Dance Divas

Now that school is out and our little darlings are ours again, I'm sure we have had time to reflect on how awesome our teachers are that spent the whole year working with our kids and are looking forward to meeting next year's teachers.  I enjoyed teacher appreciation week for two reasons.  First reason:  I was a teacher again and my sweet students spoiled me rotten!!  Second reason:  I get to help the kids make things for their teachers.  Aubrie gets Highlights magazine and in there it had a how-to on painting pots and she brought it to me and said she wanted to do it for her teachers.  Each teacher got their pots with a flower and we found the free printables here.  Then Emilie and Kyle's teachers also got a Sweet Cici's giftcard and I wanted to attach it to something.  I found some cute printable tags here that someone attached to an ice cream scoop.  But I figured the teachers already had a scoop, so we made a fake ice cream cone and attached it to that instead.

If you don't have school aged kids, this is still fun to print out for a Sunday school teacher or a friend!

 I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never been to Radnor Lake.  Who knew there were these awesome trails and lake right in the middle of all these neighborhoods?  Well, Katie did.  When Kyle had to stay home from school because he had strep, I dropped the girls off at school and met Katie there and walked the trail with Kyle and Rhett.  She also taught me that little boys like to throw rocks into water and we sat there forever while they happily threw their rocks.  I'm glad I have so many friends around that have boys.  

Super mom Katie and "baby" Rhett

gorgeous Radnor Lake

 Some days I think my children plot against me.  I think they have a secret pow-wow during breakfast and decide what level of stress they are going to give mommy that day...

  "Alright guys, today we are going to do a code red morning.  Let's see how mad mommy can get!  Emilie, you whine about everything and don't listen to mommy.  While she is painting our nails, pick up the bottle of polish that she told you to put down for the ninth time and throw it on the floor so it shatters in pieces and ruins the rug.  Kyle, throw your body at the pantry door because a bowl of cereal, a muffin, and half a granola bar didn't fill you up.  Then while mom is loading the dishes in the dishwasher, sneak back to her bathroom and take all the nail polish out from the cabinet and put it in her sink.  Then try on all her shoes and sprawl them throughout the bathroom and her room.  While you guys are doing that, I'm going to be super drama today and say stuff like, "Mom, you don't love me anymore."  or "How come you don't do anything fun anymore?!" and then while she is distracted by Kyle, I'll wrestle with Emilie on the couch and make her cry six times.  Kyle, while Emilie is screaming bloody murder, go grab her now cold bagel off the counter and start licking the cream cheese off of it until Petey figures out you have it and takes it from you.  When he does, scream like it is the end of the world."

 (That was all Aubrie-the-master-mind plotting against me.  And yes, all those things have happened recently.)

nail polish incident #1

Adam's parents and grandparents came to town.  The girls had a dance recital and it's been about 6 months since we have seen Adam's grandparents (Granny & Gaga)  While they were here we celebrated Adam's dad's birthday.  The girls enjoyed shopping for him.  Emilie picked out a pink tie and Kyle picked out some red, white, and blue windmill fans for the lawn, and Aubrie got him a mug that you can put their pictures in.  They love shopping for people.  I forgot to mention earlier that when Adam took them shopping for mother's day (the day before mother's day), they all got to pick something out for me.  I got a waffle maker, oven mitts, and some new knives.  He likes to take them to the kitchen section at Kohls.  Before I opened my gifts Aubrie said, "I hope you like our gifts, mommy, even though we did ALL of our shopping yesterday..."  That made Adam feel guilty!

Adrian and his two babies

I love when Gaga and Granny come and stay with us.  Granny gets up and plays with the kids before everyone else gets here and she has all the cool old school games that she teaches them.  They love playing "hide the thimble" (hide and seek with an object, usually a thimble but we don't have one) and their other favorite is stone school.  Granny has a stone in her hand and hides it behind her back.  If they guess the right hand, they get to move up a step.  Each step is a grade in school.  First to get to 8th grade wins.  

Playing stone school

And then we had the dance recital.  The girls took ballet and tap.  For the recital, their classes performed tap numbers.

Adam got the girls flowers

Emilie's class performed to "Baby Face".  It was so cute.  Emilie didn't look around to see what all the other girls were doing.  She was smiling big, acting like everyone was there to see HER.  She knew most of her steps and did a great job.

Emilie loving the spotlight

Aubrie's class did "Twist and Shout"  Aubrie was on the end and she had a very serious face on.  She was concentrating so hard about getting the right steps and not messing up.  Plus, lately she has been acting shy.  She also did a great job but didn't enjoy it quite as much as Emilie did.  Next year they are doing just ballet

Her final pose.  So serious! :)

 I've been trying to wear the kids out this week.  We went to the zoo the other day and enjoyed the merry-go-round, feeding the birds, seeing a couple of exhibits and playing on the playground.  Today I met Katie and we walked the trail by the Concord YMCA.  Aubrie and Higgs rode their bikes and I pulled Emilie and Kyle in the wagon while she pushed Rhett in a stroller.  We walked all the way over to Crockett Park and let the kids play on the playground and then went back to our cars.  It ended up being a 3 mile bike ride for Aubrie.  Let's just say she napped good.  Emilie, though...shew.  That girl.  We've had some sleeping trouble with her.  

