Bloggy Kind of Day

Hayley is home sick with me today. She has a cold and is running a low grade fever. She has watched Nick JR. all morning and colored a few pictures in between. I let her use my sorority lap board to color, and she is in love with it. That lap board has moved MANY times in its 14 year life span. I used it to grade papers when I was teaching and now my budding artist can use it for all her crafty needs. Yikes, my lap board is 14 years old.

It has been a good day to catch up on my blog, so I posted 4 things today not knowing when I will get the chance to sit down and post again in the next few weeks. I also spent some time mastering my cupcake skills this morning for the Halloween party at Hayley's school that she now does not get to attend due to a 100.1 fever at 2:00 this afternoon (24 hours fever free before you send them back to school). Boo. Oh well. I did save a few for us. Hope the kiddos in her class enjoy them.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Another Teacher?

Chris and I come from families of educators:

His Mom, my Mom, his sister, my brother, and my dad.

Oh, and me. It has been 8 years since I have been in the classroom. Wait! I take that back. I am in a "classroom" teaching my children everyday. 8 years since I have been in a public school classroom as a teacher.

Anywho, this week has been spirit week at Luke's school and Tuesday was dress like a teacher day. He kind of fits the bill, doesn't he?

Mr. Bailey, his principal, saw him in the hall and told Luke that they could be twins they look so much alike. Totally made his day.

I think he looks pretty handsome!

But I am biased.

I Think They Like Her

When we found out we were expecting Hannah Beth, I tried to come up with a fun way to tell the kids. I had grand ideas of them opening little presents that would be from their soon to be baby sister/brother. I thought about coming home with a bouquet of pink and blue balloons to share the news with them. And then morning sickness hit with no mercy and we had to tell them why Mommy was not feeling well ALL THE TIME!

They were both very excited and wanted to know if he/she was coming tomorrow. The whole "we have to wait 9 months" concept didn't really click. We measured time with holidays, and they began to understand a little better. "The baby is coming after Halloween (please Lord, not on Halloween) but before Thanksgiving (oh please, don't let me be 2 weeks over due, Lord)," were phrases heard in our house from April until Hannah Beth arrived on November 10th!

I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get from them because it had been just the two of them for nearly four and a half years. They are buddies, best friends, and someone coming in and disturbing their "thing" and also taking time from Mommy and Daddy was going to rock their little world a bit. I was more concerned about Hayley than Luke. Luke was still going to be the only boy, but Hayley was about to have share her princess title and I wasn't sure she was going to handle it well. She surprised us all with an amazing heart for her baby sister and how helpful she was with Hannah.

Both Luke and Hayley, have been the best helpers. They play with her, sing to her, read to her, have contests to see who can make her laugh more, and just plain LOVE her. Hannah Beth is one lucky girl to have such an amazing big brother and big sister.

A Sneak Peak

A polka dot party for a

Princess!

Can't BELIEVE she is going to be one!

Sigh....

3 Weeks Until....

Our sweet baby girl will celebrate her 1st birthday!

Where's Hannah Beth?

Let's play Where's Hannah Beth?

Similar to Where's Waldo sans glasses, stripe shirt, jeans and the millions of people he is hiding amongst.

Ok, so not at all like Where's Waldo but none the less, it's fun!

Is she in the pack n play, aka, baby prison? Most of the time she will play contently in her "jail cell", but there are days she presses her face against the mesh and yells as if to say, "I was framed! Let me outta here!"

Hmmm...Looks like she has been here for a brief session of pull everything out of the toy basket and crawl away so that no one knows what I did! The poor child is so deprived. Absolutely nothing to play with.

She is not hiding in her new bus/slide that Mimi and Papa gave her for her upcoming birthday. Although you can find her 5 and 7 year old sister and brother playing in her toy on any given day.

I believe we are getting closer. Looks like she has been doing some light reading.


BUSTED and Found!

Pumpkin Patch Take 2

We made a return trip to the farm so that Luke could enjoy the fun! Mimi and Papa were with us, but I have not one picture with them. Boo. Sometimes I am too busy trying to just enjoying being with everyone that I don't take any pictures. I have got to get better about that. Anywho, we had a great visit with my parents, and we can't wait to see them at Christmas time.

To the Pumpkin Patch

Hayley's Kindergarten class made the annual trip to the pumpkin patch last week. Had to wear our overalls to the farm! Of course she has on an overall jumper, not real overalls. Have to be a girly girl on the farm too.

Loving the tree house



Sweet friends

This child loves animals more than anything right now. She pretends to be a dog a good portion of the day. She just sat staring at these beautiful horses so quiet and content.

Maybe THIS the right pumpkin?

Now, THIS is definitely the right pumpkin.

Williamsburg

Here is the lone picture from our day in Williamsburg this past Saturday. I left my camera in the car so I only have a few shots that I took with my phone.

We were going to an apple orchard, but it was closed due to all the rain from the end of last week. So.....we decided to head into Colonial Williamsburg and do a little touring. The kids were very into listening and learning about life so long ago. I told them if they could tell me 3 things they learned at the end of the day, we would make a trip into the candy shop before we left (nothing like a little bribe!). I'm sure we will be back to visit again before 2010 is over.

When It Rains....

......this boy gets EXCITED. We only pull out the Wii on the weekends usually when it is raining. We had a cool rainy afternoon this past Sunday and Luke was in heaven. He played Wii Resort for nearly 2 hours. Biking, sword fighting, flying planes, skydiving, bowling, and basketball were all attempted. He jumped, twisted, ran, and broke a sweat like never before.

When we bought the Wii about 2 and a half years ago, the kids were only 4 and 2 at the time so Chris and I were really the only ones to play. It was so fun, but we had no idea just how fun it would become. We have such a great time cheering each other on, competing, and laughing. I see lots of Wii play time coming up this winter.

Our Soccer Star

Hayley has ventured into the world of team sports this year. She has taken ballet for the past 2 years, but decided to give soccer a try this Fall. She really has fun running up and down the field. There have even been a number of times that she has gotten in on some of the action during the game and taken the ball from the other team. Of course, no soccer player is complete without a huge bow in her hair (or so I've been told). My little ballerina is still in this soccer star I do believe!