Seven

Happy Birthday Sophie!

 

Halloween

I know I'm really late posting about Halloween, but this is literally the first chance I've had to sit at my computer for longer than ten minutes. So that being said, forgive me if this post sounds a bit disjointed as I'm going to cram everything into it!

  I made the kids some treats for school. 

  I made s'mores like I did last year and some Jack-o-lantern juice (thankyouverymuch pinterest!). They were fun to make, but drawing the faces on those water bottles was a pain!

The Friday before Halloween I took the kids and one of their friends to the Exploreum for their Halloween night.

Doesn't Audrey look thrilled at having her picture taken?

  Kylie and her friend had their faces painted of course. They also made those nasty looking "scars" on their arms. Lovely eh?

The next night I took the girls to Bellingrath Gardens for trick or treating. It was actually kind of cold (rare around here!) so we kind of hurried through and didn't get many pictures.

And of course on Wednesday we went trick or treating. Personally I'm glad it's November because I'm starting to get tired of the costumes! 

Down on the farm

On Friday I went with Audrey's class on a field trip. They had an awesome playground and Audrey made a new friend.

 

Then she had her face painted for a pow wow.

  Then went into the tee pee to learn about the Sioux indians.

Then it was time to meet some animals. Oddly enough even though my child is terrified of animals, she went into the stall with this huge steer. This animal was huge!

Last but definitely not least it was time for a good old fashioned hayride.

   

Girls day out

The past few weeks have been really busy with school and activities. When I realized that Saturday the girls and I didn't have anything planned we decided to have a little girls day out. We headed downtown to play at the Exploreum first. 

Searching for the one in a million yellow bead

Playing DJ

Coloring pictures of sea life

 We purchased a family membership last year for Christmas and I have to say it has definitely been worth it! The kids love to go there and play and the fact that it's actually educational is a huge bonus!

Learning about volts and watts

Making a light with batteries

 After the exploreum we decided to walk around downtown. We went to the fort where the girls let their inner pirate come out.

 Then we decided to end things on a sweet note with a trip to the candy store!

 

We had a fantastic day and are already looking forward to doing it all again soon.

 

Fun Run

This past weekend Audrey and Sophie participated in their first ever race. It was our schools annual fun run they have before the fall festival. While they were far from being in first place I am still incredibly proud of them for participating. 

 

Oh boy....

Isn't it amazing how when you decide to make a change in one room of your home it tends to affect all the other rooms in your home?

We recently acquired a new (to us) bed for Kylie's room. I in my blissful ignorance thought I would just get my husband to take the old one out and pop the new one in. Piece of cake right? Umm, not really. Even though they are both full size, the new one is HUGE! The frame is so large that we are having to rework everything in the room. Wish me luck because I really think I'm going to need it!

First day of school 2012

Today my girls started a new school year. They were so excited and ready to go, but I was just not ready. Not only did the summer fly by, but I'm a little sad because this is Kylie's last year of elementary school. Yes, I know I'm a big ol' sap, but they are my babies and I just can't help it. I tried taking a few pictures of them before they left, but they didn't turn out that great. I'm still going to share them though! 

Audrey, my third grader

Kylie, my fifth grader

Sophie, my first grader

 Their teachers seem really nice so I'm crossing my fingers we'll have a really great year. Sadly none of the kids have any of their friends in their class this year, but I'm hoping they'll use that as an opportunity to make new friends. Have any of your children started back to school? If so how was their first day?

