Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween

Here they are ...

Taylor, a dragon
with purple spikes and a tail like an ankylosaurus



Payden, a butterfly,
and according to her, NO, she is NOT a ladybug



Shelby, a golden fairy from Fablehaven
(sorry the pictures are blurry)



Declan, the Jedi
He fought and cried every time we put his costume on,
 but he proudly said he was a Jedi when a boy asked him what he was.  



Sitting down to eat at 6:30 ... sun still up ... we see people start coming, so we figured we'd better get out there.


Apparently our street is THE street to go to in Gonzales.  The crowds are insane.  Policemen on bikes roam around.  The streets are lined with cars, and the sidewalks are packed with people.  At the end of our street a local church had hot dogs, drinks, and little games as well as candy.  Fortunately going earlier helped us beat the really thick crowds.


This was our street once we came in an hour later.  The few times we walked by the house, the line of people trying to get candy at our house was backed up to the mailbox.  We had 800+ pieces of candy, and it was all gone an hour later ... INSANE!!!!


Weirdly, by about 8:30/9:00 the street was dead quiet.  After an hour of trick-or-treating, we came in, and the kids sat down to check out their stash.  This is Declan's new face when I try to take pictures.



Sunday, October 30, 2011

Payden's First!!!!





Tom comes in and tells me he yanked Payden's tooth out, and he had to yank pretty hard.  She comes in a few seconds later to show me and tells me she was sucking a lollipop and it knocked her teeth crooked.  She doesn't even mention Tom getting it out.  Funny girl.  Apparently she bit down on the lollipop, and it twisted the tooth ... badly.  She showed Tom, who grabbed the tooth and yanked it out.  She's soooo excited to have lost her first tooth!  Way to go Payden!!!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Sleeping Arrangement

Rentals in Gonzales were hard to come by, so when we found this house and it was a reasonable price and size, we snatched it up.  Tom was the one who toured the home, but hadn't paid much attention to any of the details other than "could we make it work."  What a shock we had when we moved in and realized the 3 bedroom/3 bath was really a 2 bedroom/3 bath with a bonus room downstairs.  It was another shock to realize the 2nd bedroom was soooo small that there was no way the kids were all going to fit into it, so Tom and I decided to put the kids in the huge master bedroom, and we would take the 2nd bedroom.   

With the extreme heat of summer, our pour little A/C could only manage to keep the upstairs at a minimum of 78 (on a good day).  By evening, the upstairs was so hot that Shelby couldn't sleep well on the top bunk, so we put her mattress on the floor and this is how we've kept it.  It's not ideal, but it works.  As Tim Gunn from Project Runway says, "Make it work."  It's a good piece of advice for life I've decided.


Each night before I go to bed, I check on the kids.  For my own peace of mind, I have to check on them before I fall asleep, but the bonus is the funny positions I find them in.  


Declan used to fall asleep with a birdie blanket on his face, but that has transitioned to a blanket on his head.  He graduated from a crib to this mattress on the floor when we moved here.  We've found him sleeping above his bed behind the bedroom door, sleeping on his bed with his head on his pillow which is on the floor, or sleeping on the floor using his mattress as a pillow.  He falls off his bed most nights, so I'm glad we don't have an actually bed for him at this point.


Payden cracks me up because she always tends to scoot toward the hard edge of her bed.  I often find her with one blanket under her head, sleeping with her head on the wood edge of the bed.  If not that, her legs are dangling over the side or her whole body is resting against the hard edge.  It can't be comfortable.


Taylor sleeps like a caterpillar in a cocoon ... every night . .. whether the room is 78 degrees or 66 degrees.   She is crazy!  In the summer, when she wakes, she is soaked with sweat.  She is very imaginative, and I think sleeping like this helps her block everything out, so her mind and imagination don't get carried away, which at night tends toward things spooky and scary.


Shelby usually sleeps calmly, but lately I've found her with her blankets scooted down and her legs on top of them, so she looks like she's sitting on a chair with her back on the floor.

It's amazing how the little things like this can bring a smile to your face and a bit of joy and love to your heart.  Love it!

Monday, August 22, 2011

The First Day of School

Truthfully, I haven't been sleeping well.  Another new school for the girls.  Worry that it won't be a good fit for the kids, especially because this is it.  We're here to stay.  Worry about Taylor making friends and Payden starting kindergarten.  All new situations tend to bring out my worries.  Thankfully, today school started!  

