Daily Chores

So I've got Layla starting early on the housework!! She preferred chewing on the clean clothes rather than folding them, but that's okay! Can I just tell you that all the expensive toys in the world never measure up to the good ole laundry basket. That is by far the most used toy in the house. Brodie plays zoo and is the tiger in the cage. Or it can be a bed for a baby monkey and I bring him bananas to eat. Or a train choo-chooing around the house. Layla prefers this and laughs out loud driving all around. Okay, so we have a big imagination...that's good, right?

I have been a little slow getting pics out this week. All of our fall activities are starting to rev up so we have had a pretty busy week. Ladies bible study started this Tuesday morning. I am in charge of the opening times each week, very excited to see what God has in store this semester. Children's choir also starts next week at FBC Moore (the church we go to). I was co-directing the first grade but was asked to do the kindergarten on my own this year. Oh, boy. I don't know if I'm ready. Now, when I say on my own, I don't mean that I'm by myself. I have some great girls helping me, but I am in charge. Gracious what are they thinking. Brodie is especially excited that I will be his choir teacher. I hope he doesn't get bored with me! I am also President of the MOMS Club here in Norman for this year. I have been involved in MOMS Club for about three years and love it. Have developed some awesome friendships and been able to do some great stuff. Anyway, in the past six weeks we have had ten new members join and more on the way, so that has been a little time consuming, but great. Gracious, I didn't mean to give my personal bio to ya, but I guess that's what blogging is for, huh?

The big thing on our agenda is Brodie starting school on Tuesday. We practiced going up to school and walking in with his backpack and hanging it up and going in class. He was very excited to see his name on his hook and his place at the table. He is actually finally saying he's excited about school which gives me a sigh of relief. Previously he had been kinda noncommital about it. He also informed me on the drive over there (which is just about 10 minutes from the house) that he did not want carrots in his lunch bag. Poor thing has been eating them when I pack him a lunch or something for a church outing and evidentally did NOT want them! Anyway, I asked him what he did want so he decided all by himself on broccoli, pb&j, grapes and string cheese. I think I can manage that. We had parent/teacher orientation last night which went great. Damon and I really like his teacher and think Brodie is going to have a blast. Now if we can just get through the first day without crying....me that is not Brodie!! I can't believe my little miracle baby, 2lbs, 6ozs is going to school! I'm sure that we will take tons of pics so you will get to see the big day.

BFF

Okay so just in case you are not in Junior High that means Best Friends Forever! This is Sophie Lynn and Layla Jane who are BFF. Sophie is just six weeks younger than Layla and she came over to play last Saturday. The girls clearly had fun, fun, fun and so did the parents! We had six adults and six kids for dinner. Lots of craziness but the more the merrier in my book! It is kind of like an arranged marriage because we keep telling Sophie and Layla that they are best friends. They didn't even get a choice in the matter!!! Hee hee.

Sitting up is so fun

Layla gets the biggest kick out of sitting up. She will just play and play now that she can sit up. Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday.

Big Girl

I like bananas, mangoes are sweet -- well, we don't know about mangoes, but bananas, pears, carrots and rice cereal are Layla's favorite. Damon kept the kids for me last night so I could go out with girlfriends. When I got home, he told me what she had eaten for dinner. like two helpings of everything. Oh my!!! She's a cute little piglet. This is her tonight after eating bananas. This is what the girls were doing while the boys were driving around scaring the neighbors with giant helmets (see earlier post). We did the dishes together, ate bananas and rice cereal (well, not me) and made a dinner date with some friends for tomorrow night. Yeah, total girl stuff!

Motorcycle Man

So Damon finally sold his motorcycle that he has been talking about selling for five years. He used it in college but never really rode it here in Norman. Boy did he love that bike. Well, it was hard enough for him to part with it that I guess he couldn't sell the helmet too!!! Just in case you're wondering: yes, this is a power wheel and not some gas powered thing like they want me to allow them to get!!! Brodie will have one very protected head while riding, huh?!

Fun after dinner activities at the Duck household. They rode down the street to check on a neighbor who is re doing a house that he bought to flip. Oh boy, I wonder what the neighbors thought of my big headed boy!!! I guess this fits well into his what I want to be when I grow up idea for today which was racecar driver. Yesterday was football player which I assured him he could do if he wanted. before you ask how my 30 pound five year old could ever play football let me assure you that I'm pushing for kicker. Don't you think that's the safest position as well?!!! I didn't take a picture but here's a fun story of our yesterday. Tuesday night at bedtime Brodie asked me what we were going to do tomorrow. I told him I didn't have any plans. What would you like to do? You can pick. He decided on playing all the games in his closet and eating popcorn. So yesterday was spent having Gamapalooza at my house!!! what a great idea he had. And for the record I should report that Brodie won a whole lot more than me...and no, I didn't let him win. He really won fair and square. I did manage to win Candyland however. He ate his whole bag of popcorn which I put in the biggest bowl we could find in the house and then proceeded to eat half of mine. He loves popcorn. Tonight after dinner he asked if he could have popcorn for dessert. I'm all about that!

