Justin's first day of Kindergarten!!

Justin started Kindergarten on August 25th! It was a happy day!! Here's the table he started out at with more boys than girls on it...however I just went to Orientation tonight and he was moved and sits by a girl. That would explain the I hate sitting by girls comment for the past week:-)

Pointing to his name on the door.

That morning getting ready to walk to school. He was so excited. He makes his own lunch every morning and he has adding vacuming to his chore chart. He is getting so big and I'm so proud of him! He's been waiting for Kindergarten for a year now. Ever since his 2 cousins, Porter and Preston starting last year it's been killing him not going to.

Case Turns 2!!

Case turned 2 on August 7th!! We were totally lame and didn't do any kind of a "party" He got some geo trax's and a Jr. Tag Reader with all his birthday money.

Justin was really disappointed that I didn't make a cake and the one that I bought was too small. And someone pointed out on Facebook when I posted this picture there that Case needs his own "Special Day" Plate! So Nana Kern needs to work on that since she got Justin one:-)
Loren had a day off that week so we went to the Transportation Museum in Salisbury, NC and rode a train and saw lots of old cars, trains, and buses.

I really do have 3 handsome boys don't I?

Loren's Race

I went to St. Loius Race with my brother Ben. He were awake for over 24 hours that trip but it was worth it! We left at 7am and drove 5 hours there to hang out all day for qualifying and then the race that night. Here's Loren getting ready for the race to start. We're at the pit box already and he is weighing the gas cans. They hold around 11 or 12 gallons and weigh 85 pounds. He'll wiegh them before and after a pit stop.
Me and Loren during the race hanging out waiting for a pit stop. I got to wear some headphones and listen to the driver, crew chief, and spotter. It's the only way to watch a race!

Just hanging around waiting for something to do.

Man he's sexy:-)...good thing he doesn't read this blog or he'd kill me for saying that:-)

This is a video of one of his pit stops. He doesn't go over the wall when the car gets there. He's the one squatting down with his butt to you:-)

Russell Sims Aquatic Center in Bowling Green, KY

We went to TN this summer for 4 weeks. While there a bunch of us went to the Aquatic Center in Bowling Green, KY. It's a great splash pad for younger kids! Justin with 3 of his cousins, Porter, Preston, & Gavin. He had so much fun playing with this boys all summer!

Liz and Kayea (if I spelled her name wrong don't yell at me:-)
Me and the boys


Kaleb and the back half of Preston

Gavin being silly

This little girl totally rules her world with that look!

Justin

Baby Emmett and his fat foot

Case

Justin again. Seriously this place is great for kids! We had a blast!!

June...

June 22nd was our 7 year Anniversary. We went out to dinner and that was about it. Not super exciting. I did get an excuse to dress up and actually do my hair into something besides a pony tail.

This is Justin and his friend Nicholas. He is out next door neighbor. Thank goodness for this kids this summer! He entertained Justin alot!! They both started Kindergarten together too...by the way...this bike is so old!!! It came from our barn in TN and Justin was washing it off. He can ride it though and that saved about $80 for a bigger bike.

Of course Case had to wash his bike too!

Justin was sent to Time Out and this is what I found 10 minutes later!

Hello...Hello... Is this thing on?

So this is a marathon post and I don't care enough to arrange photos in any kind of order. Sorry!! I'm trying to play catch up since May I think! Man I've been bad...sorry:-)

If I can remember that far back...My inlaws came to visit in May. FIL was here for 2 weeks while my MIL came out for 5 of those days. We did lots and had so much fun!

Me and the boys at the Asheboro, NC Zoo. It's a great zoo and we had a great day seeing all the animals.
Another day we went to the Natural Science Center in Greensboro, NC. Loren actually had the day off.. This is Mike my FIL...you can see why Loren never takes a seriously picture. Neither one of them are capable of being serious!

Also at the Science Center. This place totally rocks. They have an outdoor animail exhibit with Tigers, Monkeys, Meerkats, Anteaters, Petting Zoo...and many more. You are so close to all of these animales I think it's much better than the zoo plus not as much walking.

Me and the boys took my In Laws Strawberry picking. It's my favorite thing to do every May.

Case hates Strawberries, I think the texture gets to him. But he loves pulling off all the green ones!

The best part of this Farm was the Tractor ride to the Strawberry field. Case loves him some tractors!

Ok-back to the Zoo now...They have this great place for the kids to play at. Loved how this picture turned out!

