A New Year at Probadence

Today was Carlie's big day! Her first day at Providence!! (We like to call it Probadence, since this is how Carlie actually pronounces it. ;)

I have to say this was a big transition for us. Last Thursday was the first day of Sunshine School...and it was the first "first day" I have missed since Kendyll was one. :( It was hard to not have at least one of my kids walking the halls that are so familiar to us, and to get to see so many of our friends.

Carlie has had mixed feelings about this change in her life. She has been so excited to finally be with Kendyll, "in kindergarten at Probadence" (yes, we know she is not in kindergarten...but she really just figured that out this week!), but she also misses her friends from church and the familiarity of her old school.

We went up last week for meet-the-teacher, and Carlie was very quiet, checking it all out. Knowing this would be her likely reaction, I scheduled a little playdate with one sweet girl from her class that same day, and she warmed up pretty quickly. She has talked about Abigail quite a bit since then, and we were so glad to see that Abigail sits right next to Carlie in class!

Another small factor that we had to consider in this adjustment, was that Mark was out of town for her first day---for a trip that was unavoidable. She is quite the "daddy's girl" these days, so we weren't sure how she would handle the news. She handled it like a champ, and of course, Mark made sure we had plenty of time celebrating Carlie before he left.

He went with us to meet-the-teacher, and she loved having both of us with her. Then, we had a special dinner at home on Sunday, where she got to model her CUTE CUTE uniform and eat on her "You are Special Today" plate.

This morning, Kendyll woke up singing "Happy First day of schooo-oool to you!", which Carlie actually liked. (Kendyll's chipper morning-mood is not always met with a smile from Carlie!) We got dressed in our uniforms, headed out the door to get Kendyll to school on time, and then Carlie, Abby Kate, and I had an hour to hang out before her school began.

We spent the hour eating breakfast at McDonald's and doing stickers. She was giddy the whole time and ready to get to school.

She got to talk to Daddy for a while too...

She was the first one to the classroom, and her sweet teacher gave her the longest, cuddliest hug. At that point, Carlie was grinning ear to ear. She felt very special and very big. It was precious. She got right to work after a "squeeze hug" for me. And, we were on our way.

We picked her up at lunch, and she got to pick a special place to eat. After going through each fast food establishment (which I vetoed), she picked MEXICAN so she could have chips & queso! (Yes, her mommy might have encouraged that pick too. :) Aunt Cassie was sweet to meet us for lunch, to help her celebrate, and to help me have another adult assistant!

We took time outside for a great "Aunt Cassie" photo shoot too...she's always good to have around for those!

My sweet big girls...Kendyll was so proud to be Carlie's big helper today. She saw Carlie once in the hall and gave her a big hug, and also helped her to the car at carpool after school. Perfect jobs for my little mother hen.

Back to the photo shoot. They had quite a good time modeling facial expressions for Cassie too.

Here's their silly faces...

Their angry faces...

Their pretty faces...

Their cute poses...

And, their shouting faces...

Here is a funny pic of AK, participating in the shouting:
So, we are now officially underway with a busy school year for all. I know it will be a wonderful one, and we are so thankful for "Probadence" and the gifted teachers both of our girls have.

Getting Current on Events...

I know many of you thought I was going to get into politics with that title. I'm not!! I do have my opinions...but I'll keep them to myself. :)

Occasionally, I like to look through old pictures from the last few months, and see how my kids have changed, or what we were doing at such and such time.

Today, I did that, and found pictures I had forgotten about!! Of course, some are so old now that blogging about them seems silly. But, a few were from the last few weeks...

First, our cousin and nephew, Ty, turned ONE! This happened to occur one day after Carlie turned four (August 13th), so of course, in the craziness of posting about Carlie's celebrations, I never posted about his fun luau party, to celebrate his first year of life!

Jodi did a great job bringing Hawaii to Texas for this party, including everything from leis to tropical slushy drinks, and of course, all of our favorite foods from Hawaii too! We all "pigged" out on kahlua pig, chinese chicken salad, shortribs, sticky rice, and pineapple. Mmmm...that's making me hungry!

The girls all got a hula outfit for the luau party, and loved getting to dress up with Sophie and Carrie. The littlest hula girl wasn't too sure about the itchy skirt, but she was a good sport anyway...as long as she had her jewelery and her purse!

Her most favorite thing was loving on the birthday boy. We hope these two are the best of cousin friends as they grow. :)

And, look how beautiful these Hawaii girls look!!

