an update...

I haven't posted in more than two weeks. That is a long time for me. I love posting and updating my blog, but the last two weeks have been a bit crazy that I didn't even think about it until today. I was all excited to take a little break to post something and then I got on the computer and just feel "meh" about it. So now I am going to force myself to do a bit of an update.

Here goes...

The first full week of school...

Was a little harder to adjust to than I had anticipated. 

I tried to enjoy just having Oak at home as much as possible and we had lots of fun together!
Mac was excited to go every single day he was up and ready to go.

 And then she got sick and after waking up at 5:30 for the morning and was asking to go to bed at 10am. She was asleep by 10:30 and woke up at 11:30 then was awake for an hour and asked to go back to bed at 12:30 and slept until 2:30 and then was asleep by 9:30 that night. She ended up with a low grade fever and then a really sore throat. Poor thing. 

We took her to the night clinic to make sure it wasn't strep. And since they were more than an hour behind and we were the last appointment we didn't leave to go home until 10pm. Oak was a champ at waiting and thankfully I had my iPhone and she was able to watch a little Mickey Mouse Club House.

Going to bed that night wasn't as fun as she was so tired she couldn't go to sleep and was having a melt down and would not let either of us leave her side until she was sound asleep at nearly midnight.

It turned out she just had a little virus and the sore throat only lasted a couple of days. 

Then there were the daily melt downs after school. Oh my poor boy was happy as could be about school, but after he got home, the first moment something didn't go his way it turned into an epic melt down. I just ended up spending a good hour just holding him while he cried it out. Thankfully this week, not one single melt down!

Mac has loved helping make his lunch in the mornings. 

A little weekend trip...

We took a little weekend trip a few hours south of where we live.
We stayed in a hotel and the kids were very excited to swim in the pool.

We drove by this really old LDS church and loved that it had all the Articles of Faith carved on the front.

We drove by a huge lake and which led to driving through a bug storm. You could here them hitting the front of the van. YUCK!

We happened to drive by a safety fair at a Home Depot. The kids loved it!

And they even had free hot dogs and drinks for lunch.

On our way home we stopped by another large lake resort called Lake of The Woods. It was beautiful!

The kids were playing king of the rock!

We let the kids play in the water for about an hour.

They had these awesome red Adirondack chairs lining the shore of the lake.

And of course we had to get some ice cream before we left.

Playing with cousins at grandma and grandpa's house...

Cousin M pushed Oak around in this for over an hour. 

(It doesn't have a working battery anymore).

His best motorcycle face!

These boys were so cute together. They built a fort out in the woods for most of the afternoon.

I started running...again...

Since I am home alone two days a week for a few hours I decided to try to start running again.

I started a couch to 5k app on my phone and just finished week 1.

I can tell I am more motivated because my life has been pretty chaotic this last week and I made every effort to find a moment to run instead of finding any excuse not to run.

My first day of running it was pouring down. 

I did it anyway!!

Second day, was in the afternoon sun, and it was hot. But I did it!

My last run was perfect weather, and when I was done I felt myself recover much quicker.

YAY!

My dad spending his 75th birthday in the hospital...

My dad rushed HIMSELF to the hospital Tuesday night with chest tighteness, short of breath and dizzy.

Turns out he had blood clots in his leg and lungs. He is a lucky guy to be alive!

He has had to stay in the hospital for about a week for them to get his medication just right for the clotting.

Unfortunately on Thursday was his birthday. But we took him balloons and sang him happy birthday.

The hospital he is at is an hour away from where we live, but I have a great husband and some amazing neighbor friends who helped me out with watching the kids.

Mac's school open house...

We got to go in and look around in his classroom and talk to his teacher and see all his friends.

And they even had Popsicles on the playground for everyone.

Mac's Taekwondo tournament...

Mac had a taekwondo tournament that he competed in form and sparring. I couldn't go, but daddy took him and he did a great job. They give all the kids a medal for participating and he is very proud of it.

 Isn't he just so cute!

Doing his yellow belt form since he hasn't had his camouflage belt long enough to know the form for it.

Doing sparring which he just started doing about two weeks ago. He is the little guy, if you couldn't tell.

Other things that we have been up to but I don't have pictures for...

*We had our Primary Program this weekend. And I am in charge. And I am so glad that it is over. Everyone said it was great, but I couldn't tell since MY son was goofing off and being loud and disturbing the kids around him through the entire program. To say I was upset, is an understatement. I went and cried in my van for ten minutes after Sacrament meeting. He wasn't much better in Primary either! 

