Random iPhone pics

It seems like I rarely use my big camera anymore. I pull it out for big events, but my phone is so handy for snapping quick pics these days. Here are some random pics of what we've done this month so far.

 

We met Sharon & Lindsey at the mall for lunch and some shopping for the girls one Saturday morning. We found some great things and the girls had a great time shopping together! They were too cool to eat lunch with us moms and had to have their own table. :) 

Whitney came over to play one afternoon. These 2 are a mess!

We've been taking advantage of this gorgeous weather with lots of time outside -- we hit the Farmington park one day after school on our way home.

We sent a care package to Cormac since he was sick. Charlotte had to tell me all about how it gets there -- thanks to her field trip to the post office.

We celebrated Whitney turning 4 with a fun party at Gymnastic Joes. This was the best pic I could get. :)

Charlotte and I did some errands at the mall after the party. And, of course, that meant riding the mini carousel.

And, we stopped in Bath & Body Works where Charlotte picked out new "hanitizers" which was a BIG decision for this little girl.

Harrison had a fun playdate with his 2 best friends from kindergarten. I wish I'd gotten the reunion on video it was so sweet. They went running up to each other, hugs all around! And they picked up like no time had passed. We are going to be doing a semi-monthly playdate with these sweet boys and their mommas and I'm really excited about it!

Charlotte spend a few days at both Mimi & Grammy's houses and had a big adventure! We missed her while she was gone, but the big kids and I had some fun of our own. We hit the new Yum-Yos one day after school for some yogurt.

Mondays

Charlotte & I have gotten into a little Monday routine this fall that I'm loving. I'm really trying to enjoy and soak up my time with her; before I know it she'll be in kindergarten and I'll be by myself most days. And, yes, there are days that sounds wonderful, I won't lie, but I know that I will miss her so much! We have a lot of fun together and I like having a little helper with me during the days. It's all too quiet at the house when she is in preschool.

 

Our Mondays usually start off with our weekly grocery shopping trip. She is quite a little helper. She picks the cereals and yogurts and always gets the bananas for Daddy. She's proud of her "jobs" when we shop. 

And, her cart is always full when we leave.

After unloading our groceries and lunch, we've started taking a little walk around the neighborhood -- especially with the weather being so nice this fall!

She likes to bring her baby with us on the walk, although I usually end up carrying the baby and the stroller home. :)

We've found some horses on the outskirts of our neighborhood and they are currently our favorite spot to stop. The are close to the road and Charlotte loves to talk to them!

30 Days {or more)

Some of the biggest new around here is that Matt passed his COMPS! Woohoo!

 

This is a BIG, GINORMOUS deal. After completing 55 hours of coursework in Ph.D. school comes COMPS. It's 3-4 big questions that you have to research and write about and have references for and you do this pretty much without any help.

 

And, you have 30 days to do it. That's it. 30 days. And during this 30 days, Matt changed jobs and we started school -- and he was teaching a class at JBU. So, yes, he was crazy busy. He turned his COMPS in on September 3rd. The professors grade them and review them and it's supposed to take about 2 weeks but in Matt's case it took a month. So on October 3rd he met with this COMPS committee (the 4 professors that gave him the questions). He did a presentation that basically went over his research and what he wrote about. Then, they talked to him and sent him out of the room. He was prepared to have to do some revision on his papers. But, when they called him back in, they said he passed -- no revisions needed! It was a HUGE relief! All that hard work and nights with little sleep paid off.

 

You have to pass COMPS to get to officially become a doctorial candidate. Matt got the confirmation email the next week that he'd been added to the list of doctorial candidates.

 

After all the excitement of passing, the next few days were stressful and tough. Without going into all of it, let me just say that Matt's advisor (also on his comps and dissertation committees) overstepped her professional bounds. When Matt drew the line and said that he couldn't do what she was asking, she dropped him as his advisor. Thankfully, he found another advisor willing to take him on (it's kinda a big deal to change advisors this late) and is moving forward. And, his old advisor and Matt are on good terms now (and her behavior was dealt with -- thankfully Matt was able to stay out of all of that!).

 

However, the bad news is that Matt lost some very precious time. And, as of now, he has to turn out 3 chapters in the next 3 weeks if he wants to stay on track to graduate in May. Otherwise it's another year. So, we are truly just trying to get to Thanksgiving break! It's going to be a very tough few weeks for us, but we will survive as we have before -- it's nothing new on this Ph.D. journey -- and let me tell you we are gonna celebrate big when he is done!! 

No School Day

The kids had a day off from school last Monday. Matt had to work since it was an inservice day, but the kids and I had a fun day by ourselves! We stared the morning with painting our pumpkins. They did a great job and spent almost an hour working on them. 

