First day of school!

Today was the big day! Pantera was so excited and a little nervous to start kindergarten. She woke me up at 3am telling me she was "going to get ready for school now." I told her to go back to bed. When it was actually time to wake up she looked really disheveled but jumped right out of bed saying "It's time!" The official verdict on school "I like it better than pina coladas!" There was a little bit of drama at recess from what I understand, apparently a mean girl made her lose her grip on the monkey bars and fall. So that girl is not her friend. And I guess her teacher was "missing" during recess and the kids couldn't find her, so Pantera lead a convoy to look for her. "We were all so worried, so I told them to have faith. But one boy didn't no what that means so I said I have some, so he doesn't have to worry. And we found her." She was on break. Poor teacher!
I thought Zeke would have a hard time but this picture says it all! I call it "Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" He was great all day, he helped me with the dishes and was super sweet with Amari. He was excited to pick her up at the end of the day.

Speaking of sweet, Zeke has been really protective over Amari lately. Yesterday in nursery, another little boy was sitting by me and touching Amari's arm. Zeke rushes over and pushed the kid's hand away saying "My baby!" She was napping today and he wanted to talk to her, I told him not to wake her up and again he said "My baby!" and woke her up to play. She loves every minute of it!

Talking

I can't believe how much Zeke has been verbalizing lately. I can't understand most of what he says, but he talks up a storm! On Sunday I asked him where is other shoe was and he proudly yells "Air i is!" And holds up Pantera's high heel. I finally finished his Toy Story painting and he loves it. So much in fact that he used his rocking horse as a step stool and smeared it when I was about 1/2 way done. I was able to fix it, but I will always be able to tell where he "helped".

It has been rather rainy the past couple of days so the kids have been cooped up. I let them play in the sink and they had a blast. I also had them paint with shaving cream, but they both hated to texture so it didn't go over so well. Pantera spent the day yesterday cleaning her room, this is a constant battle with her. I cleaned it last week while she was sleeping as a surprise, she woke me up at 4am to tell me I put her dinosaurs in the wrong spot...the nerve! So I told her I would not be helping for awhile. After 2 HUGE fits last night, she told me to "call the adoption people." What the heck!?! She decided to stay with us in the end though. I love that child with all of my heart but she loves to try the little patience that I have.

Amari is just cute and she doesn't talk back yet, so she might be my favorite at the moment. I'm totally kidding.

Mouse-Ka-Tude

I was watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse with Zeke and Mickey asks if they want to come to his clubhouse Zeke replies "No." Then Minnie asks if we will help her and again Zeke happily shouts "NO!" He is such a boy.

Adventure is out there!

Here are some cute pics of the kids. Amari reminds me of Elli from Up in Zeke's old hat. Do you like how hard she has to work to reach her toes? She is so cute!

Bive

Zeke played his first prank tonight!!! We told him to get into bed and he crawled into Pantera's bed, then laughed when she walked in the room. I loved it! We went grocery shopping on Friday night. Zeke has been eating otter pops like they are going out of style, so I showed him the bag with the new box of otter pops and he gets really excited and asked for a "Bive!" AKA a five. I thought it was so cute.

I found Pantera an outfit to match her favorite belt at salvation army yesterday. I can't believe how nervous I get to go shopping for her these days, she is getting so picky! I don't know what I'm going to do when she is a teenager!

Miss Amari got a new exersaucer and loves it. I think she mainly likes it because Zeke plays with her when she is in it...oh yeah! She also started rice cereal yesterday and is eating like a pro. She is getting so stinkin' big! Just for records sake, I had she and Zeke weighed on Friday and she came in at 18 lbs (97th%) and he was 33lbs (95th%).

Otter pops

I have been taking ALOT more pictures lately, mainly for friends and people we go to church with. I did a session on Monday night, so Zeke and Tera went to "THE BINGERS!" That's all I heard about all day on Monday from Tera. She asked me how long I would be gone for and I said about an hour and she got really sad and said "That's not long enough. I need some time away from you with my best friends!" She changed her clothes about 5 times that day trying to find the perfect outfit for the occasion, then packed a bag to take with "just in case I get uncomfortable." Needless to say I did not get a warm greeting when I came to pick her up.

We have learned over the past week or so not to play duck, duck, goose with Zeke unless you want a concussion. He hits so stinkin' hard! He is absolutely obsessed with otter pops and will wait by the fridge, shut it on you and point to the freezer saying "Papop" until he gets one. He is also in the habit of carrying Woody and Jessie toys around all day long. I love the Toy Story phase.

Amari is just to darn cute. A visitor at church jokingly asked if I fed her butter. She is so chubby! I put her in her johnny jumper for the first time tonight, she thought that was pretty cool. It may have been because Zeke would talk to her when she was in it...she loves him.

3 cute kids

Here are each of my kiddos around 4 months old. I think Amari looks the most like Pantera, what do you think? I remember Pantera being such a chunker, but it looks like Amari might be taking the title from her!

Family

It was so much fun having family around. I can't believe how big my nephews are now! The kids all had a blast together, they spent alot of the week in the backyard digging up "dinosaur bones" AKA rocks. They even set up a display for us to visit. Pantera introduced her cousins to firefly catching and they decided they should move back east just for that reason! Ryan and Pantera really are the best of friends, I do hope they live close eventually. Although maybe the space is good for them because Pantera loves Ryan a little to much "Can we go to bed now? I want to snuggle Ryry." CREEPY! Jordan cracked me up the whole time, but my favorite quote was (in a high pitched-yet incredibly tough voice) "I caught a butterfly-wif my BARE HANDS!" I even got to talk books with Andrew and hope to start a long distance book club with him (Magic Treehouse...oh yeah!).

We will be visiting almost everyone in Colorado this fall for Andrew's baptism, so goodbye's weren't as bad as they could have been. With the exception of my little brother he had to (ok he wanted to) go back to Afghanistan where he is currently serving...that was pretty tough to deal with emotionally. I am really proud of him, but told him I wish the world was peaceful so then he would get laid off. My brain is kind of scattered...hopefully this made some sort of sense!