The First Tooth!

Brooke was a fantastic sleeper for a really long time, but in the last month or so, she started waking up at all hours of the night! Not only has she started waking up, but she also doesn't nap. It's not so fantastic anymore! The last week she has woken up at 1am, 4am, and 6am pretty regularly. What the heck?!? It's like a newborn again, actually it's worse than she as a newborn. Maybe she is just getting me back! Anyway, today she was gnawing on my finger, and I felt a sharp little bottom tooth. Maybe that's why she was awake, maybe not. The world will never know, but what we can be sure of is that she has her first little biter! She is growing up so fast!

Old House Memories...New House Future Memories

Disclaimer: Sorry about the length of this post....It kept going, and going, and going! :)

It's been 10 days since we left our house of 10 years, and I miss it. Of course, right now I mainly just miss it because we have no house of our own. I miss having my own space so much! I am so thankful to the Hrobars and to Ryan for letting us stay at their places, but nevertheless, it's been hard. I told Kacy when she was throwing a crying fit that we were going "home" the other day, and she sobbed, "We don't have a home!" It was pretty pitiful. I keep telling them that wherever we are, it is our pretend home until we get our new house. For the most part, they seem to be doing well considering the situation!
Anyway, before I forget, here are some of my memories of our house...
*Cory and I were so excited to finally agree on the house after looking for months! He loved the garage. I loved the master bathroom and the bayou in the back. I hated the yellow color on the siding which I vowed to change immediately. (It stayed the same all 10 years!) For all the pros and cons, I remember walking in the house and knowing it was ours.
*We did a lot of projects in the house the first few years. There was hideous wallpaper everywhere! The first to go was the kitchen, and what a disaster it was to take down. The backing of the sheet rock came off, which made a huge mess. Every wall had to be retextured and repainted! We got rid of all the linoleum, too. Yuck!
*Bringing home Zoe was a moment I will never forget! I wanted a dog of my own for so long. She was such a good dog!
*After our climbing gym closed, we turned our garage into the "S&B Powerhouse". We used walls and holds from the gym, and we would have 10-15 people over every Tuesday and Thursday to climb. Fun times!
*It snowed one winter, and I remember Cory, Zoe, and I went and played in the bayou winter wonderland.
*I tried out many different painting techniques in the house. The most impressive was painting stripes up in the office. I was so proud of myself, and then Cory came home and said, "Peach stripes, really?" So sad...I always did my painting projects when he was out of town, though so he couldn't really say anything while I was doing it.
*When we brought Willow home, I thought Zoe would never forgive me! She was mad for at least 2 weeks, until she finally forgave me and tolerated this new puppy.
*Running in the bayou with the dogs was one of my favorite things to do until they built all the new subdivisions.
*Many nights were spent on the couch having "Friday Night Movie" night with Cory. 9 times out of 10, I would fall asleep in the middle of the movie. It became a tradition for me to pass out and miss the most exciting part of the movie. :)
*The biggest, most life changing moment was, of course, bringing Adilyn home. I will never forget all those moments, walking around patting her back trying to get her to sleep, watching her sleep in her pack 'n play in our room, watching her crawl across the room for the first time to try to get Cory's keys, spraying her with water on the driveway while she cracked up, blowing bubbles with her on the front porch, and every other sweet memory.
*I loved having my 30th birthday crawfish boil party at our house! Friends and family came, and it was a great day!
*Bringing Kacy home was another special memory! Introducing Adilyn to her little sister (AKA - the one who turned her world upside down), and making all those sister memories. Being Mickey Mouse and Toodles for Halloween, Adilyn wanting to hold Kacy on the couch, making Valentine's Day decorations together, watching Kacy sleep peacefully in the swing.
*Christmas when Adilyn was 2 was amazing! Kacy was about 6 months old, and she was a really cute little one. She was very alert and happy. I remember blowing up a bunch of balloons on Christmas Eve for some reason for Adilyn to play with, and Kacy just loved holding them. Santa got Adilyn a train set that she loved playing with (for all of 2 days)!
*Adilyn and Kacy's 1st and 3rd birthday party was a great memory, too! It was the first birthday party that I had at the house, and it was a wonderful day. We rented a blow up waterslide, put it in the driveway, and had fun with friends and family all day!
*Last, but not least..bringing home the third and final sweet baby girl, Brooke. There is something about coming home with a newborn baby that is so special! Coming home with her was so amazing. The girls were so in love with her, so excited to have her in our family.
*One more experience that was memorable was getting Adilyn off to Kindergarten this year. I will never forget walking up to get her everyday after school those first few weeks of school and sharing the walk home together as we talked about her day.

