Happy 4th!

Happy 4th Everyone!

Our 4th of July was really fun! The morning began with Kylie's swimming lessons, which was nice because Matthew was home from work so he could go too and see Kylie with Miss Shannon. Then we had a bbq with my folks, Matthew's bbq's are always amazingly delicious (he burns the hot dogs nice and good just the way I like, and my dad usually gains 5 pounds in 1 day from all the cheeseburgers he eats)...

(Kylie's festive toes)

Then I went shopping for a few hours with my mom- childless and husbandless! Super fun, no little munchkins asking for lollipops or gum and hurrying my shopping trip along. Long story short, I learned something today: you don't need to have a matching outfit if you find a pair of gorgeous shoes, the outfit will come... always always get the shoes anyways... and I did. Also another lesson: if you can't decide which color, get both... one is a chocolate crocodile and the other is silver metallic- both high heeled peep toe (if you can't tell.)
Then when I got home, Matthew had the girls suited up and we played out back in our little pool for 2 hours- can't wait for the real one to be done. My babies are all nice and tan... and of course, we did F*I*R*E*W*O*R*K*S! Here are some pictures of the fun:

Matthew had a glorious time, as always, putting on his fire show for us as we sit many, many feet away... He bought fireworks yesterday, needless to say he went over the "spending limit" I gave him, but he enjoyed himself.

Some of the show, until my camera battery died... figures, before he gets to the big stuff at the end.

A little too much for the little one. She didn't like the loud ones and would lean into me covering her eyes as I covered her ears.

At the end of everything Kylie goes, "Let's do it again!" I asked her what she meant, and she pointed to the big mess of fireworks in the street and said, "Make them all go one more time." Sorry babe, doesn't work like that...

She also just came excitedly running downstairs and said that she can see more fireworks in the sky from her bedroom window, she's never going to go to sleep!!!

Busy Week

Goodness... there has been a lot going on, I can't keep up.

MONDAY

Bright and early, 7 am, these pool people don't waste a minute of "cooler" daylight. We spent the entire day listening to the sound of drilling concrete, digging concrete and dirt, Kacey crying, and Maggie barking.

Matthew got a quick shot before they started.... fence.

No fence.

Backyard view- we're actually extending that wall forward about 10 feet- it's nice when Matthew's Treasurer on the HOA board.
And now after....

Monday was also Kylie's first swimming lesson with Miss Shannon. Kylie loves the water, but is afraid to put her head under (even with an adult holding her promising to bring her back up). I swear it has to do with how Matthew has traumatized her, I mean played with her :) so she has trust issues. I've seen another little boy Shannon's working with, after 3 weeks he could swim like 5 feet under water all on his own... so I know Kylie's frightened but hopefully she'll get the hang of things.

Oh, and Monday evening Matthew started up class again... fun times. It was a nice little break off, I'm not sure who was more bummed that he started back up -him or me.

TUESDAY

Kylie had her creative class, she made an awesome wreath for the 4th of July. It was by far the best one out of the class, I so owe it all to Tate and Preschool. Kacey and I had our Mommy & Me gymnastics. Next week is our last class, I don't think we're going to sign up again. The highlight for Kacey is getting water during our breaks :) And the plumbing people were here for the pool Tuesday, again being loud... how you can be loud when installing pipes I have no idea! And again, Matthew gone in the evening for a 2 hour (wow!) HOA board meeting. OH!!! And Kacey went tinkle on the potty, all on her own... she was right about to get in the tub, and down she sat and the little potty was filled up! I was shocked, no one even encouraged her or asked her or anything! I keep saying that I'm going to potty train her, but I feel so bad that I might be doing it out of convinence for me and not necessarily if she's ready and wants to. I keep thinking, "if I wasn't pregnant, would I train her now?" Then I feel guilty and I just don't start... but maybe she's ready (?)

WEDNESDAY

Matthew's in Fresno (and Reno next week and San Fran the week after that... I can barely keep up). We had one of our air conditioning units moved to make room for the pool, he was here at 8 am. Nothing like a door bell ringing, dog barking, and baby crying to start the morning off right. But even more fun.... I got to drink the yummy (not) orange pregnancy drink today at the dr's office, and they took my blood. I think an inspector came today also, I saw his truck parked outside... this pool stuff moves really fast! Then, Kylie had her creative class and then swim lessons again with Miss Shannon.

Tomorrow continues with Kylie creative class and then soccer. I'm so glad I've got her involved with things, otherwise we'd go nuts at home listening to the work being done outside. And of course, I'll have to go and buy a big thing of fireworks... many of you may not know, but my husband is quite the pyromaniac. I'm sure we'll have pictures to post from the 4th!!!

