First day of preschool

Well, I did it.  I made it through his first day of school.  Granted he's 3, and it's just preschool, but I'm a little glad I had this job to take my mind off of it. 

I took another half day so that I could take him to school and not be rushed through the morning. It's a good thing I did, cause I was slightly a mess.  It could have been worse.  It is me after all.  I was thinking on my drive that it sure would be nice to turn the emotions off and tuck my sensitive and sentimental heart somewhere else for awhile.  But then I realized I wouldn't have any idea of who I was.  That's just who I am, take it or leave it.

I also got to thinking about what a big deal this all is.  He's going to school.  It pulls at my momma's heart, but I know it's the best for him.  It offers him things that I can't.  Learning how to be a friend.  What it means to stand up for yourself.  That it's okay to be (a little) independent.  All of this, of course, made me boo hoo even more.  But that's a part of life.  A part of growing up. These are all things he needs to learn to become the man I want him to be. 

And Luke in all of this?  He was ready.  He was so engrossed in watching what everyone was doing that he would barely look at me for a picture.  He found something to play with right away, waiting for Dakota to come over, and wouldn't even kiss me goodbye.  He is his mother's child.

I did get to talk to him on the phone after Cindy picked him up.  The first thing he told me was that he pee peed in the potty.  Whew!  His classroom is in a modular, and that actually works in his favor I believe.  They have set bathroom breaks where everyone goes at the same time.  I'm pretty sure if it was up to him he would never stop playing, so this works out well.  He also told me that he played cars and sang songs.  I asked him if he liked his lunch, and h said yes.

When I picked him up, he was actually ready to come home.  She said  that he laid in bed and just talked to himself for most of nap time, getting only about an hour of sleep.  I walked in the door, he wanted to be held, and he wanted to go home and go night night.  His words.  Poor kid was EXHAUSTED from his day.  Which also meant he was a beast.  He didn't want to get out of the car, and Cody happened to be at the house so I had him bring in the monster.  Luke cried and cried, so he and I ate a quick dinner, had a rice crispy treat, a quick bath, and was in bed by 7:30.  Then I jumped in the shower with Evan, fed her, and put her down.  The house was blessedly quiet by 8:30.  Hopefully everyone under the age of 4 in this house will sleep the whole night away.

Evan close ups

I saw someone take pictures of their babe capturing all the little sweet things about their body.  I have learned from Luke that you forget so. much. stuff.  I barely remember him being a baby.  Luckily  I've got about a thousand pictures to remind me whenever I need it.  I wanted to do the same for Evan- get right in there and remember how small her hands and feet are, what the birth mark  under her ear  was like before it fades away, how her hair line is a v-shape  when she has her eyebrows  up.  I tired so hard to get a good picture, but she wouldn't stop moving.  At all.   After about 30 minutes I got frustrated and quit, but there were a handful of decent ones in the bunch.

Busy week

 (a sneak peek at some of the picture I got of Evan today.  I'll post the rest tomorrow or so, there are enough pictures in here for today)

This week was oddly busy.   Tuesday night was the RoughRiders game that I had helped organize for work.  We had a patio with BBQ and drinks, it was a lot of fun.

Ashley was my +1 since she loves the sports.   And it was fun just getting to hang out with her anyway.  We got some hats from the stadium, and I gave mine to Luke.

He loved it so much he slept with it that night.


Wednesdays are long days, I don't have time to go home between picking the kids up and when Wednesday Nite Bite starts.  Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled WNB is back, it just makes for a long day.  To get to work by 8, I have to leave the house by 7.  On Wednesday nights we don't get home from church until 8:15ish.  But it's okay.  I've started the new parenting class this week, so maybe that will make up for it, right?

(this was before work on Friday....Evan was laying on my bed when Luke woke up, and he said he wanted to cuddle with her.  This is his version of that. I actually said "Don't use your sister as a pillow")

By Thursday the house was not in great shape from things being so rushed lately.  My goal had been to get it picked up and the floors cleaned, then just have to clean the bathrooms on Friday night.  Well that just plain didn't happen.  It took so long on Thursday  to get the house tidy that nothing got actually clean.  

