He's Finally Got the Hang of It!

After 14.5 months I can officially say, our Graydon is a walker! It seems like it has taken him forever to decide that he wanted to be mobile on those two chunky feet!
He is our slow, laid-back baby - last to sit, last to crawl, and yes - last to walk!



When my sister was home for Hudson's birthday in July, he decided to take his first steps! Aunt Shannie was able to capture it all on camera.



These expressions and smiles say it all!







Now - Gray is pretty much a pro! Still many falls (and with a few fast crawls in between).









Graydon is becoming a BIG BOY right before our eyes!

Two Best Friends

Little H and Baby G are becoming quite the little friends! Days spent together and built-in playmates - they are bound to learn to entertain each other.

Thank goodness they love each other!



Two sweet boys who are becoming such sweet friends!

Just How It Is!

Things have been crazy - busy around here and honestly, I've been too exhausted to even sit at the computer and blog...

What have we been up to.......

Weekends are NOT restful days for us - Saturdays and Sundays are spent cleaning the attic, rearranging closets (getting ready for fall), extended grocery trips, quick stops at school to get ready for the upcoming week, some amount of yardwork, loads of laundry, updating the boys' rooms (Clayton just got a window seat installed!), etc.

I feel like I am in my 1st year of teaching again! - With a new school philosophy (The Leader in Me), Data Notebooks, Leader Boards, etc. - I feel a little bit like I'm traveling in a whirlwind! By 2:30 I'm not sure if I've ever sat down (except for a very quick recess break and my 15 minute lunch break!) and I know I haven't even stopped to take a bathroom break!

I have been in bed by 8:30 each night this week. After a full day of work, seeing 1 First Steps kiddo, homework/reading with C, dinner, baths, and some straightening of my house - I'm totally wiped out!

I live for my weekends with my boys! Hectic they might be - I still love my time with them! Sleeping in a little later (7:30ish), pajama mornings, cartoons, cooked breakfast, and time together gets me through the next week.

Between school and getting settled into our new school routines for two big boys, our family blog has definitely suffered .......
Until next time!

Wordless Wednesday (on Friday): Our Big Rockstar

Hudson's 1st Day

Today was Hudson's 1st day of school. He is attending the same Early Learning Center that Clayton attended when he was 2-3 years old. It's a great little school, just two days a week- half-day. Nothing full-time - just a program with a little structure to get Hudson used to some sort of routine and meet some little friends his own age.
Will attended his 2nd - 1st day of school with our boys. He knows the drill by now - camera, take tons of pictures, head to work and upload pictures, then e-mail them to me!





I had my pictures by about 10:15 this morning.



Hudson had a great 1st day!
Reports from Poppy (who picked him up from school) - "Hudson got in the car singing "God is so good". "The teachers said he had a great day and did really well!"



Reports from Grandma - "Hudson said he played trains and played with the girls"



Reports from Hudson about school - "We just play coloring. "I played outside on the slide." "Then I played with the kitchen."



Sounds like a full day to me..........

"The Wheels on the Bus"

Clayton has loved his first week of 1st grade! New school, new teacher, new and old friends, and now - the bus!



Clayton has been begging to ride the "cheese wagon" for years. I have always told him "you must be 10 to ride the bus" and he always seemed O.K. with that.
Until this year.........due to our work schedules and Grandma being home with Hudson and Graydon - the bus was the perfect plan.
It comes straight to the house to pick him up, promptly at 7:25. He is the last kid on in the morning.



........and the last kid off in the afternoon. The bus drops him off every afternoon exactly at 3:45. Most days he has at least one parent & one sibling waiting to greet him outside!



It's perfect!

Wordless Wednesday - Hudson Goes to School

Clayton's 1st Day

Clayton started his 1st day of 1st grade today! He absolutely loved it!
I did get my 1st day pictures from Will about 9:00 this morning - thank you, Husband!



Favorite Moment of the Day: Playing outside with William - "Today we had 2 recesses, but after today, we will only have one"



Special Memory: 1st bus ride home! "I rode the bus and it was fun!"
"Since everybody was almost off the bus, there was just me and one other person - I was looking out and saw our house. I told the bus driver that it was my house."



"One thing that's different - if I have to go to the bathroom, and teacher's doing reading group, I just go to the door and she will see me and nod her head for me to go."



"We have sticks to pull if we listen or not. Today was just a warning day, but tomorrow we will just start pulling our sticks!"



"Today I did more work that I've ever done before."

Me: "Clayton, now what's your teacher's name?"
C: "Ummmmmmmmm."
Me: "Uh, Mrs. Myers"
C: "Oh yeah, that's it!"

Tomorrow's the big day!

Tomorrow my Big C starts 1st grade! I can't believe it - a new school, riding the "cheese wagon" (as Will calls it), a new beginning!
Sunday afternoon we got to visit Clayton's new school and meet his new teacher! I have to say - he was pretty excited! Clayton seems pretty at ease with the whole thing (though he doesn't know a single child in his class). I honestly think he's more excited about the bus ride home in the afternoon than actually going to school. We were able to meet his bus driver and give all possible phone numbers (you can't lose my C!)



Tonight, I was able to take Clayton shopping for his new school supplies! This was his 1st school shopping trip! We headed to the local Big Lots and Clayton picked out pencils, a pencil pouch, scissors, glue, crayons, and a notebook as well as Ziploc bags, hand sanitizer, & Kleenex! He was super excited!





Will has always taken Clayton to school on the 1st day (since I'm in my own classroom). He knows to take tons of pictures and he emails them to me once he gets back to work. I will be waiting anxiously in the morning for those first snapshots of my big boy!

Best of Luck to My Big C on your first day of 1st grade!

A Fresh New Look

This year I will be beginning my 9th year of teaching Kindergarten. For 8 years, I have rearranged my classroom (too many times to count), but this summer I took on a whole new challenge - painting my classroom!
I decided on two colors - a turquoise blue and a lime-colored green (two walls of each).
Now came the work! Removing all letters, alphabet strips, color charts, number charts, word wall charts, etc. off the walls!!!! Some of these haven't been even moved in 8 years! - can you imagine the filth and dust! YUCK!!!!!



Then came the scrubbing, sanding, and cleaning of the walls!
Then taping the walls, boards, baseboards to paint!



Then a date night to actually get the painting done! - Thanks to Ashley and Mahlon!- without little kiddos it took @ 5 hours.







Then came to job of placing & rearranging all letters, alphabet strips, number charts, word wall charts, etc. back onto my newly painted walls.






It was a lot of hard work- for our whole family! - but I have to say - I love it!