Parenting is hard

Man, does my heart ache when either of my boys are having a difficult day or time.  Whether it's at school, friends, daycare, sports, church or at home.  We all have bad days, but that doesn't give me any comfort when P or K have one.  I just want to take care of what ever it is for them and send them off happy, smiling and having fun...but I know I can't always do that.  That wouldn't be preparing them for the "real world", now would it??  sigh...  Someone popped my bubble!  I mean, come on, they are only 6, do they really need to be prepared for the real world just yet?  But then I have always said that teaching children when they are young and then it will be natural for them when they get older.  You can't let a child run wild as a toddler and then all of a sudden expect them to listen and do exactly what you say when you say it.  Or teaching manners.  Oh my, where have the manners gone??  PLEASE teach your children manners.  That's another soap box, though... 

One of my boys is a little more sensitive, okay, a lot more, than the other.  It's just their own personalities.  Just because they are twins, doesn't mean they are the exact same in every shape, form and manner.  He gets his feeling hurt easily, and quite frankly, he comes by it VERY honestly, from him Momma, but he gets his temper from his Daddy.  All that to say, he is having a difficult time this year with his 1st grade teacher.  When we were in school not THAT long ago, we were learning the things kids are learning in K & 1st grade that we were learning in 2 & 3rd grade.  The boys were already alternating going to other teachers classes part of the day in kindergarten.  I didn't start doing that until 6th grade.

At the beginning of this school year, I knew we were going to possibly have a not-so-great-as-wonderful-as-our-kindergarten teacher when 1st grade teacher sent home one of his schoolwork papers and she wrote "come on" at the top of it...the first few weeks of school!!  Then another with "too messy".  We "thought" we had a good solution for the "too messy" note... We told him to slow down and take his time to make his letters better and spread his words out more.  Well, that backfired.  Now we were getting notes on his papers with "40 min. later" etc.  Poor kid can't win for loosing.  So at this point he is starting to shut down in class and be pretty emotional at home too.  Things only got worse after Christmas break.  Within the first week of being back at school, the teacher had already written more notes on his paperwork directed to parents and sent me two e-mails asking if "anything was going on at home".  To say I was mad is a HUGE understatement.  I wanted to replay saying "no lady, it's what is going on THERE and your attitude towards him and what you say and write to him that is affecting him!!".  But I didn't.  Instead I called the school principal and counselor and discussed it with them, then they met with my son.  Things were discussed then the principal said she would have a meeting with the teacher.  Apparently she did, because ALL notes, good and not so wonderful, were no longer being put on his papers.  NOTHING, no smiley faces etc.  Maybe I am worrying/reading into this WAY too much??  Can a 6 year old have such animosity towards someone?  I ask because he didn't participate when the class sang happy birthday to the teacher.  That is when I knew things were worse than I even knew.  Some days he would even come home and go straight to his bed and lay there with his stuffed animal.  This is not natural and I knew something needed to be change.  But what at this point of the school year?  There are only 3 more months of this school year.  Do we leave him in that teachers class and hope that he continues to learn everything that he needs to in order to go to 2nd grade or move him to a different class/teacher?  This is also the first year that the boys have not been in the same class, and I am sure that is part of the issue...a small part.  He was the one that was excited to be in a different class than brother, but now, he gets excited when he gets to visit brother's class occasionally.  I just want to fix all of this.  For both of my boys to have an enjoyable school year and to look forward to school while they still should.  The time for them to dread going to school comes soon enough as is.  This teacher is setting him up to not like school and he's only in 1st grade!  I want my bubble back!  ; )  Pray for us, please.  We just got another call about him having a melt down in class and she took him to the office.  Note that she called Daddy and not Mommy.... SMH.

Holiday Season

Oh the joy of living in Oklahoma!!  Yesterday it was 70+ degrees.  Today, well...it might get to 40.  I am never, ever ready for winter.  We have barely even had Fall yet.  Thanksgiving is less than 3 weeks away!  The years go by way too fast.  I am already wanting to listen to Christmas music.  That is one thing I love about winter, and the exictement that I now can relive and see in my children.  They are such a wonderful blessing! 

Who let the dogs out?!? Who? Who?

So if anyone knows how to make it to where you can see the entire video and hear it, please let me know....