Storytime

I have always had a love for reading. My mother always bought my brothers and me books and some of my fondest memories of my childhood are of her reading to us. When I started school and learned to read on my own it was like a new world opened up for me. I drove my family crazy because I would read everything from billboards to cereal boxes. I remember going to the library and being so excited because I could check out as many books as I wanted and just sit in my room and read all day. 
I still love to read and luckily my kids are little bookworms too. All three of them can read on their own, but I still read with them every night. When Kylie started reading chapter books I remember being kind of sad because I thought our storytime days were over. For a few months I would go read to Audrey and Sophie while she read on her own. One night I went into her room and told her that even though she was reading so well I still wanted to read with her. I thought she would roll her eyes and protest, but she surprised me by saying, "fine with me." She's ten and a half now and we are still reading every night. 
This afternoon I told the girls that we needed to go through their books and try to put them in order. I buy them books all the time, but when Christmas rolls around I like to buy them a lot of books to give as gifts. I was hoping that by sorting the books now I could see what we had so I could avoid buying duplicates. 

This isn't even half of the books!

It took us a few hours, but we finally muddled through and are now *somewhat* organized. There were many "Ah, I remember this book!" moments while we sorted. It was also bittersweet because I had them set aside some of the little board books they've outgrown to put away. And no, I am not getting rid of any of them. I am going to put them in my attic to share with my future grandchildren.

Sunday

Last week was a really tough one. My mom had to be admitted to the hospital, my roof was leaking and I had to get new tires on my car and some kind of fan thingamajig that cost a stupid amount of money. They do say these things come in threes right? Yesterday my husband and I decided we wanted to do something kind of fun. Well naturally my idea of fun involves shopping. My kids idea of fun is pretty much anything but shopping. So what did we end up doing. Shopping of course! Well I shopped the kids played in the water while I hit up the stores. Perfect solution, no?

I'm having a party!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that I am hosting a Scentsy party this month. As anyone that knows me can tell you I have this 'thing' about smells. I love good scents, especially in my home so when some of my friends began selling Scentsy I decided to give it a try and fell in love. I decided to host a party this month because July is Scentsy's 'bring back my bar' month. They let customers vote on their favorite discontinued scents and bring them back for a month (I think they do this twice a year). They have some fantastic scents out that I just adore and cannot wait to stock up on. Also, each month they offer a scent and warmer of the month and the one for July is called Ohana and is perfect for Summer!

 Anyway, if you are interested in doing some shopping here's my link:
Lana's Scentsy Party
Have a great weekend!





 

A few updates

These past few months have been a bit crazy around here and I've been really neglecting my blog. I keep meaning to post, but then something always, always gets in the way. At one point I even thought of just deleting it all together, but then I remembered the reason I started blogging in the first place. My kids. When I first started this blog I had a precocious five year old, a super shy three year old and an insanely wild one year old. I wanted a place where I could write down what they did whether big or small so I could one day look back and remember it all.

Blogging has not only helped me to remember and keep up with the kids milestones, but it has also given me the opportunity to connect with other moms and for that I am so grateful.  So with that being said, I thought I would finally take the time to play catch up with you guys on whats been going on around here. 

