Hello Kids!

When I was in 3rd grade I had a teacher, Mrs. Smith, who always talked about how children should be called children not kids. 

Because a kid is a baby goat! 

Random, I know.

But that has seriously stuck with me!  

Thursday afternoon when I got to Anna-Kate's school there was a van full of kids! 

And by kids I mean baby goats! :)

Actually there were 4 cuties. I got to walk in behind them. 

They were going to visit the children in Anna-Kate's class! 

The babies were a little scared and hungry, but really cute. I was so glad that I got to see Anna-Kate with them and take a few pictures. Even if they were just on my phone! (excuse the poor quality!)

Anna-Kate was so serious about the whole thing, but she really liked it! 

Sick Mommy and Mischievous Pups!

This week has been a tough week for me! I started getting sick from my allergies Monday and did not start feeling better until today! Ick! 

The dogs didn't get their morning walks in until today so they have been such stinkers! Tuesday they raided the pantry and got into some boxed mixes on the lower shelf. Of course the boxes got drug into the living room and then ripped open! Wednesday when I got home after lunch the trash can had been drug into the living room and they had tried to claw it open! (Thank goodness for lids that snap closed!) Thursday the dogs got back into the pantry and pulled out a canister of oats and not only drug that into the living room, but they then decided it'd be best to finish them off in my bed!! Not the best day to skip making up the bed! Oh and one of them had gotten a box of jello and ripped open the packets on my sofa! I just wanted to cry!! 

Reagan is a very high-energy dog and needs lots of exercise so obviously I failed at doing that this week! I will be walking them too much next week! 

I'm glad to be feeling better finally but sadly Thomas is now sick with all of the congestion. :( Yesterday he slept so long I'm embarrassed to say. But when he finally woke up I knew why- he was not himself and seemed to be icky feeling! Poor little guy! :( I can't stand it when my babies are sick! He cried off and on since 1:30 this afternoon. It's just so unlike Thomas to be fussy- I know he really doesn't feel well! It was so hard to get him to sleep and usually it's nothing for him to be in bed by 6:45. I'm guessing it's his allergies but afraid that he might have an ear infection. 

I'm definitely looking forward to a good- productive weekend and a much, much better week next week!! I've got my first meeting of Ladies class on Wednesday and my first MOPs group meeting on Thursday!! And hopefully a make-up girls night somewhere in the mix! Can't wait! :) 

Yogurt Time!

I have started giving Thomas about 2-3 ounces of yogurt mixed with 2-3 ounces of fruit for breakfast. He loves it! Usually he eats it all up, no problems! 

Well, a couple of weeks ago I  woke up so groggy! Thomas was hungry, hungry so I just got a few ounces of yogurt and decided to skip out on the fruit. I noticed that the yogurt was a little thick but I just thought it was because I didn't add the fruit. 

Strange thing was that Thomas kind of looked at me funny while I was feeding him but he just ate it anyway. 

I even got a few cute pictures of him eating his yogurt!

After breakfast I let him play with Anna-Kate while I picked up breakfast. I opened the refrigerator to put something away and I noticed something... 

hmm... that's the yogurt container, but that's not what I fed him from.  

So I looked over at the container I used and realized 

it was 

SOUR CREAM! 

I gasped!

I FED MY BABY SOUR CREAM...

FOR BREAKFAST...

AND HE ATE IT!!! 

Then I laughed at myself until I cried! 

Oh man... my poor children! They have no idea what they're up against!! 

I made sure to get more sleep that night. :)

Wordless Wednesday- Baking Goodies!

Sleepy Girl

So Anna-Kate is a good napper... I mean she still takes a 2-4 hour nap and it does not affect her bedtime! 

Well at school they get an hour and a half!! Eek! Poor thing is having a bit of a rough time with it. When I pick her up she's been throwing fits over one thing or another but I hate to get mad because I know how tired she is! 

Last Monday I parked across the street to pick her up. Well she walked sooo slow that I decided that was not a good idea! ha! 