 

Preston singing to himself

Kindergarten year 2013-2014

Man am I awful at this blogging thing.  Just a few things have happened since my last post.  We have been in our new house a year as of last Friday.  It has gone by so fast.  What have we been up to, you might ask...
The boys started kindergarten in Aug. and have learned so much so fast!  I am amazed at what all they learn so much earlier than when I was in elementary.  The boys have learned in kindergarten what I would have learned in 1st & 2nd grade.  They are reading and doing math, spelling tests and science, and even computer lab!  We have enjoyed getting to know their teacher, Mrs. Shockley and the children in the class and their parents.  I think I have eaten more iced sugar cookies and cupcakes this year at all the class parties they have had than my entire life before they started school!  I have been blessed to be able to go to all of their class parties except for their Easter party on the 18th.  Their school is really great.  They pray in the mornings before everyone is dismissed to their classrooms.  They also have a really neat program called watch dogs.  This is a program where the Dad's, Granddad's etc. of the children can be involved in the school.  They are like security for a day, and with the way things are these days at schools, we can't be overly careful.  Plus the kids LOVE having their dad etc. there to show off to their friends, have lunch with and play with in class and at recess.  Shawn has been able to be a watch dog multiple times this year.  The kids get to go on stage in the mornings when their dad gets introduced to the school so they know who to go to if they need help etc.  They even play the funny song "who let the dogs out" as they are walking onto the stage.  The kids go wild, they love it so much! 

Preston's 1st day of Kindergarten

1st Day of Kindergarten!!

Kaleb's 1st Day of Kindergarten

We have a video of Preston singing part of the song "Who let the dogs out" to himself after school one day.  It is SO funny.  He is in the bathroom washing his hands and watching himself sing it in the mirror.  I love catching them doing silly stuff on camera/video.  I will try again to post the video on a separate post.  It isn't wanting to right now. 

 

The things kids say

I just have to share a few of the things the boys have said recently:

The boys and I were talking about Daddy's birthday comming up last week and Preston told me:
"We should get Daddy a "7" and a "3" that way he won't have too many candles to blow out,"  Shawn turned 37 yesterday. 

We went to my parents house for dinner Sat. night and my mom had made a new potato salad recipe that uses pesto.  While eating dinner the following conversation went on:

Me: Kaleb eat your potatoes.  (I had put two potatoes from my mom's potatoe salad on his plate plus two plain potates from what I made).
Kaleb: Mommy, I only want to eat CLEAN potatoes. 
We all lost it!  We laughed, and laughed and laughed.  Oma said "I didn't know I made dirty potatoes."  LOL 

Love all the silly stuff these boys come up with to say. 

Just Moved!!

Just Moved!!

We finally moved into our new home in April!  YEA!  We are still in the process of unpacking...man it's hard to have motivation and energy to unpack after working all day outside the home.  The boys room is almost done.  They decided that they wanted to do a super hero theme, so their bedroom is spider man blue and red.  Don't worry, only one wall is red, and it's the wall with the window thankgoodness!  My parents came over and painted the room for us.  The boys say that Oma & Opa helped THEM paint  LOL!!  They are a hoot!  I found some really cool metal pictures at Hobby Lobby that have different heros on them - spiderman, superman, batman etc.  They were even half off!  SCORE!  I was also able to find batman bathroom items at Target.  Pictures to come soon of the boys room and bathroom.  They are loving it!!

Here's a pic with two of the metal pictures that I found at Hobby Lobby. 

Christmas family photos

Family photos for Christmas 2012.

Silly Boys!

House for sale

We put our house on the market back in July.  We got an offer in Nov. but it just wasn't time or God's will for us to sell yet.  We actually were about to take it off the market when we got the call after a showing the week after Christmas.  The lady loves our house.  We had an offical offer the first week of Jan.  She is even paying asking price!  I can hardly believe it!  So we had to really get on the ball of finding our next home.  Originally we wanted either 4 bedrooms or 3 and a study or a formal dining area.  We found a great house in Yukon, made an offer and have an agreed contract.  We just did the inspection on Friday.  There are a few more things that need to be fixed than expected, but will see what happens when we send the repair list to the owner.  One of the great things is the owner no longer lives in the house, so they are pretty motivated and we can start moving our stuff to the garage before we close.  We hope to find out this week what the next step is and if we will come to an agreement and still close on Feb. 11th, 2013.  I have been packing my little heart out.  There is only 2 weekends before we actally start moving.  YIKES!  Good thing I had today off.  I have been throwing away quite a bit of "stuff" that we do not need or putting it in a "donate" or "garage sale" box/bags.  Man do we accumulate a bunch of paperwork!  The boys bring home 2+ papers most days from daycare and then all the junk mail we get...  I am really excited for the next chapter God has in store for us.  Pics to come of the new house!

