One Week!

Ben's home from school today because of a teacher inservice day. I used to dread days off because he always turns into a little maniac completely bored out of his mind at home. But that was Kindergarten and something switched in 1st grade and he's much more mellow (most days, anyway!)

This morning we went on our usual donut run. We go every Friday if Ben hasn't gotten his binder signed at school. So basically we go every Friday morning on our way to school. He NEVER gets his binder signed! I know, never say never, but I should probably institute some other rule for getting donuts since this one is obviously too easy for him. But despite all that we headed to Shipley's and ate inside (gasp!) but only if they both promised to be good while we went to half price day at Thrift Town. They were both great, even though the sugar high started to turn into complete exhaustion for both of them after we'd been shopping for an hour.

The usual every day things are things that I love a lot with my kids. Stuff I'm enjoying while they're both so portable and mostly well behaved in public. We can actually eat at sit-down restaurants with a 2-year old and she rarely gives us a lick of trouble. (Trust me, we adore our kids and have to remind ourselves that their occasional whining and complaining are way more easily tolerable than what we could get from them!)

So in a little over a week on October 1st we find out what we're having! And how much it's going to change our life early next year. Not that girls and boys can't both be well behaved but there is definitely a difference! I'm hoping it's a girl because we already have a girl name (that we've had since I was pregnant with Ben, but we knew that wasn't supposed to be Shelby's name) but John is pretty certain it's a boy and he's 2-0 on guessing the gender of our babies. We don't have a boys name. Not even a middle name or an IDEA of a name. Parker is the only one we've even agreed that we both like, but we also both agree that our baby probably isn't supposed to be Parker. I'd love boy name suggestions! Nothing wacky, just simple, not too trendy, doesn't end in -y boy names. Just in case! Our girl name is Cameron Elizabeth. (The spelling of Cameron is still undecided, though.)

Anyway. Not a lot going on around here. Just trying to keep my house clean, picking a realtor in the next couple of weeks, constantly looking at houses online, praying to find a buyer, trying not to pass out at 8pm every night, trying not to eat too much since I finally feel good again, watching lots of girly movies while Ben's at school, spending time at baseball practice. Loving times like these and hoping for big changes soon!

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The one where I ruined my kids' summer.

Otherwise known as the summer I unintentionally got pregnant. Okay so my post title is a little dramatic, but that doesn't mean I don't feel that way a small bit! So in other words, we're having our 3rd baby next year!

Rewind to early this spring. I realized I might be pregnant around the time that I had started planning my kids' birthday parties early April. We were not trying to get pregnant because we've wanted to wait until we are in a bigger house. I had a positive pregnancy test and I was not happy about it. After a week I knew that it wasn't a viable pregnancy because I had zero symptoms and sure enough, I miscarried less than a week later. I was feeling incredibly guilty for being so relieved. It was unfortunate timing with the incident that happened at Ben's school and I probably reacted more irrationally than I otherwise would have because of what was going on. We pulled Ben out of his class with 6 weeks left in school and put him in a new class. I'm pretty sure some people thought we were crazy, but blame it on hormones or whatever, we still think it was the right decision. Anyway.

So imagine my surprise in June when AGAIN I just knew I was pregnant. I didn't tell John right away because we had a big wedding coming up in a couple of days and we needed to focus. So on Sunday, June 17, I took a pregnancy test early in the morning and gave it to him, you know, as a Father's Day present. :) He was so confused because he was so tired! We were both much more prepared for it this time around. But we weren't trying to get pregnant... I think someone else had plans on when we needed to have another kid...

After going to the doctor and hearing the heart beat I'm a lot more relieved about this pregnancy. And the fact that I've been so much more sick than I ever remember being with Ben or Shelby. I eat, I get sick, I don't eat, I get sick, I think about food, I get sick. ESPECIALLY sugar! It totally sucks!! And I've been completely, insanely exhausted all. the. time. I hate it! I'm about 13 weeks now and hoping I feel better soon!

In a way I do feel like I ruined Ben's summer, Shelby is still a little too small to understand. But I had all of these great plans for what we were going to do and that lasted about two weeks into being pregnant and my energy level went to ZERO. So I'm doing my best to buck up and finish out the summer on a good note, taking them to the park more, swimming more, letting Ben play more Wii, that kind of stuff. It's definitely not the summer I was hoping we'd have, but Ben doesn't seem to be too bothered by it at least! And he's so excited to have another sibling, especially with the two new cousins he got this summer.

Ben has been a great helper this past week helping me clean the entire house! The cleanness suffered a little over the weekend, but it's a start at least. We're hoping to pick a realtor in the next couple of weeks so we can actually sell since having it for sale by owner hasn't been that successful (4 showings, no offers). You can see our Zillow listing here. I need to add more pictures of the outside and of the other things around the property, but if you know anyone looking let me know!

