Friday Faves- Schools Out Edition!

They say childhood passes in the blink of an eye.....

If the rest of her schooling is anything like this year,  then I truly believe it!

I cannot believe it's summer break around here already

 and my first little baby girl is now going to be a first grader!

First Day

Last Day

Today's Favorite #1 is this big girl and all her Kindy accomplishments:

Kinsey did phenomenal during Kindergarten. No bad behavior days, no trouble being at school all day, she made lots and lots of friends, and she mostly ate her lunch :/

She's now reading at the 18-20 level (which Scholastic's website says is second grade!) and currently obsessed with the 'Magic Tree House' series of chapter books. She's come a long way- barely knowing but a handful of sight words at the beginning fo the school year!

Her penmanship is great- she even practices cursive at home because she 'wants to write pretty like mommy does'. I think the area she most needs to work on is spelling and sounding out words when writing. That's one area I plan to focus on withe her during summer homework.

We sent her off this morning fro her last half day of the year! She wanted to wear the same dress as her first day...which makes for good comparison pictures, too. (mama-razzi approves!)

Favorite #2 was part of her teacher gifts:

She took some necklaces for her teachers, along with a handwritten card including drawings of their favorite things by Kinsey.

I know plenty of kids still have a few weeks of school- so I'm attaching a link to this cute little notecard I designed for her teachers. It's FREE and prints two to a page.

click here for MediaFire Free Download

Favorite #3 is this FREE printable Summer Schedule from my last post!

Favorite #4 is one simple word: SUMMER

We will be making our summer bucket list soon- the girls and I are ready for days spent in swimsuits, barefoot and eating popsicles on the porch!

Linking up:

A Little Bit of Everything Blog

Grace and Love Blog

Momfessionals

As always- please leave a comment or pin my blog image if you download the FREE printables! Thanks!

Life Lately

Life lately is a usual, busy. I'm constantly wanting time to slow down and wishing there were more hours in the day to get everything done and while still soaking up this precious time with my babies.

Also, I put them to bed and then promptly fall asleep on the sofa most nights....zzzzzz.

They wear me out and I'm typically up several times a night 

with little Miss Insomniac (aka Savannah)

It's a good thing she's cute.

This is her after bath hair-do. 

Makayla often plays dress up while big sis is at school.

The girls are still giddy and screaming with excitement with every balloon sighting,

 even though they are near weekly occurrences. 

Makayla has started drawing people and animals- this is her and daddy!

Someone is crawling everywhere. Sometimes like this, and other times on her knees.

 Her days are currently spent working hard pulling to stand up on things 

I cut about 4 inches off my hair. 

With post partum hair loss it was looking a bit lackluster being so long.

We've been sick.....a lot. Each time it seems to drag on for weeks, one down....3 days later the next kid catches it, etc. Finally we are better for a week and then the next bug has stricken us! So ready for a healthy household, especially after this sweetie having her first ear infection.

Kinsey has been helping more around the house- her current favorite thing is peeling...potatoes, carrots, etc. She LOVES to help me cook. 

She's also been branching out and more willing to try food she had previously refused, like mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs. Makes life a little easier when your kids are less picky!

Lots of tea parties with this sweetie. 

I'm planning a post about her eyes soon,

 but she's scheduled for a surgery in late April to further correct her strabismus. 

My little fashonista. All decked out for school one day in an outfit she picked. It's getting harder and harder to chose her clothes for her! She's going great in Kindergarten, reading ahead of where she needs to be and catching on to the math concepts they teach quickly. Her current obsession is jellyfish, she loves watching you tube videos about them and then reciting facts she has learned.

So that's a little of our daily life. Between diapers, dishes, school drop of and pickup and running my design business  we plan to have a lot of fun this Spring! 

Hands Full. Heart Full.

When you have three girls it's like there's a flashing sign above your head that reads:

***Make a comment about my family***

Because these phrases are said to me on the daily:

"You trying for a boy next?"

