Lessons from Primary

Last night, while Sam was doing his homework, Andrew was helping me do some chores. I sent him to put something away in his bedroom. He ran off to do it and on the way back I heard him say, "Oh no, the hall is dark and I walked down it!"

I reminded him that it's okay because he's not afraid of the dark. But he was quick to explain, "But MOM! In primary I learned that I should ALWAYS walk in the light! Remember?!?"

At least he's paying attention, even if he hasn't grasped the full meaning yet!

My big helper!

I've been doing LOTS of canning this year. It takes a long time and had to be timed just right so that I would have enough processing time before having to go and pickup up the boys from school at their respective times. On this particular day, Andrew decided that he wanted in on the action. And to my surprise, he was actually a huge help!

He had fun skinning the tomatoes and playing with the "slime" that was left in the sink...

Then, he got to squish them into the jars for me. At first he was a little timid about the squishing part, not sure if that's what I really wanted. But then I showed him again and he got into it! Notice how soaked is shirt is, even with the apron!

 We had a fun afternoon working together and he was so proud of the jars of tomatoes that he helped me produce!

Everyday Angels

I just wanted to take a minute and record some tidbits about my day. It was not the best...not the worst by any stretch of the imagination....but things certainly didn't turn out the way I'd pictured. Joe's gone this week, that always makes everything harder. Plus, I've been sick for a couple of days, like most moms (that I know) I was putting off calling the doctor because I thought I could fight it without medicine...no time to take myself in and make all necessary childcare arrangements...you know the drill. Well, I woke up this morning feeling MUCH worse. I got a call from my parents at about 6:45 A.M. saying that Dad was on his way over the fix Andrew's bike before going to work. (that's another whole saga that I won't get into but suffice to say we've been riding bikes to school everyday and Andrew's bike has been having major issues!) When he arrived, he fiddled with it for a few minutes, diagnosed the problem, and said he would take it with him and bring it back in the evening once he could get the needed part and get it fixed. I felt hugely greatful for that, it's been such a huge headache!

As the day went on, I finally decided to call the doctor (with some coaxing from my mom). Long story short, I couldn't get in until after I'd picked up Sam from school. My angel of a neighbor (we consider her our adopted Grandma) came over at a minutes notice to watch the kids for me. Two hours later at 5:30, as I was driving home from the pharmacy, antibiotic in hand, I was thinking about the fact that Andrew had soccer practice in half an hour, nobody had eaten dinner yet, and the meeting at the school that I was supposed to be at was starting RIGHT NOW. (That's not even counting the fact that I was already skipping out on the YW's board meeting and activity that night because of everything else going on!) Amidst all that, my Mom called and "gave me permission" to miss the school meeting and offered to take Andrew to practice for me. ("Chari, you're SICK, you are allowed take it easy!!!") When she showed up, she had Andrew's bike all fixed and ready to go.

Now that all the kids are in bed and I have a second to reflect, I'm just so greatful for people who love me and are willing to help. Nothing truely profound happened, there was no big crisis, but when I needed help, there were people to turn to. I seriously don't know what I'd do without my amazing support system of friends and family. I like to record "real life" days on here sometimes, just to remember that those days happen too...and we survive! But, tonight especially, I'm thankful for my real life angels.

All grown up!

Today was an important day at our house...

Abby's first pigtails!

I was so excited about it and so was she (although you can't tell from the picture!) She walked around all morning patting her head and saying, "Oh, so pretty!" I actually took her to Joe's office just to show him, it was that exciting to me! I think he thought we were pretty silly :-)

Her favorite place to cry...

The last few months Abby has found a favorite place to go when she's upset. If she just needs a good cry, she heads to....

Andrew's bed!

It's kind of random, but very cute! She'll just burst into tears, for whatever reason (she is a GIRL afterall), take off running, and dive into his blankets. Then she buries her head and just cries it out. I figure that it's the most accessible bed in the house (she is still in a crib) and so that makes it her favorite refuge. We all need some place like that, right?

Our morning bike ride adventure...oh, and Andrew's first day of Preschool!

