Back to School!

 Well, we are back to school in the Martino household! The girls are back at their Montessori school and Levi has officially started first grade! The kids have also both started soccer practice. Things have been busy but surprisingly smooth so far apart from Isla coming down with a fever and rash the first week of school which was no fun for anyone. I have committed to getting up at 6 am to work out every day and I have stuck with it and not missed a day so far except for the morning after Isla was up for hours with a 104 degree fever in the night. It's not as hard as I thought to get up in the morning and it feels good to take that time for myself while the rest of the house is all still asleep. I don't work out for long, just 15-30 minutes before I head down and start helping with lunches and getting the kids and myself all ready to go, but it's still enough to make me sore and feel good that I'm doing it. I also feel like it has been giving me more energy. I have dreams of being in shape again and these past two weeks have made me think it may actually be possible. 

In other big news, our Isla Sage has started walking! I can't believe it. She took 7 steps yesterday without holding on and is ridiculously proud of herself. She's my earliest walker and I just wish time would slow down a little! She also has gotten more vocal about expressing her opinions. She now yells and waves her arms and even sometimes throws a whole-body fit if we take something away from her or don't let her have something she wants. She also has started trying to feed herself with a spoon. She's completely unsuccessful at it but she won't let us help her. And she has been talking more and now babbles with the "g" sound a lot. Pretty sure she has said "go" a couple times. Baby girl is just trying to grow up so fast! 

First day of first grade! Also featured- my poor plants killed by this darn TX heatwave and drought. Although to be fair, everything I have ever tried to grow in that spot by the door has always died! I do such a good job keeping my houseplants alive but for some reason I just can't seem to manage it with potted plants by the front door! 

Levi likes to show off his Lego creations and Emery just loves to have her picture taken haha. 

Isla loves the remote. She knows which one is the real one and she will look at the tv after she pushes its buttons to see what she made it do. 

And this is the face she makes when I take it away. SOOOO much expression and passion in such a little person! 

I made key lime pie for the first time for family dinner last week at Erin's request. I had to go to two different stores after 9pm at night on Saturday to get the lime juice which was a pain but ended up being worth the effort because it actually turned out delicious and I got a lot of compliments! 

The kids both started soccer practice this past week. Poor Emery got the short end of the stick though because she ended up on a team that practices far from our house and practice is in the middle of rush hour. Traffic was so bad getting there on Tuesday that the normally 15 min drive took us 25 minutes and then her coach ended up calling practice early because it was soooo hot so she ended up with only 9 minutes of practice. So we essentially drove 45 min (when you count both ways) for 9 minutes of practice. Booo! Thankfully Levi's practice is much closer to our house. His coach seems awesome and Emery was definitely yearning to join his practice, I could tell! 

Levi and Isla duets are the best! Levi has been pretty good about doing his practicing this week! It's fun to hear our piano actually being used.

Life is full and crazy and hard and good. I'm proud of my kids and the people they are growing to be. We've got some fun fall plans coming up including Isla's first birthday (!!) and a camping trip to Arkansas with my Mom planned in October. I'm just hoping this little blog of mine helps me freeze time a little bit and remember these days that are flying by.