Even a Princess Can Clean!

Saturday, Cory and Shane were busy cleaning in the garage, and the girls were going in and out doing their own thing. This was Adilyn's 5th outfit of the day, and she decided that she would go out and help them sweep. I mean, what better to wear when cleaning in the garage than a miniskirt, princess shirt, fancy flower bow, and Snow White high heels?!?

Dueling Bellies!

Sonja and I are due almost exactly 4 weeks apart; she is first..lucky girl! On Saturday night we all got together at the Hrobars house for a fun night of kid chaos, pizza, and yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies. We had a great time, as always, and we had to snap a quick picture of our large bellies. It will be fun to see our babies grow up so close in age!

Sooooo Done!

We have been working to get our house ready to sell for almost a month now. Almost everyday, we are doing something - packing, cleaning, decluttering, painting, grouting, blah, blah, blah. We have made so much progress, and I can hardly even believe that we have done so much ourselves! Although the list is significantly shorter than it was, it still seems like we are never going to get everything done. I made an appointment for our realtor to come take pictures this Thursday, so most everything has to be done by then. We worked from 10am - 5pm yesterday, and from 11am - 7pm today. Of course, there are still many, many things that have to be done before Thursday. So, this evening, I finally had a mini-breakdown. Cory had taken his old truck up to Trinity, and the girls and I took a break and go to a park. We had a great time, and the weather was beautiful. I kept telling them that when we got home, they would need to clean up their toys. Well, we got home and there was NO cleaning being done. They were playing and pretending to clean, but they were really just making bigger messes. I started getting really frustrated, but then I decided to just forget fighting the battle. I took away their normal show before bedtime, and we just got in the bathtub. Long story short, Adilyn still fought me every step of the way down to arguing with me about which pajamas she was going to wear. She even told me that she was going to "flick me in the head" if I didn't let her wear her jammie dress. What!?! Anyway, I finally just left her in her room to figure things out on her own, and I went back to cleaning. I was so stressed out that when Cory got home, I had a five minute breakdown. It's just too much right now! I guess five minutes was all I needed because I felt much better after a short little cry. :) I will be so glad when all this work is over! I know that it's going to be a whole different level of stress once the house is one the market and being shown, but at least the projects will be over! All I have to say is that the house we move into better not have a lot of work to be done to it. I can't handle anymore home improvements for at least a year!

A Beautiful "Spring" Day at the Park

Yesterday was one of those randomly beautiful 80 degree days that we are so lucky to get in Texas in February! I had been outside with PE classes all day, so I decide to continue our tiem outside when I got the girls. Cory was up in Trinity getting a trailer to move stuff, so I thought a dinner picnic at a park seemed to be the perfect activitiy to keep us busy for the night. The girls were so excited to find out that we were going to the "windy" park, which is a park close to our house. We call it the windy park because it is in the middle of a field, and it is always crazy windy out there. The girls had a lot of fun! It had been a while since we had gone to a park with all of the rain we have had and all of the work that we have been doing on the house, so it was a nice change of pace. I was amazed at how good the girls have gotten playing on all the equipment! Kacy could climb up most everything all by herself, and Adilyn was up and down and all around everywhere! It was nice because I knew that I couldn't really get in there and play with them like I used to be able to with my big ol' belly. Their favorite park activity is always swinging! After a few minutes of swinging fun, we moved to the other equipment and had just as much fun on those!

After the sun started to go down, we didn't want the fun to end, so we moved into the pavilion for some dinner, some singing and dancing, and a little softball practice watching.

This is Kacy's "Ewww....bug!" face.

It's the fun, simple moments like this night that I most enjoy and treasure with my family. They make the rough school week or the stress of selling the house disappear with laughs, giggles, and sweet memories!

Fun at the Zoo

I had been getting antsy with all the working around the house, so we decided to go to the zoo one Sunday. It looked like it might rain, but we decided to go anyway. Fortunately, we only had a few sprinkles. The girls had fun looking at all the animals, and Kacy's favorite was the little chimpanzee who was hanging out right by the window. She thought he was so funny. Adilyn always likes the elephants, and she had a great time watching the young elephants play. We had a great time, and I am glad we took the time to stop and take a quick family outing!

