House news.......

I realized that my last post on May 15th mentioned that our house had been on the market for one week. Well the day after that post, we received an offer and a contract.  With that in hand, we then made an offer and a contract on a new home.  The processes are now just winding their way painfully thru to the closing.  One would think that buying a new home would be a rainbows and unicorns type of process but it has been full of highs and lows to which I can only compare to my experiences with the adoption process--it's been awful and completely stressful.  I can honestly say that I don't want to do this again! 

Our days are now busy sorting and packing 15 years worth of stuff.  The main level of our house is full of boxes--some of which I've had to reopen to retrieve some  item that we've needed to use--this part of the process is definitely making me put a keen eye on everything I'm packing.  I'm trying to be less sentimental about objects but it's really hard to let go of some stuff.

While all this has been going on, life has not stopped.  The girls have finished out their school year and our extracurricular activities are winding down.  I think there is going to be a huge collision of events around the time we are supposed to close on the house but I'm trying to push that to the fartherest recesses of my mind.

In a week or so all the summer activities will start and I'm hoping it will be a welcome break from all of this house stress.  The pics below are of the girls last couple of weeks of school--picnics, band concert and kindergarten graduation.

Little Miss M with her teachers at the end of school year picnic!

Saying the blessing with her best friend.

G at her band concert.

G's end of school year picnic.

K's kindergarten graduation.

A girl and her Dad.

The really crazy news.....

So this is where it gets really crazy!  We put our house on the market last week! 

In theory, it will sell quickly and then we can go about finding another house.  The reason.....trying to lessen our daily commute.  R commutes to work--approximately one hour each way and now I "commute" to taking the girls to school--approximately one hour each way.  And since they have to be dropped off and picked up, that's two hours a day.

We love the school that G has attended for the  past three years.  If you are not familiar with university model schooling, do yourself a favor and take a look here--- Grace Preparatory School .  G will be moving into the middle school and K will be attending the elementary school this coming fall.  That will mean five days of commuting---that's two hours a day, 50 miles per day, and 250 miles per week.  And don't forget to add in Little Miss M's preschool schedule which is at a completely different school. 

Keep your fingers crossed for us :-)

Crazy, Busy Times

The title says it all, "crazy, busy times" around here.  The month of April is almost over and we are getting ready to head into "manic May." 

We celebrated my sweet girl's 6th birthday this month.  Her day started with donuts from Krispy Kreme and then opening presents.  Followed by a trip to the movies to see "Home," lunch at CiCi's, and then a trip to Toys R' Us.  It was a good day to have a birthday!

Loves her LaLa Loopsies!

Best gift ever!  Hot Stamps from Grammy.

We also celebrated Easter.  In fact, K's birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year.  We did birthday celebrations on Saturday and spent Sunday with families.  The little girls also had Easter parties and activities at their school.  Lots of pictures to sort thru below!

Preschool Easter party.

M was too funny!  While the rest of her classmates took off running to gather eggs, she was very selective about the ones she chose. 

K and her BFF's.

Planting the "magic beans."

Easter morning.

Look what sprouted from the "magic beans"--lollipop flowers!

Getting ready for church.

Love these girls!

Easter Sunday with Mimi and Papa.

Annual trip to Wilkerson's for seafood dinner.

Easter Sunday with Grammy and D-daddy.

More easter baskets at Grammy's house!

You must have been a beautiful baby.........

"You must have been a beautiful baby, cause baby, look at you now........."

I blinked and my sweet G has turned 11.  She is growing into such a beautiful young woman--on the inside and the outside. (Spoken like a true mother :-)

This was the first year that she didn't have a big "to-do" with all her friends.  I wish we could do the big party every year but we agreed after age 10 to only do parties on mile-stone birthdays. (Definitely some mommy-guilt on my part on this one.) We opted to spend the day together as a family this year--donuts for breakfast, a trip to Roberson's Music to buy a piccolo, to Sweet Reasons cupcake shop to pick out cupcakes for everyone, to the movies to see the new release "Cinderella" and then dinner at El Charro.

The picture below is our first family of three pic taken while we were in China and G's school pic from this year.   I can only say, "Wow!"

and I wonder where she gets it?????

I recently ordered new fleece-lined Crocs for the girls and instead of my choices, they got to pick out their own.

K chose a pair of dark pink Crocs with a zebra-stripe lining.  This definitely fits my "totally out there" girls.

Little Miss M chose a pair of Minnie Mouse Crocs-no surprise there!  When they arrived we had the big try on and I asked her how they felt.  Her response, "not real comfortable, but their soft on the inside."

Spoken like a true female.........not good, not bad, just always in the middle.  One day she is going to make someone the perfect wife!

"The Goose is Sensitive"

Each time we leave our house, we have to drive past a small pond where geese and ducks gather.  The ducks seem to keep to themselves and stay off the road but the geese are always going back and forth, making driving a bit of a hazard at times.

Yesterday we were on our way out of the neighborhood, and I was in a hurry, and we come up on three geese taking their time crossing the rode.  I slowed down and gently, eased up on them to hopefully convey the message that we needed to get a move on.

From the backseat a little voice says, "Mom, be careful!  Goose are very sensitive.  They are from God and Jesus and you must be very careful with them!"

Nothing like getting admonished on your driving skills from a 5 year-old!

Out with old, in with the new......

This past week I had to fill out a medical form for one of the girls that asked, "at what age were they sitting on their own," "at what age did they self-feed," "at what age did they walk unassisted."  I was pretty clueless when trying to recall that information from memory---I'm sure that makes me a bad parent---the good thing was that I was able to get most of the information from this blog!  So I now have a renewed sense of keeping this thing updated, not only so my children will have a record of all their growth accomplishments, but so that I can fill out future medical forms :-)

It was a crazy, busy December with the holidays and all the Christmas programs, parties, and family get-togethers.  I also got a new desktop and I'm struggling to get pictures from my phone to my desktop.  It seems there should be a much easier way than emailing them to myself from my phone.

Next, January followed with some missed school days because of the weather, and what seemed like daily dance practice for the Nutcracker performance that the two oldest girls were in.  The end of the month finished with the girls all being sick.

Thankfully, February is slowly, moving along, and I am just enjoying the moments before it's time to get into the craziness  of scheduling summer camps and activities.

I've tried to just recap some of December and January in the pictures that follow. 

Annual visit to Christmastown.  This year we got to take a picture with the Clydesdales.

Is this one beautiful kid, or what?

That face!  Really?? He's as bad as the kids.

The girls delighted in seeing how fast they could make this thing spin.

G's first band concert.

Kindergarten Nativity Play.  K was one of the "WiseGirls".

Preschool Christmas Program.

My two peas in a pod.  I'm relishing the matching outfits because I know that it's not going to last much longer.

Look at those cheesy grins!  Like father, like daughter.

G's school Christmas party.  Love the photobomb!

Christmas celebration at Grammy's house.

Christmas celebration at Mimi's house.

Christmas Eve celebration at Aunt Brenda's house.

G and K were Santa's Helpers this year.

Christmas morning at our house.

Little Miss M loving her new Minnie Mouse Hat.

My sweet, handsome Bobo.

And the first tooth came out in January, and on the same day as her BFF.

Snapped this pic of the tooth fairy's visit--wink, wink :-)  K's only comment, "why doesn't she have any shoes on?"

K's first Nutcracker performance.  She was in the Babydoll dance.

G was in the Lollipop dance.

And the Courtier dance, which was her favorite.

And in the Older Sisters dance.