Will's first day of school (AND back to school nights)

OH, snap, we officially [still] have ourselves a preschooler:

 Will's preschool started again this week, hooray!  He attends the developmental preschool through the school district and he loves it.

 

He's 'graduated' to the afternoon class since it's his last year before kindergarten, and I love having a relaxed morning together before heading outside to catch the bus.

 Speaking of the bus, I was soooo happy to see that Will has the same bus drivers/attendants that he's had for the last year and a half - and I love that they were so happy to see him! Jorge and Elizabeth take him to school and Katie and Tammy bring him home. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I love 'knowing' the people that I hand my four-year-old over to twice a week, and it's fun to chat with them about how big Jack's getting and such.

 The week before preschool started they held an open house so we headed over. Will's teacher Miss Brittany and teacher's aide Miss Kim had done a home visit the day before, but it helped Will to see them in the classroom context.

Will happily read books and checked out his cubby. Clyde and Jack were good tag-alongs, waiting patiently while Will read 'one last' book.

 

 Miss Brittany, Will, Miss Kim.  

 Then this week it was Clyde's turn for a school open house!

 He was so excited to show us (okay, mostly Daddy) around his classroom and school.

 We stopped in to visit Nurse Needs, who couldn't resist Jack's charms :). Clyde checks in with Nurse Needs or the nurse's assistant Teresa each afternoon as part of our plan for his Hirschsprung's.

 And here Clyde is with each of his teachers - Mrs. Holman (left) and Mrs. Blume (right). They team-teach by splitting the week up, and we're sure that Clyde will benefit from having two teachers that care about him, as well as being exposed to two different (but complementary) teaching styles.

Jack and I were delighted to have an afternoon to ourselves once both older boys were gone to school. We rested for a bit (Jack's been on a bit of a sleeping strike lately, causing us to contemplate boarding school for him) and went to Savers. It was wonderful - yay for school!

We took a road trip to Utah!

Fear not, Jack was not actually behind the wheel while the car was in motion... although he might be old enough to drive in the time that it takes you to read this [really really] long post!

When I realized that we had a week in August between swimming lessons ending and school starting, I immediately starting planning an epic road trip to Utah - and I'm SO glad I did. We were able to visit with good friends and good family and it eased my anxiety about being able to travel (for multiple days) fairly complication-free as a family of five.

We left on a Saturday morning and stopped for a few hours to visit the Littlewoods. I was just there in May, but the kids hadn't seen each other since last August, but they all picked up pretty quickly where they had left off. I totally failed to get a picture of the babies - next time! After I got home I started comparing these pictures of Clyde/McKenzie and Will/Paislee to some we took before they moved two years ago - holy smokes they've all grown up so much!! It was fun to sit and catch up with Lynndi and McKay and watch the kids play - thanks again for letting us swing by!

After that we piled back into the minivan and headed to our next destination: Queden's!!

Quinn and Eden and Isaac sweetly opened up their place to us to stay for two nights and we had such a great time with them.  First order of business was to adore Isaac - such a cute little redhead!

Our next order of business was to keep the babies occupied each night (my big boys were already in bed) so the grown-ups could play games!

On Sunday we made the block and a half trek over to Queden's church and really enjoyed it. Clyde and Will marched into primary without a glance back which was such a relief. Aaand of course I insisted on quick family pictures on the way home :).

This series of pictures shows me trying to take a nice picture with my baby brother; turns out all I had to do to get a smile was punch him!

Our last morning there, Eden and I got all ambitious and went for a run together. I seriously LOVED getting some girl time with her (thanks Chuck for staying home with all four little boys!) and I have high hopes of luring them to settle in Nampa someday... right next door so we can be running buddies all the time!

After having such a great time with one of my brothers, it was time to move onto the next one!  We packed up and headed to Sam and Terri's house in Salt Lake to have some fun, starting with a trip to Hogle Zoo:

I don't why it makes me laugh so hard that all three boys have their eyes closed in this picture, but it does...

Cute little monkeys!!

 

As per our usual zoo enjoyment, we checked out animals both live and statuesque :). Clyde was particularly psyched about the elephants, whereas Will was more taken with the giraffes.

 

We were all totally impressed with the polar bear - his showmanship rivaled that of Alex the Lion in the Madagascar movies. Over and over this sweet guy would swim right up to the window to the delight of all the kids, backglide back to his rock, then dive under the water and swim back up to the window! Sam and Terri said he's like this all the time, so fun to watch!

 

We definitely picked a nice hotttt August afternoon to be outside, so we opted to avail ourselves of the water mists found throughout the zoo; Sam was very accommodating in that effort.

It was so cute watching Clyde and Will and Bailey interact while we were there visiting :).

