Simple Pleasures

I was thinking about things that make Alex happy. And I mean really happy and almost every time he sees or hears things he gets so excited. So here is my list of things I can think of (right now) that make Alex happy…..

1. The garage door going up or down.

2. Caps on peoples head (he tries to take them off).

3. Blue’s Clues, Bob and Elmo

4. Bubbles

5. Seeing family members

6. Getting in his bed to go “night night” (most of the time anyway).

7. Lights

8. The intro music for a kids show called Horse Land (It’s one of Hayley’s favorites but every time she watches it Alex “sings” along with them).

9. Music in general

That’s all I got for now…..but I am sure there is more I could add to the list.

Oh how I wish I could enjoy the simple things in life more than I do!

Glasses

Hayden has glasses....

Honestly, I have been waiting for the time when he needed them. I expect that at least 2 of our 3 kids will have to get glasses at some point (if not all three of them). I got my glasses when I was in 3rd grade. Only after begging my mom for a long time.....in her defense, she thought I wanted to wear glasses because my sister had them. But it turns out that I needed them.....and my eyes might have even been worse than Julie's!

I wondered about Hayden for awhile but he said he could see and he passed the vision test at the school in first grade. Well, his teacher suspected it as well and so we had the school test him again. He failed that test and so we went to the eye doctor.

I wondered how Hayden would feel about wearing glasses. When we talked about it he asked me if people would make fun of him.......my answer went something like this....

Maybe......but kids make fun of other kids for all kinds of reasons....like, the kind of clothes they wear, the backpack they have, how tall they are, how short they are, how big or little they are, how well they read, etc. No matter if someone makes fun of us or not, we have to be confident in who God made us to be and not worry about what others say!

He seemed to be OK with that answer and I was actually thinking I did a decent job of handling that question by being honest but also taking the focus to God and what HE thinks of us and not what people think of us.......then I told Cory about our conversation......he said "great....now he is going to be worried that kids are going make fun of him for all those things!"

He was just kidding with me....because that is what he does!! He enjoys giving me a hard time (most of the time he makes me laugh though!!).

So, since Hayden has had his glasses he has not had any issues with kids making fun of him (that I know of). Lots of people noticed that he has glasses and make comments. I think that is hard for him to adjust to....not knowing how to respond to that attention. But he is doing well!

I think he is excited that he can actually see now!! The morning after we got the glasses he was in the bathroom looking in the mirror (I think he was supposed to be brushing his teeth but he tends to get distracted). He came into my room and said, "I have a lot of freckles." He hadn't been able to see his freckles......that's how bad his vision is!!! Again, not a big surprise to me because I was the same way. The eye doctor explained it this way.....he didn't know he couldn't see. It is not like he woke up one day and suddenly couldn't see, it was a gradual change.

We are very thankful that Hayden can see with the help of his camo framed glasses (which he thinks are pretty cool!!).

Alex's Birthday

With all our craziness last week, I am just know getting a chance to go through all our birthday pictures! We had a lot of fun and didn't end up with a lot of great pictures but I wanted to share them anyway. I think that sometimes it is important to enjoy the moments and not worry about pictures.....but sometimes I wish I could hire someone to take pictures for us. That way we can enjoy what is going on and still get great pictures (not that that is going to happen..... lol).


Back to Alex's parties.....We had a small party with his Parent's Day Out class to celebrate his birthday as well as his last day there. The party theme was Blue's Clues. I made Rice Crispie paw prints (for "clues") and we brought a balloon and goody bag for each kid.

All the kids playing with their goody bags!

Alex eating his "clue"

A clue, a clue.....

He had been playing with his balloon. We obviously didn't get many pictures where he was actually looking at the camera!! :)

This is me attempting to get Alex to pass out the treats to his friends......not as successful as I would have hoped for!! He just wanted to play with his.....not quite to that understanding yet.

He is looking at the camera...... :)

Last week his class was talking about animals so Ms. Ashley brought one of her rabbits. The kids all loved getting to play with it. Alex had to be remind to use gentle touches... but other than that he really enjoyed it!! It was a nice treat for the party and a good distraction for Alex so we could leave without him getting upset!!

Now, on to the big party.....except that it wasn't actually all that big! It was just a family party and some of Cory's family was out of town so they couldn't be there. We missed you Aunt Karla and Uncle Hammond....and kids (Abigail was able to make it which made Hayley very happy that both her cousins were there).

We continued the Blue's Clues theme......and I made the cake. I have been trying to get a little better with the cake decorating.....I am way to much of a perfectionist to do stuff like this. I hate when I mess up one little thing and I tend to focus on all the things that are wrong with it. Well, there are plenty of things wrong with this cake.....but I am going to choose not to worry about it!! I looks like Blue and Alex was pleased.....that is all that matters!!

I will say that the colors were much darker and prettier in person.....

What's up there?!?!

Well, it is a HUGE balloon in the shape of Blues' head, of course!!

OK....this is not a cute picture at all....but I was attempting to get a picture of Alex AND the cake. Well, of course all Alex wanted to do was touch the cake (notice poppa holding his hand down). So....this was the only picture we were able to get.....and for the record, Alex did successfully poke Blue right in the eye before we could get the cake back on the table!

Look at my big three year old!!

Opening Presents:

I think one of his favorite gifts was an Elmo Mailbox. It is a mailbox (which Alex's loves...from Blue's Clues) that is also a shape sorter (and he can match all the shapes and can even name a few!!)....and it has ELMO. What more could he ask for!! Thank you Aunt Lori, Uncle Johnny, Garrett and Gracie!!