 (playing while I cooked)

So last night I buckled down and got it all done.  Floors, laundry, bathrooms, kitchen, the whole shebang.  By 10:30  I was done with everything and was able to pour a big glass of wine and sit in my clean tub.  Besides  having worked my bum off getting the house work done, I'd had an emotional day.  I took half a day from work so that I could take Luke to "Meet the Teacher" at his preschool.  My word, it's a real classroom.  Like, for real.  My sweet baby boy is going to school.  He's beyond excited, which makes me happy, but boy does it tug at the heart strings.  Tuesday will be a killer.

Oh, and when some joker saw Evan she commented that they had a  baby her size at home as well. I said "really! She's 12  weeks." and they said "oh, he's 6 months."  Thanks lady, for telling me again what a giant I have on my hands.

So today I'm very glad I worked hard last night.  I have been able to play with Luke all day.  We have played trains.  We went outside.  I cleaned out the garage (a very little bit).  I turned on the sprinkler for us since it was blazing hot and he didn't want to go inside. 

 (he is so bringing back this style)

We went to get gas for next week and Chick Fil A for lunch.  I figured we wouldn't be gone very long, so I wouldn't need to take anything for Evan.  Like a paci.  I could not have been more wrong.  My generally happy girl decided she just didn't want to be in the car and screamed  the entire time.  It was awful. 

Tonight Shae came over with the boys.  They played for while, then it was dinner at Whataburger.  Mmmm grease.  Now, if you are adding it up in your head, that would be four kids to two adults.  And we were quite the traveling circus you would imagine us to be.  The big boys were enjoying each other loudly.  Mikah didn't want to eat.  Evan hated her car seat.  The easiest thing to do was to just hold her, where she dozed  off like this.

I even caught a lady shaking her head at us as we corralled everyone out to the cars.  To which I wanted to say "Suck it lady- it's Whataburger and we are just trying to make it out alive."

Parenting Fails

First, I just have to say I actually wore heels to the office yesterday.

I got quite a bit of flack for having them on, but sometimes a girl just needs a fancy pair of shoes to make herself feel better.

When I got home I cooked my very first after-work meal.  It was tacos. 

I know.

Such a tricky meal.

I have to say though, that Luke really eats them better than most things I cook. 

This is his preschool-kid-lets-prevent-a-mess version by having all the items separate.  On his train plate.  It must be the train plate.  But who is surprised about that?  I actually used ground turkey instead of beef this time in an effort to make it a tad more healthy, and you know what?  I could barely tell a difference.  That was my parenting win for the night.

The fails came fast and furious though.  He wanted ketchup with his taco plate and at first I said no.  There was nothing on his plate that needed ketchup and I knew he would just end up eating it straight with a fork.  But after enough times of saying "I just try it peas." with a downcast face and puppy dog eyes I caved.  He dipped his tomatoes in the ketchup.  So does that count as him just eating straight ketchup? 

After dinner I wanted to take his library books back, but didn't want to take the time to go in and get new ones.  Of course when we were in the drive through putting them in the drop box he said "Let's get some new ones Mom!"  to which I replied "Let's get some ice cream!"  And we did.  Just heap shame coals on my head now please.  But in my defense, we have a million (literally) books at home for him to read.

By the time we got home it was way past when I had planned on getting him in the bath.  Plus The Closer was about to come on.  So I stuck him in the bath in the first commercial break, and washed him in the second break.  He put up such a fuss about not getting to play anymore that I "punished" him by not reading a story and just tucking him in bed instead. 

See?  Parenting fails by the minute last night.

Evan was around the whole time.  When I wasn't dealing with Brother I was holding my Sister. 

I just can't get enough of her!

Evan's legs

In case you haven't met my daughter in person, this is what her thighs look like.

Except not green.

The end.

Promotion Sunday

This morning was Promotion Sunday for all of the bible classes.  Okay, all the bible classes for people ages 18 and under.  I think I'm done with the promotion stuff.  Hmm...now that I think about it, at some point I will have to promote from the "Young Families" class (aka, my small group) and we will all have to be in the 40's-something bible class.   Let's not think about that. 

