First Day of School!

There is so much I need to blog about... I've totally missed my last 3 pregnancy updates, I need to tell you all about my anatomy scan ultrasound {and the follow-up appointment} and I definetly need to talk about the fact that we had the birthday twins 1st birthday party this past Saturday and they will be ONE tomorrow!  AHHHHHH!

But what I really need to talk about with you today?  The fact that my 1st born baby went to kindergarten last week.  Sigh.  I just can't believe it.  I mean, HOW in the world is Carter old enough to be in kindergarten!?!

Here is one {of the million. ahem.} pictures I took before he headed off to school on the very first day...

HE LOOKS LIKE HE'S 12!!

He did so well though.  Bob and I drove him to school {more on that below} and he hugged us, gave us a kiss, and walked right in the front door without even looking back.  He was over the moon excited about going, so I knew we wouldn't have a stage-five clinger situation or anything.  But to not even look back at your mama on your first day!?! That boy!  It's okay though, I'm glad he was so excited that he didn't care about leaving us. 

One of the things Carter was most excited about in regards to school, was riding on the bus.  We headed to the bus orientation a week before school started, and they let the kids practice their seat belts and take a little 10 minute bus ride around town just to get used to it.

Clearly Carter wasn't excited AT ALL about it. ;)

So, when it came to the day before school starting and we had yet to get his bus assignment {a few friends hadn't received theirs yet either, so I knew there was a delay with the whole process} I decided to call the school.  Turns out, after 3 different phone calls to both the school and the transportation department, that they "forgot to assign Carter a bus."  True story. They told me they'd call me back before the end of the business day to give him a bus assignment, but, of course, that didn't happen.  {I wasn't holding my breath anyway... I already had made plans to drive him to school the next day: which was the first day of school.}  I explained to Carter that mommy and daddy were way too excited and wanted to drive him to school on the first day, and he was completely fine with not taking the bus that day. Whew!

After dropping Carter off at school, I made several phone calls again.  Finally, just as his first school day ended, we got him a bus assignment, a bus stop and pick-up times. I picked him up from school on his first day and told him he'd be taking the bus the very next day.  He was so happy!

So, on day 2 of school, we waited for the bus.  And we waited.  And waited some more.  

After 35 minutes of waiting {with about 15 minutes until school started} we gave up.  The bus never showed up to pick up our Carter Man.  Poor kid!  I felt terrible for him and I was, of course, so upset with the transportation people.  We drove him to school again and then I called right away to find out what happened.  Of course they blamed it on "technical problems with the bus causing it to be late to each stop" but I quickly responded that we stood out there for 35 minutes so I know we didn't miss it!  UGH.  They assured me that he could take the bus home and things would be fine, but this mama bear was so worried!  It would be his first time on the bus and what if it didn't stop at our house at all!?!  What if Carter got off on the wrong stop!?!  You don't even want to know where my mind went with these scenarios.

Thankfully, I got an email from Carter's wonderful teacher, who had been helping me get everything straightened out with the bus situation.  She said that she would personally walk Carter to his bus that afternoon and talk to the bus driver, telling her that he was new to the route and give the driver our address.  So, on the second day of school, Carter got to ride the bus home.  He was so excited and I was so thankful that he arrived safely.  {WOO HOO for awesome teachers!!!} The driver mentioned that she didn't have him on her roster at all {which is what I figured happened... the transportation department assigned him a bus, but never alerted the driver. Awesome.}but that she'd be sure to pick him up the next morning.

And then, lo and behold, on the 3rd day, Carter finally got to ride the bus to school...

My little man. Getting on the school bus. :::tear:::

Things have been going well since then.  We've had no problems with anything {except what my picky little eater will take to lunch everyday, of course!}  He absoultely loves his teacher and loves school in general.  When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was: recess, lunch or gym- he replied "being in the classroom!" 

That's my boy. :)

Actually, that's not my boy... I totally loved gym class the most! Who is this kid!?! ;)

WW: He's walking.

Yes, you read that correctly.  He's 10 months old and he's walking.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN???

