playtime...

Another day, another dollar....oh wait...i don't actually make any money.... =)

we've moved on to our next five days of lesson fun and this time its all about dinosaurs. We've been hard at work learning all about the letter "D", making cool dino crafts, and even showing off our skills in the kitchen with dino foot print cookies 

This set of lessons have been much easier to incorporate more advanced stuff for kylie to do. We had a long conversation about how dinosaurs became extinct. She totally understood it, beck, not so much. for the rest of the day he ran around the house saying a big rock hit the media room and killed the dinos!!!! (meteor = media room in his head for some reason!) It was pretty funny.

I actually pulled the camera out for a bit when the kids were in ky's room this week playing rock star after bath time....

the last one is the face I got when I told beck to look at the camera, something that is apparently IMPOSSIBLE for him to do!

Random phone pictures

It has been an eternity since I connected my phone to the computer...some of these pics (from the last couple months) made me laugh so i had to share them...

Moving day at the old house...

Kiki settling into the new house quite quickly. She seems to like the natural light as much as I do.

When we first moved in, we didn't have a console for the t.v. so it sat on the ground. Newie was continually touching and licking the t.v. screen....ya, not really sure what his fascination was with it. In order to keep him away, I trapped him between the couch and the ottoman, and he stood there and watched an entire half hour cartoon....although he wasn't happy about it...

Newie's random fascination with bringing things out of the pantry. It was the empty drink pitcher and apple cider vinegar container for the first two weeks. lately its the value size of gold fish....this boy is so strange...he'll walk all around the house carrying whatever it is he pulls out...

Neither of the other two kiddos were ever layers....I love this about New...he'd rather be in this position watching t.v. than sitting on the couch.

The kids in action at an inflatable play place with Jordan during our trip to Houston

Lunch with Kelley

Beck randomly tearing through sissy's jewelry box with a halloween candy basket on his head...

Tea party while the boys were down for naps...

Ky playing puppy with beck...yup, he's got his glasses on inside (said it makes him invisible), a microphone, and a leash attached to his shirt....what he won't do to appease his big sister!

Don't mind me, just a normal Thursday morning reading the paper upside down on the front porch...

And just to prove that he sat there for quite sometime...another shot 5 minutes later...

Summer time

The kiddos and I have been staying busy and its absolutely mind boggling to me that we're half way through July and I haven't started praying for the beginning of the coming school year. I truly feel like it might actually get here before I'm ready for it (could it be?) 

Our typical mornings are filled with playing in the backyard (which is shaded till well after 10 am) exploring new parks (there are a ton around the new house), or swimming at the pool (I try to keep this one to a minimum, its a lot of work to get three kids prepped, keep an eye on them swimming, and then back to normal dress once we're done). 

I was fortunate enough to take a trip with Ky and Beck to see our good friends the Dawsons, and to celebrate birthdays of two of my favorite kiddos, Jordan and Julia. We were also able to sneak away and see my college room mate Kelley as well, which is always an added bonus when a trip to Houston is involved. 

We've been chugging along on Beck's mini summer lessons. We just finished our farm animal week, which actually stretched a little over two weeks. But it was nice to break in between days, and he always enjoyed getting started again. 

Here he is sorting farm animals by size

Showing off his finished sheep craft...

And practicing "sheering" his sheep, using shaving creme, a big bouncy ball, and a popsicle stick. This was by far his favorite activity of them all! and although I didn't capture even close to all the fun activities we got to do, I'd like to send a special thanks out to jess who planned the week's lessons!

Beck decided the other week that he wanted a hat and was determined to get one. During a random trip to target, he fell in love with this spiderman hat that is WAY to big for him, but he'd have no other, and thus, it came home with us. I'm shocked at how often he wears it. And when he isn't wearing it, Newie is trying very hard to put it on his own head. I captured a couple pics of him playing with big brother's hat this past week...

I love this little boy....and all his craziness too!

Ky and Beck hard at work painting masterpieces...

Newie hanging in the backyard.

Words can't express how much help this big girl is to me during the summer. She's truly an angel and helps save my sanity on a daily basis...

Random Facts Continued...

