Phoenix

We headed to Phoenix last week, during Addison's fall break from school. We had a great 5 days catching up with old friends. Ashley and Jaime were amazing hosts!!! They fed us great food, shuttled us around, and took us to do some fun things. One evening, another couple from our church there came to visit. That made a grand total of 10 girls under the age of 7. The eldest, Carlee, was the only child in the whole group when we were all in bible study together. We had a great time and are so thankful for great, lasting friendships.

Mommy, Reagan and Gracyn at a train park in Scottsdale. We had lunch at a cute little ice-cream shop before. At least we thought it was cute, until a GIANT roach joined us at our table.

Carlee and Addison on the train.
The girls watched a few movies in the theatre room. Baby Jamie and Gracyn didn't last too long.

Reagan loved driving this car. Can you tell? Avaree was along for the ride. Sweet little Ava was responsible, during our visit, for THE LARGEST poop disaster I have EVER seen. Babysitters had just arrived and the grown-ups were on the way out to dinner, when they woke her up from a late nap to discover she had taken her diaper off and there was poo pretty-much from floor to ceiling in her room. It was enough to make me start duct-taping Gracyn's diapers just-in-case!!!

Gracyn trying to keep up with the big kids.

Dance party with 10 little girls.

Bike Riding in the Cul-de-sac.

Lindsay, Addison and Ashlynn watching Tinkerbell.

Sweet Kenadee!!! This picture pretty much sums her up!

We spent some time on the back porch hanging out with Franky the turtle. He makes for an easy pet once you get him, but apparently getting this endangered little guy from the "Reptile People" is no easy task. They had to build him a house, and I think, possibly make arrangements for him in their will.

Addison loved feeding him. Gracyn still goes around our house saying "Turtle, Night-night". He isn't always easy to find back there and we would just tell her he was sleeping.

Daddy and Gracyn with all the beautiful palm trees.

It was a little chilly for the fountains, but that didn't stop us.

We didn't expect them to get in, so we had 6 kids and 1 towel. This outing ended in an emergency trip to Old Navy to purchase dry clothes for freezing children.

Gracyn liked getting her feet wet.

Ava and Gracyn loved playing in the Pack-in-Play. They had the best time in there!

Moments before Ashley was feeding Tommy samples of his yummy home made salsa!!! It was so good. I came home with the recipe, but don't know that I will ever be ambitious enough to make it. The girls spent some serious time building Little Pet Shop villages. You can't see much in the picture, but Carlee's room is ADORABLE! She was sweet to give it up and let my big girls sleep there.

Carousel ride at the park.

Addison, Kenadee, Gracyn, Reagan, Carlee and Avaree

Sweet girl waiting for a train ride.

Boys will be boys, especially when they get together with old friends. Jaime (the wife) won this fully-automatic airsoft gun in a poker tournament. The guys had a blast with it. Eventually, after a few glasses of wine, they were using each others' rear-ends for target practice.

Jaime, Kim and Erin Guess girls, Wooldridge girls, and Price Girls

Bedtime story for 5.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Rise and Shine

Two mornings this week, for some reason, Gracyn decided to wake up at 5:30 in the morning. I AM NOT a morning person. Especially not when it is dark and cold. I spent from 5:30 to 6:00 each of those days, with my eyes half open, trying to get her to go back to sleep. We rocked in her chair, we snuggled in my bed. She was sweet, but she was not going back to sleep.

Daddy is a morning person, and is generally in the basement working out by 5:30 every morning. So, after determining that sleep was done for the day, we went down to say hi to him. Gracyn helped him work out, while I curled up in a bean-bag and went to back to sleep.....not really, but I wanted to. Today, she returned to her usual 7am wake-up time. I hope that is back for good, especially with the impending time change.

On a funny note, because I realized I never really write about all the craziness anymore. It isn't that it doesn't still exist, but it has just become so normal, I don't think to blog about it. Yesterday, Gracyn pulled her jammies and diaper off all by herself. She was running around naked, while we were all getting ready for the day. That was working out just fine, until I saw the bent knee, serious face, squatting position that could only mean one thing. "Gracyn, do you have poo-poo?", I said, as I ran for her. "Let me help you on the potty!". I picked her up and ran for the bathroom, but it was too late. As I swung her towards the bathroom door, I realized the damage had already been done. I realized this, because as I swung her, "the damage" flew across the room and landed nicely on the carpet. Just another day-in-the-life. Doesn't even faze me anymore.

Two Things for my Memory

Reagan melted my heart today. I was buckling her carseat up after storytime and lunch when she said, "All the other Mommy's don't know, but you are already the best Mommy in the world!". So, so sweet! I don't desire to be a better Mommy than anyone else and certainly am not, but is sure makes me happy that my child thinks I am!!!