Mac thrives off of routine and his behavior gets very bad when it gets thrown off. And it sure was thrown off this last week. So I am hoping getting back in to routine will whip him back into shape.

A new school year for both my babies!

So it is another school year and both of my kids will be in school. Oak will be starting her first year of Preschool, going two days a week and Mac will be starting Kindergarten half days.

I have had mixed emotions about it all. With Oak being gone I will have an empty house, for 2.5 hours, twice a week. That sounds awesome and at the same time makes me sad. Awesome because hopefully I will get alot done and sad because I was hoping I would at least have a baby to be taking care of.

With Mac, I was very excited for him to have the new adventure. At first I was a bit worried about how he would do academically and behaviorally. He is pretty smart, catches on quickly, gets bored easily and is quite the class clown. Seems like a recipe for failure, but as time went by, I realized he will be just fine. What my main concern and great source of anxiety was sending him off to the care of others when he has a severe food allergy. I just didn't know what to expect on how to handle it and how they would handle it. To say I have been stressed about it is a super understatement. After a blessing from my Hubs and talking with his teacher and the school office and preparing Mac I am feeling much better about it. Now onto setting up a good routine for us and making sure I am making our home and family a safe haven from the world that I have just sent my son into.

For FHE Monday night we did Father's Blessings. And daddy gave me one too to help ease the anxiety I have had. 

Mac sat so reverently while he got his blessing. 

Oak sat on my lap to get hers.

Then the next day was Preschool.

Oak is going just across the street where big brother has gone for the last two years. 

I tried to make it a special morning like I have done for Mac the last two years, but I failed miserably.

Thankfully, I don't think she noticed. The morning went by so quick and then before I realized it, it was 8:25 and she wasn't dressed, hair wasn't done and she hadn't eaten breakfast. Did her hair and got her dressed quickly and got a text from her teacher at 8:35 asking if we were coming. What?!? Looked at the calendar on the fridge and I had totally forgot she had changed the time from 9am to 8:30. So she scarfed down her breakfast. Took one quick picture then headed over as fast as we could. I HATE being late for anything and I am usually more on the ball than this. I am blaming my anxiety! 

What I thought would be me just dropping her off, turned into her clinging to me. She knows her teacher (our good friend and neighbor) and plays at her house at least once a month. She knows all the girls since they are all neighbors. It just was bizarre that she was being shy and clinging to me. Then I realized that maybe she didn't really realize that WHAT preschool actually was. After about ten minutes she was distracted enough to let me leave.

When it was over she came out running, giddy and just so excited about it. She had loved it!

(Today when I took her she clinged to me for just a couple of minutes. I sure hope this part gets better!)

Later in the day her teacher texted me this cute picture of her class.

While sister was at school I took Mac to get a haircut and over to his school to see who his teacher was and to see who was in his class.

Later in the afternoon we cleaned out and organized Mac's room to where it would be easier put his toys away and keep clean. And we added the nine cube shelf. He has loved it! And he is doing so great at putting his toys away when he is done playing. Hopefully it will last. 

Then the next morning was Mac's first day (and only day this week) of Kindergarten. It went a lot more smoothly. We started right off with the morning routine we hope to have. We will tweak it if necessary. But so far so good. He let me take pictures with out any problem! 

I seriously swoon when I see little ones wearing backpacks.
And my Mac, oh he is so handsome and cute!

Then off to school. Daddy came with us too!

A picture in front of the school sign.

Then to find his class room. 

Mac was so excited and not nervous one single bit!

He seperated all of his school supplies on the table for the teacher. I talked to his teacher about his allergy. We looked at her cute gerbal. Then it was hugs and goodbyes.

We were very excited about his teacher. We live in the little "one-stop-light" town my husband grew up in, and two of his sisters had his teacher when they were in grade school. I have heard great things about her.

Then when it was time to leave, this is how Oak reacted. Not out of jealousy but because she does not like to be without her brother. She did not want to leave without him. 

She was a sad girl. But we had plans for a donut date, just her and I.

And to help Mac and Oak in the morning with his routine so, I whipped this up. We don't have a color printer so it isn't all fancy. But they both already really enjoyed looking at it to see what to do and checking things off. If you couldn't tell the pictures mean: getting dressed, make bed, say prayer, read scriptures, eat breakfast, and brush teeth.