Our cute kids!

How cute are they?? Ready for church last night!

Trying to get them both to stand STILL and SMILE and LOOK AT THE CAMERA all at once apparently is just too much for them!! I guess 2 out of three ain’t bad!

This is one Sweet girl!!

Officially Summer

It’s HOT and the mosquitos are AWFUL. So, yeah. It’s summer in Arkansas again.

What we do when it’s hot. . . .

. . . We go to church!

Sweet Little Sisters- Arden and Emma Kate

and their silly Big Brothers- Stratton and Sutton

. . . We go out to eat!

Stratton’s new fav place to eat is Buffalo Wild Wings. He wanted to wear his crown to school the next day.

. . . We party at the pool with friends!

This was Arden’s first swim of the year- she wasn’t a big fan to say the least!

When we got in the water with her she said “No Water!!”

And when it’s too hot to do anything. . .

My personal favorite. . . .We Nap!!

A trip down memory lane. . .

Isabella, Alexandra and Stratton and Arden. . . .4 years in just a blink of an eye!!

All but the ones of the girls holding Arden were taking at church or church activities! We are SO SO blessed to be able to attend the same church! Especially since we are all so busy we at least get to see each other there! I love these sweet girls So much and can’t believe how big they are getting!

2010 - After VBS heading to get ice cream!

2011- This was at the Easter Egg Hunt

2012 -VBS

2013

I couldn’t find one of them all together, these are from Al’s bday.

Family Fun day 2013

2014 - VBS

OBEY??

Saturday morning Jarrod went to work and of course the kids got up at the crack of dawn, despite being out late and not getting to bed till 10pm!! Well, they were terrorizing the house and driving me crazy playing while I was in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast (it’s about 6:45 am) when Stratton brought me a piece of paper and asked me “what does O B E Y spell?” Ha!

I guess he’s learned something in bible school! Too bad the meaning of the word failed to make an impact!! He does know what it means, he just doesn’t put it to practice very often!

Here he is with his paper. . .

He’s so proud! And wanted me to take his picture!

. . . now, did you notice anything in the background??

Let me zoom in for you.

Caught red handed! Yep, that’s Arden drawing on her paper on the wall. Thankfully, most of the BLACK (of all colors!) crayon came off with a magic eraser! Of course a monumental meltdown ensued after I took her crayon away and told her she can’t color on the walls! Fun times.

The Circus!

Friday Morning, ready for his field trip to the Nature Center

Friday night we took the kids to the circus at the convo

They were mesmerized!

I think Arden liked it more than Stratton!

She loved the elephants and preforming animals. They had some dogs that rode on ponies and they both thought that was funny!

They were crazy, dancing fools!!

All Stratton was worried about was getting cotton candy (and snow cones, and toys and light up junk) and of course we (conveniently) ran off and forgot to bring cash with us!  Arden fell asleep about 10 mins before it was over!

Some summer time fun

We got the ball sprinkler out, finally!

Stratton loved it, Arden hated it.

“No!! WAIN!!!” she said!

She really liked her bathing suit. . .for the first 5 minutes. . .

Then Off it went!

Her hair is getting thicker and it’s got some wave to it!

Bathing suits make better hats!

Dirty, grass covered and loving it!

Arden needed a power nap!

Then Stratton needed a sun tan, he said

Daddy had to share his gatorade

Summer Excel

This summer Stratton is attending the Valley View Excel Summer Program.We went to a parent meeting last Sunday so they could fill us in on everything and Stratton met his teacher, who is actually one of the college girls that was at the Excel After School program he went to every day after school! He was really excited. And his “homeroom” is one of the 2nd grade classrooms and it has a reading loft and he thinks that is just the coolest thing ever! He also thinks he is officially a kindergartener now because he is classified as one in the program. Big stuff!!

He is going to have so much fun all summer, they keep them REALLY busy!! Every Tuesday they take all the kids to the YMCA to go swimming, Wednesdays they go to the Jonesboro Library Events, Thursdays they have sports camps taught by local coaches and on Fridays they have a field trip! I don’t think he’s going to be telling us he’s bored anytime this summer! And they have good lunches, they have Pizza Inn pizza, Dairy Queen chicken strips, and McDonalds cheeseburgers (not the healthiest, but the kids like it!).

Their activities change weekly, but the schedule stays pretty much the same. They do most activities before lunch then have a rest time in the afternoon, which I am so glad for!

Here is a sample of his weekly schedule (which we get emailed to us every Sunday morning). . .

Monday: On campus rotations. Enrichment: Spanish, Art-Reading, Lunch: Pizza, Drink, & Dessert

Tuesday (Swim Day): Swim & Picnic. Enrichment: Math/Cooking, Lunch: Students need a sack lunch.

Wednesday: Library Events: Mad Science, Explosions, Experiments and more. Enrichment: Science, Lunch: Chicken Strips, Fries, Toast, Drink & Dessert

Thursday:  Sports Camps. Enrichment: Math/Cooking and Spanish, Lunch: McDonald’s Burgers, Chips, & Dessert

Friday (Field Trip Day): Putt Putt Golf and Picnic. Lunch: Students need a sack lunch.

Cute picture I took of Jarrod and Stratton walking down the hall and Arden tagging along!

Also, Arden will be making a change soon as well! She will be starting at the Montessori school of Jonesboro on July 14th! I am pretty anxious about the move. It’s so different from a regular daycare. But since they really promote independent thinking and learning, I think it’s really going to be a good fit for her. We will see!!