 

Ahh, this would be at the happy point where NONE of the wee ones cared to be strapped in, leaving us carrying babies and pushing empty strollers, grrrr :).

Quick photo op at the big elephant statue/weird music player/water sprayer deal.

 

And a quick shot of the five Izatts!  After the zoo, we headed back to Sam and Terri's for some delicious dinner and a couple rounds of Monopoly Deal, which Sam managed to win even though he was holding Hazel and on the phone with my mom (it was her birthday, yay!) a majority of the time. Show-off.

The next morning we made the short drive up to visit the Smiths for a few hours, yaaay! 

I was soooo happy to be reunited with my BFSCs Heidi and Courtney; the three of us hadn't been together since April 2011. Court's been in Dominica for her husband's medical school and even though we've stayed really close with skype dates and a few hundred emails it still doesn't compare to seeing each other in person!

 

Chase was just a baby the last time we saw him and now he's a darling 19-month-old! He joined right in playing with the big boys, sooo cute :).

Pretty sure heaven is lounging in the Smiths' pool and then hopping out for a yummy lunch with 'Heidi cookies' for dessert.

The boys didn't stay out of the pool for long, though - Chuck sweetly spent another hour or so out there letting them jump off the diving board over and over and over again!

Clyde's specialty was a spin move.

Will opted for less technique and more wild abandon :).  

It was so fun to visit with everyone; Chuck and the little boys hadn't seen Nate since before his mission, we got to see Reed briefly and give him our best wishes in his new calling as a bishop, and I especially always love catching up with Gloria. And as a bonus we got to see Big Will AND meet his seriously sweet girlfriend Katie.

So I didn't want to freak Katie out by subjecting her to my need to over-document everything, so instead of taking a picture of them that afternoon I opted to steal this picture from Will's facebook. Muuuuch less creepy, right? Anyways, she's soo pretty and sweet and brilliant (just got her Master's degree, no big deal) and interesting and easy to talk to and we all loved her.

Then it was time to head back to Sam and Terri's for another delicious dinner and cake (Robby's girlfriend was sweet enough to have a birthday while we were there!) and more late night Monopoly Deal.

We had such a great time visiting with Sam and Terri and watching the little cousins play together! We probably won't cross paths again now until Christmas so I was extra glad we got this bonding time in :).

We took off for home the next morning, luckily those sweet Braden girls provided some kisses for the long trip home:

Bailey and Jack

Jack and Hazel... right before they switched to pulling hair and had to be separated, haha.

On our way north we stopped in Ogden for lunch at the Smiths' pizza/pasta/sandwich/delicious restaurant, Fat Boy's.

Clyde and Will got sticky hands with their kids' meals which proceeded to entertain them most of the drive home, hooray! 

It was sooo nice to come home after five days away, but our trip really couldn't have been more wonderful - such a great way to wrap up the summer!  Love and miss you all!!

P.S. HAPPY 30th birthday to Sam today! As a present, you don't have to read this whole blog :).

Clyde's first day of school

OH, snap, we officially have ourselves a first grader:

After homeschoolin' it up for kindergarten last year, we made the transition to our local elementary school and we are all thrilled.

 And here we have the [outwardly] calm, collected parents. Some of Chuck's family were in town Sunday night and Monday so we were able to leave Will and Jack home that morning and just have Mom and Dad drop Clyde off at school the first day. I felt fine as we left the school, although a couple hours later it started to hit me that I had abandoned my child with next-to perfect strangers and had now been away from him longer than ever before when he wasn't with a family member. . . luckily that freak-out moment passed fairly quickly :).

And that afternoon Chuck and I headed back to the school and were so excited to see this cute face in the crowd of schoolkids:

Not surprisingly, he loved school and the following two days have gone just as well. So, so happy/relieved/proud of our little schoolboy! 

Our summer went swimmingly...

We continued our 'summer at the pool 2012' campaign with a double dose of swimming lessons the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August at the nearby swimming pool.

The boys managed to get the same instructors for each set of lessons - Clyde took Level One with Dannea (left) and Will took Preschool with Lisa (right). The fun part was that Dannea was Will's teacher last summer and Lisa was Clyde's teacher four summers ago when we did swimming lessons for the first time!

 

Clyde loved how stimulating Level One was - he learned so much and was able to work hard and really develop his strokes and glides.

Will progressed really well also. We were so proud when Lisa used his as an example for the other kids!

Don't let these pictures fool you; Jack was NOT a fan of hanging out on the sidelines at the pool every day for a month. Although I enjoyed my break from having to be in the water this year, I am looking forward to doing Parent/Toddler swimming lessons with Jack next summer.

