Lately

Now that school is going and we've all adjusted to the new schedule things have been nice and quiet around here.  Not much going on.  Ben had his birthday which consisted of a melted cake (it was quite the ordeal but at least he liked it), a growing interest in collecting baseball cards, and from the girls he got a triple feature DVD of Ernest goes to camp, Ernest Scared Stupid and Ernest Goes to Jail.  I would have to say that owning the Ernest movies was nothing I ever intended on doing in my life but the girls love it and they sat on Ben's lap the whole movie!  They think it is hilarious and now ride in the car doing Ernest imitations.  At church Daisy got pen all over me and Kaylee said I was just like Ernest!  Not a compliment in my opinion.

 Just cute picture of a cute kid.  It's fun to watch him grow into the routine.  When he wants food he knows to go to his seat at the table.  Nursery is not going well for him.  He's having a hard time going.  i think it's funny that there are things in life you say you won't ever do and then Heavenly Father teaches you to be humble because not only do I own the Ernest movies but I also sit in nursery with a kid who screams when his mother leaves.

 Another thing that I'm normally opposed to is my kids still be in pajamas; and in Blake's case just a diaper.  It's about 10 in the morning and they are already having a picnic lunch and I just hadn't gotten everything done yet.  I hosted the my first book club in Medford at my house and used my grandma's dishes so I was busy washing dishes by hand this morning while the kids lounged around.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of Daisy.  She is eating my homemade coleslaw and she LOVES coleslaw!  I love that she loves it and I hope she will be my little southern bell as she gets older.  She is sassy and also super friendly and so polite.  I really do love my life.

I went by Old Navy yesterday and could not resist to buy this shirt!  The best part is that both Kaylee and Heidi knew who that shirt belonged to.  Kaylee just calls it her Camry shirt.  I love it and I love that they can match now, too.  And do you notice that huge smile on her face??  Quite different from the last post.  My mom said I needed to do a positive about Kaylee.  First, even though I posted about her fits I wasn't annoyed by them but actually found the whole thing funny.  And second, with this new school schedule Kaylee gets home right as the other two go down for naps and I have 90 mins of one-on-one Kaylee time that we both LOVE.  She is such a funny kid.  She will find something to complain about each morning before school but then she comes home from school all smiles and excited.  She tells me about her day, what she's learning, she talks about 'naughty mary' who is fictional but kaylee thinks she really did do horrible things like cutting her paper wrong, she tells who is and isn't her friend (she does not like the girl who tried to drink off her water bottle) and then we hang out until the kids wake or Heidi comes home.  I love it.  I love having this time with her.  School is good for her and I have one funny conversation to put on my blog so I never forget it.

Kaylee: I'm making new fairy dresses because Heidi's are all better than mine.
Me: Heidi's stuff is not better than yours.  You need to stop thinking that everything Heidi does is better.  You are both good
Kaylee: Oh I know.  My teacher tells me that every day.
Me: Tells you what everyday?
Kaylee: She says 'Just because Heidi is older than you doesn't mean she is better than you.'
Me: She tells you that?  Everyday?
Kaylee: Yup.  Because Heidi isn't better than me.  Really, I'm better than her.

She didn't quite get the gist of the lesson but I'm glad she has a teacher who tells her that.  She doesn't always believe me when I tell her that but she certainly believes Mrs. Anding.  And Mrs. Anding put it so much better than I do.  I'm glad she read what concerns I had about Kaylee and found a nice, easy and effective way to help Kaylee out.

Miss Daisy

How I love this kid. We've spent a lot of time together now that Heidi and Kaylee are in school. Today she decided to be a pirate princess. She had a du-rag on her head and princess shoes for the brunch we went to. And in the pictures she is licking the cinnamon and sugar off her fingers out of the pan I used to make (and mess up) some French breakfast puffs. The ones that turned out were good but there weren't many that turned out. She is silly, polite, and just fun to have. Today has been fun with her. I like hanging out with her each day, just us.

PS-she is sitting in my yard sale chair I got. It was white-turning-yellow chair that I repainted to match my front room. We got two of them for $2 each! I love finding good deals!

Typical Kaylee Moments

Kaylee has been SO excited to start school. And since this was such a long summer I've been excited too. With Heidi school was a new thing and just started when it did but for Kaylee she has been waiting ever since Heidi started school. Last week we met with her teacher one-on-one. She picked her outfit and we took pictures. Look how happy she is.

And then this was her actual first day of school. Every thing was tragic and nothing was right it was just like every other time Kaylee has something going on. Nothing I do is right, she make a mountain out of a mole hill and today it was over her bangs. First they weren't straight, then she didn't like them curled, then we wet them to take out the curl and she didn't like how brown they looked. I finally told her I had nothing more I could do to improve them so deal with it.

She went down stairs and started crying about her backpack. It was too big. She wasn't going to wear it. She wanted a new one. That's when Ben started in with the 'You are using this backpack whether you like it or not' type speech that all parents give at some point in a child's life. But the best part about the whole exchange is my little Blakesters!

Look how cute he is when he sees the camera out! I love it!

We made it to school. Kaylee wouldn't eat a thing. She moped on the playground. She refused to put her bag on all the way. She lined up, in tears, and walked with her class into the building and according to the teacher Kaylee didn't cry once. The teacher wasn't even aware she had been crying previously.

Kaylee does well when she has to but she likes to put up a big fuss with me. I picked her up after school and immediately she went back to being deviant and not smiling for me. She put the backpack on, finally, but, as you can see, still showed her obstinate side by crossing her arms and putting her head down. Classic Kaylee.

