First Day of First Grade

Well, I officially feel old now.  I have a First Grader!!  Riley is so grown up!  He loves school, and this year doesn't seem any different.  He was excited to get all his school supplies, take them to school for meet the teacher night, and start his first day. 

He loves riding his scooter to school (and Mommy loves that I can fold it up and bring it home!)

Heading in with Zack

One last goodbye wave!

He's been in school for nearly 2 weeks now (yes I'm that behind on my posts), and really loving first grade.  I thought for sure he would come home those first couple days completely exhausted and need a nap, but no way!!  He just didn't stop!  He is in the same class as his friend Zack, and it sounds like they are having a good time together.  His teacher is Mrs. Hartman, and I love her already.  She is very sweet, caring, and patient with the kids.  But also expects a lot of them.  Teaching them people skills, problem solving and working well in groups are top of her list.  So another awesome teacher that goes above and beyond for her students.  I've met with her privately already, and she is really pleased with Riley and how he's doing in class.  I like the initiative she's taken with regards to Zack (and Riley) and it just shows me that she is on top of things with his situation. 

I've signed up to be a room-mom this year, a new experience for me.  I think it will be fun and exciting.  Mrs. Hartman didn't have too many options for volunteers, and I wasn't exactly up for a weekly commitment.  So I'm looking forward to helping out with the parties. 

Spelling tests start up next week, and that sounds like it will be the bulk of the homework.  Which at this age is important with regards to sight words and reading.  Riley is already sick of writing words multiple times, so I'm sure I'm going to have to get creative with him to get his practice in.  ;)  Otherwise I think it's going to be a great year for him!! 

We have been really busy the last couple weeks.  Finishing up things for school to start, and getting back into a routine have been tough.  We took a trip to the Larimer County fair, Jayce LOVED all the animals!  He was way into it, more than Riley has ever been.  No fear when it came to petting the animals!  He even got to get up close and personal with a beautiful cow. 

We did some more swimming, at the beach with our good friends the Sandstrums.  And had a couple MOPS play dates.  One was at the park, a typical play date for us.  But the other one was at a Mom's house.  Lauren owns a farm with horses and invited us over to have a Pony Party!  It was so much fun!!!  We got to ride a couple ponies, and even paint on one.  Jayce was so excited to ride the horsey, talked about it all the way there, the whole time we were there, but then when it came time for his turn he chickened out.  Riley was being shy when we got there, and I thought for sure I would have to convince him to get on the horse, but it was Jayce that was scared.  Riley jumped right up, no problem!  He loved it!  He was a natural!  So proud!!  Jayce still had fun though.  They got to color a bookmark, feed the goats, and Paint on Peanut (that's the horse's name).  He loved painting the horse.  That was definitely his area of expertise!  I can't wait until he gets older and wants to ride too.  Maybe one of these days we'll have a Cowboy/Cowgirl birthday there and everyone can ride!!

Jayce feeding the goats

Kinsey feeding the goats

Riley got to ride Peanut

2 laps around the house

Kinsey rode on Thumbelina

Jayce liked painting the horse more than riding.

Peanut was a great canvas!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of experiencing some fame in our little town of Fort Collins.  The US Pro Cycle Challenge had it's second to last stage here in northern Colorado.  They started in Loveland rode up through Windsor (we got to see them go through there), then up to Estes Park via the Big Thompson Canyon, back down and through Masonville, up over the dams at Horsetooth Reservoir and last ending in Fort Collins at Old Town.  It was so exciting to watch.  We met the Sandstrums in Windsor (just in time) to see them going back south to Loveland.  It was cool to see the parade of photographers, police, and support vehicles that accompanied the riders, but then to see the pack of all of them so close together!!  They hadn't had any chance for a break away pack that early on, so the whole group came by at once, and it was over in a matter of seconds!  Such a blur!!

waiting for the riders

Here They Come!

Then we headed home and watched them ride through the Big Thompson Canyon (the same route we drive to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park).  It was neat to see them on tv and recognize the locations they were passing.  And after that we packed the kiddos up and drove into Forst Collins to see the finish line.  We got a ton of free stuff (mostly clif bars) and signed up for a few drawings.  But got to watch them finish up the race.  So cool!!  I hope they come back again next year so that we can plan a little better and really enjoy it.

At the finish line

Last thing I want to update everyone on is our growing kiddos!!!  I told you all about Riley already, so I'll just talk about Jayce and Amara here.

