And Preschool Begins

Ashlin's first day of school was on Wednesday. She was up bright and early at 6. Shawn needed to run up to UCA really quick and made the mistake of asking Ashlin if she would like to come with him. She let him know that she would Not like to go. She did Not want to be late for her first day of preschool. To say she was excited would be an understatement.   


These are flowers that Daddy had for Ashlin when she came home for the day.  She wasted no time in changing outfits.  

I know these are a bit out of order, but I am having trouble getting them in the correct sequence.  Blogger is being contrary.

She refused to let me take a picture of her going into school.  She let me take a picture of her with her name tag.  This was right before I left her with no tears from either of us.  I had to rush to class.  It's not to say there wasn't some teary moments later in the day.  Thankful to the missionary zone conference I stayed quite busy to keep my mind off missing my little grown up girl!

These are pictures from today.  She attends Monday, Wednesday, & Friday at UCA's Child Study Program.  Her building is right next to Daddy.  Could not ask for a better location!

This is Ashlin and her Little Mermaid impression just in case you were wondering what she was doing.
She is quite the show off.  She loves her backpack and lunchbox.  One of her favorite things is her cubby at school.  She was so excited to see it on her first day.  

More glamour.  Ashlin is all girl!

Just a little note from me to let her know I was thinking of her.  I miss her, but I am so glad she has the opportunity to attend preschool.  She is having so many new and fun experiences.  She enjoys playing with her friend Elizabeth from church.  She has also made a new friend Chloe.  If you didn't think she was all girl you will after this.  When she came home from school the first day.  She told me how cute her new friend was and described her outfit in detail.  I picked her up today and she was in a dress ups....So, even at school it is one of her favorite things to do.

Blessed or Betty Crocker???

I had been asked to be in charge of the missionary zone conference which is today. Yesterday, I thought after I had harassed many sisters in the ward to make cookies maybe I should make some as well. I wanted to make a double batch where the little trio could enjoy a few cookies as well. Everything is going along smoothly. I look down at the sugars and think to myself that looks like quite a bit of sugar. I look at the measuring cup....I had put it in 3 cups of both brown sugar and white sugar versus a couple and a half. After storming around a bit and trying to dig some sugar out, I just added a little extra of everything. I mixed my concoction together and looked back at the recipe and realized I had never doubled the butter. I was quite upset at this point almost ready to throw the all of it out. Patience shown through, I decided to make 1 sheet to see how they would turn out. So, after pounding my bag of melted chocolate chips and baking them. The cookies turned out quite well....yummy even. Shawn thought I had made a whole new batch a(of course, I complained to him) and the missionaries enjoyed them. They had dinner with us last night. So, am I Betty Crocker or am I blessed for providing service? Any of you that know me can answer that definitely blessed, because I am not a great cook!
By the way, why all this was going on. The kids decided to help me clean the floor all by themselves. They got the wash cloths very wet and scrubbed the floor and table. I wiped down the table after lunch and Ashlin said, "Hey, I ALREADY did that!" Kids you got got to love them! Never a dull moment!

This is how you get your floor clean

Latest Thundering Trio Pix

Back to School

Once again, another academic year has begun. Shawn started classes on Thursday. He has 3 classes (i.e., learning, cognitive, & intro) back to back on Tuesday and Thursday. He crams it all in to give himself a bit more flexibility. He attempted to lecture and the students eyes glazed over. No one wanted to listen on the first day of class. They just wanted their syllabus and out the door. He is really looking forward to this semester. He has great research assistants, a couple of them returning from last year. He will continue on as the Psi Chi advisor. He really enjoys working with the students. Of course, he uses this time to encourage as well as prepare them for graduate school.
Friday was my first day back to teaching. I have 2 intro psychology courses back to back starting at 8 in the morning. I was surprised when I walked 10 minutes till and the class was packed. I thought for sure everyone would be dragging themselves in with droopy eyes. I opened up asking them if any of them have been following the olympics and men's beach volleyball in particular. Then I mentioned one of the players is a professor, imagine how cool that would be to know your professor just one a gold medal at the olympics. I then said, "Sorry you're stuck with me but hopefully we will have a little fun along the way." One class I asked how many people were fans of Friends and ER and quite a few hands were raised. This was nice. I use examples from these shows and last semester the students would look at me with a blank look on their face. So, hopefully the class will have a little personality.
The kids had fun with their friends throughout the week. Jaxon speech resumed. He was very excited to see Ms. Sharon. She enjoyed listening how much Jaxon is talking as well as Jeron. It's been fun for her to watch Jeron because he is so atypical no words to phrases. Most of the phrases are demands of course. He is a little guy who knows what he wants. Jaxon & Ashlin also returned to Sonshine Academy this week. They were both very excited to resume classes. Jaxon came home and was finally able to complete his somersault. Ashlin came home with excitement for the the new friends she had met.
We have been watching every available minute we can of the olympics. I can not decide if it's disgusting or we are showing our American Pride!?! I will opt for American Pride and keep watching. My favorite moment this week was when Shawn Johnson won the gold on beam. I loved watching the volleyball as well. It brought back memories from high school days when I played, which seems like forever ago.
Well, wish us luck as life goes into full swing again. Once again, we are really looking forward to Christmas break when we can see our friends and family! We miss you!

