Fall!!!

Sadly I have not blogged in forever but because of my love for Fall I decided to jump on board and blog and do a little Fall home tour. Thankfully the travel business has been keeping me so busy but I do miss blogging so here goes! 

These two are so excited for Fall (they take after their mama on that!) We live in a 116 year old house and Fall is my favorite to decorate for! I need to get a front door picture soon :) 

A little Fall fun in our old wheel barrel that we keep by the front porch! 

Its hard to see in our entry way we have our little family of four pumpkins by the steps.

 Then looking back down the hallway I added a few fall things.

My mom found this old dough bowl for me and I love changing it out for different seasons. This is our dining room.

The only thing we restored in our kitchen were these butler pantry cabinets. Probably one of my favorite things in our house!

 Love the little touches of color in our white kitchen. 

I added a little cotton in our living room and some fall stuff too.

Happy Fall to everyone. Hoping to get a new blog post up soon about the kids!!

Life: a 4 year old and a 7 year old!!

So every now and then I get the idea to come back to this little blog and give an update. It won't be often haha but occasionally. For life right now Instagram and chat books are working much better than blogging. Lets me real its just easier and quicker and kids are busy these days.

Westin-Kate turned 4 this past February. She is so big now and it is so sad. She is girly but so tough. She is one I do not have to worry about ever! Fierce is a great way to describe her. She is sweet as can be and she hardly ever gets in trouble. She LOVES her babies, jewelry, dress up, painting nails, gymnastics, dance, and playing outside. She finally is a better sleeper (not perfect) but better.

She has crazy/beautiful curly hair. She is around the 60% for her height and weight. She does dance once a week and gymnastics once a week and is in preschool three days a week. Next year she will be in school 5 mornings a week.

She knows all her letters, numbers and is so smart (she takes after her brother and daddy haha.) She writes her name so well and loves to write and draw. She LOVES coloring and anything to do with art. I hope she always loves this. She also loves it when we read to her.

She still has eczema which drives her crazy (and me.) We will have good months and bad months for her flare ups. Almost all of her spots are on her little legs. She has been doing great since speech ended quite a few months ago. She is still very shy and doesn't like to talk at school or in front of people she doesn't know well.

She learned to ride her back without training wheels right before she turned 4. It is so funny because she looks so little riding and we get stopped all the time when we ride downtown because people are shocked she can ride a bike.

Back again!!

Well its only been 10 months this time since I blogged. One thing I am quickly learning is that I would fail miserably being a professional blogger. However I have these great kids that are growing up TOO quickly and I know when they are older I am going to wish I kept this blog up a little more than I do.

So here goes nothing lets play a little catch up. Not sure how it is possible but I have an almost 4 year old and a 6.5 year old. I feel like I have just blinked my eyes and they have grown up over night. Westin Kate is in 3 year old preschool and goes three days a week and is doing great. Wade is in 1st grade and LOVES his teacher and school. He has a very young very sweet teacher and I am pretty sure he has a crush on her haha. He makes her cards and even tried to take her $2 last week. I had to break the sad news to him that she couldn't take money from students.

Westin Kate has finished up with speech therapy and is doing really well. It was never anything severe but she was mixing up some of her letters and we wanted to get a jump start on it so it wouldn't continue. She did a few months of speech with Ms. Lindsey and we were so pleased. She is taking a break from gymnastics now and is doing a little dance class through the town of Apex. However I think gymnastics is going to be her thing because she keeps asking to do it again and stop dance :) She is writing her name and can write a lot of her letters. She got her ears pierced a few months ago and did GREAT. She loves baby dolls and real babies, anything Frozen, Barbie's and playing in her kitchen. She is really so sweet and such and EASY 3 year old. She finally sleeps better. We have dropped her nap and she will sleep from 745p-815am. She still will wake up for water or covers every now and then but goes right back to sleep thankfully. She loves the library and loves for us to read to her. She is super sweet but super sassy (Josh swears it comes from me!) She has no problem standing up for herself and letting us know what she thinks-hey it will make her a strong independent woman one day. She is around 39-40 inches tall and weighs about 32-34lbs. She got her first hair cut just last month at 3.5 years old. Bless her it took her that long for her hair to get long enough to cut. It is super curly (ringlets) and I just love it. She always has to have her pocketbook with her and it is always filled with all kinds of goodies. Usually she has a pocket book and a baby stroller. It has been so much fun having a little girl.

