Dawson Begins Kindergaten Readiness

On Monday, August 18th, Dawson excitedly attended his first day of Kindergarten Readiness at Wesley Day School.  This year since Dawson is 5 he can attend a kindergarten readiness program three mornings a week.  I am so sad that I don't get to have Dawson home those three mornings (9-1pm), but he's so excited about it! 
It seems like Dawson's been in the process of starting this school year for forever!  We attended the lottery drawing waaay back in February to get Dawson's spot at the school.  Then on August 6th Dawson's teacher, Mrs. Cherry, came for our home visit! I LOVE that the teachers do this.  John had to work, so we send Nora Kate and Carter to have some Nana time so that Dawson, Mrs. Cherry, and I could have some uninterrupted conversation.  Dawson was very excited for her to come to our house.  The morning of, he decided we needed to make brownies for her! So sweet!  While she was here Dawson was very chatty, and happily showed her the playroom, his room, and then he decided she should see Nora Kate's room too as he said, "it's kind of girlish" haha! 
Then the next week on August 12, we attended Dawson's school for a tea (cookies and punch).  All the parents and kids toured the art room, music room, and got to see the classroom.  We also got to meet the teacher's assistant, music, and art teachers that night too.  After the tea we went out for pizza with Dawson's friend Carson (who is in Dawson's class-and he's soooo excited!) and Dawson's friend Colt (who isn't in Dawson's class-but Dawson loves that they go to the same preschool now!).  Dawson definitely felt like a big kid with the home visit, tea, and pizza with friends!
Then after all this leading up to the first day, Dawson was beyond excited to go on Monday the 18th!  He has 14 other kids in his class, and after the first three days he could tell me Carson (that he already knew) and 3 other kids names in his class-which I thought was pretty good!
From his first week (3 days) of kindergarten readiness the highlights that have been reported to me are:
-Dawson likes playing hide and seek and "the run and hold hands game" with Carson on the playground
-Dawson's class eats lunch in "a different room with more tables that has the other kindergarten readiness in it, and I saw a friend I know in there and she said, "hi, Dawson." it was Mary Grace's Nora" (A friend of ours has a sweet daughter named Nora, and we always make such a big deal about calling our Nora Kate, Nora Kate that Dawson always distinguishes the reason that he's calling Nora, Nora is because it's Mary Grace's (daughter) Nora!  Haha!  I think he liked seeing a friend at lunch.
-"We do art in the art class EVERYDAY!!!!"
-"Sometimes other boys can be silly in music."
-Dawson has a class pet-a gerbil named Ezra Jack Keats.  Dawson LOVES this gerbil.  He always has lots of things to say about Ezra Jack Keats-and always calls the gerbil by it's full name!
-Mrs. Cherry blows a whistle when it's time to clean up.
-Each student gets different jobs like line leader and door holder.  Dawson thinks this is very important to report each day!
-He's also been very detailed in reporting what each student has in their lunch box hah!
-Dawson LOVES the kitchen/house center in their classroom and says this is his favorite area to play.
-His favorite thing on the playground is the fireman's pole.

Dawson really loves his new school and class so far, and I'm so glad!

Dawson watched out the window as it got close to time for Mrs. Cherry's home visit!  He couldn't wait!

Dawson and Mrs. Cherry during the home visit.

At the school tea, Dawson met the art teacher and did his first art project of the year!

Dawson and his friend Carson quickly determined this was the most fun center in the classroom during the school tea!

The class pet-Ezra Jack Keats

Dawson already knows two of his classmates! Here they are at the tea!

Taking a break from the tea to climb a tree!

 

First day of school shirt!  What's more appropriate for my future farmer than a truck loaded with school supplies?!

On the second day of school Dawson wore a shirt that said "Preschool Rocks" and had his name on it.  On the third day of school Dawson wore his shirt from his birthday that had a big number 5 with his name on it.  On Wednesday he asked if he had to wear a shirt with his name made on it every day to this school or if he could wear other shirts too! Hah!

First day of school pictures!

He's excited! Can you tell?!

Who is this big kid?!

Where's that little 7 lb 13 oz baby boy we brought home from Huntsville Hospital just 5 short years ago!?

Dawson was back and forth between whether he wanted to tuck his shirt in or not (hah!), so when we got to school he untucked his shirt and said I could take one more picture before he went in (above)!  Here he is ready for his first day!

One more picture in the hallway headed to his classroom.

