Family of 5...Oh MY!

In August we found out that we will receive another little blessing in May. After I had Alex I could never completely say I was done with having children. We would go back & forth for the last probably 6 months. Drew & Alex (without anything being mentioned) began saying they were praying for a baby sister. I think what brought it up in their minds was my friend, Amanda, having a baby. They say they want a "Lela" like Neely has.

God made the decision for us and we could not be more excited! Are there worries or fears we could have...well yes but why?

God is giving them a sibling but we just don't know yet if it will be a sister or a brother. I find out at my 19 week appointment and I cannot wait. I guess knowing this is my last one I am more excited to find out what it is. So many people are saying its a girl but we shall see...hmmm! Even my hairdresser on Monday asked what was going on with my hair. She said that my hair being weird & my skin breaking out is a sign of a girl. My neighbor & some friends say they same thing. I feel totally different this pregnancy. If I wasn't showing & craving citrus foods then I would completely forget I was pregnant. The heartbeat is 158 and the boys were both always in the 130s or 140s. Trying not to get my hopes up & decide in my mind what it is until I SEE for myself. Therefore, I can't wait to see if its a he or a she!

Names are picked & ready to go either way. I want all of my kids to have names that are after someone in our family or mean something to us. Drew is named after David. Alex is named after my mom's family and I wanted him to be an "A" since I am. This baby will be named after my dad, his family, or my sister. My sister has my dad's initials so if its a boy he will have their first & middle initials. If its a girl she will be named after my dad's grandmother. We couldn't come up with a girl name for the JL initials like my dad & sister.

Alex starts to school

This year Alex is in the "older 2's classroom". He started a new school in Bentonville, and we have been soooo happy there. His teacher is so kind & welcoming to him. His little friend Lilly started the school at the same time he did. She greets him every morning & it is so cute! Typically he does not mind to go to school but there are a few mornings he would rather watch "Cat in that Hat" than go to school. Just this morning it was an all out tantrum over leaving his shows to go to school. I hate having to fight as we leave the house in the morning.

What Alex is doing right now...

Talking, talking, & more talking

Loves playing with legos & squinkies

Loves watching the shows on PBS in the morning

Still eats anything you put in front of him

Starting to throw tantrums & have an opinion sometimes but usually very agreeable

Making silly faces & sounds

A few weeks ago he had fall pictures made and I just knew he would not smile or possibly even have his picture taken. I thought ahead & TRIED to get some pictures at home. This is the result of that...

Catching Up

I have been meaning to post about ALL that has gone on at our house but I always forget. The times I remember to do things like call an old friend, book a birthday party, update my blog, print pictures, etc...is always when I'm driving down the road or laying in bed at night or at school. That's why it doesn't usually get done! My family is probably thinking I have given up on the blog...well...I haven't, I promise!

Lots of exciting things have happened at our house in the last few months...
Mexico Mission Trip
Drew's first day of Kindergarten (already posted about that)
Alex's first day of school
Visiting family
Disney World Family Vacation
Found out we are expecting a new baby in May
Halloween
New games
Drew's first dental appointments

I also decided that I want to blog in November each day about what I'm thankful for & look back at what God has done in our life recently or in the past. I hope we as a family can look back on this one day & see how blessed we are!

I will be working on uploading all the pictures & posts today so check back.

Ahoy Mate

Last week I decided to turn the "cubby" part of Alex's closet into a "pirate hideaway" for the boys to play in. They absolutely love pirates! Alex was very proud of his new pirate ship (as he calls it). When Sarah Kate came over to play he couldn't wait to show her. Girls aren't so fond of pirates! :-) Soooo...instead of going in the pirate ship where the "scary pirates" were she decided to use Alex's play kitchen to cook for the shipmates. Excuse the dirty fan in the picture. It would get super hot in there if we didn't have a little fan in there. They keep their Pirates of the Caribbean Legos in their pirate hideaway and that can keep them busy for a long time (until the punching & choking & biting breaks out). Behind Drew is a pirate ship steering wheel that I got at Home Depot. It actually goes to the outdoor playsets but I screwed it into the wall & they love to steer their ship!

This is a curtain I made to separate the hideaway away from the rest of his closet. Since his bedroom is upstairs, his closet has an angle in the back because of the roof and it really can't be used for hanging clothes. It makes the perfect play area.

I added a treasure map, poster, and rope lighting. I also am going to add some pirate decals on the walls. Their pirate dress up and treasure chests are in there too. I couldn't get a picture of everything since it is such a tight space.

I bought a treasure chest at Hobby Lobby and let Alex & Drew paint it. I put their pirate legos in one chest. In the other chest they have plastic rings, coins, bead necklaces...basically pirate treasures.

Little bit better picture of the wheel and rope lighting. If I can't find Alex anywhere else playing inside...I find him in his pirate hideaway.

To Rogers and Back on the Train

Today Alex and I rode the Arkansas Missouri Railroad with some friends. I have never been on a real train before so it was really neat (even though we didn't go very far). I was sad that Drew didn't get to go with us BUT I will admit that it was much easier to care for just one child. It got a little chaotic when we were stopped on the track for an hour because there was a freight train blocking the track. Luckily, my friend Amanda strategically placed us in the middle of the middle train car so that if we crashed (or got hit by the freight train) we would be safe! Very thankful for friends like Laurie & Amanda that think of those kinds of things. All I worry about is if there is a storm coming!

Sweet baby Lela was soooo good throughout the train ride and even during the HOT delay!

Alex and his friends, Neely and Sarah Kate. On the way to pick them up he said "I love Neely and Sarah Kate". He totally doesn't care that many of his friends are girls!

