Stratton starts Kindergarten

This is a big milestone. I knew this day would come. I clearly remember (as clearly as anyone can think after 3 days of laboring, an emergency c-section and having a baby in the NICU) holding this itty, bitty baby boy in the hospital and thinking to myself “one day he will be 5 and be going to school, but I don’t see how. I can’t imagine this baby of mine being that big.”

And I laid that baby down for a nap and this happened. . .

 

I’m thankful for so many things; he’s healthy, smart, determined, handsome, and he’s so tall! He’s so big now and can do so much by himself. But he still asks me to sing to him and rub his back sometimes to help him go to sleep. And I try very hard to remember in those moments (even though I am exhausted and have a million things to do before I myself can finally crawl into bed) that this is the same tiny baby that I just laid down for a nap and one of these days this little boy who I am singing to sleep is going to go to bed and wake up a teenager. 

Hello August. . . Good Bye August!

Good grief! Summer is over. Well, the good parts of summer are over- the heat and humidity remain. We’ve been busy as usual. Arden was out of school for a couple of days for teacher inservice, then Stratton was out a couple of days between summer program and school starting back. So our schedules have been a little off track- which seems to make for cranky kids. I helped Brandye setup her baby registry at Target! That was fun! I’m excited for baby Darcy to get here! Maybe it will help cure my baby fever! And I’m having too much fun looking at matching outfits for “the girls”! So far I’ve only purchased one. . .

We’ve spent a lot of time on the weekends at Gigi and Pop’s house swimming!

 

Jarrod and I got to sneak away to Little Rock for a night out! Much needed!! 

We had Jessica King (TRY) to take the kids pictures. . .

. . . of course this was a Monday night, so they were tired but they were in RARE form. It was soo hot and humid and the mosquitos were unbearable! The only thing that got Arden to even crack a smile was Stratton putting FROGS on his head. I am anxious to see how many pictures Jessica had to Photoshop to remove the frog from the picture. I bet that was a first for her! The rest of the pictures should be coming soon- I hope! I really hope she got some good ones of them together, but who knows!

The kids helped Gigi “make” icing for Aunt Kay’s birthday cake. Hmmm. . .looks like a good gig to me!

A {rare} moment of sweetness. . .

Stratton’s last day at Excel- I think he’s most disappointed  about not having swim day and field trip day once a week! The summer program was so much fun!

We had Kindergarten Open House. He wasn’t in the best mood when we went, but he got better when we got to his class and he got to meet his teacher. We’ve also been to the Kindergarten parent meeting. WOW. So much information. I was a little overwhelmed. They are going to learn so much this year! (I will have pictures from his first day in my next post!)

I tried and TRIED to get him to let me take a picture in front of his room. This is all I got. . . Nice- huh!

Jarrod and I went to the ASU Touchdown Club banquet with some friends from church last night. We had a great time! Some of us girls got our picture taken with Howl and Scarlett! Aren’t they cute!

Fast approaching. . .Isabella’s birthday, Nanny’s birthday, my mom and dad’s anniversary, Brandye’s baby shower, Arden’s birthday, a wedding, and then FOOTBALL starts!! It’s going to be another busy month!

Helmet and Heels 2014

My friend Lori invited me to go with her and some other ladies to this fundraiser Tuesday night for the ASU football team. It was SO MUCH FUN. I laughed so much! I think next year Armor Seed is going to have to buy a table! One of the football players sat with us. Lori and her family are really big fans (and sponsors) of the ASU football program so she knows most of the coaches, players and just about anyone that has anything to do with the football program at all! The player that sat with us was actually a student teacher at Valley View this past year, so he knew Lori from being in Trey’s kindergarten class! He was a nice and sweet guy! He told us all about his girlfriend who he just bought a ring for! His name is Tyler Greve-#58 if you need someone to cheer for!

Several coaches came up and did different presentations about their area of expertise. . .really funny. They tried to teach us terms and plays that would impress our husbands and told us that our husbands really don’t know as much about football as they let us believe! I was really impressed with all the coaches and guys that MC’d the event. It was very engaging and humorous and to keep the attention of 300+ women while talking about football isn’t easy!!

There was some crowd participation and of course Lori got picked to help with one demonstration. And it was to “assist” the players in removing their uniforms! Lol!! She got one of the quarterbacks! Of course they only took off their gloves helmet, shoes, shirt and pads- but that was enough for it to be hysterical! Especially the shirt! Who knew those shirts were on so tight! Some of the other ladies were having a very, very difficult time getting them off and it was so funny! They had a live auction and had some good stuff but it all went quickly above my price range! There was a fashion show and they had lots of vendors there with everything you can think of that might have Red Wolves on it; clothes, jewelry, accessories, artwork. . .but we got there late and didn’t really get to shop. We will do better next year!

Last week of July!

Jarrod and I have both been really busy with work. We had our summer meeting at work last week- where we bring everyone in for 2 days. It’s good, but exhausting!! We took everyone to Memphis to the redbirds game and rented a suite and had dinner catered. It was really nice! It was only my 2nd Redbirds game, ever! I think we are going to have to do better about taking Stratton- he would love it! The only real baseball game he has been to was last summer in St. Louis and he still talks about it sometimes! We should really take advantage of having a place to go watch baseball so close to us! Anyway we had a good time, but we left about 5pm and didn’t get back till 11ish. Everyone in my house was asleep (of course when I got home) and I had to leave early Friday morning to get back to the office to set up for the rest of the meeting that day- I kinda missed not seeing the kiddos!

