Saturday, September 19, 2015

Back to School!

School is back in session. As much fun as the summer was, I actually enjoy getting back into a routine. We (Will, Luke and I) started a new school. I took a full-time library position at Lookout Mountain Elementary School. It is wonderful, absolutely wonderful! The worst part, the 35 minute drive to work/home up or down the mountain. The best parts, bringing my boys to school with me. I get to walk them to class everyday, see them in the hallways, cafeteria and even the library when they come in for classes. It is a mamma's dream!


This year, we had another one to start kindergarten. I will say, I was emotional last year as we dropped off Will. This year dropping off Luke was different. I was not leaving him. I was simply walking down the hall and my momma emotions could handle that a whole lot better. Luke is doing great and loving kindergarten! He is excited to go to school each morning, which makes life a lot easier. His teacher's name is Mrs. McKenna. Luke loves her so much!






Will is in first grade this year and is already doing very well! His teacher's name is Miss Yarnell and he really likes her. Will, our social butterfly, has already made several friends and is in the process of working out the details on a few afterschool playdates. Will, too, loves going to school every morning.







Wynn is back at her old school East Ridge Elementary where she and I were last year. She was happy to get back to her teacher Ms. Brittney and all of her friends. She seems to be doing well and constantly talks about school. This year she rides with Mike. The boys and I leave around 7:00 am every morning, so I don't see Wynn until about 3;30 every afternoon. That makes things a little hard, but its what we have to do right now, and she is happy with her friends. I know because she is always playing away when I go to pick her up and all the kids say "Bye Wynn" when we leave. She must be popular!:)

We are so glad for the great start of our school year! Here's hoping for a great rest of our year!


Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Summer of Baseball

Every summer I think to myself, "I'm going to do ______ with the kids". Fill in the blank with picnics, reading books outside on a blanket, making tye-dye tshirts to just having fun. This summer we did none of those things. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Why you ask? Because we played all-star baseball.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE watching my boys play ball, but this year it consumed our lives. Everyday I was washing uniforms and loading everyone up to go back to the ballfield. We got home late most nights, ate cereal or pizza for dinner and got in bed only to get up and do it all over the next day. So, no fun creative stuff happened this summer. Just the pool, playing the wii, baseball, neighbor friends playing in the garage, more wii, more baseball and more pool. I joked with friends that we were so busy that I merely kept three kids alive this summer, but in all honesty I had one happy little boy. I guess that made this summer a success after all.

Happy birthday Wynn!


 Wynn is two! Not sure how that happened, but it snuck up on us for sure. So, to celebrate our little princess we decided to have our good friend Elsa to come see Wynn. (A good friend in our small group just happens to have long blonde hair that goes into an Elsa braid perfectly. I gave her an Elsa dress and ta-da!! Elsa to go!)

Anyways, Wynn loves all things princess, but especially Frozen or AnnaElsa as she calls them. She has several little friends and even her cousin Bella come to celebrate. The boys played superheroes and all things boyish upstairs in the playroom until we called them down for snacks.

The day of Wynn's party was also Mimi's birthday so we celebrated her too complete with a cake and singing. I think it was a special day for Wynn and in the end that's all that matters!





Monday, June 15, 2015

Ear infections, answered prayers and kindergarten


This guy is a trooper. He had surgery 2 weeks ago to have tubes placed in his ears and to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. It's something that we knew was probably going to need to happen early on, but it wasn't until he started school and his pre-k teacher noticed his poor hearing that we realized we had to do something. Also, Luke is the only one of our kids who has had chronic ear infections and he snored and breathed the loudest while sleeping.  So, we knew this surgery was coming.  I had prayed for Luke to get better without the surgery. I didn't want him to go through it.



But, he had to have it. The doctor saw him barely 5 minutes when he looked in his throat and said "Geez! His adenoids are HUGE!!" He then said they need to come out. After looking at his ears and seeing how much fluid was on them he said he had to have tubes. A quick 5 minute diagnosis. We tried Flonase for a month, sometimes that can decrease an adenoid, but it didn't work. I prayed and prayed. He would have to be put to sleep and I was scared. But, he had the surgery and he came through like a champ. Sure he had some rough days. He cried and moaned at night, and not much would help him except his strong medicine which he hated because it tasted bad.


But, now he is good and he feels good and hears much better and as he says, "I'm ready for kindergarten mommy!" And this is a big deal, because we were going to hold him back in pre-k one more year, but we got a surprise with me getting a full-time library job next year at a school without a pre-k. And Luke and Will want to go with me to school, so Luke is going to kindergarten. He is so excited!!



So my sweet boy, who won't be 5 until the end of July; my sweet boy, who is my baby boy, and seems so much younger than he is and even looks younger, to me at least, than he is...he is starting kindergarten. My sensitive boy who is also rough and tough will start big boy school. My precious boy who loves to take care of his sister, who doesn't know all of his letter sounds yet, but can hit a baseball and throw farther than several 6 year olds I know...yeah, he is starting school.



