Josie's First Morning as a Kindergartener in Pictures

(Disclaimer: I just realized that the date is worng)

Eating breakfast to make sure our brains are in good working order:




Getting ready to leave:







She arrives at school:


Sitting at HER desk:





Josie and her teacher, Ms. Jackson:


Josie and one proud Momma:

Josie's Last Hoorah

Some of my favorite childhood memories are the spontaneous things (or at least they were spontaneous to my brother and me) we did. I decided I wanted to keep that "tradition" alive with my children and so this past weekend we had a Last Hoorah for Josie before she officially became a kindergartener. As always we are tight on money so I had to be creative, but before my surprise came Aunt Sheila's surprise. Thursday night Joe and I went went to Quint and Sheila's house to watch Caden and Ansleigh while Sheila and Quint went to Caden's open house. Around 7:15 Joe took our kids home to get them in bed while I stayed and put Ansleigh and Caden to bed. When Quint and Sheila got home Sheila came in with this huge smile on her face, and told me that she wanted to surprise Caden, Josie, and Jolie and take them to Chuck-E-Cheese the next day. I think she was as excited about surpirsing the kids and spending that time with them, as I know the kids were once they got to Chuck-E-Cheese. The kids had an absolute blast and came home with pictures, candy, and goodies. Sitting at work Friday morning knowing that my kids were having a great time with Sheila and her sister Stacey made me a little jealous that I couldn't do something fun with the kids. Joe worked this weekend so I knew we really could not do much. Then it hit me. I had my birthday money sitting on my dresser and I had not decided what I wanted to do with it, so I decided to get a hotel room in Greenville, Alabama. We could stay at one with a pool where the kids could swim and at night we could go to the golf course and ride. There is a park close to the golf course so I knew we could do that as well. So on my lunch I ran home and packed up a suitcase, snacks, drinks, swim gear, and anything else I could think of that we would need. As soon as I got off work I picked up Joel from Ms. Debbie, picked up the girls from Sheila, and we headed to Greenville for Josie's Last Hoorah. We had a blast. Joe especially loved it because he had a 5-10 minute drive to work. Hopefully this will be one of the things the girls look back fondly on it, and appreciate that although we didn't do something super exciting, we did have fun, and it was a great little get away.

Sunday we came home and dropped the kids off with MeMaw and Paw-Paw so that Joe and I could go to my boss' father's funeral. He died Friday night, and the funeral was Sunday. After the funeral Joe had session and I rushed back to get the kids ready for Awana at MeMaw and Paw-Paw's church. Jolie moved up to Cubbies and although was a little shy at first warmed up to her teacher and new friends. Josie moved up to Sparks and was fine. I am sure it helped that she had one of her best friends, Elias, there. Annaleigh is in Puggles and I think she enjoyed it as well. Crystal and I talked and caught up and then attended the evening service.

Today was Jolie moved up to a new class at Millbrook Child Development Class. She is in K-4 now with Ms. Amanda. Ms. Amanda is super sweet and I know Jolie will just flourish with her as a teacher. Josie's first day of kindergarten is tomorrow and then starts going every day on Thursday. She is excited and ready. She has been counting down the days.

I'll end with some pictures of the kids at Tanner's birthday party:

New Chapter

We are about to enter into a new chapter in our lives, parents of a school aged child. We have open house tonight and we will take Josie to meet her teacher. We got the teacher we requested, Elizabeth Mercer Jackson. Joe and I went to school with her and I played softball with her. I am so happy we got Elizabeth. I took Josie last Monday night school supply shopping and we finished getting everything on her list. Thank you so much to those of you who helped buy school supplies. You do not know how much we appreciate it. We have also taken her to get new school clothes and she is ready. She has been ready. Me, on the other hand, not so much. I can not believe our oldest child is five and a half years old. I remember trying eight long months to have her, watching her due date come and go, being in labor over 27 hours, and then Joe and I instantly being wrapped around that little girl's finger. Josie is so smart, loving, and loves learning so I know she is going to do great at school. Her first day is Tuesday, August 16, and then she won't go again until Thursday, August 18, 2011, and then every day after that. My tears will be tears of sadness of how fast the time has flown and tears of joy that God has blessed us with such an amazing little girl to share our lives with.

I will probably be stressed to my limits that week. I will have to figure out a new morning routine that will include driving to three different places before going into work and figuring out time to do homework in the afternoons amongst dinner, baths, and taking care of Jolie and Joel and sometimes without Joe's help because of his work schedule. I know we will get it all worked out, but I will just have to get used to our new routines. We won't be able to do anything during the week at night because Josie will need to be in bed by 7:00-7:30 so that we can all be up and ready to leave by 6:50 a.m. Again, I know we will get used to it, it will just take some time. These past two weeks I have been getting the girls up earlier and earlier to slowly get them adjusted to our new wake up time.

