Baby No More

Today is my baby boys 1st birthday.

So I feel that I should tell you the story of Mason.

When we found out I was pregnant with Mason I was really upset.

It wasn't a planned pregnancy I really felt that I wasn't ready to take care of another child.

After he was born every fear I had just melted away.

Not because of his squishy cuteness but because of the joy I felt when he looked at me.

He was the happiest baby ever and I actually feel that it is easier with 3 children instead of 2.

Since he's been born I've never had a question about him belonging in our family.

He makes me want to be a better Mother

and I know that my Heavenly Father was watching over me

and knew that I needed him in my life.

And I am so grateful to be entrusted with raising him.

I just wish he would grow up a little slower.

So here are a few pictures of the squishy cuteness that's so fun to look at and more fun to touch.

 I really don't know why this picture won't rotate.

So go give your babies a hug because we all know they grow up way to fast and there's nothing we can do about it.

I Got In A Fight

I have a love, hate relationship with the shower.

I love to get clean and warm up with the hot water but

I hate having to do my hair.

Maybe I hate my hair more than my shower but that's not important.

My shower is having issues right now.

It has decided that water pressure isn't important.

It feels like laying back and doing as little work as possible.

Well remember that hair I have issues with?

It's kinda long

and thick

and it NEEDS water pressure.

Not only is the shower lazy

it's started taunting me.

Yeah a little spit in the face every morning...

Literally.

When I turn the water off it shoots a nice strong burst of water at me before it turns off.

I know it's seriously cruel.

So today I yelled at it.

Yep, got in a fight with my shower.

Now if we wanted to analyze the situation I would say I'm probably more upset about that it's been over a week and I still don't remember it's going to do it.

Or it could be that I really hate my shower.

My Goofy Goofs

I have had a lot of time lately to just enjoy my family.

Well some of the time we are enjoying and sometimes we are running around like crazies.

But no matter what we are doing I can't go a day without thinking about how grateful to have the family that I have. I've been having tailbone problems for about a month and it's really limited what I can do but Reed has been great about it even though it means more work for him. 

And when I see the kids playing together and getting along it just melts me. 

Yesterday Ava was asking me how to make the letter e. Before I could even say anything Braeden jumped in "Come to the chalkboard and I'll show you." When I went into the toy room later it was covered with letters that they had been writing together.

So to give you an idea of what I see on a regular basis I recorded them playing tonight. If you watch it 500 times in a row you'll get an idea of what my night was REALLY like.

I know they are seriously nuts!
 And because we can't forget the little man here's a little video of his new talent for our family that's not around here. Sorry you have to tilt your head. I'm not sure why I thought you could flip it.

I know I am seriously blessed!

Ava's Turn

Well I'm a week late but here are the pictures of Ava's first day of preschool.

My mom made her backpack and it was a huge hit! She was so excited to go and begged and begged to leave the house early so she could get there. When I dropped her off she went right in and didn't care at all that she was leaving me. I even had trouble stealing a kiss before I left.

The second day of school she wanted me to take more pictures so here they are.

Sorry about the sideways photos. I've rotated them twice but it's just not sticking :(

So a week later she is just as excited to go to school as she was the first day.

Hopefully this week I will get past the sad feelings of being home with just Mason and enjoy all the things I can get done.

I'm Alive!!!

School is back in session

which means my kids are actually going to bed before 10:00 

which means I will have some free time to blog.

I really got wrapped up in this summer  just spending time with my lovely family and TRULY enjoying it.

So when it came time to blog I was usually too tired or just wanted to sit and do nothing.

But our routines are coming back and my motivation to blog with them.

I'll try and do a recap of our summer sometime soon.

But yesterday was a big day.

My baby boy started kindergarten!

I know! 

It was a very rough day for me but we got through it and I'm trying to embrace all of the new and amazing things he is going to learn and the experiences that will help him grow.

Not so easy to do but I'm trying.

So I thought I would show a few a million pictures of my little kindergartener.

Doesn't he look all grown up!!
Of course we had to have some kind of surprise for him when he got home.
Ava and I decided on a water fight.

We all had a blast and it was a fun way for Braeden to get some energy out after school.
Hope everyone had a good summer and is getting into the back to school swing of things.

Our New Learning Center

This is something I've been working on for awhile

and it's still not finished but I will probably keep adding/changing it for awhile

So I thought I should just post it.

I am not the kind of person to homeschool my children.

Anyone who does is amazing and I applaud you and your awesomeness.

So my children will go to public school.

But I do feel that there is a pretty big gap between what is taught at school and what the kids need to know.

So my solution is to send them to school and make up that gap at home.

And I'm hoping this little area will help make that easier and more fun.

So here's the big reveal.

The buckets have the chalk and eraser in them and they are up high enough that Mason can't reach them :)
I still need to put up trim around the chalkboard and bulletin board

and I need more buckets for the pegboard

but I'm pretty happy with it and the kids spend tons of time playing with everything.

In the next post I'll show you how I organize all the craft stuff we have.

Crayon Melting Experiment

If you decide to be a crazy person and walk outside your air conditioned house

you will notice it is HOTT

Not single T hot

Double T HOTT

So as the kids and I were talking about how hot it is and what would happen if it were 485 degrees

we wondered if it was hot enough to melt a crayon.

So we made our hypothesis.

 Braeden said No

Ava said Yes

I said Yes

Reed said Yes

And because Braeden didn't want to be the only one saying no he claims to have heard Mason say No

We put some of our old crayons outside and this was the result

Isn't it beautiful!

I can see a melted crayon art project coming soon.

It is hot enough to melt a crayon and probably fry an egg!

And of course the kids couldn't have all that ooey goodness and not touch it.

But at least they used sticks!

As a little side note I noticed that the washable crayons melted faster than the regular ones.

It would be interesting to try it with different brands and see what happens.

If anyone tries it let me know how it goes!