In Love

Today was a bit of a hard day for Kira. She woke up really early and was pretty grumpy. One of her three molars is really coming up quickly. The fourth one has yet to break through, but is "right there". I think they must be causing her trouble.

She napped well, but early, so the evening was getting tough. Mike took Reid and Zach to scouts and I stayed home to take care of Kira. I took her in to give her a bath. She's so cute in the bathtub. She was putting her hand in the running water and when the water would splash up in her face, she would turn her head away and smile a huge smile. She kept leaning over and putting her head on my arm (I was leaning over the tub) which was very endearing. Then at some point, she slapped her hand on her stomach and that got her tickled. She kept slapping her stomach and chest and had a big, big smile on her face. The song line "Hopelessly Devoted to You" came to mind as I watched her discovering her world.

Then we came out to the living room where she played for quite a while climbing on me, sitting in my lap, playing the "lean back" game (where I catch her head as she leans back from a sitting up position), and just wandering around the living room.

Finally, she got fussy. It was 8:20 by this point, so I scooped her up, nursed her and then snuggled with her for a few minutes after she fell asleep before putting her in bed.

I think it's safe to say that I'm totally head over heals for this little girl.

What We're Up To

Football. Pretty much football. Reid and Zach have practice after school every day, so I pick them up from that and then they each have a game each week. Zach was sick and didn't play in yesterday's game. Reid was sick a couple of weeks ago and didn't play in a game. It's been a bit odd that way, but still busy.

We're still unpacking and getting the house organized and comfortable. We're about to hit crunch time, though. Our couch for the gameroom will come in next week. There are lots of things that need to be done before that gets here. Hopefully that will motivate us to get some things organized and put away. For now, we're going to throw unpacked stuff in the garage. We'll go through that stuff hopefully within the next few months to decide what stays and what goes. I'm having a little birthday party for Kira on the 24th of October, so I'm hoping to have things mostly organized inside the house by then.

Jacob and Cole are doing well with homeschooling. Mike has found a group here in Collin County that is very active. They have a weekly gymnastics gathering at a local gym. It's $5/kid and they get about an hour and a half of open gym time. That is just wonderful. Both Jacob and Cole loved gymnastics when we did it before, but the cost has been prohibitive. So this will work out extremely well. And I'm considering a language software so they can learn Spanish. We'll see if I do that or not. It's on sale through tomorrow, so I guess I need to decide! :)

So life is pretty crazy, but good right now. If Kira would start sleeping better through the night, I'd be much more capable of handling all that is required of me each day. But I must say that for the most part, I don't mind going in a few times each night, picking up a sweet little person, nursing her in my arms and then tenderly laying her back in her bed. She's a precious little person and I know these days will be over soon. So I'm trying to enjoy everything about them. Even when, like last night, I wake up at some point in the night (I think around 1am) to find that Kira is in bed with me and I have only the foggiest memory of bringing her in bed with me (I typically don't do that). I must have been VERY tired when she woke up (probably around midnight). So at 3am when she woke up again, I nursed her and put her back in her bed.

So life is good. Come and visit. :)

Malachi

I went down this morning to see John and Kristin... okay, I really went to see Malachi. He is a cutie pie. I managed to get a few pictures of him to verify that fact with the rest of the world. :)

Look at all that hair!!!

Crazy Girl

So Kira turned 11 months old yesterday. I'm in denial that she'll be a year old soon.

I was visiting with Kristin yesterday morning (who, btw, had her baby tonight - Malachi South, 9lb 8oz) when I noticed some dots on the back of Kira's gums. I was hoping it wasn't thrush again. That was no fun and much too recent to be able to deal with again.

So after we got home, she was sitting on my lap and was crying about something when I saw the dots again. So I stuck my finger in there and lo and behold, it was a molar. Eleven months old and a molar. Craziness. So then just for the heck of it I feel around some more and she's got three molars! And the fourth one is just about to pop through. She's had six of her eight front teeth for a little while, but I guess her body decided she needed some molars before the other two bottom incisors.

What am I going to do with this baby who seems to be determined to grow up way to fast!?!

Yummy Recipe

Kira ate the family dinner for the first time yesterday.  I made this chicken stew and she loved it... along with the rest of us.  Dinner success!

Recipes:	1
Servings:	6
Makes: 9x13 pan	1
Ingredients:
Chicken, boiled and chopped	2 C.
Chicken Broth	6 C.
Sliced Carrots	3
Cubed Potatoes	1 lb
Butter	1/2 C.
Flour	1/2 C.
Parsley	1/2 t.
Morton Nature Seasoning	1/8 t.
Salt and Pepper to taste
Biscuit Topping:
Flour	2 C.
Baking Powder	1 T.
Salt	3/4 t.
Shortening	6 T.
Milk	2/3 C.

Place vegetables in chicken broth and boil 10 minutes.  Remove vegetables.  Set broth aside.  In separate pan, melt butter.  Add flour to melted butter and cook for about a minute.  Add chicken broth and bring to boil.  Add spices.

In 9x13 casserole pan, place chicken, vegetables and pour sauce over.

Add dry biscuit ingredients with shortening and blend.  Add milk, mix well, roll, cut into 1 - 2" rectangles and place on top of vegetable mixture.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

Comments: Recipe comes from Judy (Mike's Mom).  The biscuit recipe is from Joe’s (Mike's brother) middle school cooking class.

The Office

I agonized over desks for a few weeks.  I wanted lots of file drawer space.  I had planned to put a desk in my bedroom.  Nothing seemed right.  Mike thought I could put a desk between the kitchen and dining area.  I couldn't find the right desk.

I got the IKEA catalog in the mail.  That thing is dangerous!  I debated, but finally decided.  I got three Effectiv cabinets.  Each one has a file drawer in the bottom drawer.  Two have drawers on top and one has plain cabinet space.  It is along the wall that is just across from the kitchen.  So if I need desk space, I sit at the bar.

I put a nice calendar and some magnetic dry erase boards up to keep up with where we are or where we need to be.

And I fashioned a simple, but nice charging station with some hooks on the wall.  I feel particularly proud of this.  This makes life SO much easier.

And my papers all have a place to live.  Keys have hooks so they don't get lost.  Pencils have a home.  So do calculators, school supplies, and my checkbook.

I'm a happy girl.

Zach's Scrimmage

I took my video camera.  I was completely ready to video tape some of his plays and put them up here for everyone.

Well... little did I know that this scrimmage was a city wide event!  All of the McKinney middle schools were out there scrimmaging each other in 20 minute increments.  There were four sets of teams on the field at a time.  Two eighth grade teams on one side and two seventh grade teams on the other side.  It took me a while to figure out which team was Zach's and after two and a half hours of watching out for him, I never did see him on the field.  But I got this picture of him after it was all over.  He said he played a lot and got lots of tackles.  He looked like he had a good time.  And the kid running behind him is a kid (Tylan) on the team that lives near us.  We took Tylan and another kid, Bo, with our family and my step sister Kim to Grand Buffet after the game.  Zach's been wanting to eat there forever!

So...  next week I might actually know which one he is and can put up some video of him.

The Eye

Move over Sauron.  There's a new evil lord in Middle Earth (or at least Middle US).  So, can you guess who's eye this is?  (And I just found this picture on my computer.  I guess the kids were having a good time with the web camera.)