Happenings Around Our Family

Well, I feel like blogging for me is all about catching up and since I feel like I am always catching up I never write about the little things going on that are not big events. So this is one of those blogs.
1. Kylee is well into the 2nd 6 weeks of 2nd grade and she is doing great. I feel like it always takes me about 6-8 weeks to get used to the new class/routine and feel like I can keep up with what is going on. I feel that way now. Katie and I are in our routine and enjoying preschool and BSF too.
2. Notice picture below-Katie has sucked her thumb and twirled her hair since she was 4 months old. I finally decided about 2 months ago that we were done! SO I bought a fabric thumb guard off amazon and decided it was time to try it. She was not an every minute thumb sucker but she is close to 5 and I was done with the hair twirling. She only did that with thumb sucking. She would get terrible knots in her hair and would lose hair from the knots so I was done with that too. So we added a ski hat to the training.We are two months in she is doing awesome. We only have seen her suck her thumb and twirl a hand full of times and she is always so sad when she realizes she was doing it. We are proud of her.
3. This summer we were having some behavior issues with Katie that had gotten out of hand so we started a color change chart with her with a reward chart. It worked really well most the time and she got the concept. The last reward was a camp out with dad. They usually would blow up the air mattress and camp out in the media room but the air mattress had a hole in it so they made a tent on Katie's bed and slept in it. I think it fell down at some point but they had fun playing in it for a while.
4. About 3 weeks ago Katie decided that she wanted to sleep in her own bed so she got in her bed and has slept in it ever since ALONE!! This is huge for us because she hasn't since she got in a big girl bed. Kylee actually wasn't very big on the idea of being alone this time but went along with it. I think the main reason Katie didn't want to be with Kylee was because Kylee didn't want to leave the closet light on to sleep and Katie wanted it on. I feel they are sleeping better now.
5. In an effort to honor our budget I do not have cleaning people anymore. This is huge for me because I despise cleaning but it is something I can do so I felt the Lord put it heavily on my heart to give them up. I kept saying NO and he kept coming back to it over and over when Charley and I talked about ways we could cut back on our budget. So I did. It is not easy and I am still working on my heart catching up but I do see blessings from it. Since this happened I was trying to think of ways to minimize my cleaning and I don't want to clean the girls shower and mine also. So they now bathe/shower in our bathroom. Since they are downstairs they started wanting to wear my tshirts to bed. It is hilarious seeing them in these shirts but they love it so I am loving it too.
6. One of Kylee's sweet little things she does for me every now and then is Breakfast in Bed. She did this a couple days ago when Charley had been out of town. She got up and told me to stay in bed and she brought me cereal and juice. Loved this!!
7. Katie is into art and crafts so much right now. She can sit forever and color and create things. She never has been interested until now. She also can write pretty well and created her first "story". It was a long line of letters but she knew exactly what it said:) She loves to do pictures and creations for Charley!
8. Both of my girls love little kids and babies. Kylee esp. loves babies. We get to see a sweet little baby each week and Kylee is all about making him smile and holding him. She will be a great babysitter one day. Katie esp. loves to talk about having babies when she grows up. She plans to name them Twinkle Wish, Star Song, and Charley. The other day she even started saying when Star Song comes home I will tell her to go get a snack. Oh Boy! I wonder what they will think of their names:)
9. After lots of prayer and time waiting to see if this was the right time and opportunity, I decided to become a Disney Travel Agent for an awesome company called Off To Neverland. Disney is one of my favorite places on earth and I will be going with my family for the 13th time this year. I am so excited about this opportunity. I have already booked my first trip for a customer and loved every minute of it. If you are reading this and thinking about going to Disney let me know. I would love to help you out. There is no additional cost to use me as a travel agent so I do all the leg work and get up early to book your reservations and you get to enjoy an awesome vacation!

Ella's 2nd Birthday Party

We loved celebrating Ella turning 2. She is such a cutie and my girls adore her. They still call her baby which we all love. Ella is going to pass Katie in height very soon and we wonder if she will still be referred to as baby Ella. We went to Gatti town for pizza and games and then back to my sister's for cake, presents, pinata, and silly string wars. We loved all of it. Ella is a joy to our family and we love her to pieces! Happy Birthday sweet Ella Grace!

Katie's First Day of her Last Year of Preschool

Katie started her last year of preschool. She is a zebra and her teachers are Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Jill. They are so sweet and seem to really love hanging out with 4 year olds twice a week. Katie has a lot of friends in her class from our small group at church and she is very excited about this. She was extremely ready for school to start. It was getting lonely and boring here at home with just mom. She was missing her full time playmate Kylee after she went to school. We are getting back into our school year routine and I really can't believe that my "baby" is 4 1/2 and starts big school in one year. I really plan to enjoy all my time with Miss Katie and have a great year. We love her to pieces and we are excited about her zebra year at school!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun Labor Day Weekend with Charley's parents and Gan Gan in town. I was horrible at taking pictures but got two from the weekend. We saw our favorite actress Kayden in Alice in Wonderland. She was the March Hare. She did great and is really talented. My girls love to watch her and then they all came back to our house and put on their own version of Alice. While they all hung out here Charley and I went on a much needed date. We celebrated our anniversary of our first date-16 years ago this week on Sept. 9. So it was fun to have some time together on our own this weekend. I am pretty sure that we had no idea where our life would take us on that first date 16 years ago but I am so thankful for the blessings that have come from our first date and marriage together. It is not perfect or even close to that but I would not change a thing (except how much older I look now than 16 years ago:))

First Day of Second Grade

Welcome to Second Grade!! I can't believe Kylee is in 2nd grade. She is on day 3 and loves it and is doing great. I felt like this year was so easy she just went in and we all smiled took pics and were out the door. No tears, no sadness from anyone. It just felt routine. Kylee got a terrific teacher this year, Mrs. Buce. I have heard she is amazing so I was very excited. She has 5 kids from her 1st grade class with her and a couple from Kindergarten. Her classroom is also in the 5th grade hall which would have been a big deal a year or two ago but this year it seemed normal. They have 8 second grade class and are the biggest grade in the school. All in all we are excited about this year and ready for the routine of school. After I dropped Kylee off I went across the hall to the library to attend the Kindergarten Tears and Cheers Breakfast that I organize. It was the biggest turnout we have ever had and I thought it went great!! I will be attending this breakfast next year as a Kindergarten parent. That is hard to believe and I am going to enjoy the next 365 days with my Katie. We are getting back into our school year routine and I think my favorite part is all the hugs I get from Katie. She also wants to be by my side every second which is something I have to get used to but I enjoy the special talks we have. She is a talker!!