Fun.

This past weekend my friend Krista and I went to Dallas for a small girls weekend. We got into Dallas around 730pm on Friday. Our first stop...IKEA!! (We deliberately got a hotel that was near the Ikea...little did we know we could see Ikea out of our room window!). We ate a delicious meal in Ikea (seriously, the food was pretty good) and started browsing. It is the greatest store I have been to in a while and wish we had one closer! On our way down we were looking up 'ghost tours' or 'haunted houses'. We found this great ghost tour and booked online. They had zero opening for that Friday so we booked for Saturday. Well, it poured all day Saturday....our ghost tour was cancelled and our money refunded. BUT the guy told us that next we are in Dallas we can do the tour for free! (Like, we frequent Dallas that much. Sigh.)
 Anyways, the trip was just relaxing and all we did was walk around the Galleria, Ikea and Crate and Barrel outlet. But, not having to fight kids, get a stroller in and out at every stop, having to say 'quit touching that', and, well you get the picture. We rented movies in our hotel (could have bought two tickets for imax theater for what hotels charge you for movies!) and ordered room service. Just what I needed. But by Sunday, as much as I enjoyed the trip, I missed my little chaotic life. I think I would be bored if I had an easy life. Love my little family and missed them bunches!

Thursday before I left for my trip I had to take the kids to their semi annual teeth cleaning. I am taking them to a new dentist because I just didn't like the one they had before. Pediatric Dental has the NICEST facility and the dentists! So patient with the kids.

 Hayden playing games while waiting for the Dentist. This lasted about 2 minutes.

 That's the 'movie theater'.

 Large saltwater fish tank. Kids loved it!

 Hayden watching Rio while waiting.

They were playing Dora on the ceiling to keep kids distracted while messing with their teeth. It did not work on the young girl next to us. She was scaring my kids. Ha. But Hayden did alright. The dentist made him nervous and he put up a small fight but quickly gave in. Olivia on the other hand...sheesh...you would think she was at the spa!! She just loves the dentist!
 About two weeks ago Andrew had asked me if I had ever been to Natural Falls. I have not. I don't know why I haven't. I grew up in Siloam and Natural Falls is about 10 minutes from Siloam. It is such a clean and beautiful place! I can't wait to take the kids back there in the fall.

 Hayden peeking through this rock. He thought it was pretty cool.

 The park at Natural Falls.

 Just love this picture of her for some reason.

 Olivia peeking through.

 This place was just beautiful. And even this waterfall left my kids quiet.

This was part of the lake there. They have it sectioned off and this is the 'swimming hole'. My picture is awful....it actually looks like a place I would let my kids swim. Ha.

I am sure I am forgetting some stuff that has happened but this is it for now. :)

Can it be....

Our beloved Razorbacks are just not doing too well this season. Makes a Razorback fan sad. Losing to ULM I figured we were doomed playing Bama...but anything can happen. Right?! Not so much. Ugh.

Anyways, I won't get into our Razorback football team...all I can say is WPS!! :)

We were supposed to have a garage sale....again. Second weekend and it was a no go. First weekend we ordered the tables to late and there were no more. Second weekend (this weekend) and it rains the ENTIRE weekend. I even decided to sell the kids clothes in this garage sale. Usually, all kids clothing is saved for Rhea Lana's but I have decided RL is for the dogs! Ha!! Only kidding....I have bought about 90% of my children's clothing from RL....even before Hayden was born! But I am skipping this October. Whoa! Crazy I know. But I am not going to shop it either. I know, I know. Even more shocking. But, I bought the remainder of what Olivia needed at the last event and my children have such great grandparents who are always thinking of them. So, they have what they need. Would I love to go shop and see what other cute stuff I could come across?? Absolutely! But, completely unnecessary. Halloween, Professional pictures, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Christmas cards and Christmas are all covered in the clothing department. And everything else is just potatoes. (that's the saying right :) )

 The kids new favorite movie. We seriously watch this 8 times a day. Its pretty cute. They are big into holiday type themed things. They take after their mommy there. :)

 Hayden watching Alvin and the chipmunks.

 And obviously, Olivia watching the same movie. *Sigh* :)

On Thursday we went to the park that is close to our house. They have a nice walking trail and always busy with kids and sometimes baseball games. And this was the first time Olivia rode her trike while pedaling!

 Bike Race!!!

 And there is Hayden waiting for Olivia. I think he won.

Here comes daddy and Olivia. She is so determined and did so well. Very proud of her!

 I realized today my nightstand. Full of kids books covering my Everyday with Rachel Ray. I love reading to my kids and love that they LOVE stories!

Our cat Emmy. Probably the best cat there ever was. Its rare she wants to be petted. She just lays up in window sills all day. Easiest pet ever.

