The First Day of School

Truthfully, I haven't been sleeping well.  Another new school for the girls.  Worry that it won't be a good fit for the kids, especially because this is it.  We're here to stay.  Worry about Taylor making friends and Payden starting kindergarten.  All new situations tend to bring out my worries.  Thankfully, today school started!  

We woke up, and everyone was happy and excited as we got ready.  Of course, the new clothes and shoes helped make things more exciting.  At least now, we know the school dress code and won't be surprised ... I found out last Thursday that they could only wear collared shirts.  Except for polos, collared shirts aren't as easy to find as you'd think.  Fortunately, we found enough to get us going.  Taylor was especially helpful in trying to get Payden excited about going to kindergarten.  2nd grade is awful, according to her, but kindergarten is just awesome.  Haha!  She's a funny girl, but I was glad for the encouragement, and I think it helped Payden a lot.  

Living in a small town has many perks, but today it was nice to be 3 blocks from the school , not have a BILLION people trying to get their kids to school, and have school start before 8, so Tom could easily be with us today; in fact, he'll probably drop the big kids off every day.

Taylor was the first to be dropped off with her teacher Mrs. Raley.  She was pretty nervous, so it was hard to get a smile out of her.  This is her teacher's first year teaching, so Taylor was excited to have someone who was "new" just like her.

Then we headed to the complete opposite side of the building to drop Shelby off with her teacher Ms. Eames.

Next we headed over to Payden's school and dropped her off with her teacher Mrs. Petras.  I was expecting some tears, but she didn't cry at all ... and neither did I.  She was definitely nervous, but I promised her some chocolate chip cookies when she got home from school.  Yes, I know exactly how to make that girl happy!!!

We dropped Tom off at work and then it was just me and Declan in the car ... weird.  We had a few errands to run and a first-day-of-school breakfast to go to, put on by the mom of one the only friends I have here in town (and one of the few people I know).  Declan has just played on his own and doesn't seemed to be phased at all to be home alone.  Yay!  Now I've got to go make some cookies before it's time to pick up the girls and hear about their day!!

Stomach Bug Hits Again

It started Friday night/Saturday morning with Declan, who apparently is a silent vomiter.  You know it's happened after the fact with him, which is bad news because he's two and can't understand the concept of choosing where you throw up ... like a bucket, trash can, tile floor, NOT carpet.  In fact, he'd thrown up in the middle of the night, and I had no clue at all.  

Then Saturday night it hit Shelby.  By lunch the next day she was eating ... small amounts, but she was eating.  

Then nothing happened until Tuesday morning.  Poor Payden.  She got it, and she got it good.  Tuesday was a rough day for her.  She perked up on Wednesday and started eating in small amounts.  Today, we've been back to square one.  She can't hardly keep anything down.  I hope she can recover soon.  Three days is too long and is starting to scare me a bit.  

Poor baby!!!

Discovery!

He was outside coloring while I was cooking.  I went to check on him, and he was babbling about O.  Then he tells me, "I draw T," and draws a T.  He's discovered he can write, and he LOVED it!

His masterpiece!

H O T
First letters and first word

R

"Not-a-K" I
He decided to write a K ... didn't work out so well for him.

C Q

A

Taylor came out to see what was going on and got super excited to join in and help him out.  She got him to draw 6 and 7.

6

7 (It looks like a backward C right by her 7.)

He decided to demonstrate this picture as he drew it.

A frowny face

He was on fire and super excited.  

I can't believe he can write.  Where did my baby go?!?!

Near Record Lows!!!

NEAR RECORD LOWS!!!  For Texas, that only meant upper 40s and low 50s, but it was WONDERFUL!!!  Cool, brisk mornings.  Notice I said morningS.  I miss them so much!!  We just had to head outside and enjoy it.  Of course, the kiddos are now Texans and told me it was cold, so we grabbed our jackets and headed outside.  

Ain't nothing wrong with a pink, sparkly, glittery princess scooter!

This girl is fast on this thing.  I love watchin' her wiggle around.

We discovered some creepy, crawly things around the house while we were out there ...

