A New Favorite

The kids and I are stuck inside most of the day due to rain. I am so thankful for it, but dislike being confined to indoors - especially with kids. So we decided to have the cousins over for a few hours to play. After dropping them off at home, we stopped by the movie store to rent the new movie Nim's Island. We got home, snuggled up in a blanket, snacked on popcorn and watched the movie while it stormed outside. The kids and I really enjoyed it and I definitely recommend renting or better yet buying the movie. We certainly will. The book was actually recommended to us by the school librarian so we will get the book as well. You ought to watch it or at least check out the link!

I'm Not a Baby!

I hear the words, "I'm not a baby!" on a daily basis from Leslie. She thinks and wishes that she was so much bigger and older than she is. I on the other hand want her to stay little as long as possible. I try to explain that she and Nolan will always be my babies, but that just makes her madder. Well today I think she really proved that she was no longer a baby. We were outside goofing around and Nolan hopped on his bike and wanted to race Leslie. I asked if she wanted to try to ride her pink bike that had no training wheels today. She surprisingly replied yes. So we placed the bike in the grass and put her helmet on her head. She threw her little leg around the bike and sat on the seat. This pink bike was her very first bike, so it is little and low to the ground. She must have felt very comfortable because she took off! Yes, really! She put her feet on the pedals and I held the bike steady for a second and she took off with absolutely no problem. The rest of the evening consisted of practicing starting herself and riding on the road. I am just blown away! Leslie is only 3 1/2 (4 in October) and already riding with no training wheels. She has incredible balance and always has. I mean, this child started walking at 9 months and we got her first bike at 2 years old. So I guess it was finally time. Does anyone know how to slow down time? This girl is growing way faster than she should and it scares and saddens me. However, I am super proud of her confidence and pride she carried today riding that bike. Nolan was such an outstanding coach, as well. He kept telling her to keep her balance and what a great job she was doing. I think he is excited to have her ride a bike with him now.

It was really hard to take videos of her becuase I was so afraid she was going to wreck. This is the best I got.

Kids Keep You on Your ToEs

Kids are so incredibly literal! Matt and Mindy were planning a garage sale on Friday and their kids were busy picking out toys to sell to earn money. Well Les and I invited ourselves to their yard sale and started picking out stuff to take to their house. Normally my kids would not let me get rid of ANY of their toys, so I have to do my cleaning out when they are not around. I remember one time I had boxed up the baby toys to take to Goodwill and placed it in the back of the car. Unfortunately I had to slam on my brakes and the box shifted. Then all of a sudden the kids heard a noise or song coming from the back of the car. They both looked at each other and asked "What was that? Ooooh, I know that is the green toy that moves back and forth. What is that doing in the car? Mommy......" Yeah, so now I not only have to clean out without them around, but now I have to take the box of junk to the donation place ALONE! After the kids were watching Matt's kids gather stuff up, they were excited to do the same. So you can imagine the stuff they were pulling out to sell....even some I did not agree with! Anyhoo, we did pretty good at the sale yesterday and I know Matt and Mindy did too with the exception of being sleep deprived. Les took a load of junk to their house on Friday evening and the kids joined him. Two hours later Les returned with money and no kids. WoW that was pretty cool, I thought he might have sold them for $30. JK He had sold a couple of things already and let the kids sleep over at Mindy's house. I questioned it because they had no clothes or toothbrush, but thought oh well I will just take it to them tomorrow. When we arrived bright and early Saturday morning, Matt and Mindy looked like zombies (no offense Mindy) and the kids looked like they had been run over by a Mac truck. My kids kept them up until after midnight. Oooops! You see, Leslie and Nolan cannot fall asleep together because they just feed off of each other's energy. They have to be separated or an adult has to lay down with them. I felt really badly, but all in all things went pretty good. But remember, if you ever have both of my kids over, you have to separate them and/or lay down with them!

Am I Crazy?

