Back To School

Can you believe it's already July 30?? Summer has FLOWN by - I can't believe it! School starts here in a little more than a week. That's something else I can't believe....Jenny will be in kindergarten this year!! Wow. It doesn't seem like it should be that time already.

Last week I printed her school supply list off of her school's website and yesterday Jaime and I went to pick up the stuff on her list. We got everything on the list except for the bookbag, because we want to wait until she can go with us to pick out her own bag. Plus there are always TONS of people on the school supply aisles, and it's hard enough for me to squeeze past everyone to get to the things we need, it would have been even harder with Jenny following behind me.

School supply lists are basically the same from when I was in school except that I don't remember hand sanitizer, printer paper, or Ziploc baggies. I've also noticed that schools have become more specific about which brands to buy. For example, the list specifically requested Crayola crayons, and Elmer's glue. Not a big deal, but I don't remember the brand being important before. Although I do have to admit that I am picky about which brand of crayons I use - I prefer Crayola. Ha!

This is our second year buying school supplies, and I have to say that I love it! I was thinking it would be chore-like, and more of a hassle than anything. I was wrong. I think it's so much fun to go pick out all of the supplies she'll use during the school year. I'm sure by the time she's in 5th grade and Aiden is in 1st grade I will be tired of buying them, but for now I enjoy it. Especially kindergarten supplies.

For example, the EXPO dry erase markers. I can just picture our little Jenny up at the dry erase board writing something on it. When I was little I loved writing on the board! I'm sure Jenny will like it too, she loves for everyone to watch her and see what it is she is drawing/writing.

Scissors and glue!?! Our Jenny?? Using scissors and glue?! Oh. My. Goodness. Up until recently we've never let her use scissors. We've always told her that she had to let Daddy or I cut it for her because it was dangerous and she might cut herself. Then I started thinking about how she was going to be starting kindergarten and about all the fun things she would do. Then I realized that those fun things include using scissors and glue. Glue? No big deal. Scissors? She had never done that before. So, I set out on a mission. A mission to prepare Jenny for kindergarten.

So we bought Jenny and extra set of scissors and glue to let her practice with at home. Aren't those the cutest little scissors ever?? I've always told Jenny that I want to make sure she is prepared for everything. I never want her to walk into a situation and not know what to expect or how to handle it. I know that at some point there will come a situation that she isn't prepared for, but I'm hoping that at that time she'll be ready to figure it out without my help. I feel the same way about kindergarten - I want to make sure she is prepared. We've been practicing letting her carry her own plate at home or her own tray at a buffet restaurant (to prepare her for lunch in the cafeteria), we've made sure she knows our address (in case she has issues with the bus she rides), she knows our phone number (in case she needs to call us from the school), we've read the bus safety book about 1000 times, and mostly we've tried to teach her to be sure of herself. We want her to know that she will make mistakes, and that is ok - as long as she tried her best. We want her to know that it's ok to be herself and that she doesn't have to try to be like anyone else. We want her to know that she may get hurt (physically or emotionally), but whatever it is will pass and she will learn from it. Most of all we want her to know that we will love her no matter what, and nothing she can do will ever change that. In our eyes she and Aiden are as close to perfect as it gets, and we'll always love them.

Potty Training

Ever since Aiden turned 18 months old I have been thinking about when would be a good time to start potty training him. Since then Jaime and I have really tried to let him go with us when we go to the bathroom - just to show him what it's all about. Initially he didn't really care and had no interest in the potty other than playing with the roll of toilet paper. After about a month though he started showing more interest in it, and we started letting him try to potty too. He never went potty, but he liked being able to sit up there as if he was actually using the potty. We'd always tell him that he did a good job trying, and that we'd try again later.

More recently, he has started telling us that he needs to go potty. The first time he said it I remember I was so excited thinking that he would actually potty this time! He didn't. Ha! At that point I determined that maybe he is ready for some serious training, because to him it probably seemed like a game or something fun to do rather than something he needed to start doing.

So yesterday while Jaime and I were at Walmart I took a little detour over into the baby section of the store, and came back with this....

Isn't it cute? Aiden loves it! It has helped out a lot, because he can sit on the potty on his own, and we don't have to hold him. I think that helps him to feel more comfortable, which will help him to actually use the potty. Can you guess why Aiden likes it so much?? Yep, that's right....Elmo is on it! =)

I've taken him potty and let him use it a few times today, but so far he hasn't gone. We're gonna keep trying though! Right now we're basically still just getting him used to the potty, but after we move I am going to get a lot more serious about it. I feel like if I can get him to actually use it that first time it will help him out a lot. I don't expect that to be all it takes, I know it will take him a while to start going to the potty all the time - but I do think that after the first time he goes that he might start to understand better.

