Our Family Tree is Growing!

When my sister calls me, it is typically on her way to her next meeting, on her way home from work, or she is bored and wants to chat. I am the stay at home mom, while she works long stressful hours.....so you know.....she calls me, her sister that is always available to talk. My one and two year old actually just finished cleaning the house, folding laundry, making me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and when they get home from running all the family errands and picking up their toys and broken crayons, they are going to rub my feet while I chat on the phone. Right?! ;)

A few weeks ago our house phone rang. I didn't know where the phone was, possibly in a toy box, but since we have caller ID on the TV I knew my sister was calling. I was cooking dinner, tripping over toys, and had a toddler clinging to my leg. I had my cell phone near by, so I told myself if it was anything important she would call my cell. Less than 10 minutes later, she called the house phone again.

I know my sister loves to talk to me (hehe), but I thought maybe she actually needed something so I found the house phone, called my sister, and continued cooking. I had the big Kitchen Aid mixer going while I called her. She asked me to turn the mixer off because it was a little loud. I blew her request off and continued cooking knowing Aaron was at work and I only had a short amount of time to get dinner on the table before I had two screaming little boys.

Finally, over the sound of the mixer, she said "Well, I was just wondering....do you want a new niece or nephew?" (turned mixer off) "WHAT!!!! ARE YOU PREGNANT?!?!?! Wait! What? Start over!! I have the mixer off now!!!"

So, I am proud to announce that my sister is pregnant! I can't wait to meet my new niece or nephew in April and watch my sister fall in love with her favorite job yet....being a mother!

Congratulations Sis and Ricky!

Swinging and Story Time!

Aaron had the day off Thursday, so we went swing set shopping. We are unsure what our plan is at this moment. Should we buy a new set now and enjoy it during the great fall weather? Should we hold off and buy a new set after we move so we don't have to mess with moving it? It's so hard to decide since we don't know how long our house will be on the market. Regardless, Jackson thinks his new swing set will be here as soon as it is finished being built.

Garrett enjoyed all the play sets, but what he liked the best was this basketball and things he could do with the basketball.....put it in a bucket swing, make a basket into a tire swing, drop it down or throw it up a ladder, roll it down a slide, roll it across the room....

After swing set shopping, we headed to North Park for lunch and story time.

The boys weren't crazy about having their picture taken during lunch.

"Seriously Mom!?"

At the library for story time -

Jackson was the first volunteer to move the frog off of the log as everyone sang Five Little Speckled Frogs.

Jack be nimble, Jackson be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick.

Here is Jackson jumping over a candlestick -

For Two Sweet Boys.

This boat is owned by my father in law, Randy. He bought a new boat and passed this boat down to Aaron several months ago to keep in the family. He wanted Aaron to have it so he could take Jackson and Garrett fishing.

However, my gracious in laws had a better idea a few nights ago. Aaron's parents and my parents both live on the lake and both own boats, therefore we always have the opportunity to take the boys on a boat. Randy has decided to sell the bass boat and the money will be used to buy Jackson and Garrett a new swing set to replace the one that blew away a few weeks ago.

We have posted an ad on Craig's List, but if you know anyone that may be interested, please spread the word.

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I typed that blog post Monday and had it scheduled to be posted on my blog Tuesday morning. However..........in less than 24 hours I am thrilled to report:

Craig's List is great! Aaron and Randy's phones were ringing like crazy yesterday and I got several e-mails. Randy and Dianne came to pick up the boat on Sunday so it could stay there while we were trying to sell it since our house is on the market. When Jackson heard the boat was leaving our house, he didn't know what to think. Although we have never taken the boat on the water, Jackson says that it is "Jackson and Daddy's Boat." Dianne sat down with Jackson and told him our plan and Jackson was okay with the boat leaving so that he could get a new swing set. In the meantime, we just hoped our plan worked. Last night after the boys got out of the bath, G-Mom and Grandad stopped by to tell them the good news!

School Days.

When I log on to Facebook, I see status updates about teachers starting a new school year and I am so thankful I get to continue to stay home with Jackson and Garrett. However, this year my excitement seems different than last year. This year as I read those Facebook status updates, it's just not as easy to skip over the moms who are taking their child to kindergarten for the first time. This year get big knots in my stomach.

Luckily Jackson has an early birthday, September 27th, so he doesn't start kindergarten for three more years. It's not the whole separation issue that bothers me. I am fine taking the boys to Sunday School. I would be fine with putting them in a Mother's Day out program. When it is time, I will enroll them in a pre k program of our choice. However, those are the key words - our choice. If there were ever a problem and we were unhappy, we could remove them from the class as fast as we enrolled them in the class.