Jayce is still doing good with potty training.  I've pretty much nixed the idea of daytime diapers.  He still has some accidents every once in a while, but I've noticed putting him in diapers just confuses him and he has more.  So he's only wearing them at night now.  We are also working on the fits a little more.  I'm trying out some new forms of time-outs called time-ins.  It's new for us, and takes a lot of patience from me (something I don't have a lot of) but I'm hoping it will help him learn to cope better in the long run.  He's having a hard time adjusting to Riley being at school.  The first few days, he just kinda moped around trying to figure out how to entertain himself, and even asked me by Friday if Riley would hug him bye when he hugged me to go to school (adorable!).  He's better now, but walking to and from school twice a day to take/pick-up Riley is posing some problems.  I'm sure it has to do with the time constraints that I'm on to get Riley on time. But that stress is rubbing Jayce the wrong way (especially when I have to wake him up from his nap to get to school on time) and we've had fits just about everyday.  I'm also working on some school things with him too.  I got (and made) some flash cards for him to practice with, and he's really enjoying it.  He doesn't seem to pick up on things as quickly as Riley did, so I can already see he's going to benefit from any extra head start I can give him.

Amara is also making leaps and bounds (almost literally!!)  She can crawl on all fours now, but still prefers to army crawl for speed (and she's pretty speedy at it! lol).  And she's getting closer to walking on almost a daily basis.  Just today she stood on her own balancing for a few seconds, and started walking with the rolling lion we have.  Also, she finally figured out that she likes finger foods!!!  YAY!!!  she will now eat just about anything you give her.  we've been doing canned fruits and vegetables, and other soft foods.  She is liking being able to feed herself (and so is mommy!!), but still seems to prefer being spoon fed, or nursing, for the majority of her nutrition.  She's still not taking a bottle, and I've decided to completely do away with them.  We are moving on to sippy cups.  I figured if she's having this much trouble taking a bottle, I can't imagine transitioning to a sippy cup in a few months.  So I'm going to skip it all together. We have a few sippy cups that are similar enough to bottles, and I think those will be best for her.  She's already enjoying chewing on them and playing with them, now we just have to get her to figure out what they are for!  lol.  Speaking of chewing, she still doesn't have any teeth, but it's just a matter of time now.  We can see them coming, she's been an absolute pill for the last couple weeks, and the snot has been a flowing!  ;)  I think she's gonna be like Riley and get them all at once.  I noticed a couple days ago that her top teeth are coming in just as quickly as her bottom ones, so they may all cut through at once.  Oh my that will be a nice day!

Squash face

Well, we are just getting back into the swing of things.  MOPS starts back up in a couple weeks, and between now and then we have a few fun activities planned.  Amara had some pictures done yesterday with our friend Nicole, and we have a berry picking session planned for next week.  So look for many more photos to come in the next couple weeks!  I'll try to be better about updating.  I'm shooting for every couple weeks consistently.  We'll see if I can keep up!  lol Have a good Labor Day Weekend everyone!

Running Fool!

One thing about Daddy lately - HE LOVES TO RUN!!!  Much to my surprise (because I HATE running, unless it's for my life, in which case I will most likely die!).  Cam Loves it.  He is addicted to it.  The peace, the rhythm, the competition, you name it.  And his dedication to this sport completely amazes me.  The time it takes to train, the diet, the planning for each race, he doesn't bat an eye.  This year he has already run in a couple of races, but now he's really cracking down on training for his "favorite" race - The Blue Sky Marathon.  This is the one that he chooses to conquer every year!  It is "the one to beat".  The first year he ran it, the race beat him, the second year, the heat beat him, so this year is his year to kick butt!  And he is ready! 

He's been training in the heat, running after work in the hottest part of the day (90-100 degrees almost everyday).  He's been running crazy miles, upping his weekly milage to numbers I can't even fathom, and running intense "training runs" which are huge milestones in themselves! 

A couple weekends ago was a busy weekend for us.  I had my Severance Days booth, and Cam wanted to run in the Severance Days "Nut Run."  I thought it would be great for him.  It was only a 5K, which seems like a marathon to me, but is barely a warmup for him, so he decided to go all out and run it best he could!!  He did awesome!  One of the first people across the finish line!  Of course HE was disappointed though.  Having been training for longer runs, this short run was something completely different for him and he wasn't prepared.  So now he has a new goal too!  (ugh, what have I created!!)  ;) 

Start of the Nut Run

Cam's in the red shirt

The home stretch

Finish Strong!!

