My Matt

Have I told you how much we love Matt's school?  Yes I know I have.  He has had the best teachers and we have met some wonderful families.  Seems like every day they do something fun.  Last week they had to dress up like pirates.  So I grabbed an eye patch (which happened to come with earrings) and we threw a bandanna on his head and that was our costume.  Turned out cuter than I expected.  He let me put the "earring" on for this picture before we left the house but insisted that he was NOT wearing it to school.  He said everyone would think he was a girl.  I tried to explain that pirates wore earrings and he didn't care.  Then I thought...I'm going to back off.  This is a good thing that he's so against and I'm going to be thankful.  This is the first time in his little life that he would not give in.  I'm proud of him!

I also got to watch Matt do a gymnastics show for me today.  He does a little gymnastics class after school once a week.  It's pretty basic but his friends are there, he has a blast and it gives Mom one day where she doesn't have to rush home from work to be there right after school!  He can do a pretty good cartwheel and a great dive roll.  He's also really good on the beam.   

This next one is funny.  They play this game called "Master of the Beam".  Miss Karen gives them all sorts of things to do and whoever stays on the beam the longest wins.  They struck this pose when she told them to do the "teenager".  It was pretty funny.  And yes, that is Matt's friend Brandon that is almost a head taller than Matt and Evan and 2 heads taller than Caden.  Brandon is 5 believe it or not and is a sweet kid.  Matt talks about him all the time!!

Thank you to Matt's teachers for an amazing year.  I can't believe in one year that he learned to write all his letters, numbers and is already starting to read.  You ladies are amazing!!! 

My Little Sunshine

Marlie is almost 3 now and is everything I ever imagined when I thought of having a little girl.  We have been home together the last 2 days and had so much fun!  She laughs a lot, tells me she loves me at least 10 times a day and says the funniest things.  Here are just a few that I can remember:

• "Momma I'm not sick anymore.  God and Santa Claus made me feel better."
• "Momma you make my heart beat happy."
• To Daddy as she holds Matt's sword up to his face..."Daddy don't worry, I won't kill you, I will protect you!"
• On our daily drive to Matt's school...they are clearing some land to build a church and my little tree hugger says, "The trees are gone!  Someone is going to jail!"
• We are in the parking lot at church and we see Father Mike walking on the sidewalk..."There's God.  He's walking."  She was as serious as could be and Doug and I tried so hard not to laugh. 
• After the big Baylor basketball game she thinks everything yellow is Baylor-related.  She was wearing a yellow shirt the other day that says "Little Sister".  She reads the letters aloud, "S-I-S-T-E-R" and then says "Baylor bears fight!"  Hey I was just proud that she knew all the letters. 
• Marlie was excited to be home with me the last 2 days.  I told her we had lots of work to do and she had to help.  When I asked her to help with the laundry she said "Mom, how about you go get the laundry and I'll turn on cartoons."  Then today she walked into the laundry room as I was putting clothes into the dryer.  She said "Mom you did it! Here is your trophy!" 

The other thing she has been really excited about is her first pedi!!  As you know I am extremely frugal.  But I had a gift certificate to get a pedicure and really wanted to get it done.  I have been in there a handful of times and am horrified to see Moms that bring their children in there.  But what was I to do?  It was last minute and it was now or never.  So I grabbed my Mom and off the girls went.  As I was picking out my polish color Marlie pointed to the pink one and asked if she could please have it.  They said they'd be happy to polish her toenails.  She was nervous at first but when the girl asked her to sit she did and immediately handed over the pink polish.  She sat as still as could be and was so excited when they were done.  She has shown everyone we've seen since then.  In the bath tub last night I noticed she wasn't putting her feet in the water.  I told her she could but she insisted she would not because her polish would come off.  I convinced her it was okay and when she finally put them in the water she was amazed that the polish was still on.  Let me tell you...it's the best $3 I've ever spent!  You all know I hate feet but had to post this picture...

She is my little angel!  Thank you God!!

Another Season Ends

This week was bittersweet.  We celebrated the end to a couple of great things...Friday was my last day with my client that I've been working with for almost 2 years.  The plan was for me to help them for 3 months and I was so blessed to have been there much longer.  It was such an amazing experience and I met some of the most wonderful people.  I am going to miss you guys terribly but will keep in touch of course!  I hope our paths will cross again, but for the summer my focus is on my fast growing babies! 

We had our last Tball game on Saturday followed by an amazing end-of-season party at the Koenning's Kasa. The kids (and parents) had a blast. I wish you could have seen the look on each of the kid's faces as they walked up to receive their trophies. It's like they had won the World Series. Probably helped that "We are the Champions" was playing in the background! I'm starting to love these kids like they are my own which is way too scary. These kids are gorgeous, silly, sweet, feisty and goofy all at once. Here are a few of my favorite pics. You can see more from the season in the slideshow. Thank you to the best group of parents for all your help.

And here's Miss Marlie and Annie, no doubt checking out the boys!  Taking it all in and loving every moment.  If you look at most of the pictures of the boys you will find Marlie in the mix somewhere.  It's like where's waldo. 

I will blog tomorrow about my little sunshine.  I have too many funny things to tell you about her and I'm sleepy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to ALL the Mother's out there!!!  It's a hard job.  Honestly, the hardest I've ever had.  But it's the most rewarding too.  On Friday I went to a Mother's Day Tea at Matt's school.  It was awesome!!  The kids walked us into the hall that had tables all decorated with their art work.  They pulled out our chairs so we could sit and served us a nice breakfast with tea.  They sang songs for us that were SO sweet.  I'd write down some of the words if I could remember them, but I was too busy trying to hold back the floodgates.  Here's a pic of Matt and Hannah singing.  Hannah is adorable and ALWAYS finds Matt to say hello...at church, at tball, at school...and Matt is so shy that he will barely look at her!  And you all know Matt isn't shy.  So I think this might be his first crush!  Thank you to the PreK-4 teachers that planned this great event for us!! 

Then I picked Marlie up from school that day and every thing she could pick up she would give to me and say "Happy Mother's Day".  I got rocks, trash, paper...you name it!  We had a great day.  Doug made my Mom and I a wonderful dinner.  Thank you!

Our weekend was wild and crazy as always.  We had some friends over Friday night for desserts and sangria and had a wonderful time.  The kids spent the night at Nene's house and pulled out some veggies from their garden.  They were very proud of their broccoli!  They ended the night with a "sprinkler party" in their underwear and thought that was hilarious.  I thought so too since Nene said this was her version of a "bath". 

Matt and Dad went with Mr. Scott and his son Trevor to the Astros game on Saturday night.  The boys had a blast.  Apparently they weren't watching the Astros???  Thanks Scott for inviting my 2 crazy boys to the game!  The girls decided to go on a shopping trip so we could buy Nene something for Mother's Day.  Marlie got a tiara and Nene got a new top.  We had fun!!!