Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for every successful diaper change I complete with a squirmy 9 month old.

I'm thankful Kent's home.

I'm thankful for a visit from my cousin and her two boys. Wish we got together more often!

I'm thankful for the grocery app Kent put on our phones.  You guys it is life changing.  We used to have this problem where Kent would say, "Laura we're out of fill in the blank".  I would nod as if I heard him.  Neither party would write it down, then when I would go grocery shopping a few days later and come home without that item, well, it went a little something like this:

"I told you we needed _____"

"Did you write it down?"

"No, but I told you!"

"How was I supposed to remember? If you need something, write it down!"

"Well I don't even know where you keep a list."

"Ughhh! Well I'm totally not going back for it.  So if you want it next time, write it down."

"Fine, where's the list?"

(Insert picture of me rolling my eyes.)

Now, friends, enter our grocery app.  If Kent realizes we're out of something, he just types it in on his phone and like magic, MAGIC I tell you, it pops up on the list on my phone.  The very same phone that I always have on me when I'm shopping.  So I don't even have to carry a handwritten list, which, by the way, Kase usually grabs out of my hands and tries to eat anyways. I can't even tell you how much I adore this app. I think it's called OurGroceries.

Moving on. :)

I'm thankful for a whole stash of baby stuff my mom brought me from Target the other day.  There was a deal where if you buy a billion diapers they give you a Target gift card, so Mom went ahead and bought me the billion diapers, a couple cans of Kase's crazy expensive formula AND gave me the gift cards.  Moms rock.  Well, mine does at least. :)  She knocks it out of the park really.

I'm thankful that while Kent was out of town I got to take Kael to his wrestling practice. No, that's not a joke and no, I'm not trying to be sarcastic.  Kent always takes Kael and I've never really gotten to see Kael in action and wrestling practice.  It was cool to see him there- just so happy, and  in his element.  It's fun watching your kids do something they love so much, right?

I'm thankful Super Bowl Sunday is upon us and I'm thankful that since I don't care much for either team this year I can shamelessly say I'm truly as excited for the snacks and commercials as I am the game.

I'm thankful that I have children of both genders.  Really I had no idea what a blessing that would be.  Kent has fun fake shaving with Kael. (Well, Kent is real shaving.  Kael is not.) And I get to do fun girl stuff with Kylee.  It's fun for me to be a mother of boys, too.  And to say Kent is crazy about his little girl would be an understatement. :) 

I'm thankful for snow days and playdates with neighbors.

Lots to be thankful for today.  How about you?

Stuff

I've been catching some slack for my shorter than normal posts. In my defense, it is awfully tricky to write such verbose posts from a phone.  Anyhow, you asked for it... (well, one of you did.  The rest of you, enjoy. :)

I recently discovered that Kael doesn't do puzzles starting with the outside pieces, then filling in the middle.  Rather, he does them from left to right.  This is fascinating to me.  I don't know anyone else who does puzzles like that, do you?

Kent has turned into quite the handyman for me. Please excuse the blurry iPhone photos.  I'm still working on filling the first set of shelves with pictures, but the shelves themselves are PERFECT.  I love them and seriously am considering filling every open wall in the house with the same.exact.shelves.

This next one I saw on Pinterest, but the ones I saw used four crates instead of two.  For one, Kase is small and we really just needed a small shelf.  Secondly, Kent and I were tired of priming and painting.  Third of all, I had only bought two crates to begin with and the day I planned to go back and get another it was freezing rain out and I refused to get out of my pajamas to go across town for another crate.

OK so Kase LOVES these next shelves Kent built him! He stands there and pulls every single book out. Have you seen this idea on Pinterest also? The idea is to use IKEA spice racks behind kids doors for books.  Mega space saver, right? It's just that I'm not trekking all the way to IKEA for $4 spice racks.  Enter Kent.  He built them for me using leftover wood from previous projects.  In other words, FREE! Take that, $4 IKEA shelves! ;)

In other news, Kase thinks he can climb stairs.  He can't.  But he sure looks cute trying.

This morning before school Kylee and I whipped up a batch of homemade granola bars.  I was out of chocolate chips so we used peanut butter chips.  They turned out fine, mostly I was excited that we made 28 granola bars for literally pennies.  I figured out the other day that I serve 33 after school snacks every week (7 on MTWF and just 5 on Thursdays).  So any opportunity to save money on after school snacks is a total win in my book.

There is far too much wrestling in this house, if you ask me.

Could someone please teach me how to hold my hand more steady when I am taking phone pictures? Honestly, Laura. Do better.