I don't know if he felt the need to keep up with his brother and sister or if he heard there was a new kid on the way and thought he needed to step up his game.

Either way... step up he did.

Here's a little clip I posted on Instagram the other day and it literally sums up Reid so well.  This is him.  All day long. 

Walk. Fall. Walk. Fall. Crawl. Walk. Fall. Tumble. 

He's like a little drunk and I just can't help laughing at the end of the video.  #MOTY

And for those that are wondering, Brynn and Carter didn't walk until right around their first birthday, so he's definitely our earliest.

GO REID GO!!

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WW: Reid's Baptism

As stressful as it was leading up to the big day, it turned out beautiful.  The weather was perfect, the food was delicious and the kids didn't destroy the church.  What more could we ask for, really?

But can I be honest with you for a second?  I had such a hard time in the few days leading up to Reid's Baptism and party.  The entire time I was trying to clean, make lists, shop and get things ready, all I could think about was my dad.

This has, by far, been the hardest time for me to date.  Harder than Christmas.  Harder than New Year's.  Harder than anything leading up to this point. There was just a huge, gaping hole in my heart all week and boy, was it hard to handle. I miss my dad every second of every day, but it really hits home when you hold family events like this.

So yeah, there's that.

But the event itself went really well and the food was amazing.  We had some of it catered, but the yummy main dishes were made by my mom, mother in law and a good friend of the family and I am just the luckiest person in the world to have so many wonderful people in my life {that are also good cooks... BONUS!}

I don't have any pictures of the party {way too busy running around} but here are a few pics from the ceremony and just after.  The weather was a perfect 72 degrees =)

 

I love this sequence of Reid with his Godparents, Chris and Reenie! He's a lucky guy =)

I still want to get a few pictures of just Reid in his gorgeous outfit, but I had no time on the day of.  Hopefully this weekend so that I can order Thank You cards with his sweet little picture on it =)

Happy Baptism Reid Joseph! You are so very loved.

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Google Reader is going away on July 1st, and I don't want to lose you in the shuffle!

WW: Registered.

So, it's official.

My first baby is all registered for kindergarten!  Ahhhhh.

He did awesome.  He was so excited that he could barely sit still. I loved the way the school had everything set up... we walked in, they asked Carter his name {which he said AND spelled for them... ya know, just in case. Ahem.} and they had us sit down in a set of chairs set up in the hallway under the "Mrs. Jenkins" sign. 

There were about 30 other children there for registration as well, each with their parents and each just as excited as Carter. There were 3-4 children assigned to each of the kindergarten classrooms at the school.  After about 5-10 minutes of waiting, Mrs. Jenkins came out and got the 3 kids assigned to her classroom for the afternoon, Carter included. 

The whole time I was wondering how he'd act when the teacher came out to grab him and he had to walk away without us.  The week leading up to registration, I was preparing him for that moment and he always got upset at the thought of Bob and I not being with him in the classroom.  I always repeated "but you'll be having fun in class while Daddy and I are filling our BORING! FORMS!"  He then starting joking about all the boring forms we'd be filling out while he was having fun with the other kids.

So when that moment arrived when the teacher came out to get him at registration? He didn't. even. care.  He jumped up excitedly, grabbed the hand she held out for him, and walked down the hallway and into the classroom. And that was that.

On one hand, I was breathing a sigh of relief that he didn't have a total melt down in the hallway because we weren't going with him.  But on the other?  Not even a goodbye??  Seriously? Sigh.  My baby!

Our forms were pretty easy and after meeting with someone to go over everything, Bob and I had over an hour to kill while Carter spent the afternoon with Mrs. Jenkins current kindergarten class.  When we went back to pick him up, he had stickers all over his shirt and art projects in hand.  He had so much fun in his class and now he's even more excited to start school in September!

As for me?  Not so much.  I'll be taking off that day to cry.

And drink wine.

In other news, I booked Brynn's 3rd birthday party this week and designed/ordered her invitations and Reid turns 7 months old TODAY.

Time is cruel, isn't it?

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Happenings Lately...

