Pre-school 2019

My little Annie is old enough for Preschool now - whaaaaaaat?! We've actually been able to ease into this stage, which has been *so* nice. In August, Annie started preschool with a lady from church -Miss Katie. She has a preschool out of her home, and Annie gets to attend it with her cousin, Lukas. Annie love love loves it.

 Annie loves preschool. The theme of August was farm animals - so if you know Annie, you know that was her jam. She's always excited about school, and she wears her backpack with glee. She hates taking it off in the car for the ride to school. Here she is on her first day of school:

 Happy girl, am I right?? :)

 Her cousin, Lukas, came home with us after preschool for a little bit. They had fun showering Laura with attention (via stickers). I love these babies. And we feel really lucky to have so much family around for our kids to grow up with. It's fun to see that our kids don't just have cousins, but they are getting some strong friendships with their cousins. Miss Katie has told us about how close Annie and Lukas are at school and how they take care of each other, and it warms my heart.

 Well today, a month later, both Laura and Annie are starting Kids Day Out (KDO). It's at a local church and it's a preschool program. It's 2x/week for 4 hours. Annie has been really excited about it, and Laura is my go with the flow baby. Today was the first day, so here are the mandatory first day of school pictures :)

 Y'all, check out these babies! My heart is bursting!

 So you can see above, Laura can barely handle that backpack. I was dying laughing watching her try to walk around with it on, but she didn't want to take it off. She loves it!

 So today at drop-off, I totally cried. I dropped off Annie, and she did great. She jumped right in with no worries. Then I dropped off Laura, and she cried for a minute. The teacher said to go ahead and leave, and that she'll be fine. My friend who works there texted me about two minutes later and said she wasn't crying anymore and she was munching on her cheerios. Well not me. I was still crying in my car on the phone with Tyler. I've been on the fence about sending Laura or not, since she's still so little. And I still might change my mind, but I do know its a fun and good program, and that she'll grow and learn. I guess what I learned today is that I'll be that mom at Kindergarten that cries like a baby on the first day. :)

At the end of the school day when I went to pick them up, it was a roller coaster. I went and got Laura first. Her teacher said she did great, and that she smiled big enough so that they noticed her dimple. She said it was their goal to keep trying to get her to show her dimple throughout the day. They said she played great with the other kids and was a sweetheart.

When I got Annie, she was in a great mood and her teacher said she did awesome. Right after I got her, she wanted to show me one of the indoor playgrounds. After a couple of minutes, I told her time to go. Usually when she doesn't come, I'll say good-bye to her and start walking, and then she'll quickly start to follow. Well today when I did that, she had a total breakdown. I went over to her and she just cried and said "I want my momma". (cue Mommy's heart breaking!). She and Laura both wanted me to carry them, on top of me holding onto their backpacks and take home art. Whenever I would set one down, the other would just collapse onto the floor and cry. They both were exhausted. I finally ended up putting Annie on my shoulders, wearing the backpacks, and then holding onto Laura. Annie cried the whole way to the car just wanting me to "actually" hold her. Once I got to the car and got Laura settled, I held Annie and asked her all about her day. I asked her:

Did you like it? - "yes"
Did you have fun? - "yes"
Did you play games? - "yes"
Do you want to come back here? - "Yes. I want to come back to school tomorrow."

Showing off their backpacks

 I talked to her a bit, and it sounds like she loved her day but she was just exhausted from it. It's hard work playing and learning. So I got the girls home and down for naps quickly and with ease. They were both wanting rest and both napped for about 3 hours.

 Overall, I think it has been a good kick-off into preschool/Kids Day Out (KDO) for these two. I'm glad it's only a couple days a week, because I'm missing my kids. We'll see how long I last at all of this. ;)

Holisticism & Family FHE

Every month my extended family gets together to have a Family Home Evening. We rotate hosting and providing a meal, and my Dad always gives a lesson. His lessons are always amazing (tonight it was about retention and being steadfast with our testimonies in God.) On top of preparing lessons, we also take turns with assignments - ie: games, desserts, music, entertainment, etc. Well tonight, Tyler and I had the assignment of entertainment...

