Big noggins are a sign of intelligence right?

Last week I was told that this little girl has a big noggin. Her head circumference is 18 1/4 which doesn't seem terrible to me for a nine month old, but because it's in the 97th percentille the pediatrican seems to be more worried about it then she needs to be. I have a big head, Kelsie has a big head, and so far we have turned out fine. I think little Audrey is sweet, big head and all.

simplicity

I've been thinking lately about simplicity, it's true that life really doesn't need to be so complicated but yet we tend to make it that way. We think our children need to be involved in everything under the sun but what we really need are more simple, quiet moments. Speaking of simplicity, I just have to tell you this story.

So Alyssa has been in school now for almost three weeks. Instead of complaining about how early she wakes up, she's always happy in the mornings and ready to start a new day. She takes a home lunch every day which consists of a peanut butter sandwich, a capri sun, some pretzels, sometimes yogurt, and then some other little snack. I have tried to make her different kinds of sandwiches but she insists on peanut butter. The other day, Alyssa is talking out loud to Kelsie and Kevin about how a smashed peanut butter sandwich tastes the same as a non-smashed sandwich. I ask her if her sandwich from lunch was smashed, and she then tells me that her sandwich has been smashed every day since school started. The crazy girl never even bothered to tell me that her sandwich was getting smashed every day. Apparently the soft lunchbox that we bought her this year wasn't working as well as the hard back lunch box that we used last year. Problem solved and I starting making her lunch in her old lunch box, no more squished sandwiches. What I love so much about Alyssa is her sweet personality. She sees the good in every situation and rarely complains. A simple peanut butter sandwhich and she is happy as a clam. I can't put cute love notes in her lunch box anymore, apparently that's not cool anymore but she does tell me outloud that she loves me, and that's all that matters.

On your mark, get set, GO!!!

Out of our four girls, I think Leah is going to be the only one that starts walking before the age of 15 months. She can pull herself up to things, she can crawl which is something that also seems to take our kids forever to learn, and she will walk when you hold onto her hands. She just wants to GO! We made this video of her crawling. Watch out world, here she comes.

Last weekend we attended a fundraiser dinner which was held at the preschool that Kelsie will be attending in the fall. If you remember in one of my previous posts, I mentioned how expensive preschool is here. It was way beyond our budget. Well, Kelsie was able to get a full scholarship and now will be able to attend preschool. She is so ecstatic, and can't wait to go.

Anyway, this fundraiser dinner that we attended was so much fun. The food was great, and the entertainment was a lot of fun also. Alyssa and Kelsie learned how to square dance, and just had the best time. I have always wanted to learn how to square dance, wouldn't that be fun? Unfortunately, I would have to do it alone because my husband isn't at all interested. What fun is he?

At this party they also had a cakewalk, and Alyssa won a cake. (I swear, that girl has the best luck, and seems to be always winning something.)

Anyway, here are some cute pictures from the party.

1 week of school down, many more to go!

We survived the first week of school, so far there haven't been any mishaps. (unless of course you count that Alyssa's school is completely without air conditioning.) Apparently, they are working on getting it fixed. It's been pretty hot here so hopefully they will fix it soon.

Alyssa seems to be adjusting to life in second grade, she even gets her own locker this year just like she had in kindergarten. She has made some new friends, and is enjoying her teacher along with the new class pet, Max the guinea pig.

I really have missed having Alyssa home, and Kelsie misses her too. All day long Kelsie asks the same question, "When is Lyss coming home?" We hope that all continues to go well in the second grade.

Oh how I hate cars

We have owned several different cars throughout our ten years of marriage and most of them were anything but nice. We had the cars without the air conditioning that we drove in the hot summer months, we had the nice car that would die every time you stopped, we had the car that would overheat if you drove it too much, we had the car without a heater that we drove during the cold winter months, and let's not forget the Buick that we drove that was given the nickname POS. Trust me, it lived up to it's name.

It's true, I am grateful that my cars have usually been able to get me from point A-point b in a normal amount of time, but today ladies and gentleman my car can get me NOWHERE! I guess you really do get what you pay for as I am slowly learning. At the time we bought this van otherwise referred to as our behemoth, I thought that it would be great, after all it was such a great price, it seemed like it was in decent condition, and most importantly, we could fit our entire brood in the thing.

