What I learned this weekend

I had a great weekend with my mom, aunt, 2 cousins and their 3 kiddos! They came to visit and we had a blast! There will be a different post with many pictures. I just had some "thoughts" I thought I'd share...

Things I learned about hosting extended family at your house (with small children involved):

1. It is good to clean your house, but almost pointless.

2. ALWAYS use paper plates.

3. Using paper cups would be a good idea too.

4. Be sure you wash towels everyday--with the pool, boat trip and showers, we were running short!

5. Have lots of snacks and drinks!

6. Kids don't care what they eat, but they are hungry all day long (this I knew, but it was multiplied with other cousins here)

7. Have more toilet paper on hand than you think you will need!

8. I want Kyle and Miah to have a baby so we can have cousins around more often! (and Taylor when he gets married)

9. Sleeping arrangements, naps, schedules, etc. have to be super flexible.

10. Having a close extended family is truely priceless!

I absolutely loved having all of these family members around. I am thankful to be close to my extended family. I'm especially close to Wendi and Ashley because we grew up together for a few years right around the corner from eachother. We have fun memories of many things. I'm thankful that our kiddos, even though we aren't around the corner, will grow up knowing eachother. We are hoping to make this a summer tradtion and keep up the fun times! Many pics to come soon!!

Where did June go?

We have been so busy. It has been a fun busy, but busy none the less....

We finished up tball the first week with a make up game the next weekend. Then both girls did swimming lessons 4 days a week for 2 weeks. They are swimming AWESOME by the way! Big fish, as their teacher Mrs. Jayne would call them! Then this week has been VBS at church. I'm working, so both girls are getting to go and having a blast! Then we have been swimming every afternoon after naps are finished.

The most exciting thing is that my cousins and aunt are coming this weekend to visit. My cousin Wendi that mvoed to Doha, Qatar, my cousin Ashley, and their mom, my Aunt Jerry are all coming to visit! My mom is coming down to spend the weekend here. Ryan is leaving...not sure where he's going, but he is leaving here to not be surrounded by all of us girls! It should be a fun time! We will have 5 children 4 and under! Ashley is also pregnant, due 2 weeks after me! So fun! Then on Monday another cousin of mine, Jennifer, from my dad's side, is coming to visit all of us with her husband and little girl. Wendi and Jennifer became friends at Baylor when they were there and would tell people they were cousins! Ha! They aren't related at all, but are both my cousins on different sides!

So that is what we are up to. At times I feel busy and other times we are having a pretty no big deal kind of day. Which is ok too. Our month of July is not as busy as we have been, but I'm sure we will be spending our fair share of time at the pool!

Hair Cut

Here is my big girl! Love her hair like this! Thankfully she does too!!

(excuse her bug eyed look, not sure what that was about)

Question

To all of my faithful readers (ha!) I have a question. I have had a few people tell me that their "invite ran out" after being able to view my blog for a little while. I hate that. I don't know what happens or why it does that. Does anyone know? I just looked at my list of readers and there are lots of different kinds of "sign ins" meaning that when I look at my list of "permissions" on who can read it and who can't there are many different types of e-mails: gmail, hotmail, centurytel, yahoo, etc.

If you have any sort of answer or explination that would help me, I would appreciate it. Is there a setting I should change, is it something they have to do in order to "sign in" differently?

HELP!!!

Thanks!

PS-Wait til you see Lindsey's new hair cut....oh so cute!! I love it! Pics coming soon!

Swimming Lesson Update

For those interested, swimming lessons are much improved to say the very least! Wow!!! Today at swimming even as the lesson went on she (Lindsey) got better and better. She was floating exactly right the first time, kicking and doing her arms, floating on her back, etc. I was shocked as was Mrs. Jayne. Then it came to jumping....the first time was the same as usual. Lots of hesitancy, very unsure, reaching for Mrs. Jayne, not jumping, you get it. Then it came time for the second jumping in a little bit later! She was last. They were closer to me this time. I just said, "Hey. Daddy will pay you $2 if you just jump right in." Mrs. Jayne walked over and IN.SHE.JUMPED! What?!?! I offered money last week too! So crazy! I was so pleased and so shocked.

