Aged to Perfection

Today was the final celebration of mine and Nathan's 30th Birthdays today with my parents and brother.  We had a pool party.  You are never too old for a pool party!!!  Celeste insisted that she wear her Nemo hairbow to the pool (I made her take it out in the water) since he is a fish and swims just like her.

We had a really great time swimming in the pool.  Gunnar napped in the water wrap with me.  Kindle "practiced" swimming with no swimmies.  She absolutely hates it though.  She would much rather have a float.

Grant decided that he wanted to learn to swim with no swimmies too.  He has no fear so he went for it.  He did excellent.  He was swimming all over the shallow end.  He was also jumping into the water and swimming to the side.  

Cooper had lots of fun snorkeling and shooting water guns with Nathan.  He also got Nathan to throw him while he did a back flip.  

After swimming, we had pizza for dinner.  Then, it was time for the birthday cake.

Nana got the kids cupcakes to eat too since that is their favorite.  

I tried to get all 4 to look at the camera & smile.  No such luck!

Nathan and I had a great final celebration of our 30th Birthdays.  I am so thankful for all of the outpouring of sweet notes, gifts and comments that I received.  I feel very loved!  

Since I took the photos all day, I realized I was not in a single photo and it was my birthday party.  So, I got my Mom to snap a quick photo as we were walking out the door. 

Disclaimer: This is not my favorite photo at all-no makeup, pool hair & zits that popped up for my birthday, but here it is anyway.

Sentimental Sunday-My Sissy's Wedding

I know lots of people do different themes depending on the day of the week.  I had been looking through my "older" photos and it made me happy to remember all the fun times we have had over the years.  I don't know that I will be doing this every week, but I figured why not??? :)  Maybe one day I can even scan my wedding photos since they were all taken with a film camera (it was 1999).  Until then, you can enjoy a couple of photos from my sister's wedding. 

Emily and Gil's (my sister and brother in law) wedding was on January 29, 2005-the day it ice stormed in Georgia.  It was such an emotional day for all of us.  We went to the rehearsal the night before and prayed that the weather would hold off.  Unfortunately, it didn't.  We woke up to ice all over the ground.  We weren't sure we could get out of our driveway.   I was about 9 months pregnant with Kindle.  Cooper was just a little over 2 years old.  I was the Matron of Honor and Cooper was the ringbearer.  I was so sad that I thought I might miss my sister's wedding.  Nathan went outside and moved our mailbox out of the way so we could back down into the grass if we needed to.  He told me he was going to get us there and I love him for making that happen.  I had such big plans of how everything would go that morning from my hair and make up to having Cooper walk down the aisle with his Build a Bear in a tuxedo to his Daddy.  Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.  The photographer could not make it to the wedding because she was trapped.  So, Nathan became the wedding photographer.  I did my hair and make up in the car on the way to the wedding that we were running late for because we had to go so slow on the ice.  We drove down Highway 41 through Kennesaw slipping and sliding the whole way.  We made it just in time to get changed and walk down the aisle.  Cooper decided right before it was his turn, that he didn't want to walk by himself.  So, I picked him up with my huge pregnant belly and walked down the aisle carrying him with my bra strap showing in all photos and videos.  Hurray :(  Oh well, such is the life of a Mom.   He looked so adorable in his tuxedo though.  The ceremony was intimate and sweet.   I was so thrilled that my sister found the man of her dreams!

Of course, he was sucking in his thumb too.

I don't have any photos on my computer of Emily and Gil on their wedding day, but I had photos from going to try on her wedding dress.  She was so beautiful :)

Here is a photo of my Mom in her Mother of the Bride dress holding the bridesmaids dresses (which of course I couldn't wear since I was 35 weeks pregnant at the wedding).

Since a lot of people couldn't make it to the wedding.  We had a separate reception later in March the weekend after I gave birth to Kindle.  It was a great time with friends and family. 

Here is one of my favorite photos of my sister, Emily, and her husband, Gil.  It was taken at Celeste's 1st Birthday part in June 2009.