It's hard for me to believe I guess because this was not my plan. Like I said he was going to do another year of pre-k. He and Will were going back to Westview with Marmie. Wynn and I were going back to East Ridge. I never factored in the fact the God had another plan for our family. One that is, of course, better than what I could have imagined. My exact prayer for quite awhile had been for me to get to be at a school with all of my kids. In fact, I had prayed to be at Westview when their librarian retires. That was my plan. But, God knew what he was doing. He always does. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to fully understand the path he takes us through to get us where we need to be. Funny how chronic ear infections when your baby boy is small can be the start of an answered prayer down the road.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Little Miss Wynn


Miss Wynn...she is a little ball of energy. She is all smiles and is so much fun! And somehow, she is already 22 months old!!! I just can't believe it, but its true. So, here a few things I would like to remember about her at this age:
  • This girl loves shoes and clothes and her beloved hairbow!! She is rarely without one, which I am glad for, because I think she is adorable with one in. This girl likes to be cute and is not crazy about getting dirty, but that also doesn't stop her from making a mess or messing up her clothes!
  • She loves to eat!!! Gummis, macaroni and cheese (she calls it roni), chicken, rice...she LOVES rice, chips and sour cream and bars (granola bars) are just a few of her favorites, but not all. Seriously...this girl can eat!
  • She calls her cup juicy and her diapers Elmo. She wears a pampers baby dry size 4. She has always worn Luvs, but about a month ago, we had to use a pampers and now she is hooked. 
  • She loves her stroller that she got for Christmas and her babydoll. She has several stuffed animals and dolls and they all get to ride in her stroller.
  • She loves Frozen or AnnaElsa as she calls it and Cinderella or Rella. Her favorite show is Paw Patrol and Bubble Guppies, but she likes to watch Tom and Jerry with her brothers too.
  • She loves a bath and now she thinks showers are pretty cool too!
  • She copies her brothers and everyone else and is picking up quite a lot of things. Some being good. She knows most of her colors and shapes and if you say 1, 2 she will say 3 and sometimes 4. 
  • She loves to read.Oh, my gosh, she is her mother's daughter! There are times where she will disappear for a few moments. And always, when I go find her, she is reading.
  • She loves to laugh and to have fun with her brothers and often gets in on the games they are playing. They are usually super sweet and include her which makes my heart happy.
  • And finally...she just starting sleeping in a big girl bed!!! Enough said!:)

Playing at Legoland in Atlanta

At Superfly. This girl loved the trampolines! 
Mommy and Wynnie!
Loving her new bed!

SNOW!!





Moving to Tennessee from South Carolina meant one thing for sure...colder weather. Cold weather hopefully means snow at some point. Last year we got a nice amount right after we moved here. This year did not disappoint either. In the course of 2 weeks during February we had snow on the ground 4 different times. This meant we were out of school for a total of two weeks as well. We did not have snow that whole time, but due to extremely cold weather and the constant threat of snow the kids and I enjoyed a nice, unexpected winter vacation!

One of my best memories from our snow this year was convincing the kids to go night sledding. All of our big snow came right after dinner on two different occasions. Within an hour each time, we had close to 4-5 inches with more falling. The conditions were perfect. Add to it, that all of the neighbors and their kids had come out to play as well and we had two perfect evenings and a lot of fun!

Here are some pics from our first big snow. It came on a Friday night...






And here are pics from the 2nd big snow, which was much bigger and close to 6-8 inches. It came on a Wednesday night.
Our house after the Friday snow...
Our house after the Wednesday snow. So much more!!! This was 5 days later!!!

Our backyard


Mike sledding in the backyard
Will and Luke had a competition jumping out of the swings on the swingset. Here is Will's jump...
and here is Luke's.
And Wynnie loving her swing!
The sideyard
Even Gracie went outside to play in the snow!
The kids in the cute snow gear!

Christmas 2014

This was our first Christmas in our new house in Ooltewah. And honestly...it was just lovely, but I do love Christmas, so maybe I'm biased!

For the 2nd year in a row, we got a real Christmas tree. Not sure we will go back to an artificial. It is so much fun going to look for a tree with the kids and then decorating it. We literally made a day of it. This year we did lots of fun things. We went to see the lights at Rock City, we did Christmas baking with Mimi, we did lots of Christmas shopping and watched lots of Christmas movies. I hope we are helping shape our kids memories about Christmas. Mike and I love that time of year and it seems as though our kids do too. Hard to believe these pictures are already 3 months old...here are a few of our memories from the season.

Picking out of tree!
Sweet Luke decorating the tree.
Christmas Eve 2014, the calm before the storm.
Mike and I on Christmas Eve. Will is our annual photographer!
First picture Christmas morning.



Will and his Legos on Christmas morning

Wynnie and her new pots and pans

Luke and his Paw Patrol toy.


The sweet Fessler kids:)


The Fessler family, Christmas 2014, Rock City