Back to School!

So I have a LOT of catching up to do from summer happenings but my computer that has most of my summer pictures is dead and my power cord for it is messed up so I'll have to post about our summer another time! Today I wanted to share just a few pics taking recently, some of which are back-to-school pictures! I sent THREE members of my little family to school on Wednesday! Well, actually I sent my two oldest to school (all-day!), and Tyler started full-time classes at a local college here the same day. He is doing his classes online so that he can still work full-time. I've done some online classes before, but his classes seem way more intense than any I've taken so far!

Shaylee is really enjoying her new class even though neither of her best friends are in there with her. Her teacher is my age and dresses and decorates the class very trendy, so Shaylee is in heaven at school (Shaylee LOVES fashionable people...apparently I'm not included in that group....but her Aunt Nicole is!!). Cayden lucked out and ended up in the same class as his best friend from Preschool and he's adjusted to going to school all day flawlessly!

It's a little sad with just Addy & Zach home now, mainly because they get bored so much easier! Addy and Zach BOTH love to play with and watch the older kids. When they are at school...often Addy will get bored and go lay on her bed and suck her thumb, and Zach gets cranky much earlier in the mornings because he's bored too...so I have to spend much more time than usual keeping them entertained!! They both take naps well, so I do still get "me" time while they nap, which is usually spent sewing (when I don't have a ton of cleaning to do).
I have to admit, Zach is our funniest baby. He is so goofy (which he gets from both of his parents!), WAY too adorable, snuggly, and extremely clever. He is also our first climber! He is 11 months now and was our slowest at learning to walk (he was about 10 1/2 months), but he can now climb onto the couch, and turn around and get back down. He could DANCE before he could even walk...when he hears music he either starts dancing, or starts leading the music with one hand. His giggle can make ANYONE laugh (we get stopped at stores ALL the time by people wanting to comment how adorable he is...and many comment about how beautiful ALL my children are...and there I thought maybe I'm just biased ;-). Zach has his two front bottom teeth, but only one top front tooth and one to the side of it...so Shaylee says he looks like a Cabbage Patch Doll!

Hope everyone is enjoying the transition from Summer to Fall!!!

My Little Helper

Addy & I made some rolls today.

(Yes that washing machine is in my kitchen and has some awesome wood-looking adhesive tile behind it. If we owned this house...it would be ripped out today.)

Addisyn (my 2-year old) has been changing a lot lately. She is VERY independent...which is pretty annoying when I'm trying to help her. Hmmm...unfortunately stubborness runs through both sides of her family so she was doomed!

She has started being very helpful. This morning she snuck into the bathroom while her daddy was in the shower, and she laid a washcloth on the floor for him to step onto (I threw out our old bathmat and haven't bought a new one yet!)...then as soon as he turned off the water, she grabbed a towel and stood there to hand it to him! She does things that seem so random to us...but she's really just copying what she sees us do. She LOVES to help me cook (all my kids do though) and when it's my "turn" to put a scoop of something into the bosch mixer, she says "Good job!". She loves to ask "What doing?" anytime we are going to the store, or if I go outside for just minute to take the trash out. She loves to get baby wipes and "clean" the coffee table, as well as help me move laundry from the washer to the dryer, and fold washcloths.

On the other hand, she has started to hit her terrible two's!! I don't know if she hasn't been feeling well (she just got over the croop a week ago!) but she has been crying over EVERYTHING. I can see that Addy is going to be a pretty emotional girl, just like her big sister! When I have to count to 3 so that she'll do something...as I say "1" she'll says "k", I'll say "2", she'll say "K" a little louder, then by "3" she'll says "K!" like "hello mom I'm already DOING it, stop counting!" That's how my oldest child acts when I start counting. They REALLY dislike when I count. Reminds me of on Transformers when the dad starts counting for his teenage son to open the door and the mom says something like "oh boy, now he's counting". Haha! She also gets into EVERYTHING now. As soon as I turn my back from her to clean something up, she's into something else. HOLY COW!!! Atleast she was potty trained by the time she turned 2...and rarely has night-time accidents...easy potty-training is a HUGE blessing.