In the last 10 years, so many things happened to our family in this house. Memories were made, laughter was shared, and unforgettable moments together were created! I will never again try to soothe a crying baby while walking up and down that hallway.We will never have an amazing dance party in that living room again. I will never again make spectacular chalk creations on the driveway to impress my kids. I will never again sit out in the cul-de-saq watching the girls collect pine needles from the neighborhood in their Barbie Jeep. I will never again have to be the prince with Adilyn and her tiny princesses in the playroom. I will never again hang out in the backyard while the girls play "old timey laundry" in the water with buckets while Cory tries to shoot dove with Adilyn's pink BB gun. Instead, we will make a lifetime of new unforgettable memories in a different house. I can't wait to find all the things I love about our new place. I am looking forward to starting this new chapter while the girls are still young. There are so many new "firsts" and "lasts" that we will experience together in this new house. I am sad to leave our home on Winding Trail, but I can't wait to make our new house, our home!

It Was Diasters!

One of Kacy's favorite thing to say is "That would be disasters!" It's so very cute and dramatic. But, she did have a big disaster on Wednesday! Adilyn, Kacy, and Hudson were jumping on the trampoline in the morning before we took Adilyn to school. All of a sudden, Adilyn came in to say that Kacy got hurt. Being the littlest girl, she had been hurt a few times earlier in the week, so I didn't think anything of it. We took Adilyn to school, and when we got home she was still saying that it hurt. She wouldn't put any weight on it, and she was still crying a lot. I got the feeling that something was really wrong. It was not swollen or bruised, but I still knew that she was not just being dramatic. I decided to take her to an urgent care clinic to get x-rayed. They said that she had a small fracture in her tibia, but that it would probably heal pretty quickly. He said that if she was still complaining about it after a week or so we should take her to an orthopedic specialist. We got home, and she was being pretty tough, but I could still tell it was hurting her. I asked Ashley to ask Gerad what he thought. He said it was hard to tell for sure, but that if it really was a fracture in her tibia, then it wouldn't heal very quickly. He said that he thought I should take her to an orthopedic doctor tomorrow, just to be sure. I wasn't sure what to do, but that night, she slept for a little while, but then was up pretty much all night rolling around and whining. Because of Gerad and our rough night, I decided to try to make an appointment for an orthopedic. I figured that it would take a while to get in somewhere, but when I called and told them it was for my 3 year old, she said that if I could get there in an hour they could see me. Cory was on a call, so I had to carry Brooke in her car seat and Kacy in my arms all the way in! I was not prepared with a stroller for Kacy or anything. It was quite an armful! We went in, the doctor looked at the x-ray, and said that he could definitely see the fracture. He also said that she was really tough because he could tell that he was hurting her when he poked and prodded her leg, but she just squirmed around and didn't say much. Unfortunately, he said that she would need a full leg cast for two weeks! Cory came back in just in time for her to get her cast. The caster said that she could pick two colors, so she got pink and purple striped. Again, she was being super brave while she was getting the cast. She had this sweet, little tough face on the whole time. What a trooper!
Here we are 3 days later...she is able to walk slowly on the cast. She hates going to the bathroom with it! She will often say, "Oooohhh, I don't like my cast!" or "I want this cast off my leg right now!" Sometimes, she has meltdowns and will act like she can't do anything. She doesn't like to be by herself, so when I leave the room, she freaks out and yells at me. When she is on the ground, she will scoot or army crawl where she wants to go. It's pretty pitiful, but pretty resourceful, too.

Before the cast...

Day 3 of the cast

Crawling in her "cat" outfit

She is doing great, and I am so proud of her. Can't wait until she gets that dang thing off though, and gets to be her little bouncy, running self again!

