FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

Today is the BIG day!!! JJ’s first day of school ever! We didn’t send JJ to preschool, so this truly is the first big step into school for him. I am so thankful that for the past 6 years I have been able to stay at home with him and be there with him for every single moment. What a blessing it has been to never miss a single thing in his life (and here come the tears).

Justice gets up with the alarm at 6:30am for school and hops in the shower. I told JJ that I would wake him at 6:50am because he is pretty used to sleeping through the sound of the alarm. In my excitement I had a pretty light sleep all night – one of those nights where you feel like you were probably awake the entire night! So by about 6:30 I heard Justice get into the shower. I got up and got dressed and went out into the living room to pick up until I needed to wake JJ – but I found this:

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Little man had already gotten up, gotten dressed by himself (shoes on and everything), and was snugglin’ on the couch!!!! Seeing him all wrapped up in his blankey reminded my heart that he is still my little boy. :) You know how your mind can flashback to memories in an instant? Well, as I looked at him in his long, lankiness snuggled there on the couch I thought back to our first days home from the hospital. JJ used to love to lay on our chests, all sprawled out and snuggly with his long legs a-dangling!

As they always say, where has the time gone? Jake and I have been talking about that the past couple of days! We still remember JJ’s newborn days so clearly! It is such a weird feeling once your first born is off to school! And off to school they were! We grabbed some breakfast (this was to be the hardest challenge as our kids take after Jake and aren’t hungry until later in the morning). JJ took down some microwave bacon and orange juice and then we went outside to wait for the bus!

Kindergartner and a 4th grader!

We had quite the tailgate going on in the driveway as we waited the arrival of the bus! Lil sister doesn’t want to miss a thing so she rolled straight out of bed and out the front door once she heard the hustle and bustle.

And even mean ‘ol Mr. Mernes showed a soft heart (for a few seconds) and decided to come see the boys off.

Waiting...

The bus is in sight! And the anticipation grows as Justice explains the bus route. :)

And then, finally, it arrives!

This momma held it together until right about this point…

When I caught this ‘Don’t-worry-mom, I’m-a-big-boy-now’ glance. :)

But he still looked so little to me on that big ‘ol bus! I know there will be many more ‘letting-go’s’ but I bet this first one is the hardest! ♥

The great thing about living in a small town is that you get plenty of updates on your kids on a big day like this!  At 7:33am a text from my friend Jenna down the road: 'A' got on the bus with JJ and Justice!  She was a little nervous :)

'A' is one of JJ's familiar friends so I was so happy that he would know someone his size on the bus!

And then at 8:30am a text from our friend Chris who drove his daughter to school today and happened to be there when JJ got off the bus (which made me feel better since JJ has to switch buses halfway in between - I had confirmation that he made it to the right bus that takes him to his elementary!): JJ did well!  I helped out a little bit in the class and he was good to go!

So, the day is off to a good start!  I guess I can put the kleenex box away and come out of my bedroom now. :)