Baby I Know...

Sunday morning, usual picture to document my cute girls. One thing I think is so funny... Matthew gets the clue what "color scheme" we are doing for church as I lay out the clothes the night before, and he always matches us. You might think I force him (maybe encourage is a better word) to coordinate, it's all I can do to coordinate my own outfit with the girls, but he always finds a tie to fit in too. Love it! Good job dear!Okay, this is the funniest thing in the world. We have to give this one to my mom, Yaya. See, normal people sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" or "Rock-a-by-baby..." or other lullabies to soothe children. Not my mom. For years, she's been singing the girls Leslie Gore songs. (Leslie Gore refresher- sings "It's my party and I'll cry if I Want to" and "Judy's turn to cry" etc...etc..) Matthew and I swear when Yaya babysits the girls, they sing the whole time. The funny thing is Kacey even knows some of the words.

Here is Kylie singing "Maybe I Know".... however, she sings it "Baby I Know" and it's way too difficult to fight with her and tell her it's wrong, because in her mind she's right and that's all to it. So in our house, it's baby instead of maybe.

June 27

Anyone else in shock that July is around the corner? What happened to June? However, I still feel like I have forever until this pregnancy is over... go figure that one. I had a doctor appointment today, he said he'd induce me a week early (whooopie, sense the sarcasm). He did another ultrasound, merely for convenience to check the heartbeat, still a girl :) Always good to have more confirmations... the nursery's already painted pink.

*

Here are just some cute pics of the girls before our daily outings. Kacey's arm is just fine, I'm taking the other night as a "warning" to always keep an eye on her. I forget that she's not as old and (for lack of a better word) coordinated as Kylie because she's only 21 months... not 4 yrs old like her big sister so she can't have the freedom like Kylie. So I consider it a blessing, and I'm keeping a watchful eye out.

I love seeing the two of them together, the bond they have is amazing. Don't get me wrong, they fight like the best of them... each holding their own regardless of age, strength, and size (we raise strong females in this house! My poor husband always has a female bossing him around in some way or another) But the girls really are so loving to each other. They fit so perfect together, I love how they compliment each other in their personalities and roles as big and little sister. Super cute... not sure how baby girl #3 will fit into the dynamic, I hope no one is odd ball out. More time to worry about that later. I'll just enjoy this for now.

Update

I don't know what happened... we took the ace bandage off at about 9:45 last night, worrying maybe it was too tight, etc etc. She slept with us all nigh,t and the arm didn't seem a problem... she was able to roll around and kick Matthew just as normal. :) She woke up 100% herself- not favoring the arm at all- doing everything as normal. She's got complete rotation in her wrist, I've tried it a few times... doesn't bother her one bit.

I don't know if last night she did something, and it gave her a twinge of pain so she got scared... but I know it really hurt because she wouldn't move it and wouldn't let me touch it. And when she did move it slightly, she'd cry. Now, this morning it's all better. (?)

Well, I don't understand... but I don't need too. She's better, that's all that matters!

Are You Kidding Me??!?!

Kacey. My dear sweet Kacey.

This is what we hear about an hour and a half ago:

(Kylie): "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

(Kacey crying): Kacey walking over to us holding her arm, HER SAME BAD ARM AT THE SAME SPOT... "Kylie did it. Kylie did it. Couch. Kylie."

Yeah, so I'm blogging about it to keep from losing my mind. It's hurt again. I held her for an hour and the smallest movement would make her wince. I'll take her in tomorrow, hopefully the Ped Ortho will take me without a doctor referral considering we were just there a month ago getting the stupid cast off. I'm thinking the less different waiting rooms I have to sit in, the better. But seriously what do I say... I have no idea what happened. Kylie's told me 3 different stories, and all I get from Kacey is "Kylie did it."

*

We wrapped it with an ace bandage- stabilizing her wrist so she can't twist it, and since then she hasn't cried once from the pain. So hopefully she (and I) will get a decent night's sleep. More tomorrow. (If I have to tolerate another cast, for another 4 weeks, giving a toddler only sponge baths when she desperately wants to play in the tub with her sister... ugh, seriously.... are you kidding me???!??!)

Sunday

Our usual Sunday morning pictures, I figure if everyone's nicely dressed we might as well document the occasion! We thought we'd change it up a bit and do a picture outside. Can you tell we had some spare time this morning?