"You sure have your hands full"

"Oh, what a beautiful baby....oh, wow....and you have two more kids!"

"You know what causes those right?"

etc.etc.etc.

I'm 100% sure moms of four or more kids get these types of comments, and moms with three boys, and moms with both boys and girls. Heck, I got the "you trying for a boy next" comment all the time when I had two kids.

Basically, people like to point out the obvious.

 Apparently they think I don't know I have my hands full 

and the drama from 3 teenage girls will age me 10 years?

Trust me, I know my hands are full. I feel the fact that I have 2 hands and 3 kids every.single.day.

But I also know that all that makes me crazy also makes me happy beyond measure.

Those three little ladies make my heart burst on the daily.

So join me in celebrating the craziness that is having your hands full with children.

 Because it's also what makes my heart the happiest.

Click here to download this free, hand drawn "Hands Full, Heart Full" 8 x 10 print

Can be printed at any size desired

P.S. This is my 100th post! Only took me 6 years of blogging very irregularly to get there.

Linking Up To:

Strawberry Mommycakes

The Chaos of It All

In the shower today I was soaking up the silence, the heat, the peacefulness of the moment. Don't get me wrong, I had about 5 minutes to get in out and move on with my day while the big girls played playdoh and the baby napped. But it was 5 minutes of relaxation in a typical day full of chaos. I closed my eyes and thought.....

                               "This is the best part of my day"

I quickly opened my eyes as my conscience reprimanded itself. Yes, it's true that this may be the most PEACEFUL part of my day- a day filled with fevers, teething babies, sisters fighting and the inevitable clean up of all that playdoh.- but it was far from the BEST part of my day.

The best part of my day could very well be the snuggles I get from that toddler with a fever, the happy giggles I get when I play peek a boo with the baby, or the sweet whispers of "you're the best mom ever!" by my kindergartner as I tuck her in tonight.

It truthfully is all of those things and so many more. The small moments of beauty, love, and happiness- after all isn't that what we are all doing this game of life for?

When I look back at this time in my life 10 years from now- when I don't have a baby under foot and all my kids are rushed to school every morning. I know I won't remember that 5 minute shower and how good it felt to my body, that shower will still be there as part of my day. It's true that we all need those peaceful moments to be a better mom, wife, friend, etc. But sometimes it's the moments in between the peace, the real life bumps and quirks, that really become the best part of our days.

I will definitely remember those moments of beauty in the chaos that is parenting.

I'll miss helping them tie their shoes and zip their coats a million times a day.

The baby cuddles at midnight will be long in the past, but a tiny part of my heart will pang to cherish them just one more time.

I'll miss cutting their food into little pieces, even the pizza and pancakes. I'll miss the spills and piles of dirty clothes waiting to be washed.

The sisters will still fight, but it will likely be over ipads, clothes or who gets to ride shotgun, not who can run faster or who gets to be which ninja turtle.

So this day, filled with chaos....I'm going to soak it ALL up. The BEST part of my day will always be watching my children grow. No matter how crazy they make me.

Twenty Questions for a Two Year Old

Breakdown in mommy's words:

Fruit is her favorite thing. period.

Apples are fruit, refer to question #1. True.

Chicken nuggets are #2 on the list of her favorite foods, 

preferably from Chick-fil-A (kid has her momma's taste in nuggets)

When asked if she wants chicken nuggets she will respond with

 "Yes! And fries, and chocolate milk and ranch and ketchup!"

heh.

She is actually a good vegetable eater, but like her sister will only eat them raw.

I actually think her favorite game to play is cars- she can regularly be found carrying her little matchbox Lightening McQueen and Mater to the store, nap time, bath time, etc.

They are her favorite characters right now, hands down.

Pretty sure she copied her sister on the favorite color and animal.

She hears it all day long from Kinsey, so it doesn't surprise me she just copies her answers here.

She's quite the copy-cat of her sister these days.