Christmas in August for the Charlton's!

Shawn was watching the Today show about a month or so ago. They were showing this great website "www.yapta.com". You put the dates in when you want to fly and they email you when the prices drop. Friday night, Shawn got the email that the fares for our Christmas in Utah dream had dropped $900. We jumped on this chance and were able to get tickets for the whole family for under $700. We were also able to call his parents and let them know. They were able to get the same price for their visit in November. Out of curiosity Shawn checked the next day and they were back up, $900 more than we paid.
For all the people who were disappointed along along with us, we will be there to share the Christmas Holiday!

Fancy Date

Ashlin has been asking Shawn for a Daddy Daughter date. Wednesday, it finally worked out that he could take her. She had it all planned. She wanted to go to Ruby Tuesday’s for tall cake. For the life of us, we couldn’t remember when we had tall cake there, but she was determined. Ashlin later informed Shawn we got the cake the day we took her to the ballet. Once again, her memory is incredible.
I was getting the boys ready for a nap and told her to get ready for Shawn to pick her up. She went and put on her Easter Dress, her Cinderella slippers, & picked out her fanciest doll. She then came in and told me this was a Fancy Date. Shawn walked in the door and said, “Ashlin let’s go.” She calmly took his hand and said, “No you have to go get fancy first.” She went & picked out clothes for her Daddy. They left in their Sunday best and were quite a fancy couple.

I'm lovin' it...

Sorry McDonald's for stealing your slogan, but I'm lovin' it, the Olympics that is.

We are really enjoying the Olympics this year, a big thanks to tivo ( record, rewind, pause,etc)! Of course, who could not enjoy Phelps bringing in gold medal after gold medal with grace each time. The relay was incredible and hopefully the French were a little more humble afterwards. The men's gymnastics were showed their boyish excitement with their bronze medal. Instead of down faces with what could or should have been just enjoyed the moment. Ashlin loves to watch the girls "gymnastic dancing"! Once again, thanks tivo. I have to say my favorite is Shawn Johnson. She was so cute and bubbly and always had a smile on her face. I look forward to many more moments rooting our American team on! Go Team USA!!!

Jeron's First Day of Nursery

Sunday was Jeron's first day in nursery.  He went right in looked around and sat down at the table his teacher had ready.  He didn't look back once.  He stayed the whole 2 hours with no drama.  He only escaped once to get rid of his dirty diaper and still went right back in and didn't even care that he left his mother.  His teacher did say he seemed a bit tired toward the end.  So, I can at least pretend he missed me a little.  Jaxon seemed indifferent to having his little brother with him.  He just did his own thing when we peeked in through the window.  We asked him if he liked having Jeron with him in nursery and he didn't really say anything.  

Shawn and I both finished Breaking Dawn despite the fact our book was delayed.  I won't admit that we went and bought a copy at Target when ours did not arrive.  The book was a little different than we expected, but we both enjoyed it.  We will now have to wait for the movie in December.  

We finally got around to hanging curtains and hanging some of our wall decor.  We were feeling a bit too much Arkansan just having sheets hanging up in our front bedroom window.  We are really pleased with how everything came together and happy we look a little less white trash.  :)  

Crushed!

I am crushed.....in the depths of despair......my copy of Breaking Dawn was not delivered today. Life is so unfair. 

FYI, Stephenie Myers book Host was an excellent read for those of you who will be in mourning after you finish reading Breaking Dawn.