School's about to begin...

Wow, what a week the past few weeks have been. Getting ready for school to start has been super busy! From shopping for pencils and crayons to pillow cases and new shoes and socks, we have been to just about every store possible!! Mackenzie is so excited to start kindergarten. While, I on the other hand, can't believe my big girl is getting ready to start kindergarten- her school career is about to begin. How can that even be possible? It just seems like yesterday I was cuddling with my first born in the hospital. How could 5, almost 6 years have gone by that quick? I am very excited for her though. She's going to learn so many new and amazing things. I'm excited to see how she progresses as she learns new things this year.

Vaca

Parker and I got to take a trip without the kids to Clearwater/St. Petersburg, FL. to visit Shana and Jim. It was our first trip without the kids in 7 years!! We had a great time. However, by the end of the week we were missing the girls!

Here we are with the Hyatt in the background

The view from our room!

And it wouldn't be complete without an awesome pic of the beach!

New baby

I am so thrilled to say that I am going to have a new niece or nephew. Lauren called yesterday to tell me that she's pregnant with baby #3!! Yay! She is due approx. Dec. 5, 2011. We are praying for a healthy, happy baby! Congrats to the Barnes clan!

I know I haven't been on here in a while, but if you look at my blog every now and again then I hope you do now. This little guy needs many prayers. The picture is a little old. He's actually 18 months right now. He's the son of my friend at work who had to have open heart surgery the day after he was born. He also had open heart surgery again in December. Well, he went to his 2 month post op visit and they found that the pressure in his heart has not gone down like it should have. He had a sleep study done to see if he has sleep apnea (which can raise the pressure in your heart). If he does, then he will have his tonsils and adenoids taken out. If not, then they wait another 2 months to go back to the cardiologist. If at that time the pressure in his heart hasn't gone down or gotten worse, he will be diagnosed with pulmonary artery hypertension which is terminal. He would only live to his teens or 20's. Please pray for healing for this little guy's heart! He needs a miracle right now!

The girls outside with their pumpkins.

Mackenzie helping clean out the inside of the pumpkin

Ariel and my little Monkey!

What a month it has been!

Mackenzie's 1st Day of Ballet

1st Day of Preschool

Peyton exhausted the day after her 2nd birthday party!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday!

Our Big Week

Wow, what a big week it has been for us! Mackenzie started preschool yesterday at Legacy Christian School. She has been so excited about going to school and all the new things she will learn. We had talked about it every day for about 2 weeks leading up to the big day so that she would be prepared for what would happen. I thought she would be nervous about the fact that Mommy wasn't going to walk her into school and take her to her classroom. At her school, they have a drop off line so you just pull up to the school and they have a bunch of teachers out there to take the kids out of the car and walk them into school. It was so sad to see my once little baby now walking into school for her first day of preschool. She has grown up so fast. I think that day was harder on me than her! She had so much fun that day though. She even met a new friend but couldn't remember her friend's name!
Today she started ballet class. Her class is half tap and half ballet. They have a waiting area for all of the parents and siblings to watch outside of the ballet room. The windows are such that you can see in but they can't see out as to not distract the kids. It was so cute watching her. The past 2 days have made me realize how much she has grown up in the past year and what a big girl she is now. She's not the shy little 2 year old that she was only 3 short years ago where she wouldn't leave mommy's side let alone talk to someone she has never met before.
On top of that, Peyton had her 2 year check up. The doctor was happy with her development and how well she communicates. She speaks so much better than Mackenzie did at her age. She has been speaking in sentences for months now. Her stats are:

weight: 27 lbs. 14 oz. (75th percentile)
height: 34" (50th percentile)

I don't think she will be as tall as Mackenzie but we'll see! So far she's falling behind what Mackenzie was at her age for height.

I will post pictures this weekend hopefully!