Proud of this boy...

I'm so proud of this big smiling boy!  He has finally done it, he is officially potty trained!  It was really a matter of him deciding he wanted to do it, so with a little bribery we helped him make that decision.  While shopping yesterday he found a Planes toy that he really wanted (we don't often or ever really buy random toys while out shopping).  I told him I'd buy it for him, but he could not get it until he pooped on the potty.  He had been doing really well with peepee, but needed more convincing for the rest.  He agreed, so we picked one for him and one for Isaac (I can't buy just one plane, that would create a huge problem around the house).  So we bought the plane, I brought it home thinking it would be quite a while before he earns it.  After being home about an hour he tells me he needs to go potty, he was excited and running to the bathroom.  I sat him down, he looked at me and said, "If I poopoo do I get my plane?"  I told him of course, and waited...and HE DID IT!  That boy, he's something else!  He got that plane (Skipper) and he was over the moon!  I was, too, but worried that it may be a one time thing.  He wore underwear all day and didn't have any accidents!  Today we put underwear on again (4th day of that), and he was happy as can be.  Mid morning, he did it again!  I am so proud of him!

Luke is so fun, so silly, and sometimes so challenging.  Potty training was a battle, but I finally realized that I could not force him to do it if he didn't want to.  My boy will only do things when he decides he's ready....and apparently he's ready to wear underwear now!  Whew!  We are now on a hunt for Planes underwear in his size (he is the biggest Planes fan around).

Meet the Teacher

Our first Elementarty adventure began last week, Thursday, August 22, as we went to Meet the Teacher.  Isaac was very unsure about it all, and even though he's excited about kindergarten, I can tell he's also scared of the unknown.  We got to meet his teacher right away, and she seems fantastic!!!  She was so sweet and welcoming to Isaac, and her room is so cute.  He has one friend in his class from last year, so that will be very helpful as he begins the year.  We didn't get to see too many of his new classmates, as we were the first ones there, but I'm excited to hear all about his new friends after the first day!  His class is small, only 15 kids...which made me feel a little better.  Isaac was very indecisive about everything, one big one was the bus.  He has been saying for months that he wants to ride the bus.  But at meet the teacher he began to waiver.  He kept telling me that he did not want to ride the bus, I needed to bring him.  After much debate we decided I would drive him to and from school.  (Now the night before school, he is insisting on riding the bus.  Ugh, I can't keep up!)  Thursday we got to walk around the school and check it all out.  We found the bathroom closest to his classroom, the cafeteria (which I had to explain to him and let him know he would eat there), and we saw the computer lab and library, too. 

For years I was always very confident in my decision that our kids would go to public school.  As a former public school teacher myself, I just felt it was the best place for them.  After our experience at his preschool, which is a private school that continues through Kindergarten, I started to doubt my choice.  We loved it there, we loved that he learned academics, but also scripture and Truth about our God.  They did such a great job incorporating the Lord into their everyday lessons.  So that mixed with the many many friends we have that homeschool, I have started to waiver on my decision.  Last semester and over the summer, we did a lot of praying and researching, to decide what we felt would be best for our boy.  We went back and forth with all three options, but after much prayer and thought we settled on our original choice of public school.  We trust that the Lord will be with him, He will guide him, and He will protect him.  I have really been praying hard that the Lord would surround Isaac with God loving teachers and friends, and that he would use Isaac to be a light to those who may not knonw Him. 

I'm anxious and excited about this new adventure, but in my heart I know that Isaac is ready and will have an amazing year!  We are so proud of the boy that he is today, and look forward to continuing to watch him grow as he starts elementary school!

Closing a chapter...for a little bit.

Isaac has enjoyed taking gymnastics for the past 3 years.  He has learned a lot of great gymnastics skills, but it's been so much more than that.  He's learned discipline, hard work, focus, and sportsmanship.  Of course, as a former gymnast myself, I am biased, but I really think it's a great sport for everyone because it teaches so many things!  I'm so thankful for the fabulous coaches that he's had, but Coach Sarah (pictured above) has been one of our favorites!  She pushes him to learn and work hard, but also makes sure he has fun!  We've taken many of these classes over the years with his BFF Taylor; we are so thankful for the memories they made together in gymnastics!  We are going to take a little break from the gym as he starts kindergarten, and we'll reevaluate next semester.

