Changes galore at the Brown household. New jobs, missing teeth, princesses and divas. Oh my!

Ok here it is kids.  Something most of you probably never thought they would see.  Our family blog and it’s not being written by Cari but by Derek.  I’m taking over this time because of how busy and overworked Cari is.  I am sure she will tell me my blog post is not up to her standards (which it won’t be), but what can you do.  So as I mentioned earlier Cari has been super busy with her job.  Going back teaching full time is a drastic change not only for her but everyone.  It’s definitely an adjustment for everyone involved.  Right now Cari is putting in close to eleven hours a day either teaching or working on things related to teaching.  She is definitely overworked.  Not to mention she is still getting up at night to pump so little Amelia has milk when she is home with daddy.  So for anyone who knows Cari, knows with this much on her plate, she is overstressed.  So if anyone has any prayers they could send Cari’s way, that would be fantastic.

So not only is Cari starting back at school but so is Kai.  He is now going to full day school. He has only ever done half day prior to this year, so this is a shock for him.   It’s definitely wearing him out.  Although he does love it.  He is such a big boy going full day.  I think he loves everything about going full day.  He loves that is now on the same schedule as the rest of the school.  He also loves being able to eat his lunch at school.  He works really hard to make sure he is not wasting time at lunch so he can finish all his food.  That was a big thing for me and he has been doing a great job with that.  He loves going to school and he is doing a great job so far.  Also, Kai is losing teeth like crazy.  He already lost 3 of his front teeth and another one is loose.  He is so excited to lose his teeth because it means money for him and money for him means he can buy new wrestlers.  If Kai had his choice I am sure he would lose all his teeth today.  Although I am sure by the next blog post he will have lost another tooth.  

Now Cari and Kai are not the only ones going to school in the family. Finally the G-man is going to his first year of preschool.  Grayson goes three days a week and he loves it.  He definitely wishes he could go every day.  He is learning so much so quickly.  It’s incredible to see how he quickly he is catching on.  I think Cari and I were worried a little bit about how he would do in school since Grayson is a little aloof. Although he has been picking things up quickly and he is very interested in learning new things in school.  When I pick Grayson up from school, he just loves to tell me all about his day and everything he did. 

Finally we come to the baby and the diva.  Amelia and Leela.  They are adjusting to life at home with daddy.  The girls seem to be adjusting well although Amelia is still very much a mommy’s girl.  She is good being at home with me but the minute Cari walks in the door Amelia takes off crawling towards her.  She is so happy to see her mommy.  When Cari goes upstairs to change, Amelia looses it thinking mommy is leaving again.  Once Cari comes back down then she is happy.  She definitely cannot wait to see her mommy by the end of the day.  Overall though Amelia is doing great. She has transitioned to bottle well and she still sleeps through the night.  She is probably the best sleeper we have had out of all the kids.  This really helps when Cari is going back full time and all the changes that are occurring in the Brown household.  If Amelia keeps being this good of a baby it may convince Cari to have another one (hehe).  Now as it pertains to the diva, Miss Leela.  I think she likes me being at home with her during the day.  Maybe not as much she likes being home with mommy but she seems to like being home with me.  I will tell you she loves to get spoiled by me when she’s home.  Most of all when Kai and Grayson are at school and she is all alone with me and we can do whatever she wants.  Also, the constant treats and donuts are a positive thing too.  Leela is a diva through and through and I don’t think it’s going to change because she gets whatever she wants from me.  Although no matter how much of a diva she is, I still love all of her dearly.

Well there it is people.  The first blog post of the Derek daycare era. Hopefully this doesn’t upset Cari too much when she sees that I posted this without her approval.  I guess we’ll see soon enough.  Anyways take care everyone and enjoy some pictures below.  Cheery-bye!

Our happy baby

She loves playing wrestlers just like the boys.  This does not make mommy happy

See, I can drink my bottle all by myself.  I don't need may daddy's help at all

This is Leela being her usual self

Leela being a good big sister. She loves being an older sister

G-man's first day of school.  He's so happy

Who needs a bed to sleep in. This is how I found her after I went and checked on her

Oh, milk so good. I'm passing out.  Also I only need one hand now, that's how talented I am

Daddy said I couldn't sleep on the floor, then I will sleep on top of my chair on top of my stuffed animals

Kai missing three of his front teeth

The most beautiful woman in the world.  Three letters describe this lady... H.O.T!

