De-Cluttering

We are getting ready for a yard sale and vacation, so I thought it would be a good time to get rid of old toys, clothes that do not fit the kids, and just things that add clutter. Last night, I tackled the kids' bedroom closets. I hauled away 4 bags of trash and redeemed four tubs full of items for our yard sale. Tonight's goal is my bedroom (plus a trip to the bike trail/playground) and the laundry room. When I flip channels and briefly watch shows on hoarding, it makes me want to throw something away. I am not a hoarder per se, but I definitely could be if I was not diligent. It is just sad how people live in a house with so much clutter and garbage!

Off my soapbox now, I also wanted to share that we think Cody lost his other front tooth sometime between Memorial Day and 2 weeks ago. I was looking at photos of Memorial Day and noticed how both front teeth were there plus a permanent tooth. Then, when I was posting pics the other day, I noticed that the other tooth was gone. I guess we'll never know what happened to that tooth. (My guesses are that he swallowed it when he ate something hard.) So that makes 3 teeth he has lost! I guess I'll just have to check his teeth once a week to see where all the loose ones are!

Parent Night at VBS

Saturday evening was parent night for the SonQuest Rainforest VBS at my sister's church. The children performed the songs they learned during VBS and had awards time and refreshments. All of the teachers and helpers were very tired since it was the 6th night of a very long week!

Carleigh enjoyed VBS, especially the snow cones, hot dog, cookies, and candy every night. Pizza on Friday night was a hit and she ate 3 pieces!

Busy Week is over!

Tonight was the last night of VBS....which was Family Fun Night. The kids performed their songs, had award time, and had refreshments. I helped my sister get all of the rainforest decor out of her classroom so that she could teach the preschoolers tomorrow morning.

Earlier today, I visited with ladies from my first church I ever attended. It was great to see my teacher and quite a Bible mentor to me. Most of the ladies I haven't seen in over 6.5 years ago. Yep...we left the church a month before coming home with the Codeman.

Last night, Matt and Cody attended their first Family Fun Circle event with the OFOFC organization. This organization creates social events for families who have developmentally delayed or disabled children. Plus, they have one big event each month and also have classes. I am really interested in taking classes that specialize in parenting the special-needs child. Friday night's meeting was Drum Circle. Cody got to listen to drummers and then he was able to play on drums and learn different rhythms. Cody is such the music man that he loved it! (Sorry, no pics as Carleigh and I were at VBS.)

This morning, Cody woke up a couple of hours earlier than Carleigh (which is REALLY rare!) and he was in his bedroom playing with a toy phone. Here's a little synopsis of his conversation with himself:

"Hello?"
"Hi!"
"I got coins!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay!"
"Bye!"

And his obnoxious new habit is to SNORT really loud! It's cute at first, but then he is constantly doing it! I guess I'll chalk that up as a normal boy behavior!

Conversations with Carleigh III

Note: Carleigh's speech has been progressing at wonderful paces lately! Each day I hear her say things that I didn't know she knew! Here are a few of my conversations with her:

Carleigh: "Mommy, you are wearing a "Blues Clues' shirt!"

Mommy: "Really? I thought I was wearing a purple striped shirt?"

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Carleigh was riding her bike yesterday and Cody approached her and she said, "HA HA HA! You can't catch me.....catch me if you can!" (Sounds a bit like the gingerbread baby)

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Looking at my VBS badge last night, she exclaimed "Mommy, you have a jaguar on and a toucan!"


It's amazing how she can consistently tell us what she wants and let me tell you, she does that ALL the time now!

Another Crazy Busy Week

This week will be extremely crazy and busy. Today, Cody had an eye appointment. (By the way, it turned out well, his vision has not changed, and starting in January, he will go ONCE a year! PRAISE GOD!) Tomorrow, we have OT/PT in the mornings, and oh Cody has a ballgame tonight.

All week, Carleigh and I will be going to visit a Rainforest for VBS at my sister's church. I agreed to help her since she will have 3-5's which is always a big group. We'll have fun, but boy will it be tiring!

It will be so awesome if Carleigh's eye appt. goes well in August. That would mean we would only visit the eye doctor 2 times instead of 6 times a year! One less appointment is awesome since we are flooded with dr. appts since Cody has to go to his pediatrician every 3 months. And now that Cody is in school all day in August, I would rather not have him miss school.

Lost another one!

Cody has had a top front tooth that was loose, then it slid in a strange position and became re-attached. Today, he ate an apple at my sister's house. Well, tonight at LaRosa's I noticed his tooth was loose again. Without telling anyone or making it a big deal, I leaned over, grabbed a hold of that tooth and with a little strong pull, out it came! It's a good thing because his permanent tooth was already coming in! The other tooth will be coming out very soon as well. This is his second tooth out. He looks so cute without his top tooth!!

Our fun evening

Our church did not have their usual services due to the district-wide services being held in Indiana, so we decided to take the kids to the park and while I was riding my bike, Matt let the kids play on the playground. I biked a total of about 12 miles and now want to ride from the beginning of the trail all the way down to the end. I rode about that even though I didn't go down that far. This is definitely going to be my hangout this summer. It is so peaceful to ride in the woods and of course the kids LOVE to play on the playground there. We are looking in to visiting other playgrounds and parks that have bike trails.

Unbelieveable!

We decided to visit the pebble beach that the kids love to visit. We were blown away when we began walking down the sandy path and discovered that the water was up to the end of the path! The kids were disappointed that they couldn't throw big rocks into the river. There were a few rocks along the path and we let them (carefully at a distance) throw a few.

