Preschool Orientation

This is the first year both kids will be going to preschool and I will get a break for 3 1/2 hours two days a week b/c Jackson will be going 4 days and Bailey 2!!  I was super impressed with their new school.  Bailey seemed to have a blast.  She walked right in like she owned the place :)  I volunteer a good deal and she was in our church nursery a lot during those times and while I was at church.  Both her and Jackson were sad that I wasn't leaving them today.  I guess it's better than the alternative of not wanting to go...ha.   

 These are Bailey's new teachers Mrs. Kristin and Mrs. Amy.  

 Of course she met a friend immediately and they bonded over their big bows ;)

 Here is her classroom. 

 Bailey was excited to get to wear tennis shoes to school like Jackson. hahaha. On a quick note, it is funny to me how many people don't abide by the school rules.  They say no sandals/crocs...so WHY do you have your children wear them?!?  Ok, done my venting.

 These are Jackson's 4 year old teachers...Mrs. Eileen and Mrs. Mary. I was VERY impressed with his curriculum and what he will be responsible for.  His classroom was awesome and the kids/parents seemed great too.  

 Jackson spent most of his time in the science station.  He walked all around the room trying to figure out what was magnetic ;)

This was a little project he just made up all on his own.  His teacher asked for the parents to fill out a form about weaknesses/strengths ect.  John was right on point when he said Jackson's biggest strengths are his imagination and inquisitive mind.

What we have been missing....

I feel like we have really missed out on the neighborhood style of living.  In our old neighborhood we had a pool in our backyard, but not in the neighborhood (it was too small) and we didn't have a single family with kids the same age as ours or even close.  Now we have a great pool and kids (and another stay-at-home Mom) just a few doors down that we love.  

Jackson learned to swim this summer and he does great.  He is a little fish :) 

The kids have this new game they have made up and they sit at the table for hours and play.  

Right down our street is the cold de sac and the kids love to run/ride bikes down and back around.

We are all having a great time :)

Daddy's Birthday!

Johns Birthday was last week and we had a lot of fun celebrating. We went to our pool,had our breakfast outside, baked Daddy a cake, and took them to Japanese for dinner.  Johns present was a canvas portrait of our 3rd child Cooper, and it was a hit. We are all so blessed and lucky to have John in our lives. He is just such a good man. He is always making me strive to be a better person. 

The black spot

The other half of the reason I haven't been up to date with blogging is "the black spot" on my camera.  It has been there since May and I just now took it to get fixed.  I actually only had to get it cleaned and thankfully it's back to normal, and it was inexpensive and that is always great!  I was pretty worried and am feeling super excited to be back behind my camera (even though I secretly would LOVE to get the newer version and only have one lens instead of two, but someday...)!

These pictures are from last week when the weather was like Fall instead of Summer!  We are all really loving our temporary home!  We love having kids down the street to play with, a pool in the subdivision, the smaller ranch style home with NO steps instead of 3 sets, and our flat yard to play in :)  We have Grandma and Pop over for dinner at least 2 times a week.  I go on almost nightly walks around our neighborhood with Cooper and sometimes I have company, like my Mom or one of my best friends Alijeh (who lives super close now!).

Memphis

I have made a sort of tradition to take the kids to Nana and Opa's for a week during the summer.  Since John doesn't have a million vacation days, he sadly doesn't get to come with us.  Its just a perk of being a stay-at-home Mom, I get all the vacation days I want while the kids are not in school.  They took us to a Memphis Redbirds game this year and the kids did great.  We played in the pool, had lots of yummy dinners, and just spent time together.  It was a lot of fun.  And we are happy to report that everyone was very excited to come back "home" to our new home.  I had missed it too and that is a very good feeling :)

Why we have been MIA...

Well, to make it short, we moved! We decided back in beginning of June to sell and spent the entire month getting the house ready. John could no longer stand his 3 hour daily commute and neither could I.  I put it on the market at the beginning of July and got 3 offers in 3 days! We were under contract by day 3. We closed less than a month later on July 31st! It was my 1st sale and I think we did great! It is the BEST time ever to sell and we were so happy that the appraisal was just over their offer (it was also above asking!) We now live closer to Johns new job in Alpharetta. We are only 3 miles from his office! We will miss our friends and neighbors so much. 

It was a very difficult decision and we questioned it up until we moved into our new house, which I actually lived in for 2 years as a little girl. My Mom kept it as a rental home the last 20+ years and now we are renting it. With our home selling so fast, this allows us to take our time and see where we want to buy. We LOVE how much smaller this house is and we have already decided we now want a ranch. Lol. To go from 4 stories, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms....to a 3-2 ranch has been like a dream come true. Lol. Who knew!?!?  We also LOVE the convenience of everything we can think of being so close, including our parents and friends from high school. Grandma and Pop are now only 3 miles away!