My Sheriff Is Gone!

I didn't really realize how much Adilyn keeps my crazy Kacy in check, but she does! Since Adilyn is not here all day long to tell on her or the keep her out of trouble, she has been getting a little crazy. Of course, most of her sneaky escapades are when I am feeding Brooke, and completely unable to keep track of her. So far, she has cleaned the entire downstairs bathroom with air freshener. Three days later...it still smells like warm vanilla sugar. She has eaten an entire bag of iced animal crackers, and it was NOT just an individual serving. She has gotten stuck in Brooke's crib. She has taken scissors upstairs and cut paper up in teeny tiny pieces all over their room.
And this is just three days in...oh my!

Morning Routine

Well, we have yet to get into a routine in the mornings. I know it's only been 3 days, but every morning has been different. The first morning we all walked her, which turned out to be hard. The next morning she hopped right on the bus since she decided she wanted to ride the school bus. That was fantastic because I didn't have to worry about seeing her nervous at school. This morning, we missed the bus (I never knew exactly what time it came and I guess it was late the other days), so Cory walked with her and Kacy, and I am here waiting anxiously with a sleeping Brooke. This morning, she seemed a little bit like she didn't want to go. She asked if I could come up for lunch, and I told her that I would come one day next week. Then, she asked if I could pick her up early because it's such a long, boring day. Oh well, I hope her day goes okay. I just don't want it to be a fight to get her off to school each morning. I don't think it will be, but I do think that she is realizing that Kacy, Brooke, and I are just hanging out at home while she has to be bored at school. That would be hard! I would hate to have to be the only one that has to leave the house!

My Distraction Technique

These were the amazing drawings that got me out of a major meltdown on Adilyn's first day. She brought it to me after school, and she said, "Look how I decorated your pictures! I made every petal of the flower a different color, like a rainbow!" That let me know that she was just fine as soon as I walked out of that room. :)

Cupcakes!

Dana always makes her boys chocolate chip cookies on the first day of school, and they sit, eat cookies, and talk about their day. I decided to do cupcakes because Adilyn loves decorating them. She was so excited to see her surprise waiting for her on the kitchen table. We decorated and chatted and got all hyped up on sugar! Kacy and Adilyn both made "masterpiece" cupcakes. It was a fun tradition to start!

And She's Off!

So many changes, so many decisions, so many things that did not work out the way that I thought/wanted/hoped...Anyway, all those things lead up to us having to decide whether or not to put Adilyn in school or not. Our house is still on the market, so I thought we might keep her home until we sold it. Unfortunately, with the way that everything has been going, the house may not sell for another 6 months! I was going to just homeschool her until we moved, but then I really felt like that was not the right decision. So, a week before school started, we decided to enroll her in the school in our neighborhood. I think it was the best decision, and I am glad that she got to start school on time!

We all piled in the stroller and headed up to the school. I was not planning on walking her all the way to her classroom because I thought that might be hard to leave, but it ended up that I had to. We got into the class, and I immediately sensed her anxiety. There was one kid screaming and crying, a couple others crying, and a bunch of parents in there. It was absolute chaos! I tried to just put her in her seat and leave, but she got right up and hugged my leg. Yikes! I had to think quick because it was about to get ugly! Each student had a piece of paper in their spot that they were sitting in. I decided to draw a couple pictures for her to color in. I drew a heart, an octagon, and a flower. The kids at her table were so amazed by my drawing skills. :) Oh yeah, I impress 5 year olds! Anyway, that was enough to distract her, and I kissed her on the head and left. Of course, I had to turn around as I walked out the door, and the sweet girl had tears in her eyes.

I worried about her all day because I was nervous that she would be nervous all day! Kacy kept asking where she was, and she kept singing songs about missing Addy. I think one went, "Oh Addy, I miss you so much. I love you sooooo much. You are my favorite sister. I miss you and I will see you later, maybe next week." 

