July Family Beach Trip

It's getting really bad but I am going to get caught up here.....starting with our beach trip this past July.  We had a great time this year visiting with family and the kids loved the ocean and the pool.  Grant and Luke got to find their first shark teeth and we brought lots of them home.  Grant is now a really great swimmer so he loves being in the pool as often as possible.  He and Drew had a blast diving to the bottom to retrieve stuff. 

Here are the professional pictures we had taken while we were there....

Updates FINALLY

Whew! Here I go again but even further out than the last post. Too busy lately….better late than never right!?!

Grant has turned 6 and completed Kindergarten and it went so fast! He is now doing lots of camps this summer and really enjoying them. Each one has a theme, last week was space where they made a real rocket and this week is cooking…that should be interesting.

Both kids are in swim lessons now. Sloan just started her first lessons and is doing really well. She is still hesitant but actually got moved to a level above where I signed her up at. Grant is swimming really well now and keeps getting better. He is actually going to be doing a week long swim camp this summer. 

Over Memorial Day, Grant got to go tubing for the first time and he LOVED it! Of course, I was a little nervous but very happy he had fun.

Grant got to go on his first school Field Trip a few months ago. I had a first too….as a chaperone lol. The class went to the Aquarium. Grant was just excited about riding a bus…which he had never done. Still shocks me as we are driving down the interstate that there are no seat belts in these buses. Imagine trying to keep 20 kids rear ends on the bus seats when they aren’t strapped down……not easy! All the kids had a great time and I was exhausted just keeping up with the 5 that I was responsible for throughout the day.

Grant had his 6 year check up and passed the hearing and vision test with flying colors. He is now 44lb (40%) and 46 1/8 inches tall (60%). Meanwhile, Sloan has finally made it to 26lbs! She continues to be a light weight but super feisty to make up for it.

I took Grant to Lego Land after his doctor’s appointment. He had fun with the rides and building Lego cars but I was not as impressed as I thought I would be unfortunately.

Grant’s birthday party theme this year was reptiles (snakes and dinosaurs). We had a reptile man come and bring lots of snakes, a baby alligator, a big lizard, etc. It was awesome and then Grant even got his very own snake for his birthday from CC and Papa Bill. Grant named his new pet “Hunter” since he is green.

Sloan had her first visit to the dentist and did so much better than I expected. She actually let them clean her teeth. Her first reaction was comical though. The tech started to reach into her mouth and Sloan grabbed her wrist and said “what are you going to do?” She likes to know exactly what is going to happen before it happens. Slightly controlling, lol!

We all went and picked strawberries which was a lot of fun. The kids ate a lot of them while picking and then we brought a huge bucket home.

This past weekend, we went to the Butterfly festival where both kids got to hold butterflies. There was a huge butterfly release and lots of fun activities. And it was so crowded that we had to ride school buses as a shuttle from a remote parking lot……so Sloan got her first bus ride too! She thought that was pretty neat.

Sloan’s favorite thing lately is to ask “Why?” for everything. She is constantly asking questions and even asked me “How old are you?”. I never know what will come out of her mouth. And she loves to talk to strangers too.

Snow Days

Snow Days

Happy St Patty's Day

Easter Projects

Happy Easter!

First time on a bus and first Field Trip to the GA Aquarium

Aquarium Fun in Kindergarten!

Gymnastics Party

Sloan and Jon Walter hanging out

Cheering on Grant at soccer

First trip to the dentist.....unexpected success! And yes, she is wearing her bunny ears, lol

 Found a brown snake in the yard and she LOVED it!

 Strawberry picking

Sloan hanging out in my bed while I get ready in the morning

Summertime is here finally!

Sloan and Georgia....so sweet!

Tubing for the first time over Memorial Day and Grant couldn't get enough!

 Lego Land fun!

Holding Butterflies at the Butterfly Festival

Our nature child and her butterfly!

Grant's 6th Birthday Party

Lizard

Milk Snake

 King Snake

King Snake

Baby Aligator

Albino Python

Grant's Birthday gift....a Rough Green Snake....promptly named "Hunter"



Christmas Time

We had a great Christmas this year!  Grant's favorite things are sharks and dinosaurs these days.  And they make a ton of robot dinosaurs so he really loves that!  He has them all lined up on the floor in his bedroom.  And Sloan loves her doggies that bark and all of her dolls.  She also loves to play doctor and do everyone's hair.  We went and looked at Christmas lights a lot over the holidays, we visited a couple of different petting zoos and we went to Snow Mountain.  Snow Mountain was really fun this year.  Grant really got into the tubing and Sloan wanted to do it too.  As I walked her up there with her tube, I honestly thought she would back out at the last minute.  But she got on that tube and said "now push me!" and she was off!  And then she begged to do it over and over.  They went down over 10 times and would have stayed all day if we let them.  They also got to build igloos and snowmen. 

 

Our elves visited us again this year.  Grant's is named Buddy and got a middle name this year....he is now "Buddy Hotshot" and Sloan named her elf "Elsie".  They had a lot of fun every day finding their elves and talking about Santa.  Christmas day was so animated this year.  Both of them were so into it......it made it really fun to watch.  Almost every gift Grant opened he would say, "this is exactly what I wanted! I love it".  He said he "loves Christmas and Santa" numerous times.  Sloan keeps asking where Elsie is now though and wants me to bring her back, ha.   

 

Grant is really enjoying Kindergarten but he doesn't like getting up so early...the bell rings at 7:50am.  He has liked being home for a couple of weeks and sleeping in, lol.  He loves to count to 100 now and is reading a ton of different words.  This is interesting now though because he can read some of the signs as we are driving.  And I can't spell simple words without him knowing what I am saying, oh well.  He gets to go to the library every week at school and pick a new book to bring home.  It is always sharks and dinosaurs!

 

Sloan keeps us busy with her personality!  Her most common thing now is to say she wants something and then immediately say she doesn't and then again say she does, ugh!  It is slightly frustrating.  Luke was joking with her about something the other day and she looked at him and said "don't start that dad!".  Her other favorite phrases are "definitely yes" and "definitely no".  No clue where that came from but we laugh every time she says them.

 

Sloan finally got the bottom 2 year molars in but still nothing on the top.  Maybe by the time she is 4, they will come in, lol.  She is weighing in at a hefty 23lbs these days, ha.  She is still in her crib and I am in no rush to move her to a big bed right now.  Grant moved to a queen when he turned 3 with no issues.  Somehow I think Sloan may not be as easy to transition.  She gets very hung up on things and doesn't like change at all.  She has a few changes coming this year though....ditching the crib, ditching the pacifiers at night, and starting preschool.  I am currently looking for a preschool for her similar to what Grant did.  She will start in August but will be put in with 3 year olds because of her birthday.  Her attention span is getting better.  She will sit and watch cartoons for about 20 minutes.  She really likes to paint and color.

 



At school with Grant for his Christmas party

 

 Sloan jumping in the bed!

 

 Sloan with our lighted deer

Christmas Cookie time

 

 Grant in some fake snow (dish soap foam)

 Petting Zoo

He got a Gamecock!

 

 At the petting zoo with a Llama.  It made a weird noise and showed its teeth after this picture....freaked both kids out, ha!

Straightening her hair like I do

 Luke and some turkeys....they were aggressive birds too.  One of them grabbed the map out of Luke's hand and he had to chase it down to get it back, lol!

 

 Snow Mountain...tubing and building snowmen

 Christmas Day

Sloan with her FurReal Dog

 Sloan looking at what Santa brought her

 

 Grant opening the first gift!

 Grant and one of his new dinosaurs