Wish us luck, as I know this will probably be a long process. Maybe we'll be getting somewhere by his 2nd birthday though, or hopefully at least by the end of the year. Ha!

Friday Ramblings

Here are a few things we have coming up next week....

1. Lots and lots of packing. We are moving August 9th. That's in about 9 days. Luckily we are trying to stay more organized for this move than we were in our last ones. Usually on the day we move we have lots of boxes, appliances & electronics, and furniture to move. Once we get all that outta here there are still lots of random things that really didn't have a box to go into or because we were using them up until the very last minute. Those things are then thrown into boxes/bags at the last minute. If it weren't for that last minute packing I think moving would be a lot easier and a lot less stressful. Only because usually those are also the things that we need first once we get into our new place. Since those things got thrown into boxes that were labeled 'Random Stuff', it makes it more difficult to find those things. So this time we are taking steps to prevent that from happening. My most favorite thing about this move so far is that all of our dishes are already wrapped in newspaper and packed up in boxes. The kitchen is my least favorite room to pack, and basically it's already done. We bought paper plates, styrofoam bowls, and plastic silverware to use for the next week or so until we move. It is a little inconvient right now, but on moving day I think it will help us out a lot! Do you have any moving/packing tips??

2. Next week we have lots of school shopping to do! We already bought most of Jenny's supplies, but we still need to get her a bookbag and school clothes and shoes. We'll probably get the rest of her stuff Sunday night so that she and Jaime and go too. I am so excited to buy all of these things for her to go to Kindergarten with. Last year when she started Pre-K that was a big deal, but Kindergarten just seems so much more official - and makes me feel so much more old! Ha!

3. Next week I promised Jenny that we would go back to the lake. Since next week is her last week of summer vacation, I want to try and make sure she gets to enjoy it as much as possible! That will be a little difficult since I really should spend most of the week packing, but I can always find time to spend with the kids!

4. Jenny called me yesterday and we spent nearly an hour on the phone just talking. It was really great to get to talk to her for so long! Things like that really show me how mature/grown up she is getting! While we were on the phone she informed me and she and I need a "Girl's Night" before she goes back to school. So one night next week she and I have plans to watch a movie and make cheesecake! =)

5. Aiden is going to start potty training! We'll see how it goes though since I have a lot of other stuff going on. I really just plan to try and take him in there more often and see what happens. His official potty training won't start until after we get moved, but since he's shown so much interest in the potty lately I thought it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and start now. *I have a post coming this afternoon that explains this more.

6. And finally....Jenny will be here next week! I'm so glad that she gets to spend her last week of summer vacation at our house! I wish that we didn't have so much going on next week though, then we'd be able to do more fun stuff with her and Aiden. But I'm gonna try and squeeze in as much stuff as possible.

I know there is more stuff I could add to this list, but I also have a lot I need to do today too. So I need to get off of here and get started with my errends. I have another post coming later today!

An Hour of Silence

Have I ever told you how much I love Elmo from Sesame Street?? He's pretty amazing if you ask me. He's so red, and so furry, and he KEEPS AIDEN QUIET FOR A WHOLE HOUR!!

I'm not sure what it is about Elmo that keeps Aiden so entertained, but he loves him. Every morning we watch Sesame Street and Aiden ignores most of it up until the Elmo's World segment starts. As soon as he hears the "La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World!" he comes running into the living room and plops himself down in the floor until it's over. Unfortunetly that is only about 15 minutes or so.

However, guess what my brother (Uncle Billy) bought Aiden???.......

"The Best of Elmo 2"

The movie is about an hour long, and let me just say that Aiden sat and watched the whole thing! There is lots of music for him to dance to and Elmo is in the whole thing. It works out really well for times like now when I have a lot going on and it is helpful to have an hour where I can do whatever I need to do (right now that would be packing).

It has a few celebrities in it too: Jason Mraz, the Goo Goo Dolls, Destiny's Child, and David Beckham are a few. Aiden especially likes the part with David Beckham because he is showing how to dribble a soccer ball. When that part comes on Aiden says, "kick it!". Ha!

Here he is watching Elmo's World

He sits in front of the TV just like this (sometimes in his chair with a snack) until it's over.

Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Aiden. It is also nice to get a little while where I don't have to chase after him or constantly worry about what he's getting into. He tends to be very sneaky and LOVES to do things he's not supposed to do or have things he's not supposed to have. So, if I can get an hour out of the day where I can get a few things done and not have to worry about those things, then I'd have to admit that I love Elmo just as much as Aiden does! (Well, maybe not quite that much....but I do think he's pretty cool!)

Wordful Wednesday

Instead of doing a Wordless Wednesday this week, I'm going to do a Wordful one. I intended on going "wordless", but I just don't think there are enough words to describe what is going on outside my window....

This is what is outside of the window in our toy room!!

