Back to School Stats

New School Year- new list of Favorites!

Here are the boys stats!

It's going to be a great year!

Ben is 45" tall and 46 lbs! He is a happy, hilarious, but sometimes very quiet and reserved, energetic kiddo who has lots of buddies. His teachers have consistently told me that he is such a good student that they wish they could clone him.

Ben and Jonathan have very different personalities, but they get along so well. I continue to pray that their relationship will stay strong.

When it comes to cuddling and hugging, Ben's the best. I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together these past few years while Jonathan was at school. We got in lots of cuddling time.

Ben loves playing games, and he particularly loves Yahtzee, but he calls it, Dice! Since the beginning of this summer, Ben has been obsessed with "being a ninja".

He likes to jump on and off of things, (Things= furniture, counters, walls, door frames...) and he is always inventing new obstacles.  

Jonathan is 54" tall and 66 lbs! He is long and lean! He is a sweet, curious, creative, artistic, loyal, funny...I could go on and on. He makes me very proud. I love spending one on one time with him. I cannot believe he is 8 and in the 3rd grade now. He is thriving at school. He loves it and loves to do well there.

He plays baseball and will start his 3rd season very soon. He is excited, it's the first time for kid pitch! We will see how it goes!   

Jonathan is a very loyal friend, and he is very lucky to have found serval boys that he goes to school with who have been his best friends since Kindergarten. I love to watch these boys grow up!

Happy First Day of School 2016

You thought I had given up on the blog? I haven't! I still think about it, I just never got time to come sit and STAY at the computer to invest the time needed to hash out a blog post. But today, I have time. Why? Because, both of my boys are in Elementary school now. I am happy and sad about it. Ben was so ready for a new challenge, but I miss my little buddy. Even though he went to Pre-School, we were together a lot. His enthusiasm for school and being with big brother has made this all easier on all of us!

So, it's fair to say a lot of the attention has been on Ben in preparation for his big day today, and I am looking a lot at this top picture and thinking...when did Jonathan get so big???

Kindergarten and 3rd Grade! It's going to be a great year!

Hamming it up on the front porch before school!

The boys made BFF drawings for each others binders. Melt my heart.

Jonathan's 3rd Grade Teacher - Mrs. Stroman. Fun Fact, we discovered she attends our church!

Ben's Kindergarten teacher - Miss Maloney. Terrible picture of her, but it's the only one I got!

Jonathan showing Ben what he needs to do.

Super serious business, hooking up the backpack!

First Summer Visit to the Dallas Zoo

Jonathan had really missed going to the zoo while in school! I had missed taking him! Ben and I had gone a few times throughout the year. It was never the same without him! Our good friends and neighbors had never been to the Dallas Zoo, we brought them along with! We all had a great time!



 

Riley, Gage, Ben, Jonathan and Reagan at the entrance!



J on the BIG elephant!

Jonathan said that he had missed feeding the giraffes the MOST! So we headed there first! They are his favorite animal, just like his Nana!

Riley and Jonathan feeding the giraffe.

They were so excited about the giraffes! Gage is being a silly goose!

And now Jonathan is being a silly goose...and looking like his daddy with that face! :)

Too cool!

"What's in here?"

Just hanging out!

An African Armadillo!

The crew!

And as usually, we rode the Merry-Go-Round to close out our trip!

Welcome Summer Celebration!

To celebrate the end of school, we got together with a few of our friends on the last day! We went to the splash pad near by and had lots of fun! Then the boys picked Chucky Cheese as their restaurant to celebrate that evening!

At the splash pad!

Popsicle Time!

Climbing the spider web!



Little buddy was wiped out!

At Chucky Cheese!!

On their favorite ride, a mechanical horse.

Love Jonathan's face!

Jonathan's Last Day of Kindergarten!

Well we made it to the last day of Kindergarten! What an amazing year it has been! Jonathan has done so well! Learned so much! Met so many new friends! Accomplished so many goals! We are so proud of him! I honestly can't believe it's already over! Now we have a 1st grader!

Last Day of School!!! YAY!!



So happy!

The last day of school pick up! Complete Chaos!

Jonathan and Ben with the Best Kinder teacher!

Our neighbors Mandy and Gage!

Check out the first day of Kind here! They have both grown up so much!
http://dreamerthinkerplayer.blogspot.com/2013/11/first-day-of-kindergarten.html

Ben's Last Day of School

I am so far behind on blogging, it's hard for me to figure out where to start. So how about at the END of Ben's school year? It has been a crazy, fantastic, and fun year! We have been so lucky to have such awesome teachers for both boys this year! It has made things so much smoother for all of us! Although, I am really ready for summer to begin, I am sad that this year is ending.

