Back to School

Hmmmm...where to start? Tomorrow is my first teacher contract day and my students come on Wednesday. I have a lot of mixed emotions. First I will say that I'm grateful! I'm grateful that I have an amazing job, teaching the most amazing kids and I'm grateful that I get to be a mom. But I would be lying if I said everything is just "peachy." Having 7 months off with my kids has been an unbelievable memory and experience (so to all the stay at home moms, don't take it for granted). 7 months sounds like so long, but it wasn't. TJ and I keep saying that it feels like yesterday that I had Kenton. But I guess with time going by so fast, it will be next summer before I know it right?! I've decided that if I could have Sophia and Kenton with me in my classroom, I would be one happy girl. It would be the best of both worlds! I planned it all out. Kenton can be in the baby carrier and Sophia can be my helper. I'll just have to inform my boss of that plan, ha! I know that once we get in a routine, I will be fine. I know that Sophia and Kenton are in a good place, but it's still a big deal letting someone else care for them other than me. It's almost 11:00pm and I know I should be going to bed, but I think I'm stalling because I know my alarm clock is going to wake me up. I don't know if I'm ready for this, but ready or not right?! Positive thoughts! Once my students walk into the room, they will make it all worth it because kids have that special spirit about them! So, I guess I am a lucky girl because I love teaching and I love being a mom!

7 Months Old

This was seriously the fastest month ever!

Kenton is doing new things every day and it has been so fun watching his personality grow too. Here is a list of new things he does:

- Sits up by himself

- Eats all veggies, except for peas

- Eats the fruits so far

- Plays bashful

- Babbles with new sounds

- Starting to wave "hi"

- Thinks he should hold anything I am holding

Kenton is now 7 months old!

Enjoy his 6 month pictures taken by the very talented Doranda. This is just a taste of them...thought putting all 50 would be a little excessive, but seriously they are so cute. She really captured his looks!

I had to get a picture with him because he is a TOTAL mamma's boy right now:)

Check out his teefers!

These 2 love each other:)

Sophia wanted some pictures taken of herself too. What a natural:)

I've decided I need to put a slide show of the pictures on my computer at school to keep me happy!

Fair Day

TJ and I are dorks because we LOVE the fair and it was such a nice warm day to go. Yesterday, it was free to get in before noon, so my sister, my kids, and I met Auntie Hollie and cousins there to enjoy the rides with their ride bracelets (TJ got an amazing deal on them) during the day and then come back with the dads for dinner. So, we got our bracelets and off we went.

It's fun to see Sophia's braveness (is that a word?) grow every year because last year she cried the whole time on this roller coaster and this time she loved it! (I barely fit and I was telling TJ about it and he said he wanted to go on it with her. I told him he wouldn't fit, but he didn't believe me. I belly laughed watching him trying to squeeze in. Picture Tommy boy, "Big guy in a little coat!" Well this was big guy in a little cart! hahahahha...I was right...didn't fit)!
I got a bracelet for myself because they make the parents pay to ride too, but it was nice for Sophia to have her cousins to ride with and not always me:) These 2 girls are becoming quite the friends:)

(oops, it didn't rotate) My sister came with us and was a help with Kenton. She would watch him while I went on the rides with the kids. Kenton was a trooper in the stroller and actually took a couple naps:)

The classic carousel. This is the one ride in the entire fair that parents can go on with no tickets!

Nana gave each kid $5 to spend at the fair, which was a great surprise and totally sweet. They were so hot that they took a break from rides. They all spent some of their money on a slushy to help cool them off!

This was the hot air balloon that they got to spin. Miles had Sophia cracking up during the whole ride. It was fun to watch!

Notice all 3 kids together, well there's 1 missing...

Jackson! He cracked us up because he wanted to ride by himself on every ride and would get mad if someone tried to go with him. He also wanted to ride on all the rides but was too small for some! Next year he's going to be all over it:)

Once again, last year Sophia was too scared to go down the slide, even with me. This year all the kids trucked up to the top with no problem. I double checked to see if Sophia wanted me to go down with her, but she said no. Here she is at the top. Mollie had gone down and started crying at the bottom, then the two boys came down and had no problem. It was Sophia's turn and looked like she liked it until she got to the bottom and started crying too! A little too fast!

