Cutest pjs ever

Finn usually sleeps in footed pajamas, turned around backwards to prevent him from taking them off. Recently all of his normal pajamas were in the wash so we improvised with a pair of pajama pants and t-shirt and I think the results were simply smashing. I could just eat him with a spoon.

Door words

Finn has become obsessed lately with Maggie's magnetic letters. He now can correctly identify all 26 letters of the alphabet (upper AND lowercase) and numbers 0-9 and will happily play with the magnets for 15-30 minutes. It's so fun. Since we had them out one day we decided to write a message with them on our front door for Grant when he came home. Both Maggie and Finn got a kick out of it, as you can see below.

Carolina lately

This little sweetie...we just love her. (Duh!) Here's what she's up to lately.
She is loving words lately. She can say: mama, dada, no, nana (banana), hi, hey, hello, bye, thank you (seriously!), and the other day when I sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to her she said right back to me, "Row, row, row."
She is having a lot of separation anxiety right now (which is normal for her age) and wants me the most. It's sweet and frustrating at the same time.
She is standing on her own for 30-60 seconds without falling but doesn't seem too interested in taking steps yet. She cruises (walking while holding onto furniture) a tiny bit. She crawls very quickly.
She is still eating great - loving nearly everything we feed her, and we basically feed her whatever we're eating now.
She's still nursing about 4 times a day and I plan on weaning her sometime after she turns one.
Life, for me, with three kids is so much easier now than it was even six months ago. Finn is becoming more mature and will walk through a parking lot while holding my hand, instead of darting away from me, and Carolina is so much sturdier and a little more independent. We are happy and having lots of fun around here!

I heart Maggie

She is still such a smart, funny girl. Here are a few Maggie funnies:
Our one bathroom (I've told you before - our house is tiny) is in the back of the house near Carolina's room. When Maggie needs to use the restroom during rest/nap time I always ask her to be really quiet. Now that she's in school she only has rest time on the weekends but a few weeks ago she took me back into the restroom to show me her "quiet" way of flushing the toilet. She closes the door, puts down the lid to the toilet, puts one foot on the lid of the toilet and the other on the handle to the door, and then flushes the toilet. I'm not sure why she thinks that makes it any quieter but at least she's trying!
You may remember that Maggie's preschool teacher, Miss Heather, is Australian. Maggie now loves all things Australian and the other day when Carolina laughed Maggie said, "I think that was a dingo. If not a dingo, then a kookaburra." Hmmm...

At our church, part of our liturgy says, "Command, O Lord..." and Maggie leaned to me and said, "Why are they talking about not wearing underwear?!" Get it? It sounds like they said "commando," as in, "going commando."

And one more - Maggie has a stuffed dog that she's named Chocolate Olivia. Last night she told me, "Sometimes, when I look at Chocolate Olivia, I just love her so much I want to cry." Adorable!

Warrior Dash

Yesterday my sister Erin and I participated in the Warrior Dash. In case you don't know what that is, you can check the website or here's my quick explanation: It's a 5K (3.2 miles) run on an obstacle course, culminating in a mud pit that you MUST climb through (there is barbed wire over your head, forcing you to stay low). Wait. That kind of doesn't sound fun. I promise, it was so much fun.
Here I am, right after jumping the fire.I'd been wanting to get back in shape since Carolina was born but I just hadn't made the commitment to get to the gym. Erin mentioned the Warrior Dash about two months ago and I thought it sounded fun, signed up with her, and then realized, "Oh, hey...I guess I better start exercising again." So I worked my way up from exercising for 30 minute chunks, running three minutes, walking one minute, over and over, all the way up to running 3o minutes without stopping. It took me about 3 weeks to work my way up to running the whole time. BUT, I got used to running on a (flat) treadmill in air conditioning, and I'd only run outside one time in the last two months, until yesterday. Folks, it was HOT and I think I didn't hydrate well enough before the race. I had to stop and walk way more than I wanted to because I kept thinking I was going to vomit. I also got tunnel vision onetime and although it is in my nature to push, push, push, I reminded myself that I am the mother of three and wife to one who need me and it would not be good to pass out in the middle of a field. I really had pictured myself sprinting from obstacle to obstacle and then going full force over the obstacles and that is NOT what happened. Maybe next year!Going into it I also was really hesitant about climbing a wall and I thought I might have to skip that obstacle. It turns out that there were at least five walls we had to climb (some with ropes, some with slats to climb up, and one even had a fire pole we had to slide down. But, those actually turned out to be my favorite obstacles and I'm proud that Erin and I did every single obstacle. The two we liked the least were climbing up this wall of hay bales which we then had to jump off of (we were afraid we'd break our ankles jumping into the soft hay) and one where we had to crawl through a long tunnel that was pitch black, through dirt. At the very end there were two fires we had to jump through and then the infamous mud pit. When we got to the fire we saw my dad there, cheering for us! He drove all the way out, about an hour and a half, just to cheer for us and take photos. Isn't that so sweet?!
There was someone with a hose, rinsing people off, but the line would have taken us at least 30 minutes to get through and we were too impatient, so we rinsed off our hands (I also changed clothes), and put towels on the seats, and drove home. When you turned in your computer chip (used to track your time), you are handed a stein of beer, but that was pretty much the last thing I wanted after exerting myself so I gave mine to Erin. Just kidding! We both gave our chips to strangers.
It was so much fun, I'm proud of myself and Erin, and I want to do it again next year, train better, go with a bigger group, and dress up. Want to run with us?!