All of the kids heading off to school were asked to bring their backpacks to service so they could go up on stage and have the "Back pack Blessing", which just meant all they would get prayed over to have a successful school year.  Since this is my boy's first go around for the school thing, this was the first time he got to take his brand new bag and head up to the stage with everyone else (all the way through high school!).  I think I may have been the only one with a camera taking pictures of this, but I really don't care.  I'm comfortable enough with my church family to be THAT mom.  I'm fairly certain not one person batted an eye (and our congregation has about  500 members).

(sorry these three at church are fuzzy, I had to crop way in so you could see him in the crowd)

Next to all the actual big kids, he looked so small, but by himself he looked like such a big boy to me!

He even bowed his head through (most) of the prayer at the end.

When did that kid stop being this baby?

 (Luke at 6 months)

Oh wait, I have this baby  now.

It was also his first time to go to Christian Soldier's, the program for kids 3-5th grade during church service.  Before he went I let him put his offering in the kid's collection bucket (also a first, since he has always sat with us, I've always just had him put it in the plate as it was passed), and the dude MADE CHANGE.  As in, he put in the dollar I gave him and he came back with coins in his hand.  I had Evan with me (it was time to nurse so I was going to drop him off before heading to the nursery) in one arm, her little bag of diapers and the nursing cover in the other arm, so I was a bit flustered with he came back with the change.  All I could think to do was hand it to a teen I know as I passed by him on our way out and told him to give it back.  Next time Luke and I will have a little talk about how we give everything thing to God, *ahem* don't take any of it back. 

As you can see, I finally let Evan wear her big flower this morning (I was testing the light in that picture, so I just held the camera out in front of us).  Let me tell you she was the belle of the ball this morning.  Ashley got off work and came straight to church in her scrubs and all she could do was laugh when she saw Evan.  Good thing E didn't know any better or her feelings might have been hurt.  Someone might need to go to sensitivity training one of these days. 

She begged me to let her wear her bracelet too, and I  consented, since I was wearing mine that is so similar.  Have I showed you what Mom got me? 

The Luke bracelet is what she gave me when I was in the hospital after having him, and last month she took it back to the lady who made it and had her add Evan to it.  So now it looks like two bracelets......

but it's actually just one!  After church and lunch we came home for nap time.  I laid down on my bed with Evan, and man did I have a hard time getting up.  After lazing around the entire afternoon I decided a bath would be a nice idea, but someone crashed it.

I tried to tell him what the word "privacy" means, but he took it as an invitation to sit on the floor and visit.  Eventually I realized we were going to have to eat dinner.  Evan had gone back to sleep, and Cody was at the house, so I left her there with him while I took my big boy to Fuzzy's for a quick bite and out to the park to run around before it got dark.  I let him wear his new tennis shoes and a pair of the shorts we got him for soccer.

Now that looks like a baby all grown up.

Saturday at home. Mostly.

This week went smoothly enough.  Luke loved Cindy's house so much that every time I went to pick them up he threw a fit and didn't want to come home.  This week was also my last week of meals from my small group.  WHAT am I going to do?!   I have been so spoiled by my friends.  It was just lovely.

This morning I took the kids to the doughnut shop because we were out of milk.   I think people have gone for less.  Normally I just get Luke a half a dozen doughnut holes, but it's been awhile since we've been and now he's got an opinion.  He saw a star doughnut with sprinkles and there was no way I could talk him into the holes.  The star had to be his.

And just as I expected, this was all he ate of it.

He wanted me to buy him another one, but I told him he could eat all of the one he had or be done.  Tough luck bud.  After breakfast we went to the grocery store to stock up for the week, and then went home.  That's where the fun began. I started cleaning house and Luke finally got to play with his toys.  One thing about not being home during the week is how much he is ready to play with his favorites on the weekend.  While I was cleaning my room he brought in his bucket of favorite cars and used the stripe around the bedspread as a road.