The princess and the diva pose for a picture together

Kai's 6th Birthday Party and Amelia is 5 months!

What's going on here?!!??!?!  TWO blog posts in one month?  That's not normal.  You're right!  It's not!  It's just your lucky day!  Ha! :)

This will be pretty quick, but I wanted to get some pictures up before things get REALLY crazy.  I've been working hard on my classroom and thanks to the huge help of my Mom, I'm in good shape.  There's still lots to do, but if school started tomorrow, my room would be ok.  I helped out with enrollment this past week and had a chance to meet several families, including many that will have a kindergartner.  Everyone was so friendly and welcoming and it made me even more excited about starting!  Enough about me though...on to more exciting things like babies and birthday parties!

Miss Amelia is now 5 1/2 months and time is just FLYING by!  She was at the doctor this week and weighs 16 pounds!  She is on the move with her army crawl and we are quickly learning to make sure that little toys need to be kept up high.  I was worried about how Leela would react to this change, but she's doing pretty well with it.  If she sees her trying to get toys she shouldn't, Leela quickly grabs one of Amelia's toys and brings it to her.  She's such a good sister.  I'm so proud of her!  She really has surprised Derek and I with the whole baby sister gig.  Thank goodness!  Amelia has figured out how to blow bubbles and is making all sorts of extra "spiddle-diddle" as the kids and I call it. :)  She is such a happy baby and easy baby.  We really hit the jackpot with her!  She's been sleeping through the night for almost two months now and I hope it stays that way!!!  She's not always the best nap taker, but we don't care...she's sleeping at night!!!  Thank goodness she loves the paci.  Not that she had a choice in that matter...she was pretty much forced to love it from week one.  :)  Amelia's been adjusting well to bottles the last two weeks and it seems like she's drinking a lot!  Happy that's not going to be a struggle or issue for Derek.  Hard to believe that she's going to be six months in a few weeks and can start solids.  She's very interested in what we are eating, so I know she's ready.  We gave her some puffs tonight and she loved them!  Her siblings appreciated the extra treat too!  Does anyone else's older kids love puffs too???

We had a really fun time at Kai's birthday party.  It was so hot, but lucked out that there was a nice breeze and it wasn't bad under the shelter.  Kai was so excited to have family AND friends there this year and we had a good turnout.  He was bummed that some of his friends couldn't make it and I tried to warn him that with a summer birthday, it's hard to catch everyone not on vacation.  He had fun seeing some of his classmates that he hadn't seen since school was out in May!  The kids had a good time playing on the playground, eating snacks and playing some Turtle games that I made up.  Overall, it was an enjoyable afternoon!

That's about all the excitement for now.  Once I have my classroom setup complete, I will post some pictures, as well as the first day of school for Kai and Grayson.  Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!

Kai the baseball player!

Go Royals!

He cracks me up.  Love him!

Getting ready for my first haircut!

Mommy cut almost 5 inches off!

Party time!

Birthday boy!!!

                                                                 Welcome to the party!

Rare moment where she's letting me take a pic!

Love those kids so, so much!

Happy baby!!!!!

Party time!

Grayson and Dax!!!

Singing Happy Birthday time!

This little sweetie is 5 months!

Love those chunky legs!!!

 

I think this is the first time I see some of me in her!

We love summer!

We have been enjoying our summer and it's going by so fast!  We've kept very busy with playdates, VBS, neighborhood storytime, swim lessons and baseball.  It's been so fun to be on "our" schedule each day.  It's going to be hard to get back into the school routine in a few short weeks!

The boys were in VBS the first week in June and LOVED it.  They thought it was so neat to see each other during the morning.  They cannot wait for next year!

