Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Peace

The weather the past few days has indeed been crazy-yesterday I took the boys to school in the pouring snow. Today, however, it is sunny and beautiful. Today I was driving home from Walmart with Miss Hope (we have had such a fun girls day today) and I noticed that our neighbors' yards are starting to look so pretty with blooming flowers. I then pulled into my own yard and sighed. Our yard is not very pretty. The yard is almost bare in a place or two where the kids play regularly. My flowers beds need attention and mulch and I was just beating myself up that I am not Miss Susie Homemaker. I then glanced in the backseat at this precious, curly-haired little girl sound asleep from our fun day out and I felt peace. I spent the day with my favorite girl doing our favorite things-eating pizza, library, strolling through Walmart in search of anything princess, and just having fun. There will be plenty of time down the road for a beautiful yard and pretty potted plants. For this season in my life I am choosing to invest what precious time I have in my children. Our evenings are spent running from one of their activities to another and our weekends are spent cheering them on on the field or playing outside. So today for once I have peace that my yard is not the most beautiful on the golf course. For this season of my life I am choosing to invest my time and love into my children and my "adopted" children through preschool. There will be plenty of years down the road to don my sun hat and play with flowers but for now I choose to play with the children that run through my flowers:)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Weekend

The weekend went by in such a blur of preschool lesson planning, sports practices, and spring cleaning. I have soooo missed being in the preschool classroom and I have had a ball mapping out the remainder of my year to prepare my inherited class for kindergarten. You know you are a dork when children's literature and lesson plans excite you:) I could not sleep Saturday night for dreaming up new creative plans for my four year olds. Friday morning was hilarious at my house. Hope and I were trying to get ready for preschool and it was school picture day for sweet Dave. He insisted to wear another shirt and tie to school. by 7:10 a.m. he was dressed and looked like a little executive-the only thing missing was a Blackberry! Ha! What stole my heart was this picture. Before Mike left at 7:15 he insisted to get his picture with his Daddy in their matching outfits. The look on David's face in this picture tells it all. Look how proud he is that he matches his Daddy:) Moments like this are precious in the life of a family. I am so thankful that God blessed us with this red-headed wonder with the designer chromosomes. This picture brings me to tears-Mike is such a good Daddy to all three of our children. Then of course David wanted a picture by himself so this is the pose that he chose for in individual shot. I am not sure if the school pictures can beat the ones we took in our kitchen before 7:30 a.m.! Friday night we all went to the luau at Kyle's school. I had to work the snowcone booth (I am still sticky) so Mike was in charge of all three kids at a school event! That is a challenge because David knows the whole world and wanted to visit with everyone.
Caleb, Tonya, and Kyle at the luau.
Grace and Kyle before the luau started. They are getting to the age where pics are definitely not cool but they are sweet friends. I am still smiling over that fact that they wanted to have a sleepover together after bible school last summer:)
This picture is terrible but here is a picture of David waiting his turn at Tball to field the ball. We have such a cute Tball team and DAvid is loving it!!
Practicing hitting with Coach Daddy. Mike is not the head coach of any of the spring sports, but he is the assistant coach for David's soccer and Tball teams, and Kyle's baseball team. Nothing makes Mike happier than coaching his kiddos.
Saturday morning Kyle got an opportunity to go to a soccer clinic that a local college was putting on. Despite the freakishly cold temperatures we are having he LOVED working with this college team. Things like that thrill Kyle and he is definitely enjoying this travel soccer team.


We have such a busy busy week ahead. Every night the kids have at least one practice or a game-spring is busy but I love cheering on my boys in their sports. Life is good.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

This week

My sweet silly children keep me entertained. This week Mr. David decided to wear a shirt and tie to school to match Daddy:)


He was so proud of how handsome he looked all day at school:)
On Tuesday I went to my grandmother's lake house to help her put her house back together. She is now living with my parents but wants to return to her lake house for the summer. Over the winter she had her walls painted and hardwood floors put down. It looks so good now and I know that Pawpaw would have liked it too:)

My sweet Hope has fallen in love with princesses. She watches princess movies and reads princess books all the time. Next weekend she has been invited to a princess birthday party where the little girls come dressed in princess gowns and they will get hair and makeup done at the party! I think it is going to be so cute and we spent today looking for a princess gown that fits. I found this hand-me-down from Caroline that fits her perfectly! She has been Snow White all day now.


