School Days...

School has started back up and Evi was beside herself with excitement! And so were mommy & daddy! She was ready to see her friends and right now she actually enjoys school and most things come easily for her.  And I am so grateful for that. The first day of school this year was a far cry from last years!  She was all smiles and waves and sugar and spice.

a personal, obviously reflective moment

She also started dance lessons this month.  She is doing ballet (courtesy of Gigi & Chacha for a birthday present...best idea I ever had ) and musical theater.  It had been over a year since she had a dance lesson, and it was like she had two left feet the first week! It was funny to watch. But luckily I am not a complete idiot in her eyes yet and she let me work with her on the steps when we got home.  She got it quickly with a little one on one. And I purchased "it's a hard knock life" for her to be able to practice her musical theater routine at home.  I think I am I turning into one of those moms on the reality shows?!?
Eli has started swim lessons, and it is not mommy and me, just 4 kids and one teacher.  I let daddy be the one to break his heart and take him to his first lesson.  There were tears at first from all the kids, but Scott said he was nothing compared to his sister at that age!  And by the time the lesson was over he was enjoying himself. Plus it helped that daddy bribed him with a new toy if did good ( yes, we have excellent parenting skills). Now he still says he doesn't want to go, but goes in once you get there.  And it's so impressive to watch the process.  He'll be swimming like a fish at the end of this, no problem.  The day I took him I told him I would clap and say "yay Eli" and he said "stop talking mommy!" And every time he would climb up out the water I would quietly clap and mouth "yay" and I could tell he mumbling things about wanting me stop.  At 3 I already embarrass him! I love it!
Gymnastics has started up as well and Eli was ready to go.  There was no looking back, he ran in and follows everything the teacher says, copies the other kids and has a blast.  It surprising that he doesn't get distracted since there is so much going on at the same time, but he doesn't.

A couple of weeks ago I was joking that Eli couldn't work a mouse for the computer yet because he's so used to everything being touch screen, the mouse is antiquated to him.  But he's figured it out this month.  He now can get on ANY electronic device and get to Thomas.  
And by the way...Evi has been sleeping in her own bed, all night!!! On most nights!! Hey, gotta celebrate the little victories, right?

proud log owners

July is over and what a month it has been!  We went on family vacation with Scott's side to Frisco, CO.  Which is always a hit.  The girls got along great and Eli kept up with them every step of the way.  He was a putt putt playing machine and Evi loved the bungee trampolines as usual.
One day was all about Eli.  We took him to ride the Georgetown train.  Well actually, we took him to go watch the train, but who were we kidding?  That boy wanted to ride the train!  He loved every minute of it. A lot of the trees have been cut down due to the pine beetle, so there are logs laying arond everywhere which Eli calls "jobi logs.". What's a jobi log you ask...Well the trees they used to build the rescue center on Thomas the train are jobi logs, so every log is a jobi log. So the whole train ride Eli is yelling about jobi logs.  Afterward we went to do a little fishing.  There was a piece of tree trunk floating in the water while we were fishing that Eli , of course, said was a jobi log.  During our time there the log kept floating right toward us and Eli was more and more excited.  Finally Scott decided to cast his line at it and caught with his first try and reeled it in.  More excitement ensues.  It was caught up on some rocks but Eli was determined to have this log.  He directed Scott as to how to reach it and was beside himself when it was pulled from the water!  It was too cute.  He wanted to take it home with us, and with all his enthusiasm, how could we resist?  We put it in the back of our car and took it back to the house with us.  The car ride home was filled with Eli repeatedly saing "we got a jobi log. We got a jobi log!" As each person showed up after us he would take them out to show off his jobi log.  So being the good parents we are, we bought a duffle bag and checked that bad boy for our flight home.  Eli and Scott have worked to buff, stain and seal it.  It looks pretty good, and Eli has his jobi log!

