School Starts

Everyone got back to school haircuts including this little gal.  It was her first official cut done by a professional.  We knew that she would be a handful, that's why it took us so long to get it done.  Cookie Cutters was definitely the best choice.

Bayli started 2nd grade, we can't believe how grown up she is.  Our summer has been so busy with family vacations and swimming.  I will admit that I am still having a hard time getting back into the school schedule.  Not to mention, 2nd graders start getting busy.  Between homework, swimming, and violin, she barely has time to play with her friends.

Chase had been waiting all summer to start school again.  He was devastated when Bayli started before him.  He loves going to preschool.  But, he hates homework.  We started the reading program that we did with Bayli.  He does not love it like she did.  I guess it's a good thing that all of our kids have different personalities so that we can be challenged in new ways our selves. 

May, where did you go?

Because all that we ever seem to be doing lately is going to the pool, May flew by.

I am officially a swim mom, I think a title that is much more involved than a soccer mom.  At least compared to my past days as a soccer mom.
Swimming takes up every available evening that we have.  Not that we are complaining, we are thrilled that Bayli has found something that she LOVES and is pretty good at.
And Chase is finally starting to love it as well.  Although we tease that he will be a Clown Fish forever (the lowest level).  But at least he is willing to do most of what the teacher asks without screaming. 

Bayli's first few weeks of swim team were...terrible.  She was pretty much an emotional wreck up until she had actually swam a few laps.  She would cry through warm ups and be uneasy about getting into the pool.  She is a nervous Nelly that expects herself to do the very best the first time.

After being her shoulder/leg to cry on, we finally came to a pretty good turn.  We just had to explain that every kid is nervous to start something new, you are here to learn not do things perfectly the first or 100th time, your coach is there to help you so ask all of the questions that you need to, and you are going to make lots of new friends.
Seriously as soon as she starts swimming, she calms down and is fine.  With a bit of bribing, Jed was even able to get her to sign up for her first swim meet.  June 22nd is coming up pretty fast.

I did the Red Rock Relay in Moab with some of my girlfriends.  Seriously, it was so hard. 70 miles of Moab awesomeness.  We were all pretty proud of ourselves.  We did a lot better than we thought that we would.  I was runner #1, so I had a difficult time sleeping the night before.  Not to mention the fact that I was battling a cold.  My first leg was nearly 8 miles.  I knew right when I hit 5.5 miles, my IT bands started getting twingy.  Even with all of my rehabbing, I have only maxed at 6 miles.  But my PT drilled it into my head, don't go past that point or you will give yourself some serious setbacks.  But in a race, you just keep going and run through the pain.  So I kept a reasonable pace, knowing that I had another 3 miler later in the day and it was steep.  Otherwise, I would have pushed my pace and tried for a better time.  I averaged about a 10:30 min/mile on my first leg. Then I puked and peed my pants because running is so fun...Rock on!!! 
My second leg was insane.  3 miles, 6500 Feet elevation with a 1000 feet increase.  Nuts I tell you.  I never saw a single runner run that entire leg.  It felt SOOO long.  And my knees were in so much pain, every step hurt, no matter how I would change up my form.  Even walking hurt, which I did the most of on this leg.  Oh, and it was so dang hot!  If it wasn't for my team mates, I wouldn't have been able to keep going.  I love my Mother Truckers, no girl could ask for better friends. 
We finished about middle of the pack with an overall time of 11 hrs 45 min with 10:50 min/mile average. 

Chase finished off his first year of preschool.  We have loved his teacher Miss Karen.  She picked up on his personality pretty quickly, and figured out how to deal with his grumpiness as well.

I have some new additions to my yard, that my cute little neighbor gave me last year.  Only 4 of about 25 iris' bloomed this year, so next year will be an even bigger surprise I am sure. 

This little cutie is one that my very own plants, with the help of the pollinators, produced on their own.  It looks like a hybrid of my purple and someones white Japanese iris. 

Took advantage of the opportunity to use my bug lens to check out this guy, so glad that Jed knows how much I love bugs and plants!  I have loved the new lens. 

I used it to check out the tiny blooms on my smoke bush as well, lovely.

We have been so couped up lately, that any little or big excuse to get out in the yard is snatched up quickly.  I call our illness basement-finish-itis.  A seemingly never ending project that is making us ill.  Hey, but we are painting.

Last week, Jed came up with a couple of BIG excuses for us to not work on the basement one evening.  Of course it was on a swimming night, meaning that we aren't home until nearly 6:30 and the kids are starving.  Not to mention the fact that Jed had just been diagnosed with a pretty serious sinus infection that had been plaguing him for about two weeks (he was not functioning on his normal brain level, I don't think that he would have undertaken this task if he had been, at least not that night).  At least he has a wonderful brother that answers the call.

