Friday, April 27, 2012

FIRST tooth!

Yes Miss L finally got her first tooth! We saw the tooth making it's appearance last week but it was on Wednesday of this week that we noticed that it had broken through the gum. I am happy that she has her first tooth but sad to see her beautiful gummy grin disappearing. I am so thankful that I had 10 months to enjoy her toothless grin- I just love it:)
My baby girl is growing up way way too fast! This week she started giving THE BEST hugs, she hugs you really tight and then pats your back- I LOVE LOVE LOVE it, just melts my heart, and I could hold her like that all day long.
We have had another busy week. We had H's OT eval report meeting Tuesday night and it went really well. I am happy to finally get the ball rolling. He will start receiving OT one day a week and it will start next week at school and then when school is out the end of May I will take him to OT one day a week. I am excited, because I am hoping it will really help him and his behaviors. It was also good to hear that he is very intelligent- he scored two years ahead of his age! WOW!
We are having some major issues with M's school, and I am trying to tell myself just 4 more weeks! It is just so frustrating to know how much we paid for her to go to school and how little we are getting in return. Thankfully we had already made arrangements for her to attend another school next year. The teachers are pretty much coasting from here on out- I thought only the students did this-LOL! They are done with homework for the year. The other day it was gorgeous outside and they didn't go out for recess, the teacher said they needed their rest?! Crazy, anyhoo I could go on and on but I won't because it will just get me all worked up again- it is so bad I am half way tempted to pull her out for the rest of the school year.
Okay I told myself I was going to be positive so I am going to end this post on a positive note:) Hope you all have a very happy weekend! I am going to make it a good weekend!

Friday, April 20, 2012

10 months old!!!!

Miss L is 10 months old today! I just cannot believe that Miss L is already 10 months old, I am truly having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that she is 10 months old and that in just 2 short months we will be celebrating her first birthday. It is going way way too fast. All my kiddos need to slow down and quite growing up so fast.
Miss L's personality is coming out more and more. She is a very very happy, smiley and giggly little girl who is on the go more and more. L is getting more adventurous and moving more- crawling all over the place, pulling up on anything and everything and starting to climb/ pull herself over stuff including the container we use as a barrier in her play area! She is cruising all over her play area.
As far as eating she will definitely let you know if she doesn't like something, she is not a fan of meat so I have quite trying to give it to her; however pretty much everything else that she has tried she has been a fan of including fresh avocado (not a fan of frozen/ thawed avocado)., spinach and potatoes. She likes all the fun "snacky" baby foods- bananas, yogurt melts and puffs. She is FINALLY getting her very first tooth!!! It is a bottom front tooth, that appeared the other day but has not broken through just yet. L is DROOLING like crazy, she can soak a shirt in no time after just getting her dressed! and of course she HATES bibs, I can barely keep them on when she is eating and most the time she wins the battle and I just give up fighting her on wearing a bib- I am telling you she is very stubborn!
Now that we got our swing set fixed thanks to my uncle:) L is really enjoying swinging, she loves being outside, playing/ swinging and going for walks or just watching the kiddos play.
She is talking more and more, her favorite word of course is mama but she also says bye-bye; ma moo (that is what she call's her sister), papa and we are still working on dada and of course H's name or nickname. She loves to wave and give kisses- open mouth slobbery kisses;)
As far as sleeping (I know, I know you don't have to tell me!) she sleeps with us in our bed. She is stubborn and I am not one to let them cry it out, and I have decided that they grow up way too fast I am going to enjoy all the snuggling I can get because who knows what God has in plan and she could very well be our last baby. And yes to be honest I love it! (I don't sleep the best some nights because she is a mover but there will be plenty of time for sleep later). Well she is fussing- ready for her late afternoon nap- gotta go.
We are loving every second of her!!!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Getting back into the groove

