Akira

    I harbor a lot of guilt from my pregnancy with Ella.  I was so sick and Kira had to take on a lot more responsibilities than any 5 year old should.  Am I a good parent?  Am I forcing her to grow up to quickly?  Am I allowing her to be a normal 5 year old girl?  I don't know the answers to these questions, but I do know how proud I am of her.  This summer she has matured like crazy! 
    Saturday while I was working out Ella started to fuss.  Without being asked Kira came in and got her.  She took her into her room so she could watch Kira and Rora play. (She asked first.) During one of the rest periods I went to check on the girls. Ella was laying on Kira's bed with a huge grin on her face watching the girls dance around and entertain her.  Talk about a Mommy moment!  She is such an amazing big sister!
    Kira's current favorite thing to do is put on fashion shows.  Where both she and Rora place different hair bows in their hair, turn on music and dance around.  It's so fun to watch Rora mimic the moves that Kira does.  She is an amazing role model!
    Today Kira finished her first chapter book.  Reading is part of my core and I am more proud of this accomplishment than of anything else she has done.  A little over a year ago she had just finished preschool and told me that she couldn't read.  She wouldn't even try.  Now she is able to read with confidence and enjoyment.  To see her confidence grow and she sees what she can do is worth every negative moment ten times over. 
    I sure love her!  Now to just get her enrolled in ballet classes for this year so I'm not the Mom who forgot!

Reduce?

Today the girls and I went through their room again.  It seems as if they can't keep it clean and I hate mess!  Their room is less than half the size it was in Alabama, so with the double bed, pack n play, dresser and bookcase there is just a very small amount of room left for walking, let alone playing.  Plus they don't have a walk in closet to store all their toys.  So we are trying something radical.  We took more than half the toys they have and put them away.  The barbies are still out, the dolls (American girl size) and 2 dress ups for each girl.  That's it.  I know with the small amount of toys they will be able to keep the space clean....now to see if their imaginations will kick in even more (not to brag but my girls have pretty developed imaginations) and they won't miss the toys we put in the garage. 
I like the idea of going back to a time where kids have only one or two treasured toys and  nothing else.  For Kira's birthday the last couple of years we've taken her shopping to get a new church dress and made it an all day date.  I think this year we are going to try just doing fun things for birthday's and only giving one simple present.  I know this isn't the norm for our culture but I don't want my kids to grow up relying on stuff.  I want them to value relationships and memories. 
So what do you think?  Is it possible in today's society for kids to be happy with less or am I setting my kids up to be hoarders? 

Oh, and I know this post is rambly (yes, I just made up that word :) but Ella decided to get up early and nurse every 30 minutes last night so I'm not completely coherent. 

Today

Ella had a checkup.  We are still watching and waiting to see if her herniated stomach will close up on its own.  She weighs 10lbs 3oz and is 27 inches. 

Homemade whole wheat & honey pumpkin bread makes the perfect snack!

Sweat makes my glasses slip so all during my workout I have to push them up.  I'm getting calloused on my nose from the constant rubbing.

Baby smiles are wonderful.  Baby smiles that are brought on because her sisters are playing with her are even better!

Catching up on housework isn't as bad when you know it's so messy because you've been spending all your time outside in the pool making memories with your kids. 

Playing twister is a lot harder when Aurora is spinning the wheel.  Holding each pose for almost 2 minutes and then having to twist to read where the spinner landed.  It was worth it to see the smile on her face and how proud she was!

Laundry seemed to go 10 times faster simply because without me telling them the girls were helping.  Kira folder and put away her clothes and then did Rora's.  I love watching the young lady she is turning into!

Yep, my day has been pretty darn good!  I sure love my life!!

Things I have learned

So the past week and a half Josh and I have been doing the insanity workout and there are a few things I have learned.

1. No matter how much space we have to workout, the girls gravitate to my legs...

2. Ella always needs attention when I workout...it doesn't matter what time I am doing it at or how happy/sound asleep she is seconds before I hit 'play.' 
3. To the girls on the DVD: It isn't attractive to pull faces while working out and every time you do the camera is going to zoom in on your face...It would be funny if I wasn't pushing so hard.

