miss amy's fish.

One of Sophie and Lawson's favorite things to do is go next door and see Miss Amy's fish.

They have their special rock that they sit on and watch them swim around.

One just jumped and made a big splash!

And they can make good splashes... look how huge some of these are!

And before we go...

a little lovin' from Miley.

"She's twying to eat me!"

lawson says...

Funny stuff this little man says lately that I don't want to forget:

* "Sopie" (no f sound)

* "Actually..."

* "Hol me, hol me, hol me" (he still loves to be held and rocked)

* "Are der cats up der?" (he won't go upstairs by himself without asking this... often times he needs lots of convincing that if there is a cat up there, they are not going to get him. fyi... no cat has ever gotten him, he's just a little paranoid)

* "I like you." (always accompanied by a hug or kiss)

* "Tanks, Mommy! Your da best!"

* "Only if der's thunder can I get up?" (this has been our bedtime agreement lately... you can only get out of bed if there is thunder... he has been stalling like crazy at bedtime lately!)

* "It's my favwit!"

* "Oh... (little chuckle), I forgot."

* "Di-gus-ting!"

* The "Shake it, baby" song. (I wish I had my old camera with the video function right now. This song is too funny. Or maybe just him singing the song is funny!)

So many more... he always keeps us laughing! :)

productive.

The kids are going to Jessi's two days a week this summer.
I planned on going to Target today.
But... since Corey is letting me go scrapbook for 14 hours tomorrow, I thought I would stay home and get a little cleaning done.
Target will still be there next week. ;)

My little bit of cleaning turned into this:
* cleaning the bathrooms
* vacuuming the entire house
* mopping the hardwood floors
* washing all the living room curtains
* ironing all the living room curtains
* taking down 3 sets of mini-blinds (hammers and screwdrivers were involved)
* washing the toy room rug
* hooking up the dvd player (we got a new tv and dvr a month ago and hadn't ever hooked it up... no Wiggies for Lawson. Sad boy. Thankful for Max and Ruby that we can dvr!)
* buy a wedding gift
* schedule 2 doctors appts. (one that involved a conversation with the insurance company first, the other involved a 10 minute conversation with the nurse)
* back to pick up the kids by 4:00, planned supper and helped coach a t-ball scrimmage tonight.

Whew! Love that feeling of being productive! So many things crossed off my long To-Do-List today!
Hoping I can be that productive scrapbooking tomorrow. I haven't done any pages since our spring break trip to the b&b.

Just look at these sparkly clean windows!

potty training: day 3

Potty training is going incredibly well here at our house!
We only had a couple cases of damp underwear yesterday before we made it to the potty.
None so far today.
And he's telling me when he has to go, even!

Look at this tiny hiney running around in his big boy underwear.


Getting some lunch time love from Daddy.


A little while ago when I was vacuuming this little carrot came running to find me and tell me that he had gone potty by himself. And he had! Such a big boy!


(sidenote: these are new jammies and he didn't like the monster on them... after we've torn the tags off, of course. We convinced him they were not scary... it's not a monster, it's a stink bug! Now he loves them!)

planting flowers.

That old saying, "Many hands make light the work..."
It doesn't apply to these little hands.



But once again, Daddy is ever so patient with his little helpers.


"I'm a good helper, Mommy!"


Sweet Sophie.

potty training.

We started potty training today.
Lawson's been interested for awhile, but I wanted to wait until school was out and I could spend all day with him. So today was the day!


Look at all this big boy underwear!



We camped out here for awhile... watching a movie and drinking lots of lemonade and water.


And Sophie put on a fashion show in the living room.


In the first two hours, we had gone through 5 pairs of underwear and Mommy had cleaned 5 puddles. Hmmm... not going like I hoped.

So we moved the potty chair out in front of the tv and camped out on it for awhile.


Then he started to get the hang of things!
In the last 3 hours, we had lots of celebrating, lots of gummy bears and the last 2 times he even told me that he had to go! Now this is more like it!