Cousin Lily Kate turns 2!

My niece, Lily Kate, turned two in August and had a party at Monkey's Treehouse, which is basically one of those warehouses with indoor play areas - dress up stations, ball pits, jungle gyms, building things, riding toys. It was so much fun, and I don't mean just for the kids. Here I am with my nephew, Jack, and Maggie, about to go down the slide.
And here we are at the bottom of the slide:
Yes, I am just spazzy enough to go down the slide with two kids in my lap. It was fun!
Here's the birthday girl with her mom, my sister, Erin. They are basically a bunch of blondies in their family.
Carolina played in the ball pit for at least half an hour. She L-O-V-E-D it. You can tell because of that giant dimple below her eye :) And even though the ball pit was technically for children two and younger, Maggie enjoyed it as well.Here she is, sporting a brand new dress from her Uncle Steve and Uncle James. (In case you wanted to know, it is from the children's store owned by Soleil Moon-Frye, a.k.a. Punky Brewster.) And because I begged, she let me do her hair in two "twisty buns," which is my favorite hairstyle for little girls. Of course, Mimi was there, and what do good Mimis have in their purses? Why, very pale lip gloss exclusively for their girly granddaughters, used only at very special times. (It must be the mark of a good grandmother to carry something special in their purse - Maggie's paternal grandmother carries Polly Pockets in her purse.)
Finn had tons of fun, too, especially on this little riding toy that we only put him on because it matched his shirt. (Kidding. Although I wouldn't be above doing something like that.)

He also drove this truck around for a long time.
Finally, sweet Carolina. Somebody must have switched her "on" for the party. She was so funny. Whenever someone started taking her photo she would just start smiling, bouncing, and cooing, just for the photo......even with pizza sauce all over her face.
Happy Birthday, Lily Kate! So glad you were born two years ago (IN THE CAR!!!!! - Just had to include that.)
(Thanks for the photos, Poppy.)

Finn's funny sayings

We think Finn is so hilarious. Here are a few of the funny things he says:
He mispronounces spiders as "cyborgs". So every few days I hear him say "Cyborg! There's a cyborg in the house, mama!" By the way, he thinks every black spot is a bug and he thinks most bugs are spiders, so don't worry, we don't really have that many spiders in our house. Additionally, he also calls spider webs "cyborg webs." It's awesome.
He calls pickles "polkas", says "side-peep" for "spicy," "home dedoh" is "home depot," and chocolate chips are "chop chop chips". He has also invented a new word, "pelly" which combines both "pretty" and "really." He will say, "That polka is pelly side-peep, mama." (Did you translate that?)
A few weeks ago he walked up to my sister-in-law, Jenny, and said, "Hey, lady!" What? Where did he learn that?
Around the same time he said "Hey, lady," we had some friends over to dinner. After dinner was over but our guests were still seated at the table, Finn walked over, got their attention, and said, "I awesome."
Yesterday, at the YMCA, a new childcare worker walked in his room. He walked right over, held out his hand, and said, "Nice to meet you!" She is pretty much his new girlfriend now.
He is such a ham. He'll do anything to get our attention and be silly. I love it. He keeps me entertained all day long.
He also is such a sweetie. He tells us several times a day, "I love you, mama. I love you, daddy. I love Cay-lina. I proud of you, mama." And when we drop Maggie off at school or Grant at work, he always says, "Have a great day!"
Here is proof of his sweetness - even though Maggie bugs and bosses him A LOT, he still loves to snuggle her:

