This Is Kristin

Aiden started kindergarten this week, and it has slowly been settling in on me. It came up so fast! I have been trying to make sure he was not scared, and instead excited about it, that I have been so excited for him too! Until this morning, when he got on the bus, instead of me walking him into his class, then I suddenly felt very sad that he is growing up. I am happy that he is being brave and wanting to ride the bus, but at the same time, I know that once they start kindergarten, it seems like they start growing up very fast.

All the same, I am very happy that he has the same kindergarten teacher that Blue had, and she is so caring and teaches the kids so much. Even though I will miss having him home with me, I know it will be a great year for everyone!

This baby picture of Blue, was when he was 1 year old. It is one of my favorite pictures of him. I had decided to take a picture of him for our christmas card. I hung up a mosquito net for the backdrop, got him dressed in a cute outfit, and set him on the bed for the picture. He didn’t sit still. He did somersaults, jumped up and down, laughed and on and on. I took about 200 pictures, and had no clue that during that time that I was just snapping away as he rolled and jumped away, that I had captured a split second of adorable. This picutre looks so posed, but there was not a moment that he was cooperating!

Now that he’s 8, he’s still hard to get a still picture of! While trying to take a family picture, he’s usually the one with the funny face going on, or looking the other way! But, when we do capture the normal smile, you can easily see his character in his eyes. He’s a handsome boy, with so much in his future. I am sure that he could do just about anything. He is so full of energy, and life, and joy. He’s optomistic about everything, and is always looking for fun.

I miss the baby, but am excited to watch him grow. I can’t believe that he’s 8 already, it’s gone too fast. I’m praying for a great year for him, and glad that he had such an awesome 8th birthday!

~When Brody and I decided to get married 10 years ago, we had dreamed that we’d travel the world together. We went to Kauai on our honeymoon, traveled across the United States together when we moved our family from CA to TN, went to Jamaica on a cruise, and for our 10th wedding anniversary, we took a road trip to New York City.  Along the way we saw some friends in North Carolina, stopped and saw the sights in Washington DC, and spent 2 days in New York City.  It was amazing to spend that much time with Brody, and to see places that I’d heard about, but never seen. I have a hard time picking out a favorite thing we saw or did during this trip, it was just all around awesome.

We had fun reminicing about the past 10 years we’ve spent “growing up” together, and both agreed that there is no one else we’d rather have spent those years with, or the years to come.

~This summer has flown by this year, yesterday I was out buying school supplies, I couldn’t believe it. We have been able to do a lot of fun things this summer, and I am sure that my boys have grown a ton.

• Blue learned to swim and has been jumping off tall places into the pool, and is about to turn 8!
• Aiden learned to ride a two wheeler, has a wiggly tooth, and is about to enter kindergarten!
• Cooper has gotten taller, and has learned to swim in a pool (with arm floaties) but without a parent holding him- which is huge for him, because he would usually scream his head off if I let go of him in the pool!

I love the summer, the time that we have with the kids, and the time that we have as a family.  This year has been the first year that Brody hasn’t had to travel all summer long, and it has been wonderful to have him home with us.  The time is flying, and it makes me realize how I don’t want to take this time for granted, or to miss a moment of it.

Awhile back Brody and I read Donald Miller’s book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.”  He talks about the concept of what a good story is, and that we have the choice to make good stories out of our lives, and mostly that requires being intentional in how we live each moment.   Between the choices we make, to how we respond to the hard times in life, to the big things that we decide to do.   The book really inspired us to try harder at making our lives into better “stories.”  So, we’ve spent the summer trying new things, and going new places, and this summer for us has been a really good “story” so far.

~”Sorting and simplifying Life’s Daily Endeavors” ~

The Simple Day, is a new blog, that my friend(s) have started, and has various contributors! It’s a fun, and encouraging read, and has everything from simple recipes, simple organizing solutions and fun ideas for kids, so go and check it out!- “The Simple Day”

We have been exploring the area we live the past few months, and found that there are all kinds of rivers and beautiful places around us.  We went canoeing on father’s day on a 7 mile trip down part of Duck River, just a few miles from our house.

 Then, on my birthday we went down another section of the same Duck River on a 5 mile trip.  It was so much fun.  We saw all kinds of wildlife- fish that would come up and eat chunks of bread, lots of turtles that would sit on logs and as we floated by they would jump in, birds, ducks, frogs, and we did see 2 snakes, after which I did not get into the river after that!

It is so peaceful and beautiful to be at the river and spend the day floating down.

~ I had such an amazing birthday, I loved spending so much time with my family and loved being at the river all day!

It’s been so long since I’ve done one of these! I guess twitter has taken the place of them! My kids are still being cute and funny, and here are some things they have been saying lately:

• Blue was out sitting in the street in a folding chair, eating a popsicle, the other day, and when I asked him later what he’d been doing, he said he was watching the neighbors TV through their window!
• Cooper is always the “ham” of the family and has something to say that makes everyone laugh.  The other day after church, the kids were talking about the songs they had sung, listing off “fishers of men,” “Thanks to God,”  when Cooper yells out, “Lord, we give you our tacos!”
• When we shape Cooper’s hair into a mohawk at bathtime, he says, “Look at my Tony Hawk!”
• Cooper was talking about our vacation to the beach, and described it as- “when we were at the sticky pool…”
• At bedtime we ask the boys, “How much does Daddy/ Mommy love you?”  and they usually reply, “bigger than the world!”  The other night, Cooper replied, “bigger than Disney World!”

~We went on vacation to Florida, and got to spend some time on some beautiful beaches. The boys had fun running, and digging, and swimming, boogyboarding..

We also were able to go crab hunting with some friends, which was such a fun and new experience. All these little crabs come out at night, and you can go down on the beach with your nets and flashlights, and catch these little crabs as they run across the sand.

All in all, it was a great vacation that went by too fast!

I have a facination with “mouse traps” and this is the ultimate one- I love this video..

It was so hard to leave Aiden the first few days of school. He was so sad, and this was the picture I recieved of him from his teacher on one of the days that first week. It took a while for him to warm up to school, to his teacher, and to make friends, but as the year progressed he grew in every way. A lot of that has to do with his teacher. She was amazing. She juggled a whole classroom of pre school children, and payed attention to each child and gave them what they individually needed. I am so happy for Aiden’s growth this year, and so happy that he had such a good year, made so many good friends, and had such a wonderful teacher. It was an awesome way to start his schooling. Here he is on his last day, of Pre-K!