With 5 Kids, There is Always Something To Do

Being a Mom of 5 is never boring!  The kids are always playing and getting in to things.  I never hear the words "I am bored".  There is always someone to play with it.  We really enjoy it.  We spend most days:

Playing kitchen or restaurant:

Doing light saber battles:

Pretending to be superheroes:

Stealing our Daddy's drink:

Making silly faces:

Making silly faces at Gunnar to get him to smile:

Pushing our strollers & shopping carts around:

Napping with Daddy:

Playing dress up:

Holding Gunnar:

Wearing our baby, just like Mommy:

Playing with cars, trains and trucks:

And finally, getting mad at Mommy for taking too many pictures:

What do your children like to do everyday?

Week 2 of Homeschool & Potty Training

I am happy to say that we have completed week 2 of homeschooling.  Everything is continuing to go along very well.  Cooper had his first Phonics test today.  He scored a 100.  Woo Hoo!  He was very proud!

He is very good at school.  Last year, he typically scored 100 or only missed one or two questions on all of his tests.  It is very important to him that he does his best on all of his tests.  He is still mostly reviewing things he learned last year and practicing his writing.  We are also working on getting faster with his addition facts (2+2=4, 3+3=6, etc).  He is memorizing a poem and started his new spelling word list today.

Kindle continues to work on her phonics.  We are currently talking about all of the vowels and trying to figure out which vowel is in single vowel words (example: dig, dug, met, mitt, mutt).  She is doing very good and recognizing the sounds even better than I expected.  On the paper below, she had to circle the vowel that was in each word.  She got all of them correct!

She is also doing more cursive writing.  She can now write the letters "i, u and e".  She is very proud of herself!  She also is doing great at Arithmetic.  She already recognized all of the numbers 1-10 from Pre-K, so a lot of her Arithmetic has been review so far.  We found her Tinkerbell watch that she bought with her money last week, so that has also been great review of her numbers.

In other news, Celeste has decided that she is going to potty train herself.  She has been taking her diaper off daily and going to the potty on her own.  She is actually going both number one and two all on her own.  She is so proud!  The main thing I am having trouble with is convincing her that she doesn't have to go potty every 2 minutes.  Because it is such a fun adventure to her, she wants to go "try" whether she really needs to go or not.  She typically manages to go a couple of drops so that she can use the toilet paper (ooo), flush the potty (ahhh) and wash her hands (wahoo).  These activities are super fun to her!  Today, she only wore a diaper for naptime (which she ended up taking off).  I told her that she could wear her big girl panties that I got her for her birthday.  They are Minnie Mouse (her favorite).  She has been asking to wear them since June when she got them.  I have told her no in the past and that she had to wait till she could go potty.  I guess that was all the motivation she needed.

I definitely would not go as far as to call her officially "potty trained".  She didn't have any accidents today so she is doing really well.  I think that she should be totally trained very soon.

And lastly, I wanted to give you the conclusion to Grant's stitches.  It has been 10 days since the "incident" so Nathan took him today to have his stitches removed.  Everything has healed up nicely.  Grant, of course, thought it was a fun adventure going to the doctor today and did really great.  He is super happy because he can go swimming at Nana and Grandpa's pool this weekend.  I tried to get a photo of him when he got home from getting his stitches removed, but he was not interested at all.  Ha ha!  So here is a bonus picture of him from soccer yesterday.  I love the mini goal that had.  Just the right size for 3 year olds!

And since I am just throwing in a random photo of Grant, why not throw in a random picture of Gunnar (just to complete the set).  He is really into sucking on his bottom lip right now.  That is what he is doing in this photo.

Tomorrow begins Labor Day weekend.  Anyone got any exciting plans?

Homeschool Soccer: Week 1

Cooper, Kindle and Grant started homeschool soccer today.  When they woke up this morning, the first thing they wanted to do was put on their shin guards and cleats.  They couldn't wait!

