Tongues and stuff

Wyatt's new favorite thing is sticking his tongue out. He does it all the time, and of course I think it's adorable. My favorite is when he sticks his tongue out and closes his mouth, though it's impossible to catch on film! The kid never stops moving!

He also crawls everywhere. He is fast, and tiny, which means I am afraid he will get lost! I picked up this, like new, pack and play to keep him contained every once in awhile when I need to get something accomplished and he would rather be trolling the house! It's worked out great thus far.

Natalie has been doing great at school and is really progressing in her dance skills. She has been working especially hard now that competition season is right around the corner. This year she is even going to have her own jazz solo! She will be competing in the last competition of the season, and also dancing in her spring recital. It makes me so proud that my baby girl will be dancing all by herself up on stage. She is turning into a beautiful and talented young lady!

Brady has been giving me a run for the money at school! He loves to play, problem is he doesn't always know when to stop playing and start listening. This has led to a few meetups with the VP at school. Luckily he is a cute kid, and he changes his behavior when told....most of the time. As far as academics, he is killing it! He started the year out barely being able to read and now he is in the most advanced reading group. He wants to read everything! He is trying to read every chapter book that Natalie reads, I am encouraging him to read all the "easy" books on our shelves before jumping into Harry Potter or something! I love that I have a reader on my hands. Now if only I could get him to work more on his penmanship!

Keith is in his {very} last semester of school. When he graduates in the spring he will have his Masters in tax law, and a few more letters after his name. Show off. But, seriously, I am so proud of all he does. Keith works 45-50 hours a week, plus school, plus helps out at home with whatever I just can't get to. He's the bees knees, and I try not to take him for granted!

Life is moving on, and moving fast. We are making it work every day, and loving it. It's hard work, but the good far outweighs the bad and as long as I get enough sleep I am able to appreciate it!

tiny dancer

Just a few pictures from Natalie's dance competitions this Spring. She did a wonderful job and each time I saw her up there on the stage it brought tears to my eyes! Some of those competitions were hard core, tons of people in the audience and she just got up there under those bright lights and danced her heart out! She has grown into a most beautiful young girl and I couldn't be prouder!

 A real wild child! This is her in her jazz getup, they were so cute with their wild hair and animal leotards!

 Before recital. I think I was more nervous than she was, but she did fantastic!

 Gorgeous!

Turning seven

Tonight is picture dump day! Here are some pictures from Natalie's special day (way back in March!!)


A special breakfast! We had just had Shipley's for Brady so we decided on cinnamon rolls and cuties. Look at her with that long hair! And her new birthday headband (which is lost now...). Love that girl!

 Opening presents that night in her Mama made birthday shirt! She was so excited, and everyone pitched in to get her some fun gifts!

 "Girly" Legos just for her! And Brady got her sparkly nail polish.

This girl sure gives me a run for my money, but I couldn't imagine my life without her. She is my heart and soul and pretty much a mini (cuter) version of myself. I love my sassafras girl. A few things about her that March:

* She was gearing up to compete in her very first dance competitions, she put a lot of work into her dance and it showed. She has the drive to be good, and it's fun to see her find something that she loves to do.
* She loves to sing (to Taylor Swift) and write songs. If I let her have the iPod all day long, she would listen to it all. day. long. She loves her music!
* She is very bright, she ended the year with straight A's and she was very consistent all year. She makes her Mama and Daddy very proud!
* She couldn't have been more excited to get ready for baby Wyatt to make his appearance, and to move into our new house!

Cards for Daddy

Today Wyatt was being super needy due to his baby cold (and probably a bit from the shots he got yesterday) so the big kids had to fend for themselves a little more than normal today. Every so often I ask out what they are all up to. This afternoon Nat was in the craft area making a card for Keith. She put all of our ages on there, our favorite colors, a few games (cross word and mazes) and some math problems. She made him a little book. And on it she wrote "Dear Dad, I made you a book over sckool and work so you can remeber us! P.S. bring it to your office!" For some reason that made me so sad! The kids don't get to see Keith very often and she wants to make sure he doesn't forget us!

Of course, then Brady wanted to make a card too. He came up to me and asked if I could spell "once upon a time..." uh. No. I could see that route would take an eternity so I wrote down his story for him. "Once upon a time there was a little kingdom. And the King was named, Dad. And his family names was Brady, Natalie, and Mom, and Wyatt. They were having so much fun. They were doing a dance. First Natalie and Brady then Mom and Dad. They were having so much fun doing dances. The End" He even illustrated it. So cute.

