A Day of Firsts

Today was a busy day of firsts!  We started off with Colson's 1st dentist appointment.  He did so great and his teeth are healthy!

Boo went to the dentist too :)

 This afternoon was Alyvia's 1st gymnastics class too.  She has been asking to take gymnastics again for about a year now.  She is still taking dance class on Mondays and we now have gymnastics at Jump Start on Thursdays.  Thursdays are going to be crazy for us!

Then tonight we took the kids to their first Cheifs game.  My brother's girlfriends family rented a skybox and invited us all to join them for the game.  So nice!  The kids had a lot of fun and baby Kendall was a good sport too.  We left at the 7th inning because it was a school night, I'm not even sure who won the game-ha!

Colson kept eating ALL the strawberries :)

The kids got to meet Homer the mascot!

It was a crazy busy day, but ended as a fun night.  I hope we can try to go to more games next year!

The Last Days of Summer

 During our last days of summer vacation, we took 2 trips to the zoo.  The first was to Niabi Zoo in the Quad Cities.  Our membership at Glen Oak transfers to Niabi so we got to enjoy a members night for free! 
We went with our favorite monkey Lizzie Aigner!

They  had free train rides, free hotdogs and drinks, inflatables and carousel rides!  So much fun!

After the zoo, we stopped for ice cream in town, ppor Colson looks exhausted!

It was such a fun evening!  Alyvia's last day before school started, we went to Glen Oak zoo and had a picnic.  Always a fun time!

 These silly kids always want to climb on that lion statue...it's almost the most exciting part for them!  Colson and Lizzie got to feed the giraffe this trip too (Livi got to the last time we went).  Sidenote: I just realized I didn't have any pics of Kendall :(   Poor girl was stuck in her stroller!  It was a fun day to end our summer vacation with.  This summer flew by in the blink of an eye....again!  We're excited for what fall will bring with school starting for Alyvia and Cole, dance class, birthday parties, and who knows what else!  Here we go! 

A Boys Day

On Alyvia's first day of school, Colson got to have a day with Daddy!

It was over 80 degrees outside, but he insisted on wearing his JD shirt, jeans and work boots!  It had to be JD because the boys were going to visit the world headquarters of John Deere and the John Deere Pavilion.  This was Cole's birthday trip.  His birthday is not until September 16th, but Alan will probably be much busier then so he took him to the Quad Cities last Friday.

They had such a fun day together!  Alan barely got him off the tractors to go eat lunch!  My kids have such a great daddy.  He truly wants to be an involved parent and honestly loves spending days with them <3  Happy early birthday Colson!

First Days of First Grade!

Alyvia's first day of school was on Friday, August 16th.  She is in Mr. Melick's class this year and she is so excited about that!  She looks so grown up in these pictures :(  She wanted her pony tail to be low and on her shoulder (like the older girls wear it!). 

 I have many worries about school this year.  Alyvia is so smart, but she tends to hurry through her work and she gets very frustrated when she doesn't do it correctly (that must be from her dad- wink, wink).  I hope we can work together on her school work and have calm attitudes with each other.  I also worry so much about her having good friends.  I know she has friends, but little girls can be so catty amongst themselves.  She will be in school with these kids until she graduates high school, another 12 years!  I want her to make at least a couple good friends that will protect her heart and "have her back", it's one of my biggest worries.  I want her to be a good friend too.  To stand up for herself and away from the drama.  Maybe I'm getting a little dramatic myself :)  The first days have been good so far!  She is happy when I pick her up and hasn't had any homework yet :)

Good luck in 1st grade baby girl!  You've got this!

Our Baby Girl is 9 months old!

Sweet baby girl is 9 months old!  Mommy isn't a very good photographer apprently since I didn't get the whole sign in the picture :)  You are still the sweetest baby girl ever.  We go to the doctor tomorrow and we will see how big you are.  You are definitely continuing to grow like a bad weed!  You wear 9 month clothes and even fit into some 12 month stuff!  You are eating more and more table food, but you still don't have any teeth so it makes this mommy very nervous. 

You are still pretty easy going, BUT you have decided that sitting and playing without daddy or me is over rated.  We must be sitting next to you or you will cry :(  We recently tried putting you in the walker though and that seems to keep you happy (for now).  It took you about 2 days to learn how to make it go forward-FAST!  We had to put up the baby gate blocking the stairs to the garage door :)  No crawling, yet.  You lean forward from sitting and try to get on your knees, but you fall on your tummy.  I know you will be mobile on your own soon! 

It's hard to believe we're already starting to plan your 1st birthday party!  Love you lots baby girl, don't get too big too quickly!