grammy and grampy's "soon-to-be" property

when grammy and grampy visited we took a trip out to property they have been thinking about purchasing (SINCE OCTOBER!!!). the girls had an amazing time exploring. it is a grand kid's paradise . . . water, sand, shells, rocks, lots of things to climb, and even some cactus to make it seem a little dangerous. the girls were sold on the property . . . now if we can just convince grammy and grampy to BUY it! :)

our little reader

ken has been coming home from school with a new little book to read each day. she is always excited to share the book with us and really does well figuring out the words she is unsure of! :) she rarely wants to try reading books we have at home, but this week she picked up little bear, which i checked out from the library for her because i loved it as a kid. she read the WHOLE thing! :) she is so proud of herself . . . 62 PAGES! :) it is such an exciting thing watching her fall in love with books and discovering how much fun reading can be! :) i love it! :)

splashin' in february!

yes, it is february, but the weather here this week has been GORGEOUS! today after picking ken up from school the car thermometer read 92! what better way to spend the afternoon than splashing in the pool?!?!? :)

the water was FREEZING, but the girls didn't mind! :) they had a blast sliding, splashing, and dumping the water out of the pool! ken and mck even showed kam how to "paint" the driveway!

cooking with kam

when her big sisters are home, kam rarely gets a chance to help cook, so today, while the girls were at school she helped me make rice krispie treats! :) she got such a kick out of pouring each thing in and especially loved adding the sprinkles! :) of course, she was freaking out about the little bit that got on her fingers and insisted i clean her fingers off constantly! :) she loved being the center of attention and was so proud to tell her sisters what she made for their afternoon snack! :)

p.j. day

what could be better than spending the whole day in your p.j.'s? mck had so much fun today! :) she got to wear her p.j.'s to school, watch a movie, load up on popcorn, and just have fun! :) she got to bring her "lambie" and slippers to school too! what a treat!

a yummy morning . . . kik for mck

this morning we had mck's cooking playdate! we made blueberry muffins at miss jill's house! she had the cutest little baking cups! :) of course they were DELICIOUS (and sort of healthy too!) i think mck and kam gobbled them up so quickly because they've never had a muffin from scratch . . . my version of muffins is straight from the box! :) these muffins might convince me to "go for it" every once in awhile! what a yummy morning!

for the birds

we finally managed to make our pine cone bird feeders! (we've had the cones since OCTOBER!!!) :) the girls had fun piling on the birdseed and picking the places to hang them! ken was soooo helpful with keeping kam interested and mck was stressed about the peanut butter on her fingers - she wasn't sure if she should lick it or freak out! :) ken and mck each made one for their teacher too! now we're just waiting for the birds to find them! :)

valentine's day

we started off the day with pink, chocolate chip filled, heart-shaped pancakes and the day just got better from that point on! the girls opened their valentine gifts - who knew the $1 section mailboxes would be the hit of the day? :) they had fun just hanging out in their p.j.'s and enjoying the morning! :) i made chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels that we snacked on all morning too! :)

the weather was cruddy, so our plans for outdoor fun were kind of out of the question! bailey wanted to take the girls to cabela's to look at the animals . . . not my idea of romance, but hey, the kids had fun. he enticed me into going by taking us to the outlets first with the promise that we could look at baby bedding! :) we had a great day just being with our girls! :)

valentine photo shoot/daddy's gift

the organizer of our play group took these adorable pictures of the girls! :) she had an all day photo shoot for our playgroup so everyone could use them for gifts for the daddies for valentine's day! :) ken and mck weren't too sure why they had to hold their hands out in the air and kam was just hamming it up! :) they made an amazing gift for bailey! :) i kept the pink frames for home and found him a more "manly" frame to display his girly girls at work! :)

molly is so talented and creative! :) thanks so much! :)

ken's school party

ken's school party was today . . . at the end of the day . . . load the kinder kids up with sugar and send them home! :) smart idea! :)

the kids had a make-your-own sundae party (ken asked me 2 days prior to the party what a sundae was!) complete with lots of toppings, cookies, ice cream cone cupcakes, candy, chex mix, and some fruit (had to have something healthy!). the kids had lots of fun eating ice cream and goodies . . . and then eating seconds! :)

they made adorable valentine holders with their wonderful teacher, ms. m. . . . kitties for the girls and puppies for the boys! :) the kids all opened their valentines and goodies at school. so fun to see ken reading the names of her classmates! :) too cute!

what a fun afternoon! nothing beats seeing your kid so happy! :)

mck's school party

mck had her valentine party today . . . ms. b had the kids decorate their sacks! too adorable! :) (holy crow, she is the most wonderful teacher/friend!) mck's was COVERED with foam stickers! :) it was sooooo cute to watch a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds passing out valentines! :) not all of them understood which ones to give and which to keep! :) ken came with us and assisted in passing mck's out . . . mck loved that she had both her sisters there! :) (see they can be sweet sometimes!)

the kids had oodles of junk! :) too much for any little kid to consume . . . including the super cute ice cream cone cupcakes that we made! :) i am proud to say mck was the last one sitting at the table eating when everyone else had thrown their plate away! :) go, mck! :)

the kids did an adorable little dance before heading home! :) what a fun afternoon! we came home and mck opened up and showed us all of her loot! she was even nice enough to share! :)

valentines for daddy

today we hosted a valentine playdate. the kid's all made valentine's for their dads. mck had fun decorating and wrote "dad" and her name on the card. even kam got in on it and had fun scribbling and decorating with stickers. the girls had fun munching on heart shaped sandwiches, cookies with red chocolate chips, and a few healthy sides! :)

kam's first lollipop

kam enjoyed her first lollipop the other day! she LOVED it . . . she loved it so much she started drooling orange! :) once it started running down her face i decided it was time to take it away . . . of course this was only done with bribery . . . i gave her 3 m&m's for the lollipop!

