Benjamin's First day of preschool

Benjamin started preschool this year. We're doing a mommy swap 2 days a week. So far so good! There are 6 little boys with in exactly a year. It's fun, Thomas and Ben have the same birthday...just one year apart. We were all a little worried about 6 boys, but so far, it hasn't been too bad. The 2 moms that have had them so far, have said that they are very well behaved boys. KUDOS to us moms!!! I'm so excited, he's been coming home singing songs and telling me all about what he's learned.
The other day he came home and told me that the red circle is where you sit when you're not being kind. Then later that day Andrew did something that Ben perceived as not being kind and he told me that Andrew needed to sit on the red circle. He's really excited too for all of his friends to come to our house. me...I'm a little nervous.

First Day of School

Andrew started school in August! He started 1st grade and was SO excited!!! He started out in a 1st 2nd combo class, then, unfortunately due to money, his class was disbanded after only a week and his teacher was unfortunately let go. He's really enjoying his new teacher though.

Pictures: Just before school, Some of the kids he walks with, there are actually about 11 of them that walk to school together, Andrew's old class and heading off to class.

He LOVES school, and he really loves his new teacher. She's really good at rewarding the students for good behavior, I think it helps, especially when there's almost 30 kids in a class.

Santa Monica

This summer we were able to spend some time at the beach. A few friends were heading down and so we deicided to join them. I'm SO glad that we did. We went to Santa Monica, only about 2 hours from our house. The boys had a BLAST playing in the sand!

Abby and Ashlan decided to bury the boys. I must say I was surprised they went for it!During one of our trips the older boys spent their time digging holes. They were HUGE!! Andrew and Ben wanted to spend most of their time just hanging out in them.

The girls were enjoying being silly and posing for the camera.

Both boys couldn't get enough of chasing the waves. They thought it was THE BEST!!!

Just in case you were wonderin why there were no pictures of Sierra...The first time she cried almost the whole time, this time...she slept! That's what happens when your brothers LOVE something...we go to the beach anyway!
 

Changes are happening

We have some changes coming to our family this year. Sierra has been diagnosed with Plagiocephaly. Which sounds a WHOLE lot worse than it is. Basically, she has a misshapen head. She prefers to lay on her right side and so her head has become flattened on that side as well has her forehead has been pushed forward a little and her ears are not symmetrical. Now, no ones head is ever really exactly round. Most people only have a difference of less than 7cm. What that means is they measured her head from the from right to the back left and then the front left to the back right. There was a 17cm difference. They then measured from her nose to her left ear which was about 90cm and her nose to her right ear which was about 97. A huge difference. And would make it difficult to wear glasses. Because she lays on one side of her head, she also has a stiff neck. Some would call it Torticollis. But she didn't have ALL the symptoms of torticollis. The pediatrician felt that her stiff neck was more from laying on one side. We are stretching her neck and repositioning her head. It has come to the point though where repositioning isn't enough. She moves too much and even will wake up when we try and turn her head to lay on her left side.

Because of the significant difference in dimensions and the lack of success when repositioning her head we have made the decision to have her wear a helmet. This helmet will be worn 23 hours a day for three months. It puts pressure on the parts of the head that they don't want to grow and leaves room for the head to grow in other places. After 3 months her head will not be perfect but it will be SO much better. A blessing for us is her easy going personality. She fusses for a minute getting her helmet on and getting it off. She just doesn't really like to be messed with. We have had it for 3 days now. She hasn't had to wear it for 23 hours yet....we're still in the getting used to it stage. Last night she slept all night with it for the first time and did OK. I was really worried that it would be a long night. Thankfully it wasn't and when she did wake up at 4:30 Bob got up with her.

The BEST part was when the boys first saw her with her helmet. The first thing Ben said was "Pretty helmet! your so pretty with your helmet!" Melted my heart. Andrew was just as loving to her. They had never gone to a DR appt and so they didn't know what to expect. I couldn't have asked for a better reaction.

June

At the end of June, Bob's grandma passes away which meant a trip to Hemet for a memorial service. This just the day after we has seen Jen and her kids in Los Banos and Connor march with the Troopers in Clovis. That's right after a late night Friday night, we got back in the car and drove down to Hemet to pay our respects to Grandma Phyllis Borland. This of course meant a visit from Bob's parents!! We were lucky enough too to have them then drive the 2 hours up to Bakersfield to spend Sunday and Monday with us.

Sunday was spent lounging and playing games with a concert given to us by Andrew. He's been taking piano lessons and it actually really good!

Monday was spent lounging by the pool and enjoying the sunshine. And OF COURSE riding the waves that daddy loves to make in the pool. Sierra enjoys just floating around in her floaty and soaking up the fresh air.

Andrew and Ben wanted to show off what they had learned in swimming lessons. Andrew had to show that that he could now jump from the side of the pool! NOT something he would do when they had been here just a month before. He was also thrilled to shoe them that he was OK with putting his face in the water, ANOTHER huge accomplishment.

We sure love having family come and visit. It was an unfortunate situation but we know that Grandma is happy now and is with Grandpa.
Friends and family are ALWAYS welcome at our house we LOVE having visitors!!

'Camping'

Our campsite this year was FULL of ammenities! We had the PERFECT spot! A pool and nice cushy chairs to sit on around the camp fire. Who wouldn't want to camp where we were!!!

Sierra even relaxed in the hammock She was pretty content until she tried to sit up and almost flipped out. No worries daddy was standing next to her.

I think next time though, we'll head to the beach or the mountains. It was too easy to just go inside. Which did end up happening for a few of us. By the time the night was over, Andrew was the only one who spent the whole night in the tent. We did have fun though, the boys can't wait to do it again.

Bens poor thumb

In the past 10 months Ben has smashed his finger in a car door and had the fingernail fall off, had all of his fingers caught in a car door (luckily that time he was holding a corndog and it got the brunt of the damage.) He then slamed his thumb in the car door, then a few weeks later he slamed it in the sliding door. It was looking a little red and it was pretty tender, he then was playing with a truck and it flipped back and caught the same thumb at the cuticle. It turned BLACK and just this last week the new nail grew in and the old one fell off. Poor Ben:( Tough kid though!! We'll see how long we can go WITHOUT losing another fingernail!