Here is a little bit about what has been going on with Ben...

Ben had his 3 year check up last week and his stats were:
36 lbs (87% percentile)
3' 2" (73% percentile)
He is a healthy growing boy!
He has gone up 2 shoe sizes, but only 1 clothing size this school year. He has gotten so long and lean all the sudden.
He still likes to eat and isn't too picky. Although, he can sometimes decide to change his mind at any random meal and not eat at all. Thankfully, since we already went through this with Jonathan, we don't worry so much, only a little.

He is sweet and cuddly. He loves to be in someones lap. Most of the time it's my lap, but if I can't then he will gladly go love on someone else. I love it. I love that he is so affectionate and also that he is able to go to others and share his sweet cuddles. He has the kind of laugh that is so cute that it makes people (me) stop and watch, and you can't help but laugh too. A friend recently described him as "the happiest kid" she knows.  

He talks NON-STOP. He has always been a great talker. His vocabulary is gigantic. I tease him sometimes and ask him if we can play the quiet game. He giggles and says, "NO silly momma!" And he goes back to talking again. He has a little bit of a speech quirk were he repeats a word over and over. After talking to 2 speech pathologists, it's normal and he will out grow it. He has so many words and he has SO much to say, that he will get stuck on a word until he can get to the next.

About a month ago we took the rails off his crib and he is now in a toddler bed! That was so hard for this momma!!! I wasn't ready. But it has actually been awesome. He was climbing out of his crib a lot, so this is safer. And he doesn't get out of bed as much as I thought he would. Although, he has a habit of getting up about 15 minutes before my alarm goes off in the morning and comes into my room and wakes me up. Most of the time he likes to just snuggle. He will lay as close to me as possible and run his hand up and down my arm. He whispers things like, "You're the best momma in the whole world", "you're soooo beautiful", "I'm gonna keep you forever"! It's the kinds of things that melts me into a puddle and I always think, "Well, the day can only go down hill from here!" Haha!!!

While I wish it was all snuggles and sweet words, he is after all 3! He is definitely pushing his boundaries and figuring out what he can get away with. He thinks he is 6 like his big brother, Jonathan. He can really be a RASCAL sometimes! He is always into something. He is always making a mess somewhere. He loves to play and has a great imagination. He is very strong willed and combined with his cuteness, I have to make sure he doesn't get away with everything (for his own good). But he keeps me and the rest of our family on our toes and makes life fun, interesting and full of laughter!  

Cutie Pie.

Ben with his teachers, Ms. Jill and Ms. Lindsay.

Ben's first day of School in Aug 2013. ((It's a different angle from the pictures from today, but you can tell he has grown 2 whole bricks!!!!))

Grandma Rosemary O'Brien

It is with great sadness that I write that my Grandma Rosemary O'Brien has passed away. It was really quiet sudden. Even though she was 84, she was very active and seemingly healthy. In fact she had traveled here to the DFW area twice recently. Once in October to visit us and then again in December for our family Christmas Party. She had suffered most recently from bronchitis. She was hospitalized from complications with bronchitis and then slipped into a coma. During the coma, they discovered that she had sever liver issues, they had probably gone undetected for some time. She was moved to hospice and passed away only 3 hours after arriving. It is just another reminder to me how fragile life is.
I have beaten up on myself a lot over the past few weeks because I have been so bad about blogging. She was truly my blogs BIGGEST fan. She replied to every single post. I saved all of her emails. I read through all her responses the other day in tears. The very next blog post I was going to do was of her visit in October. We had a great visit and went to the Dallas Arboretum to see the pumpkins. I am sad she never got to see the pictures of our time together...



Grandma and Me 1 year ago when we were there in Las Cruces visiting her.

She loved my boys so much, Michael included. I loved seeing them together. Michael took great care of her and she loved it. In fact, she loved her whole family so much. Having a large family was not wasted on her, it suited her well. She had a great relationship with each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She didn't forget a Birthday or Anniversary. She would always send a card and even a small gift. Lately she had sent my boys a Gift Card to Barnes and Noble on their Birthday. I loved that. She was always thinking of all of us. And now she will be greatly missed by all of us.  


Here is the link of her obituary. My aunts did an amazing job eulogizing her.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/elpasotimes/obituary.aspx?n=rosemary-obrien&pid=170042763&

The funeral was last week, Michael, the boys and I drove to Las Cruces for the service. I was incredibly hard to say good-bye to her and her home. But I was reminded once more how lucky I am to be in this family. I love all my cousins (and their spouses), my aunts and uncles. As we move on from here, I know that we will remain close.  

The O'Brien Cousins. (Minus Sean O'Brien, who could not attend because his wife was expecting their first child at the same time). I love them all!