Oh, just wait, it gets worse......

These are the wasps that won't fit on the nest.

This is what it looks like from inside the window.

Don't let the pictures fool you, there are a TON of them that you can't see on the other side of the nest. Several things come to mind when I look at these pictures... being stung, any type of bug/insect is gross (even wasps), being stung, I hate the buzzing noise they make, being stung, I won't even walk around to that side of the house because I know they are there, and BEING STUNG!

To me this is a very big deal - I don't like bees or wasps or really anything that stings. Not to mention the fact that it just looks bad. I want them gone. Immediately. However I'm not about to go out there and spray them myself. I'm going to get Jaime to do it while I wait patiently inside the house (probably watching out the window). I'm too afraid I'll make them mad and I'll get stung. Could you imagine being stung by all those wasps? Seems like you'd have to be in the hospital if something like that happened and if you were allergic you could die. I'm not allergic, but I do like to be dramatic and overreact about things like this. At least I'll admit it though.

It's a good thing I have all this packing to do and I don't have any time to be outside. Not that I'd do anything about the wasps if I did have to be outside. Like I said, I like to be dramatic.

Packing, Packing, and More Packing

As a lot of you probably already know, we are moving out of our 4 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom apartment. Normally, I wouldn't mind having to move so much. Normally, I would be almost excited to pack up our stuff and move into a new, clean place. Normally, Jaime and I would share the packing responsibilities and then he and our roommate, David would share most of the actual 'moving' responsibilities (with a little help from me). Normally, I would then unpack everything and put it all in it's place (Jaime would help me if I'd let him, but then I'd just have to redo everything he did because I'm obsessive like that). HOWEVER, there is NOTHING NORMAL about this move!! Or maybe I should say that it's not normal to us, in comparison to our other moves. In the past we just packed it all up, moved it to the new house, unpacked, and it was done. Voila! This time is a little different.... did you see that part up there where I said we're moving from a 4 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom apartment? Let me explain....

You see, the house we live in now has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a living room, a den, a toy room, a kitchen, and a dining room. The apartment will have a living room, small kitchen/dining room, 3 bedrooms, and 2.5 bathrooms. Aiden and Jenny will have to start sharing a room. We are going to be losing our toy room, den, and space in our kitchen. Not to mention that every room in the apartment is smaller than the rooms in this house now. I'm not really sure how I'm going to make this all work out and fit into such a smaller space. We've already sold our couch and loveseat from the den, and I am going to sell a few other things as well. I just keep telling myself, "It will work, I know it will, it has to work."

Did I also mention that we are moving in less than 2 weeks? Yea, so that means I have about 12 days to get this entire house sorted and packed. I have to sort through everything and decide what to sell, what to keep, what to throw away, what to donate, what to store, etc. THEN, I have to pack it all up and take it to where ever we decide it's going.

I started packing on Monday. I started with about 15 empty boxes and as of yesterday I had already filled them all up. I have someone bringing me more boxes today, and hopefully I'll have all of them used up by tomorrow afternoon.

You'll find stacks of boxes like these all over my house right now.

Most of the boxes are filled to the top like this one.

My two biggest challenges when sorting and packing is trying to decide what to save or what to get rid of, and keeping myself from getting distracted. When we've moved before I didn't have a busy toddler running around that I had to chase after. Plus, how can you not resist stopping to play with someone so cute??

Just look at that cute face!

Another problem of mine: I have a hard time getting rid of Aiden's baby stuff!!

I'm sure this will be the first of many posts about our move. I'll keep y'all updated....plus writing a blog post is a good excuse to keep me from packing. Ha!

A 50th Birthday

This past weekend we went to my Uncle's house to celebrate his 50th birthday. It was a lot of fun, and my whole family was there! We went out to dinner, spent some time in the pool, played a game called "washers", and just hung out and had a good time together.

My Uncle relaxing in the pool on his 50th

Jenny & Kylee

Aiden fell asleep in my lap, so we let him sleep on a pool float

My cousin Kandi and I

It was almost 100 degrees out, so we poured water on the kid's heads to keep them cool!

Aiden cheesin`!

Aiden and his Uncle Billy

I am so thankful to be part of such a close knit family. I would be nothing without my family, and for that I am very blessed!!

See You Later....Hasta Luego

Last Thursday a good friend of ours left to go back to Mexico for a few months for reasons I'm not going to talk about on the blog. He has been our friend for several years now, and we were very sad to see him go. Hopefully he will only be gone for about 6-8 months, but it could take longer.

A few weeks before he left he and his brother came over and we all hung out and reminisced about our friendships. It was a lot of fun, and I will cherish those memories! Here are a few pictures we took from the night...

Silvestre and his brother, Julio

Me and Silvestre

Me, Silveste, and Jaime

Jaime, David (in the pink Snuggie) and Silvestre.