Did you know that the black Porche is like Nana's car, the white soccer Bug is like my car, and the orange Corvette is like Joby's car?  Me either.  I posted that one on facebook and Joby commented that it meant I really was a soccer mom.  Great.   He also wanted me to "build a tunnel"  so I found a picture frame that he could drive cars underneath.  That wasn't good enough.  He decided to use the pillows on the bed.

Can you tell that's him buried in there?  After the first time he surfaced he commented  "It's dark in der Mom, it's dark in dat tun-nul."  What a kid. Soon enough it was nap time.  Evan was already asleep when he went down, so I was able to wrap up all of the rest of the cleaning, except for the vacuuming obviously.  Girlfriend woke up before the Dude did, so  I decided it was a good time for her bath.  Since I'd just cleaned  the tub, I climbed in with her.  After bath time she nursed for awhile and she passed right back out.

I don't think moms ever get tired of taking pictures of their babes sleeping.  Later this afternoon I got the big camera out to take some pictures of Evan in some special wares.  Taylor made her this awesome onesie a few weeks ago, and gave her the bow and shoes  way back when at my shower.  How cute is this girl?!

I know you can't see in this picture (but you can in the one at the top of the post), but the middle of the bow is black and white zebra with a pink embroidered E.  She knows I'm a sucker for monogramming.  The funny part was when Luke saw that I was taking her picture he ran off and the next thing I knew, this was happening.

Yep.  That's him taking her picture too, with my phone.  Oh my.  He actually got a pretty good one....

before they all turned into things like this. 

I think we can cross "budding photographer" off the list of possible career paths to send  him on, unless giant blurs come into popularity.  And sorry for all of the pictures.  It's what happens when I don't take any throughout the week and they all happen in one day.

Bedtime Conversation

We had just finished going through the 9 memory verses on Luke's stop sign board.  The last one that we said tonight was "God is with us where ever we go." 

-"Mom, we eat dinner with Jesus?"

-"Yep.  When we eat dinner, Jesus is there with us.  He loves it when we talk to him at meal time!"

-"We go to Jesus' house.  We get in Mom's car and driiiiiiiive and go to his house."

-"No baby.  We can't go to Jesus' house yet, because he lives with us! He is right here in our house and in our heart. (I patted his chest) One day we'll go to his house, but right now he gets to live with us.  That's why we talk to him all the time!"

-"Mom, say  ahhh-ahhh-ahhh-choooooo!"

"Goodnight son."

A post in Twitters

First, I would like to share Evan's birth announcement:

Didn't my girls do a fantastic job with my baby girl?  The pictures are from our newborn session with Taylor, and Jenn created  the card.  I LOVE it!

Today Lindsay finally convinced me to pick my twitter account back up.  I didn't get that into it when I first signed up for my account, but today it seems I've opened the flood gates:

-Note to self: Do not wear a low cut cami with the ultra granny full-coverage nursing bra. Not a pleasant combo when looking down.

-I would just like to say that I got my regular jeans up AND zipped this morning with minimal muffin top. It only took 11 weeks.

-My reward for drinking my whole 32oz cup of water is Sonic happy hour. Now do I want my special ice tea or a cherry vanilla coke?

-Getting a pedicure and the woman next to me just announced loudly on the phone that she was still getting the dead skin sanded off her feet.

-I just uttered the phrases 'burps come out of your mouth, toots come out of your bottom' and 'no, you took too long to spit'.

And then there were my facebook statuses:

-Just opened the chocolate bar I hid in my desk. I was hoping it would last me the week, but it's survival expectancy isn't looking so hot.

-Luke was begging to get in the car and drive over a train track, so I sat next to him on the couch and pretended to drive over a track by "steering" then jiggling him with the bump-bump of the track. He didn't buy it.

 Aren't you people  so lucky  to have one more way to hear all the crazies in my head?  You're welcome. But that will have to do for now, seeing as I have the sweetest baby asleep on my shoulder, a silly boy singing in bed, and a hot shower calling my name.

Luke's first sleep over

This week went by fairly smoothly.  Went to work, came home, played with my kids, in bed by 10:30.  This week Evan gave me her first real laugh.  Get this- she thinks it's hysterical when I change her clothes. Don't most babies hate that?  I get the biggest laughs every evening when I take her clothes off and put on her jammies.  She's smiling more frequently too, and at most people she meets.  Catch her right after she's woken up for a feeding and you will get the biggest smiles.

