Last day of Kindergarten...sniff...sniff

Addyson's last day of Kindergarten was bitter-sweet!  I was soooo proud of her for all that she had accomplished with her first full year of school and then of course sad that our year of half-day school and care-free mornings was over, not to mention that my BABY is now a first grader!  Next, she'll be off to college!  :(  Boo-Hoo!  Addyson did great in Kindergarten.  School is still a breeze for her and I hope it always continues to be that way!  Here is a conversation we had towards the last day of school"

Me:  Addyson, did you learn a lot in Kindergarten this year?
Addyson:  (in a sarcastic 13 year old voice)  Mom, Kindergarten has just been an extension of preschool.  Numbers, letters, sight words.  Yea, I already knew all of that. 
Me:  Well okay miss smarty pants!  Do you wish school was harder?
Addyson:  YES!!!! 

In all reality, I would say that her writing greatly improved during Kindergarten but pretty much most academic stuff she already knew really well, but she for sure did improve in all areas.  She is a great reader and has gotten a lot better at her spelling.  She sounds words out very well and really improved in her math skills.  I hope she will be challenged more in future years, which I am SURE she will! 

Since we were in the afternoon Kindergarten class this year, we got together with her class several times throughout the year for morning play dates, lunch at the park before school, etc.  On the last day of school we all met at a brunch place for the kids to eat before school.  Here is the only pic I got...should have gotten one of all of them!

 Addyson and Ellie walking into school the last day!  It was SUPER windy that day!  If you'll notice....Addyson wanted to wear the same shirt she wore to school on the first day of school! 

Wind blown!

Kate, Ellie and Addyson- last day of Kindergarten

Addyson and her teacher, Mrs. Price.  We LOVED her.  Such a sweet lady! 

Out of order, but Addyson on the first day of Kindergarten.  She still has lots of teeth here!  I also love the way Ben is looking up at her in this picture.  He loves her so much!

Walking into school first day of Kindergarten!

After school that day we got ice cream and went to Chuck E Cheese.  Lots Overkill  of celebrations!

I also started bought the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh the Places You'll Go" book and had her teacher sign it.  I'll have each teacher sign it and give it to her at her HS Graduation.  

Addyson has lost 8 teeth as of May or so (can't remember when she lost her last one) which is BY FAR the most out of any Kindergartner.  The majority of the kids have lost one tooth or none and a few have lost 2 or 3.  8?????  I can't explain it!  The Dentist said kids lose them at different times and that it is not unusual one way or the other.  She just looks so old and grown up with permanent teeth in!  

Another thing about Addyson that I never really thought of is really how advanced she is in all areas, not just school.  She has been riding her bike without training wheels since she was 4, swimming without a floatie for 2 years and things like that.  Most other kids her age (up here) are not doing those things (some are, but not all). I don't know if we just started those things with her early (which is possible) or what, but she has been doing most things like that for a while now. 


We are so proud of our Addyson Tate and love her to pieces!  Now, on to enjoying our fun summer!! 

Memorial Day visit!

By Memorial Day this year it had FINALLY warmed up a little.  Long-timers up here say this was the coldest spring and winter since 1915 or 1950.  I can't remember what the person said!  Ha!  Either way- it was a cold one!  By the end of May all my flowers had started to bloom and things were looking spring like! 

These turned out to be beautiful pink peonies! 

This year my sister, LeeAnn, her husband Stewart and their 2 kids, Hallie and Lauren, all visited us for Memorial Day.  It was the first time they were able to come visit since we have moved here so I was super excited for them to come up!  The night before they got here, Addyson had her first trampoline accident (of course) and bonked her tooth really bad into the neighbor girls head.  Ouch.  This put a little damper on trampoline activity for the weekend because I was paranoid she would hit it again and injure it further.  We took her in to the dentist on Tuesday and it ended up healing itself just fine.  Thank goodness because it was a permanent tooth!  That stresses me out!! 

