What We've Been Up To

Will always likes to crawl in bed with Amy. We once tried to get them to sleep together, but he drove her crazy, so it didn't happen. I like the way he's holding a ball and she's holding Happy Baby.... and they both slept with the same items tucked under their arms! 

I woke up Sunday morning to find this written on our whiteboard in the kitchen..... 

I had to hang up my glue gun and paint brush for awhile. hahaha. My silly yet caring husband! Luckily for him, I am starting to get a bit tired- so I have no trouble sitting as much as possible. My friend joked last week that I'd deliver Tyler and 2 days later would be walking around Home Depot. Hmmmm..... well if Dad's in town- maybe!! haha! Everyone teases me so. :) 

Although, to be honest, sitting for very long with 2 other little ones is quite complicated.  Yesterday we met some friends at the park and it wore the kids (mainly Will) out! He slept for 3 hours. I'm still trying to figure out how to take the energy several other children create and channel that exhaustion level from home. I'm afraid I don't have enough energy to do it by myself! 

A few days ago we tried Will out in his bunk bed. Surprisingly, it's worked out REALLY well! He does get out, but he plays in his room and then falls asleep in some random place. Once it was in his closet, with the door closed, but usually it's by his door. I hit him with the door one night while checking on him. Oops!  Amy likes to fall asleep reading books. We always have to make sure and move them, otherwise they fall on the floor in the middle of the night and that wakes her up... she freaks out because of noises... and well, yeah. We just remember to move them. 

I ordered Amy some summer clothes from Target.com (it was just way easier than taking the kids to the store). When they came, Amy said, "Why are all of these shorts??!!!?" (sigh) We go through this every season. I always have to hide the previous seasons clothing as she won't get out of it. Frankly, seeing her in jeans and long sleeves shirts each day was making me hot. The same day, I got some diapers from Amazon. In the box were giant strips of filler paper. Amy decided we needed to "recycle" them (her latest obsession..... what other 5 yrs old is concerned with recycling???) and use them to draw on. 

This morning I pulled them out and let the kids have at it. Amy wanted her body traced. 

Amy never ceases to amaze me. So, not only was she concerned with "recycling" the paper.... she also wanted to draw the inside of her body...... 

It's really hard to tell here because the paper is dark and wrinkled..... but she drew her brain, her face and then her heart and it's thumping. (Which if you look closely is a heart and then lines to the right side... those are the thumps). Then she drew a line down her throat and into a stomach. Inside the stomach is pieces of apple. So there's a piece of apple at the bottom of her mouth..... it travels down her throat and then goes in her stomach where is gets smaller. The top part of the stomach is the small apple pieces and the bottom part (the dark half) is when it's all tiny. (I swear, all of these are her words, not mine. I was folding laundry in another room.) This girl is definitely ready for Kindergarten! I'm so glad she got into the Discovery school, she obviously is ready for science and experiments (which they do a lot of there!). 

Oh and this was the only picture I got of the kids from Easter. It's actually the one I sent to cousin Nicole for her birthday. It's almost impossible to get Will to sit still. 

So that's it for now. Just waiting on baby Tyler to arrive. I have another appointment on Friday, so we'll see if I've made any progress or anything. I feel a lot of pressure, but I've had that for months. No contractions or anything. Although, with the other two, I never felt contractions until we were headed to the hospital, so I expect it will be the same this time. Both Amy and Will were born the day before their due date, so again, I expect that to be the same again. We shall see. The next 10 days could be interesting around here. :) 

Happy Easter!

We always do the "Easter Bunny" stuff on Saturday. It was a tip I got from my awesome friend, Kristy Anderson, years ago and it's been so great! We have a fun Saturday and then on Sunday we can relax and focus more on the true meaning of "Easter." Plus- it's really nice not to be rushed and have wired kids during church!!

Last night, I went to a baby shower for a girl from church and then stayed up talking at "girls night" until 2am! Sheesh! That's a new record! But it was SO much fun. I just love all the women here and being able to laugh with them and relate on so many topics (mainly motherhood!) It's sooooo wonderful! They are all so funny and it's nice to be able to sit and chat without kids interrupting or other distractions. I thank the Lord every day for bringing us to this awesome place.

So, when you get home at 2:30am, 7am comes really quickly! Amy was the first up and bounded in reminding us that it was Easter. She checked out the backyard, saw the hidden eggs and then came to tell me about it. I convinced her to lay down with me for a moment, and when she did- we both saw a bunny hopping past our window! What a treat! Especially today!! I wasn't quite out of bed yet, when I could hear her spying her basket in the living room. She ran back in and said, "Mom, you have GOT to come see this!"

She was quite excited about her Easter basket. The bunny didn't do too many "sweets" this year, except for the traditional chocolate bunny. She really loved her ballet Barbie, new dress, shrinky dinks, bubbles, jump rope, sunglasses and a few other odds and ends.

Will woke up a little while later and was grumpy until he saw his soccer ball. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of Will and his basket- I was going between pictures and video, so I must have gotten a video of it. He also got some new cars, bubbles, a chocolate bunny and a few other random toys.