Swim lessons were the last two weeks in June.  The boys once again loved them and did really well. It was neat to see their progress and they both became more comfortable in the water WITHOUT floaties, which is what we wanted.  Derek normally takes all three big ones to the pool himself and he has them all wear floaties, but we can't do that forever.  Kai really started to feel comfortable with the water, especially going under and jumping in.  Now, that's all he wants to do at the pool! :) We will put all three big kids in lessons next summer.  We knew Leela would not be ok doing lessons with another adult so we decided to wait another year.

We have had our weekly storytime with neighbors and friends each week.  The moms have taken a turn hosting with a theme.  We've read about camping, ocean, dinosaurs, 4th of July, and space so far.  We've doubled in size this year and the kids do really well together.  We have kids from 3 months up to 1st grade.  It's fun for them to run around and play together afterward while the moms get some chat time. :)

Kai's last baseball game is tomorrow.  It's been a long season since we started in April, but he's had fun and learned a lot too.  Derek had fun being an assistant coach and he's looking forward to being able to help out more in the future.  It was certainly an adventure entertaining the three littles each game. :)

Amelia is my super baby, thank goodness!  She's such a happy girl and is on the move now.  She's figured out how to roll all around so she's having fun exploring around the house.  However, a certain big sister doesn't think she should be getting off her "blanket area" and she gets upset every time she's rolling around off of it demanding that she move back to her blanket. This is going to get tricky...I think Leela will be very upset once she starts grabbing at her toys. :) She's doing GREAT with sleeping at night--I don't have to feed her, but might have to go in a time or two to give her a paci.  She normally goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until 6:30/7.  Let's hope she keeps this trend up.  She's been doing this for almost two months now and I'm so thankful she has.  She's not a huge fan of the bottle, but she better become one because she'll be getting multiple a day in a few weeks!  It's hard to believe that she's going to be 5 months this week! AHHH! How did that happen!?!??!

We're getting ready for Kai's Ninja Turtle birthday party next weekend.  He's so excited because he's invited some friends this year too, which is why we are having it at a park.  I don't think I can fit 50 people in my house comfortably! Keeping my fingers crossed that it's not super hot, but I don't think we can expect anything but that since it's mid July.  Luckily, the shelter is pretty big so we will have a decent amount of shade if the park isn't shady. :) I'm planning on bringing LOTS of water!

I've gotten all of my school stuff moved up to my classroom and even started working on decorating.  Mom and I went up Friday and got a lot of the wall space covered with paper and border so it's starting to look like a classroom now.  I'm doing a crayola themed classroom with mainly red, green, blue and yellow colors.  I got the inspiration from the book The Crayon Box That Talked. Once I get things all done, I will post some pics.  I have a great room and lots of storage so I'm trying to figure out the best way to get it all organized!  Can't wait to see it all put together!

Not a ton of pics this time. I can't get a lot of Leela these days....she doesn't want me taking her picture! :( I think that was the case last time I blogged too! Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

Happy girl, Amelia! 

Kai was SO excited to be catcher!  He decided it wasn't that great after he played the position....I think he just wanted to wear the mask!

Grayson at swim lessons.  He's in the middle.

Kai working on his backstroke.

Papa and Amelia for Father's day celebration!

Kai reading to Grayson.  Love it.

Amelia playing with Grandpa at his birthday and Father's Day celebration!

Kai with his buddy Beckett.

Vacation Bible School. The boys are with Addy, a family friend. Her parents are Godparents for the girls and their youngest, Auggie, is our Godson.

Leela dressed up in jewelry at Papa and Nana's.  The jewelry was my Grandma Chapman's.  We used to play with it as kids when we would visit and had so much fun with it all.  It's crazy to think that my kids are playing with it now. :)

I love to roll around!

School's Out For Summer!

I have finally uploaded pictures from my camera and found all sorts of good ones...so the pictures will be from the last several months.  In the meantime, here's the latest!