Anyway, my due date is Valentine's Day and we are excited about having another baby in our family! Especially if he/she is as awesome as our first two. :)

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The one where Ben turned 6

I was really good about posting when Shelby turned 2 in April and have not even posted anything about Ben turning SIX last month! Partly because I was planning his crazy Harry Potter party and it was the end of the school year and I haven't taken his 6 year pics yet (well, his 6 year pics not dressed as Harry Potter). ;)

We are so lucky to be Ben's parents! He is just one of those kids that EVERYONE likes. I don't know anyone who doesn't love him. It's kind of weird sometimes, though, because we're often told from people that they want to kidnap him or marry him or steal him or they want to adopt him. That's great and all but he's mine you can't have him! But we really are grateful he's such a fun kid that he has that kind of impression on people. I mean, when his principal tells you that if Ben ever comes up missing he's probably at his house, then you know you've got a good one.

He's in that phase of life where he's so independent and he's the oldest he carries a lot of guilt about what he does and mistakes he makes. He's VERY hard on himself when he does something wrong. I know he calls himself stupid out of need for attention, because he is very clearly not stupid.

He love Shelby more than anything. When we were decorating for his party at our church's Institute building Shelby was in the other room and I asked Ben where she was. He panicked for a second and ran to find her, then came back and said "I just could not live without my little sister!" So sweet!

Ben did GREAT in Kindergarten this year! Despite a mishap with a couple of other students and moving him to a new class with only 6 weeks left, he had a great year. He adjusted really well to his new class and teacher but still always gave his old teacher a hug when he left at the end of the day.

Ben's been reading since before he started Kindergarten. My sister asked me what reading level he was on and they didn't test him for that so we checked out a few chapter books from the library and he read about 30 pages of a 3rd grade level book in about 15 minutes while we were waiting at Discount Tire. So I'd say that's pretty good for a 1st grader! If anyone out there has recommendations for book on a 2-4 level Ben is on his way to reading a lot this summer. (Especially since he can get a free Rangers ticket through the library, great incentive for him!)

Now while everyone else is totally in love with Ben I will be honest that he saves all his crazy for me. It's better that way, I realize, but sometimes I want to strangle him. He talks back, he says NO way too much, he cries when I get mad at him because he feels stupid when he does something wrong, he thinks HE'S in charge a lot of times. So at home we struggle sometimes. Especially after school when he would be really tired. I was honestly dreading summer! That sounds horrible, right? So I found some ideas on Pinterest and started us a good summer schedule of things to do every day and we're 4 days in so far and he loves it. It's work for me because we're actually doing school related things. This week we're learning about big cats and doing sink or float experiments and practicing sentences with his 1st grade word list. And we have themes for the days of the week like Make Something Monday, Time to Read Tuesday, stuff like that. Ask me in July to see if we're still doing it!

Ben still loves all things Star Wars, Harry Potter and Texas Rangers. John won a Kindle Fire at a work retreat that Ben has games on and gets to play, like Oregon Trail, Tiny Village, PebbleGo and Angry Birds. But one of his favorite things to do on it is check the weather on the weather ap.

He still lets me pick out his clothes every day. The only thing he refuses to wear is tank tops.

He loves to draw and make books. He made a book about sharks a few weeks ago with a diagram of a shark with every fin correctly labeled. I asked him if he learned it at school and he said he learned it from PebbleGo. He's a lot like John where he remembers so much about so many things and can actually recall that information when he wants it. I can't remember anything!

He hasn't had his 6-year appointment yet but I do know he's 49-1/2" tall and weighs around 56 pounds.  That puts him around 97th for him, which is normal for him. He wasn't the tallest in his class (one girl was almost 5 feet and not held back!) and definitely not the shortest. He was probably the 4th tallest in his first class and 1st or 2nd tallest in his new class because most of the kids in that class were pretty small.

Girls at school LOVE Ben. Shocking, right? From day 1 of school kids teased him about having a girlfriend. We were at Levitt Pavilion yesterday for one of their kid concerts and he spotted a girl who went to his school, but wasn't 100% sure because she had on a hat so he wouldn't go talk to her. Then a few minutes later I look over and she'd come over to talk to him and was SO CUTE, blushing and talking to him.

I started this post over a week ago and never posted it! Ben definitely hasn't gotten the shaft because I've planned our summer schedule mostly around him so that's what's kept us so busy the past couple of weeks! It's definitely been an adjustment adding a 6-year-old into the daily schedule me and Shelby had down so well! But it's been fun.

So a few more things about Ben:

He LOVES his extended family. His grandma, cousins, aunts, uncles, no matter who they are he loves them immediately. He was really sad when his uncle Mitch died this year because he didn't know who Mitch was. He was my mom's sister's husband and had been very sick for a long time and had a hard time getting around so Ben never really got to see him. He was so sad at the funeral because he never got to know Mitch. He's got such a sensitive heart that way.

He has a very limited diet of things he'll actually eat. I always blame myself for this because I never gave him variety when he was a baby/toddler. So he sticks to his usual PBJ, chicken nuggets, corn, some fruit, chocolate milk, etc. We're trying to teach him to try new things but he HATES it!

He loves the Incredible Hulk.

