Trial Run

We got the camping trailer that we are borrowing from our friend Russ for our trip to Destin next week. We picked it up Friday afternoon, and spent a few hours this morning getting it cleaned up and loaded up some stuff for a night at a local campground. We wanted to try it out, see what we needed, work out any bugs, and make sure there were no problems.

It takes up our whole driveway, and just getting it out of the driveway is kinda scary. We have had a few friends ask, "are you going to drive that all the way to Florida!?" So that is definitely adding to my anxiety. But so far, so good; lights working, brakes working, all systems go.

We arrived at the campsite, got it backed in, and unhooked. Time to start learning...

Block it off--check

Level it out--check

Hook up water--check (no hot water yet)

Hook up electricity--check

Potty working--check

Refrigerator working--not getting cold yet

Air Conditioning-check

Dump gray and black water--check (we have watched RV several times, so we are experts at what not to do.)

We slept OK, although Eddie and I slept on the wrong side of the bed, so that may have contributed to extra tossing and turning. I moved the stuff in the fridge to the freezer because it was colder, and of course by morning it was all frozen, so much for cooking breakfast on the stove.

We figured out that the water to the water heater was turned off, thus no hot water. But when we turned it on, it leaked, maybe that is why it was off? We will definitely try to fix that before we leave.

We are definitely glad that we went and tried things out, it was very helpful to get the kinks worked out ahead of time.

VIP

Yesterday, Brian was a Very Important Person! At school each day, one student is honored (their name is drawn out of the basket), and they are the line leader, they get to sleep in the loft, and sit in the special chair. Then the next day the get to bring the All About Me bag home for show and tell the next day.

This is what I wrote for Brian to share with his class:

My name is Brian Jones, and I will be 6 years old next month. I have five people in my family, my mom and dad, myself and my two sisters Emily and Danielle.

I love to collect things like rocks, sticks, leaves and flowers. I also like catch insects, and lizards.

This summer I played outside with my sister. We had fun swimming, riding bikes, playing water balloons, flying kites, and jumping on the trampoline.

We went on a trip to Colorado to visit my grammie. My Uncle Steve took me fishing and I caught a fish.

My favorite colors are red, blue and camo. I have lots of camo colored stuff right now including my backpack and lunchbox, socks, underwear, pants, shirt, and new bedding for my room. I am so camouflage that you might have a hard time seeing me. (I really didn't write the last sentence to share with his class, but someday it will be a fun memory!)

One More Time

We bought season passes to Wild River County this year so the kids and I could play at the pool. With each season pass purchase we also go a free one day admission for daddy to come with us. I thought he would make it more, but life gets busy and time is short.

We did make time today before it closes for the season. It was actually a little chilly once the sun went down, so we didn't stay too long. But Emily did get to try some of the water slides for the first time with her daddy, and daddy took Brian and Emily way out in the wave pool.

Kindergarten Day 2

Grades:

Mom and Dad--D+, forgot parent communication folder, I gave me a plus because I did take it in later. The not having a backpack is definitely throwing off my organizational system.

Brian--B-, he did not stay on green, he got one yellow card (he doesn't remember why) but he did get a sticker on his shirt for working quietly at his desk.

I also got in trouble with "Campus Security!" The pick up line is not very user friendly, especially since I have to meet Brian and his door for him to be released. After checking out the situation yesterday, today I got there very early, no one else was there and I was able to park on the side out of the way. The security officer came by as I was getting out of my car once they had opened the door to his room, and told me that if I needed to get out of my car I had to park on the street. Um...I am not unloading two other kids and walking up to his door everyday. Hopefully by next week, there will be a solution that is workable for everyone!

Back To School

Today is Brian's first day of Kindergarten. This blog has come full circle in the past year. Exactly one year ago I was very pregnant with Danielle, sending my "baby" to pre-kindergarten. Today was actually not too bad, I think last year was great training for both moms and kids. It is probably easier since daddy does drop-off duty most of the time.

Last night was back to school. We met Brian's new teacher at Pulaski Heights Elementary, Mrs. Shelly Halter. Brian dropped off his school supplies, found his desk, met some of his classmates, and put his nap mat away. We also learned the drop off and pick up procedures.