Melt My Heart

A few Sunday nights ago, we visited some friends church for their Thanksgiving pot luck dinner.  The pastor spoke and had some music after dinner.  One of the songs we sang was "Oh how He loves you and me" (http://youtu.be/TpNfRsGZhmI).  Kaleb was sitting at the table next to me and as I was singing I look over at him and he is watching me.  As we were singing I would point to Kaleb when we sang "oh how. He loves You" and then point to me.  Then he started singing it too!!!  It warmed my heart and soul and brought me to tears.  I don't know how the people that do not have a relationship with Jesus and have children can go about their life and not realize that unless they do ask Him into their and their childrens lives, that they will not get to be with their children and Jesus for eternity in Heaven.  I want nothing more than to be with my children in heaven when it is our time to leave this earth.  God has blessed us with these lives and I pray that our children will continue to follow God's will for their life. 

Oklahoma/Texas

I am so bad at this blogging!  I guess I have a pretty good excuse though, two wonderful little boys that occupy most of my attention.  I can't believe it has been over a year since my last post.  A lot sure has happened since then!  P & K are almost 4 1/2 now.  They started Pre-K this school year.  YIKES!  They are so smart!  Learning so much so fast!  They are WAY excited this week because their Grandpa has moved here from Texas!!!  YEA!   It is so funny to listen to the boys talk to their Grandpa.  I think P would talk non stop all day, all night about anything and everything he thinks Grandpa needs to know.  Quite entertaining.  It's going to be fun now that they will be able to stay the night with Grandpa.  Woo Hoo!! 

Holidays & Crafts

So what has been happening with everyone?  We have been staying busy with work and playing.    I have been trying to be more "crafty" lately, becoming addicted to Pintrest.com.  I have come across several blogs to follow for food and DIY stuff.  I am SO addicted that I even have the app on my phone so I can lay in bed and just scan thru the pins.  I am getting so many ideas of things to make or do with the boys.  I made home made finger paint.  That was interesting!!  It came out too thick, so I will have to try that again sometime.  It is funny how things have changed since having children of my own now.  I use to not like doing projects or making things.  I use to always think, Man I am going to DREAD science projects when the boys get to that stage, but now I am so excited to do it with them.  Thanks to Pintrest.com and all these other people that blog about DIY.  : )  I find lots of new recipies on there to try too.  Shawn is enjoying that part!  : ) 
I got my Christmas gift a few weeks ago- a kitchen aid mixer!  I can bake again!  We really put it to use for Thanksgiving!  We made cookies, mashed potatoes, cream cheese mixture and pies with it.  I almost think I need a 2nd mixer!  My cousin Joni and part of her family got to come for Thanksgiving, so that was really nice to have them with us.  The boys stayed the night with Oma & Opa so I could go shopping with a friend that night for the "black friday" sales.  This was my 2nd time to experiance the craziness.  Last year I got up at like 3am to go shopping on Friday.  This year we went Thurs. night and got home at 5:30am.  That was much easier.  I got the boys Christmas and birthday shopping finished though. 
We still are uncertain of what exactly our plans are for Christmas.  We are supposed to go to Texas to see Shawn's side of the family, but his work schedule (boss) may not allow us to.  Price to pay when you work in the medical field.  Shawn's sister will be in Texas over Christmas, so it would be nice to get to see her. 