This is the picture Jarrod sent me of Arden at dinner. Apparently they had cake or something??

The kids are doing fine. Arden is still loving her new school. We are so pleased with the change, and they continue to tell me how smart and mature she is for her age! Stratton is glad to be swimming again and getting to participate in all the water activities at school again!

Arden happy and having breakfast at Montessori- her teacher sent me this after we’d had a little bit of a rough morning so I would know she was fine!

Getting ready for school- they can be a mess in the mornings!

Oh and I almost forgot we tried Build a Bear last Friday for Arden! It wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. I thought she’d love it. Nope. The stuffing machine scared her. The bath blowers scared her. She picked a puppy of course and wanted him to have a bowl- a pink one, but that was it! She made Stratton do all the work while she sat in her stroller and watched!

This past weekend we spent Saturday and most of Sunday in Hickory Ridge. Jarrod had to work so the kids and I got up and around and got to mom and dad’s about 10am. Stratton was excited about swimming in their new pool. We swam for awhile, had lunch and took naps then swam some more. Jarrod came up after he got off and we had dinner. Then Sunday after church we had lunch and the whole family came over to mom’s and we celebrated Stratton’s birthday again! After lunch we swam some more! This time Aunt Brandye swam with us. It is really nice to have that pool! **Jarrod- DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER** I’m thinking that we might need to get one next year! The kids love it so much! I know it’s a lot of work though.

One last thing. . . Last Monday (after grocery shopping with the kids mind you!) I cleaned and cut and peeled all the fruit-apples, strawberries, grapes and blueberries- and put them into serving size containers so the kids could have easy access to them (without asking me to cut or clean them) and to make it easy to make school lunches! I was so proud of myself! I am going to try and do better about this but it’s hard. It took me over and hour and I had to wait till the kids were gone to bed of course! But it’s been so nice to have this week. We’ve almost cleaned the drawer completely out! I will need to re-stock in a few days! Even though this is the last week I have to fix lunches for Arden! They start back with providing lunch on the 4th! Whew! It’s hard to come up with finger foods that aren’t messy, and that she will eat!

The cast comes off!

It’s only been a little over 3 weeks, but that was long enough! He was such a trooper about getting it cut off, too! I thought he might be a little scared of the saw, but he just smiled and laughed the whole time! He did start to cry a little when she wanted to wash his arm off after the cast came off. I think he was just scared it was going to hurt. I bet his arm felt funny. He kept saying it was sore. I ended up letting him go to work with me the rest of the day since he was complaining of it being so sore. But he never really complained about it much more.

Whew! I know he’s glad to get it off and so I am!

It was such a pain to wrap it up before taking a bath every night!

Now he can go to swim day and water day at school!

And swimming at Pops and Gigi’s house! Yay!!

Branson with the Staggs (and Johnsons)

We had a little weekend birthday celebration for Stratton and Terry. We went up Friday night and came home Sunday, so it was a quick trip, but we had a lot of fun and made some memories!! Terry and Margie were so nice to take all of us on a trip together!

The ride to Branson was tough. Stratton got car sick. Good thing we are used to this and were prepared! But we did have to stop several times which made us get there later than we had anticipated. I think we finally all got to bed around 10pm.

Saturday we were up and at’em early. We had breakfast and then took the kids to ride some kiddie rides and go carts. Well, wouldn’t you know Arden fell on the pavement chasing the boys and scraped her face up. Poor thing she looked awful! She recovered quickly though!

Three sweet kids

After the fall

Go Carts!

Lovely day to be outside! The temps were in the 70’s! Crazy!

After lunch at Mel’s we headed back to the hotel for naps. Saturday evening we had dinner at Landry’s (SO. GOOD.) and then went to see the Haygoods!

Attempt at a family picture

Family Picture at the Haygoods!

Arden liked the Haygoods, but she passed out about halfway through!

Sunday was a gorgeous day. I mean just perfect weather. We had a little time that morning for the birthday boys to open gifts then we decided to go to Branson Landing for a little browsing and lunch before we all headed our separate ways home.

The waterfront at the Landing was so nice Arden and I had a nice time walking around together while the others shopped. Then we had lunch and headed back to Jonesboro.

We had such a good time, I only wish we could have stayed longer! The weather was so nice and the crowds weren’t too bad. The kids had fun playing together, even though the boys can get a little crazy!!

Stratton’s Birthday

Stratton’s birthday just fell at a difficult time this year. We ended up not having a big party. With Papa and grandma both in the hospital and it being a busy time of year, and it being so hot, it just didn’t make much sense. And then I got sick as well! So on his actual birthday we just had a small family get together and kept it simple. It was Saturday but Jarrod actually had to work but came home a little after lunch. We went ahead and gave him his big gift from us so he could play with it!

 

We got him a bike! It’s just a tad too big, but I’m sure he will grow into it soon!

Riding with a broke arm isn’t easy!

We played outside and Jarrod grilled supper

He got a jar of bb’s from Gigi and Pops! He was so excited!

Gigi made him a MONSTER cake!