The day went by pretty quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to walk up to get her. When we got there, the teacher asked what grade the student was in that we were there to pick up. I told her kindergarten, and she replied, "Oh, they were already released!" I started to get a little nervous, but then they said that there are "back door walkers" and "front door walkers", so she was probably at the other side. I still felt a little nervous for her, but then there she was, walking down the little sidewalk, fanning herself looking like she didn't have a care in the world!
She said that she had a good day, but that it was kind of boring because all they did was they did was talk about rules.
A couple other notable events or comments on the day:
*Two girls in my class had earrings, real hoop earrings like adults wear!
*Kacy could go to school with me because there are kids her size there. (I think she was talking about pre-k.)
*It was freezing in my room. Freezing like an iceberg!
*My music teacher's name was Ms. Silver, and she was old, but she was wearing a skirt. I didn't know old ladies wore skirts like that!
*I made three friends, but we didn't really play with each other. We just played BY each other. (When I asked her their names, she had no idea!)
*My favorite part of the day was recess.
*We took a little rest on the table when we were all tired. (What?!?)
*The boy that sits next to me had a really cool mohawk!
*I think I saw Christopher from my old school. He looked like him, and he acted like him. So, I guess it might be him!

Overall, I think she had a good day. I am so glad that she didn't come home crying, or say that she hated it! We will see how the rest of the week goes :)

The End of the Line...

It's almost been 6 months since we put our house on the market. We have had 3 offers, 2 contracts that fell through after the inspections, and what seems like 100 showings! I never in a million years thought that we would still be living here in September! Adilyn is going to start school here on Monday, and I found Kacy a preschool to go to close by. Now, the decision...do we leave it on the market indefinitely? Do we give ourselves a specific date to take it off for a while? Do we drop the price even more? So many decisions...there are not very many houses on the market right now, so the chances of us finding a house to move into even if we sold ours right now are pretty slim. It has been so frustrating, but this week was really annoying! We hadn't had any showings for about a week, but we got a call yesterday for one. The house was pretty dirty, and the showing was in about two hours. I still had to feed Brooke, and Cory was still working. To make matters worse, we had Adilyn's meet the teacher at her new school at the same exact time. Not wanting to decline the showing, I fed Brooke quickly, busted my butt to clean the house, and we took the dogs in the car to meet the teacher. Guess what...they didn't show! Grrrrr...
Today, we had been planning to go to the Griffins for a little summer get together with the Hrobars. We had planned it earlier in the week, and we had all been looking forward to a relax ing time with friends. About halfway there, we got a call for a showing...in an hour and a half! We were still 20 minutes away from the Griffins. We decided that I was going to drop Cory and the girls off, and Brooke and I would go back, clean, and pick up the dogs. It was cutting it close to make it back in time, but I made it. I ran in the house, did the most important cleaning, got the dogs, and jumped back in the car. I had to feed Brooke, so I fed her in the car down the street, hoping that they would come at the beginning of their appointment time. They didn't come in the first 30 minutes, so I went ahead and drove the hour back to the Griffins with a crying Brooke and the dogs. I didn't really have time to swim at all by the time I got back there, so I was really bummed out. We got home later that day, and guess what...they didn't show up either!!! And I just thought I was mad yesterday?!?!? Seriously, why would you make an appointment at the last minute, and then not even show up? I am so done, so over the stress of the unknown, so finished with constantly having to rush around and clean, so done.
Here we are at a crossroads. Do we throw in the towel and give up? Do we continue to have our lives disrupted by possible showings? Do we take a break, only to have to get back in the showing routine in a couple months? I remember our realtor saying, "Hopefully, we can get this house sold quickly so you won't have to be in 'showing purgatory' for too long!" Well, unfortunately the "showing purgatory" has lasted for way too long, and it truly has been hell. I keep telling myself that everything happens for a reason, and I truly do believe that; but this whole thing has still been really disappointing and sad. Not at all the way that I wanted or thought it would be. Oh well, we still haven't decided what we are going to do, but whatever we decide will all be part of the plan whether we like it or not. Trying to keep the faith :)

"Hi!"

