It doesn't get better than this....

Gosh, I love my boys. :)

A new year of preschool...and other things!

A new year of preschool started after Labor Day, which also means the end of summer.  While I am always sad at the beginning of another preschool year (because I can see how fast Grady is growing up!), this year I felt like it was a really good thing for him. Here he is on his first day! Of course Landon wanted to go in with him. 

This is Grady before leaving the house that morning. It was sprinkling a bit, so he was thrilled to be able to carry his umbrella. His favorite color is red, so he tried to incorporate it whenever possible (the hat, umbrella, shirt, etc.). He was upset that morning because he desperately wanted to wear red shorts too...luckily, he forgot that he had some red athletic shorts, so he had to go with other ones!

Here are some other pictures from preschool orientation...

While we have thoroughly enjoyed Grady being 4, he definitely keeps us on our toes lately! I think 4 is kind of a big transition to boyhood, so we often find him testing us and seeing what he can get away with (and not to mention the energy level of a 4-year-old boy can be exhausting!!). And this brings me to mention my love for sticker charts! I used sticker charts all the time when I was teaching, and they essentially allow you to give kids small goals to work towards and  incentives (stickers) for reaching those goals several times throughout the day. Sticker charts have always worked really well for Grady, and we find that we don't even need it anymore after a few days. It just makes him really stop and think about what he's doing (which is something I think most little boys probably struggle with here and there)! :)  Grady and I also made a set of house rules together, which was a lot of fun.

In other news, Landon tells us periodically that he wants to go to use the potty, which is pretty exciting. We haven't started potty training officially yet (mostly because we don't feel ready!!), but hopefully it will be a quick process once we start. (We are trying to avoid the mistake we made with Grady in starting way too early and dragging potty training out over 6+ months!) He is awfully cute on the potty though, and here you see that he enjoys doing all sorts of things while he's going. :)  You will notice there is no toilet paper next to him....that's because one of his favorite hobbies is to pull all the toilet paper off and drag it down the hall. :)

And here are the boys sharing some brotherly love!

And this is what happens when you have an older brother....

Here Grady is playing "church," which I thought was pretty cute. As the priest, he was not too happy that Landon would not stay in his seat and listen to the prayers. :)

Finally, Grady started soccer a couple of weeks ago, which is always fun because he plays with two of his good friends, Gavin and Grant. 

A Weekend in the Mountains

We took a trip up to Boone to visit Granny and Gramps over Labor Day weekend and had a great time! It's always nice being in the NC mountains during the summer, and we decided to take the boys on a Blue Ridge Parkway trail to take advantage of the nice weather and beautiful scenery. This is something we'd love to do more of as they get older, so this was a good start. Landon spent most of the time in a hiking pack and seemed to really enjoy it.

This picture was taken right before Landon decided to plunge into the water...luckily his head didn't go under, but he was pretty soaked and covered in mud. He was fine with it though, so we just stripped him down once we got back to the car. :) 

At the last minute (the following day) we decided to go to Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock. We have been several times before, but the boys were still a little young for it and didn't really appreciate it, so we were not going to go this year. Grady all of a sudden seemed interested in going, so we figured we'd try it again. (Plus, Gramps has free passes every year, so that was a definite incentive to try it again (considering it's around $20 for a child to get in and $30 for an adult! Thanks Gramps!) We're glad we did because the boys had a great time!

We did not end up riding the big train, but rode a lot of other rides, which the boys loved. (Grady hates the whistle on the big train because he thinks it's too loud..he has very sensitive ears!)

They also have a pretty large petting zoo there This baby goat escaped out of the fence! :)

As always, we had a great time visiting Granny an Gramps! This is a picture of Gramps reading Polar Express to the boys...it is one of their favorite things to do with him!