One big change this year for Brian and I is the no backpack policy. I am kinda upset about this, but trying not to show it too much so Brian is not bothered by it. They claim lack of space for this rule, I am not convinced. As you can see from the first day picture that there is no uniform policy for this school. He did choose to wear his new school shirt today.

He had a good first day, he stayed on green, got two stamps, and a sticker on his shirt. I am not sure what all this means yet, but I am sure that I will gain more information each day. I also plan to volunteer in the classroom so I can become more familiar with the daily routine. I like his teacher so far and I think he does to. She has been teaching for 15 years and is married and her only "child" is a dog.

Brian said that he went to music and P.E today, and his favorite part was recess, of course! He got to play with his friend Drew from Fair Park on the playground. In Mrs. Halter's letter that we received on back to school night, it had instructions for the first day of school, at the end it said "ask your child about their day, and go and do something fun to celebrate this special day." So I took the kids downtown to the water fountain park.

The letter from his teacher indicated that there would be homework every night, in addition to having to read at least one book every night. We are accountable to this by writing the title of the book and signing the sheet to be turned in every week. This is something that we have tried to do, but we get out of the habit easily. So I guess this year we will have to make time for this every night since it is one of the best things we can do to instill the love of reading into our children.

Ballerina

There were a couple of girls in Emily's class at Gymboree that have been taking ballet classes, so Emily has been asking if she could go to Ballerina school too. In late Spring I started looking in to the different options here in Little Rock. I got personal recommendations, checked out websites, drove by a location, and finally made a decision. I did find out that the classes typically followed a school year, so we would have to wait until August/September to start classes. I found out when registration was and marked the day on the calendar. However, I found out that classes are only offered after school or evenings. That would definitely not work in our schedule. I needed something in the morning when Emily is out of school.

There was one place that was not a typical ballet studio, but did offer a dance class. I picked up their schedule on Saturday afternoon. They had a Monday class at 10:30 am. Perfect! Classes start right away. So Emily will be attending the "Jazzy Bugs" dance class at The Little Gym. The class does gymnastics, movement, tap and ballet. It is a little more pricey than most of the other studios, but they don't do a recital so no fees for that, costumes etc. So in the end it will probably be about the same, and if she likes it then we can do a more typical studio class in a couple years.

Four Seasons

I finally did some actual decorating in the kitchen. My mom and I have been working on this for at least a year. She brought some photographs of Colorado scenery on one of her visits here. I picked out some that I liked, and she was going to frame them.

I decided that four photos would fit in the space in the dining area. I chose to do the Colorado mountains as they can be seen in each of the four seasons. We decided on a brushed nickel frame to tie in with the hardware on the kitchen cabinets.

My mom matted and framed them, I think they turned out really nice, and look great in the space. Eddie did a great job hanging them, they are evenly spaced, and at the same height, thanks to the laser level. Just don't look to close at the order. I had originally planned for them to be in the typical order that you would usually think about the seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

11 Months

I took this picture the day after her 11 month birthday, she was just not feeling well or looking well the day before.

My baby is getting closer to that year milestone everyday. The most exciting changes in the last month are getting her first 2 teeth, and standing alone. She will walk with the blue hippo, or while holding your fingers, but has not mastered her balance just yet. So she is not walking at 11 months as I had predicted.

Her hair is so long now that it falls in her eyes, and it is uneven in the back since it is the hair she had when she was born. I am thinking about breaking the waiting until the 1st birthday before cutting it rule. We are going to the beach for Labor Day, so I might want to cut it for cute pictures, and it is getting long and unruly.

She is eating more, and makes a grunting noise and sorta points when she wants something. It is usually something the other kids have. She eats crackers, pita chips, smoothies, cherrios, some veggies, and pretzels. She is much better about not gagging on everything she puts in her mouth.

She has been especially fussy and needy since she started teething several weeks ago. She was running a high fever all night yesterday, today the fever is mostly better but she doesn't look or seem too well. At first we were just blaming teething, but by Friday she broke out in a rash all over her back, that spread to her tummy on Saturday. After doing some research on the internet, my best guess is that she had Roseola.

