First day of school

Can you believe we sent two kids off to school this year?! Amelia went to first grade and Paul went to kindergarten. It's still hard for me to believe either of them should even be old enough to go to school. Their signs say what grade they are in, the date and what they want to be when they grow up. Paul wants to be a fisherman on the ocean and Amelia wants to be a nurse. I thought I'd try something new this year as a way to document how they change year to year.

I also had started this with Amelia when she started school, taking a picture of her standing in front of the street sign, it's fun each year to see how much taller she is. So I had to continue it with Paul. 

Pretty excited for school!

Getting on the school bus for the first day of Kindergarten. Paul rode the bus home last year from preschool. He LOVES riding the bus. We'll see how long that lasts!!

Both kids are rocking personalized Thirty-One backpacks this year! I let them pick the backpack they wanted, along with what they wanted for their personalization

 Addie and Stella were very excited to see the bus come after school, they missed the big kids during the day! We had to wait outside for the bus to come!

Everyone was so excited after school!

Addie was pretty excited to see her big sister and big brother!

They both had a great first day of school. Paul really loves routine and was more than ready to head to school this year. We have conferences in a few weeks, I can't wait to hear what his teacher has to say. He has the same teacher Amelia had last year, we really like her and I think she's a good fit for Paul. Hard to believe we're already about a month and a half into the school year. I keep saying I'm going to get our blog up to date, but so far I'm failing at that!

First Day of Kindergarten Connection

Paul had his first day of preschool on Wednesday, September 21st. So far he LOVES it and asks daily if he can go to school. Hopefully his love for school continues once he starts kindergarten next year!

Stella Kate

I gave Stella rice cereal for the first time tonight. At her four month check-up our doctor said we could wait until 6 months to start baby foods because she was gaining weight just fine, so I thought since she's almost 6 months that I'd try out rice cereal tonight. She did great with it, ate everything I had in the bowl for her. Much better than any of the other kids ever did with baby food. Amelia would absolutely refuse baby cereal, even when it was mixed with fruit! Paul and Adeline did a little bit better with it, but I'd say Stella did the best so far!

I just love her little profile, so I had to share this picture

The first bite...

Paul needed his picture taken with Stella too!

Addie's first haircut!

Adeline got her first haircut on her 2nd birthday, thanks to my good friend Katie for making a house call and making sure her hair no longer had a tail before her birthday party!

Here is a before picture...this is the best I could find, I forgot to take one before her haircut.

Katie got her all situated on the island with a powdered sugar donut...whatever works right? Because all she wanted was for Katie to hold her, she sat so nice once she had her donut!

Much better! Nice and straight across the back and no more tail! 

Thanks Katie! You're the best!

Big Girl

Before...

After...

Notice the difference? Amelia lost her first tooth! It's been loose for a while, but I didn't realize how loose it had gotten. Saturday morning when we were getting ready to leave for Duluth she said to Kevin and I "My tooth is very wiggly, I'm going to lose it on vacation". I said "I don't think you'll loose it on vacation, but I'm sure it'll come out soon". I did check it and it was pretty wiggly, but I didn't think it was wiggly enough to fall out. Sure enough Saturday night when Paul was opening his b-day gifts after dinner, she said "MOM! I lost my tooth", of course she wasn't sure where she lost it at, thankfully we found it on the hotel floor. So I put it in a ziploc and put it in the diaper bag so I wouldn't lose it. Last night we put it in her tooth fairy pillow, and I told her I'd call the tooth fairy so she'd know to come and she asked me not to call the tooth fairy, because she's "too shy for the tooth fairy". Also didn't want me to call tonight, so the tooth is still sitting in her tooth fairy pillow, awaiting the tooth fairy! The tooth next to it is pretty loose too, I don't think it'll be too far behind.

We have a walker...

Over the weekend Addie started full out walking. I crack up every time I see her walking because of how she holds her arms. She's very proud of herself and I love hearing the pitter patter of her feet around the house!

Amelia visits the ER...

Amelia made her first visit to the emergency room tonight. Her and Paul were playing in the backyard (like always)and I was doing a few things in the house. I had just changed Adeline's diaper and checked on them through our bedroom window since it faces the back yard, no more than walked out to the kitchen and two minutes later Amelia came flying into the house crying that Paul hurt her, she does this often, so I didn't think much of it, but asked her where it hurt, she was holding her head but pointed at her foot, I look down at the floor and there are drops of blood everywhere she had just walked. I started investigating and noticed it was coming form her head, but couldn't find it right away, finally had to take her pony tail out and move her hair a bit and I revealed a gash in her head that was about 1-1/2 inches long. I asked her what happened and she kept telling me that Paul pushed her, Paul came in, questioned him on it, but couldn't get a straight answer from him. Put pressure on Amelia's head and called Kevin (he was in the cities) and then I called Gene (he had just went to church at 6:30), he left church and came home and drove us up to the ER so I could sit in the backseat and keep the towel on Amelia's head. Kevin met us at the hospital. Amelia was a real trooper there. Warning the below pictures are a bit graphic!

The gash.

Patiently waiting for the doctor to come in.

All sealed up, we didn't have to do stitches thankfully, he was able to glue it back together.

Dr Becker gave her a stuffed cat while we were in the ER, he told her it needed a good home and she named it Adeline and then changed it to Fluffy on our car ride home, she's not sleeping peacefully with Fluffy in her bed.

Amelia's First Day of Preschool!