Justin is just not capable of looking at the camera! I don't know what to do about it. I'll say "Look at the camera" and all he'll do is turn his head off to it and then look off. Drives me crazy!

My In Laws again with the boys at the Zoo.

We took Mike to see Loren's work one day and show off all the cool NASCAR stuff. He was pretty impressed with the set up there.

Papa Kern is so good with the boys. Case and Justin loved having him here for so long. Even if he was wore out by the time he left!

Case just being cute!

Here's a picture on Mother's Day before we went to church.

So I think I got all of May. On the June, July, and August...stay tuned...

Photo Session

While we were in TN during Easter we had pictures taken at Moss Wright Park from a great girl, Christy Williams. Her photography blog is: http://cnwphotography.blogspot.com She posted a couple of posts of the boys pictures. I'm too lazy to upload pics her so check them out over there!

http://cnwphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-cant-believe-i-forgot-this-one.html

http://cnwphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/justin-and-case.html


It was like 56 degrees that morning and Case was not a happy camper. But she did a great job and I love how they turned out!

The Verdict Is In!

I got a lot of different advice on how to handle Case's Paci addiction. I really have been toying with this for a few months now. I felt like by taking it away during the day was a good start but if I didn't do it now it was going to be harder down the road. To those who were on Case's side and supported his Paci, believe me...he thanks you and wants to come live with you cause I'm a mean mom! I got my idea from my friend Whitney. Someone she knows did it this way and I thought it was cute. (I should add that Whitney didn't fully support me in doing it now. She wanted to wait till 2...It's ok...Case likes you more than me right now)

I took him to Build A Bear and we brought all his Paci's. The girl helping us felt really bad about being the bad guy. She said she felt like the nurse at the doctor's office giving shots. Case picked out this cute dog that we named, "Paci" ( I know I'm cruel. Sorry!) We decided to put all 4 Paci's inside and place them where he can feel them. I thought this would make him happy...I was wrong...

Here he is thinking what a fun game this is. He loves "lets hide my paci game"! He did this willingly until the last one which we had to pry out of his mouth. But still no tears yet...Oh man!!! Only 2 left!
Bye Bye Paci! You've been a great friend to me. You've loved me when my mom thought it was "tough love" to let me "cry it out" when I was just a baby. I'll always love you...I'll never let you go...I'll never let you go...(sorry I had to throw Titanic in there)

He thought stuffing the dog was really fun. The machine made a lot of noise. (Sorry Justin is picking his nose)

"Hey mom my Paci's stuck in this dog's foot. Anybody have a knife on them so I can cute it out? Anybody...anybody..."

So, I did this on Thursday. Thursday night was kinda rough going to bed. I almost cracked and killed the dog myself just to make my baby boy happy again! It was heart breaking! He cried for almost an hour until I finally layed down with him. He woke up again at 2am upset but only cried for 10 minutes. The next day he cried at nap time for only 5 minutes. That next night he cried maybe 5 minutes. The third night no crying. Just held onto the dogs foot and went to sleep. Overall, I'm glad I did it now and not later. I'm sure I would have talked myself out of it at 2. Paci the Dog is treated with love and respect. He likes to carry it around during the day and squeeze his tummy and legs to feel the paci's and laugh. I don't think he'll need to much therapy in the future for this. At least I hope not!

As a side note, Case was supposed to be napping today but instead we found him doing this! Seriously, Justin was never like this. The thought would never come to his mind to do this. I couldn't help but laugh. And thankfully it wasn't a sharpie! (obviously he's still a happy kid!)

Case needs your vote!

So, I've been toying with the idea of getting rid of Case's paci. 2 months ago I took it away during the day and he did fine with that. I really want to get rid of it all together now. I was going to wait till he turned 2 but I seriously don't want to have to keep track of it all summer while we are on vacation. He REALLY loves his pace!
He loves to hide them all over the house. When we moved I think I found 6 hidden. (which meant I had to buy 6 new ones at some point)

The love he feels for his paci's is the same as what Justin feels for his "baby". Would I take away his baby? Heck NO! I would drive an hour out of my way just to bring it back from where he left it. I would spend $30+ on overnight shipping just to have a replacement. Then proceed to run over it just to make it look gross like the old one. I did this 2 different times!
Just look at his love and pure joy at having all these paci's! What would you do? Case would appreciate your vote on the matter.

Thanks!