Lately I have had a lot on my mind. Aaron and I have known we wanted to move before Jackson started kindergarten. Crandall ISD is a wonderful district and our neighbors all have sweet kids, but we really want Jackson and Garrett to be in one school district from K-12 and Aaron and I never had plans of being here that long. For some reason, someone came up with the term "Starter Home" and that was our plan for this house. It was our starter home. The house we would have one child in and move out of in 5 years. Here we are five and a half years later with two kids. I would love for our house to sell any moment, but at the same time the thought of deciding where we are permanently moving to puts knots in my stomach. Decisions are much more intense now that our children are the heart of our decision.

I taught in public schools and there is so much to consider. It's really not a battle anyone can win. For me personally, a good school district is very important. The choice would be easy if that was the only thing to consider, but it's far from it. The people that fill that school is what matters. Teachers are extremely important, but Jackson and Garrett's peers are the most important. I've been there. I've taught at schools with WONDERFUL teachers with great TAKS scores, but I also had innocent 2nd and 4th graders that came from great families that were exposed to things that I would never want my child exposed to. Yes, the school can punish and take care of the behavior (after lots and lots and lots of documentation), but that doesn't erase it from those innocent eyes and ears. I wish I was referring to things as simple as a bad word, but things can be much worse than that. Many of you would be very surprised. Parents, both rich and poor, have kids that shouldn't have ever had kids in the first place. These kids, both low income and high income, see things they should have never seen. Then our kids, go to school with them at the age of 5. After hearing a story I heard today about what a kindergartener brought to school, we have a lot we have to teach Jackson about before he goes to kindergarten....and I wish it was as simple as his colors, shapes, and sounds.

Am I freaking out? Yes.

Do I need to relax? Yes.

Are there other teachers reading this that know exactly what I am talking about? Yes.

Would I be excited if my children had all great, organized, kind hearted teachers that graded their papers with cute stickers and big smiley faces? Yes.

But, I'm a little stressed about finding the perfect community, with the perfect school, filled with perfect families, because I KNOW that doesn't exist and in only three short years I will have to face that fact when I send my first set of innocent eyes to public school.

How Little Boys Scare Their Dads....

Jackson referred to them as his "Dancing Shoes!"

Ribbit, Ribbit.

The other morning started off like every other morning.

• Jackson and Garrett woke me up.
• Jackson went potty.
• I went potty.
• I changed Garrett's diaper.
• Jackson looked for Rigley's leash so that Rigley could go potty.
• We couldn't find Rigley's leash (which isn't too abnormal!)
• I told Jackson not to worry, Rigley wouldn't run away.
• Jackson started to whine while saying "He WILL run away. He WILL run away."
• I grabbed one of Rigley's toys and told Jackson if we squeak the toy after Rigley is done going potty, he will quickly run to us.
• Jackson was on board with this idea, so Jackson, Garrett, Rigley and I all went out the back door.
• Rigley took care of his business.
• We squeaked the toy.
• Rigley ran to us.
• We all turned around to go inside and I notice a FROG on the door. Yes, ON the door. The one unlocked door of the house. The one door I had to get my 2 young children, myself, and our dog through without the frog jumping into our house since the door opens into our house.
• I told the kids to get back (meaning back up into the grass) while I thought out my plan.
• Jackson responds with "No Mommy, me and Garrett don't have our shoes on and there could be a snake in the grass." (Maybe I need to start keeping my fears more of a secret)
• I was about to hit the frog with the dog toy (a shoe would had been a better choice, if I had been wearing shoes...) when I realized the frog was probably on the door when we came outside in the first place and it obviously didn't bother him when we opened the door.
• I threw Garrett on my hip, opened the door, and we all quickly ran in frog free.

Aaron got home from work shortly after breakfast and Jackson and I told him about the frog. After hearing the story, Aaron opens the back door and while standing next to the OPENED door (remember, door opens into our house) he asked "Where was the frog at?" (I am really starting to believe Aaron never hears a word I say! geez!) I look at Aaron and the frog is still in the same location which is about one inch from Aaron's ear. Aaron shuts the door, gets a jar, and I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story....

The frog is sitting on Jackson's dresser and I am trying to figure out the best way to get rid of it. As of now he gets upset when I touch the jar because he doesn't want Garrett to break it, so it must stay in a certain spot on his dresser.
Is it too soon to talk about life cycles with Jackson and how frogs have their time to go to heaven? Or what about reproduction? The frog needs to be free in order to create more frogs....maybe I need to keep thinking....