Adilyn and Kacy love to play pretend-type games. School, doctor, wedding, "So You Think You Can Dance", princess party, rock concert...etc. Because I can't do much with them when I am feeding Brooke, they usually decide to play a pretend game when I am sitting on the couch feeding her. The funny thing is that every single game starts out the same. They will stand in front of the ottoman, and they will stare at me and say, "Hi" in this professional, serious voice. Now, comes the hard work. I am supposed to figure out exactly what pretend game they are playing. Sometimes I can tell by the accessories that they have, but other times I have NO idea! Adilyn gets really annoyed if I guess wrong, but how am I supposed to know by them just walking up to me and saying "hi"?!? My favorite is when they play "So You Think You Can Dance". They will introduce themselves, say where they are from, and what kind of dance they are going to do. After the Olympics, they learned all sorts of new countries and places. Their characters used to be from Fort Worth and Katy, but now they are coming all the way from China and Romania. Even though their characters are from unique countries, their names are always the same. They are always Carlena and Carly. Not sure where those names came from, but it's always the same. My lines are "Take your place on the stage." and "Cue music." They will do a little dance and I will either give them a ticket to Vegas or not, depending on how good they do. I am always supposed to be the judge that "doesn't like sexy", so I am supposed to get mad at them when they shake their booties too much. :) Again, not sure how they even know what sexy dancing is, but they do! Love my little pretenders!

Stuttering?

Kacy has been having a hard time getting her words out for a couple months now, and I was getting a little worried about it. When she had her 3 year appointment, the doctor said that many kids around 3 start stuttering because they have a hard time processing what they are thinking into actual words. It is kind of annoying at times because it can take her forever to get a thought out. I try to be patient and give her the time that she needs, but unfortunately in my life these days, I don't have a lot of time to be patient! She thinks it is kind of funny sometimes, and she will just start laughing when she can't get it out. Other times she gets frustrated, and just says, "I can't say it!" I hope that it is just a developmental thing that she will grow out of. She is such a little social butterfly, and I would hate to have her feel self-conscious about talking. We will keep working with her on slowing down and focusing on what she wants to say.

Nammie Visit

It has been our tradition to have a fun "end of summer week" every year before I went back to work. Mom would come down, and I would work in my room while she entertained the kiddos. This year was a little different...no room to work in! :) So,with no work that had to be done, it was all fun. We thought that we might do something "big" like go to Galveston or go to a water park, but I started feeling uninspired to work that hard for our outings. So, we laid low and stayed closer to the house. One morning we showed Mom our "fun can", and the girls picked out a paper that said to make mudpies. Adilyn said that it didn't sound like much fun, but boy, was she wrong! We went and got some dirt, a few styrofoam bowls, some watering cans...and it was seriously a couple hours of fun. I love when the kids have so much fun with simple things. After we made some mudpie stew, the girls played in the slip 'n slide for a while. Another day we went to the Aquarium to eat and play on the rides. The girls loved the ferris wheel and carousel, as always! I was really surprised when Adilyn wanted to go on one of the rides for big kids. It was one of those rides that take you up high and drop you down. When we first got there, I asked her if she wanted to ride it. She asked if she was big enough, and I told her that I thought she was. She got a little nervous, so I told her that she didn't have to go, but she could if she wanted to. She said, "I think that I chose not to ride." I was fine with that, but a little while later she changed her mind and wanted to try it. As we waited in line, I was sure she would be anxious or decide that she didn't want to ride it, but she didn't! We got all strapped in, and still, no signs of nervousness. I was still unsure about what would happen when the ride got started. She loved it! I couldn't believe it! You never know how kids are going to react to things. She can be so timid with certain things, and then so brave with other things. Anyway, I sure hope that she loves roller coasters because I would love to have a little roller coaster riding buddy! :)

We had a great time with Nammie, and we always love her visits! Always a great way to end the summer!

Fort Worth Fun

Every summer, we go to Fort Worth for a little longer than a weekend to have some extra time with Pops and all our Fort Worth family. This year was no exception. The girls and I went up on Friday and everyone came over for dinner that night. Saturday we went to the C.R. Smith museum, and the girls loved it. They had a really neat weather exhibit for the kids, and Adilyn and Kacy loved going in the "hot" and "cold" tents. Adilyn was nervous to walk in the big airplane for some reason, but Kacy loved exploring it! Sunday was Terilyn's 2nd birthday party, so we all had fun over there. Anne went all out on the "Alice and Wonderland" theme decorations! Monday, we hung around the house, then went to our favorite little play pool. It's great because the girls can play safely on their own, and they love going down  the slides. On Tuesday, we went over to Becky's house and swam in her pool. Adilyn and Kacy loved showing Pops all their new swimming skills! Like I said, we had a great time. It is always fantastic to time with the people we love so much and don't get to see enough!

