Middle School – What NO ONE warned me about!

Y’all! This whole Middle School/Puberty thing is freaking my FREAK! We’re almost two weeks in to being in middle school and I have at least 10 extra gray hairs! No THREE weeks, helllur. See what I mean!!!!!!?

I fully expected this time in his life to be different but I had NO CLUE how fast things would change for Griffin. Kids change so much when they start kindergarten, I didn’t really realize they would change again when middle school started. That may not make sense to any of you who don’t have older kids like us, but trust me, one day it will!

He has a girlfriend!

On the third day of school he got himself a girlfriend!!!!

Exsqueeze me? Um no.

Please know that they only see each other at school. I do know that she is super cute though. How do I know this if they only see each other at school? Because I stalked down her facebook like a MOTHER, duh.(no, he doesn’t have facebook)

Yea, I’m THAT mom.

I didn’t know that in 6th grade he would even be looking at girls like this yet. NO ONE warned me. I thought we still had a few years. I don’t like this one i-oda, as Big Mama says.

He’s just so much more like a grown up these days. BUT he still plays with Lego’s so thankfully he’s not all the way grown just yet! ;)

This morning he got braces! Yay for pretty teeth! This is something that is important to me, not so much to the hubs or him. But pretty teeth are IMPORTANT and he will thank me later! He was anxious and it took 40 forevers to get them on but he survived!

He was joking here, but he really was not excited!

Before and After

The best thing after getting a mouth full of braces is a dozen hot and now doughnuts!  And one more just for fun! DQ date with my boys!

I’m so thankful for my Griff-man!

Reece the Fish

Just as I took this picture Reece said, “I feel like a teenager!!”

Griffin and Peyton were swimming on their own when they were about 3, maybe even 2 for Griffin. So last summer when Reece was still adamant on using her puddle jumper I was a little nervous. I decided at the beginning of the summer that she would learn this summer or off to swimming lessons we would go!

I’m so glad to say that with plenty of practice at Papa and Gigi’s pool, she’s a swimmer!!

Now about that “I feel like a teenager stuff”… 

Little Drummer Griffin

When picking electives for this school year Griffin decided to take band!  We pretty much left this up to him. Josh and I both played the saxophone in middle school! Yep, this football/baseball player and cheerleader were band geeks! It was fun but I didn’t miss it in high school one bit! haha! Nor do I remember how to play or even want to play. No thanks! Griffin talked about wanting to play the sax as well so I figured that is what he would choose. We went to band instrument selection night last week. Each child tried out the sax, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone and percussion. They received a rating from 1-5 on each instrument to help figure out what they should play. Griff scored high on the percussion, trombone, flute AND sax! The band director just left it up to him what he wanted to do.

And he picked percussion!

Of course he did! What boy doesn’t like to bang on things? I am glad he chose this because he is about to get braces in a few weeks and that would not be fun. Getting braces and trying to figure out how to play an instrument on top of that!

He now has a percussion set to practice with that has a snare drum and bell set and who knows what else.

So basically now he’s bangin’ around on everything in creation!

Back to School Interview - Reece

Round three! haha! Find Reece’s interview from last year here!

Here’s what our sassy little lady had to say this time around!

1. How old are you and what grade are you in? 6, 1st grade

2. What is your favorite color? purple(same as last year) and hot pink

3. What is your favorite food? Pizza

4. What is your least favorite food? Turkey Burgers

5. What is your favorite book? The Bible(same as last year, she does read her little kid Bible a lot)

6. What is your favorite song? Beachin’

7. What is your favorite game to play? Life

8. Where is your favorite place to go? Beach

9. Who is your best friend? Lily(same as last year)

10. How would you describe yourself? Awesome!

11. What is something Mom always says? It’s bath time! (HAHAHA What??)

12. What is something Dad always says? Be good.

13. What do you want to be when you grow up? doctor(same as last year)

14. If you could be any animal, what would you be? zebra(same as last year)

15. What are three things you would like to learn this year? spell lots of things

16. What is your favorite TV show? Liv and Maddie

17. What is your favorite subject in school? PE

18. What are you most excited about for this year? to meet my teacher(this was before school started)

19. What is one thing you are tired of learning about? Math

20. Where do you think you will live when you are an adult? Where ever Mom lives (YES!!)

21. What is one rule you’ll break when you grow up? NONE! I don’t break rules! (same as last year)

22. If you could have any super power, which would you choose and why?  eye lasers, so I can cook stuff without a microwave (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

23. If you could be invisible for a day what would you do? sneak up on the boys

24. What makes our family special? We love each other and we have a lot of babies! (HAHAHAHA!)

25. If you could travel anywhere in the world where would it be and why? Hawaii, because it’s pretty there!

Back to School Interview - Peyton

Round two! Here is Peyton’s interview from last year!