It was a little cool out this morning and the dew was super wet. So we waited until it dried up a bit before hunting eggs. In between, Lee let me take a much needed nap! When it was finally time, the kids took off! Will knew what to do this time and had no problems finding eggs and then pausing to eat whatever was inside.

And of course, Amy needed no help. :)   When Lee was little his very favorite thing to do was hunt for eggs. His mom said he'd find them and they'd have to hide them again and again. He loved it so much! So it was fun watching Lee "help" the kids!

I love this picture of them

Opening her eggs

Actually, as much as my kids seem to "ask for" candy and such, they don't really seem to like it much. I think they just like the idea of it. I took all the candy and put it away in a jar and they haven't asked for it once!

After the egg hunt, everyone just played outside for awhile. The kids got super worn out and we all took naps (well, Amy didn't) and then played outside some more. Then we all went to the grocery store, and I'm still not sure why I didn't go by myself, but somehow we survived. The kids were still overly tired so it was an early bedtime for all! Niiiiice!

So it was a wonderful Easter Saturday! I highly recommend it!

Just Some Pictures

Some random pictures that I haven't posted yet.

When Aunt Lynn came to visit (when we first moved in) she brought Amy this Preschool workbook. This sucker is HUGE! We go through periods where we do it daily, and of course sometimes we don't. But we always do at least 10-15 pages each time, and we haven't even dented the thing yet. I'm determined to get through all of it though! Luckily, Amy LOVES to do school work.

Before ballet class this week. She wore a different tutu and wanted a picture with it.

Her hair for class...

The kids sitting, eating popcorn, while watching General Conference.

I guess they were hungry.... Amy pulled the bag of frozen vegetables from the freezer and they both ate to their hearts content.

We've had this couch from Mom for what, maybe a month now? They LOVE pulling the cushions off. Drives me nuts. This particular day, they were both eating apples (they got them by themselves while I was in the shower).

And last week, I found my first ever 4 leaved clover!! I was so excited!!

Easter Play Date

This morning I hosted an Easter playdate!! We had so much fun at the St. Patrick's Day party that I thought an Easter one was definitely in order! I had every kid bring 6 filled, plastic eggs and then we did one huge egg hunt. (Only 1 mom "forgot" or "didn't know" to bring eggs- really??! I mean, really??!! Oh well, thankfully some people brought extra)

I just counted it up and there were 14 moms and 21 kids. I think that's a record! (obviously some are not in the picture)

And they are off.......!

Will really didn't know what was going on. He just liked running around with everyone. I tried to get him to "find" an egg, but that was the only one he found... and then he gave it to Amy.

But Amy knew just what to do!

Everyone enjoying the candy inside the egg....

Now this part, he got! Amy found his 6 eggs and he enjoyed the reward for her hard work.

Sorry Lee, I forgot to put shoes on him :)

Afterwards, my awesome friend Linda had all the kids make bunny ears.

Two of Amy's friends from dance class, Lydia and Alison, came (everyone else was from church).

And of course, what backyard playing would be complete without Amy finding a bug... or two.... or several. Notice all the little boys? Yeah, they were engrossed too. (All the girls were playing in her room)

After everyone left, 2 boys stayed awhile and the 4 kids played well together. And I got to have some more girls talk time with their mom. Yay!

All of my sweet, adorable, well meaning friends kept giving me a hard time for hosting a big party so close to being due. But really, it was easy, I'm fine and have plenty of energy. My kids love it and I love seeing and talking to everyone. It's a win-win for all.

I'm already thinking of a luau/sprinkler themed one for this summer!

The Day Nothing Went Right

What a day yesterday was! Nothing terrible happened, but nothing went "right," you know? It started with both kids waking at some point during dark thirty. By the time I got the latter one down, I was wide awake- something I didn't want to be at 5:30am. Then I made green smoothies and they were awful. Still can't figure out what I did to those. I attempted oatmeal on the stove and that was awful too (I usually just use the microwave). I needed a few 'specialty' food items so I thought I'd make the drive and attempt to find the Whole Foods, in Nashville, but it took me forever to find. I finally found it and Trader Joes, only to be slightly disappointed at each and decided they weren't worth the 40 minute drive (at least with kids). Got the kids home, Will only took about an hour nap, which means 45 mins was about all I got (he usually sleeps 2-3 hrs!!). It was warm out, and I really wanted to wear the kids out (so they'd sleep good tonight). I got the grand idea to send them outside with the sprinkler, but turns out it was just cool enough to send little Will into constant shivers. Brought them in, gave them warm baths, found a new pile of ants in the house and basically gave up on the day. Talking to Mom was the only thing that went right!

Anyhow, glad that yesterday is over! Hopefully today things will work in our favor. But here are a few pictures from the kids outside.......

Look at those eye lashes! 

Enjoying popsicles. 

Will loves Amy SO much.... he's constantly right by her side.
Thankfully she loves him too!

He was shooting me with the sprinkler head. 

Of course, Amy found a bug... a beetle named "Fast," and she played and played with him.