Back to School

Dakota's 1st day of 1st grade was Wednesday, and he was so excited that literally, for the entire week leading up to the first day, that's ALL he could talk about! He was/is so excited to be in 1st grade! I can only hope that the excitement doesn't diminish much over the next few years.

completing his "whiteboard" task-a question each morning is on the whiteboard that each of them has to draw or write their response to!

Doing his very first assignment of 1st grade!

I, for one, am conflicted about back-to-school. On one hand, I feel like we didn't have a summer because Koda was gone all but 1 month of it, and in terms of weather, Anchorage DIDN'T really have a summer! We broke the "Consecutive Days of Rain" record this year (July and August), with 32 strait days!!! But, today is the 3rd day of nice weather in a row, so we're celebrating by taking the kids to Campbell Creek Park for a dinner picnic and to play in the creek and playground!

Morphing into a picky eater

Since Brayden had his first birthday, he has morphed into a little monster. He was such a great little baby, and suddenly, he's kinda moody, he's became a HORRIBLY picky eater, somewhat of a biter (only to me, apparently), plus, it doesn't help that we think he's been cutting his 4th tooth on the bottom for the last month or so. He refuses ANY and ALL veggies, with the exception of frozen corn kernels (a BIG thank you to my cousin, Lori for that suggestion) and french fries (if you can even call them veggies....I don't!). But, he will quite literally eat any kind of fruit, and he is in love with sweets. He loves dairy, except cheese. Cheese HAS to be melted (as in a grilled cheese sandwich), otherwise, he'll spit it out. So basically, my kid lives on fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, goldfish, frozen corn, and these amazingly good (George and I even eat them!) organic animal crackers from Costco. And, of course, anything sweet that he can finagle out of George or I or that Koda sneaks him. Here's the proof:

"signing" for more!

after stuffing about 1/3 of a banana in that cute little mouth!

He loves his cookies!

and will *sometimes* share if he's in the mood. Usually, though, he just teases you!

my very favorite facial expression!

The *absolute* custest thing!

A couple days ago, I get Brayden up for the morning, take his jammies off, and get him out of his enormously almost-over soaked diaper. I had noticed a few times that it looked like his little hips were kinda dry and might be getting a bit chafed where the diaper hits them, so I grabbed some lotion and rubbed some into his hips and tummy. Mind you, this child is a MOVER. He sits still for NOTHING, including (and probably worst of all) diaper changes. But he was just looking up at me and smiling when I was rubbing lotion on him. We've been trying to get him to do a few little signs (sign language) lately, and the only one he has down pretty good is "more" (always for food). So I get done rubbing his hips and tummy, and I begin to screw the cap on the lotion, when he looks at me, puts his hands up, and starts doing the "more" sign! He didn't stop until I rubbed his legs and arms down with lotion too! Spoiled, pampered little guy...it's a good thing he's cute!

2 Year Anniversary!

Today is George and I's 2 year wedding anniversary!! 2 years later, *almost* 2 more kids later, and lots of laughs, lots of memories, and lots of big plans! I couldn't be happier that I was lucky enough to find my best friend, my other half, the love of my life!! Happy Anniversary, honey, and here's to many, many more!

On our honeymoon!