Big spider with a glowing red dot on it in the front flowerbeds by the porch.

The shed skin of a snake in the back flowerbeds by the garage.  

I am very thankful for this little bit of cold as we've already hit summer.

It Only Took 35 Years

Can you tell what's different about him?  It's a first, and I like it ... A LOT!

He grew himself a mustache and a beard.  Yay, Tommy Boy!!

And It's Outta There!!

She is crazy! She won't let us quickly knock her tooth out, but she was willing today to let her dad ...

Give her sleepy gel ...

Give her sleepy juice (i.e. syringe of anesthetic) ...

Pull it out with forceps (took only a second) ...

Show her the tooth ...

Bite on gauze to stop the bleeding (she does NOT like blood) ...

And it was outta there (and Dad is happy)!

LOVE the smile!!!!

Through it all, she sat there quietly and didn't move at all.  She was a CHAMPION!!

Breakfast is Served

You see them flying in the air, making those slow circles over and over again, but I've never seen them on the ground in action before until this year.  This is the second pair I've seen in our neighborhood.  I drove right past these two vultures on the way to church, flipped around, took pictures, flipped around and drove by them again, and still they just kept going at it.  They kinda give me the heebie jeebies.  

Papa's Birthday

Papa's birthday was a busy day for Nana and Papa.  We decided it would be perfect to give them a break and treat them to dinner at Papa's favorite restaurant ... Whataburger!

After a tasty meal, we headed home for presents (cake to come tomorrow).  Like Nana, Papa was thronged by the kids, who were eager to see what he'd gotten.

Declan had been sick all day and decided to hang out with Mom instead of with Papa and the girls.

Papa got the perfect gift for him.  It really was the perfect gift (a nifty work light).  We were proud of Nana until she revealed that Papa had bought it himself.  Haha!!

Finally came the other gift from me and my siblings for my parents, one the girls were excited about because they knew their surprise picture would be in it.

Papa went through looking at the pictures and reading the names of all the people who had written memories, well-wishes, and whatnot for them in honor of their 60th birthdays.

Both of my parents were so touched by the gift ... and that was without even reading the comments.  I know it's brought many tears and made them feel so appreciated and loved.

Of course, we reused the Happy Birthday sign from Taylor, but she changed it up a bit to make it different for Papa ...

Happy Birthday, Papa!

Under Attack (WARNING: Really Gross Pictures)

Apparently increased stress, among other factors, can cause a person to be more susceptible to catching the wart virus.  That's what I blame it on ... the extreme stress we were under last year.  Just add broken skin (the constantly dry and bleeding knuckles I had in Utah) and the wart virus and voila ...

I got them frozen once while we were in Utah, but it wasn't enough.  I was hoping to get them lasered off at Tom's office right before we left Utah, but that didn't happen.  This cluster on my left hand was so big, and I had five others, so finally I decided to take action.  I bought a variety of products and have been working on them for a bit.  I think it's going to be a long process.  I have gotten rid of one ... just five more to go.

A few weeks ago I noticed something on Payden's toe.  When I went to look, she flinched in pain.  After researching online, I decided she had a plantar wart on her pinkie toe and had her join me in treating her wart. The crazy thing is that all you could see of her wart was a little dot, but her toe did look a little odd shape.

After two days with a medicated patch on, it looked like this ...

After about a week, the skin around the wart came off, exposing most of the wart ... these pictures are pretty gross ...

I feel bad for her, but fortunately she doesn't put pressure on that spot when she walks.  I wish I could just pluck it out of her, like a weed.  Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to be patient and let the medicated patches SLOWLY do their job.  

"Where's My Shoe?"

He likes to dress himself lately, put his own shoes on ... that sort of thing.  He came upstairs very worried, "Mom, where's my shoe?"  It was the shoe he was wearing that cracked me up.  His sister's.  Pretty girly.  On the wrong foot.  When I went to take a picture, he decided to pose for me ...

An odd pose.  Not sure where he got it from.  After telling him to put his foot down a few times, he got upset that I didn't like his pose, but I was finally able to get a picture of his attempt at putting on "his" shoe.