Kid paintings

The other day I didn't have anything for the children to do so I grabbed some paint, some paper, and some masking tape and decided Finn and Maggie could do a little art project. I taped their first initial on the paper and then told them just to paint all over the entire page.
Maggie decided she would paint something that incorporated the "M" into the design but Finn just had a good time painting everything all over it.
Here's Maggie with her finished artwork. She wanted it the "M" to look like mountains (specifically, Maggie Valley, NC).
And here's Finn's!
It took less than five minutes to set up and kept them happily busy for half an hour! Wahoo!

Sweeties

Love that smile!

My baby outfit threepeat

My mom saved a box of baby clothes for me and my sisters and while most of the things are hilariously 80's looking or had stains come up after my mom packed them away, this one outfit survived in good shape. Maggie wore it when she was a baby, too, so this has been worn by me and two of my girls! It's so fun to see it on them but I'm glad baby clothing design has evolved since then - the only way to change a diaper is to untie the bows at the shoulders and take the whole thing off. Anyway, it's cute and it was fun to see it on her. It's pretty big so you might see it again...and again...and again until she outgrows it!

Going to Dr. John's Office

I had to take Maggie by the pediatrician's office the other day for a vaccination so she could start school and it was actually a pretty smooth visit. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE their pediatrician, Dr. John, and so they never mind going to see him. They are also pretty entertained by the mirror on the wall next to the exam table. Maggie was so brave and didn't even cry when she got the shot (actually, I don't think she's cried during a shot since before she was two years old). She is tough!

She got in!

I just wanted to mention that MAGGIE GOT INTO THE SCHOOL WE WANTED!

We got the call pretty much at the last possible moment, which is funny, because that's what I had been preparing myself for all summer, and yet it was still torturous. She started Wednesday and really likes it so far.

When the woman called to let me know I told her, "I wish you were here so I could hug you!" and she just laughed and said "thanks!" After I hung up I literally jumped up and down and screamed.

It's been a wild week. Maggie had her first two full days of school at her old school Monday and Tuesday and on Tuesday I helped my brother and his wife have their baby without an epidural (more on that another time) and was away from my house from 7:15am until 11:30pm with all kinds of crazy childcare situations to make it happen. And either Grant or I have had something going on EVERY single night this week. I am so glad to just sit on the couch with him and catch up tonight!

Anyway, back to school - it's so close and my life just feels so much easier already. I feel lighter, actually, and I'm so so incredibly thankful that it all worked out. It really feels like an answered prayer for me. I almost can't believe it still. Her teacher seems great and she said she's made some new friends (reportedly one told her, "You're so cute! I want to have a sleepover with you!"). So we are busier than ever but very content. Thank you for all of your prayers and listening to me kvetch and moan about the whole school thing. I'm so glad it's all over with a good resolution!
And because every blog post is better with a photo, here is one of Maggie doing something very grown up: painting the kitchen! My friend Tiffany decided my kitchen needed to be painted but rather than just suggest I paint it, she showed up with all the rollers, brushes, etc., took me to Home Depot to pick out paint, then came back and painted it for me. Is that a friend, or what?! Who has friends like that? I am lucky.

Lemonade Stand

I posted this photo on facebook a few weeks ago but I wanted to put it here, too. For at least two years Maggie has been asking me if we can do a lemonade stand but for one reason or another, we've always put it off. Finally, one day we had about 8 lemons in our fridge and I thought, "I just have no excuse to say no now."
So we made our first batch ever of from-scratch lemonade. It was so delicious. We set up shop and it was blazing hot outside. Grant's brother, Blake, and his wife, Jenny, came over and they hung out for the duration of the lemonade stand. Anyway, no one was stopping and it was too hot for people to be walking by so I called up all of our neighbors and knocked on doors to drum up business. Luckily a few neighbors were willing to come by and so Maggie made a couple of dollars selling lemonade. She was so excited. Part of the reason she wanted to do a lemonade stand was to raise money for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, so she told me she would allot some part of her earnings to go to Vanderbilt. I think it totaled something like 50 cents! It's not much but I love her generous heart.