I think you all know, but I still want to share that I GOT A JOB! :) I'm so excited to be joining the Forest View team and teach kindergarten!  Everyone I talk to has only wonderful things to say about the school and the principal.  I think I have found a perfect fit!  I went up last week and talked to my team for a bit and saw my classroom.  It's HUGE!  Since it's a newer school, they make the kindergarten classrooms bigger.  It also has a bathroom in it, which is SO NICE.  I was in a kindergarten classroom for a year at my old school and I loved having the bathroom right there...easy to monitor and no one has to leave the classroom!!!  I've been on Pinterest finding all sorts of ideas for my classroom.  I've decided to do a crayon theme and I can't wait to see it all come together!  I find myself thinking about it a lot and I keep writing things down so I don't forget.  :) I went in the basement to quickly look at my stuff and see what all I had.  So much of it was ruined in the flood, but I'm thinking this might be a good thing.  A chance to start over and get some new things.  Plus, less stuff to move in! :)  I won't be able to start working on my room for several weeks though so it gives me time to take my online class (bleh!) and get a few other things done.

School is officially out and my little Kai is now a 1st grader.  Oh my!  That sounds so weird and unbelievable!  He can't possibly be ready for 1st grade, can he?!!?!?  I'm having so much fun reading with him.  I'm not doing a complete "reading group" lesson like I did teaching, but I am trying to help him progress with his reading.  He is really into BOB books and does a great job with them. I just LOVE listening to him read.  So fun and so proud of him!  We have the 1st grade sight words to review and work on this summer.  I would like him to know them all before he starts.  The first 50 are from kindergarten so we've got a good start! ;)  Both the boys will have "school time" each morning. Kai has been busy with baseball.  He has practice once a week and has started playing games on the weekends.  It's fun to watch them play and the little ones like it because they get lots of snacks.  :)  There's another family that we've become friends with this school year and they have two little ones too so we buddy up and have a good time together!

Grayson had his open house at preschool last week to meet new friends and play for a bit.  He thought that meant he started school the next week.  :(  I'm NOT ready for him to be in school too!!!!  But, he's ready, that's for sure!  We have a few things we need to keep working on this summer to get him ready for school.  He's still working on writing his name...it is long.  Sorry, buddy. We did find out that he will be in the morning session, thank goodness!  Now, he can come home and nap with the girls.  His school is on the way to my school so there may be a few days where I can drop him off, which will be fun!  It will probably only be on inservice days though because his school is about 10 minutes from mine and doors don't open until 7:45 at his school and I have to be at work by 8:00.  We'll see.  We've started potty training at night with Grayson and he's doing great!  I think he just wasn't ready to do this last time we tried.  Two down, two to go!

Speaking of potty training, Leela keeps talking about it so I think we will try it this summer and see what she does. That would be AWESOME if she was ready to!  She wants to be like the boys with everything!!!  Leela still loves being my helper with Amelia.  She loves to lay next to her and talk to her.  It's so cute!  I think Amelia is finally getting used to her and doesn't flinch every time Leela comes by!  Ha! ;)

Amelia is still a great baby!  She's already 3 months and loves her paci!  She's also rolled over several times from back to tummy.  Naps are all over the place and sometimes she sleeps for a few hours and sometimes it's just 40 minutes.  She's still doing pretty well at night..sleeping from 8:30/9 to 4/4:30 in the morning.  She eats and usually sleeps until 7/7:30ish after that.  Getting a little nervous as we approach the 4 month mark...that's when Leela's acid reflux kicked in BIG time...really hoping Amelia skips out on this!!!!

June will be busy for us.  The boys are in Vacation Bible School and have swim lessons for a couple weeks.  We are starting up our neighborhood storytime again too.  I'm starting it next week and doing a camping theme.  We will read a few books and then I have some activities planned.  It's been fun looking for things online to do.  I hope the kids like it.  We will have a bigger group this year-around 13 kids!!!

Well, that's about all. Enjoy the pics! :)

Aww....

Happy Easter!

The boys

The girls and matching dresses!

Almost all smiles and facing forward! ;)

Opening presents!

I got a teething ring necklace!!

Not sure what to think!

Still staring at that funny camera!

Waiting for Kai's program...it's like she's saying "Mom, stop! No more pics!"

Kai and a few classmates

Happy kid!

Kindergarten program

Happy kid again!

Loves the fingers!

How is she this big already??!?!?

Love her arms in this one!

Up close!

Getting ready to roll!

Boo hoo! :(

Leela insisted on being in the picture but then our neighbor friends came out and she was more interested in them! :)