This will be the first time Jolie will not be at the same facility as Josie. Jolie is quite independent, but I am a little worried how she will react. She likes to do everything Josie does and often will tell you that she is five like Josie. I can't believe in over a month she will be 4. In my mind she is still my baby girl. If you asked Jolie, she mainly goes to preschool for the entertainment, the friends, playing, and that type of stuff. She is not as into the "learning" as Josie is. However, she is doing much better at coloring inside the lines and is working and is improving on writing her name.

Lastly, Joel. I really really can't believe he is almost a year old. He is 10.5 months old and is as sweet as can be. He is on regular milk and only drinks from sippy cups now. He is pulling up on everything and sometimes can let go and stand for a few seconds before falling. It is hard to believe that within the next couple of months he will be walking. Part of me wants to stop them all from growing and part of me is so excited to see the people they will become and all their accomplishments.

The girls start back to Awana this Sunday. This year they will be going to Awana at New Home, their MeMaw and Paw-Paw's church. Mt. Hebron (Quint and Sheila's church) is doing it on Wednesday nights again, and I just knew it would be too much on Josie not getting into bed before 8:30 or 9:00 on a school night. The girls are excited and both of them move up this year.

I'll end with pictures of Josie and her big girl hair cut for school. This is taken right after it was cut so it is not the best picture. She is so excited about it and kept asking me if I loved it, which I do.

Happy Birthday Last Week of July People

My girls have been so excited because Grammy got in Friday. She stayed with Ben Friday night and Saturday night so the girls and I had talked about it several times before she got here because I did not want them to get upset that she would not be with us every day, and they were both very big girls. If you asked Josie (or for some people who didn't ask Josie, ha ha) Grammy was staying with her uncle until Sunday and then she would be at our house. I was so very proud that she handled it well and never got upset that Grammy had to split her time between us and Uncle Ben, Aunt Tiffany, and Tanner. I dread the day when my children get older and possibly move away from us and we have to figure out who we will spend what holiday day with and having to split our time among them and the grandchildren, but luckily I still have a long long time and can enjoy us all being under one roof, chaos, fights, and all.

Friday Joe had planned a very fabulous birthday party for me. This is the first time he has ever planned a party for me. He is not a stickler for details, but the party was great and we had a great time. I am so proud of him and I love love love him for doing it for me. Thank you all so much for those of you who came or helped in some way. It really means a lot to me and I feel so loved.

Saturday Joe worked and the kids and I hung around the house. That night we did our movie night. Sunday the kids and I went to church and then Grammy, Uncle Ben, Aunt Tiffany, Tanner, R & C came over and brought pizza with them. The kids played for several hours and I think all of us adults had a blast just watching them play. And poor Aunt Tiffany, she can never visit our house without getting her hair "done." The girls love to brush her hair and they have even been known to give her the full treatment by trying to washing it.

Speaking of Tiffany, this weekend I bought a super cute wipes case from her:


She has a lot of stuff on sale, if any of you are interested. She has made several things for my kids that I have posted.
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/ThePolkaDotGiraffe09

My Aunt Lisa has also created a website if you are in the market for a cute keychain.
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/GoodLucyBadLucy/107947489303216

And lastly with my advertisements, my in-laws are active in the Millbrook Players and are in the play South Pacific showing this week, if anyone would like to go see a play. Tell them Jessica sent you. It wouldn't get you anything, but it will make me look like a good daughter-in-law. Just joking they are reading this, so I just blew my cover.

This week Grammy will spend quality time with the kids. This is the second time she has seen Joel so today and Thursday she will just have him and then Tuesday and Wednesday she will have him and one of the girls. In the evening she will visit with us and with Ben and his family, and then on Friday she leaves to go back to Pennsylvania.

This week is birthday week for Joe and my family so:
Happy Birthday Uncle Quint!!
Happy Birthday Kevin!!
Happy Birthday Mr. Randy/Paw-Paw!!
Happy Birthday Gigi Berdine!!
Happy Birthday to Me!!
Happy Birthday Gigi Green!!

We love all of you so very much and are blessed to have you in our lives.

I'll end with some pictures that Aunt Becca and Aunt Angie took at Easter:

Getting Ready for School

The past couple weekends have been fairly quiet for us so there hasn't been that much to post.