And here are his answers to some interview questions I found on Pinterest:

1. What is your favorite color? green
2. What is your favorite toy? my Legos. Especially the ones I got for my birthday.
3. What is your favorite fruit? bananas
4. What is your favorite tv show? Phineas and Ferb
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? PBJ
6. What do you like to do with your family? go to Fuzzy's
7. What is your favorite game? R2D2 Trouble
8. What do you love to learn about? Texas
9. What is your favorite animal? Tyranosaurus Rex
10. What is your favorite song? You Don't Know You're Beautiful by One Direction
11. What is your favorite book? Lego Star Wars Save the Galaxy
12. Who is your best friend? my cousins
13. What is your favorite cereal? Frosted Flakes
14. What makes you sad? When Shelby hits me in the face
15. What makes you happy? When mommy tickles me
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Ralphie and my blanket
18. If you could meet someone famous who would it be? George Washington (without hesitation)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Rainforest Cafe
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a race car driver

I will share pics from his birthday party extravaganza in another post, soon. But here's a couple of pics of him from his Harry Potter photo shoot we did! SO FUN!!

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Ben's Current Favorites

1. Driving me crazy. I hate to put this as #1, but man, this kid drives me absolutely nuts sometimes! I know it's just his age and him thinking he is completely independent, but wow, 5-year-olds are feisty! He talks back, questions me when I tell him he's incorrect about something, uses what I can only describe as a neener neener neener voice when he doesn't want to do something, and whines all the time! We're definitely working on it and correcting behavior we know he picks up at school, but it's frustrating at times!

2. Saying prayers. He says the BEST prayers. Even when he doesn't want to at night if he's too tired, or at dinner if he's "too tired" we have him say them anyway. But he always makes us proud throwing in some little tidbit that makes us smile.

3. Reading. He's a great little reader and can read up to Level 3 in some books (the ones that you buy like at Target). He also loves reading the Book of Mormon with us and gets so annoyed when it's late and we're in a hurry and we don't let him read a couple of verses.

4. Harry Potter. Our trip definitely renewed his interest in Harry Potter. He's now having a Harry Potter Party for his 6th birthday and I am already thinking of photoshoot locations for his pictures like we did for his Star Wars party last year! It's gonna be so fun!

5. Legos. Duh. He has a mess of legos on his little desk in his bedroom that I have no idea how to keep organized! But he creates all kinds of cool stuff! He's getting a big Star Wars Jedi Ship for Christmas that was 50% off clearance at Walmart. My mom found a small Hogwarts Castle for half price too so he's getting that for his birthday!

6. Twinkies. Ben has never been a huge fan of sweets. A couple of weeks ago my mom bought some Twinkies for dessert for Sunday dinner and to say Ben loved them would be a complete understatement. He begs for them all the time now! I'm not sad they won't be making them anymore!

7. His Lego Star Wars belt. I bought him this little wallet and belt set on clearance at Target and he LOVES this belt. It has Lego Darth Vader and some Storm Troopers on it and he wears it every single day (except to church of course).

8. Holes in his jeans. This kid cannot keep a pair of jeans from getting holes in the knees! I guess he's on his knees a lot at recess and during school 'cause it only takes a couple of weeks before a brand new pair of jeans will get holes in them. The only pair of jeans he has without holes in the knees has a hole in crotch. I don't even wanna know!

9. Karate. He's taking an after school class once a week for Karate and he loves it! He is convinced he is a Karate Master now and he's only been twice. We can't afford real Karate classes, but I'm glad he's having fun!

10. Being a daredevil. He's always been somewhat skiddish about doing crazy stuff until we introduced him to roller coasters. Now he throws himself everywhere, flips and rolls around the house, jumps off everything at the playground, spins and spins in swings and, well, acts like a normal 5-year-old. I'm actually kind of grateful because I didn't want him to be afraid of things! This video is of him discovering how to spin on the swing at the park. I should probably feel bad it took him so long to figure this out! This day he did it about 9 times in a row and almost puked. I'd have called it a right of passage if he did. :)

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Saunders 2011 Recap

This year has been crazy, fun, busy, exhausting, inspiring, test-filled, and all around great. here are some recaps (I stole this idea from Jenny G).

Shelby:
- Turned 1 this year.
- Is now 20 months old.
- Learned how to walk around 14-months.
- Suddenly started talking around 18-months and doesn't stop.
- Learned how to color on walls. And doors. And chairs. And tables.
- Quickly learned you're not supposed to color on walls or doors or chairs or tables.
- Tightened her grip on John's heart strings and refuses to let go.
- Developed a close connection with many of her extended family members (Cecily, Nikki, Chrystal, Grandma, Ginny).
- Learned to walk then learned to dance and she just can't stop. Can't stop!
- Has refused to grow hair past her ears.
- Learned all her body parts and can say them all.
- Developed a huge affection for boy toys, baby dolls and "pincess" dolls (as she calls them).
- Started nursery at church and we are so grateful! It just makes church so much easier. Especially since we have 11am church!

