First Day of Pre-School

Today, June went to her first day of Pre-School. Well I guess it's Pre-Pre School, since she will go next year as well.

I went back and forth so much with the decision of starting Pre-School this year. To be honest, I was a bit against it at first... I thought, she has her whole life to go to school, I want her with me! But after I had learned more about this little pre-school and learning that one of my best friends here would be the teacher, along with one of June's little best friends would be in her class, I really started thinking about June and would she enjoy it.  I knew she would. June Thrives at this kind of stuff. She does so well at nursery and loves those kinds of environments. She never has been a screaming, run around kind of kid. She likes quiet, sit down and play, kind of activities and that's what this little school is all about. To prepare them for the years of school ahead. I still hesitated. After discussing with Dan many many times, and him making me feel so much better about it, and many many prayers, I felt really good about starting her in school. It's something that I knew she would love. That she learns independence without me there 24/7. It's a small small stepping stone, and it was the right choice. 

We started getting ready this past weekend. Making sure June had everything that was required for her little class. 

Her class is Tuesdays and Thursdays 10am-12:15. Short amount of time, but they have a lesson, sing songs, play and have a little lunch. It was pretty fun packing her a little lunch today. She was so excited to eat out of her lunch bag. She kept asking all morning to eat out of it. And the teacher (Makenna) told me after that it was her favorite part, to eat out of her lunch bag. Hahaha Oh I adore my little Juniper. 

At the store, I asked June what Key chain she wanted for her backpack to make it extra special. She had her choice of any princess, minnie mouse, and then batman. She chose batman and that's the one we went with. She loves it. 

So the first day of school. I was excited and she kept asking if she could go to school. I finally could tell her yes that we were going in just a couple hours. Dan gave her a little blessing before he left for work, which started the tears on my end. I love that man and how much he loves his children. It brings so much warmth to my heart to watch him give a priesthood blessing to our children. Something Dan and I both had growing up and such an important part to have in our home. 

She is simply the greatest little thing. 

We got to her school and she took off ready to go. I fought back tears the whole way in. 

June was able to pick out a spot and they put her name above where she would be putting her backpack for the school year. I was shown around, given some instructions about signing in and out June when needed and school policy. Then it was time for me to leave. To say goodbye. I say goodbye to her all the time, whether leaving her with daddy, or with friends, but somehow this felt different. I totally lingered, I just couldn't leave. How was she going to be without me?! How would I be without her!? I was holding back tears so much, I had to keep looking away.  I mean it's only 2 hours Lesli, get a hold of yourself! I just think it's what it represented. She isn't a toddler anymore. She is becoming this little girl and growing up so much. I want to stop it, but then I don't. I want to hold her back and say never mind, but then I don't, because I want her to grow to be her own person. To learn for herself. To grow into who she is meant to be. It all started right there in that room. 

I walked back to the car and held Owen extra tight and cried. It was so hard. Much harder than I thought it would be. I was a sight I'm sure, but I just couldn't help it. 

After a few tears... ok a lot of tears, I pulled myself together and ran the errands I needed to. It was so nice being so fast with just one child in hand. I blew through all my errands. hahaha 

I didn't want to be late picking her up, so I headed back up and sat in the car for like a half hour. I couldn't wait to hear about her first day.

When it was finally 12:15 I loaded OD in the stroller and we went and picked her up. She was really excited to see me, and would NOT stop talking about what she had done that day. She was so excited of all the things she got to do. 

On the way home she told me again all she had done. I was smiling from ear to ear the whole way. When we got home I unloaded her backpack and there was her first art project tucked away safe behind her lunch. The projects of many to come and I can't wait. 

I am so proud of this little girl, for going with it and not looking back. She didn't hesitate at all going into that classroom. She was excited to play with puzzles and to see other children. I love her more than words could ever say. My heart is so full of joy and happiness that I was so blessed to be given such an amazing, smart, beautiful little girl. I can't rave enough about her. Hahaha you know if you read my blog on a regular basis. But I refuse to hold back. 

I'm so excited for this school year.  All the the learning and growing that both June and I will get to do. 

Happy First Day of School Sweetheart!

LOVE YOU! 

June said...

" Mommy!! You put water in a cup for baby Owen, just like you put water in a water bottle for me?!? Mommy that's genious!" -June 

Owen! 10 Months

Dear OD, Otis, Fat baby, Chub Chubs, Hunk of a chunk, baby Owit, oh and Owen,

     10 months old. You are growing to fast and I would wish it to stop, but I know what is ahead in life and I am so excited for the next stages with you! You are becoming SO MUCH FUN! It's fun to watch you and June play together and you starting to hold your own. The other day you full on tackled her to the ground. She wasn't too thrilled about the whole situation, but I couldn't help but chuckle and realize how many fights I'm sure I will have to intervene on. Excited! 

