The "B" Word....

 As in "BIG" ... it's a bad word in our house. Well not really, it just makes me sad when they keep telling me  what big girls they are. They're still my little girls- just don't tell them I said so. So lately....

 
Savannah is a big kindergartner! . To celebrate her big day, we went on a date after her first week of school to the ceramic place to paint some pottery (flip flop piggy bank was her choice). The girl LOVES art!  (ie drawing, painting,and all things crafty) She also started a Ballet/ Tap combo class which she is also crazy about.. It's been fun watching her dance. Tap is her favorite (and mine too- I sneak peeks through the window during class)
 
Here she is practicing before class

 

Bella started a preschool co-op 2 days a week this year with 5 other little girly friends (that's right- 6 girls NO boys this year) and has loved feeling like one of the big kids sporting a back pack and having places to go and people to see. She is my little buddy this year. I have really enjoyed spending more time with her and taking her and Lils everywhere with me. It seems so much easier this year taking just the 2 little girlsies with me compared to last year.  She is also in the younger ballet/tap class during the day. I think she enjoys it too, but seems to be more reserved than Sav in class. Surprising since she is the most expressive of all our kids especially at home. She still looks forward to going each week and getting all dressed up.

 

and then there's Lily-B...she just keeps getting bigger and bigger each day :( aaahhhh!!I used the B word again! I took these pictures of her one day when she was in a silly mood. She was singing, talking, clapping and being her cute self. She recently sprouted her 4 top teeth all at once and has fortunately managed to stay in good spirits despite the owie gums. I love her little hippo teeth, reminds me of Joshi when he was a baby. She and Bella are becoming fast little friends, each morning when I get her from her crib she looks around until she spots Bella. Then she gets excited, bouncy and giggly. I  wish she would stop growing. self fish, I know. 

 

In other news, I got a new camera for my birthday! my old point and shoot died on me...so just for fun, I'm posting an old picture from summer taken right before it died. Here are the 4 big kids in their "reading center" that they made for reading time in the afternoons. Seems like that was just yesterday!
the new camera works much better- don't ya think?

And they're off!

She never looked back :(

I can't believe my girl is in kindergarten! I miss her already! 

And here are their wonderful teachers...

Mrs. H and Mrs.C (Josh's Tag teachers)

Mrs. H- Zach's 2nd grade teacher

Mrs. T- Savannah's (and was Zach's! :) kindergarten teacher

 
Mrs. S- Josh's 5th grade teacher

3 out of 5 kiddos at school this year! For the 1st time ever, I will have more kids at school than at home...how did that happen so fast? I'm feeling kind of weepy today. I get like this every year, even if it's not kindergarten. Am I weird or do you get this way too?

Collage Mania...with a Spanish twist

For sometime I had been feeling guilty for not taking the time to teach my kids spanish. Being raised in a bilingual home I knew firsthand the advantages of being able to speak another language...in applying for jobs, in learning at school, understanding that there are different cultures and being able to connect with them, having opportunities that I may have not had otherwise...I always swore I would pass that on to my kids. Fast forward to a few months ago...Mike and I are conversing in Spanish in attempts to talk about our kids in front of them with out them understanding, when Josh asks "why haven't you taught us Spanish?"....enter guilt.
So in that instant I  decided with summer coming up that I would buckle down and DO IT while I have them at home with no other school responsibilities and fewer scheduled activities. But how?... I mean I'm fluent, it should be easy right? Wrong. I needed some structure (to make sure I was going to follow through and do it) so I researched and bought a curriculum. Now I just needed to make it fun and interesting.  So in mentioning my summer plans to teach my kids spanish to some of my lady friends... they showed interest in having their kids learn spanish too and asked if  I would have their kids join in on the "spanish lessons"....FRIENDS!! that was exactly what I needed to add the fun & interesting factor. So I sent an email out and found that there were quite a few kids from our church that were interested. And so spanish explorers program was born.
Over the last 2 1/2 months I have had the pleasure of introducing spanish to some really FUN kids! I had a younger explorers class of 6 kiddos including my girls B and S (3-6 yr) and an older explorers class of 12 kiddos including my boys J and Z (7-11yrs).Each class came over for 1 to 1- 1/2 hours once a week and  we played games,learned some pretty silly/sometimes cheesy songs, made up silly memory tricks to help them remember the sp words, and with the littles we danced a lot! This last week we had our class fiesta and boy was it fun! I will miss you my little and big explorers! Till next year!

The Younger Explorers

for the party we had chips and queso and salsa, tres leches cake, made a tamborine, sang, dance, and a pinata (wouldn't be a fiesta with out one!) We were missing Ez

 

The Older Explorers

for the big kids we played spanish jeopardy to review what we learned, spanish bingo while they had horchata (sp cinnamon rice drink)  flan (spanish dessert), and a pinata. We were missing Sarah and Micah.