After brainstorming what we wanted to do, we just decided on showing this video. You might want to see it too, so enjoy!

Florida with the Tompkins

My sister, Kelly, and her husband, Spencer, recently accepted a new job and have relocated to Florida. Once they accepted the job, they were hoping to move somewhat quickly since school had already started. Tyler and I were able to arrange things so that I could drive down with them and stay for a week to help them get settled in. It was great! I had a lot of fun bonding more with my nieces and nephews, and it was fun to spend time with the family at the beach, as well as unpacking! If you know me, then you know that unpacking and organizing is my jam. I have a really weird obsessive love for it. That same love fuels me to rearrange my house every 4 weeks (I'm not even kidding..).

My poor sister was out running a million errands during the day, all to get the necessary things done so that she could get the kids registered for school. My brother in law, Spencer, started working on Monday (we got their on Friday night, late). So I was able to put some good progress in on unboxing, organizing (and even decorating a little) on the house. Here are some pictures just for fun!

 We got the kitchen completely unpacked and organized within the first 2 hours after unloading the truck on Saturday. Once the kitchen is done, the house can at least semi-function.

Aunt Riffy splurged a little bit on the kids. One of the things I got for them was a new bathroom curtain, rug and toothbrush holder. It's the little things in life that make it bright and fun! 

For my niece and nephew, Camilla and Rudger, I hooked them up with some fun dots for their wall. They loved helping put them up. It's not often the adults let you put stickers all over your wall. ;) 

Below is my nephew Gorden's room. I bought him a big NBA poster online, but it arrived after I got there. hopefully it will be a good touch for his room. He also has his Arkansas Razorbacks flag hanging up on his walls. He's got a good set up. 

 Above is my niece, Adelaide. We hooked her up with some light clips. I feel like what teenage girl doesn't enjoy these, right? We also hung up all of her Harry Potter art on her other walls.

All of the kids felt like they were in a good spot with their rooms - at least for it being the first week of being moved it. :)

Above is my sister on the Gender Swap app. We sent Tyler that after he sent us some fun pictures of him and the girls. I was missing them while I was gone, so I loved getting the below pictures.

 We did get to head to the beach while we were in Florida. I snapped a photo of my sisters family for them. We're definitely going to miss them, but we're excited for them with their new opportunity! Love you, Tompkins! I can't wait to come back and visit again!

Toilets and Girl Scout Cookies

My girls are funny and little hot messes.

Last week, my mom gave us some homemade mini-muffins. I sat them on the counter and after eating some for breakfast, forgot about them. Well later in the day, I noticed Annie had been missing for a while. I went upstairs and found her hiding in Laura's room with a face crammed full of mini-muffins. Crazy child! I tell her to ask me next time, keep the food in the kitchen and we move on. So anyways, a few days go by and Annie has been gone a little too long again. I go upstairs and find her in Laura's crib. I go to help her get out - who knows how she even got in with her broken leg, but she's crafty. Anyways, I notice there's like dirt all over the side of the crib. Then I go to get Annie and notice her hands are covered with dirt - until I see the handful of girl scout cookies she has behind her back. It's all chocolate! Crazy Annie had taken the entire box of girl scout cookies upstairs and was eating an entire sleeve of them in Laura's bed. There were crumbs, cookies and chocolate everywhere. So after sternly going over it again with Annie about how we only eat food in the kitchen, how she needs to ask mommy and not hide it from mommy, and how food in the bedrooms attracts bugs, I cleaned up the mess and we went back downstairs. Laura walks up to me when we get downstairs and she is SOAKED from head to toe. One guess - the toilet. Laura Jane LOVES LOVES LOVES the toilet water. It is the worst! So while I was upstairs dealing with girl scout cookies, Laura was playing in the toilet, soaking herself and the bathroom floor with water.

Anyways. I handled it. We cleaned up the messes and then Laura ate in her high chair and Annie helped me make a pie since we were having our cousins over for dinner that night. These girls. They are crazy, but so fun. I knew I needed to write down the stories before I forget them, so now you can enjoy them too. :)