The weekend of Julyl 8-9 was a good one. We spent the afternoon at MeMaw and Paw-Paw visiting with family. Grandma was down from Maplesville and Uncle Charlie and Aunt Bobbie were up from Florida. We had a good visit and the food was great too. That evening we went to Quint and Sheilas and played cards until after 1:00 a.m. (Don't worry we had bathed and put all 5 kids to bed around 8:30 p.m.) Sheila and I were exhuasted at that point and went to sleep while Joe and Quint stayed up until I think 4:00 a.m. playing video games. It had been forever since we had done that and it felt good to do something "young" again. However... the next morning I woke up with a migraine. I spent all day either sleeping or throwing up. Joe took the girls to church and Joel and I stayed home and slept. That was also the day Joe lowered Joel's bed because our little acrobat fell out when he was supposed to be tring to go to sleep.

Monday, July 11, 2011, we had Joel's appointment with the pediatric cardiologist. When we first walked into the waiting room there was a fairly large family waiting for someone who was meeting with the doctor. The mom, before even asking why we were there, said she would pray for Joel. That put me in a really good place before we saw the doctor because both Joe and I were super nervous. They did an EKG on Joel's little heart, we met with the doctor, and then the doctor did the ultrasound of his heart. The ultraound felt like it lasted forever. I think we were in there for 15-20 minutes. He said Joel's heart murmur is an innocent one. It does not affect his quality of life and we do not have to go back. Praise the Lord. Joel had so many people praying for him and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

Josie got to go on our third field trip of the summer. They went to the Rave (a movie theater) to see Narnia. She loved it, and the field trips make her feel like such a big girl.

That night Jolie got to go on a date with her dad. They went to Pet Smart to see all the animals and ate dinner at McDonalds. The night before the date Joe told her that they were going to go on one. She asked what they were doing and Joe said it was suprise (he had no clue what they were doing at that poing) and she asked him if they were going ice-skating. He said "No, Daddy doesn't ice-skate." To which she replied, "That's ok, you can just watch me." The girl cracks me up.

Friday at our house has turned into movie night. We rent movies from Redbox, eat popcorn and usually a very unhealthy dinner, and have a good family night. This week I borrowed movies from the library. The girls' movie was Dumbo. I don't think I have seen that since I was a child.

We were supposed to go to the Lake on Saturday, but with us not knowing if storms were coming, we opted not to. So we did some free fun things instead. We went to Bass Pro Shop and "rode" the four-wheelers, "drove" the boats, walked through the tents, and saw the fish. After that we went to Pet Smart to look at the animals. After that we went to the Mall. I'm working on planning both Jolie and Joel's birthday parties. Jolie's is a cowgirl theme and Joel's is a dinosaur theme. We decided to have Jolie's at the Mall at the carousel so that the kids could ride the horses. We needed to get more information so the girls got to ride the carousel and watch the ice skaters and we found out what we needed to plan Jolie's birthday party. That night we had my early birthday dinner with Other Mama and Pap-Paw. The girls spent the night and Joe and I went home.

On Sunday mornings we have singing at 9:15 and Sunday School starts at 9:45 a.m. We have to leave our house at 9:00 to make it to the 9:15 singing. I also never set the alarm for Sunday mornings, because I have three kids who are usually up no later than 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning I woke up and looked at the clock it was 9:00 a.m. Even Joel had slept until 9:00 a.m. Needless to say we rushed to get ready and somehow only managed to be a minute or two late for Sunday School.

This week is dedicated to cleaning our house. My mom comes this Friday and will stay until Friday the 29th. I know some of you are wondering why it will take all week, but we have three kids. Whatever we do is instantly undone, and not only that but we can't officially start cleaning until all 3 are in bed, which is usually sometime between 7 and 8, depending on moods.

Josie's time as a preschooler is quickly coming to an end. School starts on August 15, 2011, but I am not sure when her first day will be. They stagger the kindergarteners for the first three days and then everyone goes on Thursday. We have an open house on August 9th for us to meet Josie's teacher and get her acclimated with her new school. She is super super excited about starting school. I am a little worried about Lollie will react. For as long as she can remember they have been together or in the same building. So I'm sure it will take some getting used to her not having Josie there. Because her birthday falls after the cutoff date it will be two more years before she starts kindergarten.