Addy is also very funny with her baby brother. She sees how we all talk baby-talk with Zach, so she talks that way to him, too...it is SOOOO cute! She drives me a little insane lately but she's so stinkin' cute that it's hard to be mad at her.

Anyway, I should be doing some dishes, but I figured I better write down these memories before they fly by and I forget! The kids are out of school for the summer so hopefully I'll have lots of fun things to blog about.

Trip to the Kauer's

A few months ago I met Tyler's cousins, Christy & Tyson for the first time! We've really enjoyed getting to be good friends with them and can't wait til Christy and the kids are down here permanently (well for 4-5 years...which is considered permanent in this transient military town)! One weekend the kids and I went down to their beautiful home in San Antonio...and we went to the Zoo while we were down there! I remember my parents taking us to the zoo many times so it's a special place for me!

Addy, David, and Cayden

This picture obviously wasn't taken at the Zoo, but I had to throw it in because Zach loved their feeding chair...apparantly it's like the one in Calvin & Hobbs? It's pretty awesome!

"A" is for Addy! Addy LOVES the letter A so she was really excited to get a picture in front of one!



Shaylee & Indlyss...beautiful names for beautiful girls!

So precious...Zach loved holding Indy's hand while I pushed the stroller!

So this is weird animal comes from the GIRAFFE family...I remember it started with a "K"...where do they FIND these animals??!! We also saw something that looked like a Boar...it was a DEER pig!

I asked my kids to get together for just one shot...this is what I got. Shaylee is enthralled in the map, Cayden is undoubtedly mad that he's been pryed away from his new best friend/cousin David for two whole seconds, and Addy and Zach are just doing their own thing. Thanks guys, you are such troopers to humor your mom. ;-)

Here's the only pic I have of Christy, but I'm sure that even from this angle you can see how gorgeous she is!

The trip was a lot of fun and I'm so glad that Christy and Tyson were so willing to house me and all of my hyperactive rugrats! We love you guys!!

~Moms~

In honor of Mother's Day this past weekend, I wanted to share what I love about my mom, & Tyler's mom!

My mom is the best home decorator I know. Honestly one of the reasons I thought our family had lots of money (it was YEARS later that I found out we really weren't rich!!) when I was little was because of how beautiful our home always was! Those of you who have seen all my mom's holiday decorations know what I mean! She could coordinate so well...as well as sew, crochet, paint, and so much more! She's a superwoman...and was self-taught with these things! My mom is a very giving and helpful person. She has a big heart. She loves family. My mom had challenges I can't even imagine while growing up but she was able to overcome them to make sure her future children would be born into a spiritually strong and safe home. I owe my mom so much for all the things she has taught me. I know girls who weren't lucky enough to have a mom like mine....so they struggle to know how to cook, how to clean, and how to decorate. That's another thing...my mom helped us learn how to keep a house clean, and how to cook. My mom is physically strong...she had 6 C-sections which is uncommon since the body normally can't handle that. She is emotionally strong considering she lost 6...I'm excited to meet my other 6 siblings someday. My mom is very spiritually strong. Losing my dad was something I know she hoped to never have to endure...but she did endure by leaning on the Lord. She also continues to endure "raising" ME so that pretty much sums up her strength! I love you mom and I could go on and on about how much I love you, respect you, and owe you!!!

On to my other mom (Tyler's Mom) Julie! I've known Julie ever since she was my Mia Maids teacher in church and I used to LOVE going to activities at her house (okay so that was PARTLY because she had a cute son I was scoping out)! Julie was fun at girls camp and was good at crafts, and she also enjoyed sewing. Since moving to Texas, Julie has let us live with them more than once. She continues to help us in so many ways. Julie has a big heart (especially when it comes to her kids and their spouses). She loves the Gospe. We would be lost without her here in Texas with us...not kidding! I love you, respect you, and owe you as well!!!

Just call me SCOOTER!