Celeste and Gunnar stayed with my Mom since it was during naptime (Thank you Mom!).  Celeste insisted on getting a photo of herself too though :)

At homeschool soccer, they had the kids separated by age.  They asked that parents stay with the 3 & 4 year old groups so that you can help them if they need to go to the bathroom.  So, I dropped Cooper and Kindle off with their age groups and headed to the 3 year old group with Grant. 

At first Grant was a little unsure (this is his first time playing an "organized" sport).  So, I got out there with him and kicked the ball in the goal a couple of times.  Then, he got past his insecurity and went for it.  He had lots of fun!  In addition to doing soccer stuff, they played with bubbles and a parachute.  Grant loved it of course!

Nathan came for about 30 minutes to watch them play.  They were so excited to see their Dad!  He took the camera and got a couple of pictures of Cooper and Kindle for me.

When I dropped Kindle off, they gave me her t-shirt.  As you know from her photos, she is really tiny.  The shirt they gave her is at least 2 sizes too big, it looked like she had on no shorts underneath.  We had to improvise and tie it up.  It ended up working out great.  Kindle makes friends really easily.  When Nathan walked over to watch her, she said "Dad, look at all my new friends!".  She is so sweet.  She did really great a soccer too.  

Cooper also had a wonderful time.  They did lots of drills and a scrimmage.  He also got to be goalie for part of the time which he really enjoys.  He said they played rock, paper, scissors to see who got to be goalie and he won :)  He makes friends very easily as well so he was chatting away with the other boys (see picture below).

After they finished, they all got an ice pop which they also thought was fabulous!  They were so excited and can't wait to go back next week!

Gifts and Surprises

On Monday when I went to dinner with Alanna, she forgot my gift.  So she brought it to me today.  She made me a mini scrapbook.  I love it!  It is so sweet.  Those of you who know me, know that I love to scrapbook, but I am typically making scrapbooks of my children.  It is so nice to have something for myself :)

The Cover

Alanna & I at a Third Day concert in 2004

She also made me a bow holder after reading my blog about needing another one.  I absolutely love it!  I was really wanting to get one that was this style.  I put a few bows on there so you could get the idea.  She is very crafty and can make almost anything.  I keep telling her to make a business out of it.  Maybe one day I can talk her into it...(wink, wink)

Just a side note, I got her a tile frame that has a cute saying about friendship.  I told her to pretend that I made it.  Ha ha.  

Another gift I got for my birthday, was a gift card to Amazon from Candra.  I LOVE shopping at Amazon so this was the perfect gift.  As I mentioned in my previous posts, I take a long time to decide what I would like to get.  I have to look around at all of the items (either in the store or online).  I always read product reviews and try to make an "educated" decision.  So, I just ordered the items with my gift card and most of them arrived today.  This is what I got:

A cover for my laptop that I have been needing for a LONG time to protect it from little hands.

A protector for my keypad to protect it from spills that little hands make.

Also, I have heard so much stuff over the years from Candra and friends about how awesome Rainbow Sandals are.  I decided that I need to finally give them a try.  They are supposed to conform to your feet over time and then become your favorite pair of sandals that will last forever.  Sounds good to me!

Lastly, I ordered a food processor.  I have been wanting to get one for years so that I can make my own baby food (hopefully :) as well as save time when making our favorite dinner, Chicken Casserole.  {The food processor has not arrived yet, so I can't take a picture.  I attached a link to it below}  I look forward to using it shortly!

This has been a wonderful birthday!  

In other news, I have been walking on my treadmill several days a week and dropped a few pounds.  Hurray!  I am doing pretty good about entering all of the foods I have eaten into the Livestrong app.  I am happy to see that all of my efforts are paying off!

Tomorrow starts the first day of Homeschool Soccer for the older 3 kids.  They are beyond excited!  They got all of their gear together tonight.  I have a feeling when I wake up in the morning, I will find them in their shin guards and cleats ready to go.  I am looking forward to watching them play!  I plan on bringing the camera, so hopefully I can get some pictures of them.  It might be kinda interesting since they will all be playing at the same time, but I have to stay with Grant.  I shall do my best.