MORE WATERPARK FUN!

We went and met some friends on Sunday evening, January 17th, at the Waterpark resort in Des Moines for some waterpark fun!  Although we had been at a waterpark just the weekend before, the kids were excited for another adventure!

Des Moines and Cedar Falls schools didn’t have school the following Monday, so the Brown’s and Knutson’s were staying the night.  The Sampson’s and ourselves only stayed for a couple of hours to let the kids swim and have fun!

It’s always nice to see these girls, their husbands, and their kids!

Jenna, Tory, Kelley, and myself.

They love the pool!!!

BRADY’S READING

The video below shows Brady reading and reading well!  We are so proud of his determination toward reading.  He is reading very fluently for a kindergarten and he’s enjoying it!  He has read other books before this one, but I wanted to video this one.  This is also one of the first books that Tyler read in kindergarten and I have video of him reading it as well.  Since this video, Brady has been reading books at school and has ‘officially’ became a READER!  He took his first AR quiz over a book he read at school and got 100% on it!  And then he received an award from his teacher as well!  We are all so very proud!  Keep it up, Brady!!!

BRADY READING

WATERPARK FUN!

We had a great weekend away last weekend to celebrate my mom’s and Josh’s birthdays!

Friday after school we drove to Iowa City.  We woke up on Saturday morning and were out the door by 8 am to drive to Dubuque to Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark.

Josh, Liz, and Delaney pulled up shortly after us.  We spent a couple of hours in the waterpark, took a break for lunch, went back to the waterpark, and then finished it all off with the arcade games.

We all had such a great time in the waterpark!  The boys loved the slides, the bucket that drops tons of water on you, and just swimming.  Delaney loved the lazy river, wavy, watching people, and just swimming and being in the water.  And the rest of us loved all of the above and also loved watching the kids have so much fun!

We made it back to Iowa City in time for dinner.  Grandma Mary fed the kids while Lee and I went out for an hour or so to have dinner ourselves.  We drove back home Sunday morning.

It was such a fun weekend trip away to celebrate 2 birthdays!

Brady loved pulling all the ropes to make water come out.

Lee and Tyler playing basketball.

Laney, Grandma, and Josh going around and around the lazy river.

Tyler and Brady waiting for the bucket to drop.

Here it comes!

Playing on the floating snake.

Brady and I getting ready to go down the slide together.

Lunch at a restaurant inside the resort.

We finished our fun day at the arcade!

Everyone slept very well that night at Grandma’s.

And even the dogs were tired and ready to be home by Sunday.

SWEET BOYS

I found the sweetest note on my desk just last week.  I had to leave for breakfast duty and Brady was finishing up with something in my classroom, so I left him in there.  When I got back from duty, I found this sweet, sweet note on my desk.  These boys sure know how to make their mom feel special!  I love every note that I get like this!  I love that he can write now!

BRADY’S FIRST LOOSE TOOTH!

Brady’s had a loose tooth for a couple of months already.  I’m surprised that it has stayed in his mouth this long!  But not really, I guess, because he DID NOT want this tooth to come out.  Not that he was scared that it would hurt, he just didn’t want to NOT have his baby teeth anymore.  It was actually pretty sweet!

I kept taking pictures of his ‘final’ baby tooth smile, because I was sure it was going to fall out any day.

January 3rd was Lee’s first attempt at giving the tooth a tug.  Since Brady didn’t want anything to do with this whole process, it was just one tug and then that was it.  Tooth stayed in a little longer.

January 7th, however, the tooth NEEDED to come out!  Brady tried everything to talk us out of pulling his tooth.

I took one final picture of his mouth full of baby teeth.

Lee used the flossers to clean it out and loosen it up even more.

And then Brady sat there with his hands over his mouth and tears going down his cheeks.  He didn’t want the tooth out and he wanted to keep his baby teeth forever!

Lee made him a deal.  He would take one tug.  If he couldn’t get it out, then they would be done and try again another day.  Just like last time.  Except….

IT CAME OUT!!!  We (Lee, Tyler, and myself) cheered for just a second….

…but then there were screams and tears for about the next 20 minutes.  “I don’t want it out, I don’t want it out!”  It was the saddest thing to witness!  I scooped him up right away and held him on my lap for the next 20 minutes until he calmed down and learned to love his new gap in his mouth.

Brady’s first baby tooth is gone!  The exact same tooth that Tyler lost in February of his Kindergarten year!

He put the pillow up for the Tooth Fairy and asked her to leave his tooth.

She came and she left him 5 one dollar bills and some floss.  Brady was so excited!  He actually woke up at 3:15 am to use the restroom.  On his way back to his room, he saw that she had been there.  He walked to my bedside and said, “Mom, the toothfairy came!  And she left me floss!”  I said, “that’s great, buddy!  Go back to bed and we’ll see it in the morning.”  :)

What a process this was!  I’m hoping that now that we’ve got this first one done and out of the way, the rest will be just fine!

MR. ORGANIZED

In December of 2015, our 6-year-old Brady took his already very organizational, OCD skills to a new level.  And we love him for it!

At each meal, he would get out a placemat and all utensils set for at him and sometimes for all of us!

On this morning, before we left for school, he laid out his pajamas and boxers for after bathtime that night.

 

I love that he is so very organized and I love his little OCD tendancies!