Isaac and Taylor during one of their first gymnastics classes! 

Poor Luke...

As I mentioned in the last post, our trip ended with Luke getting sick.  The trip started so joyfully, he was having a blast with his girl, Kacy.  On the way home we had a different Luke.  It was his first experience with a stomach bug, and it was rough.  He was sicker than I've ever seen him, just miserable.  Thankfully, it was only about 28 hours long, but once he got hungry and thirsty he wanted to eat and drink. We were very hesitant with that, and he was very angry about that.  Poor guy.  He bounced back well, and is now happy and healthy.  Unfortunately, that bug isn't done with us, I had a round of it myself and it was terrible!  I'm on the mend and hoping to bee 100% again tomorrow.  Now we're cleaning like crazy and praying hard that the others stay well.

 Tex was a good buddy while Luke was sick, I think they both enjoyed having each other on the floor.

Annual Summer Trip 2013

Our weekend away in San Marcos was a much anticipated trip for this summer.  This is our annual trip that we take with old friends.  We skipped last year because of Hannah and Brooke's births, but this year we were all in and ready for a great time!  We had some house issues a week or so before the trip, so we had to switch houses, but all seemed to be fine once we got there and saw the place.  Stonehaven Ranch was a beautiful piece of Texas, 200 acres, 3 houses, and a pool.  The houses were beautiful, a big house with 5 bedrooms, a good size living room, and a nice kitchen.  Then a small one bedroom house and a small two bedroom house.  It was a great set up for our group.  We chose the master bedroom mostly based on size, we needed room for two pack n plays and a spot for Isaac on the floor.  This room was a good size, had it's own bathroom, and a nice fireplace.  Perfect...or so it seemed.  Once we picked our room I started setting it up, got the beds set up and ready, everything in it's place.  Before leaving for dinner I walked back to our room with Cory to check the AC, well while back there we heard a funny noise...we went in the room to check it out, and a bird flew out of the chimmney into the fireplace in our room!  Uh oh!  We walked back to the front to tell Carl, then the guys all went back to check it out.  They were able to get the bird out of the fireplace and out the window.  Then they closed up the fireplace, problem solved.  We went on to dinner at Salt Lick, the rest of the group met us there, it was a fantastic way to start the trip.  I mean gosh, the guys got to eat all you can eat bbq, the kids had a lot of freedom to run around, and there was live music...what's better than that?  It was a great night!  After dinner we headed back to the house with a quick stop at HEB, while waiting in the car Carl and the boys got to see about 5 police cars come flying in the parking lot with lights and sirens going.  Lots of fun for boys!  We went back to the house after that, got the kids settled, and in bed.  Then we had some time to sit outside and catch up as grown ups, it was a wonderful evening.  Carl and I went to bed around 1:00, much later than normal, but no biggie, we're on vacation.  Well, apparently birds don't sleep like we do, we immediately started to hear them.  I learned that night that baby birds feed all night long, just like human babies.  Ugh!  Needless to say, we did not get much sleep that night.  The birds woke us all up with super loud chirping at 7:00, and if you know my kids you know that once their eyes open they are up and ready.  We quietly headed out to the kitchen to find the Hrobar boys outside playing, so we weren't alone.  It was a relaxing morning, just hanging out.  We did some swimming later in the day, and just took it easy.  It was so fun!  The kids all bonded quickly and played so well together!  It was so sweet to see them all running around having fun together. After dinner we did some more swimming, but our kids were exhausted after the short night the night before.  So they went to bed around 7:30 and we had a nice evening with the grown ups.  Oh, someone had come to get rid of the birds earlier in the evening, but they were unsuccessful, so we had to improvise.  Carl put a mattress in front of the fireplace to help muffle the noise, and we figured we were all tired enough to probably sleep through it anyway.  Thankfully that was true, we all slept much better, despite Hannah waking us all at 6:45.  So Saturday started early for us, too, but that's our life.  :-)  After breakfast we decided to head out and walk the property a little bit with our kids and the Hrobar boys.  I grabbed my camera to try to capture some fun memories, and thankfully I did get some great shots.  The kids had a great time exploring, Carl showed them the longhorn on the property, they all thought that was pretty cool...Hannah talked to him, of course.  Isaac spotted something and said, "Look that's like what Lightening McQueen crashed into!"  It was a cactus, he was right, so then Carl gave them a lesson on cacti.  Mason was so sweet with Hannah, he helped her pick through the rocks to find the perfect ones.  It was precious.  After our exploring we headed back to find the rest of the gang all waking up.  Then we had a slow morning, just letting the kids play inside, and they had a great time doing just that.  The big hit of the weekend was the nerf gun wars.  Just before lunch we were heading out to swim.  As we were about to walk outside, Luke got sick, not just a little, but a whole lot of sick!  Oh no!  After cleaning it up we headed on out, hoping that by some miracle it was just a one time thing.  Nope.  After a couple more instances, we decided to pack it on up and head home.  Having a sick kid is tough, having a sick kid away from home is worse, and we didn't want to stay there and end up with multiple sick kids.  Carl and Cory got us all packed up and loaded, so we hit the road as soon as we felt Luke was through the worst of it.  He did get a little sick on the way home, but mostly he just relaxed and slept a little.  Isaac was so sad to leave, we all were, but we knew it would be best to get Luke home.  So the weekend did not end as we had hoped, but it was still a great trip, we made some great memories, and had fun while we were there.  I'm thankful for great friends and sweet friendships that are blossoming.