The last day of each session was 'Fun Day' and the boys loved that the slide was turned on :).

Will came so far that Lisa let him go down the slide by himself at the end of the second set of lessons, wooo!

We're so proud of our little water babies - they both passed their levels! We're excited for Will to move on to Level One and for Clyde to advance to Level Two when they take more lessons this fall/winter. Chuck and I both feel really strongly about the importance of consistent swimming lessons for the boys, particularly Will. There are so many tragic stories about kids with autism wandering and encountering water; we want to do as much as we can to ensure Will's safety and it's so encouraging to see the skills he's developed since April. We've been really impressed with the Nampa Parks and Rec swimming lesson program, and this year was no different.

We really loved both Dannea and Lisa, and the last day of class I had the boys give them thank you cards in which I had enclosed copies of some of the pictures I'd taken during the lessons.  To our surprise, Lisa handed us back a card with the following note:

Isn't that so sweet? It totally made my day. I referenced it on facebook and said that I love when crushes are reciprocated :).

July leftovers

Welcome to a l-o-n-g post of random July pictures!

Clyde after church one day, trying to figure out if the cool factor bestowed by the sunglasses, Nerf gun, and overall pose can outweigh the 'inside-out pocket' issue.

 Cuddly brothers.  Remember right after Jack was born when Will was somewhat indifferent to his existence in our home?  Well, that was pretty short-lived; Will is now (and has been for some time) as hands-on to his baby brother as Clyde is - which is saying something.  Jack gets LOTS of love and snuggles and a fairly ridiculous (-ly cute) amount of baby talk from both of his big brothers.

Our good friends/neighbors Jason and Grace play in a community band that performs concerts on alternating Mondays through the summer, so we trekked out to Caldwell on one such night to check it out.  The boys did really well and especially loved when a Star Wars song was played!  My favorite was the Fiddler on the Roof medley directed by Jason himself.

We have a very strict bedtime routine (that our structure-loving Will ensures we adhere to every night) that wraps up with family scriptures, family prayer, and books with Daddy. The four boys looked so cute snuggled up for scriptures one night that I couldn't help taking a picture. Also, after five plus years, we're getting dangerously close to finishing the Book of Mormon. Heaven help us (seriously) if we ever attempt the Bible.

Jack had his six-month check-up in July!  He was 17lbs 1oz and... some amount of inches long.  24 maybe?  Does that sound normal? 

And despite getting shots, he was still in a good enough mood to have a date with Ella that night!

Every six weeks or so when Chuck gets his hair cut at the beauty school, he wanders over to the next-door D.I. and inevitably comes home with something awesome for the little boys (and himself). This time it was three new Nerf guns (two of which are identical to ones we already owned, meaning Clyde and Will are more evenly outfitted) and a Star Wars blaster. They're all dang lucky I'm too scared/lazy to cut Chuck's hair myself...

Speaking of hair, I may have had a little too much fun with Jack's one Sunday morning before church.

Ha, my dear friend Maren needed a ride to a doctor's appt so we buckled in her two youngest kids as well and made an afternoon of it - including an impromptu trip through the car wash! Logan and Will were both a bit apprehensive, but Clyde and Norah were big fans :).

Clyde yelled for me one afternoon because Jack was threatening to destroy his carefully arranged block battleground, despite Clyde throwing himself in front of the baby as a barrier.  This was the day we learned Jack can crawl over people!

July brought the end of the church softball season, so we all sported red and showed up to cheer on the team at the tournament. Chuck was acting captain in Brother Swallow's absence and we played well... just not well enough to win, haha.

Jack has decided that he's a big enough boy to crawl and pull himself up on things, particularly when a big brother and the iPad are within reach.

For a few days he would end up 'stranded' on the trampoline and scream bloody murder (after smiling cutely for the camera!!) until one of us rescued him. Since then he's learned to slither off.

Sometimes Jack ends up with the iPad all by himself... and attempts to download some online VIP poker app.  Obviously going to have to keep an eye on this one.

 

 After I took the iPad away, Jack crawled out to the living room to hang out with his older zombies brothers while they played xbox.

Speaking of the xbox, we picked up the 'Kinectimals' game from the library and Will was SO cute playing it. You get to pick an animal to be your pet and help it do tricks and such. I've never been so tempted to buy Will a pet tiger before in my life!

And finally, this last picture just brings joy into my heart, haha. One day Holly mentioned that she made some banana bread and a loaf was waiting for me, but I knew I wouldn't be over there for a couple days so I (jokingly) reminded her to wrap it up, you know, clear Saran-style.  Instead this is what I found when I picked it up:

I seriously laughed for like five minutes.

Also, it was delicious.