Bed anyone?

Does anyone in their late 20's, early 30's go to bed by 10pm? I really, really want to but it never seems to happen. I'm just wondering how people do it. What am I doing wrong that causes me to have sooooo much to do after the girls are in bed? After they are quiet, I usually have to go back to the kitchen to either clean up (again) and/or make lunches for the next day of preschool. Then I usually have other picking up to do or a board to paint or a blog to post or curtains to hang or a floor to clean or a splinter to pull out of the bottom of my foot (that was last night) or a dog to feed or clothes to fold or.......... The list goes on and on. Is it just me or do other people in this stage of life do it this way too? By the time I go to bed it is 11pm at the earliest. Then I have to practically force Eric to come to bed. It is rare for me to go to sleep before midnight. Last night, for example, I got in bed at 11pm. Eric didn't. I could hear the TV downstairs. Then Rebel barked at something. This went on for about 20 minutes. Finally, I asked Eric to please come to bed. When he finally came Rebel barked again. Then he had to do stuff in the bathroom. By the time he got in bed it was almost midnight. Well, on the way to bed he tucked the girls in. Well, Lyla woke up when he went in her room. I really, really hate it when this happens. So, of course, she got up and came to our room. She got in bed with us but couldn't go to sleep. Eric had brought her a sippy cup with ice and water in it. She kept moving that cup around which was rattling the ice really loud. Then she would ask me something. This went on for a while too. I finally got up at about 12:20am and went to Lyla's bed to sleep by myself. That made Lyla cry but luckily she stayed with Eric. So, an hour and half after I went to bed I finally got to go to sleep! Ahhhhhhh I wish I could go to sleep before Eric when he wants to stay up late. I just can't. Before you get all mushy, it's not that. I just can't go to sleep when he is up because I can hear the TV and then when he comes to the room Rebel barks. Then he takes a shower! It's just pointless to even try to go to bed before he does. It makes it harder because Eric is a night owl! If I let him he would stay up until 1am or later every night! I don't know how he does it. He gets up by 6:30am during the week and never even complains of being tired. I can stay up late too as long as I get to sleep until 10am. That never happens though. So I would really love to go to bed at 10pm every night. I always say I need to give up the board painting or the email and computer stuff or the crafty curtain making and picture hanging stuff but I just can't. I guess I am going to have to learn to either do more while the girls are awake or just be tired for the next 18 years! I would go to bed right now but I have a bonus room covered in boxes and baby clothes I'm sorting through for a consignment sale! I would leave that until tomorrow....but....tomorrow my mom will be here in the morning for Reesi's birthday and the bonus room is a pass-thru to my bedroom at the top of the stairs. Plus, Reesi is spending the night so the girls will be up early and needing things. Maybe I'll just push the baby clothes to the wall so I can walk through and leave that for another night. Good night!

Family Night at the Bowling Alley

For some reason Eric has been itching to take the girls bowling. We tried to take them on Valentine's night but when we got there we found out that they have league bowling Mon-Thursday. I had no idea there were so many serious bowlers around. That night we ended up at Chuck E Cheese. So, we tried again. This time it was last Saturday night. We thought if we got there early it wouldn't be crowded. We got there at 4:30pm! They told us it would be 6pm before a lane would be open! I couldn't believe it. The girls were really wanting to do it so we waited. Luckily, there is a little restaurant in the alley. We ordered some relatively bad food and waited. Lyla and Grace drank about 24 ounces of Sprite that night because there was nothing else to do but sit and suck on the straw. One picture above is of Lyla lying upside down in her chair. After we ate, we went to the arcade area. There they played air hockey, which they love, ski ball, and basketball. We only had a few tickets but some nice little boy gave us about 50 tickets he didn't want. That bought them a ring pop. You can see in the pics that Lyla chose blue of course. We finally got a lane in the kiddie section. They really enjoyed it and Grace actually beat Eric and me! It was really funny to watch them. I was afraid Lyla would throw it into the next lane but she didn't. She really didn't throw it that hard at all. Grace would run and toss it and just about fall down each time. She did really well though. I have to say a little about their outfits. Lyla is wearing a shirt Eric brought back from his erosion control conference in FL last week. It says "Girls like dirt". He thought that was really cool. Grace on the other hand didn't want to wear a plain old t-shirt. She chose to wear the outfit SHE picked out at the Goodwill store just the day before. I'm not a big fan of the mint green, purple, satin skirt but she likes it.