Our little mariachi man

self explanatory!!!

oh boy that's funny stuff!

Fun in the sun

Here is a picture of me and the kids swimming. Mom took this while her and dad were here. Finally a picture of me!! It has been so super de duper hot in the past two weeks. Pretty much like a normal Oklahoma summer. We were spoiled with much cooler weather with all the rain at the beginning, but then we had to deal with flooding...I guess we're just pretty drastic around here! Anyway, the pools feel like big hot tubs at this point. Kind of fun but not as refreshing as I would like.

Father's Day 2007

I just had to put these pictures on here. I know it doesn't fit into the timeline or anything, but they are the sweetest pictures I've ever seen. Aren't they precious?

Frogs

Okay, so we went over to Will and Kathryn's house a week ago for dessert after dinner. The guys went outside while Baby James, Layla, Joanna and Kathryn stayed in to chat. Well, the guys stayed busy catching little frogs, 13 in all, in a baby pool. Brodie had such a blast. And, yes, those are ALL the frogs in his hands! So gross yet so much fun. Don't worry we washed and washed afterwards. I might add that he picked out the perfect shirt to wear. Thank you Meemaw.

CCS Registration

Here we are at Kindergarten registration on Tuesday. Brodie met his teacher, Mrs. Manning and got to explore his classroom. Lots of fun. Oh my goodness he's big!

Zoo Pics

Here are some pictures from Damon's phone from our trip to the zoo I told you about.

Entertaining

This is Layla's new way to play with the bouncy seat. Instead of sit in it she would like to be underneath it bouncing it up. Oh my, how silly. She thought it was something else and laughed out loud at herself. It's the small things that amuse us.

Ice dancing

So Layla and daddy are doing their best ice dancing poses. Brodie also wanted in on the fun. Evidently we should enroll her in lessons immediately. She's a natural. We are just a little silly around here in case you couldn't tell! I promise that I also do silly things with the kids but somehow no one is around to take my picture!!

We'll have to get Damon on that right away or else teach Brodie how to take great shots!

Layla models

Okay, so this dress from Meemaw is so super adorable. We were trying to get her to look over her shoulder so you could see the back.....uh six-month-olds don't really know how to do that trick too well!!

Sleepover

Brodie had his first sleepover Sunday night. Our friend Luke came over and played and played and watched movies and they got to sleep in the same bed. They giggled and talked till midnight and then were up at 6:45 AM asking me for chocolate milk!!! Oh my!! I don't really do 6:45 very well as you all know, but it was very fun to listen at the door last night while they were pretending to be going to sleep. Luke loves Layla as you can tell. He is going to be having a little brother or sister in February so this is good practice for him. Tons of fun was had by all...even me and Damon

Five-year-old Brodie

Brodie is super excited to start school at Community Christian School here in Norman. I am excited for him to start kindergarten and freaking out at the same time!! Can you believe he's old enough to go? We have his uniform clothes all ready and his backpack with name on it thanks to Meemaw and Grandpa so now we just have to wait till the day after Labor Day to begin!

In the meantime we are trying to squeeze in all the fun things of summer we can. Damon took us to the OKC Zoo and Chuck E Cheese all in one night on Tuesday evening. Wow! So much fun we could barely stand it. Next I think we will go to a baseball game in OKC and the dinosaur museum here in Norman. of course lots of pool time in between.

Layla's six-month update

Our sweet baby girl is 14 lbs 3 1/2 oz now!! What a cutie. She is beginning to sit up and laughs at absolutely anything her brother does. She sleeps through the night which is awesome for mom and dad. Daddy thinks she is the greatest and here is a picture of them playing his latest Playstation game, Guitar Hero together. She is such a happy baby and seriously hardly ever cries. Pretty much goes with the flow which is always good considering that we are going most of the time around here!

Welcome

I am trying to get into the digital age and be computer savvy. I also thought it would be easier to let everyone know what's going on with The Ducks and have updated pictures, etc. for you guys to look at this way. We'll see if I know what I'm doing over the next couple of days!!!
Joanna