First Day of School- Jackson

Jackson started preschool on August 26th! We were most nervous about how he would do riding the school bus by himself- especially after finding out he would be the first or second kid picked up, meaning he would be on the bus for about an hour each way, but everything went well and riding the bus seems to be his favorite thing. He wasn't scared at all to get on the bus and when he got home he climbed off the bus smiling (while wearing his ginormous backpack).






Mason, on the other hand, was not too happy about Jackson leaving on the bus and proceeded to have a mini tantrum as the bus drove away. That unhappiness was short-lived, though, after discovering what Jackson leaving meant- mommy all to himself for 5 hours (well, 3 when you subtract nap time)! The next day, when I told Jackson he bus would be here soon, Mason ran and grabbed Jackson's backpack and gave it to him- already ready for Jackson to be gone!

First Day of School- Jefferson

Jefferson went back to school on August 18th. He is now a 1st Grader! He was excited to go back- especially after seeing his "girlfriend" Maggie, from his Kindergarten class, at Back to School night, and finding out that she is also in his First Grade class!



We decided to celebrate the day by going swimming for Family Home Evening that night. It was a great plan, and the kids were super excited (I had neglected getting around to taking them swimming all summer- with exception to our vacation in St. George and Jackson's KOTM swim class). Unfortunately, we pulled up to the rec center only to see the pool being closed down for the day and a sign on the door saying that the pool was closed until tomorrow. Turns out there was an "accident" in the pool (i.e. poop) which means the pool has to be closed for a minimum or 30 minutes (and up to 24 hours)to allow the chlorine and other chemicals or treatment methods in the water to get rid of parasites that may cause illness. The rec center chose to close it down for the rest of the day (which would allow at least a 12 hour chemical cleansing time). Now I'm not really complaining about the closure. I really wouldn't want to go swimming right after some kid pooped in the pool, but it was hard to explain to the kids why we couldn't go swimming. They were very disappointed. So to make up for it we went to Sonic and got ice cream. That seemed to lift their spirits some. We then made it back to the pool 2 days later and have turned swimming into a regular Wednesday night activity for our family.

Planes on the Brain?

A couple pictures of Jefferson's designs with cardboard and blocks:

Summer Rewind...

I am going to be working on posting about some of the things that we did/happened this summer over the next few days. They probably won't be in chronological order- FYI.

Oh, and I've updated the minivan post to include pictures.

Names

Okay, so Mason was hard enough for us to name. We came up with a bunch of okay names and narrowed them down to three and then when he was born it just didn't feel like any of them were right and ended up picking Mason, a name that had been on the list months before and somehow dropped off the list unintentionally. We weren't even looking for a "son" name- it just happened. So now we have this theme going and the dilemma of deciding whether to stick to it or not-

hence the poll ------>

The advantage to the theme is that we have a starting point for picking a name, since we are really at a loss (and Nate wanted a boy because it would just be easier- we already have a girl's name!). So we'll probably start with the "son" names and then if we come across a non-son name we'll add it to the list. Wish us luck!

The Results Are In...

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. I am FINALLY updating the blog. I know it's been awhile. There are lots of reasons I've been a slacker in updating, but I won't bore you by going into those.

I had some plans for this post that were going to be AWESOME but that was solely dependent on a specific outcome, and since that didn't work out I'll get straight to the point.

It's a BOY!

Yep, baby #4 is on the way. We've been slow to tell people this time around because I really wanted to avoid the "so are you hoping this one is a girl or do you want all boys?" question. I knew that it really didn't matter what I wanted because I had no control over it. Am I disappointed? Yes. More so than I thought I would be. When I opened the envelope (Nate's out of town on a last minute family thing) to tell Nate the results on the phone, the pregnancy hormones kicked in and made me suddenly feel so nauseous I almost threw up. I really had felt like there was a good chance this baby could be a girl because this pregnancy has been a bit different from my previous 3. For example, I started showing at least 2 months earlier than my previous pregnancies, and while I've never experienced horrible morning sickness, I have had mild nausea the entire time- longer than in the past. I also have had a lot more back pain earlier on and trouble sleeping (although there are additional factors that may be causing that). I'm also a little mad because now Nate gets to gloat about getting what he wanted (all boys) while everyone else that knew about this pregnancy and had an opinion is disappointed. I haven't told Jefferson that he's getting another brother yet because he's had his heart set on a sister. I'm leaving that up to Nate when he gets home.

We've Joined The Club

The minivan club, that is. With our fourth child on the way it was eminent that we would have to get a larger vehicle. We researched what we wanted for months (before even knowing that I was pregnant since we knew that day would eventually come) and finally settled on the Honda Odyssey as being our favorite (despite the popularity in Utah). I still kept some of the 7-8 passenger SUV's in the back of my mind being hesitant to really get a minivan, but the minivan won out.

So now we are the proud owners of a 2005 Charcoal Gray Honda Odyssey. It has all of the features we were looking for- leather seats (once you go leather, it's hard to go back), built-in DVD player, decent gas mileage (it's got Variable Cylinder Management!), low miles, and my first color choice. And a bunch we didn't know we were looking for and love- the in-floor lazy susan, a removable 8th seat, 6 CD in-dash changer, seemingly endless amounts of storage space, etc.. I'm still a little weirded out about driving a minivan around (I am a solid sedan girl) but it's great having the space for the kids to spread out so they aren't fighting as much in the car.