First day of Pre-K

Monday was Campbell first real day of Pre-K! I gotta say that it's been the easiest year so far with the transition of school for him. I think it's really helped that he's been in the same place for almost three years. I saw an idea on Pinterest have them say what they want to be when they grow up on the first day of school to see how it changes. This year, he wants to be a blue jockey, of course.

Nolan was the sweetest big brother the first day of school posing with him and getting him all set with his stuff in his cubby.

Let's hope that all this excitement about school continues. I love that both my boys love school.

New lens

Two years ago, my husband ran in a race called Capital to Coast where he ran from Austin, TX to Corpus Christi, TX in a relay run. He ran over a 24 hour period in 6 mile shifts. Yes, he's officially crazy.

I, on the other hand, don't run unless someone has a piece of cake in front of me or there's a rabid dog chasing me. But I digress...

Anyway, when his team was finally crossing the finish line in Corpus, someone broke into our minister's car (I call that straight ticket to hell) and stole a van full of stuff. Justin's wallet was stolen and our camera bag with four beautiful lenses. GULP (insert me in a fetal position here). I was so upset because, if you don't know, photography is NOT a cheap hobby.

Our insurance didn't cover much with our high deductible and we were only able to replace one lens. Lesson learned, now all of our camera equipment is insured. Now that I'm starting this photography gig on the side, I just tear up thinking of the things I could've done with all those great lenses.

So this photo gig is more or less a means to fund my photography hobby. Today we got in our 85mm 1.8 that was stolen by a very evil person (can you tell I'm still bitter?) and I now remember why I loved this lens so much.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B, C & D:

 

And no, the rolls on Landry's legs are not more defined by the lens, they're really that adorable.

Dear 85mm, oh how I've missed you. I'm so excited to use this bad boy again! 

The mamarazzi strikes again!

Meet the Teacher for Pre-K

I can't believe that school is almost starting. I love the routine of school but absolutely hate the START of school. It's so stressful and overwhelming as a teacher and mom of three until we get our routine figured out. But it's coming, so I better just build a bridge and get over it (as I lovingly tell my students).

Campbell's meet the teacher was today. Luckily, he already knows one of his teachers. He had her last year for half of the year and so did big bubba, Nolan!

We went ahead and brought his backpack with his naptime turtle and blanket. One less thing to worry about the first day on Monday.

As soon as he saw his classroom, he started playing peek-a-boo with his teacher.

And he didn't waste one second to start doing a puzzle with Ms. Sherry.

Here is he with his two teachers.

Campbell misses school so much. He loves his friends and being the class clown. Hmmm, wherever did he get that?!

Blackmail

This actually was months ago and I just keep forgetting to post it but it's a classic. This so perfectly portrays my house. One kid in a cape, another bouncing around, and my husband being a rock star. He obviously had no idea I was recording this. I was hiding in Landry's closet. This is one of my favorite videos ever!

Scrapbook retreat

It's become an annual tradition. For four days and three nights I pack up all my junk (scrapbooking junk) and go on a girls trip with my girlfriends. It's a glorious four days of uninterrupted time to get caught up on scrapbooking. I am so so behind. Going into the trip I was a year and a half behind and now I'm just 10 months behind!

I started out having a scrapbook for each year of my kids' lives but I quickly learned that I can't keep up with that. So Nolan has the first 4 years in separate albums, Campbell has the first two years and poor Landry Kate is just going to have her first year. After that I'm going to family albums. I figure that they can fight over them later or just make digital copies of them. More than likely, my boys will not even care about them so maybe they'll all go to Landry.

We went to the McKinney location this time at Memory Lane Inn. Here is our adorable room.

The whole house is dedicated to a scrapbooking retreat with a crop room right next to the house.

I think we might be the messiest scrappers ever.

And this picture I can explain. One of my friend's husbands jokes that we're all lying and we just say that we're "scrapbooking". He finds it hard to believe that this many girls actually want to do this for four days in a row. So he hacked into his wife's email and said, "Hey guys I wanted to bring along a guy from work and his name is John." He wanted to see how we would react.

