Jensen's First Communion

I just thought I'd put a quick thing up here with the few photos I have from Jensen's first communion. Kaity took most of the photos of the day but these are a couple I had on my camera.

It was a beautiful day and we were so happy that Denise and Kaity were here to share it all with us.

Hmmm...

This past weekend I was contacted by my freshman (and sophmore) college roommate, Lori Kaizawa. I had not been in contact with Lori since we graduated 23 years ago. It was great to hear from her, but also daunting trying to encapsulate the last 23 years of your life in an email. I remembered this blog that I had abandonded earlier in the year and looked it up to give her the link as a way to give her a glimpse into my life now. I started reading some of my previous posts and it struck me how much I loved reading it. I'm so glad I have these everyday things preserved to go back and read any time I want. I went back to my first post in 2006 and read all of them from that year. The kids look so young!! And it wasn't that long ago. It made me want to try to start blogging again. So here goes.

The most recent events of note around here were halloween and the end of kfl football. I have already sent these pictures to Jean but thought I'd post them here for everyone to see.

Halloween night Jackson's football team had their 2nd playoff game at 6:00 p.m. That meant that we couldn't really trick or treat that night...which was not that great for Jensen. So, we sent her with a friend and she had a really great time. It also meant I didn't get many pictures. I took a couple of her at the house before we left...she looked scaaaaarrrry!




The football game did not go the way of the good guys. You can tell by the expression on the boys' faces. It is the end of KFL for most of those boys...next year they move on to middle school football. Coaches were crying, boys were crying, parents were crying. It was quite something to see.



We got home about 8:30 and Jackson got the dregs of the candy that was left on our street. He wasn't much in the mood for trick or treating anyway...

Jordan did dress up this year, as a nerd, and went trick or treating with a few of her friends but I didn't get any pictures of her.

Another interesting halloween weekend has passed...

An Historical Day

Jim and I both voted early but I spent the day at an election anyway...the Shadow Forest Election. Over the past week students have made campaign posters, the 5th graders "registered" all the other students in the school and explained the process to them, all students have been talking about the candidates in their classes and today it was time to cast their votes. The school computer lab was turned into the polling location for this special event. I was even one of the "Election Officials." And better yet, I think both Jackson and Jensen voted for Barack Obama (it took a little persuading for Jackson but I was relentless...the kids in his class have a lot of influence...everyday he'd come home from school and I'd have to start all over with my speech).

Jackson carefully studying the ballot

Happy he made the right choice :-)


A little persuasion trying to go on here...the "official" helping Jensen asked her which picture she "liked better" (huh?). I had never even shown her pictures of the candidates, we had just discussed names. Jensen pointed to John McCain. I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Jensen, who do you want to vote for?" She said, "Rock Obama." Good thing I was there.




The Shadow Forest election will go overwhelmingly to McCain. I'm hopeful the national election will have a different result. It'll be interesting watching the results come in tonight and in the morning we'll wake up to a new leader who will shape the future for these two.

Another First Day of School

A kindergartner (gasp!) a fourth grader (gasp!) and a middle schooler (gasp, gasp!). Jackson's face tells his whole story...not excited to be going to school. Jordan looks pretty happy and actually did seem pretty excited about today. Jensen has kind of a pained expression on her face but in actuality she was very excited to be heading off to Shadow Forest. She has her fisher price camera in her hands and asked if she could take it to school today to take a few pictures. Of course!! Girl after my own heart. Here are a couple of her photos:



Here's Jackson with his new bike he just got yesterday:


A couple of classroom photos and Jensen's new teacher, Mrs. Clift:



This was the moment of the day that pained me the most. Dropping Jordan off at middle school. When I took Jackson and Jensen I got to walk them into the school, go into the classroom, meet their teachers, see the other kids in the class. With Jordan going to 6th grade you get none of that. You drive them up, drop them off, and say goodbye. I don't know all the kids in her classes anymore, I don't know her teachers. I don't love that, I have to say, but I have to come to grips with it.

At the end of the day, all the kids seemed to be okay. Jensen had a great day and really seemed to like being at Shadow Forest. She's already scheduled a play date for tomorrow!

Everything seemed to go well for Jordan too. She got to all her classes okay, sat with friends at lunch and made it through the crazy, free-for-all dismissal process that's so unlike the orderly, sane elementary school dismissal.

Jackson had his typical first day..."horrible" was his exact word when he got home today. But that's okay. I've come to realize that Jackson does not transition easily from summer to school. It's hard for him and takes a good couple of weeks to get in the groove. I feel comfortable, though, with his teacher and his class. I think he'll end up having a good year even though he completely disagrees right now!

