I'm One Year old!

Colbie is one. We can hardly believe the time has gone by so quickly! She is an especially happy baby. She laughes alot and likes to snuggle. She loves putting things together and taking them apart. She likes to sit on my lap while playing and has to come get hugs often. She likes to give kisses. She is a little tease and thinks it's funny to give us raspberries when we ask for a kiss.

Some of her words: ma ma, da da, more, all done, please, up, bye bye, wow, oh, uh- oh, that, this, Alexis, dog, cat, horse, red, no, tickle, wash, num num, and wah wah (water).

She barks, moos, neighs, meows, growls, hops, says ma ma for a goat and ssss for a snake.

She is a blessing in our lives and we can't imagine our lives without her here. Happy Birthday Colbie!!!

Colbie got really excited about her cake and thought if we opened the box it would be inside. She was doing sign language for and saying "red" over and over. And saying "muh muh" for more. She was laughing at the cake in the oven she was so excited for it.

We told Alexis to go over by Colbie to take a picture. Oops! Alexis wasn't too happy about it but laughed after she got cleaned up.

Colbie ate the whole top tier. Her little tummy was bulging!

Colbie was laughing and trying to get us with her messy hands so we were laughing.

We love you Colbie!!!

Wow cookies!

Colbie and I were making chocolate chip cookies for the first time today and when I turned the oven light on and showed her the cookies inside she turned to me and said "ooo... wow!" It was so unexpected that she knew how to say that I quickly grabbed the camera to catch the moment. Sooo cute!

Kindergarten

Alexis started kindergarten on Aug. 12. The first day was a half day but she has all day kindergarten from 7:55 - 3:05. She has been waking up to her own alarm and loves it. I'm so glad she is excited and happy about going. Today was her 2nd full day of school. I asked her teacher how she was doing when I walked over to pick her up. (It is so nice we can walk to the school within five minutes!) Her teacher said "she's doing good.... she sure likes to talk alot! She also said she is really smart. Alexis tells us each day what they did. She is loving P.E. and learned to skip fast and gallop. She demonstrated both of them for me. She said her favorite part of the day was "choice play" and said she chose to play with the animals. She told me they did math with some plastic bears and 11 take away seven was 4. There is a boy in her class that she tells me about that yells at the teacher and kicks and cries and has to have time outs. It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster sending her off to school all day. It hits home how fast they are in someone elses care for most the day and how I've hoped to have instilled some core values. On a differen't note.... Colbie is as happy as ever. She gets to play in Alexis's room and hardly cries because Alexis isn't bothering her. I can't believe how easy it seems to just have 1 at home and how quiet it is!

This is Alexis getting brave going down the boat at the B.D. Picnic for Shaun't work. It is a really fun carnival like picnic with lots of prizes to win. I love that everything is free and we get to try as many differen't treats or games we want! Colbie loved the cotten candy. I looked over and her and Shaun both had a drip of pink on their cheeks in the same spot. It was really cute because they already look so much alike!

Here is Alexis's teacher Mrs. Niles

Alexis in front of her Elementary School
Leaving for the first day of school

Colbie loving the water park on our last excursion before school started

She kept climbing through this fountain it was one of her favorite things.

Alexis had a blast playing around on the toys and water playground.

We got to mow our lawn for the first time. We also started to landscape by putting in some foundation gravel. I have loved going out and doing yard work with Shaun and Alexis. Doing house projects has been one of the most enjoyable things about having a house. Which is funny because I didn't think that working would be my favorite thing! It has been really rewarding to see the projects come together. I canned some pizza sauce and some chili base from the tomatoes from our garden. It was fun to do for the first time. Next year I have plans for making our garden better. This year it got overwatered and I think it was a fungus or mold that killed quite a few of the plants. We have had a wet spring and summer.

Yard In

Largest toad we have found this summer. I told Alexis I had let loose a toad next to the stairs in our backyard that I found in our garage. It was just a tiny little one so when she looked under the stairs on our patio and said "there is one look" I was quite shocked when I found this hand sized honker.
I can't believe my "baby" is going off to kindergarten in a couple weeks. Here is one of her darling new outfits. Where did the time go! I feel like I'm sending my little girl off to the dark forest to the wolves. It really makes me realize what a short time I have as a mother to teach my children the core basic values they need to survive in the world.

Alexis's favorite toy: Bug catcher from Dollar Tree. I love these kind of toys. Explorative and cheep! This summer we caught:

Butterflies

Beatles

Spiders (one spider layed eggs that was an unpleasant surprise although Alexis was thrilled that baby spiders were crawling out the vent of the bug catcher into her room!)

Several Toads

Three Caterpillars

A Fly

A dead Cicada

Grasshoppers

Worms

I love these Sandals that Alexis and her cousin Sophia created out of feathers and pipe cleaners. They are so creative!

Back of yard

Yard going inBack Yard Front Yard

Back Sod In