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.