Three Amigos First Birthday Fiesta!

Happy FIRST Birthday Cannon, Palmer and Griffin!

(my niece and nephews)

We are SO glad we got to come to Texarkana this weekend and celebrate your first birthday with you! You guys are so special to us! Your mommy threw quite the fiesta!

We had a lot of fun!

How cute are they?!

Lawson, Reese and Hudson getting the party started!
I just loved these cakes! Super cute!
Pinata time!
All the kids loved taking their turn hitting the pinata!
Loot time!
Hudson and Reese playing some football!

Lawson is going to be so sad that the babies won't be drinking bottles much longer! She LOVES to help feed the babies!

Here is Hudson serenading the ladies!

Settling In!

So, we are starting to settle into our new schedule. Lawson has done GREAT waking up using her alarm clock, getting dressed and making her bed all by HERSELF! Then she helps me fix her lunch, eats breakfast, brushes her teeth, tells me how she wants her hair done, and we are out the door! I am REALLY impressed with her independence and cooperation!

If we can only continue this for the next 12 years!!!

Here is Lawson doing her homework for the first time!

So cute!

Meanwhile.......

Hudson has kept himself busy this week

with sports and music! His two faves!

Pretty much the only toys he plays with these days are his sports and music toys!

I was worried he would miss playing with Lawson. They are pretty much inseparable, but he doesn't seem to miss a beat with her being at school. He loves to put on concerts in the kitchen so he can watch his reflection perform in the oven glass! So funny! Often he keeps paper and a pencil beside him on the floor so he can sing a little, then writes and says, "I just wrote a new song, Mom." We aren't sure where he has learned this. Robbie is a musician but has never written a song in front of Hudson.

Song-writing may just be in his blood!

We had a thunderstorm this evening. Hudson asked us "Who is making the thunder? Is it God playing the bongos?!" He just keeps us laughing!

Our bed is his new fave place to nap. He will ask to lay down on our bed after lunch and watch The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (modern day Saved By the Bell I think!) until he passes out! He really "gets it" and will tell me later what happened and what people said. Really funny!

He has a really rough life!
This is how he tucked himself in on the recliner after we took La to school this morning!
I think he would LOVE to have satin sheets....if his daddy would let him!

You've come a long way baby!

Can this REALLY be the same child??!!It seems like just yesterday!

I stole an idea and plan to capture the first day of each grade like this.

I think it will be a fun way to watch her grow!

Little Miss Independent on her way to class!
Lawson and her cool school!

Her cooperation with my photo-taking is starting to wear out!

Her Daddy had to resort to tickling her!

Her CRAZ-O brother can always make her smile!

I took a shot of her after we had walked out into the hall.

She is busy with her play-doh.

On a side note.....I can't believe I managed this morning without a tear!

I was very impressed with myself!

Here is Ms. Blair bringing her to the car after school!

I was SO happy to see her!

Ms. Blair said, "She had a great first day. She is very popular. All the little girls wanted to play with her." Seemed like quite the compliment.

She hopped in the car, buckled her seatbelt and quickly joined her brother in watching a movie. So, my 1000 questions regarding her day had to wait! Torture for a mom!

We went home and celebrated her first day of Kindergarten with an ice cream party!

Here I am trying to get the "scoop" on her day!

She told me...

-that she really liked it!

- that she couldn't remember the friends' names in her class.

- that Ms. Blair read them a book but she couldn't remember what it was about.

- she went to gym, sat on a line and it was boring.

- that her favorite part of the day was when Ms. Blair showed them how she wanted them to color their own pictures by coloring on an overhead projector (I'm assuming). She said she liked to see how good her teacher could color.

- that she no longer wants to bring her lunch but wants to BUY her lunch. (which doesn't surprise me....she is her mother's daughter, and the urge to "buy" is in her blood!)

Here is her daily schedule:

8:00 Welcome

8:10 Circle Time

8:40 Reading

10:05 Co-Cur

11:10 Lunch

11:45 Recess

12:50 Math

2:45 Centers

3:00 Dismissal

All geared up!

Lawson is SO ready for her big day tomorrow!

She just keeps talking about how much fun it is going to be!

Here she is going to bed for the last time as a PRE-schooler!

We have been letting her practice getting up by herself using an alarm clock. She loves to do things independently! The plan is for her to wake up, get dressed and make her bed....all by herself....and then come have breakfast, brush her teeth and let mom do her hair before school.

