Last day of Kindergarten...

At 5:59 this morning, a voice cried out, "Oh, Mommy, oh, Daddy...come and wake me up for the last day of Kindergarten!"  We were all so excited, we were ready in record time.  The whole family headed to HEB at 7:00 for Capri Suns and ice, then we went to the donut store and picked up a whole bunch of donuts...Daddy, Noble and some donuts went to Nobley's school and Kayci and I headed to Krause.  She had donuts & Capri Suns for an early birthday breakfast celebration with her friends on the last day of school.  

This is so bittersweet.  Oh, what a year it's been...and we couldn't be prouder of our Bitty!  

Beautiful AND Funny!

Kayci FINALLY got a haircut today...I wouldn't take her until I could be certain she wouldn't cut it all off.  I'm very pleased with the results, and more importantly, so is she.  :)  

I remembered what Kayci said this morning that cracked me up.  She's been reading chapter books lately, which is very exciting for her.  :)  This morning on the way to school, I thought I'd ask her about "The Velveteen Rabbit," which is the one she was reading this weekend.  I guess I kind of wondered if she was understanding everything she's read--guess it's the teacher in me.  Anyway, I asked her what the book is about so far.  She started to summarize the story (did a good job, too!), then stopped.  "Well, I've really just been reading the same chapter over and over."  Why's that?  "I forgot to take a bookmark with me."  Oh, that kid!!!  

Odds & Ends...

That's Noble, at Wal Mart in Galveston.  He was all funned out that day.  :)

A totally random post:

1.  We went to the beach with the Bogans for the long weekend, and it was AWESOME!  :)  Kayci loved the water, and Noble loved the sand.  He was more interested in the water until he got some in his nose and mouth, and then he wasn't having anything to do with it.  Believe it or not, none of us is sunburned!  That's probably a first.  Grandpa would be proud!

2.  Noble is now totally a toddler.  He does crawl a tiny bit, but he's walking full-time and starting to run a bit.  Of course he falls down when he moves too fast, but that just makes him giggle more.  Oh, what a mess--but such a lovable mess!  

3.  Speaking of Noble, he's got a 4th tooth.  His teeth are just a little crazy...got the bottom two, and then instead of the top middle he got in his right eyetooth...and now the front tooth next to it is coming in.  Just crazy looking!  

4.  Kayci is off at school enjoying water day right now.  This is her last week of Kindergarten--where has time gone??  Thursday is her end of the year party, and Friday is the last day (half-day).  She'll have a little friend come home with us and then some of us are going to see "Up" to celebrate the end of Kindergarten.  I'm excited that it's summertime and that means lots of family time...but at the same time, the end of her first year is bittersweet.  I pray that she'll enjoy first grade as much as Kinder...and look up to her teacher as she looks up to Mrs. Bolcerek.  Kayci is just amazing, and I couldn't be more proud of her.  Yes, she has her moments, but 99% of the time she's just...awesome.  

5.  Last night, I was rocking Noble when Kayci came in to kiss us goodnight.  She said, "I'm going to get into bed now after I kiss Daddy" and walked off.  As soon as she left, Noble looked up, spit out his bottle and got down.  He stood there and held out his hand, "Mon."  (That's Noblese for c'mon!)  I said, "Do you want to go get in your big boy bed?"  Big nod.  So I took his hand and we walked into the kitchen where Daddy was, Noble reached up for a hug & kiss (so sweet!) then turned around, took my hand again and walked into their bedroom with me.  We kissed Kayci again and I put him in his bed...he laid there and let me cover him up.  I went to leave and he cried so I handed him the bottle (don't judge me!) and that was that.  He did cry for a minute or so, but I went in and the bottle was sitting at one end and he was curled up at the end of his crib.  It was so sweet...our goal right now is to get him to put himself to sleep and then go from there...we'll see!  :)  

Kayci said something this morning that made me laugh, but I can't remember what it was...guess that means it's time to get to work!  Have a great week!

