Lilyana: 9-months old

Where does time go, is my baby girl really 9-months old?  I've decided that I really like this age, Lily is just so much fun these days.  She has been doing the army crawl since 6/7 months but in the last month she's finally realized that regular crawling is faster and less painful.  She also learned to pull herself up on anything and is starting to cruise around the furniture.  Lily has discovered the stairs and loves to climb them--we are in the market for a gate!  She is on a pretty good schedule and gets up between 6:30 and 7am, takes 2 naps a day and is ready for bed by 7 or 7:30pm.  She loves solid food especially when she can feed herself but boy she can make a mess!  At her 9-month appointment she weighed 20 lbs and 12 oz.  She has her 2 front bottom teeth which popped out around 6 months and two weeks ago her top two teeth made their appearance.  Her eyes are still as blue as ever which makes her dad so happy.  She loves watching her siblings, especially when they are running around, she will be so excited when she can join them!  And she has recently discovered dogs, she gets SO excited when she sees a dog, its so cute to watch :)  

Here are some pics of our sweet little caboose.

Lily makes a beeline for the dishwasher anytime I open it, she loves it!

 Lily LOVES fruit:

 

 Her siblings love to hold her:

Enjoying the sand at the beach on the 4th of July:

Chowing down on a pickle:

When I have laundry going, I'll often find Lily in the laundry room watching the washing machine go round and round:

Here is the sweet face I get to see when I go in to get Lily up from her crib:

Don't grow up so fast Lilyana!

Parker and Penelope's first day of Kindergarten

The day Parker and Penelope looked forward to all summer finally arrived: the first day of Kindergarten.  They were so excited!  They were thrilled with their new clothes and shoes and backpacks.  Here is Parker waiting in front of his class:

And here are Parker and Penelope together.  They, unfortunately, are not in the same class.  I did request them to be but the principal feels very strongly that twins should be split up.  I'm not terribly worried about them being apart, I just think it would be easier (for me) to have them in the same class and they do love each other.  We'll have to see how it goes.

 Here I am with my oh-so-big kindergarteners:

 With dad:

 And here is Penelope in front of her classroom:

 So excited to see what is going on inside:

 Penelope got a little nervous when we went into her room but we quickly got her situated and said goodbye.  This is where I teared up and had put my sunglasses on.  I didn't want to scare her or give her reason to not be excited for the day.

 Then we  walked down to Parker's classroom and got him settled in

 Saying goodbye to dad:

 My last look at him before leaving:

 Just over five hours later, I was picking them up.  Unfortunately, the camera was on video so I didn't get a shot of Penelope coming out of her classroom but here is Parker with his teacher:

 They both said they had a good day and told me lots about it.  And they were both excited about going back the next day so that is a good sign.  Here's to hoping the rest of the school stays this positive!

Oliver started preschool!

The day finally arrived.  Oliver got to go to preschool instead of just helping drop off and pick up Parker and Penelope.  He has been looking forward to this day for a long time!  I'm so proud of him, he asked if I could come in 'just for a minute' like he does every Sunday when I take him primary but I told moms don't go to preschool but that I would be back and pick him up, he walked right in and sat down.  My friend Heather was the mom helper and told me that for the first little bit he wouldn't look at anyone or answer questions but he finally settled in and got involved.  He told me his favorite part was listening to the song "Going on a bear hunt"  He also said he colored a bus (on a paper), ate a snack of yogurt and graham crackers, played with trucks and rode a bike outside while wearing a red helmet.  All in all I think he had a great day.  I wanted to get a picture of him and his teacher but the school is working hard to streamline pick-up and drop-off so I didn't get a chance.  Maybe on Thursday.  In any case, here are the pics we took before and at the beginning of Oliver's first day of preschool:

They each wanted a turn holding Lily in the picture so we did it.

   I was really nervous letting Oliver hold her though.  But no one dropped her, success!

 

 Love how Lily's tongue is out in this one:

 

 Saying goodbye to dad:

 Parker and Penelope start kindergarten tomorrow so they came with us for drop-off, here they are watching Oliver through the window:

Here's to a good start to a hopefully great year of preschool for Oliver!

Parker

Parker is a delightful 5-year old.  He is such a good boy and has a strong desire to do what is right.  He is, as we say, without guile.  He is in swim lessons and LOVES them.  He loves being in the water and is working so hard so he can swim in our community pool without a life jacket.  What a change from a couple years ago when he first took swim lessons and cried through most of the lessons.  Parker loves legos and spends a lot of time building things and playing with his men.  He was quite obsessed with superheroes at the beginning of the year but it has been overtaken by a love of Star Wars.  He sees things in black and white and always asks at the beginning of a book/story/movie if there is a bad guy and who it is and who gets the bad guy.  He reminds me every morning to read from our Book of Mormon Stories and his favorites are always the ones with clear cut good guys and bad guys.  He loves doing things with his friends and when we go somewhere he always asks what friends will be there. His good friends are Mikey Oleksy and Carson Young.  He is so excited for kindergarten and is ready to make new friends.  He doesn't love sitting down and working on writing and reading but once he gets going he tries so hard and is getting really good with writing his letters and numbers.  He has memorized Articles of Faith 1-8 and he says really thoughtful prayers.  He often tries to take on the role of parent and reprimand his siblings, I'll say to him "Parker, you are not the mommy, I am the mommy."  He's my early riser and is up between 6am and 6:30am.  He's very modest and gets dressed right away.  He doesn't like to be sticky or dirty and washes his hands a lot.  He is a good eater and loves string cheese, pepperoni, mac and cheese, fruit, pizza and water.  He loves water and chooses it over juice or soda.  He is not shy, yesterday at the grocery store he told the cashier "My name is Parker and I'm five."  He has a naturally loud voice, I'm often telling him to use his inside voice.  He learned to ride a bike without training wheels this summer and he's a natural!  He loves riding his bike and goes so fast. He loves, loves, loves his daddy and always asks when he'll be home and what days he gets to stay home.  We love having Parker in our family!