Monday, July 30, 2018

Photo-a-Day: Week 30

Day 204: Unimpressed By Alpacas

Day 205: Finder of Missing Keys {They Were In Paige's Closet!}

Day 206: So Sweet When They Sleep

Day 207: Food Thief

Day 208: Having Fun Fitting Into Clothes Again

Day 209: Silly Snuggles

Day 210: Date Night!


Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Currently: I Live On the Sun

Current Book



Current Song
Made For You - Jake Owen {such a sweet song}

Current TV Show


Brent and I are watching Yellowstone together - 
he got me hooked on westerns, and I love watching them with him!
All the way back to Lonesome Dove which is one of my ALL-TIME favorite books and shows!

I know this aired last summer, but I finally decided to watch it. SO GOOD.

Current Drink


Y'all, I've never been a coffee drinker, but a teacher at Paige's school introduced me to Nespresso...and it's amazing! I bought a machine on-sale and love it!

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

We had Chick-fil-A for dinner last night - 
the only time I've had fast food during my new program.
I don't feel that bad about it though!

Current Outfit

I never changed out of my workout clothes today.
And it was a million degrees so I am SUPER sweaty and gross.

Current Celebrity Crush

My favorite show is coming to the big screen!!!!!
You can imagine the flurry of texts between Allison and me. {grin}

Current Mood

I'm feeling so good! I have so much energy from my new eating plan!

Current Anticipation


Somebody starts Kindergarten in just a few weeks!
We picked out a new first day of school outfit - so fun!

Current Wishlist

I'm so excited - I finally ordered rocking chairs for the front porch!
I've wanted some for a long time but haven't been able to pull the trigger.
I saw Brent's parents' neighbors and thought 'THESE ARE THE ONES I WANT!'

Current Film

Allison and I have a list we want to see, but we are having trouble getting our schedules to line up. We both have this on our lists though!


Current Picture



Monday, July 23, 2018

Photo-a-Day: Week 29

Day 197: Obsessed With This Towel - Weird Baby!

Day 198: Sent This to My Team - Loved It!

Day 199: Playing Cards With These Goobers

Day 200: Swim Lessons

Day 201: Driving With Nana

Day 202: Triple Hand Hold {Be Still My Heart}

Day 203: Sisters Who Clean Together {Make For a Happy Mama}



Wednesday, July 18, 2018

The Great Sheet Debate

Y'all.

I have a serious question for y'all. 

This is a constant debate in my marriage that is bleeding over into my family.

DO YOU USE A FLAT SHEET?

Brent HATES the flat sheet and refuses to sleep under it. For years, he pushed it to the bottom of the bed, but now he has taken to sleeping on top of it while I sleep under it.

That's weird, right?

BUT...if that wasn't bad enough - now my children refuse to sleep with a flat sheet. Trent pulls his quilt completely untucked and makes a little nest for himself, and Drew won't even sleep under her quilt anymore - she sleeps under a little blanket.

Is this hereditary? Am I the oddball here? I need some support that flat sheets aren't nuts!

Also, thoughts on me cutting my king-sized sheet in half to make Brent and me both happy? {grin}

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Nine By the Numbers

I haven't scheduled a well-check yet for Trent, but you guys all know how I feel about stats, so I couldn't let a birthday pass for one of my offspring without documenting growth!

Stats:
Height: 52" {54%}
Weight: 56 pounds {31%}
BMI: 14.7 {16%}
Clothing size: 8/M
Shoe size: 2

By the numbers:
Inches grown: 2.5"
Pounds gained: 7!!!
BMI: up 1.1%
Teeth lost: 0

9 was a really awesome year for Trent overall. He handled a lot of change in stride and has matured so much. 



He changed schools in January, leaving the school he had been at for 4 years for a new Montessori school in town. He also 'graduated' from that class and will move on to Upper El in August. He adjusted beautifully to his new class, made friends, learned a lot, impressed his teacher, kept his same girlfriend, and did really well. The last couple of weeks were rough, but we think it's because he's getting nervous about moving up.


He remains a mixed bag when it comes to his siblings, ha. I don't understand how he can be SO SWEET to Paige and SO ROUGH on Drew. I mean, I technically do understand because Drew is closer to his age and can get under his skin, but geez does he pick on her! It remains one of the cutest things ever, though, to see him take care of/play with Paige.


One of the most interesting things about this year was his developing love of sports. Up until he moved schools, he had very little interest in sports. He played soccer in the fall but didn't really enjoy it. Well, his new group of friends was into sports and all of the sudden, he was playing football, basketball, and soccer at recess and wanted to practice/play at home! He played soccer again this spring and improved so much and had a lot of fun! He wants to play flag football in the fall, basketball in the winter and soccer in the spring - can't wait!



Also related to sports, we just started swim lessons for him - just to work on form/stroke technique because he's actually really good, and the instructor commented on how much natural talent he has in the water - that was cool to hear, and I wonder if he would want to try swim team???



He still LOVES to read - especially comic-style books like Big Nate, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc. He has a voracious appetite for books {no idea where that comes from}! I love it so much!



