Park!

Soccer season has started again, and for Noah and Emmy, this means.... PARK!!!!

My Girls

Hope and Emmy had a little matchy matchy moment this morning! Their pink shoes were my favorite part, but you can't see them well here. Hope may have accidentally been tardy as everything fell apart this morning as it tends to when john decides to go to the gym at la buttcrackofdawnthirty. And when I realized their was just no getting around the fact we were not getting to school on time, I may have stopped hurrying and taken their picture. Got to stop and smell those roses, right?



Hope wrote about her Aunt Ninny's star character.


I love how she wrote about ninny showing courage by being a first grade teacher! I know I'm too scared! And yes, I have seen Ninny's self discipline on many occasions when she has had to grade papers before having fun! Love that Hope is already looking up to my biggest role model!

And lastly, a pic of my cute Emmy at the OT office on Wednesday. Love her.



Updated. I wrote this post last night and couldn't publish it from my phone. Turns out she was tardy again this morning. We were not stopping to smell any roses, however, and I'm pretty sure two tardies in a row makes me a bad mom. Getting with the program on Monday.

Emmy Love kind of loves my phone. It is funny to me to see the pics she takes on it. Here's what I found just now from this morning.


It looks pretty similar to one of the ones she took last week


Or this one second artistic video

This from another day

She's funny.

What is up?

I just want to stop and share some things! Life is busy and rare are the days that I open my computer anymore. But life is good!

Emmy is just changing so much and so fast. I could eat her up.

• I don't really get out much, even on days with just Emmy. When we do, it is usually just grocery stores or target shopping. I had to go to the mall for something and took full advantage of a day at the mall with my girl. 
• The Merry Go Round ride I had envisioned did NOT go as I expected. She did not like it! She just awkwardly held on and looked at me like I was not fit as a parent.
• She is finally walking everywhere. My latest walker for sure, but it's all good now! She is obsessed with shoes, making up for the many months when I didn't let her wear any. 
• She wakes up every morning saying 3 of the most non-adorable words you have ever heard. "I just pooped." John and I both pretend to be asleep when we hear her say them in the monitor and see who plays dead the longest before going to rescue her. 
• When you get to her room, she repeats those words to make sure you are fully aware. Then she points to her closet and says "I need shoes." 
• She will smear any food that is able to be smeared in her hair at every meal. It is not unusual that she is bathed 3 times in one day. she's very clean, that one. You know she is finished eating and smearing when she announces "I need a bath." She is always right.
• She loves to help correct her siblings. She is so helpful at making sure everyone is doing the right thing at all times.
• She gives the stink eye a new name. She rocks it.

• Oh Noah Red. Love him still. This is pajama day at school. He loves super hero pjs, but these Snow Bears ones are his favorite! He looks precious in them, so I love it.
• Noah has started Occupational Therapy once a week to work on some grasp and sensory issues he has been having. He loves his time with Miss Joy and never wants to leave. 
• He is still batman obsessed. His room is now known as batman city and he would be perfectly happy if he had no other toys.
• Which has led us to a new way of discipline. Noah is not easy. Our pediatrician suggested 1-2-3 Magic. We are using an adapted version where he gets a warning and a that's 1 and is told if you get to 3 we will take away a batman toy. It is fully explained to him in a calm tone. I would have laughed in the face of anyone trying to tell me this is what they do a few years ago. But, for Noah? Huge improvement in only about 4 weeks. I should say, immediate improvement, and still making progress. Certain things are automatic 3s where a toy is immediately taken (like hurting someone or doing something that is dangerous.) I guess different things really do work for different kids. And the key here for Noah has been being firm and consistent. If you don't agree with this program, then I would have to come back with a "Oh, you must not have a Noah Red." And if you suggest time outs, I will also say, "Oh, you must not have a Noah Red." I will still do what is best for Noah Red.
• He is such a funny guy. He wants to make everyone laugh and makes up jokes that you are required to laugh at. He is a hoot at dinner. 
• Every night at dinner we say our prayer and then everyone says something they are thankful for. Noah is always thankful for the food he has already been eating while we were saying the prayer.

• Hopey Louisey is growing up! She is looking older, acting older, and makes me proud every day.
• We decided to pull her from her pre-team gymnastics. She was already going 3 days a week and would be going even more next year when she started competing. It was such a hard decision. This gym produces the best. But, for us, the cost was too great. Both financially, and the time away from her family and being a kid. Her coach is the best of the best. It sounds silly, but it's hard to take your child out of something when you know there is no better instruction in the country. And when the dreams of becoming great are fed by the world class gymnasts all around where your child is learning her first beam routine. Those gymnasts are home-schooled there at the gym. Again, the cost was too great. I want my daughter. So, we took a deep breath, stepped away and signed up for a tumbling class! She is loving that right now and if she wants to go back to full on gymnastics, we might go to a less serious gym. 
• She is motivated by money right now! She knocks out chores every week for a big one dollar bill on Sunday. You can ask her at any given moment how much money she has and she will tell you to the penny. She recently saved up her birthday, Christmas and chore money and bought a new American girl doll. She was so proud, and so was her mommy! 

What is new with Mommy! No picture for this segway. Sorry folks.

• I finally feel like I am getting on top of things as a stay at home mommy. Balance is hard for me. I will never be the mom with a perfectly clean house everyday, but I WILL be the mom who got on the floor and played with each of her kids that day. I will be the mommy who read to each child that day, even if it means sending them to bed with toys still on the floor. The balance part has been having a plan, and cutting out the extra stuff so that my house is not disgusting. It has meant less computer time when the kids are down. Less texting and facebooking and twittering and pinteresting. It means finishing stuff I start. Life is rolling a little more smoothly lately, and our house has been less chaotic, and for that I will do anything.

I don't want that to be taken the wrong way. There are fabulous mommies who have perfectly clean houses and love on their kids all day and carve out time to blog and fb and twitter and text and find time for Teen Mom2. I, however, cannot. I just can't turn off the ADD enough to get it all done, so I'm learning what it is I need to let go of, and surprisingly, I am happier with limiting the fluff stuff. Happy is good.

Hope as Lady Bird Johnson

This is Hope practicing her Prezi presentation for her 1st grade Historical Figure project. She is presenting Lady Bird Johnson and wanted to dress as Lady Bird as well. I may be just a little proud. She researched, wrote down all the facts she wanted to include, picked the pictures, and helped her daddy put it together as a Prezi. She has worked hard!




How cool is this?! I can actually link her actual presentation they made on Prezi! Ninny wanted to see it, so CLICK HERE if you want to as well!