Making It

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

We may not be Trick or Treating tonight if we're feeling too crummy and sick, (Boo Hoo!) but at least we've been getting loads of Halloween fun all month long... Trying to get some pictures together to share but it's getting late so I'll just post a couple for now from our annual family pumpkin carving party! Just to say Happy Halloween!!! Promise I'll post more soon with the cutest little fairy sisters you ever did see :)

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Latest Family Portrait

Compliments of Miss Lily, age 5. I think it turned out pretty good! Apparently the reason Lily looks like she is a little bit higher than the rest of us is because she tripped on a rock... With that accounted for Sierra then had to jump into a mud puddle and --in case you were wondering...is jangling a ring of super-sized keys and sporting a pretty tremendous ponytail. Love these kind of school assignments! Kindergarten Math!

If you are curious what has been up with my extreme neglect of my blog it would be safe to say we are still adjusting to this having a kid in school thing. Sending your kids to school gives you something of a break, but it requires a lot too. Pick ups, drop offs, not to mention the getting ready (Heaven help us!), homework, fundraisers...the list goes on. Homework does not take the suggested 10-15 minutes - just so you know. It takes much longer! (They suggest 20-30 minutes daily reading just to begin with + worksheets + writing and math practice and various activities you have to choose off a calendar...) But most days it is not really too bad. I know with Lily it could be. I am so glad we worked with Lily on reading before she entered Kindergarten because I can only imagine how much harder it would be if we hadn't! I am so proud of her - she is reading amazingly well, and some days when it's super busy I just let her do her reading time without me over her shoulder. (The assignment is read or be read to anyway, and we still always read to her at bedtime too.) It's nice that she was used to working at lessons before school started because she doesn't need to resent school for suddenly giving her all this work she'd never had to do before! It's just part of life...or she can resent us, but we got those drawn out battles out of her system in advance, hopefully...for a while...please! But seriously...

Life feels so fast paced right now, I feel like I just can't keep up with all I need and want to do - like blogging. I want to record memories of all the things that are happening each day, but it all takes so much time and my little family comes first and the responsibilities I have to them - so unfortunately some things are just going to be forgotten :( I take pictures, but I rarely get time lately to even go through them. Maybe I'm just not good at juggling a lot of things, but with all I have to do keeping the house clean, and my family fed, and various needs met (Whoops, another day gone by without getting Lily's nails trimmed!) --I really don't get enough time to devote to my kids as it is! This last week or two I have been hardly getting on a computer at all, and I have to say it feels really good! I feel much more fulfilled and happy focusing on home tasks and projects for my kids than finding out what everybody is posting on facebook or what tragedies and triumphs are going on around the world. It's just distracting. Seriously, we have enough ::drama:: around here already...And the two most precious little girls to look out for! Nothing more important than that! I'm sure I will check in here now and again and post more regularly someday, but for now I'd rather neglect my blog than my kids! They need my face time more than anyone or anything else! :)

I love to see how much they love each other!
Sierra has started giving Lily hugs at bedtime. "Hug!" They are the sweetest sisters!

Had to post this sweet one to make up for posting the drama face! Sorry, Lily ;)

One of each sweet girl for good measure!

They are getting big so fast - and we love them so much! Got to just enjoy this time while they are little while we can!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

First Day of School

It's official - Lily is a Kindergartner!

I still can't believe it, but it's been a full 2 days now! Weird how something you've never done before can so quickly become part of your life. Lily told me about a song they always sing in her class today, and called to her teacher "See you tomorrow!" as I picked her up from school today. I think she's liking it pretty well, though if you ask her point blank she insists it's "No fun." But that's typical Lily.

Heading off for school!

(Lamby just came along for the car ride)

This is actually a smallish backpack.

Had to get a picture of how it makes her look so tiny from behind.

In front of her class and playground

Lily giving her dad a high five through the fence.

I was so worried when she saw us watching her jump on the hopscotch before her class let in and ran over to us. I thought: "Oh no, another goodbye - this one might not go as well.." but she skipped off happily when we told her she better head to class. She didn't cry a bit - but I got tears in my eyes as we walked away. It's so hard to let her go!

It was weird how quiet the house was without her. I was so glad I had another little girl to hug at home!

It is nice to get a little one on one time with Sierra, and she has started talking a little more over the last week or so, so it wasn't too quiet! This girl may end up as talkative as her big sister can be! (Uh-oh) She is now saying Uh-Oh and creating appropriate contexts for saying it more often. The other day she was walking along with her sippy cup and she said Uh-Oh, and then paused - realizing there wasn't anything to say it about, and promptly threw her cup to the ground and said it again. My baby is growing so fast! She pretends to read and talk on the phone. She's started saying wawa for water, bapa for grandpa, and repeats and says a bunch of other things if you listen close enough. Unfortunately, she has already learned one word very clearly from her sister - "Mine!" There was a "mine" fest in the living room the other day between the two of them and I was shocked because for one I hadn't hear her say it before ever, and 2 - I could hardly tell them apart listening from the next room! It was ridiculous, and ended in a tiny tantrum - Sierra laid down on the floor and kicked her little leg. Just one leg, and it just lasted a minute. Hope that's the worst we see of tantrums from her, but I'm not counting on it - this is a pretty young start! She is into everything - climbing on top of the table in the kitchen and even worse a small round decorative table of my parents that I can't believe didn't topple over with her on balancing on top! Grabbed her off of there twice. She does not want to sit still for diaper changes or much of anything... but she has her moments when she will grab a book and climb into out laps for a little while. But I should dedicate a whole post to Sierra later and post pictures from her birthday.