I find myself doing the same thing every morning. I get up, get the kids' breakfast, and then sit down at the computer for about an hour to pay bills and check blogs. Yes..... I check Cheri's blog first then go from her blog to others because she has that cool feature that shows who has updated recently. I need her to show me that feature on mine. So I end up reading some one's blog that I do not even know and then I go onto a couple of teacher blogs I enjoy reading. I check in on all of these blogs EVERYDAY! I guess you can say I am addicted, but it has turned into my routine. Then if I see no one has updated recently then I move onto Target.com looking for doll stuff for Leslie for gifts. This is the really crazy part. I have a folder in "my favorites" titled "Leslie Gift Ideas" and "Nolan Gift Ideas". I just hate when Christmas or birthdays roll around and I have no clue what to buy. So when I am really bored I search for good deals on Target brand American Girl doll stuff and then I search EBay. AM I NUTS or WHAT?! I really am trying to change my routine so that I am not at the computer very long each morning. I keep thinking, what did I do before computers and Internet and blogs and Target.com and Ebay and Email and .......and.........and..........

I Miss My Kids!!!

Can you tell that my kids are having a wonderful time with their cousins?! I miss them and can't wait to see them right after church and luncheon this afternoon. I hope they are just as excited to see me........hmmm probably not, huh.

Girly Tea Time

Well one niece left and two more have arrived. Camryn and Alyssa have come to visit for a week and boy we are having fun with them! Yesterday they came over with their American Girl Dolls for a girly tea party. My mom brought over some bigger dress up dresses, hats, and shoes for them since all we had were Leslie's princess dresses. I prepared the tea party outside by placing a table cloth on the kids' picnic table with flowers in a vase in the middle. I gathered all of Leslie's tea sets and cut PB & J sandwiches in hearts. I even made them extra sweet tea with thoughts that they may like it better. Hey what's a tea party with no tea?! However, they did prefer lemonade instead. The girls took their time dressing up, even Nolan went into his room and put on his best Wranglers and button up shirt with his cowboy hat! It was the cutest thing ever. They all grabbed their dolls and headed to the backyard. They really enjoyed pouring the lemonade themselves and acting like princesses. It was a lot of fun EVEN IF IT WAS 120 DEGREES OUTSIDE! This heat is BRUTAL! After all of the tea and sandwiches they could stand we loaded the car and headed for Waco to watch the new American Girl Doll movie, Kit Kittredge. Luckily it was showing at the dollar cinema so Grandma did not break the bank for us all to get in! Thanks for the movie Momma! I think the girls and even Nolan liked it. I enjoyed it because it was actual people and not animated. No really the story line was great and educational really. On our way home my mom offered to take my kids with her for the night....actually two nights because I had already arranged for Saturday night. So I am without kids for the second night! WhooooooHooooooo! I rented a movie last night and watched it all the way through and UP LOUD! It was really nice. Today I spent all day scrapbooking and now I am cooking for church luncheon tomorrow. To be honest it is really quiet, but nice.

Bwitney....Where's Bwitney?!

My niece Brittany came to visit this past week from Chicago, Illinois. She came to visit last summer as well and we all went to the beach for a week. Brittany rode in the car with us and Leslie fell in love with her. We saw her last at Christmas time for a short time. So needless to say, Leslie and I were very excited to see and visit her. My mom and dad brought her over to our house on Sunday to hang out since Les left for California for a week or so. We made ice cream in a bag and fed the deer. If you haven't figured it out yet, but that is our "tourist" thing to do when people come to visit us. She loved the deer and could not believe we were feeding them. The next morning we drove to Ft. Worth to shop and have lunch with my cousin and aunt. That was very nice and the kids behaved well in the Nieman Marcus Zodiac Tea Room. The food was muy delicioso! We shopped and shopped and shopped! Papa had dinner for us when we came home. Boy, nothing is better than shopping all day and coming home to a warm homemade dinner. We are so very spoiled. The kids and I ended up staying the night with Brittany and my mom and dad. Leslie would walk around the house saying, "Bwittney. Where's Bwitney?!" I would catch Leslie just watching and staring at Brit. She is just infatuated with her and that is okay because Brittany is a wonderful young lady with a smart head on her shoulders. Yes she is drop dead gorgeous with a body to kill for, but she is very wise for her young age of 21 (well about to be 21). Yesterday we hung out be the pool all day long and visited. It was very nice and we really hated to leave. We will miss you Bwittany! Now Brit's young sisters are coming in today and we look forward to seeing them now. The kids are going to have blast with them, but I know the next time we see Grandma and Papa Leslie will "Ask where is Bwitney?"