first day of school

WOW...summer seems to have gone by so fast now that school has started again! All of the kids have been very excited to start since last Thursday when we went and met the teachers! Kailee started 7th grade! Can you believe it?...she will be 13 in a month! She is soooo darling she has fabulous teachers and is sooo excited to be in Varsity Choir this year! She is wearing a little bit of makeup...and she looks so cute in her mascara and lip gloss! {she had to get her glasses updated (new prescription) wait till you see her in her new frames...darling!} Austin started 6th...he went from being the big man on campus to the low end of the totem pole. He had a great first day though...he had fun and had good things to say about his teachers! I think he is gonna do great! Tyson started 2nd grade with a fabulous teacher, Mrs. Wagner. He just kept telling me over and over today how much he likes 2nd grade already! I had lunch with him and Kyler today and they both had lots of great things to say! Kyler, my baby, he started Kindergarten! I know the only reason I could leave him today was because I knew I left him in such great hands....Ms. Rigling is the best!!! :) He loved his first day...he told me about everything they did! He got to be the "caboose" today...he got to close the doors, turn out the lights and brought up the end of the line! He liked that job. I was sad when I came back home this morning and the house was so quiet! I went to breakfast with some of my girlfriends though for our annual Cheers or Tears outing...I was the tears this year...although I kept it together and had fun with the girls!

Ty in his classroom...at his desk

Kyler at his table...he is at table #3

Kyler waving to me when I came to have lunch with him today!

a day at the beach

Shawn took the kids to Galveston for a day at the beach. This was the weekend I hurt my back...I was on muscle relaxers and useless to them...so they made do without me and Shawners packed 'em all up and off they went! They had a ball! One funny thing happened! Kyler was out swimming and all of the sudden he started crying that his pinky toe hurt so Shawn picked him up to look at it and there was a little crab hanging from his toe...it had pinched him and didn't give up without a fight. Kyler loves to tell the story!! :) Kailee got to bring her friend McKell along too!

Chloe's blanket

Well...now that Chloe has her blanket I am allowed to share these pictures! Kailee was very insistent that I couldn't show these until Chloe saw her blanket first! Kailee made this blanket all by herself! Pretty neat huh?! As soon as cousin Chloe was born (back in February) Kailee went to work on a blanket for her. She had some help from her teacher in school who was extremely sweet to help her! It took me a little while to get the batting so Kailee could finish it up...and even a little bit longer again to get it sent! {insert very sheepish grin here} Check out a darling picture of sweet little Chloe here!

Painting

Last week we finally painted Tyson & Kyler's room!! I know...it's embarrassing...we have only been here 3 years....no big deal! Ty picked the color all by himself! We brought home a ton of paint samples and he went through all of them and picked a color that matched the boys bedding! He did a fantastic job! I will post more pictures soon when I finish the finishing touches. We taped off 2 rectangles...one next to each bed and made a chalkboard/message board on the wall! They are loving it! Austin's room is next and then hopefully my room and then I am sick of the kitchen color so that's gettin' redone too!

Ty took his turn painting very seriously!

He didn't like being interrupted for a smiling picture but he was sweet to cooperate.

Kyler was wild with the roller...we had to keep a close eye on him. He kept saying "I CAN DO IT!!"

Smile! He was more than happy to smile for the camera!!

gifts from dad

Shawn got home from Indonesia safe and sound last Monday night!! We are super glad about that! He brought cool and unique gifts to all the kids and me! He bought things that they couldn't get here in the states! The kids love their gifts and it will be something they can always treasure! So what did we get?...Austin got this little wooden puzzle thing called a Bintang...it took him about an hour to figure it out and he has it mastered now!! :) It was hand carved!together

apart
Ty got a shadow box with this flying lizard!! gross! All I can say is that I am glad it's dead and in a closed container! He of course LOVES it!!in case you hadn't seen enough of it already! eewwww!

Kailee started a doll collection a few years ago and so Shawn got her this neat doll! It's made of wood and all hand carved and hand painted. It's called a Shinta...she stands for faithfulness and honor...the story goes something like this; Her husband had her thrown in jail and then released her to be thrown in a fire because he thought she wasn't a virgin. She survived the fire and was unharmed which proved her innocence! Some fairytale huh?!
I got this beautiful and very real pearl necklace and some pearl earrings!! Gorgeous huh?!! They aren't farmed pearls either...they were "wild"!!Kyler got a bongo drum...again hand carved and hand painted!! He loves it...it has been a favorite among all the kids!
Then last...here are some pics of the $$ from over there! Isn't it crazy to see 100,000 printed on some money. Too bad it only equals $100 U.S. dollars. The 1,000 one equals about 1 U.S. dollar.

This set of coins is from Hong Kong...he stopped there on his way back home.