Big brother Wade is still wide open and all boy. I have to say I am so glad I had a boy first because WK is quite and calm and I would have had no idea what to do with a boy after having her. Wade loves school and loves PE and recess best. Of course this is no shock to us. He LOVES soccer and is so good at it. He just finished playing baseball for the Fall and is getting ready to start basketball. He did great with baseball. He didn't love it at first because he didn't know anyone on his team but as the season went on he really enjoyed it. I have a feeling he is going to be just like Josh (good at almost everything) because he was so good at baseball. We were so proud of him and his hard work. He is reading really well for his grade and he can do math faster than I can. It is actually really sad!! He still has to be encouraged to read each night but now that he is getting more fluent he is enjoying it more. He loves anything outside and sports related. He still has A LOT of energy and that is our biggest struggle with Wade. He is perfect at school-never once gotten in trouble. At home I think he lets all his energy out. Of course I would rather it be this way but there are times when we need him to settle down and listen :) He is so sweet with his sister...of course they fight but anytime Josh and I are not around he takes great care of her. He still sleeps great. He sleeps from 745p-730am every night. He loves Wii U, sports, super hero's and anything boy related. He is still a little sensitive and takes everything to heart. He still looks just like Josh except his hair is still blonde. He is solid...he is close to 4 ft tall and weighs over 50lbs. One thing for sure Wade can always make us laugh. He is silly and so funny. Sometimes not appropriate but I keep hearing that is just a boy thing.

Josh and I have been doing great. It is so nice that this Fall he is not having shoulder surgery or in a sling. We have had tons of house projects going and and we are so glad they are almost done. We added a large screen porch, a patio and fire pit and now Josh is finishing up his man cave in the back building. We still love our old house and love where we live. Hopefully these are our last projects for awhile. Work is so busy for Josh but he is doing a great job and building a successful business. I am still working a couple days a month at the hospital and I recently took a job with Magical Vacations by Me planning Disney trips. It has been a lot of fun and I am just getting started. We got away to Mexico this year and took the kids to Disney this past October. We love to travel and are renting a cabin in the mountains for Christmas and taking the kids snow tubing. Wade is of course thrilled. Hoping to do a "day in the life" post either today or this week so I can look back and see what we did when our kids were little :)

Things I don't want to forget!!

This is one of those post's that you will want to skip right over. I write down the funny things the kids say and I would love to have it in our blog books so we can look back and laugh one day! Here is what Westin-Kate has been saying...

(some of these are old!!)
21 months- "I do it!"
"I want momma!"

22 months-"uh-oh" (she said this a lot!)
"where's Josh?"
"hold baby" (talking about Hayes)

2 years old-
"WADE stop talking I counting!" (this was one of my favorites-she was so serious!)
"that's beautiful!" (talking about my hair one day and our house one day haha)
"Wade did that...."
"Go Aunt E's house morrow?"
"I do it!" (while crossing her little arms)
"Charlie hush!"
"I want regular ones-nuggets" (I had been getting them grilled nuggets if we ate out and she was telling me she wanted the regular good fried ones haha)
"I not..." (I not go peeschool today!)
"I not a baby!" "I a big girl"

A few months ago she was drawing a picture of circles and I asked what it was and she said "I drawing moles!" I have a mole on my lip that she always asks about and bless her she started drawing moles. It was so funny!

Wade- 4 years old
"I need to listen to my songs like whistle baby" (he must have been riding with Josh that day)
"Seriously?"
"you were about last today!" (in carpool)
"I'm sick-I blessed you so many times today"

5 years old-
"now that I am 5 do I go to college next year?"
After his first week of K he asked- "Am I in 1st grade now?"
Talking to Poppy he said "I don't think my mommy and daddy would want me to say that!" ( I was proud of him that day haha)
"I almost had a heart attack riding up that hill"
"I pooped and burped and now feel much better!" (oh the things boys say!)

5.5 years old-
This was SO funny. Mom was over and she was telling Wade she didn't have a good day and he says... "Me either... because of you know (he was pointing at me haha) then he says, "she wouldn't have been so cranky if she didn't fall down the stairs!" We both died laughing!