 

and the reason I did this....

post edit- excuse ALL of the collage pictures lately- not very aesthetic- I know. It's a little much, even for me... BUT  it's ten times faster than up loading  individual pictures. It's better than nothing I guess :)

The Grants came to visit!...and Lils turned 1!!

I still can't believe that my littlest babe turned 1 yesterday!! She is our chill baby and we just love having her in our family! Even though it's only been one year, I can't imagine what life would be like with out her. She is sweet, silly, easy going, and best of all squishy- all things good!We love you lily-bee!

We took some pictures after church since they were all sorta matching and also to capture the girly on her day. (if you double click you can check out her baby tooth in the crib pictures)

 
Here she is enjoying her first bite of partially hydrogenated goodness...strawberry cupcake with cream cheese frosting! She ate every last crumb, and licked her fingers clean! can you tell?
 

 
These pics are for Grammy. She loves her presents! In that top middle picture she is showing you how much she loves you! Thanks Grammy and Grampy! 

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We had a special treat this week...our Grant cousins and aunt Kjirsten came to visit!!!! a highlight of our summer! We had so much fun, these pictures don't do it justice! Josh cried when his "BF Liam" left. We had 3 1/2  jammed packed days of fun- it went by WAY too fast and we already can't wait to see them again! In these pictures you see the Austin Museum of Science and History, McDonald's icecream break, beauty Claire with her self applied lipgloss and the 2 mamas that carted these 9 kids to many fun little places. What you don't see here is the fort they built, hamilton pools, musical in the park Annie, backyard antics and all the fun little things these cousins like to do when they get together. I'm hoping these visits become a yearly summer tradition! 

Cowboy Capital of the World

I'm backing up just a little to the end of the school year. It was a B-U-S-Y one this year. J and Z had a great year with the best teachers ever, Sav graduated preschool and is ready for kindergarten, Bella enjoyed her playgroup friends. and the girlies got haircuts for the summer.

the day after school let out we headed to a dude ranch in Bandera Tx (AKA the cowboy capital of the world:)  We had a great time. Highlights were the water park, nightly smores and hayrides, mini golf, horseback riding, phineaus and ferb marathon, fiesta tx, catching our newest pet (stripes the turtle), sleeping in ....really the best part was just getting to play with these cuties with out the interruption of daily life. super fun. now back to reality :)

7,9,10!

7 is how old Zach turned yesterday! Saturday we went to Austin Park and Pizza to celebrate with friends. Rock climbing, go carts, video games, laser tag, bumper boats, pizza and good times!! Then Sunday we had bug cupcakes and opened presents! 

7 words that describe Zach or his interests:

1. Thoughtful

2. Handy

3. Nature

4.Inventor

5. Silly

6. Honest 

7.Clever

9 is how many months old Lily turned on Saturday! That's 3/4 of her first year!!:( Too fast too fast.....
Here are 9 current pictures of Lily that make me smile...

10 is how old Josh turned exactly one week before Zach turned 7! This year he requested camping for his birthday...so we did...during a tornado warning in Georgetown, TX....fortunately in a sheltered cabin:) very exciting! Next morning the weather was PERFECT- so we enjoyed a nice little hike to the lake for some good old fashioned exploration. Thanks to our friends the B's for telling us about this place and for joining us the night before! We had a great time! 

Josh in 10 or so words:

1.Easy going

2. Kind/Forgiving

3. Bookworm

4. Basketball

5. Good example

6. Piggy back ride giver

7. Lego sets

8. Wii 

9. Bike

10.Candy

A memorable Spring Break!

the highlights:

Going to Oklahoma to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Asay- they truly are GREAT! We loved getting to spend time with them, hearing great stories, eating great food and making great memories with them! 

 
making history - here we have Calvin Asay to the fourth power : Calvin Boyce, Calvin Sessions, Calvin Mike and Calvin Joshua

and to finish off our already awesome spring break, we got to wake up to snow in Dallas. Here's grammy and grampy's backyard on Sunday morning!! Zach kept saying "it's like heaven!" :) Thanks Grammy and Grampy for taking us to Oklahoma, and letting us have fun at your house too! we can't wait to see you again!

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!!!

It snowed in central Texas today!! Can you believe it?! Here's the proof!

Pettiskirt-Lily, dates,"urban" tea parties and more...

Petti-skirt Lily (thanks TL for the darling skirt and hair bow:)

Mommy-Zachster Date-Mike's office for some uninterrupted science
experimentation.


Daddy-Savy date- they painted these plates at the Ceramic Place

Daddy -Son date to UT basketball game

Mommy/Daughter tea party with "Urban" tea (Savy code for herbal tea)

Josh came home with these last week -250 AR points worth of dog tags (I had to take a picture of these, because he will inevitably lose them)

and some Valentine's Pictures

So that's a little of what we've been up to in February....phew it feels good to get these off my camera! Happy February People!!!!
(*If the pictures look too small
double click them for a bigger view*)

silly lily

Lily thinks tooth brushing is so funny! Oh how I wish she would stop growing!