He brought home four trees, three of which were replacements for my Blue Atlas Cedars (RIP you lovelies in Arbor Heaven, they hadn't fared well since the blasted freeze of Fall 2010).  As much as we LOVE the cedars, we knew that our location was just not meant to be, so Jed looked to his buddy for some better ideas.  He came up with Norwegian Spruces.
My nearly 103 year old Grandma is Norwegian, so they must be a good tree.  Of course we did a bit of hasty research just to make sure, then pulled the trigger.  We treat every plant in our yard like a marriage.  We have to love nearly everything about it, and commit to it.  That is probably why we are so passionate about every plant in our yard, they each make up a piece of our "marriage"  and commitment to our yard, the extension of us.
He also brought home another London Plain Tree, the one by our playground is looking a bit on the ill side.  So we decided to get it a friend just in case it decides to kill over.  We had ordered a 2 inch caliper tree.  It ended up being  a 3.5, which in tree language is ginormous.  The root ball alone was over a yard wide.  It was quite the undertaking.  I wish that I had taken a few pics of that beast before it got into the ground.
A few days later we also added an Autumn Blaze Maple to a spot we have been holding for just the right tree in our front yard.  This Maple is a cross between the Silver Maple, which does terrible in Utah, and good traits from the Red Maple.  We are hoping for success with this one.  Everything that I have read about it sounds pretty good.  And the fall color will be beautiful.  Hopefully it does better than other Maples!

The ginormous tree that better never die dang it. 

One of the Norwegian Spruces.

  Bayli's spark for bird watching has been spreading to the rest of the household.  She has got me on a pretty steady process of adding things to our yard to attract new birds and attempting to identify them.  Our latest little friends who have been frequenting our hummingbird feeder and who we are faithfully putting out oranges for are our Bullock's Orioles.  Not being a huge birder, I would guess that this is a pretty rare treat.  Everyone is in love with them, I wish they visited more often. 

We have also been loving the Say's Phoebe that squawks at us every evening and the other visitors we have spied just a few times, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Western Kingbird, and the family of Goldfinches. 

M.I.A.

We've been crazy BUSY lately.
Starting with back to school:  Bayli loves her new school and new teachers.  She is super excited about learning French and riding the bus. 
I wasn't so excited because my baby is gone all day, her school was a bit hectic that first week, and the first day of school I was called in for jury duty.  So, I missed all the firsts.  Thank goodness Jed took a bazillion pictures.

Speaking of jury duty, that was interestingly lame.  And yes I was picked as a juror.  4/25 really, what are the odds?  Kind of one of those situations where you know without a doubt your number is going to be called, as much as you fight against it.

Jed realized how crazy my day can be while I was M.I.A. with the justice league.

Get everyone fed.  Dressed.  Send Bayli off on the bus (for the first time).  Get Chase to preschool.  What do we do with Lily?  Send her to Grandma's (big thanks).  Who picks up Chase?  After school play-date with Macey (thanks wonderful friend).  Who will see Bayli get off the bus?  (have her walk home with the neighbors-thankfully court didn't last all day so I got to help with this one.)  Off to swim lessons (I know Jed was most grateful that he didn't have to deal with this on his own). Oh crap,  we forgot Bayli's swim gear.  Leave a tearful 6 year old with a loving Grandma that surprised her with a swim lesson visit.  Head back home for swim gear.  Whoops, shut Chase's fingers in the door, the sacrifices everyone must bare. Grandma topped it off with providing dinner, much appreciated.
Thank goodness we have such wonderful friends and family!!!

Lily has been working on her super hero moves.  She is blessed with speed, fearlessness, and her mommas tongue.  If she isn't running around, you can bet she is either scrounging off the floor with her mighty tongue, investigating for criminals-typically in everyone's shoes, or practicing her dismount from the couch.  Seriously we have determined that she will bare the first broken bone. We have yet to come up with her super hero title.   

Chase has been busy with his love/hate relationship with school.  He secretly loves it, he just doesn't like to do what others tell him to.  So I have to threaten that I am going to school instead, works like a charm (at least for now).
He has also been busy practicing for  trucking 101 complete with sound effects.  He cracks us up with his broken stroller trailer.  He can pile his "trailer" pretty high.  And you better look out when he is on the road, no toes are spared.  And shoot, chair in the way?  Well he'll just plow on through it.

Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been all fun and games around these parts.  We have been up to serious business.  Our garden is crazy mad.  We have had a constant influx of tomatos, corn, zucchini, carrots, peppers, and squash.

Also we have been trying to identify who our mysterious ghost is.  Yeah, that dust print is legit.  Poor lil feller, plum flew inna ar winder.  We are pretty sure it was a dove.  As evidenced by, dusty print (they do hang out on the ground quite a bit), too big to be one of the sparrows (they frequent the window enough that we would know), oh and biggest sign, we found a carcass under the tree.

