March 10: A happy blur...

Here's a brief synopsis of the day: car packed, everyone up, dressed, fed and out the door by 8:15. Drive 40 minutes to soccer practice, it is of course the first time in weeks that the practice actually lasts the entire hour. Load everyone into the car and drive for 2+ hours; Reese slept most of the time and Elijah watched movies. Stop for lunch at Steak and Shake, get a waitress who was so completely out of it, takes an hour for lunch. Load everyone back up again and drive another 2 hours. Get to the wedding venue and get everyone changed. In the car. Good times (i'm fairly certain that I gave a gentleman cooking food for the reception in the parking lot QUITE a show... what can you do?). Celebrated the wedding, stayed for some of the reception and packed everyone back up in the car. Thankfully we made it home without stopping (4 hours) and the kids fell asleep pretty soon into the trip; but after 2 hours, both kids took turns waking up so it made the last two hours a bit rough.

But onto the fun stuff...

Soccer practice was adorable with Aiden completely absorbed with Reese, constaintly coming over to give her hugs and kisses and I got a little bit of a punch in the gut realizing what's coming ahead being a mother of a daughter. The boys got their soccer shirts and oh my, how cute are they??

The wedding was beautiful, held outside at a garden center and the weather was perfect. March in Florida and you're totally risking the weather being either insanely hot or rainy, but it was neither. The bride and groom looked so happy and inlove and it was really nice to see old friends and catch up. And come on... looks at these cuties :)

March 11: Spring foward!

Today was nice, even if we were all completely out of whack time wise. Since we didn't get home until 10:30 last night, both kids were awake, we got them into bed got us showered and into bed and then instantly lost an hour, we were not buzzing bees first thing in the morning. With the time change, we weren't all even awake until after 9:30. Ah, glorious when the children sleep! We had to run some errands but after that I took full advantage of Adam being home to get some stuff done for Reese's birthday. I made her little birthday shirt and it is so stinkin' cute. Love it. I've done plenty of applique shirts before, but I'm too scared of my sewing machine to sew them on so after a few washes they start falling apart. Well, I actually sewed Reese's birthday party shirt and although it looks a bit wonky, I'm proud of myself.

March 12: Eh...

Today was start the wash day, clean the house day and really just finish recovering from the weekend day. Nothing super exciting happened. Some crafts, some cartoons and just some good time with the littles. It was a bit of a bummer because my partner in mommyhood crime went back to work and I missed the crap out of her. I had gotten way too used to texting and talking to her pretty much all day every day.

March 13: Baby love photo

Hmm... don't think anything super exciting happened today, but here's a sweet picture of my bug sleeping in my arms. Nothing better. :)

March 14: Instructions on how to build your own Nile Crocodile...

I don't know if anyone else remembers or received these, but as a kid I would occasionally get in the mail this zoology book kit something or other thing. I'm sure they wanted you to sign up for some magazine subscriptions, club membership or the like, but in the promotional package they would send these book pages that fit into a binder. Each page was a different animal and it opened up and educated you on all the valuable information pertaining to the animal. The benefit of having a brother 10 years younger than me and then having my own kids just 13 years after that is he inherited all my books (including the zoology pages) and my mother kept them and passed them back down to me for my kids. Reese pulled one out of the bookshelf the other day, the Nile Crocodile page, and my 3 year old has been hooked on it. It shows a semi-graphic illustration of a crocodile eating a zebra and a photo snapshot of one eating an antelope but that did not matter to him. He is fascinated and carries it all around. Yesterday he was showing me (yet again) the page and explaining all the photos and them told me, "these are instructions to build a crocodile." Well ok, this is new information. He went on to tell me exactly how he was going to make a crocodile when he grows up with sticks for teeth, leaves for the skin and acorns for eyes. So smart this kid. Then he saw the empty diaper box and had the genius idea that we could use to make a crocodile. So we did. :) And it is awesome. I'll take a photo and update later but it turned out pretty cool. Have I mentioned I LOVE this kid?

March 15: Exhausted

I am flat out exhausted today. But I suppose not sleeping will do that to someone. It's my own fault. I am way too excited about my bug turning one. I'm big on birthdays. Real big. Not that I go all out crazy and spends lot of moolah. Although if I had lots of moolah, I probably would spend a lot of it on birthdays. I just love days spent celebrating someone, showering them with love and letting them know how grateful I am they were born. It's just awesome to be reminded that people are happy you're here. Today I made the favor bags for the little ones that will be at the party. This afternoon the kids and I took a walk down to the pond at the end of the street and fed the ducks. On the way back Elijah decided to fill the stroller basket up with as many pine cones he could jam in there. Love that kid.

March 6: Beach Day

Today my friend and I took our kids to the beach. Oh yes, two women, four kids under four and monsoon force winds. It was quite an experience. Elijah and Aiden LOVED it. They built sandcastles, chased the birds and threw sand into the ocean. My poor child fell twice in the water, successfully soaking both his and my sweaters. Reese tried so hard to enjoy it but the winds were just too much for her. We will definitely be making more beach trips soon.

