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Sunday, May 31, 2009

A Fun Picture


We were getting ready for church this morning when I wanted to get a few pictures of Kira. I asked Reid to put her standing by the chair, so he was sitting next to her while I shot lots of pictures of just her. Then I pulled the zoom back to show the doting big brother. Then Jacob jumped in the picture and Kira thought all of the movement was just swell.

She loves her brothers. Yesterday Reid, Jacob and Cole were in the living room with her and Mike and I were in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. We heard the door close and then Kira burst out into tears. All of the boys had gone outside and left her alone. She was not okay with that. I wonder what the boys are going to think when they can't even go to the bathroom without Kira wanting to be on their heels.

I know we say it too much, but she is a lucky girl. And the boys are lucky, too. Nothing like a baby to show you the capacity you have to love someone.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Update... A little bit of everything

House

We will be closing in just under three weeks. Things seem to be going pretty good so far. I'll be in touch with our loan officer early next week to make sure things are on schedule.

We've reserved the first of our UHaul trucks. We're going to move over two weekends. Partly because the move out here is too fresh in our heads and we don't want to have to do it all at once again. And partly in case the closing is delayed... we'll put the stuff in a storage unit and come back down here until things get worked out. So we'll be taking mostly non-essential items on the first run. Then we'll come back for everything else. Hopefully it will all work out smoothly.

Zach

With scout camp coming up, he had to get a physical. When we were walking back to the room with the nurse, she said, "You're really tall for a 12 yr old." I know Zach's been growing lately, but I've never thought he was particularly tall for his age. Anyway. Turns out he's in the 92nd percentile for height. And he said he was one of the tallest boys in his class. Pretty interesting. He was tall enough that the doctor wanted to check a few things with his joints to make sure he didn't have any medical problems that can cause extreme height. How funny is that? As a 5'4" mother sitting in the chair watching the exam, I can honestly say I never expected to experience that. So watch out Uncle John, Zach's trying to catch up with you!

School

School ends this week. Thursday is the last day. This week will be the typical last week of school: lots of nothing. Reid is going to an all day pool field trip on Monday. Jacob goes to the pool with his class on Tuesday. They pretty much don't even need to go to school all week, but given that it's the only time all year where they're having lots of fun, it's probably all the more reason to go. :)

Kira

Kira is a mess. She gets into everything and is easily pulling up on the couch (or anything else she can find). Then she'll support herself with one hand, or one elbow while she plays with something. She has yet to learn that the cat is not something to grab. Her latest scratch is on her hand from this morning. But the cat has yet to learn that he should move more than 6 inches away after an incident.

She's sleeping pretty well these days. I usually feed her once during the night and then once more early in the morning. Sometimes she'll sleep for a while after the early morning feeding, so that's nice. Her naps could be better most days, but we're working on it. She sleeps exclusively in her crib. Which is good because she's so mobile that she'd just fall off the bed. I didn't really use the crib for Jacob or Cole and now I have no idea how I did that. But then again, that whole time is pretty much a blur, so who knows how I survived it at all...

While we were at the doctor's office with Zach, I got on their scale and then again with Kira. She weighed 18 lbs. She is a dense baby like Jacob was. It's nice to know that through all of her issues with food, that she has thrived. She is so precious. Mike and I completely adore her. Of course, her brothers do too. What a lucky little girl.

Food

So I'm still eating dairy. I'm trying hard not to overdo, but it's really hard. :) I totally understand the psychology thing about not excluding food from your home because kids will over eat that kind of food when they're out on their own. :) I see something I haven't been able to eat for 6 months and I want to eat it then... but I have to remind myself that I have the rest of my life to catch up, so I don't need to do it all in one day. I got a milkshake from Sonic the other day. That was tasty. And I had a cheeseburger from Wendy's. I actually thought the plain hamburger was just as good. But maybe I will get a Frosty from time to time now. And the quesadillas with cheese were really good.

So I'm happy to be back to normal. And Kira still seems to be doing fine. And my weight has been fairly stable lately. That may change now that I'm eating dairy. :)

Monday, May 25, 2009

How do I love thee, let me count the ways...

Cereal

Ice cream

Cheese

Sour cream

and let's not forget:

Kefir.

It's good to have you all back in my life.

Some of the things I'm planning on cooking in the next week are:

Alfredo sauce - mmmmm.... I've missed this!

Quesadillas WITH cheese - yippee!

And maybe, just maybe, I'll finally make Pioneer Woman's spicy mac and cheese.

Good times, my friends, good times. :)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Blast from the Past

My goodness what four years will do to kids!

We were on our way home from visiting my dad out in Tennessee. It was October and soooo beautiful. We decided we would drive down to Franklin to see Mike's parents before going home to Cary. So we drove through the pass between Gatlinburg and Cherokee. It was like passing through a dream. Colors, fog, frozen tree tops, winding roads. So surreal.

I communed with God on that drive. Soaking in the beauty around me.

And now I look back at my boys from that time and can't believe how much they've grown. It seems as if maybe that time with them was a dream... I can't quite put my finger on the reality of it. I know they were that age, that size, but I just can't seem to pin them down... or make them stop for a moment to let me soak it all in. And knowing that in four more years, Reid will be graduating from high school, Zach will be driving, Jacob will be getting his learner's permit, Cole will become a teenager, Kira will be getting ready for kindergarten.

I'm overwhelmed. I hope to be able to stop today and appreciate my life. My kids.

God's creations.

I'm living a dream. There's no doubt about it.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Teeth!

I don't have my camera with me (I'm visiting my dad) so I don't have a picture of the pearly whites, but Kira just got her fourth tooth.

She got her first on on Jacob's birthday, her second one on her 6 month birthday, her third one on my dad's birthday, and then her fourth one today... May 18th... don't know anyone's birthday that's today. If she had waited until tomorrow, it would be Jaina's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Jaina!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Just in the Nick of Time

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!

Remember this one?

Our closing is set for June 19th. Woo-hoo!!!

We are soooo happy about this. We were going to walk away next weekend. Pretty cool that it came through just in time.

Now I can stop stressing over housing decisions and move on to obsessing about interest rates, moving plans, packing....

Only this time I know that when I unpack, it will be the last time for a long time. That's pretty cool.

Yippee!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Housing

Okay. So I think Mike and I have reached the end of our ropes. :)

We're feeling pretty done waiting for this house to work out. I'm going to go to my dad's next weekend, then I'll spend the week looking at houses. Mike will come up over the weekend and we'll make an offer on one. There are lots of great houses in McKinney right now. We'll do the best we can to get a good one.

And if between now and then, the bank comes back and says that we can close the deal on the house we've been waiting forever for... great. Let's rock. But if not, no tears shed, no hard feelings.

But we're done waiting.

House buying: here we come!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Anthropologie

While my mom was here in March, she and I went over to Anthropologie. It's a great little shop that has lots of fancy things that rich people might buy. :) They do have the CUTEST measuring cups and I loved this bowl.

My mom and I spent a good while browsing in this store. We found the clearance room in the back of the store and she bought me an apron that was half price. I love this apron and you can see me in it here.

Then we went to another store and found these bowls:


Too cute, right?

They came from Goodwill and were 99 cents each. :) I felt victorious when I opted out of the $16 bowl and came home with three for $2.97.