The lil' Man is Growing Up

So since I have last posted lil' J has started preschool at the CDC. He goes in the morning for 3 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays...so far so good. He talks about it all the time and him and M get start comparing their "school" day and what amenities they each have. Since starting school J has also been very diligent about using the potty and has only had an occasional dirty that snuck up on him. He is very proud of himself and really does like wearing big boy underware.

This past weekend the family also went to a Car Race/War Bird event that J got tickets for free through work. It was neat to see the old WWII planes fly and the boys had fun pointing out their favorites, but it was a warm day with lots of walking and no seating. I am glad the tickets were free. Afterwards we went out to PF Changs...yum yum good!! The boys eat Chinese food so well, they love their chicken, rice, and noodles.

A Whole Week

I promised you some pictures from our vacation back in April so I will start the post with these highlights. The boys had a blast and it was good to go somewhere special as a family.

















































So M has been going to kindergarten for a whole week now. I think we are getting use to getting up earlier, but we are still rushing to get him out to the bus on time...haven't missed yet though. J got back from his "trip" and the family is a unit once again. The boys are excited to have daddy back and are less clingy to me once again...ahhh some space! We have been hitting some J's favorite eating joints, since it has been awhile and food out there gets a little boring. So we have had Carrabbas, ate at a China Buffet, picked up sushi and he got some Chipotle last night.

Yesterday we also went and checked out the preschool program that we have been talking about getting lil' J into. I think we will send him, though he isn't fully potty trained. He has a lot of accidents because of being "too busy", but they said to put pull ups on him and that if he is having too many accidents or messes they will let us know and we can pull him. Hopefully that won't be the case, because I think I will enjoy having the house to myself for a couple hours a week. Maybe things will click after seeing the other kids taking care of business, but we will see.

First Day of ALL Day School!!

So it was M's first day of all day school...last year was just half days. Well I even set my alarm clock this morning, because he is such a slow eater (and picky so I want to make sure he has a good breakfast in case lunch isn't his cup of tea). Well even with getting up at 630 we were the last ones to get to the bus this morning...and then the camera's battery was dead...so only one of the pictures is from this morning and the rest were "recreated" after school.

This one is from this morning.

So the story behind being late was J's refusal to be potty trained and having a nasty this morning right as we were heading out the door...and fearing that he would finger paint my house, I changed him. Any good tips for getting a head strong almost 4 year old to use a potty?

lil' J and I kept busy running errands...blood work and Target...and cleaning the house. The day still flies when he is gone all day, but J didn't get too upset about being left all alone with me all day. Hopefully tomorrow we will get to the bus a little earlier and won't have the morning drama we did this morning.

Bad, Bad Blogger!

So it was March the last time I was on here and now it is September...I don't have that many excuses...ok I do, but they really aren't that good. I know some of you have mentioned that you haven't seen anything new on here in a long time so maybe we can get this rolling again.

So this was Easter.

So what has the family been up to since March...well we went on a family vacation to Washington DC and to Williamsburg VA. We got to go to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and Natural Sciences Museum while in DC. The boys totally dug looking at all the Airplanes and Dinosaur bones. A special treat was seeing R2D2 and C3PO were being housed at the Air and Space Museum while their normal space is being renovated. We then headed down to Historic Williamsburg and stayed 2 nights at the Great Wolf Lodge Water Park...a little pricey, but a very nice resort that has everything right there. We took the boys to the Water Park one day and on the final day we went to the Busch Gardens European Adventures. What a nice amusement park...lots of trees that gave us shade on the warm April day we were there. The boys started off on the small kiddie rides and by the end of the day they were doing BIG rollar-coasters and the giant swinging pirate ship. It was a long 8 hour drive back home to get M's big 5th Birthday Party underway...thank goodness the boys slept through the night on the way back and M went to school to have one less body floating around while we prepared for the Pirate Bash.

In other news...J has had some trips taking him away for parts of the spring and most of the summer so it will be good to have him back in less then a week. While he was away we ended up going back home for the second time, we were home earlier in June for my nephew Derek's graduation party, and had a good visit with family and I had extra hands to manage the boys. The boys had a good time out at my parents farm riding their little gators and the new little 4 wheelers. They also enjoyed eating fresh veggies straight out of Grandpa Rubens garden...stuff I would never get them to eat was wonderful and Delicious because Grandpa grew it.

A breathtaking view from one of J's trip...this one was to Alaska.

M is starting all day kindergarten on Thursday and we went to meet his teacher yesterday and say hello to his old teachers in the Cookie Monster class. He seems really excited and I am so nervous about getting him up and on the bus in the morning, making sure he eats at school, making sure he behaves and listens, etc, etc...you know all the typical stuff.

MOPS is starting another year and I am on the steering team this year and I have been busy the past week getting craft days figured and submitting my wish list to the chapel. I am excited about getting a little more involved with some base functions and getting the boys involved in some other outlets and meeting new kids to play with. In other news we are expecting a new little boy at the end of November...another reason it was great to have extra help with the boys this summer. I have been busy sorting and washing clothes and baby gear since getting back.

Well I hope that I will actually get back into the swing of things with blogging and you enjoyed our short little catch-up of the summer...I will upload some of the highlight photos in the next post...I PROMISE!