I am grateful that my kids have a Dad that loves them and plays with them and provides for them. And I am grateful that my children love their Daddy so dang much!

In other news, Wyatt sounds like a baby Wookie when he cries now because of all the  gurgly wetness in his throat. Makes his crying extra pathetic.

Date night with Natalie

Tonight Keith took Natalie to Chick Fil A's Daddy Daughter Date night. I love that this fast food restaurant does all sort of fun things like this! They went and ate, there was a guy playing the guitar, Natalie got a rose, and they got free dessert! The best part though was the carriage ride. How cool is that? It was a horse drawn carriage through a neighboring parking lot.

Afterwards Natalie asked Keith if he rode carriages when he was little, since in the old day they rode carriages. Wondering if they had cars when he was little. Ha! I Had a good laugh over that one.

I am glad that my kids have a Daddy that likes to take them out on fun adventures. I remember doing fun things like that with my Dad, and those have become some of my cherished memories. It's so great to see my kids doing activities that will become memories for them down the road.

seven.

nice.

This morning as we are all sitting on the bed basking in the glow of Daddy being home, and actually still HOME this morning, Natalie looks at me and asks sweetly, "do you have time to shower?"

Um, what?

I asked her why, and she just smiled sweetly. It didn't take long for my mind to flash back to a previous conversation she had with me when she mentioned that, "I love when you shower and get dressed to take me to school, Mama."

Boo.

It's not like I take her to school with curlers in my hair and bunny slippers on my feet! Shoot! I don't even get out of the car! No one can even see my pajama clad bottom half.

But, I love her, so I told her that even though, no, I am not showering, I will actually put a bra and a normal shirt on. She then asked for jeans. Tough luck kiddo, sweat pants it is.

How to: keep your kids entertained

1. Pull all of the desks and tiny chairs from around the house, remove Mama's desk, and place strategically in the craft area to create a school, filled with coloring books and paper and crayons and markers galore.

2. Be sure to set up an art table complete with paper, glue, scissors and pencils, let them go to town.

3. And the teachers desk (for "learning time").

4. Leave the other half of the front room for sewing and messiness (wow! that is really messy, it's organized chaos I promise) and laundry.

5. Get to work (and play!)

Everyone is happy with this set up and we are all together beating the heat under the fans. Plus it's so fun to see the kids playing school, when I remember loving that game so much as a child!

the kids 6/22/10

I realized it's been ages since I took pics of the kids. Yesterday I took advantage of the sun and shot a few. The dappled light is annoying, but the sweetness of the kids make up for it. Love these guys so much!

I made this too!!

Young Master!

I am just so proud I can't stand it! Natalie was chosen as one of forty kids in her school that gets to present a work of art at the schools Young Masters Art Show! What they do is take one of her works of art, frame it up all nice, and then they host an art show in downtown Arlington. What's great is that people can "adopt" a work of art for $100, and they get to keep it for one year. Then next year we will get the framed art to keep!

I knew Nat loved art, and this is just so good for her. She couldn't be more proud of herself and I love that! I hope anyone local can come to The Coffee Haus in downtown Arlington, April 30th from 4-6:30 to check out all the kids works of art, and to see Nat's too! Woo hoo!!! I am one proud Mama!

Behold

The Cuteness.

Natalie lost BOTH her top teeth this last week! I can't stop smiling at her toothless smile, and I want her to read War and Peace (or something equally as long) to me, so I can listen to her adorable new lisp.

Two days ago I told Brady he could have some gum if he cleaned his room, which actually worked! Then he went in there to play and I didn't think anything of the quiet until Nat came and told me he was asleep! He put himself down for a nap (probably so tired from keeping me awake all night...) and still had his gum in there. He also fell asleep listening to his old musical toothbrush. So sweet.

about creative writing

My absolute FAVORITE thing that Natalie does at school is creative writing. They get a sheet of paper with area for a picture and a place for words underneath. They are encouraged to spell the words as good as they can, just by sounding it out. Her stories are priceless and they are the only thing I keep every single one. Here are a few of the best ones.

