Thanksgiving 2013

Zane, aka Fire Chief

Candy turkey

Matt got to enjoy Zane's Thanksgiving feast at school. (Mommy was working.) They dressed as Indians and Zane was given the Indian name 'Fire Chief'. His class is called the Deep Sea Divers (or DC Divers, as Zane says), but they had a name change for the day, too.

He is thankful for God and his family. We sure are thankful for him and his school and teachers.

We started out Thanksgiving week with a laid back day at home, a scary-looking head injury in the garage, and making turkey hats to cover the knot/bruise.

We ended the week with our families, food, and fevers.

We had lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving day and everyday. Including, but definitely not limited to, our families (especially two new babies!), our health, and being HOME this year!

And rocking this sweet little guy.

 

 

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Our little pumpkin turns two.

We had so much fun celebrating Hollin's second birthday at the pumpkin patch! A definite bonus of having an October birthday. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time! They played in the pumpkin patch and were able to pick a pumpkin, saw animals, went on a hay ride, and (the definite favorite) played in the corn pit.

Once again Uncle Bob and GiGi did not disappoint with the birthday cake! How fabulous is this owl cake?! And it was as yummy as it was pretty.

So thankful for our friends and families that came to help us celebrate. Even little Sam, at ten days old, came!

This sweet big brother wanted to pick out a gift for his sister. He chose a Dora guitar!

 

Happy birthday, Hollin Bell! You are one spunky, expressive, articulate, beautiful two year old!

 

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Zane starts "shooull"

My big boy started pre-school at Little Rock Christian Academy and we are all very excited/nervous. Other than Sunday School, Zane has never been in a classroom setting. He has been with me, DeeDee, Nana, Mrs. Jeri, and babysitters at our house. We've been telling him about school for about a year now and I'm pretty sure this whole time he's been thinking we were talking about Sunday school. When we were dropping him off the first day, he asked Matt, "Are you guys going to church while I'm here?" Matt said, "No, but we probably need to!"

Look at that sweet little baby face. I wasn't quite ready to let him go full-time yet, so he goes from 8:10-3:10 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I work on Thursdays and Fridays, so we still have Tuesdays together. (New job! Planning to do a 'move-from-Wisconsin, new-job, summer-fun, Hollin-has-changed-so-much, catch-up' post.)

So. How did the first day go? No tears. We got there and he played play dough. I had been taking pictures ALL morning so he was totally over that. Didn't want to smile at all. Told us we were making him "so fwus-chu-wayted". Gotta love him. See next pic for his 'frustrated face'.

I just couldn't wait to pick him up from his first day and have him run into my arms and tell me all about it. Bwahahaha! Yeah right. The teacher said that they had to wake his whole class up to leave school. He is a BEAR if he gets woken up from a nap. He was SO grumpy. He told me to stop asking questions and that he didn't want to talk about it. Boo! This mama needed to know!

Right after we got home, I got a call from his teacher. My first thought was "Uh oh, this can't be good." She was calling to tell me that he got stung by a bee on the playground. Poor buddy had to go to the nurse's office on his very first day of school.

He always gets really talkative at bedtime (stall tactic). A few random facts I got were:

*we ate wunch in our classroom

*we took a SO long nap and took our shoes off before nap

*we sang 'Jesus Loves Me'. But I didn't sing, I just danced.

*we got this sticker for helping clean up. But I didn't help because I was playing train table (not sure why he still got a sticker)

*i drew a picture of me and mrs price

*my favorite was playing on the playground at recess.

*and this. I told him before his first day that some kids might be sad to leave their mommy and daddy. I told him that if he saw anyone crying he should try to be their friend. So when he was going to sleep, he told me this. "Mommy, I tried to make that little girl stop crying at recess. She was so sad. She wanted her mommy. But I couldn't get her to stop crying." I was sad for the little girl, but at the same time, so proud of my little boy.

Update: Zane has now been in school for almost four weeks. I think he loves it. I've noticed that school exhausts him and his appetite has increased tenfold. Occasionally I will hear him singing songs from school, but he won't perform them for me. He talks about Reese and Parker a lot. They play "superheroes" together. I'm so glad he's making new friends.

His adventures so far include:

*being stung by a bee on his first day and going to the nurse's office

*tummy ache the next couple of days

*going to the nurse's office again for a skinned knee

*pink eye

*and being "temporarily missing" one day

Always an adventure...

 

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eighteen months.

This has been one of those months where she's changed so much. Most notably, her speech. She can say anything she wants. She calls Zane "Z" and yells for him around the house, especially in the mornings. She's an early riser (6:15am) and Z prefers to sleep a little later (7:30ish). She can say everyone's names (mama, dada, haha, nana, I, deedee, e, tyty, sissy, bob, etc). She yells, "Siela! Skye!" everytime we go outside or back out of the driveway.

Other words include: Emma, PUP-py, baby, blankie, please, thank you, shoo-wee, good morning, YEAH!, and no. She says, "I want....." and points. Never actually says what she wants. Just that 'she wants'.

She makes her 'serious face' where she lowers her head and furrows her eyebrows. And a 'rock-n-roll' face.

Another common word I hear way too often is "mine". She does not share we'll. We are working on sharing with her brother. Constantly. She likes to push him in the face as she announces, "mine!" His patience is pretty good for a four year old....but the tattling. Oh, the tattling.

Take one look at her and it's obvious she's a toddler and no longer a baby. Love that she's a little more independent, but sad to lose my baby.

Zane and Hollin, both at 18 months.

 

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seventeen months.

She's a feisty one! She's all sugar and a whole lotta spice!

Love her curls and that grin!

She loves Paisley and Emma. As soon as we get downstairs in the mornings, she goes to their kennel and says, "PUP-pies! PUP-pies!" As soon as they're taken care of, she runs to her high chair and starts yelling, "Bites!" or "ice". We're still confused though, because "ice" doesn't actually mean ice.

She loves pushing her baby around in the stroller, but her temper flares if the baby falls out or she gets the stroller stuck.

The baby gates proved no match for this smarty pants. She started going upstairs by herself. At first she wouldn't attempt the trip back down. Then she got up the courage to go down. She always goes on her booty. We hovered for a few weeks, but eventually she proved to have way more energy than us. Hopefully we can stay accident-free for four more weeks and then we'll be back in our one-level house.

Running off her chicken nuggets.

She loves to rock her baby in her little chair. Especially right after she gets out of the tub. That naked little booty runs straight to her chair!

I can just hear her little voice when I see this picture. "BE!" She says it really high-pitched and forceful. I think she's referring to her blankie as "be". She's also started calling herself "HaHa". So cute.

I can't imagine the last seventeen months without this sweet, beautiful girl.We love you, precious Hollin Bell.

 

 

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Broccoli, Celery, Gotta Be....

Veggie Tales!

Zane and I went to Veggie Tales Live on Friday night. I guess this was Zane's first live show. He was not very patient while waiting for the show to start. Gotta love this face, though!

We found Siela and talked with her to make the time pass a little faster. She is getting to be such a big girl and is just beautiful!

Loved watching his dancing and excitement once the show started!

After he took his picture with Bob and Larry, he said, "Wait, Mommy! I have to talk to them!" Then he said, "Um, Bob, are you afraid of Batman?" Bob nodded 'yes'. Zane said, "We'll I'm not!" He had a big smirk on his face and told me that Bob would tell Larry that he's not scared of Batman.

It was a fun little night with my favorite four year old!

 

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