I feel like I have so many things I want to talk about here, but no time to actually talk about them.  At least in separate posts.  So, because it's been awhile since I did a 'Happenings' post {the last one was the morning before my dad died... man how things have changed since then} I figured now is as good a time as any to catch you up on our world lately.

***

Carter.

Ya know, the baby that I feel like I just brought home from the hospital?

 {Erin Farrell Photography}

Yeah, him.

He registers for kindergarten tomorrow.  

Bob and I are taking him to school where he will meet the kindergarten teachers and visit a classroom while we complete the registration paperwork.

This boy.

 {Stephanie Glover Photography}

He's not a baby anymore.

And I just can't believe that he will be 5 in July and off to school for the very first time this fall.

I mean, I remember turning 5.  {Crap, guess we need to watch what we say/do now, huh?}

Now my first baby is old enough to have this memory too.

I just can't believe it.  I'm in shock.

Please hold me while I sob.

***

Currently, I'm in the midst of planning Reid's Baptism.  Like Brynn's Baptism, we're going to have the ceremony at the church and then have the party at our house.

We're a little late in planning this, but I think everything has been a bit delayed since my dad died.  Just the thought of holding these events without him hurts my heart immensely.  But life goes on, and we're trying to get through these things together.  And, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not a big deal that Reid will be 7 months old at his Baptism.  I'm still glad we're doing it.

We had a bit of a hard time finding an outfit for the "little" guy though ;)  {18 month clothing just isn't normal for a 6 month old.  Well, I guess it's normal for my 6 month olds. Ahem.} But I think we picked a winner.

Adorable, right?

Okay, so because we're having about 50 people at our house for lunch on the last Sunday of April, the ol' to do list is too long to even write down.  Besides my nephew Ben's birthday party this Saturday, we've basically cleared our calendars for the entire month so that we can get the house ready for the party.

***

Which leads me to the next point.

We're selling our house.

We hope to list it literally right after Reid' Baptism.  We got new siding a few weeks ago which now leaves us with only 1 big project left to do: our laundry room remodel.  I definetly have to take a "before" picture of this room and post it for you because it will give you a better idea of what the state of our entire house looked like when we moved in.

Disasterous.

I mean, there is drawer-lining contact paper on our walls.  Like, for wallpaper.

Yep.

We start that this weekend.

***

Can we talk about the housing market real quick?  Great.

Since we've renovated every. single. room. in the house {most of which were complete gut jobs} we hoped that we would eventually be rewarded for our hard work by selling our house at a higher price than what we paid for it {or, ya know, be able to include the renovation costs in our listing price like in a normal market.}

But ya know, this isn't a normal market.

Since everything crashed, we'll be lucky if we can list our house for what we originally paid for it.  And, of course, also losing the 30-40k of money we put into the house on things like a new kitchen, bathrooms, windows, roof, etc over the last 7 years.

Awesome.

But, ya know.  These things happen.  My only saving grace is that we will be able to buy a nicer house at a cheaper price too.

Hopefully, right?

Oh, and our moving plans are pretty settled now.  We're going to move in with my mom for a few months.  This will allow us to do two things: (1) help her financially since things have been rough since my dad died and (2) save money while we build {or search for a >5 year old} new house. No more fixer-uppers for us, thankyouverymuch.  We plan to move into the same town as my mom anyway, so this also works out with Carter starting school in the fall.

More on our moving/new house plans later.

***

Also on the planning agenda?  Brynn's birthday party.

She'll be 3 in May. {HOW?}

I'm trying to book the party this week so that I can design the invitations and get them out by mid-April.

She picked Build-A-Bear for her party location, by the way. Which, on one hand I find adorable and I know she loves it there, but on the other, I find annoying because now I have to figure out how the hell to also feed people.  I'm going to call the mall today about reserving tables in the food court and then I guess getting some pizzas and/or Chick-Fil-A trays and calling it a day.

Oy.

Anyone been to {or had} a Build-A-Bear party before?  What did you do for food?

***

So yeah, as you can see, we're not busy at all.

Reid is 6 months!