Momma's songs would most likely mean, "You are my sunshine"

But it could also be "radioactive" by imagine dragons....who knows ;)

Apparently daddy was on her mind at the end of this questionnaire...

Doesn't surprise me because she is quickly shaping up to be a Daddy's Girl.

Some of my favorite things about 2 year old Makayla are:

Her bouncy, crazy, curls. Love them.

The sweet little personality she has "me want to hold you mama"

She's my little cuddlebug.

Her silly side, 

when undressing to change clothes or for bath she often says 

"everybody gonna see me nakey!!!" and then runs around like crazy

Her love for her sister- she will often call for her after she gets hurt. 

She doesn't want mommy or daddy to comfort her, but instead her big sister.

Melts my heart.

Her love for certain toys, McQueen and Mater, Tigger, her glow baby, 

and most recently her Elmo doll. 

She can't go to nap or bed without tucking all of them into her blanket next to her.

She has great verbal skills already. She is starting to sing parts of her ABC's correctly (just parts) and can count from 1-10 + in both English and Spanish (no thanks to Dora on that last one, either!)

She's quite to little monkey, both in climbing skills and mischief making abilities.

Roy calls her "mono"

She's my baby girl and every time I look at how much she is growing, learning and changing I just want to pull her close to me and make time stand still. 

Stop growing up so fast, little Kay Kay!!!

My World

Life has been a little crazy lately, (when isn't it?) and even the best laid plans to blog more often have been pushed to the back-burner. 

Mostly because of these two cuties....my world. 

I'm currently working on a post about Makayla's 2nd Birthday Party (already?!?) and her 2 year photo shoot, plus lots of tutorials and recipes are in the works. 

Until then I leave you with the progression of a photo shoot with 2 kids under 5. Enjoy!

'What We Did' Wednesday

Today we made last minute plans with a friend to beat the heat and check out the new waterpark inside the local amusement park. After reviewing the website and seeing that kids 3 and under were free, we armed ourselves with half off coupons for our $15 admission and met up at the park. 

Then the cashier told us that all of the kids were indeed 'free' to get into the park, but admission to the waterpark was $10 per child that was able to play (i.e. could sit, crawl or walk) and $15 per adult- no coupons allowed.

 Um...yeah... no thanks. 

I'll let you in on a little secret * I'm cheap *

I try not to be so cheap that my kids miss out on experiences, but...that is a rip off plain and simple. We aren't talking about a waterpark with slides, rivers and wave machines...we are talking about a glorified splash pad with a bridge and balcony. 

So plan B was the old stand-by on a hot summer day- the city splash pad for $1 a person. 

Love it. 

No guilt here either because the girls thoroughly enjoyed their water fun 

and we didn't break the bank doing it. 

What...It's been over a year?

Wow! March 2011. That's the last post I wrote. It's now July 2012. Time. Has. Flown.

Here are some things that have happened since my last post (In no particular order):

- I crafted a lot.

- I left a lot of those projects unfinished...as usual.

- We went on a family vacation to Padre Island, Texas and then didn't want to come home.

- I photographed my second wedding and did some portraits along the way.

- Oh! I had a baby... Makayla Ann,  aka. Boo, was born July 28, 2011- she is the cutest little thing and I cannot believe she is about to be ONE!

-  I went brunette...than back to blonde 2 weeks later. I didn't like looking so serious, it made me depressed 

-  Kinsey turned 3 and will be 4 soon.

- We got the house all fixed up to sell, then met with a Realtor who promptly squashed all our dreams of selling. 

So now that you are all caught up, lets get down to why I decided to come back to this blogging world after so long. I missed writing. I missed sharing even if no one was reading. But most of all I missed knowing that someday I can look back on all this for myself, or with my girls, and it will be like a journal of our lives as a family. Of all the crafty things I do, scrapbooking is not one of them. So this is my little scrapbook for myself..and hopefully an interesting, insightful or just plain funny take on a normal mama's life. 

“There are two kinds of perfect: The one you can never achieve, and the other, by just being yourself.” 
― Lauren King