1st Grade

First Grade, wow the summer went quick. Connor's 1st grade teacher will be Mrs. Emings and she is a very nice teacher (Connor described her as *hot*). Where would he come up with such a statement??? He is ready to get back into the school routine. As usual, a few photos of the first day.


These are the shoes and the backpack choosen for the year. It was so hard picking out a pair of shoes, but we finally came to an agreement.


Connor likes to take the last few minutes to call his Dad and they tell each other good morning and have small talk before the bus arrives at the house.


Connor and Maleah on the back porch. I thought I'd take a few photos to show growth each year against the shutter. For the first day of school today, Connor measured at 47 3/4 inches and weighed 45 pounds.


Connor and Maleah hanging out on the front porch while waiting for the bus. Both of them were excited for the bus to arrive and you can see it in their goofing around.


Connor and Maleah stand waiting for the bus to arrive. Notice the photo where they are holding hands - how sweet. In just a few years, Maleah will ride that bus, it's so hard to believe how fast our children are growing up.

Connor lost his 1st tooth

Finally after a year of anticipation, Connor lost his 1st tooth. Starting back in Kindergarten when Mrs. Say had a chart up on her wall showing who lost a tooth, Connor would ask for me to wiggle his teeth to see if any were wiggly. I'd always say, "No not today, but I promise one will fall out before you start first grade". Seeing that it is the eve of first grade, I'm happy to report that my word is good, only by a few remaining hours. Connor came to me asking if he could pull it out and I said sure. Within a few minutes, he returned from his bedroom and had his tooth in hand.

We put his tooth in this little tooth case for the tooth fairy provided by the dental office that I work at. The tooth fairy left Connor a gold dollar and a one dollar bill.


Here his is with his first missing tooth just a few minutes after it was pulled.



Here is a close up photo of his perfectly spaced primary teeth, minus one tooth. No braces in this guys future.



He loves the way the missing tooth feels.

Flower Girl

Maleah's is going to be a flower girl for Jeremy and Jordan's wedding on October 17th. Maleah, Mom and I met Jordan on her lunch hour today and picked out this dress. She is going to be so pretty. They will be taking the purple flowers of the dress and adding fall leaves. Soon, I'll take Maleah over to Sassy Styles and allow Stephanie to fix her hair and see what we can come up with for a style. She is so excited to be a flower girl since I showed her what a flower girls responsibility is from Youtube vidoes. Connor has been asked to be the ring bearer, but he's not so sure he wants to do that. I asked him why several times and he doesn't know why... I'll work on him the next few weeks and hopfully he will agree to it.

Emerald Isle 2009

After waiting 7 long months for our beach vacation, 8/15 FINALLY arrived. We chose to do a beach vacation to Emerald Isle, NC with my Mom and Dad, Brenda and Steve, and Justine. After several days of gathering items, packing, loading the truck, stocking up on snack items/electronic items and making sure nothing was overlooked, we finally set out of our driveway on a 12 hour car adventure at 2:45AM with 2 kids who were bright eyed and bushy tailed and loving the thought that they were Going To The Beach!!!

At 2:30PM, we arrived at our destination. Our house (Aurora West) which normally isn't ready until 4PM was ready at 2PM. Fantastic, our fun could begin!! It's so exciting stepping into a new rental every year, not knowing what to expect. This house offered breath taking views! I was disappointed in the kitchen amenities, and lack of games for the kids. Normally all the houses we've stayed in offer a large variety of books for reading while relaxing, but not this one. Our weather all week long was fantastic so luckily we were not forced to stay inside even one day. :)



All of my pictures can be viewed on Dropshots, but in the meantime enjoy the fantastic pool, ocean, and pier views. By far, this is the nicest ocean view with no dune obstructions. I would go back to Emerald Isle in a heartbeat!



FANTASTIC SUNRISE




FANTASTIC SUNSET





I have so many fun pictures of the kids on the beach, swimming and playing in the sand I don't even know which ones to post! The kids had a fantastic time this past week and they advanced so much with the pool. Connor was swimming from one side of the pool to the other and Maleah became so comfortable with the pool that she would float all around with her life vest on without anyone holding onto her. It was really fun watching the kids enjoy themselves on our beach trip. I will post pics of the kids soon!