It is gone!

Lauren has been hanging on to her "Nanny McPhee" tooth for weeks. We have tried to get her to pull it, and we have tried to convince her to let us pull it. Both options set off the crying and emotional outbursts so we just let it go.

This morning on the way to school Lauren accidentally hit herself with her leapster. It knocked the tooth even looser and made it bleed. I told her to keep wiggling it, and it would fall out. The tears were pouring now! We got to the school drop off rather early (probably because she was having a fit in the back seat, I was DONE with this tooth, and I basically dumped Tyler out at his school before the car came to a complete stop). I pulled into the carpool line. We were the first car so we were right in front of the school doors. Their school does not open the doors until 7:30. I opened the back door and Lauren started scrambling even further back in the car! By this time, the tooth was literally "blowing in the air" with every breathe she took. I was determined now to get that tooth out! The school secretary walks by as I am trying to nicely convince Lauren to pull it herself with no success. My next measure...I restrain her arms and lower body with one arm while I pry her mouth open with my other hand. I won!!!! With a little tug, the tooth popped out! Blood everywhere, screaming like I had just stabbed the poor girl and parents three cars back were peering out their windows...what a sight!

While Lauren was getting control of herself, I went into the office for a ziploc bag. The lower school principal and secretary were standing at the door/window laughing. They reassured me that they had done very similar things, and I was not a child abuser!!

Lauren bagged her tooth and hopped out of the car to join her friends at the door. Before I left, she was showing off her new smile. I wonder what the tooth fairy will bring tonight??? I am so excited since her good friend told her if you write a note and ask for something special like a stuffed animal, the tooth fairy will bring it! I better get her started on that note....before 5pm!!!!

Daddy's Weekend

Tyler had a tennis tourny in Decatur, Alabama, this weekend. Dad decided to take all the girls with him and Tyler. The had a good weekend together. The tennis tournament went by slowly at first since they were in a rain delay the whole time. Tyler lost his first match which put him in the consolation bracket. He won the next match 6-0, 7-5. He proceed to the finals after 2 boys got sick and forfeited. He won his final match 6-0,6-0! What a great end!

The girls enjoyed their time at the hotel and Chuck E. Cheese. They loved being with Dad for the weekend! Everyone was excited to get to see Granddad and Noni! They drove over to see Tyler play his last two matches.

Olympic Field Day

Today was Olympic Field Day at the girls' school. It was a great day of fun and competition. The rain even stayed away this morning so the kids could just have fun outside for a few hours. Corynne and Lauren were on the same team which made it easy to watch both of them without running back and forth! Their team was the Trojans! They participated in events like the egg race, sack race, 3 legged race, 100 yard dash, and obstacle course! The Trojans were tied with another team at the end of the competition, so they had a sudden death obstacle course race. The Trojans ended up winning 1st place! Dad was so happy to see the competitive spirit arise in his oldest daughter!

Family Update

We have been moving very fast around here trying to adapt to the new fall/school/sports schedules. Sometimes in all the normal chaos, I forget to acknowledge the little changes going on in our lives. So this blog is a little update as to what each child is "in to" these days!

Tyler has made the adjustment to middle school much better than I have! He is enjoying his new freedoms of rotating classes and having his own locker. He is a very good student and seems to get everything done. JM and I get to laugh a lot because he has a "tough night" of homework and it takes him less than 20 minutes. GET REAL, son!!! Needless to say, learning just comes easy for him and studying is not high on his list. He is still playing tennis (when it is not raining) and taking batting/pitching lessons to keep up his stills for the spring. He is still taking piano lessons and is now in the beginning band at school. He tried out on all the instruments during the first week and half of school. Surprise...he was assigned the trombone! I say that because JM plays the trombone! I think the band teacher who knows JM had a little bit of prejudge in that decision!!! So now we get to listen to the sounds of a trombone! Lyndsey says, "It to loud!"

Tyler loves to go fishing. He recently took a friend with us to the lake one weekend. They fished from sun up to sun down. He does not enjoy fishing in the Wynlakes pond quite as much as the lake or ocean. The catches are not as good!

Lauren is loving the life of a first grader. She loves everything about school - her teacher, her friends, her homework, her rides to school with Dad! Lauren is excited about reading, spelling and math. She is doing great. She brought home her first reader last week. She loves to read in the "chapter book"!

