First Day of School!

Wednesday was Clara Beth's first day of school. Hurray for school! The public schools here adopted the new balanced calendar this year, which has a shorter summer break, with more breaks throughout the year. So it meant that school started August 1st. She was more than ready to go! Here she is dressed in her standard school attire, ready to head out to her first day of first grade!

 



We all walked her in that first morning to meet her new teacher, who is super nice (I mean really, don't you have to be nice to teach first grade??). As you can see, Micah could hardly control his excitement.

 



Jude wanted to give her a sweet hug before we left. He's really going to miss having her home with him all day. They had so much fun playing together this summer. He absolutely adores his big sister!

 

It may seem strange, but Wednesday was a half day, then there was no school Thursday. Today (Friday) is her first full day. So yesterday, on our last morning together before she starts school full time, I asked her what she wanted to do. She said she wanted to go eat chocolate chip waffles at the Waffle House. Since Jude was in school, Clara Beth, Micah and I had a fun Waffle House date! Mmmmmmm...Waffle House.

 

 She's so excited to be back in school. Such a big girl. I know every parent says this, but I can't believe she's in first grade already!

Snapshots from June

Well, now that we're heading in to the last day of July, I guess it's time to add some photos from June. Wow...I'm really behind! The truth is that Micah is not the easiest baby. He wants to be sure that he doesn't end up being the neglected third child, so he constantly reminds us of his presence. If he is not either nursing (which he does A LOT), sleeping (which he doesn't do much at all), or being held, then he is crying (screaming would be a more accurate description). Those are pretty much the only options. So I don't get a whole lot done these days, including eating, showering, using the restroom, etc. It's 9:30 pm right now, and Micah is contently sleeping away in Chris's arms (once again, being held...), so here are some quick snapshots from June...

 My mom stayed with us for a few weeks after Micah was born, and thank God for my mom! Chris went back to work pretty quickly, Clara Beth was home all day expecting lots of attention, Jude had school and therapy through the whole summer, and Micah cried all the time. I don't know how I would have made it through those first few weeks without my mama. The kids loved having her here!

 





Micah's first bath - he was not a big fan.

 

Clara spent a week at VBS at one of the churches nearby. She had a great time. Each day she got to dress up in some crazy way, which is totally her idea of a good time. She made her own hat for Crazy Hat Day, wore a wig for Crazy Hair Day, and designed her own outfit for Tacky Day. Crazy girl.


 





 She also lost her first tooth (finally!) and was so excited to get that long-awaited dollar from the Tooth Fairy. She wrote the Tooth Fairy a note informing her that she would like to keep the tooth and still get the dollar. Apparently the Tooth Fairy is very generous because her tooth is sitting in a special box on her dresser and she ended up with a shiny new silver dollar!

 

Since it's been about 100 degrees (literally!), we spent a lot of time at our neighborhood pool or playing in the sprinklers in the back yard. Micah spent a lot of time hanging out in his portable swing watching his big brother and sister play.

 











And finally, Micah turned one month old and got some sweet hugs from his big brother. Jude sure does love that baby boy. I can't leave them alone in the same room for fear that Jude will squish the baby with his hugs!

 

Parting shot....this is what Clara's room looked like one typical afternoon. And the crazy part is that I make her clean her room every night before she goes to bed, so she made this whole mess in one afternoon. She is seriously like a little hurricane everywhere she goes. We're ALL looking forward to the first day of school so that brilliantly creative little brain will have something to keep it occupied again!

 

July pictures coming soon...maybe...

My Babies

I really do intend to sit down and write a real post soon. I especially want to write an update on Jude's progress and post some more pictures of Micah. But it's so rare that I have 2 hands free to type these days. Micah prefers to be held. ALL THE TIME. So that doesn't give me much blogging time (or time to clean or do laundry or eat or sleep or use the bathroom...). Right now he's asleep, so I'm going to bed. But here's a quick look at my babies. I think I see a family resemblance...

 

Newborn Days

Micah is now almost 3 weeks old. It's been a whirlwind of sleep deprivation and crazy schedules. I have a nursing baby in my lap right now and am typing with one hand, so I'll just post some of my favorite pictures real quick...

Baby Love

Another quick picture for those of you not on Facebook. We are totally in love!

Micah is here!

Our baby boy is here! He was born Saturday morning at 2:30 am, weighing 6 lb, 5 oz. I have some pictures from the hospital, but they're on the laptop, so I will upload more soon. For now, here's a quick peek at our beautiful boy. We are definitely in love!

 

May Catch Up

Once again, I've been terrible about updating this blog. There's so much going on these days, and I feel like I'm doing the best I can just to keep the 2 big kids fed and get them where they need to go each day! New Baby will be here within a week. My induction is scheduled for next Tuesday, May 22nd, unless he comes before then. So it won't be long now, and that's a good thing because my belly can not possibly stretch any more!

 Here are a couple pictures from the last couple weeks...

 Uncle Michael came to visit for a few days when he was here for a work trip. He and Chris had lots of fun tricking people with the twin thing. The funny part is that it didn't trick Jude for even one second. He knew immediately that was NOT his daddy, but he still had fun playing with Uncle Michael!

CB got to run in the Kids Country Music Marathon a few weeks back. It was the first year she was old enough, and she was very excited. It's a great event for kids. Every year leading up to the big Country Music Marathon, kids can register for the Kids Marathon. Over the weeks and months before the event, they are encouraged to run or walk 25.2 miles and keep track of how much they've done. Then on the evening of the big race, they run the final mile together and get to cross the finish line at the Titans' Stadium downtown, just like the grown-ups do the next day. It's a great way to promote physical activity among kids. Her school had a group of kids participating, so they did some of their miles during PE class at school, and we did the rest together as a family. She had a lot of fun, and out of the thousands of kids who participated, she and Chris even got their picture in the paper the next day!
 

This was the picture that was in the paper. She and Chris held hands during the whole run. So cute!

J is still doing great at school and amazing us with the progress he's making, especially with his speech/language and social skills. We had been praying and hoping that he would make this kind of progress, but we never expected it to happen so quickly. We are thrilled with how well he's doing, we love love love his school, and we're excited to see him continue to pick up skills like a superstar!

 Other than that, we're just waiting for New Baby to come join us any time!