The McKinney's got here LATE Friday night (about 12:30) and so the kids were excited to see each other on Saturday morning! 

Playing on the swings.  You can see how green it is here! 

Sweet little cousins!  Minus Lauren!

On Saturday evening our neighborhood had a summer kick-off party.  We had a fun time swimming!

Well, Lauren wasn't really having it here!  I think the water was a bit cold for her! 

Love this picture of Ben telling Lauren something important!

These girls swam all day!

Sunday the guys went fishing and LeeAnn and I took the girls to DeAnna Rose.  We had a fun morning there! 

We had a fun weekend.  The only bad part was that they had to leave so soon!  I hope they will come back and visit again soon.  Oh, and notice I did not get ONE picture of me and my sister together.  :( 

It's almost been a year!

Memorial Day weekend will mark one year of us closing on our house in Kansas.  Moving from Texas where we grew up and lived for 30 years!  It is really hard to believe that we have already been here a year.  I must say though, what a fun adventure it has been and actually it has not been as hard as I might have thought!  I usually have a pretty optimistic attitude about things and this was no exception.  I had the mind-set that we would be okay moving up here and that it would not turn our world upside down or anything crazy like that and sure enough- it has been okay and we are doing great!

Now that is not to say I don't miss seeing my family and friends often, because I sure do!  We would see family on a weekly, if not daily basis.  That was definitely an adjustment at first!  However, we found babysitters and friends and neighbors and we have made all of this work!  I do think we spend LOTS more time together as a family of 4, which in my opinion is great!  Seriously, in Texas we would have the kids stay with our parents very often and we did more "Ryan and Lisa" outings, rather than the 4 of us.  Here, well, we are all each other has so we do lots together!  :) We've been to Chuck E Cheese more Friday nights than I would like to count!  :) 

We have made many new friends up here!  It has been fun to get to know new people and new families.  In Texas, we had so many of our friends that we had know for so long that, looking back, I never took the time to really meet new people and form new friendships.  This move has forced me to do that and it has been great!  Ryan and I both are more on the outgoing/extrovert side and so its not super intimidating or hard for us to strike up conversations with new people.  This has been good for us!  I hope that does not sound arrogant in any way.... I would never mean for it to.  Just you know, some people are not great at meeting/interacting with brand new people and luckily for Ryan and I that is not a huge issue. 

We have also loved having our friends and family come visit us up here.  That has been great!  If we had not ever moved, we would not have that quality time with friends or family either.  When else would we have ever spent 4 days non-stop together?  Probably never! 

Over Mother's Day weekend we had the Salomone's visit!  It was such fun and we really enjoyed our time with Chelsea, Nick and Logan!

Of course we had to get a bath picture!  Ben said his favorite part of their visit was washing Logi's hair.  Hahaha!  Addy got to help with bath time one night by herself (no Ben) and she said that was her favorite part of their visit.  Spoken like true brother and sister! 

We went to brunch on Mother's Day and it was yummy!

Me and my babies on Mother's Day!  Love those 2!

Chelsea and I ventured out that afternoon for pedicures and shopping at The Plaza!  Fun times!

We had a great visit with them and we are so thankful that they came to see us!  It really means a lot!  We all played cards at night and had fun even though we let the guys win this time.  I mean every once in a while you have to let the boys win so that they keep playing with us!  :)

I just can't wrap my head around that we have been here a year!  It seems crazy all that has happened but I guess life just keeps on going!  Addyson's last day of Kindergarten is tomorrow and that is what I am really having a hard time believing.  I was up at school today for Field Day and they did a little preview of the 5th grade farewell that is tomorrow and I almost teared up thinking that in the blink of an eye that will be my baby!!  I just try to enjoy every minute with them that I can.  Here's to summer!! 

Ben's Christmas List

Ben is already making his Christmas list for next year!  Ha!  When ever he sees something that he wants, he says, "Can I ask Santa for that?"  :)  I always say, "Sure buddy!!" Of course you can! 