Here's a fun video I took of Zach today! I can't believe how blessed I am to have such healthy and strong kids. They also each have their own hilarious personalities! Zachary is 7 months old today! He is scooting all over the place, and his first tooth fully surfaced just the other day! Cayden has this idea that we could freeze Zach (he actually came up with this idea when Addy was a baby) so that he'll stay cute and little forever. I can see how that method would make sense to a 5-year old..but I've tried to explain to him that would be a very bad idea! It's funny because Cayden was a very good baby, Addy was an even happier baby, and here comes Zach who is even happier and content! He's been sleeping through the night since he was 4 months old (thanks to the book "Baby Wise"). Whenever he wakes up in the morning, or from naps, I slowly peak over his bed and he starts laughing and kicking his feet like CRAZY. People have said that he's the kind of baby that makes you want more babies, and I agree...so watch his video with caution, he just might melt your heart! :-)

One less stress in my life...soon!

A long time ago I wrote a post about my frustration with a little girl that'd moved next door...I'm so happy that they are moving away! I know that's not a very Christ-like attitude, but unfortunately I had a run-in with the grandma this morning that left me so mad that I was shaking! I was looking out the window around 11 a.m. after picking up Cayden from Preschool. I noticed the grandma (she's not old...probably in her early 50's) take her trash cans from the curb next to ours (it was trash day that morning)...but she also grabbed one of our lids. I was holding Zachary as I walked outside and said "Ma'am", and as nicely as possible told her that she'd taken one of our trash can lids. She then told me how I'd stolen it from them a long time ago. She then starts saying swear words and preceeds to tell me how my husband was digging through their trash this morning. A smirk spread across my face as I started imagining it...my husband has the biggest phobia EVER when it comes to taking something of someone's that's been left out for the trash...so he wouldn't even THINK about TOUCHING something in a trash can. I told her that but she insisted that her and her daughter watched him this morning, thinking to themselves how we must be desparate and be looking for food. HA! She ended up giving me the lid but as I walked away I couldn't hold my tongue, and said "We were thinking the same thing about you guys" (regarding the comment of being too poor for food). DANG IT, I stooped to her level. I kept walking as she repeated "WHAT??!! WHAT did you say?!!" at me. She then went into dangerous territory. She said how I was a bad parent because I "make" my daughter walk home from school when there are dangerous people out there. Oh yes. She called me a bad parent. It took everything I had to put my trash cans inside our back yard, and not turn around. Her now 6 year old (4 when they moved here) runs around the entire busy street, half dressed with no shoes, and goes in people's back yards and steals things....but my 9 1/2 year old is too young to walk 1/4 of a mile home from school when we already know exactly where the "bad people"that she is referring to live and there are none even close to the street that we have her walk home on...and she only walks home on the nice days...and because the doctor wants to make sure she's getting plenty of exercise (and did I mention she has a nice new bike she can ride to school)!!?? And about them claiming Tyler dug through their trash...did I mention that a few months ago Shaylee was freaked out because she caught the grandma looking through OUR trash cans that were against our house!? I never went over and said anything to the grandma though since I felt sorry for her...and she didn't end up taking anything anyway. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Alright, I'm done. I'm not shaking anymore. It's a beautiful sunny day and the kids and I will definitely have to go for a walk in a little while!

9 year-old Heartbreak

Today Shaylee was acting more emotional than usual. Finally we got to the root of the problem....she is having trouble with her friends at school. She cried as if the world was coming to an end, as she told me how her best friend Emma hasn't played with her in over a week, because one day Shaylee was playing with another friend at recess "too much". Shaylee is an extremely emotional and dramatic child...but it hurt so much to see her anguishing over this. I held her and wanted to tell her that that in a year she'd forget this all ever happened...but to a 9 year old girl...this was the end of the world. I hope that she can survive all that the future holds for her...and that she will choose to be happy! I love that girl!

Potty-training underway!

For the last couple of months, Addy (23 months old) has been acting like she's ready to potty train. This last Saturday I decided to buy her some girly panties (SO weird to do laundry and find those tiny things!) & she has been doing great!! She's had a couple little accidents each day (since Saturday), but that's not that many considering she drinks a LOT of water so she needs to use the restroom quite a bit! I am SO proud of her! She loves the attention...especially when she gets to put a sticker on her Elmo Potty Chart that came in a Elmo coloring book she picked out. She even wakes up with a dry diaper in the mornings so I think that she'll do fine with night-training, too! Yay!

Happy Valentine's!

