School's back in.....

Noah started school on August 31st....this was his 1st day of school picture...isn't he so cute?!? Why do they not cooperate? I'm in big trouble if this is how he acts for his preschool picture! He is going to school 4 days a week, Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri...he has a new teacher, Ms. Melissa, whom he is really enjoying. Scott & I went to "back to school" night on Friday. I think I really like Ms. Melissa also! She is going to be great for Noah.

Why is it that children act better for other people than for their own parents?? He is such a great kid at school {and in church}, he listens to the rules, he FOLLOWS the rules, he helps clean up, etc., etc.. It's funny to me when I'm told that he is such a great kid. Don't get me wrong, he is, but he has his moments {don't they all!}

So besides school, Noah is also going to speech 2 days a week. Monday afternoons he joined a performance group that a lady in my ward started. They are going to have a Christmas production {play/song/dance}..for those of you who know Noah pretty well...the kids his age will be singing & dancing {as good as they can}. I was a little hesitant to sign him up, but he is liking it. We'll see how it goes.

Those are the things that we have been doing lately. Obviously church, playing with friends & the other normal life activities have been occupying our time too.

poor guy IS CRAZY!!!

As a follow up....Noah's pneumonia is clearing up, but it has severely irritated his asthma. One of the medications he is on causes severe CRAZYINESS...it makes him hyper and causes some ANGER that I'm not used to. I was yelled at several times in the doctors office..it was nice. People were probably thinking, "who is this crazy child?" So the good news is that the pneumonia is clearing up nicely, but he has to keep taking the crazy medicine for an additional 3 days. UGH! But, at least he is getting better. Here's to a great weekend (without crazy outbursts!)

Poor guy....

{Sorry about the formatting, I cannot for the life of me get it to cooperate! }

So our poor little guy has PNEUMONIA! "Walking Pneumonia" to be exact. Ugh!

I'm so glad that I decided to take him to the doctor today. It's the early stages, but hearing it just kind of scares you a little bit. Especially because we already deal with his asthma.

He has a ton of medicine that should knock it out of him...we'll see....if he's not starting to seem better by tomorrow afternoon (or worse) I'm supposed to take him back in for X-Rays.

You'd never know by the way he is acting that he is sick. Even the Pharmacist made that comment. He's always been that type of kid where you don't even know there is anything wrong with him. That can be good or bad.....

I'll let you know if it gets worse. I'm off to entertain him at home for the next two days.

What do you do on a hot summer day??

(NOTE: I have made 5 entries, so keep reading!)

Today is super duper HOT!

Really HOT!!

{this is why we love our A/C, and for those of you not from California,

this is not normal, this is a heat wave.}

So what do you on a hot summer day?? How about make puppets & have a puppet show....now, this is not your normal PUPPET SHOW,

this is NOAH'S PUPPET SHOW!

{warning, this is long, only watch until you are bored!

You need to pause the playlist first in order to hear the video}

It's almost back to school time!

We are looking forward to getting back to our routine. We've had a busy summer and I have to admit, I am kind of done with summer & looking forward to Fall.

School starts on August 31st....we are going to a Meet the Teacher on Friday afternoon. Noah is excited to see his new classroom and his new teacher, Miss Melissa & Miss Kim {her assistant}. He says we have to go say hello to his last years teacher Ms. Desi. It's hard to believe that he is 4 1/2 years old. I'm just very happy that he can attend Preschool and that he enjoys it. We made this little gift for his new teachers.

Today we started another class....speech class. He has a new speech teacher this year {Miss Jenise} due to budget cuts. She is very nice & Noah just took her hand and off they went for their half hour session. I was able to read a book for half an hour with no interruptions....I LOVE SPEECH CLASS!

My house is cleaned, the laundry is done, I've actually been scrapbooking (still have the bug after my mountain get-a-way) and now it's time for the blog to be updated. I PROMISE to do better. I think because my summer was so busy that I needed to take a break. BUT...........

I'M BACK!!

The Wahl's come for a visit....

