I'd settle for a slowdown - just a little though

Wow, this has been a busy month. Aidan had VBS at First Baptist Wylie. They are an amazing church with lots of great programs for elementary aged kiddos. It was themed "Saddle Ridge Ranch". He had a great time and learned a few valuable lessons! We had a one week gap and then had VBS at our church, Plano Bible Chapel. I was in charge of crafts for 3's, 4's and Kinder. Man I love those ages! They are such a darling group with lots of sweet personalities. It required a good bit of prep, but I heart crafts in a major way. It was fun to be able to work with the kids and still have all of my kids with me. LOVE my church! It is full of people that truly have a servants heart, and a heart for God.

Izzie started Ballet a couple of weeks ago. Watch out all other ballerinas, cuz here she comes! It is such a pleasure to watch her and all of the other bitty ballerinas dance their little hearts out. It has given me time to spend with her - true Izzie time. I so look forward to years of enjoying mother/daughter moments. I love them!

This month should be less hectic. I am beginning to work on lesson plans as we have decided to home school Aidan. I'm really looking forward to it! I am reading so many books to educate myself on how best to achieve our goals. I think this is going to not only be a great learning experience for him, but fun for our entire family. He is going to be participating in co-ops with the goal of putting him in Wylie Prep next year. We will just have to see where the road takes us. James and I are making plans that may involve some HUGE changes. More on that at a later time.

Noah has now cut a third tooth. An upper canine! He is very early on that - not to mention very stuffy and fussy. My poor baby boy. I live for his precious grins though.

I have a date to play Barbies now!

Soccer Mom

I can totally rock that title! We scrambled into the "Swagger Wagon" first thing to get to Aidan's soccer game. Can I say that my kid rocks at defense? Ok, he does sometimes trip over the ball, or his feet, or even the air, but he makes it look cool. Not everyone possesses that skill. After the game - "Mom? Was I awesome or cool?" "Duh, you were both!" The things that come out of his mouth never cease to amaze. Sometimes good and sometimes not so much.

James was at work, so the kids and I kicked it at the house most of the day. There was a little World Cup watching, Homeward Bound, and Transformers at bedtime. Homeward Bound still makes me cry. It's that moment that Shadow comes limping over the hill towards his boy. I have an incredible soft spot for Golden Retrievers. All other dogs are second to Goldens. The ultimate dog for me, was my dog, Luke. Luke was my dog growing up - my bestie with four legs. He passed away when I was pregnant with Aidan. Oh, I loved that dog! I could tell a million stories about him, but I won't. Fortunately, our yellow lab, Phoenix, reminds me so much of him. Love his big, dorky-ness! My favorite moment with Phoenix was a few months ago when we came home to find that he had gotten into the trash(not cool) and had gotten a box stuck on his head. Don't know how long it had been stuck, but it was greatness!

This week, Noah has had two teeth come through. My sweet baby has handled it like a champ. He thinks he is so big and wants to eat whatever I eat. He looks up at me with his precious round face and smacks his lips. No baby food for this one! He has also gotten incredibly mobile! He is army crawling and rolling to his desired destinations. Props for resourcefulness! He is having sitting up issues. He is very wobbly and reminds me of a Weeble. Ya know how Weebles just wobble around? That's Noah. Apparently his tushy is too round:))

In other news, Aidan just finished VBS at First Baptist Wylie. That church is awesome! If we didn't love our church so much, we would be at FBS. They do so many cool things for kiddos. Aidan had a blast and is going to the Zoo with them in a couple of weeks. Since he went to school their, he has several friends that go as well. Should be fun.

Our little Molasses fancies herself a ballerina and can't wait for ballet this week. We had a mishap this last week and she was unable to go. I had to explain why she had to have TWO shoes to dance. One would not do the trick. Unless she wants to be a one-legged ballerina. I don't know, but that sounds tricky. One ballet slipper is still AWOL. If anyone sees it - tackle it. My baby needs to dance! She is the CUTEST ballerina that God put on this earth - love her!

Alexander Days

To those of you that read to your children often, you will know what I mean when I say that I am having an "Alexander" day. If not, run, don't walk to the nearest library and check out "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". Great book about one of "those" kinds of days. I am being selfish and venting a little about my day to this point. Woke up at 9 after having a horrible stomach bug yesterday. James was of course gone, so I had to paste a smile on my face and hack it. Back to my morning...woke up at 9, should have had Aidan at VBS at 8:45. Assumed that James would be home first thing, but he picked up a shift. I was so out of it that I didn't hear my phone ring around 8:00. Woke up and thought to myself, what a great hubby I have. He came home and got Aidan to VBS and let me sleep. This is the point that I hear Aidan's voice and reality comes crashing down. I call James and talk about something that I don't remember...I'm a little pissed at this point. I hit the floor running! Aidan was such a sweet helper. He threw his clothes on and got a very wiggly Noah dressed. Izzie was in hysterics because she couldn't find shoes. While I am trying to get as ready as I can when I have zero time, I realize that Izzie has her first ballet class at 10:00. Argh!!!! Frantically looking for her ballet outfit! We lovingly call her the bag lady(She has 2 nicknames, but generally she is Molasses) because she has a thing for taking any bag, whether Target or canvas, reusable or an old Taco Bueno bag, and filling them with her treasures. I am dumping out every single bag that I find stashed and can't find anything but tights. Throw the kids in the car, drop Aidan at VBS(30 min late)and drive it like I stole it back to the house to see if I can find ANYTHING to send Izzie to ballet in. Needless to say, she missed her first ballet class and I have only located one ballet slipper and tights. I'm thinking the ballet instructor might frown on that. The good news is that I have found multiple locations that she is cramming things when she should be putting things away. BUSTED! This day can only get better. Right??? I still feel pretty gross, but better than yesterday when I felt like it was possibly my time to go meet Jesus. I look forward to that day, but I guess it wasn't yesterday.

