Where Has The Time Gone?

As most of you have experienced in some capacity: School is back in session! And we have a Kindergartner on our hands and are learning so much about adapting to a busy school schedule. We started this school year with "Meet the Teacher" Night... Morgan was so excited to meet her teacher and one of the first things she told her teacher was "I know all of my letters and if any kids in my class don't know their letters, I can help them!" Yes! She is already planning to serve as the Teacher's Assistant! 

Micah loved exploring the school with Morgan. He especially loved the school library! 

Luckily we had a weekend in between Meet the Teacher Night and the 1st day of school... So we enjoyed time with Randall's parents... 

I guess since Morgan was getting a lot of attention with preparing for school, Micah definitely deserved a trip to the zoo to ride a real Train!!! He was so excited!!!

I think the Train Conductor really liked Micah's hat!!! :)

I think our little boy had a smile on his face all morning!! He was sad when the train ride ended but he made it known to everyone that he wanted to ride it again...and Soon!!!

Monday August 27, 2012 was the beginning of our new schedule for the next 18-20 years... School Started!!! :) And Morgan was so excited to meet her new friends and learn so many new things. The school she attends just changed their school hours from 7:45am-2:45pm... which means Morgan has to be up, out of bed by 7am, dressed and downstairs to eat breakfast, and out the door by 7:30am... Days of sleeping past 7am are over as we know it!!!!

Proud Momma!

Proud Daddy!

Here's our Big Girl Kindergartner now... on her way to her class!

This is the bulletin board outside of her classroom... 

And Morgan was so excited that her backpack hook was a butterfly with her name on it!!!

There is so much more to post... Please continue checking our blog as we plan to keep you updated with lots of pictures!!!! 

On the Go and Loving It!!!

Like I mentioned in our last post, we are in the States now and will be here for the next 5 months. So far, in our first 3.5 weeks of being here, we have been traveling, living out of suitcases, doing and seeing as much as we can until Morgan starts kindergarten in 1.5 weeks. 

About 2 weeks ago, we had the privilege of witnessing Randall's 89 year old Grandfather throw out the 1st pitch at the Texas Ranger's Baseball Game as he was granted this through the foundation Wish of a Lifetime (for Senior Adults). If I do say so myself, I think my boys are pretty cute in their Ranger's attire!!!

We were so excited to have my sister Meghan join us!!!

And my Dad too!!! Micah especially loved learning to do "the wave" with Pa Pa. I think he was more amused or entertained by all of the fans doing "the wave" and the dot race more then he was by the actual baseball game. By the way, if anyone was wondering, the Green Dot won the dot race, so Micah was overjoyed!!!!

Here's the Man of the Hour... We are all so proud of Great Grandpa Hoffman!!!!

Family Photo!!! 

And this was a "first" for Micah but not for Morgan as she fed the ducks when she was little before we left The States 3 yrs ago...

The kids sure love their Aunt Natalie!!! And I'm pretty sure she loves spoiling her niece and nephew!!!

This is a "norm" for the kids... playing at the park!!!

We then traveled to Illinois to visit dear friends.... We are thankful for our time in IL and especially thankful to reunite with our sweet friends Megan and James!!!

Happy 8th Anniversary!!! We'll eventually "officially celebrate" our Anniversary on a date..soon!!!

Thanks to Great Paw Paw, we got to visit one of the largest model train collections in Illinois... For those of you who know Micah's 1st love... TRAINS... He was so excited and so overwhelmed!!! There were over 1,000 model trains lined on shelves, tables and even trains that were run by electricity, puffing smoke, etc... This picture does not do justice to the amazing collection!!!

And of course Great Paw Paw had to buy "The World's Greatest Great Grandson" a little model, green boxcar of his own!!! 

And Morgan loved hiding in the corn crops... despite the drought in Illinois, there are still some crops that are growing!!!

And towards the end of our trip, the kids were entertained by riding on the trailer of the lawn mower... they thought it was the coolest thing ever!!! They sure love their Great Paw Paw!!! 

Keep checking back as we hope to post new updates as often as possible with pics and stories of our time with loved ones!!!

We Made It!!!

Well...we made it!!! After a long 23 hrs of traveling consisting of 2 airplanes (1 which was 16 hrs long), we made it to the States!!! I guess it was our turn to be greeted by signs with our names on them.. and it was the sweetest greeting ever as Randall's parents, sister and PawPaw were waiting for us at the airport (and the bonus was a brand new box of Cheez-Its waiting in the car!)

Such a sweet reunion as this picture consists of 4 Generations of McQueen Boys!!!

These 2 already enjoying Grammy's flowers, especially Morgan!

We then went on a beach vacation to Port Aransas, TX with both sides of the family. It was wonderful enjoying time with loved ones and getting to be "normal" at the beach on this side of the world (some of you understand what we mean by "normal") :)

Both Morgan and Micah rode on the surf board.. influenced by their Daddy who has a love for surfing!

Fun times in the Pool! Morgan is like a fish.. swimming under the water now. We are so proud of her!

The kids were so proud of Uncle Brandon as he arrived back from a whole day of fishing with lots of fish!!!

Family picture with Liz's family

Morgan being spoiled by her Aunt Meghan and MiMi

Brother and Sister back together again...

Family picture with Randall's family

Please check again as we will be posting many more pictures of our time in the States! :)