The bench along the bike trail is where Matt and I were engaged. I rode by it on my bike and decided I had to take a pic. I can't believe that happened over 13 years ago!

Usual antics

Carleigh created a crown and I thought she would be the "princess." No, she declared she was QUEEN!

Summer School

The kids enjoy doing their schoolwork outside on the porch. Carleigh's princess table and chairs is a great place to do their work. For Carleigh, we are working on fine motor skills. It's definitely a work-in-progress. She has mastered writing her first letter, but now we are working on the other letters of her name as well as writing numbers. We are working on lots of sight words and reading sentences with Cody. Both kiddos now go to occupational and physical therapy once a week in the morning which works great for both of them because they have the most concentration and attention at that time.

Great Reading Practice

I bought V-Tech's reading system called "Create-A-Story." I found it at Big Lots at a steal at Christmas time. The books were very cheap as well and the kids received it as a "together" gift. We stored it away for a rainy day and didn't open it until today. Well, it is really COOL! Carleigh and I played with it and created our own stories including our names and spelling. It also has a read along book in which the words are highlighted and is read aloud to the children. I think this is great for Pre-school - 1st grade because it gives the children an opportunity to see the text highlighted and spoken aloud. Children can also practice opposites, phonics and other activities as well. We have all the books listed in this pic and my kiddos LOVE it! Now if it had math....it would be perfect!

Flash Floods and a Rainbow

We have had rain ALL weekend and each time it rains really hard, our poor backyard looks like a small pond. Today, it rained especially hard AND the sun was out. We saw a beautiful, bright rainbow. Carleigh was so excited to see a REAL rainbow!

What goes around comes around....

Carleigh can be very aggressive to Cody. On Satrday, she decided to shove Cody into the entertainment center, her lip hit the glass and cut it badly! I thought for sure she lost a tooth due to the amount of blood in her mouth. Hopefully, she learned her lesson (maybe).

Oxford Game

Friday night was such a chaotic mess! First of all, Cody started out with a small rash on Wednesday. Each day I noticed it was growing. I was suspicious of chicken pox although he has had the vaccine. Well, Friday afternoon we were in a dilemma. We had to bring the snack for the Oxford game so we didn't know if Cody should go or not. We called the doctor's office who told us to come in. Two doctors looked him over and confirmed it was not chicken pox. It would have been extremely rare since he has had 2 dosages of the vaccine. We then had to rush, get ready, grab dinner on the way and then drove to Oxford. What a night!

My Cinderella

The First Week

I know I have been not posting this week, but I have been busy with the kiddos. On Monday, I had a mandatory First Aid certification class and then summer officially began! We have been sleeping in every day (between 7:30 - 9am). In the mornings, we do summer school things like working in workbooks, practicing writing (extremely difficult for Cody) and I try to do a craft with them. In the afternoons we play on our swing set, ride bikes or play with bubbles or chalk. Wednesday night, Cody graduated from Benson Buddies at church and will officially start earning badges in Caravan in September. Carleigh has one more year in Benson Buddies before she starts earning badges. Both kiddos were promoted to new Sunday School classes and I will be Cody's helper in his 1st grade class. I am so thankful to an awesome Children's ministry director who has a such a sweet heart. We have people helping Cody in every class he is in on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Today, I cleaned out the pool and filled it up with fresh, COLD water. As I was filling it up and talking to Carleigh about something, Cody JUMPS in! It surprised both of us! Both kids LOVE water and it is extremely difficult for me to get them out. Today I caught Cody off guard and grabbed him. He wasn't a happy camper! When I persuaded Carleigh to get out, he was more accepting that he had to get out.

Now we are cooling down, drying out, and will head to Oxford for Cody's game. We're hoping it doesn't storm like it usually does on game day.

My New Ride

I purchased this vintage or "old-school" bicycle on Saturday. My sister and I got the same kind of bike. We both bought baskets or different colors so that we would know which bike belonged to which person. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my bike! I also love the basket because it can hold a lot of stuff AND can be taken off VERY easily (just push a button)! (If it were just a little bit bigger, Codeman could ride in there!)

This has gotten Carleigh interested in bike riding again and we are thinking of taking off her training wheels very soon. We plan on hitting the bike trails alot this summer and hopefully this will be an extra way to lose more pounds.

12 years ago....

I married my best friend. Yes, it has been 12 years since Matt and I were married! Wow! It really doesn't seem like 12 years! It was a beautiful day on June 6, 1998. Last night, we went out to dinner and had the whole evening/night kid-less thanks to my mom who had Codeman and my sister kept Carleigh. Both kiddos enjoyed their time with family.

Now we are planning a few extended weekend trips. Nothing is finalized yet, but we are looking forward to possibly a trip to the mountains and a lighthouse adventure as well!

School's out for the summer!

As I write this post, I am getting ready to leave my classroom until mid-August. Today was teacher check-out day and I am officially done with every thing that I needed to do before summer break begins! I am excited that I will be doing "Mom" things for the next couple of months. I have a lot of fun things planned, plus some "school" activities to do with them to keep their minds fresh.

Let the summer fun begin!!

Carleigh's Preschool Graduation

Carleigh reached another milestone today. She graduated from preschool. It was a bittersweet time...I am so proud of her, but am sad she is growing up so quickly. I cannot believe I will have a Kindergartener and a 1st grader! Whoa! Her class sang songs, recited a poem and shared what they enjoyed about preschool this year. It was a cute program! (Please excuse some of the blurry-ness...not sure what was going on with my camera)

Carleigh is now officially on summer vacation, Cody will be finished tomorrow and I will be finished on Friday! Bring on summer!