Ben:
- Turned 5 this year in spectacular Star Wars birthday party style complete with Obi Wan Kenobi and defeating Darth Vader AND destroying the death star.
- Started Kindergarten this fall.
- Learned how to read.
- Can do simple math (addition), something he's learned on his own.
- Grows hair about 100x faster than his sister.
- Misses his mom and Shelby while he's at school. He's grown a little jealous of the attention Shelby gets at home by herself.
- Misses John more than anything when he works late days (which is pretty often).
- Has super human kid strength and can lift/carry/flip to the point where I'm considering putting him in a tumbling class. Probably just baseball in the fall, though.
- Spent his 6th Christmas away from home for the first time and almost discovered that Mom and Dad are Santa.
- Refuses to play Wii anymore because he says it's boring. I honestly don't mind.
- Learned that smothering his little sister is not the way to make her happy.
- He's made tons of friends at school and his teachers and the staff adore him. I'm so glad he is so well behaved at school because he lets it all out at home. It's tough being a good kid all the time!
- Learned about life and death when my Uncle Mitch passed away this year. It really concerned Ben he never knew Mitch (he had been sick for many years) and he still talks about Mitch being in heaven and not sick anymore and can't wait till Jesus comes so he can see Mitch again.
- He says really, really great prayers.
- Wants to read all the HP books this year (one of his goals for me and him).

Missy:
- Shot 6 weddings this year.
- Got to shoot the wedding of one of my past young women. It was so awesome to be able to do that and I hope I get to do more!
- Did a ton of family shoots this year. But I kept it light because I've wanted to slow down photography to keep up with all we wanted to do this year on our house.
- Laid tile, organized closets and the kitchen, painted and painted and painted, framed out our master bath mirror, put down baseboards, grouted, caulked, painted and painted, oh, and I painted some more.
- Kept myself sane half the year with 2 kids at home and happily sent Ben to school this fall.
- Spent most of the year with my young women only to get abruptly released a few months ago and am now the Relief Society Weekday Meeting Coordinator. It's been great being back in Relief Society but I MISS MY GIRLS!
- Has lost 15lbs and am working on more.
- Planned, budgeted and survived a family trip to Florida for Christmas. BEST. TRIP. EVER.
- Continued my love of Pinterest, Harry Potter, and photography.

John:
- Was promoted to Repair Manager at work. It came with lots of perks. He's so happy. Which makes me happy.
- Works and works and works. He works hard so I can stay home with the kids and I love him for it.
- Got to go pig hunting with his brother this year.
- Went golfing a few times with buddies at church.
- Grew a beard.
- Is still the Assistant Executive Secretary at church a calling he's had for years!
- Lost over 30 pounds.
- Developed a ganglion cyst on his wrist from his work and will have to have surgery in 2012. Nothing major though.
- Got to go to Donuts with Dad at school with Ben.
- Drove more on our road trip than I could have ever hoped and I have no idea how he stayed awake the entire time. He's just awesome.
- Misses our kids to death when he has to work so much. They adore him!
- Continues to shoot weddings and families (when he can) with me and I am so grateful to have him with me on shoots. It's so fun! He takes great pictures.

As a family:
- We've been reading the Book of Mormon.
- We got our home ready to put on the market (though we're still in the process of doing the final touches on that).
- Spent lots of Saturdays at Fuzzy's Tacos for lunch. Our favorite place!
- Watched lots and lots of movies together on Saturday afternoons. Especially Star Wars on Bluray and Harry Potter and watched Thor so many times I've lost track.
- Spent 5 days in Orlando, Florida for Christmas this year and had the greatest time. It was just completely awesome!

It was a really great year and we have some goals planned out or 2012 we are excited about as well. Here are a few pictures from our trip! (Oh, and Jalei and Regina. We ran into Marnie Cochran at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! What are the odds??)

Christmas Day at the Magic Kingdom

Soooo many people. Nothing like Hogsmeade in the middle of the day, though!

Day 2, Disney Hollywood Studios

Ben doing Jedi Training Academy. Awesome. And free!

Okay, not technically free because we bought the tshirt.

Days 3 and 4 at Universal (specifically Wizarding World of Harry Potter). My new favorite place! This was how crowded it is at 8:30am!

Breakfast at the Three Broomsticks

Jurassic Park area at Universal (we spent most of our time in WWoHP though)

Don't you just love this place?

The Sorting Hat! I'm such a dork!

My favorite pic of the entire trip. It's just magical. I know, I'm a dork and I'm proud of it!

Frozen Butter Beer. It's so good!

We had THE BEST time! And we want to go back every year if we can. Something we're adding to our 2012 goals. :)

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Grateful Nov 9

Is it already Friday? Did I really miss two whole days?

I'm grateful for Ben. He's smart, charming, opinionated, social, frustrating, witty, and all around an awesome kid. He's doing really well in school. His writing is getting better and better. He can spell words I didn't think kindergartners even learned. He's easily frustrated by his sister but he's quick to apologize. He takes extremely long showers. He LOVES Legos and builds some really cool ships. The principal at his school calls him Hollywood because of his sunglasses he wears every day. He is instant friends with pretty much every kid he meets. He's very aware of when kids are misbehaving and it really bothers him. He always remembers prayer and scripture time and reads verses with us almost every night. He's averaging out in height so he's on the tall side of kids at school but he is definitely not the tallest. He annoys me all day with his tooting noises. He gets frustrated really easily when he can't do something or thinks he's not being listened to. His favorite thing to eat right now is chicken nugget sliders (I put three nuggets in a hot dog bun and tear them into 3 little sandwiches). He loves cookie dough. He is still quick to cry when he's in trouble then just wants a hug. He loves Halloween and dressing up. Next year he's going to be Anakin. He has the next two Halloweens planned out but I can't remember what they are. This year he was Jango Fett and he looked awesome! We just love this kid. He drives us crazy, makes us laugh hysterically, asks us a million questions, but we wouldn't trade him for the world. I'm so grateful he is the big brother of our family because he's going to be awesome at it.