     You are everywhere and wanting to explore everything! But nothing beats climbing all over me all day. I sit on the floor, and you instantly drop whatever you're doing and come crawling up on me. My necklace seems to be your main focus. My hair is usually your pulling up device. You just love being all over me. You haven't slowed down a bit. In fact you are an active little thing. You love to look around, and it can get difficult to hold you at times... it's ok, we are learning to work together on that. 

    Buddy you are doing fantastic at being a baby. You are being totally awesome and plus keeping me on my toes. I'm telling you I've stayed more active with you just keeping you away from things you find, that I haven't got a clue where they even came from. You zoom in on the smallest of small objects. Crazy little man. 

You love to look and play with mirrors. They keep you entertained forever. You laugh at yourself all the time, which makes me laugh. You have such a little contagious smile. It kills me. I worry that in the future you will get away with a lot with that smile of yours. The dimples just add the extra sweetness. The girls are gonna love you. 

     You are a great little sleeper, minus the going to sleep part. It still takes you a minute or two to stop crying, but then you are out for the rest of the night, waking up about 6. Thank you. It feels so good to get a full nights sleep again. You are drinking a little less milk now and eating more solids which is fun. I'm looking forward to the no more bottles. It will be nice to just have you on a regular meal plan with the rest of us. But I know deep down a little part of me will miss those moments we had of rocking and drinking you milk.  You have taken a liking to pretty much everything. Obviously some food you prefer more than others, but you haven't fought us on anything, so let's try and keep that up. 

      I do think you are starting to give up your afternoon nap and I won't be sad to see it go. In fact I'm really looking forward to you going down to one nap. It just makes the schedule much more easier when it's one nap during the middle of the day... we will see though. Obviously you sleep when you feel the need. 

     OD, you are just becoming my little man. You are slowly starting to lose the baby chub and we are starting to see the features of your face and what you can look like. You are your daddy for sure with that bleach blonde hair, but don't worry, you have your mom in you too. 

    At 10 months you are still wearing size 3 diapers, but the next round of purchase we will probably go up to a size 4. You are also wearing 12 month clothes and as of right now have grown out of all your pajamas. Good thing it's summer and you sleep in onsies. Don't worry bud, we are getting you more. I can't believe you will be a year old in just a couple of months. I love you son. You are such a sweetheart, and such a happy little man. Hardly anything gets you down. I just can't express enough how grateful I am that your my son. I love you so so much little guy! 

Happy 10 months! 

The First School shopping trip

School shopping was always a big deal with my sister's and mom. It actually started with my older sister's and girl cousins, along with my mom and aunt, driving down to Utah for a weekend and literally spend all weekend shopping. When I was at "the right age" (meaning old enough to last all day without whining... no whining was aloud.) I got to go and it was the best day of my life up to that point when I was told I could go. I think this is how I got my long windedness of shopping and where I learned to love it! The boys would stay home and do manly things.  It was so much fun. Then when we got home, we would put on this never ending fashion show for my dad. He was always such a good sport about it all. Always telling us how pretty we looked or which outfit was his favorite. He rules. It was something we looked forward to every year before school. 

The school shopping tradition carried on through all of the Mendenhall granddaughters. We still try to get together as much as we can to go school shopping. It obviously doesn't happen every year, but it's great when it does. 

It's definitely a tradition that I want to carry on with my children. And since June is starting Preschool this up coming week, I thought I might as well start now! 

I wanted it to just be her and I. So when Dan came home Friday afternoon we took off. 

We first went and had lunch. I told her she could choose wherever she wanted and all she wanted was a corn dog, so we went and ate in the car at Sonic. I moved up to the front seat with me and we had a little lunch to fuel us for our all day shopping trip. 

It was great spending the day with just June.

She did great shopping for the first couple of hours. She loved trying on random things and picking out her lunchbox, backpack and clothes for this school year. 

We shopped the entire mall. Towards the end she was getting worn down, but I had the stroller for such a thing, so she was able to ride in there while we walked around. 

I love this little lady. 

We went into Target after the mall. She was so excited to be riding in front where Owen usually rides.  

I sent this picture to my mom, telling her not to worry, that I'm properly measuring her shoe size. I remember my mom doing this with EVERY shoe any of us ever tried on. It made me miss my mom. 

June starting laughing about these cowboy boots. She really wanted them.. Thankfully they didn't have them in her size. hahaha we could have ended up walking out with pink boots for shoes. 

After we finished Target, June was worn down to the core. She was basically falling asleep in the shopping cart, so we called it a day. I told her she could pick out a treat since she was so well behaved. I told her she could pick between a treat or a toy. All she wanted was a treat. So we got her some skittles and she was a happy girl. 

