Meet and Greet!

Well, today was the BIG day!!

We went to go meet Cullan's new Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. B. 

I told him to make sure and use his manners as we were going in. Boy did he ever. He even laid it on pretty thick.

Here is the conversation as we first walked in the door. 

Mrs. B- Hi Cullan, nice to meet you.

Cullan- Hi Mrs. B, very nice to meet you.

Mrs. B- Are you excited for kindergarten?

Cullan-Yes

Mrs. B- Well Cullan, did you go to preschool?

Cullan-Well Mrs. B, can I be honest? That is just a long story!

Ahh yes. Starting to school year off on the right foot.

Pretty much from that point on Cullan had her laughing. She commented on how mature and how funny he was. She said she was sure that Cullan would make a wonderful addition to the classroom. 

 Here is Cullan and Mrs. B

Here is Cullan outside his classroom. He was so excited when he saw the apple with his name on it. I had to laugh and think of my mom. I started having flashbacks of myself having an apple in kindergarten and a traumatic experience of it being taken off the board. That is another story for another day. Cullan was so excited about his school that he did not want to leave. I think we checked out the gym twice and stayed in the library for a while. He kept asking me when he could come back and that he desperately wanted to go back to Mrs. B's room. I was surprised. Cullan is not my most affectionate child, but he gave her a hug as we left. You know he is excited when that happens!

I am sure next week can not get her fast enough for him. I on the other hand am going to try and enjoy my last few days with him at home the best that I can. The PTA puts on something called the BOO HOO Breakfast for all the kindergarten parents. I had to laugh when Mrs. B invited me to it. All parents are invited, but I thought I might need a good Boo Hoo that day. ;0)

Cheesin

i love that you can see all of her teeth!

September is...

Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month

Most of you know that some of our Best Friends son has a brain tumor known as DIPG.

It is a terminal brian tumor.

Oliver is 9.

Every year way to many children pass away from cancer that might be solved through research. However instead of giving funding almost every year it is cut in budgets. Our sweet children do not have to suffer and die from this.

I love the GMA segment "Life in 3 Words" that comes on every friday.

I found this video and wanted to share.

Pediatric cancer in three words.

If you want to read about our friends story there is a link at the top left hand corner of our page. 

princess

So in case you are not familiar with my daughter Briea, she is a little obsessed with princesses right now. She LOVES them. She says that we need to call her Princess Briea and she loves her dress up gowns. So after she watched Tangled, she was hooked.

Now when I brush her hair for pretty much any reason she will say, "sing the song mom, the hair song".

So I have slowly started to memorize it.

Here it is if you are not familiar with it.

"Flower Gleam and Glow
Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse
Bring Back what once was mine
Heal what has been hurt
Change the Fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine
What once was mine"

After we brush her hair and sing the song, (yes she sings along) she will turn around, shaking her head and say "Look Mom, My Hair is LONGER!!".

I love having a girly girl. 

She is so much fun!

what can i say?

my kids like to move!!

do my hair pretty!

the other day briea was playing with one of her dolls. it has very curly blonde hair. so as we were talking I said, "Your doll sure has pretty hair!".

Briea quickly agreed and asked me to do her hair like her dolls. 

so here we go, curly haired briea!

hidden message

cullan greeted me this morning with this picture he had been working on. 

he said it was a picture of me, and him and daddy. we are the three small figures on the bottom.

then he said that he had put a secret message in it. 

do you see it???

i will give you a minute!

you have to look close, i did anyways.

ok i will tell.

next to me there is a circle with a dot in the middle, that is an eye.

next there is a heart circled over cullan's head. 

then next to garrans head is the letter u.

i love you!

he is such a creative kid. 

i just love that about him!

Grandpa

I forgot to post a picture of my dad with the kids while we were there for my grandmothers funeral. Every time we are together he likes to get a group shot. so i thought i would post it on here also. someday everyone will be looking at the camera, but for now this will do! ;0)

she just wont listen

she just refuses to listen when i tell her to slow down. stop growing up so quickly. here she is, my baby, taking not her first steps but her first bunch of steps that we have caught on camera. even though we are cheering her on in excitement, my heart aches a little that she is getting so big. 2 more months and we will be celebrating her 1st birthday. time sure flies when your having fun!

happy.

this girl loves to sleep in laundry baskets.

so we let her ;0)

Kael-isms

Kael has always had a spectacular personality. What I mean by that, is that there is never a dull moment with this boy. I know that every kid goes through a phase of saying things in a silly way, but these are a few that i love and want to remember before he completely grows out of them.

1. smokerretes- as in "mom we don't smoke those smokerrettes!"

2. bugskittos- just another way of say mosquito

3. foodgaser- this would be where you fill up your car with gas, but they also sell food inside.

4. lilly-pop- yep just lolly-pops 

5. hers- he refers to just about every girl this way. "hers is not sharing with me!"
6. chooses- as in "mom, i don't like those chooses."

there are more that i love, but i am to tired to think of them right now. 

maybe i will add to it as they come to me!