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Ben started school!

Okay well most of you already know Ben started school and it's been awesome. We're so lucky that Ben has always been a great kid in social situations. He was the leader of the pack in Nursery at church, he LOVED going to the small preschool last year and has been wanting to go to school for so long I knew we wouldn't have a problem. It's only been a little over a week so I guess I can't guarantee that for the rest of the year!

His first day was great. I had everything packed up, Ben was so excited he was up at 6:15. We ate breakfast together, he showered and got dressed, I showered and got ready. I woke Shelby up at 7:20, got her dressed, snapped a few pics and we were on our way at about 7:35. It takes between 15-20 minutes to get to his school depending on which way we go and how many stop lights we hit. It's been about 17 minutes each time. When we got to school we parked, and walked in a little before 8. I did take a couple of pics of him on the Highlander bench and outside the school. We had to get him registered before he could go into class, but it only took a few minutes and he was like MOM. Can we go already?

His class is right outside the office directly inside the front doors which is good because it's easy for him to find (he walks in by himself now). His teacher is super sweet and I was eyeing the rest of the kids in his class just to see who he would be there with and they all seemed pretty normal. Ben got his scotty dog name tag, was given his place at his table to play with shapes while his teacher told me the dismissal policy and things like that. After a few minutes Ben is hollering at me going "Mom, are you going to leave already?" He's funny.

The thing I find the most interesting about having him in school is the stories he tells me about the other kids. He's always been kind of a tattle tale so he likes to say when kids get in trouble. He's also funny about the descriptions he has for the other kids. Like Addyson who is a little chubby (he says while pointing at his cheeks) and always cries for her mom. And Caden who takes away kids' toys. And Zack who got bit by another kid (whose name he couldn't remember). And how Rhianna and Destiny got their binders marked for being too loud in music class. And how Destiny got sent to the principal for not listening on Ben's 2nd day. Thankfully Ben's binder has been full of nothing but good stickers!

He loves school so much he even told me on his 2nd day that he wanted to stay there all the time. Awesome. I'm pretty sure he'll get over that as the weeks go on!

Shelby LOVES being home without Ben. He likes to pester her, and try and hug and kiss her all the time and it drives her crazy. Now she loves sitting in her chair in the living room and watching Curious George or sitting at the table with me while I work. I'm modifying her nap schedule and she's been taking one 3+ hr nap a day which is AWESOME. I hope that lasts a while because I'll be super sad when they get shorter and shorter! She's also hilarious when I tell her it's time to go pick up Ben she runs over to a picture of him on the bookshelf and screams Go! Go! Go! in an awkwardly husky voice. It's so bizarrely adorable.

Ben's school is great. The principal manages the pick-up/drop-off line (I have no idea if that's normal obviously). The PTA is super involved and organized. The office staff are so nice. The kids I've seen are really well behaved. They have a student council and the older kids take turns putting up and taking down the flag. When I left this morning it was a little later than normal because I'd gone in to take my PTA stuff so I was walking out with Shelby as they were doing the morning announcements that broadcast outside of the school. It's totally cool. And a group of kids comes in and leads the pledge and they sing My Country Tis of Thee. But like I said I have no idea if this is typical for an elementary school or not, but I still love it.

Here are a few pics of Ben's first day. He was NOT interested in me taking his picture because he was too excited to get to school!

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Hallelujah!

Since my last post was about Ben and Kindergarten I figure this post can be about Ben and Kindergarten, too. It may sound weird that I had such a spiritual experience today getting Ben into school, but it is not an insignificant lesson to me and has been a testimony building day.

It's been a little bit of a struggle working with the school system to get a transfer out of Ben's home campus. I posted a story about what happened when I went to that campus last year to qualify him for PreK and it's way too lengthy to write out again, but it sums up why we don't want him there. In a nutshell, we were reversely discriminated against and bullied while filling out paperwork. I was minding my own business and accused of being favored because I was white. Anyway, it was so bad I called John on our way home and told him I never wanted to step foot on that campus again, even though the counselor begged me to come back. (We didn't qualify by a very miniscule dollar amount and could have tried again but I was not going to do it). I've been a little terrified to even consider sending Ben there after that experience because I didn't want him to get stuck there. I mean, what if a transfer never came through? What if our condo doesn't sell for a year? I didn't wan tot take any chances.

But like I said in my previous post, work, life, whatever got in the way of us getting our house ready to sell. And August was looming like a horror movie villain. We did the right thing back in April by getting on the transfer list for the two schools we wanted. That was not panning out. I called 4 or 5 different other schools within a 15-minute driving radius and got us on the transfer list. Nothing open. I talked to a friend of mine about trading marketing design with a friend of hers who runs a Kindergarten certified preschool. All of our options were running out and I didn't feel good about any of them. Except registering him at Roquemore.