Kylie said the cutest thing on Friday morning. The girls were sitting around the table while I was getting their bagels ready. Matthew went around and did his kisses goodbye. Kylie said, "Where are you going Dad?" And he answered, "To work." Kylie, "Oh, why are you going to work?" He looked over at me and smiled, "So your mom can buy new clothes." Kylie said after some thought, "Yeah, we like to go shopping." Hehe... it was funny, at least he knows why he has to work! :)

S O C C E R ! ! !

We had a busy morning. I dropped Kylie off for her hour of kiddie kollege (Today they colored, cut, glued catapiller food to a picture- I guess they read a book about it.... Yesterday -since I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats- was Cooking Day and they made and ate pancakes. Kylie put whipped cream and sprinkles on hers). So this morning, I dropped Kylie off, ran to the grocery store with Kacey, ran home to unload, ran back to pick Kylie up with a packed lunch and bottled water...

I was so happy that Matthew was able to escape work for soccer! Kylie was really excited to see her Daddy after her class, and it makes her realize that what she's doing is important and that she's special to have her Daddy there watching her too. I'm really grateful, that despite the hassles of Matthew's day, he always does stuff like that to be involved. So right after class, Kylie quickly changed with me in the bathrooms to her soccer stuff, and (we had 15 minutes) the girls ate their packed sandwiches. And in the gym we went for SOCCER!

The pictures all came out blurry, go figure since there was a lot of running. But to start, here's a video of Kylie running around and kicking into the goal.

The teacher was really nice... she gave Kacey a little ball to play around with, because (regardless of what yummy snacks I had for her) she quickly realized that what all the kids were doing was much more fun!The funniest thing happened, I WISH we got it on video. The kids were all done, the teacher pulled them in a huddle in the middle of the gym, and said 3-2-1- SOCCER right as the buzzer on the clock went off. During this time, Kacey was being all big and brave walking into the middle of the gym (I guess to join the huddle) then she heard the buzzer.... poor thing, you could see her face and seconds later came the horrific scream and alligator tears... it was really cute! :)

Busy Little Bees

This summer I have the girls enrolled in a whole bunch of various activities. I figure with summer break for Preschool, Kylie would be climbing the walls in boredom if I didn't have a plan. And there's only so much to do in the Vegas 110+ summer, much less being in my last trimester my energy is lacking. That and we're putting a pool in the backyard, it's only a matter of time before the digging starts and the noise is going to drive me crazy!!!!! So today was the first day of all the fun!

This is Kylie's first class of "Kreative Kiddie Kollege"- it's for 1 hour, 3 days a week. Every week they focus on a different theme and do different crafts and sing songs. The teacher is really nice, Ms. Jackie. Kylie was such a good girl. I went to peek on her when it was almost over and another mom asked which kid was mine. I pointed Kylie out, and she said to me... "Oh, she's really good. She was the first one done with her project!" This mom was actually chastising her daughter through the window because she was struggling cutting with scissors, as were quite a few other children... not my Kylie and she's one of the younger ones in the class (yes, I'm a proud Momma!)

I was peeking in from a little window so it's blurry.

The next 6 weeks are SO crazy for the girls, but I'm really excited about it. Kylie's got her creative class 3 days a week. Then she's also in soccer once a week, more pictures Thursday. And then swim lessons start in about 2 weeks, which will be 3 days a week also.

Since Kacey's younger, she has less going on... And while Kylie was at her class, Kacey started gymnastics. It's a Mommy & Me class, I was the only pregnant Mommy... it was quite a workout!

She was amazing on the balance beam. I was holding her hand for my sake, not for hers.

Tada!!!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Daddy...

Poor guy, he had a church meeting this morning~ didn't realize it until 30 minutes prior. He ran up to shower, I made cinnamon buns for him that weren't ready by the time he left. When he got home, I was running late so he had to get the girls ready and he took pictures this morning. By the time we got home from church, his cinnamon buns were still waiting but by this time there were only 2 left :) ~grabby tall 4 year old, who generously shares with her short little sister, a pregnant wife, you do the math.

We went shopping yesterday to buy him SOMETHING special, anything he wanted really. We'd been out of town all week, I had nothing for him (other than the random things we bought this week in San Diego). We shopped for 2.5 hours at the Outlets and Meadows Mall, without children. The fruits of our labors??? Two Pretzels and a Coke. The whole mall at his fingers and we're happy with Pretzel Time. So today was any old Sunday to him, I can't even make him brownies because I don't have any eggs from being out of town all week!!! I guess he wins the award for making my Mother's Day better than I made his Father's Day. But the great thing about him, he really doesn't mind at all :) What a good guy!!!! He'll be happy if the Lakers win tonight, that's all he asks for :)

My tan little babies!!! Kacey's actually peeling a little around her nose, it looks like she has freckles :) Look at those curls around her ears, I refuse to cut them... the top is bound to grow in!!!

