Little Gymnast

Last week, Gracyn had her first gymnastics class. Poor girl is long-overdue for an activity of her own. Many, many hours of shuttling the other two around and waiting on their activities and she deserves it. She looked so cute in Reagan's old leotard....her "nastics coths" as she calls them. She did a great job in class. She was WOUND UP!!! I have never seen her act as crazy as she was running and jumping around in there. I took a few quick pictures, but at the pace we were moving it was tough. Gracyn was the only girl in class who was brave enough to tell the teacher her name during circle time. Her friend Elle was there, too. Elle might have said her name, but before she ever had a chance Gracyn shouted to the class, "She Ellie-Bellie!". It was such a cute morning....I am looking forward to a lot more fun Fridays at Little Gym.

Soaking up....

Every last second of summer.

That beautiful, lush, green grass....not ours. Like most of the neighborhood, we don't have a sprinkler system, so at this point in the season most of us have dry, brown, barely alive yards. Our neighbor, however, had a sprinkler system installed, which he runs all the time. It is definitely paying off for him. But, shhh, don't tell him we were in it. While he is super nice and generally kind, he doesn't like his yard touched!!! She was just right on the edge and I only let her stay long enough to snap a few quick pictures.

No Training Wheels!

Reagan never ceases to amaze us with her athletic ability. She most certainly didn't get any of it from me....her Daddy probably, but not me. She is good at most anything she decides to try and she picks up new things easily. Monday evening, we were playing with neighbors outside, when Reagan drug this old little bike out of the garage. It didn't have any training wheels on it and she decided she wanted to ride it. I only took her 1/2 seriously, since she is only four, but we got a noodle out, and Tommy prepared to help her. He wrapped the noodle around her and helped her for a few minutes. Shortly after, she was riding all over the neighborhood. She starts and stops herself and rides it completely independently!By the next morning she was cruising to the bus stop and back, with no problem. We were so excited for her.

Here she is on one of her first solo rides.

This was how it started. Daddy held the noodle for a bit and then let go. She has the biggest smile on her face!
Giving her a boost when she was first starting.

By day two, Reagan was tired of the little bike and wanted her big 14 inch bike. I have no idea how she rides it, since her feet don't touch the ground, but she does it. She needs a bit of helping starting on this one, and she just sort of jumps off when she brakes.

I put the pants on her when she got this one out....just in case!

So proud of our girl. We love watching her new accomplishments. She really did have the biggest smile I have ever seen. :)

First day of First Grade

Addison's first day of first grade was a big hit! Fortunately she had better success at school, than I had taking pictures. Something must have been on my camera lens. Combine that, with trying to get 3 girls, who have gotten used to sleeping in and lazy starts, up and out the door to the bus stop and I didn't do that great with my pictures.

Here is Addison loading up the bus. It was a crazy start! We were outside plenty early, but because of road construction and first day craziness, we didn't expect the bus to be on time. The kids were happily riding bikes around the cul-de-sac, when the bus rounded the corner about a minute early. Bikes were quickly tossed to the ground and frenzied kids ran to the bus. Probably a blessing for mama, because I didn't have time to cry. At least not until I got back to my quiet house and thought about the fact that I had just put her on a bus for a full day gone. It is like sending your heart away and waving good-bye. Thankfully Reagan, Gracyn and I had plans at King's Island with friends, so that kept us busy.
Here she is with her #1 for first grade. She had her hair down with no bow, per her request.

Pretty girl, she came home with only good things to say about the day. I expected her to be exhausted, but that wasn't the case. The neighborhood kids poured off the bus and then played hard in our backyard and out on the street all night. The came in for quick dinner breaks, and then everyone met back outside.

Sister love. Reagan has asked a few times randomly, "Where's Addison?". They aren't used to being apart.

These pictures back up to last Friday when Addison had "Meet the Teacher". Tommy came with us that morning, but was working beforehand, so I was scrambling to get us all ready to go and forgot the camera. We only have a few blurry pics from his phone. Her name tag has the name of another student on the back, because she had two teachers. She spends half the day with her homeroom teacher, learning several subjects and then switches to the neighboring teacher for the remaining class. The name on the back of the card, is the student who uses her spot from the other class.

We met both teachers and everyone seemed great. Addison was most excited about the Science Lab she gets to visit once each week. They have 7 class pets in there, and if your parents give the okay, you can go into a drawing to take one home and babysit for the weekend.

I am missing my girl like crazy, but I look forward to hearing her stories at the end of each day. I am so grateful that she is happy and having fun!

I Heart Summer

I am not ready to let summer go. My girls and I have had a BLAST!!! I feel like this summer, and the fun I have had with them is the pay-off for the last 6 years up all night, changing diapers and taking care of babies. They are still little, but they are more and more independent and they are FUN! I enjoy just hanging out with them. Of course, I have days when I am ready to pull my hair out and minutes to myself have been RARE, but most of the time I LOVE having them home. I love being schedule free and just having time to play with them. Below are some of my summer favs!!! ~Summer 2011, the year my children learned to sleep late!!! They are usually up around 8am, which is late for us, but there were days we were all sound asleep until 9am. Poor Daddy, he is awesome, somehow managing to maintain his 5:30am mornings while keeping up with our summer party!!!

~King's Island....LOVE IT. We have been once or twice a week all summer. Sometimes we went for full days, other times we just pop over for a few hours in the evening. My girls are fearless and love the thrill of rides and I love watching them. They also have great shows and the best popcorn I have ever tasted!

