Schedules and School

Since I became a stay at home mom about a year and a half ago we really havent followed much of a schedule..we wake up when we want, eat when we want, clean when we want and sleep when we want!! I was getting a little frusterated with how our days were going and how the kids were acting so John suggested that getting the kids into some kind of routine may help their behavior and make me a little less stressed, so last week I wrote out a schedule that I thought may work for us and decided that we would start yesterday since it was also the first day of the new school year. I also started K-3 yesterday with Kaylee. We have been practicing "school" for a while now but never really anything that was organized, I would just print worksheets off the computer and she would do them. So I sat down and wrote out a calendar of exactly what we would work on each week from now until the end of the year and we had a successful "school day". I put a little desk and workstation for Kaylee right beside my desk and she loves that she has her own place to do her school. The kids and I had such a great day and I think that we will have much better days if we can stick to this!! Kaylees new school spot :)Computer time...we just discovered pbskids.org (thanks to my cousin Kristin) and we love the educational games they have!!Just thought I'd share with everyone just how crazy cute this little guy is..he dumped his beans out all over the table and put the bowl on his head, I walked in the kitched and said "why son" and he pointed at his head and said "hat" lol Oh and yes, of course there was bean juice still all in the bowl which got all in his hair and down his neck!!! LOVE HIM :)

Monkey Boy

This child is seriously a monkey...he climbs on everything all the time!! From the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed he is nothing but a ball of energy lol. This is what he was up to thismorning. Oh how I love this boy :) And by the way..one month from today this boy will be 2!!!

Hairbow Frame

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest and I had to try it out for all of Kaylees bows that are always all over the place..I LOVE how it turned out and it was super. All you have to do it take everything out of an old picture frame until all thats left is the outside frame. Then hot glue pieces of ribbon from one side of the frame to the other and when its dry clip on the hairbows!!! I love things that are cute and functional :)

Johns 26th Birthday

Yesterday was Johns 26th birthday and since he has been wanting to go to Clarks Fish Camp thats where we went for dinner. It was John, Kaylee, Kyle and I and his parents and brother and Mamie and Papa. Its been a long time since we had been there and neither of the kids have ever gone. I forgot how much I love that resturant. Its a really cool place. They have just added on to the building and have added a lot more animals since I had left been there. There is also a new turtle and alligator exhibit that they are working on right now. Kaylee loves animals so she was in heaven looking at everything. The food was delicious and after we ate we all stood around on the dock for a while feeding the fish, alligators and turtles!! We all had such a great time. I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband that works so hard for me and our family. Happy Birthday Babe...WE LOVE YOU!!

B is for Bouncy Ball

I have started working on preschool at home with Kaylee. I really want to homeschool and I thought it wouldnt hurt us to get started now. We both LOVE it!! I have been printing out tons of worksheets for her to do and made us a schedule of what we are going to work on. Each week we will focus on a letter and a number and also try to memorize a bible verse. We already learned the fruits of the spirit but I found cute little worksheets to go along with that so we are going over one again each week!! I love teaching her new things and she really loves to learn. She begs every day to do school and always wants to do more than I have planned for her. I am trying to cherish this time that she begs to do schoolwork because i know it wont last forever.

This week we are working on the letter B. I found a little project on pinterest that I thought would be perfect for this week...Homemade bouncy balls!! I had everything we needed except cornstarch so we picked some of that up at walmart and yesterday we made our bouncy balls. It was really easy and Kaylee was so proud that she had made her own ball.

All you need is 2 cups, 1/2 tsp of borax, 2 tbsp of glue, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 2 tbsp of water.

Mix water and borax together in a cup. Pour glue and cornstarch into the other cup but do not stir..then pour 1/2 tsp of the borox mixture over the glue and cornstarch. Let them react on their own for 15-20 seconds then stir them until they wont stir anymore. Knead the mixture into a ball shape. You can add food coloring if you like but I just left ours white. The ball will bounce better on the carpet and you have to put it in a ziploc bag or it will dry out!!

