Yet another update of the housing kind.

Todd and I went last Friday to the local Home Depot while my mom and dad watched the kids for us! We talked with the woman about the lay out we wanted to see in the kitchen and she helped us come up with one. I felt a little bad, because we don't actually intend to BUY one from them, we're going back to the bargin housing supply place, but we could NOT visualize the kitchen without a program like this, and they offer it for free, whether you buy or not. This is the plans we came up with with her, and the plans that we're hoping to follow pretty closely!!!

Please ignore my messy handwriting on the first one! I was just jotting down some notes for if we DID decide to go through them. And please keep in mind, these aren't the colors we'd chose, etc. This is just their sample plan!






On the other side of the kitchen sink is the dining room area. So that will over look not only that, but will give me a view out the dining room window to see the kids playing in the yard. I'm really excited to go tomorrow to look for cabinets to see what we can come up with!!! YAY!

Mommy moment monday

My mommy moment happened last Friday night. Todd and I had dropped the kids off with my mom for a couple of hours so that we could go to Home Depot to talk about kitchen designs that we could take to the outlet place to get cupboards from. We were gone for about two hours. And when we got back, we got a really good report from my parents. The kids all did well, ate well, behaved, etc. They always do at my moms, so it wasn't a surprise to us! Then my mom mentioned that Gabe had a bit of a hard time eating because his teeth hurt. We noticed last week that Gabe has his bottom front two adult teeth coming in BEHIND his very wiggly baby teeth. And they've been hurting him. I explained this to her, she inspected his mouth, and wiggled the wigglier of the teeth. She told him "Gabe, just pull it out and you'll feel SO much better!" He was scared, and didn't want to. So he went and talked to Todd. Todd started to wiggle it, and told him, you just need to pull or twist it and it will be out. So, Gabe listened to daddy, and WALA! Out popped the tooth! He's been waiting for SO long for this!! Ever since Dallas lost his first tooth and he realized that the tooth fairy left money!!! He's a money HOUND!!!

The giggles that were heard were so cute. Gabe still very much has a belly giggle! I love it!!!

Here is my big boy, with his first tooth gone, just in time for picture day! With his whopping .75 cents from the tooth fairy! He was so exctied to get it!


And here's a little better picture of the new smile!!! He's getting so big!!!

If you want to share your mommy moment this Monday, let me know, and I'll link to you here!!!


Playing along:

A tale of two Twinkies

Way back When-sday!

Today we're going back to the big-'ol-twin-belly times!!!! This is a picture of me when I was pregnant with the twins, actually about 1 week before they were born. I was HUGE, I was miserable, and I was ready to meet my babies. I reached the size of my singleton babies pregnancy at 17 weeks, yes 17 weeks, with the twins. And I just felt like my skin couldn't stretch any more!!!!!

so, here I am smiling for my bi weekly pictures. This was 36 weeks.


I wish I could find the one of me at 17 weeks, so you could see the comparison. Its on the old hard drive though, and I don't have the time right now to look it up!!!!

Head on over to Twinfatuation for more way back fun!!!

A house update.

Here's a small picture update on whats been going on with the house stuff. There hasn't been a ton of change lately, but there is some. Todd has today off, and is working over there for the day. Hopefully at the end of today I'll be able to show more progress. These pictures were taken last Monday, to show the progress. These are over a week old.

These are two of the windows that have been replaced

Kitchen window. You can see how far in they had to frame that one to make it fit. We didn't have a choice though, it was as close as they could come.

The attic window was replaced too.

This is Kalebs window from the outside. Hard to believe they got that big of a window for only 90 bucks! Its an awesome store we found!!

Other kitchen window. This was just a drop in because it was a perfect fit!

The old bedroom window that is now boarded up. The new windows will go in soon.

Other window boarded up. The one next to this one will be boarded up too, and the farthest one down will be moved a little

Mud going up in the nasty kitchen so we can kilz it all, and then paint.

More patched holes

This is inside the new bathroom, you can see where the two new windows will be going.

Other wall, with junk in the way, but you can still see it!

Everything is still down to stud walls back there.

The squares got painted in the boys' room that weekend, with the help of my wonderful Aunt! it was really a comedy of errors!!!

Other side

The ONLY room in the house with stuff actually in it. Go figure.

Kendyls room. Sorry, its a bit dark, but thats her new window.

This is all the paint that's getting peeled in there. It was so bad!

And we scraped off the popcorn ceiling in there! YAY!

Kalebs windwo from the inside

The attic in Kalebs room. This will be a "fort" for the boys. We'll block off part of the attic, but they get to use this part. can't you see that being an awesome fort?

This part of the attic will be closed off.

Peeling paint in his room too.

More patched holes

Kendyls window from the outside

Thats all for now. The whole process is still proving to be really frusterating, so I'll just leave it with picture updates for now.

Mommy moment Monday!!!