She got to get a new alarm clock today for her room (You can tell by the look on her face in the photo that the new one is SO much better than the ugly black travel one we let her practice with last week.) The clock is sooooo cool....the top white part you see on the top actually has a feature where it slowly changes from pink to purple, to red, to orange, to yellow, to green, etc. It's very hip!

Her cousins...Reese, Griffin, Palmer and Cannon sent her this CUTE back-to-school cookie bouquet. Such a thoughtful thing to do! The card they sent said "Good luck at your first day of Kindergarten!" She asked me to read it to her again. I did. Then she replied "Well, I'll try!" (She said it like....I'll do my best but there is only SO much I can control!" It was SO cute!

Here are the paper plate heads we made tonight. The kids are very excited about laying out their clothes for the next day using their paper plate likenesses!

One last photo.....

We went bowling last night to celebrate my friend, Mary's Birthday!

I thought Hudson was SO cute in his little bowling shoes that I had to tag this photo on here!

Meet the Teacher Night!

We met Lawson's new kindergarten teacher, Ms. Blair, tonight!

Lawson had a great time and she can't wait

to start school next Monday!

Robbie told her that he thought she was

really gonna like her teacher.

She replied "I think I'm really gonna LOVE my teacher.

She is very pretty!"

So funny!

The teacher planned a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids.

They had to search the room for the circle time mat, the teachers desk, their cubby, their assigned seat, the Texas flag, the bathroom, etc. I'm so thankful that she has such a nice new and seemingly wonderful school to go to. Actually makes me happy to be a tax payer!

Lawson was very excited to find that she had a BLUE star on her cubby because her favorite color is blue!
Here she is trying out her assigned seat.
Hudson had a good time at meet the teacher night, too!
He made a fast friend and they had a big time cooking in the kitchen.
He told me "Mommy, I want to have my birthday party at Lawson's new class!"
Evidently he thought it was a fun place!

La makes me laugh!

(I apologize in advance for any nightmares these Dollar Store piggy banks may cause you! I could not take a photo of them that did not make them look super CREEPY! They are really quite cute....you will just have to take my word for it!) So...

I was explaining to Lawson tonight about how we are going to start giving her a weekly allowance.

And here is what transpired next:

La: Why do I have three banks again?

Me: One is to put the money you are going to give to God in, one is to save for a long time like until your 16 and want to buy a car, and one is to spend whenever you want.

La: But we don't have to give our money to God if we don't want to, right?

Me: No, God doesn't make you give it. But the bible tells us that God asks us to give a small part of our money back to him. And obeying God is always the right thing to do. Also, it helps churches pay for electricity, bible story books, craft supplies, water for the bathroom, help other people and lots of other important things.

La: But we don't have to if we just want to keep it ourselves.

(I wish she came by generosity more willingly. It's something we are working on with her....but at least she has the honesty thing down!)

Me: Again, we want to always obey God. It's the best way to live. Since you are always in your Sunday School class you probably haven't seen me and daddy give our money to God. But we give our money during church too.

La: You do? (with a look of shock) What do you do....like throw it up on the stage? Like we do the alligator at Rain Forrest Cafe?

Me: (laughing hysterically at the visual she just gave me!) No, we don't throw it on the stage!

La: Oh, I thought maybe you threw it on the stage, then Mr. Lee would pick it up, juggle it and then throw it up to God!

(Now, we are both laughing! I went on to explain to her that it wasn't quite that exciting. We simply put our money in a basket that is passed around.

However, I wonder if more people would tithe if they could throw their money on the stage!)

Happy 13th!

Check us out!

August 17, 1996

Today!

We haven't changed a bit, have we?! Ha! LOL! I HOPE my hair and eyebrows are smaller!

(someone please be a TRUE friend and tell me if they aren't!!!) We celebrated 13 wonderful years of marriage by getting a babysitter and eating at The Cheesecake Factory.

This Keylime Cheesecake was delicious!
We reminisced during dinner about how on our earlier anniversaries (pre-kiddos) we would always go on a big (they seemed big to us) trip. We went on a cruise, to Eureka Springs, San Antonio, Galveston, Houston, etc. And how now we are lucky to just go to dinner alone! We wouldn't trade it though!

After dinner, we went to see The Proposal. This is a funny feel-good movie!