Another favorite gift was a stuffed "Bob the tomato" (from Veggie Tales).

When I decided to start planning his party about two months ago (trying to make sure that I had it all under control so I was running around crazy the week before) the only "character" that he showed any interest in was Blue. So, I decided to go all out with the Blue's Clues theme.

At that point, Alex was still not real interested in much around him. He played but his attention span was very short and he didn't really have anything that was his favorite. In the last two months, he has become very attached to Elmo and Bob (the tomato). Almost in an over the top kind of way......as in, he asks to watch them on the TV....all the time!! It is cute though because he goes through all three of them as he is asking.....in hopes that we will say yes to at least one of them.....he say....."bu ca ca ca...... melmo.......bob" (actually spelling how he says Blue's Clues was harder than I thought it would be!!).

What I am trying to say is that we are so happy that he is begging us to watch not one but three different shows (even though he gets really mad when we tell him no). We are so happy that he likes to do puzzles (the shapes one is his favorite). We are so happy that he is sitting while we read him a book. And even more so, we are so happy that he is asking to do all of these things and more. God is Good!!

We had a great time celebrating his birthday!! I can't even imagine what I will be able to report on his 4th birthday.....but I can't think about that right now....I am still adjusting to the fact that my youngest child is THREE!!

"Big School"

It's official......Alex is in school!!



It seemed like a normal morning. I stayed in bed a little longer than I should have. We were reminding kids to gets dressed, eat, etc. I was busying getting myself ready (but I think I forgot to fix my hair.....oh well!), fixing lunches, making sure I had everything ready for Alex to go..... I think it was good that we were having a normal busy morning and that I didn't make a huge deal out of Alex's first day. I think that was good for me so I wouldn't think about the fact that my baby is THREE and he is going to school (at the BIG school). I think it was good for Hayley too. She might be a little jealous of Alex going to the school before she gets to. (We took her to the donut shop after we dropped the boys off and she is with daddy now.....so she is good)



I will say that having an older kid already in school and Alex being the third one has made this easier. Sending a kid to school for the first time seems harder when you aren't familiar with the school or the people there. We already know so many of the people at the school and I am pretty sure we have several people who will be watching out for Alex (I think both Nana and Granny have made sure of that :) ).









Here he is walking up to the door. He likes to walk around in the school and wasn't excited when we stopped off by the office to turn in his paperwork....he was ready to go!








He took off down the hallway.......didn't care if we were coming with him or not!














This is Miss Spencer's room. It is decorated with a jungle theme....complete with monkey's (which Alex loves) and other animal hanging from the ceiling. We were able to visit the classroom last night during Open House. Alex really liked the classroom and I think it helped him be more comfortable this morning!







Miss Spencer is in the background of this picture. I tired to get him to take a picture with her before I left but he chose not to......we will work on that later!








He walked in and just looked around. There is a lot to see in the room. He went right to playing and didn't even care when we left. I am sure there will be some time needed to get him completely adjusted to his new room and new schedule but I know he is going to do fine!



Thank you all for checking on Alex and celebrating his birthday and first day of school with us!! And thank you for praying!!



Next time I update (either here or Caring Bridge) I will let you know how his first day went! I have a busy day today.....cleaning, laundry, getting ready for Alex's party tomorrow night (and I am making his cake too). I better get to work!!

Elmo....Live

My good friend Emily invited me and Alex to go see Elmo live with her and her son, Landon. To be honest, I was really not sure how Alex would do sitting still for an hour and a half to watch a live show. But we decided to try and see how it went.

He LOVED it!! Alex really likes music, singing, dancing, etc. And there was lots of it during the show!! He did get a little fidgety in between the songs but overall he did great and I was really proud of him. Landon did great too!! I was so glad that we decided to go and I was able to spend that time with Alex and also with Emily and Landon. It was such a fun day!!!

Thank you Emily!!!

Here are some pictures from the show…..

Emily, Landon, Me & Alex

Upward

I am a little late getting this one done considering that today was our last Upward game!!
For the last eight weeks Hayden and Hayley have both participated in Upward basketball and cheerleading. It was a lot of fun and I am both sad and glad that it is over. Eight weeks is a long time to have practices (Tuesday for Hayley and Friday for Hayden) and games on Saturday mornings (at 8:00 or 9:15).


Aunt Julie and I coached Hayden’s 2nd grade team. I don’t think of myself as a great coach…..not sure why. I don’t think I am able to accomplish everything I want to get across to the kids……an hour practice is not a long time to teach everything you need to know about basketball……to a group of talkative and silly kids!! I just hope that learned something they didn’t know before we started and that they had fun!!!

Our Team

Hayden calling a play.

Rebound!!

Hayden really enjoys playing…..but he can get a little…..well….mad! He tends to get frustrated easily and then can’t focus on the game (not sure where is got that…..must be Pepaw…HA!!). Sometimes I have to take my "coach hat" off and put my "mom hat" on. But when he can stay calm and have fun…..it is so fun to watch him play!!

Having a "talk" (attitude adjustment :))

I think this is a cool picture!!

Hayley surprised me at how much she liked cheerleading. Before she started I was worried that she wasn’t going to embrace it at all. But she loved it!! She did the cheers and was somewhat serious about it……and if you know Hayley then you know she is not serious about much!

Hayley's cheerleading team!

Ready....OK!!

Above all, the most important part of the Upward program is sharing the love of Jesus with the players and their families. We pray before each game and during practices we share a devotion. This year we discussed a lot about the Light that Jesus is for us. As a coach, it was a great chance to love on the kids……they are all great kids!! I pray that each player on my team and their families know HIM.

Praying before the game.