Last Thursday we completed the process of getting James all signed up for Cub Scouts and so this weekend, we were off to the Scout store to pick up James' uniform for Tiger Cubs. He was definitely excited to get all of his stuff and try it on as soon as possible. I've got several patches to sew on before the scouting year starts. Here are some photos.
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
I'm definitely not the only one to bring this up but where have the last six years gone?!?! How on earth is it possible that James is starting First Grade today. I think this is going to be a great but busy and fun year for James. The more I talk to his teacher, the more I like her and I think she's going to do a wonderful job teaching James this year. Here are a few photos of James this morning. He insisted on climbing in the bed of the truck.
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
Jude is turning into such a little boy these days. He's trying his hardest to keep up with his two other brothers whether reading books with John or playing the Wii with James. He's mastered walking and has started really trying to run. He's getting pretty good about staying on his feet and not toppling over anymore. Jude has come to enjoy the swimming pool over the summer. We've been going a couple of times a week so he gets lots of time in the water. He still only has two teeth but the two top ones are getting really close to finally poking through the gums. Again, only having two teeth does not stop this child from eating ANYTHING! He even manages to eat steak!! Jude drinks about three glasses of milk a day but prefers to drink whatever I'm having at the moment whether it's water or tea. He's actually pretty good at drinking from an open cup provided we're holding on to it. Jude is wearing size 24 month clothes which he thankfully has not outgrown yet. I think they'll continue to fit him until the weather finally cools down.
The biggest change in the last three months has been Jude's move to his big boy room. He's been sleeping and napping there for the last three weeks and still no troubles whatsoever. He's happy to stay in his bed until someone comes to get him and goes right to sleep when he's laid down. I've actually started calling him Linus as he really loves to drag his blanket around after him like Charlie Brown's friend, Linus. I'm working really hard on keeping the blanket in his bed though as it's quite large and always seems to be in the way. I'm also slowly but surely working on cutting down Jude's pacifier use to sleeping only. We keep losing pacifiers and I would prefer to not buy anymore. Both James and John were around this age when we started working on taking the pacifier away.
Jude is such a little character. At 15 months he's throwing some pretty funny temper tantrums. He checks behind himself before laying down on the ground and crying about whatever he didn't get. It's actually pretty funny. I'm hoping that by laughing at him now, he'll learn that they don't get him what he wants and the tantrums won't get any worse. He's also got several different fake laughs that crack me up. I think the best thing about the fake laughs is that he knows he's doing it just to get me to laugh. Jude loves to play peek a boo and will hide behind things and poke his head out just to hear you say "boo". Jude is also learning body parts and can point out his head, tummy and nose.
Jude went to his 15 month appointment on Friday. As suspected, he's really tall for his age (97th percentile) and finally starting to trim down (only 75-90th percentile). He had to get three shots and would have done wonderfully if the nurse hadn't taken her dear sweet time between shots two and three. Also on Friday, Jude's third tooth finally cut through the gums. It's the top left tooth and I can tell it's going to be a big one. Hopefully the top right tooth will cut through the gums in the next week or so.
Here are some photos of Jude in his favorite place to play these days. We were given this playhouse by our friends Jay and Mo and Jude is in LOVE with it. He's definitely our outside boy.
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
This week has been full of preparations for the upcoming school year. Monday evening I went to the school gym to pick up James' school supplies. I'm so thankful our wonderful PTA sells pre-packaged school supplies for every grade. It's cheaper and much less hassle than going to the store and trying to get everything needed for the upcoming year. I went towards the end of the time frame so the line wasn't too bad. Wednesday night Brian attended the 1st grade curriculum night. All the teachers told the parents about what the kids will be learning and doing this year. There will be many big changes for James. Daily homework instead of weekly and a spelling test every Friday are the two biggest changes. The students will also be sent home with a different book to read each day. Thankfully his lunchtime is more reasonable this year (11:20) although I had gotten used to eating at 10:44 once a week.
Last night was Meet the Teacher Night. There was lots of activity going on in the gym before the event officially began. I got James all signed up for cub scouts and picked up a new spirit shirt and a student planner for this year. Once the doors opened, we made our way to Ms. Meyer's classroom. Our school is organized into pods - groups of classrooms for each grade. Unfortunately, the school has grown so much since the doors first opened that many classrooms have had to shuffle around. The 1st grade pod has 6 classrooms but due to enrollment, there need to be ten first grade classes. Ms. Meyer, along with three other 1st grade teachers, have classrooms in the fourth grade pod (the entire fourth grade is outside in portable buildings). The two moms who have had kids in Ms. Meyer's class in prior years have both loved her so I really think James is lucky to have her. She seems very nice and enthusiastic about teaching first grade. James put all his school supplies away in the appropriate basket and even got to put some in his desk. I think he's going to have a great year!!
Our latest purchase for our land is a 2003 Dodge Ram 2500. We quickly realized after a couple of weekends working on the land that we really needed to invest in a truck. We talked about it quite a bit and had decided to put it off when an opportunity came along that we couldn't pass up. Brian's employer has a "bulletin board" where people post things for sale and last Thursday someone posted a truck for sale. It had belonged to his father who had recently passed away. While it's a 2003, it has less than 33,000 miles on it. It has four doors which usually means you get a shorter bed but this one has an extended truck bed so we can put all sorts of stuff back there. It has a regular tow hitch as well as the ability to tow a 5th wheel trailer which will definitely come in handy down the road. It also has one of those tool boxes in the bed and a bed liner already. It's also a diesel which means better gas mileage. I'm sure Brian can go more into the specifics of the engine and it's capabilities but that's the limit of what I know. The greatest part is that it seats 6 so as the boys get older, we can all ride up to the land in the truck!! Oh yeah, Brian's favorite part has to be that it's red!!! Maybe we should call it Big Red. I got the chance to drive it last night to the grocery store and while it's definitely the largest vehicle I've ever driven, it wasn't difficult in any way. It handles beautifully.Yeah, the turn radius is quite large but it was super easy. Here are some photos I took yesterday although I'm sure Brian will want me to post some after it's had a good wash and wax.
Oh, for those of you wondering, we sold Brian's Mazda 3. I highly recommend AutoTrader.com. We usually sell our vehicles to CarMax but they gave us a really low offer so we decided to try to sell it on our own. Brian got 2 calls based on his Auto Trader ad Monday and Tuesday we signed the title over and collected our check. We spent less than $40 to list it online and made $2100 more than CarMax offered us.
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
Eight months after it's completion, our new bedroom is finally seeing some use. We picked up Jude's new furniture this past Saturday morning and made the transition to the big bed Sunday night. Thus far Jude is handling it like a champ. He goes right to sleep with little to no crying. I'm really hoping this continues as Baby Jonah will be needing the nursery in a few months time. He's becoming such a big boy!!
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
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| From Photos for Blog |
