Simpler Times

School is back in session. Third grade and First grade seem to be moving along.

Kaylee who is always one to tow the line when it comes to behavior and school expectations, continues to keep with those traits. As she gets older friendships can be harder. Friends can say or do more "hurtful" things, or at least you feel as though they are. Kaylee wanting to participate in all the things her friends are, but often is scared in doing something new. Never 100% sure and struggles to make her choice. Does she try something new and face her fear? Does she avoid a new experience and the feeling of uncertainty but risk a feeling of regret? 

Some days she is on top of the world and everything has gone her way. Other days it's as if the world is out to get her and no one wants to be her friend or so it seems to someone with a mind that seems to exaggerate an experience, i.e. one person said something unkind to her and her mind says "No one likes you and everyone was making fun of you." All feelings I too well understand. 

Draws me back to simpler times. Times when she was excited because we were on the beach in January.

Playing play-dough

Painting with water colors.

Happy to be dry and fed.

Then I think of my First grader. The one does not lack confidence and has a little defiance streak added in. Just as well intentioned as her older sister, but doesn't always feel rules, such as work quietly at your desk and not talk with your neighbor, pertain to her. In Ainsley's class their behavior plan is color based. Green is good, everyone starts on green each day. Throughout the day you may move up or down and back up or down again. We've seen our share of yellows, and even an orange, coming home on her paper. All for talking. 

She tries for those greens, and even for the higher colors, each day. So determined she is, but she is also a talker. Apparently a lot of the class enjoys talking. So the teacher has had to be stern to set the tone and get these talkers in check. I know it's just talking, but after someone asks you repeatedly to not do something and you continue to do so it becomes a little disrespectful. Being able to sit quietly and listen when you are bored or uninterested is a life skill. I know at 6 it's not that crucial of a life skill, but if we don't start working on these now when will they come?

Last week it was only yellow one day. Such a proud accomplishment and it should be because I know how hard she has to work on not talking (after all I was a talker too!).

I think about the simpler times:

Getting piggy back rides from Grandpa.

Playing with your older sister and getting a kiss.

Helping to decorate the house. 

Playing with duckies in the water table.

As I think of those times I realize that as parents there really are no simpler times. Now those times seem like simpler times but in those moments I was worried about schedules, staying healthy, sharing, napping, and other developmental milestones. In those moments what seems simple now did not seem so simple then. As my children grow and get older there will be new worries and struggles. Things like Kaylee being weary about trying new things or Ainsley tying to get green will seem like issues from simpler times.

Although our struggles as parents will change as our children do. The one thing that will remain consistent is our love for our children. Our commitment to them and our hope and belief for and in them. Those things are great in feeling but simple in idea.

Blog Overhaul

Perhaps "overhaul" is not the most accurate word to use, it may be extreme, but I couldn't think of a better one to use. I've been complacent in my blogging. I do the occasional "catch-up" post to do some random updating on the on-goings of our lives. Which is good. I like documenting things on here. Life gets busy and it's a nice way to look back on memories.

I also love to write and lately I don't feel I've done well at that. I read other blogs and am inspired by their thoughtful and seemingly more meaningful topics. I did debate on starting a different blog to capture what I hope will be my more thoughtful posts. I thought about doing it and keeping myself anonymous. I'm always one to worry about possibly offending someone by what I write, however I would never intentionally do that and just decided that if someone were to be offended by my posts they could simply stop reading.

Don't get me wrong I'm not planning to get all crazy and turn into a post extremist for sake of being controversial. I just want to utilize my blog to not only keep everyone updated on what we have going on, but I also want to do more "writing", more so then just "captioning".

I hope to be more frequent in my posts but we will see how that goes:)

Sadie Girl

When we got Belle our hope was that she and our other lab at the time, Abby, would have a couple of years together. We thought it would be good company for Abby during the day and Abby could also be a help in us training Belle.  Unfortunately about 9 months after getting Belle, we lost Abby due to a tumor. She was 10.

Belle, although a lab, was a much different dog then Abby.  Both sweet dogs, but Belle was just a little more destructive. I thought after Belle we wouldn't get another dog, let alone another dog while we had Belle. Now Belle is almost 3 years old. She still has her moments but overall she has grown up quite a bit. She loves playing with other dogs! So began the discussion on getting another dog. I had always liked Labradoodles and Goldendoodles, but quite frankly they are very expensive. I couldn't justify spending that much money for a dog. So I started looking for different types of dogs. I found a website that has all different types of dogs. You can search by dog type or location. Just out of curiosity I looked to see if there were any labradoodles listed and I found some. One of the people who had listed labradoodles had them listed for 1/2 the price that I had found them anywhere else.

After some emails back and forth, Brad called the lady and talked with her. We found out that they have both the mom and dad as family pets and just like the dogs. They aren't into the show dogs or hardcore breeding. They live on a farm in southern Illinois. We decided this would be a good time to add a new member to our family, and a dog from southern Illinois would be the perfect member!

Yesterday Brad and I got up and left our house around 5:30 a.m. to go pick up our newest addition.

When we got there we met the puppies that hadn't been picked up yet and the parents. They were all so cute!

We made the drive back and introduced Sadie to our circus:) She was a little standoffish at first but she has started to become acclimated and fit right in.

Playing with her new toy from her Mee-Maw.

Rest time!

Exploring the yard.

Meeting her new "sisters".

Welcome Sadie!

Back to School

We are back school! Two weeks under our belts. It's been a nice transition into starting school and our school routine. Dance doesn't start for another week and Daisies/Brownies in a couple more weeks. It's nice to have some space in between the starting times of all of our school year activities.

The girls were excited to go back. Kaylee into 3rd grade this year and Ainsley into 1st. Not sure how that happened, but here we are:) Our school has a Back to School Night the day before so we were able to take all the school supplies in then, which is nice so they don't have to drag them all the first day. I asked the girls if they wanted me to drive them to school the first day but they said they wanted to ride the bus.

Can't say I blame them for wanting to ride with their friends.

Here are some first day photos:

Our 3rd Grader!

Our 1st Grader

Sisters

Here's to a great school year!!!