Rea Vacation

In May we went on the "Rea Family Vacation" with Shawn's Dad, Steve, Shawn's Sister, Stephanie and a friend of hers.  We stayed in the Dallas, Texas area.  We had a lot of fun.  We went to the Dallas World Aquarium on Thurs. and saw all kinds of fish, ducks, turtles, monkeys, a sloth, cute penguins and a huge alligator!  For dinner we got to experience "Five guys burgers".  Glad I got the small hamburger!  The others had TWO patties on their hamburgers!  It was yummy!  Then for dessert, we found a frozen yogurt place- the boys fav.!  Stephanie had never been to a place like that and now she is hooked!  : )  We are spoiled since we have several frozen yogurt places in the city.  Friday we went to Gainseville for their Main Street Days.  The boys had their picture taken on an old fire truck, got a horsey ride and did a little shopping.  After that we made our way to the kid's carnival area and the boys got to ride a carousel, go down a big slide and ride the truck ride.  All of which took maybe 15 min., which was fine since it was way past nap time for the boys and Mommy, Aunt Stephanie and her friend were sun burnt, we were ready to head back to the hotel for some rest.  K passed out, but P woke up when we got to the room and didn't go back to sleep, so Mommy came up with the "great" idea to take P swimming while everyone else was sleeping/resting.  Well... did I mention that it was only like 75-80 degrees that day?  The pool was outside, so the water was EXTREMELY cold!!  : )  We got in though.  It took 10 min. just to get in all the way, but we did it!!  P had a blast jumping into my arms in the water and going in circles, but about 10 min. into it, he was shivering like crazy, so I decided we better get out and dry off.  Once we did that we were fine, sitting in the sun...  Luckily a guy came out to the tennis/basketball court, so that entertained P quite well for a while.  For dinner we decided to go to Rainforest Cafe in Grapevine.  I was a little nervous about how the boys would take to the moving and loud monkeys, elephants, lightning etc., but they loved it!!  Dinner was tasty, but we had enough left over to feed an army practically.  They could have easily divided the meal in half and charged half as much and would be enough to eat.  After dinner we did a little more shopping and Grandpa found Dallas Cowboys football uniforms, with the helmet and all, for the boys for their Birthday.  They love them!!  Saturday was a free day to sleep in and relax.  We got up and had breakfast with the fam., then played outside and in the room, then nap after a little lunch.  After nap, we ventured out again to the Indoor Safari Playhouse.  The boys had so much fun there!  I totally recommend taking your kids etc. there if you are ever in the area.  There was putt-putt, a slide with a ball pit, mini trampoline, mini train ride, battery operated animal ride and toys to play with!!  Endless fun!!!  And it was reasonably priced too!!  SOOO glad I was able to find info on this place online beforehand!!  We would go there again for sure!!  After there, we went to dinner and had hibachi.  YUMMY!!!  I just wished it didn't make Shawn's asthma flare up!  Sunday was the boys actual 3rd Birthday.  Since we all had a 3+ hour drive home we had to leave Sunday AM to head home.  Stephanie's drive was 6-7 hours. and she and Shawn had to go to work the following morning.  I took Monday off to get caught up on laundry and do a little cleaning, run errands etc.  On our way home we stopped in Denton and got to see Shawn's Aunt Deena, cousin Jimmy and his family for a couple of hours.  All in all, we had a great time.  Now if the boys can get back to their old routine and schedule, we would be great!

Play Time

We were doing the boys laundry in the living room the other night and Shawn was also playing with the boys.  All of a sudden we were having a Sock War!!  It was SOOOO fun!  We laughed SO hard and for quite some time too.  It was a blast.  We still have two socks that are MIA...
This past summer we went to the Jenks Aquarium with my parents and the boys got a large puzzle with sharks etc. on it.  It amazes me that they can already put the whole thing together by themselves.  Since my sister moved out in Aug., we have converted her room into the guest/play room.  They now can watch their movies and veggie tales in there and play with all their toys in there instead of having all toys in the living room.  It is nice to have my living room back!  We have considered moving the baby video monitor in the play room so we can watch them better while they are in there. 
The boys Love to play the Wii.  I think they play better than me sometimes.  They like to play tennis, baseball and boxing on the Wii.  They are ALL boy for sure!!  They love to jump off things, but they also like to help Mommy in the kitchen to fix dinner and bake. 
Now that Toy Story 3 came out on DVD, the boys LOVE Buzz.  I had a lot of Toy Story toys out in boxes in the garage from when I was younger, so I thought "the boys would love to play with all of those!".  Sure enough!  As soon as they get home from daycare or up in the mornings, they want to play with their Buzz and friends.  To help encourage the boys to potty train, I found Lightning McQueen and Buzz stickers.  So far they are doing pretty good for only being 2.5 years old.  I really don't want to buy anymore diapers or pull ups... 

Our First Blog.

Well, here goes our first blog post!  I can't believe it is December again already!  Another year is ending.  Just a couple more weeks until Christmas!  The boys have already had one Christmas with their Grandpa Steve at Thanksgiving.  They got these really cool Buzz Lightyear's that talk, move and roll on the kitchen floor.  They LOVE them!  Seems to be the theme in gifts this year.  They love Buzz!!  The boys turned 2.5 last month.  They are learning things so fast!  They know their colors and we are working on ABC's and counting.  They grow up way too fast!  They are such wonderful boys!  God has blessed us greatly!