Thursday, January 30, 2014

Wrap up January

I haven't had much time to blog...or to grocery shop...which was very obvious by my late night run to Sam's with Ribbit last night which ended with food piling everywhere...along with dish detergent, medicine and valentine day goodies. It was getting a little ridiculous at home figuring out what to pack for the kiddos lunch and how to use up foods for dinner. She got lots of comments last night with her little shopping cart, icee in hand and her determined look on her face...she is a very serious shopper!

Lately, our nights have consisted of basketball (Adam and goober), school events, church events, dinners with  neighbors and sitting beside the fireplace...one of our favorite things nowadays.

Goober is doing fantastic in basketball, a HUGE improvement over the last time he played. He is mainly defense and steals the ball almost every time the other team has it. He is very aggressive and we are constantly reminding him to "not respond in anger" :). He is doing well in school, struggling a little with the Shurley Method but his teacher is giving him lots of one on one time. He still loves to read, loves to make things on his loom, loves all things with a ball, loves EATING, loves to play cars with his little brother and keep up with how much money he is earning from taking out the trash and recycling. He loves to ask "what if" questions...which leads to some pretty interesting conversations. He loves to learn facts about animals and quote them out loud. He did really well preparing for Speech Meet this year and we loved his choice of poetry "The Worlds Bible". He eats a 10 piece nugget meal now at McDonalds and asks me to finish off anything I still have left of my meal when he is done. HE IS GROWING!!! Adam and I get to see him a lot during the day and sometimes he is overjoyed to see us and waves and hugs....other times we are an absolute embarrassment to him and he runs and hides. He is pretty excited about having mom for art in a couple of years and wants to know when he can start taking my classes :).

Ribbit is in a very funny stage. She hardly ever gets a sticker for good behavior at school so most days the first thing she says to me  is " mommy, I will behave next year, okay?". ...like that will make it better. She has been having lots of conversations with us about death and that she is scared of dying...but the minute we remind her that we will be with Jesus in Heaven where we will never die, as long as we believe in Him and give him our lives she perks up. She always ask about seeing shiny angels in Heaven too and that makes her happy. She asks almost weekly if she can live with me for forever or if she will have to leave when she is a mommy. I always say " you will probably want to have your own house but you can always stay with me". Then we joke and say we will stay together forever until we are old and wrinkly. She talks about "the daddy" she have (husband) and how they will all live us....smmmh. She prays the most awesome prayers and remembers every prayer request. We have been praying for our friends baby and toddler for quite some time even though they were sick before Christmas. She ALWAYS prays for Papa to find a job and she always thanks God for our food. She changes clothes constantly and is particular about what shoes she wears. She loves to wear sticker earrings and have her nails painted. She either only wants "1 unicorn tail"--a French braid or "two horseygirl braids"....two braids on the side of her head. She came to the conclusion that she should be called a horsey girl, not a cow girl because she doesn't ride cows.

Baby Boy is INTO EVERYTHING. He is confused by the sink and the trash so we are constantly checking the trash for his sippy cups and finding chewed up wads of food behind the sink where he throws them. He says "yes mam" fairly easily and loves saying " mommy daddy" super quick to see which one will respond quicker. He doesn't like to sit too long at the dinner table and nothing you can do will make him finish his meal unless it includes a biscuit or grapes or crackers. He is constantly asking for food by name...HE LOVES CHEESE! He comes out of the kitchen with food in his hands constantly. He is still our biggest cuddler and will wrap himself in you all day long. He sleeps with us every night from about 2 on. He is on top of Adam or I and wakes up searching for his "monkey" blanket constantly. He likes to pick out the shoes he will wear and doesn't like to wear jackets. He is saying small sentences like " no no sister" or "sister, no touch paint" or "sister, big spanking"...you get the idea. He loves to help mommy clean with Clorox wipes. He is coming along with the potty training and goes most of the day with a dry diaper. He still poops a lot in his diaper and then will tell us about it. He LOVES CHOO CHOOS and spots them way before any of us. He says "BIG" whenever he sees a big truck, or a plane or anything that is bigger than our van. He knows lots of people by name and waves to everyone who tells him Hi. He loves to make faces at himself in the mirror and he loves to pretend to shoot you with his fingers and say "pew". If he sees any part of your skin he yells "NAKED". He request bubble baths nightly and loves to sing " away in a manger" and our "I love you" night night song.

Adam is almost done with basketball, only 1 game and 1 tournament left. Then  he immediately starts track ;). Goober has about 6 more basketball games and then immediately starts flag football. We are working with Ribbit to get a better grasp on her ABCs and #'s so that we can figure out her kindergarten placement. Our home remodel is coming along..Playroom is done!!! (well until we take up 1/3 of it for our new master closet. Baby Boy and Momma have been back and forth to the doctor with sinus infections and strep but I think everyone is on the mend now.

Here are some pictures from our little Christmas and some pictures that I don't think I ever posted...

