Things Heard Around Here

Aric: Kellyn, will you pick up my cucumber, please?

Kellyn: What did you say?  Speak louder.

Aric: KELLYN, I SAID WILL YOU PICK UP MY CUCUMBER, PLEASE?

This stems from the kids being told they need to speak up when they talk to someone on the phone.  It's kind of funny to hear it reenacted in real life.

Bedroom Redo

When we moved the kids into the same bedroom I knew I was going to have to make some changes.  They were both sleeping in Kellyn's purple room, which was fine for a girl and not so great for a boy.  I wasn't in too much of a hurry, though, because I didn't want to go through the effort if the sleeping arrangements didn't work out. 

It's been almost three months and having them in the same room has worked out well.  Yes, they sometimes talk to each other too much, but that's to be expected of siblings.  I thought it was finally time to redo the room.  Last Thursday my sewing machine had to go into the shop for repairs, leaving me with nothing pressing to do.  I used the opportunity of my new found free time and channeled my creative energy into redoing their bedroom. 

Before:

After:

Eventually when I can figure out how to add more hours to the day I will finish their quilts and add personalized bunting above their beds.  Until then they will have to make do with what they have.

I think it really turned out well for a gender neutral room.

Dear Ryan

I think about you quite often.  I was looking for a birthday card for mom yesterday and found one for you instead.  I bought it anyway.  I'll save it for next year for the annual burning of your birthday cards.

You would get a kick out of Aric's new Star Wars Legos fascination.  Daddy let Aric play his Star Wars Lego game and Aric has been hooked ever since.  He even picked out Star Wars Lego underwear a few weeks ago.  He is quite pleased with them and showed his new underwear to the ladies at the gym daycare last week. 

Kellyn is strong willed.  Enough said.  Seriously, she is tons of fun, drives me crazy and has the most expressive eyes.  Life wouldn't be complete without her.  She marches to her own drum, but I think that's great and I hope she has the confidence to keep doing that.

I'm not a big Miranda Lambert fan, but she has a song on the radio that makes me think of you every time I hear it.  Most people wouldn't think twice about the song, I didn't until I found out why it was written. Now it makes me tear up every time I hear it.  It's true, I'll never get over you.

Kiss my babies, tell them I love them and keep building those sand castles.  (By the way, keep an eye out for Gobbles, he might pounce on you and ruin your sand castles.)

Love,
Regan

Angry Birds

I know I've been away from my blog for awhile.  I have had too much going on that required my time and attention.  Hopefully life is settling down a bit.  In an attempt to catch everyone up, I'm hoping to find the time to get back to regularly blogging this week, and giving everyone a small glimpse into our lives.  So... if any of you are still checking this site:

Last weekend we had a small birthday dinner for Aric.  It was the last of the birthday festivities for Aric.  (I'm a bit concerned that dragging out birthday celebrations will cause my children to think they get more than one day to celebrate their birthdays.  I certainly don't want to make a habit of this.) I didn't decorate the house for the birthday dinner, because I put all of my creative energy into decorating cupcakes for Aric.  I must post the disclaimer that this was not my original idea.  I saw the idea on Pinterest, where I spend entirely too much of my time, and went from there.

While Aric and I were at church, Ryan and Kellyn baked the cupcakes. 

After I returned home, the cupcakes were ready to decorate.  Aric had gone downstairs and had no idea what was happening upstairs.  Kellyn, however, was more than willing to help me decorate the cupcakes and sample the frosting and candies.  Unfortunately it was too messy and I wasn't able to get any photos of us decorating the cupcakes.

Aric had no idea what his cupcakes looked like until we pulled them out after dinner.  He was genuinely surprised and, thankfully, we were able to catch his reaction on camera.

The Angry Bird cupcakes were lots of work, but a definite success. 

Things Heard Around Here

Kellyn: Mommy, can you find the zebra for me?

Me: This one? (as I show her a plastic zebra)

Kellyn: No, not that one.

Me: Which one do you want?

Kellyn: The white one with the black stripes.

I could almost hear her say, "DUH!".

Things Heard Around Here

I want more Shake It For Me.

Translation: 

My kids seem to latch onto the more questionable songs on the radio.  They sing along to "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith, "Mean" by Taylor Swift and now "Country Girl (Shake It For Me)" by Luke Bryan.  Kellyn, in particular, seems to think I'm a DJ that can automatically play anything she requests when we're in the car. 

Don't you worry about them growing up too quickly, though, Kellyn still sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" ad nauseum.  She was recently yelling at the TV because one of the shows she was watching was singing HER song and wouldn't stop.

Swim Lessons

Last week Kellyn went to swim lessons.  She was enrolled in four days of private lessons with Miss Allie.  Kellyn liked Miss Allie, but didn't always like the swim lessons.  It probably didn't help too much that the pool water is still a bit cold.  I wasn't thinking that Kellyn would learn how to swim in four days of lessons.  I was just hoping she would become a bit more comfortable in the water.  She floated, kicked, put her face in the water, blew bubbles and cried.  Even through the tears, she listened to Miss Allie and did everything she was told to do.  While Kellyn is nowhere near close to being able to swim on her own, it was amazing to see the difference on Friday night when we were swimming at the hotel pool.  She was unafraid of the water and proudly showed us some of her new swim lesson skills.

Yesterday Aric began his first of ten group swimming lessons.  He was excited about learning how to swim until we arrived at the pool.  Then he was scared.  He barely wanted to get into the water and attempted to sneak away multiple times.  And he cried.  Ryan and I had a long talk with Aric about his swim lessons and threw in a bit of bribery in hopes of encouraging him to participate.  While I would love for him to learn how to swim, I really just want him to conquer some of his fear and have a good time over the next two weeks.

Only time will tell how successful these swim lessons will be.  In the meantime it gives us something to look forward to each day and a reason to use swim goggles.

Four

My oldest is four today and I'm still wondering how that happened.  In spite of still wondering, we celebrated his birthday this past weekend since daddy has to work today. 

On Friday we drove to Omaha and checked into a hotel.  We took the kids out to dinner, then to the movies to see Madagascar 3.  Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for a swim.  On Saturday we visited the Omaha Zoo.  We have taken Aric to the zoo to celebrate every birthday, I think it's turning into a tradition.

On Sunday we opened presents, played with his new toys, made him a birthday dinner of steak, shrimp, macaroni and cheese and strawberries and then wrapped up our celebration with a birthday cake.  It was a fun, family weekend and I hope he feels well celebrated.

The Good Thing About Being Able to Sew...

The good thing about being able to sew is the ability to whip up a super hero cape when needed:

A towel tucked into the back of a t-shirt never stays for long.

Some remnants of fabric, a little velcro, and a snazzy letter make a good cape.

Note: I did make one for Kellyn (pink with a big "K" on the back), but she doesn't want to wear hers.  I just knew if I didn't make her a cape, too, I would hear about it for the rest of my life!!

The Steps

On Saturday Ryan and I worked all day long to finish our steps.  Thankfully it was a pleasant day, which allowed us to work hard and finish.

The view from the top near our exterior garage door.

We used the pavers that we pulled up to lay the new concrete.  Thankfully we had just enough.

The view from the bottom.

It is so nice to have steps and not the mud hole we used to have.

In case you thought we neglected the kids while we were working:

They had fun playing in the "new sandbox".  It kept them occupied and they sort of helped us by filling the buckets with sand.

The steps created some landscaping challenges, but we will deal with them some other time.  Our next project is so stain the fence.