Weekend Update

It was a beautiful weekend, temps weren't too bad and the kids and I spent alot of time outside playing and doing yardwork.

Alex has his new climbing toy so he and Catelin spent a great deal of time teaching Nugget how to go down the slide. Can't say Nugget was very excited about this new talent being thrust upon him. Abbey watched and I think she was grateful to be so large no one can pick her up!

I received the results of Alex's allergy blood test last week. He is "mildly" allergic to milk, fish, peanuts and pork. Huh? Pork, really, who knew you could even be allergic to pork? Not me, and you know I am the Allergy Queen. Milk and peanuts we have restricted in the past without really seeing any improvement. Allergy season is already starting here in GA, so who knows...

Catelin started Tumbling/Gymnastics last week, seems like something she is going to enjoy.
She has had a cold all weekend, they have all been passing it back and forth since school started. We even shared with our friends; sorry Isabelle, and Chris, and Daddy....
She has a swim party to attend this afternoon. The social lives of 5th graders are pretty busy. Oh, the drama!

Well, I hope everyone has a peaceful week, with no illnesses and easy homework :-) .

I did so see something!

There is something in the garage.
This afternoon I opened the house door to go into the garage and something definitely scurried, darted or slithered away from the door mat and behind a filing cabinet.

I shouted something along the lines of: "Aaahh, sh**." And then: "Oh geez, you better have legs!" Because that is the exact same spot where the huge, gigantic Eastern King snake was last summer. (Yes, I totally have a picture of that snake, but don't want to scare off any Grandmas.)

It was bigger than a Blue-Tail Skink or Anole (cute lizards that live in our yard) and smaller than a squirrel. It really didn't move in a snakelike way, thank goodness.
But what was it??? Does it bite?? Will it try to carry poor little Nugget away?? What if Alex tries to pick it up and carry it in the house like the caterpillars??

Mark finally saunters down to see what I'm hollerin' about and he doesn't even believe me! He looked around, rolled his eyes, and proclaimed I was SEEING THINGS!
Humph.
I think I may have seen it again, but I'm not sure, because I'm kinda twitchy every time I walk through the garage now...

Super Heroes

In the utility room there is a shelf. Above the washer and dryer, waaay up on the wall. I can barely reach this shelf standing on my tippy-toes.

If there is something I don't want the kids to have free-reign with, it goes on this shelf. Moon Sand, Play-doh, paints, markers, glue, scissors, etc.

Somehow Alex has discovered a way to reach this shelf. I have not been able to catch him in the act, but a couple times now he has helped himself to things from The Shelf.

This afternoon I gave him the crayon box, but later he had the crayons AND the markers. ???

Me: Alex, how did you get these markers?
Alex: I don't know. **shrugs**
Me: Did YOU get them down, or did Daddy?
Alex: I did.
Me: How did you reach the markers up there?
Alex: With my Super Jump!

First Day of School

Last Monday was the first day of school. It was 95 degrees with a heat index of 105. I'm pretty sure it was about 98% humidity, but 'summer' is officially over!

This is Catelin's last year in elementary school and Alex's first year in Pre-K. This is the first and only year they will be in the same school.
I am so glad she is there to take care of Alex and make sure he gets to his classroom every morning!


The very important Spiderman backpack.

Showing off his Spiderman moves.

Such a good big sister. In case you can't tell from the pictures, Catelin has gotten very tall this summer!
Catelin's picture was supposed to be at the top, but it's been so long since I posted I forgot how to do this.....

Alex's 4th Birthday

Yeah, I know, better late than never!

No, he isn't a ham... why do you ask?

Yikes!

Alex got up from his nap Wednesday afternoon and quietly went to the kitchen.
He spied the peanut butter jar on the counter.
He got himself a spoon from the drawer and proceeded to eat peanut butter out of the jar with a tablespoon.

He's still alive.

I guess we don't have to worry about that peanut allergy after all.

Geez!

WWF Family Style

Sometimes for fun we turn the Shetland Pony lose in the house to play!

"But we looovve you Catie!"

Poor Abbey........, sorta'.......

This evasive maneuver may be 'sacrifice the weak' or 'you only have to be faster than the guy behind you'!

