Pumpkins, Baby!

I think this is the first year that we haven't gone to Dewberry Farms or Halter Farm pumpkin patch. There was just too much going on, and the pictures that I always dream of never seem to happen at the patch! :) We got some pumpkins at the grocery store, and we had the Hrobars over for a carving party. We all a had a great time hanging out and carving some amazing pumpkin designs!

Pictures From The Homeless Period

We had such a great time staying at Ryan's and the Hrobar's house, and although it was a difficult time in some ways, our friends made it so much better! Both places were so stress-free and fun. I feel so lucky that the last month went as well as it did. :)
Here are some pictures that capture the memories and the fun of what will forever be known as "The Henderson Homeless Period."

 We LOVED the park by Ryan's house!

 We went to a fall festival with the Hrobars one Saturday afternoon.

 Painting in Ryan's backyard!

 Cory took all 3 kids to school every morning, and they always played with that goofy bear. They named him, Pandy. Cory said every morning they were super silly the entire way to school!

 Trampoline fun, every single day!!!

 After Kacy's broken leg, she stayed off the trampoline and stuck to digging the hole to nowhere.

 Nightly bedtime stories were probably my favorite part. They would always argue about who got to lay is who's bed! Uh oh! 

A packed dinner table.

 The Armadillos on the way to school! That just makes my heart happy :)

New House!!!!

Yay! Everything went great with the closing on the new house last Friday. The Hrobars came over to an empty house on Friday night to run around and eat dinner. The kids had a great time running and yelling and running and yelling some more! They played tag, poison person tag, and wrestled in the empty playroom. We ate pizza on the floor and in camping chairs in the kitchen. When Mason was done, he said, "Um, may I be excused from the floor?" :) It was great to have everyone together that very first night because it made me look so forward to all the fun that we are going to have in this house! Although it was fun to have everyone hear, it was also crazy noisy. The kids were getting super crazy after dinner, so Dana took the boys home. The girls stayed with me and watched a show while Shane and Cory made another run with the trailer. Saturday was a long, long, long day! We woke up and started moving and unloading and unpacking. Luckily we had help from Carl in the morning and Shane for the majority of the day. Cory made 4 trips to storage, and he kept coming back with more and more stuff! Brooke took an amazingly long nap, and I unpacked the majority of the kitchen. I was so proud of the work that I had done, and then Cory came back with about 10 more kitchen boxes...so disheartening! It went really well, though, and the two indoor storage units were cleared by the end of the day. Dana and the boys came over in the late afternoon, and the kids played and went swimming. It was pretty chilly, but they had fun in the pool for about 30 minutes. Saturday was our first night to stay at our new house, and it went great! The girls slept great in their own rooms, and it felt just like home. Just like home with boxes and junk piled up everywhere! :) 

It's been 5 days, and things are moving pretty slowly. I was doing great until Tuesday, then I just kind of got bored with unpacking and organizing. It will all get done, and I already have the more important rooms done. The kitchen, master bathroom, upstairs bathroom, laundry room, and girls' rooms are unpacked and organized. There are piles and piles of boxes in the study, and the game room is an absolute mess; but the important places are at least unpacked. I am having a hard time because I want to decorate and do the fun things, but the hard things are still not done! I just can't believe how much stuff we have. I am still throwing things away because if I start to unpack them and I didn't really remember them or care about it, it's going in the trash! 

 Everyone was checking things out.

 The big sisters, ready for a chilly swim!

 Trying out the diving board!

One of our dinners among the boxes with the Hrobars! At least we had a table this time :)

 Brooke, the backwards scooter, got herself perfectly wedged between two boxes!

This was one of the boxes that Adilyn helped me label :)

I am so happy to finally be in a house of our own. The house that will be our home for the next however many years! I love that the girls are just as comfortable here as they are anywhere. I just can't wait to be all settled, decorated, and done!

Kindergarten 2nd First Day of School :)

Cory took Mason, Wyatt, and Adilyn to school that first morning. They were so super silly in the car, and they all seemed really excited! Wyatt and Mason showed Adilyn all around the school, and then Cory and her went to the front office to get her teacher assignment. All day long I would think about how she was doing, and I just hoped it was going well! I was nervous when I first picked her up because she seemed out of sorts when she got in the car. Picking her up as a car rider was a little stressful, and it was raining, so that made it more chaotic! When she got in the car she seemed sad or nervous. She wouldn't buckle her seat belt, and she started to freak out a little. I thought her day had gone terrible! Then she said, "This school is not like my old school Jowell Elementary, at all!" My heart sank...I asked why and she said, "They have different sight words and there is NO rest your head on the table time! It was a short amount of time, but it really made me not so tired! I was waiting for that rest all day long, but it never came." Sweet girl! After that confession, I tried to make her feel better, then I started asking her more questions. Finally she perked up and told me all about the fun times she had! Ahhhh....big sigh of relief!
Her teacher is Mrs. Reid, and Cory said that she was really young and tiny. Adilyn described her as fun, pretty with hair just like hers. :) She made a new friend named Bailey (who is a girl this time), she loved Mrs. Reid, and she liked everything about the day! Adilyn sat at table 6 with Bailey, and they seemed to be friends from the start! They played together at recess and they sat together at lunch. Day 2 was just as good, and she even had a friend give her a picture she had colored. So sweet! I am so happy for her to finally be settled in the school that she will be in and stay in. It feels so right for her to be here, and I am so grateful that all has worked out this way!

