Look No Training Wheels

On the Friday that the boys spent the night at Camp Sonshine, Abby had big plans for her and Robb. She was planning on learning how to ride her bike without training wheels. Poor Abby has always gotten the garage sale bike because a bike for her birthday in January isn't so fun. Anyway, since she has always had a used bike the training wheels never work how she wants them to. The bike would be leaning or they would fall off all together so she was ready to take them off. Robb and her worked on it for about an hour on the smallest bike we have. The little pink starfish bike is the bike that all our kids have learned on. It is more or less a balance bike so they get a feel for just balancing and then they can add in the pedaling.

By the end of the night she was speeding down the sidewalk without any training wheels. Good job Abby! We are so proud of you!

First Day of Daycare

I have been dreading this day since the day Emerson was born. I have known that I would have to go back to work and leave Emerson at daycare but it was still hard! Mackenzie stayed with the kids all summer and it went well but they kept her busy. I just felt better about having Mackenzie watch her because I really know her, it was in our house, she was willing to follow whatever schedule I wanted and she did about anything to keep Emmy happy. However, daycare was a different story. Andrea her daycare provider was very nice but it seemed like she ran a very organized and scheduled daycare. Which isn't a bad thing... but I worried about my no schedule, feed on demand breastfed baby having to adjust to this. She was also expected to nap on a schedule and just be laid down for nap not necessarily rocked to sleep. Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck her first day at daycare. It is a good thing Robb drops her off because I probably would have left bawling.
She got a great report the first day! Andrea said that she ate her bottles really well, was happy for the most part but wanted to be held most of the time and surprisingly enough she napped really well. Each day has been better than the last. She has started to enjoy playing with the other kids more and is not needing to be held constantly. I had a hard time believing that she was getting her to take 2 good naps a day but Emerson has been really happy in the evenings and has been sleeping at night better. Andrea has a touch we don't have. We still have to rock her to sleep or most of the time I feed her to sleep.
It took a couple weeks but I am feeling really confident that we made the right choice about our daycare provider. She keeps us updated on how the day went and Emerson gets a little report card everyday. I love this because she writes everything on there. It tells how many bottles and what time, naps and times, diapers and overall mood. I guess the nurse in me likes that I get a little report of how things went. Emmy is always happy and playing when I pick her up and Andrea seems to genuinely care about all the daycare kids.
I think Robb and I have both decided over the years that daycare is one of the most stressful things about having kids. I am hoping that this keeps going as well as it has been.

Family Fun Day

I feel like our lives have been out of control busy lately. I find myself looking forward to the weekend and wishing the weeks away. This working full time thing is a lot harder than I remember! Robb and I have both been pretty stressed lately with just keeping our household afloat. We decided to take an afternoon to forget that our house was a disaster and just take some time as a family. We went to Mahoney State Park for the afternoon. We had a great time! We started out with mini golf and then went to the paddle boats. Our kids love doing the paddle boats. They like to get really close to the shore so that they can collect the shells in the shallow water. Since our family is too big for one boat and I wasn't sure about taking Emerson on the boat, Robb and I took turns on the paddle boat.

We watched the huge fish that were in the pond also. The kids thought it was pretty cool that people kept catching fish.

I love this picture. Emerson is a spitting image of Caleb although he doesn't like me to say that.

Robb and the kids managed to get the paddle boat stuck at one point because they were so close to the shore.

We ate supper there and then got some icecream. Here is Miss Emerson who is supposedly lactose intolerant enjoying icecream. She dove right in and then we couldn't get her to stop eating it. I guess we will either be sorry later or I can start adding dairy back into my diet. I guess this is the ultimate test.

It was nice to take the day to just spend together without the distraction of anything else. We ended the day with a walk/bike on the trails and playing at the park. Everyone was exhausted but happy.

First Day of School

All of the kids are growing up so much! Abby was a little tired the first morning (she is our only child that sleeps in) but she was still excited for her first day. Here she is looking all cute and grown up.

Sporting the much sought after Frozen backpack that we had to order because we couldn't find one in the store.

Caleb looking all sporty and grown up. This is the shortest his hair has been in a long time and he is missing about half of his teeth. Love these kids!

Bryce was excited for the first day of school. He too is missing both front teeth. I am so excited to see how this year of school goes. I hope they have a wonderful year.

Caleb 8 (2nd grade), Abby 5 (Kindergarten), Emerson 6 months (daycare), Bryce 8 (2nd grade)

Open House Night (August 11)

I can't believe the summer is over and these 3 kids are going to be going to school all day! Abby has been saying that she doesn't want to talk about going to school for about a year now. I think she will miss just hanging out with me all day since that is all she remembers.

She was brave and although I could tell she was nervous there were no tears. She found her coat hook, cubby and chair.

We know her teacher from when the boys were in Kindergarten and Caleb had Mrs. Kugal for reading group. She is a wonderful teacher! She is pregnant and expecting her first baby in March and has been feeling pretty crummy so hopefully her class isn't too hard on her.

Caleb and Bryce have reached the stage where they feel really comfortable finding their way around the building and little things no longer bother them. They went and found their seats and waited for me to fill out paperwork but they didn't need much reassurance.

Bryce and Caleb are in Mrs. Woodwards class this year. She seems really sweet and the boys seem to really like her. I am hopeful that this will be a good school year.

Exciting News!

My little brother Mitch and his wife Courtney announced that they are expecting in February 2015. I am so excited to meet my new niece or nephew! It will be nice for Emerson to have a cousin close to her age. Emmy was happy to let them practice their baby skills on her.

Time to Eat Food! (July 26)

Emerson has been loving the cereal so we decided it was time to try some food. Not sure what I was thinking but I decided to make my own baby food this time around. Abby helped me peel, cut, steam and blend a sweet potato. Emmy thought the end product was pretty delicious. Abby was so excited to feed her. It was very cute but very messy!

Hmmm that is not just cereal!