My children have become slightly vegetarian.  They almost both refuse to eat their meat most of the time, but love their fruit and veggies, and who am I to argue since I too have been eating less meat for health reasons.  But they are no fools.  They never pass up a good filet mignon!
Evi was running around the house the other day wearing one of her tiaras.  Scott was telling her about a Disney story book he had gotten with multiple stories in it.
Daddy: "it doesn't have any princess stories, just stories Eli might be interested in"
EVI: 'I'M NOT THAT INTO PRINCESSES ANYMORE"
Daddy: "says the girl with a tiara on"

the infamous Jobi Log!

Evi has been having major issues with bedtime...and I know, what's new?  Well now she's letting fear get the better of her and is always telling us she has bad thoughts or she feels like someone is right there when she  closes her eyes.  So my response was, maybe it's fairies you are feeling.  You could see the wheels turning and a smile on her lips, but alas, it's still not working.  Her 3 year old brother does better about going to bed and staying there than she does.  Oh well. I just keep telling myself she won't go off to college still sleeping with us...right?

"I a big boy, member!?"

driving the lawn mower at Bebe's

My baby is three!  Of course, if you asked him, he would say, "fours" and hold up 2 fingers.  We don't correct him. 1, because it's cute and 2, because we want to still say he's only 2 for the rest of the year so we don't have to buy him a pass for the parks!!! So don't ruin this for us people!

He has thoroughly enjoyed all of his birthday celebrations and loved people singing happy birthday to him.  After he had cake at his Auntie K & Uncle Mikey's house he turned to Kristi and said "I'm ready for my present." Turkey!


We took care of our neighbor's dog for a week and were also granted access to their pool.  We got to see how the other half lived, and now we want a pool more than ever!  The kids were like fish.  In the pool every chance they could.  And Eli is ready for swim lessons.  He has no fear.  He swims with his face down in the water and his eyes open.

the brown bean and whitey riding in the wagon at Bebe's

In June we spent some time in OKC, Scott and I got 2 nights out in a row for his 20 year high school reunion.  It was a lot of fun. But we are definitely too old and too out of practice for that kind of behavior! On the second night, when we were heading for the door, Eli was right behind us with his little roller bag saying he needed his trains to go to daddy's house. He started crying when Scott told him he was staying.  It was very sad!  As we were driving to our party Terri called a couple of minutes after we had left and said everything was perfect and all were happy.  When I hung up I said to Scott, "the sad part is, I had not even thought twice about the fact that we left Eli crying."  Poor Eli! He definitely gets the second child treatment sometimes! And yes, Gigi, I can feel you cringing!

Evi is loving summer and having all the girls in neighborhood at her disposal.  She is having a great time with them.  Any plans we make are usually wined about because she will be missing out on opportunities to play with the girls! The down side to always playing with tweens is that she is picking up on sarcasm and thinks it's alright to speak that way to us.  It's everything we have not to laugh when she cops an attitude.  If it wasn't so scary, it'd be cute.

Evi's sleepover friend, Savanah

She had her first friend sleep over at our house recently.  Luckily the friend, Savanah, lives across the street.  Evi still woke up at 4:30 and I had to put her back to bed, but she made it through the night with her friend.  Which is amazing, because she never does for us!  And has been difficult every night since!  She knows how to work her daddy when I'm gone so that she can watch TV in our bed to go to sleep! 

the neighbor kids at our house for fireworks

Passing Time...

It's been too long!  While we haven't done anything in particular, life has been busy!
 
We've had visitors: my girlfriend Maria and her family, my family (twice!) and Uncle Randy.  There have been lots of visits to Disney (I'm getting my moneys worth out of that!), Busch Gardens and the beach.  The kids love the beach.  And it's free, so we love it too!

Eli is getting so big so fast!  He still has his crazy hair since I won't do more than trim it.  And the old people down here seem to love it!  Evi is almost done with kindergarten and I know summer is going to fly by!

