Merry Christmas 2010

Love Note

Oh my gosh we have the sweetest little boy!

I just sat down at the computer after dropping Ethan off at school. Sitting on my keyboard was a beautiful little note from Ethan. He left mom and dad a love note!!!

(i luf yoo Walton mom and dad)

Ethan is learning to write in school and he loves writing notes on everything. He leaves notes on his bedroom door, he writes about the pictures he draws and he has fun spelling to us so Cal and Teagan won't know what he's saying.

We love you too Ethan! You are so thoughtful.

Monstrous Weekend!!

Halloween 2010 was a Monster of a weekend!

We started off the weekend with a 10-mile race!!- the Monster Dash!
Nick, Shalene, Mike, Nora and I ran the 10-mile race all together in great time. Our time was 1 hour and 45 min (10-minutes per mile), which included a potty stop and a stretch break when we were greeted by our cheering kids and parents at the 6th mile. The weather was absolutely perfect and the course was fun.

The rest of the weekend was spent carving pumkins, decorating for our 6th annual Halloween Spooktacular, dressing up and eating way too much candy.

The kids had a blast trick-or-treating. I'd say it was the best year so far. Cal and Teagan were running from house to house and Cal was leading our pack of 9 kids. Ethan and Aidan, with Nick and Josh, continued on trick-or-treating for another hour after the rest of us. I'm not sure who was having more fun, the boys or the big boys.

Notice a Theme?

I take a ton of pictures. Yesterday I downloaded about 75 pictures from this month and noticed my "2010" folder was up to 690 pictures...and there are still two more photographic months left this year.
The pictures I've taken the past few months all have a persistent theme. You can't miss it, in ALL the pictures I have taken!

(teagan's 10th surgery last week)

(lunch at grandpa's hospital post surgery)

Twin Support

Teagan had a dry diaper and used the bathroom almost all day yesterday. Just before we left to pick up Ethan at school we had a potty break.
After Teagan was done going potty she ran out to the stroller where Cal was waiting. She hopped up into her seat and here is how the conversation went as I started strolling down the block:

Teagan: "Cal, I went pee-pee on the potty and got a jelly bean!"

Cal: "Good job Teagy!"

Teagan: "Cal, you're a good boy too"

Cal: "You're a girl"

Teagan: "You are a boy and your brother is a boy too"

Cal: "uh-hu"

They are just starting to have real conversations with each other and with Ethan, and it's SO adorable to listen to. They can be so sweet and supportive at times (emphasis on "at times").

Other times you get stuff like this:

Teagan: "Mom, Cal hit me!"

Mom: "Cal, we don't hit. Say sorry to Teagan and give her a hug."

Teagan: (still forcing a cry)

Cal: grunt, frown, head down; mumbles "sorry" very quietly

Teagan: in a teasing voice says, "Say it louder, Cal. I can't hear you."

Cal: walks away and has a minor melt down

Teagan: yells after Cal as she's walking away, "Cal, you need to use your words. We can't understand you!"

Mom: also has to walk away to hide the laughing

Kindergarten!

Ethan is a Kindergartener!!!
This is the 3rd week of school and I think we are just now getting used to our new routine. Ethan's in school full-day and I'm now working 3 days/week, so Cal and Teagan are adjusting to more daycare. Everyone stepped it up a notch this Fall.

Ethan was, of course, nervous and excited for his first day of school. There were tears (mostly mine), but it couldn't have gone better. Ethan is eager to get to school in the morning now and we have a very nice walk to and from school everyday. Even on the first day of school he just gave me a quick wave goodbye and ran into the classroom. I was the one lingering and wanting more hugs and kisses before I could bring myself to walk away! I definitely left in tears, but that just means we did a great job preparing him for school. I can't imagine how hard it will be when the kids go to college! Yikes, just thinking about that makes me tear up.

These first two pictures are of Ethan with his "Count Down to Kindergarten Chain." He made the chain at camp a few weeks before school and then he ripped one chain off every night before bed until the first day of school.

Here are a few pictures we took before his 1st day of Kindergarten. Smiles were hard to come by until he got on his scooter to ride to school.

Summer 2010

With summer already coming to an end I wanted to put together a slideshow of some of our highlights.
This summer has been SO much fun! We've been to the cabin often (of course), swimming, camping, playing at the pool and beaches, running and biking as a family every weekend morning, and Nick and I even joined a softball team.
With Cal and Teagan now 2 1/2 we have more freedom in the fun things we can do together as a family. They are adventurous and full of energy and love to follow after Ethan.
Here I am awake at midnight tonight looking thru all of our summer pictures and it makes me sad to think about this summer being over. Reality hit this evening when we went to Ethan's Kindergarten Open House. Ethan met his teacher and spent some time in his classroom. We were all very excited and it was a wonderful evening.
But that open house marked the end of summer, and the end of Ethan being home all the time with me.

Our baby goes to Kindergarten in 5 days.
And I'm crying already!

Ok, enough. That's not where I wanted to go with this blog. We still have 5 days of summer and I plan to pack in a ton more fun.
Enjoy some of the fun pictures from our summer. I'm sure I'll write a sob-blog after Ethan's first day of school. :)

Last Day of Preschool

Ethan graduated from Preschool a couple weeks ago! We're excited to be moving up to Kindergarten next year!

Copmare this picture to the one I took on his very fisrt day of preschool in 2007... http://waltons5.blogspot.com/2007/09/big-week.html

Where did the years go?