Slow Down!

Where is time going?! I cannot believe how fast the days are flying by.Since my last post quite a bit has happened so here is the run down.

Savannah started kindergarten!!! I still cannot get over the fact that this girl is big enough to be in school. She goes to all day kindergarten and loves it, it has also been so amazing to see how much she is already learning. She can spell a few words and is just starting read very small words as well. She made it into the 100 club last week and she was beyond proud of herself. (The 100 club is for kids who can count to 100.) This girl was made for school and I hope she continues to love it and to do so well.

Abby is now 14 months which is also crazy to think about, she is starting to look so grown up and she desperately wants to be a big girl like her sisters. She is an expert walker now, she climbs on everything, and has just started talking. She can say hi, daddy, mom, Nanna for Savannah, more, thank you, bye, uh-oh, no, and more. There are probabley more but I can't remember, also she says all these in her cute baby way but for those who are around her we know what she's saying.

Savannah also celebrated her 6th Birthday in September she had been looking forward to it for months and was so exited to celebrate with her new class at school. I asked her some question on her birthday and her answers are below; What's your favorite color?, What's your favorite thing to eat?, What's your favorite thing to do?, What's your favorite movie?, What's your favorite thing about school?, and What's your favorite thing to do with your family? This little girl is amazing!!! She's such a smart girl, a fantastic big sister, so creative, fun, sassy, head strong, and passionate. There are so many things about Savannah that I admire she really is just the best.

We've also been trying to spend more time together sine Jacob is now done with school, the girls were excited when they found a butterfly in their pool.

We also went for little hike, poor Olivia got a blister so Savannah took a turn carrying her.

Abby with her BFF Jacob.

Savannah was convinced she was getting sunburned so she kept putting on more and more sunscreen.

The fair also came the end of September and as usual we had a blast! The girls had so much fun riding all the rides, getting their faces painted, seeing all the exhibits, and Savannah even rode a sheep!

One of my favorite things that happened the end of September was having a visit from my parents! We always love when they come and this visit was no exception. On their first full day with us we went to Bearizona and it was so fun. You drive threw part of the park and see bigger animals that can come right up to your car and then the second half of the park you walk threw. We saw all kinds of animals like bears, wolves, big horn sheep, bison, buffalo, otters, foxes, and some birds during the birds of prey show.

This was a shorter trip so they were only with us for 4 days but we had a blast hanging out, going out to eat, and exploring. I can't wait to see my parents again cause I can never get enough of them.

Also while my mom was here she took some pictures of the girls and I'm of course in love with them.

Lastly to start off our October we watched General Conference which as always was amazing! I love being able to hear from the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am always left wanting to hear more and looking forward to the next session in 6 months. I once again made conference packets for the girls and had huge success, I want to blog about them so I can have a place with all the info I need for next time.

What The?!

Where did this summer go? I feel like it flew by and now school has started for Savannah and Olivia goes back next week, its craziness I tell you. I have some fun summer things to blog about but I'll get to those another day, today I'm talking about Savannah and her first day of Kindergarten.

 I took Savannah and picked her up her first day. I had a vision of how it would be taking Savannah to school the first day and my vision did not go as planned. Savannah has been excited for school since preschool ended in May. We had all her supplies ready and she picked her outfit out almost a week ahead of time. This girl was ecstatic!!! We went to meet the teacher night the Friday before school started and Savannah loved every minute of it and we found out quite a few of her friends were in her class too. Savannah is also going to school all day instead of half day so she gets to do all the fun afternoon activities like going to the library, computer lab, music, and gym. It was finally the first day of school, Savannah was up at 6:30 all dressed and her bed was made. She came into my room and asked what other chores she needed to do before we could go to school. My friend Maryanne came over to watch Olivia and Abby so I could drop off Savannah. This girl was bouncing out of her seat with excitement! We got to her class, hung up her backpack, gave her teacher her supplies, and went to her seat. They had some blocks on each table for the kids to play with until school started. Here is where things did not go as planned. When I told Savannah I was going to leave she actually started crying!!! I was shocked to say the least and I didn't know what to do. I stayed with her a bit longer in hopes that one of her friends would finally show up. When one did they let Savannah sit next to her and play, soon after she stopped crying after I had left but I had started crying because I felt so bad leaving her there. When I went to pick her up she had had a great day but said that she missed me all day and didn't like being at school all day. I know by the end of the week she'll love every minute of it and be so happy. This morning she rode the bus, thankfully she has two friends that get on, on the same bus stop so she has friends to sit with on the way to school and back home. I'll be honest though, this morning was hard for me, as she skipped off to get on the bus as happy as could be I had a lump in my throat and butterflies in my stomach. Savannah can be a handful and make me want to pull all my hair out but I adore her, I want to protect her. The thought of something happening to her or someone being mean to her is devastating to me. Its hard to let go of that control/influence I had when she was home with me. Now she's in this new place without me having new experiences and I have to trust that I've done my job as her mom, that she'll be able to take care of herself and make good choices. Its scary but I can do it and so can she. The good points of Savannah being in school are Olivia misses her like crazy and Savannah misses Olivia. We were having some fighting issues right before school started and both girls needed some separation and now they have lots. Savannah and I appreciate each other more and miss each other more. Its fun to see how grown up Savannah feels now, yesterday Savannah said, "Mom, I can do my hair myself cause that's what kindergartners do." I did it in the end but still it was cute that she was already feeling more independent.