After purchasing the 2001 piece of hud for $4500 we slowly started having problems with it. The check engine light started coming on, and we could not get the thing to pass emissions to save our lives, even after having it cleared by a mechanic who deemed that there was nothing wrong with it. Let's just say that I have been spending a lot of time learning about cars, and one of the things that I did learn was that since this is a Toyota vehicle, you have to get the codes checked at an actual Toyota dealership. After the Toyota dealership diagnosed the problem, I was on my way to the mechanic who I normally use. He replaced several of the belts, the fuel canister had issues, and then replaced the water pump. Mind you that this work was just done less than a month ago. This cost us close to $800.00.

Of course this morning we have a million things to do. We need to drop off Alyssa's friend after her sleepover last night, take Alyssa to meet her friend Zach who she will be spending the day with, and last but not least, we have a party for Vanderbilt that we need to be at. The van is having major issues, and we can't get it to idle very well, and the thing just keeps dying. Kevin's frustrated at this point, I am frustrated at this point, now what? We load the older kids in Kevin's car, take the babies out of the van, and he heads off to the party alone.

Kevin just called me and said that they are now heading home from the party after only being there for 10 minutes, good thing they drove all of the way to Nashville for NOTHING! Apparently Kelsie threw a tantrum and doesn't want to be at the party anymore. The party was held at an inflatable bounce play place. Sometimes, I seriously wonder why as parents that we even try to have a good time with our kids. That could be it's own subject so I won't go there right now.

I just want to get this stupid van fixed, and not worry about car problems anymore! Hopefully the rest of the day will go better than it has been going.

it could be worse...

I know what you will be thinking after you all see these pictures, you will be saying to yourself, "wait, aren't those pictures of your house Trisha?" Sorry to let you down Rob, these actually aren't pictures of my house. These pictures were taken in an actual apartment in Houston during the evacuation before the hurricane hit. Yes, you heard right, before the hurricane hit. Talk about disgusting. How do you even take a shower in a bathroom that looks like that? Who knows what kind of toxic mold is growng all over that couch. YUCK! My house may not be spic-n-span all of the time but I know that I can be grateful that it doesn't ever look like this.

and the Mother of the year award goes to.....

-The mother of nine month old twins who decided to put them on her bed after she knows how fast they get around, and could fall off. Which by the way did happen to one of them who ended up falling onto her head and has a nice goose egg to prove it.

-This same mother went to the grocery store and forgot to strap one of her babies into her stroller, and the other twin sister managed to fall right onto the floor at the grocery store.

-Yeah, let's not forget that this lady who claims to be a good Mom also forgot that she had a follow-up appoinment to check her four year daughter's spleen who has also been sick with mono. That's not important or anything!

..I guess we can just assume that this Mother's brain isn't functioning all that well since school started yesterday and she now wakes up at the crack of dawn. I know that you are all jealous that you can't be waking up at 5:45 a.m to get your child ready for school.

Taylor Swift

It's the Taylor Swift concert in our house between Alyssa and Kelsie both seeing the song, "love story" non-stop. The song is played over, and over, and over again. I must admit that I do like Kelsie's version of the song.

Rodeo take me somewhere we can be alone.

I'll be the prince and you'll be the princess.

It's a love story, so baby just say YES

Good news on the home front

First thing this morning I recieved a call from our very cute and pregnant pediatrician. She informed me that Kelsie's lab work looks okay. It turns out that she not only has mono but also has strep. Her iron levels are a little low but that is probably due to her being sick at the moment. Kelsie has been on her antibiotics now for three days and seems to be feeling a lot better. She is almost back to her spunky and crazy self which is a plus. Next week we will be following up with the pediatrician just to check her spleen again. Other than that, there are no major worries.

Kelsie is so excited for preschool, and she even recieved a full scholarship. She and Alyssa are also going to start ballet next month and they are so excited. Today they had to try on their new leotards, tights, and ballet shoes. After they got dressed, they handed me an invitation to their dance perfomance. The invitation was hand written by Alyssa and said the following:

dear mom and dad go to the family room and bring the babies

when August 1st
time 12:58 (sharp)
no rsvp

please make it

These little girls are growing up way too fast. These really are the good times!