Caro

She is still such a sweetheart. She's coming up on ten months, can you believe it?! And don't worry, I'm already planning her first birthday party. What?! Two months isn't that much time.

Here is the latest on Carolina: she still says "Dada" and that's it. Moms get the short end of the stick when it comes to names - "dada" is easier to say than "mama." We're doing baby sign language with her, as we did with Maggie and Finn, and she signs "all done" and "more", but "all done" is more consistent. Speaking of "more," the girl has a great appetite. She will eat anything. Seriously, I haven't given her any food, ever, that she wouldn't eat. I love it. I mean, I haven't given her anything too crazy but she will eat unsweetened yogurt, sharp cheese, garlicky pesto, broccoli, and of course more baby-friendly foods like any fruit, oatmeal, etc. There's a reason she was 85 % for height and weight at her 9 month appointment! And I love this - she can wear many 6-12 and 9 month shirts and dresses but things that snap between her legs she is outgrowing thigh first! They fit her length-wise and around her body but they leave red marks on her thighs. I LOVE IT. I just want to take a bite out of her thighs.
Here's an outtake of the photo above where you can tell she is grinning and squealing.

Found: More TX Photos

I was perusing the photos on Grant's iPhone and found several awesome ones that I guess he just wanted to deprive you all of. (Grant! You have to e-mail me if you take some good ones!)
Here are three of my favorites. Isn't my honey a great photographer?! It helps to have such good lookin' models as our kiddos.
We spent an afternoon at the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens, which are beautiful. Here are Finn and Maggie sitting in a tree meant to be sat upon.
Maggie loved the lily pads on this pond.
And here is my favorite of all three, and I don't mind telling you it's because I like this photo of myself!

We have a KINDERGARTENER!

The day has finally arrived! My little baby is a kindergartener.
Here she is, pondering the change in our life and all of the ramifications. Pensive and wistful, no?
Now you can see how she really felt.
She giggled the whole way to school. We walked her in, helped her find her locker and seat, and she was ready for us to go. I got a quick hug but she didn't cling to me at all. At least unlike two of my other friends, a) I got a hug and b) I wasn't told, "Just drop me off at the front door." Yes, from two kindergarteners!
Her teacher seems great, the school seems sweet, and yet we are still hoping and praying that she will get into the other school that's closer to our house. I'll let you know on Tuesday what we find out! If you think about it will you say a little prayer for us, too? The drive is dreadful. Finn fell asleep on the way home today for the 30-minute car-ride and then couldn't take a nap at his regular nap time so he was really cranky for the rest of the day. I know it sounds silly and really everything will be ok if we stay where we are but my daily life with two small children will be quite impacted by spending two hours in the car, five days a week.
Anyway, here are my two oldest sweeties, ready for kindergarten! (Finn asked several times today where Maggie was and when I said "school," he asked, "Why, mama, why?!")

Gardening

We have been having so much fun with our first real garden this summer. We've been able to eat 3 tomatoes so far, plus lots of cilantro, rosemary, and basil, but we're about to have a tomato explosion. It's so exciting! I know that sounds dorky but it's true. There is just something fun about watching things grow from a seed to being big enough to eat.
We planted some carrot seeds for purple, red, orange, and white carrots, and Grant's grandmother reminded us we needed to thin them out, so we pulled up a few. They were TINY! You can see them below.
We ate them, even though they were so small, and guess what...they tasted like carrots! I can't wait for them to get big enough to look like normal carrots.
We also have a little section of the garden that we call the "Mystery Garden." We had a few half-dead seedlings that we didn't think would make it so Grant just tossed them all into a little section, covered them with dirt, and didn't expect anything. Lo and behold, we have two HUGE vines growing from there. I think one is a pumpkin plant and the other is squash. There are about 20 blossoms on each of them so theoretically we could have 20 pumpkins! I can't wait. The vine has all these amazing little curly tendrils that have gripped the surrounding grass and even our neighbor's fence, where it is attempting to climb into their yard. I kind of want to do something like that every year as we've had so much fun watching it grow and trying to figure out what it is.