Luke did good with his second week away from me too.  He still wants to come with me in the mornings, but thankfully there has yet to be any tears from him.  And I don't think that will change.  This week he starts with his new babysitters and I think he will love them all.  Plus today we went and got his back pack for school (I really had to work at holding it together in Academy when he was trying on a couple of back packs- where did this little kid come from?  Don't I have two babies?)  I also got him some actual athletic shoes (his first pair) because- wait for it- Mom and I signed him up for soccer on Saturday.

Who am I?!?!

See, Shae signed up Dakota for soccer and told me I should sign Luke up too.  I think we are all aware that sports aren't quite my forte, so I was a little hesitant.  So that stinker went and told my mother that she signed up Dakota and Luke needed to get in too!  Once Ashley got wind of the ordeal, it was all over for me.  Mom and Ashley have been dying to sign him up for ages, so I didn't stand a chance.  Luke now has THREE pairs of athletic shorts (three more pairs than he's ever had), tennis shoes, a soccer ball, and I got a folding chair to take with me.

When.  Oh when, did I become a soccer mom.

Oh that's right.  On Saturday.

Anyway, there you have it.  Hysterical preschool soccer commentary coming soon to a blog near you.

I guess I should move on to the title of the post.  For lunch on Friday, Shae brought her boys up to eat with Joby, and they very graciously invited me along.  A couple of hours after she got home from lunch, she called Joby to say their air was out.  (Don't forget the heat index has been in excess of 110 for the past 30+ days)  I told him to tell her to pack the boys up and go to my house. By the time they got everything together and a trip to Sam's under their belt, it was time for dinner, so I tossed some spaghetti on the stove and we all had a nice meal around my table.  My house doesn't have enough beds to sleep an extra family comfortably, but my  mom's sure does.  In fact, she has enough beds to sleep my family AND the Raymond's comfortably.  And that's what we did.

I didn't want them to feel weird spending the night with my parents, so I threw some jammies in a bag for me and the kids and headed over there too.  We put Luke and Dakota in a room together, and that might have been the most fun Luke ever had.  Every 5 minutes an adult had to go up stairs and lay down one more rule than before.  Mostly because Luke was all hyped up and didn't know what to do about it.  He jumped on the bed.  He was told to keep his head on the pillow.  He talked.  He talked a lot.  Finally Dakota came down stairs (at 11) and said that Luke wouldn't stop talking about the trains.  HA!!  I finally had to lay down the law of no talking or moving and they eventually drifted off.

Evan and I were in another bed, while Shae and Joby had the third room with Mikah in the pack n play.  Shae and Mikah got up at 7, but the boys and I slept until 8.  Know why?  Because it was RAINING!  If you don't live around here, then you probably aren't aware of the drought.  It's been at least two months since we've had any kind of rain.  Add that to the ridiculous heat we've had, and just about everything is dead.  It was lovely.  They went home about 10 on Saturday morning (after a lovely doughnut breakfast curtsey of Dad) and thankfully the a/c repair man came very soon after that.  I'm so glad that we got to have that experience on Friday night.  It came at the perfect time too.  Thursday some things with Cody had caused some wounds to open back up, so by Friday night I was glad to have an excuse to get away for a little while. 

I think the only exciting thing this week is that the kids start with all the different babysitters, I'm interested to see how it goes!

Well checks all around

Yesterday evening I finally got to take Evan to her 2 month well check, and I had held off Luke's 3 year well check until now so I'd only have to make one trip.  When we got there we did the weigh ins, the temp checks, and the height checks, yada yada yada.  Then came a first for my little guy. 

He got to wear a paper robe.

I was THRILLED that I just happen to have my camera in my bag from taking it to work, so I yanked that thing out and started snapping.

I kept taking pictures until he hid in the corner to get me to stop.

And my very favorite view of the whole thing?

That cute little hiney poking out of the back. 