Adilyn's 1st Kindergarten Experience

I am going to try to sum up Adilyn's first 8 weeks of Kindergarten at Jowell. First of all, the school was much better than I ever would have imagined! Had I known that she would have had such a great experience, I would not have been so obsessed with moving. Not that I wanted her to grow up in that school forever, but a couple years would have been fine! First of all, her teacher, Mrs. Hanna was amazing. When we went to open house, she told us how great Adilyn was, how she was such a wonderful helper and a good student. After I told her that we were going to be moving, she genuinely seemed to be sad to see her go. She made her "Student of the Month" for September, and wrote her a very sweet note on her last day. Adilyn had a little friend named Bailey, who I always assumed was a girl. Turns out, Bailey was a boy. The reason I know that is because she came home one day and told me that he kissed her twice. Once on the cheek, and once on the mouth. Yikes! Her other favorite friend was Lucia, a sweet little girl who sat at her table. Adilyn was always amazed with her beautiful, grown-up earrings. She also liked to play with a little girl named Madeline at recess who was in a different class. I asked her how they always ended up playing together. She said, "Sometimes I find her, sometimes she finds me, and sometimes we just find each other!" They played princess and pretended that a climb on dinosaur was their castle. A couple other friends she talked about were Brandon (Bailey's brother), Naomi, Mia, and Joe. Adilyn had a job as the "water manager" one week, and she took it very serious! She had to stand at the water fountains and make sure that people didn't drink too much water. She also had to make sure that they were quiet in line. Another week, she was the girl line leader, and she seemed to like that okay, but it wasn't nearly as impressive as the water manager. She liked art and music alright, but she never really sad much about PE other than she liked the exercise dancing. She would sometimes come home and show me the stretches and cool exercises that she learned like scissor jumps and short leg - long leg. She absolutely loves writing! She sat down and copied every word from one of her princess books just because she wanted to practice. Everyday on our 30 minute drive to school and 30 minute drive home she would practice writing her sight words and anything else she could think of writing. She wants to play school all the time to teach Kacy and I all the numbers and letters and sight words. I love that she loves to learn, and I hope that love for learning continues throughout her life! I am so happy that she enjoyed her first school experience, and I hope her new elementary is just as perfect for her!
A couple Kindergarten stories...
*One day, it was raining at dismissal. I thought I was supposed to pick her up as I car rider when it rained, so I was waiting in the car rider line. I was in the car line, and I got a call at 3:55 from the office saying that Adilyn was in the office because nobody picked her up. I rushed out of line, and got Brooke and Kacy out to go get her. Poor girl was sitting on the couch in the office looking so lost, so forgotten, so sad! It broke my heart! It took a good 45 minutes for her to recover from it! Another day, I got stuck in traffic, so I was going to be late. I called the office to tell them to tell Adilyn that I would be there soon. I was so worried that she was going to be so sad again. Luckily, I got there, and she was okay. I asked her if she was worried, she said, "No, I knew you were going to be there. The office worker told me." Sigh of relief...
*In her words, "Mom, you will never believe what happened today! Two people peed in their pants! Two, in the same day! It was a crazy day in Kindergarten!"
*"It was so sad today. Nobody was listening, so we didn't get center time or recess! Why can't they just listen?" Um, my thoughts exactly, daily!!!
*I sent some candy corns in her lunch one day, and she told me that Bailey asked her for a yellow one. She said that he could have the chocolate ones because she didn't like those. Then she said, "After I gave him the chocolate ones, I just ate all the yellows ones really fast." I asked her what he said. She said, "He didn't say anything, but he didn't look very happy!" (with a sneaky smile on her face)
*"Mom, Kacy could come to school with me because there are lots of kids her size there!"

Homeless Part 3 - The Final Stretch

We are three days from closing on the new house. Adilyn starts at her new school tomorrow, and I am so nervous for her. I think that I am way more nervous than she is! She seems to be really excited, and I think it helped that we saw Mason eating lunch there today when we went up to enroll her. I just hope that she finds a little friend to play with soon so that she will forget her favorite friends at Jowell. We are back with the Hrobars, and everyone seems right at home. Adilyn and Kacy went right to sleep in the playroom, Brooke doesn't care where she is, the dogs are back to barking at every little noise, and right now Cory and Shane are playing some crazy shooting video game...all is as it should be! I absolutely can't wait for this ridiculous journey to end this weekend. I am so thankful that it has gone as well as it has, but I am also thankful that it is going to be over!

