Awesome Mommy Moment

Many morning Mommy moments don't make my heart flutter and melt. But this morning.....this morning was different.

In this midst of changing a nose-holding-worthy pull-up, I was doing a not-so-hot job of answering 20 questions from Tatum (because I am, of course, trying to be more aware of and not contribute to her 'middle-child syndrome', right?).

But I got flustered.

And my flustered tone can sound a lot like my angry tone to my kids, especially when I have asked them just to get dressed and go eat and we are going to be late again and why are we always late and can't I answer your questions later and WHY aren't you dressed yet....And, well.....you get the point.

After I dealt with the aftermath of the pull-up, I walked into the kitchen, where Kellen asked if I was angry. I then had to explain 'flustered' to him and after doing so, he proceeded to tell me about his devotional from earlier in the morning.....about praying to God for peace in stressful situations or when I got flustered.

'If you ask him, he can give you peace in the most irritating situations.'

It was an awesome and humbling experience to have my 9-year old son speak such a truthfully simply, yet profound statement to me this morning.

His comments stayed with me all day, and I can tell you, they not only helped me have a better morning, but a better day.


Points to Ponder

• What simple truths do you need reminding about today?
• Do you trust that He will give you peace in the most irritating situations?  In the situations that don't seem to lend themselves to peace?
• What lesson might you need to learn from the situation?

I have thought about all of these questions - yes, even in the midst of answering 20 questions and cleaning up stinky pull-ups. 

A Summer to Remember

So as summer was wrapping up, we decided to do one more blow-out night at Incredible Pizza in Conroe with the kids and Maw Maw and Paw Paw.  Apparently the kids and the grandparents had been there a time before and tried to take some group pictures to no avail, and Kellen had decided he wanted a group shot to commemorate the summer and to take with him to school to look at, 'in case he got sad.'

So getting that group shot was a must.

But much to our dismay, on our last night attempt, the booth was, once again, not functioning.

We improvised.

I stuck my camera in front of them and did a 'normal' shot. [As much of a normal shot as you can get with this crew]

Then we did a 'silly' shot.

And I uploaded them and wallet sheets will be printed out for the kids to take to school for the first day.

These kids had an absolute BLAST during the time they spent with their grandparents this summer....but I'm honestly not sure who is going to have the worst time with the separation - the kids or the adults.

Mommy-Son Date

"I don't really care what we're doing, as long as I'm with you."

Those were the words Kellen spoke to me as we started out on our Mommy-son date night Friday night.  And they melted my heart....Any guesses at to what his love language is?

We were headed to go eat, then to the Mommy-son Speedway Spectacular.  Other than the name, I really had no idea what to expect.  I was hoping there would be car races involved since we were headed to a race track.

After going to McDonald's to eat dinner (his choice), we headed there.

Once we checked in, we realized that they had provided dinner (oops).  We headed to the various booths.

Bounce house was first on the list.

Then we checked out the fire truck and talked with the firemen (for a while).

Then we played with the snakes (this one in particular for quite a while).  There was no one waiting for this one when we got there, so Kellen was able to play with him for a while.  He had to relinquish him once other kids started to show up to play with him.

He played with this guy...it was the coolest purple shade (and my camera did not do it justice).

He had fun with the turtle.

And then we painted his hair red (the only color left by the time we got to that station...since we had spent so much time playing with the animals).

We played a few games of "Minute to Win it" (successfully, I might add).



And then he (finally!!) found a remote control car - with the appropriate working remote - and was able to play with it for a little while.

We then went back to McDonald's for some dessert to finish out the night.....and then headed back home.  He journaled all aspects of the night in the notebook you see in front of him.

It was a GREAT mommy-son date.

Spell-a-thon winner!

When I picked Kellen up on Monday, I noticed a flash of brightness in his hands, and then he quickly hid whatever it was behind his back.  It looked remarkably similar to a trophy, but I couldn't figure out what it would have been for.  I knew they were going to announce the class, grade level and overall awards for those had fundraised for the Spell-a-Thon, but hadn't seen anything come through on the PTO listserv all day, but it never entered my mind to put the two together.

With a mischievous grin, Kellen walks over to me.  "Close your eyes, Mommy."

I obliged.

Then he proceeds to show me this.

"

In case you can't read it, "Most Money Raised, Top in Class - 3rd Grade"

As we walk out he also tells me, "And I got a green today!" (That means he had a really good day at school without misbehaving)

It was a good day!  We decided that we're going to write thank-you notes to all of those who contributed to him and his participation in the Spell-a-Thon, so if you're one of those individuals, get ready!