4. Josh is HILARIOUS!  Every time Shaun T. asks a question or tries to motivate you Josh has to talk back to the TV.  BAHAHAHAHA!  He does his workout after work (I usually do mine during naptime) and doesn't want me to watch so I go in the bedroom and no matter how loud I have the TV on I can still hear him calling random insults back to the TV...it's making me smile just thinking about it.  :)

5.  I like having Josh doing the same workout as me.  He keeps me accountable and motivates me to try harder.  Andplusalso he is great to commiserate how sore I am with :)

 

When Thrift Meets Crazy :)

I would consider myself extremely thrifty.  I shop sales, I reuse sour cream containers, I buy used and I fix things rather than throwing them away.  Being thrifty wasn't something I learned, it was just the way my life was when I was growing up. 
I never thought my Mom was thrifty, I KNEW she was crazy!  I rolled my eyes at least once a day when I saw her washing out freezer bags to reuse.  I swore I would never reuse freezer bags!  And here I am years later and I can't believe it, but I've topped her.  Not only do I reuse my freezer bags, but I use cloth diapers (OK, she used them for 5 of 7 kids), and I am to cheap, I mean thrifty, to buy paper towels. 
Yep, I've topped my Mom and am crazy, but seriously, it's saves so much money to wash out freezer bags and to wash a hand towel rather than buy new paper towels.  I am embracing being crazy!  And something tells me that when my girls are teenagers that they will roll their eyes every time I wash out a bag!

Road Trip!

So this is my attempt to catch up on my blog.  Our last week in Alabama was crazy!  The girls had swimming lessons every morning and then we tried to soak up as much time with friends as we could.  Oh, and Ella had a Dr. appt.   It was so fun and so completely insane!  I don't think I could have survived another day as busy.
We hit the road early Friday morning and headed to San Antonio.  I was really worried about Ella staying in the car but she did fantastic!  All the girls did.  We stayed 2 nights and 1 day in San Antonio.  It was a nice break from the drive and so fun!  The city is beautiful and so full of history. 
After our break we spent another day driving to Arizona.  I thought the girls were good the first leg, but they were even better the second!  It was great.  Josh and I were able to talk and laugh and just enjoy each other.  I love that after (almost) 7 years of marriage we still have things to talk about and I still enjoy our time together.  Part of me can't wait until retirement! 
We pulled into Grandma and Grandpa Wickert's house about 10 that night and stayed up until after 1 visiting.  It was nice to catch up!  It had been way too long since we'd seen them. 
The next day we set off house hunting.  We found the perfect house, but we didn't get it.  So Tuesday we set off again to look and found a house one street over from the 'perfect' house that had the exact same floor plan.  It's great!  We have a community pool, an open kitchen and are 4 houses down from a park.  It's great! 
We're close enough to Josh's family that we get to spend plenty of time with them, we are in what seems to be a great ward and Kira has already started making friends.  Now I am looking forward to being past the 'new' stage and to have life completely settled.  This new phase of my life is turning out to be an adventure already and I can't wait to see where it leads!

Swimming

Kira and Rora both took swimming lessons the last 4 days that we were in Alabama.  Wow!  I couldn't believe how far they both came in such a short time.  When they started Rora wouldn't get into the pool.  By the end she was blowing bubbles and completely comfortable.  Kira was comfortable, if a bit hesitant in the water when she started and by the end she was dog paddling short distances.  It was great. 
Now that we have a community pool we have been going swimming 3 days a week.  Last week was our first week so the girls have gone swimming here a total of 4 days.  Kira is now swimming under water a solid 10-15 feet at a time.  She has become so relaxed that she can float on her back. It's been amazing watching how quickly she grows and how her confidence is soaring.  Rora is also doing great.  She did a little to well in her swimming lessons and now wants to swim like Kira without using floaties.  ACK!  Ella has also been swimming.  She is so relaxed in the water.  Completely content to just be held.  It doesn't even matter if it's me holding her or not. 
I am so happy that as the temperature climbs we are able to get away from the house and still keep cool.  Oh, and I love how Rora takes a great nap after!

*I really need to take pictures at the pool but haven't dared even try since it's just been me and 3 kids.  It seems a little daunting to try and take pictures on top of that.  Hopefully Josh will get to go with us sometime this week so I can focus more on capturing the memories and less on making sure everyone stays alive :)

Gotta Love Him...

It's been a while since i've blogged and I don't really have energy right now to go back and do our move to Arizona justice.  Just know that we are settled into our new place and loving it.  Kira has made what looks like a new best friend and Rora went to nursery without any tears (huge for her) andplusalso she told her nursery leader when she needed to use the restroom. (Another HUGE for her!)  I'm starting to feel settled and will hopefully do a longer post about our move later in the week. 
Ok, back to my original reason for blogging tonight.  My friend Jenny is from Minnesota, and we all know that people in Minnesota say some different things.  Yes, people from the South do it too.  One of my favorite things she says (favorite as in makes me laugh everytime I hear it) is color crayons. Yes, she really calls them that.  Now we haven't been around her for a solid 3 weeks and out of the blue Josh told the girls to put away the color crayons.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  I just about peed my pants laughing at him.  I know, it's not really that funny, but to me it completely was!
I just love how something as simple as calling crayons color crayons can bring on bouts of laughter.  I really think that this is what life is all about.  Finding the silly little things to laugh at.  Life is good!

*and for the record I too have called crayons color crayons...just once, months ago :)