The Little Gym

This past year Jensen started taking a combination dance/gymnastics class at a new place that opened near our house called The Little Gym. I thought it would be perfect...give her a chance to try dance (which I thought she'd really like) combined with gymnastics. After spending about $70 on ballet shoes, tap shoes and a cute bag to carry them all in (at Payless mind you; how you spend $70 at Payless I don't know), Jensen declared that she didn't like the dance part. When I asked her why she said that it "took too long". "But it's only 30 minutes," I said. After a couple of weeks of her crying before the dance part I finally figured out that all she really wanted to do was the gymnastics part so, of course, the dance part was too long. I relented and let her switch to a class that was just gymnastics. She had her last class last Friday and got her first medal. If anyone is in need of barely used, size 11, ballet or tap shoes please let me know.

She actually got a medal for these moves:

My American Girls

As part of Jensen's 5th birthday celebration, the girls and I planned a pilgrimmage to the new American Girl store in Dallas. I have a friend from Colorado who lives there now and we've talked since she moved there about getting together since she's so close now, but we never had. This was the time!

Jordan, Jensen and I along with 3 dolls left Kingwood on a Friday afternoon for the 5 hour drive to Kim's house north of Dallas. We got there safe and sound and had a nice evening just hanging out and the kids getting acquainted. They have a daughter, Megan, who is just 2 days younger than Jordan. They were best friends when we lived in Colorado. They really didn't remember each other, but re-connected just like that! They got along great and have already planned to spend their next birthdays doing something together.


On Saturday, all the girls headed to the Galleria Mall where the American Girl store is. We spent about an hour and a half looking at all the dolls and doll stuff and picking out things for Jensen to spend her birthday money on.


We were able to get a reservation for lunch in the little restaurant where they have seats and menus for the dolls!




After lunch, Jensen made her final selections (and didn't have a meltdown like some other girls in the store when she found out she couldn't buy everything that she wanted...I was proud of her because that place is very overwhelming and difficult to get out of without spending an absolute fortune).


Saturday night we had a great dinner back at the Allens. The kids made s'mores on the fire pit in the backyard and got in the hot tub. Us adults had a relaxing evening just talking and catching up.


Sunday when it was time to leave, neither girl wanted to go...I was dragging them back to Kingwood kicking and screaming. That's the sign of a good trip!

Jensen's Birthday Week Recap

I think all in all Jensen had a good 5th birthday...the celebrating lasted 3 days so I hope she had a good time. Her actual birthday was a Thursday and we started a tradition a few years ago that we let the kids pick somewhere to have dinner on the night of their birthday. All week leading up to Thursday she had said she was going to pick Chik-fil-A. Fine. On Thursday morning she suddenly changed her mind and said she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Ugh. I actually thought Chuck E. Cheese might not be open for dinner during the week. After all, I'd only ever been there a few times for lunch during the week or for parties on the weekend. I mean who goes to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner? Well, apparently quite a few people. The place was just as packed and loud as ever. There was even a birthday party going on. At least our local Chuck E. Cheese was recently remodeled so it was a tad cleaner than it used to be.



After dinner we came home for cake and family gifts.



One thing Jensen has been asking for for a while now is to get her ears pierced. I've been all for it but it took us a while to convince Jim that 5 wasn't too young for earrings. He finally relented and I took Jensen in to get her ears pierced on Saturday. She was such a trooper! She did not shed one tear. Her eyes welled up when it was over but no tears spilled out. Luckily we went to a place where they pierce both ears at the same time so it was over very quickly. She picked out a cute pair of pink CZs on 14k gold posts. She looked so adorable with them!




Everything went just a little too smoothly so I should have known something would happen. That night Jim and I were out and the kids were with a babysitter. We got a call from the sitter that one of Jensen's earrings had fallen out and she didn't want the sitter to try to put it back in. We were downtown in the middle of a play and couldn't get back home right then. Once we got home I tried to put the earring back in while Jensen was asleep but the hole had already started to close up and I couldn't get it through the back. I took her back to the store the next day, but they said we'd have to wait a week or two for the ear to completely heal closed and then have it pierced again. Poor Jensen. I don't know if she'll be quite as brave the next time now that she knows what to expect.

And, finally, on Sunday we had her birthday bash. We had it at The Little Gym where Jensen is taking gymnastics and dance classes. There were almost 20 kids there running around like crazy and having a good time. You can view all the pictures here if you're so inclined. Here's a few highlights.

Happy Birthday Jenny 'Rie

FIVE!! You are turning 5 today! I just can't believe it. In honor of this momentous occasion here are five things I love about you.

1. I love how eager you are to be able to do things. You taught yourself to roller skate and you practiced and practiced until you were able to do it. You really go at it with no fear and lots of determination. You make me cringe every time you take off down the driveway, but each time you fall you just get back up and keep on going. You want to be able to skateboard and ride your bike without training wheels next.

2. I love the way you say some words. compuga = computer; cause = pause (as in "Can you cause the movie?"); wis = with. I think these words are so cute that I never correct you. You'll figure that out on your own soon enough.

3. I love that you enjoy spending so much time coloring, drawing, painting and all things crafty!

4. I love how you run down the hall to greet me when I pick you up after school. This always just makes my day!

5. I love your smile and your sassy attitude. You learned to snap your fingers recently and you do an awesome "Oh no you didn't." It makes me smile every time.

