It's happened again...

Knowing this has happened before, you would think we would have better prepared ourselves. We should have expected it. I tried to ignore the early signs, but it has really been obvious. Grandma Burnside thought it would have happened sooner, and now neither of our parents are surprised. So, are you ready for our announcement?

Kennie starts 1st grade tomorrow! During the 5th week of school they gave Kennie the end-of-year exam for kindergarten and he flew right through it. He is very excited. In saying this has happened before, the last 2 months of Aaron's kindergarten year he was moved to 1st grade, and then went right on to 2nd. So he basically skipped 1st grade. David (Aaron's dad) skipped a grade too. So, you can see we have some smart men in this family. I am trying to have faith in our decision to skip him. I was prepared for this to happen since clear last spring Kennie's preschool teacher said this would happen. I freaked out then, but have had the whole summer to digest it. At least I'm not pregnant!

P.S. This picture was taken on Wednesday. Notice how great Kennie's hair looked. This is the best hair day Kennie has ever had. I had to take a picture. He has hair like his father and it is VERY difficult to make it lay just right. Finally, a good hair day.

4 minus 2 times 2

Okay. What does that mean? 4 wheels minus 2 wheels times 2 boys. We took the training wheels off the boys bikes today. They did great. Justin picked it up like he's been doing it forever. It took Kennie a little longer, but Aaron only had to work with him for 20 minutes. Here is video.


Both Boys



Kennie riding his bike

Justin riding his bike

Falling asleep on the job

So, the last couple of days Maggie has been my helper in the kitchen. She is a definte Mama's girl and doesn't like me to be out of her sight. So, I decided one day to see if she would sit in a chair in the kitchen and "talk" to me while I cooked dinner. To my surprise, it worked! Hooray!! Well, she was talking to me and I started singing to her. I looked over, and this is what I found. Isn't this amazing?? You know you are desperate when you think your daughter is amazing because she falls asleep on her own. YIKES! Anyway, I thought she looked pretty cute. She sure loves her blanket. This is one that one of my good friends Dana made for her. Can I just say how much I love purple and how much I don't love pink!!

Nate sings his ABC's

Nate started singing his ABC's to our refrigerator magnet the other day. Aaron caught it on his phone. Sorry it's not great quality, it is from a phone. He is so dang cute, I just can't stand it.

Thanks a lot IKE!!

Sorry, no sugar coating today. I'm not in a good place at the moment.

Yesterday was a really bad day and thanks to Hurricane Ike, today is going to be almost as bad!! Here's why:

Yesterday Aaron was on call. You might ask, what does that mean? Well, he left around 6:00 am and didn't get home until almost 8:30 pm. During that time Ike hit. I will take this moment to say my thanks to Heavenly Father that we didn't get the rain that they got 2-3 hours to my north. If we would have gotten 8 inches of water, the bottom level in my house would have a mountain of standing water. Anyway, back to what we did get. We got the hurricane winds. Some parts of Dayton got 70 mph winds. It sure felt like we were in the wind tunnel. Some of our friends didn't have power when they got home from church at noon yesterday and they still don't have power today. I am thankful that we have power and never did lose it.

So, why such a bad day? Aaron wasn't at church and those of you with 4 kids totally understand how hectic church is with 4 kids and 2 adults. Well, there was only 1 of me yesterday. I got in the car after church was out and the kids were buckled and cried. I was just so overwhelmed. We got home and I started lunch. During the 14 minutes it took me to boil the water and cook the noodles, Kennie and Justin got in trouble 3 times, lost their sippy's (only water all day), no dessert and no snacks. During lunch, they lost the Wii (not that I was going to let them play it on a Sunday, but they don't know that) and they lost a movie. They also went to bed at 7:30. I ran out of things to punish them with. Aaron came home last night after everyone was in bed.

So, Aaron and I were chillin' and watching the scores from the football game and watching the Browns game when they started rolling the school closings and delays on the screen. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? MISERY!! Yep, the school is closed so that means Kennie and Justin are home all day again today. Aaron is gone until at least 6 tonight and they can't go play outside because there are sticks everywhere. Oh, to make matters worse, I think Maggie is fighting something. She had a low grade fever this morning and has been pretty grouchy all day. So, here's to a horrible day thanks to Hurricane Ike.