~Road trips! My girls have been in or through 7 states this summer. We had great vacations and enjoyed all the adventure and time away. They are great travelers. We love sharing new experiences with them.

~Friends and family.....we loved having them visit and visiting them.

~Reagan learned to swim.

~We have built strong relationships with new friends. We are thankful that God blesses us with good friends everywhere we go.

~Jumping on the trampoline.....they are out there everyday. Favorite games....with Mommy, I jump them to the sky. With Daddy, they play "chicken catchers"....he sits in the middle and catches/tackles them as they run around the edges.

~A week of strep throat. I didn't enjoy having them sick, but we had a great week snuggling, reading, and watching movies together. We were in the house for almost a full week of down-time.

~Lifetime Fitness. That place rocks. I love working out. The kids love the playroom (especially since their friends are there) and we love the pool and cafe.

~Punky Brewster. I got old disks from Netflix and the girls LOVE it. They aren't all appropriate, but with a little monitoring, it is a great show for them. I get sucked into them with them. It's amazing how I can remember the episodes from my childhood.

~Crafts, books, ice-cream and park days.

~Cincy kids at our church and working in Discovery Zone. Reagan and Daddy work in Gracyn's classroom and Mommy and Addison work in the 4 year old class.

~Listening to my girls play together.

I am so thankful for the time I have had at home with my girls. I am not ready for first grade to come on Monday and take my Addison off each day. But, ready or not it is coming in just 4 short days.

Texas Road Trip

We are just returning from a whirlwind road-trip to Texas, that included nearly 3000 miles driven, 5 nights in 4 different hotels in 3 different states, and 4 nights at 2 different grandparents houses in between. My girls are rockstart travelers!!! We did a terrible job taking pictures.....maybe it was because we were always busy packing/unpacking, loading/reloading or driving somewhere! We drove 10 hours the first day and spent the night in Little Rock, Arkansas. The next morning we were up bright and early to drive the last 6 to my parents house. We spent the night there and then headed to Dallas for 2 nights in a hotel where we saw my mom and spent some time with extended family. From there, we drove to Temple, Texas and stayed a few days at Tommy's parents house. One night, we left the kids there and snuck away for 24 hours in Austin!!! It was a much needed late anniversary celebration....first time we have been out since we moved to Cincy (takes a long time to find a sitter you can trust with 3 small kids!). Finally, Saturday morning we left his parents house at 4:30am and drove 12 hours to Nashville. We spent the night there and left at 5am Sunday morning for the last 6 hours home. Big thanks to my husband....he gets up at the crack of dawn and always drives the first 4 or 5 hours while the rest of us are crashed-out sleeping!!! It sure makes the trips go faster that way.

The girls were so excited to be reunited with the horses!!!

We spent several hours outside from around 2:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon....it was BLAZING HOT!!


Daddy took his shirt off, so she did too.

Reagan loves to swing from the lead-lines hanging in the barn.

They rode back and forth inside one of the barns, where it was a little cooler.

Reagan rides for a minute and then she is off, playing in the dirt. Addison is a truely in love with the horses and stays on them or with them every second she can.

Gracyn had the best expression ever, when the horse began walking with her. She loved it!!

We had cupcakes for Miss Debra's birthday.

We visited Tommy's Grandmother.

Mimi took the day off. We went shopping, ate at In and Out and played at our hotel.

She watched the girls while I had dinner out with my friends. This is the only photographic evidence that I was even on the trip!!! Tommy got to meet up with a friend from Coke in Denver, who has recently been transferred to Dallas.

Christie, Shannon and her daughter Kaleigh came back to hang out at the hotel pool. Addison was happy to have a friend for swimming.

We had dinner at Uncle Steve and Aunt Dannea's new house.

We hung out at Grandma and Pampa's house. Gracyn LOVES their headphones.

Steve and Dannea have two little puppies....Major and Oliver. Our girls LOVE them. The puppies were very tolerant.

Picture attempts on the final night at 9:30pm.

Maybe not the best time. :)

We had a great trip and loved spending time with all of our family. The girls had a blast and said it was their favorite summer vacation. So glad we were able to go!

Big Girl Bed

Sigh....for the first time in nearly 7 years, there isn't a crib in use in my house. I had planned on keeping Gracyn in the baby bed, at least until she was 4, but her amazing acrobatic skills put an end to that plan. Several weeks ago, she started climbing out of her bed with ease. Every nap and bedtime was becoming a fight. We would put her to bed, she would climb out of her crib, open her bedroom door and come find us downstairs. Clearly, it was time to move to the next phase. This weekend we disassembled the baby bed and used the back of it for a headboard on her new, cozy full size bed.

Here is the little culprit in action.

Over and out, no problem.

Here she is all snuggled in her new bed.

She had plenty of moral support.

She has done well in her bed, but she usually has a sleeping partner for a little bit. The first night, after the bedtime routine, Reagan slept with her awhile. Last night it was Addison's turn.

Did I mention that Reagan was very blonde and very tan right now?

Can you see her sleeping upside down at naptime yesterday. Based on the huge mess of books in the floor (and the noise I could hear downstairs), she still didn't stay in bed, but at least she played for a bit and then climbed back up and went to sleep. I'll take it.

My baby girl is growing up! Next step in the process....potty training boot camp, coming soon!!!