Busy, Busy, Busy and More Busy! :)

Wow, life has been so busy since the start of the school year! Some days I feel like I am spinning in circles. Up early, off to school, back from school, play outside with Jacob, come back in, put the kids down for nap and rest time, get a few things done around the house, try to play with some pics, Jacob up... outside again (the kid could live outside, not looking forward to the cold), dinner, outside again, inside for bath, then bed. Whew... but man, it sure is fun!!! I am so so so blessed... thank you God for all the blessing you have given me! I do look forward to the weekend were we can take our mornings easy and stay in our PJ's till 10 if we want to.

Anway, this weekend we got our pictures taken by a friend of mine, Jorja, from one of my photography forums. Her website is inmyprimephotography.com/... if anyone wants to see the pictures online, let me know and I will send you the password. She did a beautiful job, I really don't know how I will ever choose. Hopefully one day I can be as good as her.. LOL! I am constantly trying to learn more and more about photography... sometimes it is frustrating because with school, kids and being a wife, mom, and teacher, it is often hard to find time to read and learn.... but it will all come in time! :)

Bella is getting over a cold (poor girl)! But she is still cute as ever. Hoping the cold will go away soon so I can get some rest at night. It has been really hard this week because I haven't been feeling great, plus being up a lot with Bella. Jacob is GREAT... he really thinks he is about 10! He love loves loves preschool! So glad I decided to send him this year!

Here are a few recent pics from this week.....


Jacob made this picture of him during his second week of preschool.. I was pretty impressed. I am thinking they helped him with the colors because his eyes are blue, hair yellow and he has a blue shirt on, just like he did the day of preschool... but even if they did that, his coloring is pretty good for 2 1/2!


Mom... don't take my picture!

Jacob's first day of preschool!!!!

Jacob started preschool this week! I can't believe my little baby is in school! He has been so excited and really wanted to ride the bus to school. Didn't make sense to him that he was going to school, but not riding the bus. LOL! Anyway, I am so excited for him and am so looking forward to a great year. His teacher, Miss Kim is great. I actually had her daughter in class when she was in 4th grade, funny huh? I tried to document the day. Well, my photography stinks in a lot of these. I stink in full sun and the light was changing so much.. yes, not my best photography, but it was so fun to capture this very special day, so I don't care on bit! :)




Jacob getting ready for his big day! :)


right before getting into the car


So... excited to go to preschool.. just check out that smile!







I had FULL sun, which is really hard to photograph in, so I decided to play with the sunflare... I think it turned out kind of cool. Couldn't tell if I liked black and white or color better.



We stood outside looking in for a few minutes. He just wasn't quite sure what to think.





Elmo backpack hung-up... ready to meet the teacher and classmates.



All the students put their apple on an apple tree that had all their names on them.


He sees his teacher... I can tell by his face, he just isn't quite sure, but he ended up having a fabulous first day! He can't wait to go back next week!


This was the first preschool paper he brought home! :)

Jacob passed his egg challenge!

Yipppeee!!!! We are so excited! Daddy took him to the food challenge. They were there for 4 hours!!!! They brought cookies, brownies, french toast, pancakes... Then Jacob was allowed a few bites at a time. He kept eating it until he finished a couple of pieces of french toast. Of course he loved it and got mad when they told him he could only have 1 bite the first round (that would be hard for me as well - LOL!)

Anyway, I got a video of Jacob eating his first homemade cookie.. it was pretty cute. I have been trying to post it, but it is doing something funky, so I will work on it and post it later.

Next Friday we have our soy challenge. Hopefully he passes that too... not like we really have much soy, but regardless it will be nice to only have one food to avoid. Peanuts.

Bella's first tooth cut through yesterday!!!!

Jacob was holding Bella here... she just adores her big brother.. I love it! He is pretty crazy about her as well!


He is getting so big.. he is such a good kid, I am so lucky!


We have woods in our backyard and I have not once in the 4 years I lived here noticed several of our trees have these berries on them.. guess I just need the curiosity and eyes of my 2 year old to find them!! He thought it was pretty cool.. but I had to make sure he knew they were not to eat!


I am into this new processing... I mostly use actions and then tweak a bit. I sure have a lot to learn on photoshop, but it is fun playing!


yep.. evidence, she is totally teething!!! Poor thing!




LOL.. this is actually an old one, but I had never posted it... yep, this is how she already feels about all the pictures I take of her -LOL!

It is still too small to get a picture of it, but I can totally feel a bit of it has peaked through! I am going to have to look in the babybook to see when Jacob got his first, but I feel like this is a bit early??? Hopefully that explains some of our terrible nights lately. ;) I can see a second one right there... oh man, not looking forward to the terrible nights these next few weeks with her teething. ETA- I peeked in Jacob's baby book and Jacob got his first tooth almost exactly when Bella got hers, within days of each other. Isn't that crazy!

Anyway, here are a few recent pics of my little lady and little man!

Bella is 5 months old today!!!

I can not believe my baby is 5 months old! She continues to be such a wonderful addition to our family! She is so happy and so good. She is teething pretty bad right now, so that is causing her to be up a bit more at night, but I just try to tell myself, this will pass and soon all of her teeth will be in and I will so miss that toothless smile! LOL! She is sitting up by herself!!! It is so fun and she just loves it! We have to watch her pretty close, but really she can sit for quite some time without falling! Go Bella! God certainly has blessed me with such beautiful and wonderful kids and wonderful hubby! Poor Kevin has put up with a few grumpy mornings of mine after little sleep... love ya hun! :) (I still don't get how men can sleep through everything.... I could have Jacob up 3 times and Bella 3 times and he wouldn't hear a thing- LOL!)