We woke up, and everyone was happy and excited as we got ready.  Of course, the new clothes and shoes helped make things more exciting.  At least now, we know the school dress code and won't be surprised ... I found out last Thursday that they could only wear collared shirts.  Except for polos, collared shirts aren't as easy to find as you'd think.  Fortunately, we found enough to get us going.  Taylor was especially helpful in trying to get Payden excited about going to kindergarten.  2nd grade is awful, according to her, but kindergarten is just awesome.  Haha!  She's a funny girl, but I was glad for the encouragement, and I think it helped Payden a lot.  



Living in a small town has many perks, but today it was nice to be 3 blocks from the school , not have a BILLION people trying to get their kids to school, and have school start before 8, so Tom could easily be with us today; in fact, he'll probably drop the big kids off every day.




Taylor was the first to be dropped off with her teacher Mrs. Raley.  She was pretty nervous, so it was hard to get a smile out of her.  This is her teacher's first year teaching, so Taylor was excited to have someone who was "new" just like her.


Then we headed to the complete opposite side of the building to drop Shelby off with her teacher Ms. Eames.


Next we headed over to Payden's school and dropped her off with her teacher Mrs. Petras.  I was expecting some tears, but she didn't cry at all ... and neither did I.  She was definitely nervous, but I promised her some chocolate chip cookies when she got home from school.  Yes, I know exactly how to make that girl happy!!!


We dropped Tom off at work and then it was just me and Declan in the car ... weird.  We had a few errands to run and a first-day-of-school breakfast to go to, put on by the mom of one the only friends I have here in town (and one of the few people I know).  Declan has just played on his own and doesn't seemed to be phased at all to be home alone.  Yay!  Now I've got to go make some cookies before it's time to pick up the girls and hear about their day!!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Stomach Bug Hits Again

It started Friday night/Saturday morning with Declan, who apparently is a silent vomiter.  You know it's happened after the fact with him, which is bad news because he's two and can't understand the concept of choosing where you throw up ... like a bucket, trash can, tile floor, NOT carpet.  In fact, he'd thrown up in the middle of the night, and I had no clue at all.  

Then Saturday night it hit Shelby.  By lunch the next day she was eating ... small amounts, but she was eating.  

Then nothing happened until Tuesday morning.  Poor Payden.  She got it, and she got it good.  Tuesday was a rough day for her.  She perked up on Wednesday and started eating in small amounts.  Today, we've been back to square one.  She can't hardly keep anything down.  I hope she can recover soon.  Three days is too long and is starting to scare me a bit.  



Poor baby!!!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Discovery!

He was outside coloring while I was cooking.  I went to check on him, and he was babbling about O.  Then he tells me, "I draw T," and draws a T.  He's discovered he can write, and he LOVED it!

His masterpiece!

H O T
First letters and first word

R

"Not-a-K" I
He decided to write a K ... didn't work out so well for him.

C Q

A

Taylor came out to see what was going on and got super excited to join in and help him out.  She got him to draw 6 and 7.

6

7 (It looks like a backward C right by her 7.)

He decided to demonstrate this picture as he drew it.

A frowny face

He was on fire and super excited.  

I can't believe he can write.  Where did my baby go?!?!

Near Record Lows!!!

NEAR RECORD LOWS!!!  For Texas, that only meant upper 40s and low 50s, but it was WONDERFUL!!!  Cool, brisk mornings.  Notice I said morningS.  I miss them so much!!  We just had to head outside and enjoy it.  Of course, the kiddos are now Texans and told me it was cold, so we grabbed our jackets and headed outside.  

Ain't nothing wrong with a pink, sparkly, glittery princess scooter!

This girl is fast on this thing.  I love watchin' her wiggle around.

We discovered some creepy, crawly things around the house while we were out there ...

Big spider with a glowing red dot on it in the front flowerbeds by the porch.

The shed skin of a snake in the back flowerbeds by the garage.  

I am very thankful for this little bit of cold as we've already hit summer.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

It Only Took 35 Years

Can you tell what's different about him?  It's a first, and I like it ... A LOT!


He grew himself a mustache and a beard.  Yay, Tommy Boy!!

And It's Outta There!!

She is crazy! She won't let us quickly knock her tooth out, but she was willing today to let her dad ...

Give her sleepy gel ...


Give her sleepy juice (i.e. syringe of anesthetic) ...


Pull it out with forceps (took only a second) ...


Show her the tooth ...


Bite on gauze to stop the bleeding (she does NOT like blood) ...


And it was outta there (and Dad is happy)!


LOVE the smile!!!!


Through it all, she sat there quietly and didn't move at all.  She was a CHAMPION!!