I know there are so many more funny things that they say I just have to remember to write them all down!!

Life in Pictures...

 

Going to the pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins this past Fall!

 

 

Kids in a candy store...Old General Store in Boone-they loved it!

 

 

Oh this certain sweet 2 year old would not take a school picture-it was a man taking them and she would have nothing to do with it. She just cried and cried and they actually called me to see if I could get her to take it haha. She told me later that day- "all my friends do it but not me!" Josh swears she gets her stubbornness from me :) So this is her 2 year old school picture on our front porch! And how sweet is that dress- I already told her she is wearing it again for school pictures in the Spring!

 

We had a yard full of leaves and these kids had a blast playing. Josh couldn't rake this year so thankfully we got some help in the yard. I love having a big yard until all the leaves fall.

 

We went to the Farmers Market for breakfast and to pick out our tree!

 



 

My little gymnast...She started in December and loves it!

 

 

 This boy is loosing some teeth-it kills me because he will just pull them out and then come show us. I think he has lost 6 now!

 

 

Almost ready for Christmas!!

 This was our little cow at her Christmas performance at preschool. Still can't believe I am going to her performances and not Wade's. Time is just flying by!

 

All ready for church on Christmas Eve 2014.

 



Christmas morning 2014!! Yes my child has a little curly afro going on-never ever did I imagine I would have one with such curly hair. I love it she does not. The other day she told me "I not want curly hair I want long hair!" So sad :( I told her I loved her curly hair and I would trade for my stick straight hair.

 



 

This was at Nana and Poppy's "farm!" Josh's grandmother had about 17 acres and now its Josh's parents and our kids LOVE going there. It was warm the day after Christmas and they played all day out there. I love it!

 

High heels and a paci...this girl is going to be so sad when she turns three and paci has to go away :(

 

Super ninja kids and snackeez...doesn't take much to make these two happy!

Lately!!!

Well obviously my goal of blogging once a month failed so I am going to try to do a little catch up on life and get a couple of posts done and try a new to keep my monthly goal this time. Both kids are doing great in school. Wade LOVES school so much more than I ever thought he would. Loves his teachers, his sweet friends and loves PE and recess the best he says! He is doing well too-he is really starting to read and is doing great with his sight words these days. I can't believe we are half way through his Kindergarten year.

WK loves preschool. She always says "you came back!" with a huge grin on her face when I pick her up. Literally she says this everyday like she thinks I may forget her one day haha. She has taken off with talking these past few weeks and its hard to believe she will be 3 in two weeks. She takes Spanish at preschool and she is counting and talking in Spanish some too around the house it is so funny! Her favorite part of the day though is Chapel. She loves it.

Josh got hurt pretty bad playing soccer in November and that completely through us for a loop. You never know how nice you have it until something like that happens and literally for WEEKS people he couldn't do anything. I mean I was even bathing him that first week or two. He got tripped and landed on his shoulder and it separated his shoulder and tore his RC so he had to have surgery. He spent 8 long weeks in a sling and it was pretty much awful. I loved having him home for two weeks but not under the circumstances. He just got his sling off and now he has 8 weeks of rehab. We had to cancel our Disney trip in December but we are going in 2 weeks so we are excited about that. Lets just say appreciate your husbands having two working arms haha.

Christmas was busy but great. We all had a cold (except Josh) but thankfully by Christmas Eve we were feeling better. We did Christmas Eve here with my family and spent Christmas morning and most of the day at home. It was lovely we stayed in our pj's until 3pm when we headed to Winston. We spent the next two days in Winston and had a great time. Wade of course loves Santa and talking to him and WK not so much. Josh was in the picture this year haha.

I need to work on uploading some pictures-now that I have discovered chatbooks app I put almost everything on IG and it prints off into the cutest little books. I love not having to print pictures all the time. They are fantastic! We went to Tweetsie in October and the kids had a blast. My entire family went and we all stayed at the same hotel and it was a lot of fun. Probably wont do Tweetsie again but we will do the mountains for sure again-kids loved it! We leave for Disney in just 2.5 weeks and we are surprising the kids and cannot wait. We are going for 4 nights and we are going to tell them the morning we leave. I can't wait to see their little faces. WK has just started asking all of a sudden to go see Mickey and Minnie. They are at great ages and she will have just turned 3 the week we leave.