"Yesterday it wus my birthday. I got a hlooecitee reel sowege msheg. It was grat. I love it!" Yesterday it was my birthday. I got a hello kitty sewing machine. It was great. I love it! 3/10/10

"My teacher Ms. R came to my house. We playd Hnana Mtann. We had fun." My teacher Ms. R. came to my house. We played Hannah Montana. We had fun. 1/20/10

"I love skool. My fafrite thage is haveing fnte. My fafrit pothet is math. I have soe muth fun at skool!" I love school. My favorite thing is having friends. My favorite project is math. I have so much fun at school! 3/10/10

"Dear Ruru, I hope you have a safe mevee. I will woch you on the TV. Evreebudee like me. Duss evreebudee like you? Love, Natalie." Dear Aurora, I hope you have a safe movie. I will watch you on the TV. Everybody likes me, does everybody like you? Love, Natalie.

"Win my dad get home I giv him a hug. I love my dad and my mom! Thae are the bist peirit uv all!" When my Dad gets home I give him a hug. I love my Dad and Mom! They are the bes parents of all! 3/11/10

"I wint to the prke. I sae a applechree. I pik one off the chree. It was sweet. I mad a apple pie." I went to the park. I saw an appletree. I picked one off the tree. It was sweet. I made an apple pie. 2/10/10

about some cuteness

*possibly the cutest Nat has ever looked for school, but of course she wouldn't pose for me. I love her hair in those buns, and she has a white button up under her navy cardigan*

*Brady slid this giant stack of books all the way down the hall on his belly. Cracked me up at the time, he does such goofy stuff sometimes.*

*Last week Natalie decided to use her imagination (for once! Yay!) and started playing Salon in the bathroom. She named her shop Rainbow Hair Cut. You can see her old singing toothbrush standing up near the flowers, she would turn that on for music. So clever! And the prices are great there, kisses and hugs for an original style!*

*It took her all afternoon to organize her drawer. We were both so proud!*

*Open for business!*

about Natalie

She's such a funny little girl I just had to share. Right now her neck hurts so she is walking around holding a tissue on it. Oh, and her two top front teeth are loose. Be prepared for some serious cuteness from her here in a week or so. I am already giddy with anticipation of what she is gonna look like!

Here she is all dressed for time warp day at school. No poodle skirt, but I still thought she was adorable.

All dressed up for mis-match day. It was fun to mix patterns, I think her clothes look pretty darn cute like this!

And for those who haven't seen it, here is her Kindergarten school picture. So perfectly Natalie! Haha!

Growing up!

My Natalie is growing up so fast! The other night she came to us and said "Oh! My tooth is loose!" and sure enough it was AND the new tooth was starting to come in. Today at lunch her tooth popped out! Of course we can owe it to the constant wiggling Nat has been doing. She was working that thing good!

The other day she asked me to braid her hair so that it could be curly so that she could be Hannah Montana at school. I obliged and the results were so cute and puffy. Her hair look crazy at first but as it tamed it was adorable! I love my growing girl. She seriously brings so much joy and light into our family!

Weekend Roundup

So, I didn't take a SINGLE picture this weekend. I know, it's a tragedy! But, I will plop those kids into their costumes (Brady was a Jedi, and Natalie was Cinderella) tomorrow and take some pictures. In 15 years no one will know they weren't taken ON Halloween!

We had a rather mellow holiday weekend. Thursday night was Natalie's school trunk or treat. It was nice to go and support her school and she got to see her friends and teachers, and it was just some good SHORT trick or treating fun. Nothing grand, but not horrible either.

Friday Natalie had her assessment at the new school. Basically we went in, the Kinder teacher came and took her back to the classroom and while Brady and I waited she had Natalie take some of the tests and things they had done that day in her class. Natalie passed them all, only missing a few of the phonics questions which are things she has never even heard of. So, way to go Nat! She is all approved to go there, and we are just finalizing the last details and she will start some time this week. THANK GOODNESS they had some uniform pieces that had been donated by another family and the secretary gave them to me for FREE. Woot! That saved me 100 bucks! So all I need for Nat are a few shirts and one more pair of pants. Not bad, very doable.

Friday night we crashed our old wards Trunk or Treat. A friend from our current ward was there and said she was there with her family, what was my excuse. I realized that since we have no "family" those friends that we made in 1st ward ARE our family. Keith and I are pretty outgoing once you get to know us, but it takes awhile, and four years in the same place can really make you feel like you are home. I do so love that ward!

