Happy Anniversary

Talk about time flying by – I absolutely cannot believe that it was 13 years ago today that Brian & I said ‘I DO’!

Happy Anniversary to my best friend, husband and amazing dad -

First Day of School

Today Abby & Brayden started a new school year!

Abs was super-excited about going to a new classroom. Last night we painted her toes and this morning we curled her hair so that she would be the prettiest girl ever! She wasn’t crazy about carrying her backpack (it itched). When she got to her class, she did great!

Brayden wasn’t as excited about a new school year. This morning he didn’t care that he got to wear a new outfit, but he did like that he got to spike his hair! Brayden is over-the-moon about his backpack. He wants to wear it everywhere. When he was dropped off, he wasn’t very thrilled. He was a little clingy, but he warmed up and waved goodbye to us.

I cannot believe how big my babies are getting! Extremely proud of these two and cannot wait to see what they learn this year!

Back-to-School Gifts

The kids start their new school year on Monday, so I thought they really needed to take their new friends a welcome gift! Of course, I love to do a project … especially when I get to work with my very talented mom!

Abby is really into writing, so I wanted to make her classmates a pencil bag. We made each kid a bag with their initial on it and added a couple of pencils to it. Her tag mentions it being a 'PENCIL-perfect year'.

Brayden is really into reading, so why not do a book bag! Again, we did a bag for each child with their initial on it and stuffed it with a book and set of flashcards. His tag mentions 'BOOKING it into a new year'.

I am so thrilled with how the bags turned out. Hopefully their new classmates will like them too!

Don’t worry – I didn’t forget about the teachers (but I did forget to take a picture of their gift). They are getting a WoodWick candle wrapped in a scarf. Their note to the teacher talks about making their school year ‘brighter’.

One final shout-out to my mom … I would not be able to do these projects without her. She is so supportive of my crazy ideas and patient with me as I try to help her.

Here is to adventures in a new school year …

A long overdue update

I have successfully neglected the blog for over a month. It seems like we have been running like crazy, but I cannot remember what all we have done! (If only I had done regular updates to this blog I could look back at our adventures!)

The kiddos start their new school year on Monday. Abs is super excited about her new class and is always asking when her new school starts. I will be doing the next post on their gifts that they will give their new classmates.

Some of the big, BIG news going on is that we are on our last box of diapers! Yep, Brayden is finally potty trained. Well, he still needs a little help, but the past two days he has wore only big-boy panties to school. (When you have a big sister, you wear panties … ) We are all so excited about his new milestone!

A quick update on the Oklahoma fires that came through a couple of weeks ago. We were about 30 miles from one of the fires, so we were not in immediate danger. The craziest thing was that we had ashes falling at our house – YES, the ashes traveled over 30 miles to get here! Our families were at much greater risk, with the fires miles from their homes. Although nobody we know directly loss their homes, Brian’s childhood home did burn to the ground. His mom had moved out over a year ago, but it was very sad to drive by there and only see the front stairs standing. Words cannot express the magnitude of devastation that is in the area. It is something I have never seen before and hope to never experience again.

I will close with a few pictures of the kiddos – it is crazy to see how much they are growing!