It should be the 'Terrible Threes'

As you all know Alex struggles with his speech.
Specifically with articulation, he'll talk to you in complete sentences, but is very difficult to understand.

Alex's uttered his best, longest, clearest sentence this morning. I say uttered, but actually it was screamed... shrieked really, right into my face.

"Mommy, you give me dat bak wight NOW!"

I don't even remember what it was that I took away from him. But it was something he had taken off of the bathroom counter, and was not supposed to have.

But the righteous indignation, the shout, glare and demand was all rewarded by me saying "Good words, Honey!"

What he really needed was a time-out.

The Big "3"!

Just so everyone will say, "Awww, I can't believe he is already three!".

Because that's what I walked around saying all day Monday & Tuesday.
"Three, that can't be right, He's not three years old. He can't be..."

Catelin and I made a birthday cake. Alex requested a blue cake. The best we could do was a 'Funfetti' cake with blue sprinkles in and on the cake.

After requesting "blue" for everything from cake and ice cream, to napkins; when we got to the store he spied the "Cars" decorations and only wanted THAT! So much for my blue and Thomas Train theme.

Loving Mack.

Ooohhh, what's in there, look Catie!

In all of the pictures, except the first one, he has icing on his lips. We hadn't even cut the cake yet!

By the way, Funfetti cake with cream cheese icing and sprinkles is waaay gooood!

Soooo, funny...

Catelin taught Alex a joke.


Catelin: What.
Alex: What?
Catelin: Chicken Butt!!!!

Laugh like a maniac & run around the house screaming: "chicken butt", "what?", "chicken butt!", "chicken butt!".

He can't say his name, but by-gosh he can say 'chicken butt'.

His Speech Therapist is going to be so proud.

Spring Fun

Taking turns and sharing with Cousin Ella!

Well, sort of....

Big Guys, and Little Guys!

Something has changed on blogger and I can't move my pictures around anymore. This is very annoying and time consuming. I need to know what pictures I want to use, then download them in order from last to first. Then, write the text. Not even kidding...

Nothing in my life, is even close to being that organized!

I've gotta talk to someone...

Wrapping up May

Well, it's official, May is over and it is Summer Vacation.

Ummm, yeah ??

Catelin passed third grade with flying colors.

Thursday was Honors Day, when each child is recognized, by their teacher, for their hard work during the school year.

Catelin was on the A-B honor roll every semester, had perfect attendance, earned the Presidential Physical Fitness Award and received a medal for earning over 100 points in the Accelerated Reader Program. Only the kids who earned over 100 points received a medal. She had 110.7 points

Yeah, Catelin!!!!!!!!

Catelin with her teacher, Mrs. Blackburn. (She wouldn't let me take a picture of her wearing her medal!)



Alexander got a haircut this week:

BEFORE

AFTER This was Alex after his haircut. Stunned.

This was Alex after I told him not to worry, it WILL grow back. And then Mommy will take you to the "girly-place" again.

What Limb?

At 7:00 pm last Thursday the kids and I were hanging out in the backyard. Alex was playing tractors in the dirt and Catelin was turning cartwheels.

Suddenly, Catelin remembered Friday was "puzzle day" at school. Everyone was supposed to bring a puzzle.

Of course, we do not even own one puzzle! Tears began, whining continued, etc, etc... 'she'll be the only one without a puzzle, she won't get to play, life ruined, etc...'

After a few minutes the guilt got to me. There wasn't really any reason we couldn't go back out, I just didn't want to.

We pulled Alex out of the dirt and we piled into the car and went looking for Dollar Tree or someplace to get a puzzle.

("NOT a baby one and it can't be more than 300 pieces, and I want it to have a dog....")

About 7:40 we cruised back home, crisis averted. The day would not be ruined, we had a 300 piece dog puzzle.

Mark asks from the back deck, "When did this happen?"

Me: "What happen?"

Mark: "That Limb, that fell."

Me: "Huh, WHAT limb??"

THIS LIMB!

In the 30-ish minutes that we were gone the top broke off one of the trees. And it fell down into the backyard.

RIGHT WHERE ALEX HAD BEEN PLAYING IN THE DIRT!!!

If you look closely you can see 2 green John Deere tractors in the leaves.