Fun Find Friday!

Popsicles, a kids dessert that is best before a bath or outside by the swimming pool due to the messy and sticky factor.

My mom found these at the store and they truly are a "Slow Melt" Popsicle!

They are great and work like a charm! This left my mom and I wondering what kind of awful ingredient they added to make such a wonderful thing. Good news - it is a touch of gelatin! Why didn't I think of this?!

I am excited that my kids can now enjoy their Popsicles at their own enjoyable pace....

and if a little drips, there is always a sibling to help out....

Time Out: Not Effective for Adults.

If you didn't read my last post, do that before continuing to read this post.

We know males and females are different. They see and do things differently which is why opposites attract. Some may think women have the tendency to bicker about unnecessary things, which is why men have selective hearing.

However.....today Aaron learned that maybe he should listen to his bickering wife more often.

If you remember in my last post, Saturday Aaron kept throwing the ball at the house and I kept telling him to stop because I thought it would lead to one of the LITTLE boys breaking a window in the future. Jackson finally decided Daddy needed to go to time out for not listening to Mommy.

Fast forward LESS THAN 48 hours later.....We have a broken window that wasn't broken by a LITTLE boy, but the biggest boy of the house. Aaron keeps saying it was an accident. Had this happened Saturday, maybe I would agree with him. However, after the ball hits the window multiple times and then finally breaks, I am not sure I would call that an accident. He also said (and I am actually laughing as I think about this) that he is just glad that he was the one that broke it and not one of the boys. HA! This statement would make sense if he was saying "I am glad the bee stung me and not one of the boys..." or "I am glad I am sick and not one of the boys...." but little boys are expected to break windows, not 29 year olds!!!! If Jackson or Garrett broke a window at their age, I think I would be a little impressed and see a scholarship in the future.

The window is a double pane window and luckily only the outer glass broke. Aaron called different places while I decided to take the less is more approach and didn't say much didn't say too much. With our house on the market, I don't really think a broken window would be appealing to a buyer so I wanted it fixed ASAP.....as in TODAY. He finally found someone who could come out today, but as it turns out the lines on our window and the size of the window are hard to match. The window will not be replaced until Wednesday so I am desperately hoping we don't have any potential buyers looking at our house tomorrow.

Outside: Great for Releasing Stored Energy...how do kids have so much of that?

My oldest child, also known as my husband, kept kicking the soccer ball towards the house. He had the male selective hearing thing going on at the time and decided to ignore me asking him to stop. Yes, it was a soft soccer ball, but it was the fact that the boys were watching him do this which would result in a broken window one day. Once the ball actually hit the back window, Jackson and I had enough and Daddy went to time out!!

Garrett is confident in his skills....he loves to clap for himself!

Check out Garrett's shirt. It is Linus from Charlie Brown that always carries around his blue blanket. The way the shirt is, Garrett's head is in place of Linus' head. Make sense? I thought it was perfect for Garrett since he is beyond obsessed with his blue blankie.

Thanks Bam Bam!

(For any new readers: My mom started off as Grammy, but Jackson some how pronounced Grammy as Bam Bam, so Bam Bam she became......but now Garrett pronounces Bam Bam as Baby!)

The other day we were at my sister's house and Jackson found a card that my mom sent my sister that played music. Jackson loved the card, but we wouldn't let him bring it home. Watch the videos below to see what arrived in our mailbox today from Bam Bam.

When I gave Jackson his mail, he had just finished throwing a huge fit because "he woke up on the wrong side of the car." Don't take that literally. He was asleep in the car and not ready to wake up like he thought he was, which led to a big "cry over nothing" fit. I think this mail cheered him up. What do you think?

Paint!

Jackson and Garrett got to play with Parker and Payton Wednesday morning. I decided to let them do pudding paint, however you can clearly tell I made the mistake of letting them do this BEFORE lunch. I don't know what I was thinking. They were hungry and what kid doesn't want dessert before their meal?

Sorry Marla if Parker's diaper was blue the next day. Was it?

Payton was painting in her sleep! :)

I think Garrett really thought this was lunch. He pretty much ate it the whole time. We started out with white paper, but then I decided to cut poster board in half. Garrett WOULD NOT let me take his paper. The paper was like his plate of food and he was not ready for Mama to take it!

He got the Messiest Kid Award!