Happy 3rd Birthday Lucas Gregory!

 

 Our cheerful, charming, playful, inquisitive Lucas.
 
You are three today!  All morning you have been singing the birthday song to yourself. Loud and proud. You even wanted to practice at home with the candle lit in your pancakes from breakfast. You have such a sense of humor and charm people with your smile. Tomorrow is your first day of preschool. I know you are excited. Last week you sobbed telling me you wanted to go to your school. I'm glad you will have a special place to learn and grow and will be able to create new friendships and build new relationships.

You came into this world so at peace and have an inner joy and light that radiates.  You are growing more and more into your own little person with ideas and you have a lot of determination to be and do things your way. I hope you will always stay true to who you are.

You are strong, brave, courageous, curious, joyful, cheerful, and kind. We love you so much Lucas!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Lucas!! We are so excited to celebrate you tonight with a special birthday

 dinner. (tacos, lemonade, and cupcakes with sprinkles:)

first

first time we held you. first smile. first laugh. first time you said mama and dada. first steps. first time on a bike. first day of school. these are the moments I want to remember from your first week of transitional kindergarten.

your huge dimply smile the moment you spot me at the gate. watching you explore the play ground and play on the equipment during lunch (my heart soars because this is so huge for you, especially with all the kids around) catching glimpses of you eating your lunch when I pick you up. Watching you teach lucas how to use the bathroom at school. Your pride. Your confidence, after just a few days. Your excitement to share details of your day (another huge thing!) Little bits and pieces of things you are learning. Your big backpack (it probably weighs more than you) Your first day of school outfit. Our conversations together. You telling me things such as, "mom, I love school! I can't wait to go back tomorrow! My teacher takes good care of us. Mom, do you like my school too?"

Oh Caleb. The first day I counted down the minutes until I could pick you up and see your face. When we walked on campus that morning your head was down and I felt like I would toss my breakfast. I was so nervous for you. A couple of teary eyed mornings for us both but by the third morning we had figured out a good bye routine that works well and you wave and give me a big smile before I head home with your brothers. I still check the clock and my belly still gets nervous and excited to come to the gate and wait for you and to see you. There's a cluster of other eager and excited parents waiting for their little ones to come out of the gate. My friend whose little boy is in the other TK class watches for you too, and spots you for me. A whole cluster of people who love you checked in with you and me this week. Oh how thankful I am for that.  I love holding your hand in mine as we walk back to the car. You've been so, so happy this week. My heart soars to see you becoming more confident. You are so brave. So courageous. I love our afternoons, when all my little boys are back together again. Noah has huge smiles for you. Lucas is eager to greet you and play with you. We listen to music on the couch together while you eat a snack. We cuddle and relax as you share about your day. I love reading to you before you go to school too. We've had a lot of extra one-on-one time this week. It has been so special.

We are so proud of you Caleb Lincoln! You continue to surprise us and amaze us with your resilience and courageous spirit. We love watching you learn and grow.

You bring us so much joy.

Here are a couple things we've done to help ease the transition to TK
Read, Read, Read. We've read so many great books about school this summer!
My favorite though is, THE KISSING HAND. Each morning I give Caleb a kiss on his hand so he can put it to his heart whenever he misses me. If you haven't read it, read it. I guarantee you will
cry :)

Caleb's teacher has been reading PETE THE CAT books. Caleb's been singing parts of it to his little brothers when he comes home. I found it at the library. This is by far one of the greatest first day of school books! PETE THE CAT and his ROCKING NEW SCHOOL SHOES.
we sing it all the time. Every word in this book is so perfect for my sweet and sensitive boy who adores music. "I'm rocking in my school shoes, I'm rocking in my school shoes"

Praying over Caleb and for him,  I knew God would place him with a very special teacher. I knew by the first day of meeting her that he is right where he is meant to be. I have prayed my heart out over this transition for Caleb and I get teary eyed just thinking of how good God is. He has answered so many of my prayers in ways above and beyond would I could even imagine.

We've done so many other things to prepare such as practicing opening his lunch box and talking about all sorts of new things he will be doing at school. But because I love books so much (as does caleb) I think reading books has really helped with the transition. We've also been playing at the school playground a lot to get him comfortable there. My heart danced to see him playing on the teeter tauter by the third day. Such a big deal for our guy :)

LLAMA LLAMA MISSES MAMA is another favorite book. There are just so many great ones!