THEN, the next day we went to Rocky Mountain National Park for his weekly training run.  He wanted to run up Old Fall River Road in Rocky, AND do a trail run.  I thought he was nuts, but then again this is Cam we are talking about!  lol.  So we did it!  I dropped him off down by the Alluvial Fan, and he ran up Fall River Road.  If you aren't familiar with it, it is a one way, uphill, dirt road that goes up to the Alpine Visitor's Center in Rocky.  It's tighter than Trail Ridge, steeper too, hence the one way only.  He has mountain biked this road a couple times too, but to run the entire length of the 11 miles just blows me away!  He didn't stop once (that I know of).  We stopped periodically to let him catch up and make sure he was doing ok, but he never stopped to chat, just kept on going! 

Near Chasm Falls

Almost to tree-line

9+ miles in and still smiling!

Made it to the top!!  (there's the road behind him)

He took a short break at the visitors center at the top.  Get some water, munchies, take a breather.  About 5-10 minutes tops.  Then he kept going!  There's a trial that goes from the Visitor's Center to Milner Pass, it's 4.1 miles, and he continued down that.  We couldn't follow him on the trail so we just met him at the pass (at the wrong end of the trailhead apparently!) 

Waiting for Daddy at Milner Pass

Potty Break at the pass (the best thing about having boys!)

I'm so proud of all that he has accomplished, but especially this.  This is such a feat.  And he did it like it was no big deal.  This weekend he's running a half-marathon in Lory State Park, the black Squirrel Half, and then in the beginning of October is the Blue Sky Marathon.  I know he's going to do great!  I can't wait to share with you all how he does!  Look for more of Cam's runs coming soon!! 

Oh yeah, then after that run, he climbed the alpine trail up to 12,028 ft. with us!!

July And August Catch-up

Well we have certainly had a busy summer.  Big Trips, Little Trips, Day trips, play dates, appointments, appointments, appointments . . . You can see more about all our daily adventures in the pictures in the previous posts (there should be 3 new ones as of today), but I thought I would use this one to tell you about all the milestones we've hit this summer.  So much has changed in the last month in our little family. 

Riley.  Wow, where do I start!  He is such an awesome big brother!  He is definitely maturing quickly.  Just like I thought he would, he loves making Amara Laugh!  He makes funny faces, laughs at her, tickles her, and jumps around to entertain her.  He keeps her happy for me when I'm busy attending to something else (usually meals or Jayce) and he's a pro at it.  He is also more confident about handling her.  She's not as fragile, and he's stronger so I let him pick her up and carry her to me.  Still not up or down the stairs, or out of her crib (he tried this one day and I was not happy about it!)  He's also doing really good with Jayce.  Holding his hand to cross the street or parking lot, help him get breakfast, or drinks, or anything else I ask him to help with.  He's getting better at sports, just tonight watching him hit a ball with a bat he has so much more coordination.  His swimming is getting better too, and I think a lot of all this has to do with confidence.  I can't believe he will start first grade in a couple weeks!!!  Yep, only 2 more weeks until school starts for him.  My big First Grader!!!  :_(  Today he marked another milestone too - First Cavities Filled.  After taking his semi-annual trip to the dentist last week we discovered that he has 5 cavities!!!  5!!!!  Two on the bottom next to each other (from not flossing) Two right above those two, and one more on top on the opposite side.  So today we went in for round one of Fillings.  The dentist wanted to do two today to see how he does, then do the rest in a separate visit.  And he did awesome!!  He sat really still (for a 6 year old boy), didn't complain about anything, and let the doc do his job!  It helps that I prepared him the best I could, and the dentist did an excellent job telling him what he was doing and letting him check everything out before hand.  So next Monday we go in for round two. I'm just hoping today will better prepare him for what's coming next, rather than make him scared that he's going to go through it again. 