In keeping with her likeness of Mommy, 99.9% of the time Addison is happy, sweet, helpful and easygoing. However the small 1% of the time when she is grumpy or in a bad mood, she is HOSTILE! Particularly to the person she is closest to, me. I spent two days this week on eggshells around her, just waiting for another blow-up. She was over-tired, a few of the times over-hungry and taking it out on me. What is so funny, is the sense of humility this gives me. It is one thing to watch in pride as you see your child developing into a great person, and learning good character traits from you. It is healthy does of humility when you see the opposite and you know exactly where she gets it from. As I was telling Tommy about my day with her and how grumpy she was being, he just looked at me, eyebrows raised, nodding politely. You see, he is typically the recipient of my occasional hostility. Thankfully we can all laugh about it, and it never takes long for the good mood to be restored.

Not to be left out.

Reagan has 4 wheels, but she still rocks all over the neighborhood on her little bike. It is her primary source of transportation. If we are outside, she is on it. She rides it to the bus stop each day when we pick up Addison, and she and I have had some fun bike adventures while Addison is at school and Gracyn is sleeping. The most recent adventure involved Reagan running right over a snake on her bike!!! She wanted her training wheels off this weekend, and she probably could ride without them, but Mommy and Daddy only have so many hands. We had to hold her off, at least a few days, while big sister gets a little more practice in!

2 Wheels

Addison mastered riding her bike without training wheels this past weekend! We were so proud of her. We have been working at it off and on for a month or so. We would take the training wheels off, do some practicing, but then eventually put them back on. Her legs are so long, she can't ride the 12 inch bike, and there are some definite challenges with learning how to balance on the bigger model.

Saturday she and Daddy headed out with a pool noodle. Tommy wrapped the noodle under her arms and held on to the ends of it while she got her balance. It only took a few attempts before she was off and pedaling. Since then, she has learned to start and stop herself and can ride independently! Fun times!!!

Braggin' on My Girl

I had our first conference with Addison's kindergarten teacher this week, and I left with a heart full of pride (and a few tears) for my sweet girl. We went over all the regular kindie stuff.....she knows her letters and numbers and is right on track learning to read. That was all great to hear, but then her teacher commented on her character. She told me what a sweet, compassionate heart Addison has, and how she exhibits kindness and caring far beyond what you would expect for a 5-year-old. She told me that Addison will stop what she is doing to help another child in need.

So sweet to hear. Addison is a born nurturer and I see it all the time when she is with younger kids. They adore her and she is never bothered to help them or take care of them. However it was great to hear that she exhibits the same qualities with her peer group. I love that sweet girl and I am so thankful for the heart God gave her. I pray that she will always have such a tender heart full of love, caring and helpfulness.

A Week

For my own memories, I wanted to record what a typical week looks like around here with school and activities in full swing. Life is SO MUCH different this year, from last. 2 in school (even if it is only a small number of hours) and one rapidly exciting babyhood make life interesting. If I could freeze time with my 5 1/2, 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old, I just might do it!!! They are at such great ages. Here is a little bit of last week, by the numbers.

8-9 loads of laundry done.

3 containers of strawberries, 1 pound of grapes, 7 apples, 10 bananas, and 1 container of blueberries get eaten in a typical week at my house.

3 doctors appointments for the bunch....4 if you count my trip for a chest X-ray.

1 hour volunteered in Addison's classroom. 1 1/2 hours volunteered at her school carnival.

2 bibles studies in progress. The Beatitudes for the homegroup we lead and Beth Moore's Daniel in my women's group.

3 birthday parties over the course of last weekend.

4 dinners cooked, along with lots of leftovers and breakfast and lunch everyday.

1 time each day still nursing Gracyn. She is cut off on Friday!!!

50 is the total number of months I have spent nursing now.

2 evening walks with the dog.

4 afternoons spent at the park.

11 little girls at a playdate at my house Wendesday afternoon.

27 new books checked out at the library.

56 dollars spent at Addison's book fair (last week, we went back today). I am a such a sucker for books!!!

4 hours of girl time out. First dinner at Cheesecake Factory then shopping at Gymboree for our little ones.

4 dozen boxes of cookie dough in my freezer from Addison's fundraiser. It won't last long, because I am eating it EVERYDAY!

5 late night episodes of House watched with the hubby via Netflix.

3 trips to the grocery store.

8-9 consecutive hours slept each night for the last several weeks. EVERYONE is sleeping through the night and I am SOAKING IT UP.

Fall Festival

Addison's school had their Fall Festival on Saturday. It was a great family day. We played all sorts of carnival games and won prizes. They had a cake walk, face painting and lots of food. We squeezed in all we could in the first two hours, then Addison headed off to a birthday party, Daddy took Gracyn home to nap and Reagan and I stayed and worked at a booth. She was quite the little helper. The school community has turned out to be great so far. I am thankful to be here.

Everything

I haven't had much time for blogging lately, so I have quite the mix of pictures that I just pulled from my camera.

The girls and I took advantage of a beautiful fall day and some time off from school and headed to the zoo.

Gracyn can do anything her big sisters can! She is not to be left behind.
3 sweet, cuddly, clean girls straight from the bath. Why can't they look at the camera and smile like this when they are dressed?

Clifford the Big Red Dog was at Addison's school for the book fair.

Love my snuggle time with my 3 girls!