School Days

The kids started school yesterday, so maybe I will have time to blog again. Hallie started 4th grade, Carter 2nd, and Jackson Kindergarten. They were all very excited and got up so easily and got dressed and ready in about 10 minutes. I wish it would be that easy every day. Hallie's teacher is a man named Mr. Bell and she thinks he is the coolest teacher in school. Carter's teacher is Mrs. Baker and Jackson has Mrs. Madrid; who was the teacher that Carter had when he was in Kindergarten.

After getting all the kids off to school; Mark, Grace and I went to breakfast. It was very quiet with just Grace at home. She would wander around the house and every once in a while I would hear her laugh. I think that she was having so much fun having free reign of the whole house and no one to bother her. She may find it boring in a couple of weeks.

Hallie's rantings

The other day when I took Hallie and Grace shoe shopping; Hallie got a pair of boots. I did not really want to get them but she just went on and on about how she had always wanted boots and how cute they were. So finally I told her that she could get them but they would be a Christmas present. She was ok with that until we left the store and she wanted to wear them. Then when we got home she was showing them to Mark and wearing them all around the house. Finally I told her that she didn't have to wait till Christmas to have them. (Mostly because it was just another present that I would have to wrap, and I was tired of wrapping.)

So ever since I have bought her these boots she has changed. On Sunday on the way to church she told me that she wants to move to Texas. And when she gets there she wants to be a tour guide and take people all over the state and show them Texas. (Which I thought was really funny because she has never even been through most parts of Texas.) She ask me how much she should charge for this. While I am thinking, she says "maybe I will charge the adults $5 and the kids $3". I said "that is not very much money for a tour of the whole state, you could probably charge more than that." We discussed this a little more and she finally decided that she would charge $30 for adults and $22 for kids 11 to 3 and under 3 were free and she would give the babies free milk. She then told me that she wanted to get a horse and ride it to the store. So this boot thing has knocked cowgirl land. She also wanted to wear the boots in her pictures that we had taken today. And I have even seen her wearing them with her pyjamas. I am surprised that she hasn't tried sleeping in them. Here is a picture of her in her "cowgirl" boots.

"Somebody" in Texas needs to send her some REAL cowgirl boots.

Plum tuckered out

"Plum tuckered out" is a way that my Mom descibes people when they are worn out. Apparantly that is how Jackson felt the other day when he came home from school. Mark took these pictures of him.

This is how I feel right now. I just spent 5 hours at the mall. I must have lost my mind to decide to go to the mall 4 days before Christmas. I was not Christmas shopping, thank goodness. I was trying to find a pair of shoes for Hallie. Black dress shoes. It should not take 5 hours to find a pair of shoes. But Hallie has these long skinny feet that no store has shoes for. We finally found some, actually a couple pair. I also bought Grace some shoes; and she has the opposite problem. She has extremely small feet. She does not even wear a size 1. The lady at the shoe store told me that size 1 is usually for newborn to 3 months old. I have never had a baby that is almost 8 months old and cant even wear a size 1. Oh well, the ones that I found are cute. Here she is modeling them.

Blabbering or First Word

Grace has started to say Da-Da. We think. Mark is always trying to get her to say it and so he is taking credit for teaching her her first word. It seems very early to me for a baby to start talking, but our kids have always talked early and very clearly. So who knows. You can watch the following videos and decide for yourself. Blabbering or first word?

Pearly Whites

Last week was the week of teeth. Grace got her first tooth; actually teeth. She got her 2 bottom teeth in one day. She had been waking up a lot in the middle of the night and I just could not figure out what her problem was. Then one morning she was chewing on my finger and there they were. It took a few more day and then they were completely out. Here is a picture of them.Then, a few days later Hallie FINALLY lost her snaggle tooth. Her front top tooth has been sticking out because her adult tooth was coming in behind her baby tooth. It looked horrible. I told her that if she did not get it out by Friday that I was taking her to the dentist to have them pull it. On Thursday night she was at soccer practice and a boy that was defending the goal kicked the ball and it hit her in the mouth! Knocked the tooth right out. I told her that she needed to thank him for saving her from having to go to the dentist and get it pulled.

Hallie's birthday party

Last Friday we had Hallie’s birthday party. She was turning nine and wanted to have a sleep over, but we decided instead to have her friends over from 5-9 pm and wear their pjs and do fun things. They made their own little pizzas. (Which I forgot to take pictures of.)

Watched Camp Rock.

Played with Hallie’s hamster Jerry.

Painted nails.
Opened presents.

Decorated cupcakes.
And because we thought they had not made enough mess already. We had a fondue fountain to add to it.
And then after they were all good and sugared up; we waved good bye and sent them home to their parents to get them to calm down and go to bed.