-having the movie channels for free for 3 months is totally cool. I haven't watched so many movies since before Kylie was born. I remember now how much I love it!
-This neighborhood is covered in squirrels and geckos....the old house had bunnies, but it was nothing compared to what we have here. Walking into the kitchen to find Kitty with a dead baby gecko laying next to its still-thrashing separated tail...not my idea of fun...
-In order to save money, and feel creative and productive, we decided to re-do our old black bar height kitchen table....spent MANY hours sanding, etc....next time, I think I'll pass on feeling creative and productive, and spend the money to just buy a new one..it was a lot of work!
-We're making so many new friends, but making new ones doesn't cause you to miss your old ones any less =(
-Tried another new church this past Sunday....strike #2...."just keep swimming, just keep swimming...."
-Stratton is starting to talk now. He's in that fun in-between stage, where it's not babble but not quite words. Where they point and have inflection, and facial expressions and look at you and wait for an answer when they're done with their thought. It's pretty stinking cute....
-For some strange reason, I've come to realize that I have no interest in taking pictures when its hot outside...not sure what the connection is, but it has been months since I focused on recording LIFE...sorta sucks when you live in texas....oh well, pics to come...maybe early sept??? =)
-Today, Beck decided to give J and I an anniversary gift (7 years....wow!)...First day with no nap. I'm sad about it...not because I know I'll lose some me time, which I will, but because its another sign that time is moving way too fast. my little boy isn't so little anymore...

I'm trying so hard to remember that although life right now is crazy (and it is, pure chaos!) I need to appreciate the moment and stage we're in as a family for as hard as it might seem, I know I'll miss this some day....

Lesson work continued...

Here are a couple more shots of the kids during lesson time. Today we had Ky's good friend Makenzie around to help us out also.

Kids enjoying their "chicken feed" snack. Homemade Mix of popcorn, cherrios, chocolate chips, raisins, etc.

Acting like chickens...or at least that's what they were trying to do, not sure how successful it was =)

Beck was in no hurry to finish his snack even after the girls were already half way through the craft. Safe to say he enjoyed it.

Sponge painting mud onto their pigs they cut out and decorated.

Beck really enjoyed the sponge painting. He struggles with paint brushes so this was much more up his alley.

Finished product:

Today we also did our devotional. We discussed Faith and believing in God even when we can't see him. The Bible verse was "theres a time for everything. a time to sow and a time to reap." Which we easily related to planting Ky's flower seeds at the beginning of summer which are just now blooming in the pots outside. We skipped reading time today, with the addition of Makenzie the kids were too hyped to sit still. oh well, just means more we get to read tomorrow!

"ah ha" moment...

As every day draws to a close, I find myself in a cloud of exhaustion. However, I've come to realize that I decide exactly what the source of my exhaustion is. I can either wake up and hit the ground running: Interacting with the kids, planning various activities, keeping them busy, entertained, and happy OR I can wake up feeling drained and spend the entire day breaking up arguments and listening to screaming while I leave the children to fend for themselves, entertain themselves, and eventually drive me crazy. The first one is so much more fulfilling and much less stressful. And although I know everyday won't be an organized chaos of events and happy smiling children, I've made it my goal to have more of those than the other this summer. In an effort to not get lazy, I decided to team up with my good friend Jess and create some relaxed, fun, yet educational mini lessons for Beck and her son Jordan who is about the same age. Although the planning was sorta a pain, knowing I was working on it for someone other than just me and my kid, gave me a sense of responsibility and somehow made the time printing, cutting, laminating, and scouring the internet for ideas well worth it. I've had these lessons for weeks now, but with the move and ky's camps that followed, this was the first week I felt like we were going to be home enough and focused enough to dive in.

Each day we tried to create a craft, a song, a related snack, some sort of game/movement activity, and some educational practice (letters, numbers, handwriting, etc.). And I'm happy to say that Beck LOVED day one yesterday. The first week's lessons are all about farm animals.  I know I won't be able to capture every moment and daily activity, but I made sure to keep my camera close by yesterday so I could give Jess a snapshot of the joy all her hard work has given Beckster. Here are a couple shots from yesterday's lesson. In all, it killed about 2 hrs. of the day where we were all focused, learning, happy, and excited. Ky was really good, participating when she was interested and helping entertain Stratton when she wasn't. She herself is on a schedule where we do about 45 minutes worth of school stuff monday-thursday. Her favorite is partner writing where we take turns writing a sentence each and  create a story together. They usually end up silly and lacking much of a plot, but that's alright, I know she's learning as she practices her spelling, punctuation, and handwriting. Can't wait to see what else our lessons have in store!

Beck and Ky learning all about farm animals, the sounds they make, and the proper names for male/female/baby

Roll and graph time where they took turns tossing a block and filling in a spot on the graph depending on what animal it landed on.

filling in his graph. holding a writing utensil is one thing we really need to work on. but him being left handed makes it tough for me to know how to help!

Action cards, right now they're acting like pigs rolling around in the mud to keep cool.

snack time: animal crackers and chocolate pudding. Ie: pigs in mud, they LOVED this!

Song time: reading e-i-e-i-o!!!!