And here’s this year’s…

1. How old are you and what grade are you in? 10, 5th

2. What is your favorite color? Bright Blue

3. What is your favorite food? Hot wings

4. What is your least favorite food? Hamburger Helper

5. What is your favorite book? White Fang (What the what?)

6. What is your favorite song? Radioactive

7. What is your favorite game to play? Minecraft

8. Where is your favorite place to go? Arcade

9. Who is your best friend? Taylor

10. How would you describe yourself? AWESOME!! (Yep, he’s mine!)

11. What is something Mom always says? Go outside and play!

12. What is something Dad always says? Stay inside while I’m asleep!(haha! same as Griff’s)

13. What do you want to be when you grow up? Baseball player(same as last year!)

14. If you could be any animal, what would you be? A Liger (that’s part lion, part tiger in case you don’t understand)

15. What are three things you would like to learn this year? recess, recess and more recess (really Peyton!?)

16. What is your favorite TV show? Teen Titans Go!

17. What is your favorite subject in school? recess

18. What are you most excited about for this year? Last day of school

19. What is one thing you are tired of learning about? MATH

20. Where do you think you will live when you are an adult? Bahamas (sheesh, Josh and I will need our own private jet just to visit our kids!)

21. What is one rule you’ll break when you grow up? None (yeah right! haha!)

22. If you could have any super power, which would you choose and why? Mind controlling powers so I can make people do things! (well that’s creepy! hahaha!)

23. If you could be invisible for a day what would you do? Sneak up on Reece

24. What makes our family special? BROOKS!

25. If you could travel anywhere in the world where would it be and why? New York – so I can bungee jump off the Empire State Building!

Back to School Interview - Griffin

Last year I started doing a back to school interview with the kiddos! It’s fun to see what they have to say and it’s fun to compare year to year!

Griffin’s interview from last year is here.

And here is this year’s!

1. How old are you and what grade are you in? 11 and 6th

2. What is your favorite color? black and red(same as last year!)

3. What is your favorite food? hot wings(same as last year!)

4. What is your least favorite food? unanswered

5. What is your favorite book? unanswered

6. What is your favorite song? It’s Time(I have no clue)

7. What is your favorite game to play? Minecraft

8. Where is your favorite place to go? Belize(apparently he went without ME!)

9. Who is your best friend? Caleb(same as last year but now he has TWO Caleb’s that are his BFF)

10. How would you describe yourself? EPIC!!! (bahahahahaha he is totally my child)

11. What is something Mom always says? I love you! (yes, 975 times a day!)

12. What is something Dad always says? Don’t go outside while I’m asleep!

13. What do you want to be when you grow up? Don’t know (I am VERY surprised by this answer, usually it’s something to do with the Army)

14. If you could be any animal, what would you be? Dragon

15. What are three things you would like to learn this year? How to sleep with my eyes open. (yea, he said that)

16. What is your favorite TV show? Adventuretime (same as last year)

17. What is your favorite subject in school? Sleeping (really Griffin, really?)

18. What are you most excited about for this year? Band!!

19. What is one thing you are tired of learning about? Everything

20. Where do you think you will live when you are an adult? Costa Rica

21. What is one rule you’ll break when you grow up? ALL THE RULES!

22. If you could have any super power, which would you choose and why? fly, so I can fly!

23. If you could be invisible for a day what would you do? Prank war

24. What makes our family special? It has us!

25. If you could travel anywhere in the world where would it be and why? Costa Rica, because it’s cool!

I’ll get the other two posted soon!

Back to School!

We started a brand spankin’ new school year today! I’m sad that my loves are growing SO fast, but I am glad it’s time to go back to school. Summer was grand, but I love a routine! They were ready to go back also! They probably wouldn’t admit it but they were.

Griffin starting middle school makes me want to sit in the corner of my office and cry ugly tears! So, retail therapy at lunch for sure! haha! He is riding the school bus for the first time ever. Only because it is pretty much impossible to drop Peyton and Reece off and get him to school on time because his school is so far from theirs. I don’t like it one bit.

I think Griff is going to love middle school  once he figures it all out!

I had a major mom fail this morning. I forgot to charge my camera battery so I had to take pictures with my phone! ;(

      Peyton started 5th grade today. I can’t believe this is his last year of elementary school!

  He’s really good at this…   And the PRISS started 1st grade!

     I love being their Mama! They make my heart so happy! 

Funny Farm

Yesterday evening I was super tired. B doesn’t sleep well as it is and now that he started in his new class he is REALLY not sleeping. The kids were being completely rambunctious and well, I had to go outside for a few to keep from losing my mind. (SEE it’s NOT all rainbows ALL the time!) While I was outside, my little fur babies started following me around. Made my heart happy and calmed my blood pressure!

That’s all! ;) PS-Several people have asked if that’s a horse in the back or a moose :) No, that’s just Niko, our dobie!

Brooks’ New Class

First up, how about this bloggy makeover?!! Yay! Of course Leslie worked all of this magic by herself because I didn’t know what I wanted! Thanks friend! She also gave me all these snazzy buttons so you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and email. Just click and it will take you there! She also added pages at the top where you can find out more about me or contact us there as well! You can click on Sweetie Baby’s Designs on the very bottom right column to find her!

Today is the day for all the little kiddos to move up to the next class at Brooks’ school! It’s crazy to think he will turn TWO in this class!

I tried to get a few pictures of him this morning, but he doesn’t have time for me and my picture taking shenanigans so…he played with the cat instead! Stinker!