I do understand that it's only Preschool, that she won't remember these trips, or that I might take things to the extreme... but it's not just memories for her, it's for me as well. I want to know I did everything I could, from day one to make moments special, even if all she knows about it, is reading it in our blog books many years down the road. I love traditions, and what they mean. It may be over the top, but I would rather it be that way than not doing anything at all. It may be a little work, but its work well worth the time. 

This day represents the many days to come of school shopping and trips with June and who knows... maybe more little girls to come. 

June said...

June wanted to go swimming this morning. This is how she told me she wanted both of us to swim... 

"Mommy, you're just the best swimmer. I think you should get in the pool" -June 

We got in the pool. 

Air Conditioning.... Over and Out

The weird week has finally arrived to Saturday! YAY! This week dragged and I am glad to see it go.
Its nice blogging in the morning. Kids are happy, Dan's golfing, and it's Saturday so I feel I can let a few things slack. That means I can turn to the blog.

This week did not disappoint with its abundant-ness of slightly driving me insane. Like both the kids having the croup, me constantly breaking Owen's video monitor (I admit, after the 3rd break, I may have lost it and threw it on the ground. Yes, I acted like a 3 year old) and the cherry on top the air conditioning decided it had run long enough and needed a break. A literal break.

Thursday afternoon, Dan had gotten home early from a workers retreat up at lake Lewisville.... which actually was just a bunch of the boys jet skiing and boating... :) but he was home early and we were all excited! We hopped into the pool and after a swim we came back into the house, unusually warm. We keep our house cold. And when we walked in, we knew instantly something was wrong. Dan went to go check outside and sure enough the air conditioning unit was making a horrible screeching sound. No Air. The house was already at 85 degrees and climbing. We pulled the fans out and attempted to cool down the kids room as much as possible. Dan and I could sweat out the night but with the kids being sick and well.. just being kids, I wanted to make sure they slept as good as possible.

Owen's room is always so hot mid afternoon because the sun just beats in through his window. Even with Blackout curtains. It was miserable in there. June's fan makes  a squeaking noise and it bugs her so she didn't want it on.

Dan and I knew it was going to be a long night but we tried to make it as comfortable as we could for Owen and June. We got them down to sleep and Dan left for some church business and I hopped into the shower. A really cold shower, because at that point I was sweating non stop.

Dan got home and the house temperature was at 89. Just kept on rising. Here in Texas we don't have nights that cool down. We are lucky if it gets into lower 80's. No relief from anything but fans. We had large ice buckets in front of the fans which blew cold air. It worked all up until the ice melted and with it being so hot in the house it melted within the hour. So....

Kids kept waking up and around 11, I went into Owen's room and it was just melting hot in there. It was hard to even breath. I knew he couldn't sleep in there so I put him in the pack n' play in our room.  June was constantly up and complaining she was too hot. So we decided that we would put all the fans in our room, since it has the best air circulation of our whole house, and sleep in there. We blew up our big air mattress and let June sleep on that. Now remember the kids are sick, so both of them have nasty coughs that just keep going. Owen would wake up coughing and crying and so would June. So around 11:30 we loaded everyone up in the car and turned the AC on full blast. It felt so good!

We went to Walmart, Dan ran in to purchase more fans and bags of ice.
Once we got home all of us went into our room and tried to get some sleep. Owen just kept waking up, Dan and June ended up in our bed and I was on the air mattress. It was actually somewhat cooler down below. Hot air rises. I went to get Dan and June to bring them down. June was asleep so we left her, but Dan came and laid down lower with the fan blowing. We probably slept for an hour, then Owen and June both woke up.

Owen had spiked a fever and was so hot. I laid right in front of the fan with him just to cool him off and get him back to sleep. I laid him down and turned the fan literally right on him. He seemed content enough with that.
We thought June had peed the bed but it actually was just so much sweat coming from her little body. Dan moved her onto the air mattress. So all three of us slept on the air mattress. It was actually much cooler down there and we had all the other fans pointing right at us.

I don't know if we got any sleep. Neither Dan and I felt like we did, but somehow 6am rolled around. Dan said he had never been happier to see that time on the clock.

Owen was up with us at 6 and June slept until about 7. We survived.
In the end we should have just gotten a hotel for the night. It was that hot. The poor kids were miserable and I felt so bad for how sweaty they got.
Thankfully the repair man came at 9am and had it up and running within the next half hour. I almost hugged him. Like, I may have jumped up and down and thanked him a million times over. hahaha pathetic.

We really did survive and we obviously know it wasn't the end of the world, but at 2a.m, you're sweating profusely, both kids are coughing... you do feel like it's the end of the world.
Just glad we have air again and it feels nice!