Peg Leg

Kacy has had her cast off for 5 days now, and she is still walking like she has it on. I am getting a little concerned about it because the doctor said that she should be fine in a week or so. I keep trying to get her to focus on stepping down on her foot the right way, but the more she thinks about it, the worse it is. Oh well, her little muscle memory is all messed up. Hopefully it will straighten out soon! The worst part about it that her leg looks fine, so when she walks all crazy people just stare at her wondering what's wrong. Poor kid! I need to post a video of her walking around on it, so I can always remember all the craziness that we are going through right now :)

Brooke - 6 months

Little Brook Nicole was 6 months old this week. The time has gone by so fast! It always goes by quickly, but with all the drama and chaos that our life has been filled with since March - it seems to have gone by even faster than normal! This poor girl has absolutely NO routine. I never realized that it was my job to get my baby on a routine of sleeping/eating/etc. She is the first one that I have had at home past 12 weeks old. Daycare does a fantastic job of getting them on a schedule, so I just kind of went with whatever they were doing with Adilyn and Kacy. I am not sure that even if I thought about getting her into a routine that I would have been very successful doing it with all the changes that we have gone through, but it still would be nice to have some sort of schedule. She rarely naps anywhere but in the car, so if we actually get to stay in one place for the day she only sleeps when I am feeding her. I got her to sleep in her pack 'n play for two hours today, and that is a first! She doesn't hate the car as much as she used to, which is fantastic since we are in the car so much these days. If she does get upset in the car, Adilyn usually does a great job of entertaining her or distracting her. Kacy tries, but I think she just bugs her more than anything. :) Brooke loves to watch the girls. For some reason when they jump on the bed, she cracks up every single time! I took her on the trampoline at Shane and Dana's one day, and she absolutely loved it. She also loves when they are acting silly or dancing around. One of Brooke's talents is grabbing things. She is dead-on when she goes for something. It is very rare that she misses her target even once. Her favorite thing to grab is hair, and she can even grab hair with her toes...toe-tally talented like the rest of the girls in her family! She is getting really close to being able to sit up on her own, but she definitely tips over easily when she is grabbing for things. I started feeding her solid foods about 2 weeks ago, thinking it would help her sleep better at night, but it didn't. She is eating pretty well, and she hasn't rejected anything I have given her. We have tried cereal, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, and prunes. I usually just give her some solids when we eat dinner, but it's been a challenge here at Ryan's house because our high chair is in storage. I have put her in the Bumbo seat on the table to feed her, but it's a constant battle of trying to keep her in the Bumbo and away from everyone's drinks, plates, and anything else within grabbing range. She loves to talk and scream. For some reason, she loves to do this little high-pitched hoarse scream all the time. It's pretty cute, for now. :) She loves Ryan, and anytime he is around, she will just watch him until he talks to her. When strange men talk to her, she has started crying. I feel bad because they are usually just trying to be sweet and say hi, but for some reason, it completely freaks her out! One old man responded by saying, "Don't worry, I always have that affect on women." Silly old fella! I am so glad Brooke came into our life. She makes our family complete, and she makes me smile even when she is waking up at all hours of the night!

And The Cast is OFF!!!

Kacy's follow-up appointment was Thursday. I had been preparing her for the fact that it might be loud when they take her cast off. She kept saying, "Is it going to be super loud?" I kept saying, "No, just pretty loud." Then she would just say okay. I am not sure what the difference between "super" loud and "pretty" loud were, but whatever it was she seemed okay with it. She usually gets freaked out by loud noises, so I was a little concerned, but when we got in there she was fine. I could tell she was a little nervous on the table, but I kept talking to her and she did great. That girl is a trooper!
Her break was completely healed, and she was free to be out of a cast! She is still walking all peg leg and weird, but the doctor said that she should be fine in a week or so. It's strange to see her walking funny with no cast on because now it just looks like she has a messed up leg. She can't run or jump for a couple weeks, so she was still sad about that. I am sure that she will be back to her old self in no time. She couldn't do all the dance moves that she wanted to do today, so she laid on the ground and danced on the ground. Good improvising!

I Wish...