Kent is in Georgia for work for a few days.  He's been gone for 7 hours which means that I have only about 50 hours left to get through until he gets home.  Not that I'm on the countdown or anything.  We miss you, Kent!!!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful that Kael got invited to a birthday party this weekend.  I know that's not a big deal for some of your kids, but it is for Kael.  See, he has been invited to parties before, but really only parties of kids I babysit, or neighbors, or kids of moms that I'm friends with.  The party this weekend is a friend Kael made at school, someone who I didn't know first, someone I didn't try to forge a friendship with for Kael's sake.  A friend Kael made completely on his own.  I'm so excited for him.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to volunteer at Kael's school.  Seeing his smile in the middle of the day is just so reassuring.  I'm so glad to know he's a happy kid at school.

I'm thankful I have some Chicken and Wild Rice soup simmering away in the crock pot for supper.  Soup is the only way to go when it is this freezing out!

I'm thankful that every breathing treatment we go through with Kase means we are one more step closer to being done with them.  He definitely doesn't love the mask.

I'm thankful for our loud, crazy, silly, happy home.  There is a whole passel of kids here every day after school and it is a chaotic, awesome thirty minutes.  The kids have all been coming here for the last six years and it never ceases to amaze me how well they get along, how much fun they have together and how creative they can be with the same, old stuff.

Short and sweet again.  Have a great weekend!

On being productive

All this being stuck inside has its advantages.

Kylee and I decorated a bit for Valentines Day. These heart garlands were so fun to make!

Kent finished three shelves for me and my very high, perfectionist expectations. I will post pictures once I have them decorated.

I made a big batch of pizza dough for homemade pizza lunchables for the kids.

I organized a TON of family pictures and sorted them neatly into photo boxes for each kid.

While I am motivated in this new year, I am equally exhausted. Wonder how much I could get done if I ever got a full nights sleep??

Sick, again

Winter, why do you hate us so??? What did we ever do to you??

I was really looking forward to a day home with the kids. We planned a couple of fun outings that we were all excited about. Then, it was -10 degrees out. And then Kase was sick. Kael and Kylee were SUCH troopers as we spent half of their precious day off at the doctor's office.

As it turns out, Kaser has double ear infection, and honestly I am thrilled we have made it this far without him having one. Then there's this cough/wheeze thing he has going on which my doc labeled as bronchialitis/restrictive airway disease. (Although she tells me that it is her professional opinion that he has RSV, there was just no real need to test for it since we would treat it the same as we plan anyways.) She gives me a prescription for the ears and instructions for a breathing treatment for him.

It took awhile to run all around town picking up sick baby necessities and prescriptions. My parents saved the day and took Kael and Kylee bowling so they at least could have fun. Killed me to not be with them but not being with Kaser when he was so sick would have killed me a little bit more.

So, we struggle thru yet another winter sickness, more sleepless nights and a bad case of cabin fever.

Hurry up spring!

Right now I'm...

...working on Kylee's kindergarten registration papers.  Girl is sooo ready!

...looking forward to a Mexican-themed night in with the neighbs.

...PSYCHED about the nearly 60 degree temps we're going to have this afternoon. Spring fever.

...loving that my mom dropped of some tubs of my old school papers.  It is so fun to look back through things I did when I was little.  Makes me wonder if I'm saving enough of Kael, Kylee and Kase's things? The ten tubs I have marked "Kids Keepsakes" in the basement lead me to believe I've held on to plenty of memories.  Now if I could just get them as nice and neatly organized as my mom has mine.

...overusing the word "totally". A friend and I took Kylee and  her daughter shopping yesterday, bought them BFF shirts and let them try on nearly every pair of shoes in Children's Place.  Ky and her friend Kaelyn kept saying things like, "These are like totally so cool."  Then the other would respond, "Like, totally." This exact conversation happened no less than twenty times and now I can't stop saying, "Totally" to anything anyone asks me.

...really really hopeful that Kent can make time this weekend to build  me some little shelves for a gallery wall of pictures. Now that we have at least a few things on the walls, I'm dying to just finish the job and get the whole house decorated.

...hearing some adorable little baby squeaks coming from upstairs.  My cue to wrap it up and go snuggle a baby.  :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for any minute that Kase sleeps.  He is still waking up several times a night and napping sporadically at best.

I'm thankful we're all feeling better.

I'm thankful for dinner plans with friends.

I'm thankful for warm-ish weather.

I'm thankful the spaghetti Kylee barfed up over the weekend has almost come out of the carpet. You're welcome for that visual. :)

I'm thankful for coffee. (How many times has that made the Thankful Thursday cut? At least a dozen...)

I'm thankful for other people with young children who just "get it".

I'm thankful my mom is the one downstairs refereeing an argument between Kael and a friend.  Sometimes a fresh take on things is what Kael needs to gain a different perspective on things.  I feel like I'm always repeating myself.

I'm thankful for a low-key weekend ahead.  One basketball game is all we have on the docket besides one of my besties coming to visit.  Ahhh I can NOT wait!

I'm thankful for the spinach cubes in my freezer.  Now if only I had some fruit I could throw in and make a smoothie.  Why do I always have HALF the ingredients???

What are you thankful for today?