first day of preschool

 Wednesday was Taylor's first day of preschool!

 The fun sign was a free printable from here.

Daddy got a few hours of work in (all the way in Andover), but couldn't miss his little girl going off to school, so he drove back to Newton to go with us.

 No better spot to take such special pictures than in front of Cora's Playground.

 It helps to walk in the first day and see one of her best buddies!

All in all, it wasn't as emotional as I thought it might be.  Dave and I said goodbye and gave her hugs and she was completely fine on her own.  We walked into the hallway only to have her race out behind us to give us one more hug and kiss.  And of course, headed for her daddy first.

I will admit, my eyes watered up then.  I think Daddy's did too.

The day was perfect!  She was so happy, and so ready and we know she's going to do SUPER!

I found this super cute picture idea on Pinterest and again on a friend's blog.  She was so kind to send me her photoshop file, making this even easier to create. (thanks Laura!) Such a fun idea to do every year on the first day!

Our day (and week) was full of some other "firsts" too.

I'll tell you about those soon!

september

Today starts the best month of the year.

Surely you know that.

It's the best for LOTS of reasons.

September means my birthday month!  I'm typically super excited about my birthday.  This year's a TAD different, I'm not dreading it, I'm not sad or depressed, but I can definitely tell I'm not full of excitement like usual.  That's okay!  But I AM super excited about what I get to do for my birthday.

You see, I think I had a grand 30th birthday planned in my head.  I'm not a big party person.  But doing something with some of my besties is definitely my cup of tea.  A girls weekend.  New York City maybe.  But Kansas City or Dallas would have been fine too.  Spas, shopping, eating, fun memories.  Especially with friends who are turning 30 around the same time. But then we all had to go and get pregnant.  Big pregnant bellies wouldn't work so well in New York City.  In fact, just being in Wichita for one afternoon with them got us a handful of stares and comments.  So my big dreams won't be happening.  NEW BABIES will though - and that is even more exciting! 

But no complaints from me - my hubby is taking me to this lovely, cozy place.  I can't remember which room is ours.  And we actually had to go several bed and breakfasts down on our list because of the holiday weekend - lots were booked.  But this one still looks so quaint and nice!   Nothing much on the agenda other than some sleeping in, relaxing, eating, a lovely spa appointment for myself, some college football on tv (even though it's my birthday trip, my hubby kindly reminded me that OU plays it's first game of the season on Saturday), and really just a nice celebration of my 30th with my bestest friend in the whole world.

September means Bluegrass!!  It's coming so soon!  Dave and a friend are taking the campers down this next week to get a camping spot.  We are ALMOST a part of "Landrush" this year, it's the earliest we've ever taken our stuff down.  We are PRAYING it is not 100 degrees.  Even with a camper with AC, camping and being outside 24 hours straight for 4 days is not so fun when it's super hot - and I'm pregnant.

September means fall weather - suppossedly.  Jeans.  Finally.  My jean shorts just aren't feeling so comfy anymore and I really need to just be able to wear my maternity jeans without sweating through them.

September means college football.  2nd mention in this post, but typical.  We love college football.

September means the State Fair - I am CRAVING a big plate of potato twisters and nacho cheese.  Applebees new potato twister appetizer has been settling my craving a bit - but really, nothing beats State Fair food!  I am crossing my fingers we can fit it into our busy schedule this month.

This September means I'm finally in my last trimester!  Just under 3 months to go.

September means the start of our fall routine - preschool, AWANA, bible study, small group, it all starts up and we are excited and ready!

And this September means our dear sweet friends will be adding a new addition to their family and we can't wait!   (oh wait, make that 2 friends with new babies!) September birthdays are the best!

Welcome, September.

So glad you are here. 

getting ready for preschool

In about 10 days, this little girl will be starting preschool.

We've been super busy around here - so luckily this emotional, pregnant Mommy hasn't had too much time to think about this.  Although maybe that would be better so it doesn't all hit me in one day. 

 I know this isn't Kindergarten.  I know it's only 3 days a week.  And even those days, it's not all day.  But this still seems HUGE.