So we couldn't resist when the owner's husband came to take a look at the air conditioning to have him pose for a picture as our "John".

It was glorious having time away without changing any dirty diapers, making meals or bottles for a short while. I missed my little ones so much that I scrapbooked them the whole time!

"Water"fall walk

In starting my new photography journey, I'm on the lookout for new interesting locations to take photo shoots. I had a teacher friend from my school tell me about a secret waterfall that hardly anyone knows about in River Oaks. I did some research online. No wonder no one knows about it. There's no signs, no parking lot, and you never even know that it's there. It's really close to the Air Force Base here in town.

My niece is about to get her braces off and I want to take her senior pictures to celebrate! So we went to scope it out in the triple digit heat. I didn't say it was the best planning.

Here's the so-called waterfall. I guess that's what you get when it's been dry as a bone for a month now with no rain. It was pretty even without the water but I bet it's just gorgeous with the water flowing.

So maybe the Spring would be a better time to scope this waterfall out. The boys thought it was pretty cool to be standing in the middle of a waterfall.

Once again, I don't know what I'd do without Madison this summer. She's helped me out a ton with watching the kids during the summer when I've had appointments or just needed some help when we go swimming.

We were only there about 15-20 minutes because that's all we could tolerate with the heat. But I wanted to snap a few pictures because it seems like I've neglected taking pictures of my little ones since this new photography journey has begun and we can't have that!

And Campbell was going his best to help me look for water for our waterfall.

 

We all needed baths and showers from our short little hike. It doesn't take much here in Texas. 

 

We had about all we could take and it was time to take Madison back to the farm. Campbell was beyond excited about seeing the horses but I've figured out he talks a big game. This is as close as we could get him to the pony who was seriously the tiniest pony ever.

 

Nolan loved it and he's not even our big horse lover.

Landry sat for about 3 seconds on him, but that's 3 seconds longer than Campbell did. You know, our son that wants to grow up to be a jockey but won't go near a horse.

I loved that my boys love the farm and even though they're city kids through and through, they have a love for getting dirty.

Tonsil fairy

My poor Nolie Polie suffered through 7 cases of strep throat through his kindergarten year. I think his teacher thought I let him go around licking doorknobs with how many times he got it.

We finally went to an ENT and he recommended having his tonsils taken out. We had to put it off until the summer so that we'd have time off school. The week leading up to the surgery we played HARD...swimming every day, riding bikes, playing outside because I'd heard horror stories about how kids recover from tonsillectomies.

So this past week we had the surgery. The staff at Cook Children's Hospital Northeast is amazing. They had him smiling and laughing the second he walked in the door. There was even a fun house mirror to greet us.

Soon after that they even gave his horsey a fire hat...never know what might happen in surgery.

He was so smiley and happy before the surgery and I just kept thinking, "Poor thing doesn't even know how bad it's going to hurt."

They gave him some giggle juice and he started to get really mellow. About 30 minutes later they took him back. He kept looking back at me as they were wheeling him away. It doesn't matter how routine of procedure it is, when you're a mama, you're a nervous wreck about your baby. The night before I hardly slept. I guess I didn't realize how nervous I really was!

After 15 minutes, Dr. Palmer came and told us he was doing great and that his adenoids had grown back and so he took those as well. When we went back to see him, he already had his rainbow popsicle and was pretty groggy. But within 15 minutes, he said, "I'm hungry!" I couldn't believe he wanted to eat after that.

We've been on a diet of scrambled eggs, yogurt, applesauce and ice cream the past few days. The day of the surgery we went to Orange Leaf to treat him to yogurt.

Friday and Saturday he went around the house like normal talking about how great he felt and then this pretty much sums up Sunday-Thursday. I think the scabs are forming and falling off.

I've been setting my alarm to give him his pain medicine. It feels like having a newborn all over again. Hoping that my Nolie Polie feels better really soon.

Here's to hoping that 1st grade doesn't include strep!