Finally...my Valentine post! Tyler did this special dinner for me a couple days early because when he has a surprise, he seriously can't handle waiting. Personally I'd prefer for him to wait...but he makes sure he does something else for the actual holiday...so it just means I get more gifts! :-)

First, he presented me with this (I cropped out the top part since it was personal):

After I signed the "form"...he escorted me to the front door where I found this:

Then he gave me a Menu (he had printed online menus for a Chinese Restaurant, a Pizza place, and Steak Express) for me to pick where I wanted him to place our order:

I was then escorted out to our van, where I saw this:

Some of the pictures have a blur spot...I didn't notice it til I'd already taken a few pictures...I'm sure it's from Addy's dirty little fingers!!

After we were seated, Tyler gave me this (I was thinking maybe he'd ask me to marry him again...but when he didn't...I realized that he'd probably have been too afraid of what the answer would be this time, haha!) :

Oh and he picked the ring out himself, which is what I wanted...and he did absolutely perfect. It cost way more than I would have liked him to spend...but he told me not to worry about it so I'll just be grateful!



Tyler had the video screen set up in the van but the movie kept skipping and stuff after the first 5 minutes, so we ended up moving the romantic set-up into the living room (this was a late dinner so the younger kids were all in bed but we let Shaylee stay up long enough to take a couple goofy pics).

This one is kind of funny...it looks to me like we are holding on for dear life.

It was a perfect night, and even though this post was pretty late...I wanted to document it. I also recieved roses and chocolate in the mail the next day...a sweet "I love you " book & card the day after that...I'll stop gushing now. Tyler did great this year. He'll have a hard time ever topping it. All I did was write him a poem (it wasn't half bad!) & give him a Willow Tree statue of "Promise". It reminds me of Tyler and me!

*I forgot to add...the dinner date was a pajama date/sleepover (the perks of being married!) so that is why Tyler is in his awesome Grinch pjs and I'm in my favorite "Minnie Mouse" pj bottoms!!


Here is what we did for Shaylee's class for V-day...I got the templates from Martha Stewart's website. I was too lazy to do the earbuds though. Cayden was okay with just doing super hero cards for his class...thank goodness...because you KNOW I procrastinated making these until like 10 p.m. Thursday night!! I had Tyler cut out the templates while I cut out the colored paper...I gave him a little crap about not cutting very perfectly but luckily he didn't take offense :-)

Family Photo - Bloopers and all!

So, Tyler's mom bought all of her kids & their families sweaters for Christmas so that we could take a picture to give to her. It only took us almost 2 months but we finally did it! So here they are...our bloopers and all! Anyone with kids should be able to appricate the humor in the multiple shots...IF they've ever tried to take a family picture...especially with their own camera & tripod instead of a pro! I'm too lazy/busy to edit my photos 90% of the time...I'm in the "it's good enough" stage of life :-) I can't wait to post about V-Day in my next post...since it's been more like Valentine's WEEK for me!

Notice Addy's cute belly in the above picture?

Gotta move quicker than that honey!

I think this one is my favorite.


This one turned out pretty good, too.

Since we don't get enough "couple" pics, we figured we better take a couple now, too!

Look at all those "innocent" faces! :-)

"Superstar"

Addy has discovered the "pick my nose & show what I found to mom" stage.

Some January & February pictures

Wow it's been too long since I posted on here! Here are some pictures taken over the last few weeks.

During the kids' naptime today, I hemmed some Corduroy pants for Shaylee, and appliqued a flower on some polka-dot corduroy, then appliqued that to a $3 shirt from Target, then straight-stitched around the flower, THEN zig-zag stitched around the polka-dot corduroy. Since I already had the two fabrics in my "stash" & got the pants for free...$3 was my total for this outfit! I TRY (doesn't always happen) to do a project each day during naptime...but half our house is packed up to move so it's been frustrating lately. Hopefully we'll be moving in the near future so that I can get my sewing stuff organized!!

On Friday nights the kids take turns picking a movie & watching it in their room. Sometimes they build a fort on their bunkbed to sleep in, and sometimes they snuggle on the floor!

We've all been sick around here...& this picture of Addy & Cayden fully expresses how they feel!

I can't get enough of this little guy. He seriously melts my heart!!

Do these guys look like they are up to no-good? Ya, I think so, too!

Just look at that face! Don't you just want to chew on those cheeks? His skin is SOOO soft!