Poochie

When Connor was born, his Auntie Beth game him this huge, squishy stuffed dog. It has sat as a decoration in his bedroom window seat since we moved. The other day, Olivia and Kelsey got it down for him to play with. Something tells me Poochie will never again be a decoration. He's crammed into his crib with him every night!

See the love here? He's giving kisses!

Just ignore me telling Olivia to do her spelling homework at the end of this video and focus on the baby!

(And my FB friends, you'll have to link to the original post to see the video!)

It's Done!

Just a quick note to let you know that we closed on our house this morning and are going to have a busy week ahead of us! We will post updates as we can...

High Class Entertainment

Some things just never stop being fun. I was catching up on my blogging this morning while Connor entertained himself for a few minutes. This is what he was doing...

Looks proud of himself, doesn't he?

Then a few minutes later I looked over and saw this:

It's his toy basket. Isn't he just adorable?? Now there is a guy that knows how to relax!

To Cut, Or Not To Cut?

Yesterday morning we were getting ready for church and Ben said, "We need to get Connor a hairbrush." My reply was, "He doesn't need a hair brush, honey, he needs a hair cut."

So now we're having this ongoing discussion about whether it's time cut Connor's hair. If he was a girl, there would be no question about leaving the baby curls. But he's starting to look rather feminine, though still absolutely adorable.

So we're taking a poll: to cut, or not to cut?

(And these are the best pictures I could get chasing him around with the camera last night - he just won't be still these days!!)

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire!

This past spring we bought some flowers and planted them in front of our apartment, including marigolds. About that same time, Olivia brought home a marigold plant she had planted at school. Now, three months later, this is what they look like...

One of the marigold plants we bought from Wal-Mart:

The "marigold" plant Olivia grew from a seed at school (is it a tree??):

What IS this thing at the top? It's not a regular marigold blossom!

They lied, I tell you... they lied.

Gangsta

The house was quiet... I couldn't hear the kids... so I went searching.

I found the girls closeted in the bathroom with Connor. They were slicking down his hair. I fussed at them to come out of the bathroom and stop what they were doing, but of course I had to snap a picture when they did. This picture was just priceless! He looks like a little gangster.

The First Day: How It Went

Yesterday was Kelsey's first day of full-day Kindergarten. This means it was her first day eating lunch at school. I must stay I was filled with trepidation at the thought of my picky eater being consigned to cafeteria food. However, the menu said "pepperoni pizza wedge" and Kelsey really wanted to eat school lunch, so I agreed.

The first sign of trouble was when I was in the cafeteria before school dropping off lunch money to go into Kelsey's account. I found out the menu had been changed. To what? Oh, cheese quesadillas. Not bad, Kelsey likes those at home. She'll be fine. What I didn't count on was the fact that they would be using school cheese in those quesadillas. Apparently the cheese blend they use melts into 2 distinctive colors unlike the cheese blend we use at home. Kelsey thought they were macaroni and cheese quesadillas and wouldn't even try a bite! So for lunch, she had some of her orange and her chocolate milk. Poor little darlin'. I also noticed Kelsey's backpack was still very full and very heavy when we got home. She had never turned in her school supplies.

Otherwise Kelsey had a great day! She got to meet the principal and some other teachers at the school, and was shown around the place. She told me the principal had "grandma hair but not grandma skin". I guess this is supposed to mean that she has white hair but doesn't look very old.

As for Olivia, her day went well! For both girls it's a new school and both of their teachers have Smart Boards in their classroom, which are the coolest thing I've ever seen. It's like a giant touch-screen for their computer on steroids. Totally awesome. Olivia's glad this will be the last time she has to switch schools any time soon, and so am I.

Schools Back In!

And so it begins... another year of school! And another first for me. I have been a stay-at-home mom for 2 years this August. My first year Olivia was in 2nd grade and Kelsey was 3. After the first few weeks of school, I got the strong impression that I needed to home school Olivia, so we withdrew her in October at the end of the first 9 weeks. I was also working from home to help make ends meet while Ben was in his last year of school and I was pregnant with Connor, so needless to say I was exhausted and busy ALL THE TIME.

