Madison's First Day of 1st Grade!!

Well, she is officially a first grader now. School started this morning and she was so excited. I can't believe my little girl who use to hide under the changing table in the nursery and not ever come out (even for snack time) is now going off to school, for the 2nd year, without a hint of apprehension. Wow, have we come a long way!!

We had to get a couple really quick pictures this morning. It was raining all morning and we caught it at a quick lull to snap these pictures.

After another huge front moved in, we all climbed into the van and waited at the end of the driveway for the bus. Madison decided to wear her raincoat! Here are her and Lily waiting on the bus.

When the bus finally came - Don ran out and braved the storm to get a quick picture for me. Happy first day Madison. I hope you have a fantastic year!!

Last Week of Summer Vacation Activities!

I can't believe summer vacation is over. School has begun and so has our crazy schedule! I tried to make Madison's last week of summer really fun for her (and Lily and Taegan). It started out with a trip to the zoo last Saturday. It was so hot, but we made it and they had so much fun.

Taegan seems a little worried...

Lily and the chimp looking at each other.

Taegan loved the big cats!

















The girls showing Taegan around the zoo. He is so spoiled!!

















Then on Wednesday, we decided to go bowling and then have a picnic at the park. Note to self: my family does not like picnics (unless we can find some bug-free picnic spot)! They don't like bugs and certainly don't want to eat with them! I can't really blame them - I was trying to be the fun mom!

Lily getting her ball.


































Don helping Taegan bowl. His first time!!





















My 3 bowlers!!
















Then on Thursday night, Madison had her "Meet the Teacher Night". We went up to the school and she/I put away all her school supplies and got to meet Mrs. Krueger. Here she is at her new desk.
















Madison and Mrs. Krueger - she seemed so nice!



















Finally, on Friday we went and played putt-putt at Safari Golf. They really enjoyed it, especially the fact we were the only people there! I think their favorite part was running over the hills on one particular hole. I finally had to make them stop so we could move on. After this we finished off our day by meeting Don for lunch in Lawrence.




















I hope they all had a great summer and now... bring on the school year!!!!

My Boy... the shopper!!

Don and I did a lot of shopping last weekend when the girls were in Minnesota. We had unloaded all the bags into our chair and this is what happened...

I just thought I would share with all you parents of little girls out there... Taegan is practicing to be an awesome boyfriend/husband. He apparently loves carrying bags and lots of them!!

He loved playing in the bags!!

Isn't this adorable?!?

He is even carrying monkey!

Taegan and Daddy walking along at Legends.

KU Kickoff Rally

We were settled in for the night Sunday night when we got a phone call reminding us about the KU Kickoff Rally at the Kansas Museum of History. We got the kids changed and headed to the museum and had a great time! First all the kids got free footballs, posters, pom-poms, pencils, etc. The girls got to meet some real KU cheerleaders (a really big deal to them!), Baby Jay and Big Jay. Taegan was not so sure about Baby and Big Jay!! We all ate dinner, ice cream and then got to walk around the museum for free. Before we left the girls had to have their face painted. The girl did a great job and we are thinking about having her come to do face painting at Lily's birthday party!! We all had a wonderful time and then on the way home got to watch a hot air balloon land right in front of us! What a wonderful Sunday evening.

Look Out World... Here He Comes!!

Well, it happened... Taegan took his first real steps and is now attempting to walk everywhere before crawling. He will still crawl if he falls, but we have officially entered the "toddler" phase. Oh so sad, my baby is growing up too fast!! Here is a video of some of his first attempts.



As you can tell, his sisters are really excited about it. (Although Madison would still prefer to carry him everywhere.) She has told me many times lately that she really misses Reese and I think Taegan growing up is part of the reason. She misses that little baby that Reese was and that is how she still thinks of her. Reese will always be her baby sister that never gets bigger.

Speaking of sisters, you can tell that Taegan is surrounded by girl stuff right now because one of his favorite things to do is dance to Hannah Montana. This show seems to be on a lot in our house right now. He definitely has music in his blood and can already shake his booty just like his daddy!!

Family Picture Time

Early Saturday morning we had new family pictures taken. Not my brightest idea. All of us had to be up and ready - looking nice - and to the museum by 8:00! Our last ones were a year ago and Taegan has changed so much since then! (He was only a month old then.) We had Melissa from Centerpiece Photography take our pictures again. They turned out great. Here are a few outtakes from the sitting.

If you would like to view the entire gallery, please go to www.centerpiecephotography.com/pc and click on the access gallery link. We are the Engel Museum gallery and the password is: engelmuseum1

Hope you enjoy!!

Taegan's Pool Time Take 2

Last summer when Taegan was barely a month old we tried putting him in the girls' pool on our deck. He hated it! He screamed and screamed. I found out that little babies aren't that fond of cool/cold pool water. So, needless to say, we didn't do a lot of swimming with Taegan last summer. So... I thought this year would be different. Well, not really. We got him all ready Sunday afternoon in his cute little board shorts and went outside for an afternoon of family pool time. He was so excited watching his sisters play in the pool on the deck. He just stood at the door and laughed and screamed with delight.

I thought the pool water would be nice and warm, but the sun had already gone behind our house so our deck was covered in shade and it wasn't as warm as I had hoped. We went ahead and put him in and this is what we got...

More screaming!! Then he stood up and tried climbing out of the pool! He wanted nothing to do with swimming or the pool.

So, I guess we'll try again another time. He loves baths, so if I can just find a way to heat a plastic, inflatable pool - we should be set!