Kookie Kellie: Bear with me

I've got so much catching up to do and it doesn't hurt that my blog is suffering, too. I've been wanting to put up pictures and write about life's happenings, but life is happening way too fast!!! Bear with me as I stumble here and there to help get you caught up!

We have Mother's Day. I've got one of the best mom's out there. I had so much fun being home in Texas (next blog post) and I actually enjoyed getting sick because both my mom and my grandma were there and took turns bringing me a blanket, tea, a cookie, or medicine. I milked it as long as I could because around here, I get to do those things for my kids and hubby.

Last year we lucked into the best family picture ever taken in the history of families all because everyone smiled and Petey laid his head on Adam's lap like a content and perfect angel. It was a total fluke and now we have high expectations on Mother's Day. This photo took way too much time, the sun was way too bright, and we couldn't find the part of the tripod that screws into the camera so we taped the camera to the tripod.

Kyle was sick while we were in Texas for a couple of days, but then perked back up. I ended up taking him to the doctor because as soon as we got home, his eyes were runny and nose started running so I thought his allergies were acting up. Turns out he had strep, but not the throat kind, the staph infection kind. He had a spot behind his ear that looked like a scab and they swabbed it and it turned out to be strep. Nothing a day off from school and round of antibiotics couldn't fix.

Big boys scream if you try to give them medicine so they have to take it themselves.

Aubrie was born with a herniated belly button. She ran around with what looked like a huge out-y bebo. The pediatrician told us that if it doesn't go away by the time she is five, we can get it fixed. So we took off for the surgeon and sure enough, it needed to get fixed and we signed up for a surgery date. She was really good about not being nervous. It helped that she talked things over with her classmates and they prayed for her. Everything went well. She was so brave and recovered perfectly. When she came out of anesthesia, we weren't back there yet and she told the male nurse, "Oh. Hi there." And she visited with him and ate a Popsicle. But as soon as we turned the corner into her room, she started crying and let her guard down. It was so sweet to see how tough she could be.

Showing off her new bebo. She got a digital camera and she loves carrying it around and taking pictures of everybody. We all have very unflattering pictures on her camera. Just yesterday she snuck upstairs and took a picture of Brittney breast feeding baby Grayson.

This has officially been the longest winter of my life. I definitely hate winter. I've had so much of the kids being inside that I've stopped caring what they do, as long as they go outside. So Aubrie began to dig holes in my flower beds. Emilie collected rocks and put them on the window sill. Kyle enjoyed standing in the garden boxes and stomping on the dirt. This all came back to haunt me when I went to get the yard ready for summer. After we planted plants and seeds in our garden, Kyle went and did the Mexican hat dance on them. I don't think the carrots minded but we won't be having any bell peppers this year. I had to buy dirt to fill in the giant hole Aubrie dug in the flower bed and Emilie had to move her rock collection somewhere else.

April: digging holes in a nice skirt and white leggings. Mom doesn't care because it should be in the 60s.

AND THEN, this happened:

My precious baby graduated from preschool. When they walked across the stage they announced what the kids wanted to be when they grow up and Aubrie said she wanted to be a doctor.

I just can't believe she is five and going to be in Kindergarten this August. I did pretty good throughout the graduation. I teared up a little when I saw her in a cap and gown. But it helped that it was the last day of school for my class and I was sitting with them in the sanctuary and we had to get back to our room to send them all home and get the room ready for summer. But then this Sunday, we were on our way to church and she was singing "10,000 Reasons" and "Our God" by Chris Tomlin and I lost it. Every morning when I back out of the garage, the kids pray on the way to school. They have gotten pretty good at it and their prayers are so sweet to listen to. And then this spring they requested to listen to "Our God" on our short drive to school and it hit me that it is going to be a long time before I have them all in the car with me and I'm taking them to school. Next year Adam plans on taking Aubrie to school on the way to work since her school starts a lot earlier than Emilie and Kyle's MDO.

My friend Marcie sent this picture of her little boy, Teague and Aubrie through the years.

God gave me these sweet kids to raise and send out into this world and I'm working really hard this summer on preparing to send Aubrie off to Kindergarten.

That Emilie. She's a mess. I've mentioned before that she speaks her own language, Eminese. Well, one of her words is Kekis (Key-kiss). She will say kekis while talking about something and then stop herself and say, "Wait. Did I just say Kekis?" She also calls us a Julius, which is her version of genius. But then she conjugated the word julius but it is a noun and not a verb. Bear with me. So she'll tell Adam that he is a Julius. Then she will say that I am a Jilas and Aubrie or Kyle is a junius. I hope she gets into linguistics or something when she goes to college.

The big guy has been getting bigger. For months I haven't understood why he would say, "I want cookie" and bring me the bag of flour until one day I was on the phone and he brought me the bag of flour and I realized it had a huge picture of a cookie on the side of it. Duh mom. The pantry door definitely has a lock on it because otherwise this kid would be helping himself to whatever he wanted all day long.

He has become quite the talker. On the way to church, Adam pointed to a tractor and said, "Look at the tractor, Kyle." and he responded, "Yeah da. I see the tractor."

Brittney talked me into re-starting our Cinco De Mayo parties. We haven't had one since 2008. So this year we put one together last minute and had a great turn out. We had fajitas, enchiladas, tamales, salsas, salads, a pinata, and some tequila cupcakes for adults only. :)

All lined up and ready to hit the pinata!

In other news, I'm an Auntie again! Robbie and Kasey had their baby boy, Nathaniel Grant. I love this picture of Robbie checking out his baby boy.

We have also learned that Kyle can sleep anywhere. Including the grocery cart with crazy Emi. But it turns out that crazy Emi is a pretty good nurturer. She ended up holding his head the rest of the way through the store.

I catch her and Kyle loving on each other quite a bit. I took this pic from the other room the other day. He was supposed be eating his breakfast, but was fussing because he was the last one at the table, so she was consoling him.

Adam had a birthday. The kids live for his birthday and Father's Day because we get to get up and sneak out of the house to go get donuts and give them to him in bed. I took the kids shopping a couple of weeks before his birthday and really worked on explaining to them that they are NOT to tell Daddy when he gets home about the things we got him. So as soon as he walks in the door, Emilie runs up to him and said, "Daddy! We went shopping today and got you DIRT!!!" And from then on, for anybody's birthday they tell them that they got them a bag of dirt for their birthday and then giggle as if they are pulling one over on us.

Oh man. The headboard. I've been wanting a headboard for 9 years and I've finally found one on craigslist. It was huge and heavy and Katie had me all jazzed up to get it painted and stained just like I wanted it. She always is so confident in my abilities. This one weekend project took three. Sanding went well. Painting it this cool green color went well. But rubbing the stain on with a rag and getting it even didn't go well. So after the second try, we got it perfect and went to put on the poly and it took off the stain. So we had to start over. So we get it just right again and plan on leaving it alone for a week and then putting on the poly. That evening we go to move it to the other side of the garage and realize that our little helpers that go out to the garage and feed the dog picked up our paint roller and smudged a glob of paint on the headboard. I was SO MAD!!! But after Adam calmed me down and pointed out that it was right where his pillow will lay and nobody will be able to tell, we decided to leave it. I kind of like that it's there so we can always remember this age.

The final product!

Here's some good news, as Emilie said, "Mommy! I went to the dentist and I didn't scream and people didn't have to hug me!" In other words, she was a big girl at the dentist office and I didn't have to restrain her like a savage animal.