Riding brother around the house :)

Sledding on the snow days!
1 of our 2 snowmen!
Her two little friends....she was so proud of them!
We are so blessed by good neighbors, ON BOTH SIDES, both believing families who we love to HANG OUT WITH!!! Here is our neighbor on the left Nolan, make snow dough with the kiddos.
She declared one of the Snow Days her birthday and wore the hat and told everyone she saw. Its hard being a birthday diva.
Building our gingerbread house.
Final outcome. This lasted all of 3 minutes, then fell apart and was nibbled on.
Reindeer cookies for Santa. We had to improvise for the antlers this year since Santa had to come quickly so we could get home to Alabama for a funeral. Thankfully Santa didn't mind and still ate ALL of the cookies :)
Christmas morning as Baby Boy slowly walked over to his presents. You will notice that there is only 1 "new" toy. We get all of our toys passed down and/or at consignment sells. I maybe spent $100 total on the kiddos Christmas this year..and that was mainly for clothes they needed....CHA CHING!
Riding her cow...this made her a "cowgirl" for the day but she still prefers Horseygirl!
See that big ole bucket of legos...FREE BABY..those sets aren't cheap either. He can BUILD anything he wants! He also got collector Ninja Turtles...ALL OF THEM!!
I like this picture because Christmas has exploded all over the floor and Goober is loving on his present....who knew a loom that makes potholders would  bring him so much joy :)
Daddy getting help opening up his new house shoes.
 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Projects

Ever since we have been home we have been attacking our house room by room....WHY? Because we OWN it now and we can do all of those projects we have been waiting to do (well kinda waiting, but kinda starting beforehand :)).

So, the first thing we did was buy an Auburn flag to hang outside on the porch. We are so proud of our team from going to a non-ranked, no expectations season to #2!!!!  We were of course upset with the outcome of the BCS game but so proud of our coaches and players and the way they carried themselves afterwards.

We also began the BIG REMODEL in the living room. The brown trim is 1/2 way down, we have over 1/2 of the paneling pulled down. Baby Boy grabbed a screwdriver and helped with the process...even to the point of sticking it in an outlet and getting the tar scared out of him while fire popped out. He wasn't hurt but all the kids screamed and the electricity went out. Everytime he sees the screwdriver now he says "pop, hot".

Adam has about 1/3 of the travertine up in Ribbit's bathroom and its looking great. Hopefully, this upcoming 3 day weekend will allow him time to finish it...or at least install the new toilet. I don't know how many more midnight potty runs of Ribbit's I can endure.

We decided that the rug in Baby Boy's room needs train tracks painted on it so we used leftover paint samples to paint that on...so with that addition and all of his train décor he got for Christmas, his room is STINKIN CUTE! He is a little scared of the Railroad crossing light my parents got him since it makes the sounds too but he is slowly warming up to it :).

We hung up Goober's Man Cave flag, got his new light in stalled and have spent the last couple of nights looking up Rainbow Loom youtube videos and making 'starburst, zipline, and triple single' bracelets.....sometimes I want to throw the thing across the room but then I see a 3rd grade girl leading the tutorial in a you tube video and I think "if she can do it, I can do it"...so far though Adam has had to step in every time and save Goober and I from our misery. Apparently both of us are not very good at details :).

We started painting the play room as well...its called Cincinnati Cinnamon and it looks amazing with all of the white trim already in that room. The playroom has white trim that divides it into sections and I love how clean its already looking ...well until you look at the floor.

I've been taking progress pictures of the house so I will post those soon.

Here are pictures from our time at CC's and Papas over Christmas break.

About to open stockings.

An attempt to take a family picture :)

Papa got 3 bells to add to his Harley (Father, Husband, Papa). They are for protection...its a Harley thing ;)

CC looking at the kids artwork. I think Ribbit is studying her new play dough kit.

Goober's new baseball bat bag.

Baby Boy helping Uncle Chris open presents.


Baby Boy loved his Curious George from Uncle Chris but did not want the book that went with it :)

Airplane.
Christmas tires us all out!!



More to come!!!

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Last day of break


We just finished packing everything up...which took at least 2 hours....not including putting it in the van. Packing up from Christmas includes removing unnecessary boxes, packing everything in ziploc bags, separating clean and dirty clothes and fitting all that new stuff into our van. We are also taking back a cooler full of deer meat. Adam shot his first doe...YAY and we are so excited to have all that meat for the new year. We are also taking Micah back to TX with us ..... we are praying that the kids sleep well and she doesn't want to stop in MS to let out a scream or two (as I want to do almost every trip :). SO, if you see a blue minivan with a FULL car top carrier and riding real low to the ground, with parents hanging out their heads out of the window screaming...thats us!