 Hayden playing with his friends at the park. Seriously, they were calling him Captain. No, seriously. Ha. He is so funny and commands the attention of anyone and gets people to listen.

 Olivia looks slightly worried about the slide. She went down once and refused to do it again. Hayden on the other hand loved it and had no problem going down. Of course not, why would he. ;)

 My red face boy.

Olivia is really a 'swing' type kid. Swings are the first place she goes at the park.

 The spider-man nap mat I made for Hayden to take to preschool. I am so proud of this and love how it turned out. If he still loves spider-man when he starts kindergarten it can move with him! Two for one. My favorite.

Here he is at his first day of preschool. He actually only goes on Thursdays. And he absolutely loves it. Whenever I pick him up he says 'I had so much fun today at school.'. I am so glad he likes and does well. He always asks when he gets to go again. I hope he keeps up this love for school.

On Saturday I went with my friend Krista to look at her new house and Olivia wanted to go with us. We had lunch at Gusano's after looking at the house. She was so good and funny. But when isn't she.

Last picture of Miss Olivia. I enjoy getting to spend a couple hours with just her on Thursdays. Hayden had two years of being an only child. We continue to get to know him but enjoyed the special quiet moments together. I am really glad to be able to do that with Olivia once a week. Where it is just me and her and those quiet special moments. I try to make sure to divide one on one time with each of them. When I can get away with only taking one child to the store I alternate them so they each get to go on a special trip. And one gets special play time with daddy.

Sumping....

Sumping---obviously 'something'
Fink-- 'think'

Two of my most favorite words my kids say. I will be so sad when they outgrow this adorable speech. :(

That is all.

I've lost that blogging feeling...

Title says it all. Not a whole lot going on here. Getting ready for a big garage sale with my friend Krista. Excited to get rid of clutter and junk. Getting rid of old toys they never play with and old books that they never read. I told them we needed to make room for Christmas toys and books. Hayden then started putting EVERYTHING in the garage sale box. Um...hello child.....I am not re-stocking your whole toy and book lot. Haha.

A couple weekends ago I took the kids down to LR for their cousin Miles' third birthday! As soon as Hayden saw his invite he just had to go. Avengers. Enough said.  They ran around with their cousins Ava and Miles and just had so much fun. AND finally Olivia and Miles are big enough to get to play with the two bigger kids now.

Razorbacks played their first football game on Sept 1st and WON!!! Love me some Razorbacks!

Kids were decked out in Razorback attire. Olivia even got her toenails to match and she was so proud of them!

 Whenever we pick Andrew up from work we are usually waiting a little bit. For whatever reason, I feel the need to take a picture of Hayden. Ha. Here is one of the pictures of my sweet boy.

 He is growing up so fast. It makes me really sad. But the conversations I can have with him and  watching him learn and understand such complex things is such a joy. But,  I guess no matter how big he gets I will ALWAYS have this urge and need to protect him. I guess its the mama bear in me. :)

 I think I posted about how he goes to bed between 730-8 every night...well we really needed to make a pit stop at walmart for a couple things and this boy crashed. We had all our groceries on top of him. HAHA. Poor kid.

 My beautiful girl! I just love her to pieces. She is such a drama queen. LOL. Its too funny...she copies everything Hayden does. Every. Single. Detail. She really doesn't miss a beat when she is copying him.

The two above pictures are pictures Hayden took one morning. Sometimes we will watch Saturday morning cartoons in mommy's bed. Especially when they get up a little before the sun does. Anyways, the first one is Olivia watching said cartoons and second one is a picture of hallway from our bed. When I saw that one on my phone I was slightly creeped out. Just a little.

Olivia's big girl bed. This bed came from her Grandma Katie whom she is named after. Although, I opted to change the spelling to make it different so we have our own Olivia Kathryn. :)

Anyways, she says the bed is her 'princess bed'. But if I say "Olivia, your a princess so you get the princess bed" she will look at me and then herself and say "I'm not a princess, I am Olivia." Funny girl.

What a weekend already!

Friday and Saturday (at only 8 am) have already been too eventful for my liking. Yesterday at 4 Olivia came running to me telling me to put a diaper on her! Wait. What? I told her she needed to go to the potty....

   3 days prior to this day she had been having a lot of accidents (which is highly uncommon for her), a sense of urgency and frequency.