A lot of Pictures Post

Happy Thursday! Which feels like Friday and it's driving me crazy! This whole week has been so weird. Not bad, just weird. I have been off a day all week. I went to go write in my journal last night and I saw that I had written Thursday... not Wednesday. I go back pages from earlier this week and I did it on everyday. I think it's due to the fact that Dan was out late Sunday night doing some church business, so we didn't quite have our usual night preparing for the next week ahead. It threw me off from day one. Haha! So I am excited for the weekend to come and to get a new fresh week underway. 

I also noticed that I have a file sitting on my computer full of just random pictures. It's been a while since I have done a random blog post of everyday life. I figured that I better do one so the pictures don't get too over whelming to the point where I don't blog them.

I like these blog posts and Dan tells me they are his favorite too. So here you are sweetheart, for when your are taking a break from work and reading the family blog! 

Lot's of pictures! 

Q-Tip painting 

Walks to the park

The paint was homemade sidewalk chalk paint. It was really easy and fun to make! 

It actually worked out super well! It showed up really well and Ju Ju's had fun painting the driveway. We drew daddy pictures and wrote him messages for when he came home. 

And of course played hop scotch

Just one night feeling extra clingy to this little man... no, not Owen being clingy, but me. Haha Owen was fast asleep in his crib, but I remember so clearly thinking that if I don't pick this boy up and hold him my heart might explode. I love a good snuggle with this boy, it doesn't happen often enough! 

June had woken up a little too earlier, and I was doing something, can't remember what, but I came back to the living room and she was out cold with her hands holding up her pants. 

This girl LOVES oranges. She can pretty much polish one off on her own. 

One morning we shared a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the floor. One of my favorite cereals and starting to become Junes too. 

June loves to draw and color. She is learning to draw shapes and color them in. She was particularly excited when she came running into the room to show me this picture. She told me to hold onto it forever. 

The Older Owen gets the more fun these two get to have together. Bath time usually ends with the bath room floor soaked in water and bubbles everywhere, but they have so much fun. 

Our usual swim of the day

Owen sleeping comfortably... or not. 

Playing at the play place one afternoon... So we have been changing up our schedule recently. It's been a weird change due to the fact that I have had the same basic routine for the past year and a half, but with Owens 2 nap schedule and June not having naps anymore, I switched our schedule up so that we could use every hour of the day more affectively. It's worked for the most part. I am still working out the kinks.. haha just in time for Owen to go down to one nap. Perfect. No, but to be honest, I am really looking forward to Owen going down to one nap. Our mornings will be more available...

Why I bring this up, is because our we were at the play place at 1pm in the afternoon, and it was mostly empty. Due to the fact that most children are home sleeping. With Owen's afternoon nap not until 2 we have an extra hour or so after lunch to play! 

He's such a chunk. and SO HAPPY!

He also wants to walk so bad. He is always up on all fours like this. I am thinking he will be walking sooner rather than later... but I said that with June and she didn't walk until 14 months. So time will tell!

Playtime at the library. This was a special library day! It was fun, but we didn't sing nearly as many songs and thats Jun'e favorite part! As much as the parachute was fun, I hope they continue to sing songs as well. 

June has learned how to climb into the car, get in her seat and buckle up. She is doing really well with it, and is close to getting the bottom buckled. This is a HUGE help. I can open the door and then go to the other side to put Owen in, and have her getting in buckling up! I don't know how I will ever do three! I guess someday we will find out!

It was bedtime and he played hard that day

He woke up a few times like this. Still happy but very stuck. His thighs were tricky getting back through those bars. We have lowered his crib since then and he doesn't seem to get too stuck. Now he has troubles sitting back down once he pulls himself up. I remember going through this same stage with June!

June spiked a fever Friday afternoon. She was fine that morning playing at the park, but we got home and she was feeling pretty bad. So she slept most of the day. We weren't able to attend our ward pool party which was sad, but it was fun just being home with my family. 

We had tickets to the Perot Museum "Extra"  dinosaur exhibit, so we thought we better use them before the expire. It has been well worth having season passes to the museum and having these "extra" exhibits to look at has been fun this summer. 

Geology lesson 101 

Saturday night, we had an hour or so before dinner and so we made homemade snow. It actually worked and was fun to play with... Dan was loving it! It made me laugh how excited he gets over these kind of home activities! 

Just a random night after work. Playing in the playroom, and everyone tackling daddy. Oh they love him so much!! 

We were at the store the other day and I saw in a clearance section 8 sparkle nail polishes for $1.50. I had to get them for June. She loves to paint fingernails and the glitter stuff is perfect for her. She wanted to paint my nails after baths one night. I get why the stuff was on clearance. First of all 3 bottles were dried out, and then the others were soooo gooey. June didn't care! She loved it! 

We celebrated one of our best little friends birthdays. 

The attempt at giving hugs! Love these little girls. Now I just need to find a group of boys for OD!

Ah! At the end! Life is simple but good.