• House projects~ Our house is a ranch with brick front and siding on the back and sides of it. Back in February I noticed that some of the siding on the back looked really bad. I told my husband we needed to replace it before the weather got too hot and well...as I've mentioned before he's a bit of a procrastinator. Instead of doing the intelligent thing and just replacing the bits that needed replacing we replaced it all. Ourselves. Stupidest thing we've ever done! It has taken forever and it's still not 100% done. What's really bad is I wanted to go with a darker color than the original and I'm truly regretting it because it looks weird now. Live and learn I guess.
• School stuff~ As I mentioned in an earlier post the kids are now out of school. Kylie made straight A's all year and finished the year with over 450 AR points. Audrey made all A's as well and finished out the year with over 100 AR points. Sophie made A's and B's and finished out the year with over 100 AR points. I am really proud of all three girls and am crossing my fingers they can keep up the good work.
• Financial crap~ A few months ago my husband had his work hours cut. On the one hand I was glad because it meant that the kids could actually see him at night before they went to bed. On the other hand I was freaking out because it meant less money. It just so happened that a woman that he works with was needing childcare so I started keeping her child and that has kind of made up for the loss of money. I am glad to have the opportunity to help out and still spend time with my kids, but at the same time I would be lying if I didn't say that there are times when I wish I had not taken this on. The hours are long (12 + hours most days) and I am only charging about 1/2 of what the local daycares charge.  I think we are finally starting to get into a little routine though so that helps.
• Family stuff~ The kids, husband and I have been doing well, but there has been a lot of stuff going on with the rest of our family. My father in law has been in out of the hospital a lot lately. My uncle just passed away yesterday from cancer, my aunt is having to get a biopsy tomorrow for a lump that was found on her mammogram and I have this huge fear that something significant is wrong with my younger brother. He's always been slim, but recently he's lost over 30 pounds and he can't keep food down. I'm extremely worried about him, but naturally being a man he's very close mouthed about the whole thing.
• Exercise~ I've kind of gotten into a little routine with my exercise. I wake up at 5:00 (A.M?!?!?!) do the 100 workout and then go ride a few miles on my bike. I have to admit I absolutely hate it. Getting up early stinks, but it's really the only time I have to do it. At one point I had lost a little over 30 pounds, but recently I have gained a few pounds (less than five) back:( I was really hoping to be further along with weight loss by now, but it's hot out and I'm just kind of feeling lazy and burnt out. I have managed to lower my blood pressure to the normal range, but I am still taking the medication for it. I'm hoping that if I can keep doing what I'm doing then I'll be able to quit taking it altogether soon. 

And I guess that's about it. I'm sure I'm leaving out tons of stuff that has happened, but that's the general gist of it all. I'm going to really, really try hard to start blogging at least once a week so be sure to check in occasionally. I hope everything is going well with all of you and that you are having a fantastic summer!

 

 

Last day of school

The girls actually finished school two weeks ago, but this is the first chance I've had to post any pictures.

Their principal let all the kids that donated uniforms wear regular clothes on the last day. The girls were so excited to get to wear something other than uniforms. Sophie is wearing a leotard because her class had a circus theme party and she went as an acrobat. Just for reference here's a picture of the girls on their first day of school.

Amazing how much kids can change in such a short period of time isn't it? 

I tried to get a few pictures of the girls at their end of year parties, but running from one end of the school to the next to take pictures of them was not as easy as it sounds.

 

 

You know the expression 'hit like a girl'? Yeah, Sophie totally hits like a girl.

Audrey's class had an outdoor party with water. Lots of water. And no towels.

Typical Kylie picture.

When we got home from school I gave them a little gift. Nothing fancy just another webkinz to add to their already stupidly large collection.

I honestly don't know who was happier to see the last day of school this year. I'm kind of thinking it was me. This has been a looong year and I am really enjoying the break. 

Happy Mothers Day!

Today I am thankful. 

Thankful that I have a wonderful, loving mother that is not only a great mom, but an even better grandmother. She has been at the birth of all my children, baked all their birthday cakes and has never hesitated to offer to babysit. She is always there when I need someone to talk to, she never judges me, and she always offers support.

I am thankful for my mother in law. Even though we rarely see eye to eye and nine times out of ten she makes me scratch my head and wonder what on earth she's talking about I'm still thankful for her. For without her I would not have my wonderful husband.

And most of all I am thankful for my three wonderful daughters. Yes, they are occasionally a handful, but I could not imagine life without them. They are the most kind, loving, caring, beautiful, smart and funniest people I know. I am thankful that I was chosen to be their mother and I cherish everyday that I am given with them. 

 

To all of my fellow moms out there, I wish you a wonderful day!