I have had some people ask if they can help with school supplies. YES!!!! I had no idea it would be so expensive to start school. Here is the school's list for anyone who would like to get something for Josie:
Steno Book- 3
#2 Pencil- 12 natural and no paint, pre-sharpened if possible
Set of washable Crayola Markers- Wide tip- 1
8ct small Crayola Crayons- 1 pack
24 ct Crayola Crayons- 4 packs
4 oz. Elmer's School Glue- 3
9 X 12 50 Ct. Asst. Construction Paper- 1
Xerographic Paper Ream- 3
Color paper ream- 1
Colored Plastic Pocket & Brad Folders- 2
Blunt 5" Fiskar Scissors- 1
4 ct. color Expo dry erase markers- 2
Glue sticks- 4 large, 4 small
Crayola Watercolor paints
PARENT TO SUPPLY: Nap Towel, No Wheels Book Bag, Plastic Supply Box, a 3 pack of Youth Large (14/16) white T-Shirts, and one of each of the following: Germ-X, paper towels, Lysol wipes, Kleenex, headphones, baby wipes

I have also been told that there will probably be more than her individual teacher will require, but we won't know who her teacher is for two more weeks.

We also have Tanner's birthday coming up soon. I can't believe how fast all of these little ones are growing. It makes me happy and sad at the same time.

Happy 4th of July

Last week was an interesting week for us.

Tuesday Joel starting running fever and we had to take him to the doctor. He had strep. The doctor said he could go back to school on Friday so I kept him with me at work Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday was rough. He whined almost all day and mainly just wanted to be held. Thursday was a little better. Friday he went to school but he had his ninth month check up that afternoon. When I got off work I went and picked him up and took him to his appointment. For the most part everything went well. He weighed a little over 24 pounds and is in the 90-95 percentile for his height, in the 95-100 percentile for his weight and 50 percentile for his head circumfrance. He is on target with all of his learning and physical capabilities. Then they started checking him out. There was a person training so she checked him out first and then the doctor went behind her and checked him again. His belly button went down to normal size from his umbilical hernia so I asked that she check that his hernia had healed. She checked him out and went to his chart and started flipping through it. She didn't say anything she just kept looking through his file. I asked her how his hernia looked and she said, "Oh, I didn't check that." She then looked at me and asked me if anyone had ever told me he had a heart murmur. I said no. I must have turned as white as a ghost because the training nurse kept looking at me concerned. She said that he does have one and that we will have to go see a cardiologist. She said every time they find a heart murmur they have it checked out. She said most of the time they are innocent murmurs and do affect a person's quality of life, but in some cases surgery is required. She told me it is better to have one "pop up" then to be born with it. She kept trying to calm me down, but I looked at her and said you have kids, don't tell me to calm down. I do know a ton of people that have heart murmurs including several in our family, but until we know what kind Joel's is, I am going to worry and be scared. So please everyone pray that Joel's is the innocent murmur.

Friday night we went to Hobby Lobby to get some scrapbook paper. I do scrapbooks as my children's baby books, and Jolie's only had four or five pages done. I told Joe that I could not in good conscience start Joel's until I had finished Jolie's. Yes, she is almost four, but hey it is getting done and that is what is important. When we moved all of my scrapbook stuff was put in the outside storage building because we did not have room in our house, so Joe was kind enough to get it out and so far I have done probably 15 pages.

Saturday Joe worked and the kids and I hung around the house all day. We did take two walks, but other than that it was a lazy day. Sunday the kids and I went to Sunday School, went and visited my grandmother for an hour, and then met my friend from high school and her three children at the Millbrook park. The kids played on the playground and in the creek and then we went home and passed out. Well everyone except Josie. I don't know how she was not tired. After naps I took the girls to Other Mama and Pap-Paws to spend the night. Monday morning I got up and cooked and then we went up to the lake as is our family tradition. We had a great day. We swam for hours and ate a lot of good food. On the way home we picked up some fireworks. The girls had watermelon for dinner and were ready to do fireworks. The girls got to do their sparklers and then we watched our little firework show that Joe put on for us. After that it was bath and bed. No one wanted to get up this morning so tonight will be a very early night for us.









I have picked up the school supply list for Josie to start kindergarten. Good grief, they need a lot of stuff. I guess I will do the shopping slowly. I do not think we required near the stuff they do today. Josie continues to be super excited about school. Although she can not read yet, she is learning to spell more and more words.

Jolie is learning to write her name. Write now if you ask her to write her name she writes "Joe." So all she is missing is 2 letters. She is also getting much better at coloring and is doing better at staying in the lines. I can not believe she will be 4 in just 2.5 months.

I have taught Joel to say "bye-bye." Of course he doesn't always say it when I ask him to, but sometimes he does. Like most kids he says it once he is in his carseat in the van. Sometimes he waves his hand up and down (instead of side to side) when he says bye-bye and sometimes he just says it. The second hardest part of his appointment was making his next appointment--his one year appointment. Where is the time going??

Well I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

I'll end with some pictures from swimming with Aunt Sheila, Caden, and Ansleigh the weekend before: