Just a post about nothing

I have been in a blogging rut lately. It's mainly because I haven't been taking my camera anywhere so it's not much fun to read blog posts without pictures :)

Carter had another good week at school. They were off yesterday and (sort of) today for district testing. So I took Carter in this morning for a while for his test. Yeah, good luck getting any info out of him about what the test was like or how he did on it. He mainly told me he played in the sandbox. Not sure how that's related to his test but oh well!

Since he was out of school yesterday, I took him and Olivia swimming with Amy and her two boys. They, as always, had a blast but it was a little chilly so after about 45 minutes, a blue-lipped Carter said he was ready to go!

Wednesday night we ventured to our old neighborhood to the weekly concert they usually host if the weather cooperates. We had a good time but Olivia was quite nervous with all of the dogs wondering around.

Today, Theo came home for a little while at lunch so we sat outside and watched the airplanes fly by! Isaiah was just chillin'. He's such a good baby...if only he would sleep. I think I'm pretty set on nursing him for a couple of more months and that's it. I'm so exhausted all day long that I don't think I can keep up that pace for much longer. But who knows, I'm nothing if not prone to change my mind :)

No big plans for the weekend. Just haning out  and hopefully sleeping in. Hope you all have a great one!

The elusive tooth

Man, just since I've snapped this picture a few days ago, Isaiah already has another bottom tooth coming in. And let me tell you, it is not pleasant to be bit while nursing! Carter and Olivia didn't really do that but Isaiah just likes to gnaw on everything....including me!

But he's so stinkin' cute with his little toothy grin! It just melts my heart. He is such a precious baby. He is so chilled out and laid back. I hope he'll always be that way...so he can balance the other two high-strung children we have! Ha!

Not much going on this week. Back to school for Carter and he is still lovin it. We had a really busy weekend. I tried to do much so that we could be out of the house for Theo to write a 12 page paper this weekend. But now life is back to normal. School is forcing us to get into a routine and I have to admit, I love it! The day flows so much smoother when we do the same thing Monday through Friday. Carter doesn't have a lot of homework per se. It's mostly us reading to him for 20 minutes a day, which we have been doing for years and probably more than 20 minutes.

We don't have any big plans for this week or weekend. I can't believe their birthday party is in less than two weeks so I'll be spending much of my "free time" working on all of that. My mom is coming up labor day weekend and the kids and I are so thrilled about that!

And just a side note, Carter just came up and saw the picture of Isaiah's tooth and he said "Poor Isaiah, he has an arrow in his mouth!" That boy is something else :)

He We survived!

Carter (and Olivia and I) survived his first week of big boy school! Can't believe it's already over. The time just flew by! Olivia didn't know what to make about all of it. She cried every single time Carter got out of the car. She's not used to not having her big brother around.

I, on the other hand, hit the gym Tuesday through today. Once I stop nursing and can really cut my calories back and rev up my exercise, I tell you what, I'm going to be in tip top shape at the end of the school year :) Well, here's to wishful thinking at least! The gym is such a godsend. I get 2.5 hours of childcare everyday. It's just enough time for me to drop Carter off, work out, shower, nurse Isaiah, and then go back and get Carter. I love having that time to myself as it's a MUCH needed break these days!

We had back to school night last night. Honestly, Olivia was so out of control, I couldn't tell you much about it other than to say his teacher is very sweet, highly qualified and is going to make a phenonmenal teacher for Carter. He loves school which I couldn't be happier about!

I'll blink and this little one will be starting kindergarten!

I hope all of my teacher friends and family members have a great first (or second, dad!) week back. I must say though, having to get up early every day this week sure will make me appreciate my weekends a lot more!

First day of school

I truly can't believe it! But I guess I gushed all about it yesterday......

Carter's first day went exceptionally well. I was a little anxious about it after the whole preschool orientation nightmare :) His teacher is really sweet. I think he'll have a great school year.

Sunday, we went to the library and checked out a couple of books about kindergarten and the first day of school. I think this helped and he enjoyed reading about school.

He was a little unsure of everything Monday morning. But by the time we picked up Theo and headed to school, he was so excited! He chatted the whole drive there and literally ran into the school.

But not before I could have one of the teacher's snag this photo of us:

We met in the common area with all of the other kindergarteners and then proceeded to his classroom.

These are some of his classmates. They're waiting so eagerly to go inside their room.

The teacher read a special story about the first day of school and then told the kids to kiss their parents and tell them goodbye.

I was so proud I didn't cry. I did all of my crying on Sunday!

 While Carter was at school, I baked these special pillsbury "back to school" cookies with little school buses on them!

 I brought some to him when I picked him up. I think baking cookies on the first day of school might have to be a tradition :)

Also while Carter was gone, Olivia no kidding asked every minute "Bubba, bubba!?" I kept telling her he was at school and she'd say "Oh!". And then when Carter got in the car, he said "Momma, did Olivia ask about me?" I smiled and said "Yes, about every 5 seconds!" I thought it was so sweet that he wanted Olivia to miss him :)

And because I'm feeling sentimental, these are a couple of pictures from Carter's first day of preschool last year. My, how things have changed!

(Oh, and FYI, I got the kindergarten sign from here. The password is welcome and you may have to sign up to receive their e-mails.)

The end of an old era, the beginning of a new one

Dear Carter,

Today is your first day of kindergarten! If I close my eyes for a minute, I can still remember the day you were born and seeing you for the very first time. I never will forget the joy of finding out we had a son. You made me a mom. Little did I know then in that delivery room how fast the time would fly. Those first few newborn days seemed to last an eternity but now it seems like an eternity ago that I placed our bare skin together for the first time.

I could not be more proud of the young boy you have become. You are so incredibly smart and already told everyone you saw at school today what a genius you are. Yes, Carter, you most certainly are.

You love to learn and never grow tired of seeking answers. You love to create things. You are constantly making something or building something. I have yet to ever hear you say that you don't have anything to do. I don't think boredom will ever be a problem for you.

These days you are reading almost entirely by yourself. Daddy and I are always amazed by the things you can read. You love to write and draw too. You love going to the library and the bookstore. It thrills me to no end that you share the same love of reading and books that I do! I pray God blesses you with academic success now and in the years ahead of you. I pray that you will always love learning.

I have no doubt that you will love kindergarten and that your teacher will love you. You have such a good and sweet heart. You will no doubt have many friends throughout your school years.

Mommy and daddy are so very blessed that you are our first born son. We are more proud of you than we could ever tell you. We love you Carter man. Congratulations on having a great first day of kindergarten!

Love, Mommy

Farmer's Market Finds

Yesterday, we all went back to the farmer's market. And when I say farmer's market, it really only has one "farm" company from here locally and the rest of the vendors are small business type owners. Anyway, it's such a deal for produce. We got all of this: (plus several potatoes that I forgot to include)

for seven dollars! It's not certified organic but they don't use pesticides and the farm is here in Colorado. So I feel good about buying it.

After the farmer's market, we headed to the flea market for the first time. It was okay. Mostly, it was a lot of junk. And I mean, A LOT! :) We got a couple of board games and another good find.  But mostly I brought home a severe sunburn. Drat!

We just hung out and relaxed the rest of the day. Olivia enjoyed playing with bubbles, which is an everyday occurence this summer.

 Baby I (as his daddy calls him) spent a good amount of time rolling around all over the floor!

Carter enjoyed his new I Spy bingo game.

He's been sick this weekend and I am sooo praying he's better before his first day of school Monday. Not a good way to start off the school year by being sick.

I hope all of my family and friends in the education system enjoy their last week of summer break. I pray that all of you have a wonderful school year and impact the lives of kids in a wonderful and memorable way. I know you already do!

Catching up

I have been really neglecting my blog lately. I haven't taken a single picture in over a week. I've just been busy doing other things besides being on the computer. And I tell you what, boy have I been productive this week! I love to blog and I LOVE reading other people's blogs but it is such a time consumer. So, I thought I'd post some of the most recent pictures I do have (totally unrelated to this post) and tell you what we've been up to here.

Last Thursday Theo found out he had been selected for a new job right here in our "neighborhood". It was quite unexpected and he's working for someone very important so it's such a blessing. A LOT more work with way longer hours but the opporunity couldn't be passed up.  We are certain this will help his career down the road so it's worth it. God is so faithful and I will write an entire post on that when I have more energy!

Saturday morning, Amy let Theo use her guest pass so we went to the gym and took the kids swimming. They have such an awesome pool there and it was great to have Theo there for a change.  Olivia was not very happy with all of it but she was so out of sorts last week that I should have known to expect that. I can't remember what we did Saturday night but I'm pretty sure we just hung out since Olivia wasn't being herself.

Sunday was Theo's birthday. We all went to mass together which was quite an experience!  That night we got a babysitter. Theo, Isaiah, and I went to see Planet of the Apes. This was Isaiah's first movie theater experience and he ROCKED it! I was nervous about taking him to such a loud movie but he did perfectly and I was so thankful to have a date with Theo and my little man. We needed a break from the older two for sure :)

Unfortunately, when we got home late that night, Theo went outside and saw that Roxy was not moving or breathing. He came upstairs to tell me and I just lost it. Don't get me wrong, I loved our litle rabbit but wasn't particularly attached to her the way Theo and the kids were. But when I found out she died, I was so unbelievably sad. I couldn't bear the thought of having to tell Carter. But that's also something I will have to post about another time.  Let's just say, he handled it waaaay better than I did.