We have had all of our Christmas meetings and the kids were overly spoiled. All of my moms side of the family came over for Christmas on Saturday...we had fun eating, exchanging gifts, making fun of each other and of course ended the nights with cards..I have to let you know that I WON...I never win at hearts!!!! The kids got the cutest piggy banks, each one fits their personalities and some candy. I also got a kitchen tool that lets the kids cut food into shapes, so far we have cut cucumbers into hearts, stars, butterflies, suns and circles and our sandwiches :).

We also had Christmas with my Aunt Robin yesterday in Pensacola at a seafood restaurant. It was beautiful, our tables overlooked a waterway and a marina and the food was delicious. The kids got all kinds of fun toys, remote control cars, fingernail polish, purses, stuffed animals with nightlights in them, blankets and other fun things. From there we went to the cemetery to see my Papas grave. My grandma was cremated but her urn was placed in his grave with him so even though the kids ran around like crazy people and ran over several graves while there it was still nice to visit them with family.

New Years was AWESOME. My favorite part about coming home every time it going up into the country where my mom's family lives. We all crowd into my Uncle's home which is less than 5 seconds from my grandparents and other aunts house. They live in the deep country.....dirt roads, surrounded by trees and crops...where you can hear coyotes every night and we can have a bonfire. Adam, Mason, Goober, Uncle Paul and I all went hunting first thing. Right as we were about to give up we heard Adam and Mason both fire. Adam got his deer but Mason ended up not being able to find his. Adam shot his right in the rear. Since Goober was in the blind was me it would have taken a deaf/blind deer for us to kill anything. He moved every 2.5 seconds, sniffed or talked the whole time. We kept shhhiing him but he would throw up his arms like he had no clue what we were talking about. I also got a case of violent sneezes and laughed so hard at myself for trying to keep them muffled that I am sure I scared some deer away too.

Anyways, we took Adam's doe, about 100 lbs, back to my Uncles and let Adam, Mason, my dad and Paul skin him. Adam got right in on it and let me smear the blood on his face :). We got several LARGE pieces of meat off the deer and they even found the bullet. My children all watched and the only one who gagged was Goober....just as the rib cage was being cut and all the organs fell out. Baby Boy kept saying "icky" and "tete"...I think he thought the blood was pee. At the end of everything Ribbit looked around  said "mommy we shouldn't have done that"..When I asked "why?". She said "look at all that blood".. It was true, blood covered everything and everybody.

After that we all ate dinner and headed out to the fire for dessert. Then we started the fireworks and that was fun as everyone was trying to scare everyone else. We got Micah pretty good and I think she passed the family test :). Goober LOVES fireworks and was out there with all the big kids lighting bottle rockets and other bombs. It really is a miracle that no one has ever been seriously hurt out there :).

All in all we had 20 people there, so the kids had plenty of playmates and people to hold them :) Around 8:30 it started to rain so we went in to start cards and watch football. We taught Goober how to play hearts and so for about 1/2 of the game we had 8 people playing all on teams. He is actually doing pretty well. Baby Boy fell asleep watching TV with his papa but the other two stayed up playing until we left at 11. We got home at midnight, all the couples kissed, watched some fireworks on TV, watched a SCANDAL ( oh I love that show) and then went to bed.

A great Christmas break!!!

Some notable things from my kiddos

1-When I asked Goober what his favorite toy he got for Christmas was he said " its not a toy, but spending time with family"...MELT MY HEART

2-Baby Boy learned how to sing Happy Birthday over the break. It comes out "birthday to you, birthday to you".

3-Ribbit has developed her own language which includes the word "beatle beatle" almost every other word. She has had her nails done and has been extra lovey. She also has started dancing and singing " i like to move it, move it" all the time!

4-My dad had a colonoscopy  done while we were here and when he got back Ribbit took one look at him and said " Papa, did you get poked". My dad was pretty groggy and didn't get it but the rest of it had to keep it together.

5- Baby Boy is pretty attached to Micah and keeps saying "my micah" to Chris which starts a fight :)

6-We went to a Christmas program at my parents church and afterwards one of the ladies said " Goober, did you like it?" He immediately said "ehhhh" and shook his hand up and down. I was mortified.

Baby Boy hanging up a christmas ornament with Aunt Erika's bookbag on.
Ribbit got a giftcard and can't stop talking about it!
Helping Captain open up a gift.
Baby Boy and his great grandpa ...we have the same picture from last year. He went right to him.
Look Daddy, new stick on earrings. Lord, help us now...that girl is going to be a diva!
Walking the Rentschler's dog.
WWAAARRR EEAAAGGGLLLEEE!!
He caught his giggling dog.
He loves that thing!
Baby Boy was using mommy's tools to help Daddy put together sisters toy :). He was getting a little frustrated.
Showing off her new hat, scarf and mittens.
Showing off their Aubie hats ....WAR EAGLE
Stocking time....Ribbit got several princesses.
Flashlights..always a good toy for boys.
Riding the choo choo at the mall with Lolly.

More pictures to come!