Kacy gets so sad when Adilyn gets to do things that she can't. She has mastered the statement, "I wish..." One of the funniest things that she is jealous of is that when I drop Adilyn off at school her teachers open the door for her to get out at the car rider line. Every single day, and I mean, every single day as we pull away, she says, "I wish my teachers open my door for me at my school."
Other thing she wishes for...
"I wish I could sit in a booster seat, like Addy."
"I wish I have a pretty dress like that girl."
"I wish I have long hair like you and Addy."
"I wish I could go to the beach everyday."
Sweet girl! It's good to have dreams. :)

The Cast - Day 11

Kacy has done great with her cast! Even though she has done well, I am so hoping that she gets it off this week. She doesn't really complain too much about it anymore, and it really only itched one day. I am so glad that this happened now and not in the summer. I think the fact that it hasn't been 100 degrees has really helped the itchy factor!
Funny moments:
She was stepping on Adilyn's foot on "accident", and Adilyn was screaming. Kacy said, "I sorry, this cast just soooooo crazy!"
We have to bathe her sitting on the toilet because otherwise the water drips into her cast. One day Cory got creative and held her by the feet and dipped her head in the water to wash her hair. She laughed hysterically the whole time!
She has learned how to get up the stairs at the playground pretty well. She says, "Up is gold shoe first, down is cast leg first!" ("gold shoe" because she wears her silly gold sparkly shoes 99% of her life)!
Her classmates thought her cast was pretty cool, and apparently they all got to touch it the first day she went back to school.
She always says things like, "I can't run with my cast. I can't play soccer with my cast. I can't wear princess shoes with my cast." She just lists things she can't do, even if she doesn't really want to do it at the present time.
I heard her struggling in the bedroom one night after bath. I went in to see what was wrong. She said, "I can't get my jammies over this big, huge leg!"
She gets stuck in certain positions sometimes, but she doesn't get too upset. She just yells for some help, and we unstick her!
Kacy is a trooper, and I am so glad that our first cast situation was with her!

Guilt of a Different Kind

I have had my share of "mommy guilt" throughout the last 5 years as a working mom. My heart broke more than a few times when I had to drop off my kids at daycare when they were extra tired, a little sick, or just plain needy. When I coached, I was so sad on my game nights when I knew that I wouldn't even see the kids before they went to bed. Now that I am a stay-at-home mom, I am still having guilt...just different guilt. I feel bad that Adilyn has to be at school everyday while Kacy, Brooke, and I are at home. Adilyn never got to stay home; she was in school from 11 weeks old until forever. I feel so bad that I don't even want to do anything fun with Kacy because I feel like I am betraying Adilyn. I know it's silly because it's not my fault that she is in Kindergarten, but I just feel bad that this is the first year that I am at home, and she can't be with me. Today was the worst! We had a birthday party today at Dewberry Farms, and Adilyn loves that place almost as much as she loves birthday parties! I tried to keep it from her, but of course it slipped out. I honest to goodness did not think that she was going to get out of the car this morning when I went to drop her off. Luckily, she did get out after I told her that the party was not going to be very much fun, and that there were going to be a lot of babies there! I just felt so bad for her. How bad would it suck to be the ONLY one that has to leave the house everyday?!? Even Cory stays home. He is working, but he is still home. Oh well, maybe I will get over feeling bad, and maybe I can finally work up the nerve to actually go do some fun activities with Kacy before she starts Kindergarten! :)
I plan to do a post on working vs. stay-at-home, but my life is in such chaos right now with moving and house stuff that I don't really feel like I am getting an accurate picture of being a stay-at-home mom. Maybe one day we will have some semblance of a routine, and I can feel like I am being productive and have a purpose!

Homeless Part 2 - The Bachelor Pad

We are working on our second week of being homeless, and we have changed venues. I was worried about wearing out our welcome in one single place, so I thought it was best to share the love of the Henderson crew. :) Ryan's house is very different from the Hrobars. The funniest thing that has happened was when I went to make rolls for dinner on night. I preheated the oven, and got the rolls out of the fridge...then, I couldn't find a cookie sheet! I asked him where it was, and he said that he was pretty sure he had one somewhere. Turns out, he didn't! Typical bachelor :) No cookie sheet, but he did have some pyrex, and it turns out that crescent rolls cook up pretty tasty in there, too! I also noticed that he had an excessive amount of tupperware containers, and I found that odd. Then, I remembered how many leftovers he must have had sent home with him over the years! The drive to Adilyn and Kacy's school is pretty easy from here, so that has been good. Kacy and Adilyn are sharing a room, and they are doing just fine. We set up a little playroom over here, and they have had fun playing dress-up, school, and doctor's office. Kacy was a little distressed one day about where our home was, so I tried to explain to her that wherever we are, that's our home. She seemed to be okay with that explanation. Poor kids! I think that they are doing okay with everything, but you never know. I think as long as we treat them as we always have treated them with love, kindness, and support they will be alright. We have 22 days (more or less) to go, and we will finally be in our own place. I must say, though, I am so grateful to have such great places to go while we are in transition! Both the Hrobars' and Ryan's house have been so comfortable and so relaxing. The last thing that I would want right now would be to feel uncomfortable, irritated, or out of place!