Te voy a extranar, Silvestre! Pero ojala que tengas buena suerte y te veo despues!

(I'm going to miss you, Silvestre! But I wish you good luck and I'll see you later!)

A Birthday Party

Last Tuesday, Jaime, Jenny, Aiden, and I went to the birthday party for Natalia's son (Natalia is a co-worker and friend of ours). It was a pool party, which was GREAT considering how hot it has been! We had a great time, and the kids loved it!

I was SO glad Jaime was able to go with us!

Aiden was more interested in putting his head under the water than he was to have his picture made.

Family Updates

I thought I'd do a quick post to update you all on our family. I try to always do posts with pictures, so I don't always get to do updates on little things that have no pictures. Since I'm going to use this blog as a scrapbook, I figure I should also do updates of things that I don't have pictures for.

Jaime

Jaime doesn't have a whole lot to update on. He is still working two jobs - in the mornings he works at IHOP and a night he works at a Mexican Taquiera called Cheeky. At IHOP he works as a cook, and at Cheeky he cooks 3 nights and washes dishes 2 nights. We are hopeful that soon he will be able to cut back on hours to spend more time at home with us.

Katie

I feel like I have so much going on and so much to update about, but really I can't think of a whole lot to say. Ha! Obviously I'm still staying home with the kids, which I love! I am constantly trying to look for new things for us to do as a family, especially since it's summer time and it seems like there is so much more to do in the summer. I have also started meal planning on a weekly basis, and so far it is working really well!

Jenny

Jenny starts Kindergarten in three weeks. We should be finding out very soon who her teacher is, and get to meet her teacher and see her classroom before school starts. She is very excited about starting Kindergarten and we are very excited for her! Of course we are a little nervous because there are a lot of changes from Pre-K to Kindergarten, but we know she'll do just great. She is always impressing and surprising us with her intelligence and how well she adapts to things.

Aiden

Aiden is constantly changing and that makes me feel like I could go on and on with updates about him. He will be 20 months old on the 29th of this month. I know I keep repeating myself, but I'm going to say it again....TIME FLIES! I am trying to take advantage of every minute of it. He loves spending time outside, and loves playing in the sprinkler. He's not real crazy about big pools, but he loves playing in small ones like our inflateable one. I think the smaller ones make him feel more secure. He's going to start swimming lessons in September, so hopefully they'll help him.

Family

As a family we have a lot going on soon. We'll be moving into an apartment on August 9th. We have had a horrible experience with this landlord, and we're just ready to get out of here. Our apartment is about a mile from where we live now, and it's a little closer to IHOP. It will have three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. It's a pretty decent size apartment, and I think it will work well for us. We'll also be pretty busy the next few weeks preparing Jenny for school and making sure she has all her supplies and whatever else she'll need.

I guess that's pretty much all we have going on right now. It doesn't seem like it's as much once I get it all typed out. In my head it seems like a lot more. =)

Summer Fun!

Our favorite ways to spend the summer....

....Swimming in the pool, and.....

....Popsicles!

*Oh, and by the way, in the second picture that is Jenny swimming on her back! She looks like she is just floating (she can do that too), but she is actually kicking her feet and swimming. =)

Sunday Is Family Night

Sunday is probably my favorite day of the week. That's because I get to do my favorite thing in the world, spend time with Jaime and the kids! I am a big believer in spending as much time as possible as a family. I think it's great for Aiden's and Jenny's growth and development, and it's also a great time to create a lot of great memories. A lot of my favorite memories of Aiden and Jenny are from our family nights. I would definitely suggest creating a family night for any of you out there with kids who don't already have one.

This Sunday I made beef tacos with rice and beans. That's one of the kid's favorite meals, and of course Jaime and I like it too. After dinner we went to the park to watch Jaime play soccer and then afterwards we let the kids play on the playground and kick the soccer ball around a little.

When we got home Jaime and I made cookies with the kids. Jenny is starting to get really good at baking, and Aiden really likes watching and helping when he can.

Sundays really make me feel thankful for my family, and make me feel very lucky to have such great kids!

Helping Grandpa

Aiden's newest favorite thing to do with Grandpa.....

Water the plants!!

The water was coming back down on his head! Ha!

Those are all the pictures I got, because immediately after this last picture he turned, and got water all over Grandma and I! Luckily it was only water, and it wasn't enough of it to damage my phone. I just think it's so adorable how Aiden is trying to be more and more helpful everyday. There are times when he thinks he's helping me and he's only making it a lot harder, but at least he's trying! There are also times where his help really surprises me because he does more than I think he can, or he can do things that I didn't think he could. It's so great to get to watch him grow up in so many ways, but also so sad too. It's hard to believe he'll be 20 months old this month! Wow, he'll be two before I know it!