Paris, here she comes

It will be interesting to see if Grace turns out to be in the fashion business. She loves to change clothes, many, many times a day. The other day I couldn't help but take a picture of this outfit she chose. She has dress socks, pink leggings, pink/brown leopard print skirt, red christmas shirt, and her Easter gloves! I love that she is independent enough to dress herself! Her choices make me laugh. I can't wait to show her these pictures when she's 18.

She's still sick!

She started Sunday night. Today is Thursday. I thought we would be able to make it to school today. We missed Tuesday b/c she threw up about 10 minutes before we were going to leave. She didn't throw up yesterday but still have an upset tummy. I thought she could make it today b/c she ate a good dinner last night and seemed to be perking up. Well, as we were pulling into the parking lot at preschool she threw up an entire cup of apple juice, which does not smell too good after being in the tummy for a while. I guess it's a good thing she did it in the car and not in the preschool classroom. This is a picture of our poor Lyla Belle. Yesterday she wouldn't let me go anywhere in the house without carrying her with me. She didn't want to lay on the couch alone. When I was trying to fix dinner I sat her on top of the island in our kitchen. She layed there the whole time. When I would take her anywhere and put her down she just layed down right where I sat her. I went to Verizon yesterday b/c my phone won't charge anymore. She layed on the floor the whole time. Poor thing. I have to secretly confess that it's been kind of nice to have her so still for a few days. It's also been nice to be able to sit and hold her. She never sits still!

Please, no more puking!

I should have taken a picture of Lyla today. I thought about it and could picture the post in my mind. Lyla, our wild child, completely still and pitiful looking, in bed, almost all day. Bless her heart. She started throwing up last night at about 8pm. Grace freaked out, of course. Grace is a worrier. Lyla AND Grace had the stomach bug at the first of the year (in the same night). Ever since then Grace has been worrying about "puking up", as they call it, on a daily basis. She asks me constantly if it is ok for her to throw up. Anyway, when Lyla threw up, Grace freaked out, running around, covering her ears and telling me to let her know when Lyla was done. Poor little Lyla threw up a few time throughout the night. She woke up at 8am this morning and stayed in my bed until 10:30am watching cartoons! She got sick again around 11am and then wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I gave her saltines and jello instead. Then it was like a miracle. She seemed to have made a quick recovery. She played and rode her tricycle around the house for an hour or so. The only reason there is a bike in the house is b/c Grace was bored to tears today without Lyla to play with her. She couldn't stand it. She was very mad that Reesi couldn't come over and there was no one to play with. Then, right about the time Lyla threw up again, Grace declared she wanted to go outside to ride her bike. Well, I can't let her out by herself yet, so I did what I had to do to keep her occupied...I brought her big bike in our house! Our house is not big and does not have wide open space for riding, but you can go in a circle through the living room, dining room, kitchen, foyer area. So when Lyla got up for a little while she wanted her bike in too. I needed them to be happy so I let them. I tried to explain that they needed to go in the same direction but they disagreed and kept getting in each other's way. After Lyla played for a while she started feeling bad again and went back to my bed for cartoons. Grace came in to see what was going on. I always cross my fingers when she comes in my room and I know she's looking for something to do. All of my painting supplies are in my bedroom and I don't like letting them paint with my supplies. Just as I suspected, Grace decided she needed to paint. I gave in to that too even though I didn't want to. I know it's great to let them paint but I just hate it as the one who has to clean it up and pray they don't sling it all over the walls or pour it out on the floor. I've tried buying them washable finger paints or water colors but they only want to use MY paints! Anyway, after painting, which Lyla found the energy to do as well, we had to run an errand. I thought Lyla would be ok but as soon as we got in the car she started crying about her belly. I ended up taking her to the doctor just to make sure it wasn't the flu or strep b/c it is going around so bad here. I needed to know if she had something she would be over in the morning or if it was something I definitely needed to miss preschool over. They decided she just has a stomach bug and to keep away dairy products for a while. I guess we'll go to preschool tomorrow. I hope she doesn't have a belly ache at preschool. If I wasn't a teacher I'd keep her home. But I missed a day last week so I feel like I need to go tomorrow. I just hope Grace gets it before we leave for preschool if she's going to!