In short, I love you, little one and can't wait to see what the year of being 5 brings you.

Love,
Mom

Daily December: Day Twenty

Today is Jensen's last day of school before the winter break (and hence, my last shopping day).

I put together an album for each of her two teachers using this great template I downloaded from Jessica Sprague.




It really was pretty easy to do and turned out to be a gift that the teachers really enjoyed. I gave each kid in the class one page for each teacher. All they had to do was stick a picture of themselves on and handwrite their names directly on the page. There were two questions on the page that I asked the parents to ask the kids then write their answers word-for-word on the page. The questions were "I hope Mrs. Snyder gets _________________ for Christmas" and "Mrs. Snyder is a good teacher because _____________________." There were a lot of cute answers. Lots of wishes for the teachers to get bikes, puppies, etc. One girl hopes the teacher gets a new car! Jensen thinks Mrs. Snyder is a good teacher because "she lets us do crafts." That's my girl!

Once I got all the pages back from the kids I put a few simple embellishments on each page, created a title page, then stuck them in an album. Simple.

Daily December: Day Five

Two sick kids tonight. Jackson stayed home from school today and it looks like Jordan might stay home tomorrow. 24 hour vomiting bug. Yuck. Not very Christmasy but that was my day. I hope I don't get it next.

Here's a more Christmasy story. Jensen came home from school the other day with a candy cane. She thought it was cute that it looked like a "J" when you turned it upside down. I thought it was cute that she called it a Candy Can instead of Cane.

Her First Day

Tuesday, September 4th was Jensen's first day of school. She had been ready for at least a week. I loved dropping her off with someone who is not only her teacher but a family friend that I know to be creative and loving. I'm so excited for Jensen's last year of preschool. It's going to be awesome!

What we've been doing...

Petsitting! Molly belongs to our neighbors, the Kimberlins. They went to Italy for two weeks (lucky dogs) and Molly is a little too neurotic to spend two weeks in a kennel so we offered to take her in. Well, Jensen offered to take her in and we were kind of put on the spot...:-) In the past we've been the ones that have needed pet sitters but it has been more than a year now since we've had a dog in the house. Cosmo, I know you're up there saying "I don't know what that is, but it's not a dog." Actually, it's Jim that says that but if you were here I don't know if you'd be able to tolerate Molly either. Most of us around here have a love/hate relationship with her. For some it's a hate/hate relationship.







And for some, it's all love. Molly definitely has her quirks but Jensen has just been soooo happy to have her here that it makes it all worth it. That girl loves all critters no matter how irritating they may be. We really gotta get her a dog. Anyone have any suggestions of small, shed-free, non-yappy dogs out there?

And there has been one bonus...yesterday Molly killed a snake in our backyard. It was just a garden snake, but a snake nonetheless so at least she's good for one thing. We have her for 5 more days...I'll be starting the countdown.

Happy 4th and other stuff

It's been a wet July here in Texas so far. I think I read in the paper that it's rained the last 23 days in a row...yuck. This year, the 4th of July was on a Wednesday...weird to have it in the middle of the week. It was overcast in the a.m. but we decided to go to the Kingwood parade anyway. It started drizzling about halfway through but we were sitting under some trees so we didn't get too wet. The kids don't seem to mind the rain.






We had just planned a cookout with some of our neighbors and luckily we have a porte cochere--a covered area over part of our driveway--on our house (never even heard of this until we moved to Texas but now wouldn't want to live without it). We grilled under there and set up tables to eat. The rain actually held out for most of the evening and the guys were able to set off all the fireworks they had purchased (probably $300 or $400 worth combined!).

On Thursday Jordan had a sleepover with her two good friends on the street, Madison and Kristina. She's been dying to have a sleepover since we moved back into the house but with early morning summer swim practices/meets we didn't have one until now. The girls all braided their hair, watched a movie, ate popcorn, listened to music, talked and stayed up late. Typical sleepover stuff. Luckily, Jackson was asked to spend the night at his friend Austin's house the same night so no little brother around to bug them.



On Friday we had the Kellers over for dinner. They have the distinction of being our first dinner guests since we've moved back in. I've hosted girls' night and some of the neighborhood friends have ended up eating over here after grilling out but this was the first time we've cooked for others since we've been back. It was a fun time!



This week (July 2nd) also marked the two year anniversary of our fire. We are so happy to be back in our house but things are far from over. We're still dealing with the arbitration case against our contractor and our Ford lawsuit hasn't even started yet. Currently our trial date is set for November, but our neighbor's insurance company just intervened in the suit so that will probably mean another delay. We have lost so much financially and emotionally that some days it seems like we will never recover.




On a happier note, this week also marked the first time in two years that we've had kids swimming in our pool. That was a good day! The kids have all grown so much in the past 2 years that our pool suddenly seems really small but at least it's ours and it's up and running.