whobody has some pretty great friends?

We have some great friends (and our kids think their kids are pretty cool too!) 

Last night we had a small grillout for Labor Day with some of our friends.  The kids, as always, had a great time playing together and got along SO well! I just wanted to get these pictures up....no editing or anything! Just wanted to show the FUN they had!

Hard to see because the camera was on the wrong setting and was bright bright bright....but Colton was pulling little Hayden and big Nash around with a rope on the truck!

more fun with a "flinstones" vehicle

the older kids playing ring toss...and just playing in the grass!

 This is the first attempt at the group picture (not too shabby!) Andrea...I'm pretty sure you could zoom in on your boys and print this for Christmas cards! Look at them :) CUTE.

 The SILLY picture.

The older boys got into a 'game' of throwing these rings up into the tree and then hitting them down with a bat......

 ....and no one even got hurt!!! (amazingly)

 the happy hauler...notice Tyce trying to put his cup in the back...

 these "littles" played together very nicely all night!

and I'm pretty sure Nash ate just Fritos for supper. YUM!

That is all I have! Not spending more than 5 minutes on this post...

so spell check schmell check... :) Enjoy.

whobody 'works' on the river?

Keaton is our little hard worker.

He has had a long week at school.  He usually just comes home and needs some decompression time in his room....playing with his "set ups" of train tracks, trucks, and animals.  But on river night, we made him change into his trunks right when he got off of the bus and we were on the road!

I'll admit, at first....he was pretty grumpy, emotional, and short with us.
This was the facial expression I got every time I took a picture. :)

He followed Jason around for a little while (isn't this a cute picture)

And then he found his 'place' at the sandbar. He found a swimming pool on an 'island' and he started working.  He spent the rest of the night at this place....digging digging digging.

Finally...he had opened the pool up to the rest of the river...he was very happy with himself. It was hard to tear him away from it!!!

On the way home, he was ALL smiles.  Here he was giggling at Lola's driving. :)

It will take him a few weeks to get used to being at school....we are just going to ride this 'emotional and cranky' phase out! As long as we keep on doing fun stuff like this (and giving him enough time in his room) he can't complain! What a good kid!

whobody lives for the river?

If we have one kid who loves the river the rmost....it is Lola. She just THRIVES on the river. She enjoys riding in the boat....playing on the sand....and especially playing in the water....Here are some pictures to prove it!

 I have realized that I have the most great pictures of her from the river...mostly because she loves to get her picture taken....so she would do something and say "mom, take a picture of this and put it on your blog!!!"

Here Lola was pretending to "dive" into Keaton's pool (whish was only about 3" deep)

 Lola had fun drawing thigns in the sand last night...if you look closely she is sitting next to the heart that she drew!

Lola even drove us part of the way home (and only turned one full circle in the process)....she starts to go the wrong way and keaton giggles and giggles and giggles....she loves to entertain!

Lola has really been enjoyable these last few weeks...she is so full of JOY!

whobody is catching river fever?

Nash is. He LOVED the river....he likes the boat ride as much as he likes the sandbar.

 He pretty much just follows the other 2 around doing whatever they are doing...

 Here is a picture of Nash swimming with Daddy!

More water fun.

 Jason giving Nash 'squirting' lessons. Great angle, huh?

Funny guy trying to squirt Mommy.

When he started coming to me whining about having sand on his hands...I knew it was getting close to time to leave!  I'm sure that he will enjoy the river EVEN more next summer.

whobody rocked the river?

Yesterday was Thursday.

Yesterday was HOT!

Yesterday was a school day.

Yesterday was Lola's FIRST day of preschool.

Yesterday was the 4th day of a very long first full week of school for Keaton.

Yesterday was the perfect day for the river.

We have a boat. We love our boat. We love going on the river! The only problem is that this summer the river was SO HIGH and swift that we only got the kids out to the sandbar 1 time.  We fixed that last night...now we turned it into 2 times....but I think that will be it. The river has finally gone down...so we had a PERFECT night on the river. Because I am prego and huge and uncomfortable and tired...I pretty much sat on a chair in the water the whole night and took photos of the kids playing on the river.  275 pictures later...here I am. (Needless to say....I will be splitting this into a few posts.)

Our children always learn the basics of being on the river at a very young age.

Rule #1 Wave at every boat you see (even the parked ones.)