Monday, Theo started his new job and I took the opportunity to go visit my bestest friend Meredith in Denver. We had a good day together even with Olivia's crankiness.  I am going to make a better effort to get up there and spend as much time as I can with one of my most favorite people in the world.

Tuesday it was back to the gym and I so enjoyed a break from all the kids. Tuesday night we watched Theo play his last softball game of the season. It's always fun to watch Theo as an athlete. Olivia loves cheering for her daddy. It sounds like she says "Chew dadda, chew dadda!" which is really "Go daddy!"

Wednesday night we headed to a concert in our old neighborhood. I was supposed to go to meet the teacher night at Carter's school but got a message on Monday saying his original teacher accepted another job. Really, a week before school starts?!!? So in an effort to not panic, I called my school teaching momma and she convinced me not to worry, that Carter would have a teacher :)

Thursday Carter's friend from next door came over. It was so nice for someone else to occupy Carter for a couple of hours! :) Thursday night we went to the gym. They have "music by the pool" every week and Amy and I have been going to that and just having some uninterrupted girl time.

As for this weekend, we are just going to relax. We may go down to Fountain so Theo can use his Father's day present (a groupon for going to race cars. Really fast, fancy cars!) I have to volunteer at church but other than that, no big plans. Hope you all have a great weekend. I'll be crying as this is my last chance to sleep in for a while since Carter starts kindergarten Monday!!!

Splash

This is the video of our time at the splash pad right outside the movie theater from almost two weeks ago. Hope it makes you laugh just as much as we did watching our kids! Sorry about the really bad quality, it's from my phone.

Southern Hospitality

Around these parts, there are a lot of new families moving in and out of the neighborhood. It's exciting for us because it's an opportunity to make some new friends. We're not really good friends with any of our neighbors right now so it's not so sad about the leaving part :) (Although we have been socializing with one set of neighbors more).

Anyway, so last week, Carter and I made cookies from scratch. Later when we were walking to the mailbox, we ran into some of our new neighbors from two doors down. They had literally just taken possession of the house and hadn't even had their stuff delivered yet. So I went home, plated up some cookies, stuck on a tag I had made from the day before and delivered them cookies. They were so happy when I showed up with still warm from the oven cookies!

I was just smiling all the way home (you know, my whole ten feet of walking) and was thinking that everything I learned about hospitality, I've learned from my mom. She is one of THE most thoughtful people I know. She always opens her home for people and doesn't stress about making sure everything is perfect (althoug it usually is). Anytime I have people over, I am always stressed about every little detail. I mean, really, are people going to look under my couch to check for dust (or food crumbs, legos, cranberries, random parts of toys which all happen to be under my couch right this minute!)

I recently read a really good book about entertaining. It's called The Reluctant Entertainer and I checked it out from our library. The basic take home point is that entertaining people in your home is NOT about YOU, it's about them. I'm trying to live out my life this way now. My friend Amy came over last week for dinner. She has a spectacular house, and I do mean spectacular with a capital S. It's always spotless and she has two boys ages 4 and 2! I can't do what she does and I'm learning to be okay with that. So anyway, when she came over last week (and again this week) I promised myself that I would NOT spend valuable children's nap time obsessively cleaning. And I didn't. I always tell her that I'll try and clean the bathroom and sweep the filthy floor, but other than that, what you see is what you get. And you know what, instead of spending an hour obsessively cleaning up everything, I spent it watching t.v. and ironing clothes that have been in the laundry room for literally two months! And the best part is, my friends don't care how clean (or dirty) my house is. It's so freeing to get to that point.

That night she came over, we had pizza for dinner on paper plates and it was glorious. I hadn't been grocery shopping in a week. I had almost no food in the house. But I didn't let that stop me from having a dear friend over. And we had a perfectly good time even with my bare pantry!

Life is too short to spend it trying to achieve perfection. My new mantra is "Let it go". I don't want to waste my precious ones childhood running around all the time making sure everything is spotless. I do tidy up. I do sweep the floor. I do clean the toilets and try to stay caught up on laundry. But do I really need to clean the baseboards? Do I really need to scrub the cabinet doors? Do I really have to vacuum every week? Do the kids toys have to picked up every single minute? No. What I do have to do is cherish my kids even when they're making a mess! I'm trying not to yell about messes. They ARE kids. I'm going to let go of the fact that I don't always have it together. I won't cringe everytime my doorbell rings because I'm worried about the state of my house. I will have people over without obsessing about everything. Messes are okay.

We live in this house and I really want us to LIVE in it. I don't mind when Carter asks for paints or playdoh. I don't mind when Olivia wants to get every pair of shoes out the closet. Those things are part of having small kids. I refuse to spend the rest of my life stressing about the mess! Who's with me?

