Recap of August and September

I feel like ever since school started, I have been busier and had less free time than I did before school started! But it's a good busy, I am meeting more people and so are the kids and we are all having fun, so it's good.  Here are some of the highlights/funny things I have noted in the past two months. Of course, the girls are not doing some of this stuff anymore, but I have to get it down so I don't forget!

The girls...
*Gymnastics/McKenna....they didn't get into the olympic gymnastics as much as I thought they would (although Lauren did recognize Gabby on the cover of People magazine), but they have enjoyed watching the American Girl McKenna movie.  They would play McKenna for hours on end, and Lauren would be her friend/tutor Josie and Alison would be McKenna and they would replay McKenna breaking her leg and Josie would take care of her.  They would put on their bathing suits to pretend to be leotards and flip all over the couch.

*Music camp CD...they love to turn on the CD from Lauren's music camp and they do all the dances and sing all the words, and I hear both of them just randomly singing the songs sometimes.  Good songs and God!
*Mii channel.....they are obsessed with making new Miis on the Wii.  I think we now have about 90 Miis on our Wii.  Lauren has figured out how to create them and name them and then send them to the Mii parade.
*Packing up...pretty much everytime we go somewhere, the girls have to pack a bag of stuff for the kids.  Sometimes it's just books and a buddy or two, other times it's all kinds of random stuff they take from their room.  Even if we are just going to church, which is about 60 seconds away!  I don't mind it except when they decide they need to pack up the minute we are about to head out the door.

Matching outfits, a must for the dance party

Fashionistas!

*Dancing...they love to dance!  They will put music on the computer and just dance away.  They love to play Just Dance Kids on the Wii, and they put the songs from that game on and they do the entire dance from memory.  Amazing!

LAUREN
Lauren is absolutely loving school, which I am so thankful for!!  She still is not a huge fan of getting up at 6:30, but she says her favorite things are riding the bus, eating lunch, recess and the related arts (PE, art, music, drama, and computer.)  She seems to be making friends, the first couple of weeks, she talked a lot about Charlie, who sat next to her in class, but then the teachers separated them because they thought they were too dependent on each other (I suspect maybe Lauren was helping Charlie too much), so she doesn't talk about him as much anymore.

A gift from Charlie (a Snoopy keychain!!) the first week of school!

She is always talking about Sean and how he is not a good listener, and it seems like he is always getting in trouble, which she seems to be very dismayed by (thank goodness!).  She loves her teacher, Mrs. Banbury.  She was out on medical leave for about a month and she came back for half days last week, and Lauren woke up at 6 AM SOOOO excited that Mrs. Banbury was coming back.

She likes to ride the bus and after she sat on the back of the bus the first day, she now has an assigned seat in the front next to her friend Hannah, and sometimes one of the 4th graders (Sydney or Alexa) will sit next to her, which makes her really happy.

She is going to start her Daisy troop meetings next week; just once a month, which will be the perfect commitment for her I think!  There are three other girls from her class and a couple of other girls she met over the summer that are in the troop, so I think that will be a great way for her to make some close friends.

She is becoming a wonderful reader!  She amazes me all the time with what she can read, and I am also amazed that she can read books with inflection and feeling.  I am so happy she loves to read and I hope she keeps that love!  My mom just gave her a chapter book on Tuesday and she is already on Chapter 6 and she just reads it to herself.  I am going to have to start getting lots of books for her because she was reading it while she ate breakfast this morning.

Her first chapter book

 Here are a couple funny things she has said:
"He's bobbed" (meaning bald)
"I'm downidty"(the opposite of uppity from the Little Mr/Miss books)


ALISON

This face is what she does everytime I get the camera out.  I  can never get her to look at the camera.

Here are Alison's top ten (I think Lauren may have outgrown the top ten.)
1. Roxy dress....she has kind of outgrown this, but for almost the entire month of July and part of August, she would put on this white dress of Lauren's and everyone had to call her Roxy when she had that dress on.  And if you didn't call her Roxy, she was very quick to correct you!

2. "Girl song"....she's very particular about Brad not singing songs that are sung by girls, or "girl songs" as she calls them.  But it's ok if he sings the "boy songs."

3. "Blond"...she calls everything that is light yellow colored "blond," like one morning she called Kix, the "blond Trix!"

4. Super Why....she LOVES Super Why and so do I because she has learned all of her letters from Super Why.  The cutest is when I catch her singing the Super Why songs.

5. Reading...just like her mom and her sister, this girl loves to read.  She will just go upstairs and sit down and read books to herself.  If I read to her, sometimes she picks up her own book and repeats what I am saying.  Other times, she will pick up a book and tell her own story based on what she remembers from it being read to her.

6. Dancing...she loves to dance!  She and Lauren will get on their dance clothes and put a fashion/dance show.

7. Miss Lynn...loves, loves, loves her dance teacher.  She missed her when she was on vacation a couple weeks ago.  And dance wears her out since it is during her naptime!

8. Miss Jennifer....loves, loves, loves her preschool teacher too!  She is so blessed to have such great teachers.

9. "I am shy to her"...whenever she is unsure of people, she says she is "shy to them."

10.  her "ed" verbs...anytime she says the past tense she says the verb and then "ed."  For instance after Brad and I went to Justin's wedding a couple weeks ago, when we got back, she said to us, "I bet you miss-ed me."

ANDREW


Little Drew could not be much sweeter!  I cannot believe he is 11 months old!!!  He is such a sweet, sweet, kissable baby who loves his Daddy!!!  He gets SO excited when Brad comes home, and it's so sweet to see him crawl and put his head down to crawl over to his Daddy as soon as he walks in the door.  He is doing so many fun things lately, here are a few

1. Dancing...he is doing the baby dancing where he just moves up and down in a sitting position, but whenever the girls turn on the music, he crawls to wear the music is and starts busting a move!

2. Waving...he is starting to wave hello and good-bye.  About a month ago, he started waving good-bye and he says "Bye bye" at the same time.  And now he waves hello sometimes.  Yesterday, I went to pick him up after a group at church and he got so excited, he put his arms in the air and was waving both hands.

3. Climbing the steps...loves to take off for the stairs while I am trying to make dinner.  We are still trying to figure out the best option for the steps right now.

4. Wipes...he loves to hold a wipe in his hand.  He doesn't put it in his mouth that much, but when you try to take it away from him, forget about it, he is having NONE of that!

5. Clapping his hands...about two weeks ago, he started clapping his hands and it is so adorable, I just love seeing him clapping those little hands.  He will even do it on command most of the time.

6. Touchdown...he also does touchdown now.  He usually follows it with a clap or two.  And whenever someone sings the victors, he starts doing touchdown.

7. Cars...he loves to play with matchbox cars and the most adorable thing is when he makes car sounds with them.

8. Kitchen gadgets...he loves to play with all with tools in the kitchen, which is perfect when I am making dinner!

9. Our bathtub...his new favorite place to play these days is the bathtub in our bathroom, which is actually perfect because he will play in there while I am getting ready.  and sometimes he doesn't want to get out!

10. The phone...he is obsessed with the phone.  Whenever he finds a phone, he puts it up to his ear and pretends to talk.

11. Balls...still loves to play with balls and that was definitely his first word.