Here is what has made the list so far:

1.  Number one item by far is a TRUMPET.  He is really "in" to music these days and seems quite enthralled with trumpets.  He walks around pretend playing his trumpet.  Very cute!  We'll see if he is still in to this come next December
2.  A Harmonica.  This is for me to play while he plays the trumpet.  He really wants to ask Santa for one of these and then give it to me.  So sweet!
3.  Wooden boards that he can cut with a saw.  Yep!  This is what he is asking for! 

Love this little boy!

Also, I forgot one other funny story from my last post that I meant to include.  Ben frequently talks to himself in the mirror or he will go in the bathroom and shut the door and have conversations with his imaginary friends.  SOOO cute to listen in and hear what all he says.  So back when he was still in his crib (about a month ago) I went to get him up from his nap because I could hear him talking.  I walked in and smelled a dirty diaper.  He has been really good about going # 2 in the potty so I said, "Ben, why did you do that"  (I mean half way joking- not mad at him at all, but just asking).  He looked at me and shrugged his head to one side and got a little smirk on his face and he said, "That kid in the mirror told me to do it."  Hmmmmmm.  I said, "Really? Well what did that kid say?"  Ben: "He said Poop!!  And so I did!" (very matter of factly!)  Me:  laughed out loud.  Well, I guess that's a pretty good reason to poop in your pants.  The kid in the mirror yelled, Poop!

He is so funny!  :) 

Funny Ben moments

Ben has been doing several things lately that just plain make me laugh.  He is one funny guy!

So, of course, we have been potty training.  I would say by far, for us, boys have been harder.  He's just more inconsistent that Addyson was.  When Addyson was potty trained (2 years 8 months), she never had ONE accident.  She wore a pull up at night for probably 6 months, but during the day she never had accidents.  Not so much with Ben!  It's okay though.  I think we are mostly over the hump and he has not gone potty in his pants in about a week.  He's discovered that he can potty outside......which is good and bad.  Good because he doesn't just go in his pants when he doesn't want to come inside.  Bad because well, he's busting out the pee-pee and having fun peeing all over the yard.  Hmmmmm......moms of boys.....do you let your boys pee outside?  I can't decide if this is complete white trash or if it's okay in certain situations (like in our backyard only!!). 

Anyways, on to my funny story!  So when I take Ben into a bathroom when we are out anywhere (which he loves to frequent public restrooms- eww!) of course I go into the stall with him.  He give me very strict, military-like orders to stand in the corner and glue my feet together.  Ha!  It's pretty funny.  It started when we were in Mexico and he went potty in the bathroom.  He yelled, "Mom- in the corner" .......  "Feet together"  And of course I comply because when you are potty training you are just glad your child is going in the potty and you'll do anything really to get them to go.  It's now transpired into every time we are in the bathroom he give me my orders to face the wall and now it's moved from "Feet together" to "glue your feet together".  He doesn't apparently like to be watched while going to the bathroom!

Another thing Ben has been doing is busting out in full dance moves any time he hears a good song come on.  The boy LOVES to dance!  It's so cute too!  He has got some good moves!!  He is super in to music and instruments right now and he is mesmerized any time he sees a band playing or people singing.  When we were at Six Flags back over Spring Break he did not want to ride rides after he saw this live band playing.  He could have sat there all day watching the band!  He also makes his own band at home all the time.  He has a guitar and drum sticks and he sets up chairs and everything to do his concerts.  Oh yes, and he sings as well.  He won't do any of this on demand though.  You have to catch him in the act if you want to see any singing or dancing!

Tonight as I was putting him to bed he told me, "Mommy you are my best friend and I love you the most".  I mean, really, what else does a mom ever need to hear?  Love this boy!  Here's a few pics of my little man:

 The other day he got into the car and put this hat on that was on the floor.  It was chilly, but not that cold! 

Being silly!