This was obviously the last thing in the world I wanted to do. I mean, I told myself a year ago I'd never go back, and now the only answer to the prayer after prayer after prayer we gave was to go there? Friends on Facebook reassured me he'd be fine. A good ward friend who's a retired AISD educator told me he'd be okay for a few months but to transfer if we got a call. So last night while we were laying in bed talking about it we decided that I'd go register Ben today and he would start school on Friday.

So that's what I did. It wasn't the most pleasant experience. There were a couple of other families doing the same thing, the secretary that approved everything was nowhere to be found, I was dealing with an overtired Shelby and an anxious Ben. The front desk person was a substitute who'd never done this kind of paperwork before, so it took over an hour to get him registered. I saw different classes filing through the halls and not one white kid. I'm all for ethnic diversity but there was that experience stuck in the back of my head of my fear of Ben getting discriminated against because he's white and he's smart. But it was done. My phone had died because I let Ben play Angry Birds while we were waiting, and we still had to go to Target and Office Depot to get the rest of his school supplies (how hard should it be to find folders with BRADS??), Shelby was screaming and I was just tired.

I charged my phone for a couple of minutes in the car but it died as soon as we got inside Target. After finding two of the 10 things I needed we got in the car and I sat and let it charge for a while. I had three voice mails. One from my friend Betsy asking if I was going to Primer (the private preschool) to Meet the Teacher, my other friend Noelle asking me why Betsy was saying we were going to Primer when I told her we were going to Roquemore, and lastly my friend Julie who had a friend on Facebook say that Hill Elementary was looking for transfers to fill empty Kindergarten spots. Wait, what?

Earlier this morning I was on AISD's website looking for school supply lists and came across the transfer page where they announced that a freeze was put on all AISD campuses and that no transfers were being considered until September 19th. I was like GREAT, Ben gets to go to the ghetto school for almost a month before we'd even know if he'd get into another school.... So at first I brushed off Julie's message because it could have been from the day before and Hill is one of two Exemplary elementary schools in all of Arlington. But as we pulled into the Office Depot parking lot I decided to call anyway.

It turns out that attendance was low at Hill this year and they were endanger of losing a Kindergarten teacher. The district gave them exclusive privilege of accepting transfers so they won't have to lose a teacher. I was completely shocked. I never even considered calling Hill before because I thought for certain they'd have transfers. It's a little farther than the schools we were looking at but it has awesome test scores, it actually has a PTA which Roquemore doesn't have. There was an up-to-date calendar on their website with all the current events. Which included all of the things we could have hope for Ben to have in a school experience.

A friend of mine said something on Facebook about how this was our first kid to be in school and that they're the experimental child and that by the time more of our kids are in school we get it figured out. For some reason I took this personally like I wasn't prepared or that I wasn't doing what was best or making too big of a deal and I should just go with the school he was in. But I didn't want to settle! We have prayed more times than I could ever count and our friends and family members have prayed because Ben is a great kid and he deserves to be in a good school environment where he can be nurtured and it was so important to me to find it. I needed to take a leap of faith and do what I thought Heavenly Father wanted us to do and go ahead and register him at his home school. All of this may sound so unimportant to some people, but it means a lot to us to set the standard early for our kid's education. I know it is no coincidence that Julie called me today and we were immediately told we could come in the morning to register him and he can go to school tomorrow.

It's just awesome. I was so excited I cried. Ben was elated because he could tell I was so happy and he knew that was a good thing. I called John and cried, I called my mom and didn't cry, then I called my friend Sharon and cried (because she has been one of the biggest champions of Ben getting into a good school and has helped me a ton figuring out what to do). So thank you for the prayers. Ben starts Kindergarten tomorrow and I could not be more happy about it.

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Ben's Kindergarten Dilemma

When we bought our condo almost 6 years ago we knew that we wouldn't want our kids to go to the elementary school who's boundaries we're in. Of course being naive as we were we assumed we would be out of our condo by then so it wouldn't matter.

Fast forward 6 years, two kids, job changes and losses, an extremely poor economy, an even worse housing market, and not our ideal financial situation and we're still here. We love our little condo, even though it's much to small for our family of 4. We live in an extremely safe gated community and have had a really comfortable time here (despite the walls starting to close in on us!) Our goal all year has been to get our house on the market and sold before Ben started Kindergarten. Unfortunately with John's late work hours, two kids, tons of work and not enough money to get it all done we are super close, but not quite there with getting our house listed.

So this leads me to Ben's Kindergarten dilemma. His home campus is 3% white and is academically unacceptable. There is no way he will step foot in that school, we have only heard awful things about it. Luckily we're on the transfer list for 2 schools, one of which is not accepting transfers and the other is a big possibility but there's no guarantee he will get it in AND we may not even know if he is in until after school starts! I'm now in the unfortunate position of possibly having to home school him until a spot opens up in another campus close to us that's not comparable to his home campus (there are maybe 2 other possibilities). It's unfortunate that I even have to say the word homeschool because I am NOT THAT mom whatsoever. The thought of homeschooling my kids had never ever been a possibility. But it might be a possibility, even if for just a few short weeks.

Cross your fingers, say a prayer, whatever that a spot will open up for him at a better school! We're pulling all the strings we know with all our connections and friends and are so lucky that people are putting in good words for us because they all love Ben and know he's a great kid.

