Birthday Pictures

OK, so I'm only about 5 months behind with this, but we finally finished Abby's 2 year and Seth's 4 year old pictures. There are so many cute ones to choose from....thanks to having a mother in law as a photographer (http://www.janeholestinephotography.com/), we did this over a couple months, and a few shoots!
Here are a few of my favorites. Now, I just have to figure out what to order!!!


Here are a couple of Seth.....

and here is Abby.....


And this is my favorite...it doesn't get sweeter than this!

6 years? Really?

Yesterday was Seth and my 6th year anniversary! Time flies so fast. Seems like just yesterday I was waking up at 5am to be at the gym by 6am for our early morning workouts. Of course, that all changed after we got married and I wasn't so motivated since he was right there beside me every morning.



Now it is 6 years, 3 houses, and 2 kids later.....Time really flies! Here is one of my favorite snapshots from our wedding...

Settling In

I think we are all finally settling into our school time routine. Seth LOVES Jr Kindergarten and is learning so much already. I am really impressed with the program his school does for JK. They are doing a kindergarten curriculum and next year, in kindergarten, they will be doing an advanced curriculum. He is certainly tired when the day is over. In the afternoons he goes to PEP club (extended care) and he has finally resigned himself to take a 30 minute nap. That helps him not to be wiped out completely in the evenings.

I took Seth to the Magic House the day before he started school. I had to laugh (as I could related well) to one of the factoids posted on the wall; "The average four year old asks 437 questions a day." How true, how true. It seems Seth is starting to contemplate the meaning of life and asks some really tough questions. The other day he asked me if you get to pick who you marry. I asked if he had anyone in mind, but he blushed and said he did not : )

Abby is also settling in. She is growing so much in her speech. She is continuing the N, P, and still working on TH. Just the fact that she is working on TH means she is hearing it now, so that is really great. She is also using S more and more often. I've noticed it most when she says "ou-si" (outside). I am so amazed at her ability to adapt to all the changes in her life this last few months. She is definitely my miracle girl!

I love this time of year. The weather is beautiful and we can start counting down till Christmas !!!

Crazy, yet Exciting Times

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Abby has been in school for two full weeks now. It took her some time to adjust. The mornings go fine, but the afternoons have been really hard for her. Afternoons are lunch time and nap time, and I think she is just so tired by lunchtime, that she's just completely crabby. Anyway, she is starting to adjust better so hopefully things will just keep getting better.

SO for the exciting times part of this post....Abby has made several new sounds in the last week. I have heard an "S" (eeese A.K.A Cheese), "th" (look at THAT), "P" (POP). She is really starting to speak so much more, and so much more clearly which is so exciting! She works so hard at getting the words out as correctly as she can. Poor kid will keep repeating us as long as we keep saying words over and over again. You can tell she really wants to get the words right.

Work has also been crazy, but don't want to waste anyone's time listening to that mess. But, tomorrow I have taken a vacation day so I can spend the day with Seth Robert. Tomorrow is his last day before school starts so we are going to do some fun things (and run some errands) tomorrow. I think we are going to try to go to the Magic House if they are open in the morning. So here's what's on the agenda tomorrow: Take Abby to Speech 8:15, drop her at her class 9am, Appointment at Fontbonne University 10am, Magic House and lunch, Seth's "Meet the Teacher" time starting at 2pm, pick up Abby from school at 3:15. It will be a busy (but FUN) day.

I still have Abby's first day of school pictures to post. I'll post them when I post Seth's in the next couple of days. Hopefully things will settle down a bit and I can start updating more often!

First Day of School

Monday was Abby's first day of school! We had an open house early on Monday morning where I got to meet her teacher, some of the other parents, and all the kiddos. As hard as it is to leave a 2 year old in 'school' it is also SO exciting for me because I know Abby is going to grow so much in her speech this year while she is there. I know this because Seth Robert attended the Toddler class at St Joe's 2 years ago when he was 2. He was a hearing peer for the hearing impaired kids. He only went 2 mornings a week but by Christmas, he had grown so much with his speech. I know part of it was normal development, but I also credit much of it to the great therapy he got by being a part of the class at St Joe's.

