August in Review

 The girls and I went up to Michigan to visit the Wilson's.  On our way home we would get texts from Jon on what he was making us for dinner. Check out those awesome tomatoes from the garden! We were greeted with lasagna and salad. So delicious, especially after a long car ride.

 
 We had a family yard work day and were able to put the pavers down next to the sandbox (I'll try to post a finished picture soon) We also got all the flower beds cleaned up a bit and picked a bunch of our beans. These were super fun to grow this year. They were pink and white and we now have a bunch of dried beans to make some yummy soup this winter.

We found this poor bird that had hurt it's wing. We had put it in a box and kept calling and calling the place where we could take it to get help, but they didn't call us back until we were almost to the beach. Needless to say the poor thing died. 

Claire Bear turned 6! We had a wonderful day opening presents, heading to the beach and relaxing with some friends. It was a bit windy and there was a bunch of waves. This made it so Claire would have nothing to do with the water. However she enjoyed being in the sand and exploring in those trees you can see behind them. Marcella on the other hand would only stay out of the water long enough to eat. She may be a fish at heart. 

 Both girls got buried in the sand. Marcella became a mermaid and little Claire believe it or not is actually standing. Ashley had dug a pretty deep hole to try to bury Nick... Claire stole it and we buried her instead. We had a great time with the Hartwells and the Smiths! Thanks for coming and celebrating with us.

 When we got home Claire decided it was a good time to check out her door. She loved all the pictures and the candy bar she is holding. (the only candy this little one likes.) 

 We spent the last night before school started hanging out outside. These two love to play together and this is my favorite picture. I am so glad they have each other. 

 Breakfast time!

 

  

Marcella and Claire started school

This is how I get woken up most mornings. This sweet girl will come in and then say "Look the sun is come out! Hurray!"

It seems that most of the kids in Claire's class got sick. She was no exception. She had a fever all weekend, so we had lots of bubble baths and snuggles.

 We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and had our breakfast outside.

 Marcella learned how to straighten her hair. 

The girls and I had some fun times walking to school, until it decided to be 80+ degrees and 100% humidity, then I broke down and had them ride the bus. We are now getting our summer heat, which is a big bummer because I am really looking forward to fall.

I started painting the baby's room. It is pretty dark, but it feels cozy. I still need to do another coat on a couple of the walls and then I will post some pictures.

 We had a fabulous Labor Day weekend. Friday we were able to swim at Jenny and Thomas' house. The girls had a great time. Marcella, like I said before, is a little fish. She loves to swim. She started trying front and back flips into the water and had a blast just swimming long after everyone else got out. On Sat. Spencer and Rachel came down. We had a great time, chatting, eating, playing games and shopping. It was a nice relaxing weekend. 

We all got back in our routine this morning. I sent everyone off to school and then I headed to my Dr. appt. I am 32 weeks and now get to see the Dr. every 2 weeks. Everything has been going really great with this pregnancy. In two weeks we are going to schedule my c-section. I was hoping we could do it early, but it most likely will be on the 20th or 23rd of Oct. As long as I don't go into labor before. :) Well that was our August in a nut shell. Cheers.

Day 2

Breakfast this morning consisted of eggs and toast.

Marcella: Well, if I am going to have a real breakfast, I better get out the pepper.

I think she may have Grandpa Hanson's pepper gene. That girl will not only put pepper on anything, but she will put a lot of pepper on anything.

Claire made it home and was happy. Which is a great sign right?! I wanted to share part of an email I received from her teacher. It made Jon and I chuckle a little. Sometimes I don't think people really understand that when I tell them she is a runner, she really is a runner. :)

From Claire's kindergarten teacher:

I know that it seemed confusing this morning…It always does on the first morning of kindergarten!  Claire calmed down as the morning progressed and was actually very content and happy later in the day.  It helps to have Mrs. Peoples with her.  She did run off down the hall several times and Mrs. Peoples went after her; but later in the day, when Mrs. Peoples was eating her lunch, Claire did beautifully in the classroom without her assistance. 


Today I met Mrs. People's at the front of the school and there was a little protesting, but no tears or screaming... definite progress.