It is once again time for Mommy moment Monday. Wow, I can't believe its been another FULL week. Wow. The time just flies. I swear!!!!


My mommy moment happened yesterday, with my three boys! We went out to my in laws house while Todd, his brother, and his dad all worked on the new house. We went through a bunch of clothes my mother in law got the kiddos, and then we took the kids out back. My father in law built a HUGE teeter totter this summer for the kids, and its been a hit. Gabriel LOVES that thing. He giggles like a silly fool whenever he's on it! You can't help but laugh along with him, because its those nice hard belly laughs!!! Yep, he still has them at 6!!! So, anyway, we tried many different configurations to get Gabe to be able to have fun. Dallas and Gabe can ride it together, and Dallas is just a little heavier, but Kaleb wanted to ride too. So we threw him on with Gabe, so that that side was just a little heavier. And they had a BLAST! The laughter out of those little boys was AWESOME! I was almost in tears laughing right along with them. They bounce the other end off the ground, which would send the other end bouncing up in the air, and then they'd reverse it. I wish I'd had a video camera at that exact moment, because the sound was just music to my ears. For a whole 20 minutes the fighting was gone, the whinning was gone, and they were PLAYING together, and LOVING it!!!!!!


If you feel like sharing a mommy moment from your last week, let me know, and I'll link you here!

Playing along:

Nicci

My awwwww moment.

I promised a house update today too, but I'm too emotionally wiped to go through all the update again! Another day, another time!!!! So for today, I shall just share about the kids! (yes, I do realize that they can be just as draining sometimes!!!)

My Awwwww moment was with Kendyl. I've been doing alot of boxing things up and getting things ready for when we move. And Kendyl and Kaleb have been AWESOME about it. They've been playing really well together, and haven't been too needy. Which, given the situation, I really appreciate. Kendyl came to where I was with the boxes, and she had her arms FULL of baby dolls. And when I say full, I mean FULL. 6 of them maybe? Could have been every doll she owns!And she says "mommy, these are my sisters." I just had to think "awwww. I'm sorry baby! I wish you could have had a real sister!" I know she'll love growing up with her brothers, and she'll be the princess of the castle, but still, I'll always be a little sad that she never had a sister of her own!!!! It was really a cute moment though.

Then, I had another Gabriel issue yesterday. The teacher stopped me to talk to me after school, and said she'll be calling to talk about Gabe's learning. That he seems very unconventional with his learning style, and she'd like to work with me to find what works best for him. I'll update more on that when I have that call with her.

And for today? I'm off to Walmart to get Kendyl some pants for fall, and then heading to Chili's with the twins for lunch. I'm craving some chips and salsa. Yum.

Way back When-sday!

Today's way back is dedicated to Gabriel. I figure since I'm just getting started with these I'll get through all the NEW born new born pictures, and then go from there!!! This was Gabriel the day he was born! He was by FAR my easiest pregnancy, with my only major complaint with him being the pre term labor that I had. Other than that I wasn't sick, I wasn't swollen, I wasn't miserable. I had many many many doctors appointments though, like ultrasounds once a week to check cervix length because of the cerclage and to check on him. The doctors were really worried because I'd just had Dallas 6 months before I found out I was pregnant again. Surprise surprise! Who knew that baby hormones could help a lady who has a hard time getting pregnant, to get pregnant!!! He was born July 8, 2002, exactly 14 months, and 4 days after Dallas. Weighing in at 6 pounds 11 ounces, and was 19 inches long. He was my biggest baby, but was STILL a peanut! The onsie he has on in this picture was a preemie onsie!

This was my only baby that I was alert enough after the c section to sit up and hold him. Todd told me that I looked like a completely different person after this one in comparison to Dallas's delivery.

If you want more Way back When-sday fun, check out Twinfatuation.



Coming tomorrow. . .an update on the house, and an awwww, moment from Kendyl.

Mommy moment Monday.

Ok all you mommy bloggers! I'm hoping to start something new on my blog today, and if you feel like playing along, please do!! I'm hoping that on every Monday, I can start out my week with a mommy moment or two from the week previous. Just things my kids did that made me say "awww!" Or things I shook my head at and said "only my kids", or even bad things, if I need to, but things that made me feel like a mommy. There are so many photo days of the week, I thought I'd start one that could be with, or without pictures, but all about being a mom!!!!!


Here are my moments from this last week:


I'm going to start out with Dallas. Every night at dinner we ask each boy to tell us their one favorite thing from the day. This usually opens up the talk about the day, and how things are going. Its worked really well for us so far. Well, last week Dallas says: "mommy, I wish you worked at my school." So I asked him why he wanted me to work at his school. He said because then he wouldn't' miss me. And if that wasn't enough of an AWWWW, he went on to say "you know that feeling you get in your stomach when you miss someone? If you worked at my school I wouldn't have that feeling, and I could see you, so I wouldn't have to miss you. " I was almost in tears, it was SO sweet!!! He really is my sweet sweet little boy!!!!



