Hole-y couch, Batman!!!

Hutcherson 1: 1 "And then shall your couch cover be "hole-y" and not of good use. Woe, woe, woe be unto the four year old with scissors."
Hutcherson 1:2 "And your pillows shall be like unto it. And also the brothers stuffed animal, those shalt he also destroy and render useless."

I'm afraid that this doesn't need any explanation. And yes, it is as bad as you are thinking!!

Survival. Nothing more, nothing less.

1 week down. 35 more to go! Yay! We all survived the first day of school. Its shaping up to be a really great year. Jacob has "a BOY teacher!!! How cool is THAT?". Mr. Kooiker seems to be an amazing teacher. The kids all call him Mr. K as his name is hard to remember (think fancy oriental goldfish + ick! + errrrr). Jacob only has 2 other kids in his class that were in his Kindergarten class so he is busy making lots of new friends. Ethan has Mrs. Whipple for 4th grade! DUN DUN, DUN! 4th grade? Really? He is trying to become one of the library helper students, something I NEVER thought would happen! Ethan wanting to be around books all the time! He truly has come a long way from the 2nd grader in remedial reading to the 4th grader whose goal this year, now that his sister is out of the running, is to be the top AR (accelerated Reader) points earner. Then we come to Kaylee, our scared-to-death-gave-herself-a-tummy-ache-the-night-before-school-started-because-she-was-so-nervous middle schooler. Who did GREAT on her first day. She loves all of her teachers especially Mrs. Crinkley, her honors math teacher and Ms. Higby, her band teacher. Her biggest concern right now? Which instrument to play! She would like to play, in order of preference: euphonium, french horn, or saxophone. We shall see after this coming week when she has the chance to try out instruments. I'll keep you posted!

Jaden started speech again last Friday with Mrs. Keeslo, incidentally referred to as MRS. K! He has exactly 1 year to finish catching up on his speech before Kindergarten starts because, yes, my little BABY will make the cut off next fall for school.

Grayson, my little chubs, turned 5 months old this past Thursday. He is doing well. He sleeps better and better at night. We will get to a full nights sleep soon, I just know it! He has started to play with toys and chews things excessively. Until recently he has been doing really well with regards to his tummy problems. This week, he has taken a step backwards. sigh. He tagged Daddy at church today... twice in 5 minutes. That's my little guy! He waited till it was daddy's turn to puke! (Daddy only gets him for a total of 20 minutes during church because of his calling playing the piano in primary.) This afternoon was not good. He couldn't sleep if I laid him down. It burned too much. He napped on my chest for a little while before waking up and resuming his screaming. :( I broke out the antacid that he hasn't needed in weeks and weeks! He's had 3 doses just today. After the last one 20 minutes ago, he has passed back out, again on my chest. It's so sad to see him in pain and so frustrating to know that there is nothing really that I can do to help him. It may be time to go back to the specialist!

T minus two, and counting!

Well, 2 more days till school!! Yay!! $200 dollars on school supplies from the official "list", new shoes for all, and a cramp in my hand from writing names on every freakin' crayon, pencil, marker, marker lid, and glue stick (can anyone explain why my 6th grader needs 22 glue sticks???) and we are all set for school. Finally. My little night owl (Kaylee) now has to be ready to leave the house by 6:50 a.m. I don't know how either of us are going to survive! The little boys still have to be at the bus stop at about 7:55, so at least I should be able to concentrate on getting Kaylee ready and out the door before I have to wake the boys up. I am hoping that the separation helps cut down on the morning war zone (aka the kitchen table battle).
Yesterday, Daddy took all the kids, minus Grayson, to "Lucky Lake". Lucky Lake is a gem and mineral "mine". The kids had an awesome time sifting out the rocks, minerals, and gems from the dirt. Of course, that means that now there are even more rocks in our house for me to not see before it's too late and my vacuum sucks them up... and dies, again!

Swimming Update!

We got the official results of the Championship meet back and we are so excited!! All three kids did very well. Kaylee got 16th place, BUT her goal was "to not come in last!" and she didn't! She also shaved 3.5 seconds off of her personal best time. Go Kaylee! Ethan took 14th and although he did not have a new personal best record time, he did win his heat. Go Ethan! Then there is Jake. In freestyle he took 12th. He would have taken 3rd if he had swam to match his best time, but alas! In backstroke though he did FANTASTIC! He took 6th place AND he was swimming in the next ability level for the first time ever (meaning those he was swimming against were faster then he was used to). He also dropped off another 5 seconds off his personal best time!! How cool is that? Go Jake! (Technical difficulties are keeping the boys swim team pictures of the blog... check back soon!)

Waterlogged!

Swim team is officially over and I have to admit I am glad! It is just too stinkin' hot to sit with Grayson and Jaden on the side of the pool for 2 hours a day and watch the big kids practice. They all did AMAZING this year! Jacob had 1st place in freestyle and backstroke in every regular season meet except the last one (He took 4th in freestyle in that one because he moved up an ability group!). Racing in the Championship Meet, he took 12th in freestyle. He also swam backstroke and he swam a 4x100 meter freestyle relay. We don't have the results back on those events yet, we are just waiting for them to be posted on the swim team website. Kaylee swam backstroke and did VERY well. She only competed in 2 regular season meets (placed 6th and 7th) and that was good enough to qualify for champs. She has really improved this year I am excited to see what next summer brings! Ethan also swam backstroke. He won his heat in every single meet that he competed in to include Champs! He placed 6th twice and a 5th in the overall standings. We are still waiting to hear back on both of their results from Champs. I am so proud of all of them. They all worked so hard and tried their VERY best!!

The Importance of Proper Hydration

Well, it's been as hot as the six shades of Hades around here lately, and as I am telling my kids all day, every day, you have to "DRINK MORE WATER! You have to stay hydrated or you'll make yourself sick." Well, I need to quit saying that to Jaden, evidently. On Monday we got a new refrigerator delivered. In order to be ready for the old one to go bye-bye, we unloaded everything into ice chests. The stuff from on top of the fridge I just put on the counter. Bad idea. Among the stuff from the top of the fridge was a box of Capri sun's, the kind that are flavored water. There were 9 pouches left in the box. By the time I caught Jaden hiding behind the couch with the box, there was nothing left but the empties. About 2 hours later it hit him. He wet his pants twice and had 3 more near accidents, all in the space of about an hour and a half. He wet the bed that night as well. I guess I should be more careful with what I ask for because I just might get it.

New Baby Brain

Oops! It was brought to my attention that I didn't actually use Raisin's name and so those that voted in our name poll don't know which one won! Blame it on lack of sleep please! OK, he is Grayson Dale. He was born April 9th. He was 8 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Labor was only 17 hours this time, WOOHOOO!