Blowing kisses!

This picture sums up her current passions-princesses and books. She is all the time dragging books towards me to read. How can I resist a princess?

Monday, March 21, 2011

Soccer Dude

If your budget is tight and you need some cheap entertainment come on out to the soccer field to watch David's soccer team play! They are so cute and he loves being out there.

Posing in the yard with his soccer ball before the game:) I love his little expression. I also love that his shin guard socks are so big on him that they look like thigh highs! Ashley and I got such a laugh as we were getting him all geared up.
More pregame pictures!

Mike is the assistant coach on David's team so here is a Daddy/Son shot before the game in their matching blue:)


Concentrating so hard on that ball! We were so proud of him at his game. Last year he kind of just ran around the mass of children going for the ball but this year he got in the mix!!


Mix it up David-get that ball!


This picture melts my heart. Mike is helping the goalie watch out for the ball and David is his assistant! I love both of their expressions:) It thrills my heart when David gets to participate in rec league sports. I know that as the competition gets tougher sports like this may not always be an option for him, but for now I LOVE watching my boy mixing it up on the soccer field with his friends. I love that David's life for now is totally inclusive and that he has every opportunity to participate with his friends from school in extracurricular activites. Go David go!!!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Weekend

This weekend has been so much fun so far. We have had beautiful weather and the kids have enjoyed being outside. Kyle left this morning to go to Radford fora sleepover with my parents. So Mike and I enjoyed our little ones and Mr. Dave had a super busy day.
The day started with Tball practice! Dave can hit the ball really well but we now need to teach him to stop celebrating his hit and RUN! He also had soccer practice this afternoon. Mike is the assistant coach for both of Dave's spring sports teams.
Dave was all willing and excited to take Hope on a wagon ride until we realized that his plan was to let her go down the hill by herself with a push from him!

We spent a good part of the afternoon finally cleaning out our garage. Wow-that place was sooo messy and needed a clean out. I found Kyle's big wheel from his third birthday and as you can tell it has been well-loved. The plastic wheel is busted and I put it out in the trash pile and Mike told me that he was not ready to part with it yet! I laughed because usually I am the sentimental sap but for once it was him:)


I even got the moon bounce out for the kids to enjoy on this pretty day. They loved it and Hope is finally old enough to be able to enjoy playing in there with Dave. He used to make her nervous!

After our baths Hope and I did our toenails! I love when we have matching toe nails:) I love hearing her show off her "pitty toes!"
Here are some pictures of Hope because she was in a sweet smiley mood and I took full advantage of it. Lately she has not been cooperative with the camera so when she wanted to ham it up I kept clicking!!!
This picture proves that she is such a big girl these days. I no longer have a baby and that makes me sad except for the fact that she is sooooo funny. I cannot believe how long her hair has gotten lately.

Modeling her new springy outfit and insisting to put her skates on before the party! This afternoon we were invited to a Special Games Skating Party and it was so much fun. There were some of our older and younger friends there and it was wonderful.




We have now entered princess-mania!! We just booked a trip to Disney for September and she is princess crazy and especially loves Cinderella! She wanted to read her princess book on the way to the skating party.
Hope like to skate and we were so blessed that Jason and Ash came to the party. Dave adores both of them and he did more socializing and picture taking than skating!

Kilby and Angie!


Dave and Angie. This party was so much fun and it made me realize what friendship is all about. Times like this make me so happy that God blessed us with David because without him we would miss opportunities like today. I sat with Angie's mother (Angie is my age and has DS like Dave). Angie has a strong-will just like Dave and her mother and I laughed so hard over stories about our designer-chromosomed babies and their strong-wills!! I am so thankful that I have friends, role models, and cheerleaders traveling the road of "special needs parenting" with me.

Here is a picture of Jason with his camera that I would give my right arm for. He is an awesome photographer and Dave loves him. This is a picture that Dave took of Jason and I thought it turned out pretty darn good. Dave took tons of Ashley today but she had on a Jason Aldean shirt and he kept focusing on the shirt instead of her face!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Hope's Busy Week

This has been such a fun but super busy week as I have started back teaching three days a week. I am loving being back in the classroom and despite my concerns about Hope, she is LOVING it also! She is doing great and I am so proud of her.

