3 Months

 Kacie is already three months old.  How does that happen so fast?  She's already about 13 pounds and is cute as can be.  She's a happy girl, freely giving out smiles to anyone who stops to say hi!  She loves her sisters and brother, and the feeling is mutual.  She really likes her play mat, watching the laundry in the washing machine (it's a front loader), and her elephant buddy that hangs over her car seat in the car.  She started laughing about a week before she turned three months, and it's the cutest thing ever!

First Day Of Kindergarten (and Days Of 3rd Grade)

Yesterday was Seth's first day of kindergarten.  Yikes!  How did that happen?  It's going to feel like tomorrow that it's Kacie's first day of kinder (that was terrible grammar but I'm too tired to fix it)!

Seth has been beyond excited to start kinder, and he was even more thrilled when he found out that he got the teacher that he was hoping for.  Despite the fact that most of the younger siblings we know were hoping to get the same teacher that their older sibling had, Seth kept telling us that he was going to be in Ms. Heichel's class, and he was right.  Of the three kinder teachers, she was the one that neither Abby or Haley had!  That's who he wanted, though!

The morning of the first day of school, I told Seth that the parents get to stay for a few minutes during kinder drop-off, to which he replied, "No, you can just leave."  Sheesh!  I told him I was going to stay whether he liked it or not:)  Once we got in to the classroom he did a couple puzzles and then gave me a big hug and kiss and sent me on my way!

When I went to pick him up I stopped in the office on the way to his classroom.  I saw the principal in there and she told me that she had been in his class earlier and that he had been all smiles:)  He came out of class looking very happy, handed me a giant packet of papers and said "Mom, you've got A LOT of homework!"

All ready to send our big boy off to kinder:)

Walking to school for the very first time!

Big sissies were so excited for him.

While Seth is just starting at Main Street, both Abby and Haley are homeschooling this year.  We are coming up on the second full week of 3rd grade for them.  Homeschooling is definitely a challenge for all of us, but I really like to have my girls at home with me (for the most part)!  We're still trying to find a groove, but I think we're figuring things out a little at a time.  At this point we are taking everything year by year, but for this year, I am happy to have my daughters at home, but still get to be a part of the wonderful Main Street community.

All ready to get started with our homeschooling

Notice that I'm teaching holding a baby and neither of my "students" are paying attention!

2 Months Old

A couple weeks ago Kacie turned 2 months old and she is such a wonderful baby.  She's a happy girl with lots of smiles and gurgles!  She loves to watch her big sisters and brother and is always happy to have them carry her around, too.  She does a really good job at tummy time and is getting so strong.  This last month she's had to go through a lot of blood tests due to prolonged jaundice, and has been such a trooper.  At this point her color is great, and we've hopefully done our last blood test.

I love this sweet girl and can't get enough of her:)

Tummy time champ!

Look at those sweet, smooshy cheeks!

Important conversations with Poppa Phil:)

One Month Old

Kacie Grace is already one month old (actually, at this point she's almost 6 weeks, 'cause I'm a little late on blogging)!  We are all completely in love with her and so glad that God added her to our family!  Of course, at this point, there's not much to say about what she does (eats and sleeps), although she is a very noisy baby.  She doesn't really cry other than when she's hungry, but she pretty much constantly growls!  We call her a baby bear.  People always think she's trying to poop, but it's just her constant stream of noise!

Haley, Abby and Seth love to hold her and kiss her and laugh at the funny faces she makes.  During the first couple weeks anytime they would see her with her eyes open it was big news and they would yell "Her eyes are open" to anyone who wasn't in the room!  As she's getting bigger (already almost 10 pounds) and she does tummy time, Seth is always pretty sure she's getting ready to crawl!

As I am typing this, she's asleep on my chest and, as cheesy as it sounds, I really am cherishing these minutes, because I know it will be all too soon that she's going off to kindergarten!  The feeling of snuggling a newborn is like nothing else in all the world and I wish it could last so much longer than it will, but I'm also so excited to see her grow and get to know her more and more!

4th Of July

This 4th of July we tried to pack in as much fun as we could handle!  We started with what we like to call "The Longest, Shortest Parade"!  It's a little parade in Aptos that they call the world's shortest parade because the distance it travels is short.  It's not short time-wise though!  Our tradition is to get there early to get the spot right next to where the parade starts.  We get our chairs and blankets set-up and then go get donuts (and Carey gets a breakfast burrito)!  This year we had such a great time at the parade.  Grandma Jackie and Auntie Laura came in our car with us, and our friends, the Rhoads met us down there.  Grammie Lori, Uncle Judah, Auntie Melissa and Auntie Kellie came for a little bit, too!  There was a little girl sitting next to us that was totally enamored with Haley, which was really cute.  I actually think that we may have made it through the whole parade without any tears, too, which is amazing!

All ready to stake out our spot!

I think this is our first family picture as a family of 6 (or 7 if you count Banjo)

At least one of my kids knows how to pick a normal size donut!

Kacie was so excited about the parade!  I'm sure she'll remember every second of it!

I love that my hubs lets me do things like this!

Banjo doesn't know he's too big to be a lap dog!

Seth enjoyed the parade from Uncle Judah's lap.

After the parade we went home and everyone except Kacie and I took a nap!  Our friends, the Orlandos, came over for a bbq that evening.  The kids ran around and played like crazy hoolligans and we had a delicious bbq dinner.  After the bbq we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores!  That's about as much as we would normally pack into a day, but this time, we had more!  We packed the kids into the car and headed out to Watsonville, where it's legal to do fireworks!  Dana had scoped out a parking lot for us to do them in.  The funny thing is that we thought the kids would think it was so fun and they ended up sitting in the car, totally afraid of the fireworks!  Eventually Abby and Seth came out and even did some sparklers!  It was really fun, though, and we decided that next year we'll save the money on buying our own fireworks and just watch all the huge illegal ones that where going off all around us!

Carey and Dominick (aka "Unky") ready to light some fireworks...after they laid them all out from biggest to smallest!

A car full of frightened children!

Dance Recital 2014

We always love dance recital day, and this year was so fun because it was Seth's first time in the recital and Haley's first time in the big kid recital, plus she did 2 dances. 

Seth woke up at 5:30 and told me he was so excited and that he was going to eat breakfast and then get his costume on!  His recital was first and we got there plenty early to get good seats.  He was so excited and not even a little bit nervous.  Onstage he looked like he was having a blast, and he knew every step so well!  Papa Phil said that Seth "stole the show"!

This kid is ready to go!

Waiting in line to get in to the show!

Doing the "coffee grinder"!

We had about an hour between Seth's recital and when Haley had to be backstage for her recital, so we went and got some ice cream.

 

After ice cream it was time for Haley to get ready.  She changed into her costume in the car and I did her hair and make-up on the sidewalk and she was ready to go.  She was also super excited, and a little nervous about changing costumes backstage by herself.  She did an awesome job with a big smile and beautiful dance moves, especially in her ballet dance.

Jazz dance

Ballet dance

Finale

Is this girl gorgeous or what?!

Webber girls:)

Our sweet friends Joy and Janelle came to watch Haley's dance.

It was Kacie's first big day out, and she did great.  Abby did a really good job as well, just waiting around for shows to start, and then sitting and watching all the dances.  It was such a fun day and we can't wait until next year!