We have officially "seen" an alligator in the pond directly behind our house.  While it wasn't very big, it paced back and forth watching our small children (it's potential snack) play.  So, now up with the fence!!  Plus it's been depressing seeing our neighbors in their pool when we don't have one.  It's going to be a long summer without one! 
Scotty's business is legal, and we now have magnets on the car for advertising, but the phone still has not magically rung.  And boy do I wish it would!  I know it's going to be slow going, but I am so ready for a second income!  I do have a great sense of pride that I could provide for my family and buy us a house, but I'm over it now...bring in the money honey!!! :-) 

mothers' day...each of us with our babies

Below these posts are links to see the photo books I did for the kids this year.  I usually put them in their Easter Basket, but I was a little behind this year.  Anyway, it's all the pictures from the previous year since we never actually print any out.  It's an easy way to make sure they both will have copies of pictures.  But you can preview them.



Conversations with Evi:
Evi had to do a class project about what she wanted to be when she grew up.  She said she wanted to be a flight attendant like her mom...
Daddy: "you don't want to be what I am when you grow up?"
EVI: "I DON'T WANT TO WORK THAT HARD!"
part of me thinks I should be offended, but upon further questioning she said to Scott
"YOU FIX TOILETS AND THINGS, THAT'S GROSS!   I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT!"


EVI: "WHAT'S 'OLD SCHOOL' MEAN?"
Mom: "Well, it's the way things used to be done.  Like the way mommy & daddy did things when we were little would be 'old school'."
EVI: "SO, WHEN I'M IN 1ST GRADE NEXT YEAR I CAN SAY THE THINGS I DID IN KINDERGARTEN WERE 'OLD SCHOOL'?"
Mom: "Yep, I guess you can!"

Photo Book

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Photo Book

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Snaggle Tooth!

-1 tooth

It's the beginning of the end of Evi's babiness!  When those big teeth come in, it's just all so final.  They are no longer babies at that point.  And Evi has now lost 2 teeth!! Both bottom ones.  The first one fell out when she rode her bike up the driveway after school.  I was backing the truck in and saw her spit into her hand and look at it.  I put it in park, asked if she'd just lost her tooth.  When she said yes, I was sooo excited that we ran inside to tell Scott and take pictures of her hole.  About 10 minutes later, I was walking past the back door and realized I had left the truck running in the garage, still sticking half way out!

the crooked tooth

After that, the other loose tooth on the bottom moved to the center of the hole, and she ran around with a tooth at a 45* angle for a couple of weeks.  It was ridiculous!
The fact that she turns 7 this year is just eating at me.  Every time it's mentioned, it's like someone is stabbing me in the chest.  6 was fine, but 7 seems so old!  I'm not ready!   

The humid climates of Houston and Tampa don't seem to agree with Evi.  She's had a smokers cough since we lived in Houston, and it has not gone away with our move.  Everyone just thinks she's highly contagious and I'm a horrible person for having her in public.  I just smile and say we keep telling her to quit smoking.

Eli does his best to play with all the big kids and takes in everything they do and say.  So "butt" is his favorite word right now.  Evi gets very upset that her friends say things that she doesn't, like "butt", "poop" and "hate".  One night she cried because she couldn't stop thinking all the words that her friends say that she's not allowed to say! I, of course, envisioned curse words, but no, my sweet child was distraught over butt & poop.

with the "princess"

My famdamnily finally came to visit, and it was a whirlwind!  We spent 2 days at Disney, which also happened to be 2 of the coldest days in Florida this winter and a day at Busch Gardens.  We pulled out every piece of winter gear we had (and pretty much wore it all) and bought gloves and hats for a day at Disney.  But it was still fun!  Mila was the perfect age for meeting the princesses and fairies.  And when Mila shook Buzz Lightyear's hand, Eli could not be outdone. He finally got over his fear enough to fist bump Buzz and cling tightly to his sister for the picture with him.


Evi had her first school dance.  A "father-daughter" dance.  She was so excited.  Scott said they did the chicken dance together, and the didn't see her the rest of the night.  She was off dancing with her little friends.  But she had a blast!

this picture says it all

Words with Eli
boingboing = slinky
Obo = bobo

Conversations with Evi
Mom: "when your big teeth come in you won't be my baby girl any more, you'll be a big kid!"
EVI: "MOM, I'LL ALWAYS BE YOUR BABY GIRL"  (and yes, tears did flow, from me)