First Day of School

Well, this is it...the first day of school...the first day of kindergarten for Lauren, and the first day of second grade for Katie.  In many ways, they have been looking forward to school starting.  Lauren is excited that she gets to go to school everyday, and Katie is excited that she gets to learn cursive writing this year.  Because our school district went through a re-districting process this year, the girls are now attending a different elementary school than the one Katie has attended for two years.  Instead of "Ranch Heights Wranglers," we are now "Wayside Warriors."  Poor Katie was so nervous last night that she could not go to sleep.  Finally, at 11:00pm, she got into bed with David and I slept with Lauren.  This morning, however, they were both ready to go!  Here's hoping it's a great school year!! 

Katie requested sausage and egg casserole for breakfast!

~The Shoesmith girls~

Katie on the first day of 2nd grade

Lauren on the first day of Kindergarten

Excited girls, ready to go!!

Lauren and Mrs. Boyle

Already busy at her table...she was too busy to say "Good-bye"  :)

Katie and Mrs. Tucker

Spring Break Fun

This year we actually took a trip over Spring Break to--where else??--Big Cedar Lodge! We had a great week, including a birthday party for the boys (I'll do a separate post about that), fishing, swimming, shopping (by myself--yea!!), nature walks, and the list goes on. The week got off to an exciting start...Katie won a trophy at the kids' fishing contest for catching the longest fish!! She caught a huge, 5-lb. catfish that was 24 inches long! (She missed out on the trophy for the fish weighing the most by 2 or 3 ounces.) She was SOOOO excited and David was SOOOO proud of her! :)

A trophy-winning catch!!

Proud Daddy with his two fishing buddies!

Lauren is a bit of a wild sleeper...

I knew it was too quiet in our room...when I found the boys, they had opened the refigerator and started eating the grapes--stems and all!!

Tried to get a cute shot of all four kids...but the boys weren't interested and the girls got tired of me saying "Just one more picture...let's try one more time..."

Preston had fun climbing on anything and everything!!

Playing/hiding/rough-housing/getting wild with Daddy!

Hide and Seek

Preston and Parker just love to be ornery!! Their new trick is hiding under the crib sheet...yes, UNDER it! Several weeks ago, this is what I saw when I went into their bedroom:

They thought they were really funny hiding from Mommy!  A few days later, this is what I found:

My first thought was "Oh, my gosh!  They have gotten out of bed...where are they??"  Then I realized that they were still in bed...under the sheet!  Apparently they had woken up earlier, played around and decided to get under sheet, and then they had fallen asleep!  Look carefully in the bottom picture; you can see two little bodies snuggled up together.  :)  No, never a dull moment around our house....

Happy 5th Birthday, Lauren!!

Lauren turned 5 on February 12th, and we had planned to have a big party with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  But...Mother Nature had a different plan! Because we had just received another 17 or so inches of snow, we had a small party with the 6 of us on her actual birthday. We had her bigger family party the next week. Here are a few shots of her special day:

She chose to eat dinner at Hunan, a local Chinese restaurant.

A pretty girl with her handsome daddy.

Lauren wanted a "cookie cake" on her birthday; she had a Tinkerbell cake at her family party the following week.

This birthday was all about Tinkerbell!!

Best Friends

Preston LOVES to take off his clothes.  This is typically how I find him before I go to bed at night!

Mommy's little "helpers"...

All snuggled up!

"Let me give you a great big hug!!"

I just had to post a few more pictures of Preston and Parker.  They make us smile every day!  :)

The Great Blizzard of 2011

Lauren had fun on the snow Daddy shoveled from the driveway.

This was our back patio; the snow was as deep as the cushion on our chairs and drifted up to the grill.

The girls playing!

Katie lost her snow boot in a huge drift; she tried to step out of it and her foot came out of her boot!  "Handy Daddy," as Lauren likes to call him, came to the rescue and poked around in the snow until he found it!

A blizzard in Oklahoma--definitely one for the record books!!

The boys played in the snow for a little while...and then they decided that was enough!!

Well, now that we are safely into April, I thought I would post some pictures of the blizzard that we had on February 1st.  Wow...what a couple of weeks we had during the first half of February!!  Record snowfall (15 inches when the blizzard hit, then another 17 inches or so the next week), record cold temperatures (-27 degrees in Bartlesville), and school was cancelled for 7 days (they had already missed two days for snow/ice previously).  I must say that, although the snow made getting around town a real hassle for quite a while, it was beautiful and the kids had a lot of fun playing in it!

Silly Sleepers

The boys have slept in the same crib since birth (excluding the 27 days they spent in the NICU). We never planned to keep them in the same crib this entire time, but they love being together. From the time they were just a few weeks old, they have slept with some parts of their bodies touching (arms, legs, etc.). Of course, now that they are bigger they don't have as much room in the crib and they are bound to touch, but they don't really even try to stay separated. I just love walking into their room and finding them like this:



"I love you, bro!!"



Still snuggling...



I guess they wanted to stretch...




And yes, Preston is really asleep on Parker's bottom!

Have I mentioned just how much joy these boys bring into our lives??  They are always making us smile!!!

First Snow of the Winter!

The girls were so excited!

The boys liked the snow for awhile...

Big sisters are great helpers!

Parker had fun swinging...

But Preston wasn't so sure about the glider!

Lauren, our beautiful snow angel

The boys are saying, "Okay, Mom, we're done with this snow and stop trying to take our picture!!"

A few days ago we had the first snowfall of the season.  We only received about 2 inches, but the girls were so excited and couldn't wait to play outside.  I bundled up the boys and took them out also.  They were happy to walk around in the snow to begin with, but it didn't take long for them to decide they weren't very impressed!

Sooner or Later...

Sooner or later, I'm sure we're going to end up in the emergency room because these boys have put things in places they aren't supposed to be.  Case in point...Preston recently put green beans up his nose, and then several days later he decided to put macaroni and cheese up there (FYI...this picture was taken AFTER we discovered what he had done; it was actually up inside his nose to begin with).  This morning, Parker had a Cheerio in his left ear...oh my!!  Have I mentioned how tired I am by the time the kids go to bed??

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day was a busy, fun, tiring day!  We started by opening presents at our house, and the kids loved their new toys, clothes, etc.  (The note Katie left for Santa read:  "Dear Santa, Hope you like the cookies.  Love, David, Heather, Katie, Lauren, Preston and Parker.  That is a family of six.  Yes we survived with six."  --  I guess I wasn't the only one surprised that we have survived with 6!!  HA HA!!)  We then left for my cousin's house in Carthage, MO, where we had the huge Christmas meal with the extended family.  We always look forward to this time because the food is FABULOUS and the people are a lot of fun, too!  :)  It is bittersweet because we have lost two of my cousins and my uncle within the past two years, so the time together is very special now and makes me appreciate my family even more.  On Christmas evening, we went to my dad's side of the family and had dinner with them.  Wow!  We were stuffed and tired by the time we got to bed...  :)  On the morning of the 26th, we opened presents with Mom, Dad, and Brian's family.  Three days later, on the 29th, we had Christmas with David's parents and his sister and her family.  We had a great Christmas "week" and are truly thankful for our many blessings.