Theo's (not so surprising) surprise birthday dinner

This past weekend, we spent our weekend in Shreveport. Long story short, I wanted to have a surprise dinner for Theo with some of his closest friends. It ended up not being a surprise after all but we still had an awesome time nonetheless. It was so good to see some friends I haven't seen in three years!! Best part is...we got to out to dinner without our kids! Love having family close by!

It's amazing in this world that we still have these friends after ten years (Theo has known them for longer).

Scott, Theo, and our first time meeting baby Chandler, who was completely adorable and looks just like his daddy!!

Me with Scott's wife, Leah

Theo with his best friend, Darrick, and his wife Sabera. We just love them. They are the cutest newlywed couple!!

Us with our old friends, The Prices. Can't say enough how excited I am to have them close by again!!

Theo, his mentor Aaron and his family

 We had a great time! I was so glad everyone got to come and celebrate Theo. We are so blessed to have these friends, even after all these years. We've all been all over the place and all have come back to Louisiana. Unfortunately, Theo's best friend and his wife and moving to California this week but we've spent more time with them the past six weeks than we have the past six years!  How awesome is that!!



First day of FIRST grade!!

Last Friday, the 10th, was Carter's first day of first grade! This is his official photo. But the reality of it is, he probably felt more like this:

Sadly, I think I felt that way too.

It was an interesting day. I didn't know quite what to do with myself....until I realized I still had Olivia and Isaiah home with me. Then I snapped myself back into reality. We ended up going to a work picnic for Theo. He's now the detachment commander down here so I guess that makes me the commander's wife. Lord knows I never thought I'd be one of those...but I digress.  I missed having Carter around but will admit, it was nice just having two kids to chase around instead of three.

I picked him up at 3:10 (ok, confession, I thought school was out at 2:50 so let's just say I arrived very early for the carpool line!) He walked out and looked exhausted!! He told me in the car "Mom, I missed you a lot more than I did when I was in kindergarten. I love my teacher, but not as much as I love you) That sweet boy. After school, we went to Marble Slab for ice cream (and a jar of candy he knocked over all over the floor and we ended up having to buy. *sigh*) Carter was so excited about the ice cream.

He's done well his first week of school. I am pleasantly shocked to know his teacher leads them in a prayer before they eat lunch. And also, the local baptist church sent home a flyer for AWANAs. I love it!! Things certainly are different at this school. Some not good, some great. The snack policy is awesome and much less stringent than the we're-worried-we-might-get-sued-if-your-child-has-an-allergic-reaction school he attended last year :)

But then this morning, I was dropping him off, he leaned in the front seat, hugged me and started to cry. He was trying so hard to be a big boy as he's walking to his room but I could see him wiping the tears on his shirt. I don't know what was going on this morning. He says going to school seven hours  a day is too long. And compared to the three hour school he had last year, I'm sure he's right. But he likes school, he's making friends, and fortunately really likes his teacher so I'm not sure what the tears were about this morning but it tore my heart up :( I'm praying he'll be his happy school-loving self when I go to pick him up. He has a sports physical today with our new pediatrician in preparing him to play soccer this fall. Can't wait!

Celebrating Theo's birthday

Last week was Theo's birthday. I think the kids were more excited than Theo was :) They just love celebrating anything! In lieu of my usual strawberry cake that three years running ended up a failure in the looks department (of course, I blamed it on the altitude), Theo wanted a cheesecake. That, I can do! I used a different recipe this time from my new Betty Crocker cookbook and it turned out delicious! See?

 We went out to dinner at Verona, which surprisingly, is a great Italian restaraunt here. They even had fried calamari (which I love) and even Isaiah ate it up. We call him the tank. That boy'll eat anything.

 I am trying to make a strong effort to put as much time and energy as making Theo feel special on his birthday, as I do the kids. I love this man and my life with him. I want him to know how great we all think he is and happy he's alive!!

18 months old!

Isaiah turned 18 months old yesterday! Hard to believe it. These past 18 months have been challenging but so incredibly amazing and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. A lot has happened and we are rolling with the punches. The most important milestones for us is that Isaiah after 18 LOOOOONNNNGGG months is finally sleeping through the night! This coincided with his also finally giving up the bottle and our lives are so much more rested now :)

Isaiah, at 18 months old, you:

-eat nonstop. If Cater or Olivia get up and leave their food on the table, you go over and start eating off their plates. There isn't a whole lot you won't eat. You eat a LOT of vegetables (when I cook them). You love squash, green beans, cooked carrots, salad sometimes. sometimes asparagus. You truly eat all the time!

