Go To Sleep Little Girls

Look what I saw last night when I went in to check on the girls at bedtime. Melted my heart. Yes, they share a bed for now. I posted a couple months ago that Katie was having trouble sleeping in her own bed. We tried everything and we would go in many nights and find her in Kylee's bed so we just let them sleep together now. We are all getting a full night of sleep now so I will not complain. And seeing these two all cuddled up is just too sweet anyway:)

Way To Go!!

I have two Way TO GOs for both my girls.

1. At the end of each six weeks at Kylee's school they have a big pep rally/awards day for the students to recognize good citizenship, perfect attendance, honor roll. They give PE, music, art awards. They also give a Character award to one child from each class that represented that character trait that they work on for the six weeks. This six weeks was respect. When we got there they had blaring music (YMCA, and that type), and the principal said this is not a quiet awards show but a fun, loud one. The fourth graders did a little show to introduce the new character trait for this six weeks and then they did the awards. Each Kindergarten teacher had the kids with Good citizenship stand up and the parents of those kids, then perfect attendance and the parents of those kids. Kylee stood up for both of these. Then at the end of the Kindergarten time the principal announced the Character award for each class and Kylee received it for her class. Her teacher had written some very kind things about Kylee that the principal read to the crowd. Of course we are SO proud of her and pray that she will continue to show good character throughout her life. She was all smiles after school and called her grandparents and my sister to share the good news. She is truly loving her school year and I am thrilled at how well she is doing. This first picture is of all the Kindergartners from each class that got the award. FYI-It was also Nursery Rhyme parade dress up day so she is dressed up as Little Bo Peep in the picture.
This is of Kylee getting her award. Here she is standing up with her class for good citizenship and Perfect Attendance. She had a big, kind of shy smile each time she stood up.


2. My second Way to Go is little Miss Katie and her awesome potty training self:) Last week Katie and I were off from school all week so I thought lets potty train. She was ready. I was NOT!!! Potty training tops right up there as my least favorite parenting things. I would seriously pay someone to potty train my kids. Katie is however now potty trained. She only has 3 accidents the first day, 2 the second and third day, and 1 on the fourth day and no more until today at school and then randomly tonight. She was distracted both times. She tells me every time she needs to go. I barely even remember to ask her. We went to the fair Sunday and no accidents the whole day. She is proud of herself and keeps telling me I'm a Big Girl now. Yes she is and I can't believe that big girl turns 3 in four months. Where does time go???

I'm Tagged

My friend Summer who I was friends with at Harding and we were Kojies together tagged me. So I thought I would list 7 random things about me. I have done a similar post before so I thought I would choose 7 random things from my childhood.

1. My favorite Saturday morning show when I was in elementary school was KIDS Inc. I gathered all my friends on my street and wrote out parts to be the new Kids Inc. I was always Renee. I was going to have my dad videotape it in hopes of being the next Kids Inc. Unfortunately my group wasn't as dedicated as I was so no video and no Lana on Kids Inc. Not to mention singing isn't my gift. Anyone else love KIDS INC??? ( I am so singing the theme song to myself right now:))

2. I swam on a swim team since I was 6 year old year round and so every summer I had raccoon eyes from the goggles. It was quite a fashion statement and one that got laughs. Luckily by Jr.High I learned how to use an amazing amount of sunscreen to keep those cute little raccoon eyes from popping up.

3. Before an eight grade field trip to Nashville, TN, I was so worried I would not wake up that I ended up waking up at 2 am not looking at the clock, got in the shower and started getting ready for the trip, only for my parents to knock and tell me it was 2 am and go back to bed. I still worry a little about not waking up on time now.

4. I used to have to eat bananas in the morning for breakfast, everyday for a while. One day I decided I didn't like them and that was probably when I was 10 and still to this day I can't eat a banana at all. I feel the same way about milk.

5. My favorite Sunday morning church job as a kid was cleaning up the Lords Supper trays. A couple of my friends and I would clean them out and restock them and since we couldn't take the Lords Supper in church you know we had fun taking of it at clean up time. Playing Lords Supper was one of my favorite things. Any one else understand this?? I think I was 8-9 years old.

6. Once in second grade, I organized a writing contest and gave out awards and took pictures of the winners. I ran across the pictures a few weeks ago and got to laughing out loud. I was impressed my teacher let me do this.