Saturday started just like every other weekend. Garaging. Haha, I am so addicted I can't miss a week. BUT, this week I made a believer out of Keith. We got a 200 dollar child sized computer desk from Wild Zoo for 5 dollars. FIVE. DOLLARS. I couldn't believe it. SUCH a steal, and the desk is awesome. The kids love it. It is the perfect place for Brady to do playdoh and paints and such while I am sewing. Before he had to work at the kitchen table which meant that I was in the kitchen with him and not accomplishing anything. So it's a win win! Yay for steals. I also got some vintage sheets to add to my growing collection.

The rest of Saturday was spent all together as a family. After lunch we dumped out all of the candy the kids had so far collected on a towel in the living room and we all went to town. They had previously picked out a few favorite pieces and those I saved for later in the week. The kids ate until they were full, we ate SO MUCH, and the rest we threw out. It was actually kind of liberating to throw out all the candy that otherwise I would have been munching on all month long. The kids were kind of sniffly so we decided to nix traditional trick or treating, which I kind of regret now, but it ended up being a nice slow evening. Natalie made us all crowns, Brady played letter tiles and puzzles, Keith had a football game on, and I sewed (shocker, right?). I love evenings like that, where we are all together, but kind of doing our own thing. Very nice.

I am glad the weekend is over. This week will prove to be a crazy one I am sure. Nat starts her new school sometime this week, I think Wednesday. Brady is starting preschool on Tuesday, and just other general errands that I have been putting off. I can't wait to get started!

Pros and Cons

So last year when Natalie was in preschool we learned about this amazing charter school that our friends were taking their kids to. I read all about it here, and it has been called one of the best, or even THE best school in Arlington. Very good academically, and just seems to be an amazing school. The only problem is that you have to apply and then they choose who gets in by a random drawing. So unless you are crazy lucky you will end up on the waiting list. Which we did. Natalie was number 38, which when you consider the waiting list was over 125+ kids, isn't bad. I started her at her current school knowing that we MAY get that call that says an spot has opened up and would we like to transfer her.

Today I got the call. There is a spot and we have 24 hours to say if we want it, we then have to get her assessed to make sure she is up to the level of the Kindergarten classes (they don't want her TOO far behind), and then after assessment we have 48 hours to decide if we want the spot.

At first I was hesitant because I know Natalie LOVES her teachers, and has made some really good friends, in fact, so have I! You get to know the other Mommies as you stand around waiting for the kids to be let out of school. But, at the beginning of the school year I was praying for this. And so our decision quickly turned to, OF COURSE! Then I thought about what we would have to buy to send her there....uniforms.

A quick browse of the schools website showed what the dress code is. Each child must have the required clothes and they MUST come from one specific store. And OF COURSE that store charges more for a child's shirt than I even pay for my OWN clothes! AAAHH! Blouses for 13.50, jumpers for 45, slacks for 25, shorts for 33! I mean COME ON! How can they charge that much for a uniform, AND it's polyester for goodness sakes! GROSS!

*sigh*

At least we are learning the sacrifices parents have to make to give their kids a good education! And I was so excited to shop around town and really find CUTE pieces that would fit the dress code for a good price. Now I have to make myself sick spending a fortune on clothes. But, it's worth it in the end, right? Right.

I think...

Cute!

Last week our good friends babysat for us so we could go on a much needed date. Natalie was feeling a bit sour that day, so she got cheered up by a makeup session. I just had to share this picture of Kelli's handiwork. I love it, I think Nat looks so cute, and I love her expression in this pic!

Two weeks.

This morning I woke up with guilt, not really a new sensation, but still unpleasant. I realized that this was Natalie's first "summer vacation" and I feel like we have let it slip by and not done enough. Even though I know we really did do quite a bit! We went to Oregon (which I still need to blog about), played with friends, went to the movie theater, attended story time at the library on a regular basis, swam (but not enough!), picked strawberries, relaxed, rode bikes, and many other small things to fill up our days. It's very tricky coming up with things to do that won't cause us to be outside melting. It's a lot easier to go to the park on a regular basis when it isn't 400 degrees outside! And after asking her just now she said she had a good summer, but maybe that's because she hasn't fully grasped that soon all but her weekends are going to be consumed with school and homework.

So, I have got 2 weeks left to cram in some fun activities, possibly a few things they have been begging for but we haven't gotten too, and really wear her out! Haha, and probably wear myself out in the process. Does anyone have any ideas to fill up the last few precious days of summer?