Katelyn's New Booster Seat

For some reason, we have been thinking for years that the law for switching from a regular car seat to a booster seat was you had to be 4 years old and weigh 40 pounds. Since Katelyn is almost 4-1/2, yet only weighs 31 pounds, we've told her she has to wait til she gets bigger before getting to move up to a booster seat. I'm not sure what all made us think this was the law, but after my friend Becca made the comment that she didn't think there was a weight requirement, I started searching. Everything I could find just said age 4. I went back and looked at the info we got from Katelyn's 4 year check-up at the pediatrician, and it said now that she's 4 she can move to a booster seat once she reaches 40 pounds. So maybe that's where I had seen that. But, it appears that's just a suggestion. After searching & searching on the internet, I finally emailed our state's department of safety. A very kind state trooper emailed me back and told me that once a child reaches 4 years old, he/she can be moved to a booster seat, regardless of weight! He included a copy of the law for me to read myself. He also suggested that we put Katelyn in a booster seat and check to see where the seat belt comes across her. We shared the news with Katelyn and she was so excited!!! We had her sit in Rachel's booster seat to make sure the seat belt was fine coming across her and it was!!! So we made a special trip out to buy Katelyn a new booster seat!! We tried to get one exactly like Rachel's, but since Rachel's is 2 years old, the one we got Katelyn is almost the same, but just a different color and a few other minor differences. It is a high back booster seat that has the belt positioning guides to help keep the seat belt from cutting across her neck. As soon as I got it in the car, Katelyn wanted to go for a ride!!! I told her we'd be going to pick Rachel up from school later, but she said that was too long to wait! So, we took off on a little ride around town. Katelyn grinned the entire time! She is so proud to be in a big girl car seat!!! It makes it easier on us too since she can get in & out all by herself now. We had joked with her about pulling up to kindergarten next year and me having to unbuckle all of her straps and harnesses on her car seat, but it looks like she'll be able to get out all by herself now that she's in a booster seat! Here are some pictures.

Books of the Old Testament

Rachel has been learning the books of the Old Testament for her Sparks class at church. We have been working on this a lot in the car while we drive back and forth to school. Rachel has done a GREAT job of learning these! For some reason, she can get all the hard ones, but Hosea seems to stump her everytime! I was surprised at how much Katelyn has learned from just listening to me & Rachel work on these in the car.

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

The Fashion Guru

Sunday morning we were getting ready for church. Katelyn was putting on her shoes (which happened to be white sandals since the temp was going to be in the 90's) and she asked "Mom, when is it going to be Fall?" I thought for a minute then said, "Actually, today is the first day of Fall." Katelyn then replied "Then why am I wearing these sandals?" I laughed and said "What are you - the fashion guru?" Katelyn said "Don't call me a kangaroo!"

Katelyn Scored!!!!

Last Saturday was our second week of soccer games. Now first you must know that this is Katelyn's first year of playing soccer, and it's also her first time of playing any organized sport. Second, you must know that Katelyn is tiny! She is so small! Her friends her age tower over her! So not only is Katelyn one of the first year players, she's probably also the smallest player on any team! She's definitely the smallest on our team. Before the season began, all of the kids had to attend soccer evaluations. It's to help even out the teams. Believe it or not, Katelyn did great on her evaluations and actually scored the second highest on our team! But doing drills and playing a game are two totally different things! You can always tell that very first game which kids have played soccer before and which kids are playing for the very first time! The first year players are typically timid when it comes to going after the ball, especially if there are other players anywhere close to the ball! In our first game, Katelyn did fine, but she appeared to be a little intimidated to kick the ball if anyone was around. Well, this past Saturday she did a lot better! She still wasn't super aggressive, but she did get in there and go after the ball and kick it. She even scored on Saturday!!! She was so excited! Unfortunately, I did not have my digital camera or video camera to capture the moment since I was coaching on the field. Oh well! I got to see it live and in person! I wish I had something to share with you though. Sorry about that! One of the other parents was taking pictures (and he's a professional photographer), so maybe he captured it on film! I can't wait to see how soccer goes this week!

Soccer Girls

Soccer games started last week. This is Katelyn's 1st year and Rachel's 3rd year. I am coaching Katelyn's team (along with my friend Carrie) and Robert is coaching Rachel's team (along with Mr. Brad). Before we headed out to the games last week, I took some pictures of the girls in their soccer uniforms. You'll notice that I forgot to have them put on their cleats! So instead, they have on their soccer slides. It doesn't look so bad on Katelyn since her slides are dark, but Rachel's pink slides kind of stand out! Oh well!! Anyway, Katelyn was smiling big when I took pictures of her. When I told Rachel it was her turn for pictures, she really put on her game face and posed! I about got cracked up!! She's so funny! I did finally get her to smile for me, but I think she preferred her game face.

Katelyn is playing on the Hamsters team! What a name! Her good friend Chloe is also on the team (we made sure of that by her mom Carrie helping me coach!). We have 4 first time players and 2 returning players, so it was a new experience for most of our team. But they did a great job!! I'm sure this week they'll do even better since they've got those 1st game jitters out of the way!

Rachel is on the Lady Falcons team. This year, Rachel moved up to the 1st & 2nd grade league, so they actually use a goalie this year and play more "real" soccer. Rachel is loving it! Even thought she's one of the smallest ones out there, she gets right in there with all the bigger girls.

Here's a slideshow from our first day of soccer. Go team!!

Rachel's Actual Birthday

These are a few pictures from Rachel's actual birthday! I thought this was a cute picture of the girls being sweet sisters!

Here's Rachel opening the present that Katelyn got her. Actually, I think Rachel is reading the card that Katelyn made for her. It was really sweet!