sweet sisters

ken and mck were being super sweet one day after school last week (this tends to be a rare occurance!). i snapped some pictures outside of them! sweet sister girls!

bedtime for kam

kam has always been the "easy kid"! i could tell her it's time for bed, lay her down, give her a kiss, and walk away. no tears, no fussing, nothing. well, now it's a different story . . . it goes something like this . . .
me "kam, it's time for bed."
kam "no!"
me "yes, baby, it's time to go night-night."
kam "no, please."
me "come on, let's go."
kam "no, cuddles please?"
yes, she has figured out that asking to cuddle with me delays bedtime by a good few minutes. who can resist her chubby little face (often with her scrunched up nose) asking to cuddle? i know it won't last forever, so i give in. we cuddle in the rocking chair and sing patty-cake or hush little baby . . . she is still resistant to climbing into bed but, but goes and is asleep within minutes! :)

. . . and baby makes 4! our happy little miracle!

so, now that we're "out of the woods" and the scary first trimester, i finally feel like we can just be happy to be expecting baby bailey #4! never thought i'd be a mom of 4 kids . . . even saying it seems a little crazy, but we couldn't be more excited! :)

this pregnancy started out very similar to my pregnancy with kam. i had a blood clot right next to the baby. . . but this time it was scary big! since then it decreased in size and split in two and now only a smaller clot remains! the dr. really said we couldn't be certain until after 13 weeks. but the baby pulled through! :)

because of the blood clot we've had 4 ultra-sounds. the coolest part of it all is we've seen it grow from a beautiful little blob with a heartbeat to a beautiful baby with long arms and legs . . . even a cute little nose!

we still have a long ways to go, but are so excited that we can finally share our happy news and start to enjoy this LAST pregnancy! :)

so, why am i so tired? . . . a nighttime adventure!

i am always tired . . . always. the sad part is i go to bed within an hour of the kids' bedtime. so, sadly, i am in bed by 9:30 AT THE LATEST! and i don't wake up on most days until the last possible second . . . 6:30 and on days i workout and don't need to shower, 6:45. so, in theory, i should be getting plenty of sleep. so, why am i so tired?

well, this morning, figured it out!

last night i went to bed at 9:30 and was asleep by 10. kam woke up at 11:15 so i talked to her to get her to calm down and fall back asleep. i was back in bed by 11:30. i probably fell asleep about 12:15 (for the second time!) and kam woke up again, this time screaming. the clock read 12:30. so, i climbed back in bed around 12:45 and fell asleep close to 1:30.

then i heard crying right next to my bed . . . mck couldn't sleep. she crawled in bed with me and quickly passed out (amazing how that works!). so she falls asleep, but i am waking up to being kicked in the stomach every 30 minutes or so and just when i can't take anymore . . . approximately 4 a.m., kam is crying again. so i decide to make a switch. i carry mck back to her bed and tuck her in and pick kam up and bring her in bed with me, hoping she's tired enough to fall asleep quickly!

lucky for me, she's asleep by 4:30 and i get a whole 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep! when you add it all up, i had probably 4 hours of sleep . . . an hour here, an hour there.

that's why i'm so darn tired!

zilker park

we celebrated the beautiful weather (and a school holiday!) by meeting our friends (ms. t has 3 boys the same ages as my 3 girls!) at an amazing park in austin. we played on the playscape, had a picnic lunch, walked by the water, rode the train, chased birds, and enjoyed a little afternoon treat! we even managed to get 5 of the 6 kiddos to sit for a picture together! (that's quite an accomplishment!)

the girls loved the train ride. i put kam in a seat while i got the girls settled in their seats and when i went to sit down with her she started crying . . . she wanted to ride all by herself! :(

we spent the majority of the day at the park until kam was repeating "puppy, puppy!" over and over again . . . i knew it was time to hit the mini-van and give her her snuggly! :) the kids (okay, me too!) were worn out so the ride home was nice and quiet! what a wonderful day at the park with wonderful friends!

big girl bed!

well, we did it . . . bailey took the rail off of kam's crib this morning and changed it into a toddler bed. she was thrilled! i think she crawled in and out of the bed 10 times . . . then started gathering toys to bring in her bed . . . then showed off to ken and mck that she could do it all by herself!

ken and mck were just as excited as kam! they stood taking pictures with their cameras as i took some with ours . . . kam had her own little paparazzi! so thrilling! :)

we laid kam down for a nap after she finished checking it out. and the amazing thing was . . . she stayed in her bed! :) ha! we'll see how long that lasts! :)

is it christmas?. . . nope just an empty box!

the girls have been so excited since bailey purchased a water softener for our new water system . . . no, they weren't thrilled about the softener, just the giant box it came in. since friday they've been bugging us to bring it in the house so they could play. this morning we gave in!

they all sat with markers and crayons to decorate the box. ken wrote everyone's name on it and mck added "i love you, mom," for letting them play in the box! kam was content to sit with her winter hat and color the inside of the box which ken insisted was not to be colored! :) seriously, who needs christmas when you have an empty cardboard box? :)