March 5: Oh, Monday

I am not going to focus on the fact that my patience was tried harder today than any other, for whatever reason. I will instead focus on the fun we did. Elijah loves water experiments so today we played Sink or Float. Easy peasy, put out a bowl with water and let him collect items to test if they sink or float. Today we did it a little different though and I had him make his guesses for each item before testing it. Then we went over his guesses and the results after. After Sink or Float we had fun experimenting with paint and food coloring in the water. He loved watching the food coloring swirl around in the water. Finally, I gave him a glass of milk and let him taste it. Then I added a tiny drop of food coloring to turn it green and let him taste it again. I thought for sure he was turn his nose up to. He is not adventurous when it comes to his food and drink consumption. Surprising he tried it, said it tasted the same and drank it up. He thought his green milk moustache was hilarious :)

March 4: Guess what I got today?!! :)

Reese's pictures! I just got through looking at them and to say I am pleased would be the understatement of the year. They are incredible! Can't wait to share more with you :)

Today was a pretty great day (and even if it wasn't, wouldn't this picture make it all better?).

Started off our morning at church where we had a visit from our Pastor's sweet friend Lloyd. Lloyd is the duckmaster at the Peabody hotel in Arkansas. That alone sounds pretty cool but his message was even better. Time to start claiming all that God has intended for us!

Despite that fact that there were errands to run, our fence to be mended (after hurricane strength winds blew it down this morning), two tired children who refused, and had no chance, to nap, it was a great day. Elijah chose to color a Spiderman mask we picked up at the craft store for $1 over watching a new movie, and Reese walked around the house opening and emptying every drawer she could get her hands on. She also tried to put on her shoes, which is one of the cutest things she's done to date. And she's done some cute stuff.

And I was really hoping to have our already falling fence fixed before Reese's birthday party, so really, I'm not complaining about that. :)

Feb 29: Dentist and MORE doctor appointments

Happy Leap Day and Happy Birthday to all those Leaplings!

Today was my semiannual teeth cleaning. I seriously dislike going to the dentist. If I could, I'd get knocked out just to get a teeth cleaning. I am a wimp when it comes to dental work, praise God I haven't had to have much done besides regular cleanings and one cavity last year. I always end up with a giant headache for the remainder of the day, probably more from my tenseness than the actual cleaning. Anyway, Elijah was still running a fever so we ended up going back to the doctor for him today. Three days of 103 degree fevers in the afternoon. Turned out he now has two ear infections thanks to this wonderful mixture of colds and allergies. Then tonight I got to go out for bible study which was so deeply enjoyed for so very many reasons: I was out of the house for a reason aside from a dr appt, I was with three of my most favorite people, I was able to confess one of my deepest struggles (not being able to say no to anyone, selling anything. I am the IDEAL target for a salesman). It was wonderful, even with a massive traffic jam :)

March 1: "Please God, help me with my practicing."

Elijah has learned how to do somersaults. He will only do them in his sister's room, so today we went in their so he could practice his somersaults. Reese and I were off to the side to give him room and I see him look up to the ceiling and say, "Please God, help me with my practicing." My heart burst. We pray with Elijah often but it's always us initiating and praying together. This was the first time I had ever witnessed him praying himself. It was such a proud moment as a mother. He then proceeded to ask God for help before every somersault. Reese really enjoys watching her brother so she made an attempt at somersaults too. Her technique is to put her head on the floor and push it around the room. So sweet. :)

March 2: Bug Birthday Invites

Tonight I finished up Reese's birthday party invitations. Thanks to my hubby to helped glue spots onto all the wings :) Today we also took a trip to the post office and went for a walk down to the playground, a first in a while, and had popsickles. The weather is quite warm here already. I am so not looking forward to the summer heat. The kids enjoyed the playground though, and Elijah even showed Reese how to go down the slide.

March 3: Starting fresh

I feel like we have finally gotten over the month of sickness in the Teston house, knock on wood. Today was soccer practice. Elijah did pretty well aside from his few meltdowns midfield because he wants to have the ball all the time without actually getting the ball ever. He has not grasped the whole "teamness" of the sport but we'll get there. We also had our photo session for Reese's first birthday pics. Holy moly, right? We're almost there. Of course, my super awesome and talented friend Shelbie took the pics at a local park. Despite the fact that it was windy as all get up and Reese was not a fan of the grass (or perhaps all the microscopic bugs that were attacking us) I think she still got some good ones. It's only been a few hours but I'm already having to fight the urge to text her and ask if they're ready yet. Can you said "impatient"? :) I promise that I will either: A) figure out how to get my pictures from my phone to the computer, since that's where most of my pics are taken, or B) start taking more pictures with my regular camera, soon since I know my blog is seriously lacking in the photo department lately. You can always catch up with photos on Facebook!