Here she is a few days later, feeling and looking more like herself. See those two cute bottom teeth.

Brand Name

Brian has a friend from school, Logan, that had Z-strap shoes, you can get them at Shoe Carnival according to the information Brian came home with. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I wasn't planning to get them for him anyway.

I bought the girls some cute new outfits for Fall, but Brian doesn't need that much, just a few long sleeve shirts, and some new jeans. So I was feeling a little bad, so when he asked for Skechers light up shoes, (they also make Z-strap, I have learned) I started to look into it. Um...they are $50!! Yikes I am not spending that kind of money on shoes he will grow out of in six months.

What can I say, I am a softy, and they were on sale.

However, I can't believe that at almost 6 he is already reconizing and wanting brand name items. I guess those marketing people on TV know what they are doing. Time to start limiting our TV viewing.

Jones Look-alike Meter

Eddie's Little Mini-Me.

I had hoped to tip the scales a little on this one.

A good combination of both.

Certifiably "Crunchy"

I now have an award to prove it.

Goals

Last night I was listening to our weekly Juice Plus team call, and one of the things we were discussing was setting goals, and it didn't always have to be a business related goal. In fact one lady with small children had a goal to go to the bathroom all by herself. I laughed, and I can totally relate!

So today as I was standing in the bathroom with all my children huddled around my feet as I was drying my hair, I had just taken a shower with Danielle trying to crawl in the shower, and also had the pleasure of all the kids visiting me when I was using the bathroom (Brian asks, "why does it smell in here."). For a moment I thought, why can't I be in the bathroom alone, I can see why that is a good goal to have, but then I realized that it won't be too long before the kids get bigger, and they won't want to be close all the time, so I just looked down, smiled and went back to drying my hair. I am happy that all of my kids want to be around, some goals can wait.

Standing Alone

While playing with the kids today, Danielle would stand up to put a ball in her new (that we got down from the actic) gumball machine, and then she would let go, and stand all by herself for a few seconds. I predict that she will be taking steps by the time she is 11 months. I hope the video I took will post on the blog.

Nope the video will not load :(

Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

Emily: "Mommy, I prayed to Heavenly Father to bring me a doll house, and I think he will if I memorize the Articles of Faith."

This is something that we have been challenged to do this year in primary. I asked her if she wanted me to help her learn the Articles of Faith, she said yes! She hasn't shown interest before, maybe getting a new doll house is an inspiration. Guess what we will be doing for FHE tonight?

Update: I found out later when I was telling Eddie about this, that during bedtime prayers that Emily had asked for a dollhouse, and he was trying to help them prayer for righteous desires, and to remember that if we keep Heavenly Father's Commandments that we will be rewarded.

Earlier in the day when we were doing errands the kids were while watching Open Season 2 in the car I overheard this conversation:

Brian and Emily: "I'm a bow, I'm a buck, I'm a duck." I was not sure what the heck they were saying and I was a little worried, so I asked some questions to figure it out. Finally I realized what they were talking about after a little clarification. The deer in the movie got one of his antlers shot off, and so what he was saying was a little joke, I'm a doe, I'm a buck, no I'm a duck. Ha Ha!

The kids didn't have a point of reference for what a doe was, so I explained it, but I am still not sure they understand the joke part about being a duck, but oh well.

Bunk Beds

We have been thinking about getting the kids bunk beds when we were ready to get new furniture for their room. They had been sleeping on crib mattresses in their toddler beds up to this point. We found a great deal on these bunk beds on craigslist, and they were only a couple of years old, so we bought them.

I have been spending lots of time rearranging and organizing stuff now that we have new furniture. It is a lot of work, and it is still a work in progress.

Update: Perhaps we should have just bought one full bed...

They have been sleeping together like this every night, and it is working out great. They both sleep through the night, and stay out of our bed. Everybody in this family sleeps better when they are with someone.

One Week

It has only been a week since Danielle got her first tooth, and now they have both already grown so much. I am sad that my baby is growing up, and I will miss her toothless smiles and laughs. It definitely changes how they look when they start to get teeth, she has been without teeth longer than my other babies so it will take some time to get used to her new look.