I have been busy working on my run.  Rather, overcoming injuries that I keep accruing while working up to this:

 That in it's self, deserves it's own post. 

all day

Summer's over ... it was fun
Now it's time to get things done
Catch the bus and be on time
Standing straight in all those lines

Getting homework every day
Do it quick and then go play
Early nights and days so full
Following those school time rules

Do your best and you will see
Life will go by so quickly
For one day when you are grown
Your lessons written all in stone

You will know that in the end
These the best days you will spend
Sharing knowledge doing well
Your future has a lot to tell.

~Francine Pucillo~ 

Next week, Bayli is headed back to school.  Not just school, First Grade.  A VERY big deal.  

I am going to miss her terribly.  Honestly, I have no clue what I will do without her, and for over 7 hours!!! 

I know that she is going to have so much fun learning, making friends, eating lunch, playing, reading, writing, crafting, etc.

But, that doesn't mean that I have to love her being gone.  I will miss:

her contagious smile

her "organized" mess

her endless questioning

her busy as a bee-ness

her beauty

her helping hands

her silliness

her imagination

her inquisitively gorgeous eyes

But most of all, I will miss HER.

I love you little peach!  You are growing much too fast for your sensitive mamma.  

You are so intelligent and creative. 

I can't wait for you to tell me all about your day and how much fun that you had learning.  

You are going to be a super First Grader!

chase's school prep

Chase has been getting ready for preschool.
He is excited, mom on the other hand, is terrified.  He is a bit more challenging at this point in his life than his sister was.  I hate to compare, but it is the truth.

I took him to pick out his backpack, of course he picked Cars and Mater.  Only because they didn't have one with trucks and tractors.
When I brought him home, he was upset because he wanted to take it straight to school.  He screamed and cried from the car into the house, all the while wearing his beloved backpack. 

Also at the store, he had picked out a folder.  Transformers or to Chase "trans!"  I am sure that it just looked cool to him, because he knows nothing about Transformers.

A few weeks ago we went looking for new shoes.  Chase is HARD on shoes.  We usually just get him some at Target or Old Navy and he wears them out in no time.  So I thought that I would look for some a little more durable.  But not too pricey.
Well Chase had some in mind.  He kept telling me, "I want Tanner shoes."  (He loves his cousin Tanner.  And therefore refers to everything that is cool as Tanner...  When we got him a new hat, it was called a Tanner hat not a baseball cap.)

So in our efforts of searching for "Tanner shoes"  I had no idea what Chase was referring.  We scoured the mall, looked at a billion pairs of shoes, had a lot of "No!!!" responses, and began to think that it was hopeless.  I decided to try the Vans store.

We walked in, Chase marched up to the shoe rack.  Stopped and looked for a few seconds.  Reached out his cute little paws, grabbed a shoe, and said, "this one, Tanner shoes!!!"

They were $30  that is more than I would normally choose to spend on a 3 yr old boy who is hard on shoes.  But, I let him try them on.  And well, I shouldn't have.  He took 3 running laps around the store and said "mom, wow these fast shoes!!!"
So, we took those shoes home, who can deny that kind of excitement?

On Tuesday Chase went to meet his teacher, Miss Karen.  He was super excited to finally visit his school and show off his new backpack and shoes.   He was so excited that he spoke to her the entire time in his very deep silly voice. (I am sure that those of you who know this voice, can just imagine how fun that morning was.  It was hard for his teacher and I to hold in our giggles.)

All decked out to go meet his teacher.

"Mom, look at my backpack!"

Cutest preschooler ever!!!

Yesterday, Chase went to school again to meet his classmates.  He was even more excited than his first visit.  And I am sure that he was tickled to actually be able to play with a few items that he had seen on his tour.  When his teacher was ready to start, he was such a good helper.  He went around picking up blocks the instant she began singing the cleanup song.  I must admit, I was a bit surprised.  When that little guy gets focused on something, it is hard to divert his attention.

Then he decided to play shy when we went around the room introducing the kids.  That is so not him.  I think that he just had a delay of anger come out from having to clean up the toys. That or he wanted to go see what else there was to do, not sit in a circle. 

As soon as his teacher stood up to have the kids play some games, he was back to himself.  Full of energy and grins.

The parents went in another room to let the kids have some separation time.  I was near the doorway and could catch glimpses of the goings on.  After some games, the teacher taught them how to get in a straight line to go into another room in the school.  I glanced over when I heard her talking to Chase.  He had lined up behind his friend Maycie (a girl in our neighborhood).  I saw him reach his arms around her and give her a big hug from behind.  After a few seconds and still in his arms, Maycie turned her head back and gave Chase a kiss on the cheek.  My little boy got his first kiss from a girl at school on the first day of school?!!!  We are in for it. 

no longer a kindergartner

Bayli had her end of the year Kindergarten program.  Chase and I had a fun time watching her sing her little heart out.

Giving me the thumbs up for a great year of school.

Bay and one of her cute little friends, Josie.  She is blessed to have so many wonderful friends.  It was fun having nearly half the kids her age from our neighborhood in her Kindergarten class.  I wish that I had gotten a group picture of all of them.

Bayli with her teacher Mrs. Venning.  She will miss her greatly.