Then we broke for naptime.
When I was giving him a hug in bed I said, "You are doing such a good job going potty." He said, "Yep. I sure am, Mommy."

The scene:
Corey and Lawson are upstairs in our room.
Sophie and I are downstairs.
Lawson came to join us...

Me: Honey, are you watching Lawson up there?
C: Yes.
Me: Are you letting him play in my closet?
C: No.
Me: Well he's down here, wearing one of my shirts.
C: (no response)

thunderstorm.

We had a really big thunderstorm last night.

The downside...
sharing our bed with 2 little people.
At least they took turns. I think we had Soph from 2-4 and then Lawson from 5-8.
(Then Mommy got the bed alone from 8-9:30!)

The upside...
big, fun puddles to splash in!

pizza hut.

I had borrowed my mom's camera (smaller and easier to carry on a field trip to the zoo) and she needed it back for this weekend. We met in the middle (well, close to the middle... the exact middle doesn't have a Pizza Hut.) You should have heard the shrieking and the jumping around when I asked who wanted to go with me to eat pizza with Grandma!






Thanks for meeting us, Mom!
We had a ball!

sad news.

I love this song.



And I heard tonight that this sweet little face, an inspiration for the song, was killed in a tragic accident. I can't imagine. My heart goes out to the family, especially the older brother. I really can't imagine.

all done!

I will miss these little people.
As crazy as they've been the last few days...
As frustrated as I got with some of them at field day today...
I will miss them.
They've been such a fun group to spend time with.



The little girl in the pink shirt and red glasses... as I walked them out after school today, I see tears streaming down her face. I've already made them all give me a huge goodbye hug before they got their little gift from me. I get the absolute best hugs on the last day of school. They have to give me a hug every Friday before they leave, but nothing compares to these hugs. Huge, squeezing me tight, holding on for a long time kind of hugs. Even from the boys.

I got more hugs and more tears when we were outside. She wouldn't even walk by herself over to her dad. She wanted me to take her.



Now I know some of these kiddos are sad to leave because school is a safer, happier place than home. Not this little girl. She goes home to a wonderful home with two fun, loving, perfect-for-her parents. So all her tears... are just because she loves me.
And I know I'm not supposed to have favorites... but if I did... she would be one of them.

Thank you God, for giving me the opportunity to spend my days shaping these little lives. It is such a privilege.


(The glasses? The last few weeks of school we've been doing a "glasses check." I have 6 kids that are supposed to wear glasses. Only 3 of them actually did. We had a big poster that said, "Are your friends wearing their glasses?" and a marble jar. Random times during the day I would say, "Glasses check." Whoever was wearing their glasses got to put a marble in the jar. When the jar got filled up last week, we watched a special movie... and everyone got to wear glasses! Aren't they cute? Another teacher came in and thought we were watching a 3-D movie.)

3 more days.

Another day down.
And it wasn't even too crazy today.
Those two 40 minute recess breaks helped, I'm sure.
I figure recess time limits don't really apply the last week of school.

seriously?

Our newspaper has a little weekly insert with all the houses for sale in the area. I always like to look through them and read the little write-ups on ones I like.

This week there was a cute bungalow on Magnolia... it's gotta be a nice street name for me to be interested. (I know you understand that, Mom!)


So what does the relator put for his little write-up...

"This charming home will get you in the mood! Come w/ 2 kids and add 2 more! It's a solid home w/ all the wood brought back to a natural finish... etc. etc."

Okay... seriously?
This home will get you in the mood?
Is he really saying what I think he's saying?

That's just weird.

mr. lee is home!

Our very good friend, Mr. Lee, is finally home from his 3 month deployment to Iraq!





That's Mr. Lee and Sophie down in the corner.



Welcome home signs from his 3 boys...




We're proud of you for doing such a good job doctoring up soldiers, but we're happy to have you home!

Does this little man look happy to see his daddy, or what?!