Fall

2016- I feel like it flew by!  The fall was full of fun and crazy schedules. Zoe is loving first grade and has become an awesome reader!  She is now reading chapter books, though she still prefers the ones that are shorter with pictures.  And of course, she likes to read “teacher style” and show us the picture of each page after she has read.  Chaser has gotten better about sitting and listening to her.  He was used to a little faster pace, but now he loves that she can read to him.  Zoe still loves to play school and will try to recruit her or even Chase’s friends to play when they come over.  And they are each sent home with their work, a grade, and usually a thing from her “surprise” box.  Chase is not a fan when she steals his buddies to play school ;)  Zoe seems to be excelling at all her subjects in school this year and hasn’t brought home any work with less than a 4 (graded 1-4) yet this whole year.  And she seems to have received J’s spelling prowess instead of mine thank the Lord.  Perfect on every test.  Her handwriting is rather immaculate - like really.  But thats my little perfectionist!  She is so much like her daddy- and I see more and more of him in her all the time.  She sure likes things orderly!  She reminds me to put things back exactly where they go, close drawers, and turn off the lights.  She has also brought home a perfect behavior “ sticker” every day since the first day of kinder.  (though I’m sure she has her days)  Sometimes when I make her tell me about her day (she would rather be playing) after school - she will give me details, but mostly “it was fine! why do you always ask me?”  She is still loving her dance class and will often do random routines for us at home.  And she LOVES music.. and always wants control over the playlist.  She collects Beeny Boo’s still and still loves her rainbow build a bears.  She loves to draw and color but really, she wants to play with her friends the most.  She asks me for a playdate EVERY day after school - like EVERY day.  And then claims that we NEVER have any ;)  So funny.  She likes her people just like her momma.  She is growing up so fast - her face has changed so much from last year.  She just looks so much more like a big girl than a toddler.  Thankfully she is still my sweet little girl.   She still loves playing pretend.  We finally talked (read: made) her play basketball this year.  She hasn’t played a team sport since she tried soccer at 3.  And although she was apprehensive about it, she has really enjoyed it so far, especially playing with so many of her best friends (Rainey and Sydney and a few new ones too)  J and I love going to watch her games.  They are the Candy Canes and they are the cutest!! Striped red and white socks with white sparkley letters - perfect.  The kids have both enjoyed playing around with the basketball and will ask us to move the cars out of the garage so we can play.  

Which leads me right into my sweetest boy ever - Chaser.  Oh my little buddy, my little cuddler, I so still want to freeze him in time right now.  Apart from his horribly picky appetite, or total freak out moments when he sees his own blood, he is the most easy going, lovable little dude.  I am soaking up every single day with him right now.  All too soon he is going to be at school ALL day EVERY day and it seriously makes me want to cry.  I mean, dont get me wrong, I have enjoyed my alone time this year.  I started playing tennis which I have really loved and of course like to socialize with all my momma friends whenever possible, but I am so going to miss my buddy. He is in school 3 days a week and as usual his teachers love him.  We played soccer in the Fall - J is one of the coaches and he still really enjoys that and is always ready to go score “100 goals”  Unfortunately they changed the way the ages worked in soccer, so his team is playing a lot of kids much older in bigger.  But, he still does great.  He also is continuing in gymnastics along with his buddy Charlie.  They really love doing gym together and get so excited when its gymnastics day.  Chase likes competition in general and just loves playing games.  Card games, board games, wii - he is in!  We played Uno probably a hundred times this fall.  or more. We finally got some other games - his favorites being rat-a-tat cat and chutes and ladders.  As long as the pace is quick - he likes it.  It did take us a while to get over the initial upset about loosing thing, but he has gotten much better on that.  We also finally got out the wii more often and now Chase is an excellent Mario Kart driver - like he beats J and I pretty often.  He even unlocked all the levels.   Its been something fun for us to do as a family.  He also is very obsessed with Under Armour and will pretty much wear that unless I make him wear “church” clothes.  Oh well, its cute.  And he also apparently loves Baylor (because so many of his friends and family are Baylor Bears)  Hope he gets a scholarship! whew!  He probably gives his “Kailey girl girl” at least 5 hugs a day.  We typically play games in the living room and Kailey will almost without fail come sit right on top of our cards or in the middle of our game.  Sweet girl - she gave us quite the scare over thanksgiving and we ended up at the Doggy ER in the middle of the night.  It was a rough 24 hours but they finally figured out she had pancreatitis and got her feeling better.  So scary tho to see her so weak.  Thankful we have our Kailey girl for hopefully a few more healthy years.  Chase still loves his cars and vehicles.  Hot wheels and lightning mcqueen are still his favs. One of the best parts of my day is when he wonders off an starts playing his cars - laying down on the floor, pushing them along and making his “shhhh, vrrrrrroomm, powww” noises as the cars speed along and of course, crash.  Oh, dont worry, still Mommy’s boy forever, though sometimes he does share ;)