Catching up - part too many!

I think I will be "caught up", for the most part, after this post!  Thank goodness!  I know what you're thinking, "why didn't she just start with current time?"  Well, I thought about doing just that, but the kids like to look at the blog - and I'm hoping to create books from the blog for the kids eventually - so I just didn't feel right skipping almost an entire year.  We're almost back to live mode people, just bear with me.

Maya turns 6!  Of course, I woke her up singing happy birthday as I do every year...



Maybe I should have done something with her hair the night before!



The morning of

We celebrated the weekend before...

 

Maya got a dog!  Introducing "Bella Sprinkles Rosie Speedy" - and yes, she was called all of those names for a while, but we've finally settled with "Bella."  I got her about a week before Maya's birthday and started to call her Bella, thinking I would be able to easily sway Maya once I gave her the dog.  So, on Maya's birthday, I gave her Bella and told her a list of "approved" (by me :)) names and asked Maya what she thought.  Maya gets close and whispers in my ear, "Sprinkles!"  Sprinkles??  Ummmm... ok.  Braeden decided he wanted to name her as well and came up with Rosie.  Eventually, her name settled in as Bella and she just as sweet as she can be with the kids!

Maya loves this dog!

 The first day of school!  Braeden started Kindergarten, Maya is in 1st grade and Camden is in 2nd grade!  I feel sorry for the teachers at their school...

Oh yeah.... I bought a mini-van!  Yep, it's official.  And I really can't say enough good things about this kid corralling, kid friendly machine.  I love that the doors slide back to open (as to not hit any other cars because no matter how many times you tell your kids to slow down when opening the doors, they will still fling them open!), it's lower to the ground (which is great for us shorties), and the best part (and well worth the "taking away of my coolness" factor) is that the kids can no longer touch each other!  I digress... back to the first day of school.

 Their backpacks just swallow them up...

 You made it Braeden!  He's really been looking forward to going to school!

 Isn't she adorable!

 Wow!  2nd grade!  I can't believe it.

 Maya passed out after the first day of school last year too!

I was a little worried about how Braeden would act in school.  Camden and Maya are so quiet in school, that I just knew I would be in for a rude awakening with Braeden.  Not that I thought he would get in a ton of trouble, but the boy likes to talk (a lot).  But so far, so good!  Not only that, but Braeden won the first month character trait award in his class.  Every month, the school teaches about particular character traits and each teacher from each grade picks 1 or 2 students they feel is best representing the trait being discussed.  October was the first month and the trait was "respect" and Braeden's teacher picked him to be  rewarded (with a yard sign for a month) and recognized at an awards ceremony.  Way to start off your school year Braeden!!