So I'm hopefully going to be taking Ben to his very first day of Kindergarten next Monday, but if not, then hopefully soon after that! I'm ready for him to be in school and he is VERY ready to be in school. It's all he talks about besides Star Wars and he's going to do really great. I might even miss the kid. ;)

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Ben is FIVE!

Okay so I can't write a post about Shelby turning 1 without recognizing that Ben turned 5 yesterday! 5 is an interesting age. It's awesome for many many reasons but also incredibly frustrating for just as many reasons. I'll include a list like I did for Shelby, highlighting both the good and the bad about our 5 year old!

1. Ben loves Star Wars. Especially Lego Star Wars. After he broke our tv a few months ago he hasn't been able to play Wii. Which means no Lego Star Wars video game. This has been pretty traumatic for him, but I have not backed down on the Wii privileges! We're dealing with a small tv in the living room and Ben will get his Wii privileges back Friday when he opens his presents from us (and gets a new Star Wars game).

2. Ben has been going to preschool at a friend's house this year. He's learned a lot. He's also learned how to add some numbers together but swears he didn't learn that at school. He reads fairly well and is as prepared for Kindergarten as you can probably get!

3. Ben starts KINDERGARTEN this Fall! A lot of people hold their boys back a year, and even though Ben is going to be one of the younger ones in his class we're not holding him back. Besides the fact that he's huge! He's definitely ready. He will probably be a little on the immature side, but we'll work with him on that.

4. His favorite thing to eat is peanut butter and (strawberry) jelly sandwiches and chocolate milk. He has this for lunch every single day!

5. He loves the Texas Rangers. He wears his Rangers hat we got him during the playoffs last year all the time.

6. He has really sensitive eyes and wears sunglasses all the time. I can't even tell you how many pairs of sunglasses we've bought and lost. Thankfully I found some at Dollar Tree and am going to stock up on a few pair to last us the rest of the summer!

7. He weighs 51 pounds and is 46" tall. He hasn't had a 5-year check up yet but that puts him over the 95th percentile for height and weight.

8. His obsession with Thomas the Train is definitely on the down turn. I'm kind of glad because I was getting kind of tired of watching Thomas movies and because I was ready for him to move on to more grown up toys. Like Star Wars and Legos. Now he spends all his time building Jedi Star fighters and I love it.

9. Ben is incredibly independent. He thinks he knows everything and even when he's told not to do something he'll say "it's okay Shelby likes it." Not the point!

10. He also thinks he's the boss of Shelby. Granted, he does great when I ask him to keep her entertained or to make sure she doesn't fall asleep in the car, but then he likes to take his own liberties and try to put Shelby on his bed, or try to run with her around the house. And when I tell him to stop he thinks he knows what's best. ie #9.

11. I wish I had Ben's self control when it comes to food. He never over indulges. Sometimes we wish he'd want more than one cookie. Or another bite of brownie, but nope. He's perfectly content with the minimum. I can hand him a pint of rainbow sherbet and he'll bring it to me saying he's done after he's only about 1/6th of the way into it.

12. When Ben gets bored or tired it's not pretty. He wakes up most days around 6:45 and is banished to the living room to lay on the couch so I can sleep a little longer (since Shelby doesn't wake up till 8). If he wakes up any earlier than that I can pretty much count my day a loss because he's almost uncontrollable. He doesn't listen, he throws himself on the floor when he gets mad. He cries if I get upset with him, he's mean to Shelby and he flat out tones out the world and goes a bit loopy. It's so bizarre. If he wakes up after 7 he's usually great. 6:15, total devil.

13. He loves Phineas and Ferb and Fish Hooks on Disney and Wild Kratts on PBS. That's pretty much all we watch besides the occasional random PBS show or if Chuggington is on Disney. It's been kind of nice the past two days because he got two presents on Sunday at dinner at my mom's and he's been playing with them constantly. (A Polar Express electric train from my mom and a Snowtrooper Lego set from Nikki). We didn't even turn on the tv till after lunch time yesterday. That's a big deal in our house.

14. When Ben knows he did something wrong he gets REALLY upset. Like, I have to send him to his room and he'll cry sometimes for half an hour if he thinks I'm mad at him. Yesterday he got so frustrated with Shelby touching his new train he pushed her down and she started crying. I was painting the kitchen and ran in asked him what happened and he ran to his room, slammed the door and just cried. He said he didn't want to tell me what he did because he knew I'd be upset. And then he told me 'cause he knows if he doesn't he'll get in more trouble. It's nice he has a conscience, we're just working on managing his emotions.

15. Ben never forgets a prayer. And he likes to say really long, specific prayers and then when he's done he'll say "That was a good prayer, huh Mom?" Yes, yes it was.

16. He asked for a Book of Mormon for his birthday. I forgot he even wanted one. He got one from his Primary teacher on Sunday and he was SO excited.

17. He's really sensitive to his friends. He told me the other day that he wanted to do something nice for his friend Fynn. He thinks about Fynn a lot because they've been friends for so long and they're in the same class at church and Fynn is really shy. So he told me he wants to draw him a picture and mail it to him. And he always wants to write thank you notes to people who do nice things for him. He's already got Nikki and Grandma and his primary teacher on his list of people to make cards for. I've never once told him he needed to do that!

