August 2017

August was pretty good, but to be honest, in hind sight, I really wish it would have lasted longer. I always find myself counting down to the days when school will start again as August starts, but then as soon as the crazy of school is here, I miss summer. Maybe next year I'll learn my lesson and enjoy it more without constantly telling myself it needs to end quicker. Maybe...

We tried to fit in as many things off of our summer bucket list during August that we could. The kids wanted to go to the zoo and my brother Jeremy was here with his family so what better time than then to have a zoo trip? We also fit in more fishing and a few trips to get shaved ice. Golly...I miss summer now.

Our newest kittens are fitting in lovely. And destroying everything...

Me and two of my three 'boys'. Jack and Luke.

Zoo trip with all the cousins.

Our annual family photo at the orangutan statue.

Kittens still being crazy.

Good fishing at our local city pond.

A rare selfie with the hubby.

A rare moment of kids getting along...all at the same time.

The local shaved ice place is fantabulous! How we haven't known about all these years is very disappointing.

July 2017 pt. 1 - Fishing and a bit more

July was actually filled with quite a bit of things to do. Even though the kids seem to like to say "mom, we never do anything!", they are quite wrong. We actually spent a good amount of time going fishing with Grandma - my mom. I actually used my license this year for a change. July was fun...and busy.

I had to throw this one in there. Leia looks at Josh in a way that isn't natural for a cat. She has always been jealous of me, I think.

We went to go see my nieces, Linsey and Kate, in their community theater's play. It was really well done. This year was "Annie". They did great! Linsey was part of the Warbuck's staff and Kate was an orphan.

Alex spent every lunch feeding his baby Jasmine mayonnaise. It's been a tradition since he was little. Unfortunately, this was the last summer with her (to be a later post).

This heron was watching us fish at a local pond. Abby took some pictures of it. But the best part was that we took a fish we caught and threw it to it. It caught it and ate it in one gulp. It was awesome!

Fishing with Grandma.

Abby hates fishing. But she does love using a net and catching things close to the shore. This was her prized catch of the evening.

Alex, on the other hand, is quite the little fisherman. He loves it! And he caught a bass...all on his own.

Every day was spent with a popsicle. Most days they jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath it.

We planted mammoth sunflowers and marigolds. The mammoth flowers reached a height of barely my shoulders. Our soil is poisoned...ugh...

Josh hates fishing too, but I did talk him into (or dragged him) to go walk around the pond after shaved ice with the kids.

Another fishing trip with Grandma at a lake near by us. The girls hunted for treasures and minnows while we attempted to catch fish.

I'm not good at selfies still. But I tried to document my part in the summer.

Fisherman Alex.

This would have been more fun if there weren't a horde of evil bumblebees trying to kill me because of my bright blue shirt.

One of my favorite pictures of the summer.

June 2017

Whew! Summer vacation is officially over and just like that...three months of the year are gone. The kiddos are back to school and we're back in full swing of life. The kids had what I can only hope was a great summer. I had a good summer too, but unfortunately it was nigh unproductive. I basically didn't strike up a single, solitary creative spark. No blog. No writing. No drawing. Nothing. Bubkis.

So it's time to use my last year of free time (as I hope to get a job when Evie goes to kindergarten) and play catch up from all the time I didn't do anything productive. Unless you count wrangling and entertaining three crazy kids for three months. So instead of trying to pretend I will blog about every single event of the summer, I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures and such so I can record life as it was for the summer of '17. 

On another note, I unexpectedly lost my blasted phone...with every picture through half of the summer. It imploded. Poof...all photos gone. So as a result, June photos are almost nonexistent. Through the help of the ladies that run our local swimming pool, I was blessed to have at least gotten pictures of the kids at swim lessons. Alex and Abby took (and passed) the final level of swim lessons (level 5). It went great and they are far more likely to survive a crash in the ocean than I would...as I can barely tread water on a good day. Evie took and passed level one and then took level 2. She didn't pass, but I am confident in her abilities to not drown as easily now. On that note, Evie is still very much in love with one of her teachers - Miss Kayla. She's a wonderful gal and I'm glad Evie is so eager to learn from her.

Evie loving life.

Evie level two: not passed but did amazing!

Evie and Miss Kayla.

They are just so happy that they no longer have to take swim lessons.

Evie Level one: passed.

And now I can't remember what else we did in June. But I did learn a valuable lesson. Always back up your pictures often.

Stupid phone...

Baby Kitty Named Cookie

I'm not sure if every little girl goes through this phase, but both of mine have. Abby used to pretend she was a puppy every single day. I think she crawled around on her hands and knees more often than she walked on two legs for three straight years. She still enjoys bounding around on all fours to this day. That being said, Evie is way more obsessed with it than Abby ever was. She doesn't really pretend to be a puppy as much though. She's a kitty. And she takes it way more seriously than her older sister. In fact, she has gone as far as saying that she wishes that she was a real kitty and not a silly human.

She utters the same phrase every single day...more times a day than I care to count. "I'm your baby kitty named Cookie and I'm a girl." She says it to daddy, mommy, Alex, Abby, and pretty much anyone who will listen. I've had to "adopt" her from the pound many times. She has even gone as far as filling bowls of water up and lapping it up on the floor just like a real kitty. It cracks me up how serious she takes it. She even lines up on the floor when it's feeding time for the real cats of the house and pretends to be eating with them. I've actually have to get mad at her when she chases the cats away so she can "eat". She hisses at him and growls. Oh this little girl is a hoot!

She's pretending to lick the fork with canned cat food on it that the kittens clean off every night.