A Frio Summer Trip

We are so lucky to have Ryan as a friend for a lot of reasons, but one of them is his connections at the Frio River! :) His dad and uncle own cabins and houses up there, and we get to go stay for cheap (or free!) We always go during the winter, but this is the first time we have gone in the summer for about 6 years. It was so much fun! We got to stay in his aunt and uncle's new house, and it was really beautiful and set up perfectly for us. They have a great living room area which had the Olympics on most days! The girls had tons of fun playing on the hill in the front of the house, playing in the river, collecting rocks and putting them in bottles, riding on the mule, playing hide and seek, and watching cartoons in their own room. Ryan's girlfriend, Robin brought her 2 boys who are 6 and 10. The girls played a little bit with Tommy, the 6 year old, but they mostly played with each other. I kept reminding them all weekend, "The Frio is a 'no fighting' world." They did get along pretty well, so I can't complain too much. 

I got a wonderful surprise and got to see Jessica and her whole family! We hadn't seen each other in almost 2 years. Adilyn, Kacy, and Ella had fun playing mermaids and collecting cool rocks. Jess and I got to catch up a little bit. It's great to have friends that you can pick right up with even when it's been a while since you saw them. Although it was a little rough getting there, it was so worth it! Love summer memories!

My Sweet 4 month Old

Little Brooke is 4 months old, and she has definitely worked her way into our hearts since she has been in our lives. I can't imagine our life without her, and she has most definitely completed our little family! The girls absolutely love her, and she is much more interested in them than she was before. It seemed like she would get irritated when the girls got in her face and stuff, but now she seems to really like them. When they come over to her, she will talk to them and laugh. Any time she does anything funny, both Adilyn and Kacy just crack up! Kacy still gets a little rough with her at times, but it's all in love :) All of a sudden, Adilyn seems to be getting a new found confidence in holding Brooke. She wants to hold her all the time, which is great, but she also has started to pick her up and move her around. I keep telling her that Brooke is still a baby, and she can't just through her around! Again...it's all in love :) 

Brooke is a fantastic baby! She still cries in the car for no reason, but other than that, she is very consolable. She likes her swing every now and then, she likes to be held sometimes to go to sleep, but I can usually find something to make her happy. Being the 3rd baby, she gets carted around a lot to all our various activities, and she does pretty well. I just started taking her in the pools when we go swimming, and she seems to really enjoy it. Her little legs will start kicking, and she is pretty content! 

Brooke is a great little eater, although she has been getting a little distracted by everything going on around her more these days. She doesn't like when I feed her out in public because I have to use my cover. The whole time I am feeding her, she will try to pull the cover off to see what is happening out in the world. 

Brooke's 4 month stats - 13 lbs 7 oz and 25 inches.

Favorite things about Brooke at 4 months old...

*She tries to sit up when she is laying down on her back. She lifts up her head and her legs like she is doing a curl-up. It's very intense.

*Her little coos and sing-songy noises are so sweet. She can really get going when she wants to!

*Any time I hold her she buries her head into my shoulder. If I have a tank top on, she slobbers all over my shoulder, and we both end up a soggy mess.

*If she sleeps in bed with us, no matter where I put her, she will always end up snuggled up right next to me.

*9 times out of 10, she will give me a humongous smile whenever she sees me, even if I just left the room for a minute.

*She smiles at most strangers, which they love!

*When the girls get close to her, she grabs their hair. I think it's her way of maintaining control in the situation :)

*She loves baths and spends the whole time kicking like crazy in the water.

*She is a crazy grabber, and she grabs anything she can get those little grippers on. 

New skills...holding her head up

Grabbing her toes

Her "curl-ups"

My 3 Girls

Everyone keeps asking me who looks like who...so here are all 3 of my sweet babies working on tummy time between 3 and 4 months. To me they all look different, but everyone has their own opinion. Each has their own look and their own personalities. I am so lucky that I get to see them grow into their own person with their own thoughts, dreams, and goals!