House Update

Here are the most current pictures.

Tile floor in the bathrooms

I was a little nervous about picking such a bold, bright color, but in the playroom, it's perfect!

The foyer light fixture
The great room
Front entry
Kitchen/Dining
Tile that will go around the fireplace. It's just leaning up against the wall, so the pink plywood will not show!

Wow

This is a new record for me in time between posts I think. I've barely had time to breathe lately, let alone blog. I could type out ALOT of stuff, but I'll put the highlights in bullets.

*Rylan finally had his 4 year check-up, he's 35 pounds, 40 inches tall and the bravest kid I know!

*Mackenzie had an ear infection

*We now know Mackenzie is allergic to amoxicillin

*After many long nights (or short if you count sleeping hours), all final projects are graded and school is over!

*Summer is officially here!

*After many long nights (or short...) we are moved out of our old house and in with the in-laws

*The new house is (obviously) not quite done, but getting closer

*I'm visiting the farm with the kids for a week and I love having no responsibilities other than being a mom!

Here is a smattering of photos over the last month. I intended to post new house photos tonight as well, but I'm tired, so this is it!

Golfing on Mother's Day

My new favorite picture of my two lovies!

Playing peek-a-boo

One of the three trailers full of our stuff.

Evidence we spent time at Urgent Care to have Mackenzie's ear infection diagnosed.
Better evidence: she's sitting still watching a movie, and just look at her, poor girl! She was extra, extra cuddly, and while I loved that, I would give it up any day to have my happy girl back. She's fine now, but this was not a fun weekend for her.

Grandma & Left, Center, Right

My mom stayed with us last weekend because Nick was out of town. It was so much fun to have her here and the kids just loved all the extra attention. She brought a dice/chip game called Left, Center, Right. It consists of little poker-like chips and 3 dice. Each die has an "R", and "L" and a "C" on it. The other 3 sides each had a big black dot. Each player starts with 3 chips. The first person rolls all three dice. If you roll an "R", you give one chip to the player on your right. If you roll an "L", you give a chip to the person on your left. If you roll a "C", you place a chip in the center of the table. If you get black dots, you do nothing. The next player takes their turn and so on. If you have fewer than 3 chips, you roll that number of dice on your turn. The last person with any chips wins the game.

Rylan is really into games lately, he loves to learn something new and he especially likes to win. He picked up on this game right away and really got animated while playing. He asked Grandma if she was going to leave this game at our house and she said no, she had to bring it back home with her. So I told Rylan we would make our own game. So that night, I cut out a box pattern from some cardstock and glued 3 cubes together. The next day, Rylan helped me stick foam letters and shapes to the boxes so our game was complete. I didn't have any circles, but we used hands and feet and they are so cute! They are much bigger than regulation dice, measuring 1 - 1/2 inches cubed, but they are perfect for our own Left, Center, Right!

For our chips, we used regular poker chips. But because we can't play this game when Mackenzie is awake (because she can't join in or she'll break the boxes) Grandma had a great idea of a game to play with the chips that Mackenzie could play!

Throw all the chips on the floor, then pick them back up!!! I'm sure you can imagine how much they both hated this game. :)

Then poor Grandma got attacked!

We love you Mom/Grandma! Thank you so much for coming!

Catch-Up Part II

I thought I had more picture to post than this, but this is it!

One night last week there must have been something in the air, because both kids were just crabby! Nick and I were about to pull our hair out, but like a good mom, I took pictures of their sad pathetic faces instead.

Here is a much much happier Mackenzie, she is normally just like this, I love it! This was last weekend, it was just her and I at home and we had done a little shopping. She carried her new outfit around ALL day!

What she's wearing is a new outfit too, thus the tag hanging on her shirt. She looks so grown-up in this picture to me! She is seriously the sweetest little girl ever!
And Rylan is the biggest ham ever! He makes me laugh all day long! He had gotten a present in the mail from Aunt Rach and he almost loved the confetti stuff (or "stringies" as he called them) that was part of the wrapping more than the actual gift. Only for a few minutes though, he got a super cool game!

It's a sandwich game! You lay all the different layers out on the floor, pick a card, and follow the recipe to make your sandwich. The bread slices are gloves and everything is velcro so you just slap on your toppings. He loves this game and it's so cute! A little book came with it as well with about 8-10 different kinds of games to play with the pieces, things I wouldn't have thought about, so we can really change it up when one way gets redundant. Thanks Aunt Rach!

Catch-Up Part I

We started the kids in swimming lessons recently and here are some pictures and videos of them in action. They both love the water!

Rylan waiting patiently for his turn with the teacher.

This first clip is of Mackenzie trying to blow bubbles. She would look at Nick and try to get her mouth to look just like his, it was so cute!

This is Mackenzie doing bobs. She wasn't sure about it the first time, but after Nick started giving her high fives, she was all about it.

Rylan working on blowing bubbles while swimming. He does so well, he always get the high five from his teacher because he listens so well! I'm such a proud momma!

Happy Birthday Rylan!

He's 4! I can't believe he's 4! Four years ago, Nick and I were wondering how we would know what to do with this tiny little life, but I think we've done a pretty good job so far. He frustrates me every day with his stubbornness (he's just like me) and he also charms me every day with his sweet words of love. He's more than I ever expected and I can't understand how it's still possible to love him more and more every day. He's my lovie and my life and I'm so proud of him!

Here are his 4-year-old pictures we had taken at JCPenney and also pictures from his birthday party this past weekend.







Four generations represented here
Car cake!
Yes, I'm ashamed to admit that he's blowing out matches in this picture. I was sure we had candles in the house, but when the time came, I couldn't find them. No way was he waiting for me to run to the grocery store, so we stuck a few matches in and had him quickly blow them out. Bad mommy!
Checkered flag on the inside! It turned out better than I expected and it was yummy too!
He was most excited about the balloons.
Mackenzie was most excited about the little water bottles.
Presents!


Just the slide from the swingset that will go at our new house.

All the party-goers. Thanks all for coming, Rylan had a wonderful time!