Anyway, back to Abby's first day......I couldn't believe how easily Abby let me leave her in her new class. When I had to leave I said 'bye Abby' and she said 'bye Mommy' and ran off to play. I was worried about nap time as she has never slept on a cot, but apparently she was great with that too! She has been really tired at night and I even had to wake her up this morning at 6:30 (she's normally up by 6am like clockwork). Tonight I put her to bed by 6:30pm...and she was asleep by 7pm. Hopefully she will be fully rested tomorrow!

Back to school has been tiresome for me too! Probably because I stay up way too late watching Olympics : ) Last night I was up late watching USA win the gold AND silver for balance beam...it was awesome. Anyway, getting the kids and myself ready and out of the house on time is a little stressful. I am very thankful that Seth's hours have changed and he is here until 7am and does a TON to help me get the kids ready for school.

Seth Robert starts school 2 weeks from today. He will be in Jr Kindergarten from 8:15 to 11:30 then extended care from 11:30 to 3:30. He is so ready to go to school. His aunt Faith has been watching him the last few weeks and he is going to gymnastics on Thursday's so that is a really fun treat for him this last few weeks of summer.

I will post a pic of Abby on her first day of school later this week. I think she was most excited about her Princess lunchbox and her book bag than anything. Ahh, the simple joys in life!

Lots to talk about

I haven't posted in a while so I have a lot of catching up to do.



First, here is a really sweet picture of Abby in her Big Girl Bed.


And here is big brother snuggling her to sleep one night. The pictures are a little grainy as we took these with the lights off. As you can guess it ended up with lots of giggles and no sleep until we broke up the party.


Next week starts the first day of school for Abby. After thinking about how hectic our schedule is going to be we decided to make a few changes. Seth has school from 8:15 - 11:30, and he will stay in extended care from 11:30 - 3:30. Abby has school from 9am to noon. She will be in extended care at her school from 8:30 - 9am, and then from noon to 3:15. I have gone back down to part time hours. 35 hours a week/ 7 hours a day, and will just work while they are in school.

So going to school is quite the experience. I had a ton of forms to fill out and had to get Abby's immunization and other Dr records. I have to take time off work just to get all the right forms signed by the right Dr's : )

I'm excited about Abby starting school, and I'm so glad we made the decision to keep her there for extended care everyday. She will be with speech therapists and other deaf educators all day long. It really is the best place she could be!


Seth starts school Sept 3. I know that's really late, but they lengthened his school day by 30 minutes so they will still get out by late May.


Exciting, busy times!

Where's my baby?

I have been asking myself this question all week. This week it seems Abby has suddenly gone from a baby to a very grown-up, Big Girl! Here are all the Big Girl milestones that she has accomplished within the last week.
1. Moved to the Big Girl (toddler) bed. This was a bit traumatic, as Abby does not like change. She was fine with the toddler bed coming into her room, but was VERY upset about the crib leaving. She got over it pretty quickly and now gets into her big girl bed at bedtime and stays there until she falls asleep.
2. PeePee on the potty! This was a one time thing, but Abby was so excited about it. She is well on her way to potty training. I think as soon as we take the time to work on it with her she will be trained in no time.
3. No more Paci. Abby hasn't taken her pacifier during the day for a while, and all of a sudden this week she decided that she doesn't need it at bedtime anymore.
4. This is my favorite! Abby got her ears pierced last weekend! She has little pink diamonds and she looks so cute with them. The experience was not as traumatic as I thought it would be. She did cry for just a minute after the first one, and of course then knew what was coming with the second one. But, once she saw them in the mirror, she was very proud!
So, no more babies for me! They grow up so fast it's unbelievable.

I'll post some pictures of Abby with her new earrings later this week.