Spotted

Makenna's school has a program called SPOT. Spot means:

S - show respect

P - participate appropriately

O - own your behavior

T - treat others fairly

Children can be 'spotted' at school. That means a teacher at school notices a child is behaving, listening and/or treating others kindly. They are trying to reward positive behavior so hopefully it will detour having to bad behavior. Kids are not allowed to be spotted by their own teacher. Spots must come from other faculty on campus. When they get a spot, a copy goes home with the student, a copy goes into a drawing for prizes and one stays in their classroom and they are saved up to be spent in their Spot shop on Fridays. This is only the start of the 2nd week of school and Makenna has been spotted twice. I am so proud of her. Since she had 2 spots...she couldn't wait to spend them. She bought a glitter pencil. She was so excited to show me glitter pencil when she got home. Way to go Kenna!

It Is Safe To Say....

That Bryn no longer needs Dee-Dee! Bryn has been obsessed for a long time with her binky, which she calls dee-dee. We tried for awhile to only give it to her at nap time and bed time, but she seemed to find it and have it always. We have been working really hard with her on learning to talk and her having the dee-dee all the time wasn't helping. I couldn't leave the house without minnie or a dee-dee or I would be in HUGE trouble. I let her keep it longer than Kenna because she has been through so much. The dee-dee was a great source of comfort to her through all her dr. appointments, therapies and surgeries. A couple of weeks ago I started talking to Bryn about school. I told her that Big girls don't need dee-dees. I was not sure on her schools rule about binkys so I didn't want there to be a problem if they wouldn't let her have one. Well last Tuesday I was at my friends house before the girls had gymnastics. The girls got dressed at her house and we were in a hurry to get out the door. My friend stuck their clothes in a bag along with dee-dee. We got home later that evening and I put the girls to bed and totally forgot to bring in the bag with dee-dee. I told Bryn dee-dee was night night and that if I found her I would bring her to her. (I was just being lazy and didn't want to go to the car to get it.) She talked for a little bit and then was asleep. I was super shocked. So Wednesday I put her to bed without it. There was a little more crying involved this time, but not for long. Thursday, on her first day of school, I sent it in her backpack, but told the teacher to only give it to her if she was uncontrollably upset. I said they could give her a dee-dee for nap time if she wouldn't go to sleep. To my surprise when I picked her up they said she took an awesome nap and never even asked for dee-dee. It has now officially been a week that we have been binky free and I love it. Now if I only had a million Minnies so I wouldn't have to worry about leaving the house without one.

Bryn's First Day of CDC

Sisters on Bryn's first day

Me and my Baby. Crazy she is old enough for school :)

When Bryn went in she saw a kitchen and dolls. She went straight to playing. She didn't even care that I was leaving. I barely got her to pose for this picture. She just waved at me and said, Bye Mama!

Brynlee started a Children's Day Out program last week. She will goes once a week, on Thursdays. The program is from 9:30-2:30. I was so nervous about leaving her the first day. There were no tears though ;). Minnie went to school with Bryn. When I got there to pick her up the teachers said she did awesome. They said she even took a good nap. I was so proud of her!

Kenna's First Day of Kindergarten

Me and my baby girl. She is growing up so quickly!

Kenna and Bryn

Kenna and her best friend Ryder. They are at the same school, but different classes.

Outside her class

I love her backpack

Such a cutie

Sisters

Kenna started Kindergarten this year. I couldn't believe it! It is weird to have her gone all day. Most of the schools here have started all day kindergarten. She goes from 8:35-3:05. She loves it. I was happy that no tears came from me. Bryn was worried about leaving sissy at school. Bryn was so excited to see her when we picked her up though. She had a great first day. I can't wait to see what she accomplishes! I'm so proud of you Kenna.

Lake with the Stuarts

Bryn discovered the air vent and was letting the air blow in her hair

Ty spraying the water up

Ty jumping

Ty and the girls

Ty wakeboarding

Bryn would not get off the tube so we put her on with Aiden and Kenna

Bryn loves to drive to boat and make it go beep beep.

A couple of weekends ago we went to the lake with the Stuart Family. We had a lot of fun. The kids had fun playing Just Dance on the Wii and it was fun getting to know James and Allie better. We also had really yummy food. The kids had fun tubing, the guys and Allie wakeboarded and Ty and Kenna cliff jumped.

Family Pictures

Kids pic - taken by friend

My grandparents with the girls - taken by me

Family pic - taken by friend

Family pic - taken by friend

Our family - taken by friend

Steven and Kristen - taken by me

My sister - taken by me

Picture I took of my Parents

My mom has wanted to get a family picture of us for over a year now. So Thursday night we got ready for an informal family picture. We had a friend take the pictures for us. I took a few of my parents and brother.

Beach House

Christy swimming with the girls

The 'Thomas' girls

My sister and I

She loves to pose

Sisters

Bryn actually touched the sand this year

bahaha...I swear all these 2 do is sleep. :)

Makenna, Bryn and Uncle TyTy

Funny girls

Bryn loved wearing everyones sunglasses

The girls with Uncle Mike

the girls and I

Kenna and Uncle Mike

Bryn and Uncle Mike. Bryn was so tired

Uncle Michael was so good with Kenna. She wanted to go out and go under the waves. The riptide was really strong and Mike would go out and hold Kenna's hand while she went under the water so she wouldn't get pulled away. She had a lot of fun.

Bryn trying to lay out like mama

Makenna buried her feet. She also loves to get sandy

Crazy Bryn

Silly girls

Kristen and Bryn

Bryn and TyTy

Bryn and Brandon

Uncle Mike and Bryn

The family at dinner

My parents rented a beach house for all of us to go to for a week. We haven't done this before and it was REALLY fun. The house we stayed in was super nice. It was within walking distance from the beach. The neighborhood had a pool so when we were done at the beach we could go over and swim. We got there Monday and went out to dinner. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent the day at the beach and went swimming. Thursday we went down to the Pier and walked around. A few of us got temporary tattoos. We went to the Sugarshack for breakfast. I got my first pair of Toms. Thursday night we played Phase 10. It was awesome. It was a really fun time with my family.