Well spring break is over- sniff sniff:( I really enjoy having my kiddos home and not having to "follow" a crazy schedule running all the time. I am so looking forward to summer break- six more weeks:) We had a great spring break week, wasn't exactly what I had planned but it worked. The weather wasn't great for most of the week and we all ended up with congestion/ allergy issues.
Monday we ended up sleeping in- ahhh so nice! and then heading to the grocery a typical Monday chore for me- wasn't looking forward to this chore with all three kiddos. So I decided to make the most of it and try to make it "fun" for the kids well at least the two older ones. So M got her own list of items to get and H's list had pictures with the words for the foods he was required to get. The kids seem to really like this "scavenger hunt" for groceries and it made shopping with all 3 a little easier:)
During the week we went to a favorite local park of the kiddos where they enjoyed playing on the playground, taking a walk on one of the trails as well as feeding the ducks.On the coolest day of the week we decided to do our painting projects. The kiddos enjoyed painting their own canvas to hand in their play area downstairs. Their paintings totally match their personalities, if blogger would allow me to post pictures I would do it so you could see their beautiful masterpieces- "The Ocean" by H and "The Butterfly and Ladybug Catastrophe" by M. They also painting a birdhouse together, to give to my parents. My parents have several birdhouses handing on their privacy fence so now they have a bright and colorful new birdhouse. On Thursday my niece and nephew came over in the afternoon for me to watch them, they stayed for dinner and then my niece ended up spending the night- which M LOVED!!!! I felt bad, it was my nephew's birthday and I hadn't planned on them being at the house much less staying for dinner, and I didn't have anything to use for a cake for
 him:( but he didn't seem to mind. While my niece G was here I decided to paint the girls nails- tie dyed, I had seen a friend of mine post it on fb. Well lets just say it was a disaster, very very very messy and the nails did not turn out tie dyed:( We also made a trip to the local zoo:) I was so thankfully the weather cooperated with us last Friday- we had a gorgeous sunny day at the zoo. The plan was for my sister in law and nephew to meet us at the zoo (my niece was with us since she spent the night) however as usual we were patiently waiting for them outside the entrance  when I sent a text to see how close they were. Well my sister in law ended up calling me back to tell me that she was still in bed (10:55am) and that they weren't going to make it. So of course I took 4 kids to the zoo by myself, and I think half the city was there that day! The main focus was the kiddos and they had a blast:) That night my brother came to pick up my niece G and ended up taking M with him, she spent the night with them.
My uncle graciously offered his time to fix our swing set that my husband broke when he decided to use it as workout equipment and do pull ups on it. During the week last week he came over and took all the measurements and then he spent all day Saturday (including all morning in the rain) fixing and putting on the new part. We now have a much stronger, nice swing set that all three of the kiddos can use:) My uncle added an arm to the swing set (thats the part that my hubby broke) so we could hang more swings so all three could swing at the same time. We bought L and new baby swing for it and she got to use it Sunday for the first time and LOVED it!! L was giggling and laughing the whole time she was swinging.
So let the countdown begin to summer vacation:)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Easter

We had a wonderful, but busy weekend:) Saturday morning was our usual morning of gymnastics and then we went out to lunch with the in-laws  Oh Joy! (note the sarcasm here!) It was really bad timing- lunch at 1:45, when my kiddos are use to eating at 12:30 or so, it threw the whole rest of the day off. They actually bought the kiddos E. baskets- shocker (well the two older kiddos anyhoo, Miss L didn't get a basket). We had told them just a little candy because we knew they would be getting candy at the E. egg hunt after church, from the E. bunny at out house plus at my parents; well they didn't listen at all and to top things off they left the baskets in the car while we had lunch on a very warm Saturday afternoon. Needless to say the candy was a mushy mess, because they got mostly chocolate (we told them H doesn't like chocolate but obviously they didn't care to listen to anything we said!). Anyhoo the visit is over; after lunch we had a few errands to run so we did that then headed home so hubby could cut grass and I could do laundry. Since we ate such a late lunch we really weren't hungry for dinner so I decided since we were doing family movie night to do a movie night dinner:) we had homemade pretzels- salted and cinnamon sugar; as well as popcorn you know the kind popped on the stove. The kiddos kept saying it was the best dinner ever- LOL! But before dinner and our movie we colored E. eggs, the kiddos had a good time, even Miss L got in on the action coloring her very first egg with a lot of help from Momma;)
Sunday/ Easter morning was a busy one. The kiddos got up, well actually I got up first, took my shower, make-up etc and then H woke up ready to go find his basket but I made him wait a little bit to wake up his sisters. We got the girls up and then they found their baskets and loved what they got. Then we headed downstairs for the kiddos to hunt E. eggs. Miss L even had eggs hidden in her play area. After egg hunting and checking out the loot it was time for breakfast and to get everyone ready for church (when I say that I mean I had to get all three kiddos and myself ready for church while hubby got himself ready and went and got his morning drink- it would be nice to have some help once in a while!). We made it to church on time however the church was already packed luckily we saw some friends of ours and squeezed in the pew with them. Church went ok, H wasn't the best but it is very hard for him to sit for that length of time, plus he was excited about the egg hunt after church.
The kiddos M and H enjoyed the egg hunt after church, they got a TON of eggs, and both of the girls M and L won stuffed bunny's in the drawings they had after the egg hunt and H found the golden egg:) So tomorrow- Tuesday we are to take the golden egg to the church office to find out his prize! (hubby's hoping for free tuition-LOL!)
After the egg hunt we stopped by my parent's house so that they could take some family photos for us and we visited for a little bit. Then we went home and the kiddos played, I fixed a yummy new pasta salad for Easter dinner to take to my parents house and hubby went to the gym to work out.The pasta salad was super easy and quite tasty, just wish hubby and/or the kiddos would eat it so I could fix it more ofter.  Later in the day we headed over to my parents house for Easter dinner, and the kiddos had another egg hunt in their backyard. The kiddos had a great time playing with their cousins and I had a good time visiting with family. Great weekend:)
Today is the first day of spring break and it turned out to be a beautiful day! I had to go grocery shopping in the morning with ALL three kiddos- which is quite the chore. So I decided to make them their own list of things to find at the grocery. H's had pictures cut out from the grocery add along with the word and M's just had the words- they had a great time "helping" me with the grocery shopping! After lunch we had one more errand before we stopped at the pet store and bought some "duck food"- cracked corn and then headed to the park to play on the playground and feed the ducks. The kiddos had a great time and of course weren't ready to leave. Now we are at home having some "down" time before starting dinner- grilling out tonight:) It's suppose to cool off and not warm back up till the end of the week which is a real bummer but I have some inside activities planned to hopefully make it a fun Spring break for them.
Hope everyone had a very Hoppy and Blessed Easter weekend!!! Have a great week!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Spring Break is HERE!!!

