Looooong December

Londynn has the WHOLE month of December off from school. To keep myself from going crazy we came up with a sticker/reward chart. Good behavior and doing jobs around the house earns them stickers. Bad behavior and not listening makes them lose stickers. When they have earned so many stickers they get to pick a fun activity to do. So far they LOVE it.

The first reward up was making play dough. Who knew making play dough was so easy. The kids loved help make it and best of all they each got to choose what colors they wanted.


I asked Boston to smile for the camera and this is the look I get.




Such a simple activity that has provided hours of entertainment for the last couple of days.

He's off

Well my not so little guy started preschool this week. To say he was excited was an understatement. I was a little sad because I wasn't able to go inside and drop him off because I had to get Londynn to school. I pulled up and dropped him off and the kid didn't even look back. I can't believe he's already in school. He was definitely ready for something. He's been asking to go to school since Londynn started preschool. I'm excited to see how he grows this year and I also can't complain of the 2 1/2 hours of free time I have 2 times a week.



This was my attempt to get a picture of them together. Londynn would having nothing to do with it.

The unthinkable

I did what I thought I would never do yesterday. Londynn has afternoon Kindergarten. We are well within walking distance from the school but being the lazy mom that I am I always drive her to school. Picking her up from school however is a different story. I forget how crazy pick up can be and all the cars so I have been choosing to walk to school to pick Londynn up. She knows to wait for me at the flag pole that way she is easy to find. Yesterday I thought I would I have her start to walk home and I would meet her. On the way to school I showed her where I would be waiting. If I was where I said I would be I would be able to see her walk from the flag pole to me. I thought this would be a great idea because then she could get the feel to start walking on her own and also make my walk a little less long in the scorching afternoon heat.

The afternoon rolled around and I was dragging. I told myself I would just lay down for a little bit knowing that I would never be able to fully fall asleep because Boston is still around and needs me (he usually comes in my room multiple times while I am trying to rest). Just to make sure I wouldn't be asleep when school got out I set my alarm. Well before I knew it I was waking up and it was 3:35, school gets out at 3:25. I jump out of bed and realize that Boston had also gone to his bed to take a nap. I hurry and wake him up and run out the door thinking that I was late but still would okay. As I came to the place where I had told Londynn to meet me, Londynn was no where in site and the last of the school kids were just crossing the crosswalk. My heart sunk. The nice crosswalk lady asked me if I had a little girl I was picking up. She informed me that Londynn had come to the crosswalk and didn't know where to go to from there. She was in tears. She had sent her to the office to call me. At this time I could see her walking towards the office so I called her name. She heard me and turned around and I don't think I have ever seen that girl run so fast. I was heartbroken.

Needless to say I think I learned my lesson about taking naps/resting while my kids are gone at school. It took a lot of convincing and promises to get Londynn to go to school today and I honestly can't blame her. I traumatized the poor child. Here's to hoping that today is a better day.

It finally arrived

The first day of kindergarten that is. I feel like I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Londynn has a September birthday so she missed the August deadline. I feel like she has been ready for school for awhile. She needed something to keep her busy and quite frankly I needed it to. Everyone always talks about how they cried after sending there first child off to kindergarten. Maybe I was to preoccupied with getting packed up to head to our family reunion after she got out of school for this to really hit me. Either way she was so excited and I was happy for her that I'm happy to admit no tears were shed. She is LOVING school.

Growing up

My little girl has done a lot of growing up these last couple weeks. It started about 1 week ago when she lost her first tooth. She was SO excited. She was able to pull the tooth out herself with a little help from her aunt Kelsey. She was fully aware of the fact that the tooth fair was going to make an appearance that night.

At around 11:30 that night Londynn comes walking into our room excited to tell us that the tooth fair had come and had left her $2. I understand the excitement and didn't mind being woken up; however, the events that continued to happen after that left me less than thrilled. We told londynn that we were happy for her and to take her money and return to bed, which she did. Five minutes later she was back in our room saying that she thinks she heard the tooth fairy in her closet and wanted us to come and check it out. Sure why not it's only 11:30 and we're half awake. Jared gets up to check things out and returns to bed. A couple minutes later Londynn has returned, this time she says she's seen a little orange light and that it's the tooth fairy. She's to scared to return to bed. By this time Jared and I are furious. Londynn is being the drama queen that she is and won't stay in bed, Jared and I are tired and just want to go back to bed. We finally ended up taking her $2 away and threatening her with her life (okay not really but we definitely were not happy) if she didn't return to bed. I'm happy to report that she stayed in bed from then on. I think the next time a tooth is lost we will have to inform the tooth fairy to make an appearance while she is at school.

