Traci Todd

gotta brag....

i had to take the time to brag on chloe!

she came home w/a note from her school saying she was in the Talented and Gifted program!!!  We are so very proud of her!!! 

ETA she isn't in the actually TAG program this is a part of the program called The Primary Talent Pool the paper says "It was created with the purpose of identifying students who might benefit from differentiated curriculum or instruction within their classes"  At the end of Chloe's 3rd grade year she will be given two tests and can qualify for the TAG program if her scores are high enough.

(photo taken the day she lost her 4th tooth)

Revival

I have really neglected my blog in the last month or so.  I am trying to get some new photos up to share w/everyone.  So today while waiting on files to upload, download, import, export I was able to work my way over here to share. 

Jason has been playing the drums as church for a while now and he is really enjoying it, no surprise there!  The kids love watching daddy play the drums and have been beating on his drums at home. 

The worship team played at the revival at our church last week or was it two weeks ago??  Anyway... I had my camera with me so I went to the balcony to take a few pics.  The lighting was horrible (revival was at 7pm) and the church makes the worst color casts possible.  So glad I was able to lower my f stop and up my iso to get these (2500 iso). 

 

 

x

 

 

the other night Hunter noticed that there was an X in the sky that was made by two planes. Of course I had to grab my camera!  i love these shots!

Tball

Both of the kids are playing tball again this year.  You can definately see their improvement.  Chloe is not in the outfield as much which means she is actually getting to play ball.  She is slowly learning what to do when she gets the ball but Hunter said he just wants to throw it. Go figure. 

Here are a few favorite photos from their first day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

growing up too fast

i love that the older my kids do the more we are able to do but i am having a hard time adjusting to the fact that my 5 year old can read. If she cannot read something she tries to sound it out and will usually figure it out. 

now that she is reading there are a few things I can no longer do.  The obviously is spell certain names. She knows how to spell everyones name but since she can sound the letters out she will usually figure them out if she doesn't already know how to spell it.  This isn't a big deal but if I am trying to make plans w/o her knowing then this is an issue.  I usually wont tell the kids my plans until the day of so that way I don't have to listen to "is it today" or "are we going there today" or "when are we going????"  

The other time is when the kids are wanting to watch tv.  Instead of me having to tell them no I would turn the tv on, go to the guide then search. Nope Hannah Montana isn't on, or no Handy Mandy is not on. That doesn't work any more. As soon as the word Hannah Montana or iCarly comes up (btw thanks for that one stephanie!) she says "there it is, see I told u it is on!" the other day jason was channel surfing and i hear chloe say "golf is on" and jason says "how do you know that?" chloe's response "it says G-O-L-F that spells golf dad" in the duh dad tone.  She even spells words instead of saying the word.  "D-A-D-D-Y is home!" 

old friends....

last week a very good friend of mine came to visit.  i haven't seen chris (who is now called Tina, her name is Christina) since she graduated high school 10 years ago!

the kids played well together and I enjoyed having her 11 month old to carry around.  her little one reassured me that i do not want/need another one around the house. there are way too many things in my house for little fingers to put into their little mouth. 

here are a few photos of her brown eyed beauties!  her oldest was too busy playing w/chloe to get any photos by herself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

chloe's horse ride

all chloe has been wanting to do was ride a horse for the last few months.  she didn't want to just ride a pony, she wanted a horse.  we were invited to a birthday party a few weeks ago and she finally got to ride one.  she would not stop smiling the entire time.

chloe kept going back to the back of line, we are not sure why. (this was before she actually rode the horse).

 

of course hunter had to ride w/chloe.

 

 

 

after the horse ride the kids got to ride around on 4-wheelers.  chloe and hunter have issues w/things on their ears but they learning that if they wanted to ride where the big kids were riding then they would have to wear helmets.

 

by the time we left both of the kids were tired and dirty. i think they enjoyed themselves!

just a little busy

in the last few weeks we have celebrating Jason's birthday (34th!)

 

 

 

celebrated hunter's 4th bday

 

**the fact that the cake had 95% blue icing never crossed my mind!

we also celebrated christy's 31st bday (sorry no pic!)  Hunter has been talking on the phone now

This is when he was talking to Mimi

 

 

 

chloe lost her 2nd tooth!! jason ended up pulling the tooth. thank goodness he did this when i was upstairs.  apparently chloe only cried once!

 

today was alex's 5th birthday. we went to her party on sunday and the kids bowled for the first time!

 

 

i have no idea what happened but it looks like they were having fun!! i know that we will be back!

since alex came to the house on her birthday i took the kids swimming.  by the time becca came to get alex she was swimming w/o her floaties! that girl was all about going under water!  by the time we were leaving chloe and alex were jumping off the side of the pool and hunter was "monkey crawling" along the side of the pool w/o his floaties. this boy is usually the one that hangs out on the steps.  so today was a very productive day for the little ones. me, I knitted a newborn hat and watched jason install our new back door. part of the floor inour laundry had to be replaced before the door went in. the kids have requested he paint the floor blue and black w/purple polka dots (at least i think that was the color combo).

this is what happens

when christy and i have a few days together and decide to get creative.

 

 

 

My baby boy is four!!

I was wanting to do some type of slide show or something showing some pics of hunter from birth to today. Well that didn't happen. Mostly b/c a majority of his photos are on the external hard drive that is hooked up to the computer downstairs.  This is also b/c we went to Garrett's for breakfast then to Donna Gail's to swim. Came home and relaxed for a little bit then went back outside to play in the sprinkler. 

Hunter enjoyed listening to Summer, Allie, and Alice sing him happy birthday. Both kids were very excited to talk to Nannie, at least I think they talked to Nannie. I completely forgot to call her and find out more about that conversation.  Hunter would not talk to Aunt Cici but listened to her (he was distracted by the wii). He did make sure to give Mimi and ear full of what he wanted for his birthday.  I think he had a good day. Of course he cannot wait until Saturday.  :)

hunter today June 24th 2009

 

Hunter December 3, 2005 (almost 6 mos)

 

Hunter June 6, 2006 (almost 1 year)

 

Hunter at his 2nd birthday party June 30, 2007

 

Hunter & mommy Feb 2, 2008 (2 1/2)

 

here is one of Hunter on August 6, 2008 (3 yrs)