Homemade Laundry Soap

About the time I started making my own baby wipes I also found a recipe for homemade laundry soap. If your anything like our family then you know how expensive laundry soap is. Especially when you leave the clothes in the washer for to long and have to re-wash them like I am known for doing lol. Anyways there are a lot of laundry soap recipes online but I chose to use the one that the Duggar family uses. I figured they probably wash nore clothes than any other family so they should have a pretty good recipe lol. I was a little hesitant at first that the clothes wouldnt get clean, or wouldnt smell good but they really do. John has very sensitive skin so he was worried that he may break out or something but we have been using it for about 2 months now and its going great. When I calculated how much we were saving in one year just from making it ourself I was shocked. You can buy all the stuff you need at walmart for under $7.00 and if my calculations are correct then you should have enough to make soap for one whole year before you need to buy the supplies again. $7 per year as opposed to $12 every 2 weeks....can't beat that!! I had to make my second batch of soap yesterday so I thought I would document it for anyone who wants to save money and make their own soap.

What you will need:

-5 Gallon Bucket w/ lid

-Hot Tap Water

-1 cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Powder (you have to use the washing powder..baking soda will not work)

-1 bar of soap (I use Ivory because I got a bunch of it free from couponing)

-1/2 cup of borax

Directions:

-Grate bar of soap

-Add 4 cups of hot tap water and grated soap in a small pot and cook over medium heat until all soap is melted. You really need to stir it the entire time.

-Fill your 5 gallon bucket half way full with hot tap water

-Add in melted soap, borax and super washing powder to your 5 gallon bucket. Stir until all powder is disolved.

-Fill bucket to the top with more hot water

-Cover the 5 gallon bucket and let sit overnight to settle.

I saved a few old laundry soap containers and I go ahead and fill them up when the soap is ready. If you want you can add some lavendar oil while you are melting the soap if you want your soap to have a stronger smell. I just use fabric softener and to me they smell great :)

Homemade Baby Wipes

I love the Duggar family and a few months ago I was reading on there website that they make their own baby wipes to save money. I figured I would give them a shot and I ended up LOVING them. There are much cheaper than store bought baby wipes and in my opinion they work better. I thought I would post the recipe for those of you who wanted to try!!

You cut one roll of papertowels in half so that you have two toilet paper sized rolls. I have tried a couple different brands of pepertowels but found that Bounty works best.

Mix 2 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and 2 tablespoons of baby oil together

Put 1 of the papertowel halves in a large bowl and drizzle the mixture over them.

Let them soak for 30 minutes then remove cardboard from the center

After the 30 minutes I go ahead and tear them all apart and put them in an old baby wipe case so they will stay moist.

They smell and work great and I LOVE that I made them myself. I no longer have to rush to the store to get wipes before the next dirty diaper lol..I can just make some more :)

22 Months

Can you believe this precious boy is 22 months old today?? I know I sure can't!! How in the world is my BABY going to be 2 in just 2 short months??? Time is flying!! This sweet boy brings us so much joy. He is his daddys boy, his mommys baby, and his sisters best friend. He is just such a happy kid. He loves life and is always in a good mood. We are so happy God chose us to be his parents!!

Thumper

I don't know how in all my catching up I forgot to mention our rabbit thumper...or "Thumpter" as Kaylee calls her. Kaylee really loves animals and we wanted to get her something that wouldnt be too much work (although the rabbit is a little more work than I would have liked). We got her about a month ago from a lady on craigslist who was giving her away. She came with a nice big cage and everything she needed to get her started at her new home. We decided that we would give it a trial run and if it just didnt work out we could give her away and we wouldnt be out any money. The kids both adore her so much that even if I wanted to I wouldnt be able to give her away lol. I dont absolutly love having her around...but its not that bad. The first night we got her I didnt realize just how fast they are and I let her down in the living room and Kyle scared her and she ran up under the couch LOL. So now we only let her run around on the porch so that there is nothing she can get into. She loves Kaylee and will let her pick her up and hold her and she loves John and will cuddle up in his lap. Kyle and I on the other hand she is not so crazy about. She is terrified of Kyle and runs from him and she always seems so uneasy when I am handeling her. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to catch her to get her back into her cage every time we take her out which is SUPER annoying haha....Oh the things we do for our kids :)

Pinterest

www.pinterest.com I strongly suggest everyone go and check out this website. I saw a few people talking about it on facebook but had no clue what it was so I decided last night to check it out and I am obsessed. Basically people go on and "pin" different things they like, pictures, quotes, articles, products, tutorials and all kinds of other stuff and when you click on the pictures it will take you to a website that goes more into detail about that "pin". Like if someone pinned a picture of a cake, you can click on the picture of the cake and it will take you to the website that will show you the recipe of the cake. You can then "re-pin" different things you like and save them into categories so you can go back to them later. I found so many recipes, crafts, and kids activities that I can't wait to try.