Cella Bella

I know 3 posts in one day, but I had to when I found this picture. This is Marcella on the first day of 2nd grade. I would say she has grown up just a little this year. It is crazy to think she still had all her baby teeth. 

First Day of School

Marcella Anne is going into the 3rd grade. Her favorite colors are blue and green, although they change all the time. She has started to hate cheese, relearned to like eggs, and loves Spaghetti. She is an avid reader and is so excited to have homework. She enjoys playing the piano and is working hard trying to make the cut for the pre-team gymnastics class. She is a gamer. Currently you will find her playing, researching or emailing her dad and uncles all the new things she has found out about their game Terraria. She is thoughtful, kind and a wonderful big sister. I am going to miss her terribly while she is at school.

If you ask Claire what her name is she will tell you it is Claire Bear Wallin. This little ray of sunshine loves the color yellow. She will eat just about anything except candy. With the exception of a cookies and cream Hershey candy bar. She loves to draw, pretend, color, play at the park, pretend, play with babies, pretend, sing, do somersaults, pretend, read, did I mention pretend? She is always in her own little world playing with someone. She can entertain herself for hours. She loves to play with Marcella and do everything she does.  She is very empathetic, yet hates hugs and kisses. She only hands those out when you are sad or hurt. I will miss her sweet voice and laughter. Good luck in Kindergarten little one.

Kindergarten

When I thought about how Claire’s first day of kindergarten would go, I didn’t expect the things that happened. Reflecting on it on the way home I was able to realize how much of a trial and error process this really is.  I should have known these things would have happened. Yet when I thought about how it would go, everything we had planned just made logical sense. That should have been my first clue. Logic and Claire have never gone hand in hand.

Little Claire was soooo excited to go to school today. She couldn’t wait to go. Finally it was time. We walked up to the school, waited for the bell and then let Marcella walk her to her classroom, as it was on the way to her own classroom.  Jon and I waited outside, trying to decide if we should go in and meet her para (a gal that will be working with her every day. Helping her to stay focused and where she needs to be).   My first mistake was thinking that since we discussed her need of a para back in May, that they would have already had one hired and we would be able to actually meet her if not before back to school night, at least at back to school night. In reality, getting teachers hired apparently takes longer than I anticipated and not only was her para not available to meet at back to school night, at least she was going to be there for the first day of school.  At back to school night I also found out the special Ed teacher was just hired last Thursday and she wasn’t even sure who the other teacher was that is going to be in the classroom with her, as she was still in the process of getting hired.  

Back to waiting outside the school.

We decided to go in and meet Claire’s para. As we were walking towards Claire’s classroom, I see my 2^nd mistake. Oh, boy I thought why didn’t  I see this coming. I watch Marcella walk out of Claire’s classroom and start down the hall for her room.  3 seconds later Claire comes running out of the classroom catching up to Marcella with her teacher right behind. We approach as they have been trying to coax her to stand up and come back to the classroom. We wave Marcella goodbye and help Claire into her room.  3^rd mistake: We should have waited outside the school for her para to meet her.  Instead we wait in the classroom for her to arrive. We meet and introduce her to Claire. Then it is time for us to leave. Claire has a major freak out. Flaling her arms around like a mad girl so you can’t get a hold of her as she tries to run away. Meanwhile huge tears and screams are starting to be heard. We hand her over to her para say goodbye and walk away hearing her cries and screams get softer because we are leaving the building.

Mistake 4: thinking that since she has been going to school for 3 years, this will be a piece of cake. She knows how to go into a classroom and for the most part follow directions. The plan we had of Marcella taking her down and dropping her off and then picking her up again for the bus ride home seemed like the perfect idea. She would get to be with her sister, whom she adores.  However I never took into consideration the obvious things that now I am hitting my head over.  1. for 3 years I have never once taken her to school. The bus came, she got on and went to school.  2. It is a new school. It is way more hectic and crazy in the morning with hundreds of kids. 3. She spent the last year of preschool not seeing any kids but the kids in her preschool class.  They had to be moved to a house because of the tornado that destroyed their school last year so she not only is not used to being with so many kids, she isn’t used to navigating herself around them to find her classroom.  4. Didn’t even think about how now you are in kindergarten you get to spend most of your time sitting at your desk. Not playing and then sitting and then playing again etc. You are expected to come in and sit at your desk and wait for school to start.  5. I somehow ALWAYS seem to forget that this little girl hates chaos. She hates it being too loud and if things are a little too hectic she shuts down.  This morning was anything but calm.

