little swimmer

I took these pictures last week at swimming class, the second day I believe. Today was the 6th day and we have 2 more to go. It's amazing the difference. The night before, she was trying to talk her way out of swimming class and after the first class, she was saying how much she loved it. She is a social butterfly. Chatting it up with the other girls in class, the teachers, making everyone laugh and smile...I couldn't hear what she was saying, but her mouth was moving for 98% of the class:) Here she is waving to Kieran and I:I don't necessarily think she has learned just SO much, but she has gained an incredible amount of confidence in the water, which is really important! I do not want her to be afraid of the water, that just seems unsafe to me. Can't wait to get in the pool at the new house and work on some of the stuff she has learned.I used a sharpen for web action on these and they seem overly sharpened, hmmm...

Love that she is smiling during all of this!!! Such a change in attitude:) P.S. The teacher above is super awesome and nice...the one below is kinda mean? I don't think she has much experience with little kids...maybe? Waiting for her turn... Now when she is waiting, she is dipping her head under water, blowing bubbles, practicing kicking, and just totally getting into the spirit of swimming class:)

new

This trick of his isn't quite new, but I did finally get it on camera:)

He pulls his bib over his head and waits for you to say "Where's Kieran?" Then he pulls it down and gives you (or Aislynn in this picture) a grin:) Another thing he does is drop something on the floor and then leans over to look at it and says "uh uh." It is funny how he changes his voice like he is saying "uh oh." So cute:)

Miss Picky Eater here will refuse to try anything new. We were out to eat last weekend and Shaun had hush puppies....she finally tried them after we had her convinced they were not made of puppies. She said "I give up, I do like hush puppies." So then the next day she finally tried grapes (she used to love them...but apparently 4 year olds don't like grapes, as she informed us) and said the same thing, "I give up, I do like grapes." So I guess that is her new phrase:)This is a shot of our new house:) As most of you know, we are in the process of short-selling our house. We had a buyer and we finally got the word that the bank accepted their offer...so we are on our way to moving on. We will be renting this little cottage (as Aislynn calls it) that is walking distance to the beach and some restaurants we like. There are 2 pools in the neighborhood (one is just down that path between the white fence on the right-hand side of the picture). There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a big living room that can be closed off into 2 spaces, plus a front porch and a screened in back porch. It has lots of cute/charming touches and we should be moved in by July 1st. Can't wait...I am really excited to have a pool for the summer!

And some new scrappy stuff...

This was based on a sketch that was on Studio Calico's blog.

This was based on a sketch from the Scrapbook Etc. site.

Another Scrapbook Etc. sketch...I think this sketch was based on a layout by Lisa Truesdell.

And my favorite project was this little shadow box:

I cannot tell you how much I love this!! I am normally not a sepia toned girl, but I really love how this looks! All of these pictures just speak to my heart too:) If any of you girls that scrap make one, let me know and I will send you the dimensions of each box so that saves you a step:)

Still have some swimming class pictures to share sometime...

i am a mom

as evident by the contents of my purse. I decided to clean out my purse (if you could even call it that...more like a big canvas messenger bag that holds lots of stuff) and this is what was inside:No pen, but crayons. Grocery lists that are a few weeks old. No lipstick...but chapstick (hey, some of it is tinted!), little girl hair things, wipes, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, cheerios, baby butt cream, a baby spoon and empty snack container.

This totally made me smile. I am a Mom. To little kids. And I love it. I am incredibly happy to be at this place in my life:)

P.S. Got some scrappy stuff AND house stuff to share sometime soon...stay tuned.

oil, no...seaweed, yes

There have been a few reports of tar balls on the beaches here, so on Tuesday night, we went to take a walk to see what we could find. We saw a splattering of a few dime sized drops of maybe oil? but that was about it. We went to Eastern Lake, and they had blocked off the flow of the Gulf to the lake with sand. After dinner last night, we decided to take advantage of a clean beach and play. There was TONS of seaweed in the water, but that is normal for this time of year. Here are the pictures:K, A, and S She sells sand pies by the seashore...

He eats sandy shovels by the seashore...

needed more water for her pies...

she has an apprentice?

:)

look ma, no hands!! He has been doing this A LOT lately...guessing the first step is not too far behind?

I love early dinners and going to do stuff like this after dinner. The kids go to sleep and stay asleep so good after this+the time spent together is priceless:)

weekend challenge

I challenged some of my friends this weekend to a challenge, well, a challenge proposed by Ali Edwards (the mastermind behind the Week in the Life and December Daily projects I did). To take a photo and leave room for text in the "white space." I haven't added my text yet, but here is the picture I took...of some wrinkly bath feet:)And just one to share...a make shift umbrella with a spoon and a bowl:) Pretty much stayed indoors this weekend. It was rainy off and on for most of the weekend. We did go to the YMCA pool for an hour and a half yesterday. They have a nice splash area for kids and a zero entry pool which was great for K. A is all signed up for swimming classes starting next week. Instead of doing 8 weeks spread out like last year, I did 2 weeks straight (Monday-Thursday). Seems like A's cough/sore throat/cold are making their way to Shaun and I. Hopefully it skips over K, as the teethies he has coming in are making him cranky enough:( Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

12 months...

