Updates on the family

Long time no blog! It's been longer than I realized since I had posted anything on here. Sorry about that! :) I don't seem to have much computer time at night these days. Anyways, here are some random updates for you.

Kayla made the honor roll at school this semester. We went to the awards ceremony at her school a few weeks ago to see her get it. She also just had her science fair last week. Her project was pretty cool. She would have the person sit at her desk and give them a sheet of various math problems, and while you were doing that she was also playing different songs and telling you the name of the song. Afterwards, you had to name the songs in order. Basically it was testing multi-tasking. And guess who did better?! The younger ones! The adults didn't do so well at that!


Elijah has been working at mastering his Lego Star Wars game on his DS. :) He hasn't had a whole lot of exciting things going on. Our main focus with him right now is organization and mastering his routine. He is an extremely smart kid, just lacks what he needs to help him along!

Emma is...well what can I say....Emma. She is deep in the throes of being 2 for sure! The things that come of that girls mouth sometimes either causes our jaw to drop on the floor or we double over in laughter. Like, for instance, when she told Kayla and I that boogers don't taste good, food tastes good! Very wise little girl. :) She went through a short period of time while she was sick getting out of bed every night several times a night until she would finally crash out. Thankfully that was short lived! She is doing great potty training. We still put her in a diaper at night and sometimes at nap time too. She also has to be in a diaper if we are going to be in public doing anything that will distract her. She tends to forget to go potty and she has a fear of big toilets. So we are working on that part with her!

Hailey has come leaps and bounds over the last month. She can now roll over front to back and back to front. She had mastered back to front long before the other direction. Which is strange because going front to back is way easier! She can sit up on her own for quite some time before she topples over. She babbles a lot now too. Her first "word" already was dada. Of course! And I swear it has sounded like she said Elijah and Kayla at some point too! We recently started feeding her baby food again. Oh and she had her very first ear infection last month...not fun! Her weight is...drum roll please...22 lbs! My mom had her at the UPS store recently and the lady behind the counter didn't believe she really weighed that much. So she put her on the scale there and sure enough that was her weight!

Family game night

Kayla's school had family game night last Tues that we went to, of course! They had several different areas set up throughout the school with different activities/games going on. Of course Eli wanted to do rock band but it was way to chaotic with too many older kids (obviously) in it. So he is working on getting Nana to understand just how bad she needs that game! :) Anyways, the kids got their faces painted, bowled, did the cake walk and attempted to climb a wall! Eli decided he was going to be brave and try to climb the wall in their gym. I have no idea how tall this thing is but I would guess it to be around 15 feet. He got the lesson, climbed a couple feet and then was done! That was high enough for him! But I was proud of him for even doing that. Let's face it, the poor kid comes from a family of chickens when it comes to heights!

Eli with his spider and Kayla with her Santa hat

Eli starting his climb.....

And Eli finishing his climb!

Kayla getting ready to do the cake walk. Yeah, I made her do it which is why she has attitude. I did do it with her for 1 round but we had an extra ticket!

Pardon the photo quality...apparently I can't even remember to bring my camera anywhere anymore so I had to use my phone!

Science Fair!

Kayla had her first ever science fair on Thursday the 7th. Her experiment was to see if plants could grow in different colored light. She got some seeds from Nana and planted them in seperate pots for each different color of light. She used white, red and blue bulbs. And nothing grew! Oh well! That's part of doing an experiment! She was pretty nervous on Thursday because that was her big day to present to the judges. She had already done a trial run and was critiqued by her science teacher earlier in the week but that just isn't the same! She had to dress up and look nice for the event and it lasted from 1:30-3:30 that afternoon. Then they had awards and such later at 6:30 which is what I went to with her. It is fun to see all the different experiments and ideas that these kids came up with. And I love seeing this group of kids because they are so diverse.

Here is Kayla with her board that she spiffed up quite well

Kadejah, Kayla and Jade....bff....and the great thing about these girls is that they go way back to 1st grade and have been friends since then....though not as close as they are this year

Sarah, Kayla and Kadejah....bff

And as I said earlier these kids had to dress up for the presentations earlier in the day....I think at least 90% of these kids went home and PROMPTLY changed their clothes!

Final track stats

So sorry it took so long for this update considering track was over as of the 10th but I had to wait until the awards ceremony just to find out the standings.

