4th Grade..........for real??!

Yep, that’s correct; Jacob is a 4th grader this year. Where did the time go? I still remember his first day of preschool like it was yesterday. He was so excited to start school then and he’s still excited about school. I’m thankful that he enjoys school and I really hope he keeps enjoying it as he gets older. This was the first year I didn’t bring the camera with me to school. I figured he was getting too old for a picture at his desk. It was probably just me thinking that way. I did walk him to his classroom and got a good-bye hug and kiss. So I’m sure the camera wouldn’t have embarrassed him!

The first month of school has been busy for Mr. Jacob. He has had several spelling tests, a math test and a social studies test. His spelling tests he’s gotten 100% on the pretests so he gets out of having to take them again on Friday’s. On his math test he was 1 of 4 kids who got 100% and his social studies test he got 89%. He is off to a good start!

I thought it would be fun to look back on the pictures I’ve taken of Jacob on the first day of school each year. I always take his picture standing in front of the door. It’s neat to see how much he’s grown each year. Hope you enjoy the stroll down memory lane!

First day of 4th Grade.
First day of 3rd Grade.
First day of 2nd Grade.
First day of 1st Grade.
First day of Kindergarten.
First day of Preschool. (He's so little!)

It's official!

Our baby girl is potty trained! Yippee!! We’ve been working on this for months and finally she’s got it down. Labor Day weekend Lane and I decided it was time to put MaKena in panties all day except for nap time. She did great on Saturday and I was so proud of her. On Sunday she had an accident but we cleaned her up and put her back in panties. Ever since then she’s been almost accident free. I think she’s had one accident at our house since Labor Day weekend and one accident at daycare. Along the way we’ve given her little rewards like books and Strawberry Shortcake characters. On Saturday we decided to take her to Wal-Mart and let her pick out a bigger toy for all her hard work. Surprise, surprise she picked out Cinderella’s castle. And daddy decided she also needed the movie Princess and the Frog. She’s got her daddy wrapped around her little finger!! I am so happy we’ve finally reached the big mile stone. Finally no more pull-ups!! (Except at bed time!) Way to go baby girl!!

Mini Golfing

The middle of August Jen and I took the kids (Emma, Jacob and MaKena) to Thunder Road to do some mini golfing and go cart riding. Except we didn’t get to ride on the go carts because it rained and we had to leave. But we got 18 holes of mini golf in and the kids had a blast. MaKena and Emma hadn’t been mini golfing before so it was hilarious to watch them. I should have taken some video of them. I would help MaKena with her first shot and then she’d run after the ball, pick it up and drop it in the hole. She didn’t understand that she was supposed to hit it in the hole with the putter. I was able to get her to try it but eventually she’d just pick it up. I suppose it was a lot easier that way! Surprisingly we only lost MaKena’s ball once and I think that might have been my fault. Thankfully Jen and Jacob were able to retrieve it out of the water. By the time we got done mini golfing we decided to purchase some tickets to ride the go carts. It was extremely busy that day and by the time we were at the front of the line it started to down pour so we called it a day. The kids had a blast.

Jacob, Emma and MaKena waiting for their turn.
Jacob getting ready to golf.

MaKena putting her ball in the hole. This is how a majority of her holes ended!!

Emma hitting the golf ball. Look how she's holding the club. It was cute. Jen and I tried to show her the right way but she kept going back to holding the club this way.

MaKena trying to get her ball in the hole.

She gave up and resorted to the easy way.

Reading Time

MaKena loves to have books read to her and Jacob loves to read to her. One night he was reading to her and crawled in her bed. It was the cutest thing ever! MaKena had her arm around him and was really paying attention to him. Moments like this just melt my heart. I hope they grow up to be the best of friends. I love my kids!

Do you see MaKena's arm under Jacob?
She was really listening to him read.

Sleeping in her big girl bed

Here are some cute pictures of MaKena after she’s fallen asleep in her bed. She loves to have books read to her and then takes them to bed to “read” to herself. Lane and I usually check on her before we go to bed. A couple nights I just had to get the camera out and take some pictures of her. It was so cute.

MaKena sleeping with the book. We read this book before bed and she had to bring it to bed with her.
I just love these pictures. She's so cute!

I think this was the 2nd or 3rd night in her new big girl bed. She wasn't used to no rails!!

We moved her back into bed but had to get some pictures first.

Big Girl Bed

The middle of August I decided it was time to change MaKena’s crib to a toddler bed and move out the changing table. She started to climb on her changing table to get stuff off her dresser and I didn’t want her to get hurt so we moved it out and bought a toy organizer for all her toys. She was so excited about her big girl bed. She even had to “help” take her crib apart. So far she has done really well. She stays in her bed for the most part. If she gets up it’s to get a toy or book and then she goes right back into bed. On the weekend she stays in bed until Lane and I tell her she can get up. Usually we’ll hear her yelling Mommy, Daddy I’m up. It’s pretty cute. I’m trying to figure out where my little baby went. She’s growing up way too fast.

Here is a picture of MaKena's room from the door. Notice all the stickers on her dresser! She loves stickers.
MaKena sitting on her big girl bed.

She loves her big girl bed. I think she really likes that she can get in and out of it all by herself.

More from the weekend with the Baukols

The weekend that Jen, Emma and Gunnar stayed with us I realized Sunday morning that I hadn’t taken any pictures of Gunnar. So I grabbed the camera and snapped away. Poor kid was probably seeing stars by the time I was done. He is such a good baby. I hardly heard a peep out of him all weekend. Once I was done taking a million pictures of him, Jen and I took the girls outside to play. They got on the bike and trike and drove up and down the driveway and sidewalk. They were two wild and crazy little girls! We came inside after playing for awhile and put the girls down for naps so the mommies could have some quiet time. But it didn’t last too long! Then before we knew it, it was time for them to leave. It was a fun filed weekend with them.

Isn't he cute??!! Baby Gunnar.
I see you!!

Tummy time.

I love this picture. He's such a doll!

The girls swinging on the swing. Can you tell they are saying Cheeeeeeessssssssseeeeeeee!

More swinging

Beep beep, coming through.

Fun in the Sun

Back in July (I know, I’m a little behind, actually I forgot that I didn’t post these pictures) Jen, Emma and Gunnar spent the night at our house. It happened to be an extremely hot Saturday so we took the girls outside to swim and run through the sprinkler. Boy did they have fun and I think all my neighbors could tell. They were screeching like little girls! When we’d tell them they needed to be quiet and not scream we were told that because we were outside they could scream. I guess we were told. Unfortunately Jacob was with his dad that weekend so he didn’t get to hang out with the girls. I think the girls would have played in the pool all night but the mosquitoes came out and it was time to get inside before we got bit up. We threw the girls in the tub and tried to settle them down for bed. That was not and easy task. These two just love to play together and they get along so well. When it was time for them to go on Sunday, MaKena was sad and even cried a little after they left. I have a feeling they will be the best of friends when they get a little older!

MaKena and Emma playing in the pool.
Emma going down the slide.
The girls running through the sprinkler.

I'm not sure what they were doing here. But if one did something the other followed.

Swinging on the swing set. MaKena calls this swing her horse. I have no idea why!!

They liked to stand on the seats in the pool and jump in the water.

MaKena hurt her toe so Emma was giving it a kiss.

These next 4 pictures I used the continuous shot on the camera. The girls kept jumping in and I thought it would be fun to take pictures as they were jumping in. They turned out really cool. I have so many pictures of the girls in the pool that I had to pick just a few of my favorites! In this picture they are standing on the seats waiting for me to say go!

I said go so they are about to jump.

They are jumping!

Splash! In the water they went!