So I did promise that I would post 12 month pictures, and here they are:

I think this will be the last month I do the monthly recaps, and I will just post the new stuff Mr. K does as he does it:)

So, at 12 months, Kieran:

• says "Mama," "Dada," "Nana," "ba" for ball, "hi," "bye," "hey," and sometimes will say "baby," "ah duh" for "all done" or "nigh nigh" for "night night." Of course...he says them whenever HE wants to, ha ha!
• loves to play peek-a-boo by pulling his bib over his face or ducking his head behind something...then you ask "where's Kieran?" and you get to see a big smiley face:)
• is officially weaned, doesn't take his pacifier anymore, and has successfully transitioned to sippy cups full time-wahoo!!
• likes to eat big people food...he will be fed from a spoon, but really wants to eat what we are eating...well, except for peas? He really doesn't like those.
• is a climber and much more daring than A was. He will climb stairs (of course Shaun or I are hovering RIGHT behind him), try to climb out of the playpen, and the bookshelves in his room...oh boy.
• favorite activities include emptying out containers, chewing on things, and trying to do whatever A is doing:)
• has 10 teeth
• now goes to sleep on his own and sleeps through the night+still takes 2 naps
• not walking...yet
• loves the water-at the beach, pool, bath, he likes to dip his face in the water and will fuss when taken out:)
• is definitely moving into toddlerhood. He understands "no" and will sometimes cry or whine when you tell him "no" and he doesn't want to stop whatever he is doing.
• will finally sit through a whole board book:)
• waves and blows kisses (by patting his fist against his mouth!)
• dances by bouncing up and down
• He understands "beach" and he gets totally excited and claps when he sees the beach
• When you say "yay" or "good boy" he starts clapping:)

That is all I can think of right now:) It is so crazy to think of how fast this past year went by! Here is a collage (made on bighugelabs.com) of some of the monthly pictures I took the past year: Sweet, sweet boy:) And an attempt to get a better shot of him in his birthday shirt:) Grabbing his toes because I was singing "this little piggie." Guess that's something I could've added above;)

the doctor

Wednesday night, Aislynn crawled into bed with us and was up most of the night with a cough. I took her to the doctor yesterday and they tested for strep, which she thankfully did not have, but her throat was pretty inflamed. She is feeling a little better now...especially now that she is eating popsicles, jello, smoothies, and soup:)Since Kieran was supposed to have his one year well check today, I asked them if there was any way to squeeze him in while we were there yesterday, and they did. He weighed 19 lbs 1 oz and was 29 inches long. Still a little guy, but healthy and happy! He had to get 3 vaccinations yesterday and was fine until around midnight last night. He woke up with a fever of 102 degrees, poor sugar. This morning he had a slight fever, but I gave him some more Tylenol and he is napping now, so hopefully he starts feeling better soon. I hate when my sweetie pies are sick:(

I took these pictures yesterday after the doctor's appt, while we were playing in his room. He is starting to look more like a toddler to me:( He is ready to take off walking any day now, which I am SO not ready for!

I started singing "this little piggy" and he started to mess with his toes:)

:)

Finally did lesson 1 from my photo editing class and used some techniques I learned on this batch of photos.

I said "yaaaaaay" in hopes of getting him to look at me, but he just started clapping!

I will post his 12 month pictures sometime within the next couple days:)

eastern lake

One of the things that make these beaches very unique are the coastal lakes. They are a mix of fresh water and salt water because they are open to the Gulf sometimes. One of our favorites is Eastern Lake. Shaun's parents had a condo years back that had access to it, and Shaun and I (and friends) have had lots of fun times in this lake...fishing, canoeing, kayaking to the beach, etc. We were eating at my new favorite place, A Few Good Apples, and decided to stop by Eastern Lake after that. It is amazing to see how nature has changed it over time...it is open to the gulf and there are booms to try to prevent any oil from getting into these precious bodies of water. Here are a few pictures from Monday night: Where the lake opens to the gulf, there was a "creek" (what Aislynn called it!) and areas of flat sand with shallow puddles of water. This is the Gulf...amazing how not even a week ago it was crystal clear and bright turquoise! Now it is brown with seaweed, must be from the storms we had over the weekend.

We figured the flat areas of sand with little "splash pools" would be great for K+A to play in, so headed back after dinner last night to play:

I think this picture below may be my new favorite:

Making a water angel:

Mmmm...sand....

He adores his Daddy:)

You can see in the top right, the orange netting. That is holding more booms that I guess will be put out when the oil is headed this way (which seems like it is expected to start trickling into Pensacola by the end of the week).

She makes the tastiest sand pies around:)

Then Shaun took the kids into the water and we headed home after that.

Crazy to think we have been coming to this spot for a little more than 10 years.