Lauren is taking piano lessons, tennis lessons, and dance lessons. She loves to go go go!!!

Corynne is just enjoying life one day at a time. She is a very relaxed girl who does not let chaos throw her off track. She enjoys reading and crafts. Actually, she enjoys crafts most of all. Noni taught her to knit last May, and she has really enjoyed it over the summer. A friend taught her how to gemp a few weeks ago. This is her new daily adventure! As a fourth grader, she has a lot of homework and studying to do everynight. She is doing great at keeping up with her studies! Corynne is taking piano, tennis and dance lessons also. Piano because Dad says so. Tennis because Mom says she needs to exercise. (The girls school is a 1/2 day Classical Christian school, so they do not offer any PE.) Dance because she loves it!!!

Lyndsey is a loud and wild 3 year old! She loves to run, climb, and jump on anything! She can be so sweet, and she can be so mean! She misses her sisters during the day, but Dora is her next best friend! Her new favorite thing is PB&J sandwiches! She is a snack machine!

Lyndsey started dance classes this week. She was so excited to dance like the big girls. Technically, she is supposed to be potty trained to start. We are working on that! She has good days and REALLY bad days. She just does not care!!!

John Mark is working all the time as always. We are praying for another trauma surgeon to come our way soon!!! We need a permanent break from the 2 weekends of call a month :)!

He is enjoying working out 2 morning a week again, a Thursday morning Bible study, and driving the kids to school a couple of morning a week. Of course, the pit fall of all these morning activities is he does not get home at night before the kids go to bed :(.

Me - I am enjoying volunteering at the girls school. I am the room mom for both girls this year. That is only possible with great helper moms is Corynne's class, and a co-room mom in Lauren's class. I help in the copy room every other week, and I enjoy providing snacks to the teachers quite often! With all of that and keeping up the house and kid activities, I do not find much time for my scrapbooking and crafting. We (or I) am trying to finish up plans with the architect for our new/old house renovation. We hope to get started on the construction phase in the next few months. We really want to get over to the new neighborhood as soon as possible since it is closer to JM work and the kids schools. On top of all of that, we are expecting another baby by the end of March! That would mean I am 12 weeks right now! I have been struggling with all day nausea and complete exhaustion! I hope to hit the "2nd trimester energy rush" just any day now!!!!

Well, that is all I can think of right now!

Until next time -- May God's peace surround you!

Happy Birthday, Lyndsey!

My sweet (well sometimes) little girl turned 3 this morning. I cannot believe that she is growing up so fast! It seems like yesterday that it was the morning of Friday 9/8/06 and we were scrambling to get the kids to school--find someone else to pick them up--find someone to help thru the weekend--because my water had broke and my mom was not flying in until Sunday evening!

We celebrated Lyndsey's 3rd birthday yesterday since Dad was off for Labor Day. We invited Tommy (JMs cousin) & Kelly and their boys to dinner with us at Jalapeno's. First Monday's are "Dora visit nights" which was perfect for Lyndsey. Lyndsey is Dora's #1 FAN! She was so excited all day long. She kept asking, "Dora cake now please please please!"

When we got to the restaurant, she could hardly contain herself. Well, actually she didn't!!! She was glued to Dora the entire evening! If Dora left our table, Lyndsey quickly ate a few bites and then was off to try to find Dora and bring her back. I was thankful that there was not a whole lot of other kids at Jalapeno's to see Dora! She had a BLAST!!

On a side note, have you ever seen someone make 3 this way? To make the #2, she held up the pointer and the pinky. Now the #3 is pointer, ring, and pinky!

Who is this?

This kid came down my stairs this morning and I was quite shocked! I have never seen him in a shirt and tie (at least not in the last 9 years)! Today was the first official chapel day, and this is his official chapel uniform! My baby is growing up!

Playing on the Natchez Trace

This weekend we went up to northern Alabama to visit JMs Dad. We had a wonderful visit even though it was short. They took us to the Natchez Trace Parkway National Park that is fairly close to their house. It was beautiful. The kids enjoyed the hiking trail and playing in the creek. Lyndsey enjoyed finding new walking sticks every 100 yards!!!

We stopped to have a snack!

Tyler and his cousin, Cade, were not in many pictures since they hiked ahead of us!!