My Experiment

Lately, I've been feeling the Holy Spirit convicting me of my sharp words. Mostly toward my husband and my children. So a couple of nights ago, I made a decision to go 5 days with only speaking positive, affirming words. Easy peasy, right? WRONG! It's times like these when I feel under attack spiritually. I make a decision to do better about something and man I am tested. This time was no different unfortunately. I didn't make it one day before I was raising my voice at the kids and being a smart alec to my husband.

This week has been very challenging. My kids have worn me down. Carter had his kindergarten orientation Wednesday and it was a disaster. He was screaming, refusing to go in the library while the parents were supposed to go to the classroom. Mind you, this is the same school he spent nine months at attending pre-school so he had no real reason to be afraid. But I will admit, I was very embarrassed by his behavior. Poor Isaiah, it was his naptime so he spent a while screaming before I finally gave up and left. I was so angry at the time. My words were so sharp and I know they pierced my sweet firstborn son's heart. And the guilt followed quickly behind.

And I am way to snippy with Theo. Anyone who knows us, knows we have a lot of verbal sparring in our marriage. We always have, and I'm pretty sure we always will. Most of it is done in fun and we are very playful with each other. But things can quickly get out of hand when my seemingly joking comments turn harsh.  I am so short with him sometimes and I can't believe I talk to the man I love and respect that way. I feel so ashamed sometimes.

What would happen if I really could go 5 days, 10 days, 30 days, 365 days only speaking life-giving words to not only my family, but anyone I come into contact with? I think a drastic change would happen in my life. But it's so hard. When I'm exhausted (which is about 99% of the time), my patience is worn so thin that my words are the first thing to turn ugly.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21) So for today at least, I'm choosing to speak life. And that's a start!

Six months old!

Yesterday, Isaiah turned six months old. Half of a year already gone by. Half way until his very first birthday. Half of a year that I've been even more complete since he came into my life. Half of a year where my heart has trippled with love. Half of a year that I have spent in love with the new man in my life. What an amazing baby he is.

At six months old, Isaiah, you:

-weigh 15 pounds and 1 ounce (which is only in the tenth percentile but you have more than doubled your birth weight so all is well)

-are 27.5 inches in height (which is the 85 percentile if she measured you correctly!)

-still nurse about every three hours around the clock and are basically off of formula supplementation as of now. I will bring a bottle for you at church sometimes but have done away with the bottle at the gym and you seem perfectly fine. I'm taking a massive amount of fenugreek and not running at all so I think the combination of those two things has really helped boost my milk supply.

-are loving your baby food. To date, you have had rice cereal, banana one time, sweet potatoes, avocado about three times, plums, and peaches. Your favorite so far is the peaches. Rice cereal and sweet potatoes are a close second. You LOVE to eat! You do so well with the baby food and hardly spit any of it out.

-take two naps still.....about two hours in the morning and about two hours in the afternoon

-still wake up frequently throughout the night and I've resigned myself that this is just how it's going to be. You love snuggling right up next to me during the wee hours of night. If I move, you almost always wake up so I basically sleep in the exact same position all night.

-you spend the first three hours at night in your crib (and your naps as well) but once you're up about 10:30 at night, I let you just stay in the bed with me. We all get more sleep that way.

-when you do cry, you are making sounds that sound like "mamamama" but I don't think you're really saying it yet!

-coo and smile and make sounds all the time

-are starting to have a little stranger anxiety and sometimes cry if other people are holding you

-have one bottom tooth that has finally broken through on the left side. Dr. Lisa thinks the white bumps on your upper gums are indeed your teeth coming in just waaaay early!

-are gnawing on EVERYthing but prefer fingers or hard plastic toys. You are a major finger sucker and still don't care too much about a pacifier (except the human pacifier named mommy!!)

-are rolling over from tummy to back all the time but still haven't mastered from back to tummy. You're not too crazy about tummy time but we're working on it.

-still have a crazy hairdo. What didn't fall out last month is barely hanging on but you have some new hair (same color) growing in on the sides now

-are the apple of not only your mommy and daddy's eye, but Carter's and Olivia's too!

We love you more with each passing day. Thank you for being such an amazing baby and we are so blessed you are our son!

Pillowcase Dresses

I have fallen in love with pillowcase dresses this summer! They are THE simplest dress to make and they look really cute on little Miss Priss too. So I thought I would share a picture of the ladybug dress I made one morning.

I have another one in a bright pink damask fabric that is even cuter but I don't think I have a picture of that one yet.

This is definitely going to be one of my go to patterns to make for Olivia. I bought another pattern this week of an A-line dress (the same one my mom made Olivia's Christmas reversible dress out of). I can't wait to make something out of that one and when I do, I'll be sure to share :)