Our Little Gators

Can you guess who's who?

Fall Festivities

Pumpkin Patch

Trunk or Treat

At least Allie loved this wig despite all its imperfections. It was my first time ever making a wig.....

BOO

We Booed people this year. It's when you put together a basket and deliver it to the person by ding dong ditching. This way it's all done in secret and the receiver will never know who it was from. This kind of thing is right up Allie's alley. She's such a giver and is always thinking of others. We picked three families that have done a lot for us lately. The girls had a lot of fun doing this!

The baskets were filled with fun things for the kids in the families as well as some store bought and home made treats (chocolate covered pretzels and pumpkin rice krispie treats).

We're kind of bummed me never made it to Sea World's Spootakular but, then again, we can't do everything.

Kindergarten ~ First Nine Weeks

I had Parent Teacher Conference yesterday. Allie is doing awesome! She's doing everything that is expected of them by this point (and more!) Her teacher's comments were, "Allison is a very sweet and friendly student. She is performing very well academically.Allison has excellent classroom behavior." She also mentioned that Allie is very quiet and doesn't talk unless she's called upon. She does talk and interact with her peers though. Sounds a lot like me!

Now for some pictures:

This week is 'Red Ribbon' Week. The kids had a theme for each day. I failed to take pictures on most of the days. I did get one today for hat day.

Yesterday was Twin/Buddy day. So, Allie and her friends Sydney and Ellie all dressed alike. It was so cute. Allie got off of the bus on Wednesday telling me their plan, "white t-shirts and purple shorts." Well, Allie doesn't have purple shorts. I told Allie I would call Ellie's Mom and try to arrange something else. Lori must have been thinking the same thing because she called me before I even had a chance to call her. She was out shopping so she just picked up these shirts and hair bows for all 3 girls. This picture was taken at the pumpkin patch last night. Ellie couldn't make it. :( I guess both Sydney and Ellie's moms went to school yesterday to take their picture. I'll have to try and get a copy from one of them.

 

Allie & Samantha

Miguel, Sydney, Samantha, ?, Natalie, Justin, Allie, ?

                                                                           Story Time

Preschool

Just a quick pic of Avery's Preschool friends!

L to R: Daniel, Jared, Eveyln, Tristan, Avery, Peyton, (and Jeffrey......not sure who he is, he's not in the preschool though). Avery always talks about Peyton and Jared. :)

Stop Talking

So there is a lady at the bus stop that likes to talk. We always get stuck there for awhile and I don't want to be rude and just walk away. Today was no different. Avery was getting frustrated and started gritting her teeth and saying "stop talking." I think the lady finally figured out what Avery was saying and after another 5 minutes she was done. As soon as she started walking away Avery says, "Uh, why that lady not stop talking? She talks FOREVERRRRRR." I told Avery she needed to be quiet. She wasn't having any of that. "Mom, she always talk for long time." I tried to distract her by asking her to sing a song. Her mind was still on that lady. "I tried to tell her the moon was smiling. She not even look at me."

Lately

The weather has been kinda crazy. It's cold in the mornings. Ranging anywhere between mid 40's to low 60's and then it's warm/hot by mid-day. We're having to wear 2 outfits in one day to be comfortable.

Yesterday I was sitting in the chair and dozed off. I opened my eyes and found Avery like this. Just a little jealous of the attention her baby brother is getting maybe?

Last night was Allie's school carnival, Howl At The Moon. This was taken right after the girls won treats in the Treat Walk. I will never try to take the kids to this on my own again! I'm pretty sure my blood pressure was through the roof by the end of the night. The kids were great. The grounds were pretty much impassable with the stroller. Our drinks were spilling everywhere, we couldn't find the place to get the waiver wristbands so the girls could go on the inflatables, and Avery got pummled on the obstacle course because the people running it weren't paying attention. Oh, and she got bit by something and her foot is super swollen this morning. By the time we were leaving Blake was hungry. He was screaming and we couldn't find his pacifier anywhere! We had to park about a mile away.......

Okay, enough complaining. The girls did have a good time despite everything that went wrong. I just need to learn to roll with the punches.

Handsome Boy

Columbus Day, Dream Board & Dinner Time

Since Derek didn't have to work on Monday, for Columbus Day, we decided we should do something with the girls. We didn't know what though. So we ended up heading to a park we had never been to before. The girls had fun on the playground and there was a walking trail so we loaded up on the "new" stroller and walked for a while. We had planned on playing soccer too, but everything was way too muddy from the 5.18 inches of rain we got Saturday night into Sunday.

Allie came home with her first homework last week (besides the book box). She was SO excited about having homework! One of her first projects was to make a Dream Board. Then she was to take it back and share with her class.