First day of Nursery!!

This has been a week full of firsts for our family. Today Blake went to nursery and it was the BEST! As we all know he is no easy kid so we were quite excited to have that two hour break during church. Luckily he woke up super excited today and so I took a few pictures because he was pretty excited about his clothes (don't ask me why but he wanted everyone to comment on them).

So here are the kids all happy, all willing to smile for the camera, and all wearing their yard sale finds. I signed up for some gift card to target for clothes and in the written part I tried to convince them we should win because my kids wear nothing but clothing from yard sales. I have to say that we've done pretty well though. I think they all look cute enough even if we didn't get to pick them out at a store.

Blake is putting his arms up in excitement because he is saying 'Cheese'. He is such a cute kids when he is happy. He's just funny. He cried at nursery. I had to go back in there to calm him down but I snuck out as soon as I could. He was fine the rest of the time...or at least I couldn't hear him screaming anymore. I love that little guy though.

Riding the BUS!!!!

The bus is the best! I love it. But I had to post about this just for Micaela because she will get a kick out of it. Heidi rode the bus, and when she came home I was there waiting (with my camera) so she wouldn't feel alone when she got off the bus. We walked back to the house and I thought it all went smashingly well. Later that night Heidi told Ben about riding the bus and that she liked it BUT she wished "Mom wasn't there to pick me up. I just want to walk home all by myself." And that's how quickly she went from the crying kid on the school sidewalk to the independent-I-don't-want-Mom-there bus riding girl. I love having independent kids but I need to throw in a few more crying situations to feel needed.
It's been nice having Heidi in school and next week will also be great with Kaylee starting. Today we went to the park and Daisy took her baby doll that she named Brian. She forgot to bring it home and when we went back it was gone. I'm actually really sad because that baby was bought for Heidi when she little because Scotty had stolen her other doll and wouldn't give it up. All my kids have loved it and recently Daisy has taken a special interest in it and sleeps with it every night. It was only a $5 doll from Walmart but I just feel like it was irreplaceable. And I keep wondering who took it and if he is happy with the new owner (who is sort of a thief) or if it is like Toy Story 3 and he is sad that Daisy left him behind. I'm just sad about it. I don't know why it makes me so sad but it does.

Well this weekend is my last hurrah for yard sales. They are having a city wide sale that I'm hoping to score some good finds at but then I'm done. I'm sad about that too. I've had a blast this summer finding things and fixing things up for incredibly cheap. The only problem with this yard sale business is that now I'm way too cheap for anything in the stores. However we have also saved a bundle because I don't even shop in the stores anymore since I think their prices are outrageous. There's no way I'm paying more than a dollar for a pair of jeans anymore. Well I guess I better sign off since Blake is awake in the crib. Have a great weekend!

Finally!! The first day of school!

School has finally started. Many of you have been in school for the last month but not us! We have just been hanging out for a very extended summer vacation. And it has seemed like a forever long summer. But today was the big exciting day! There are a lot of changes between this school and Heidi's previous one. The last one started at 9:00, this one starts at 7:50. And at the last school I had to drive Heidi to school each day and if you know me at all you know how much I absolutely HATE doing that. I grew up where we walked to school and, when the time came, we walked to the school to catch the bus. I have no problems whatsoever with throwing my kid on the bus. The best thing about this new school is that WE ARE IN THE BUS ZONE!!!!! YES! YES! YES!!!!!!!!!! Of course Heidi wanted me to drive her for the first few days though and that only reconfirmed my loathing for taking kids to school. I had to get the kids up and in the car by 7:30. Blake was poopy, Daisy couldn't put her shoes and I am still in my workout clothes which, quite honestly, I stink in. So we load up, drive the three miles to school, and I don't know exactly where I am supposed to go so I drop her at the unloading spot where it says "no parking" everywhere. The parking lot is full since there is only like 25 spots so I say, "Heidi go ask that teacher where to get breakfast" (she was all excited to eat breakfast there because they were having eggs and sausage. Her reply was, "I'll just follow all the kids" because heaven forbid she talk to an adult! So I watch as I'm driving through (no parking allowed) and decide to drive the small circle one more time because Heidi isn't following the kids. Instead I could see that she was getting scared and sure enough, crying, by the time I circled back.

Now this may sound mean but secretly I love times like this. As your children age there are fewer and fewer moments when they need you and want you because you are their mom and you are the only one they want. I knew she needed me and I yelled through the car window that I would park and come help her. I found two open spots, took one and thought about leaving my kids while I just ran to help Heidi really fast. My kids were not dressed and ready for the day-another thing that I hate doing, taking my kids out when they aren't ready-and I figured it would be really quick, right? Well as I debated for two seconds the answer was suddenly clear as a cop pulled up in the spot next to me. Problem solved! I hauled those kids in their pajamas out of the car and ran to help Heidi.

In the end she figured it all out, I got to be the Super Mom who saved the day and I got to feel like my kids still need me, and Daisy got to walk around with her ballerina skirt, daisy shirt, and lunchbox with her hair all crazy. I told Heidi she is on the bus tomorrow. The bus picks up right outside our place and it also comes right when Ben leaves so I figure he can just walk the kids out each morning. I love the bus! Kaylee will start going to school next week (seriously, how long does it take to get school started out here!!) She is pretty excited and we meet the teacher tomorrow. One thing I love about my kids is that they are just good natured. Heidi loves school and Kaylee can't wait to go. Yesterday Heidi made a shadow box about fairies. It turned out so cute and I keep wondering who really wants to do school work like shadow boxes and book reports the way Heidi does? I love my kids.