Wednesday, February 29, 2012

My little kindergarten all-star

Kindergarten is so fun!  I love how Nora gets so excited about the little things….she gets to go to the treasure chest during Spanish class or she gets to go to the AR store and get a prize.  She loves when her class gets a special award (the golden plate award, given to the quietest class in the cafeteria…brilliant!) or she gets called to the front of assembly during rise and shine.

A few weeks ago she came home, so excited, because she was chosen as a “Terrific Kid”.  I am positive all kids are chosen as a Terrific Kid (when I taught, they were) but she was thrilled that she was singled out.

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She kept reminding me that she was “only” a Terrific Kid for a week.  I would laugh and tell her that she is ALWAYS terrific.  She would argue with me-No! I’m only terrific for a week.  Hahahahaha!

Her second special thing that has happened recently was that she was in a program at school.  She was chosen to be an ambassador for her class for this semester.  An ambassador is a friend to new students in the class, helps kids out if they need something…basically, be a nice person.  All the ambassadors for this semester were in a Black History Month program.  She has a pretty big job…the pledge.  She was cute when she would practice her part.  I have it on video, but I actually used our video camera instead of my phone and I am not quite sure how to transfer to the computer.

Here she is after the program, with her friend, John David.  He was Langston Hughes.

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Aren’t they precious!

My little kindergartener, the all-star.  Of course, if she hadn’t been Terrific Kid or been in a program, I would still consider her an all-star.  It’s a mom thing.

Texas

During the week that Nora had off of school for her February break, we decided to take a quick trip to Texas.  We left on a Thursday and came back on Monday.  And by “we”, I mean me and the three kiddos.  Matthew still had to work-boo!

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The trip to Texas was great!  The girls did a great job and I don’t think had a single argument and Rives was a champion traveler too.  It was a 7 hour trip and I was nervous about making the trip on my own, but my three little companions made the trip enjoyable.

We made a stop at Chick fil A and Rives had a good time in the toddler area.  Again, I wanted to boil him after he crawled all over the floor.  Ick!

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The first full day were in Texas was his 9 month birthday.

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If you read ahead you know that I was sick in February too.  I had a horrible cough and had hardly any rest the whole time we were in Texas.  Rives and I shared a room and, although he slept like a champ, I coughed all night and was so worried about waking him.

Anyway, there is no rest for the weary, especially on vacation.  Friday afternoon, my mom took the girls to see a movie and Rives and I went to eat lunch with my sister.  But first, we went up to the school she teaches at.  Here we are, ready for the bell to ring so we can go eat…look at that precious smile

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Rives and Aunt Marty…

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I met up with my mom and the girls and we headed over to the assisted living home that my grandmother lives at…

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Rives is loving my great aunts dog…maybe one day you’ll get a dog, buddy.

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Elyn modeling a new outfit she picked out at Target…

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On Saturday, we headed over to my cousins house.  Her little boy turned three and we got to be there for his party!  She is due with her third son in April and I can’t wait for her to join the land of three kids.  The food was AMAZING….Julie did it all herself.

Aunt Marty feeding Rives…he did her a favor by putting some of the bananas on her sweater-ha!

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Rives trying to steal food off of Bristol and Berkley’s trays.

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Bristol and Berkeley are my cousin’s, Jill, twin girls.  They are going to be big sisters to a brother in July!  Yea, two girls and a boy….just like us (that’s what Nora and Elyn say).

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Saturday night we went to eat dinner at Pappadeaux.  Since Mardi Gras was the following Tuesday they had a ton of entertainment.

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I have no photos from Sunday…I know we went to church and to eat but I couldn’t tell you what we did that night….hmmmm, I have so few brain cells left it’s amazing I remember anything.

We left bright and early (ok, as soon as I had the car packed) Monday morning.  Once again, the kids were great!  It really was enjoyable!  I hope that they are as good on a LONG trip we are taking over spring break.

We stopped again, at another Chick fil A and once again, I wanted to boil Rives.

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When we walked in the house after our long trip, Matthew was cooking dinner, the house was spotless and he had flowers for the girls.  LOVE HIM!

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It was a nice trip and good to see so much family!

Nine months

Rives’ “inside out day” was February 17….9 months old.  He has been in my arms as long as he was in my belly (give or take a few days).

It’s amazing how fast the nine months in my arms have gone….so fast!

Rives is such a joy to our house!  I think his sisters are the happiest when they are playing with him or talking to him.  He loves them so much and lights up when they are around.  He is also so understanding when they are hauling him from place to place and trying to “help” him.

What is he up to:

