This past week has been filled with school:

a lot of playing:

a nice visit with some friends, hours upon hours spent in front of the computer screen (for school), the whole family getting sick, Landon taking extra long to get better, visiting daddy at work:

discovering Landon FINALLY got his first tooth, hooray! Sadly, no picture. Is that even possible? He barely lets me peak at it.

And we ended the week with a way-too-short visit to Tucson, so that we could see Uncle Cory before he heads off to Idaho for school. It seemed like it had been forever since we'd been back to visit everyone (a whole month!) so it was nice, just not enough time--like always! :)

Let the semester begin!

Our fall classes are in full swing! And boy do I have an exciting semester ahead of me. I don't think I realized what I was getting myself into, when I signed up for 6 online classes. I had been originally planning on doing a few online, and a few on campus but couldn't work that out, around Pat's work and school schedule, so here I am! The first few times I logged on to my WebStudy portal, I felt like crying as about 2 dozen alerts popped up, telling me about my upcoming assignments, lectures, quizzes and exams. But I will be okay. I'm hoping we can find a good baby sitter to come over once a week for a few hours, while I run off to the library to do school work.

Pat had his first class last night, which he is really excited about. It's at the fire station, and is a combined Fire Science and Fire Operations class, so it's going to be pretty intense, but it's something he loves, and I'm sure he'll do great.

After Pat's class ended, he came home and picked up Landon, to take him to the Emergency Room at about 9pm. (Can I just say how awesome it is that Pat works at the hospital!? They treated my baby extra well, since Pat knows all the nurses and doctors in the ER. Pat was approached by numerous hospital employees today, checking up on Landon and wanting details on how his night was and how he seemed today. Awesome!) The poor little guy had a major ear infection and a high fever. Which of course has been accompanied by a cough and runny nose. I feel so guilty for having brushed it off for a week, assuming it was just teething. He's so miserable. :(

I'm feeling a little Zombie-ish from spending all night in a rocking chair the past few nights, and I think this little bug is making it's way to me now. Hopefully we can get rid of it before it does any more harm.

Hope the school year is starting out well for everyone else! I'm off to work on my virtual pile of homework. (Did I use the word virtual correctly? Not sure if that's the word I was looking for... Hmph.) Goodnight.

Landon, doing "the worm"

Zoe starts preschool!

Today was the big day! Zoe woke us up this morning, jumping up and down while shouting, "I'M SO EXCITED FOR SCHOOL! I'M SO EXCITED FOR SCHOOL!"

While I know that having your 3-1/2 year old away for a few hours doesn't seem like a huge deal, it sure felt like a huge deal to me. I have only been away from Zoe for a few short periods of time, and even during those times she was most likely at home with Pat, or with a few other select relatives. She has never been dropped off at a friend's house for a playdate, because I always end up staying too. You get the picture.

I just didn't like the idea of not being able to know everything she was doing, if she was behaving, what she was learning, all the silly things she did or said, if she sang along during singing time, if she was shy or outgoing, if she played trucks with the boys or dolls with the girls, if she remembered what I told her about not talking about things that we only do in the bathroom. I was very excited for her though, because I know how much she loves being around other kids, and how quickly she can get bored being at home all day.

Despite the big knot in my stomach, her first day went perfectly. She picked out her own outfit, asked me if I would curl her hair, brushed her own teeth and then picked out her bright yellow sandals (instead of her pink ones) to go with her brown and pink outfit. :)

In the 2.5 hours she was gone, I was able to make a quick trip to the grocery store, unload the groceries, snuggle with Landon, put him down for a nap, workout and shower! I could get used to this.

I wish I had taken a picture of her as she was running out to me afterwards: construction paper crown slipping down into her eyes, beaming smile, racing to show me the candy that she was rewarded at the end of the day for staying in the 'green zone'. So proud of my little girl!

Now if only she could be this enthusiastic about every school year for the next 18+ years! :D

A few old pictures

Finally found my camera cable, and of course now I'm having trouble uploading pictures. I did upload a few good ones though.

Cuddling with Aunt Bridget.

Swimming lessons

Practicing breathing with her teacher.

At the Desert Museum. This is her favorite part, and we have to get a picture of her on it every time we come. 

Enjoying the shade in Aunt Bridget's hat at the Desert Museum.

Playing at Nana and Papa's house.

Three cute, super hero cousins at Nana and Papa's house.

I can't believe the summer is coming to an end! Well, not the heat (which is what I associate summer with) but the whole no-school-thing. Pat and I just finished registering for classes this past week, and Zoe starts preschool in THREE DAYS! Crazy, crazy.

