Little Beauty

Our sweet Rachel is just growing and changing so much every day! We think she's the most beautiful little girl who just gets prettier by the minute! We love her so much!!

Ridin' without training wheels!

Nick's been working with Rachel to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels. She wanted to try this! She's doing great, but still has trouble remembering to balance and pedal at the same time. She sure does love riding her bike!!

"breaker-breaker"

best big sister in the world-

sweetest baby brother in the world!

my precious babies

don't we look alike?!

my sweet little beauty!

my little ham- just don't take his walkie!

best big brother in the world-

best little brother in the world!

see our walkies?!

10-4 good buddy.

Right now, the kids are obsessed with the cool walkie talkies we have. The walkies are actually really nice and not toys...but the kids "find" them in the den cabinet and then walk around using them. Of course, Rachel gets it...she knows how to use them and how to hold down the "talk" button and then release it when she's finished. Bradley doesn't know what button to hold down but just walks around talking into it without holding down the button. Trent doesn't get it at all and just wants to hold one or attach it to his diaper and walk around. He pitches a fit if he doesn't get to hold one. It's a fun game!

1st Grade- Learning Grove

my sweet 1st grader
Bradley's wishing her well on her 1st day

sweetheart

the coolest backpack-

ironically, she and her bf cousin both picked iCarly!!

It's hard to believe we have a little 1st grader! With homeschooling, it doesn't seem as "huge" when we begin our new curriculum in August as it would if she was leaving the house and going to a school. Rachel's been anxiously awaiting the beginning of Learning Grove ever since all her friends started back. She was so excited this year. She now gets to go to 4 classes: Science, Creative Writing, Music and Art. She was very nervous the first day, but quickly warmed up and loves each class and all of her teachers. The class has expanded from 8 last year to 11 this year...and it has increased from 3 girls to 6 girls! Rachel has to take a binder to school and it has dividers with all 4 subjects listed (in her own handwriting) on each tab. She loves her little binder. She loves putting the information sheets she gets in each class into each section. When we pick her up, she can't wait to open that 3 ring binder and show us her new handouts. She loves science and brought home an experiment sheet about things that are soluble in water and we've already done it (with Bradley's help, of course!). They both thought that was awesome! She also loves music and comes home singing everything she's learned. She LOVES to sing! She has a piece of sheet music and she loves looking at it and singing. I'm excited that she's already understanding notes and tone. She has a journal that she writes in for Creative Writing and she loves that too. We don't see the journal yet, because her teacher keeps it each week. In art, they've already created something, but again, it's kept by the teacher till the end of the year when they will have an art show to display their work. Anyway, we're so glad to be apart of such a fun group and can't wait to see what Rachel learns this year in 1st grade!!

Labor Day- 2010

We had a great Labor Day cooking out with the Lanes and Gege and Papa! It was a little chilly-the water and the weather-compared to the sizzling temps we've been used to. But, we had so much fun and the kids didn't seem to mind or notice!

Cute pirate-ettes (certainly NOT wenches!)

Rach and Juj are always fun and ready to participate in the festivities. They're such cute little pirate girls!

Pirate ship pinata

Go Brad!
Go AJ!

Hot and waiting...

Go Heather!

Go Thomas!

Go Rach!

Go Juj!

Bradley loves pinatas! He's wanted one ever since Rachel had one for her 5th birthday. So, we got this awesome pirate ship and filled it with blow pops, gum and peanut butter cups. Unfortunately, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO hot that the chocolate was just a big, melty mess once the kids finished beating the pinata. The kids had a great time and really swung hard beating apart that pinata!