Tommy Graduates Kindergarten

Today Tommy completed his very first year at ALA. He loved Kindergarten and did so well. We are so proud him. After the graduation I sat with him and told him that he was a smart boy and has a bright future ahead of him. I told him that he can accomplish anything he wants. Mom and Dad will hold his little hand and guide him along the way.

Welcome Home Baby James- MyLil' Buckaroo

James Isaiah McEntire was born on November 26th, 2011. He weighed 6lbs and 4 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long. All was a wonderful experience. My due date was December 8th, then I convinced doctors that this was not possible and they compromised with December 2nd. Mark and I both knew he was not going to be a December baby. We were right. And I was glad. People with December birthdays are often times odd. No offense to anyone with a December birthday reading this, its just mine and Mark's experience that these "December People" have issues. Maybe something to do with astrology? Anyway I just went off on a tangent. So the week of Jame's birth was pretty busy. Before he was born I was hoping to accomplish four things: watch the new Twilight movie with my sister, attend cousin Reed's wedding, enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner, and of course black friday shopping. I should have known baby James would be such a good boy. He patiently waited to come and fulfilled my request. I did all of these things:) I went into labor Friday night at 1 am. Contractions went from nine minutes apart to seven minutes apart to two minutes apart! We checked in at about 2ish and he was born at 1pm Saturday. I had considered going "natraul" and opted out of the epidural but I was so exhaused and had not slept all night so I changed my mind. The pain didnt tickle either, so this "being tired" reason was just an excuse I think. We had not settled on a name beforehand but when he was born and we took one look at him Mark and I both knew he was a James. He is healthy and beautiful. He is a good sleeper too (for my record-by 3 weeks he did 3 hour stretches and by six he did 4-4 1/2 hour stretches and now at eight weeks he does up to six hours! Despite me having some post partum depression and anxiety all is well in the McEntire house. I have an amazing husband and wonderful mother in law who have helped me tremendously.

Boys will be Boys

I am a mother of two boys and expecting a third. Sometimes I feel shocked at the things my boys do. My husband tells me stories of things he did as a young (and old) boy and I have come to the realization that boys do DUMB things! They collect bugs, play in the mud, make forts, break things, put random things in holes, start fires in their back yards, try scary stunts, poke at things just to see what happens, age drinks/food to see what it will turn in to, show off their battle wounds and the list goes on. I will say though that despite the crazy things boys do, they are awesome! There are lots of advantages to having boys. Their hair is easy to style, they arent finicky about what they wear, they are usually less drama (or so I hear) and the coolest thing in my opinion is that they can pee anywhere!!! Just yesterday I was at Fry's grocery shopping and my boys were driving me nuts. I contained them in the grocery cart with a 32 oz root beer and convinced them to stay in the cart. This worked out pretty well-especially because I was a freaking genious and got two straws so they wouldnt have to take turns holding it. The shopping was much more peaceful after this amazing idea. I got my groceries, started the car to get it to cool down, unloaded the groceries and strapped the kids in. After all of this Tommy decided to tell me that he had to pee really bad! He was doing the pee-pee dance and I knew he was about to go. I realized that the bathroom located all the way in the back of the store was way too far and this teeny bladder was not going to hold...I grabbed an empty water bottle pulled his pants down and took care of business. At this point I didnt care what people thought. I was courteous and put the lid back on and disposed of the bottle at home. It was great!!! I love having boys!!!

Sam's starts Kindergarten

I never really understood why mothers cried when their child started school. I figured it was a reason to rejoice and relax...until today. Today was crazy trying to get Sam ready for school. I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect! I woke him up got him fed, had him do his homework (yes there was homework assigned even before school started) and when the time came to get dressed I could not for the life of me find where I'd placed his uniform shirt. I looked everywhere and after about an hour and a half of looking, I found it! Oh and I almost forgot, I had to hem his pants in the middle of all that craziness. Daddy had him try them on at the store and told me they fit perfect! I didnt worry about it until this morning and only to find that they were 4 inches too long! Anyway, the boy was eventually dressed-polo shirt, khakis, brown belt and brown shoes. I almost walked out the door before I realized that I would be a horrible mother if I didnt take a picture. I made him stand and pose... and this is when I started to cry. I saw through my camera lens that my little baby boy was now big. He looked so grown up. He seemed to do great at school and likes his teacher. So it kind of is I guess a reason to rejoice. The relax part is not true though. Its still a lot of work sending a child to school, its just different kind of work. I know that this is the begining of a new journey for him and I am proud to be his mama.

Summer

This summer came and left so quickly. Hard to believe that Samuel will start school in one week. I really enjoyed our summer though. We got to travel quite a bit. In May my sister married in Las Vegas. We packed up our kids and had a great time. Even though we had a good time and it was nice to see my sister get married, I was reminded of the many reasons why I dislike Vegas. There are crazy people there-Mark had to call the police on this guy that wouldnt leave when he was trying to dress our children (granted it was in a parking garage) but still! Crazy people I tell you. Then in June we finally got to take our babies to the happiest place on earth! Disneyland was so much fun. We bought 2 day passes so that we could go to Disneyland one day and California Adventures the next. New memories were made and I really think our kids will be able to remember that adventure. They still talk about it all the time, Samuel even prays that he will dream about "Space Mountain." On that California trip we also had the chance to visit the Beach. We went on a Wednsday and there were hardly any people there. We made sand castles and collected pretty sea shells. Mark and Samuel were the only ones that enjoyed actually getting in the water. It was way too cold for me and Tommy! Tommy spend a majority of the time buried in the sand, it was way too cute! He was the only one that did not get sun burned though! I was really surprised at how well the kids did on the road. I dont know if I could have said this if it wasnt for that precious, precious portable dvd player.

Good Times In March

The month of March just flew by. Our family had so many things going on this month. My favorite from this month was our camping trip. Mark took us to Beaver Creek. We got there pretty late at night but were able to set up camp and cuddle together in the tent. The boys did awesome! They were so excited to be sleeping under the stars and in a camping house. We woke up the next morning to daddy making breakfast-I can tell the hippies camping next to us were jealous of our breakfast:) Later in the day we went to Montezuma Well and it was amazing. We hiked to the bottom of the well and were able to see the old dwellings the Indians use to live in. It was a great learning experience for the kids. Sam asked lots of questions like "where are the Indians now?" "why did they die?" "Where are they buried?" He was so concerned for people that died hundreds of years ago. We had a really good talk about death and the life after. Not sure how much he understood but he seemed content with the answers I gave him. This month we also got to attend Brandon's baptism. We drove up to Payson and spent the day with the fam. I love baptim's because it is impossible to not feel the holy spirit's presence. This month was also my birthday (and Ms. Mokey's too:). I turned 27 this year-now feeling old. 27 sounds old, I know its not but it just sounds it. My final happy surprise this month was finding out we are having another baby! We look forward to welcoming baby McEntire #3.

Samuel is a Composer

Samuel Came to Mark and I and gave us each a "music." He explained that if I read the notes they would let me sing Jingle Bells. How cute is that? We plan to teach him to read and write music soon since he is showing such great interest.