We've been doing his home program and music therapy every morning. Getting a full night of sleep and really healthy breakfast full of protein before school. We will be setting up a 504 with the teacher and principal soon and continuing with his private OT once a week as well as setting up OT at school.

This year will be hard and challenging, it will be exciting and fun. I'm excited for all the possibilities this year holds for Caleb.

We love you so much sweet boy.

Love these posts for the first day of school :) dear first time kindergarten mom  and another first

"He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and, on their hands they will bear you up"

Luke 4:10-11

 

 

"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen"  Ephesians 3:20-21

 We are so proud of you! Hooray! You made it through your first week.

"Keep on rocking in those new school shoes...."

Olympic National Park

Our camping adventure in Washington at Olympic National Park

Home sweet home!! There is something always spectacular upon arriving home, taking a hot shower and sleeping in your own bed (in your own room) As much as I love all the extra baby cuddles when we travel (I think Noah slept in our bed at least half of the trip) I also love the sleep and alone time with hubby! and waking up and nursing only once a night again as opposed to most of the night while traveling!) The boys did great in the car (we did over 40 hours of driving! Hi never want to get in the car again! The radio, books, a few toys, and some food kept them occupied the entire drive time!) Thank you Julie for the Disney books, I think they were what kept us all from going crazy. That and Klove radio. You would think there would be screams by the final hour, instead our last 20 minutes were spent with hysterical laughing. I'll never forget it. We must have been delirious. Lucas was belly laughing in the backseat because he wanted to be tickled. Caleb was shaking his vitamin bottle and for some reason noah found this truly hilarious. So we told him to keep doing it. Dave and I were dying. I think that had to be one of my favorite moments from the trip. As hard as it is for me to be in the car that long, it makes me excited for more camping trips in our future knowing that; hey we drove over 40 hours in a week with a four year old, two year old, and six month old, and lived to tell about it, and it was actually, not that bad, then let the planning begin!

We spent the two full days that we camped; hiking. It was gorgeous! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.

 Throwing sticks and rocks in the river.

 Our final moments before we left, saying good-bye to the beach.

 So much fun jumping with daddy!

toes in the sand

 this was their favorite area to explore at the beach...if only we could put something like that in our backyard? they would love it!!

Happy camper with grandpa! (first camping trip for noah!)

 Baby Cousins! (Blair family)

 Snuggling with mom won out over the packnplay. Even though I slept horribly, there is nothing quite like waking up and having those extra snuggles (and it's only a few sleep deprived nights anyway :)) I love my little baby cuddles.

 These boys had so much fun. Tent sleeping, roasting marshmallows, hiking, and exploring!

 The funniest thing was that Lucas slept through all the ruckus every night! The babies crying, caleb crying, the huge log trucks that drove by all through the night (and scared me right into daves arms every time! Lucas was a log. And cozied right up into caleb's sleeping bag the first night. It was so cute :)

 Hiking adventure day one (banana slugs, and inch worm sightings, no big animals, but the tiny insects were just as exciting for the boys)

 but those sunglasses :)

 rock throwing

 can't say we didn't try to get one of just the boys!

 the boys did the junior ranger program and received pins (pretty fun!)

 hiking day two (the boys rode and hiked some. they sure were excited for the riding though; can't you tell?) the big boys...they did awesome! Riding with uncle andrew

 the waterfalls

 grandpa saved the day and hiked back the final two miles to get the car for us (we could only do four carrying all the boys)

 

 I just had to document all these guys. Yes, I was the only girl in the car and hiking one day, 7 guys!! Can we all say...girl time needed in the near future for me!! But hey, I've come a long way since my younger days when I was so scared of boys! (they really aren't that scary after all!)

 roasting marshmallows!

 hanging with aunt mary!

 Dave and siblings and parents! (blair family, giles family)

 and finally, our favorite beach spot!

 The drive back went so good and fast that we were able to make it for a very special visit with great grandma giles! The boys were celebrities over at Great Grandma's home with all the residents! And let's just say they hammed it up a bit (I won't mention any names of who did most of the hamming) It was a very special visit and I'm so glad we were able to make it.

 helped water the garden

  everyone is smiling in this picture! Pretty sure that's the first picture I have with all three boys smiling at the same time!

And that wraps up our Oregon/Washington adventure!

 

Time to enjoy my final week with my little guys before school officially starts for mr. c.

 

happy Monday!