On Monday the 8th the classic's (used to call it city) started. Kayla did not have any activities that day but she did go to show her support. I went and sat with her for a while and then we took off. On the 9th, she didn't have any activities but wanted to go really bad and I did not. So we let her spread her wings a bit and she got to go to the stadium by herself and hang out with her track buddies. Finally on the 10th she was doing the long jump. She didn't place in it, but she did try!

We had the awards ceremony with a dinner done by the families which was yummy! It's always fun seeing what people come up with for these things. Anyways, the Irving girls came in 4th overall which is pretty darn good if I do say so myself! The 9th graders came in 4th, the 8th graders came in 3rd and the 6th graders came in 2nd! Woo hoo for them considering this is their first school sports experience!

Here are pictures from that last track meet and from the awards ceremony. I tried to get pictures of Kayla doing the long jump but I couldn't get close enough so you just get to see her pretty face sitting next to me in the stands!

Here she is after doing the long jump - at least she is till wearing a smile!

Here she is receiving her award....look close she is in the blue shirt....

Here she is with her certificate of participation

And here she is with her letter! She has a little track pin to go on it....but no jacket yet......

Notice how she looks a bit worn out.....here is a glimpse into her day....

She wakes up at 6:20 to get in the shower and start her day.....gets to school at 8:10ish, school goes from 8:45 to 3:40....she goes from there to basketball practice (which on a regular day ends at 6) and was let out at 5:15 so we could go to the ceremony. Wears me out just typing it! Oh yeah...and somewhere in there she has to do her homework and have a minute to relax before starting the cycle all over again!

First day of school!

So today was the big day! Kayla's first day of middle school - 6th grade - and Eli's first day of 2nd grade! Big stuff man! Kayla had me come in to the school with her and wait until she could go her locker. She really wanted me to go into her classroom with her but I made her do that much by herself. She got her locker open on the first try this morning which is a great way to start the day considering that is one of the biggest fears for the first day. Of course it proceeded to give her troubles all throughout the day but what do ya do? She got lost once and didn't have any lunch money (the school failed to mention they wouldn't be using their account and card for the first day or so) so her friend had to share. But all in all she had a really good day and is very much looking forward to her 2nd day! We went to the store tonight to get her a Trapper Keeper like thing (they are WAY different from when I was in school!) and to get her some fun stuff for her locker. And here is the best thing....again true to Trumbull form.....she asked me if she could stay late at school tomorrow so that she could get her locker all fixed up!

Poor Eli was worn out by the time he got out of school this afternoon. Twain Elementary tends to be a pilot school for a lot of programs the district wants to try out and this year they get to be a pilot for an extended day. They made the school day a full hour longer than in the past....so he doesn't get out until 3:30. The goal is to raise test scores by increasing lesson plan times. I guess we will see how that goes! I think it will take Eli some time to get used to this though. He was pretty proud of himself because he made a new friend already. But I can't say he is as excited to go back tomorrow as Kayla is. He likes school, just not the way Kayla likes school.

Anyways, here are the pictures from this morning.......Here is Eli with his back pack all packed and ready to go....pardon his expression he was messing around and apparently it was too early in the morning for me to catch this!

Here is my little poser Kayla.....looking cool with her back pack!

All ready to go........looking bad.......

Again....looking cool.........

Here is Kayla in the front of her school.....the funny part of this picture is that she wanted me to take a picture of her in front of the school this morning....then once we got there she wouldn't let me do it so we had to comprimise and do it from this far away....

And here was our first friend siting......Carolyn from elementary school

School starts tomorrow!

So tomorrow is the 1st day of school and we are an excited bunch! This is a huge milestone for Kayla that I am excited to watch her go through! It brings back lots of memories...especially for JR since Kayla is going to the same school he did....Irving Middle School. It was a little surreal for him last night while we were getting the tour.

Anyways, the last couple of nights has been meeting teachers and tonight was spent preparing for the big day tomorrow. Here are a couple of pictures from tonight.

Eli settling in to bed (with his plane of course) before the big day

Kayla lying around trying to make herself tired (she is just a little excited)

True to Trumbull form....gotta have everything all laid out and organized......bags have been packed since July but I made them undo them to make sure we got everything

Kayla checking emails to pass the time until bed time

I will post 1st day of school pictures tomorrow! JR will be taking Eli to school and getting him all settled and I get to take Kayla and get her all settled. What an exciting time!