Back to School

On Wednesday Travis and I headed back to school. Yes, I know it seems early to most of you. We are on a modified year round schedule. We get lots of time off during the year so we don't mind going back to school early. Plus it is just so HOT here there is not much to do until it cools down. Here is how I found my boys early Wednesday morning. Yes, they were both in Connor's crib! Travis likes to jump in there in the mornings and visit with Connor before they begin the day.
Daryle has made it a tradition to take the day off and take Travis to school on the first day. We snapped this one real quick as I darted out the door before Travis. Luckily we live very close to the school so Daryle, Connor and Grandpa walked Travis to school.

What is in that backpack?? Holy moley!!

Saying good-bye to Rock before heading off to school. He loves his dog so much! (Although he has become a little obsessed with asking me about getting a dog from the pound. It seems he is already making future arrangements because he knows Rock is getting pretty old. Sigh...)

The annual pose by the front door. Getting taller every year!

At school, checking out the playground. He sort of looks like he should be modeling something!

He finally worked up the courage to go on the monkey bars!

Meanwhile, Mr. Connor was at home with his two Grandpas busily learning his letters and numbers by playing games on this Thomas laptop computer. Eating apples has become another one of Connor's favorite things. I usually cut them into slices, but when you have two grandpas taking care of you I guess it is easy to convince them that you need to have the whole thing in your hand at one time!

It has been a crazy week. I have 29 students this year in my second grade class. They are pretty good, but that is a LOT of kids in one room! We will survive, that is my mantra this year! Today I helped "Red Truck Grandpa" get moved into his new house here in the neighborhood. He is moving the big furniture out of his apartment later in the week. I just helped him move the little stuff and get things organized in the house. His new house is walking distance from our house. We are so excited to have him in the neighborhood. Now he gets to experience the fun of having a house here and one in CA. We love having him around, he is such a help to me and of course my boys love having him around. We are so blessed to have so many grandparents who are local and have time to spend with the boys. Not everybody has that, I hope they know how lucky they are!!

As I downloaded the back to school pictures I found that Daryle had taken this cute one of the boys tonight. Travis was giving Connor a piggy back ride, from what I hear they had a great time! Lots of laughs. I love that.

Wiggles

This summer Connor discovered The Wiggles. A few weeks ago Daryle discovered that the Wiggles would be performing after the July 25th Diamondback's game. Put two and two together and where do you think we were this afternoon??
Yes, the Wiggles arrived in Phoenix directly from Australia and performed for a wild crowd of excited toddlers and their exhausted parents. They were actually pretty good. I know my family had fun singing, dancing and laughing (well, maybe not Travis....but Daryle and I enjoyed singing some of our favorite catchy tunes! We have been listening to this music since Travis was 2!)

Even Dorothy the dinosaur showed up, Connor was in dino heaven!! (He loves her!)

Jeff came through the crowd and actually touched Connor's hand. He was elated!! He ran up to me saying, "Jeff! Jeff! Jeff!" He has now declared him his "favorite Wiggle".

This smile says it all, he had a wonderful time! He is such a cute dancer too. I am pretty sure he wore himself out! (Actually, I think we will all sleep well tonight!)

Travis started basketball this past week. This is his first time playing on a basketball team. He is doing pretty well at it, his coach gave him lots of compliments at the first two practices. Only two more outdoor practices and then finally we get to use the gym. Phew, it is hot out there! I am excited for him to participate in an indoor sport for awhile.

While Travis practices Connor enjoys the playground. Actually, last week we had a couple of cooler evenings, so it wasn't too bad. Connor loves riding on this huge bumble bee at our park.

I went back to work on Friday, so summer is over for me. The kids go back on Wednesday, so Travis has a couple more days to get ready. Even though we didn't travel anywhere, I think we had a nice relaxing time at home. Sometimes it is nice just to keep things simple and not so hectic. The best part of starting a new school year is the chance to start new again. There is no doubt that this will be an interesting year, I am anxious to get it started and see where it takes us!

New Look!

So, what do you think of the new look? I really like it! We have been busy around here, our summer is quickly coming to a close. I go back to work on Friday and the kids start school next Wednesday. I know we go back early, we are on a modified year round schedule. I just LOVE my schedule, it gives me time all year round to be with the boys, not just one huge chunk in the summer. I went into my classroom today and started moving things around. Last year I put everything in the exact same spot. Of course last year I had just brought Connor home and had no time to be creative. This year I decided to change things up a bit, my classroom is coming together nicely! Other than that, the boys and I have been laying low. It has been super hot out, so other than swimming at Grammy and Grandpa's once in awhile we have been staying home. Here are a few pictures showing some of what we have been up to.
Here is Connor... he is already preparing for school! He loves to draw... his specialty is drawing "balloons". (It's not too hard to draw a line and a circle!!)

This is a picture of how Connor woke up the other morning. I had to take him in to the doctor on Friday and we found out that he has psoriasis, another chronic skin ailment. It will be managable, right now it is only on his scalp and the ointment is working quickly. (And it is not contagious, thank goodness!) However, we have to put on the medicine and then cover that with vasoline so this is how he has been looking in the mornings. Poor guy! I don't know what is worse, waking up like this or being forced to pose for a picture! (Heehee!)