After two days of waiting in the impossibly long line "parent pick up" line at Sam's school, I decided that we were going to try something different. So, this morning we rode bikes to school! Now, just some background on the bike situation. Sam has only had his training wheels off for a couple of weeks and is still a little shaky and building confidence. He's a very cautious kid by nature, so learning to ride with no training wheels has been a process. But, this morning we gave it a try. I loaded Abby in the bike trailer and the boys each rode their bikes. It's about .85 miles from our house to the school, kinda far and I had NO idea how long it would take. We were, no surprise, late getting out the door so we didn't have time to dawdle. We make it in about 15 minutes, not bad for our first day. But, when we got there, I realized that I'd forgotten the key to the bike lock I couldn't lock up his bike. Ugh! But we didn't have many choices so I left the bike there with the lock wrapped around it so it LOOKED like it was locked and headed off to our next stop...

Andrew's first day at Preschool!

It's only about two blocks from the Elementary school to the Preschool so we were there quickly. Andrew was so excited about the day, bike riding and all, that he hardly even looked back once we got him to his classroom. I did get him to look up once for a quick picture!



After dropping him off I headed home, got the key for the bike lock and went back to Sam's school and locked up his bike. Whew, I was a bit tired by the time I got home. (Side note: that was AFTER running 4.2 miles this morning) Better yet, I get to make that round trip bike ride two more times today! I'm thinking that Andrew will be in the trailer with Abby when we go get Sam, he might be too tired to make it again...I'll let you know how it goes!

First Day of School!

Today was a big day...

Sam started first grade!

He was so excited and has been counting down the days! He was especially excited about bringing a lunch in his new Star Wars lunch box. Since Daddy is out of town, I promised to post pictures of the exciting day! Here are the boys when we were taking Sam to school. They were so excited that they could wear matching outfits. I doubt they'll like to do that much longer (Sam will probably get tired his little bro always copying him, you know how that goes...), but it sure is cute that they like to dress alike for now!

Abby was just chillin' with her baby and gee in the stroller!

Sam went in, walked right to his classroom (he'd been there the day before to meet his teacher), found his coat closet to hang up his backpack, then got right to work! He is sitting at the same table as two of his buddies from Kindergarten, so he felt right at home! He seemed to wonder why I was hanging around...Mom, you can go now!!

After dropping Sam off, we headed straight to Andrew's Preschool for his Open House. He got to meet his teachers and check out the classroom, building, and more importantly...

The PLAYGROUND!!! I'd never seen him do monkey bars by himself, but apparently he can! He's going to have blisters from doing it over and over! I was pretty impressed!

Andrew will actually start school on Friday, so I'll probably have more pictures to post then!

Abby, of course, thought that she was one of the big kids. We've been talking for days (weeks!) about Sam's school and Andrew's school. Well, she didn't want to be left out, so she kept on telling me all morning as we walked around the two schools, "Abby's school!" I guess that we need to play school while she's home alone with mommy so she doesn't get bored without her brothers around!

I can't believe how big these kids are getting! It's weird to have Sam at school all day now. In some ways it's a relief, don't get me wrong, but it's also weird!

Family Pictures

My sister in law took some great family pictures for us. She's got a great eye and I thought the pictures turned out pretty good. I used my favorites on the sidebar on the blog, but here's a look at some of the others...

Thanks for taking the awesome pictures Bre!

Silly Face!

Abby is quite the little ham. She loves to have her picture taken and look pretty. But......she's got this crazy cheesy grin that she loves to do ALL THE TIME! It's usually not when the camera is out though, so I've had a hard time capturing it.

Here's a glimpse...

That gives you a pretty good idea. She is such a silly girl!

My big 4 year old!

Life is so busy and moving so fast, I just wanted to take a minute to write down what Andrew was like at 4 years old!

Andrew is...

...fiesty!

...very opinionated, he knows what he wants and usually how to get it!

...great buddies with Sam and Abby adores him. He's really learning to show his love by doing nice things, especially to his little sister, it's very cute!

...an Artist. He loves to color and draw pictures and is very good at it. I have had several people at church comment on his ability and focus whenever he is drawing. He's been known to make his sunbeams class late to primary because he's not done with the picture he was drawing in class!

...very excited to play soccer for the first time this fall. Grandma got him the gear that he'll need for his birthday and he has been practicing!

...often found wearing a costume around the house (and other places if he can get away with it.) More often then not, he's wearing a combination of SEVERAL costumes! For example, he might wear his Robin costume with several various capes, a pirate hat, spiderman mask and carrying a light saber, you get the idea!

...very sweet and sensitive.

Andrew is a wonderful kid who keeps me on my toes. I'm so glad to have him as part of our family...Love you Andrew!