Carrie and Kendyll composed their own hula dance with music and movements as our party entertainment. We were all very impressed with how good it really turned out! Basically, Carrie wrote it, and Kendyll was good at copying her. :) Here they are in action:

And, here is the most adorable birthday boy enjoying his cake! He dug right into it without delay!

And, here are Pops and Grandma with all of their luau little ones. Man, I really wish this was actually taken in Hawaii though. :) In fact, Pops and Grandma are there right now, and we're wishing we were too!

It was a great party with the Abilene gang, as well as Brad's parents, and the Jacobs family, (minus Uncle C). "Baby Ty", as we still call him, is such a big boy now, and really loved his little party. :)
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Two weeks later...another "current event".

AMERICAN IDOL, Baby! (That is a Kendyll quote, by the way. :)

As I've said before, one of the few shows we watch as a family around here is American Idol. This year the girls became interested in watching our favorites on Tivo, and were eventually hooked on finding out who made it through each week. When Grandma suggested that she buy tickets for the girls and me to go with her, we said YES, YES, YES!! Now, of course, I gave no thought to when this concert would be, and assumed it would be on a Friday or Saturday night.

But, no...whoever the genius was who scheduled the Dallas concert to be on a school night...and for many families on the FIRST DAY of school...wasn't thinking clearly. We went anyway, even though we knew the next day might be rough for Kendyll. And, it was worth every minute of lost sleep!!First, we went to dinner at Pappadeaux with Grandma, and ate entirely too much food. Thanks to Cassie and Austin for watching Little AK while we had a night on the town!
The concert was so much fun, and we even sat near a family from Kendyll's school! So, Kendyll and Ryan (her friend) went back and forth between our seats and theirs. I was glad to see we wouldn't be the only sleepy ones at school the next day. :) My favorites on stage were Michael Johns, Brooke, and Jason. Syesha seemed to have forgotten her clothes at home, and David Cook was a bit more cocky and awkward than I remembered him being. But, aside from that, they both did an amazing job vocally as well. David Archuletta was just as good as ever, although he seemed nervous or sick or something! He kept coughing and was breathing REALLY hard. Michael Johns was QUITE the entertainer and someone I really hope to see in concert someday. His voice is so unique and smooth, and he did my favorite songs from the show.This is also the point in the show when I completely embarrassed Carlie. She was literally hiding her face and frowning at me, as I waved my arms to "We Are the Champions". She looked like she could have crawled under her seat. In fact, she wasn't so sure about the whole concert thing in general. She sat and ate her popcorn like a grump for the first half. Kendyll, of course, enjoyed every minute, and danced and sang along. We all freaked out when Brooked came out, even though we couldn't see her behind her big piano! Even Carlie perked up and clapped along! Now, that's another individual concert I will definitely go to someday. Here is a tiny picture of Brooke's tiny face. :)

Toward the end of the show, I could tell the girls were getting tired. At one point, Carlie fell asleep on Grandma's lap...it happened to be during either Carly's or Syesha's crazy-loud performance (I can't remember which one...I just remember thinking "HOW is she sleeping through this?). But then, Kendyll topped that, when she fell fast asleep during David Cook's total rock-out on stage. I mean, it could not have been any louder, and she was snoozing. It was good they fell asleep for a little bit, since they weren't in their beds until after 11:00. :)

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Current Event #3: Adam's 35th Birthday Bash!

Last weekend, we celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday together at Main Event. It was fun for the whole family! I didn't get many pictures (mainly because my sisters both had their cameras, and I always get lazy when they're snapping away. :). But, there was all kinds of entertainment, and I think we did it all...except the "billiards".

We started with laser tag. Mark, Adam, Austin, Cortni, Cassie, and Kendyll played, while I played my own version of tag while keeping all the other kids occupied. :) Kendyll did NOT like laser tag, and came out early with tears all over her face. NOT her sport.

We played blacklight mini golf, where I came in second behind Cassie. If it wasn't for that one darn hole... Ha ha. Mark took a turn chasing kids for that one, and they all had fun watching themselves glow in the lights.

The next part was pizza and bowling. Everyone had a blast!! And, the scores were pretty high, even for us wives! The kids had bumpers which helped their balls to (slowly) stay on course...this led to many celebratory dances when they knocked pins down.

Kendyll gets ready to release her lucky ball...
And, how cute are these knobby knees? Carlie sat and watched each one of her SLOW balls until they got to the end. So cute...

In other news, Abby Kate turned 18 months old last week! I'll be back with more about her. The poor thing. I haven't blogged about her in months. Oh...by the way, she is walking. Ha ha. It's those kind of details I have forgotten to add on the blog since she turned a year. I love you, baby girl, even if the blog doesn't document it! :)