What a year!

Sydney has graduated from Pre-K! 

She has come such a long way this past school year.  I am so excited to know how much she has learned.  It is amazing.  This girl is reading K-1st grade level books!  (with help on big words, like "thief" or "loyal")

Her teachers sent home a big packet of work for Sydney to do over the summer.  They also included this:

First handwriting paper- 8/15/12 (age 3)

Last handwriting paper- 5/13/13 (age 4)

She is also writing our last name- that's a feat for most adults!

Yes, she is!

August 2012- First day of pre-K

New shoes, new bookbag, still sweet and naive.  Let mommy fix her hair, pick out her clothes.

May 2013- Last day of pre-K

Sassy, smart, only wears headbands and flipflops.  Has the final veto of what mommy picks out to wear.  A little tired of the Dora bookbag.  So much older looking!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what her K-5 year brings!

Happenings

We have been crazy around here lately!  We seem to have something going on every weekend, starting a couple of weekends ago and going through late June.  Plus, the last 2 weeks of school are going to really be rough, finishing up all these meetings/paperwork.  The end is in sight, people!

We've had our share of seeing friends, going out to eat, birthday parties, enjoying the nice weather, neighborhood get-togethers, and more.  Here are some pics of the latest and greatest.

 

 

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

I'd like to give a shout-out to my AWESOME Mom, who is the biggest supporter and cheerleader I know.  Also, to my beautiful sister, who has always been my inspiration and role model.  Lastly, I'd like to give a shout-out to my 3 little munchkins- without them, I wouldn't be MOM!  I love them to pieces.  I am so blessed.

Mother's Day topped off a very busy weekend for us.  Last night was a late night, and it was hard to get up... but, I woke up to pancakes, a card and present, and lots of hugs from my kiddos.  Oh, and the best greeting this morning- from Taylor- "Happy birthday, Mommy!!"

So thankful for my babies... so thankful for my Mom and Grandmom... what a great day!

Mother's Day goodies from school.

Sweet card.

A heart pancake :)

Random Pics

Here are some random phone pics that never made it on the blog!

The 3 siblingos

 

The new wreath I made for our door

I went back to the evergreen bushes!

 

 Sleepover.

 

Derby Day.

Taylor opening an invitation she got in the mail.

Me and Sydney on a day we both had the stomach bug.  We had to entertain ourselves somehow!

 

Sweet Taylor.

 

Sydney & Raegan at Savannah's b-day party.

 

Sassy Taylor.

P-Man.

 

Sydney is wearing Stephen's shirt; Parker is wearing Taylor's dress.  Poor guy.

Sydney's drawing of her and her BFF.

 

Bathroom Remodel

Stephen and I decided to get our master shower and guest bath shower remodeled.  The master shower is not totally finished yet (glass guy is coming next week), but here it is so far!  What a difference!  (more pics to come when it's all done)

There is so much more room, it is amazing.  I'm only wishing we had done this before I was 15 months pregnant three different times- I would have fit a lot better. ;)

Before 

"What's that?"

It has been such a joy having two daughters who are so close in age.  They are best little buddies, and when one is away from the other, you can tell that a piece of them is missing.  Another fun thing that I can easily compare the two, since they are only 26 months apart.  And boy, are they different!
I noticed something today that made me think.  Do you recall that Sydney, around 2-1/2 or so, would always ask, "Why?"  Well, I've noticed that Taylor always asks, "What's that?"  And I think it's fitting with the difference it shows in them. 

Sydney is very inquisitive, and she really ponders things.  She is my thinker, my memorizer, my pay-attention-to-details kind of gal.  She's the one that could spell her name at 17 months and count to 20 by 19 months.  It is fitting that she would ask, "Why?" because she really wants to learn the purpose of things.  She can then apply that knowledge to life.  She is smart but dramatic, and she has the best memory of any little 4 year-old I know. 

Taylor, on the other hand, is just happy-go-lucky.  She is more laid back (she still can't spell her name at 29 months) and is more of a sweet, funny, and loving child.  I think she'd rather make people laugh than learn how to do things.  She is into EVERYTHING.  I mean, if she is playing with something and you take it away from her, instead of focusing on it being taken away, she immediately turns and gets into something new.  She is constant.  So, I think, "What's that?" is fitting for her, because she is so curious about anything and everything around her.

My two different daughters... it's great that they each have their own personality and character traits, and it's so neat to watch them come together and just work. 

I am so very blessed!!!

Nashville

The whole fam headed up to Nashville this past weekend to cheer on Stephen in his quest to master the Country Music 1/2 Marathon!  We both took a half-day on Friday to beat the traffic.  The ride up was pretty harmless- the kids were pretty good, alternating between napping, watching movies, and playing with toys. 

We stayed at my brother's house, and my folks came up for the weekend, too!  Sydney and Olivia (her 4 year-old cousin) were SO excited to see each other.  They made up for lost time rather quickly.  Taylor tagged right along.  They stayed up until 10 PM Central Time (eek!) Friday night, and finally crashed hard on their sleeping bags.

Saturday morning was race day... and it was POURING down rain!  Stephen got up about 4 something to get ready, eat breakfast, and head in for his 7 AM start time.  I headed down around 8:15 to get a spot at the finish line.  This is what I saw:

And it was COLD!  I felt so bad for the runners, although, to give them credit, they were quite chipper at the end.  It didn't seem to phase them.  I had my phone out to try to snap shots of Stephen, but, alas, the water crept into my 3 day-old iphone and it completely shut off.  This was the last picture I took:

Bam.  It was done.  24 hours in a bag of rice seemed to help, some.  Grrr.

Back to the race.  Stephen did AWESOME!!!  I am SO proud of him!  His goal was to beat 2 hours, and he came in at 1:53 something.  In the rain!  He rocked it. 

We went back home, warmed up, dried off, and hung out.  We all went to a kid play place-kind of like a Chuck E Cheese- to have fun and run off some energy.  There was no playing-outside that would be happening this weekend.

After that, we headed to Cracker Barrel for some grub.  Parker sat in a restaurant-style high chair for the first time!

Uncle/nephew bonding.

What to eat?

We then headed home for the night.  It started storming later, so we hung out, watched TV, and just chilled.  The girls crashed earlier- no nap + late night the night before = three sleepy girls. 



WWF Wrestling.

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast and then made the 5 hour trek home.  It was a great trip!!  Can't wait to do it again (only next time, with sunshine!).