My second year as a SAHM we had just moved to Oklahoma. I had a brand new baby and a very bored 4-year old. My days were still busy, even after Kelsey got into pre-K around Christmas. 2 1/2 hours is not that long when you have to walk to the school to drop them off and pick them up. My days still felt like they revolved around school, and I had very little time to myself (it felt like).

Which brings us to this year. Connor is 14 months old, and a charming young man with a very nice napping schedule. Kelsey and Olivia are in school from 9:00 to 3:30, and now I have the whole day in front of me! I am loving this...

But enough about me. Here's the girls before school yesterday:

Do you see how hard it is raining?? I took that picture after 8:00 yesterday morning and it should have been bright and sunny! But no, the first day was dismal, dreary, and wet. At least for the first few hours. So we took poser pictures indoors, of course.

Doesn't she look so sweet?

And Olivia is just too cool for words!

Goodbye, Summer!

As I said before, our library has a great summer reading program! Not only did we get free Red Hawks tickets, but each girl also got a ticket to get in to either Frontier City (amusement park) or White Water Bay (water park). The girls voted to go to the water park and Ben agreed to stay home with Connor so the girls and I could have a "girls day". Since I was going to ride everything with the girls, I took a before and after picture for the day:

Before

After (with Olivia looking at the camera)After (with Kelsey looking at the camera)

Since there was a lot of other stuff that happened in our day, I went online and found some other pictures of the park. So in case you're wondering, I don't know ANY of the people in these pictures.

There are two rides shown here. The Acapulco Cliff Dive (the white and green slides) and the Bermuda Triangle (the blue slide). You can't see how high these are from this picture, but trust me - they were high. Kelsey wasn't tall enough for the green or white slides, but Olivia went down the white one! And we all went down the blue one over and over again. My legs were so sore yesterday from having to walk up those stairs over and over and over again...

This is the bottom of Cannonball Falls. I didn't know there was an 8-foot drop into the water. And I didn't know the water was 6 feet deep. And I didn't know that Kelsey would be so totally freaked out by the drop that she'd temporarily forget how to swim. Fortunately I was waiting for her by the edge of the pool on the bottom and was able to get her out. Otherwise, the lifeguard would have had to get wet.

But by far the most... um... embarrassing thing that happened was when I succumbed to peer pressure. You see there was this thing called "The Gangplank" or something like that which was basically an artificial cliff about a story high that you jumped off of into 11 feet of water. Olivia loved it. Kelsey (with a life jacket on) also loved it. They wanted me to do it. So up we went. I waited in line with the girls. They jumped off. I went to the edge... and looked over... and said, "I can't do it!" Of course the girls were calling me to go ahead and do it, that it wasn't that hard... and the little kids behind me in line were just giving me these looks... and the teeny-bopper lifeguard said, "Just don't think about it and jump!" So after an eternity (about 30 seconds) of trying not to freak out I went ahead and jumped. I hate those things. Give me slides, roller coasters, spin and barf rides, etc. But don't give me a free fall. I HATE them! And of course, it was the one thing that left me with an injury. Not from the jump, but from trying to get up the ladder AFTER the jump.

My Handsome Men

Yesterday morning I was trying to keep Connor occupied in the bathroom in a way that did not involve unrolling the toilet paper. I placed him on the bathroom counter in hopes that he would enjoy playing with his reflection. Amazingly, it worked! And in the process, Connor discovered a new "trick". I laughed so hard he kept doing it - all day. So we HAD to get video for the blog (of course) so Ben took Connor into the bathroom so he could see his reflection. The bonus is that now we have great footage of BOTH my men doing the baby's trick! Enjoy the show...

...and if you're reading this on Facebook, videos don't upload from my blog so you need to come over to my blog to see it!
(http://swervinervins.blogspot.com)

Watermelons!

