Elynn

My sweet Elynn is 19months old! How does that happen??

She is such a bundle of JOY and LOVE and HAPPINESS and FUN and SWEETNESS and everything in between! Oh my goodness how we love her and enjoy her so much. I CANNOT IMAGINE our family without that little girl.
She is talking so much, but her favorite thing to say is, "mamma, WATCH!" and she will do something exciting or crazy. She is FEARLESS! She will stand on anything and climb on EVERYTHING! She is FINALLY getting more teeth in. I think we have a total of 10 now! She has been a little grumpy and needy lately, which is so out of character for her, and I noticed she is getting TWO big molars in at the same time. OUCH!
When you call her name, she will say, "what?" ha. It is hilarious. Or, if you tell her not to do something, she will say, "why?" Love her so.

I posted because a couple of weeks ago, I painted her nails for the first time and she sat still the WHOLE time. I just had to give her a snack! I think I posted that, but not sure if I put pictures up. If I did already, oh well! She is too cute to not post twice!

After we were done painting her toes, she kept looking down at them and giggling!

Here she is hanging out at the pool.

I LOVE this picture of my girls. My friend, Allison, snapped it at a playdate the other day. Super sweet. I can't wait until they are best friends!!

Kitchen Island redo

I have been wanting to paint our kitchen island for a couple of weeks now, but Brent hasn't been in "project mode". He has been busy at work, so on his down time, he just wants to relax! This weekend, Brent took Ezra and Emersyn to the farm for the weekend. They had big plans of filling feeders, getting the blinds ready for hunting season, and doing a little dove hunting of their own. Emersyn usually stays behind with Elynn and I, but this time, she really wanted to go. Brent was more than happy to take her. She had a great time with the boys and even got to hang out with some of her girl cousins on Saturday.

The house was so quiet with just Elynn and I. So, I decided to tackle the kitchen island. Elynn is super easy, but just having ONE is SUPER EASY! I felt like I had a lot of spare time during her napping and early bed time. I got the whole thing done! Today, Monday, Brent helped me do the beadboard on the side of the island. I didn't feel like I should attempt that myself. Although, I did go to Home Depot, pick out the beadboard and have them cut it to the measurements we needed! That was a first. Anyway, it was a good project and not hard. I really like it and am happy I jumped on it and got it done!

Here is a before and after!

Before...

After!

(it is painted a blueish/turquoise color. It is also distressed allover.)

One day we may do new hardware!

Fire Safety

I have been invited to a playgroup, in Leon Springs, a couple times by one of Brent's co-workers wife. We haven't had an opportunity to stop by during the summer. She sent me an email telling me that the Leon Springs fire department was going to be stopping by the playgroup to show off the truck, talk to the kids and let them squirt the hose. We jumped on the opportunity. Ezra's school has been studying fire safety this week, so I thought it would be a great home school outing for us. It was a really good time. The kids loved it and learned a lot! While there, we got to listen to a talk by a fire fighter as he was getting his gear on, we took a tour through the truck and even got to shoot the fire hose. Such a great "home school outing"!!

Ezra, up front and center!

Ezra in the truck

My little fire fighters.

Ezra spraying the hose

Emersyn giving it a try

Children's Museum

A couple of weeks ago, I took Ezra and Elynn to The Children's Museum, here in San Antonio. Emersyn had a birthday party at The Magik Theater, to see Aladdin. Since it was only about a 2 hour time frame, I decided to go to The Children's Museum with Ezra and Elynn. It was a Great time. They both loved it. It makes me want to get season passes so we can go more often. We definitely saw everything there, but our favorite spots were: The ball factory, HEB and driving the excavator. It was a fast two hours, but so worth it.  Such a great morning! Emersyn had a great time at her party, also. 

Shopping at the HEB center

Playing in the ball factory thing

Cart full of groceries

Driving the excavator 

Ezra inside a bubble

Being sweet on the train

Cheese

Checking out at the HEB center

More ball factory

More big bubbles

Elynn's turn

First week of Kinder

We have our first week of Kindergarten behind us! I still can't believe it. It went by fast. Ezra loves his class and teacher. He is excited to go and is still excited when he comes home. On Thursday, after I picked him up from school, he looked at me and said, "Mom, this just wears me out." Ha. Poor little guy. I can't imagine if we had put him in a full time school setting. This is the first year that he has gone to school this long of a time period. He likes it, but he loves being home too. That is what makes this setting perfect for us!

Tuesday he went to school with his class and teacher. Wednesday was our first homeschool day. It went well, also. Ezra woke up at 7am and came to my side of the bed. He said, "Mom, I am ready to do school. Are you ready?" Ha! So cute. I told him, "maybe I could wake up first and we could eat breakfast." So, we got up, ate breakfast and then did our work. It takes us about an hour to do his work each homeschool day. So far it has worked out this way. It helps that Emersyn and Elynn sleep till 8-830 still. This gives Ezra one on one time to do work with no interruptions. Thursday he went to school again and Friday we homeschooled. Friday was nice, because, we did part of his work, then, put Math on hold due to a scheduled birthday party for Emersyn. While Emersyn was at her birthday party (they went to see Aladdin at The Magik Theater), Ezra, Elynn and I headed to The Children's Museum. It was a great morning. We picked Emersyn up from her party, headed home, put the girls down for a nap and finished school. LOVE IT!