Dora Bed

When Kyle got his new Thomas bed we realized that Kaylee didnt really need her big full size bed and that it was just taking up extra space in there room so we decided to move her back to a toddler bed. She really wanted a small bed like Kyles so it worked out perfectly. A few days ago Mamie and Pa got Kaylee a new Dora toddler bed and she LOVES it. I put it together in the living room as soon as we brought it home and she laid in it until John came home because she was so excited to show him lol. We decided to leave her "Big Bed" in her room for the first night just in case she didnt like it as much as we thought but she begged us to move it out. We moved it out the next day and she was so excited. She loves the dora bed and sleeps great in it. I'm so glad we moved her back because now there room is so much more open and we don't have to worry about Kyle jumping on her big bed anymore haha!!

Frog Potty

Isn't he so adorable in his little undies??? We got him the smallest size they had and they still are huge on him lol. I can't believe he is even old enough to begin potty training. We started a few weeks ago just introducing the potty and he is doing great. I usually keep him in underwear throughout the day if we are going to be home and he hasnt had any accidents yet. I wouldnt have started potty training him yet but he was getting to the point where every time he would pee in his diaper he would take it off..so I thought he might be getting ready!! He still doesnt talk much so I wasn't sure how he was going to tell me he needed to go but I have just just been setting a timer for every 30 minutes and as soon as I take his undies off he knows to go sit on the potty and he will clap whenever he goes pee lol. I can't believe that we will only be buying diapers for just a little while longer. I thought we would never get past diapers haha. My babies are growing up so fast!!!

You smell like a.....

CRAB!!! Yep, thats what my sweet little angel told some old lady today in the walmart bathroom. She waited until the last minute to tell me that she needed to go to the bathroom and she was about to go in her pants so off we went running. Of course when we get in there all the stalls are full and there is a line. An older lady came out of a stall and it was finally out turn so we ran in behind her...before I could get the door closed Kaylee says (in her extremly loud voice) "ewww mom that lady smells like a crab!!" I was so embarassed and everyone in the bathroom laughed. I quietly asked her to hush and do her buisness but of course she kept elaborating and saying "did you smell that mom", "she did smell like a crab didn't she" lol...Thats the innocence of a child for ya haha!!

The Beach

Today we had a beach day...the kids and I LOVE the beach but John really isnt a huge fan. Whenever he comes to the beach with us he usually takes a lot of time to prepare and pack stuff to make the trip as fun as possible. We loaded up and headed out thismorning hoping to beat the crowd and the rain and we ended up getting a perfect spot. We found a spot where we could park right close to the beach and there was no one around. The kids had such a good time. Mamie and Pa got them new fishing poles so they had a great time fishing. Kaylee assumed that every time she reeled in her pole she would have a fish on it so she was a little dissapointed. Kyle has a great time whenever he is outside, it doesn't matter what we are doing. He is such a daredevil and is not afraid to get in the water and will try to catch crabs and anything else he sees. Kaylee is much more cautious and although she likes the water she would prefer to be holding someones hand or at least be close. She is terrified of the little crabs and doesnt even want to walk if she sees one in her path lol. Kyle is a little sand MONSTER he is covered from head to toe within 5 minutes of getting to the beach. Kaylee hates the sand and is constantly carrying around a water bottle so she can rinse herself off. Its funny to see how different they are.

Thomas Bed

I cant believe how fast our sweet boy is growing up. We just made the switch to a big boy bed and he is doing great. My sweet friend Brandy gave us the toddler bed her little boy just got done using and it is so adorable. I thought he may not sleep as well while he was first adjusting to it but he really has done great. He gets out a few times when we first put him to bed but never comes out of his room. All we have to do is tell him to get back in the bed and he will. I figured he would probably fall out at first since he wasnt used to sleeping without rails and he is such a wild sleeper but he hasnt yet. Of course its less than a foot off the floor so if he did fall out he wouldnt be hurt :) The first night I went in to check on him before I went to bed and he looked so grown up laying there in his big bed...Im so happy for all these big milestones but at the same time sad that my baby is growing up!!!