Last Day of Preschool

Since Maggie's preschool isn't a normal preschool (if you don't remember it's a home preschool at a dear friend of ours who has her Master's in education), there aren't really "summer holidays". I could have let her go straight through until the first day of kindergarten if I wanted to.
We ended up taking part of May off because we were in Texas for two weeks, and then I took all of July off because she had art camp one week, soccer clinic the next, and I wanted to have some down time at home before kindergarten. However, Maggie's BFF, Riley, is moving to Africa in February so I wanted them to have one last week at school together before that happens.

You can see the photo of her first day of school here. I can't believe how much she's grown.
We still don't know exactly where she's going to go to school. I ended up enrolling her in a school we've heard good things about. They have more seats than students enrolled so that's how we were able to swing it. It's about 25 minutes from our house and I have to get on the interstate to take her there. It's going to be fine for her, I think, but it is a big bummer to think about having to spend close to two hours in the car every day with Finn and Carolina. We are still holding out hope that she'll get into our first choice of a magnet school and we may find out that she got in to one of them on the first three days of school, in which case we'd pull her from this other school. And our final option, if we don't get into the magnet school and end up not being happy with the 25-minute-away school, then I'll pull her out and home school her. It's not perfect, but it's a plan! So please, will you pray that she will get into the school that's our first choice? It may seem like a small thing but it's a big thing to us.
Oh, and this Tuesday we have "Meet Your Teacher" night, followed by school supply shopping, and then the first day of school is a half day on Thursday. Exciting times!

Silly Finn

I read in an interview with actor Amanda Peet that she and her husband's hope for their daughter was that she would be silly. I love that she said that! And I agree - although I have many, loftier hopes for my children, silliness is definitely on the list.
Here is Finn in his finest, silly glory.
Sitting in Carolina's Exersaucer (a toy for babies about 6 months to 12 months old)
Trying to wear Maggie's underwear over his diaper
Crazy post-nap bedhead
Climbing into the dryer and hanging out there for fifteen minutes.Eating lemons and limesI know this is practically the same photo but I wanted to put it in because his smile is so great here.And these last ones aren't silly but they are so sweet to me. A friend of mine at church, Susan, and her children are so good to me and my family. Susan has done so many wonderful things for us, including showing up at the hospital with food when Finn was admitted at five days old, updating friends and strangers (prayer warriors at church) about his health and recovery, bringing me Starbucks on a day when I mentioned on facebook how exhausted I was (right after Carolina was born) and how I wished Starbucks delivered. In short, she's one of the most giving, serving people I know. I love her. And her kids are crazy about my kids, who are equally crazy about them. C (not using their names because I didn't ask for permission), Susan's son, rushes into the nursery to see Finn. He reports back to his parents how many hugs he got from Finn. He plays with him and teaches him things. It is so adorable. GE, Susan's daughter, is such a little mama and will help me walk the kids to the car if I'm alone, or she'll read to them or listen patiently as Maggie tells her some long-winded story. They're basically two amazing kids. Anyway, here is Finn playing with C in the nursery. C sat down so Finn copied him. Finn sticks close to C! And I love the look on Finn's face here. How about C having a pretend phone conversation for Finn's benefit?! So sweet.

Blueberry Picking

Two weeks ago we went blueberry picking with several friends. It was fun but also insanely hot. I laughed to myself imagining farm workers today or slaves back in history laughing at us city folk who pay for the privilege of working in the fields! Anyway, I always love a chance for my kids to see where food comes from. Maggie was a good helper except for that one time when she accidentally dumped out our entire basket. Finn wasn't a good helper at all unless you count eating as many blueberries as he could pick (and believe me, the ones he ate weren't all blue - many were pink or even white, but he didn't seem to mind).Wouldn't it be nice if I had taken a photo where you could actually tell my kids were picking blueberries, rather than just hot and sweaty in a field? Yeah, I thought so, too. I didn't though. I was a little busy wearing my 20-pound baby in the sling, keeping her from eating blueberries, leaves, and whatever else she could grab, keeping Finn from running into the poison-ivy-filled woods, and trying to pick at least a few berries. It was fun but I'll be glad next year that Finn will maybe be old enough to help a little and Carolina will be walking on her own (of course, I'll probably be chasing her everywhere).
I made some really yummy blueberry muffins from this recipe and we made some blueberry pancakes, and then all the rest of them went straight into my family's hungry tummies.