This little girly cracks me up. They sang at church today for the Daddies. She's been excited about it, singing me the song for nearly 3 weeks now. So they announce for the Primary to come up for a "special musical number." Kylie goes up as fast as her little legs will take her, without running. She stands up straight, gets her front row spot, folds her arms ready to sing, and puts a big smile on her face and was as proud as she could be of herself!!!

This was what we found when we went to bed last night. When I peeked in on her, she was still awake sitting up like this... Maybe she was talking to Shamu who's on the ground there on the left, I don't know.... (notice the blankets to ease a fall in case she jumps out again) Anyways, I guess she eventually dozed off.

San Diego Trip

Here are some pictures from our trip, like I said before... we had a FABULOUS time! There was so much to do, the weather was really nice -although I hear San Diego is like that all year- and I was able to re-read Twlight on the ride down and back (twice- hehe). So all in all, a good trip and fun memories.

*

Look closely, that's Matthew and Kacey's head poking out of the opening. This is my favorite picture!!!

Kacey holding a starfish. I've got like 20 pictures of this, she really liked it. Kylie got so used to it, she'd reach right in the pond and pull one out without any help! I didn't even want to touch one!

Kylie in one of the aquaruims... I can't remeber what it was exactly.

Come on, places to go.... things to see....

Matthew and Kylie touching the Rays. I wouldn't put my hand in there, regardless if they said they wouldn't hurt/sting/bite/whatever my hand, but Kylie's got no fear.

Kacey and I looking at the Sea Lions, Kacey was ready to jump in and play. (so nearly 7 months along, aren't I supposed to "glow" by now???!!!)

From our Lunch with Shamu, this isn't zoomed or cropped. We were really that close. It was amazing, the girls were mesmorized by it all.

The Shipwreck Rapids ride, Kylie and Matthew went on this about a dozen times. They had ponchos, so they didn't get soaked like everyone else.

The girls in the living room of our hotel room, Matthew has titled this picture, "Waiting for Mommy to get ready." But I call it, "Playing with our new beach toys." That's a better title.

Hmm, who are those kids? Could that be Bryan and Jaxon Hulet? Oh look, it's the Hulet Family... Hey guys, what a surprise to see you here! (wink, wink) :)

This is at Belmont Park. This picture cracked me up, little, little, little, big. Yet they all were having a great time. The kids were screaming, and Matthew was laughing his head off!

Kylie and Matthew vs. Jaxon and Casey on bumper cars.

This one is blurry, because they are moving. Kylie and Matthew vs. Bryan and Tate... bumper cars again.

Kylie and Kacey on the boat ride.... I'm glad I bought Kacey an unlimited wristband too, they went on this ride at least 15 times.

Kylie and Jaxon on the boat ride. I really enjoyed Belmont Park, fun rides for the kiddies (and big rides that Kylie and Matthew got a thrill out of)... Yummy pizza along the Boardwalk and of course we had to stop at the shops and buy stuff!!! I bought so much at one store, they gave me a free beach bag (that had a price tag on it, that they actually sell)... I guess I was their best customer of the day, now that's sad! :)

Okay, our beach experience, well "morning" specifically.... Kylie enjoyed herself! Kacey HATED it! Kacey goes, "I don't like the water, I don't like the sand, I don't like my bucket!" She was miserable. You can't see her face, but everytime I put her down (feet in the sand) she cried. She didn't want it on her feet, she didn't want it on her hands. I sat in a beach chair and held her the whole time. It was kinda nice, she's usually a wiggleworm, but not this time. She didn't want down at all!

Kylie got sand from her toes to her head and was happy playing and making castles.

This is my favorite... Matthew and Kylie (Kacey wouldn't go nearly that close to the "wadr")

And so ends our fabulous trip, but like all vacations we take.... it's so good to be home!

San Diego Trip

Just a quick update: We spent the week in beautiful San Diego for a Sea World and Beach Trip... We had a blast, Kylie was devastated to leave this morning- trying everything to get us to stay longer, and if it were up to my husband, we'd still be there. I've got SOOO many pictures to sort through (and so much unpacking to do) so more pictures will be on the way!!!

*This pic was from our lunch with Shamu experience, I called weeks ago for reservations and got one of the BEST tables! So neat, really a once in a lifetime experience!*