7. I still to this day get a second look when I tell people the town I grew up in in MS. It was Picayune. Its been made fun of called Pick a Prune, Pick a what, etc....... But let me tell you that little town has the best bakery ever-Pauls Pastry and my favorite seafood restaurant-Cuevas. My mouth waters thinking about it.

I DID IT!!

I did it!!! I survived my first ever 5K race. When I say survived that is how I felt when I crossed the finished line. Last January a friend and I started running/walking with running a 5K as our goal. We thought we would run one in April but Soccer for Kylee started and our Saturdays were busy for 2 months. Then it was summer and it was so hot!! I don't like running in 100 degree weather. Then in August, I found this race for the end of September so I made it my goal to do this. So this past weekend I accomplished my goal and ran/walk the 5K. I originally said if I walk I will be mad at myself but I had not seen the steep hill I would have to run at the one mile marker. OH MY WORD!!! Half way up the hill I knew if I didn't walk I would not make the rest of the race. It was a hard race but I am really ready to run another one and beat my time from this one. Charley also ran in it and he did great!!! He is currently training to run a half marathon this fall. Several other people from church ran it so it was fun to have friends there too. I ran on Monday night and felt a little faster already:) I have plans for another 5K before Christmas.Sweet Hubby came and found me and ran the last tenth of a mile with me.
Our friends from church before the race
Our friends from church after the race.

I'm an Aunt...again

On Thursday, September 18, my sister gave birth to sweet Ella Grace. She weighed 8 lbs. 5 oz. and is 20 1/2 inches long. She is absolutely gorgeous and we are all in love with her. She has a precious big brother who is excited about his little sister too. Katie and I went over to spend the day with my sister and Ella yesterday and I only put her down for a very few minutes. Katie got to "hold her so tight" as she calls it. We were both sad we had to leave to come home. The first three pics are of her yesterday. I had fun playing photographer with such a cutie pie. The last two are of her the day she was born. Kylee really enjoyed holding her and was sad she missed out on the visit yesterday but I assured her that the next time we go she can come too. Welcome to the family Miss Ella Grace!!

Our First Day of School and Other Stuff

So Last Tuesday Katie and I had our first day of preschool, Katie in the 2s and myself teaching in the 4s. It was a good week and Katie could not have been happier to start school. I felt very nervous about teaching and it felt different teaching after you had kids. Like before I had kids I only had to worry about myself getting to school and I could go as early as I needed and stay late if needed. With kids I had to get us all dressed, hair done, food for everyone, backpack for everyone, Kylee to school, Katie morning dirty diaper changed, while still getting to school in enough time to be ready and not flustered. This Tuesday seemed easier as we get into our routine. This is definitely giving me a little taste of what it would be like to go back to teaching full time. In other school related stuff, Katie has super sweet teachers and my class is super sweet too. Katie did not nap the first two days but slept this Tuesday. She waves to me the whole time during chapel and I just love seeing her with her big smile on her face loving seeing her momma:) I felt much more confident and ready this week so I know it is going to be a good year.

In other Katie news, we moved her into a big girl bed last Sunday night. The first 4 days were great and then she started getting out of bed in the middle of the night. Then last Saturday night we spent two hours with a screaming, crying 2 1/2 year old trying to convince her to go to sleep in her own bed. It was horrible. Just a few memories from our 2 hour ordeal: She is very strong willed and refused to go to sleep, we shut the gate at the top of the stairs thinking this will keep her upstairs-nope-she woke Kylee up to help her, spanking -nope-, trying the super nanny style-nope. So finally we stuck her in her bed and left the door cracked and prayed hard. NO noise for a while, so I peek around the corner to see her asleep on the floor in between the crack of open. So we put her in bed and we went back to sleep only to be awoken a very early hour by Miss Katie. Nap time the next day she fell asleep in her closet. So we started a sticker chart for getting a baby doll if she stays in bed for 3 nights and we leave her door cracked (she has earned 2 stars so far) and that is helping. She is getting in bed with Kylee at some point each morning though. We are still working on it and she is doing much better. She loves her bed and room so I don't know why this is such a issue. Oh well. As you can see from the picture she is still sucking her thumb. I guess we will try to work on that after she is happy in her bed, potty trained, can dress herself, learns her ABCs, can ride a bike, etc .......Yes, I am trying to put that one off. I hope she breaks the habit by college:))HA HA!!!

