Kiya's Sweet Tooth (if she had teeth...)

When daddy come home for lunch he sometimes splurges and makes himself an ice cream cone...Kiya has discovered that she very much like them.

McDonalds Made Me Do It

Before we moved into my parents house we had made the decision to let Trevin stay at his Elementary School for 2 more weeks before transfering him to the one by us now. We did this for a few reasons. First, Trevin loves his school. It's been the school that he has been at since 1st grade so he is very comfy there. I wanted to make the transition as easy as possible and a couple things were happening in the upcoming weeks that he had been looking forward to for quite a while. Every school has fundraisers. Every year. They may be different thinks like cookies, chocolates, wrapping paper or coupon books but they all have them. This year Trevin was one of the top sellers of the school. It doesn't hurt that he has aunts, uncles, grandparents and neighbors galore who just happen to love being sucked into these things (THANK YOU ALL). So with Trevin being the master salesman that he is (or just having such a HUGE family net) he got the grand prize of riding in a firetruck to McDonalds and eating lunch with the firemen. oh, hallah. He had a great time, as you can see below. The other reason that we waited a few weeks to move him was that his class was scheduled to go to Clear Creek and Trevin would have been devastated if he hadn't been able to go. So he went, and he had a blast and then he transfered and didn't like it, but he has lived through it and we are proud of him for it.

Kids at home...

Now that Above Average Joe is working again the kids and I have a lot of time together. Kiya has a new bumbo that she loves...
Garrin likes it too...

...for several reasons...

Kiya has an exersaucer (thanks to a generous neighbor) and she loves playing with it...

...almost as much as Garrin does!

Hold, Please

Garrin has adjusted to having Kiya around in superhuman ways. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that he has very little to complain about in the attention department even with her around. See one of the blessings of Joe being unemployed is the fact that there are two loving (if occasionally sleep deprived) parents always around somewhere. So that natural "I-hate-this-new-thing-that-has-invaded-my-world-and-sucked-all-the-attention-away-from-me" phase, just really never happened. And I'm hoping never will now that there is a certain routine around the house.

Now because Garrin has no issues with his little sister he actually really likes being around her. He holds her hand, calls her cute, gives her his blanky when she is crying...all that good stuff. But my absolute favorite thing that he does is plunk him bum right down on the ground next to me and say "hold, PEASE". Not kidding, the first time he did it I welled up.

He sits very still and I put Kiya on his lap leaning against his chest for a moment and then pick her back up because even though he WANTS to hold her, he hasn't quite mastered how to. But everytime I pick her up for the first time I hear "PEASE, PEASE, PEASE!" And I place her on him again for a little bit. He will then turn his head to her and kiss her (or at least make the sound) and that is my cue to pick her up again. These are the things that I love about being a mom.

Big Brothers Rock

I say this from experience because I have 2 older brothers...Big Brother's Rock. It's not that they are always nice to you or take care of you, but occasionally you have these moments where you really, really love having big brothers. I am documenting this first "my big brother rocks moment" for Kiya.



I was in the bedroom and Above Average Joe was in the front room but was called outside for a few moments to talk to a neighbor, without my knowing about it. In this time of non- parental exhistance in the front room Kiya decided she was not happy. I did not respond quickly because I thought AAJ was out there to handle any difficulties. When it became apparent that either Joe was not in the room or had decided to become a neglectful parent I went out to the front room to asses the situation. Kiya was still fussy but Garrin had taken the matter into his own hands. He had gotten his blanket that has been his comfort for his life thus far and placed it on his little sister and was patting her. I just about bust into tears, it was so sweet. AND, it had calmed Kiya down. She loves her big brothers.

Just Keep Swimming!

My boys at the pool!

Garrin has the funniest run.

Trevin and my niece Jessi jumping into the pool.

Garrin has no fear of the water and swims really well already.

This is what happens when you ask Garrin where his toes are when he is in the pool. It's absolutely adorable and has only thrown himself back into the water once doing it.

this and that *UPDATED WITH PHOTO PROOF*

I have a ton of pictures to upload but honestly, I'm too lazy to do it today. So for today I will just say that Kiya now smiles! It melts both her father and I and it makes the sleep depervation a little more worth it.

Garrin has now learned to climb to the top of the bunk bed. The problem is he has yet to learn how to climb down so we get called in at random hours of the day (when nap time should be) and early in the morning (when everyone should still be asleep) to assist the small lad down to the floor. And just this evening we discovered that he can climb up on our bed on his own. This is no small feat. If you have seen our bed, you know of what I speak. I have to climb to get into our bed. It's tall enough for Above Average Joe...so it's high. This little guy is getting more and more difficult to keep up with. But his little sister does love watching him.

Pinewood Derby

Trevin and his dad made his car this year because Above Average Joe was busy planning the derby and waiting for his wife to pop. Trevin's car is in the #2 lane and he was SO proud of how well it turned out because he actually got to weild the power tools to make his car this year and pick all the colors and such.

Trevin's car is in the #1 lane in this picture.

Trevin took 1st overall because every race his car was in, he won. He was so excited when he came home with his blue ribbon for the night. I was sad that I missed the fun but luckily Above Average Joe took these shots for me so we can still have the memories. Good job, Trevin!

Backpeddling to Mother's Day...

I didn't get this post up before my little stint in the hospital so forgive me for the out of order posting but I had to acknowledge what a great Mother's Day I had. Above Average Joe got up and made me stuffed raspberry and cream cheese french toast (so yummy). Then Trevin's class had a little program that I got to go to where they sang us some songs and did a little poem about all the hats that mom's wear. Trevin had the part about mom's being chef's.

And this is the really cute cards that he made me at school (on Friday, since Mother's Day was Sunday).
On the official Mother's Days is when I had my special breakfast and then after church where I got more cute notes from both my boys (thanks to their teachers) we went to my mom's house where Above Average Joe took over the cooking again for us and made up some superb fajitas at my request. It was a great Mother's Day and I was really happy that Kiya waited a few days to come after that.

ps. love you, mom.