First Day of School EVER.....

Cameron had his first day of school EVER in September. He is going to a little preschool in Riverside. Kylie and Chad both went there too and it is so good to be back. I love it there. It is truly just a preschool.....not a daycare like a lot of places around here. He goes two days a week for three hours. HE LOVES IT! His teachers are Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Jack and he has lots of fun friends there too. He asks me almost every morning if it is a school day and is very disappointed when it is not. I know he just really wants to be big like his older brother and sister.....but he is growing up way too fast. I love it when I go to pick him up and he lights up when he sees me and runs over and says, "I missed you mom!" It is so sweet. If he is my last, I know I need to enjoy every moment. Here are some moments from his first days of school!

In the summer Cameron received a letter
in the mail from his teachers

First day of school is finally here!

Cameron and his friend Kevin

Mrs. Wilson

Mrs. Jack

First Day of School - Kylie and Chad

Another school year has begun and now I have a first grader and a third grader. This is especially cool for me because these are the two grades that I taught way back when, when I used to be a teacher! It has been fun to be in both of their classrooms this year. Our kids love school, and we are really thankful for that. They couldn't wait for the day to get here and enjoyed every minute of it. Looking forward to a busy year.....

Kylie - 3rd Grade - Mrs. Weaver's Class

Chad - 1st Grade - Mr. Dalilis' Class

Chad, Delaney (our favorite neighbors), Kylie, and Cameron

Soccer Begins

Chad has started up soccer again and is doing a great job. He is working on being a little bit more aggressive in getting the ball this year. He scored two goals at his last game! He is good at being a defender and loves to block the ball the most. He loves that his Dad is the team coach, and we have some friends on our team that have played with us before. We are looking forward to a great season. Here are some pictures from the first couple of weeks!

CHECK OUT #5......

My Biggest Accomplishment!!!!

Okay...seriously.....this is not really my biggest accomplishment.....but it felt like it!

(Sorry for the long post.....I just wanted to have this documented

since I use this blog like my journal/scrapbook).

Our neighborhood community park BEFORE.....

Our neighborhood community park AFTER!!!!!

So exciting!!!! We loved our neighborhood the second we found our house nine years ago. We loved that there was a park built just for the seventy houses that live in our association. But, I knew that some day we would need a new playground. I knew that my kids would outgrow the playground we did have, the moment they turned two. AND THEY DID! What a waste of park space.

I started attending the community association board meetings about seven years ago to see what I could do. Back then, everyone fought me down and told me there was no way it would happen. I continued to mention it off and on, but no one changed their mind about it.

Fast forward to three years ago when I became a board member. I started to mention it again to the new board members, three of which were what I call grumpy old men, and they pretty much told me to take a hike. We had no money for something like that.

I didn't care....I was going to find a way to make it happen. Maybe we could fundraise? Car wash? Who knew - I just knew that my kids needed a new place to play.

Just this year I brought it up AGAIN in a board meeting, and the right people were there at the right time. In fact, it was the secretary of our management company who was taking minutes at our meeting. She secretly told me in my ear after the meeting that we had an equipment fund of reserve money, set aside for the exact purpose of replacing old playground equipment. Apparently, since the community was buiilt in 1997, money from home owners' dues was set aside in this account, knowing that we would have to replace the old playground at some point in the future.

SERIOUSLY??? Why didn't anyone mention this any sooner? (I know why.....grumpy old men!) So....to make a very long story short....it took six more months of convincing the rest of the board, researching playground equipment and finding the right company with the right price to build it, designing what we wanted it to look like, rallying about 20 other moms from the community to come and fight with me at our open forum regarding the playground, and lots of old people upset with me in the community. Really....even though the money was there. It was amazing the day they showed up to take the old equipment out! We had our own little party at the Ferguson house. Three days later, our new playground was done and the kids wasted no time in going out to enjoy it! We are loving our new park!


All of the neighbors kids on our street rushed out to play the day it was finished!

And this is why I worked so hard....happy kids!

