Kaden in 1st Grade!!

Today is Kaden David's first day of school.  I can not wait to pick him up and hear all about it!  He seemed ready this morning and felt pretty good about going.  The mom in me just wants to stand at the door all day and watch.  I roamed the hall for a minute after I dropped him off just basking in the excitement and a little bit of heartache that the first day of school brings.  Last year before Kaden started kindergarten I was full of concern.  I wasn't feeling lead to homeschool and Nick said no to private school, at least for these elementary years.  I knew his school was a great one but just prayed all summer long that the Lord would give him the just right kindergarten teacher.  What an answer to prayer last year was!!  Then this year I knew which teacher I felt would be best for Kaden and talked to his kindergarten teacher about Kaden last year and what personality we felt would be a good fit for him and then just prayed about it again.  He got another amazing teacher!  She is friends with Kaden's kindergarten teacher and is very gentle, nurturing, patient and soft spoken, which Kaden needs.  Such an answer to prayer.  But not only that but several of the boys from his class last year are in his class this year and there are only 17 kids in his class, which is terrific.

I went to Kaden's school again last night, just like I did last year the night before school, and prayed and walked around his school many times.  I LOVE doing this!  It brings me such peace and Kaden had told me some things he wanted me to pray about and it is such a special time to be able to pray for Kaden, his teacher and friends and many other things.  I am praying that the Lord would give Kaden more confidence this year.  The thing he is most worried about is the work.  For some reason he is worried it will be hard and he wont get it done.  He did not have this problem last year and is right on target but he second guesses himself a lot.  I am glad he cares about doing well but so want him to have fun too. :)  I can NOT believe my baby is in first grade!

 

 



Easter

These are the kids baskets that the "Easter bunny" brought. He left them in the front yard this year before church. We don't make a big deal out of the Easter bunny and we don't go "see" him or anything because I don't want the kids to miss out on the real reason of Easter. However, we tried to tell Kaden last year that we had bought the goodies in his Easter basket not the bunny and he was absolutely crushed. We felt awful and did a quick backtrack and decided it was o.k. for them to think a bunny brought them goodies while they are young. :)
Kaden and Princess Tiana. :) They were very excited. Kaden's favorite thing was a real giant pencil and Presleigh's was her Merliah barbie from "A Mermaid Tale".

Precious ones on Easter

This is my mom and dad and my sister and I right after church

I don't know why this silly picture is upside down but I couldn't figure out how to turn it. :) Half the time I am just lucky to upload pictures at all! I will figure it out later. This is Kaden and Presleigh right after their Easter egg hunt at Grandpa and Nonnie's. Their Uncle Jason and I frantically hid eggs so they could find them before the downpour of rain that came right after this.

We had a lovely Easter. We went to my parents after church and then were supposed to go the park with Nick's side of the family but it got rained out. They ended up going to Nick's brothers house but Presleigh and I never made it there. Presleigh actually asked to take a nap at Pa and Nonnie's house and Nick told me to take one with her and even gave me a foot rub as I drifted off to sleep listening to the rain. It was amazing! :)

Spring Break

The kids and I in front of the museum on our "fake" trip. :)

This is Nick and the kids right before we left the museum.

This has been a wonderful week! We have had gorgeous warm weather all week and Kaden has been home for Spring break. I was going to make plans all week full of fun things to do but then didn't really and I am so glad I didn't. Kaden and Presleigh have played (for the most part) wonderfully together. They have had so much fun playing upstairs together with little screaming and aggravating involved. :) Monday morning they just stayed in their p.j.'s and built tents and basically drug out all kinds of toys all over creation upstairs. I didn't care though because they were having fun together. Monday night at the dinner table Presleigh said her fun thing for the day was "playing with bubba". :) Nick took Wednesday off and we attempted to go to the Fort Worth children's museum. This was a huge mistake! We were there for about 5 minutes and then I found a man and asked him if we could have our money back. There was a TON of people. I was thinking the whole time that I should have known it would be crazy on Spring break. :) The nice man gave us "raincheck" tickets and we will be taking Kaden out of school Monday and going back while everyone is at school. Nick has the day off. We have enjoyed our relaxing and fun Spring break.