Anyways, when I told her she needed to go to the potty she ran in there and after letting out a few dribbles she just started screaming that it was hurting her. Before she even had a chance to get of the potty I was on the phone with her Dr. office. We had an emergency appt at 630. Unfortunately, it was not with the kids regular Dr. Well, they had her pee in a cup and I guess it was inconclusive (or nothing) but the Dr said it could be the beginning of a UTI. Poor baby girl. He went ahead and started her on antibiotics but said his nurse would call on Monday to let me know if we need to keep with antibiotics-an actual infection-or that we need to stop the antibiotics-no infection-. But, then he said if she does have an infection he wants her back in a few weeks to do a HORRIBLY painful procedure to her. WHAT?! So, I got on the phone with my cousin Tracy to tell her about Olivia's appt. And long story short.....I need to go see her regular Dr (IF she in fact has a UTI) and get a second opinion about the procedure. After one UTI she shouldn't have to endure this procedure.

AND now on to Saturday....well...our car got broken into. Makes you feel weird when someone rummages through something that belongs to you and not them. Apparently, they were very inexperienced though because they only stole our iphone charger. Not the dual DVD player on the headrests. They looked through our glove box-we don't keep anything in there- and our center console-only kids cds in there and I am guessing they had no interest in those-. They didn't bother anything that was on our porch or really look through our car. But, like I said...makes me feel kind of weird. And how they broke in...just opened the door. Yeah, I know but we never lock anything. With two kids and usually arms full of them or stuff its just easier to be able to walk right in. I am going to guess this non locking stuff is going to end...RIGHT NOW.

 This has by far been the best crock pot meal ever! It is called 'Cowboy Chicken' and it is SO yummy. We had it over rice and then leftovers were great on tortilla chips! Chicken nachos..yum!

 So, when we go into Walmart or Target and the kids pick up something they feel they JUST. HAVE.TO.HAVE...I tell them that Christmas is close and that I will take a picture of them with the item that they are wanting and text it to Santa. Yes, Santa now receives text. HA! And it works every time. They will gladly put up the item and we move on. BUT, they have to see the picture first to make sure I am actually doing it and not pretending. This method has two benefits...one) I get to leave a store without spending any extra money and no fits and two) I now have pictures on my camera of things they really like. Win. Win.

 Hayden had his 4 year appt on Aug 9th. We go to a certain Dr and we couldn't get in until August..normally it is mid July. Because of shots he has to wait a year until he can go and get the next set. He is doing great on everything. Makes a mommy very happy. But after he had his shots he had a slight reaction to them. The red under the two bruises was bright red and hot to touch. After 2-3 days it went away and he was fine. Just lots of motrin and tylenol.

 I went shopping at Rhea Lana's and I found this Gap dress and it is perfect for the kids fall photos! (It will probably be worn for Thanksgiving too...two for one! Yay!) but I couldn't find anything there that matched it perfectly for Hayden. So, I went home without anything for pictures. I still had a month and a half to find a shirt for him.

When I got home I decided to go through his closet. AND to my great joy this Ralph Lauren shirt is a PERFECT match. The colors are identical. I know from pictures it is hard to tell but it is a perfect match. :)

 Unfortunately, some days this is how I am forced to give them a nap. Ugh. Days like these are not good days. Its only been the past few days and that's because Olivia hadn't been sleeping through the night. I think her bladder was giving her problems. But, here they are sneaking in a quick nap. Olivia has started waking up at 630-645 and Hayden 7-720...I am not an early bird but I have gotten used to the early rise because we are getting incredibly lucky with Hayden on the early to bed. I am talking 730-8 he is in bed. For the past week. No fighting. No getting up a thousand and one times asking for a drink. Just goes and lays down and goes to bed. And Olivia has been a little more difficult..usually going to sleep around 8-9.

 Olivia loves books! Just adores them. After I read her a book she will then take it and re-read the book how she heard it. Its so fun to watch. If I am busy she will pull her chair up to her bookshelf and just take down book after book. It is quite the mess but I don't mind. She is doing it because she is 'reading' and not to just throw books on the floor.

Olivia loves kitty cats! And she got a pack of two kitty cats for $1.50 at Rhea Lana's half off sale. Both kids carried them around all day. They then put Olivia's pillow in the her shoe box and laid the kitties down for a nap. It was too cute.

 The pink/brown thing on the floor is not a rug or even Hayden's. They were playing picnic and used Olivia's blanket in there. :) (And he does have a bed rail on his bed...just hadn't put it back on when I took picture) This is Grandmother Blair's bed when she was a child and it is a beautiful bed and really high off the ground.

I wanted to rearrange Hayden's room. I don't have any before pictures but the above pictures are the after. His bookshelf was right under the window and under his DVD holder. They were climbing on it to get DVDs down and would just throw them all on the ground. And how it was before seemed cluttered. I didn't get rid of anything but I love how it turned out. It is much more relaxing and actually he has more space and ever since I rearranged that's when he started sleeping in there more often without fighting. I just adore his room now. Probably my favorite room in the house. :)