End of September

Where has the time gone? I feel like life at times is on fast forward!  Hannah has been in school now for 3 weeks. She has been doing well. She's adjusting to the expectations and rules and overall doing well. We had parent info night this last week. It was nice to meet her teachers, principal and school counselor. They are a great group of women and I can tell they care very much about the children in the school.

I can't believe how much they learn in kindergarten. Our homework every night is to READ, READ and READ some more. Which isn't too difficult for us, as we are all book lovers in this house and have read books nightly since the girls were very little.


Another photo of Hannah and Addison at the bus stop. Hannah continues to enjoy going to the bus stop. She looks forward to riding the bus. And overall has been enjoying school very much.


Hannah just looks so grown up in this photo.

Addison is adjusting well to Hannah being gone most of the day. She enjoys going the bus stop when we let her go with us. She as well is talking up a storm and will request things like "Bye bye" which means she wants to go bye bye. Especially wants to go bye bye in Papa's truck!

I was off work for one week, and now working part time, due to a vision problem I'm having. Small print is blurry for me and hard to read, but I'm finding that I'm adjusting slowly to it and the headaches are lessening. I hope to return to full time work this upcoming week if my Dr will agree to it. We shall see.

Jason has been working 60-70 hours a week. He is beat! His employeer has yet to fill 2 vacant driver positions and this puts extra work hours and days on Jason and the other couple of guys that are in the department. He right now has Sundays and Mondays off- which isn't a lot, but we are trying hard to make the best of it and to enjoy the time that we have with him when he is home.

We have been in our home for 3 months now. I still have 4 boxes in the garage that have yet to be unpacked- but thankfully they are things that we don't use daily it's more like books and decorations. But I was able today actually to get some organization in the garage and there is actually a large open space in the garage now! As well I bit the bullet and decided to go ahead and start selling off some of the baby/infant items- crib, pack n play, high chair sort of things. I can't believe it's time to do that, but it is. Addison has outgrown a lot of things and it's time to make space for things, so out go the infant items. We decided long ago that we would only want to have 2 children, so I have no doubts about moving on and letting go of the infant things.

We are looking forward to the upcoming holidays, and a certain someone turning 2! The next couple of months are going to be busy, but I'm sure enjoyable. I love watching my girls learn new things and see how smart their little brains are and how much they mean to me, to Jason, to our family. And how lovely our life is. I couldn't ask for anything more than what I have at this time in my life. I am definitely one lucky woman!

<3 Jessy

So proud

I love this girl! 

The first day I put her on the school bus it was like having the bandaid ripped off- I had to let her be independent- and go to school. To a place where I had only been once before, and without haven't met the teachers. 

It's been quite a learning experience this last week. Sending Hannah to all day kindergarten has been a life changing event. 

She has been getting up and getting ready with little to no prompting. She practically runs out of the door in the morning to go to the bus, and for the most part I have been able to rearrange my schedule at work so that I can put her on the bus every morning (which I like!). 

She comes home and talks about her day. Music, art, PE, recess, lunch. the silly things that her teacher tells her, the library experiences, where the bathrooms are, how she has a bus buddy and loves riding the bus. It's nonstop stories about her day. She seems to really enjoy school and I'm so glad to see that. 

We have had to revamp our evening schedule to allow for getting ready for school. I'm hoping that we are able to stay organized to help with the ease of school. You know the type of stuff, showing the night before, laying out clothing the night before, making lunches the night before. That way in the mornings we aren't trying to rush to get things done or wonder where that shirt is that she really wants to wear. So far (1 week in) my plan is working and mornings are going well! 

I've signed up for the PTA. I've agreed to do some volunteering (as I'm able to). I hope that I will be able to find ways to be a part of what's happening at her school and in her life. I want to support her and her school. I believe that education is so important and enjoyed learning in my life that I hope to instill that in my girls. 

Its just been an adjustment to having a daughter in elementary school. It just seems so surreal. I can't believe my little girl is in school. That she is nearly 5 1/2 years old. That she is so independent. I want to foster her independence, but at the same time it feels weird to know that she doesn't need me as much as she once did. 

Here's hoping the next 35 weeks or so of Kindergarten are wonderful for Hannah!

J.

Color Run 2013

First I will apologize that the photos are not the greatest because they were after all taken with my cell phone.

COLOR RUN 2013. This took place over the weekend and the Portland International Raceway. What a blast we had! Hannah did most of it with me (she rode in the stroller the last 1/2 mile or so).

Addison- Slept all but the last 1/2 mile- Silly girl didn't know what she was missing, though the 6:30a wake up for her was a bit early! She did enjoy the colors at the end of the walk though. She was a very well behaved kiddo for as early as we had to get up.