Of Heart Attacks and Little Boys...

A funny/scary/heart attack inducing thing happened Saturday morning.

We were all getting ready to go to Houston for Preston's (awesome!) birthday party. The girls were taking a shower and I was getting dressed. Noble was playing with his toys in the office - loudly. I had just checked on him and went to brush my teeth when I heard a loud CRASH in the office. I ran in to find Noble pulling things off of his little workbench and throwing them on the floor. Normal for Noble, so I went back to the bathroom to finish brushing. Then about 20 seconds later, I heard more noises coming from that direction.

I cocked my heard. "That's weird. That sounded metallic" I said. I know that Noble doesn't have any toys that would make a metallic sound, except for when he pulls pots and pans out of the cabinet to "cook" - but he always bangs those as loudly as he can. No - this was a different sound. So I went to investigate.

I walked into the kitchen to find Noble up on the counter next to the microwave playing with Kristi's mixer and metal mixing bowls. He looked up at me, smiled his really big Noble smile, and said "hey!"

I'm sure my eyes got wide, my jaw dropped and I got a little more gray in that instant.

He had climbed up Kayci's red stool and onto the counter. He had climbed over a grill cover that was sitting on the counter as well as Kristi's laptop.

I don't really know what else to say, other than "that's my boy" (I love to climb, too) and "It's going to be a long, interesting ride."

Home SWEET Home!

This is the little green house.  Don't mind the lady in the front yard in her PJs 

excitedly (and crookedly, obviously) taking a photo of her own house...

...and THIS is what Kayci brought home from school yesterday.

I told you it was SWEET!

Work Day

With everything going on, I haven't been doing my "regular" Wednesday commute very regularly at all.  But, it's education, it's the end of the year...I've got a lot to do between now and the end of school, and many days I'll actually have to be IN Houston.  To make the transition a little easier, I planned to leave this morning after taking Kayci to school so we (the kids!) could have a "regular" morning.  Everything was great, until I walked out of the bedroom in one of my "work" dresses.  (I wear dresses a lot, but there are a few that are a bit dressier that I only wear to work.)  When Noble saw me, he started whining and grunting...then came over to me and started pulling at my dress and just jabbering away at me.  I realized what it was and I said, "Yes, Mommy's going to work today."  His reply?  "Uh UH!"  

Not a promising start, and I have to admit, when it became apparent that I was going to have to take Noble to school this morning, too, I kind of braced myself for a screaming mimi at daycare.  But nope...for the first time ever today, I dropped him off and he did. not. cry.  :-)  

Now THAT'S a great way to start my workday!  Alrighty...off to the big city... 

The RedBox giveth after the RedBox taketh away...

Yesterday was the last "free movie Monday" for RedBox.  Yeah, yeah...they're saying we'll get a free movie like, once a month now...but it's not the same.  We LOVE free movie Monday, man.  I know, I know, we're just saving a dollar--but free is so GOOD.  Sigh.  I just returned the last in a long line of free Monday movies.  Bigger sigh.  RedBox, RedBox, why have you forsaken me??

But then I saw this on the way home...and my spirits soared.  Oh, RedBox, you DO love me!  

For those of you who aren't RedBox savvy (and yes, I may be looking down my nose at you a bit), this is an OUTDOOR RedBox. Do you KNOW what kind of time and energy this is going to save this Mommy of two? I am a happy, happy MommyGirl. Now back to work for me...big deadline tomorrow. Hope your Tuesday is as TERRIFIC as mine has been so far!!!

Growing Up Too Fast...

