"My room pink!"

I hear this almost every day at least once. She runs in the room and exclaims (lest we may have forgotten) "pink! my room pink!" It's the only color she can identify and boy can she pick it out of a crowd.


The above picture is looking out into the hall, the boys room is directly across and the bathroom is off to the right. To the left is the entry way/front door. We really like the lay out of this house, it uses it's 1459 square feet really well. You can see a really good stain in the above picture, but the one below doesn't really do the carpet nastiness justice. Also, in the hall closet directly outside Hannah's room a little mouse had settled in for the winter...



The Transformation! I spent many hours deciding on that pink and the exact cream color to mesh well with it. Literally. And it turned out perfect! I want to get a cherry branch w/ butterflies wall decal at some point as well. And this room I began painting first, and technically too early. But that is a long agonizing story which led eventually to this.






I wanted hot pink, but had to keep the wall around the crib neutral for
Snuggle Bumper pictures, so this was a perfect solution (actually inspired by one of my customer's rooms). The temple picture is a central piece we refer to often. Also, the cradle in the corner is the one Hannah (and my grandmother) slept in. And of course that perfect kitchen I searched the world over for. And she still loves it and plays with it nearly every day.

James New School

James started at the local public school here by our new house on January 3 after taking the month of December off to stay home and play/be a kid/celebrate Christmas/see family/hang out with me/laugh/run. He was there a whole 3 days when I found my dream school. I have been looking for a half day Kindergarten program for about 3 years now (made all the harder by not knowing where I would live when James started school). And we finally found one! I overheard a friend talking to another friend at the park about a Star Charter.

Star Charter is K-12 and you can choose either a morning session 8-12 or the afternoon 12-4. It goes all the way through high school like that. We'll most likely only be around until James finishes 4th grade, Matthias 2nd, and Hannah Kindergarten. We love his teacher, Mrs. H and he likes the kids in his class (only 14 of them). He doesn't wake up crying because he has to go to school, but gets ready and runs out the door with Taylor who drops James off at school on the way to the bus stop.

Mrs. H brings her dog to school (because at charter schools you can do that). The dog is a little white poodle named Daisy and James says she just sits and doesn't make much noise. There is only one class per grade for each session. The school is rated really high on test scores so the kids are obviously learning something. James is doing well and loving it. We love having him home by lunch time and for the rest of the day. We like to stick together.

I'm so happy we found Star because I really tried to keep James home for learning, but just felt like it wasn't what was right/best for him. We did a couple stints of "homeschooling" meaning James was a little kid who is curious and learned on his own. I would never home school to recreate the setting/learning style of public school in my own home. Rather to let my kids learn what they want at their pace by 'playing' and interacting with the world. And I can direct and facilitate that.

Star is a perfect balance of both. Plenty of time to play at home. With some time to interact with peers outside the family and learn in a traditional learning style.

Our House, In The Middle Of Our Street

Here are some house pictures...before and after. It's the main room which was the least nasty to start with as it has wood laminate and so the floor could only be so gross (as compared to carpet). This is the only room the kids were allowed to enter for the first 2-3 weeks before we moved in, the others were that nasty.

In this room we just scrubbed the windows/blinds, mopped 3-4 times and painted the walls (which was done by my lovely MIL and FIL...thank you!). The other rooms had greater transformations with better documentation of the before and during.




View from front door/entry way

The door in the next two pictures in the back door

Boys

Matthias: When I am eight I'm going to chop my head off.
James: That will look so stupid.


Me: Where is somewhere cool you guys want to go? (thinking family vacation wise)
James: Italy.
Matthias: Antarctica!
James: I'm going to start my adventures when I am forty.
Matthias: I am going when I am sixty.
James: I'm going to climb a mountain and
Matthias: I am going to Antarctica.
Me: You guys don't have to wait until you are forty. You can start earlier. What happens when you get older?
James: You get weak. I'm going when I'm thirty. To forty. About ten years.

Hannah Babble

While I was changing her diaper: "anyways I need to go potty."


Hannah: Light! What is that light doing?
Me: Uh, shining on the table?
Hannah: Oh. It shining on the table!


While driving Taylor to the bus stop one morning, "Moon! There is the moon. It is not sleeping."



In other news I have been letting Hannah wear underwear for a couple hours on some mornings when we're just hanging around the house. And if she goes potty in the toilet she gets a chocolate chip.

So on Monday she was actually wearing a diaper, but would ask me to take her to the bathroom occasionally. She stayed dry the entire day except during her nap. Even when we picked James up from school she said she had to go potty and I told her she had to go in her diaper, but she didn't want to so I told her she could hold it until we got home...which is a ten minute drive. She was still dry when we arrived!

Yesterday she did really well, but on Wednesday we are out of the house for 4-5 hours in the morning and had to be at the church for several hours last night. Today she has been dry all day including her nap. I really hope this lasts...forever. Maybe after a week or so I will let her try out some underwear full time. We can only hope I will be so lucky.

James Speak

Matthias: Do adults like Legos?
James: Some. Aunt Teresa loves them about one inch more than me. But I'm going to take over that inch and love them two inches more than her.


Later...(rating people on the Lego building skills scale)
James: You're a 40 (to Matthias), I'm an 89 and Uncle Scott's 90. Dad's 90, no he's 40 down with you, he just builds random stuff.




James brought home his first test yesterday; it was a math test. He got a 10 out of 12, which was a 90...go figure that out. Several of the questions were write in the answer ones. Then there were some multiple choice, which was where the 2 James missed were and to which he said to me, "Then it got hard, you had to fill in all these bubbles." Welcome to the next 16+ years of your life kid.

Hannah Babble

While we were stringing together a bead necklace (Hannah was surprisingly good at and strung all but 3 of the beads with no help) she randomly looked up and said, "Gamma going to my birthday cake." (my mom is coming for Hannah's bday!!)



Tonight Hannah and I went jean shopping (for me) at Rue 21 they have themed dressing rooms and the guy started unlocking the Rock Star room and I said, "Um can we have the Princess room?" Guy: "are you serious?" Me, "uh, yeah." So when I was putting Hannah to bed tonight...

Me: Thanks for going shopping with me, it was fun.
Hannah: We go in Princess room. The little daddy open it for us.



Hannah is starting to tell on the boys, "Matthias pushed me" to which I think, go push him back, that's what James does. I'm not sure how to handle telling...



Hannah is really into saying new, big words. Lately they are 'probably' 'because' and 'definitely'

"Probably that is mine." (to Taylor's headlamp)
"Because I want to brush my teeth"
"I definitely done" (after snack time)
"Because that my necklace"
"I probably have some"

It's really hilarious. Because she probably is the cutest thing ever, no definitely.