Homeless - Part 1

After closing on our house last Friday, we became officially rid of our house of 10 years, and officially homeless.We went through a lot of options of what to do after our house closed. Go to Fort Worth, but then we would have to take Adilyn out of school. Move into an apartment, but then we are stuck in a lease for at least 6 months. Travel, but then we are spending money and Adilyn still has school. See if people will take us in for a couple weeks at a time until we find a place...sounds good! Luckily we have fantastic friends, so we had some options. I was really worried about wearing out our welcome somewhere, so we decided to move around a little bit. We started off at Shane and Dana's house on Friday. They were out of town on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, so we made ourselves at home over the weekend and got settled. The girls were a mess all weekend, super whiny and weird off and on, until the boys got home. The minute they were here, they were off playing together on the trampoline and in the playroom. It was great! Everyone got their homework done, we ate dinner, and had a peaceful bedtime. Could it really be this easy? 6 kids 7 years old to 5 months old, 4 adults, 3 cats, and 2 dogs really can coexist in a 4 bedroom house! Fantastic!
Then, the weekly routine set in. Mason and Wyatt get on the bus about 7:30, and we have to leave to take Adilyn to school at 8:00. Adilyn woke up super grumpy, and she kept saying that she didn't want to go to school. I was really worried that she wasn't going to get out of the car when I took her to school. We made it to school on time, and she just jumped right out. Success! Kacy, Brooke, and I headed back to the house where we hung out until it was time to go back and get Adilyn. It is quite a drive, 30 minutes there and back, twice a day. Brooke usually falls asleep in the car, and Kacy sometimes does, too. The boys have TaeKwonDo on Mondays and Wednesdays, so everyone else stayed around the house and played and got dinner ready. Again, calm dinner and peaceful bedtimes. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Dana works and Hudson and Kacy go to school, so it's just Cory, Brooke, and me at home for some of the day. Unfortunately, Kacy's and Adilyn's school times don't coincide very well. I drop Addy off at 8:45, and Kacy can't be dropped off until 9:30. In the afternoon, I pick Kacy up at 2pm, and I can't pick Adilyn up until 3:45. That's a looooong time to just drive around aimlessly! I thought that I would go to the Y and workout in the afternoons, but I couldn't find my tennis shoes, so that was a bust. I was literally in the car at least 1/2 the day! Oh well, that won't last too long, thank goodness! Anyways, we all had a great, yummy dinner complete with everyone's favorite, green bean casserole. (And by everyone, I mean Dana and me!) It is amazing how well everything goes in the evenings. It is a very short period of time that everyone is together, but it still has worked out great! I am so thankful to the Hrobars for opening their home to us. Great friends like them are hard to find!

And It's Sold, Seriously This Time!

Both times we had offers on the house, it fell through almost the day after I posted a blog about it. Soooo, this time, I vowed to never mention it on facebook or my blog until it was done. Well, it's done! After 5 1/2 months of being on the market, over 50 showings, and all kinds of drama, the house sold. The way it happened was so crazy! There was a showing scheduled for later in the week, and I told our realtor that we were going to take it off the market after that showing. We really decided that we needed a break from all the chaos of it. So, we were out mowing the lawn one night that week, and a family drove by and picked up a flyer. They stayed outside of the house for a bit, then another car pulled up, then my cell phone rang to see if we would approve a showing for 7:15. It was 7:10. The house was a spectacular mess. I had been at home all day with Kacy and Brooke, and of course, not cleaned at all. There were dirty clothes and dog hair everywhere. I went out to the cars and told them that the house was a mess, and it was in no way ready to show. They said they didn't care, they really wanted to see it. I went in the house, hid really embarrassing things, and they went in. I was really uncomfortable with the whole thing, but we are you going to do? They were in there for a few minutes, and then left. I didn't think anything of it, but then I asked our realtor to call the people that had shown lately to tell them it was coming off the market, and two people wanted to come back for a 2nd showing. One of those were the people who had looked at our mess of a house! They put in an offer after the 2nd showing, and lo and behold, they ended up buying it. It was a cash offer, which meant they could have a quick closing, which meant we had only one week after the option period was over to get out of the house. Both other contracts were terminated during the option period, so there was no way we were going to do anything until the option period was over! Anyway, we got the original offer August 27, finalized the sales price September 4, and closed on September 21. We pretty much had to pack our entire house (and Cory's ridiculous garage) in 7 days! It was a super stressful and busy time, but luckily Shane and Dana came to help on the weekend, and my mom came to help during the week. Mom really just held Brooke the whole time, but that was the most help of all!
So, here we are homeless...everything we own is in one of 4 storage units, Cory's mom's house, Ryan's house, or Shane and Dana's house. I really need to take some pictures of our ridiculous storage units. I can't even believe we had that much stuff! We are staying for a week at Shane and Dana's with six kids, four adults, three cats, and two dogs. Woohoo! After that, we are going to Ryan's for two weeks. Luckily, we found a house that we like, and we will get to move in October 15, if all goes well. I am really surprised that we found a house that we could agree on so quickly! Thank goodness, though, because I am not sure what we would have done otherwise.
I am so thankful for our good friends for letting us invade their homes and their lives. I am so thankful for finally selling our house. I am so thankful to be able to move forward and make new memories in our new place. It's been quite a trying time, but the end is in sight, and I am so glad!
Another post will come with all my favorite memories of the old house. Although, I was so glad when it sold, there was definitely a sense of nostalgia leaving the empty shell of the house that was our home for so long!