Let's Build a Fort

The kids had been BEGGING me to build a fort for a long time. The problem is....we never have enough free time to enjoy it. We do a lot together, but are always busy on the weekends and I didn't want to build it unless we had at least an entire day to enjoy it. To our luck, and entire Saturday opened up, and I knew that that would be the day we would build a fort. It stayed up for two nights and three days and they had SO MUCH FUN! They kept themselves busy for two days straight, and then we spent about an hour cleaning it up for Family Night on Monday night. We had lots of fun. I know we will build another one some time.....just don't know when. Life never seems to slow down!

They were so excited about all of the HEAVY stuff they found to hold the fort down......syrup and everything!

Just Hanging Out!

Playing Games

I know you can't see through the sheet, but this was so cute.

They hid together behind it and Kylie was reading a book to the boys.

They were leaning their heads together on her.....I wish you could see it!

Snack Time!

Night Night!

All Ready for Church

Nothing special about this post. Just some cute pictures of the kids all ready for church. This happened to be Cameron's first week wearing a tie. He felt so cool next to his Daddy and Chad and was so cute walking into church with them. Love my boys (and girl)!

Happy Birthday Oma!

My mom turned 60 this year and decided to do something crazy......like go skydiving!!! Now this may not be crazy to some people, but if you know me, then you know that I think she is crazy. Unfortunately now she has lit a spark for skydiving in some other people in our family, one of which I am married to, and I am not very happy about it! Anyway....it was a great day celebrating with her. All of our family was there, as well as her best friend Theresa. Here are some pictures documenting her trip. She LOVED every minute of it and can't wait to save up enough money to do it again. We were very proud! The kids loved to watch their Oma come down out of the sky in a parachute!

Cameron and the Dentist

This summer was Cameron's first official trip to the dentist. He has come with me since he was tiny, and watched Kylie and Chad too. He even sat on my lap while they kind of cleaned his teeth one other time - but this time was for real! He was all happy sitting in the waiting room and watching his big brother and sister. But when it was time for his turn, he freaked out. Check out the picture above....too funny (man I look tired!) He cried for about 5 minutes while we tried to talk him into it, and bribed him with the treasure chest. Eventually he calmed down on my lap.....and then it was smooth sailing from there. He felt like such a big boy and now says he can't wait to go again! He is such a fun boy to have around. I love his little personality and he makes everyone smile!

KDA Scholarship Auditions

At the end of every summer, Kylie has to "audition" at her dance studio. I have probably posted about this in year's past. In order to be involved in Kane Dance Academy's Scholarship program you have to try out every year. They really want to create good life experiences for the girls, and get them ready for real life "auditions." She has to put together a resume, with parental help of course, and get her dance bag ready, and learn all kinds of dance terminology. If she is successful (and usually everyone is), she can participate in the scholarship program and take as many classes that she would like throughout the year, and we pay only one fee. Saves us lots of money, and she becomes a very well-rounded dancer. She did a great job and earned the Gumby Flexible award. She was very proud!

All set and ready to go.....

At the Scholarship "you made it" party.....

Kylie and Miss Kristy, the studio owner

Puzzle Museum

David and I were out together somewhere and the kids stayed at our house with Grandma. This is what we found when we came home:

A puzzle museum.....at least that's what they called it. I love it when my

kids work together and are creative! Too cute!

Potty Training Time

About a week after we got home from our trip, it was time to begin potty training with Cameron. He was almost exactly 2 1/2 and was going to start preschool in the fall a couple of days a week. I knew he was ready and the thought of having NO kids in diapers was very exciting. Chad was so easy to potty train, and so I just hoped that Cameron would be too. Here's what we did on day one:

Watched the Potty Time video with Elmo
(you can see in his face that he was thinking "yeah, right!")

Bought new Thomas the Train underwear......very exciting!

Read LOTS of stories about big boys going on the potty.

Started a sticker chart with, you guessed it, Thomas the train stickers.

He started to get excited about half-way through the day. Kylie and Chad were a HUGE help. We all screamed and did the potty dance whenever he went in the potty.

Overall, the day was very tiring. We had two accidents all together on day one. Day two, he woke up and was a new boy. We are so lucky to have had two little boys that were EASY to potty train. No more accidents after day three, wearing underwear out and about. After a week of being dry overnight, we decided to take the pull-ups off and wear underwear when sleeping too. Since then we have never had an accident. Potty training IS the worst part of parenting, even when it is easy. So glad it is over.....no more buying diapers!!! Woo-hoo!