Kacy (event planner of the year) and sweet baby Davis. Wells is somewhere hiding behind her. Kacy is who we have to thank for our fun train ride today. Every month she plans at least one fun outing for our group of friends. I am sooo thankful for this because I would probably otherwise sit at home with Alex & Drew. :-)

Sweet little baby Kamryn. She was another good little baby girl during the ride and hot delay.

I didn't get a picture of Kinley but she was there too. Kinley & Alex are about the same age. Sweet little girls! Alex enjoying the ride.

Kade is enjoying the ride. Cute or what??? His older sister Alex was also with us but I didn't get a picture of her either. She is Drew's age and he would be disappointed if he knew he missed the train ride with his friends.

Cutie Wells hanging out during our STOP.

After the train ride we went to a mexican restaurant for lunch. The kids were great & the food was yum. BUT...I love mexican food so I'm easy to please! Thanks Laurie for the great suggestion.

All of the kids were soooo good today. They were such little troopers as we sat on a HOT and STILL train for an hour. I hope we can ride the train this fall to see all of the pretty leaves. I also would like to take the boys on the Christmas train ride with Santa.

All Grown Up

Well...yesterday the inevitable occurred at our house...Drew started Kindergarten! Of course we took about 300 pictures but here are just a few.

He doesn't look very thrilled to be there BUT it's really that he just was tired of pictures. Ha!

Inside his classroom by his cubby
This picture makes me laugh at the terrible face he is making BUT he also looks so sad. He was so happy to go though so I'm not sure what this face is all about.

Off we go to school...I'm so thankful we went as a family! As I walked out of school crying, David did everything to make me feel better. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have such a WONDERFUL husband!

Poor Alex was not happy that he couldn't stay with big brother. He begged to wear his "empty" backpack.

Before we left our house...

We are EXCITED about Kindergarten!

My precious boys...where has 5 years gone???

Awake but not happy about it. He said that he didn't like that you have to get up so early for school. David & I ASSURED him that we DO NOT like that either! Sometimes I think that God didn't make my buddy to wake up early. Laugh you may...but I'm dead serious! If I wake up early on my own, that's perfectly fine but when we wake up to an alarm clock we feel awful. Why is that???

I decided to add pictures of the last 5 years also. I didn't always have pictures labeled as Drew's first day of school so I chose pictures that I know were around the time of school starting. I have had mixed emotions about Drew starting school. On one hand, I know he is at a wonderful school and will have so much fun and learn so many new things. That part of it makes me excited for him! What makes me sad is thinking back over the past 5 years of him being at home with me. Knowing that I can't just keep him home if we feel like it or go out of town on a weekday, makes me sad. I have always been thankful that I have been able to stay at home but yesterday as I looked back over 5 years I was even MORE thankful that I was able to stay home with him from birth. I worked part time the past few years and he has always done MDO but that doesn't compare to starting REAL school everyday. Looking back over the last 5 years, I found some of my favorite pictures.

This was his first day at MDO at FBC Jonesboro where I taught 3-4 year olds for 2 years. He was 5 months old.

Fall 2007

Fall 2008 (shortly before Alex was born)

Fall 2009 (He LOVED Batman at this time)

Fall 2010

Summer Time

It is hot here so we are enjoying our neighborhood pool for sure! Now that it is July and over 100 degrees, it is almost too hot in the afternoon to even enjoy the pool.

Drew started the summer in swimmies but after just a few times in the pool he was ready to swim without them. He is now jumping in the deep end & swimming to the other side, diving for shark dive sticks, swimming underwater, and doing cannonballs. I liked it when they both had a little fear at the pool & lake. Now neither of the boys are scared so I watch EXTRA close all of the time because they are getting braver & braver everyday. The other day we forgot Alex's swimmies at home. Alex jumped from the pools steps into the water without any fear...luckily David was standing right there & caught him. He has now experienced swimming alone with swimmies so he does not want to be held in the pool. He will take off with or without swimmies.

Besides swimming, going to the lake, VBS, summer school, and Mexico...I began potty training Alex. Let me tell you, that was an adventure all in itself! We have a book called "Duck Goes Potty" and that is what was my tool for him giving up diapers. In the book the momma duck tells baby duck "no more diapers" so that's what I told Alex the day after July 4th. He woke up that morning & we immediately put on underwear. I was amazed at how long he would hold it because he refused to use the potty. He wasn't having accidents though, he was just holding it. Finally he got to a point that he couldn't hold it anymore so he used the potty & saw it wasn't scary at all. He was so proud of himself & of course we made a HUGE deal over him! I started with underwear on Tuesday and then Wednesday we spent the afternoon at the pool. He started pee-peeing on the grass there. Well...that started a whole new adventure for him. For a week he would only pee-pee on the grass. Therefore, if we were out & about he would hold it until we got home. The moment of all embarassment was at church on Sunday. He told his teachers that he couldn't potty at church because there was no grass! That's wonderful, huh? Luckily Monday at VBS he went on the potty at church so he is pretty much only going on the potty now unless he is outside playing. He definitely has a mind of his own though. He keeps us laughing all of the time. On Saturday he was complaining of his tummy hurting but he refused to poop on the potty. I bought a pirate puzzle he had been asking for and I sat it on top of the fridge. He constantly asked for it but I always replied "only if you poopy on the potty". Finally Drew asked if he could poop on the potty & earn it for brother. How sweet is that??? They were determined to earn that puzzle. Drew finally coached him into using the potty & they BOTH were thrilled to have earned the puzzle.
I will admit though...when I felt like he was officially potty trained, I had a brief moment of sadness that this "phase" of his life was over. No more diapers!