baby lily
My baby sister finally had her baby - Lily Claire. She was born on August 13, 2009 - 8 days overdue!! Their cute fam is living in Hawaii so I haven't even been able to hold the little cutie pie yet!! We (specifically me and Hannah) are just DYING to see her!! Hopefully soon... We just stare at her pictures every single day. These are a few of my favorites - especially the first family picture!! How priceless.

first day of first grade

The day finally arrived - the first day of school! About two weeks before school started, Chance became excited about school again, asking when it was going to start. Mostly, he was excited to wear his new school shoes. They are DC's. Yeah, I hadn't heard of them either, but I guess they are pretty dang sweet. We met his school teacher, Mrs. Pitcher, at back to school night. She approached Chance and said to him, "Chance, Mrs. Judkins (his kindergarten teacher) has told me all about you and what a good student you are!" Talk about making someone's day - he lit up like a lightbulb!

The night before school started, I asked Chance if he wanted me to walk him into his class on the first day of school. (They built a brand new elementary school, and this is the first year it was open. Noone really knows their way around.) So Chance said yes, he'd like me to walk in to school with him on the first day. Being the obsessive photo taker that I am, I took my trusty camera with me. Little did I know I was going to embarrass my first grader by not only taking his picture in front of the new school, but by also taking his picture in class!!! Check out that expression, if looks could kill...

teeth

Maybe I should put it this way, Chance has a "low pain tolerance". So does his mother. So when his top front tooth became loose, he wouldn't wiggle it, let alone allow someone to pull it out! It was cute at first, because he would tell me that he didn't want his teeth to fall out because he didn't want to grow up, and he wanted to live with me and Shawn forever. Awwwww. HOWEVER, when the tooth started turning GRAY (how gross!!!) I had to put my foot down. We had to get it out, especially before school starts! On Sunday (well, two Sundays ago), we had Papa Bryan pull out the trusty pliars. Shawn tried to to pull it out, but the thing wouldn't budge! After much kicking and screaming by Chance, we decided to have a professional do the job - Chance's hero Uncle Mark. During the operation, Mark discovered that not one, but two of Chance's front teeth were loose! I gave him the go ahead to yank both of them at once! I refuse to go through another gray tooth episode! Here are some before and after (and during!) pics of the ordeal.

I have to admit, I love that toothless grin!