He still plays a lot with Legos, but we had several months in there where he wasn't interested hardly at all, and I thought maybe his love was dying out. But after his birthday, we spent his birthday money on 2 Lego Jurrasic World sets, ha.



He continues to love time with his cousin, Miles. They are thick as thieves! They love to ride bikes at my parents, and we let them go off for a little bit by themselves - big steps for the mamas!



We are starting to give Trent some independence and freedom at home. I've left him home a handful of times - for maybe up to an hour, and he's done great!



He's still seeing a therapist and taking his meds for MTHFR, but I would say his behavior this past year has been the best ever - not perfect, of course, but so good!

Trent is such a slob, like his mother. {grin} His room can go from perfectly clean to a disaster SO FAST. It's a really special talent!


Trent is such a fun kid, and I'm really excited to see what the future holds for him. Love this first born who made me a mama SO much!!! XOXO

Monday, July 16, 2018

Photo-a-Day: Week 28

Day 190: Solo Sleeping in Denver

Day 191: Facetiming with This Sweetie
[She was really confused about where I was!]

Day 192: After My Hotel Workout

Day 193: Obsessed with Sunnies

Day 194: Oh Yes, This is True!
[I hosted, and the girls wanted an easy summer read, so I picked Cancel the Wedding.
It was a successful pick, and we had a good chat and consumed a lot of wine and food.
I don't usually pick a book I've read before but thought this perfectly fit what my girls wanted.]

Day 195: Cousins!!

Day 196: Happy Boy with a New Foldable Chair


Friday, July 13, 2018

Goal Check-In

I had 4 goals and a family motto for 2018, and since we're halfway through the year, I thought it would be fun to check in and see how I'm doing!

Goals:
1. Get outside - I'll be honest, this one isn't going nearly as well as I'd hoped. Some days I'm proud of us and some days I'm not. We spend a lot of time at the pool right now and I take a lot of walks with kids in the wagon with a neighbor, and I'm just going to keep trucking along with this goal in mind.
2. Finish Trent and Drew's baby books - Oops, totally forgot this was a goal! But this is easy to knock out now that I remember about it!
3. Win the book challenge - I really wanted to win this but doubted I could beat Allison. Well, we all know who the victor was on this one - ME!!!
4. Photo-a-Day - Still going strong - I think I've missed 2 or 3 days so far the whole year, yay!

Family Motto:
A clean home is a happy home - I would definitely say I've improved here, but I'm still very inconsistent and have had plenty of days/moments where I was not happy with how things were looking. I'm making my bed 90% of the time and doing a lot better with the living room staying picked up and somewhat better with the kitchen. The summer has been hard having the kids home ALL day with different childcare almost every day, but we just wrote out some rules about what needs to be done EVERY DAY before they can have screen time, and damn it, I'm going to enforce this! They need to have their rooms clean and the playroom clean and then pick-up anything they have out in the living room and kitchen. I am still very passionate about getting a handle on this, so hopefully, I just continue to make progress. Another upside? With 2 kids out of daycare, we are talking about having our cleaning lady start coming every 2 weeks instead of every 4! That would be such a huge help, so I'm really going to work on Brent on this one. {grin}

So not nailing everything but not failing either - I'd say I'm doing pretty darn good with motivation to keep trucking along!

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

A Fantastic 4th

I find that I do less and less 'recaps' on my blog these days, but it's nice every once in a while to document an event or the regular days. I might go back to doing a monthly catch-all post just so when I'm old and look back at my blog I have lots of good memories documented. {grin} 

With that said, we had such a fun 4th of July I wanted to remember it! Some of our closest friends moved into our neighborhood a few months ago and now live about .1 miles away - from our front yard, you can see their front yard. They also have a pool and invited us over with a few other friends!

My first time making a trifle - it was heavenly!

Trent immediately checked out the new pool chairs.
Our friends are so amazing - we have a key to their fence and can swim whenever we want!

My festive trio!
I had to prep Drew for MONTHS that she would wear this dress, such a clothes diva.

All the kiddos!

Who doesn't love a good theme?
[Brent's shirt is navy with red stripes, just kind of hard to tell in the pic]

How cute is this suit? I got Drew in it, but then she didn't like it,
so off it came. Sigh.

Her famous 'Where?' pose with an Oreo-covered face. LOVE!

We decided to forego her nap but at 6:00 she just couldn't hang anymore.
She hasn't slept on me in what feels like ages, so I soaked it in.
I also soaked in the pee when she peed on me while sleeping, ha!

We swam {until the thunderstorm rained us out}, we ate, we drank, we enjoyed a good time with good friends - and isn't that what America is all about? {grin}

Monday, July 9, 2018

Photo-a-Day: Week 27

Day 183: If Only They Always Loved to Wash Dishes

Day 184: Cop-Out [Forgot to Take a Pic] but Counting Those Macros - 
Low Carb Day!!

Day 185: Happy Independence Day!!

Day 186: Minecrafting with a Neighbor [NERDS!]

Day 187: Twinkies

Day 188: Annie-Watching

Day 189: Sleeping Sweeties