From one extreme to another

This is our Grace. She has a very big imagination. She has had imaginary friends since she could talk. Her first imaginary friend was "Amazing Kim" and even today she is always coming up with some senario where her "4 brothers" are doing something with her. (She insists she needs a big brother, not a little brother, a BIG brother.) Anyway, last week for Valentine's Day she wore her Easter hat, white Easter gloves and a very spring-like Easter dress all day long. She got many comments at preschool that day regarding her hat and gloves! I do love it that she doesn't care what other people think about what she wears yet. She is truely dressing for herself right now. She loves being dressy. At about 2 years old she decided that she wanted to wear only dresses and skirts. Today she is a little more willing to wear pants but not that much. She goes from one extreme to the other though. At one time she's dressed up in gloves and a hat but she is also ready to go when there is mud to squish in, a ball to hit, or rain to play in! But the real reason I wanted to write this post was due to the first picture I included. Her pink glasses! On Saturday she decided that she couldn't see well and her eyes were blurry. Well, her "brothers" wouldn't share their contacts with her so she needed glasses. I was going to the grocery store that day so she made me promise to buy her some "real" glasses. They couldn't be sunglasses or play glasses. Luckily, I found these great reading glasses in the dollar bins at JoAnn's, a fabric store I was at. I bought a few of them and popped the lenses out. She wore them all day Saturday and she even wore them to church on Sunday. Tonight she told me she is going to wear them to preschool tomorrow. I think it's great that she has such an active imagination and that she is free to express herself without worrying about others. I'll be very sad when the day comes that she realizes she wants to please everyone else and not just herself.

Why???

Are all kids like this? Or is it just mine? They were playing just fine (for a few minutes anyway) so I decided to try to check my email. Before I knew what she was doing, Lyla jumps up there, crosses her legs like a proper lady should and asks, "Whachya doin' mommy"? She acts like it's as normal as can be to be completely naked anywhere or at anytime! I just don't get it. A few weeks ago I heard the front door open so I immediately dart to the door. I find Lyla completely naked walking in circles around our tree in the front yard. Did I mention it was 32 degrees outside? For those of you that have not been to our new house, it is in a very large subdivision where we are really close to our neighbors and to the road! It's not just Lyla though. Grace is just as bad. We finally had to institute a naked rule in our house...you have to at least wear your panties! I sure hope they grow out of this stage by the time they're teenagers!!!

Mud! Mud! Mud!

As prissy as Grace is, she is equally as ready to get down and dirty! If we would have had more time in the backyard they would have been down to their panties rolling in the mud!

We may have a ballplayer!

Today the weather was nice so Eric had the girls in the backyard. Of course, one of Eric's favorite things to do with the girls is play games. They actually like it too! They are both pretty good at hitting a ball with a bat, at least that is what we think. Now, we've never had them on any sort of softball/t-ball team, so, we don't really know what the competition is like at this age. But, just the fact that they can swing the bat somewhat correctly and actually hit it several times impresses us! Grace almost hit the ball over our fence today. I tried to capture a hit with the camera but I just couldn't do it. Now, Lyla can hit the ball too, but today she just wanted to swing.

The kids have a nicer table than we do!

This is the girls' new table in their playroom! I have been wanting to get one of these for a very long time. Grace loves to write, draw and create and she needs a place to do this. We have had a very small, very royal blue, kid folding table and a very large, very plastic, kid desk too. Neither were very nice to look at and did not work very well when more than one kid wanted to be there at the same time. So, thanks to two very generous gift cards I was given at Christmas time, I was able to purchase this great table from Pottery Barn Kids. It is GREAT! They love it and sit at it to draw, color, write, and even play with their little toys. I couldn't afford the chairs, so I took the folding chairs from the royal blue folding table and spray painted them brown and covered the seat and back with fabric. They turned out very cute. I'm going to put pictures of those, along with pictures of the whole playroom, when I finish the curtains and it's all done. I hope to get that done this week.

Slumber Party!