-weight about 24 pounds and have been in 18-24 month clothes for a few months now. You are solid like a linebacker.

-still take one long nap in the afternoon usually. Of course, I'm most excited about not waking up in the middle of the night every night. I had no idea what a good night's sleep felt like until two weeks ago :)

-are getting pretty fiesty (we assume you are taking after your older siblings). Sometimes you walk around with your hand ready to smack something. You walk around something to karate chop. You love saying "Hi-ya!" like the karate kid. It's so funny.

-are talking all the time and have a ton of words you say. You said "book" this morning and learning new words almost daily.

-love playing peek-a-boo and the infamous "I'm not gonna give you kisses" game, which I will blog about at another time.

-are generally pretty happy unless you are hungry or tired. You do have your moments and you are getting easily frustrated when you can't figure something out but overall, you are an easy baby and are so loving. You love giving kisses, hugs and "sweet eyes".

-have almost all of your teeth now. I'll be glad when this stage is over with :)

-are getting into EVERYTHING. You have seriously stepped up your game since moving. You find markers and draw all over the walls (thank the Lord for Mr. Clean magic erasers) You put the t.v. remote in the toilet. You climb on all the furniture and it's not common for me to walk in the kitchen and find you standing in the middle of the table. Oh, the joys of parenthood....

Isaiah, you are the joy of our lives. You are such a sweet little guy and we love you more and more each day. Happy 18 month old birthday Baby I!!

Playin Catch up

Wow, what a whirlwind of a summer this has been! The biggest news as you all know is that we've moved. It was a crazy time, things haven't gone quite as we had planned, but we are hear, we are all healthy (except for one broken foot) and we are getting settled. We are all so happy to be back in Louisiana (okay, maybe not so much Theo but the kids and I are thrilled!) and back closer to family. It has made all the difference in the world!

It was hard to say goodbye to our friends but they are moving too so either way, we would have had to say goodbye. But we sure miss them!!

My parents were so helpful in getting this move done. My mom came up and helped me with the kids, and we drove two of our three cars down to Louisiana. It was a stressful time...with worrying about the fires threatening our town, to Theo being TDY, it was not an easy time. But thankfully, we have a great family who is always willing to help.

Once we got to Louisiana, my dad came up and helped Theo with the receiving of our household goods. The kids and I stayed up at moms so I could keep the little "helpers" out of the movers way. Theo couldn't have done it all without my dad's help! While Theo spent 4th of July watching our stuff being unloaded, we had out 4th celebration the weekend prior and hung out at Aunt Vickie's house and had a great family time together! It was soooo good to see my brother, sister-in-law and neices and nephew.

More of this summer saga coming up.....stay tuned!

School's out for summer!!

Theo and I can't believe we have a first grader! It seems like only moments ago we were bringing our sweet firstborn son home from the hospital and now he's going to be a first grader! Where did that time go?

I wanted to make Carter's last day of kindergarten extra special. The weather changed most of my plans but we still managed to make Carter feel like the luckiest former kindergartener in the world :) I went to Dollar Tree and got him several summer inspired toys and put them in his crate he got for Christmas. I also made him a banner that said "Good bye Kindergarten! Hello First Grade!!" and put a picuture of his first and last day on kindergarten on it. He of course was more excited about the toys :)  We also had a water balloon fight and let him eat lunch at McDonalds.

I'm looking forward to the summer and just being able to relax (mostly!). We are cracking down on the tv watching and just going to enjoy playing, being outside and having fun!!

Teacher Appreciation Week

School is officially out! But I wanted to post about some things I made for Carter's teacher for teacher appreciation week. After talking to my mom, my resident teacher expert, I opted to do cute little things Monday through Thursday and then a nicer gift for Friday. I forgot to take a picture everyday but the two I did were these: I baked cookies and made a tag that said "I'm one smart cookie because of you"

And then the "big" gift was a starbucks gift card wrapped in a starbucks cup with a tag that said "Thanks a latte for all you do!"

I thought they gifts turned out cute and Carter's teacher seemed very appreciative. I'm so thankful for good teacher in our lives....especially my own parents!!