School days

Not to state the obvious or anything, but I am so behind on the blogging front! When I think of all that I need to catch up on and document I feel completely overwhelmed and hopeless! I can't seem to catch up on anything anymore with all the crazy events combined with everyday life that just keep a comin'! It's been a CrAzY 4-5 months (who am I kidding, the whole year has been that way) and I don't deal well with crazy, I have to say! But for 2 seconds things have calmed down and I miraculously don't have a party to plan, a vacation to pack for, a wedding to outfit hunt x 4 for, a young women lesson to plan, Halloween is OVER(!),  and no one in our house for maybe the 2nd time since August is super sick and we haven't had to go to the Dr. all week! Miracle! Needless to say I'm scrambling to catch up on this poor pathetic blog!  When I look at my sidebar, there are only about three friends on there who even blog anymore. Kind of sad! After joining Facebook a few months back I realized that it's stolen all the once faithful bloggers! :) But I'm determined to keep going.... This is the only way I remember anything with this mommy brain of mine, so I know that I have to keep rolling if I want to be able to relay stories to my kids of their childhood someday! I've already referenced it numerous times in answer to Emmie's inquiries about what she was like as a baby...thank goodness I wrote those things down!!;)

So here we go. :)

Parker started Kindergarten the last week of August...

Here he is on his first day!
This sweet boy of ours has a mid-summer birthday, so it was discretionary as to whether we should send him last year and have him be the youngest in his class, or send him this year and have him be the oldest. The Elementary school recommends having boys with summer birthdays to be the oldest, and obviously (since he's in Kindergarten now), this was what we chose...for a number of reasons, but we really feel like that extra year of maturity will be especially beneficial to him in the middle school and high school years! A Kindergarten teacher in our ward made the point that kids are pushed to grow up so fast these days, and that giving them that extra year of childhood is a gift... I couldn't agree more! Plus she said she notices a huge difference in the boys who are youngest versus older in the class. P is such a smartie pants (he was reading all last year and he is somewhat of a math whiz - I'll have to give examples sometime), so I have to say I was a bit nervous wondering if we made the right choice for him, but I can tell you that we are 8 weeks into school and he is loving it and thriving! Everything is so fast paced that he doesn't have time to be bored. His teacher is so great and makes sure that he stays challenged, as well as the other kids that are at his level. He loooooves to do his homework and comes home excited to do his worksheets and read his nightly books that are sent home. (This is no surprise, he's been crazy about doing workbooks since he was 3.) It's awesome to see him loving it so much, and we feel so blessed to live just down the street from such an amazing school and to be a part of such a great community!



And this little Miss, she started Preschool the following week. She too absolutely LOVES IT! She picked out the biggest Dora the Explorer backpack she could find and thinks she's all grown up, going to school like her big brother. I've said it before but she is Miss Independent (that might be my middle name, so I suppose I'm guilty of passing that one off to her;), and has gone everytime with complete confidence and no need for Mom. I have to say I was a bit teary the first day, but I got over it when I went home and realized I could hear something that I hardly recognized... peace and quiet!... something that I haven't had in six years since P arrived!;) (No joke)

 Sitting down and focusing is not Emmie's thing, so I wondered how she'd do, but she is definitely learning and getting better at writing.  We carpool with some of their friends and we drop them off at the same time... it works out really well!

My kids are growing up. This is the first time in 6 years that I've been away from the older two for more than four hours a week (that's how long P's preschool was the last 2 years). It's nice to have time to run errands or spend one on one time with Lex, or clean my house uninterrupted for a minute. It's amazing!
This last year was tough for me. As much as I love my kids and love being a mom, having a new baby and balancing three kids under 5 and having them home with me pretty much 24/7 just about threw me over the edge, I have to say.
 But I'm happy to announce that I think I have found the keys back to my sanity...PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN!
 Hey, they're happy, and so am I. :)
It's a win-win! :)

YAY for school!