Jayce.  Jayce certainly keeps me on my toes!  He is every bit as much of a 2 year old as anyone could be!!  His fits are slowly getting better.  Or at least shorter.  I've learned how to handle them pretty well, and I'm getting better at preventing them sometimes too.  Not it just takes Riley understanding not to fight with him to help cut them back even more.  He still loves to snuggle, and nap time is "our time" for snuggling up and reading a story.  He loves this time, and doesn't fight me on naptimes (a blessing!)  I will be sorely disappointed when this time ends.  He also likes to curl up in bed with me frequently in the mornings.  I usually bring Amara into bed with me in the morning, and when I do it doesn't take long for him to find his way up there too.  I also find it interesting that he sleeps in the weirdest places.  As a baby he could not and WOULD not sleep anywhere other than his crib or my arms, and occasionally his carseat.  But now he falls asleep just about anywhere.  And will wake up in the middle of the night to go sleep somewhere else - the floor in the hall, the closet, the couch, the rocker in his sisters room, once even in the bathroom!  it cracks me up where all we find him in the morning!  (in fact I've thrown the idea of sleepwalking around in my head before because of it.)  He's doing so much better with potty training now.  I think he's finally getting the hang of it.  For about a week now he's been almost entirely in undies, with very few accidents.  No wet accidents in the last couple days, (only poopy ones) and he's even now starting to poop on the potty on a semi-regular basis!  YAY!!!  this makes mommy so happy!!!  I can't wait for the day that we only have one in diapers again!  Another thing we're working with him on is bike riding!  Up until just recently he's been too short to reach the pedals on any kind of bike, trike, etc.  But he's now big enough that he can barely reach them enough to learn to pedal, so that's what we are working on.  I'm looking forward to the day he can ride his bike all the way to pick up Riley from school! 

And Last, Amara.  My little Sweetheart is growing up way too fast!!  This week she has started doing a TON of new stuff!!!  She is now crawling, well, scooting really.  She "crawls" like Jayce did, by pushing with her toes and lifting on her elbows.  More of an Army crawl really.  But she still prefers walking!  If she's sitting near you she wants to pull herself up on you.  She would be happy if you held her hands and let her walk around all day!  I have a feeling she would be cruising already if she was tall enough to reach anything.  She's still tiny, like Jayce is.  She is slightly bigger than he was at this age, but her percentiles are falling, so I see her dropping to his level in the next few months.  She is talking already too!  She now babbles about "Da-da" all day long!  ;)  and it's not garbled da da da-da doo da like the boys did.  it's a very clear Da-da.  And Clapping.  She can now clap too.  All this in a week!!  Ugh.  She is a princess through and through!!  She's still very particular about her food.  Still no bottles.  We even tried a cup recently like my sister in law suggested, and she isn't having that either.  But we keep trying, as with finger foods too.  Cheerios, cut up bananas, rice, etc.  She will pick it up, bring it to her mouth (once) and then spit it back out.  No finger foods for her.  So we've started thickening up her baby food to help her with chewing and textures.  I'll leave the skin on fruit that I'm pureeing, or we'll add tiny little "pastatini" to it.  She can't stand it and will spit it out.  (after gagging on it of course).  I know that the high maintenance thing comes with girls, but I definitely wasn't expecting it this early!  Ugh!  But she's a cutie that's for sure.  She smiles a lot, and I can carry her around anywhere with little to no fussing (as long as she's being carried).  She sleeps well, and pretty laid back, so I can't complain too much! 

Things are going good for Cameron and I.  He's still grinding away at the work horse.  Things are getting touchy for him at work.  He's not meshing well with the new management they brought onto work last fall, so he's weighing his options.  He's also still running . . . a lot!  There's a few races this fall he wants to do, including the Blue Sky Marathon that he's run before.  So training for that is taking up a lot of his time.  I'm just getting back into the swing of things with Baby Bear Designs again.  End of summer starts all the festivals and fairs that I do shows at, and the beginning of fall the cold weather and Christmas orders start in.  So business has picked up significantly in the last couple weeks!  It's a nice change!  I have about 6 orders on the docket right now, some for Christmas, some for friends, but it's nice to feel like I can be productive again!  Well, that about covers it for the Louie's.  We've had a busy summer, and it's about to come to an end.  Hopefully I can keep up a little better this school year with the updates.  Get into more of a routine again.  ;)  Thanks for bearing with me during this busy time!  Check out all the other posts I did recently, and enjoy all these pictures of the last few weeks!

Walk to the park

Monsoon rainbow

I would rather eat the tray than the Cheerios

You want me to do What with this!?!?

Riley showing Amara the art of Movie watching

My first GOOD moon shot!

Silly Boys!!