Abby's 9th Birthday

My kids switch through their obsessions so quickly that my head can start spinning. One year ago on Abby's birthday, it was everything Star Wars. She was so obsessed with it that it was the only thing she wanted. One year later and Star Wars is a thing of the past (sadly). Now it's all things Trolls. So the cake, presents and chatter was just that: Trolls. (The kids movie...not the creepy thing that lives under bridges.) Abby was hoping for a big birthday party with a ton of friends, but I told her not until she's ten...maybe.

For her birthday at school I made blue (her favorite color) cupcakes and Troll fruitsnacks. And then on her party day, it was a Smidge (her favorite Troll) cake with cookie dough ice cream (coconut version for the allergic kid). She got most everything she wanted, including another stuffed animal that she is in love with. It's a dachshund named Chloe. It was a good time and the kids had fun with Wesley and Greta over for the day.

I'm super proud of the way Abby has grown in the last year. She's a super talented kid with lots of art skills and is kind and sweet to everyone she meets. It will be fun to watch the next year of growth again. Happy Birthday Abby! We love you!

Tweenagers

What I look like inside as I try to figure out the parenting thing...

I had to look this up to make sure I wasn't losing my mind, but I was dead on. The official years that are considered "tweens" in children are ages 8 to 12. For the last twenty years few years, raising these kids has gotten significantly...well...frustrating. I love them forever and always and to the moon and back.

But.

Oh my gosh...they can drive me CRAZY!

It started with Alex (as he is ten now) but Abby showed the signs of it earlier than him. Attitude. That's the best word for it. They flip me attitude. Not good attitudes, either. The kind that makes me want to pull my hair out and try gluing it back on backwards so I don't let them see my frustrated "crazy" eyes. Because I truly believe that when they see that crazy look in my eyes, they know they've secretly won the battle they brought down upon me - their poor helpless mom.

And it's only getting worse as the years go by. I believe that the tween age is there to get you slowly prepared for the frightening things that true teenagers will bring, but that doesn't make it better. Most of the time, they aren't testing my very last nerve. But a good chunk of it is filled with snippy comments, bad attitudes, drama, and sarcastic quips. As a highly sarcastic person, this shouldn't bother me. But their sarcasm can be almost over the top. Some say I deserve it. Oh well.

One day, I will look back on the constant battles, "I don't want to clean my room!" comments, screaming nonsense, fighting to the death, and (my personal favorite) the "you hate me!" accusations and I will miss it.

Right?

...and what the general public sees as I try to hide my crazy.

Early Thumb Victory

Thumb sucking has been in this house since Abby was just a few months old. That's a whole lotta thumb sucking, to be honest. Evie came out of me just as eager to suck her thumb as her sister was. Abby didn't stop sucking her thumb until this past Fall. It came down to an ultimatum. She had stopped temporarily back in Pre-K, but the moment her last day of school was over she plopped that bad boy back in her mouth uttering, "Good. Now I can suck my thumb again." I told her it was either stop sucking it on her own, or she'd be using the nasty stuff you paint on their nails to stop them. We had to use the stuff. She reverted a few times but is now thumb free.

Evie, only being half of Abby's age, was still sucking hers. And honestly? I was okay with it. I knew she'd be going to pre-K earlier than the other two, but she needed it to get to sleep at night. After long days of school, she needed the comfort. I expected she'd be sucking that thumb well into Kindergarten or first grade.

Until...

One evening, she thought it would be a good idea to jump head-first into the couch. I'm not even sure how she did it, really. All I know is that I was walking into the kitchen when I heard her jump. Then I heard blood-curdling screams and she came at me with a mouth full of blood and a gash in her tongue that was quite frightening. The blood wouldn't stop and the nurse on the phone said if it didn't stop to get an ambulance out here. I called and they were here lickety-split. She was very brave as the nice firemen helped her out (who have been here more times than I'd like to admit). When the took a closer look at the gaping wound, it was called a through and through. She bit clear through her entire tongue. The paramedics came and we made the choice to go ahead and go with them in fear she'd puke up and aspirate on her blood on the drive there or (even worse) bite off her tongue completely.

Luckily, they said it would heal in no time and it required no further attention. Unluckily, it didn't heal like they promised. It took almost two weeks before it was fully closed. Poor Evie couldn't suck her thumb. It was extremely painful for her. She couldn't eat anything salty or crunchy for a week and I had to cut her food very small. It was horrible. But by the end of two weeks (still having some pain that lingered for a couple weeks after that), she hadn't sucked her thumb. It was hard and heart-breaking at first. But she got used to sleeping without it after a week. A month later and no thumb. She did try it once and cried telling me how much she missed her thumb. But then I convinced her that she was a big girl and didn't need it anymore.

Truth be told, as much as I complained about the germs and other lovely things that thumb sucking brings, having her suck her thumb was a reminder of her being my last baby. No thumb, no more baby. It tugged on my heartstrings way more than I ever thought possible. But she's a big girl now and I'm proud of her. Even if it was a mere side effect of a very bad night.

Our local heroes...again. We love our firefighters and take them cookies often. They know Evie very well now and always ask her how her tongue is when they see her. She loves it!

First ambulance ride at not quite four years old. On another note, those pajamas still have blood stains on them.

Her paramedics. It may have not been a life-threatening emergency, but for this scared mama...they sure helped.

It was way worse than it appears on camera. You could see straight through her tongue.

My brave little turkey with her blanket, baby kitty, and the bear the paramedics gave her that she named "Stacy" after one of them.