Time to craft!

Finished craft project! he loves his new pig snout!

Look at my little piggies!

We're still alive!

Well, I just re-read my previous post stressing out about a move that seems like happened MONTHS ago! It has been a long couple weeks but we're hanging in there. So much has happened that I'm sorta on overload so I'll try to make a condensed version....

The power that was suppose to be turned on Friday, the day before our move, wasn't. So the movers (and us) showed up to the new house Saturday morning stoked and ready to go, to find it feeling a bit like the inside of an oven. The best part? The electric company claimed that they couldn't turn it on until sometime before midnight Monday evening. So, I packed up the kids and headed to my parents house, with literally the clothes on our backs (everything was boxed and in the process of being moved). Luckily they were willing to take us in, but with their multiple dogs, our addition made for a "full house" experience that left me feeling stressed, tired, and at the end of my rope! Add in Newie who took his second trip to an after-hours doctor and a new antibiotic for his double ear infection, as well as many sleepless nights...and you're starting to get the idea here right? Sunday morning was Jason's 31st birthday. I was taking trips around my parents neighborhood with Newie in the stroller, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, bra-less, and barefoot at 4am....that about sums up how our weekend went. Fortunately, my parents were SUPER helpful, not to mention totally understandable regarding Stratton's incessant crying at all hours of the night. Seriously, if it wasn't for them, I'm not sure I'd have an ounce of sanity left!

Monday finally arrived and we started the "fun" journey of rescheduling all the hook ups that needed to take place (no power = no cable, no internet, etc.) I'll fast forward and summarize by stating that by "fun" of course I mean totally the opposite. The fact that its three weeks later and I'm celebrating my first evening of internet access is proof enough.

As for the house, I've come to realize that I have a love/hate relationship with it. There is so much potential here, it could seriously be my dream home....if there was such a thing for me, but its going to take A LOT to get there. The previous owners did a lot of sketchy fix-ups to get out of the house quick, and now we're starting to pay the price. I feel like we've done a ton to it already, but so much of it is new locks, new lights, new blinds, etc...that we haven't gotten to much of the fun stuff yet. But the house is covered in windows and the natural light, coupled with the HUGE shade trees in the front yard, make me smile daily.

Actually, Ky's room is the only one that is done, or partially done. Since hers needed nothing more than paint and new bedding, we decided to start there. But I'm going to try and restrain myself from showing pictures until we're completely finished. I'm VERY pleased with it so far and so is she, which makes it all worth it!

Add to all the house stuff the birthdays (both J's and mine), weddings, camps, VBS, meeting neighbors and getting a feel for the new area, and we've all been exhausted. Happy, but exhausted! Our new neighbors seem very nice, they both have come over multiple times since we moved in to check on us. I've already met many of the mom's who are in the playgroup from the neighborhood, and we were promised (via the registrar at Ky's new school) that there are a TON of kids on our street that go to the neighborhood elementary school.

Jason and I are both trying really hard to not allow this house to swallow us whole. We want to make sure we're still living life, and not just trying to fix up where we live it. So, here's a list of random thoughts, events, life happenings in no particular order from the last 3 weeks:

-It broke my heart to hear Beck crying, "no, I wanna go home" the first couple days in the new house. It passed as quickly as it came, but man that was a tough one.
-Newie finds it unacceptable to not be on the same floor as me. If I head downstairs from playing in the playroom upstairs, you'd think someone was sawing his right arm off....which makes life all the more fun! Scary thing, this hurdle hasn't past yet...and I'm starting to wonder if it ever will.
-Kylie is one of the bravest kids I've ever known. She headed to Girl Scout camp and VBS both held at places she's never been to, in groups with kids she never met. And she didn't sweat it one bit...and she had an absolute blast!
-Stratton really enjoys the freedom of throwing things through the railing upstairs and watching said items land on the unforgiving (and painfully ugly) marble entryway....including Jason's cell phone, which ended up in MANY pieces. After having no luck telling him no, I started to give him a little spank and pull him away and sit him on his bottom. He was definitely not a fan of this process, although it didn't seem to deter him. Now, he'll toss something down there (usually beck's cars or trains for the train table) turn and look at me, and just start crying uncontrollably. he's such a weird duck! p.s. one time J was walking by and got cracked in the head by thomas the train, not gonna lie, it was a little funny. =)
-Beck LOVES the new backyard with all the space to ride his riding toys and new areas to explore.
-Having 4 bathrooms to clean instead of just two = totally sucky!

And with that, I'm spent, and ready for bed. I'll leave you with a couple pics from Ky's kinder graduation, which happened the day before we were suppose to move..so I just got them loaded this afternoon.