Harley's Happy Place

Harley loves babies more than anyone I know. She'd rather sit holding one of her baby cousins than do anything else in the world. She will be a FABULOUS mother someday!

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All in good fun…

We’re so lucky to have kids who really, truly, love each other. HOWEVER… that doesn’t keep them from trying to bug the bujeeeeezers out of each other occasionally. Here is the latest attempt to drive Chandler (aka- Shinanilor Bong) crazy.

Yesterday, Harley posted this sign on her bedroom door…

Translation: “If you are a kid, come in. If you are not a kid, knock. This is for you Shinanilor Bong.”

Luckily, Chandler knows that it’s all done in good fun. Crazy kids!

Crazy times around here…

So it’s only been a week and 2 days since school started, yet it seems like it’s been weeks! Here’s an update on all the kids…

Chandler is in conditioning for flag football. He starts in the next couple weeks. So he and Eric have been running every morning at 6am. They run down to the park, practice throwing and catching the football, and race each other back home. I’m so glad to see Chandler so excited about something other than xbox. ;) I also love to watch the boys spending that time together. It’s so good for both of them. Chan’s also decided to play in the band this year. He was originally thinking he’d play the bass in the orchestra, but the idea of lugging that giant thing to and from school was a little overwhelming. So he’s decided to play percussion instead. He’ll have to start on the bell kit, but can move up to other instruments as soon as he shows he’s ready. You know that’s motivation enough for him to cruise through the bell kit book. Funny boy!

Shelby is going to have a GREAT year! She has lots of fun little girls that she previously new in her class this year. I thought that would be the highlight of her year, but it’s not. She LOVES her teacher who happens to be the perfect combination of fun loving and motivating. Shelby’s already feeling success, which is what I wanted MOST for her this year… for her to realize how smart she is, and that she can do ANYTHING! I went in to the class one day last week to help the teacher. Shelby thought I’d gone to the office to help, but I was just sitting out in the hall to work. I was SO pleased to hear her answering question after question. She’s feeling better about her academics and I LOVE THAT!!!

Harley has had tummy trouble of and on for a couple of months. However, we could always link it to having eaten too much, or being too tired, or eating junk food, or… So…

Monday: She said her tummy was sick again. So, thinking she was just tired from the 1st day of school, we sent her to bed early. Within a couple hours she was up throwing up, which she continued all night and into the morning, not being able to keep anything down.

Tuesday: I took her into the Dr. who gave her anti-nausea meds, and ordered blood test to see what was up. However, she was too dehydrated to run the test on Tuesday.

Wednesday: I took her to get her blood work done. That was a traumatic experience for all involved. They tried 3 times before finally be able to find one of her little dehydrated veins. She continued to feel terrible. She kept throwing up but wasn’t really running a fever or having any other flu-like symptoms. Very weird!

Thursday: She seemed to feel a little better and begged to go to school. So I sent her. At noon I got a call from the Drs. office telling me I needed to bring her in IMMEDIATELY, for antibiotic injections because she had an “extremely severe kidney infection”. YIKES!!!

Dr. told us that had this happened 6 months earlier they would’ve hospitalized her, because anything kidney related was immediately admitted. (Harley’s little friend was in the hospital for 6 days with the same thing back in January.) However, recent studies showed that if you treat a kidney infection with 2 antibiotic injections and 10 days of potent oral antibiotics, recovery time is the same as in the hospital. So we are following Dr.’s orders and she is a different girl. I’m so glad it was something easily treatable, and that she’s back to her crazy self! She is getting to know her teacher now, after missing 2 1/2 days of the first school week. She LOVES her, and so do I. They’ll have a fun school year.

Tatum is just happy to be such a big Kindergarten kid. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s barely been an adjustment for her to go to school. I thought she’d be tired when she got home. But, NO, she’s wound up! She adores her teacher, who is FABULOUS! (Chan & Shelby had her for 1st grade.) She’s making lots of new friends, and loves learning all the new school rules. She’s adorable, as always!

Dad is still working his tail off. He’s got 2 business trips coming up this month alone. We’ll miss him while he’s gone, but he’s always sure to let us know that he’d rather be with us than on his trip. He’s a GREAT dad!

Me… well… After having Eric and Harley home most of the week last week, I’m really just starting to settle in to being a full-time stay-at-home mom. It’s very quiet around here, but I’m getting lots done. I’m also loading up my calendar with field trip dates and classroom volunteering schedules. Focusing on family this year was the best decision I could’ve made. I feel completely invested in our family, and in making our home a happy, healthy, safe, comfortable place for all of us to collapse after our crazy school/work weeks.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!

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!