Her next growing up moment happened last night and today. Our little princess graduated from preschool. I really didn't know what to expect having my oldest child graduate and I was surprised when I found myself shedding a few tears after I picked her up from her last day today. I think she also felt that sadness because once we returned home she also broke into tears saying that she already missed her teachers and didn't want to go to kindergarten she wanted to go back to preschool.

Preschool for Londynn did amazing things. I can't believe how much she's grown and learned over the course of the year. Not a day went by that she wasn't asking if she had school that day and wanted to know what she would be learning at school. One thing about my little girl that didn't change was her fear of being center of attention or being on stage. My little girl definitely has a strong will. I could offer her the world and if she didn't want to do something, she simply would not do it. No convincing could change her mind.

Last night was her graduation. We invited grandma and grandma to come even though we knew that the chance of her getting on stage and participating was slim. We showed up and there was a chair on stage with her name on it. She was the only child not up there. Being her mom there is still a part of me that is saddened when I can't get her to participate but over the last couple years I think I've come to accept this as being part of londynn (and quite honestly I have no where to talk because she gets this from me).

Another school year over and a new chapter beginning. It sure is fun watching my kids grow up even if it makes me cry.

So funny

This is really mean of me to share but it's one of those moments that was to funny and I don't want to forget.

Boston has been potty trained for about 6 months. He's done really great but still has those occasional accidents. Last night we put him to bed around 8:00 and at 9:00 I was to tired to stay awake so I went to bed. Apparently around that same time Boston woke up crying. When Boston wakes up crying it usually means one thing...he's had an accident. I had just fallen asleep and didn't even hear him cry so Jared walked into his room to see what the problem was. Apparently Boston had his legs over his bed rail and had just had an accident. We think that he woke up to use the bathroom and started making his way off the bed when I guess he assumed the position that felt like he was sitting on the pot and let go. lol Poor kid was still to asleep to realize that he had not yet made it to the bathroom. At first I was frustrated (just like I am every time there is an accident because I have to clean in up) until Jared shared his theory with me and then I couldn't help but laugh.

vacation

We had so fun much at Disneyland last year that we decided to go again this year. This year it was just our little family and my sister Kelsey and her husband Derek that went. I am surprised how well the kids did on the long drive. On the way there we stopped at Prim for the night to break it up. On the way home we drove straight through. Our kids are at the perfect age and it makes family vacations fun.

It's amazing how things change in a year. Last year it was torture trying to get Londynn to go on any rides. Boston was pretty easy going last year and went on basically everything we wanted him to go on but if he saw Londynn crying then most times he ended up in tears also. This year there was a lot more smiles and Londynn was willing to go on more rides. Both kids have grown a lot since last year which meant that both kids could go on most rides. With the exception of the "scary" rides (i.e space mountain, haunted mansion and Indiana Jones) we went on almost all of the rides.

Before we left on the trip the weather didn't look like it was supposed to be very warm so I packed long pants and long sleeves for me and the kids. I should have known better because the weather was beautiful and on one of the days it actually got a little too warm.











The Toy story rides was a favorite of all of us and we were sure to ride it many times.





Boston thought it was pretty cool to get a picture with Mr. Incredible. They had just put on a little street show and Mr. Incredible came up and gave him five. He was all smiles.





On one of the days we took a break from Disneyland and did a little shopping and headed to the beach.



We've heard to many good things about The World of Color that we had to see it. Pictures don't do it justice because it was pretty cool. The kids loved it and when it was over we couldn't get back to our car soon enough, the kids were tuckered out.

California and Disneyland 2 years in a row was a blast but I think it's safe to say we have had our fill for a couple years.
The only downside of vacationing this early in the year is that in a couple months I will be ready for another one.

Tender moments

Having sick kids is the worst. Being sick yourself also isn't any fun. I can't decide which is worse? I recently was hit with some nasty bug that left me in bed with a fever, the chills and the aches from 3:30 until I went to bed last night. My kids new I was sick but that didn't stop them from coming into my room every 5 minutes checking on me, whining at me, or asking me for things. At one point after dinner Londynn came walking into my room as somber as could be. She just looked at me and I could tell she was fighting back tears. I asked her what she needed and she said "I just want you to feel better". By this time her eyes have filled with tears but she's still fighting them back. Out of my 2 kids Londynn is most like me. She is very strong willed and I feel we butt heads more than we get along. It's not very often I feel we have those "tender moments as mother and child" and quite honestly that makes me sad. Last night we had one of those moments. As she is trying to hold back her tears for me I couldn't help but to let mine fall as I tried to reassure her that I was going to be okay and I just needed to rest. As she walked away she mumbled the words "I love you mom" and left my room.

It's moments like those that I am reminded of how in tune our children are. Here I was laying in bed feeling sorry for myself and all Londynn wanted was for her mom to feel better. Oh how I love my little girl, even if we butt heads. :)