FINALLY

I am finally able to post pictures so I can get back to updating my blog more often. I have wanted to update so many times but I feel like a post with no pictures is BORNIG!! So I have lots of catching up to do. I didnt re-read my last few posts so I am not sure what I have already talked about but I just wanted to go back in and add pictures so I would have them here for my own future reference :)

Kaylee turned 3 back in March and I know I already posted about that but here are the pictures to go along with it. John and I took her to Chuck E Cheese and then my Nana and papa also had a little party for her at a park but I didnt get any pictures of that :( Here are the Chuck E Cheese pictures. For Easter we went to my mom and dads and had a pool party..the kids LOVED their easter baskets that my nana made for them and had a great time hunting easter eggs that Pappy and Uncle Jordan did for them. They also got to spend some time in the pool with is one of their favorite things to do :) In May Kaylee was the flower girl in Katelyns wedding and she was the most beautiful little flower girl I have ever seen :) She did a great job (despite the way she acted at the rehersal) and she has been asked to be a flower girl in my other cousin Farryns wedding at the beginning of next year!! Hopefully she will do as great of a job :) A few days after the wedding Kyle had his surgery for his ear tubes. I know I posted details about that in a previous post so I won't explain the whole ordeal again but I will say what a HUGE difference the tubes have made. Before the surgery he was ALWAYS sick and he hasnt been sick once since he got them put in. His balance is also a lot better. He used to fall all the time and no he runs around with no problems and we are always commenting on how fast he is!! We were hoping that the tubes would help improve his speech but that really hasnt changed much. We will more than likely be starting him in speedch therapy very soon!!

May Update

Our home computer has been broken for over a month now making it hard for me to update the blog and impossible for me to post pictures. But i thought it was time for an update. We have been keeping busy around here and are enjoying this nice warm weather. The kids are both doing great and loving life.

Kaylee has been 3 now for a few months and is no longer a baby...she talks ALL the time and sings non-stop. She has a major attitude that gets her in trouble quite often but can be a sweetheart when she wants to be. She tells me all the time that her daddy is her best friend and that I can be her best friend another day haha. She loves her bubba and always wants to be around him even though they are usually fighting lol. She has told me several times that she wants to give Kyle back and get a new tiny brother that she can hold. She wants him to be her baby and let her rock him and wrap him in blankets but of course he wants nothing to do with that. She still hates the doctor and will cry if you even mention taking her there...she probably needs to go for her 3 year check-up but I just haven't been able to bring myself to take her and go through the ordeal haha. She was in my cousin Katelyns wedding a few weeks ago and surprised us all. I kept telling Katelyn that I didn't think she was going to walk down the aisle and that she may want to choose someone else but she wanted Kaylee..I was sure it was going to be a disaster and she would cry and make a scene but she proved me wrong. During the rehearsal the night before she cried and wouldn't walk down the aisle but the day of the wedding she grabbed her basket and told me I could go sit down because she was going to be the flower girl and sure enough she was the cutest most perfect little flower girl lol. She loves to be outside and play on her swing set and go on bike rides. She is finally becoming a less picky eater but most of the time it is a struggle to get her to eat something healthy.

Kyle is 20 months old and is my wild child haha. He is completely opposite from Kaylee in every way. He is a climber and isn't scared of anything...he is perfectly content playing on his own in his room and doesn't need anyone to entertain him. He also loves to go outside and play and go on bike rides but would much rather be riding on papas mini bike lol. He went for his surgery for tubes and to get his adenoids removed a few weeks ago but they ended up only doing the tubes because the doctors didn't think he was healthy enough to do the adenoids. Since the tubes he has been doing great...no sickness and a much happier boy. He still isnt talkin much but he will try to repeat things sometimes. I am VERY anxious to potty-train him so I have started having him sit on the toilet sometimes but he is no where near ready yet to ditch the diapers. He enjoys playing with his sister sometimes but I usually trying to aggravate her by taking things from her or hitting her or pulling her hair. Typical little brother. He is finally at the age where I know he understands what he is doing so the discipline wit him is beginning. Kaylee loves that she isn the only one to get in trouble anymore haha!!

We are looking forward to a fun filled summer and hopefully soon I will be able to post pictures of our latest adventures :)