Wednesday she told her teachers that her arms were too tired to color! 

Oh my! She's a mess!

 I'm working on getting her in bed around 7 or 7:15 but that just seems SO early! Plus that's not always practical. I thought that she would sleep in on Saturday- nope! She was up at 6:45 ready for school! 

She cried when we told her that the school was closed on Saturdays! Ha! 

3 Years Old!

I'm sure it's getting a little old hearing about Anna-Kate's birthday! I have never put anything up on what she's doing, like I do with Thomas. 

Probably not the most fun read for you, but I have loved being able to go back and see where Thomas was at different points... so bear with me! :)

At 3 years old Anna-Kate...

Weighs 27 pounds and is 34" tall (2'10")

She is not really a picky eater. Her favorite food is probably broccoli. She loves pretty much everything. I try to encourage her to at least try everything on her plate. She is a little stubborn with that but still eats pretty good. Usually it's in spurts where she eats a ton for a few days and then she goes through another spurt where she doesn't hardly eat for a few days. She will never turn down chocolate though! She absolutely loves it!

Anna-Kate takes a 2-4 hour nap each day. The harder she plays, the longer she sleeps. 

She is sleeping around 10-12 hours a night. No matter when she goes to bed she is up by 7:30 am! I guess that will be great for when she's going to school. 

She is such a creative, imaginative little girl! Derek and I love to peek in when she's playing and watch! She loves to play school and be the teacher with her "class." She will set up stuffed animals and sing and play with them, although usually "everybody's not sitting down" and so someone has to go to timeout! haha. She's really funny about her pretend play- she gets really embarrassed if she knows we are watching her!

She loves to "call" her friends and tell them about her day. She will call her "best friends" Ben, Kristen or sometimes her imaginary best friend. Yes- she has an imaginary friend! Anna-Kate usually calls her "Kate-Kate" which is actually Ben's nickname for her! Haha! Last week, we were shopping for Derek's birthday present. He wanted a particular book and I was searching high and low for it. Anna-Kate asked for my phone "to play games" on it. I handed it over and didn't think much about it. A few minutes later I heard, "hi daddy, we are looking for your book. Mommy can't find it!" I looked at the phone and she had CALLED Derek and put him on speaker phone to tell him what we were doing! She then told him about the rest of the gifts we had gotten him!

I guess I know she can't keep a secret now! She gets that from Derek! :)

I think her absolute favorite thing is singing!! Anna-Kate will just randomly make up words to songs and dance around the house singing at the top of her lungs! She loves to listen to her children's music cd's in the car, which drives Derek crazy since he too enjoys music! I love that it drives Derek crazy, so I usually try to speak up for Anna-Kate! ha!

Anna-Kate loves to help in the kitchen! Anytime I'm making dinner or lunch she wants to be right next to me helping. I have to be careful though because she likes to taste everything so her little fingers end up in the food at some point. Her favorite part of cooking withe me is licking out the bowl, whether it is mashed potatoes or brownies!

She is such a joy in our lives. I love how sweet and caring she is and how that balances with her spunky and playful side. She loves to joke around. In fact, one of her new favorite phrases is "I'm just kidding!"

This is such a fun age, even though it comes along with some of it's own frustrations and "growing pains", there are so many laughs and sweet moments!

Tell Me Why...

a mother who sees this... 

runs for her camera?? 

I left Thomas in his room for just a few minutes. When I realized how quiet he was I ran back in to catch him with his hand in the toilet and the biggest grin on his face! 

He was SO proud of himself! 

EEK! I definitely washed his hands... thoroughly! 

Oh my... I think I'm in for it!

Wordless Wednesday- Unseen iPhone Pics

First Day of Preschool!

Well Anna-Kate started preschool yesterday morning! 

Last January she started a different preschool where she went Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She did really great with it and seemed to really love it. 

Here she is last January- She's grown SO much!! 

So we decided that she could go to Harding Academy the next fall. They have a 3- and 4- year old preschool program. 