This selfie was taken towards the beginning of the 5k. Hannah and I chose to run the first 1/2 mile and then walked the rest. You can kinda see Hannah tucked behind me in the photo.


Before the run started. The girls were just chilling in the stroller. Love this bike trailer for the times when I need to push 2! Thankfully this stroller has a mesh and plastic cover so when we would get close to the color throw areas I'd throw that over the stroller and that way it didn't affect Addison.


Hannah's hair after the Orange. There were 4 color stations. We would walk through and get covered in dyed cornstarch- it was pretty darn cool. I wasn't sure how Hannah would respond. But once she saw that it was okay to get covered in the color she had so much fun. 


6:30 wake up- and she was still an awesome kiddo! This pic was taken in the parking lot before we got started that day. I'm so proud of her willingness to do this with me.


Hannah at the end of the race- she loved her colors. After getting home she drew a picture of the color fun and asked to write out "Best Day Ever" so she could copy it on her picture. It was very sweet and I think tells you how much she enjoyed this.


Addison prior to getting started.


Finish line Color Party! So much fun.


This was the start line- we were near the front of the start line and got to go with the first wave of participants. It's fuzzy cause my phone was in a plastic bag just in case!


Selfie at the end!  I wasn't as covered in the color as I had hoped mostly because people were trying to avoid hitting the stroller with the color, but as you can see I was able to score some pink pride! I was smiling all day long, and the girls and I had a relaxing afternoon at home after this adventure in the morning.


I can't express just how much fun this run was. It was my first 5k to do alone (and only my 2nd 5k in my life- which both have coincidentally been in the last 6 months). I had a blast. Hannah and I were laughing and talking the whole way- while Addison slept. I can't tell you just how amazing this race was. When we finished at about 10:30 (we started at 9am)- there were still waves of people being let out at the starting gate. There were so many participants there.

If you have been interested in doing a 5k but don't want something boring. . . I highly recommend this "run"- There are several other fun 5k's out there, and I'm hoping to explore some more of them in the upcoming year or so.

<3 Jessica

Kindergarten Ho!

My morning looked like this- 

First I had not slept well, because I was anxious about my daughters first day of Kindergarten. I was up around 5:45a. I had no intention of getting up that early, but oh well. 

I quickly got showered and dressed. Hannah was up at 6:30am with "Mommy I thought you were going to wake me up to go to school." 

"Well Hannah I was, but you woke up early!"

There was no hesitations, she quickly got dressed, ate a snack (she gets breakfast in her classroom), and brushed her teeth. She was ready by 7am. Her bus doesn't come until 8:10a.

This gave us plenty of time to get some photo ops!

Addison wanted to be a part of it. How cute is she! 21 months in just a few days! She was kinda confused about what was going on today, and after Hannah got on the bus, she threw a big fit. Her big sister and playmate was gone for the majority of the day.

Hannah my 5 year old- ready for school!

Sisters together. 

Hannah is wearing her green tag that has her name, address, our phone numbers on it, teachers name and room number and lastly her bus number. She has to wear this for the first 2 weeks. 

Big kiddo with backpack. 

Girls brushing their teeth getting ready for the day. 

Hannah comes home from school! 

Convienently, the bus stop is literally at the corner of our property. So we walk down the driveway and along the curb to the corner. (as you can kinda tell there are no sidewalks in our neighborhood). It makes it awesome for catching the bus. She loved her bus ride. I had offered to walk her to school on the first day and her response "No mommy, I want to ride the bus!". 

Dad and I both were there to greet her. She was so excited about her teacher Mrs. Doden. She shared about her day. She told me about going to music class, and science, and reading! She told me about lunch and breakfast. She told me about 3 recesses. She was definitely a chatty Cathy this afternoon. She had a lot to share about her day. Definitely sounded like she had a great first day of kindergarten.

She was so excited she was telling the strangers in Safeway about her day. We called Grammy and Papa. We called Nana and Papa Jeff.  And I listened to a whole lot of information about her day. She was very excited about the badge pin that her teacher gave her for listening all day! She told both grandparents about a total of 6 times about her badge. 

I am so glad that I have a daughter that is so excited about kindergarten. I am so glad she had a wonderful first day. I know that this upcoming year is going to be full of new challenges, growth, excitement. I'm nervous, Hannah will be gone from 8am until 3pm, that's a lot of time to be away from me. This will mean that she will become even more independent- which is exciting and scary. 

Here's to a wonderful 2013-2014 year in Kindergarten. 

P.S.- I heard that Cleo had a great first day. She rode the bus to and from very well. And apparently was telling people about her Aunt and uncle getting her backpack. From the sounds of it she was very social with the other kids at her school and she enjoyed her day very much. I look forward to hearing more about my neice's kindergarten days!

Love- 

J.