Roller skating fun!!

Yup!

Roller skating.

Uh huh.

Daddy decided that we were going to go roller skating.

I married a smart man.  One with a keen sense of adventure.

A guy who sure does like to have fun.

We told the kids after church that we had a surprise for them, had lunch and loaded up for a drive.  We drove to Brehnam and they all crashed out in the car on the way.

Once we arrived, we told them what their surprise was...they just LOVE that part!  We went in and got our skates on (after returning a few pair in order to get the correct sizes), and we realized that they even had skates small enough for Jacey...yeah...how cool is that?!?!?  Then Daddy gave the kids some lessons.

And we spend the rest of the time (all told...about 2.5 hours) just playing.  Generally speaking, the kids stayed close to the walls, but then we got a little 'cheater' walker set so they could get a little practice getting their balance and getting good.  Tatum went first because Daddy was just working more with Kellen and she really got the hang of it quicker (it may have helped that her wheels were pretty tight), then Kellen got the walker and practiced some as well.  Then we let Jacey play and practice with the walker and once she got it, no one else was really able to practice any more on it.

The rink played some fun games, did some races (Daddy came in third place in one of them!) and it was just all around fun.  I haven't had this many bruises on my knees since high school drill team (Mommy is NOT a good skater, but trying to help 3 kids half your size stay up is all-around difficult!) but it was just an absolutely fun family day (oh, and the roller skating is a total of $5/person, including the skate rental!).

We stayed until they closed the place down for public skate, turn in our skates, grabbed some water, and then headed to our favorite playground in town to play for just a bit on the playground there.

Have I mentioned before how much Jacey loves slides?? 

 
Overall, the kids were remarkably well behaved and given the amount of physical energy the activities required, I'm surprised that only one of them was out by the time we got home!  I love our family fun days....and I love it when Daddy comes up with his great ideas!

40 MILES!!!

And no, it isn't me!!

Kellen ran 120 laps = the equivalent of 40 miles = 

during PE at school during Road Runners in 30 weeks during this past school year.

They had the PE awards and ceremony on Friday and he was awarded his certificate then.  

(And apparently, his missed the 'bronze' level by 5 laps!)

I am so super proud of him!!

Godsend

Let me go on the record and say it. My in-laws are a Godsend. Completely and totally.

They totally saved me this weekend.

I am sick. With what, I'm not sure, but I'm sick.  I am congested, have a runny nose, am sneezing, and am coughing. A lot. And it hurts. (I'm guessing bronchitis and a sinus infection, but haven't gotten that confirmed).

But my ailments didn't stop the weekend from coming.

For some, the weekend might be a good thing.  For me, for this particular weekend, it wasn't a nice and relaxing weekend.  Matt was at an event I place a high priority on him attending - a men's retreat with our Sunday school guys. Tatum had her first soccer game scheduled. It was Parents Weekend in Aggieland and consequently, I had a work luncheon, and Kellen had his opening ceremonies for Little League.

It was gearing up to be a FULL weekend.  Even more so than usual for us.

Matt was going to come back and forth so he wouldn't miss Tatum's first soccer game, but the recent rain caused the opening weekend games to be canceled.  She was devastated.  Mommy and daddy were less than devastated.

Maw Maw and Paw Paw managed to make it over so that I could get to my luncheon, and played with the kids and did spring-time activities all day so that even when I got home, I was able to take a much-needed nap.  I say much-needed because unfortunately by that point in time, I had also managed to acquire a migraine on top of everything else.

After my nap was over, my migraine had, despite my 'good' medicine, taken full root.  So we took the kids to the new Chick-fil-A to get a quick dinner and some caffeine in me to help kick the meds in even more (one can dream) before the opening ceremonies.

While we were there, we realized that Jacey really likes ice cream.  Even asked for it after she saw the other two kids turn in their kids meal treat for it.

With me not being completely (or at all) on my game, we managed to leave the house without her lovey or a sippy cup.  These were not good things for us to be without.

We managed.  And the caffeine helped the medicine to kick in some and I was able to tolerate the opening ceremonies.

I liked the way they did them this year....we were able to actually see the teams since they came around the front of the stadium. 

And afterwards, Maw Maw and Paw Paw assisted with the bedtime routine put the kids to bed so that I didn't have to do it all myself.