Reid,
Oh, you sweet boy, you.

You have done so much since I last updated 2 months ago.  You have grown into the sweetest boy and you get cuter and cuter by the day.

We had your 6 month check up last week and you're still mama's chubby boy {it's just more for us to love, bud!}

Weight: 22.5lbs | 99%

Height: 27in | 75%

Head: 18in | 95%

Short, fat and bald.  Still.  And I love it! 

Everyone asks me if you're my biggest baby, to which I immediately reply "No way, Carter was HUGE!" But you're actually a lot closer to Carter's size than I thought!  Carter was still a bigger baby, but mostly due to his height, not so much his weight {compared to yours.} Here were Carter's 6 month stats: {Also? Thank gawd for my blog because I literally had no idea. Mom of the Year right here.}

Weight: 22 lbs 6 oz  | 100%
Height: 28 1/2 in | 100%
Head: 46 cm | 95%

So your height and head size are basically the same, but Carter was an entire inch & a half taller than you! I guess that's why you appear to be fatter bigger, sweet boy ;)

I then, of course, had to look up Brynnie, and guess what? You're bigger than her! But not by much. Here were Brynn's 6 month stats:

Weight: 21lbs 12oz | 97%
Height: 27in | 95%
Head: 45cm | 97%

Okay, back to YOU my sweet boy. Some other random stats: you're wearing size 4 diapers and 12 month clothing, although they're getting a little tight, if I'm being honest. ;)

At your appointment on Friday, you were totally flirting with the doctor the entire time and you were a huge fan of the tissue paper on the table...

 Reid wuz here.  Not exactly the best way to get your fiber though. Ahem. {And do you see the drool spots?}

You've had so many milestones these past 2 months.  Let's see...

You're eating food.  This is probably your favorite milestone ever considering that you've been staring us down at every meal for awhile now. So far, you have yet to find a fruit or veggie that you don't like!

This is your very first time eating...

See. You loved it immediately. 

You're sitting up.  This is probably mommy's favorite milestone thus far.  I love the short time between sitting up and crawling. It's my favorite stage!

And you have your Poppy's eyes, my sweet boy.  I see it all the time and it makes my heart smile. You have his eyes and his name, Reid Joseph... you're a lucky boy.

You also moved up to your convertible car seat.  You love it!  Now you can easily laugh at your brother and sister in the car and you have a great time looking out the window.

You're also holding your own bottle.  It's like you don't even need me anymore.

Real men totally use pink Rock-n-Plays. Just an FYI. {Thanks Aubs!}

We've also started to transition you into your crib.  It's going well for naps and we hope that we can start putting you in it at night by this weekend.  Since you're slowly {ahem, quickly} inching your way to your RNP weight limit, you need to move it on up there to the crib, buddy.

Mommy and Daddy spent a few hours reconnecting all the monitors to keep you safe. Now let's hope your first overnight trial run goes well! {Ha! Yeah, right. Send mama coffee.}

Also? I'm really going to miss sleeping right next to you. I'm sad just thinking about it.

Your most favorite thing to do is jump.  Jumpity jump.  Jump all day long.

Even when we're just holding you, you are constantly jumping!  Here you are showing Aubrey the ropes...

Let's see... you also celebrated two holidays these past two months... Valentine's Day & St. Patrick's Day {or just "patricks day" as Carter likes to call it}...

Handsome boy!

You adore your brother and sister.  And they completely adore you right back.   You just sit there and laugh at them... it doesn't matter what they're doing, you think it's the funniest thing you've ever seen. And they just love to take care of you!  They always want to give you hugs, hold your bottle and make sure you have a toy in your hand at all times.

Aubrey is your best friend.  You guys just love to stare at each other and we are so excited to watch the beautiful birthday twins grow up together!

I mean, the hand holding? SO CUTE!

I'll tell you what else you really love...  playing with your daddy...

... and cuddling with your mama...

 

And we love you right back, sweet boy!

Okay Reid Joseph, let's see how much you've grown!

So big! Can't wait to see what this next month brings... but not too fast now, okay?