My Little Girls...Growing Up

Sometimes, I look at the girls in a specific moment, and I cannot believe how big they are getting. I can't believe the things that Adilyn is learning and doing. She is starting to "read" a little bit, and she was so proud of herself the other day when she brought a book home that she could read. It was the tiniest little reader book that she had pretty much memorized, but she was still sounding out the words pretty good. The greatest thing about it was that she was so proud of herself for being able to read! I know that Adilyn is not overly excited about learning and academic-type things. She is not way above average in the things that she knows, but I don't think that she is too low or anything either. I am okay with her not being crazy smart, but I hope that she enjoys learning and enjoys school as she gets into school. She is also getting pretty good with her motor skills. She is a great climber, she loves to dance and do "tricks", and she loves to make up songs. I just can't wait to see what type of things she gets into, and the things that she likes! Kacy is hilarious, and she has turned in to quite our little troublemaker. She copies everything Adilyn does, and she can pretty much keep up with everything that Adilyn can do. She may be one step behind, but she tries her hardest. Unfortunately, she is still pretty mean to Adilyn. I think she does it out of frustration or to get attention, but it is really annoying! I feel bad for Adilyn because she is strong, and the things that she does really do hurt. I keep saying that it will pass soon, and I hope it does! The other awesome thing about Kacy is she is such a little talker, but nobody really expects her to be able to talk. People will ask Adilyn a question about something, and she will answer. When Adilyn is finished answering, Kacy will also answer. Most of the time people don't even notice Kacy answering, but she gives her opinion anyway. It will be interesting to see how Kacy fills her "middle child" role when the baby is born. The girl is amazing, and I love her so much. I love her dramatic facial expressions, her determination, and her cuddliness.

I am constantly amazed by the amount of love that I have for these two sweet girls. I am so lucky to have them in my life, and I can't wait to add another one to the bunch :)

Valentine's Day 2012

We knew that the actual February 14 would not be filled with romance in our world, so we had a our celebration early. The first week of February we went up to Fort Worth, and I told Cory that we were going up to help Dad and Kris watch Anne's kids. He kept telling me that it would be better for him just to stay at home to do more work on the house. Finally, I told him that he needed to stop saying that because he was coming with me! When we got up there, we spent Friday night and Saturday afternoon there, then it was our time to go on our adventure. I had booked a hotel room in Las Colinas, made plans to go to a glass blowing place to make our own flower for Valentine's Day, and made reservations at a nice steak restaurant. He was really excited, and we had a great time! We ended up not staying at the restaurant to listen to the band that was playing, but hanging out at the hotel in peace and quiet was absolutely amazing! I was so happy that we had some time together, and I am so grateful for my dad and Kris for watching the girls for us.

Just as I suspected, our real Valentine's Day was filled with love, but not very much romance...it consisted of working, taking Adilyn to soccer practice, looking through all their Valentine's cards, eating Taco Cabana in the car on the way home, and watching the Rockets game at home. So, needless to say, I am glad that we celebrated earlier!

First Soccer Game

Apparently, Adilyn's excitement and bravery that she showed in her first soccer practice did not carry over to her first soccer game! I was so surprised how well she had done at her first practice, so I just assumed that the game would be no problem. We talked to her about how all the kids will be in the field together, and that she will need to run to the ball to kick it; we explained that she might get pushed around and might fall down. She seemed okay with all of that. Well, we woke up on Saturday morning at 6:45...game was at 8:00am, and we were all a little tired and grumpy. Lots of things were a little frustrating that morning, but one of the biggest issues was that it was freezing outside! It was really windy, and the temperature was 39 degrees. We were all dressed in our warmest clothes, but it was still sooooo cold out there! Adilyn was not happy about that. We got up to the field, and she did not want to play. I thought that maybe she would change her mind, but she didn't. I took her out on the field 3 times, and she either stood there in her huge winter jacket or she would run off the field to me. I will give it to her...it was chilly!!! She kept saying that she was too cold to move, too cold to play soccer, and to cold to do anything. The coach tried to encourage her to play, but she wasn't having it! We were both pretty annoyed by it. I tried not to really let her see how bugged I was, but it was hard. I tried everything I could to get her out there. I think that I even said something pretending that the soccer ball was a magical princess soccer ball that would give her magic powers if she kicked it. Like I said, she was not having it, and she was not going to even try to play. Now, I will say that as I took Kacy to the bathroom, I did see about 10 kids having meltdowns while their parents tried to "make" them play. :) At least we didn't push that hard! Another girl on Adilyn's team refused to play too, so that made me feel a little better. I don't think that I was really mad at Adilyn, I mean, she is 4, and she wasn't doing it just to bug us. What bothered me the most was that I was so confident after seeing her at practice that she would do so well, and here she was - nervous again! Oh well, we will see how things go this week. Later that day, I talked to her about it. She said that there were too many people out there, that she was just really cold and tired, and that she was scared. Poor girl! I just wanted her to have fun, but I will say that if we have to wake up that early every Saturday for her to sit on the sidelines I will be really irritated! :) Hopefully, things will get better!

