Baby Brady

My little sister, Ashley, and her husband Alex became proud parents to baby Brady on July 9th. He's the cutest dang thing (excluding my children of course) I've ever seen. I could be bias, as I am his favorite aunt, but the kid is gorgeous. And he smiles at me all the time, so he gets to be featured on my blog. 

My kids love, love, love seeing Brady buttons.

Role Reversal

Tuesday was Ali's very first day of preschool. She'll be going two mornings a week this year. There is no question Ali is ready for this. She is ready for world domination - preschool is just a formality. 


So, off we went to start chapter one of Ali's Education. I'd talked about this day for a week now without her showing the slightest bit of fear or hesitation. I expected her to go without clinging or crying, and she did. She was a pro. It was like she'd had a million first days prior. 


I thought I realized it was going to go smoothly, but for some reason this realization didn't ease my heartbreak when I actually took her inside, listened to her say, "Bye, Mom" and watched her walk into her classroom without a second glance my way. 


This is the part where I have a toddler crying fit. I lugged Chloe back to the car, fighting tears the whole way. Is Ali really this grown up already!?!? Where did the time go?!?!? Oh, my little baby ... so on and so on .. you get the idea. I was 99 parts hormonal, pregnant mess and one part jealous of Chloe's blissful oblivion. 

Ali was so excited - she had her favorite outfit on and couldn't stop the giggles all morning :)

On a more realistic note, I am beyond thrilled with Ali's confidence and independence. I didn't want her to cling to mommy - that would have been much worse. She had a fantastic day. She didn't want to come home. She made new friends, learned "criss cross applesauce," practiced tornado drills, and ate her first school lunch. She can't wait to go back. We are so proud :) 

Wordless Wednesday

Flag Football

Caden's been amped up about flag football for weeks now. Ryan got roped into coaching jumped at the chance to coach, which makes it all the more special for CT. Today was game day and I am happy to report the Vikings were victorious. The highlight: Ryan called a quarterback keep (right, honey?) and Caden ran it in for a touchdown! 

As always, Caden had his own cheering section. Thanks for coming everyone :)

Thing One & Thing Two

Yesterday was Caden's first day of first grade. According to him, recess was great so that makes for a good day at school. Forget making new friends, getting along with the teacher, finding things in the new classroom - this kid is concerned with two things only:

• Thing 1:  Playing soccer at recess
• Thing 2:  Do I have P.E. today?

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: So, did your teacher read you any books today?

Caden: Yeah. I scored ALL the goals for our soccer team at recess.

Me: How was the pizza at lunch?

Caden: Good. We have recess after lunch.

Me: What was your special today?

Caden: P.E. and Music. We played Red Light, Green Light in P.E.

Me:  Was your new teacher nice?

Caden: Yeah. You can only play on the new equipment at recess if your teacher is on duty. I just played soccer though.

Me: Are there any cute girls in your class?

Caden: NO! 

Conversation over. Is he his father's son, or what? 

Starting the day right :)

We can't keep enough syrup in the house for these three. They want pancakes everyday!

Handsome! What am I going to do when he actually cares if the girls are cute? 

And of course Ali and Chloe wanted to be in a picture, too :)

Caden truly had a great day. Ryan and I are happy that his teacher is experienced and that he has some buddies in his class. Next up: Ali Grace starting preschool next week! 

Wordless Wednesday

End of Summer

Today is Caden's last day of summer vacation. While we are all excited for him to start first grade, I thought I'd take a moment to recap the last few months of fun in the sun. I'll start with swimming, since that is what we did the most of!

Caden with his cousin, Kyler, at Grandma and Grandpa Robinette's. My dad bought this monstrosity blow up pool, which the kids loved of course!

Here is Miss Chloe swimming at my parent's house. The kids loved the public pool here and in Lake City with Ryan's parents. 

Ali + Bryleigh = Trouble!

We road tripped to the Kock farm a few times this summer. Caden loves having space to shoot his bow and ride the Mule. They all have so much fun there it's usually a good 3-4 days before they're recovered - the same is probably true for Ron and Deb :)

We are working on taking group photos, but for now this is the best I could do. 

I love this pic of Deb and Ali - we took it just in time because Gracie had an epic meltdown about five minutes later (see below).

Ryan's grandma, Betty, turned 80 on August 1st and Deb's entire side of the family turned up to celebrate at their place. It was a beautiful day outside and great to catch up with everyone.

Ali and Chloe with their cousins, Lauren and Elyse. The more we get together, the more fun they have. We are definitely creating a monster. 

Here is Chlo Jam getting filthy as usual! Below is Ali mounting another meltdown :)

One of Caden's favorite memories from this summer is fishing with Ryan and my Dad in Ponca. They took my dad's boat and he had the time of his life. His first of seven fish caught was a bullhead. Apparently, it gave him the creeps. Caden didn't want to keep them in the live well with the other fish, so they threw back all the bullheads :) They can't wait to go again - maybe next time I will get pictures!

Aw Shucks, Our Fridge Leaked

Last week I went downstairs to exercise (a rare occurrence these days) and found a slow drip coming through the ceiling. I did what I could to dry up the carpet and called Ryan. He cut out the drywall on the ceiling and found a lot of water. It took us a while but we found the leak coming from our fridge in the kitchen. It had leaked right under the ugly vinyl kitchen floor and down through the basement ceiling. What. A. Mess. 

All I could think was we are having a baby in a month and this is going to seriously dent our savings. I could feel the cloud of stress moving in as I watched Ryan tear out our ugly vinyl floor that night. Could the timing of this little catastrophe be any worse? Will insurance cover it? Is our house growing mold? Ugh.

A couple days later we received our check for damages from the insurance company. And just like that a ray of sunlight broke through the stress cloud as it dawned on me. I get to pick out new flooring. I mean, did I mention the vinyl floor was ugly? Cut to me in full force kitchen renovation. We are having a baby in a month? Who cares! They said the counter top will be her in 3 weeks! Mold? A little mold is good for you! We really need new hardware on these cabinets and lets just tile the bathrooms while we're at it. Cost of labor? Oh no worries, Ryan's handy. Right? Well, we'll see. He doesn't exactly share my enthusiasm since he is going to be doing most of the work himself (with some help from my brother). But whatever, I'm getting a new floor!

Happy Birthday Gracer!

Ali Grace celebrated her 3rd birthday a couple weeks ago. She woke up and asked, "Am I three right now?" She did a lot in her second year: potty trained, went to her first movie, took swimming lessons, pierced her ears, moved to a new house, got her first haircut, and melted hearts everywhere she went! Here are some pictures from her party:

Ali took a picture of Grandpa Rick with my camera. You're welcome, Dad.

Ali loves anything and everything Toy Story - especially Jessie the Cowgirl! Below is Ali one year ago. What a difference a year makes!

"E" for Effort

Here goes my first attempt at a family blog. I've thought about doing this for a while, but have been too lazy busy. The goal is to keep friends and family updated on our parenting adventures without Tweets or Facebook (since I've proven to be terrible at both). Obviously the stars of the blog will be Caden, Ali, Chloe, and baby #4. Ryan and I are just on hand to document the madness :)