School Days!

My baby is growing up! :(  Here are pictures from his first official day of preschool!  He's loving his "monkey class" with Ms. Denise and Ms. Allison and has been singing lots of songs that now Mommy is having to ask his teacher how they go so we can help him sing them at home. :)  I'm so happy that he enjoys going to school and cracks up when he comes home and tattles on himself, or the teachers!  One day he came home telling me that he got put in time out for taking off his shoes then says "Yeah... I have to listen to Ms. Denise... I not take off my shoes"  Then he proceeded to tell me that "Ms. Denise tell me I not have to eat my carrots" to which I found his carrot sticks left in his lunch box. :)  At least he doesn't feel the need to hid anything from me!  Due to me working there, as well as us going to church there, we have different names for all the different "classes" he goes to.  His preschool class is "Monkey class with Ms. Denise" since she has some monkeys in the room and one with his name on it.  On the days he doesn't have class and goes to the childcare room he calls that "Ryley's Class".  Then on Sundays his sunday school class is "The Big Playroom".  It seems to be working now since in the beginning he'd get a little confused as to where he was going that morning!   

Ryley seems to enjoy going to school too and has a little buddy named Cole that just turned one.  I'm glad he has someone to play with in there and he loves to follow all the big kids around!  Thankfully both the boys are worn out once we get home and are ready for naps when we walk in the door!  Ryley takes a nap at school, but he doesn't seem to mind going back down for a long afternoon nap at home!  Below is one day Grayson was overly tired and was throwing a fit on the kitchen floor when he walked in.  As he's screaming for Daddy... who was at work... he soon got quiet and I found him asleep on the floor.  Ryley on the other hand was crawling all around him with a big smile on his face!  He seemed pretty happy that big brother wasn't awake to take the art project he was looking at out of his hands!  :)  

So far heading back to work has been a great blessing from God that couldn't have worked out any better for our family!  

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend was when Will left for the field.  So our weekend ended up being a weekend with Gracie and Tanner! :)  Since starting school, we haven't been able to hang out much with Gracie, so it was great to be able to spend two days back to back with them!  The first day, we took them to the Children's Museum.  It was hot... as you can tell by the sweaty kiddos in the pictures.  But they both had fun and the museums programming started that day so we got to do an art project while we were there.  

Ryley and Tanner playing in the shade

Playing with Ms. Liz... our favorite gal at the museum and his former art teacher :)

The next day we made our way to the Jacksonville Zoo.  We spent a lot of time playing at the splash area this time since it was so hot.  But it was a great way to spend our weekend with friends when Daddy just left.  For the first time at the zoo, Grayson took an interest in the map and insisted on holding it while he walked to point out where we were going.  He was pretty darn cute!  Hopefully this means he'll get his Daddy's sense of direction and not Mommy's. :)

Checking out the giraffes

Hello Mr. Anteater!

Ryley, Tanner, Grayson, Gracie

They wanted to hold hands :)

"Ahhhh.... feels good!"

Getting their heads wet

Checking out the sting rays before heading home

It was a great weekend with our friends and a great way to start out the month while Daddy was away!

More August Fun

After our road trip to Iowa, my mom helped me drive back to Georgia with the boys. (Will had to fly home in order to be home for a course he was supposed to start that Monday.... which ended up being cancelled!)  Grayson loved having a whole week to Grandma without all the cousins around.  It was hot and humid..... as usual... so we managed to stick close to home or play at the mall most of the time.  But her trip wouldn't be complete without taking her to the children's museum!  We got there first thing in the morning and lasted a couple hours before we were all puddles of sweat. :)

Pic of the flower/garden beds at the museum that my mom wanted a picture of. :)

Grandma stayed for about a week before flying back to Washington.  Below are some more pictures of things we were up to in August

Car Painting

For those that haven't heard, I ended up getting offered a preschool teaching position at the school we had Grayson enrolled in while we were on our road trip.  While I had reservations about going back to work with an upcoming deployment drawing near, it definitely turned to be God's perfect plan!  I am able to take both the boys to work with me and childcare is provided for super cheap for teachers!  Grayson goes to the childcare room two days a week, then the other three he's in his 2 yr old class which he is loving!  I am teaching 4 year olds 5 days a week and the boys and I are home from work by 2 each day in time for afternoon naps. :)  I have 14 kiddos with a full-time assistant as well which is a piece of cake compared to teaching 26 kindergarteners with an assistant only parts of the day in the public schools!  Everything just worked out perfectly and our first official day of school/work was the day Will left for his month of training.  I noticed this month flew by while he was gone!  The 9 months he is deployed will be hard, but having a job and a set routine for the boys and myself will be great and hopefully those 9 months will pass by as quickly as this month of September has!

Back to work for mommy and boys headed to school!

Daddy built a fort in the living room 

Playing "jump jump" with Daddy outside Cracker Barrel 

First time fishing!

Mommy caught the fish!  Grayson didn't want to come near it! :)

These were some of our fun times in August!  More pictures to come for September... including Grayson on his first day of school!