Travis and Rock have enjoyed hanging out together this summer too.

Here is Travis showing off his tattoo with a scowl on his face, not sure what dad was going for here!

These are the two cutest faces ever!!! I love them both dearly.

I have also discovered recently that Connor has inherited my sweet tooth! He always has room for ice cream, cake, cookies, any type of sweet at all. In fact I made pudding for dessert the other night. Travis ate two bites and was done. Connor ate all of his plus he wanted mine and Daryle's too!! He kept calling it ice cream though, which was cute. Here he is eating a scoop of ice cream after dinner tonight. Don't worry, he didn't miss a drop!!

Haircut Time!

I know you are supposed to do before and then after pics, but I am just little bit backwards! Today we got Connor's hair cut. It is just sad to see your little baby turn into a toddler right before your eyes. Each time he gets it cut he looks a little more grown up. So here is the after:
And here is the before:

Travis has been busy building creations with his Lincoln Logs. I don't have a picture, but Connor is also learning how to build houses. Today I was told, "Mama, build please!" I started building a cute house for Mr. Connor and then BAM! he knocked it over. All that hard work... oh well, he sure did have fun knocking it all over though!

Travis put on some glasses for the eyes on top of his head...

We are laying low this week, not too much planned. It sure is HOT here so we are staying at home inside our little cave. That's how it feels this time of year anyway!!

My Little Russian-Americans

Every year our neighborhood Boy Scout Troop comes around and asks for donations. In return they will put a flag out in your yard on the holidays for a year. It looks so nice to drive down the road and see so many flags flying! For some reason they didn't put the flags out yesterday and so they put them out today instead. I don't know why. However, I needed to get a picture of them by the flag for my yearly calendar for the grandparents! I took about 5 shots and this is the best we could do. Not too bad!

Fourth of July

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! We had a nice quiet day at our house. It has been pretty hot around here so we decided to stay home to celebrate. We invited the grandparents over for hot dogs and hamburgers, everything was delicious! Grammy brought cupcakes, the kind with lots of dye in them so that the kids' mouths turn colors! Of course they LOVED them. Connor has a major sweet tooth, he didn't eat much dinner but then pounded down a giant chocolate cupcake. Here they are enjoying a special 4th of July treat.

Here is Connor licking his fingers!

On Saturday Daryle took Travis to a basketball game. After the game there was a fireworks display so they watched the show from the parking garage roof! Daryle got an ok picture with some of the fireworks going off.

After all the grandparents left we packed up the kids in the car armed with our lawn chairs. We drove over to a local school parking lot and were able to watch a good show. Connor seemed to enjoy the fireworks but he was getting tired so all he really wanted to do was go home and get to sleep! For the most part he sat on my lap as we all "ooohed" and "ahhed" over the fireworks. Since last year he fell asleep before any fireworks went off this was his first time staying up for a show. Overall I think he liked them and he is anxious to see more in years to come!

Connor repeating his ABC's

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Finally, some pictures!

Although I have not been around so much the last two weeks, Daryle has been a little busy taking some pictures. Recently we had the pleasure to visit with the son of Daryle's good friend from his childhood. Cody just graduated from High School and has been living in Oregon with his dad for the past 6 years or so. He is going to be entering the Air Force in September so he came down to AZ to visit his mom. Daryle of course had to take him to some Diamondback's games! Good thing they all love sports! We saw Cody briefly about 3 years ago when we were in Santa Rosa for vacation but other than that we really hadn't seen him in quite some time. He has grown into such an amazing young man! We had fun visiting with him and my boys had a fun playing with him. Here are Travis and Cody at the Dbacks game.
Last week we had Cody over for dinner and I was able to get this quick picture of Cody with Daryle and the boys. Rock even took a special liking to Cody!

This past week Travis got to do a baseball camp that was sponsored by the AZ Diamondbacks. They travel all around the state doing various training camps and this week it was right here at a park by our house. Travis learned so much and had a great experience. Hopefully this will be something he will continue to do as he grows older. Daryle was able to get some cute pictures of him playing baseball.

Playing catch.

My friend signed up her two boys as well for the camp. Here they are planning out a strategy of some sort! LOL

Somewhere Travis picked up putting his hand on his hip like this as he watches the game. It was so funny!

Oh look who showed up for the last hour of practice on Friday! As I predicted, chasing Connor around in 110+ degrees is not much fun. Not much slows this kiddo down, that's for sure!

Here is Travis with the baseball coaches. We were impressed with the training at this camp, all of the kids (and parents!) learned so much. Daryle is taking notes for when he coaches next year's team!

Yesterday Daryle and I celebrated 16 years of being married. Wow, how time flies. We got to go out to dinner and a movie, all kid free! The grandparents took the kids for the night, so we even got to sleep in this morning. That was the best present ever!! Our kids have the most awesome grandparent's ever made! It was fun just hanging out with Daryle, no kids running around or issues to handle. We even found a new restaurant that had delicious food. It was also fun seeing a movie that wasn't rated "G". All in all, it was a great time. Happy Anniversary Daryle!!