I am so excited that I was able to sign up for all online classes (hopefully), because I just LOVE being home with my sweet little kiddies. While some moments are rough (I was actually a little jealous of Pat this morning as he was getting dressed and ready for work. I was really wishing that I could switch with him for the day, and that it would be totally fine when I show up at work, instead of him.), I really do love it.

Landon is growing up so quickly, and I just can't believe it. While he still doesn't have any teeth yet (bummer), he is crawling all over the house, sitting up perfectly, eating lots of big boy food, making all kinds of new sounds, sleeping better (most nights) and just the best little guy.

Enjoying grass for the first time. 

Always smiling! :D

I have just recently started a new... what can I call it? Chapter? Sure, chapter of motherhood. And it is proving to be quite challenging. Zoe has always been very fond of Landon, but now that he is becoming more vocal and mobile, things are slowly beginning to change. There have been many mornings where Landon is playing in his saucer, just as happy as can be, when I can hear Zoe stomping out of the playroom, to the room that he is in and yells (with hands on hips), "LANDON--PLEASE!!". This would be due to the loud, high-pitched screaming that he does when he's enjoying himself. 

Also, now that he can get around more, she will be quietly playing/coloring and he zooms right over to what she's doing and starts trying to eat her toys or crumples up her coloring books. So far, instead of getting too angry about it, Zoe has taken on a little mommy role, and is really good about running over to the baby toy bin and finding a toy for him, instead of the one he took from her. Or she drags him across the floor by his feet so that she has time to gather her stuff up off the ground and get it all up on the sofa or table, where he can't reach it. I'm glad she is usually so sweet and understanding about it, and am hoping that won't change anytime soon! 

This afternoon, after changing Landon on his bedroom floor, I got up to throw the diaper away in another room, and came back to Zoe scurrying down the hall with an armful of toys, where she then ran into their bedroom and closed the door. After listening for a minute outside the door and hearing them happily playing together, I rushed off to get some laundry folded. I was expecting to only have a minute or two, but instead about 5 minutes passed with nothing but happy sounds coming from behind the closed door. After folding the entire basket of laundry, I just couldn't help myself and had to peak in. 

Hahah! I was shocked to see no huge messes, and how happy they both were. I wouldn't mind more moments like these throughout the day. :)

Catching Up...

I had no intentions of taking a month to write my next entry, but kept putting it off due to my camera cable being misplaced, and then spending about 2 weeks on a little 'vacation'. And my camera cable still hasn't come up, but so be it! My small selection of phone pictures will have to do.

Due to all the fun, missing pictures... I will skip a lot of the details from the last 3 weeks. About two of those weeks were spent in Tucson, with Landon and Zoe. And without Pat. We had the opportunity to 'puppy sit' for my brother's new family member, Sylvie.

We had a great time getting away from boring ol' Thatcher for awhile and staying busy with this cute little pup. She was more work than I remember puppies being, but we had a lot of fun playing with her... and chasing her. ;)

Taking care of Zoe and Landon from sun up to sun down by myself was quite an experience. Made me so much more thankful for Pat and all that he does to help me out with them. As I was planning our time in Tucson, originally I had been coming up with all these fun things to do and places to go. Pump it up, the Zoo, a different park every morning, the mall, etc. I am a little sad to say that almost none of my original plans came through. I just couldn't push myself hard enough most days to get the 3 of us out the door quickly enough between Landon's naps and to drive far away (after living in Thatcher, anything more than 5 minutes seems WAY too far) with Landon screaming in his carseat the whole way.

We did enjoy a LOT of swimming though, and I was able to spend a lot of time with family, and get together with a few old friends that I hadn't seen in years. And to top it off, the last night we were in town, my parents watched Landon and Zoe so that Pat (who drove out on his day off to pick us up) and I could go out! By ourselves!

It was sooo nice going out and have a little time to ourselves. We hadn't been on an actual date since we went to see "Wicked" about a week before Landon was born. Crazy! And to think there was a time that we promised eachother we would never let a month pass without going out for date night. That was before school, work, clinicals, and an extra kid were thrown into the picture. :P

But I sure do love these 2 kids that add so much excitement to our lives! And I would give up another 8 months of date nights for them. ;)

This post wasn't at all what I was thinking it would be when I started, but my eyes are getting heavier and heavier with each word and I have been sitting here trying to get this post over with for way too long. So, goodnight! And I apologize for this boring, almost picture-less update.