Godsend.

I would not have made it through the weekend without them.  Well, I might have, but I wouldn't have included such fond memories as ice cream pictures and sweet boys enjoying their opening ceremonies. 

Absolute Godsend.

Future architect, shopper & astronaut?

After a stroller walk for Jacey and I to accompany Kellen and Tatum on their bikes, we had brunch, put Jacey down for a nap, cleaned up the house, and then headed to the Children's Museum once she woke up from her nap.

The kids had a BLAST.

They have redone quite a few of the exhibits since the last time we had visited, and the older two had fun rediscovering the exhibits.  Jacey wanted to go where the big kids were, especially on the rocket ship, which is expressly for kiddos 4 and up.  She wasn't pleased when I wouldn't let her play in it.  She did have a lot of fun in the "under 2" area, which made her forget (for the moment, anyway) about the forbidden areas.

She very much enjoyed the grocery store section, and REALLY liked to put things in her shopping cart and then, to a slightly lesser extent, put them back on the shelves.  She loved pushing the shopping cart around as well, but couldn't figure out why there wasn't a section for a baby doll to sit.  Smart cookie I have there, huh?

Actually, all three of the kids had some fun in that section!

I figured that Tatum would have gravitated towards the arts section, but she really surprised me by spending quite a bit of time in the construction zone, building a house.  Add that to her careful construction and decoration of her gingerbread graham cracker house referenced in an earlier post and who knows, I might just have a future architect on my hands!

Kellen seemed to want to stay in the rocket.  I think he would have been fine to play there the entire time.  He made some new friends, but I forced encouraged him to join his sisters and me at the art section when we were painting and making igloos and polar bears.  He had a lot of fun with that, too.

And they had one of those 'insert your face here' signs that both kids wanted their picture made in, so....

They all really had a blast.  And while we were there, I got minimal attitude, which I appreciated.  After I got home, well....that was a different story, but hey...they were all wore out and naps were pretty much a breeze.

I'm just glad that I'm getting the chance to do this kind of "fun" stuff with the kids over this break.  This is the type of stuff I feel like I 'miss out' on as a work-outside-the-home mom.  So perhaps I go a little overboard on these activities when I have the chance.  :)

Aggie's Ball!!

Is a common phrase at Aggie Basketball....which the kids got to experience.

And Jacey got to experience it for the first time!!  I actually think this may have been her first Aggie sporting event (actual sporting event...the Yell practice doesn't count...and I'm racking my brain to think of an Aggie sporting event we have taken her to before now, but I'm coming up blank).

And, despite having a start time that was 30 minutes past when she's normally in bed, Jacey was remarkably well behaved and interactive.  She was a little overwhelmed to start things off, but then played with us all and ran between the seats and was enjoying playing peek-a-boo with Maw Maw.

Tatum wanted to play her leapster almost immediately. 

 
Kellen was into the game for quite a while.  Considering that he's playing basketball right now, I think he really enjoyed watching the guys play - and WIN!!

Some R&R

After Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa on Tuesday night, we just hung out with them at the house and relaxed yesterday.  Tatum had asked to use her pedicure set (complete with her own foot soak!!), so I obliged and gave her a manicure/pedicure.

We watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and Cars 2 with my parents.

Jacey played with her toys and Kellen alternated between conquering some new level on his game and creating masterpieces with his new art set.

Then Jacey started grabbing everyones shoes and jackets, asking to go outside.  She's not very subtle when she has her mind made up about something.  So Grandpa decides to take her for a walk, and Tatum hops on her bike and we four go for a walk around the neighborhood.

After Grandma and Grandpa left, I actually sat down with the kids to try and watch Kung Fu Panda 2, which despite being on multiple times, I still hadn't seen.  Well...I still haven't seen it.  I promptly fell asleep on the couch and had a sweet little four year old nap partner.

Kellen left us to sleep (and Jacey to nap in her crib).  And in case you're wondering, the movie plays repeatedly...it doesn't go back to the main screen and wait for you to push play.  You know, in case that's ever a trivia question.

After our glorious naps, the productivity kicked in a little and I managed to get all of the laundry done.  Note the key words...All and done.  Washed. Dried. Folded. All put away save for what couldn't go into the girls room after they went to bed for the night.  And then I managed to clean the kitchen, sweep the floors for what seemed like the 15th time in three days, and clean both bathrooms, including floors but excluding tubs (just saying...).

It was a good day.