Hopefully the rest of the year works out this great!

1st day of Kindergarten!

Ezra had his first day of Kindergarten, today! He was so excited to go this morning that he was up, dressed and downstairs by 7! All on his own! He is such a morning person, which will help. We are doing a co-op school where he will go to school Tuesdays and Thursdays from 830-330. (at 230, they dismiss from school and you have the option of signing them up for PE. Our little man, LOVES anythings SPORTS, so we thought he would enjoy PE). Then, Monday/Wednesday/Friday I will home school Ezra with the weekly curriculum agenda, sent by the teacher. I am really excited about what this year holds for us. I can't wait to be hands on with his learning. I am excited to see what type of learning style he has and how well we work together as a team. It will be tough in the beginning, figuring out our schedule/routine and sticking to it, but will be really good once we get it down. I am excited! More importantly, Ezra is SO EXCITED. I just can't believe I have a child who is old enough for KINDERGARTEN.

Today was a good day. I was teary throughout the day, but did the only thing I knew would bring me peace, and that was PRAY. He had a great day. He loved it. He came home talking about it and even answered all the questions I had about it! That is HUGE! (at one point, I think I had asked my limit of questions. He said, "Mom, I can't remember all of it now. Dad asked me too many questions when he picked me up." Ha!)  His class consists of 7 boys and 1 girl! That is such a change for us. I have a handful of friends with children his age that are all GIRLS. So, I am excited that he will be getting a little BOY interaction. i just pray they are sweet boys who like to be nice and kind to others, of course!

Here are some pictures of the beginning of the day.

The whole school

He just finished saying, "first day of kindergarten!"

He wants to be a baseball player when he grows up. I am going to try and do this every year with each child!

Chapel

Mrs. Hanson and his first grad class

The whole school plus all the teachers

Birthday weekend

I turned 31 on friday! I am not sure why 31 was harder for me than 30, but it was. It just SOUNDS so much older. I mean, 30 still sounds young and cool. 31, sounds blah and old. Ha!

The day started out great. I woke up to Brent bringing in breakfast tacos and Shipley's doughnuts before he headed to work. YUMMY! (I also got some LuLu Lemon workout gear!) As he was headed out the door, my friend, Ashleigh was walking up with a starbucks and scone! 5 of my good good friends, and I, have this birthday tradition for each birthday. We grab a coffee, some sort of yummy breakfast treat and our birthday gift, knock on the birthday girl's door and RUN. You never know who delivered the treats (we always take turns) but you know you are loved. It is so fun. Well, Ashleigh was trying to do just that, when Brent walked out the door to go to work. So, she ended up coming in with the treats and we got to talk for a few minutes. That was a fun treat in itself!

The rest of the day was your normal, mom of 3 kids kind of day. I forgot it was even my birthday. The day ended great, though. We packed our bags and headed to Canyon Lake for the weekend. My dad and his wife got rooms right off the lake in a cove off Canyon Lake. It was such a GREAT weekend. When we got there, it was around 530. We pulled up and saw a handful of deer standing in the parking lot of the lodge with people HAND FEEDING them! It was so cool. The kids got out of the car right away and jumped right in. It was so fun and crazy that we were feeding 10 point bucks and does! Brent, I am pretty sure, was in HEAVEN. The deer were so friendly. We ended the evening with good food, water activies, birthday cake, homemade ice cream and singing "Happy Birthday".

feeding the buck celery with his mouth!

pretty sure this might be what Heaven is like, for Brent!

Saturday morning, we woke up to find out that my dad had to go to the Hospital at 3'o clock in the morning. He has Chrone's and had a flare up, so him and his wife had to spend the weekned in the hospital. NOT COOL! It was sad because my sister came down with her new baby boy, Townes, that my dad and his wife hadn't met yet. My sister and Townes got in Friday night around 10:30 and I almost didn't text my dad that she made it (even though they asked me too). I ended up texting him, which I am glad I did, because they came down to help her unload her car and say hi. They were able to visit for a little bit and hold sweet baby Townes. If they hadn't come down to help unload her car, they wouldn't have seen her or the baby all weekend.


So, even with that bad news, they still wanted everyone to have a great weekend and play hard. That, we did. We wake boarded, tubed, knee boarded, drove the sea doo's, swam, relaxed ate, and did it all again! It was such a GREAT day.

view from our balcony 

My sister and nephew, Townes

Sweet baby Townes

Ezra riding the knee board into shore

This was the only thing he would "ride". He did ride the sea doo, eventually. 

The inflatables 

Some of the tubers being pulled

By Sunday, we were tired and SORE! This 31 year old has not wake boarded, tubed or knee boarded in a LONG time. It was all worth it. Such a great weekend of fun, fellowship, food and family time. The perfect birthday weekend! Sunday, some of us went back out in the water and had fun, others relaxed and read (me!). By Sunday afternoon, we packed up and headed back home. Everyone was in bed early on Sunday. I can't wait to go there again! It was such a great spot and less than an hour away!