SURPRISE!!

while we were in des moines for my grandmothers funeral, our friends the palmers also happened to be in des moines. since we do not get to see them as much as we would like, we got together so the kids could play and so we could visit!

the kids were so excited when they saw the palmers walking up the drive way. 

i told them they had a surprise coming, but i don't think they ever dreamed it would be them!

 Cullan helping Finny go for a ride.

 Ayla desperatly trying to get Ollies attention. He is quite the ladies man! ;0)

 Eden and Cullan playing Taxi!

 Best Buds- Kael and Jaren

Ollie wiggling it!!

these ride things are so much fun. a couple people have asked where you find them. my parents said their neighbor found them at the iowa state fair, however you can find them only as well. i would just google wiggle rider or something similar. 

I was so glad the Palmers came to visit. 

i am hoping it wont be so long until we see them again!

beauty secrets

i guess sisters start sharing their "beauty secrets" early. briea decided to give ayla a pudding and cheese hair scrub. surprisingly all it did was make her scalp very sticky!!

i am sure they will try other things as the years go on ;0)

Really....

i mean really...

this really is what it is like somedays at our house!

it made me laugh, so i thought i would share.

Saying Goodbye

last week on Wednesday my dad called me and told me that over the weekend my grandmother had taken a turn for the worst on Sunday. He said that on Wednesday, the day he called that she had been accepted into hospice home care. That they were saying she had developed congestive heart failure and that goodbyes needed to be said. 

of course garran and i wanted to make the trip. so the next morning we loaded everyone up and headed to Iowa. 

Garran and I went over the same night that we arrived without the kids. 

we met my dad there and had a nice visit with my grandmother. we assumed it would be to much to bring the children. however, she wanted to see them and so we agreed to bring them back the next day. 

 i could not have been more proud of my kids then on this day. i had explained to them that grandma pat was very sick and that she would not be with us much longer. i told them that once we went in her house that they had to be quiet and no running. we explained how that would not help her. they did AMAZING! they sat quietly in her TV room and came in one by one to say hello and visit with her for a few minutes. it was a very happy moment in my life to see my grandmother light up as each of the children came in the room and talked with her. 

 Cullan came first. He told grandma all about going to school in the fall, his teachers name, and that he has a spider man back pack. He gave her a hug and went and got Kael. 

i think Kael was taken a little of guard when we saw her. I think he was expecting her to just be sitting in a chair or something. however he warmed right up. it usually does not take him long. before we knew it, he was talking her ear off. it was very sweet.

 Briea was a little stand offish as well. however even being very sick grandma pat knew some tricks. she asked her nurse to get briea a little lollipop. boy then the shyness was gone. briea took the lollipop from pat and told her thank you. from then on they were friends. 

 ayla was last. she loves to cuddle so this was no big thing for her. she just snuggled right up to grandma and they chatted for a while. well mostly grandma pat did the talking.

 of course garran and I both got to visit with her. my grandmother has always thought the world of Garran. she even told me so on this visit. Garran has a good relationship with Pat and enjoyed getting a chance to visit with her as well. 

 we took a family picture for the last time. i wanted to take as many as i could for myself but also for the kids. i know they will want to know about her and remember her.

this was her last good day. we went back again on Saturday and Sunday. i was so grateful that we took the kids on Friday. she was declining rather quickly. i was happy that we had made it in time to visit with her while she still recognized us and have her know that we had come. 

she is still hanging on, but we are expecting a call tonight saying she has passed on. i will miss her. she was a fun lady with lots of spunk. however the thought of her reuniting with my grandfather and other family members makes the loss a little easier. 

ayla

she was so happy and cute just sitting in the sink.

26 cents to be exact.

yep this is how our morning started. at 5:30am cullan came into our room crying. i think i have mentioned that he is our early riser. anyways, he came in our room hysterical and said that he had swallowed a quarter and a penny. at first i thought he must be dreaming until he said he could feel them in his throat and i could see a lump in his neck. sigh. so up we get. got him dressed and myself. garran stayed with the others. while we were getting him dressed he said that the coins had moved and that they were in his chest now and that it hurt to breath. 

GREAT!

so i hurried and got him to the ER.  after checking him out and lots of x rays it turns out he will live to tell the tale. 

he will have to wait for them to pass naturally. 

i might add that cullan was quite the ladies man when we went to radiology. he had all the ladies in there cracking up and telling him how handsome he was. needless to say when we were done with the x-rays, he asked if we could go back for a visit!

i am so thankful that cullan is ok. Garran gave him a blessing before we left to go to the hospital and that seemed to really help and calm him down. 

lately i have been feeling extra grateful for my kids health and that they are here with me each day.

big girl

today we had a check up with a new pediatrician.

she officially weighs 20lbs at 9 months!

and the biggest news of all....

AYLA TOOK HER FIRST STEPS TODAY!!