopefully in 2008 this will get better.

Still trying to catch up!

I am just noting that I am still ridiculously behind on my postings here. I was trying so hard to catch up before the end of 2007, but as anyone who looks at this on a regular basis (or has probably stopped because it hasn't changed for the LAST TWO MONTHS - Ahhh!) knows that I have not done a very good job. However, this is more for my personal journaling for our family, so I cannot skip anything in order to catch up any faster. We will all just have to be patient with me (including myself). Thanks for your patients.

Our Vacation

Our Family Vacation 10/31/07

Lexy's First Day of Kindergarten!

August 20, 2007

Today was Lexy's first day of kindergarten. She looked so big a grown-up with her backpack and lunch box. Aaron scheduled his first patient later in the morning so that we could all take Alexys to school. Of course it was a crazy morning at the school so we had quite a hike into the school. Alexys was really excited. She didn't have any problems with us leaving. I am grateful for her pre-K program because I think that helped both of us with any separation issues we might have had.

For the first two weeks I would park and walk her to her classroom. She kept telling me that she wanted me to just drop her off like all the other kids, but I wasn't ready. As her overly protective mommy I needed to know that she knew how to get to her class multiple ways. So every day we would switch off and go a different route. I would follow her and let her make the decisions as to which way she should go. Once she made it without any help, I felt satisfied that my little girl wouldn't be standing in the middle of an unfamiliar place, lost and crying, and needing me. I'm sure that this was more my issue than it was hers, but I always walked her into pre-k, so with this new venture I had serious separation anxiety. Finally after two weeks I told her that I would drop her off. She was excited and couldn't wait. It was not apparent to me if she had any type of butterflies in her stomach. I did fine until I realized that there was a whole line of cars waiting behind me and I could not sit and watch her disappear around the corner. I had to drive away immediately and that is when I lost it.... I cried. I cried the next day too. But, as the days passed it became easier. Now we are both pros....as if we have been doing it for years. I am so grateful that we are able to adapt to change!

Visiting Cousins

August '07 - We went up to North Florida to visit Clark, Heather and the kids in Lake City. We hadn't seen them since last Christmas. It was the first time we had seen baby Aimie (I hope I spelled that correctly). She is a real cutie. The kids played really nicely together. We wish that we were closer so they could play together more often.
Lexy really liked holding Aimie and feeding her.
We heard a ruckus and when we peaked around the corner all of the kids were sitting in the pack-n-play.