All Done Second Grade!

Caleb finished off 2nd grade with a bang! He got on the all-A honor roll each grading period, and had a 100 in math for 3 of the 4 grading periods. He tested Gifted and Talented (GT) for Math. He also won an award in PE for how many laps he ran during their running time. (Most kids walk)

 

This is his Language Arts/Social Studies teacher presenting his award for all As and Citizenship (good behavior each grading period). When she called him up she described him as incredibly shy, soft-spoken, and a really, really fast talker. I don't like to think of Caleb as shy, but he just knows the times when it's appropriate to talk and when it's appropriate to listen and be respectful.

Summer break, here we come!

Soccer Season

This was Carter's first season playing soccer! We had no idea what to expect...Caleb is an all-star (in our opinion), but we didn't want to set up false expectations for Carter. We weren't sure if he would go after the ball or be one of the kids on the field who smiled for the audience a lot while not actually doing much on the field. Carter's never shown as much interest in sports as Caleb has, so I think we went in with low expectations and were blown away! Carter caught on really fast and totally got the object of the game--run to the ball, dribble it down the field, and shoot a goal. He was the best kid on his team (again, our humble opinion), and without him on the field, not much happened for his team.

 

With the league he plays with, you are only allowed to score 3 goals--which I semi-like but mostly dislike. After Carter scored his 3 goals each game, he would help out his teammates by dribbling it down the field for them and setting it up on the white goal line to allow his teammate to kick a goal (which they still struggled with even with all the work done for them). We encouraged him to pass it to teammates for a few games, but there was only one other girl coordinated enough to dribble it down the field. So in the end we just told him to dribble it down and set it up. He had a great season!

 



(And isn't he so adorable?!?)

Carter's team and coach

 

I failed to get pictures of Caleb in his soccer attire this season. I was the team manager for his team so between that and watching Bryson during games, I never remembered to snap some pictures. He had another great season and had an awesome coach who helped him improve in several areas. He had a great learning experience this season in that there was a handicapped girl on his team; he learned a lot about patience and love. However, the competitive side of him got frustrated because I don't think they ever won a game. Whenever this girl played goalie, the other team tended to score at least a few goals. Sometimes if Caleb was on the field (and not sitting out) he could prevent the ball from ever getting down to that side of the field. He played well and had a good season though.

 

The boys with their trophies

 

 

(Off topic side note for my own record: I tried to download a typing software for Caleb to work on this summer while school is out--it was a program that they use at school--and it gave my computer a virus! Because I was trying to avoid the problem, I shut down my computer and restarted it and now can only get a blank, blue screen. Fortunately I saved all my preschool and church files last week on a back-up drive, but I'm nervous to lose all my pictures and other things I have saved to my computer. I also don't have access to my calendar where I write daily commitments, and I don't have access to my picture program to enhance photos etc. Thus the blurry trophy picture. I'm going crazy! And I'm nervous it's going to be a costly fix.) 

9 Year Anniversary

One of my birthday presents this year from my parents was tickets to see Cinderella on Broadway. Because the date of the show was 3 days away from our anniversary, we decided to count it as our anniversary date. We enjoyed dinner and the show and a fun night out together!

I love when Matt and I get a chance to spend time together without the kiddos. :)

Preschool

I bit on more than I could chew this year with teaching preschool to 10 kids (including Bryson--and he definitely counts as another student!). I was grateful to have a mom of one of the girls come in and help me do centers most days to make sure that time was very productive. These last two years were more challenging than the first two years I taught due to certain personalities in the class, but amazingly the kids made just as much progress if not further progress than my first group of students that I taught my first two years. I'm so proud of all of them! They are all great readers, able to solve addition/subtraction problems, count to 100, and write all their lower and uppercase letters. They are definitely more than ready for Kindergarten.

I enjoy teaching, but I'm looking forward to having a year off before I start up with Bryson's age. I'll be able to focus on the new baby and other projects that I've neglected (mainly catching up on my blog books/family journals). I'll miss these kiddos but am excited for them to begin a new schooling adventure in the fall!

Swimming in the Rain

I can't recall a rainier spring season ever in the area where I live. We've had so much rain that it has led to some flooding in surrounding areas. I haven't complained too much since the rain has kept the hot weather at bay a little longer. It's been a huge bummer to have the pools open though and not be able to swim! One Wednesday in May, I promised Carter that we would go swimming that day when it wasn't raining. The issue though is that it would clear up one minute only to rain 15 minutes later. I told him it wasn't a good day for swimming, but he was insistent. Finally I packed up the umbrella, and we headed to the pool. We were the only ones there. 5 minutes after we arrived, it started raining (no thunder/lightning). While I stood under the umbrella, the boys went for a swim. They didn't care!

Mother's Day 2015

Matt and the boys treated me well for Mother's Day. I was able to sleep in until 7:30, then woke up with a start realizing that I was playing the organ at church that day! I had completely forgotten! I quickly looked up my songs, ran over to church to play through them, and came home to a warm omelet and this lovely card from my boys. This is my kind of card!

Later we got together with Ariane's family and my parents to celebrate our mom with dinner and dessert.

Pregnancy Update

I'm just over 23 weeks now and thought I'd post about my pregnancy this 4th time around since I'm about halfway. My due date is Sept. 2nd--the cut off for schools here is Sept. 1st, so it will be interesting to see when I actually deliver. The pregnancy is going well so far. The first trimester I felt nauseous almost every night at 10pm, so I would usually head to bed and sleep that off. Once the second trimester began, the nausea went away. I had a scare about being exposed to fifths disease but found out I was immune to it.

We found out on April 21st that we're having our 4th boy! I completely expected it. With baby #3, I was positive it was a girl and then felt disappointed to learn it was a boy. Maybe because I didn't want to feel that disappointment again, I have felt this was a boy from the beginning. I even had a dream that I delivered a boy a week before the gender ultrasound appointment. The only one that was really disappointed about the gender was Carter who thought it just made sense that we should have a girl since we have enough boys. Carter and Bryson are obsessed with babies and have been for the last year, so it will be fun to have another baby in the house again.

One thing I don't like to give up even though I'm pregnant is my running. I'm still running 16 miles a week--3 miles 3 times a week and 7 miles on Saturday. It helps keep my weight-gain in check; I also think it helps with my pregnancy, labor, and delivery. I've received comments each pregnancy about how I carry small or people are surprised I'm as far along as I am. I think my running has something to do with this as well. My times have gone from 8 - 8:15 pace miles on my long runs to a 9:30 pace. It's frustrating to lose all I've gained in my speed and then to start from square one after I deliver. Obviously a new little baby is worth it!

The hardest part about pregnancies for me is the weight gain. Some women can pull off pregnancy still looking stylish and cute--I don't feel like I fit into that category, and I hate the way I feel about myself as I put on weight. So I doubt I'll take more pictures after this one! :) My current weight gain is 14 pounds--my goal is to gain 25 pounds, which I'm not on track to do. I enjoy eating too much!

22 weeks