Nora Kate is ONE

Our precious baby girl is one!  I'm not sure how we reached this milestone so quickly, and it really does make me sad to think of how quickly this year has passed-so this post is going to focus on all the adorable and new, fun things Nora Kate is doing at 12 months!
Nora Kate had her 12 month check up this week, and weighs 25 pounds 14 ounces!  She may have started out 13 ounces lighter than her brothers, but she's now 5 pounds 4 oz more than Carter at 1 and 3 pounds heavier than Dawson at one!  On the growth chart for weight she was above the 98th percentile.  Nora Kate is 29 1/2inches tall (slightly shorter than her brothers).  We absolutely love all of Nora Kate's sweet little rolls, and I know how quickly they will disappear as she becomes more and more active over the next year.
Speaking of becoming more active, Nora Kate is a pro at cruising the furniture, walls, and toys.  She also loves to hold hands and walk, but she has yet to take her first steps on her own-although we've come very close a few times, until she panics and decides to sit and crawl! I know it's only a matter of time before we have a walker!
Nora Kate's two newest vocabulary additions this month include "uh oh" and "right back"!  She says both of these frequently, and sometimes she even says "uh oh" BEFORE she accidently drops her cup or toy.  I love it when Nora Kate is about to leave the room and she tells us "right back"-so funny!
Nora Kate LOVES being outside just like her brothers, and she will point and fuss to go outside.  She likes playing on her quilt in the backyard, swinging (a favorite!), and being pushed in the stroller or push tricycle for walks around the neighborhood.  She also really enjoys riding in the bike trailer with Carter.  This month she started pointing and grunting and waving when her brothers would ride the gator.  We put her on, and she loves it!!!  She sits in the front seat like a little princess and rides around the yard.
Nora Kate is such a happy girl.  She is generally good at entertaining herself if I have to help Dawson or Carter with something....this is something I definitely do not take for granted as her older brothers took a long time to learn to entertain themselves for a short period of time! 
Nora Kate loves knocking over towers!  I think she would sit with me for hours on the floor and watch me build towers for her to knock over.  Her favorite book is still Touch and Feel Baby Animals but she's also been loving Panda Bear Panda Bear this month too, along with any books that has buttons for music or sounds.
Nora Kate loves her brothers more than anyone else it seems!  She's always SO happy to see them!  She's started saying "Daw!" trying to say Dawson and she just yells for Carter right now!  When she sees them she gets so, so excited and it seems they all three can get each other pretty rowdy.  Nora Kate seems to feed off of her brothers a lot-if they're rowdy she gets loud and rowdy too, which is pretty funny.  BUT she's also very, very cuddly!  I take advantage of this and hold and cuddle her as much as she will allow!! 
To continue this 12 month update...Nora Kate is not a picky eater and will generally eat almost anything we put on her highchair tray as long as she can self-feed.  She does not like anything we have to give her from a spoon!  Miss independent!  She's doing great drinking water and milk from her sippy cups too!
Nora Kate really enjoys the water, so bath time is always fun for her!  She also is so happy in the pool when we swim with our friends!  She also loves to dance and clap any time music is on or we are singing.  Nora Kate likes playing peek-a-boo too.
One of the best things that happened this month was Nora Kate started sleeping through the night!  She now sleeps through the night about 4 nights a week which is AWESOME!!!  I think since we have moved to Tennessee I have slept through the night about 100 times, so the possibility of uninterrupted sleep every other night is AMAZING!!!! 
We love our baby girl so very much and have enjoyed the precious first year!  Even though those first few months were not the easiest, dealing with Nora Kate's reflux and all, I would go back and re-live the past year in a heartbeat!  The first year has so many special milestones, things which once they've happened and are gone, they're gone!  I try not to focus on this, but to focus on all the fun milestones we will reach in the coming months and years with Nora Kate and her brothers! 
Now, on to the pictures of our little girl!

12 months and can't sit still!

Her brothers were making faces at her to try to get her to look toward the camera...looks like Nora Kate was trying to imitate them!

Nora Kate has learned she can take her hairbows off! :(

She mostly just touches and play with them, leaving them on...like in this picture!

Carter 2, Nora Kate 12 months, Dawson 5.

Sweet Carter is trying to help Nora Kate get her hairbow back on!

Love these three!

July 2014

July was another fun month for us!  We started the month out with a really fun 4th of July weekend!  John worked on Friday the 4th but had the weekend after off, so we celebrated all weekend.  On Friday, July 4th though Pop took Dawson fishing at the lake.  He surprised Dawson with his own fishing pole, and Dawson LOVED it!  AND he caught A LOT of fish!!