  • CRAWLING!  He is not just crawling, he is exploring and into everything…a glimpse of my future.
  • Eating lots of different foods.  I am making his baby food and have a little pride in the fact that I have bought ZERO jars of baby food.  His favorite foods are yogurt, bananas, sweet potatoes, a mixture I make that is sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and broth.  He tolerates new foods.  He is kind of picky when I introduce something new, but after a few attempts he usually decides that he likes it and gobbles it up.  Although, tonight, I introduced some broccoli, rice and mushroom mixture.  He loved it!
  • I am still nursing him 3-4 times a day.  He is easily distracted during our nursing sessions and because of that, eats best early in the morning and last thing at night.
  • He cannot drink out of a sippy cup.  I’m lazy with making him do it…third kid.  I figure when he gets thirsty enough, he’ll drink.
  • If he is feeling good and does not have a cold or ear infection, he will sleep from 7:30pm to 6:00am.  He is an early riser because I have to yank him out of bed on M/W/F at 6:30 to drop off Nora.  I hoping this summer he learns to sleep until 7:30!
  • When he is not feeling well, nobody sleeps good.
  • He is a BED sleeper at home.  He rarely falls asleep if someone is holding him…he likes to look around and thinks that he might miss out on something.  Since he rarely falls asleep if someone is holding him, he does a champion job of falling asleep on his own.  He immediately rolls over onto his tummy, puts his little hands underneath his stomach and hikes his hiney in the air.IMG_3671
  • He loves his paci and sleeps with at least three in his bed.  He only needs one but I need at least three in there in case he loses one I don’t have to go in and give him another.
  • He takes two naps a day.  Not very often do those two naps happen at home.  He typically gets one good nap at home, in his bed…usually about 2 hours.  His second nap is in the car.  On the way to pick up his sisters.
  • He is wearing 9-12 month clothes, I have no idea about shoes because he doesn’t wear them, size three diapers.  He weighs about 18 pounds…we go to the doctor next week for his well-child visit.
  • He babbles a few things but his favorite is “dadadadadadadada”…Matthew loves that.  He will say “babababababababa” a lot too.  And sometimes he’ll throw out a “mamamamamamama”.  He knows his name, at least he turns his head if someone says it.
  • I am his favorite.  Definitely his favorite.  Although, recently he has been lighting up when he sees Matthew too.  That’s nice, too.
  • I am trying to get him to wave his hand “bye”.  I will say, “Say, bye bye” and move his arm up and down.  About 5 seconds after we have left he will start babbling “bababababa”…yes, genius.
  • He is very friendly and will grace just about anyone with a smile.  He’s a sweetheart!

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Happy 9 months baby boy!!!!!!  I have loved having you in my arms!

Winter weather

Well, it was an unusual winter around here…as it was for the rest of the lower 48.  BUT we did get one snow day…ONE SNOW DAY.  Hey, at least we got one.

We woke up later…7:00am and got to watch the snow fall for about 10 minutes.  Thankfully, enough snow fell so that the girls could enjoy sledding and playing in the snow.

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Rives was a little under the weather (the February of sickness continued), so we stayed indoors most of the snowy day.

Gibson got to come over and spend the day with us so that made it even more fun!

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Hit the fence a little too hard…

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Snow jumping!

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After the cold weather fun, they came in and we made some cupcakes!

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We also had some snow ice cream!!!!

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It was a great day and I am so, so glad that we had a snow day this year!

Valentine’s activities

Valentine’s was the holiday that wouldn’t quit around here.  Good thing we love hearts and candy.

Thanks to the Pinterest I decided to make our Valentine’s this year…pinterest is dead to me now.  I thought, hey, this will be easy, we have a ton of extra crayons and this will be super duper cheap.

Yes, super duper cheap and no to easy.  You may or may not lose fingernails in the process.

I enlisted the help of Matthew who was ready to stab me in the eyeball after we were done.  Unwrapping the crayons was a beating.  (FYI-removing the paper from Crayola brand crayons is like trying to remove the color from coins…impossible.  Well played Crayola.)

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Then you ruin a cutting mat chopping the crayons into teeny tiny pieces.

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See how this pile is neat and contained?  Just so you know, if you make a wrong move, this nice, neat pile could end up all over your floor and you will be walking on crayon bits for a few days after.

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Put the shards of crayon in a muffin “tin” and melt them in your oven.  Prepare to have your house smell a bit of melted plastic.

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The final product was very pretty, I thought.

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The girls packaged them up to give to their classmates (this one was one they gave to their friends in our small group).

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I made the girls these shirts.  These are the ONLY shirts they wore for ALL Valentine’s festivities….the rest of this post is NOT on the same day.  Don’t let the exact same outfits confuse you.

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I am the room mother for Nora’s class.  Yes, I know what you are thinking…has she lost her mind?  Yes, I have.  I ask myself that same question every single class party, as I am lugging my younger children to the party with my 20 pounds of supplies.  ah, hindsight.

One of the first games they played was to pick up conversation hearts with chopsticks.  They seemed to like it and it took up quite a big of time-WIN!

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The next game they played was stacking conversation hearts.  Again, took time and was a hit-win again!

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The girls enjoyed the game so much that they wanted to play it again when we get home…I guess an advantage of having a room mother as a mom-WIN-ha!

After Nora got sick, I got sick.  And stubborn.  Always a winning combo.  I didn’t go to the dr because I knew the smoker cough that I had would eventually go away…it did.  After many, many sleepless nights.

My sweet husband brought me these flowers as a get well note and a Valentine’s present.  He’s a winner!

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The table set for Valentine’s morning:

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Breakfast:

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My three little love bugs (Day 2 of shirts)

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For the actual day of Valentine’s Day Nora was out of school for her February break.  We went to Bible study and then took Matthew some donuts at his school.  The night was pretty relaxed.  It was a normal, good day.  We had heart shaped fruit with our dinner:

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That night, after the kids went to bed Matthew and I went crazy.  He graded papers, I got into my comfy pj pants and we watched Biggest Loser…we really know how to live it up….and that is exactly how I wanted to spend my evening.

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The next day was our final Valentine’s activity (Day 3 of shirts)…Elyn’s field trip.  Her actual field trip day was canceled due to snow…the ONLY snow all winter.  So, it was rescheduled to the day after V-Day.  Since Nora was on break at school, she got to go too!

Here are the girls with their friend, Hadlee.

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This is Jack Walker, Nora and Jack Walker were in school together last year and she still loves him.

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Elyn at her party…refusing to look at the camera:

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Rives, crawling everywhere!  I wanted to boil him when we got home because of all the germs he more than likely picked up.

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Oh, there are her eyes…sweet little Valentine eating her cupcake.

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It was a great holiday and we were all glad to retire the heart shirts for a few weeks…Rives seemed to enjoy his first Valentine’s day!

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