The view from the deck.

Hmmmmmmm........

Hoppy Easter!!

It was a beautiful day today! Happy Easter and Happy Spring to everyone.

Mad hula hoop skilz...

The easter egg hunt...

sometimes you need a little help.

True to form; Alex spent more time worrying about the plastic grass falling out of his basket!

Happy kiddos!

Still Kickin' Down Here!

Well, we are moved in to the new house!

The carpets are no longer perfectly clean, the kitchen vinyl has black scuff marks, the microwave needs cleaned, sink is full of dirty dishes and there are dirty hand prints along the wall in the stairs.
Almost every door in the house has a childproof doorknob lock. "We're hooomme..."

It is nice to have so much space for everyone to spread out with their stuff.
As I sit in our bedroom, there are NO TOYS scattered on the floor. Rule #1 in the New House: No toys in Mommy and Daddy's room!

Rule #2 is: TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES! And yes, it is usually yelled after the stupid orange, wet, sticky, clay/dirt is tracked across the beige carpet. This is a rule I would love to strictly impose, but it is very hard for all of us to remember!

I can't imagine why they even sell carpets in GA that are any colors other than dark brown, red or orange. Maybe black.... except what would the green pollen look like tracked in on black carpet?

Skip the black carpeting idea...

The backyard fence is finished, Alexander and Abbey (puppy) are very happy. It looks great.
We have furniture coming this week for the family room downstairs and hopefully the satellite will be hooked up by next week. The kids are missing their 'electronic nanny'.
Catelin may be in Disney-Withdrawal. I'm pretty sure that is a real diagnosis.

I say we are moved in, and we are fully functioning, but there are still many-many-many boxes to be gone through. Therefore, we still can't get a car in the garage. And there has been no decorating at all.
How can you decorate without furniture or curtains? So, it's really out of my hands at this point..... uh, huh... **nodding head**

I cannot even contemplate all the boxes that are in Mom's garage. We'll have to fetch those this summer.
"I can't think about that right now... If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."
Name that movie!

I will try to get some new pictures of the kids up this week.
We'll talk to you all soon.

Busyness

I know, I know. No new posts. Just what the heck do I do all day anyway? I should have plenty of time to blog.

We closed on the house Friday. Mom and Catelin started boxing up toys and books today. The movers will be here next Friday to move the furniture over to the new house.

The utilities are all taken care of and two fence companies have come to give estimates for a fence. Wow, fences are expensive!! And, here we were complaining that the backyard wasn't that big...

So, everything is rolling right along. We can't wait to get settled and get back into a routine. It just seems like everything has been crazy for a couple months now. We have all passed-around a stomach flu and cold virus. Even The Big Puppy was sick for a few days.

The Big Puppy is now called Abbey. Abbey and Alex are going to be best buddies. He just thinks she is great. She will probably be housebroken before Alex is potty trained.

The glamour of puppy ownership has worn off for Catelin, as she realized that she would actually be expected the help care for Abbey. *gasp*
A puppy is alot of work and you have to take them outside and walk around the yard with them and you have to play with them and feed them. WHO KNEW....

Well, better wrap it up for the evening and get some sleep. I may have to go hunt up some more boxes for packing tomorrow!

New Home!

It rained the whole morning of our inspection, of course.

Driveway-end of house.

The redwood deck is off of the breakfast area.

Front Door. Dining room is to the left. Hallway to right leads to bedrooms. Living room behind me.

Living Room, with Breakfast area to right. Gas fireplace.

Dining Room, this is the bay window you see on the front of the house.

Breakfast area, door leads out onto the deck. To the right is the kitchen.

Kitchen, looking into the breakfast room.

Kitchen from breakfast room. At the end is the laundry room. Thru the doorway is the dining room.

We are not really digging the green formica countertops, but it will be easy enough to change when we're ready.

Family room in the basement. Wet bar. Thru the door is the bathroom.
Catelin is playing a slot machine.

(Please Lord, make them come back and get the slot machine...)

Wet bar area.

This is the other end of the family room. The door out to the backyard is on my left. Thru that door is a bedroom. Around the corner to the right is the garage entrance, stairs up and another bed room on the front of the house.