 

Pop and Dawson fished off of Dawson's great Uncle Wayne and great Aunt Arlene's dock, so after fishing for a little while Dawson got to go for a ride on Wayne's John Deere tractor!

 

Then back to more fishing!

Dawson and his Pop fishing!

I think I've mentioned this before, but the kids naps are generally overlapping for about an hour in the afternoons now so I'm having a little more time to do things like sew!  I had fun making these anchor (below) and crabby bow ties and hair bows for the kids! 

So on the 4th of July weekend, John came home from work on Friday night and surprised us by bringing home fireworks!  We let the boys stay up late and watch The Lego Movie for the first time (I'm not a fan-too much violence, but they enjoyed it, although they probably won't be watching it again).  They though this was a big treat.  When it was finally dark enough we sat and watched (below) while John did some fireworks for us.  The picture above and below were taken within minutes of each other but it looks like daylight below!  The kids are in their pjs already and you can see I have Nora Kate's baby monitor!

Red, white, and blue!  Happy 4th of July!

This is how Carter enjoys fireworks.

This is how Dawson enjoys fireworks.

We decorated the bike trailer/jogging stroller and Dawson's bike with streamers (Dawson thought this was great!) and went out our own little 4th of July parade around the neighborhood!

That afternoon during naptime I quickly squeezed in time to make Nora Kate a pillowcase dress to match her crabby bow so they could wear red, white, and blue matching to church the next day.

That evening we went to our friends the Myers house for swimming, a delicious dinner, fireworks, popsicles, and fun with friends!  Our other friends the Coppengers and the Gibsons were there too!  Here are some of the gang watching fireworks!

John and Fred setting off fireworks!

Sparkler time!

Carter's first sparkler.

Carter had his friends Olivia (left) and Harper (right).  Look at them holding hands! So sweet!

 

 

More fireworks by John and Fred.

 

 

 

Sweet friends!

This was a SO challenging! I was determined to get an adorable picture of the kids before church in their crabby attire...no such luck.  This picture is the best I could do.  Apparently it's super hard to be still for a picture...except for Dawson!

We went to Dollywood a couple of times this month.  This was when we first got to Dollywood.  Look at that face!  I'm not sure what that was about, but it was too cute not to get a picture of!

Driving the cars--always a hit!

Love seeing them walk like this...it will never get old!

bees

Nora Kate fell asleep on my lap on the train ride!  She rarely falls asleep like this anymore so I had to get a picture!  So sweet!

Carousel

Lolly came with us to Dollywood!

Nora Kate and Lolly on the carousel!

Somehow "put your arm around your brother for a picture" translated into "put your brother in a headlock!"

Flying elephants above and below

 

My best friend from high school, Cassie, had an adorable baby boy named Campbell back in February.  He and Nora Kate are only 6 months apart so we have basically already arranged their marriage! :) BUT we were excited to have them over one morning for me to show Cassie how I made the kids baby food, and to let them "play."  This "play" basically consisted of Nora Kate touching Campbell's face over and over, and Campbell pulling her hairbow off one time! So sweet!

For several days during mine and Dawson's special time after the "littles" (as he calls his little bro and little sis) have already laid down for nap, we worked on building this house out of popsicle sticks.  He was so happy to have it completed and get to paint it!!

We have been doing lots of walks and bike rides.  I looked in the bike trailer one evening and saw these two (Carter and Nora Kate) holding hands...I did NOT tell them to do this, they just were! 

Nora Kate playing in a mall play area for the 1st time this month.

Nora Kate got her first pair of REAL shoes at Stride Rite this month!

Proud of her new shoes!

Loves being outside!

I think these boys will ALWAYS love riding Pop's John Deere mower!

We had a preschool reunion with Dawson's preschool class (well 5 members of the class) on Saturday morning at the park. We played and picnicked!  Look at those sweet friends!

We got to go for a ride on the lake this month too!

Our Sunday School class had a family picnic at a class members parents land.  So fun!

Then the next day we went back to the lake to swim!

John was working so it was just me and the boys, Pop, and Uncle Logan.

Not sure how this got SO out of order, but this was from the 4th of July when Dawson was fishing with Pop!

We spent a lot of time in July swimming at our friends the Myers' pool!

Dawson and Charlie swimming!