Elementary Teaching at It's Finest

I have known for quite sometime that the world of elementary school is not for me. Even if I had a fantastic teaching partner, I am not sure that elementary kids are my thing. The kids just bug me. All the little things that other elementary teachers think are so enduring and cute, just annoy me! I have some kids that I really like, but overall the loose teeth, the whining, the tattling, the crying, the tantrums, and the screaming are just too much for me. I am sure many people would feel the same way about junior high kids, but I guess the older ones are just more my style :) Anyway, recently I have witnessed some very interesting outbursts. A boy who is angry all the time got mad at us for telling him to put the equipment down. As he was walking to his place against the wall for timeout, he took a shoe off. As he took the shoe off, he stared at me like he was going to throw it at me. He did not throw it at me, but he did throw it in the middle of the gym. Then, he took his other shoe off and threw that one, too. I asked him why he did that, and he wouldn't answer. I asked him what he was going to do now that he was shoeless in the gym. Again, he wouldn't answer. I tried to ignore him, but then I noticed that he had taken his socks off and put them on his hands. With his socks on his hands and bare feet, he was "air punching" in my direction. What a little angry weirdo!

Today was even better. We have a little kindergartener who has gone crazy a few times, but today was the ultimate. She didn't want to run her laps outside, so she just sat down on the ground. Diana, our PE aide, picked her up, and when she got on her feet she took off running. The only problem was that she took off in the wrong direction. I hear Diana say, "I can't get McKenna to come to me." I thought she was kidding until I saw this little blonde 5 year old dressed in pink from head to toe running away from her and away from the school, so I went to help. She would not listen to either of us, and she would not come our way at all. We decided to try to "corner" her in the corner of the fence. Of course, we are right off a super busy street, and it is just me, Diana, and this crazy kid out on the entire playground area! We finally got her, and then she refused to walk. We had to practically drag her about 100 yards back to the school. It was quite an interesting experience! One more reason why it's time for me to go...

Soccer Time!

Cory and I went back and forth about whether or not to put Adilyn in soccer this fall. We really do have a lot going on, but we went ahead and decided to give it a try. After the way she acted in BlastBall, I was really anxious to she how she was going to do with it. I was so glad that I wasn't coaching this time. Besides the fact that I feel huge and enormously pregnant, I was happy that she wouldn't have the chance to use me to cling to. Still, I was completely ready for her to be nervous and stay back away from the action. We got her pink soccer shorts, soccer cleats with a pink Nike swoosh, pink shin guards, and a pink ball; so she was ready to go! Poor Kacy just gets so upset when Adilyn gets to do things that she can't. I try to make her feel like she is a part of things, but it just isn't enough. She was so sad when Adilyn was getting all her gear on. Hopefully, once she turns 3 we can get her into her own things. Anyway, we got to the field, and they had already gotten things started. The kids were running a couple laps around the field. I could tell that Adilyn was scared, so I told Cory to go out with her. I knew that if I went with her, she would never want me to leave her side. She went with him pretty easily, and then she started running on her own. There were 3 girls on the team and 4 boys, and the funniest part was that all the girls were at least a foot taller than all the boys! As the practice went on, she got more and more brave. She even volunteered to be a goalie first, and she pushed her way to the front of the line when they were kicking goals. I was so proud of her! She did her skills just fine, but I was so much more proud of her confidence! I remember how she used to be so timid and so nervous about everything, and here she was right in the middle of things. It made me so happy. I used to hate seeing her be scared of new things only because I felt like she spent so much time being scared that she didn't have time to have fun. Last night, she was a different girl, and I was so happy for her and her little self-confidence! We will see how things change at game time. I am not sure that she is going to like people pushing an shoving her, but who knows, she may be the pusher and shover! :)

"Actually..."

One of Adilyn's most favorite words lately is "actually". Because Adilyn says it, of course, Kacy says it all the time, too. It's hilarious because they usually use it in the right way, but the tone they use it makes them sound so "know-it-all" or something.

Examples: We were at Mimi and Pops's house the other day and Taylor asked if a baby was ours, and I told him that it was. Adilyn said, "Um, actually, that baby is Kacy's."

I said that we were supposed to bring a show and tell with the letter "R", and she said, "Actually, Mama, the letter is not R."

Kacy's are a little more abstract, but it's just funny that she even tries to say it! My favorite one was this conversation. Kacy: "Mama, I have to go poopoo." Me: "I don't think you do, you just went a few minutes ago." Kacy: "Yes, I do have to go, and Mama, actually, I went at school."

More talking stories...

*Adilyn was in the car coming home from soccer practice and she said, "Why do I have to wear these sling shots?" It took me a couple minutes to realize that she meant shin guards!

*Kacy was crying about something the other night, and I couldn't figure out what. She gets so annoyed when you can't understand what she is saying, so she was really getting frustrated. She kept saying something about "high tops", and I had no idea what she was talking about! Finally, she pointed at Adilyn's shirt - she was wearing a tank top!

*The way that Kacy says "flower" sounds more like "fire" than flower, so there have been many confusing conversations over her wanting to go find flowers, not fires! :)

*Adilyn still calls Gatorade, "generator", but she now believes me that pig tails are pig tails, not pink tails!