Fall Party

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Tagged!

Janet tagged me so here goes!

First post a picture of you and your kids!
1. How many children do you have? Two

2. What are their ages? Sophie is 4 and John Curtis is 21 months

3. What time do you start your day? I've tried to get up before the kids, but I'm not very good at it. John Curtis gets up anywhere from 6:30-7:30 so that is when I get up too.

4. What do you eat for breakfast? Cereal during the week. Today I treated myself to a Chic-Fil-A biscuit after I dropped the kids off at school. On the weekends we'll cook pancakes, waffles, or eggs.

5. Do your kids watch TV? Unfortunately, yes. John Curtis usually watches Sesame Street when he first gets up. Sophie gets to watch an hour or so in the morning if she doesn't have school or in the afternoon on school days. They also watch Dancing with the Stars with us.

6. What are their favorite activities? Sophie loves playing dress up, baby dolls, school, and dancing. They both love being outside. John Curtis LOVES playing with balls and reading books. His new favorite thing to do is to pull all the pillows off the couch or my bed and jump on them or hide under them.

7. Do you get a break during the day for some you time? Sophie rarely naps anymore, but she does have to stay in her room and rest for an hour every afternoon. John Curtis naps during this time.

8. How do you end your day? The kids go to bed around 8. This time of year I like to catch up on my taped (yes, we still use a VCR) shows. If nothing is on, I like to read in the bathtub.

9. What is your best parenting advice or tip? Everything will pass. If you don't like a phase your kids are going through, just wait, it will pass. If you love a phase your kids are going through, enjoy it, it too will pass. Things are constantly changing with kids!

Now, I tag....

Kristie
Julie
Carey
Megan

Fish and Football

My parents came Friday and stayed through today. It was good to see them and we kept them busy. On Friday Taylor and Sophie put together her new aquarium. It is actually Taylor's old aquarium that has been at his office. Since he's getting a new one for his new office we thought we'd give Sophie the old one so she could have pets. We changed all the decorations and made it girly and Sophie loves it.

Helping Daddy get it ready.

Arranging the decor!
The finished product

I often walked in the room and found Taylor staring at the aquarium. Sophie joined him.

On Saturday we went shopping for a Halloween costume for JohnCurtis. Sophie wants to wear her cheerleader outfit that she wears to the games, so we wanted to get him a football uniform. We found lots of cute jerseys but only found one costume with a helmet. I think we'll use the helmet and the pants and get him a t-shirt to wear. The shirt that came with it was itchy and he didn't like it.I look good!

I could play for the Aggies! (literally)

A Chance to Stop and Smell the Roses

Aren't these flowers beautiful? They were the altar flowers at church on Sunday and were given in honor of us. We have been here for two years now and were surprised by this lovely bouquet. We got to take them home and they have delighted us all week long. I've never had such a large bouquet, but it makes the table look so pretty. The kids loved looking at each flower during dinner and asking about all the details. It was nice to smell the fragrance again every time we walked into the house. Sophie was pretty sick yesterday, and the flowers brightened an otherwise yucky day, like get well flowers. This week they have been a constant reminder of how blessed we are to be here.

Looking for a Few Honest Politicians

I found a new website that I really like. It's called http://www.factcheck.org/. I noticed it was referenced in several of the political articles I have read. So I checked it out. Basically it looks at candidates' speeches and commercials and analyzes what in them is fact and what are lies, or at least stretching the truth. In their own words, "We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding." For example, some of the issues I had been hardest on Palin for turn out to not be true at all as I found out here. Then again, she did make several false claims about Obama during her RNC speech. On the other side, McCain's add about Obama's bill to teach sex education to kindergarteners is "simply false". However, Obama has also had an add with misleading claims about McCain's voting record. Basically everyone is lying. Who knows, the website might even be lying, but it seems to point out both sides' false information. I'm ready to vote and get all this over with. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of any of these guys (or gal).

Sophie + John Curtis = LOVE

Weekend Pics

Taking two classes this semester is not leaving me much time to blog, but here is a snapshot of our weekend.

Sophie and JC playing tickle monster on Friday. We had a low key day that ended in Family Movie Night. Can anyone else claim they've seen Air Bud??????

John Curtis playing at the park on Saturday morning. He has on Sophie's sunglasses.

The daddies were putting the finishing touches on our newly completed multi purpose building at church so we met Evan at the park and had some fun play time.

Sophie is getting better at her scooter.

Celebrating Southland Baptist's 30th Anniversary

The boy loves his carbs!

First Day of School

The kids both started school today. I was expecting a few tears, but I got none. I’m thankful for that. I think they were as ready for some routine as I was. Sophie started preschool. This was a big deal in our household. She has been so excited and we’ve been talking about it for months. This morning I wanted lots of pictures, but I didn’t want to be the embarrassing mom in the classroom. So I took a lot at home and stuck my camera in my pocket so I would have it if any of the other parents were taking pictures. I shouldn’t have worried about being the embarrassing mom since there were plenty of them. The room was a zoo! The parents really were not contributing well to a calm first day atmosphere. If there was a child who was already a little afraid to go in, the atmosphere of the room would have been very intimidating with all of the flashes going off. The kids were all sitting at their little tables working puzzles and the parents were lined up along the walls flashing pictures and showing no indication of leaving anytime soon. I had John Curtis and all their bags, lunches, and school supplies for the day, so I was trying to juggle all that and get her signed in. That’s when I heard Sophie’s little voice say, “Mom, I’m going to go in now.” Just like that she walked right into her classroom. She hugged her teacher, sat down at the table, and started working her puzzle. Refusing to be one of the parents adding to the circus, I ran over and gave her a quick kiss, handed her supplies off to her teacher, and yes, snapped a few pictures. Then I was out of there. I guess being a teacher and having had your own class gives you a little empathy for the teacher. She had 15 four year olds to get settled and didn’t really need all the craziness the parents were adding.

One down, one to go. I was almost positive John Curtis was going to cry when I dropped him off. He still gets upset sometimes when I take him to his Sunday school class, and he’s been at the same church since he was six weeks old. He also went to Mom’s Day Out at our church, so he’s never really been left anywhere else. Add in that he’s a Mama’s boy (which I secretly like) and that he’s been with me all summer, I figured I was in for some separation anxiety. I was wrong. He wanted to carry his lunch box all by himself. It was really too heavy for him so he ended up dragging it to his room. His default answer to every question is, “no.” so I was surprised when I asked him if he wanted to go to his class and he nodded yes. He walked right in and started playing. I had to call him over to meet his teacher. Then he gave me a kiss and went back to playing.

I just got back from picking up two tired little kids. John Curtis was sitting on the floor with glazed eyes. Sophie was having fun playing on the playground. I can't get much out of Sophie about how the day went. She doesn't remember her new friends' names. I'll I know is that they went to music and read The Kissing Hand which I had read to her last night. But she had a good day and is happy so I am too.