Next is Gabriel. And unfortunately my mommy moment for Gabriel this week isn't a very good one. I'm so at a loss with this child. I think I talked earlier about how much he snitches, and how we finally had to explain to him that what he was essentially doing was stealing. And we came up with a solution of taking one dollar from his piggy bank every time he did it. And it seemed to be working, because he hasn't snitched in almost 2 weeks. So we thought we'd hit the nail on the head, and with how important money is to him, we'd gotten a fix. No such luck. This morning i got a call from the school and it was Gabe's teacher. She started out by telling me that Gabe is such a sweet child and she needed my help to figure something out. She said he came in this morning and gave her 20 dollars, and she asked him what it was for. So I was wondering if he found it on the way in, and was giving it to her? Nope, then she continued. He's walked to the other teacher and gave her 20 dollars. At this point I'm getting confused, and starting to worry. She then goes on to tell me how he walked to the next teacher and gave her 10 dollars. . . and it hit me what he'd done, and my stomach just sank. Last night Todd had given me 50 dollars to take to the bank today. . . two twenties and a ten. . . and when I ran to look sure enough he'd taken them to school with him. My stomach STILL hurts thinking about it. What if he'd given it to other kids? What if it wasn't his teacher? What if . . .the list could go on and on. . .that money has to cover a check I need to write. And we'd have been at a loss. I just don't know what to do, or how to handle it. this child is proving to be very worry some, and I'm starting to think I may be doing something wrong. Is it just the middle child thing? Is it more than that? I don't know.

On to a more happy moment. ..

Kaleb is next. We went in to get him up this morning, and he was awake with All his things piled up on his lap. And Kendyl was sleeping. He told me he had made a "fence". So he'd found something quiet to do while his sister kept on sleeping. It was SO cute!!! I had to take pictures! He was so proud of his masterpiece!



Kendyl woke up while I was getting my camera, and had t o make something for mommy to take a picture of too. So she made "a mountain." I have such cute kids, how could I NOT take a picture??



My moment with Kendyl was last week when I gave her her first ever REAL hair cut. We're talking REAL hair cut here people! Like I cut off probably 4 inches of hair! I went to do her hair, and it just kept snarling. So I said forget it, and I set her up for a hair cut in the kitchen. I think it turned out ok for my first ever go at cutting a girls hair! Boys are easy. Get the clippers, and you can't go wrong. I was nervous with the scissors though! But man was she proud of how she looked after that hair cut! She just beamed!!!!

this is before, you can see how long it was!





An after one, before we dried it , and curled it!
All dried and curled! Doesn't she look adorable?? I just love it, and so does she!!!!


If you decide to play along, and share your mommy moment(s) let me know, and I'll link to you here!!!!!!

What a busy weekend!!!!

This weekend has been CRAZY!!! Friday started with me going and doing some grocery shopping, and getting some much needed FOOD! We were running very very low, and I was so relieved to see pay day get here, so that I could get my family some food again!!!!

Then Friday night I made some kabobs on the grill, and some rice, and the kids and i headed for the new house. The goal was to clean clean clean before the crew got there on Saturday. Todd had been at the new house every day that week until at least 11 pm, and it was safe again for the kids to be there. We ate, and then cleaned a lot. Gabriel and Kaleb were AMAZING! I'm so proud of them. They kept going the ENTIRE time. Gabriel collected any lose nails into a bucket that he saw in the house. This was the perfect job for him, because he LOVES to collect things. Kaleb was on a "garbage mission." That little boy went all over the inside and outside collecting any lumber scraps, plastic, or paper he could find. He had a blast throwing them in the big dumpster! If someone beat him to something, he cried, because he wanted to be the big helper, and do it all!!!! Kendyl followed Todd around like a little lost puppy. She was so unhappy that he couldn't just drop everything and play with her like she wanted him to. Then there was Dallas. Dallas complained the ENTIRE time. ENTIRE time. Then we found him crashed on the floor. Todd had to carry him to the car. He's SO not into helping with ANYTHING physical. Its such a struggle. He reminds me a lot of Todd's brother that way. Todd said he thought the same thing!!!!!

I got a few cell phone pictures from that night. Sorry for the quality!!!



This is Kaleb doing the shop vac. He cried, and was scared of it until I asked if he wanted to try. there was no stopping him after that! He was a trooper, and wouldn't give it back! He did the whole kitchen. . well, kinda. Mommy had ot RE do the kitchen, but he did a great job!!!


Do you see the dirt on his face? He worked REALLY REALLY hard!!!

Kendyl had to try, because Kaleb did. She didn't last long though!

Dallas, all passed out on the living room floor!!!Then yesterday we were able to get the windows done in the babies rooms, and start re framing to get the windows in the new bathroom. I'm still not stress free. There's SO much more do to, and we're busy the next TWO weekend. . .yikes. I don't know what I'll do. But yeah, things are still progressing.