This morning we had a home inspection for the house we're buying here in Edmond, so I took the opportunity to go and take some pictures and measurements, and make plans for our new house. The other family still has their stuff all over, so I won't post a lot of pictures, but here's a couple cool things I wanted to share:

Here is the small garden in the backyard. It looks like they stopped weeding it about a month or two ago, but there are two (that's right - two!) large watermelons growing in it. I think they'll survive a couple more weeks until I can get in there and clean it up a little. Assuming the rabbit I disturbed doesn't come back and eat all the good stuff.

This is the other side of the backyard. Nice shade tree, smaller shed to store things that won't be in the workshop - bikes, lawnmower, etc.

There's a lot in this house that needs to be updated, but one thing that has already been taken care of is the nice wood laminate floor in the kitchen. There's an old gas stove that is still running great, and an old dishwasher that the home inspector noted is leaking. The owners have a home warranty (just renewed in June) that will hopefully replace it for us so we may have a new dishwasher in the kitchen as well.

Our plans for the house include replacing most of the carpet in the house with a good wood laminate floor and re-carpeting the bedrooms and family room. We also want to update the kitchens and bath. I'm going to have so much fun!!

My New Backyard

I wanted to put up more pictures of the house, but since it's not our stuff in the house right now I don't feel comfortable putting up interior pictures. However, I do have a couple pictures of the backyard I can share!

This is the back right side of the yard. There's a shed/workshop wired with electricity and a small fenced in garden to the right of it. On the opposite side of the yard there is another shed that's not a nice that would be good for storing a lawnmower, bikes, and other large equipment.

And the back of the house (excuse the sun glare). Note the covered patio and imagine a nice gas grill under it...

He Did It!

No one ever said it wouldn't be slow going. Connor took his first steps by himself on his birthday almost 2 months ago. But that was all he ever really did. He would just take a few steps and then collapse excitedly into the arms of whoever happened to be waiting for him - usually me.

The last few days Connor has started hanging on to the back of Ben's and my shorts and walking along behind us. Slow going, I know... but it was so cute! And now it has finally paid off. Tonight Connor realized that he can actually walk by himself! Yeah!! He's walked across the room a few times now. He's very proud of himself and thinks he's such a big deal -which of course he is! I'm so proud of my little handsome man!

Hungry Man

Sunday night Ben and I were cooking dinner, and Connor came up behind Ben in the kitchen and was hanging onto Ben's shorts. (He's STILL not walking and standing on his own most of the time!) He had a fork from the girls' tea set and started poking Ben in the back of his leg. What cuteness!

Zzzzz....

Connor fell asleep eating his lunch today... this is becoming a habit!

Play Date

Last Friday I had 8 kids in my house. It was a great distraction while waiting for that call from the Realtor to come (which never actually came till almost 5:00!) and a reminder of why I do NOT want 8 kids under the age of ten! After about an hour and a half of fun they decided to watch Bee Movie and I finally got some pictures of them all!

We started off with just 3 on the couch...

...and 5 on the floor counting the two baby boys.

But I convinced all the girls to get on the couch for a picture. Now if I could only have gotten them to stop looking at the TV...

Are they just adorable?

And The Winner Is...

... US! We are buying a house! In 18 days! Which is great because our lease is up at the end of this month :) :) :)

...Still...Waiting...

OK, so here's the skinny on our house situation.

1. We sent the offer in yesterday morning.
2. They sent a counter-offer in the afternoon.
3. We agreed to it with minor changes in their favor, and just needed their signatures to have a final deal.
4. We never heard back last night, and knew another offer was being submitted yesterday afternoon.
5. We didn't hear back today from the other Realtor until about 4:30, when they told us that there were two offers on the table. Both offers are about the same, but although ours came in first, our mortgage approval was contingent on the successful settlement of our house in SC (our closing is next Friday, August 14th). The other offer had no contingency. The other Realtor was going to meet with her clients at 6:00 tonight so they could make a decision.
6. Ben and I decided to "sweeten the pot" for our deal since the sellers would have a tiny bit more risk (our appraisal, inspections, and repairs are all done so it's unlikely we'll have any surprises delaying our sale) and give them more incentive to accept it. Also, the sellers need to sell quickly and our mortgage broker told us we could close as early as Friday, August 21st if we wanted to.
7. Our Realtor called the listing agent and told him/her that we were improving our offer. The listing agent asked us to submit a new offer rather than modify the old one again (just to make it cleaner) and that the meeting with the sellers would be put off until Saturday at noon at which time the sellers will make a decision.

