First Day of School 2012

It's that time of year... already! The boys started school July 25. Spencer is now in third grade and so far he's he's having a good time. He finally lost his other front tooth, so now he has the typical vacancy in his smile. (I'll have to get a picture of that to put on here too.) He was in P.E. class when he decided to just pull it out. He keeps losing teeth and Parker keeps growing them--eventually they'll have the same number, right?

He says his teacher is funny because she does math problems backwards (gotta ask about that at parent-teacher conference)! She seems like a really cute lady.

Carson is in Kindergarten and he LOVES it!! It's fun to see him come running behind Spencer at the end of the day, pulling his little backpack and looking very scholarly and busy. He's been doing a lot more paperwork at home too. I separated his "school clothes" from his "play clothes" and he is very good about changing as soon as he gets home.

One day Andy made some (jokingly) chauvinistic remark and Carson piped up, "That's what men do!" How will I ever survive this house of boys?!

Aww, I love sleeping babies! When the kids are at school, Parker and I are free to play, play, play! I like taking him out and about, but it's getting embarrassing. He's started pointing at people and laughing, "HAHAHA!" I worry about this child. He may be the troublemaker. His latest tricks include: folding his arms for prayer and "bowing" his head (touching his cheek to his shoulder), making animal sounds which all sound the same (a soft, high-pitched "Ahhhh!"), and pretend eating (I think I mentioned that in an earlier post). Oh, and he also loves a game of peek-a-boo, even though his hands don't often land over his eyes.

Spencer was eating Pop Rocks tonight and of course, several of them fell on the floor. Dakota started licking them up and I could hear the little crackly sounds in her mouth! She has become such a good doggy, there really aren't any stories to tell about her. Well, except for the day she snatched a waffle off the counter top. That was a huge no-no! She likes to sleep in our room at night now, which is fine except for when she's dreaming. She must be chasing cats or something because she twitches a lot and makes little throat sounds. Silly puppy!

Family Pictures

Here are my favorites of our recent family pictures, for anyone who hasn't already seen them...

July

Year-round school makes the summers especially short, but this one has flown by faster than usual. We only have a week and half left!

Parker loves to "read." Several times a day, I find him in his room, perusing his basket of books. Sometimes they're even upside down, but enjoyable nonetheless. If he turns it right side up, it's like a whole new story!

I started putting one boy in the tub, and then another one wanted to bathe with him. I was against the idea (I envisioned water flying all over the bathroom and none of it in the tub), but Andy just undressed them all and plopped them in together! Naturally, he laughed and left me to contain the chaos.

Parker started sleeping in the "stinkbug position." I love it!

Fourth of July sparklers--light me up, Dad!

Andy is always giving me a hard time about the money I spend on clothing, home decor, etc. Guess what? He went to Walmart and bought a $50 aerial firework! It was spectacular...for about 30 seconds.

I don't think Carson had done sparklers before. So much fun! The smell of them brings back happy memories. We also let the kids stay up late one night to go to the carnival, and you'd think the little guys never got out. They were ecstatic! Then we stopped at Wendy's for a snack (I was thinking ice cream, but the boys ordered cheeseburgers!). We sat in the back of Andy's truck and watched the fireworks. They kept singing, "We get to stay up laaaate! Woo hoo!"

Parker's first chocolate chip cookie--mmm! He's learning to do lots of fun new things. He can finally do "roll 'em and roll 'em" for Pat-a-Cake. He also pretends to eat by sticking a finger in his mouth and making little chewing motions with his mouth. Our favorite new trick is blowing kisses. He smacks himself in the face with an open hand and laughs!