I haven't really been doing a thankful thing each week but now that life is getting back to normal, I fully intend to. This week, I'm super thankful for my girls' school and the friends that we have there. When Mya was first transferred to Stanton Elementary in first grade we were sad because we had to leave a school where we knew lots of people including neighbors and fellow churchgoers. But then I found out a friend from church was a teacher there and would be Mya's teacher. I was relieved. After that, year after year, more friends came to join us there. Now we have a group of friends that go to our church and other friends that we've made. We really love it and I'm so thankful that we have such an awesome support system at school. We've had awesome teachers too. The librarian goes to our church and took this pic and sent it to me =)
Another friend of Addie's joined the school in January. These 3 besties are the sweetest and tiniest in their class.
I love that these two always wait for me side by side, smiling and talking. Sometimes they are fighting but they usually save that for the car ride home. And this day they were matching. They are the cutest.
Parenting is full of all kinds of emotions, all kinds of reactions, ups and downs, moments to feel good about and moments you're glad no one was there to witness. I live for those little moments that make me feel good about being a mom. When the kids are getting along and not because they are supposed to but because they actually enjoy each other, it's the best.
Winter doesn't love reading. She usually won't read on her own and puts up a fight when it's time to do her 20 minutes of reading assigned by her teacher. But she loves reading to Addie and Angus, and sometimes our 18 month old neighbor if he's outside. I'll take what I can get.
And here's a little gross reality splashed in with sweet pics. Our dog situation is always a work in progress. I made the decision to keep the dogs downstairs and not allow them upstairs a couple of years ago. Four kids and two dogs was too many bodies waking me up in the middle of the night. Big dogs sneeze big or bark in their sleep or puke occasionally when they've eaten something they shoudn't have. Sometimes they would think they heard something in the middle of the night and both dogs would run down the stairs causing a sound similar to thunder waking up a kid or two. So I banned them to the downstairs with a baby gate.
In protest, Twitch started taking a nightly dump on the floor in the kitchen in the middle of the night. So we cut out the dinner feeding and just started feeding them double in the morning. We figured if they didn't eat at night they couldn't poop at night, right? Makes sense. Nope. Twitch figured out a way to save his poops for 4 AM. So we put out doggie peepee pads and confined them to a small space by the back slider. After a few months, the dogs figured out a way to get out of the confined area and once again Twitch started taking a dump on the floor in the kitchen.
I bugged Dan for months to put in a doggie door leading from the garage to the backyard. That way the dogs could sleep in the garage and go outside through the doggie door if they felt the urge to do their business.
Dan agreed to put in a doggie door a few days ago. It took some training but we finally got the dogs to go in and out of the doggie door. It's something they've never done in their lives so it was a little scary for them I guess. Once again, Twitch found a way to show us how he felt about the new sleeping arrangements. He pooped in the garage then exited through the doggie door and barked to be let in the house. AT 2:00AM. He might be smarter than me.
We had a neighbor friend over for a sleepover the other day. It's amazing how you can add one kid to the bunch and everyone starts magically getting along.
Lipstick and a missing tooth.
Otter is one of the girls ❤️
Recently I've been taking long walks with Winter in the afternoon after homework. It gets us out of the house which I love and we get to hang out just the two of us which she loves. Yesterday she invited Angus. Mya isn't interested in walking more than a block or two so she doesn't join. We brought the stroller for Angus because he has short bursts of energy then quickly tires.
Winter stole my phone and snapped 100 pics. This one isn't too bad.
Yes, Angus is wearing his PJs. Less laundry for me if he wears PJs all day until he puts new ones on at night.
Appreciating the view. Just kidding. They realized they could see Target from up there.
We took Addie's friend home from school last week. While we were waiting for Winter to get out, they discovered the sun roof and quickly became the happiest two little girls I've ever seen.
Addie handed this picture to me and said, "Here Mommy, I colored this for you."
I'm trying not to read too much into it...
The girls made a lemonade/orange juice stand and a neighbor kid somehow managed to spill lemonade all over Addie. She vowed to never speak to him or anyone in his family again. A bit harsh but I'm sure she'll come around.
I'm super happy about a new laundry system that I've implemented. It's working so much better than what I was doing. Before, I did all of our laundry together and had to separate it and give it to the appropriate kid to put away. Mya and Angus shared a laundry hamper since they share a room and Addie and Winter shared a hamper since they share a room. Most of my time was spent on my bed separating clothes into piles.
Now, each kid has there own cute laundry basket they picked out on Amazon so they actually enjoy putting their clothes in them. I do each load separately then I put the clean clothes on the kid's bed that they belong to and they put it away. No sorting. It just goes from laundry basket to washer to dryer to the bed. Easy. So much less work for me. Not sure why I didn't do this before but better late than never.
This Costco gem isn't new to a lot of you. It's spicy and delicious. They sample it pretty often too. BUT have you tried it hot? Do it. It's amazing. We use the toaster oven to heat it up but the microwave would be just fine. Obviously you need a vehicle for dipping. Pretzels or tortilla chips are my go to.
Another recommendation is this cheese knife from Cutco. It might be my favorite thing in the whole kitchen. I use it for cheese but also for limes, lemons, tomatoes, really anything you would use a good knife for. It's not cheep but I use it multiple times a day and have for about 5 years. So, worth every penny in my opinion.
I figured something out the other day that I'm so proud of. And the girls were super impressed because they watch these YouTube shows about life hacks all the time. I discovered a hack which makes me like the smartest mom ever to them. I now use a rubber band to hold my jean jacket cuff together. When I button it, I can't roll it up. When I don't button it, the cuff falls apart. Rubber band. Voila!
Happy Saturday!
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