We started preparing Anna-Kate pretty early on this summer. Sometime in June or so, we took her over and let her see their playground. Then just a couple of weeks ago we took her by again to see the playground and she got to peek in at her classroom. (All the lights were off but she could see a little!) Anna-Kate was really excited! Every time we'd pass the school she'd say something about going to "hardimey cadamey!" 

I had to wake Anna-Kate up yesterday morning. As soon as she saw me she got this huge groggy grin on her face! When I told her it was time to get up for school she was so excited. She got up really easily! She was able to go right to her clothes and get dressed really easily. Putting in her bow wasn't even a big deal! 

Usually Derek will just drop her off in the mornings since he works on Harding's campus, but yesterday morning I wanted to be there too. So we all got to take her in and get a few pictures!

Kristen was already there and Anna-Kate went right over to her.

When they get to school, they pick out their name and put it on the bookshelf!

Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Penny! So excited!

Thomas and I walked a bit after we dropped her off
 (a short bit because I'm out of shape!) and then we went home so Thomas could take a nap! He ended up sleeping about 3 hours. It was such a quiet morning that I decided to take a short nap too! 

After lunch Thomas and I just played in his room and picked up a bit! Then we ran a quick errand and went to pick up Anna-Kate around 3!

When I went in to get her she was finishing her snack but was really excited to see us and show us the picture she made! Her teacher said she did really well and had a great day! She hugged her teachers bye and said "I'll be back tomorrow"! ha! 

I parked across the street but I decided not to do that again because Anna-Kate was so tired and walked REALLY slow! It was pretty funny though! 

I'm really excited to see how things go but I'm pretty sad! It's so quiet without her! 

With that being said, I think I'm going to have to agree with what everyone else is saying... I'm READY for the fall!! I love pumpkins and mums and caramel apples and halloween and the cooler weather!!

Back From Vacation!

Ha- I wish! 

Actually we left the computer charger in Lepanto last week and decided to try a week computer free! 

What a rough week it was! ;)

I'll recap the week real quick: 

Monday Anna-Kate and I got a much needed hair cut. Then I spent the rest of the day catching up on laundry and housework. 

Tuesday I caught up on things around the house and then went to dinner and a movie with a friend! I always love it when I can take a girls night! Derek is always a good sport to do that for me! He fed and bathed Anna-Kate and Thomas! They were both in bed when I got home! I went to see Charlie St. Cloud. Derek made so much fun of me over that, but I actually loved it. I thought it was really sweet! 

Wednesday Thomas and I went to Little Rock and met up with Ashley and her daughter Addi at the Rhea Lana Consignment sale! I found so many good deals for Anna-Kate and even got Thomas a few cute things! Thomas was SO good while I shopped and really enjoyed flirting with people! I would be looking through clothes and he would just start saying "hiii" to everyone he saw! After we shopped we ate lunch at Mimi's. I had so much fun! Addi is such a sweetheart! It was really nice to chat with Ashley at lunch! After lunch we headed home for a much needed nap! 

Thursday Anna-Kate's friend Ben and his mommy Liz came over to play. They had  a bunch of fun but Anna-Kate can be a bit overbearing with Ben. He's so sweet to Anna-Kate though! 

Friday Derek got to take the day off and he spent the morning getting our fence started! Derek's dad also came over to help Derek use the jackhammer. He had to make 4 holes in our driveway. He got those finished and even put the posts in! He has 3 or 4 more posts to put up. The posts have to set for about a week before we can put the rest of the fence up. Hopefully it wont be much longer!! :) I really need to take a picture of the progress! Anna-Kate picked out all of her outfits for her first week of school! She was so cute doing it too! She even picked out a bow and 2 silly bands for each day! Haha!

Saturday was so nice because we had no plans! We just relaxed and enjoyed a nice day with the family! 

Sunday Anna-Kate, Thomas and I stayed in Searcy and went to church here. Anna-Kate had preschool orientation at Harding Academy at 1 so if we had gone to Lepanto, we would have been late, like Derek! :) I was just so grateful that he got to be there for most of her orientation. Orientation at 1:00 is a tough time for preschoolers! Anna-Kate was SO wound up and sleepy! I could tell she was really excited! 