Dream Job : Teacher -- no brainer -- she wants to PLAY school everyday after she gets home from school
Dream Home: She wanted 2 stories with a basement. That was her main criteria so I started asking her about locations (like in the city, in the country, on the river/lake etc). She chose to have a house on the river/lake.
Dream School/Education: It was between Purdue and BYU. At first she said BYU and I gave her a look and she quickly changed to Purdue. :0)
Dream Vacation: Disney World -- We have got to get there some time soon!!
Dream Car: Anything Red really. She would be happy with a red mini van. She does like this car with out the windows "on top" though.

And finally, a peek of our evening while I'm fixing dinner........

Working on homework

Blakey Boy is right in on the action too. Perfectly positioned where he can see his sisters doing their homework and/or me working on dinner.

And after homework is chore time. They actually really enjoy this! I wonder how long that will last?!? We have a chore jar and they draw a stick out that tells them what their chore for the evening is. Tonight Allie's was to vacuum the living room (which also meant picking up any toys, etc that was on the floor) and Avery drew the stick that said to clean up toys in the toy room. Probably not quite as fun as Allie's, but there weren't many toys to be picked up because they have been doing an awesome job of putting their toys away as soon as they are threw with them.

Corpus Christi

We decided to go on a mini vacation this weekend. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea. Derek just got home from a long trip (with a lot of different time zones) late Friday night. We've all been sick, I'm sleep deprived, and Blake has been having trouble breathing at night due to a cold. Rain was also in the forecast, but it's Texas, it may rain once in a blue moon but, when it does, it doesn't stay around all day.

The plan was to leave after Allie's soccer game on Saturday and head back Monday afternoon. We did leave a few hours after Allie's game and got to Corpus right before sunset. The lady at the hotel suggested we eat at a place called Snoopy's for dinner. It was right on the water. Turned out to be a very nice night........and the girls loved eating right at the waters edge.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and Derek took the girls swimming. They really enjoyed that.......and they always enjoy staying in a hotel. This morning we got up, had breakfast and saw that it was getting dark outside. We figured we'd take the girls swimming at the hotel pool and see if the storm would blow over. It didn't! WHAT!?! We never did make it to the beach. Oh well, Derek and I were actually both exhausted and I had a killer headache. Looking forward to maybe next year when we can go and enjoy the beach.

Soccer Game #2

Mighty Starfish - 4, Bumblebees - 3

 

VIDEO of the game

More of Blake

5 Weeks

Cuddling with Mommy - His Favorite thing to do

Getting dressed up for Dad (we picked him up from the airport Friday night -- he was gone for 2 weeks, half of baby boy's life so far) You can tell Blake isn't feeling very well. I had the flu, AGAIN. I think he caught some of it too.

Our first baby to take a pacifier

Our Kiddos

I LOVE this. All too often I'll walk out of the room for a brief moment and Blake will start crying. I'll come back and find this! Avery is sharing her blankey with him. She knows it comforts her so it must comfort him too! She's a sweetheart and loves her brother dearly.

Blake ~ 1 Month

Blake had his one month well baby visit today.

Stats:
Weight: 9 lb 1 oz (7% on the chart)
Length: 20.5 in (less than 5% on the chart)

My main concern for this visit was to make sure he wasn't getting this nasty bug that the rest of us have had. The last couple of days (especially yesterday) he has "spit up" more than usual, had runnier bowel movements, and has been a lot fussier with very sharp, painful sounding cries. There really wasn't much she could check for so the doctor just said he probably does have it but it won't be full blown since I'm nursing. She also said there is a really nasty stomach bug going around as well as colds......we had the stomach bug.
I pointed out his belly button because it has been oozing green stuff for 4 or 5 days now. Well, most days it's not oozing and it's just dried up. Today it was oozing again though. She noticed something. I forget what she said. So she put this black stuff in his belly button and said that should take care of it.

With all of that aside he seems to be a health and very strong little boy. He didn't like his shot very well but who does!

Allie's First Soccer GAME

Saturday, October 1 @ 12:00

I'm not sure she was feeling the greatest but she really didn't want to miss her first game. She was bummed that Thursday's soccer practice was canceled due to rain and lightning (which we really needed). Anyway, she was hesitant to go after the ball. I don't think she likes the "roughness". At this age everyone is just like a swarm of bees all bunched up together going after the ball so I guess that can be a bit overwhelming and, at times, claustrophobic. It was pretty funny to watch though. Coach Greg does an excellent job of subbing everyone in and out equally. Her team scored a goal at the very beginning of the game and another at the very end, making the score 2-2.

Posing with her friend, Addison, before the game

Warming up

Go Mighty Starfish

Go Soccer Starfish......or whatever you are called. They changed their name 4 times during their team huddle chants.