Not to mention, a month after starting preschool, she'll turn 5.

But why on earth would it be neccessary for her to start acting even more grown up all of a sudden in the last few weeks?!  I'd say it's just cruel. 

She is SOOO excited!  Can you tell?

She has been talking about preschool and asking daily about when we will go get her supplies.

So just a few nights ago we finally did.

Man, you would have thought we were buying her the world.

As she was in heaven, having us read her each thing on her list and then helping us find it...

the other child was constantly whining about when we'd go look at "boy toys" and wondering what he was going to be able to get for himself.

He settled for a pencil box.

School supplies....check.

Health forms...still need to take care of.

School clothes (since this girl loves to wear grubbies - sport shorts, sweats, tshirts - daily)....check.
  Thanks to a nice quick visit to the Children's Place Outlet in Olathe today.
The mall closes at 6.  We pulled into the parking lot at 5:55.  My sister-in-law and I literally ran through the mall to get to the store before they pulled the gate down.  We made it. But oh man, my body was feeling it afterwards.
15 minutes, some awesome discounts, and I think her fall wardrobe is lookin pretty good all of a sudden.

But whether I'm ready or not for this new phase of life,

this little girl is SOOO ready.

Not only ready for preschool, but she's so ready for this new little baby too.
 Today she reminded her brother that she was going to be the big sister of two kids and then said...

"man, I sure am going to be busy"

Yes, sweetheart.

You are going to be very busy.

Very busy growing up.

dog swim

The city pool opens up the very last day of the summer for the dogs. 

Dog Swim.

Dogs are $2.50, people are free

 There were dogs everywhere.

One even had a life jacket on.  Bless his heart.

 And there were no rules.

So dogs could go down the slide.

(or be strongly nudged and encouraged by their owner to go down)

 And little kids who aren't normally tall enough could go down too.

All at the same time.

And dogs could go off the diving boards.

 The kids thought it was pretty much the coolest activity ever. 

cruzin cooler

I can't remember if I ever showed this picture this past spring or not.

A $50 find at a garage sale in Valley Center.

It didn't run, but Dave was quite confident he (or he along with help from friends) could get it to.

To say Dave was excited about his find is a HUGE understatement.

Yes, it's a cooler scooter.  And it's not just some homemade thing someone put together.

They are FOR REAL.

You can checkout www.cruzincooler.com

We got a text from friends a few nights ago to say that a scooter cooler made the local news - someone driving it got a DUI.

They sell between $350 and $1300.

I know you all totally want one.

Just think of all the awesome uses for it - we can ride to Braums and pick up milk, we can take water bottles and snacks down to the water when we go fishing, and of course it will be making a debut in Winfield this year!

So a $50 find with a little bit of money to put into it to make it run, is totally worth it in Dave's book.

Now that it's running, it's become quite the toy around here.

In all honesty, I found it to be a nuisance at first.

But now I think it's a pretty cool thing to have around.

Before the scooter cooler, I had to actually get on a bike and ride WITH my kids.

As much as I need to exercise - with a growing belly and this extreme heat - getting on a bike with a seat that seemed so hard it would leave bruises just didn't sound like much fun and I passed every chance I could.

But now, the kids hop on the bikes, and mom grabs the scooter cooler.

Who knows what the neighbors are thinking.

And I just MAYBE happened to ride it down the street one day with a white tank (aka: wife beater), no shoes, and of course my pregnant belly couldn't be missed.

It was as classy as it gets folks.

Sorry no video.

big news for our family

I'll first start my little story telling you that my sister texted me back in July...

"when are you going to be in Ft. Worth...I'm here till Saturday."

WHAT!??!  I thought.

I hadn't seen her since last August - she used to live in the Dallas area, but moved to Cincinnati.

She was visiting friends the same week I was in Ft. Worth for Premier's Rally. 

My schedule at rally is packed - not really any down time.  But I made time to meet her for dinner (along with 2 of her friends).

Not too far into dinner she handed me a gift - she's good at gifts.  I'm horrible at them.