“EEEZZZ”

That’s how she says “Cheese!”.

And just this morning she had a play camera turned on herself saying “eeezzz!!”- I guess she was taking selfies. Which is interesting since from my knowledge she doesn’t see me or anyone else doing that! Maybe she’s just used to the “mamarazzi” as one of my friends called it! Ha!!

She was in a particularly good mood Tuesday night while the boys were gone to baseball, so I got my phone out and and of course I got lots of “eeezzzz!!” We were getting ready for bed (reading books) and she was sitting in my lap so it was very hard to get a decent picture!

Stratton’s Dental Procedure

Technically, Valley View is still in school this week. However, since Stratton is in Pre-K and we have to pay we opted to let him skip this week (and we didn’t have to pay! Yay!) and give him a break before he starts the Summer Excel Program at VV. Monday he got to go to work with me. He was really good for most of the day. We had to run errands that morning and then we had lunch at Cracker Barrel (his request) and he pretty much took over my office and I got booted to the table in the kitchen to work! His game got cancled because of the rain, so Jarrod took Stratton out to dinner just the two of them to Red Lobster (again, Stratton’s request) and then they ran around for a bit before hitting up Andy’s on their way home. We let him stay up late thinking that might help him sleep in on Tuesday. He also couldn’t have any food or drink after midnight on Monday, so the later he slept the less we would have to hear about how he needed something to drink/eat.

Well, of course that never works out! He got up around 6:45 I think. Jarrod took off work to go with us so he ran Arden to daycare and Stratton and I headed to the dentist. His appointment was at 8:00. They considered it a “sedation” dental procedure. But of course Sedation and Stratton don’t really go together! They said 90% of kids fall asleep after the meds and gas. . . not Stratton! He was wide awake the whole time! And acting really silly!! He called the big light they used “goose-gravy!!” He was very good, despite being awake! He got more relaxed finally and they were able to get everything done. But throughout the procedure Jarrod sat on one side of him and I was on the other. We were constantly holding an arm or leg down! He even almost got sick once, which they said was really normal! Whew! It was an experience! One small cavity was filled and the other one that was in the very back on the top had to be capped. I hate that, but Dr. Tyson said that since it’s was so big and under the gum they would almost certainly have to go back in later and fix it again. And after she got finished she said that it was so close to a nerve she was afraid that filling it would have made it worse. The whole thing took about 2 hours. We were the only ones there for most of the morning, which was nice. Dr. Tyson and her staff were so great. They talked to Stratton and showed him everything and told him everything they were doing. She had funny names for all her tools and gave him a kid appropriate description of what they did! He didn’t act scared or worried the entire time. I can’t say enough good things about them! We will be taking him and Arden here for regular dental appointments from now on!

Stratton was wound up after they gave him some “juice”. They gave it to him right after we got there so by the time Jarrod came in ten minutes later, he was already getting loopy. He talked Jarrod into sitting in the floor on the beanbag with him, but he couldn’t be still for a second! He was cracking us up!

Of course they said he’d probably be sleepy the rest of the day. . yada. . .yada. . .yada. . .Yeah. I know all that, I’ve heard it many times before! And as usual he was his normal amped up self. He was made when we got home because he couldn’t eat real food. He wanted eggs and blueberries! They had suggested we just do liquids and soft stuff that doesn’t have to be chewed for a couple of hours till the numbness wore off. He had 2 popsicles, ice cream, chicken noodle soup and mashed potatoes! I think I finally let him have some blueberries around noon. He did fine and never bit the side of his mouth (I am surprised!) or tongue.

I was nervous to let him play baseball Tuesday night since he was rather crabby after his nap- I figured it was the meds still in his system. But he said he wanted to play. They actually canceled the games due to the fields being so wet from the Monday night rain, but about 3pm they called them back on! Arden and I stayed home since the setup of the t-ball games with 3 games scattered on one field and the bleachers are in the fields. I was afraid it would be muddy and I didn’t want to chase around around in the mud! Of course it was muddy and Stratton came home with mud all over his pants- there is no saving them now. I have repeatedly washed and bleached! Good thing we only have one game left I guess!

My mom and dad came up after they got out of their church meetings and picked Stratton up to stay at their house for the rest of the week! He’s been really excited about getting to go to the farm! Jarrod and I are going to feel like we are on vacation with only one kid!!

Fun Birthday Party

After a busy week, we just had one event this weekend! Ella’s 2nd birthday party. Jarrod worked till around 1pm on Saturday.

I went up late Friday night and helped Lori decorate, it was really cute. I should have taken more pictures, but I was a little busy with Arden!

The kids played on the bouncey houses and had ice cream and cake.

Trey, Ella and Stratton

Ella opened her presents, and I’m not kidding, everything she got was Doc McStuffins! Good thing she loves Doc!

The coolest thing at the party!

You pick your ball (deflated) and then you get to air it up yourself!) The kids LOVED it! You can rent it at J. Christopher Toys now!

Arden was the only girl to pick purple. All the others wanted pink!

Lori had a “dress Up” area for the girls to dress up and have their picture taken. Once everyone was gone while we were cleaning up Arden decided she needed to tryout some wings.

This is her new pose, she kinda squats and sticks her booty out! I’m not sure where she learned that!

“EEZZZZ!!”

And after the party we had dinner with my mom and dad and Dillon and Brandye. . .more on that later though!!