On my way to school I felt that we had prepared pretty well for this day. On my walk home I felt like I had failed in every aspect.  She has been at school for 50 minutes and I am wondering if I should call and see if she is still crying.  Such a drastic intro in to kindergarten. My hope is that the remaining 5 hours are a bit better.  The sad thing is knowing that she can’t communicate well enough to tell me all about her day, so I may never know.  Good luck my sweet Claire. I love you.  

Summer

Summer is slowing fading away and soon we will be starting on new adventures. Marcella in third grade, which was my all time favorite year in elementary school and Claire in Kindergarten. Yep Kindergarten. She will be their ALL day long. It tugs at my heart. I know I was sad when Marcella went, but this seems so different.

Since school hasn't started yet, I am doing my best to enjoy all of the time we get to spend together. I have been trying to say yes today. Have you ever tried that?  I came across a quote by Sister Hinckley many years ago and one of my favorite lines is "I tried hard never to say "no" if I could possibly say "yes"."  I have found I am a happier mom when I say yes more and today I am reaping the rewards of that small little word.  Blueberry muffins for breakfast, (side note: they looked picture perfect, they tasted....well let's say we were all disappointed and had a really good laugh) Painted fingernails, and chocolate chip cookies (Marcella's secret recipe). I can't wait to see what the rest of the day holds. 

Ciao,
Kanien

“My mother taught me some basic philosophies of rearing children. One is that you have to trust them. I tried hard never to say "no" if I could possibly say "yes". I think that worked well because it gave my children the feeling that I trusted them and they were responsible to do the best they could.” 

                                                                                                                       ~ Marjorie Pay Hinckley 

Raleigh North Carolina

We knew we wanted to head down and visit our friends Jeff and Sheri in North Carolina and we heard that Outer Banks was amazing so we put the two together and one the best vacations ever! The only hold up was the girls had to miss the last week of school so we could get an awesome deal on this beach house. So on May 17th we started our long car ride. Both of the girls have always been amazing car riders and this trip was no exception...except the minor hiccup that we kept noticing Claire was acting differently than normal. She was being a little more needy and a little annoying, so after a bit we realized she had a fever of 102. at this point we were more than half way there and we decided to just keep going. We stopped and grabbed a few things I knew would help her feel better, then we were off again. She was such a trooper. She slept most of the way and really you could only tell she was sick when the medicine started wearing off. By the time we got there she was doing much better. The next day her fever was gone and we were relieved. Jeff and Sheri took us to the best spots in town and we had a lot of fun playing and eating amazing food. (I will apologize once again, I didn't take very many pictures. Sorry, I will try harder next trip. )

side note: little Claire's eyes have been wandering and turning out a little. so she has had to wear a patch every day for an hour.

Cella wanted to climb to the top, but then got a little nervous. I told her I would show her it was ok and that she shouldn't be scared...I don't think I made it any higher than her in this picture. :) It was a little more nerve racking than I thought.

Claire had a lot of fun with the idea of being in the boat, but then last sec changed her mind. hence why Cella has a different riding mate.

Cella kept trying though and succeeded in making it to the top!

Claire was great all day. Then Sunday morning before church she would wake up and then fall back asleep. She just couldn't stay awake. Then she threw up. Wasn't a ton, but her and I stayed home from church while the rest of the gang went. Poor thing she pretty much slept until it was time to get in the car and head to the beach. (I just kept hoping she would get better, but she ended up getting croupe again and although we had some pretty rough nights, poor thing, she was well enough to enjoy most of the things we did during the day with lots of random naps in between.)

Outer Banks,NC

Everyday I was in North Carolina, I found myself loving it more and more. It was so beautiful and green. I also am finding that I really LOVE the beach. It is my ideal spot to be with the kids and Jon. We have so much fun. Sunday afternoon we left Raleigh and headed to Outer Banks. This is the house that we stayed it. It was Beautiful and our host Anne, was so nice. I will let the pictures take over.

This was looking west.