The girls went on it again, but wanted me to go with them after their experience by themselves, ha! You do get some air on that last bump!

We had packed our lunch earlier, so we could go back with TJ to eat yummy fair food for dinner and ride more rides (we definitely got our moneys worth and more on these bracelets). Earlier in the day this ride wasn't running. It's one that takes you up high and then drops you. Jackson definitely wanted to go and we talked Sophia into it. Mollie said, "no way!" And adventually Miles went on too. I was explaining to Sophia that it will feel like butterflies in your stomach like when you go super high on a swing. I was trying to prep her because I wasn't sure how she would do. Well, she loved it and went like 4 times in a row! She said that one was her favorite...That's my girl:)

Sophia spent the rest of her money on a game and won a blow up hammer!

We stayed super late, but look who got to take his first ride....KENTON BOY! We were standing there letting the kids do 1 more ride when she asked if I wanted to take him on. She said he could go as long as he could sit and put the seat belt around him. That was really nice of her! He liked it too:)

Thank you fair rides, thank you weather, thank you fair food, thank you cousins. You did not disappoint! Friday will be the rodeo. I know what you're thinking......

I told you we were fair dorks:)

Cart Shopping

Uh-oh...Look who's a big boy!

Kenton is totally sitting up on his own so I thought it was time for him to experience the cart with a cover of course (plus his car seat carrier is getting very HEAVY)!

He thought he was so cool and talked all the way through Target!
I'm not too sure how Sophia feels about Kenton sitting in the front because now she's either walking or kicked to the back. I guess it's just one of those things!

6 MONTHS OLD!

When I posted Kenton's 5 month, I told time to slow down. Well guess what? It didn't!

Kenton is 6 months old!

He weighs: 17lbs, 13oz (50th %tile)

He is 27.5 inches long (75th %tile)

Although he is right on track he is one solid boy and everyone comments on how big he is!

Kenton loves playing with his sister and is really aware when she's around!
He also is starting to sit up on his own (only for 30 seconds or so). He likes to lean forward, but loves it more than being on his stomach.

He is a TOTAL mamma's boy and I'm not just saying that because I'm writing this. For example: my parents have 7 grandkids and have never had to call the parents to come home, until Kenton. Kenton was screaming so bad that my mom and dad had to tell us to come home. The second I took him he smiled and jumped up and down. Another example is when we had a softball game. 5 different people tried to console him and it didn't work until I finally took him. He's a stinker, but I love how he loves me!

During his 5th month, he also started watching me eat/drink. He tries to take anything I'm holding and dive bombs for the cups with his mouth wide open. He knows what to do!

Because he was opening his mouth when I used my fork and cup, I knew he was ready for rice cereal. About 5 1/2 months he ate rice cereal for the first time and thought he was hot stuff! We did rice cereal and oatmeal for a couple weeks and on his 6 month b-day he had sweet potatoes and loved them:)

Here is a summary of his 5th month:

* Watched me eat/drink

* First 4th of July

* Ate rice cereal for the 1st time

* Ate oatmeal for the 1st time

* First boat ride

* Got his 1st bottom right tooth

* One week later got his bottom left tooth

* Started splashing in the bath

* Started getting excited when sister and daddy were around

* Hates his stomach

* Loves to bounce up and down

We love our Kenton boy!

I am totally soaking up this month being with him until shhhhhh....don't say it!

Haircut

Sophia has had one other haircut, but after time and weeks of swim lessons, her hair needed a good trim. If you know TJ he is a little (I mean a lot) crazy when it comes to Sophia's hair. He loves it long! Her last haircut he had to go with me just to make sure only 1cm got cut off. This time the appointment was scheduled while TJ was at work. He REALLY didn't want her haircut. Me and many others kept telling him that it's healthy to cut girls hair, yadda yadda and he would literally throw a fit and whine like a baby. I told him that I was going to have 2 inches cut off and that's all. I guess he didn't trust me because guess who showed up at his lunch break? Yup...TJ!