I didn't get the percentages for Luke, and I don't remember how tall he was, but I do remember that he weighed in at 31 lbs even.  I think he's about average.  Always has been.  My girl though?  I knew she was big but get this- her weight was in the 97% (13 lbs, 6 oz) and her height was in the 90% (23 1/2 inches) with her head circumference in the 50%.  Big body, little head.  Luke has never been above 75%  in anything, ever.  I asked Kim if she was going to be bigger that him, and she said there is a really good chance.  YIKES.  The last thing a boy wants is for his little sister to be bigger than he is!!  I pulled Luke's baby book out to see what he weighed at 2 months and shockingly he was 12 lbs 8 oz and 23 inches long.  Not too terribly smaller, but the growth curve for boys is set higher than it is for girls since they are typically a bit bigger.  That's why his percents have always been so much lower than what hers are. 

Anyway, the point is, I've got a fatty on my hands.  Or as most people put so nicely, she's a "healthy" girl.  I promise she's only had formula once since getting out of the NICU, that's all from nursing!

Today Mom, Ashley, and Grandy brought the kids up to the office to take me to lunch.  My sweet boy asked me if I could just come home instead.  :(  I wish, little dude.  Yesterday I met Jenn for lunch, and then she was scheduled to bring me dinner last night.  It was this super good chicken bake!  I believe it will be coming with me to work tomorrow for lunch.  Tonight it is Tamara bringing dinner.  It has been SO. NICE. to be able to just come home and relax and not scramble to try and feed the troops.  I am really going to have to get my act together after next week!

Weekend Update

Is it bad that the last two post titles have had 'update'  in the title?  Hmmm.

And how cute is this girl?

I could just eat her up. 

Friday night we just hung out at home.  Ate leftovers for dinner.  Didn't do any cleaning or tidying.  Had all the lights out by 10. 

Saturday was significantly more eventful.  Evan slept until 3:00, then was up again at 6:00.  Luke was up at 7:15.  Yay me. We had plans at 10:30 to go swimming at my friend's house, and we had a great time.  Evan slept through the whole thing (even though I had put her swimsuit on her.  boo!) which allowed me to focus on Luke.  Well, as much as I could focus on him through the chatting.  Ha! 

We headed out at noon and I dropped Luke off at Mom and Dad's so he could nap there, and then went to the movies with Ashley and Dad.  Mom had a couple of Groupons to Studio Movie Grill and I was ready to see Harry Potter.  Ashley and Dad just came along for the ride.  Evan did too.  Is it bad that her first movie was Harry Potter, while Luke's was Momma Mia?  Couldn't be helped.  When we got there we ordered some lunch, then settled in to watch the fantasticness.  And fantastic it was.  I cried a lot.  Any surprise there?

I did get one surprise in the movie.  In the 'heaven' scene, a very quite, reflective scene, Evan decided to have her biggest blowout to date.  Ashley and I died laughing.  Everyone else let out a snicker too.  Way to ruin the mood girlfriend.  There was poop everywhere. On her, on my shorts, on my shirt.  There was 30 minutes left of the movie, but I was not about to leave and miss the end of only the best saga ever.  I've been obsessed with HP for years now.  Luckily it didn't bother her since she slept through the entire thing. 

After the movies I rounded up my (finally clean) kids and we went over to Shae and Joby's for the evening.  We ate pizza, watched the kids play, and I finally got to hang out with my friend and visit.  Working has really put a crimp in our hang out time.  Boo.  Since Luke had refused to sleep at Mom's, we were out of there by 8:30 to get home to bed.  Again, I had lights out by 10.  I'm really attempting to get more sleep!

Sunday there was this cuteness in the house.

While this little dress did have matching shoes, it did not have bloomers.  This momma was not about to let her girl go out in public with an exposed diaper, so I got to finally use her monogrammed bloomers.  Love them!

She was in such a good mood while I was taking her picture that I went a little snap happy.

Oops. 


But I'm gonna keep snapping as much as I can as long as she can't run away!  After church I spent the rest of the day cleaning house.  Ashley came over and we went to the store, made dinner, and made chocolate covered cookie dough balls.  My fun weekend passed way too quickly!  I think that's going to be my new mantra every Monday.