I am so behind. So much going on, and not all fun. The end of summer prompted a termite tenting not so relaxing vacation that we managed to squeeze a little fun out of by staying in Leucadia and checking out Legoland one day. Would have been much better without all the moving (without actually moving) and if my back and hip hadn't picked the same time to be totally out of whack, and if our hotel mattresses hadn't been stiff as a board... But we survived and are glad to be sleeping on our own bed and adjusting to our new schedule. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm so grateful for my wonderful little 5 year old who told me I was the best mom tonight as she gave me a good night hug! (That feels so good to hear from my Daddy's girl.) I feel so blessed to have such great kids and such a wonderful husband! Life is not perfect but we are working it out together. Better head to bed so I'll be ready for day 3!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Slow down, summer!

Especially this last summer before we go back to school. Aargh! Schedules! Anticipation...so many unknowns! I've got that dreaded back to school butterflies in my stomach feeling I thought I'd never have to feel again except maybe in a bad dream. I'm not even technically going back to school, but Lily starts Kindergarten in like 2 weeks!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!

Of all things - I am not looking forward to waking up to an alarm clock again... though now that I think about it maybe I will still be waking up to crying baby...Sierra will probably still be waking me up earlier than necessary... I am annoyingly cheerful on here, aren't I? Always looking for the bright side! J/K :) The bright side of this is Lily will probably grow to love Kindergarten and all the exciting things planned for her to do every day, and a little more schedule in our life will probably be good for our little family. We had a good break - didn't think about returning to school when we thought about having a baby...but though we will not actually be in the class it feels like almost the same thing!

I have so many things I have not posted that I still really want to. Birthday parties and our vacation visiting Mike's family, and updates on my little ones. Time just slips by too fast and life as a mom keeps me too busy. This last week life has been heaping one physical ailment after another upon me and my body and spirit have been buckling under the pressure. After a bit of TLC from my sweet overworked husband I am feeling a little bit better than I was this morning, and I started getting some random pictures together for a blog post like a week ago so I thought I would go ahead and post them up. Not sure what the connection of these photos is except maybe July minus the birthday parties and vacation? Actually these are probably all from the same week in the last half of July and I just liked them, because...

I may never win mother of the year, but I have the two most adorable daughters!

Sisters sharing secrets in pink tutu swimsuits in a backyard baby pool.

I love this picture because it came first, and the picture below came immediately
(like 1 second) after ;)

Then I figured out how to look at the reflection of the
viewfinder to take the picture without the camera in it ;)

There's just something about a clean baby wrapped in a big yellow towel!
(and I don't take enough photos with my kids and me)

The same baby cheesing it up for the camera! Love this kid.
(Kid, but still my baby)

I had to share this - Lily has frequently made up words in songs or rhymes that have (unfortunately) hit on real words. Well, lately Lily has been trying to write, spelling things by sounding them out on her own. So exciting, I know!! This is a card she made for her cousin Audrey on her birthday. It reads: "Audrey from Lily. I 'Love' You. I have a birthday present just for you, Audrey girl." Note: Audrey is spelled O-G-R-E. I know sweet Miss Lily had no intention to call or compare her cousin to an ogre. But, I had to laugh that she happened to hit on that exact combination, and twice! Well, at least the Shrek movies have given ogres a better name, and Audrey isn't reading quite yet - so no hurt feelings ;)

Darling Miss Lily drawing an entry for our church's 'July Jubilee' ---which I feel terrible about not actually entering because we were at the beach and the Leucadia Pizzeria during the window of time you could turn in your entries. She probably would have won a blue ribbon because (this drawing's awesomeness aside) there were a decided lack of entries this year and it seemed like almost everything on display had a blue ribbon or an honorable mention. Which makes me feel even worse for not entering anything...because Lily would have been stoked to win a ribbon and we all could have contributed to the artistic display, but, in my defense we'd hardly had a chance to get to the beach this summer and we really needed it, and the Leucadia Pizzeria is awesome and we were there with awesome friends - so sometimes you just have to make tough choices. Anyway, so it gets the visibility it deserves - here is her really cool drawing of a tiger, and a butterfly and a pink tulip and an apple tree:

Here's Lily getting ready for the Primary Parade at the July Jubilee proudly sitting on her big wheel - decorated all by herself including a handwritten sign honoring the Pioneers!