I found Rachel some new chapter books at the local Christian book store. If any of you have kids who like the Junie B. Jones books, you should check out the Meghan Rose books. These books remind me of the Junie B. Jones books, but are nicer and have a Christian theme to them. The first one is "Meghan Rose On Stage" and the 2nd one is "Meghan Rose Has Ants In Her Pants" - there are supposed to be at least 2 more coming out soon I think. We've read both of the ones that Rachel just got, and they're really good! The Junie B. Jones books are funny, but I also think they encourage some not so good behavior (like saying the word 'stupid' over & over). I thought these Meghan Rose books were a good alternative for Rachel.

At our church, they present Bibles to all the first graders. Rachel got hers a few weeks ago; the only problem is it's just like every other 1st grader's Bible (and every other kid who was a 1st grader at one point in the recent past). So, for her birthday, I picked her out a fun Bible cover. Her favorite flowers are daisies and her favorite color is green, so I thought this Bible cover looked like something she'd like.

Well, I guess that's about all of the celebrating of Rachel's birthday! Time to move on to something else!!!

Party at Mamaw & Papaw's House

On Sunday afternoon we had Rachel's party with Mamaw & Papaw and Lloyd & Wendy. Since we go to early service at church, we are finished with church & Sunday School at 10:30. We headed over to Mamaw & Papaw's house and got to swim some before it was time for everyone else to get there and to work on lunch. We grilled steaks - another one of Rachel's favorite meals! Wendy made a delicious strawberry cake! Thanks Wendy! We got to sing "Happy Birthday" to Rachel AGAIN, and she still hadn't actually turned six yet!!! Then it was time for more presents! Once again, Rachel got some great gifts. She had told Wendy she wanted a boy Barbie (aka Ken), Little Pony, and some books - Wendy followed directions and got Rachel just what she wanted!! Rachel also got some cool clothes, a watch, and a really neat color-by-number set. It's not your regular color by number! This is quite detailed and pretty elaborate! It'll take quite a while just to finish one picture. But Rachel loves that kind of stuff! Here's a slideshow from Rachel's THIRD party in THREE days!!!

Party at Puddin & Papa's House

On Saturday, we headed to Puddin & Papa's house for Rachel's birthday party with Robert's family. Beth & Donald and Kate & Jessica were able to come. Puddin surprised Rachel by making her a Snow White cake! Didn't she do a great job? I was impressed! I fixed Rachel's favorite meal for her - chicken fettuccine alfredo! We had a good supper then had cake & ice cream. Then it was time for the presents! Rachel got some cool clothes and books! Unfortunately, most of the clothes are having to be returned because they fall right off of Rachel's little waist! She's so thin - everything just falls right off of her. Katelyn is pretty much the same way. Kate & Jessica bought Katelyn a cute orange & white skort but it was too big, and they don't come any smaller! But the good news is, the skort they got for Katelyn comes closer to fitting Rachel so she can wear it a while and then Katelyn can grow into it!!! Oh to have the problem of having such a tiny waist!!!! Anyway, Rachel had a fun time at Puddin & Papa's house! Charlie, Ryan, Steve, Connie, Brittany, & Kayla - we missed you guys!!! Here's a slideshow from the party...

Rachel's Backyardigans Party

On Friday night, Rachel had a birthday party with all her 1st grade friends and their families. (Actually there were 2 kindergarten friends here too. Carter is our friend from across the street, and Sarah is Rachel's buddy from church who is just 1 month younger, but 1 whole year behind her in school.) She decided she wanted a Backyardigans party and we would play in the backyard. Robert came up with the awesome idea of having a treasure hunt and he made up 10 sets of clues. We had 3 different teams, each team named after a Backyardigans character. At each location, there were 3 different envelopes - 1 for each team - designated by the appropriate Backyardigans character. Robert designed the clues in such a way that each team started in a different location. We even had buried treasure! The treasure was "buried" in the water meter! We had 3 separate treasure chests with real gold coins in each of them! (Robert went to the bank and got the gold $1 coins! What a great idea!) We even had pirate hats and eyepatches for the kids so that they could really get into the whole treasure hunt idea! The kids really seemed to love it! Rachel had a blast at her party! Here's a slideshow of the evening...

6 Years Ago Today

It was 6 years ago today that we were blessed with Rachel! Yes - she was actually born on Labor Day! It all started on the Sunday afternoon before Labor Day. I was taking a Sunday afternoon nap while Robert was out playing golf with the guys. I woke up and realized my water had broken. So I called Robert off the golf course! The guys were trying to get him to finish up, telling him he'd be a legend! They said people would say "I knew a guy who finished all 18 holes, even after his wife had called to say her water had broken!" He decided that he'd better get on home! Good choice! Anyway, we made our way to the hospital and got admitted and all that good stuff, but for some reason, my body just wasn't wanting to actually have the baby. They kept waiting, but nothing happened. Finally, at around 5:00 the next morning, they got me ready for a c-section. Everything went fine, but boy were we a little surprised to see a red-headed, blue-eyed little girl! We were thinking we'd probably have a brown-headed, brown-eyed girl since we both have brown hair & brown eyes, but I guess those recessive genes decided to make their appearance!

It's hard to believe it's already been 6 years since Rachel was born! Time flies by so quickly! Rachel is such a sweet girl, and we love her dearly!!!

We've spent all week-end partying! Friday night was Rachel's birthday party with her friends. Saturday was her party with Robert's family. And Sunday afternoon was her party with my family! Three parties - and that was all before her actual birthday! This morning we hung out here for a while and let Rachel open her presents from us. Then we headed over to Mamaw & Papaw's house to swim for a while. Then it was time to come home and get ready for soccer practice.

Needless to say, we've been busy this week-end! Sorry I don't have any pictures with this post, but it's bedtime for me! I'll have to post pictures from our party week-end another day.