Try this Blogging thing again!

It has been a very long time since I have even looked at my blog.  But, I have really missed a lot of fun events.  I thought about trying to post some things that have already passed and hope to keep caught up for the future.  We will see how it goes.

We are in the last week of school. This year flew by.  We were able to do a lot of field trips (Gilcrease Orchard, Library and even spent the night at Sea World - that deserves it own post!)

Dillon is finishing 5th grade which means middle school next year.  That is so crazy to me that he will be in middle school.  Didn't he just turn 2?  He had so many projects this year.  They started the first month of school and he just finished his final one last night.  We changed schools this year and I was worried it would be hard on the kids to leave their friends and familiar school.  But, it turns out it has been the best decision we have made.  Their new school is amazing and been the best thing for our family.  Dillon did really well in school.  He is really good at getting his homework done on time and working hard.  But, he isn't so great at work when it comes to IN school work.  He struggles with talking and giggling.  His teachers think he is silly.  He makes friends easily but also got a taste of his first "bully" this year.  It was rough to see him struggle.  He is excited for middle school.  He has the biggest heart and loves me more than anyone at the moment (I will take it while it lasts).  He loves taking piano lessons.  He started when he was 9 years old and has loved it ever since.  I don't have to bug him to practice.  In fact, sometimes I have to ask him for a break.  He would play all day if he could.  He is getting some pieces ready for his recital in a couple weeks.  He also loves everything to do with roller coasters.  He has decided he wants to build an amusement park when he grows up.  He has notebooks of drawings and plans he comes up with.  I hope he can achieve his goals some day.

Daniel is finishing 1st grade.  He is the biggest kid in his class, really smart and very thoughtful.  He sometimes forgets he is so much bigger than the other kids and hurts them.  It has been a struggle to remind him to be gentle.  He finished his 3rd season of flag football and absolutely loved it.  He has the greatest coaches that are so patient with him.  He loves his friends and wishes he could be at their house every day.  He hates cleaning his room.  I can often find everything including the kitchen sink under his bed after he has "cleaned" his room.  That has to be in the instructions from now on that cleaning our room does not mean shoving everything under the bed.  He always takes a drink to bed with him and at one point he had 8 glasses under his bed!!  We also lose a lot of socks with this kid.  For some reason, he always puts holes in the heels of his socks.  I am going to start making him buy his own and maybe he will be more careful.  Daniel loves everything about sharks.  They had to do a report in school about their favorite animal and he did it on sharks.  He colored a picture, printed pictures and did a 2 page report.  They had to share it in front of the class and the parents were allowed to come and listen.  He was scheduled for Tuesday and I got a note from his teacher that said they were changing the day to Thursday because Daniel wasn't ready.  I asked Daniel why he wasn't ready and he said he was still studying about them.  The day of the presentation I asked his teacher about why he wasn't ready and she said you would have thought he was writing his thesis for graduate school.  She said he took it very serious and didn't want to present to the class until he was really ready.  He did a great job and had one of the longest reports in the class.

Camille just finished Preschool.  She loved it.  She asks every day if she has school today.  She had 3 other children in her class.  Ruthie, Hunter and Luke.  I heard about these kids every day.  She would pray for them and couldn't wait to see them.  Her last day was on Wednesday.  They got to wear their swimsuits and play in the pool in Mrs. Brighton's backyard.  She also got to take her lunch to school.  She hasn't stopped talking about it.  She doesn't really grasp that she isn't going back.  She still asks if she has school.  It will be a long summer for her :)  Camille loves everything to do with princesses.  She loves watching them, playing with them, pretending to be them.  She also loves to watch TV.  I have to turn the TV off and hide the remotes so she will go and play with her toys.  She loves her friends and wishes she could play with them every day.  She prays every prayer that she will be able to go to one of their houses.  She is taking dance classes and getting ready for her recital on Saturday.  She loves going to dance class because she loves to dance and she loves to be with her friends.  She has a fun personality.  She is always happy and always singing.  She loves to listen to music and loves to make up dances.  Her prayers crack us up.  She always prays that I will paint her nails and get her new earrings.  She also prays that she will be a grown up.  I am in trouble with this girl if she is only 4 1/2 and already praying to be a grown up.  She is very interested in growing up and what it will be like.  Just today she asked me if she would be able to blow bubbles with her gum when she is a grown up.

We moved across the street last summer.  We love our neighborhood and knew that we were going to have to sell our house because the interest rate adjusted out of our range.  We couldn't afford the payment anymore.  Our neighbor, Bonnie, was selling her house across the street and we put in an offer and bought it.  It has been very interesting to move right across the street.  I moved about 85% of the house by myself on a little cart.  I would load it up, walk across the street and unload it and go get another load.  Our friends helped us moved the big things when it was time.  So far we love the house.  It is a different floor plan and has a bigger yard.  The yard isn't very kid friendly at the moment.  We hope to be able to change that soon.  We were able to paint it and do some remodeling before we moved in.  All in all it has been a good move for us.  It has been difficult to see the people who bought our house change every single thing in that house.  We built that house from the ground up and put a lot of money and sweat into making it ours.  They have basically changed all that and made it their own.  I knew that they would change things, just didn't know that they only familiar part would be the outside walls.  Oh well, we still have the memories of that house and that is all that matters.  We are making good memories in this house as well.

Well, this was fun for my first post in 4 1/2 years.  I hope to catch up on some older posts eventually.