It seems that so much of her time is spent cheering on the boys in their activities but Tuesday nights are our music nights and then Wednesday nights are gymnastics nights. She loves both music and gymnastics and this week she was the only one at gymnastics so I got to take lots of pictures!!

I cut her head off in this one, but she loves the mini trampolines and they are usually apart of the obstacle course.
Here she is "swimming" through the water!

I hate that this picture is crooked but here is my monkey swinging on the bar! What is even more amazing is that she is letting Ms. Karen help her! I so hope that this class is helping her overcome her shyness:)
Here she is once again letting Ms. Karen help her with her back flip and with her handstand. I am not sure why these pictures rotate when I upload them, but I love her little expressions in these pictures-she loves gymnastics!!

I also think being at preschool is helping her overcome her shyness. Today I looked up and she was happily playing "Ring around the rosie" with two little girls. I am so proud of how well she is doing at school-I was so worried that she would be clingy but that as of now is not the case.

Coloring with the big kids!! I love to see her sit at the table with the kids and do what they are doing.
Her favorite thing at school is the computer because she can get on whenever we are not doing a structured activity! She melts my heart.


This weekend Kyle is heading to Radford to go to the Virginia Tech basketball game with my Dad and have a sleepover. We will stay here because Mr. David has a busy busy schedule with Tball, soccer, and a skating party. He will get our undivided attention this weekend here at home.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Random Pics because they grow so fast.....

This past weekend I took lots of pictures of the kiddos because time is marching by so fast that I do not want to wait until the perfect moment to pull out the camera. So these are some random shots of my children in action.

My big big girl! How is it that we are nearing the big two? How is it that her hair has gotten so long and curly? How is it that we have long conversations now because she is so verbal? I love my time with her and despite the toddler temper tantrums she is so much fun.
She goes so hard and then she crashes at nap time. I love her sweet little angelic face.

What I love about these days is that Hope and Dave are my playmates. They do almost everything together and I love watching them interact. They definitely fight and fuss, but they have so much fun together. David is Hope's very favorite person in the world. I pray they are always this close. Here they are waiting for Buzz and Woody to come on.


Here they are enjoying some yogurt together (they totally should not be eating in the sunroom but I chose to let them stay so I could get this adorable picture!)

Dave does not even mind playing babies with her!

Hope loves her babies these days!


This past weekend was David's first soccer practice! I thought he looked so cute decked out in his under armor cold gear, tights, and cleats. He had a blast at practice!


My sweet girl. She will let me put her hairback like that with a bow. I am not pushing a hairbow on her but I definitely want her hair out of her eyes. Curly hair can look unruly very fast so thank goodness for detangler!! We spritz it every morning to make it not look frizzy and fuzzy.

Not sure why this picture is sideways, but here is where Kyle spends the majority of his sunny days-out shooting hoops in the driveway. He would be out there for HOURS if we would let him.


Hope in her sweet princess dress. She is definitely falling in love with princess stuff and any dress that looks sparkly or fancy she calls it her "pinciss" dress! Also check out her glamorous necklace she made in sunday school:)

I could write a book about this picture. It warms my heart that Dave is so invested in Hope and that he loves to teach her stuff. It seems that before Hope came along we were all on the teaching side and Dave was always the learner. Now it is wonderful that he has a little sister to teach.

Hopie girl!


Sunday Hope and David were invited to a St. Patrick's Day party at the skating rink. I thought they looked so cute decked out in their green! Hope does not look thrilled in these pictures because we were having a standoff over her tights. Mike finally had to intervene and put them on for her! She is refusing a hairbow these days, so I am pulling it all back in a ponytail or pulling her bangs off of her face with an elastic band.

This is the picture that tells me that I no longer have a baby. I cannot believe how "big girl" Hope looks to me these days. Her hair has gotten so long and curly lately which I think has matured her look. She is soooo verbal and doing so well with the potty that I feel like I have a preschooler instead of even a toddler. I love her at this stage but there is a part of me that will always have baby fever:)