Then tonight we got to go to the Greenwood pool that we spent so much time at last summer. She informed me that she was not even going to wear floaties AND she was going to jump in. She was right! She wore floaties when she wanted to do a back float by herself and that was it! She even jumped in and didn't want me to catch her! Where did this child come from?!? Mrs. Jayne is going to be in SHOCK tomorrow I think!

Then of course Courtney is all about it and has been the whole time. She thinks she can do it just like L, but L can touch. C can't! So C takes off trying to "float" without me and without floaties! She was also jumping in, but I made her wear floaties unless I was there to catch her. Otherwise she wore them and jumped in all by herself!

Hello swimming pool!

Getting Ready

So I'm 22 1/2 weeks pregnant and feeling the sort of pressure to start getting things ready for this baby coming in not too long! There is this list in my head of things I want to get finished. Some things are bigger (set up nursery) some things smaller (paint step stools in girls' bathroom), but all are things I want done. We have decided that Courtney is going to move rooms. She is going to be moving to the back bedroom and sleep on the queen bed that is already in there. She is going to be getting the dresser that has been Lindsey's. I got her bedding at Target yesterday but can't find a picture of it. I don't have it set up yet, so I don't have a picture, but it is bright stripes! So cute!



Since Courtney needs L's dresser, we got Lindsey this dresser. I ordered it yesterday and it will be here in a few weeks! It is super cute, super functional and should last her a while! I love it!

Last summer when I got on the "WE ARE SO DONE" kick, I sold the crib! Yes, I did! I sold it to my friend Tonya's brother. She is my neighbor and just moved her youngest out of her crib, so I'm now buying hers! So funny! It is actually so very similar to the one I sold! The baby will have that crib and the changing table/glider that I have used with the girls. As far as the bedding for the nursery. I am going to use the black gingham that I have used with both. I'm going back to neutral black/white/red colors. I really want to have the nursery ready and fairly complete. Ryan doesn't get that, but it is ok. He will have to deal with it! I am going to do Razorback stuff I think. Then do girly--think polka dots and tule--stuff if in October we have a bow head. Do sports/Razorback if it is a boy!!

I also got an exersaucer from my friend Lesli! She is letting me borrow it which is so great! She also let me borrow a swing to use! I am getting a carrier and base for the car from another friend too! It is all seeming so much more real as this precious baby grows, moves, kicks, etc. Plus really getting all the baby stuff ready and thinking about all of those details!

Lindsey tells me all the time how excited she is that we are having a baby! In my head I just think "I hope you are still excited when he or she comes in October!"

Swimming Lessons '09

The girls both started swimming lessons this week. We are taking them at the same place with the same teacher that we did last year. Mrs. Jayne is amazing! She is so good with them. This is Courtney's first year, and she's doing good. We have to sit and wait/watch Lindsey for an hour before it is her turn. Luckily she has a little friend to play with. She borrowed these glasses from her today and this picture turned out so cute! Miss Hollywood for sure! She has enough drama and entertainment for Hollywood! Ha! This is what she spends most of the time doing...trying to join Lindsey's class! Mrs. Jayne is fine with it. Courtney usually just sits on the edge and puts her feet in the water and stays there. So, it keeps her (and I) happy. It is hard to do for an hour!

Here is Lindsey doing a FANTASTIC job floating in the water.

However, this is the face I have seen more often than not with swimming lessons this week!

Bless her heart. She has just been pretty much scared. I hate to even type that, but I think that is the best way to describe it. The first day she was ok. The second day she was worse and cried, threw a fit, wanted to wipe her face off, said the water was hurting her eyes, etc. So I let her wipe her face and when I said to get back in...she didn't want to. She was screaming 4 year old that I had to literally pick up and hand to the teacher kicking and screaming. EVERYONE at the pool looking...nice! She should have been embarrassed, but I don't think she cared at that point! I could analyze this and type out all of the thoughts and feelings I've had, but I will spare you. I know that things will get better. They did last year. I know that she will love swimming.(she will have to in our family!) I know that she is my timid child and doesn't do well with uncomfortable situations (who does?). Therefore, I'm not truly worried, but just wish for her sake she didn't feel like this about swimming and the water.