I just dropped Amelia off for her first day of preschool! She was really excited about it, until we got there, then she was a bit apprehensive. Her teacher took her hand to take her to play with the other kids, so hopefully she'll be okay! Kevin is picking her up at 11:00 am. I'll update later how her day was! Off to work!! Enjoy the pics! :)

Outside her new classroom!

*Update on Pauly.

Paul headed off to daycare by himself for the very first time today!! I called Kevin on my way to work to see how he did. This is what he told me. They got to daycare and he got Paul out of the truck and...

• Paul said "Where's MiMi?"
• Kevin said "She's at preschool"
• Paul: "Why?"
• Kevin: "Because she is."
• Paul: "Okay!"

That was it! He was perfectly fine with her going!
11:18 A.M.: Just heard from Kevin. Sounds like she did great! She was over needing mommy about two minutes after I left! She asked to go potty 3 times, her teacher thinks that was just nerves, said a lot of the kids asked to go potty a lot! They were headed back to the station, he was making hot dogs for lunch then taking her to Kim's for the afternoon! I think next week will go even smoother!

What a great weekend!

What a great weekend we had! Friday after work we headed up to my mom and Tim's house. When we got there Amelia was all wound up and she didn't sleep at all in the car. We had a tough time getting her to bed. She was suppose to sleep on a mattress on the floor next to us, but she wouldn't stay put, she'd get up and run around and giggle! So finally we had to put her in the crib in the other room where Paul was suppose to sleep. Paul ended up sleeping on the mattress on the floor. He slept there just fine and he was sleeping right next to me so I could keep an eye on him, or at least know when he moved! I think it was about 12:30 by time we got the kids settled in!

Saturday, we all headed to the salon that Amber works at to get our hair cut. Amelia got her very first haircut! See the pics below! We only cut a little bit off the bottoms, maybe an inch at the most! It looks so cute as now she has even more curls than before! It really made it curl up without that extra weight on the bottom. They are more like ringlets. She sat pretty well during her haircut, it was hard to keep her still, since she kept getting distracted. I'm sure the next time will go a lot better!

During the haircut

After the haircut

My Grandma Jensen was having our annual Jensen Family "Golf Day" at her house on Saturday with my Grandpa's side. It was a tradition started many years ago as a way to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday, which was in May. Back in it's hay day it was a blast! They had set up a "Golf course" up and down their driveway and around the back of the house, they put metal coffee cans in the ground for the holes and my Grandpa's sister Norma had made him flags to go with each hole. We use to have a putting contests with a "pot of gold" and prizes for highest score and lowest score for both men and women, and they'd have prizes for us kids too. It's not as big as it was when I was a kid, but it was fun getting to see some of the relatives we only see a couple times a year.

Only the guys golfed this year, it was too hot out! The rest of us sat in the shade! Amelia and Paul had a good time playing with the kittens and with our Dog Abby who has lived at Grandma's for almost a year. Paul enjoyed crawling around and we had a tough time keeping him off the gravel driveway and keeping him from putting rocks in his mouth! We had a bonfire on Saturday night and that was a lot of fun! Sara and her fiance Adam came over for the afternoon/evening. And Sara asked me to be her Personal Attendant. I feel very honored that she asked me to be a part of her wedding day! She is getting married October 27 of this year! Everyone had a good time. We stayed up way too late though! I think it was about 1:00 by time we got back to Fergus.

Pauly and one of the kittens

Paul really liked our Fat Dog Abby!

Sunday we went over to my Grandma and Grandpa Gregg's house for brunch and to spend the day with them. After brunch we went out on the pontoon with Granny and Papa, and Terri and the girls. We spent the entire afternoon out on the lake, it was such a nice time. Paul didn't know what to think of his life jacket when I put it on him, but as witnessed in the picture below, he fell asleep shortly after we got on the lake!

Amelia was a bit grumpy when we first got on the lake, we had to wake her up!

Mr Paul sleeping in Granny's arms with his shades on!

Paul and Courtney after he woke up from his nap!

Britta (under water) Daddy and Amelia swimming!

Taking Pauly into the lake for the first time!

Just chillin' on the pontoon while everyone else swims. His hair is full of sunscreen, that's why it's sticking up! He won't keep a hat on so we had to put the sunscreen on his head!

We had a really nice time visiting with everyone yesterday. The kids had a great time out on the lake. In fact at one point when we stopped the pontoon to talk to someone on the lake, Amelia got upset because she wanted to go swimming and she kept saying "Water" "Water". So then we had to go somewhere that she could go swimming. There are no public beaches on East Battle anymore. There use to be one, but it is now privately owned. So we could anchor the pontoon off shore a little bit, just far enough so it wouldn't get stuck and then everyone could jump off and swim. Amelia really enjoyed that. She would be shivering in the lake, Kev would pull her out and put in in the boat and she'd say to me "Mommy, water?" And kept repeating until I put her back in the water with Kevin.

Kevin and I got completely fried out on the lake! So bad that I was freezing cold the entire ride home and I felt like I was going to get sick. We put sunscreen on the kids and of course neglected to put it on ourselves and it was the first time either one of had been out in the sun for an extended amount of time this year.

When we got back from the lake we had a bite to eat before we headed home. Jake and Luke joined us for dinner as well as Luke's girlfriend Joelle, who lives in Dallas and had flown in yesterday morning. Ron didn't get to join us until right before we were leaving, because he was bailing hay all day.

It was a nice weekend all around! It was great getting to see both sides of my family all weekend. It brings you back to reality and lets you know what's truly important in life!

I hope every one's summer is going well for them!

Until next week....