Last time she was too scared to use the sink to get her haircut, but not this time!

2 inches and a little shaping later...ONE PRETTY GIRL!

Doesn't she look so grown up!

Camping Trip

We didn't have any big trips planned this summer because TJ is saving his vacation time, but we were lucky to go to Long Beach for a weekend trip with my parents and sister.

I guess we really can't call it "camping" because we stayed in a cute little cabin. We got there around 5:30pm, unloaded the cars and then headed down to the beach. There was a pathway walk to the beach from the campsite, which was great not having to drive there. This is the only picture I got with Kenton in the backpack awake. Every time we put him in it, he would pass out (maybe I should wear it around the house for his nap times??)!

It was a beautiful warm night, so we whipped out the kite. Sophia loved running around with it.

The tide was out, so there were little pools of water that were fun to run in. Sophia was jumping the waves and took a little swim with her clothes on (not on purpose)! She was not too excited about it when her clothes got all sandy. I had a nice laugh!

She could not handle the wet sandy clothes, so we stripped her down for the walk back to the cabin!

As we continued to explore, we saw this sign posted by the bathrooms...There was no late walks for me!

I think this animal was out late and the bear found it! haha j/k. My mom was walking ahead of us and yelled, "There's a body!" I immediately thought that we were going to be part of an NCIS episode or something. We are thinking it was a seal....so sad!

On Saturday we went into town and Sophia and TJ went on a go-cart ride! She obviously thought it was loud.

TJ also read something about riding horses on the beach and called about it. Sophia has been wanting to ride a horse for 2 years now at the fair. Every year she talks as if she's going to do it, but when it comes down to it she never does. So, it was a big deal when she said she would ride a horse with daddy. I told TJ that I would just video tape (because I have only been on a horse once in my life and I didn't find it that fun), but he insisted that I go too for the "MEMORY"! And boy was it a BAD memory!!! TJ and Sophia's horse was named "Manny" and Sophia surprised all of us on how brave she was.

And this is ShyAnn! I have known a few "ShyAnn's" in my life and all of them are feisty, including my horse. There were about 15 of us who went on a ride and before we left 2 horses started nipping at each other, which made me a little nervous. I kept telling myself to stay calm, but it was hard. As we started off, the horses are suppose to walk single file through the brush to get to the beach. Miss ShyAnn started off great. I didn't even have to kick her to get going, UNTIL she made a right turn to go to her baby who was in a pen. She was NAYING so loud and her baby was doing it back which is really intimidating since I don't speak horse. There was a trailer that I was getting smashed against and I thought I was either going to get bit, get thrown into the pen, or jump over the gate. The cowboy was yelling at me to turn her around. I had to pull her so hard but then she went right back. TJ's horse was walking so nicely in line. I looked at him and mouthed, "I'M DONE!" And of course he just smiled. The cowboy had to fight with ShyAnn to get her coming. In the meantime we were behind the group and then ShyAnn decided to trot quickly to the group! AHHHHH! ShyAnn continued to try to turn around and I had to be rescued multiple times. Once she was on the beach she did okay. And when we got back, I told the cowgirl to get me off first because she wanted her baby. I was so glad to be walking on my own 2 feet!!!!

TJ had to take the picture because there was no way in HELL (sorry) I was going to take my hands off Miss ShyAnn. TJ tried to trot with Manny, but Sophia didn't like it because it hurt her legs.

PPPPPHHHHHEEWWWWWW! After that we went into town and got ice cream. Ice cream is much more my style! Beat that Baskin Robins...48 flavors and they make their own cones!

By the time we got back to the cabin, the sun was out and there was not much wind, so off to the beach we went! Grandpa and Kenton had matching hats and Kenton got to go on many walks with Grandpa which he liked.

We made a sand castle village and swam in the ocean. The water was actually really nice and even TJ got all the way in it (he's usually chicken in cold water)!

Sophia also wanted to be buried, so TJ got to work.

Even Kenton liked the sand:)

After the ocean we went swimming in the pool and had a nice evening. We left Sunday with smiles on our face and glad that we went!

Good-bye ocean!!!