Loving Life

Last week, we made one of the best decisions we've made in a long time. We banished Keilah from our bedroom. With our other kids, they spent the first year or more living in our room until we disassembled the crib and moved it elsewhere (our bedroom doorway is narrower than most, so the crib does not fit through the door and we never feel like taking it apart to move it). This has never been a problem before with having a kid in our room as they have all been such sound sleepers. We  were able to go in and turn on our light, talk in normal voices, move about freely and they wouldn't even stir. I had even vacuumed a few times beside them, changed them into jammies, changed their diapers with little more than a slight opening of the eyes. Not so with Keilah. Aaron and I were prisoners in our own room. She would wake up at the slightest of noises and pop up looking to play with us (at least she was happy about it). She was also waking up numerous times throughout the night needin...

I've mentioned before how much Keilah is attached to her stuffed dog. Only Dog can bring about the comfort necessary when tired and sad. Mom brings a measure of comfort, but nothing can compare to the love of Dog. Chewing on his ears are the preferred method of self-comfort. However, this behavior causes Dog to stink and get crispy ears. Dog takes a weekly bath in the washing machine. Unfortunately, sometimes Dog's bath overlaps with tired and cranky times. When this calamity occurs, nothing but Dog will bring comfort. Not even her favorite big brother. Nor the promise of helping David with school work - which is usually a happy occasion.  Keilah also owns an elephant. But having Elephant near her in her times of distress is an affront to decency. At night time when Dog gets lost in the vast confines of her crib and she's crying out for him, she throws Elephant away from her as I mistakenly think he will be a fine substitute in the darkness. Notice she won'...

Just a few pictures to share with you. My four delightful kiddos trying to see if they all fit in a box together. Another picture of David in a random reading posture to add to my silly reading pose file. I have quite a collection of David reading in strange places and poses. He definitely gets this trait from his dad. :)  Monday's CC meet. I'm not sure where David is looking. Must have been something interesting off in the distance. He did pretty good again. Got another medal to add to his growing collection.  That's all for now! Today is a day to stay at home and get various projects done around the house. Project #1 is to change to stinky diaper of the little unit standing beside me right now trying to help me type! Have a great day everyone!

Earlier this spring, I was startled in my basement by a toad. I went to catch him, but he quickly hopped behind something and I wasn't going to go digging around trying to find him. I saw him two more times in the following week, and then no more. I hoped that he had found his way back out. Fast forward several months to where I was startled once again by the toad in my basement. This time, he looked well fed, fat, and happy. I'm not sure what he's been eating down there, but I was tempted to leave him as the more bugs he eats in my basement, ideally the fewer that make their way upstairs to our living area. However, I didn't want him dying down there and causing a stench, so he was caught, brought up for observation with the kids, and then released outside to make his way to a new home.  Keilah remains very cute and is into everything she can get her little hands on. She loves eating all books that she can reach, any writing utensil left in her reach is prefera...

So my mom found the picture I was wanting of me as a second grader with new glasses. No, not this one. That's me as a baby. :) Aren't I adorable? Here it is! What amazing glasses these are! The side piece came out from the bottom of the lenses making it look like I was wearing my glasses upside down. I thought they were so cool! Abby at the same age as I was when I got my glasses. And while I'm sharing with you my awkward photos, here I am in 6th grade. I was so terribly embarrassed by this picture when we got them back. I didn't realize my hair was so messy when we took the pictures and I also realized that the shirt I loved so much didn't in fact look all that great after all. I remember not wanting to trade my picture with my friends pictures because I was so embarrassed by it. And this is me around my freshman/sophomore year in high school with my new reading glasses. They were in style at that time. Really. This is at the tail end of my perme...

Yesterday after school, we traveled to town to pick up Abby's glasses. She had been complaining last year that she didn't feel like she was able to see very well the things up on the whiteboard. So we got her checked out at the end of the school year, they suggested waiting until the new school year to check again. She was quite excited to pick out a pair of glasses last week. Here are the sides - pink flowers and jewels!  Glasses haven't changed the level of goofiness in her body. :) Ana commented that now Abby looks like me. So they wanted a picture of the two of us together in our glasses. Here you go.   This morning, Abby was quite excited to show off her new glasses to her friends at school. She only told three friends that she was getting them. The rest she was hoping to surprise. Hopefully it's a good day for her! I was in second grade when I first got a pair of glasses too- I didn't need them for much more than a year. They were also pink, b...

Yea! It's cross country season again!!! I LOVE going to David's meets and cheering on my favorite son. He had his first meet this past Tuesday. As a big 8th grader, he did so much better than he did last year - I think he improved his time by almost three minutes from last year (running 1.5 miles yesterday). I got there right before their race started, so I didn't have time to run to my favorite spot to see them run past several different times. Therefore, I didn't get good pictures of him. There he is there on the left. Don't worry, I'll be sure to post more pictures throughout the season of him running by. :) After cheering David on, I found a shady spot to sit with Keilah and we enjoyed watching the rest of the races from there. She enjoyed sitting in the grass, eating puffs (getting them stuck to her chin) and standing up against me and bouncing up and down and being generally adorable. It was good to see her happy as she had an ear infection over the w...