Back in the Swing of Things

Hello Friends...I bet you thought I forgot about all of you. It's not that....it's just that I got married and became a mom to three boys and school started back up. I feel like things are back under control now and I have some more time to get back into blogging. Thankfully, just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean that I haven't been taking pictures. Goodness knows I could never stop doing that....I think we left off with wedding and honeymoon pictures taking us pretty much through the month of July. I will appropriately start off tonight with the first day of school. It's hard to believe that we are already past the 100th day of school, but we are going to take a look back in August of 2011....

Logan (13), Braden (10), and Nolan (6) on the first day of school

Braden is in 5th grade and ruling the school. His teachers are Mrs. Balke and Mrs. Heider which are the same wonderful ladies who taught Logan in 5th grade. He is having a great year so far accumulating many accolades. He did not participate in DI this year as his beloved coaches took the year off. However, he was chosen to be an ambassador which means that he helps out during all of the school functions....kind of a glorified greeter. :) He also continues to be a top player in the chess club and played the hand chimes in the 5th grade Christmas concert. He is an all A student (except the occasional slip in spelling) and really excels in math! He is a favorite among the girls and generally has a great time at school!

Braden with Mrs. Balke and Mrs. Heider

Nolan is a first grader and has Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Pruski. Mrs. Pruski is one of my best friends and her son, Michael, is a very good friend of Nolan's so it has been a fun year for him. He has really taken off in reading which is so rewarding considering that he entered Kindergarten not even knowing all of his letters and sounds (I didn't get my hands on him until right before Kindergarten. :)). We worked hard through Kindergarten and he was a pretty good reader and an excellent "sounder outer" when he started first grade. However, shortly into the school year he truly discovered reading and now reads on about a year or more ahead. He finished his first take home reader in about two days! He loves it! He really likes school and also gets all A's. He is very social and the hardest thing for him is to stay quiet and not talk to all of his many friends. Nolan never meets a stranger...

 Nolan with Mrs. Parsons (Mrs. Pruski wasn't there yet) 

When Nolan got his first reader, he was so excited about it, that he read it all the way home and then plopped down on our driveway to keep reading it as soon as he got home! I think he is now on home reader number 4. He doesn't read them through quite so quickly because there are so many other fun books to read...

Logan is in 8th grade and rules the school at Kleb. Of course it's not cool to take pictures with your teachers in junior high so all I have is the first day of school picture at home! He is doing very well in 8th grade....keeping mostly all A's with a high B every now and then. School definitely comes much more difficult to Logan than Braden and Nolan. However, he works VERY hard at it and does well. We are proud of him. He spends most of his evenings doing his homework. Not sure how next year will go with him having to be at school at 7:20! That is super early for Logan. He has started going to the youth group at church on Wednesday nights and really likes it. He is in the "Llamas" and enjoys his group. He never misses. In fact, this fall he went on his very first weekend youth camp and LOVED it....he learned how to throw tweeties! :) In January, we went on his first E-serve Saturday where he helped clean up another church. 

All in all, it's been a pretty good year so far. I moved to third grade and got a new teaching partner which has been challenging to say the least. Next year, I will be back in third but plan to be self contained. Steve is still in fourth grade and has a great group this year! We both miss my old teaching partner, Sherry.