No! No! NO!!!

Today the kids started back to school. *sniff* *sniff*

(Dad was there, too. He’s taking the picture. He took some time off to be there for their 1st day of school.)

This Summer just FLEW by! Only 7 weeks off and we’re back to the grind of the school schedule. Last night we had one last dance before starting the next big adventure in our lives. It was so sweet. We all took chances to dance with each other… Chandler and I, Dad and all the girls, Dad and I, and Chandler and all the girls.

 

I happened to catch a really tender moment on camera when Chandler saw that Harley was upset and anxious about the changes that were coming, so he took her hand and started dancing with her to help her feel better. I LOVE this picture! So precious!

 

This school year marks a new era for our family… or at least for me! All 4 kids started school, which leaves me home all day every day, by myself. Not sure how that’s gonna go, but I’m sure we’ll I’ll figure it out shortly.

Tatum, the baby of the family, started full-day Kindergarten today. She was SO excited! she’s been talking about it for months. Her teacher is one we’ve had twice before, so she already knew who she was, and was excited to get to know her even better.

  

Harley started 1st grade. This is a big step in the elementary school world. When you start 1st grade, you get to play on the “big kid" playground. So, she’s feeling really grown-up.

Shelby started 4th grade. She was a little nervous to get a new teacher. However, her class is FILLED with little girls that she loves! That’s great for her. She’s a little social butterfly, so she’ll have a GREAT year.

 

Chandler started 5th grade. I can’t believe he’s so old. As we walked him to class, I wanted to grab him and smooch his face an tell him how much I was going to miss him. However, I restrained myself knowing what a COLOSSAL embarrassment that would have been to a big 5th grader! He has a couple of really good friends in his class this year, so I think he’s going to have a good year, too.

As for Eric and I, well… we’re struggling like nobody’s business a little bit. How did they get so big? My recent blog, "Letter From Me" explains my feeling very well. How do we keep them our little babies forever? I guess we can’t. But, Eric said it well after dropping off the kids, “We’ve raised some well adjusted little kids.” It’s so true. They were so excited to go off to school and be a part of the fun there. But, they were also concerned about dad and I being ok without them, and about each other. Chandler and Shelby couldn’t go to their classes until they’d walked Tatum and Harley to class to make sure they were ok. Good kids!

All in all, I think it’ll be a good year… A little different, but good.

My Baby’s Bob…

Sweet little Tatum has been growing out her hair for a couple of years, and wanted it cut before she started the next big step in her life… Kindergarten.

So I cut her hair…

Now she looks like a big girl!

 

I love her new bob, but I don’t love how big she’s getting. Someone let me know if you have a way to keep these munchkins from growing up.

Accidental Anniversary Celebration…

Yesterday was our 12th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe we’ve been together that long, but it’s also hard to believe there was life before “us”. 

It was a great day! It started with separating for activities… Eric and Chandler went golfing, and the girls and I went to a cute “chick flick”. Then, we met up for lunch and some back to school shopping. We spent the afternoon just being lazy and hanging around the house with the kiddos.

Then, last night we thought we had a babysitter lined up so we could celebrate our anniversary with a quiet evening out together. So Eric dropped me off at the restaurant to get our names in, and went to drop off the kiddos to the babysitter. When he got there, he realized there’d been a miscommunication, and we weren’t really going to have a babysitter. At first everyone was a little bummed, until dad said, “Everyone go in and get dressed! We’re still going out to dinner!”

So, we took the whole family out for what was planned to be our quiet anniversary dinner, and it ended up being one of the greatest anniversary celebrations we could’ve had. What better way to celebrate the last 12 years together, than with those we’ve loved together for the last 12 years.

I think we’ve discovered a new family tradition… celebrating the family’s birthday… our wedding day… the day it all began!

Summer fun…

We’ve been having a whirlwind of a Summer. School starts next week. We’ve only had 7 short weeks. :( But, it’s been a GREAT few weeks. We’ve gone to a cabin, had swim lessons, played with cousins, gone to movies, gone shopping, and just had a fun time being together. One of the things we did was tie-dye t-shirts. The kids LOVED it, and they turned out SO cute! We’ll probably doing more in the future. It’s just too much fun!

Chandler’s 11th B-day

Our little Chan Man turned 11 on July 9th. With that, it’s hard to believe 2 things…

#1--That I could possibly be old enough to have an 11 year old. I mean, didn’t I just graduate from high school a couple months ago? I guess it’s been a little longer than that. :(

#2--That he could possibly be that old! It seems like just the other day that he was born. Yet, it seems like he’s been here FOREVER! He is such a great young man. We are SO proud of him!

For his 11th B-day, he requested a trip to visit his Great Uncle Tom in Sierra Vista, AZ to go shooting and out to lunch. So we made arrangements for the girls to go to Grandma & Grandpa’s for the day, and headed down there. It was a great little trip, as always. We sure enjoy our time with Uncle Tom.

Here are some pics of the shooting range…

Uncle Tom brought a couple of pistols for Chandler to shoot. His favorite was the Walther P22. He probably shot 200 rounds through it, and told us as we left, that he was gonna save his money to buy one.

 

Grandpa Stewart had us take his Winchester .45 long rifle to test out some reloads for him. We ALL enjoyed shooting it. Can you tell by the look on my face? :)

 

 

I also took my dad’s 22. He let us use it while he’s on his mission. I LOVE shooting that thing. It takes me back to when my dad would take us out to shoot cans when we went on the Father/Daughter campouts. Good times!

That night, it was out night to watch all the munchkins involved in our babysitting co-op. So we did a mini party for Chan Man. His sisters bought him a HALO encyclopedia that they’d found WEEKS before his b-day. It sat in my closet for weeks, waiting for his b-day to come around. They were so excited to give it to him! And, he LOVED it!

Here’s the b-day crew…

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Chan!

(He’ll have a b-day party with his friends in a week or so. Stay tuned…)

July 4th weekend…

I’m running behind on my blogging… ‘cuz Summer’s keeping us hopping! But we had a GREAT 4th of July weekend in the pines with some GREAT friends, the Buchanans (also know around here as the “Puke cannons”. I know, we’re gross!) They were nice enough to invite us to their family’s cabin for the weekend. I was a little laid up with my recent knee injury (more to come about that later)…

But the rest of the fam had a BLAST here…

The cabin was right on the creek, so the kids spent most of their time building a dam, and chasing down crawdads. Here are some pics from the weekend…

They even got the dads involved in the dam building and crawdad hunting…

Here are all the kiddos standing on their dam…

Eventually, they cooked up the crawdads. The boys were so proud of their catches.

Chandler dug right in, and seemed to think it was kind of alot of work to get just a little bit of meat. But he was still happy to do it…

A few kids wouldn’t try them. I don’t really blame them, cuz I thought it was pretty nasty, too.

 

Tatum’s looks were the funniest. She was pretty grossed out by the whole thing.

 

She finally got brave enough and picked one up, and after trying some, she really liked them.

During the weekend, we also took a trip to the local fish hatchery.

I was a little freaked out, and kept my distance since fish are SO not my thing, unless they’re cooked and swimming in lemon pepper and butter. ;)

But, the rest of the kids loved all of it.

 

The boys also spent alot of time fishing during the weekend. They eventually caught a little one that they gutted and bbq’d for dinner. Those little boys are too cute! (That’s as close as Shelby would get to any living thing they spent the weekend looking for. She’s my girl!)

 

Thanks again, “Puke Cannons” for a GREAT weekend!