Swimming always wears sweet Carter out!  When I went to check on him during nap, this is how he was sleeping!

We love swinging at the park!

Sandy Springs Park

Dawson getting to do a special treat and jump at the mall.  He LOVES this!

As a 2004 high school graduate, this year meant it was time for my class reunion.  Since I was class president senior year, I got to plan it!  Because our class was SO small, we decided to include the class of 2003 (John's class), since they didn't have a reunion last year.  We had our reunion at Copper Cellar, and it was a great time! 

Above:  John and two other members (Chris & Kealan) from the class of 2003.

Ashlee, me, Joseph, and Cassie...some of the members of the class of 2004.

We had fun at the reunion!!

John and I at our high school reunion!

My best friend from high school, Cassie, and I at the reunion!

The morning after the reunion we got up bright and early to drive to Dollywood to meet our friends, the Whites, who live in Asheville!  We hadn't seen them in a while and hadn't met their newest addition, Marshall-so sweet!!!- so we were thrilled to get to see them! 

We got there a little before our friends, so we went on in the park and took some pictures (see above) and rode a couple of rides.

Then we met up with our friends!  Dawson, Henry, Carter, and Thomas.

Carousel time!

After an exhausting morning at Dollywood, Nora Kate was exhausted!

We decided to visit the Dollywood playground at the end of the day so the kids got run, jump, and slide to get a few more wiggles out!

Dawson took this picture of us, and I was really impressed!

If only Josh and Cassandra lived closer!

The Whites and us...minus Marshall and Nora Kate who were sleeping in their strollers.

Sweet little ones.  Marshall and Nora Kate.

We have spent a lot of time riding bikes this month!  Dawson has gotten really fast on his bike, so I can ride along beside him pulling Carter and Nora Kate in the bike trailer.  EVERYONE LOVES THIS!  We usually take books and Carter "reads" to Nora Kate, in between yelling, "go faster!!"

Keeps us laughing!

One morning we visited the Muse Discovery Center.  Dawson always enjoys building with these foam pieces.

Lolly came with us to the Discovery Center.  Bubbles!

In the space ship!

Astronaut Carter

Pharaoh Carter 

Water fun

Astronaut Carter again

The kids LOVED showing their Lolly around the discovery center!

One more picture before leaving the discovery center.

Carter has been really into building things lately.  He built this out (it's magnetic), and called it a robot!

For about two weeks the kids were glued to the backdoor because a pitiful stray cat showed up at our house and would not leave!  It would lay right outside the backdoor, and the kids absolutely loved it!

Riding bikes!

Nora Kate we so excited to be riding the gator!  She waved the whole time!

Here's the stray cat.  Thankfully, Nana helped us to find a home for this cat.

Out of order but here are a couple more pictures from our Sunday School picnic on the farm!

Our Sunday School class!

We went back to the lake to swim a second time!  Dawson's all about jumping off the dock over and over and over!

Our visit to the zoo & zoo splash pad!

One evening we left Nora Kate with Lolly and Pop and took the boys to play putt putt.  We had a blast, and Carter and Dawson have both already been asking to go back.  Carter has even planned out who will get what color ball when we go back, haha!

Putt Putt Golf and Games

John loves that these two are so interested in putt putt, he's hoping to have two great golfing buddies in a few years!  He really enjoys golfing with his dad, so hopefully Dawson and Carter can enjoy the same!

(I played putt putt too, but didn't fare so well...John got THREE holes in one!)

After putt putt we played some games!

Lolly gave the kids these fun big sponge stamps, so I stripped the kids down and let them paint!

Nora Kate's first time finger painting.

We visited Safety City in July too!  Safety City is the mini version of downtown Knoxville that the kids can drive around.  It has working stop lights, rail road crossings, and cute little buildings.  This is the 3rd summer we have visited Safety City (it's only open 2 days a week in June and July and is closed the rest of the year to the public), and it's always a big hit!!

There's a mini version of St. Mary's (where Carter and Nora Kate were born-I was born there too!), and I always feel the need to get their picture beside this mini St. Mary's!

Dawson and Colt at Safety City.

Oops! This Dollywood pictures is out of order, but here are Dawson and I on a ride!  Dawson has really branched out lately and tried some bigger rides!  And he really enjoys them!  YAY!

 

Whew, I think that wraps up July!  August will be a busy month for us too with Nora Kate's first birthday, Dawson's first day of kindergarten readiness (3 day a week preschool), several playdates already in the works for Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate, and soccer starting back up.