A couple of months ago we got sick of her waking up in the middle of the night and coming to our room for no reason whatsoever.  So we finally told her that if she wakes up in the middle of the night and is scared, she can sneak into Aubrie's bed.  (She can be Aubrie's problem now.  Haha)  Well, now every morning we find her in Aubrie's bed.  She sits awake in her bed until she think Aubrie is asleep and then goes over there and climbs in bed.  She lays right up against her and even has her head on Aubrie's pillow.  Sometimes we hear Aubrie telling her to move over late at night on the monitor.  Aubrie secretly likes it because one evening we told her that we weren't going to let her sleep with her anymore and she begged us to let Emilie stay.  Well, this whole week I've had to go up to Emilie's room and hold her down and lay with her.  She kept getting up and going into Aubrie's room.  So finally, I shut her door and told her to stay in her room, which she HATES her door being shut.  Then I'm downstairs and it sounds like she's re-arranging furniture.  So I yell up to her and she responds, "What mom?! My door is shut!!!"  Yeah Emilie, but you're bouncing off the walls!  GO TO SLEEP!! So if I go up and lay with her and hold her arms with my arms, she falls asleep in less than five minutes.  

Oh, look!  Miss I don't need a nap just woke up!

Snack break at the zoo.

The other day at dinner Emilie said, "Hey guys!  Can I say something crazy??" For all of you that live in a hole, this is a line from a song in Frozen, but it is totally appropriate for Emilie to start all her conversations off with that question.

After our 3 mile walk, we came home to have leftovers and thought I would make the kids homemade smoothies.  My healthy mom friends would be so proud, I snuck kale into their smoothies.  When they asked me what the green stuff was, I just told them it was the green part of the strawberry I forgot to take off. :)

After lunch, I saw Kyle grunting so I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said yes.  So I hurried him in the bathroom and he actually went in the potty!!  And get this!  While I was in the bathroom with him, cheering him on and talking it over, I hear Emilie tell Aubrie, "Hey Aub!  Let's go upstairs and do some homework!" and Aubrie responded with, "Not right now Em.  I'm loading the dishes in the dishwasher."

NO LIE.

I couldn't believe it.  I texted the afternoon happenings to Adam and he said, "Don't worry.  They'll give it to you at nap time."  Sure enough, he was right.  I once again had to go put Emilie in a hug lock to get her to sleep and Aubrie woke up whiny from her nap.

It was the first time that I thought we are getting pretty close to a sweet spot.  Sweet spot for me is everyone wiping their own rear and everyone able to buckle themselves in the car.  It's coming, folks.  It's within my grasp and I can't wait!  

Oh, and homework is just a bunch of preschool worksheets that I have copied out of a workbook.  I keep them upstairs in the girls art center in the playroom and told them if they bring me a completed worksheet, they can have a treat (one skittle).  They are SO into it.  Aubrie helps Emilie.  Emilie is getting better at writing her name.  Some of the stuff is too easy for Aubrie, so I have her turn it over and make her draw me something that starts with that letter.  Or we spell and sound out a couple of words that begin with that letter.  You can find free printables anywhere online.  Maybe your kids would be into doing "homework", too!

I leave you all with my favorite chicken grilling recipe.  I've posted it before a couple of years ago, but it's so good I'll post it again.  When I make this, I buy all drumsticks because if I buy a whole chicken, the kids take the drummies and I get pieces I don't like.  But Adam prefers when I get a whole chicken.  So somethings I'll grab some other pieces to go with the pack of drumsticks.  If you like cilantro and lime, you'll love this recipe.  

Cilantro Lime Chicken
from mom

24 pieces of chicken

24 large sprigs of cilantro

3/4 cup melted and then cooled butter

6 Tbsp olive oil

6 Tbsp chopped cilantro

For Paste

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

2 grated limes

Mash the tablespoon of garlic with the salt and pepper.  The salt helps it grind into a mushy paste.  Combine the garlic paste with the grated lime peel.    Take a piece of chicken and rub the garlicky lime paste under the skin and tuck in one piece of cilantro.  Do this until all pieces have the paste and one sprig of cilantro under the skin.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Combine the 6 Tbsp of olive oil, melted butter, and chopped cilantro.  Brush this on the chicken while you grill.  Enjoy!

Love to all!