Woo-Hoo!!! I don't know who is more excited the kiddos or me that spring break is finally here:) LOL! I know crazy but it will be so nice not to have to be running ALL over town and having a crazy schedule. Next week we have no set plans, appointments or activities we have to go to. I am hoping to have a fun week with all three kiddos. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the weather is going to be very cooperative but I am determined to make the most of it.
Yesterday the we made the teachers Easter gifts- cute little lemon bundt cakes. We made the lemon cakes, then drizzled pink icing over the cakes. We colored coconut flakes with green food coloring and put that in the middle of the cakes to resemble green grass, and then we put chocolate candy eggs on the grass- little Easter birdy baskets/ nests; they turned out very cute!
We are planning on coloring eggs tomorrow evening- I always look forward to doing this with the kiddos. I am hoping to rent the movie H.o.P. to watch tomorrow evening for a family movie night. Then Sunday we have church, the church egg hunt, and we are all getting together over at my parents house where the kiddos will have another egg hunt with their cousins:)
Hope everyone has a Very Happy and Blessed Easter with their family!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Just Life

Not much going on, just life. We stay pretty busy all of the time! Hubby works 5 days a week at his full time job that has crazy crazy hours, that I never know when he will get home from one day to the next. He also trains on Saturday mornings, usually not getting home till 12:30/ 1:00 in the afternoon. After Easter he is adding a class he will be training on Sundays in the afternoon, right now I am not sure what the hours are going to be just  know it's another day that I will be solo on parenting duties yet again. This crazy schedule makes it difficult especially as the kiddos get older, have school activities/ programs and are involved in sports. Right now H is in t-ball, he has had only one practice so far due to rainouts (did I mention t-ball is twice a week?! crazy it's only tball people), he also does soccer during one of his days off from school while M is in school and participates in a gymnastics class when he goes to his sisters class on Sat. Miss M is in gymnastics (2 hours on Sat.) and girl scouts. So needless to say with all that running around I am so looking forward to spring break next week:) I'm hoping the weather cooperates so we can enjoy a picnic at the park, a visit to the zoo as well as a trip to our favorite ice cream shop. An activity I have planned in case of rain but could also be done outside on the patio on a nice day is buying some blank canvases for the kiddos to paint to hang in our basement in their play areas.
Well Easter is right around the corner, I still have to go shopping- that is on the agenda for Wed. when H and M are in school. Now I just have to figure out what to put in the baskets? Not much on candy for the kids and H is so picky to begin with when it comes to candy- doesn't like anything "gummy" including jellybeans, doesn't like chocolate of any kind, and is allergic to tree nuts. So what to get, I do have a movie in mind that the kiddos have been wanting but from there not sure?! I think for L I will get teething biscuits etc thing of that nature and a book or two she is probably the easiest to shop for. Hopefully I will figure it all out.
Sunday after church we headed to the mall for the kiddos to visit and get pictures with the Easter Bunny. It went surprisingly well and got some good pictures off all three of them- although L was not smiling, can't complain she wasn't crying:) I wasn't too sure how she would do!
M wanted to making something for Easter for her teachers and of course if I do it for M, H will want it too. So I am going to make mini-bunt cakes (lemon) and drizzle colored icing over then;  have the kiddos color coconut (shake coconut flakes and a little green food coloring in a baggie) to make easter grass for the middle of the cakes and then add candy eggs for a little nest?! Just hope I can get them all done for the kiddos to take to school on Friday! Friday or Saturday we will also be coloring eggs:)
Oh I almost forgot to share this craziness! So a week ago this past Friday, I was in the carpool line with L and H waiting for M to be released from school. I had the radio on but kind of low, when I hear the weather alert signal come on, and thinking to myself oh it's probably a severe thunderstorm warning (the skys looked clear and the sun was out with a few clouds but knew that they had called for some thunderstorms for the afternoon) but listened anyways. I was SHOCKED when they said tornado WARNING for our area, especially for the area in which our house and M's school is- one had been spotted. H and L were both asleep in the car so I woke H up and unbuckled him, grabbed L in her carrier and hurried into the school. We took cover in the school and stayed there for about 30 minutes. Thankfully we were all safe and nothing happened around out house or the school but not too far from either there was some damage. Needless to say we are having a crazy crazy weather. I'm just hoping for a warm beautiful Easter Sunday so the kiddos can enjoy hunting eggs:)
Hope everyone has a great week! Gotta go L is calling my name over and over and over, I think she is ready for her afternoon nap:)