To celebrate a successful first day we went out for ice cream on our way home from picking Savannah up. In short time is flying by, Olivia starts back up with preschool in a week and Abby turns 1 tomorrow. Everyone says how much faster time goes by once your kids start grade school and it kind of has me freaking out because I already think time is going by fast. How can it go by even faster? I guess I'll find out.

Insta Love

Time is flying by so here is a quick recap of all the fun things we've been up to this past month.

 Seeing lizards is how you know spring has started here in Arizona.

 This little girl turned 8 months

 The big girls and I did a mile fun run with some friends of ours.

 Happy Easter!!!

 Love this little girl of mine!

 I always have to document when these two are being sweet to each other.

 Crazy hair day at school, we chalk dyed the girls hair.

 Then this girl turned 9 months! Where is the time going?!

 Little Miss got hit in the eye with the toy stroller.

This big girl had her preschool graduation, I totally got teary eyed.

Preschool 2013

How are my babies old enough for preschool? Savannah missed the cut off for kindergarten by 12 days, its actually fine by me if she stays in preschool one more year I think it will actually be good for her. When my mom and I dropped them off the first day the girls were so excited! Excited is actually probably an understatement. Savannah has the same teacher she had last year which I was really happy about because she LOVED her! We are fans of Ms Allyson in our house. Olivia got a new teacher that was added this year and I've only heard wonderful things about her so I was pretty excited. I didn't have a hard time dropping off Savannah but I almost started balling after I dropped off Olivia. Olivia on the other hand was very excited to be in school and could care less if I left her there. She loves Ms Carol and is always thrilled to go to school and I know she has the best time. I love the girls preschool and I also love having the girls gone 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. Its a great time for me to go to appointments or the store and only have little Abby with me. I'm also looking forward to taking a nap one of these days since the girls school schedule goes along with Abby's afternoon nap.

Preschool

As I mentioned in a previous post we got Savannah signed up for preschool while my mom was visiting. Today was her first day and it was a HUGE success! She loved her teacher, made a new little friend, and just had an all around fantastic time. She can't wait to go back tomorrow and I think she'll be devastated that next week is spring break which means no school. I was so proud of Savannah and am so excited for her to start this new chapter of her life.

Refrigerator Magnets

Oh the wonderful uses of refrigerator magnets, they are totally coming in handy for doing Preschool at home. I made a chart with almost all the letters on it and I have Savannah match up the letters. If I'm with her during the activity I tell her what the letters are and she's doing well at catching on. Today while she was doing this Olivia took it upon herself to hand Savannah each letter. After Savannah would take the letter from her she'd say, "Ok Olivia, we need to find the "E"" or whatever letter she was holding, she didn't know them all but she got quite a few right. It was pretty cute.

Preview

So we haven't gotten Savannah set up with preschool yet, its a bummer really because I know she'd love it. Currently she's on a wait list and I'm hoping and praying she gets in this year, if not we'll probably have to wait till next year. So I've decided we're doing preschool at our house starting Monday. I'm finishing up packets and activities that I'll keep in a designated school spot and we're going to have school every day. While at Costco today I saw these fun flash cards and at $8 I decided not to pass them up. As soon as we got home Savannah asked if we could have school so she could try them out so I of course let her dig in.

The cards cover the whole alphabet and you just match the letters to the correct picture. They're simple enough and don't take her very long to get threw but its good practice on recognizing her letters and seeing how things are spelled. Its also nice because its an activity she can really do on her own while I try to keep Olivia from pulling cards off the table and running around with them.

When she was done putting all the matches together she was so beyond thrilled and proud of herself for finishing. I also like the cards because there are so many more things we can do with them. Eventually we can use them as spelling words and I can have her fill in the blanks, they can be regular flash cards where she just has to tell me the letter, see all kinds of fun things. So far I think they were a great investment.