Testing. Testing. Anybody?

Yes.  I know.  It's been since August.  Yes, I know.  It's November.  And really, it went by so fast.  It's so true what everyone says.  Once your kids get into school, it flies by.  I mean, my daughter is reading now.  And she's loving her some Kindergarten.  No lie...we got the best teacher in all of Nashville.  She loves our daughter.  I've gone by the school several times to work on things for her.  I get to sit in the hallway and I hear what's going on in her class as well as the classes around me.  My observations during that time confirmed that Mrs. Reid is THE BEST.  

THE Mrs. Reid.  You know you have a good teacher when you're sick of hearing your kid say stuff like, "Mom, Mrs. Reid says..."  "Well, Mrs. Reid always says...."  She warned us at orientation that kids will come home tired because they work them hard at school and boy was she right.  Aubrie was a fire-breathing, eye rolling, dragon the first 3 weeks of school.  She was exhausted.  By Thursday, she would end up in her room for a timeout due to the side effects her grouchy-ness had on her mouth.  Now she knows that on Thursdays, if she needs it, she can come home and lay down for 30 minutes.  We ALL benefit from it.  :)

I so cried.  Like...ugly cry.  Sunglasses in the building, get your stuff together cried.   

But if you thought I took it hard, you should have seen Emilie.  Her little heart was broken and she cried so hard.  

But luckily, back during basketball camp, I promised Aubrie an end of summer party and I had that to focus and deliver on that day.  It actually was really nice.  The kids had a half day and then it helped ease their pain of having to get back into a school routine (or starting school) and parents were giddy because summer was over!

Poolside snacking

My buddy Grayson loves a good pool party.  I've gotten to spend more time with him now that his mom is back to work and dad's basketball season is in full swing.  It's such a drag having this kid around.  He never smiles...

And my girl, Lily, was happy summer is over and she can get some peace and quiet while big brother is at school!

I teach Emilie's Mother's Day Out (MDO) class this year with my friend, Marcie (Lily's mom).  Marcie's middle child, Trace, is also in our class.  We had so much fun putting our classroom together.  We call our students The Happy Campers.  Marcie knows every campfire song known to man.  

Our classroom. 

First day of MDO.  Kyle's hair has gone from stick straight at the beginning of the summer to thick, wavy, unmanageable hair.  It's out of control and he constantly looks like we don't comb his hair.  Oh, and don't worry.  Emilie ended up wearing shoes to school.   

Next on our summer agenda was Kyle's birthday.  Poor kid...with me setting up my classroom and having inservice, and Aubrie's school starting, I didn't have a lot of time or energy to put into his birthday.  But luckily, he's an easy going kid and enjoyed the laid back intimate party we had.  

Cannot believe our baby is 2! (see his hair?!!)

He LOVED his apple cake.  And I love his eyes.  And his wild hair.  Why do they grow up so fast??!

Now it's story time.  When I was in the hospital after having Emilie, Adam walked into the room and said, "I just ran into Kevin Murphy.  They had a little girl today, too!" I had to remember how we knew Kevin, but Adam reminded me.  Kevin was an accounting major with Adam and he played baseball at Belmont.  Fast forward to 3 years later.  We start going to a new church and run into the Murphy family!  Then we sign Emilie up for soccer and get assigned a team that Kevin ended up coaching.  (Here comes the magical part)  Emilie immediately falls in love with coach Kevin, affectionately nick-naming him "Famous Coach Kevin", and then falls in love with her birthday buddy, Maggie!  THEN...we go to our first day of ballet and Maggie is in Emilie's class!  Needless to say, I'm so glad God brought our two families together.  It's been so fun getting to know them.  Maggie has a little brother, Henry, who hangs around with Kyle while the girls are in dance.  Love how stuff like that happens!

Maggie and Emilie.  Birthday buddies!

Emilie had a blast playing soccer.  We only signed her up because, with her being a middle child, we wanted something that was just for her.  She cried when practice was rained out or when she was sick and couldn't go.  She was pretty aggressive out there.  She definitely used her elbows when things got tight.  It was a lot of fun and she relished it being "her thing".

I feel like it never got super hot here this summer.  The weather was very mild.  We are all adjusted and in a pretty good rhythm now with school going full swing.  Now that soccer is over, Aubrie will be doing basketball for a couple of months.  She's pretty excited and worked really hard this summer to get enough strength to get the ball up and into the basket.  She was so funny.  We would be outside shooting hoops and riding bikes in the cul-de-sac and she would get out this exercise band and do curls with it.  She was pretty serious about getting better.  Now she's consistent on getting it up and into the basket. Adam has raised the hoop one more step and she's working on a new height.  She's such a determined and driven girl.  Her grades so far have been excellent.  She's reading so much and writes the cutest notes and to-do lists.

Emilie is doing well with me as her teacher.  I didn't know if she would be a nightmare or what.  I mean, ages 2 and 3 were not kind to her.  But she hit age 3.8 and smoothed out nicely (Praise the Lord!)  She turned the corner just in time for little brother to start with his terrible 2's.  Emilie is the tallest person in her class.  When you go somewhere, the odds are pretty high that when you get her out of the car, you'll have to stop her and put her shoes on the right feet.  And if you take her shoes off, the odds are even greater that her socks WON'T match.  She's still pretty clumsy and leggy.  Hopefully ballet will continue to help with that.  She still tries to keep up with big sis.  She's pretending to read books that she has memorized.  Her math game is strong.  Sometimes when Adam is giving math problems at the dinner table, Emilie can yell out the answers faster than Aubrie.  In Aubrie's defense, she's super tired from a long school day and Emilie is wound up with energy.  But still, she's pretty bright.

Kyle is talking paragraphs now.  He says so much and acts like such a big boy.  He spends 80% of his day death gripping a matchbox car of some kind.  He asks to watch Disney's Cars daily.  He also has a love for Thomas the train.  I tried to move him out of his crib right before he turned 2, but it didn't go well and I remembered the wise words of our pediatrician, "Don't borrow trouble.  Wait until he climbs out."  And this kid probably won't try to climb out until he's 9.  I'll put him into a timeout in his crib (because he won't sit in a chair) and he just stands there and cries.  Won't do nothing about it.  Which is fine.  I mean, I don't want to turn that nursery into a big boy room.  I want to keep him a baby FOREVERRRRR!!!  But that won't happen.  Right now he will bring me food from the pantry at all hours of the day...like 30 minutes AFTER we just ate.  So I'll lock the pantry door and he will then scream and throw his body at the door.  We'll be replacing that door at some point, I'm sure.  He does a lot of weird boy things that I don't quite understand, but I'm learning.

We are enjoying this moment of our lives right now.  We are about to have 3 kids and no diapers and it's weird.  I am excited about it, but a little sad I won't have a baby anymore.

So I just watch Grayson and get my baby love from him.  :)

Love to all!!!!!  (Lots of love!)

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