On Friday Grace and Lyla wanted to see Reesi, of course. This is the norm now. They expect to see each other every day! So, Joni met me at a little park in our subdivision but it had gotten too cold to stay for long, so we ended up back at Joni's house. Joni and Reesi were supposed to go to a basketball game with Larry that night. Grace was convinced we were going to go too. At the last minute, Larry informed Joni that a friend from White House was going to the game with him so she didn't have to, and, oh, by the way, he'll be at the house in 5 minutes to see the new house and meet Larry. Meanwhile, the girls had been having a picnic in the family room floor with teddy grahms and they were EVERYWHERE! So Joni and I did a very fast clean up of the family room before the friend arrived. Anyway, because they weren't going to the game, the girls wanted to do something together. Eric, bless his heart, agreed to host a slumber party at our house while Joni and I ate dinner in peace at her house and even watched a movie!!!! He was ok with that because he was leaving on Sunday for 6 days on a business trip and wanted to see the girls a lot this weekend. So, Eric got the sleeping bags, popcorn and ice cream out for their party. They watched movies until about 10pm! Joni ended up taking Reesi home to sleep though. We were all hoping they would sleep late on Saturday morning due to the late night festivities, but, as all parents know, that doesn't necessarily happen that way. I think Reesi was up at 7am and my girls were up by 8am. Joni and I decided it is very nice living so close that we can "take advantage" of each other!!!

A Romantic Valentine's Day at ChuckECheese

I guess this is where you end up on Valentine's night when you have small children and no budget for babysitting....Chuck E Cheese, or as Lyla says "Chuck E Cheeses". We had been telling the girls all week that we were going to go bowling. They were so excited to go bowling. When we got there it was packed with league bowlers though. They were mad until we said the magic word "Chuck E Cheese". It was very crowded at Chuck E Cheese too but we were still able to play. They had a great time!

Lyla's Vday Party

This is Lyla's Vday party. At this age they basically get a special snack and a treat bag to take home.

Grace's Vday Party

I was one of the moms for Grace's Vday party. We had lots of items for the kids to decorate sugar cookies with. Before they made their cookies, they passed out their valentine cards to all of the friends' mailboxes. The first picture is Grace and her friend, Addie. The next friend shown is also named Grace. The cookie I included was actually Addie's cookie. It was so pretty I just had to take a pic. They had a great time and there were sprinkles everywhere! (I had many moms tell me that "Grace looks so pretty in her hat and gloves." Of course, everyone else had on their Vday shirts. I'm just glad Grace isn't concerned with what everyone else is wearing yet!

Valentine's Day-the morning

Valentine's Day started the night before for Grace and I. Due to her good behavior on Wednesday, she got to go to Target with me that night to find a gift for Eric for Vday. Instead of finding Eric's gift, she fell in love with an Easter hat, Easter gloves, and a little spring dress that matched. When I say "fell in love", I mean she was convinced this was the perfect outfit for Vday and that she was going to be the "prettiest" at her preschool the next day! I did get the outfit for her but we had a long talk about how clothes don't make you pretty, they just make you fancy, and how you act and treat others is what matters and what God pays attention to. So, after that talk, she kept saying she would be the fanciest at preschool and the nicest friend there! She also kept making us call her "Madeline" b/c the cartoon character, Madeline, wears a hat and gloves. She wanted to sleep in her entire outfit that night but I convinced her the dress would get wrinkled and the hat wouldn't stay on. She did sleep in the gloves all night long. You can see in the pictures that she even had them on while opening her gifts! I did get Lyla the hat and gloves too just b/c Lyla always gets mad when she doesn't have the same as Grace. I knew she wouldn't be as excited as Grace. She wore them a little but not all day like Grace. They also got a little gift bag from Mimi and Papoo. Of course, they wanted to eat the candy for breakfast! That afternoon they had a card in the mail from Grandma and Papaw Gardner with $5 each inside!

Snow Day, but where's the snow?

Wednesday night it snowed, Nashville style. The schools were closed but there was little snow and my road was dry as a bone. Oh well, the girls were excited anyway. They thought it was really cool that the sandbox table was iced over! The sand was completely under ice! Grace just couldn't stand not to break the ice. She finally got through and their gloves were soaked! Our snow outing last about 15 minutes. Getting dressed, getting undressed, putting it all away, wiping up the water from the kitchen floor and making hot chocolate took about 45 minutes!