On Saturday, August 8th, The Wahl family came for a visit. The event that brought Kathy and her family to California was so she could attend her 20th H.S. Reunion. Well this visit was nonstop fun. We had a busy time, but it was a memorable time. I know that they really enjoyed their vacation. Jeff (Kathy's husband) and her two boys, Michael & Jared, had never been to California. Ashley (her daughter) had been before but the last time she was here she was 4 years old (that doesn't really count!).

Christine & Kathy

Well what do you do with a family who has never been here before?? You go nonstop!
First stop...............

THE BEACH!!!

Jeff & ChristineKathy & Jeff
Christine & ScottMichael - in awe of the ocean My Cute Boy
My stud learning to boogie board (my little stud, not my big stud)

The Wahl's: Michael, Ashley, Jared, Kathy & Jeff

We went to the beach 4 seperate times. Twice to Carlsbad and twice to Newport Beach. It's so funny to watch someone, especially a child, who has never been to the beach, never walked on sand, never seen the waves or played in the waves. These boys were little fish. They took to the waves, boogie boarding, catching sand crabs, finding sand dollars, touching fish...it was great.

One day we went to Newport and Stephanie & her kids and Paul & Savanna joined us for the day. I went home early with Steph & Paul. Jeff drove my car home. Due to circumstances completely beyond his control....he was rear ended while driving home. Luckily no one was hurt (he did take a little ride in the ambulance to the ER, just as precaution), but he was okay. My car, not so much. Not as bad as I thought it would have been, but none the less, it does need some TLC. It's actually going to the car doctor on Wed (8/26). Once we got past this incident and everyone was feeling up to par....we started playing again.

We went miniature golfing with all the kids, including Paul & Jeff =)

We had to go eat at In N Out Burger....for those not familiar, supposedly, it's the must have when you come to visit California. To be honest with you, I don't get what the hype is. They are burgers, they taste good. But they are not to die for! But, we did go, two times actually.

We did a lot of driving back and forth between my home and my parents. It takes one hour, but it's still a lot of driving. We drove up Monday, back on Wed, up on Thurs, back on Friday, up on Monday night for dinner....it's a lot. I got tired of the drive. My parents were actually in North Carolina (which was probably a good thing because there were people sleeping everywhere)...remember Stephanie & her kids were also there at the house.

Savanna, Ashley & Noah playing games (Lite Brite to be exact!)

Michael (Kathy's 10 year old) had a dream of swimming with dolphins. Where can you do that??? SEA WORLD! So we packed into the car and off we went for a fun day. It was a long day, full of sun and sea life.

Savanna....waiting for a LONG time while the others went on the raft ride.

The raft riders!!

So the last night they were here, we drove to my parents to have a "family dinner". It was a short visit but she couldn't come to California without seeing my parents. They are her second Mom & Dad. Jay (my Dad), Kathy, Karen (my Mom)

Christine, Megan Poulsen (our friend), Kathy, Karen

The time had come for the visit to end...We had to leave the house at 3:45am to get them to the airport in time for their early morning flight. Talk about a horrible drive. Actually the drive down was okay, but when I was driving back by myself, I was tired. Noah was such an angel that he didn't wake up until 8am and he quietly played games on the computer until I rolled out of bed at 10am.

We had a great time with our guests. Noah loved having boys to play with. It was a fun time and they are welcome to come back anytime! I love having a house that is big enough for visitors. We have had a lot of guests and that makes us happy!

Smores

Tonight we had some special visitors....my sister Stephanie and her four children {Harrison, Olivia, Hailey & Kate} are in town. They came to spend the day with us {and have a sleepover!} We decided to try out our brand new patio furniture & fire pit....There's no question as to what to make with a fire pit.....SMORES!!

Yummy!!

{the fire was a little scary in the beginning.....we had water close by!}

{this is more like it, a normal warm fire}

{the kids were pretty excited....love our sunset, we do have beautiful sunsets & we have a great view}

{Stephanie, Olivia & Hailey}

{Olivia & Hailey, checking her marshmallow}

{the finished product!!}

We had a great time with our visitors & we LOVE our new patio furniture!! We look forward to warming up by the fire in the winter time. It really does get cold at night here! Sometimes the low is in the 30's! I know shocker!!