Noah has worn the same pair of orange Crocs for a while now, and he told Paula several months ago that when they got too small for him, he wanted to give them to Nobley (because Nobley, as you've seen, wears a lot of orange so Noah thinks it's Noble's favorite color. I think so, too, Noah.) . Well, Noah decided today was the day, so they came over so he could put the orange Crocs on Noble's feet. I couldn't get Noble to be still long enough for a good picture, but you get the idea. It'll be a while, yet, until Noble truly fits into the Crocs...but don't tell Noah. :)

Tonight was Family Night at the Library...when things are "normal", the kids and I go to Miss Lou Lou's story time every Tuesday afternoon, and Noble is a huge, huge Miss Lou Lou fan. This weekend, we parked by the library when we went to Maifest, and Noble was pointing at the library and jabbering away...he wanted to see Miss Lou Lou, by gum! Well, he got his way tonight...here he is sitting with the girls, probably getting a little fresher with Savannah than Ken would like. Shh...

We decided to put a movie on to settle everyone down...before Noble went to bed, 

he tried to "blend" with the big kids. Sigh...

...but alas, his true nature won out. After a few minutes of climbing, we got him ready for bed and the poor little guy went right to sleep. It's hard work, all this growing up...

Let's Go!

Too cute not to share...

we went to a big ol' HEB yesterday, and

it was fun for the whole family. The best part was...

Hello, Sunshine!

They looked so darned cute, I had to share. Buuuuuuuuuut, when I tried to snap a quick pic before they left, the cute cleared out. We'll blame it on the bright sun. Yeah, that's it...the sun. Hmm. Well, here's one. 

Hmm...not quite the look I was going for...let's try that again.

That's it, get outta here. Just go.  Have fun, kids!

Happy Mother's Day!

Scenes from our Saturday

Here's Daddy filming the parade...

Noble was SO TIRED from the parade fun, he fell asleep--literally--as soon as we buckled him into the truck.  

And last but not least, a very happy Kayci.  :)  

11 years ago today...

...at 2:00 in the afternoon outside a little B&B in Huntsville, we got married. We were 23 and thought we were a lot more grown up than we were, and we had absolutely no idea what was in store for us.  The things we thought we wanted at that time really have nothing to do with who we were as much as what we thought we were "supposed" to want/have.  

I'm so glad we did our own thing, then and now.  :)  

We went out to dinner last night to celebrate, just the two of us. Afterwards, we did one of our favorite things--we picked a country road and drove until we found the perfect spot to watch the sunset. As we sat there, we talked about the past 11 years...where we thought we'd be by now, where we actually are. And you know, I wouldn't change a thing. (Well, I'd like my wedding body & hair back, and I wish we'd wised up about debt and spending years ago...

but big picture-wise, wouldn't change a thing.) 

Happy anniversary to us!  

Yours, Mine and Ours

Before we start, yes, I know I need to clean my lens. I noticed that after the pool picture yesterday, just forgot...I'll get there. :)

If you've been following along, you know that we moved Noble's crib and assorted cr...stuff into Kayci's room the weekend of his birthday (yup, 2 months ago).  At the time, we were so busy with life and all that we just piled everything up in there and tried very, very hard not to think about the chaos and confusion.  It was BAD.  Real bad.  Black trashbags full of dress up stuff in the corners bad.  Ugh. I shudder thinking about it.  And look, there they sit beside me now...but that's another story.  

Noble got sick last Thursday night, which meant that we were homebound this weekend.  I decided to use the time wisely and get cracking on the kids' room.  You see, over the past 2 months it's become abundantly clear that for it to work, it's got to be their room--not just her room with him sleeping in there at night.  So, we pulled everything out of the room but the furniture and then we consulted with Kayci and moved the furniture where we wanted it.  Slowly, over the past week, we've cleaned and dusted and moved things back in.  Very slowly--both kids have been home sick all week.  Noble went back to school today, but Kayci is 0 for 4 this week.  Anyway, tonight James and the kids went to pick up my Mother's Day gift (I know, right?!) and that gave me some time to finish some of the nitpicky things in there.  So I did, and guess what?  It's done!  Well, until Kayci's birthday when she gets her new Dick & Jane bedding and curtains...then we'll do a little revamping with the color scheme and redo the kids' names/letters (I took them down this week because I'd rather wait and have matching ones this summer...that's just me).  Anyway, for now, it's clean.  It's organized (do NOT, under any circumstances, open either kids' dresser drawers.  It's not THAT organized.).  It's fun--for both of them.  And that was really the goal, once we got into it.  :)  So here it is...we went back to the room arrangement from this time last year, only we added the crib--pay attention.