So, we are still waiting. But at least we now have a deadline. If this all works out, it's great for us because our lease is up at the end of this month. If we closed on the 21st, we could be moved out by the 31st and not have to pay month-t0-month rent for September.

Either way, I feel peaceful about the whole thing. I feel sure that whatever happens will be in the best interest of all parties involved - the sellers, the other buyers, and ourselves. I just hope that what's best is our getting the house!

We'll let you know what happens tomorrow...

Waiting

It's been a crazy-busy week! Tuesday Ben took off of work early so that we could go house-hunting. We were meeting with our Realtor and looking at six houses. Out of the six, only two really made the "cut", and there was one in particular that we really liked! It's in a great, quiet neighborhood and is just down the road from the church! It's also just around the corner and down the street from the Elementary school the girls would go to. An elementary school, incidentally, that is one of the three in our school district that will have all-day kindergarten this fall. Kelsey is very, very ready for all-day kindergarten so this is an added bonus!

So, after going back one more time yesterday to take the girls, we made an offer on the house. We are supposed to hear back by 5:00 today whether it's accepted. So... I'm waiting today and trying not to think about it. But for your enjoyment, here are a few pictures from the listing.

The garage is enclosed and is now a large family room and pantry. Added the carport for covered parking. Considering the amount of hail that comes through here, this is a definite bonus!

Kitchen needs some updating, but has plenty of cabinets space and a breakfast bar.

Vaulted ceiling in the LR, ugly brown shag carpet. But, the carpet is in good condition and can always be replaced...

This is the wall the separates the LR from the kitchen. One of my favorite features!

If we get a final contract on the house I'll post more pictures, but these will have to do for now! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

The Things We Do For Love

Our fabulous local library has a great summer reading program. When the girls had both achieved their second goal level, they each received two tickets to the Oklahoma City Red Hawks baseball game on Monday, August 3rd. That meant we had enough tickets for the whole family to go since Connor got in free.

The perfect Monday night Family Home Evening, right? Except for the fact that it was 101 degrees yesterday. When we saw the weather forecast, Ben and I tried our best to bribe the girls out of going. FHE movie night at home with pizza and snacks... oh yeah. Nope. Since it was the girls first baseball game and they had earned the tickets themselves, we felt that whether or not we went had to be their decision. They still decided yes.

So off we went. We picked Ben up from work and headed downtown for dinner before the game.

Fortunately, Sonic Drive-in's corporate headquarters and probably one-and-only indoor restaurant is right across the street from the stadium. It was crowded, so we had to sit at two different tables. The girls enjoyed it, but Kelsey had to make faces for the camera as usual!

Then off we went across the street and got in line! It was still almost 100 degrees outside, so it wasn't long before we started started heating up and getting red in the face.

Unfortunately our seats were in the full sun. Fortunately, I brought a couple water bottles and hand-held fans to help keep us cool! I even brought a hat for everyone except me. I didn't want to mess up my hair. Silly vanity. I really missed that thing...

Connor wouldn't keep his hat on, so we wet him down with some water and used the fan. He kept trying to eat the fan, though, so it didn't work very well!

After about 2 innings we tried moving to some empty seats at the very top of the stadium to catch a breeze. It helped a little, but

Before the 3rd inning was over the girls complained that they were hot and bored. (Big surprise there, right?) So, off we went back to the car and headed on home.

Connor really likes drinking out of the water bottles.