We had a good last week of "summer"! 

Anna-Kate started preschool this morning! Stay tuned for the update on her first day! 

Derek's Birthday Bash!

Okay, so it wasn't really a "bash" but Tuesday night Derek's family came over to celebrate his birthday! 

I had planned on attempting to make his cake on my own with homemade butter cream icing! Then I decided he needed ice cream. 

Since his favorite thing ever is chocolate, I went with a dark chocolate cake mix and then made chocolate buttercream icing. Derek told me a while ago that vanilla ice cream was too boring, so I made double chocolate peanut butter ice cream! It was REALLY rich but good! 

I wish I had gotten a picture of my cake, since I actually was able to decorate it, but my camera battery died on Saturday and I haven't charged it! Whoops! 

Since I was doing so much I decided to just pick up a lasagna from the Mixing Bowl. It's a place right down the street that makes up meals and you can just buy them, pop them in the oven and you're good to go. No mess. It was really good! I'm glad I didn't have to cook. :)

Derek's been getting a lot of attention lately, with his graduation Saturday and all...  so I think he's had enough now. ;) Ha- I'm exhausted!

Wordless Wednesday- Playtime Around The House

Master Derek!

I thought Derek would appreciate that title! Haha!

I am so very proud to say that Derek has completed his Masters of Business Administration degree- with honors!

What a great feeling it is! This is the first time that Derek is “class- free.” I know that he’s feeling so much better now that the stress of classes are off his back.

Derek graduated on Saturday morning at 10 am.

I went on early so that we could get a good seat. When I sat down I realized that my blog friend Whitney was graduating Saturday morning too! We sat right behind her husband and daughter and their family! Congrats Whitney!

Anna-Kate enjoyed playing with Eden while we waited on things to start. Eden even shared her goldfish!

It's hard to see, but Derek is in the row behind all the guys with the "bare" heads. He's sitting next to a girl with long hair. 

Finally a picture of me and Thomas! It's hard being the one who takes all the pictures! 

Walking out! Derek is the last graduate you can see. He's walking right next to the seats. Derek said walking in and out was his favorite part. I didn't get a picture of him walking in, so here you go Derek! 

It's about time we had a family picture! 

So proud of you!! 

You're done!! 

After graduation, we had an hour for lunch before Derek had to be back on campus to officiate a wedding!  While he was up there, he ran into some friends that he went to high school with, Ashley and Josh.

Ashley and Josh have a daughter, Addison who is about 3 weeks older than Thomas! She’s quite a cutie. I enjoy reading about her on their blog too! I was so sad that I didn’t get to see them!

I went home and let Anna-Kate and Thomas get an hour or so long nap and then changed Anna-Kate since she got her dress dirty at lunch. We headed to the wedding after that.

Derek got the wonderful honor of marrying Megan and Brandon Bennett. Megan is the sister to one of his best friends. It was a beautiful wedding! I wish I had gotten more pictures of it!  Megan was an absolutely beautiful bride! We felt so blessed to have gotten to participate is such a special event.

I wish I had gotten more pictures of the wedding! I seemed to be taking more pictures of Anna-Kate and Kristen than anything, but that was probably because they were a bit wild! 

One of the only times the girls actually sat down... 

The girls had several pieces of chocolate which probably accounted for their crazy behavior. I was a tad embarrassed because they ran all over the place! 

The girls tried to catch the bouquet, haha. 

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of our family!! 

After the wedding we all went home and rested!  I was so tired from rushing around all day that I didn’t feel up to cooking and so we decided to go out with Derek’s family and some friend that are visiting from New Jersey. They have two little girls, so Anna-Kate and Kristen enjoyed getting to play with them!

Even though we were in Lepanto, we spent most of the day just relaxing and resting up! Our week is looking busy already. Seems like Derek’s wanting to get a lot done now that he’s got a little bit more free time! I don’t blame him!