We thoroughly enjoyed it!

I'm SO thankful Robbie proposed to me!!!

Big Day!

Today was Robbie's last Sunday to be on staff at Bear Valley.

He has served as the Worship Pastor there for the past 5 years. Over the last several months, God has made it clear to us that He is calling us to something else. Calling us to what? We aren't sure yet. What we are sure of is that we have clearly heard His voice and want to be obedient. We are trusting that He will reveal His plan for us. This is a uncertain but exciting time. We have made SO many wonderful friends at Bear Valley and though we will miss going to church with them....we will definitely keep in touch! Here are the kids enjoying a donut at church this morning!

They will miss their weekly Krispy Kreme fix!

The children's ministry at our church sponsored a Splash Day today at a small local water park!

It was definitely one of the funnest things

we have done this summer!

(and we have done a lot of fun things!)

Here is Lawson about to jump off her first semi-high diving board. (It was about 4 ft from the water.) She has jumped off of lower ones before. She spotted this board across the pool and asked me to take her to it. I said sure but thought there was a good chance she would back out. (She is not a risk taker!) She climbed right up and marched right out.....about the time she got past the hand rails.....she got a strange look on her face. She walked out to the end...you could definitely see the fear in her eyes! I really thought this dream was over for her. Then she proved me wrong, psyched herself up and jumped in! She jumped over and over for about 2 hours today! She probably went off this board 25 times!
Then......Lawson got stung by a bee! Poor thing!
I thought this might cut our day short. She can be pretty dramatic!
We got her some ice from the first aid station to put on it. She cried for a few minutes.....then said she wanted to go swim again. As we were walking back to the pool she said,
"If another bee stings me, we will just get some more ice, right?" What a trooper!
Then for the last challenge to this day....
Lawson and Hudson both went down this water slide!

(the white slide)
Lawson (my non-risk taking child) has had the chance to go down a slide like this a few months ago.....and even though all her friends were doing it she would not. But, today she did it! And after she did, Hudson wanted to go....until it was his turn. Then he got cold feet. There was a cute blond lifeguard girl who kept encouraging him to go down. He was listening to her but wasn't convinced. The lifeguard girl had to slide down and take over the shift at the bottom of the pool. She told him if he would slide down, she would catch him at the bottom. And THAT was all it took! He came down and she caught him....and that was the beginning of his infatuation with her! He kept asking where she was and when he could swim to her. When we left today, he wanted to find her and tell her goodbye! We didn't find her though. He asked why we couldn't find her over and over on the way home until he fell asleep! His mommy is not too happy about him beginning to chase after cute girls at the age of 2!

Will I Be Saved by the Bell?

I had three goals for Hudson this summer:

1. get potty trained

2. get rid of his pappy (pacifier)

3. transition from his baby bed to his big boy bed

I have read all the parenting books and know that you shouldn't make more than one change at a time to a toddler's routine. So, I thought we would have plenty of time to conquer all three goals over our summer break from preschool. Evidently, I was a little too ambitious! We began working on goal 1 (potty training) on May 26. And as of today, we still have not mastered the task! There have been stretches where he has done perfect for 3 days at a time, then the next day he doesn't make it to the potty once! He knows how to go and has no issues with it....he just chooses not to when it isn't convenient. Makes me a crazy person!
So, we made a purchase at Cracker Barrel today...

The Buie Bathroom Bell!

When anyone in our house needs to potty,

they get to ring the bell before they go!

You are not allowed to ring the bell for any other reason! I'm hoping this bell will provide the extra incentive we need to get this thing mastered! I have tried to motivate him with other treats before, and he is only excited about it for a day and then doesn't care. I'm hoping that since the entire family is participating in the bell ringing that it will create more interest and have a more lasting effect. Since the bell was introduced this afternoon, Hudson rang the bell 3 times, pottied and stayed dry. So far, so good!

Also, I introduced a Potty Chart.

If you are dry when you go to potty, then you get to put a sticker on your chart. When your chart is full, you get to pick a treat at the Dollar Store. Hudson has already announced that he is going to get Chapstick for his prize! Not candy, not a toy! Chapstick! It's his new favorite thing!

Of course, Lawson is potty trained....she is just participating with Hudson because she wants a treat too! Her participating is also helping to stir up some friendly competition!

If this doesn't work, I think I may give up!