Here's the room if you're looking in from the hallway. Making a room that's both functional and fun for an almost-6 year old and a 1 year old was a bit challenging, but we got a little creative and it works. You'll notice the bench, stool, chairs, etc. are gone (or hiding behind the bed holding up her lamp and special book/journal basket) because somebody just can't resist the urge. The urge to climb, that is. The CD player and lamp are both now out of Noble's reach. We tried to make sure that anything in his range is actually okay for him to have, both safety-wise and Kayci would cry if he hurt it wise. So far, so good...


Here's another view from the door (the wall with his bed hasn't changed, except I took his name off for now). Kayci's Hannah Montana house & stage are behind the dresser, and her wall cubes now hold Noble-friendly toys and doodads. The bottom three rows of her toy shelf now hold Noble board books and toys that are safe for both of them...it was easier than I thought to really find things that they both play with.

But where, you ask, did all of her STUFF go? Ah, that is a good question. A very large piece of furniture is missing from the room--it just made it too dark and crowded once we put the crib in, so I got a wild hair and moved the armoire into our room. It kinda works out, since our room felt so empty after the crib was gone. Sigh. So, the armoire is in our room, and it still had all of her dress up stuff in it hanging and organized, etc. But then I started thinking...we had tubs on Kayci's toy shelf full of fake food and doll stuff and just STUFF...stuff that isn't safe for Noble to play with, one, is annoying to pick up when Noble gets to it, two, and Kayci just never plays with, three, unless her friends are over. So...I pulled the dress up stuff out of the armoire and measured it. Sure enough, we can fit a TON more of the IKEA tubs that we currently have in there, so this weekend we'll pick some up and then in the armoire there will be tubs of dress up, a tub of food, a tub of Build A Bear, and so on. When Kayci and her friends want to play, they can grab the tubs and take them back to the kids' room (we do have the gate up for days like that...we're not totally nuts). I like the armoire in our room, but it was a little bare so I brought in the stuff that's been exiled from the buffet (Noble again) and stuck it up there. Makes me smile, so it can stay. :)

This one's just in because I was taking pictures anyway. We gave away the TV & DVD player from our bedroom a while back, and the dresser has just been sitting empty for so long. When I went in to get the stuff out of the green box that was banished from the buffet, I saw some pictures and decided to add them to the few things that were on the dresser. Much better!

If you look back at the armoire picture, you can see the pile of CRAP that's sitting beside it (you don't want to open it right now, either...yikes!) and the bench sitting next to it, waiting to go to storage. After we pack up the IKEA tubs and get the armoire organized, we'll set aside stuff for a garage sale, stuff to go to friends, stuff to go to storage, etc. But for now, it's all sitting in our room. Better than the hallway, so I can live with it for now. I'll feel a LOT better after we go to IKEA this weekend, though, and we're a little further along in the process. For now, it just feels good that the kids are sleeping in a clean, organized, happy place tonight. Did you hear that, kids? ALL NIGHT.

Good night. :)

Summer Preview

A Message from Kayci...

this  is  my  first  pickcher  that  is  this  good.i  hope  you  like  it.i  thot  that  it  was  vary  good.    my  daddy  told  me  that  it  was  vary  good  to.this  is  one  ov  my  favoret's.  this  is   a  pickcher  ov  samy

bare  kat.  he's  far  away  and  he's  sticken  out  his   paw.

Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a... Well - Still a Baby (But We're Working On It.)

As promised... video of Noble walking.

For those viewing this in your e-mail, you can probably click on the image you see and it will start playing. If not, watch it on the blog site.

Sleeping Sideways in a Double Bed...