Things to Remember

My girls are always doing things and I always say I want to remember that and then I forget to write it down or mostly even remember. So this post is pretty much some things I want to remember about the girls at this stage of our life.

1. We just successfully finished our first week of Kindergarten. I will admit that on Thursday and Friday I had a cry fest complete with swollen, burning eyes that left dark circles that were not attractive. It was just from a simple overwhelming feeling. Kylee however did not feel this way at all. When I asked her how school was she said I love it and the I just want to stay there. Pretty great for her, adjustments for me.

2. Katie is quite the talker and expresser of all thoughts and feelings, some good some not so good. Her latest cute saying started as she was eating ice cream a couple weeks ago. She took one bite and squealed, "Dewicious (delicious)". We had never heard her say that and we all laughed so now she loves to say it. She also loves to say with great expression: I love you so much!! We of course melt. Another favorite after we say no to something is Oh pickles (Kylee went through and Oh pickles stage also). I promise Charley and I never say that they just pick up on that word and hang on. Those are her sweet words. She can say and speak perfectly well but chooses whining and screaming in the mix, some days more than others. She has also learned to put herself in time out when she has not behaved well.

3. Kylee is a little fish this summer and would love to go to the pool everyday if we would let her. She has tried lots of new skills at the pool this summer and works hard on them from swimming freestyle, diving for dive sticks, doing flips under water and her latest skill is the butterfly (we watched lots of swimming Olympics and my dad shows her our old swim team tapes). She can get her bottom up and both feet flopping, and attempts the arm movements. It is quite interesting and she loves to show it off.

4. Kylee loved watching the Olympics. She esp. loved "ping pong" also known as-beach volleyball. We had no idea where she got ping pong for beach volleyball but she kept saying it over and over but by the end she got it and now we play volleyball in the house with friends, dad, mom and whoever is interested. The funny thing is we play with a beach ball.

5. Katie is SO ready for a big girl bed and we are in the process of the big move in 2 weeks, hopefully. But in the meantime she has been having a hard time going to bed in her crib at night she has to cuddle sister and me or Charley in Kylee's bed before she will go to her bed. If she thinks she isn't going to Kylee's bed she says my tummy hurts thinking that will help her stay in Kylee's bed.

6. My girls have become best friends over the summer and really good playmates. They will go upstairs and play forever (most the time happily). They have their own way to play together. It has been so sweet to watch. The first day of school I was playing wit Katie and she kept saying things like I would hear Kylee tell her when they would play. I struggle with that now that Katie is stuck with boring old mommy to play with. They had fun over the weekend just playing with each other. It is one of my favorite things to watch develop as a mommy.

7. Tonight I was trying to get the girls ready for bed after bath time. The playroom was clean, toys up and it had been a mess. I told the girls after pjs are on everyone has to go to sleep , no playing. Katie walked over to the toy kitchen and started to play and I raised my voice and said Katie No Playing Its time for bed. She walked over to me and said "That was not very nice" I thought oh good she is admitting to the fact I said no playing so I said who isn't very nice and she looked me straight on and said "you". Of course I deserved that because I thought I could have said it nicer with no raised voice. Kids have a way of reminding you when you need to self check.


8. My girls both love Webkinz. They love stuffed animals. They can play hours with them. I think Kylee has been on the webkinz website three times but our computer will not let her get on so now she just loves to play with them and Katie loves it too. They dress them up, take them for stroller rides down the street, at least two go in the car at all times, sleep with them, and love them. I really don't like stuffed animals but my girls do and they play with them daily.

9. A new favorite of my kids is to wear each other pajamas. Yes, Kylee wears Katies 2T pj's and Katie wears Kylee's 5T pj's. They have been on this kick for a couple weeks. It is so funny. They both get into it. Check out the pictures below of Kylee in Katies and Katie is in just a Tshirt of Kylee's. They also had a fun photo session that night and kept wanting me to take more pictures and they would pose. These poses are totally their own doing. I just snapped away when they told me to. You can see the silly face picture Kylee did that first and then Katie had to also.