My next blog will be more about the kids and less about me. Promise. Oh, and it will be more cheerful. Just not feeling the cheer right now. I feel a little better, but I need large amounts of Dr. Pepper.

Crazy days

I love being busy. I know that some may find that odd, but I don't love to just hang around and do nothing. I just don't have it in me. I blame it on my Dad who is a perpetual doer. I thrive on chaos generally speaking.

There is actually a point to the above paragraph. Today was a busy day. I got up first thing and told the kids and James to throw on their suits - I have a surprise. Nothing monumental, but they don't care. We headed out for breakfast and a trip to the water park. It was lots of fun. I love watching James play with the kids in the water. He turns into a giant kid and plays right along with them. He pretends that he doesn't realize that a giant bucket of water is about to come pouring down on him and they just giggle. There is nothing better than kids giggling with complete abandon. Can I get an Amen?

After the water park we had lunch. Love Subway. Hate that James' chicken sandwich was frozen. Also don't understand how the employee did not understand the difference between lettuce and spinach. Obviously she needs to incorporate fresh spinach into her life. I will stop short of listing it's tremendous nutritional value.

Shower time, nap time, and library in the afternoon. I LOVE to read. I LOVE all things having to do with books. I could read until I am blue in the face and still go on for another chapter. You get the picture. I guess this might seem contradictory to the point I made about being busy, but this is a form of being busy. If not in body, in mind. I have found a little slice of heaven at the Richardson Public Library. Wylie has the most ridiculous excuse for a library! I will be spending lots of time on one of Richardson's FOUR flours of literary excellence. Ok, maybe not all excellent, but the point is that there is a truck load of books.

Aidan has his first soccer game of the season at the CRACK of dawn. I will be the soccer mom down in front with a carafe of coffee in hand. Go Firecrackers! Stupid name, but nobody asked me.

A Very Merry 1/2 Birthday

We had such a fun time yesterday! After massive amounts of coffee to offset the horrendous night I had with my youngest, we hit the road.

We tried out Mooyah first. Yum! Easy on the taste buds, not so much on the waist line. We will definitely do that again. I want to take a moment to applaud the person that installed a giant dry erase wall. Finally, an actual parent with a great design idea. Someone that realizes that kids get BORED sitting in restaurants. Whoever you are, you rock! Aidan schooled me on tic tac toe...

We went to Guitar Something or Other(surprisingly that's not the actual name, but it escapes me at the moment - again, not much sleep). James has been wanting to take up the acoustic guitar for several years and just hasn't had the chance. We were thinking about letting James and Aidan do this together as both have an interest. Well, long story short we came home with a guitar and no clue what to do with it. Now to find someone who can show them what to do with it! Happy early Fathers Day, Honey.

I also went to Half Price Books. One of my all time favorite places to shop. I could stay for hours or maybe even days. The kids are starting a reading log so that their brains do not get mushy over the summer. It never hurts that they are offering incentives!

Speaking of mushy brains... Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Blog failure

I apologize for the horrible blog failure. I have not posted anything in eons. No worries, we have officially moved on to the lazy days of summer.

Aidan just graduated from Kindergarten this last Friday. It took my breath away. Sometimes with kids it's a punch in the gut when you look at them and realize that they have changed in the blink of an eye. I always remind myself to stop and memorize these moments and know that I won't, but I take pictures to remind me.

He was so big. He sang his little heart out walked across the stage in his cap and gown like a champ. Love that kid. My heart was so excited and so sad at the same time. I know I was not the only mom feeling the same way. And now we move on to 1st grade!

Aidan also had Field Day. What a blast! Ok, an extremely hot blast, but fun nonetheless. I went to take pictures of the kiddos for the Kinder slide show. I must say that the slide show turned out so well. It really was the bomb. James is awesome and didn't complain once about the HOURS that we spent putting it together. The parents seemed to love it :))

Moving on.

Noah is 6 months tomorrow! My sweet baby boy. He is a wobbly sitter upper and is starting the army crawl. He is such a precious boy. I will be making half of a cake for his half birthday. We have started celebrating half birthdays because once a year is not enough to celebrate a person. Who doesn't love that?

James and Izzie will have their half birthdays next month. She is so proud of herself as she counts everything that she can and writes all the time. She likes to make "grocery lists" for me and write her own books. She is a very bright little girl. She is dying to go to school and become a ballet dancer. Dance classes are in our very near future!

Ugh, the laundry is staring at me in a very ugly way. I better go tackle it and whip it into shape.

So much to do, so little time!

This seems to sum of life these days. Hectic! I'm looking forward to the lazy days of summer:) Ok, I have about 5 seconds to blog about life since the last blog(teething baby = not sleeping much).

Since my last blog:
Aidan had one wiggly tooth that came out in an apple one week ago. A couple of days later the one next to it came out at dinner. He is adorable with missing teeth. My baby is growing and I'm not really okay with it! Kindergarten graduation is coming up in a couple of weeks so I am working like crazy to get the slide show done. I need more time - don't we all? We are gearing up for 1st grade and making plans to that end.

Izzie says that she has 3 loose teeth as well. I'm not feeling the "looseness", but she does. Hopefully they will stay attached for at least 2 more years while I get used to the idea that no matter what I do, my kids are going to grow.

Noah is starting to sit up for short bursts here and there. He is also teething VERY slowly. My poor baby is just having a tough time with it. We have done LOTS of cuddling with a dash of Tylenol.

That's all I have time for!