Quick 5

Note to self: it takes until the end of May for the trees to have full leaves.  Remember that, lest you feel despair in mid-May when the trees still look naked.

1.  Presenting our Memorial Day project:

A raspberry bush and a tomato plant

Lee built that box for me for Mother's Day.  On Memorial Day we finally got the dirt and plants to go in it.  I love it.  And I'm looking forward to slowly building my gardening prowess over the years.  This year we'll stick with the tomato plant and the raspberry bush and see how that goes.


2.  We've also added this gem to our yard:

Our friends gave us that lovely playhouse because they moved to Tulsa and didn't want to take it.  We're so sad they moved to Tulsa, and would gladly return the playhouse if it meant they were staying in town.  But alas, we now have a play house in the backyard.  And the girls love it.  And regularly fight over whether the windows should be opened (according to Alaina) or closed (according to Joya.)

 3.  Memorial Day was actually a tough day around here.  The girls were all extremely fussy, although never at the same time.  As soon as one would calm down and cheer up, one of the others would take up the cause.  All three got in on the action.  See?

4.  The real excitement of the week came on Tuesday, when I decided to clean the bathrooms.  It was laundry day, so I started a load, washed all the dishes, then cleaned the upstairs bathrooms.  I moved to the downstairs bathroom only to find the shower full of water and water on the floor.  Of course I called Lee right away and we agreed to call a plumber.  I called him, and he said his guys would be there between 12 and 2.  So I stopped all water usage.  The plumber didn't show up until 6:30, though.  It, being the day after a holiday, was quite busy for them.  The worst part was Joya had thrown up twice the night before, so I had barf laundry waiting.  But it was just a blockage in the main line caused by the aspen roots that like to gum up the works.  It was easily (although not cheaply) taken care of.

Bria and Alaina, hanging out while the plumber did his thing

*Side note: the plumber turned out to be this kid named Kevin.  Early 20s, I'd say.  Blond with glasses, dirty from working all day.  On one of his trips through the house with his tools, Alaina turned to me and whispered, "That plumber is handsome.  Don't tell him I said that."  But she didn't say I couldn't tell you!  :)

5.  Joya brought me this toy the other day.  I asked what it was.  "My lady," she said.  So cute.

And now on to the weekend!  Happy birthday to my sweet pixie niece Naomi, who turns 3 today.  And tomorrow and Sunday we'll celebrate our oldest turning 5.  She's a real girl now.

Quick 5

Jumping right in...

1.  I suppose we've begun the Great Tribulation that is potty training.  I feel like every phase is the Worst Phase.  So we're in the First Worst Phase, which is the phase in which Joya is getting used to the potty by simply sitting on it.  I have a toilet topper AND a little potty, and she sits on both.  No action yet.  But the reason this is a Worst Phase is because she thinks it's so fun and wants to sit on it all the time.  That's good, you say?  I suppose, but it's also tedious and annoying.  Because she is NOT ready to not wear a diaper, which  means that every time she wants to sit on the potty, it involves a full costume change since I have to take off her diaper.  So often I tell her that she needs to wait.  She sits on the potty before room time and nap time, and sometimes before getting her jammies on each night.  Basically I try and coordinate it with a diaper change anyway.  I've also clued her into The Bribe, telling her that she'll get a jelly bean if she makes a deposit.  She has gotten Zero jelly beans at this point.

2.  Along the potty training lines, I've taken a blackmail picture of the girls.  I don't want it floating around on the interwebs, so I'm not posting or even emailing this one.  But it involves Joya on a little potty, Alaina on the big potty showing her how it's done, and pants around ankles.  They're both smiling.  But I don't think either of them will be smiling when they realize I have it in about 10 years.

3.  I have literally saved our family almost $1,000 this year, and I'm so proud of it.  Normally "saving money" really doesn't mean anything to me; it just means spending less, and we're always looking for a way to spend less.  So I'm not really "saving" anything, because I wasn't going to pay full price anyway.  But in April I switched our home and auto insurance and literally saved big bucks, because that WAS money we had budgeted in to spend.  And this week I just switched our trash company, and we're going to be paying half of what we were with the other company.  It makes me a little mad, knowing I could have gotten this money sooner if only I had called sooner.  But the point is we will not be spending that money and can put it toward other things.  Like a new monitor for our computer since our current one has decided to kick the bucket.

4.  I'm terrible when it comes to baby things like tummy time.  There just never seems to be a good time for it, since I don't want to do it right after she eats, because who wants to lay on their stomach after they eat?  And then she starts to get tired, so how mean is it to make someone exercise right when they're at the bottom of their energy anyway?  Well, I managed a bit of tummy time this week.  She hated it.

5.  And Alaina asked me to take this picture:

 

If only they ALWAYS played this nice

Happy long weekend!

Quick 5

It's beginning to feel a lot like summer...everywhere you go...

1.  Last Sunday we dedicated Bria at church.  The whole dedication ceremony is a bit of a blur for me, because Bria was trying to fall asleep, and we were having to corral Joya.  But I know the gist.  And we still meant it.  I love recognizing that she is not ours, and publicly declaring that we will raise her to know God. 

2.  In addition to the dedication, I had a lovely Mother's Day.  Lee finished building my garden box (which was the May project I had in mind!) and he also took our eye-sore of a broken screen door off the front door.  That thing served NO purpose, since the screen or whatever was missing from the bottom half, allowing people like my brother to climb through it if they chose.  Anyway, it was a good Mother's Day.

3.  This is going to be the Summer of the Grill at the Kimble house.  We've never really done much with it, since at our old place it was awkward to go down and grill, and last summer I was newly pregnant and barfing every night.  But this summer is going to be different.  Lee has already become a master at burgers and dogs, and we've had a couple of amazing successes with pork chops and country-style ribs.  I love food on the grill.