Feels Like Home

This past Saturday I got to have lunch with 3 of my favorite girls, Jamie, Ashley and Melissa. We met at On The Border and had the most wonderful lunch. I told Nick when I came home that being with them "feels like home". It sounds kind of corny but it is true. I will not see one of them for months, sometimes even a year, but I would share anything with these girls. Each one holds such a special place in my heart. I did not want our lunch to end and the whole way home I just kept thanking the Lord for them. I can not express how thankful I am to have each of them in my life this many years later.

I met Jamie in I think 6th grade Sunday School class. Her parents were our teachers. That is also one of my first rememberances of Nick. I remember because it seemed like Nick and Jamie were friends. Jamie and I went to Florida, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina together with our church youth group. I have such happy memories with her. She is a precious friend.

I met Ashley through Melissa in Junior High. I first got to know Ashley real well when we all went to Port Aransas together one summer. It was the summer of '98 before 10th grade. The four of us went with Jamie's mother and friend. We had a fabulous time and ever since then Ashley and I have been friends. If anyone ever asked me who the kindest person I know is Ashley would immediately come to mind. She is so kind and sweet and caring.

I met Melissa in 8th grade in our speech class. We had to fill out some silly get to know you paper and we both had written that we had to blow dry our naturally curly hair straight. :) We have been friends ever since. When I think of my fondest or best memories in Junior High and High School Melissa is in them all. Even after school. She was there when Kaden was born and came as quick as she could when Presleigh was born (she came quick!). :) I will never forget how I felt seeing her after I had Presleigh. I was also at the hospital when both of her girls were born. Her friendship blesses me so much.

I don't see or talk to these girls near as much as I would like but I know they will always be there for me. I love them all!

This is Ashley, Jamie, Melissa and I. Jamie's baby girl, Anna Grace, was hiding in her baby carrier behind us and Briley, Melissa's daughter, is standing next to me. She came at the end of our lunch.

Jamie is moving to Virginia and then New York with her husband and two boys and little girl. We will miss her! However, we are all going to visit her for a girls weekend/week. :)

Kodi Bear

We have had Kodi now for almost one month. He will be 12 weeks old tomorrow. I had no idea how much work a puppy was going to be! I have thought (almost daily) that I wanted him gone! :) However, he is a sweet puppy and really the hardest thing has been potty training, which is why I have had such a hard time. The past 2 days have been SO much better and I am hopeful he is finally catching on. I am truly glad we have him and watching the kids and Nick with him has been so much fun. I have had lots of people, even strangers, tell me to hang in there because he will be so worth it. Those words are encouraging to me. :) We decided that our puppy looked like a little bear cub to us. Since Kodiac is a type of bear we used Kodi for short. I can not tell you how many people have stopped me and told me they thought I was holding a stuffed animal until he moved. :) He really is the cutest dog I have ever seen. The kids really wanted to name him Brownie and I liked Bear (Go Bears! ) and the only name we all could agree on was Kodi.

This is Kodi at 8 weeks of age. That raccoon is one of his all time fav. toys!

A little snuggle time with Kaden. I love this picture! This is why I wanted a puppy for my kids so badly. :)

Kodi at 10 weeks of age. He is now even bigger and my vet, which also happens to be a friend and Theta sister from Baylor, thinks he may be more medium in size than mini.

The kids with Kodi in his crate. I love this crate! :)

I wanted to end with a sweet family picture. My brother-in-law, Randy, got married this past weekend to a precious girl that we love! Kaden got to be be a ring bearer and Presleigh Joy was a flower girl in Aunt Lori and Uncle Randy's wedding.