Speaking of turning 3...the beloved paci will be making its exit from our house right after Disney. We would be crazy to take it away before our trip haha. We need her to nap in the stroller some :) I took Wade's away SO much earlier (18mo) and this girl LOVES her paci. It doesn't leave the house but none the less she is attached. We are going to go to build a bear for her too because it worked so well with Wade.

Wade is playing basketball this winter and he is doing awesome. He scored 10 points his last game and we were so proud of him. Basketball ends in February and then we have a little break until March when soccer starts. I am really excited for soccer this year. I know he is going to love it. Westin-Kate started gymnastics in December and LOVES it. She is actually really good at it and I think it may be something we continue. I never did dance so this summer I am going to let her take a little gymnastics break and try a dance class offered through the town of Apex. I am sure she will play soccer too-she is so fast but I am going to wait until she turns 4 for that. I think it would be so hard watching 3 year olds play soccer haha. We still are going with the rule that they get one activity per season and it has worked great with our family. Josh and I have small group on Monday nights and so we don't want to be gone every night of the week. Wade practices on Thursday nights and has Saturday games. Gymnastics is great because for the next year or two she will do morning classes. Life seems so much simpler when we don't have a million things going on and when the kids can just play outside most days.

We got Josh out of a sling and then of course I would get hurt right after that. I didn't see the sheet of ice on our porch last week and slipped off the porch and hit all three stairs on my tailbone. It has been awful. I can finally walk normally again one week later but it is still pretty sore :( Thankful it wasn't a broken wrist or ankle though. We are loving our house still and really can't wait until it warms up so we can get outside more. This week has actually been nice and we get to finally walk home from school because it has been over 50 degrees. If its under 50 degrees we carpool!! I am going to try to get some pictures up soon. I love my blog books and really want to keep up with all the fun things the kiddos are doing these days. Here's to posting more!!

School!!!

Well we are surviving the first couple of weeks of school around here. Wade is loving K and is pretty excited to go each day. He has been a little more tired than normal but he really has adjusted better than I ever thought he would. The first week was the worst but he really wasn't that bad. One night he cried because we gave him water for dinner-haha he always drinks water :) I have to say it has been an easier transition than I expected. He is doing well and seems to be learning a lot too. He does go to bed early and that seems to really help. We usually have him down by 745p. His sister has been missing him and gets so excited when it is time to go pick him up! He loves drama and computer specials the best. He was so excited last week because an older boy told him he was "fast" on the play ground. Here are two pictures from the night before K.

 

 

These pictures still almost make me tear up!!

 

 

 

WK is really liking school too. Just last week when we were walking home she randomly says "I love my peeschool!" However the first day of school she did not want to go and we got the best pictures of her proving that. Some days she will still say "I not go peeschool today!" but she does go and she always comes home happy :) Her teachers seem great and they say she is adjusting and behaving well which makes this momma happy. At home she is 2 years old in full force. Wade called her "little Shannon" the other day when she was whining and I couldn't help but to laugh and call Josh. Josh of course agreed with him. This weekend though her name has changed to "little cray cray (crazy)" and "little fireball!" She was a pistol to be around this weekend needless to say. My girl knows what she wants and if she doesn't get it when she is ready she will let everyone else in the entire world know it to. Loud is an understatement. Its funny what age will do because Wade is at the sweetest age and I can tell he is working so hard on good behavior and wild woman could care less. So maybe just maybe 5 is the magic age where it just clicks :)

 

Typical WK!!

 

 

This one will be in her senior year book for sure! Her very first day of school picture :)

 

 

We are loving this cooler weather and I LOVE that I can walk both kids to school. It is amazing not to sit in carpool for the moment. I know when it is freezing that may change but for the next couple of months we love walking. Wade has started tball and really loves playing. Josh also started playing soccer for the town of Apex and poor guy got hurt last night in his game. It was only his 2nd game so I am hoping his muscles will heal quickly so he can play again. I am waiting another month or two but then I will start WK in gymnastics-probably after October (its always a busy busy month for us!)

 

 

And just a few of my favorites!! Until next month :)

 

 

And all because we told her "No" Poor child hears the word "no" and immediately she falls face first into the floor and acts so pitiful! We turn our heads and laugh-parenting at its finest right there!!