Alaina in Daddy's grill apron

4.  There is nothing cuter than seeing little girls picking fist-fulls of flowers.  Even if those flowers are just a few of the million of dandelions in our backyard.

5.  Yesterday Lee took the day off, and we went as a family to have a tour of Alaina's school.  It was great to see where she would be and to meet a few of her teachers.  Alaina is going to have NO problem making friends, seeing as how she was ready and willing to chat with anyone who would chat with her, including a couple of current kindergartners.  Her school has the small-school atmosphere that K-12s generally have, and I love that.  Probably because that was how I ended my school career.  So far I can tell it's going to be a great fit.

That's all she wrote!

Quick 5

I have a new archenemy: dandelions.  They're winning.

1.  Remember this?

It now looks like this!

Lee did a great job on it.  And the girls love it.  And they fight over the blue swing, even though days before when there was only a yellow swing, they were fighting over the yellow swing.  We thought that having a second swing would solve problems.  Nope, just created the problem of fighting over the "new" one.


2.  As I was hoping would happen, our resident Bag Lady made her appearance.

It's much funnier when her cart is full of random things, but we'll the baby is cool too.


3.  Lee introduced the girls to Ants on a Board.  They now ask for it every day at the end of breakfast and for snack.  Why didn't I think of it sooner?

4.  This week we all went in for our six-month dentist visit.  It was Joya's first time, and she rocked it like a champ.  It took a little coaxing to get her to lay back, but she let my friend Jill and Dr. Nielsen do everything they needed to in her mouth.  And they both passed with flying colors.

Alaina's turn

Joya watched and took notes

Joya's turn

Alaina worked the suction.  Joya loved it.

Letting Dr. Nielsen take a look

 5.  And finally, you may get tired of these comparisons, but I don't.  And it's my blog.  So here you go:

Alaina - 2 months

Joya - 2 months

Bria - 2 months

6. BONUS!!  Alaina drew this picture.  She did a great job with Arthur.  Then I heard her ask how to spell "Fail."  Apparently she didn't do so well with DW the first time, and all on her own labeled it a Fail.  I thought it was hilarious

Happy Mother's Day, all you mommies!  I hope you get to do something fun in the middle of all your mommy tasks.  :)

Quick 5

It's been a week of highs and lows, and I do mean the temperature.

1.  I know I'm a grown up and I should have this conquered by now, but I am about out of patience by 6:00 every night.  Trying to get the girls to clean up the massive mess that has accumulated over the day doesn't help either.  So I came up with this little idea to help us help them clean up:

I've seen things like this for actual chores, and I've always planned on making one when the girls get old enough to truly help clean around the house.  I thought I could bust it out each Saturday and have a clean house by the end of the day.  But the girls are too little for the big chores, so I thought this might help with end of the day clean up.  I know it's overwhelming to them to just say "clean up!" and it's just as overwhelming to me to micromanage the clean up.  But this has turned it out to be a game.  The girls love it.  Even Joya, although to my dismay she always picks the sticks with the biggest jobs, like cleaning up all the Little People animals (we have about a million.)  The game may get old someday, but so far it has eliminated 90% of the crying and yelling that goes on during clean up.

2.  In another Mommy Fail moment, Alaina always asks to hold Bria, and I rarely let her.  She seems to ask right when Bria is getting fussy and ready for her next nap, so it just never seems to be a good time.  I should be more proactive and offer when Bria isn't fussy, but I'm not that put together.  But finally she asked at a good time this week, so I snapped some pics. 

She wanted a picture making a "silly face"

3.  And this is how Joya rolls:

I only wish I had a picture of her dragging around our toy shopping cart filled with random things.  She looks like an actual bag lady then.

4.  Wednesday was AWANA Award Night, and Alaina got the award for finishing her second Cubbie book.  My little Cubbie will be in Sparks next year.  She's thrilled.  I'm a little nervous, because I think Sparks might be way more involved than Cubbies, but that's life, right?  Anyway, they called her name and she went on stage and they gave her a ribbon.  When she saw that ribbon she got the same look on her face that I would probably have if someone handed me $5,000.  Uber-cute.

5.  In other accomplishment news, I can't believe I keep forgetting to mention this.  I think it's because it's almost no big deal, but on the other hand, it's a HUGE deal.  Alaina now wears big-girl undies to bed, and has for the entire month of April.  She's been in pull-ups this whole time, for good reason.  She'd have a few dry days here and there, or a few dry days in a row, but then wet them again.  The pediatrician and I agreed that it's just because she's such a deep sleeper and that she would grow out of it.  I admit I had days and weeks wondering if she truly would grow out of it, but I chose the Just Relax method of night-time potty training.  I know there are parents who trained their kids by waking them around 10:00 at night or whatever, but that didn't seem like training the kid to me, unless you WANT the kid waking up every night at 10:00.  Anyway, at the end of March I realized she had been dry for a whole week, and we were at the point where we either needed to buy more pull-ups or bite the bullet.  And she's done great ever since.  We only had two accidents in the whole month, which I think is fantastic.  She really is growing up and ready for kindergarten. 

*Bonus note: I employed the double sheet method on her bed, which was a God-send for those middle of the night accidents.  Basically you put this on the mattress: a waterproof mattress cover, a fitted sheet, another waterproof mattress cover, and another fitted sheet.  That way I could just strip the top, wet stuff off the bed and she was ready to jump back in bed, without having to completely redo the bed in the middle of the night.  We'll probably need to go two or three months without accidents before I take that off. 

Have a great weekend, folks!