First Day of Second Grade

I can't believe Maya is in second grade already! I put her on the later track this year so she could ride the bus with Kaitlyn to school. We weren't sure what time the bus picked up, so we missed the bus on the first day! It is going to be a great school year, I can tell already! It was fine to drive her to school. She has lots of cute new clothes to wear to school so she was excited to start. She has had a lot more homework already so she is very busy after school. She tries to get some of her things done in the morning before she leaves for school, but between reading, dance, scriptures, piano lessons, and homework; there isn't much time left for playing! I can't say I feel too bad about that! That's what the weekend is for!

An Official Announcement

The secret is finally out. We are pregnant. We found out between our two family reunions that we were pregnant, but when we got back from the second family reunion everything went downhill. I have been in and out of the doctors' office for several weeks. They thought I was miscarrying at first, and then they found some other complications. Anyway, to make a long story short everything worked out fine. We kept waiting to tell people because we weren't sure what to say. The kids have known for awhile now, but they were sworn to secrecy and they did awesome. We finally told family this last week so we are now letting other people know. I am already out of the 1st trimester. We are due in February.
I think I would have been emotionally better off if we had not had all these scares and complications in the beginning. Now I am just holding out for the best. We have had many conversations with the kids. We all spoke before we decided to go ahead and try, to make sure everyone was ok with it. We have talked about the reality of something happening to this baby, but I'm not sure it would soften the blow if something does happen. The kids are super excited, so I am hopoing things go well. As far as we know there is only one this time, but that has not been confirmed with an ultrasound.
Luckily for me, I have an awesome OB. I don't know if I could do all this again without the care and support of my awesome physician. His nurse and him have been really supportive and overly cautious. He has given me permission to call and come in anytime. He expects me to be a basketcase and is willing to do whatever it takes. Right now I am pretty detached from the pregnancy. As bad as that sounds, I can't emotionally go there. I think it will probably be like this until I hold that baby in my arms and everything is fine. For now it's going to be a long six months!

Potty Training Success!

Gavin has been ready to be potty-trained for a while now. I have been holding out because it was so difficult with the girls, and I had heard boys were harder. I wanted to wait until he was closer to three, not 2 and 2 months. Finally I gave in and bought some Thomas underwear last weekend. It took him less than a day to figure the potty thing out. He was by far my easiest and youngest to potty train. The bowel movement thing is a little challenging, but he sleeps in underwear at naptime and at night with no problems. He doesn't get out of his bed after sleeping until someone comes in there to get him so some mornings he calls out to me saying, "Mommy I got go pee!!" So I have to rush out of bed and run him to the toilet, but it is all worth it! Still have not bought any pull ups for any of my kids! We have been really lucky with the potty thing.

End of the Birthday Week

We finished out birthday week with a big party for Uncle Bradley, Uncle James, and Aunt Lindsay (plus the girls too)! They all got their own candle on their cakes!

The kids played in the pool and on the trampoline. We had a fun dinner and lots of fun. Happy Birthday everyone!

Super Swimmer!

Maya had her final swim party this week. She got several ribbons and a plaque from the county meet. Plus, she got a trophy for qualifying in 3 events. She was pretty excited that she got so many awards. We are so proud of her. She really put in the time and effort to do her best! She can't wait for next year. Then they got to swim in the outdoor pool. They went down the big white waterslide many times! When the sun went down, they got really cold, so we didn't stay very long!

Kaitlyn's Birthday

Kaitlyn turned 5 on Aug 10th. I convinced her that it would be more fun to have a girls day out, than to have a party. I have to admit that it was actually really fun for me too! We started out the day by going to breakfast at Denny's. If you know Kaitlyn, she absolutely loves breakfast especially orange juice! Going out to breakfast is huge for her! Then we went to the mall to get her ears pierced. She was very talkative and brave. She picked out really expensive earrings to be put in her ears! I didn't even know studs could be that expensive! She is obviously going to be our high maintenance person. After getting her ears pierced we went to the nail salon to get Gel toes done.

I thought the nail technician was going to have a nervous breakdown by the time they were done. Kaitlyn talks non-stop, asks lots of questions, and rarely sits still! I tried not to laugh as the woman tried to hold Kaitlyn's foot and answer all her questions. We grabbed some lunch and then went to Build-A-Bear. She got to pick out a really cute bear to stuff and dress. It was pretty fun. She had a little bit more money after all that so she got to go to the store and buy herself a barbie. She said over and over, "This is the best day ever!" How can it not be when you get to do whatever you want all day and get pampered?! That's my ideal birthday every year. We finished off the night with banana splits. (I was way too tired to make a cake by then!) Happy birthday girls!

Birthday Week Begins

Maya's birthday is Aug 8th. She had a party on Saturday at the Legacy Center. It was really fun and really easy for me. They all got to swim and had pizza. All I had to do was bring cupcakes! The price was really reasonable though. She had a blast with her friends and got lots of fun gifts! I can't believe she is already seven years old. They grow up so fast!