First and Last day of Kindergarten for Sarah

First day of Kindergarten

Last day of Kindergarten

First day off the bus!

Last day off the bus!

Mason and Sarah at the last day of school party

Mason and Sarah...babies :(

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day weekend, Brian surprised us with an overnight trip to Chattanooga, TN. All I was told was that we needed an over night bag for all of us, including swim suits. We stopped at Cracker Barrell, the kids favorite place to eat on vacations, for breakfast and soon after we ended up in Chattanooga. We stayed at The Sheraton downtown - a gorgeous old building. We visited the Tennessee Aquarium, ate out, swam at the indoor pool at the hotel, and went to the Chattanooga Zoo. It was a great weekend away from home. We will definitly visit again and enjoy more of the downtown attractions that we didn't have time for.

I know it has been forever since I have written..

School is now out. Sarah is now a FIRST GRADER which absolutely blows my mind! Before school was out the students got to spend an hour with their next years teacher, and meet all the kids who would be in their class. Sarah was very excited to see 2 close friends in her class, along with several familiar faces. The teacher gave them all a goody bag, along with a cute note/poem, which Sarah keeps beside her bed and reads each night!

Summer is here. We have spent lots of time at the pool already, and enjoying staying at home without having to take Sarah to school and be at the bus stop at 3:35 each day! Brian is now working from home most days. He will start this full time, within days. Each Wednesday he will meet with his boss and co workers and go over the weeks events, but most of the time he will be in our home office...working away! He's very good at actually working while being at home, which I think could be hard. I try to keep the kids out of the way, and try to forget he is home. Once he gets doors in the office, he can shut us out easier. I like it though..saves money from driving downtown everyday and he is home (walking out of the home office!) at 5pm, instead of 6:30 after driving. It's great!

Matt, Candyce and Norah visited from Arizona last weekend. Sarah and Luke loved meeting their new cousin and were so excited to have her here. Luke was surprisingly very gentle with her and Sarah was very motherly.

July 1st we will head to Ponce Inlet, Fl. for 10 days in a beach front condo with Brians sister and her family! We made our yearly countdown on poster board today, which will hang on our fridge,and the kids will mark off days each morning..28 days and counting!

Art

Sarah's school had Fine Arts Night recently. Each student had one piece of art work displayed. The Kindergarten classes all did "Mommy and Me" drawings.

Here is Sarah's...

Weekend In Hiawassee

Recently we spent the weekend in Hiawassee at Mom and Dad's. We haven't been there since Christmas - hard to believe! We had a great time. Brian and Dad cut up lots of firewood for use next winter. Luke and Sarah helped for a few minutes too. It was a nice trip--visiting Mom, Dad and Grammy, going to church, St. Patty's dinner/dance, and just hanging out.

Grammy and Katie

Luke, Great Grammy, Sarah

Brian and Sarah at St.Patty's dinner
Sarah, Katie, Luke

Firewood Time

Roller Skating

Sarah was invited to a friends 6th birthday at the skating rink. She was so excited to try it, and I haven't skated since high school. We had a good time. Sarah and her friends fell down several times but laughed so much each time. By the end of the party Sarah was doing "tricks" and having a blast. She still wants to go back again.

Smile

Luke had his first dentist appointment on Monday. He was so excited and could not wait. He walked into the room, jumped up on the chair, and had his mouth wide open before the hygenist even sat down to explain what she was going to do. It was so funny!! He did great...and so did Sarah--she's already been before so she is a pro!

small update..

Things have pretty much just been routine around here. We take Sarah to school each morning, then Luke and I just play most of the day. It has been so cold lately that we hardly leave the house. Hopefully the weather forecast is correct and it will warm up to the 60's by this weekend..that will be great!

Yesterday Luke found a bug on the floor. I told him to just pick it up with toilet paper and just flush it - which he thought was fun. Later that day he goes upstairs and uses the master bathroom. I asked him why he went upstairs instead of using the one downstairs..his reply "I am never going to use that one again in case that bug comes back up and bites my butt!" After explaining that the bug will never come back and how the pipes work, he was fine. He decided to tell Sarah all about it when she got home and he says "so the pipes just put the bug back in the yard and he might come back in our house later.!" HAH. Oh well...so much for my explanation.

Our 8 year anniversary is on Tuesday! Crazy that it is 8 years. We are very blessed with a wonderful family!!

Florida

After Christmas we drove down to Florida for a few days. The weather was great, and lots of relatives nearby make it so fun! Kids had a great time, even though Luke had a nasty cold. He is much better now, btw. It is always fun to go to the beach in December and forget that it is winter time back home. It has always amazed me that some people can go to the beach whenever they want to!! Except some of my crazy ( you know who you are) relatives that live within a few miles from the beach, and NEVER go there...are you nuts? Anyways, we had fun! Went to a Japanese restaraunt one night. Luke and Sarah are still talking about how cool it was to watch the man cook in front of us. Here are a few pics from our trip! Hope we'll be back soon.

Thanks for everything Pete, Dea, DC and Gabe!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve we went to Mass - stood in the back because it was so crowded.. then went to Brian's parents house for dinner, and opening of one gift. The grandkids always get to open their new pj's that they wear to bed Christmas Eve and then Poppa reads "The Night Before Christmas" to them.

All the kids in their new pajamas! This year was the pink and brown theme.

Reading of "The Night Before Christmas"

We then came home and let Sarah and Luke write their letters to Santa and leave him some snacks. This year they left him apples, oranges, cookies and milk:). Later we went outside to spread out our reindeer food so the reindeer could find our house!

Christmas was very fun this year! Sarah and Luke got their requested items from Santa! Sarah fell down and laid on the floor for about 2 minutes after she saw that her bike was by the tree! Luke hugged his blue scooter and said "My blue scooooooooooter!!!"

We had a nice time at home, being lazy all day -- riding the new bike and scooter out in the culdesac, enjoying our family time. That night we went to Brians parents house for dinner and gift opening, and then home again for bed time so we could wake up in the morning and drive to mom and dad's in Hiawassee..for the rest of our Christmas.

Party and haircuts

Sarah had her school "winter celebration" yesterday. Brian took the day off - he had days to use before the end of the year. While Iwas at school for a couple of hours, helping with centers and the party, Brian and Luke went out shopping. Later in the evening Sarah and Luke got haircuts!

Sarah and her classmates having their party.

Sarah BEFORE

Luke and Sarah AFTER

Luke has blue ring pop all over his face - they always get one after haircuts!

Christmas is coming!

We have our tree decorated, we have our house decorated, we have snowflakes, garland and lights hanging from door frames, we have our stockings on the mantle - we are ready! Sarah made a construction paper link chain at school and they were told to take off one link each night, and when the last link is there, that means Christmas is the next day! Luke wanted one too, so we made one for his door. The only problem with his is that he keeps taking links off thinking that Christmas will come as soon as he can take them all off....so I am secretly adding more links to his to make it the right number! Ha!

We visited with Santa last Sunday afternoon. Sarah wrote out her letter to Santa, and made one for Luke as well. As soon as we got in line, not a long line, Santa came out and high fived the kids and said "I'll be back in 30 minutes!"...Break time. We waited, taking turns walking around the stores with the kids...when he did come back a family with 6 girls was first in line..they took at least 7 different posed pictures--taking about 20 minutes! Finally when they were done, each family took about 3 minutes and we got up there fine! This year was a nice picture. I need to find the past SEVERAL pictures where Sarah is screaming her head off :).