Oh, these kids.  Noble's getting over being sick, and Kayci got sick overnight Sunday.  So this morning when my alarm went off at 4 AM, I wondered why I was all the way on the edge of the bed.  I turned off the alarm, then closed my eyes again.  When James' alarm went off a few minutes later, he was moving very slowly so I opened my eyes to see what was going on, and that's when I realized...duh, duh, duh...we're not alone.  James had a kiddo on each shoulder, and he was trying to get out of bed without waking anyone up.  He was successful, as he's had more practice than we'd like to admit here.  But here's where I'm going with the post...since Noble was on our bed and he's been known to jump off (it's high, afraid he'll really get hurt one of these days), I sat in our room to work on the computer.  I watched the bed, and those little monkeys were ALL OVER IT.  Kayci sleeps sideways, and oh, I wish I was exaggerating.  It was fun, in a way, to watch the way they chased each other in their sleep.  Even asleep, Kayci seemed to be aware of where Bubby's hands were in relation to her curls.  :)  Other than the sideways sleeping, the hard part about having either kid in bed is that neither of them likes to be covered up, but BOTH of them like to sleep in the middle.  So James and I have to fight with little feet kicking the covers off.  But things are getting better, and the times that both of them are in our bed are very, very rare, and Bubby's spending less and less time there, as well.  I know that soon we'll be back to just the two of us, and I suspect that sometimes I'll miss these days of cuddling.  And cover hogging.   And sideways sleeping.  (BTW, if you are humming Barbara Mandrell, I love you!)

Saturday Morning Cartoons

This is going to be a very, very unusual post for us:  we are at home.  

On a Saturday morning.  

Don't know about you, but this made us a bit nostalgic for our childhood Saturdays.  :)  

Happy weekend! 

Kayci's Kindergarten Bug Parade

i  liket  my  costum   but  i  did   not   think    that     it   wos  good  inuf.  kayci  typt  it

Alrighty...well, that's not exactly what I was expecting her to say. This is one of those warts and all entries, I guess. So, yesterday was the Kindergarten Bug Parade. I won't lie--with everything else going on, this really snuck up on us, and we had plans literally every night this week. So Wednesday we brainstormed and decided that we'd go to Target,  maybe get inspired. We thought we could use things we already had and maybe add a prop or something to create her perfect costume. I'm not sure how we got to ant, but we decided that she'd be an ant and carry a large bread crumb (she's way, way into ants right now). That worked out for Kayci, because it meant she got a new ball (don't ask). So then we saw the black tank top with silver wings, and she became the queen ant. Hence the antenna on a crown instead of a headband (also her choice). She was really cute, and very Kayci. BUT...duh duh duh...in the interest of efficiency, I sent her to school in her ant clothes/costume yesterday. My thought was that it would make her day special, I'd show up with her 2 props to finish her costume and it would be great. But when I got there, she was a little "off" and I knew something was wrong. The frown grew as I praised her friends' costumes (and efforts, in some cases!). When it was time to leave school, she was still not quite right, and it took a trip to Dairy Queen to get it out of her. The Bug Parade didn't "feel right," she kept saying, and I realized immediately what it was: Kayci had high expectations that she'd put on her antenna and hold her breadcrumb and everyone would be like, WOW! It's the queen ant!   But it just didn't quite happen like that.  And yes, there were kids with better costumes than hers, which I think shocked her. (Maybe it was time, right?) What she was feeling was disappointment, because the reality didn't meet up to her expectations.  We talked about it, and about how she would have felt MORE special if she had worn regular clothes to school and then changed into her ant costume.  I thought that was the end of it, until I saw her blog entry this morning.  

You know, as parents we want the best for our kids.  I thought we'd come up with a great Kayci costume that would help her have a great parade experience, but instead it was just an "okay" day for her.  There's nothing I/we can do to change that, and there's nothing we SHOULD do, I know.   It is what it is--life's rarely perfect, and it's not even almost perfect most of the time.  While I would have preferred for the Bug Parade to just be fun, it's turned into a life lesson of sorts.  Those are always sneaking up on us, aren't they?