School Begins....

I can't believe it, another school year is here. Boy oh boy, can't my family and I play all year round and not have to work? It has been such a fabulous summer. It is so nice to have 3+ months of family togetherness. All I can say is I am so incredibly thankful I only work half days. I really don't know how I could do it otherwise. Not only would it kill me to be away from my kids all day long, but to have to also come home and do all the mommy stuff like cleaning, cooking, and playing, plus find a moment of "me" time... I would surely go insane. I have a hard enough time keeping up with things as is. Thank you Mason for being such a wonderful place to work!!! And I do have to say, I am very thankful I love the job I do. I am 100% positive God has placed me on this earth to make a difference in the lives of children, both my own and my students.

Anyway, now to my kiddos... we have been doing great! Jacob has had a big couple of weeks. It is no secret that Jacob is a very loving kid and momma's boy for sure, but also turning into a daddy's boy lately. He loves his cuddle time with mom and dad and of course we love it as well! However, mom and dad were getting little sleep between Bella waking up and Jacob coming into our bed, so.... we started a chart! Everynight jacob slept in his own room without us having to take him back to his room he would get 2 stickers on his chart, everynight we had to help him back to his room he would get one sticker. Each sticker also meant a starburst. He is doing GREAT! and wakes up in the morning saying "Mommy, Mommy, I get a starburst" He is soo.... proud of himself. He will also say "Mommy is so proud!". What a cutie! Now all i need to do is get Bella to sleep all night and we would be set! ;) Wonder if a chart would work for her ;) LOL! I thought I had a picture of his sleeping chart, but i don't, I will add later.

We also started another chart for Jacob... that he also gets stickers for. Every morning, if he gets dressed himself, he gets a sticker, if he brushes his teeth, he gets a sticker... same at night. Every 4 stickers he gets a quarter.. he is pumped about his money!!!!



Bella is doing great... she is teething like crazy! She is constantly sqirming and always talking. I have a feeling she is going to be an early talker. She is doing great with Jen... of course she misses mommmy when she is hungry (she doesn't like the bottle), but at least I am only gone for about 4 1/2 hours, so she typically just waits for me.

I have been working sooo.. hard to get back into shape! I have been getting up every morning at 5 to run before school. That way I don't have to find time during the day. I really like getting up and running.. it is hard to get up but once I am up I am glad I did it. I am hoping by the time it is winter I will be in all my clothes again..... getting back into shape is the pits! But Bella sure is worth it. Ok, well, it is 9:30 and time for bed... I will leave you with a few recent pics.

Bella got a new headband!

I have been looking and looking for a fun headband for Bella. It is so hard to find one for little ones. Well, I found this at crewcuts... it is too big, but you can't really tell unless you see the back of her head. I will be playing around with more pics of her in this, but this is all she let me get from her today... just a few minutes. It is way to fun having a girl!!!!!

Great time on vacation!

Jacob LOVES his Aunt Jana (and Uncle Chris!)







Love this pictures of Jacob and Kevin building a sandcastle together!


How fun is this... Kevin was jumping over Jacob, he thought it was hysterical!

We just got back from vacation yesterday... we had a blast! Kevin and I had gone to Wild Dunes for our honeymoon 6 years ago . We have always talked about going back. Well, when we saw that they were offering 40% off their rates, we had to jump on the opportunity. We had so much fun and what a great place for kids! They have daily activities planned for the kiddos... Jacob did a few, but was a bit too young for many of them. Every evening something was going on at the grand pavilion... they had bands several nights, which was so fun because Jacob would just dance all night! Jacob's favorite thing to do by far was play in the sand! He did not stop. I really don't know how he has so much energy, but he really does. He went non-stop the entire week and still only slept a half an hour on our 10 hour drive home. I think he missed home a bit because he said a few really cute comments about missing home when we were gone, but there is no question.. he had a blast! Kevin and I didn't get much time at the beach together... I guess that is what happens when you have a 4 month old you only bring down to the beach in the morning and evening, but we have decided we are going to go there next summer, just the 2 of us for 4-5 days! We can't wait! Although, I do have to say... it was sooo.. much fun watching Jacob have so much fun on vacation! The trip would not have been the same without them. We are now looking forward to our spring break... we are going to go to Florida... just trying to figure out where to go. Bella will be a year old.... so it should be even more fun!

Bella is 4 months old!

(wipe away tear).. I can't believe it


such a happy little girl!


I love close up pics of babies... I wish I had a macro lens for these.


I wasn't sure at first if I liked this picture, but then I was reminded by a friend... A mommy studies every little detail of her child's face. She takes in each little detail... not necessarily all together, this is what this reminds me of!



Oh my goodness.. I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up! She continues to be an amazing little girl! When pregnant, I honestly didn't have a preference of whether I had a little girl or boy, but I am SO THANKFUL that Bella came to be my little girl, I can't imagine life without her. She is ALWAYS happy... seriously, she is very rarely upset. The only time she is upset is when she is in the car and can't see her mommy. If I am sitting back with her, she is fine, but if I am driving she screams, it is stressful for both of us. She giggles, smiles, and talks all the time! I am pretty sure she is going to be quite the talker because she babbles all the time! She just adores her brother and laughs and giggles at him nonstop. Jacob also loves her so much.. he is constantly giving her kisses, is just melts my heart!

4 month stats... 26 inches (97%) and 15lbs 3 oz (80%)... how do I have such tall kids?!?!?