18. When he gets mad he whines and grunts at me. This makes me so mad sometimes. I always lose my patience once the whining and the grimaces come out.

19. He also gets really impatient when we go shopping. So I have to resort to rounds and rounds of "What's your favorite....?" and "I spy" otherwise it's not exactly the most pleasant shopping experience. Frankly, it's me that's the impatient one.

20. He loves playing Angry Birds on my phone.

21. He's the worst bargainer. If he's eating something he doesn't like and asks if he can be done, I usually say 3 more bites. Then he'll counter, "How about 7 more bites?" 7 it is!

22. Ben is a perfect angel when John is around. He wants to grow up and be strong like his dad. Today he asked me if he's stronger like his dad now that he's 5.

23. He has a lot of girl friends. All the kids in his preschool are girls besides him. The first girl he ever said he was going to marry was Emma Pool. Then it was Sarah. Then Cameron. Now I'm not sure who he's planning on marrying but I think it's hilarious!

Okay that's all I can really think of. If you read all of them thank you. :) We love Ben. He's a great big brother and is one heckuva cute kid. Here are some pics from the photo shoot I did for his birthday party invitation plus one from when we did bluebonnet pics (minus the bluebonnets!) Seriously, could he be anymore handsome?

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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It's been one of those weeks. One of those weeks you want to end as soon as humanly possible. One of those weeks where you think things are going great and then all of a sudden you're in the adversaries sights. And today is only Wednesday? Sigh.

Most of you know we've been wanting to put our condo on the market so we can buy a house. Well, we found out Monday that we are so close to pre-qualifying and we are so excited! This is going to mean a lot of work getting our place ready, but I've been doing one major thing every day to get things ready. So that's good. Great, in fact!

For some reason lately I've been really tired. John's been working long, hard hours on the commercial properties they have and I'm so proud of him. He works harder than anyone I know. These commercial properties mean he is making more money which is great for us. It comes with a price because he has to work some Saturdays and his days now are long and hard when usually it's the summertime that sucks. But we're all doing just fine, just quite a bit more tired. I think I have sympathetic exhaustion from him, I've just felt so sleep deprived lately! But two goods, right? Great we might get to buy a house soon, great John has more opportunities at work!

Cue Friday night. John was working late and I was trying to get everything cleaned up before he got home. And I needed to get his patches ironed and sewed onto his new work shirt. I didn't want to wake the kids up in the hallway by ironing there like I usually do so I brought the shirt out in the living room and was doing it on the floor because we don't own an ironing board because there's no real place to put it. Can you see where I'm going with this? I don't even know what was going through my head thinking it was a good idea to IRON ON THE CARPET. But I did. And I ironed John's brand new expensive work shirt to the carpet. I seriously did that. I peeled it off, tried to get the carpet fibers off his shirt while they were still hot, but to no avail. And the carpet. Oh, we have nice patch of melted carpet right smack dab in the middle of our living room floor. Thankfully we had plans to replace the carpet before we put it up for sale. I am SO smart.

Monday John came home and his phone wasn't working because he dropped it in a pool filter. He couldn't get the charge port to work so he couldn't charge it. We have a spare iPhone we use for parts but as he was taking his phone apart he cracked the screen. He got the charge port fixed and working and ordered a new screen on eBay (he's changed them before). It's just one thing after another!

The big doozy came yesterday afternoon. I'd been doing some work on the computer while Ben was playing Wii and Shelby was napping. I decided to get the dishes done since I always put off doing the dishes and I needed to wash bottles. I was unloading the dishwasher and Ben wanted to play Wii sports (he usually just plays Lego Star Wars or Lego Harry Potter). I made him stay as far away from the tv as possible but it didn't even cross my mind to have him put the wrist strap on the Wiimote. Ben had started to get a little carried away while playing bowling and as I was about to say something to him as I was unloading the dishwasher I heard a "thunk." Ben immediately turned to look at me. I looked at him. Then at the TV stand thinking that's where his remote had hit, but no. HE HIT THE TV. And the TV is complete toast. Think I'm kidding?

It's a sad, sad day in the Saunders house. At least we had a 32" in our bedroom we put out in the living room. Our big tv is now in my car to take to electronic recycling. I had a dream we turned it on this morning and it worked just fine, but it's not. I still can't believe he actually broke it. And we're seriously contemplating saving $$ now to get a tv sooner because this little tv looks so sad on our big, nice tv stand (that we got on markdown at Sams for $125!) and would not show very well in my opinion!

Ben, in the meantime, has had a hard lesson to learn. Yes, it was an accident and I should have made sure he had the wrist strap on. But we have to make sure he understands that it was a bad thing that happened, an expensive thing he broke and that he has to be responsible for it. So we decided that there's no more Wii for him until he can earn back the privilege by behaving himself, helping more around the house, that kind of thing. And we are even going to have him donate some (or all) of his money jar to help pay for a new tv. Think that's fair? I honestly think Ben's more upset he can't play Wii than he is about breaking the tv. He's only 4 so he really doesn't understand.

So, anyway, that's been our past 5 or 6 days. It's been so fun! But it could be a lot worse I know!

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