The big announcement

As most of you know today is April 1st otherwise known as April Fools Day. So this morning I talked to my husband and asked him if he would like to help me play a trick on the kids. Normally we don't even pay any attention to April Fools Day, but for some reason the kids have been talking all week about it and trying to cook up pranks so I thought we would one up them. After breakfast we called all the kids into the living room and told them we had a big, life changing announcement for them. Kylie reluctantly put down the wii remote and Audrey and Sophie stopped coloring and they sat down and looked at us. Then we made the announcement....."Mommy is pregnant!" Audrey and Sophie yelled "What!?" and Kylie? Kylie just turned around and went back to playing her game on the wii. Audrey and Sophie told us they wanted a girl and then they told Kylie she was going to have to her room with the baby because there was no way they were going to do it. Meanwhile Kylie still kept playing her wii. I even bought a test to show the non-believer (granted it didn't have the lines on it, but we didn't think they would look at it that closely.)

.

 Kylie still played her wii so I asked her if she was excited. She looked at me and rolled her eyes and said "yeah, nice April Fools trick." So I guess our plan was a dud. Oh well next year I'm really going to have a good one planned for her.

Techy wannabe

I don't consider myself to be hi-tech at all so this little conversation with a certain six year old has me scratching my head.
Sophie: "Mom, I'm going to text someone okay?
Mom: "Honey you need a phone to text someone."
Sophie: "Oh. Well then I'm just going to go on facebook so I can talk to all of my friends okay?"
Audrey: "You don't have a facebook account!"
Sophie: "Oh. Well then I'll just email them."
Audrey: "You don't have an email account either!"
Sophie: "Oh, just forget it then!"

Mommy means business!

I think it's pretty safe to say that most people that know me know that I am a complete nut job when it comes to having a tidy house. I have to make sure it's clean before I go to bed at night and definitely before I leave home (I mean really, who wants to come home to a messy house?) I tend to get very, very cranky when it's messy and well....sometimes having three kids and a clean house just don't go together. At all. 
That being said a few months ago I made the girls chore charts. The two main things on it were make the bed and pick up toys in the bedrooms. Pretty easy huh? For the most part yes. Kylie has her own room and since she doesn't play with toys that often anymore pretty much all she has to do is make her bed. Audrey and Sophie share a room so it's been a little tricky figuring out how to fairly distribute responsibility for them. They pretty much decided on their own that they would both pick up the toys and alternate days on making the bed. Sophie is a big people pleaser so she has been doing well on her end. Audrey however tends to be lazy and has not been doing so well. On Monday it was her turn to make the bed. I asked her three times before she left for school to make it and she did not. I asked her and Sophie both to pick up their toys as well and that didn't happen either. This is how I found their room:

 

Not horrible, but unacceptable by my standards. After thinking about it I decided that instead of making the bed myself and picking up the toys I was going to just remove everything that was out of place. I kind of questioned whether this was a good move or not so I polled my friends. A few of them said to give them another chance, but most of them said to take the things out of their room to teach them a lesson so that's what I did. 

  I took the quilt and pillows off the bed leaving only the sheets and I bagged up all the toys that were on the floor. When they got home from school there were tears. Lots of tears. I finally told them that I would put the bedding back on if they promised to make up the bed the next day. The toys I told them would have to be earned back. So far they've been doing a good job so I guess I'll relent and give them back some of their toys. They've been told that next time I'll be ebaying their toys and they won't be able to get them back. Now I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope they can keep up the good work because I detest ebay!

 

Playing hooky

Last week my husband had to make a trip to Pensacola and asked me if I wanted to go with him. I did, but I was concerned about not making it home before the kids got out of school. After thinking it over for about 30 seconds I decided that we would just take the kids with us. Since they rarely get to miss school they were thrilled to have the day off. While we were in Pensacola my husband asked if anyone wanted to go to the National Naval Aviation Museum. I honestly didn't think the girls would be that into it, but they said they wanted to go. These two clowns had a blast.

 

  They kept running from one exhibit to the next yelling "Hey mom, take my picture!"

 

 This one however? She was a bit pouty. 

 

She's kind of in that 'all I want to do is hole up in my room and play video games' stage. So after having a talk with her and maybe making a few threats....

She finally came around and I was even able to get a rare picture of her smiling.

Pouty spells aside we had a fantastic day and we're already looking forward to our next day of playing hooky.