When we got to the sandbar, the kids had a blast...they love looking for clams...throwing the closed live ones into the deeper part of the river...and 'saving' the opened clam shells in a bucket.

 more clam hunters

I just LOVE this picture...notice Nash's hand on Lola's leg. LOVE IT!

 This is a picture of Lola "jumping" into Keaton's pool.  You will see more pictures of this pool later!

 Ahhh....a great shot of all 3 kids!!!!  Happy as can be.

 Jason obviously needs a lot of help driving the boat.

The river is something we truly enjoy. Our boat is mostly used for just Jason and I and our friends....but as the kids get older we hope to use it more and more for family time!  We are so blessed!

whobody is growing up way too fast?

Well. It is official. As of today I have TWO kids in school....now I am left wondering what Nash and I are going to do with all of our free time? ;)

Today was Lola's first day of BIG preschool. This is also known as 4 year old preschool.  She has attended 'preschool' at the town daycare the last 2 school years...and has loved every minute of it.  This year, there are some big changes...which she is excited about, but I think a little nervous about at the same time.

(she is truly very excited for her first day of school...and she thought that the pink flowers would look good with her outfit in this picture)

changes for Lola:

She will be going from a school where she calls her teacher "Lisa" to the school where "Mrs. or Ms." for the teachers and helpers is always used.  (She already, of course, misses Lisa.)

She will be going 5 mornings a week instead of 3. I think that this will be a lot for her, but I think it will be great for her. I am SO thankful that our district is not one that does full day 4 year old preschool....that would be WAY TOO MUCH. I think full day kindergarten is way too much, but that is for a different day. :)

Things will be a lot more structured and strict in this 4 year old classroom. I think that Lola will do JUST fine with that....I just hope she doesn't get herself into too much trouble....

The biggest...and hardest change for Lola will be that she has to be in school without her VBFF (very bestest friend forever) Colton.  She LOVES Colton and just can't believe that they won't be in school together this year. Coincidentally, Colton is Keaton's bestie Lily's brother.*(did you follow that?)  Nikole....if you are reading this....we will be needing to get some playdates set up for these poor poor children missing their favorite people.

(keaton wanted to get 'in' on the pre preschool pictures before he got on the bus (and before Lola's hair was done.))

 (then, of course....they had to do their morning bike ride while waiting for the bus)

 (Lola needed me to take a picture with her backpack in sight...she LOVES her backpack)

(and I let her have her nails painted purple! for school)

 (of course we have to do a silly picture....)

For some reason, it is a little easier for me to send Lola onto the next 'milestone' in school...I don't know if it is because we already went through it with Keaton....and survived?  Or it could just be because her personality is SO much different than his.  I know that if she gets her feelings hurt, she will let someone know....and as long as there are no buzzing bees, she really isn't scared of anything!  She is very outgoing, and I think that school will be easy for her. 

I will tell you one thing....I never worried about Keaton getting in trouble at school. Lola? Well...we will see how it goes. 

Personality differences or not....

every step we take with any child towards independence seems to be a tough one for me.

I have a hard time losing control and knowledge of what happens in her day.  At home, I can keep her in this little safe bubble...but in the real world a.k.a. preschool :) there is no telling what can happen. I'm sure it will be GREAT! Don't get me wrong... I am able to get a lot more done around the house....and it is a lot easier to run errands when I am short 2 children.  Emotionally, though,....a little tough on this momma.

(a quick pic outside of school) 

 (inside of school at Lola's locker....she is pretty proud that she has a locker!)

(finally....Lola is settled in her classroom)

As you can see, the last few smiles are a little more forced and nervous than the first few.  She was still happy to be there, she just didn't know what to expect! As I said, the environment is different at this school....and there are some new friends there as well.  I do know that when I left Keaton there on his first day, I was worried about tears and him not wanting me to leave. For weeks, he asked me to hang around for awhile until he was settled.  Lola is nothing like that...she just sat down at the table, grabbed the activity that she was supposed to work on....and told me "see you later!".  She did look at me like, "really? are these 'puzzles' for me or for Nash?" but she didn't say a thing.

I didn't actually have time to sit down and write this until after picking her up from school. (I spent the morning reading "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" to a certain someone over and over and over again.)  She had a GREAT day at school....said she loved it, but mentioned that she is really going to miss Colton.  :)

I'm sure we will all be JUST fine.