Notice where Lindsey is and notice where the other children are......they had jumped off the side and had to swim to the other (with their teacher right there in the water of course) and had the option to stay in the pool or sit out. Hmmmm..........

Then it was Courtney's turn. Lindsey had such a bad lesson (didn't do hardly anything she was asked to do) that Mrs. Jayne told her to stay in the water and do the class that Courtney was doing. I was very thankful and glad that she had that idea. Lindsey did do better in the smaller class size for sure. She didn't do everything just right, but better. So I explained to her that if she would do it right the first time she wouldn't have to do the 2nd class. She had asked me why she had to, so it worked as some motivation. Today Mrs. Jayne just had her do some basics at the beginning of Courtney's class and then get out. Maybe tomorrow she will "graduate" from Courtney's class and just do the big kid one! We'll see. Here are my fish!

From the beginning of this post I said that Courtney has a hard time waiting her turn. She is always asking if she can do Lindsey's class, can she get in, etc. You would think when it was finally her turn she would be JUMPING in the water. NOPE! As soon as her class starts she starts asking me if she can get out! WHAT?!?!? Today she actually cried (as Lindsey had also). This is what Mrs. Jayne does with the younger kiddos that cry. In L's class, she just tells them that they can't cry because that scares the fish. Ha! I've never heard a kid tell her there are no fish in the water! It works, so hey...here is Courtney latched on to Mrs. Jayne.

She got over that fairly quickly and made friends with this other girl in her class. She enjoys being in the water, but is unsure at times. Very typical to me of her age.

This is Courtney's favorite thing to do at swimming lessons! The back float! She literally just lays there! It is funny!

Please Pray!

I just got off the phone with one of my friends, Lesli. She has a little boy who is Courtney's age and twin boys who are 18 months old. One of the twins has been sick a lot this winter with pneumonia. They sent her to a pneumonia specialist (did you know that doctor existed? I didn't!) yesterday to try and figure something out. They did some blood work and asked her A LOT of questions. The doctor came in with a couple of other people and she knew what they were going to tell her wasn't good.

They gave her 2 things that might be wrong. One being a very rare genetic disease. The other being cystic fibrosis. Which is ironic because they had already tested him for that and it came back negative. She said it was boarderline negative, but was negative. This specialist said that she was just going to disregard that test because it was not done at Children's Hospital. So she is taking her little boy, Harper, to Children's one day this week for some more tests. They told her that she would have the results in 2-6 weeks! That is forever when you are waiting to see what is wrong with your child. I just can't pretend to imagine!

Please pray for this family! Lesli is a very strong, independant girl! She is trying so hard to be strong and positive for her family and friends. I tried to tell her it was normal and TOTALLY ok for her to cry and get upset, it is her baby boy we are talking about! I told her to let me know when she's going to Children's so I could pray for the test on that day!

Living Room Color

The week Ryan was off we decided to tackle the project of repainting some of the house. We (mostly I) wanted to repaint the living room, but the way our house is built that meant the entry and 2 hallways as well. Which was fine, just more work than painting one room. Here it is! I love it! I'm not a real photographer, so I don't know how to do lighting and make it look so pretty and so true to the real color. So probably when you look at thsese pictures each one will look like a different color. However, I assure you they are all the same color! :) The darker one (by the fireplace) is probably the most true color. It obviously looks different during the day with the blinds open than at night, but it is more dark than lighter. It changed the look so much! I love it! We are in the process of deciding about new furniture as well. I'm thinking I might go with some sort of red for the couch and chair. Not sure what we are going to do with that beautiful recliner! I'd love to do something TOTALLY different there, but I'm guessing that won't happen. Anyway, this has just been totally done for a couple of days. I wanted to get it cleaned up and all before I posted pics. Enough already...take a look!