Quotable Kacy

My Kacy has such a personality, and I love to hear the things she says in her squeaky, cute voice. Some of my favorites lately -
*I love, love, love cupcapes! (for some reason she says her "k" sounds as a "p")
*I sweaty, man! (and she says it is the most disgusted deep voice)
*I go to elementary school like Addy, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe?
*Mama, you be so proud of me!
*That little outfit on Brookie, it's soooooo cute. (she says this all high-pitched)
I really, really want to get her telling a story on video. She gets so serious and so dramatic when she tells stories. Her little brow furrows as she contemplates the events she is recalling, and she uses her hands all the time. She is fantastically entertaining!

The Five O'Clock Freak Out!

Since we have been in the new routine of school starting, everyone has had their ups and downs. I am figuring out that we need to do some things differently, and I am trying to get our schedule situated. One thing that I can't seem to avoid is Kacy's 5:00 Freak Out, as I have come to call it in the last couple days. Seriously, at 5:00 every day Kacy throws a ridiculous tantrum about some horrific tragedy that has occured...Adilyn taking her balloon, Adilyn not giving her enough coins to play with, her snack spilling out of her bowl, etc, etc. Of course, this usually happens right when I am feeding Brooke, and I can do nothing to stop the chaos! I know it is just because she is tired, but the girl refuses to nap. So, what do we do? Nothing. We just hope that one of these days she will stop. I go back to my motto in life these days - and this to shall pass. Sometimes it doesn't pass quick enough, but it does eventually pass.

2nd Week of Kindergarten

Adilyn has had a pretty good 2nd week of Kindergarten. We had a couple rough mornings the first week. One morning she actually had to be pulled away from me in front of the school by a teacher because she wouldn't let go of my leg. Traumatizing...for both of us! I really wanted her to ride the bus because it's a much shorter walk to the bus stop, and it is just an easier situation for her to jump on the big yellow bus instead of being dropped off and walk in by herself. She really didn't want to ride the bus, so as every good mother does, I bribed her. Well, I like to think of it as a reward instead of a bribe. :) Anyway, two days into the 2nd week, and she has ridden the bus, and we have had no tears! She did tell me today that she got sad today in the bathroom because she missed me so much. So sweet, but why did the bathroom remind her of me?!? She seems to be doing pretty good so far. She says that she gets "Jaguar moneys" everyday for listening and doing the right thing. One days she told me that a teacher asked her to play with a little girl who was crying at recess. She played with her, the girl stopped crying, and she has played with her every day since. Her favorite part of the day is recess. She has definitely decided that the boy who looked like Christopher is in fact Christopher, and they have played together a couple of times at recess. She keeps looking for Annie and Laura (older girls that went to after school care at her daycare), but she hasn't seen them yet. She said that Mrs. Hanna, her teacher, is really nice, and never yells, but just talks to kids in a regular kind of voice even when they get in trouble. I thought she would be friends with this little girl named Taylor that we met at Meet the Teacher, but it doesn't seem like they are hitting it off too much. She said, "Taylor talks all the time. She just talks and talks and talks, always talks about nothing!" At her table is a boy named Max (with a cool mohawk), a boy named Joe (which she thinks is a funny name), and a girl named Lucy (with the big adult earrings). I am so proud of her for being brave. I know that new places, new people, and changes make her nervous; but she has done great! I love hearing her talk about her experiences and all the things that she is learning and doing. It seems many people these days are against public schools for various reasons, but I think it is fantastic! When she gets home, she is a little grumpy, but we are getting into a routine that seems to make her a little happier. We get a snack and a drink, watch a short show, and relax. She always wants to hold Brooke because she says she misses her during the day. So sweet.

My Little Swimmers

Both of the girls have done so great with swimming this year! Kacy started off the summer wearing her floaties and being scared to put her head under the water. Three months later, she is diving down to the bottom and swimming on her own for at least 10 feet. At the beginning of the summer Adilyn did not want to put her face in the water, and she would just tread water forever not going anywhere! One day at the Griffins, she finally got her booty up and swam. She can swim for the length of most backyard pools, and she  figured out how to get to the bottom of the pool to grab stuff without having someone give her a push. It is so  nice to be able to be in the pool with both of them being pretty independent. Kacy still needs a lot of help, but she can at least get around by herself and have fun. Brooke loves the water, too! She got started a little later in the summer because she didn't like the cold water when she was tiny. Now, it's hilarious because the minute she gets in the water, she starts kicking like crazy. Those little feet are always moving! She just loves to hang out with everyone in the pool, and she never gets too mad when people splash her.