I got my butt kicked!!

It has officially started. I joined a group at church that is doing the biggest loser. We started today with the first weigh in. It is a 12 week process. Each week, we e-mail the head honcho (is that even a word) and report our current weight and the weight lost that week. So, I decided to start last night.

Shelby and I went and got our butt's kicked last night. We went to a Zumba class at the gym. Wow!! 60 minutes of sweating. I didn't get up and exercise today, but had to run to the school to get Kennie, and I mean run. I ran the whole way and most of the way back. It felt pretty good.

I am proud to say, that when I weighed in this morning, I still weighed 11 lbs less than July of last year. That means, I had a baby and I still weigh less. Dang Depo shot. My advise, DON'T DO DEPO!!!!

My goal: Lose 25 lbs before we move (next May.) Anyone want to join me in my quest? I would love some company!!

Maggie at 3 months

It's hard to believe that she is already 3 months. Here are some pictures I took yesterday.Maggie asleep. This almost NEVER happens during the day.

Such a sweet smile.

Here are some of the things Maggie is doing at 3 months:

Hates her carseat (cries every time we put her in it.)
Takes 3 ten minute power naps during the day (I hate this!!)
Sleeps through the night (8:00 pm – 8:00 am)
Lights up when she sees her brothers (especially Justin)
LOVES LOVES LOVES her Mommy
Is an emotional nurser (don’t like this so much either)
Scoots across the floor when on her belly
Turns herself in a circle when on her back
(this girl has amazing strength in her long legs)
Smiles and coos
Laughs at Daddy
Loves to cuddle
Favorite song is “You are My Sunshine”
Is still very skinny (0-3 month clothes still fall off)
Is a horrible drooler
Spits up like crazy (that is why she is in 2 different outfits in the pictures.)

Maggie's Blessing Day

I only got 1 picture of Maggie on her blessing day. Aaron had to work night float so he was up all night. He was very tired and that threw off the whole day. I took her a couple of days later to get her pictures taken at the studio. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out.

The best things in life aren't things

This wall has been "under construction" since Maggie was born. I needed to get a picture of her to put in the frame. Since I only had 1 child (that is a great thing), I had to figure out what to do with the other frame (I had to add 2 frames to make the saying centered.) So for now, there is a picture of my 4 plus Luke. We are getting family pictures taken in a month so we will have one of the 4 kids in the middle after we get pictures taken. The picture is a little off but I promise the pictures are straight. Thanks to an amazing husband!!

I started my new job

I mentioned earlier that I got a job. Today was the first day of my new job. Take a look at a picture of my new job! His name is Sol. He turned 1 on the 13th of August (when this picture was taken.) He is the 3rd cutest boy I have ever seen. (Kennie, Justin & Nate are tied for 1st and Luke, my nephew, is 2nd.)

I will be watching Sol 4 days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday). Today is my first day "on the job" and take a look at all I have gotten done.

Cleaned all 3 bathrooms (counters, toilets, sweep, mop, dust & put towels away.)
Swept & mopped kitchen, mud room and entry way.
Loaded at started the dishwasher
Wiped down the counter
Cleaned out the fridge
Drank 3 bottles of water
Filled 4 sippy cups
Picked the abc magnets off the floor 3 times
Cleaned out the pack ‘n play and moved it upstairs
Put away 2 baskets of freshly folded cloths
I have 1 load drying in the dryer and 1 waiting in the washer
Cleaned up the scrapbook room floor
Had lunch with Kennie at school (with Sol & Maggie)
Put 3 kids down for a nap.

I have about 2 more hours on my first day. Kennie is about to come home from school and we will do 6 pages of homework, wake Nate from his nap, feed 3 kids a snack and figure out what to do for dinner.

This is not a joke. I really did get everything done.

Miss Mags has a home!!

Maggie is living the life! She has been sleeping on our floor because the basinet as big as she would like it. Since Nate is doing so well in his bed, we decided to move Mags off our floor and into her own bed. It was VERY strange laying down a baby on sheets with flowers! Yikes!

This is about an hour before bedtime.

Out like a light.