I felt bad I didn't have something for her.

I opened the card first...

IT'S MY TURN...

(I gasped...what!?!?  is this totally what I think it is!?!?)

the inside read...

TO GIVE YOU ONE OF THESE

(I actually lost my excitement because I thought the card was going to tell me something, but it didn't)

I opened the gift to find a baby bib that said

"I {heart} my Aunt"

(the exact same thing I gave to her when we announced we were pregnant with Taylor!)

I completely lost it. And then made her cry too.

And we maybe made her friends cry too.

But then she made me not tell until today.

That's a long time to wait!

Her friend had previously taken some cute pictures of her to help her make the announcement to family and friends,

and then of course took some of us together that night- since it's probably the ONLY time this picture will be possible.

I won't see her again until after our baby gets here.

(she's totally pushing out)

So thankful for this opportunity that came up for us to see each other!

It was SOOO much better getting the news in person!



We are SOOOOO excited for our FIRST cousin on my side of the family!!!

Congrats Aunt Rebekah and Uncle Steve!!

more with mema and papa {silver dollar city}

Wouldn't ya know, we have to leave our home to actually experience some rain.

It was nice to watch it, wishing home was getting some too.

Then we headed out to eat at Showgun (Japanese Steakhouse),

which MAY be my favorite kind of restaurant!

Taylor ate with chopsticks AND ate sushi!

Silver Dollar City is always a must.  This time my parents' extra passes were good only for the Moonlight Madness - 6pm to 10pm.  So we got to ride the rides past dark and way past the kids' bedtime!

The kids had just been to SDC a few weeks ago while they were staying with Mema and Papa during our small group trip. So they were so exctied to show us all the things they did when they were there.

Mason loved this ball area!

It's so fun to have the kids be tall enough to ride lots of the rides, either by themselves or PLENTY of others with an adult.

And for a Moonlight Madness night - check out the sky and moon after a storm dared to threatened our night.



10:30pm and still smiling!

For most of the weekend we stayed at the "lakehouse" (my parents' timeshare that is really really close tothe lake).

Cute and colorful cape-cod style houses.

We got my least favorite color this year.

I love the red and blue ones.

And of course the purple and gray ones!
But they are all the exact same on the inside.

Mema and Papa, thanks for such a fun weekend!

We love you!

visiting mema and papa {the lake}

The negative to my parents not living in Winfield (an hour away) anymore is that we just don't get to see them as much.

But 5 hours away isn't bad at all.  And now they live somewhere with LOTS to do!

Tablerock is just a quick little drive from their house (45 minutes).

We spent our first full day at the lake.

 The spot above where Mason is sitting, he literally fell asleep in that position while the boat was going.

He's always been our baby that fell asleep on boats - when he was a baby, when he was 2 with fireworks going off all around him, and now still at 3.

 (giving the hand sign for "I want bumps")

 And wouldn't ya know, after my mom told me it hasn't really been above 95 degrees there (sad that that meant we were expecting a break from the heat at home), that the heat followed us and there was an extreme heat warning most of the weekend.  Luckily being around water helps with that a bit.

I'll let you wonder if he made it all the way around or not.

fearless

Fearless is what these kids are.  Not sure how or why.  But they pretty much both are.

Taylor a bit more so than Mason, but when compared at the same age, they are pretty much equal.

Having a fearless older sister definitely helps Mason want to do some of the same things.

He's been watching her swim without her life jacket this summer, so this weekend in Branson, he asked if he could "practice" too.

He wanted to do it over and over again.

"mommy will you practice me?"

And while I'm getting the rest of our pictures organized and ready to post, I'll leave you with another video that shows more of their fearlessness (or maybe you will call it plain craziness). 

 But beware, if you freak out about things or tend to leave comments about what kids should and shouldn't be doing, maybe just don't watch. We didn't feel the need to record our safety lecture about "looking before you leap" and all that goes with water safety.

 

More pictures from our time on the lake and at Silver Dollar City soon!

It was a great weekend away with the kids getting to spend time and make more memories with my parents.