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Easter in Texas

I am relieved that I don't have any awful stories to tell you about our plane ride to Texas.  Adam didn't dip anybody's clothes into the blue toilet water.  Nobody got lost.  Melt downs were mostly by Kyle and it was only because he wasn't getting his usual long naps. We had a couple of snooty flight attendants that didn't seem to like our angelic kids but all our flights were on time. And this is probably our last time flying before we have to pay for FIVE TICKETS.  (fainted and woke back up....I'm ok.)

But we made it!!  And right out of the gate, the girls discovered that this whole time they've been visiting Gram and Poppy's house, they have never known that they have their own private mountain.  

I present to you...ROCK MOUNTAIN!!!  It's really just a pile of gravel but to our kids, it was the WORLD.  See their white leggings??  They were brown by the time we came inside that evening.  They would sit on top of rock mountain and slide down it as if it were a slide.  Ouch!

 Gigi flew in to spend time with the family as well.  I love that she is there when we all get together.  She lives in Nevada and is my mom's mother.  Love her!

Can you tell that mom and Adam are having a disagreement over dying Easter eggs?!  One of my favorite things about being married to Adam is his relationship with my mom.  They get along so well and when they get together they make me laugh so much.

Hunting Easter eggs with Poppy.  Kyle wore his boots but they were a little narrow for his Fred Flintstones feet.  He was tired when it was time to hunt eggs so his lovey had to tag along.    

Here is one of Adam's bags of dirt (the tie) that the girls got him for his birthday.

Emi has her party eyes on.  Some evenings, when she is lying in bed, she has Adam lay his head on her tummy and she pets his hair or his face.  Then she tells him that his face is crunchy.  She also told him the other day when she was darting through the room to "look out big bottom!"

My sweet girls.

 After we ate lunch, Emilie got up from the table and went to wash her hands but she saw a bug on the floor by the front door and made a big scene.  When Gram got up to kill it for her, Emilie yelled, "I can't handle this!!!"

Mom and Adam built a fire so we could make s'mores, while Dad, Robbie, and I did some roping.  I got to rope a lot with Robbie and my dad enjoyed running the chute and watching us.  My soft city rear end was a little sore!

Robbie and Lindsey joined us for a couple of days.  Kasey just had baby Nathaniel and stayed home where her mom was taking care of her and the new baby.  It was awfully sweet of her to spare Robbie for a couple of days!

Sweet cousins

 For a couple of evenings we went on family walks and Aubrie and Emilie would have foot races.  We were impressed with how far Aubrie could run!  And she was running in boots!  Emilie would try to keep up but then start crying and stopped when she realized she couldn't.  It was on those walks that I breathed in enough blooming mesquite and other desert foliage and almost died with allergies.

Aubrie got to do dishes at Gram's house.

Kyle would pull his hat down so low that he couldn't look up to see where he was going, he could only see his own shoes.  Any time you tried to pull his hat up, he would slap it back down over his eyes.  He's so stubborn.  He ended up with a fever for a couple of days and the finger that he always sucks on got a huge blister that we had to drain and keep bandaged.  We thought he was teething or something, but I think it was the start of his strep.

 Poppy had plenty of calves for us to rope and we enjoyed feeding them their grain.  Aubrie ended up riding one after we roped it.  Adam hung on to her and ran along with her, but it didn't buck.  

Cousins

We love Gigi

Every evening the kids got to ride the horses.  Aubrie wanted riding lessons from Poppy so she could ride all by herself.

Mom and Gigi on Duke and Slick

 At Gram and Poppy's house, you get spoiled with cookies and treats.  Kyle got to eat an ice cream bar but when it melted it pissed him off.

Since his boots didn't fit that well, he wore Emilie's pink boots around.  He refused to wear his other shoes.

We had so much fun and my parents are so hospitable to my large family.  The food is always delicious and the company is perfect.  I love getting my battery re-charged and watching the kids play.  There is no where to go and not a lot to do, so it's fun seeing what kind of games the kids come up with.  One of the girls' favorite thing to do is find sea shells...Dad eats pistachios out by his barn and the girls pick up the shells and think they are sea shells.  They also liked to play with the gravel.  Aubrie built a bunny trap.  Little did she know that Gram stood on the back porch the day before we got there and shot the Easter bunny that was eating her roses.  Glad she didn't have a bunny problem when we were there!!  The kids get to sleep in mom and dad's room on "cowboy beds" which are cots with sheets and blankets.  Emilie would get up in the middle of the night and start walking out the door and mom would have to catch her and put her back in bed.  We made so many memories to hold us through until we get to go back.  

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter holiday!  Precious is the lamb who died for our sins!

Love to all!

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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.

Waiting on getting her x-rays.

 We have had several visits from Adam's parents.  They were here to watch the kids when Aubrie had surgery and were here for their dance recital.  

And that's it.  We are pretty much caught up...to Easter.  Yipes.  In the meantime.  I hope everyone is going buck wild for summer like we are!!!

Love to all!

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