Extreme Home Makeover

We have been doing some fun house projects lately!  If you know Ryan and I, we LOVE projects!  Well, let's put it like this.  I love the ideas and planning and picking out stuff and then Ryan executes it.  We're a great team, really!  :)  I love that Ryan is very project oriented and he gets the job done right and in a timely manner.  He HAS to complete projects all in one sitting (or weekend).  He doesn't leave it lingering for weeks on end.  I love that about him!

What I REALLY wanted to do with this post is put the  "before" pics of our house on here.  Like before we even moved in because that is an extreme home makeover post in itself.  However, those pictures are on a hard drive from my old computer and they are not exactly cooperating with being put onto my new Mac.  So, I'll have to keep working on that!  For now, I have some before and afters, but the Before's are not the TRUE befores.  Make sense?  :) 

In February we got LOTS of snow.  Ryan knew we were expected to get snowed in for a few days so he quickly thought of a project he could do.  Oh yes, the fireplace!  We have hated the tile since we moved in, but didn't quite know what we wanted to do with it.  We saw some rock at the fireplace store when we were getting gas logs and we both liked it and decided this is what we should do.  It wouldn't be too much of a project because Ryan could lay the rock right on top of the tile.  Perfect! 

This is the before.  Yucky cream colored tile around the fireplace.  Mind you, before we moved in there was a lovely brass fireplace cover over the opening and all the white wood was honey oak.  I promise I'll figure out a way to post those pics.  They are awful!  

Rock on the bottom......

Rock all the way around!  Looks good!  

Oh but wait.  Sorry honey, but I really think we have to do the backs of the bookshelves too.  They look horrible with the white background.  I think it would look great with rock on the backs of those too!  :)  See, like I said, I have the ideas.  Ryan executes! 

Looking back I am horrified at how "plain" this looks!  Yikes!  I always knew it needed something, but I didn't know what!

Much better!!

Much Much better!!  This isn't the best picture with the light, but you get the idea.  It really warms up the whole room!

Project 2:  Furniture makeover! 

When we moved in we brought all of our furniture for our old house.  We bought it for that house and it "fit" that house perfectly!  It was great!  Well, it wasn't so great for our Kansas house.  It was much too big for the room and I never really liked it.  Back in February when our moms came up to visit we went furniture shopping, met with a designer who helped us to pick our furniture that would fit the room to scale much better and wa-la.  8 weeks later it was delivered!  We LOVE the way it turned out! 

I don't think I took official "before" pics, so I'll just have to find a few that will do so you get the idea!  Oh wow- looking back I did not have a great picture of the living room at all.  I'm telling you- I wasn't in there all that much because I didn't like it!  Ha!  Guess no one was- there were no good pics!  Here's the best i could do:

Big clunky couch in front of the windows.  This picture is Dustin sleeping and Ryan trying to make him sneeze by putting pepper under his nose.  :)

You can see a little bit here....the couch was overpowering the room!

My fav little nephews! 

Oh yes, and remember this??  This is what our couch looked like for the first 5 weeks here because the moving company LOST the other half of our couch.  Nice!!!  Ugg- I hated living so disheveled!!  

And now the after pics! 

We love the furniture but OBVIOUSLY we need some accessories to tie it all together!  The furniture fits so much better in the room and we feel it is SOO much bigger than before! 

Friday Ryan and I went accessory shopping.  I love Ryan's input on this and I think he might be part metro, because he always picks out the good stuff.  :)  He has a good eye for decorating.  We got most of this stuff home and I messed around with it for an hour and I couldn't make it look right.  He came up in 5 minutes and arranged the sofa table and I love it!

Found the picture and it was PERFECT for our room.  Had all of the colors we used and really tied everything together!  The sconces were from our old house.  Glad we kept those!  The lanterns are my fav.  The candles are flameless and they are on a timer.  They turn on every day at 7:00 and stay on for 4 hours and turn off automatically.  Love them! 

The other view!  It is so cozy- we love it!