After cleaning up, we met the Scogin girls for lunch at ChickFilA. They were headed to get mani/pedis and Madeleine went with Lindsey and they had such a fun time! I am so thankful that she and Lindsey have become such good friends -- I'm loving watching their friendship grow!

She came home with silver and black and they looked amazing! I'm a bit jealous. :)

While Madeleine had her fun, Charlotte and Harrison & I headed home. I'd promised Harrison that his buddy Hayden (from across the street) could come over and play for awhile. So, while the boys played, Charlotte and I snuggled up and watched a movie. Then we piled back in the car and headed to tumbling. I snapped this picture of Charlotte watching the big girls doing their lesson that day -- and just moments later, Mr. Joe invited Char to join the class. She was in heaven and it made her day too!

Needless to say the kids were good and tired that night and ready to tackle another week of school. I think we all needed a day of just fun and this was perfect!

Softball sillies

With Madeleine playing a softball double header every Friday night during September/early October, we spent a lot of time a the softball fields. I didn't get to see too many games -- with Matt coaching and me keeping an eye on 2 littles it was hard to watch much of the games. I did get to see her bat most of the time and Matt filled me in on the rest. I actually thought about getting a sitter so I could go and watch her play, but with it being a short season it just never worked out. I'm thinking that I'll definitely be doing that in the spring though!

 

So, while Madeleine played softball, Harrison & Charlotte played in the grass by the field. Harrison often brought his soccer ball and "taught" Charlotte how to play soccer. :) Here he is giving her some encouragement/instruction. He kept reminding her to call him "coach." 

How sweet are these pictures!? He is so sweet and gentle with her (most of the time).

When Charlotte got tired of playing soccer she and Whitney would go and play -- usually practicing their tumbling.

Pumpkin Patch

Charlotte's preschool took a field trip to the pumpkin patch this month! We decided to carpool with Sharon & Whitney so the girls could ride together and then we'd go to lunch afterwards. It was a nice day and they had fun exploring the pumpkin patch. It was a different patch than we'd been to before but I really liked it and I think we'll definitely go back! 

She loved the pony rides! I thought she might be scared, but who am I kidding -- this girl is fearless!

The only thing she didn't like is the dirt and corn. :) She doesn't like to get too dirty. Ha!

Charlotte took a pic of Sharon & me.

Such a fun morning! So so thankful for these sweet friends!

Tumbling

Life this fall has been busy, busy, busy. It seems like there is always something fun going on and while it may wear me out, the kids are loving it! We really try to limit how much they are involved in (usually just one thing at a time) but with 3 kids that still makes for a busy life. Harrison has started LEGO club at school which is awesome! Madeleine just wrapped up her fall softball season and is still doing tumbling once a week. We are also giving Lads to Leaders a try at our new church which is such a great program! And, Charlotte is doing 2/days a week of preschool and starting to do some tumbling of her own.

 

Madeleine has wanted to do gymnastics for awhile now and we finally started back in August. She's done so well at it, that as of this week, she's moving up to a more advanced class. She has really worked hard and it shows --- she has come a long way in just a couple of months! I'm so so proud of her.

 

And, when Madeleine started tumbling, Charlotte started trying to do it too. She wants to do everything like Madeleine and, crazy enough, she's getting there. We've done a couple of private lessons with Madeleine's teacher and Charlotte just loves Mr. Joe. He is awesome with her! She can do a backbend (fall backwards and land on her hands, not her head) and a roundoff/running roundoff. It's kinda crazy to see her flying through the air, but she's so good at it. 

 

Our last class, Mr. Joe invited Charlotte out to join them and she kept up with those big girls just fine. She can't do what Madeleine is doing in new class, but she is really wanting to try! My girls are so talented and make me so proud of their hard work!

Down Home in the Arkansas

Madeleine's school program was last week and it was so cute. We've been to quite a number of school programs and this one was by far the best. I'm not sure if it's because we're at a new school & this is what they do, or if it's that she's in 4th grade now and they are just better at performing. Whatever it is, the program was cute.

 

Their theme was "Arkansas." Madeleine had a speaking part, singing solo and did some square dancing too. She'd been practicing for weeks and singing all her "Arkansas" songs. The kids got the biggest laugh out of the fact that I know most of the words to "Oh Arkansas," which was one of her songs. :) Haha! I guess you never forget some thing you learn as a kid. And, I made them watch the video of Christmastime in Arkansas since it wasn't on her list and, well, every AR kid should know it -- although it's not the same as listening to it on a cassette tape.

 

Anyways, the program was great and Madeleine shone like the star she is! Charlotte was captivated by the whole thing and kept trying to wave to Madeleine. Harrison was a little less excited, probably because he'd seen it earlier that day when they performed for the school. 

We celebrated the success of our 4th grader with ice cream on the way home!

And, here's a short video of her speaking part. :)