The boys' newest hobby...

...fishing!

 Isaac casting!

 Hannah cheering them on, I think she approves of Isaac's casting.

 Daddy fishing, with an audience.

We live right by a great neighborhood lake, and the boys have learned that fishing is a lot of fun!  They got new poles recently and practiced casting into the pool over and over again.  Thankfully, they catch at least one fish every time they go out to the lake.  This last time Isaac caught a fish on his first cast!  He was so excited!  They don't have quite the patience they need or daddy would like them to have, but they love it none the less.  I enjoy it as well, it's a fun family activity.

Soccer Camp

The boys both attended soccer camp during July.  It was Luke's first time to attend any kind of class or camp, so we were a little nervous about how it would go.  Both boys were so excited to be in soccer camp, they were thrilled to play soccer.  Carl was gone the first week, so Oma and Opa joined us.  We were all shocked by how well it went.  Luke went right out with Isaac and started warming up, or wearing himself out.  Ha!  He ran up and down that field over and over again, kicking his ball the whole way.  A friend of ours was there as well, and we were all shocked by how well he did!  I am so proud of him for jumping right in and participating.  During the warm ups Luke was trying his best, following along as well as he could, and Isaac was enjoying every minute.  There were a few moments when Luke didn't understand what to do, at one point he was standing there confused, Isaac noticed him and went to him.  He grabbed Luke by the hand and started showing him what to do.  It was the sweetest moment!  I am so proud of Isaac and the way he cares for and loves on his brother.  Luke did great during the camp, trying his best, until the scrimmage portion at the end, he did not like that.  He did not want to use another person's ball and he did not want to share his ball.  It was a rough ending to a great start!  Overall though, I think he did awesome!  Isaac did fantastic throughout the entire first day.  He loved every minute of it and really focused, did what was asked, and tried his best.  The second week of camp went abotu like the first.  Isaac did awesome through it all.  Luke did great for the first 45 minutes, then about the last 15-20 while they were scrimmaging he got nervous again.  Luke does really well when he can be independent and do what he is told on his own, but once he is forced to be with the group and told what to do he struggles a little more.  Week 3 was a little hard, the boys had spent the night before with Emmy and Gumby, so they were pretty tired.  Both boys shut down a little early and really struggled to focus and work hard.  They still had fun though and that's what matters.  Unfortunately, the last week, week 4 was not as good.  Isaac was sick, so he didn't get to participate.  I knew this could mean the practice cuold go great or it could go terrible for Luke.  Oma and Opa came to see his last practice, fully prepared that it could go either way.  Sadly, after a lot of coaxing from me and Opa, we could not get Luke on that field.  He would not kick his ball, he would not walk away from me.  So week 4 ended early, we left after about 30 minutes of Luke sitting on the sidelines.  So even though it didn't end on a high note, I am still so very proud of both of my boys!  Soccer is something that pushes them out of their comfort zone, as neither of them is aggressive, but they both did their best and had fun (most of the time).