Big Girl Bed!

We FINALLY moved Reese to her big girl bed this week.  I know, I know.  She's almost 4.  But she's really always been fine in her crib, even after she was potty trained.  I can't believe that I broke down and ordered her this bed. Her crib converts to a toddler bed, but I'm planning on using that for the baby, so we needed a solution.  This seemed like an okay one, and at least one that she really, really likes!

She has done a great job staying in her bed (which honestly, was my biggest fear).  I already have one who gets out of bed to come say good night one last time, or he comes to tell me something funny, or worse, he comes to sleep in my bed!  Wyatt was already trying to create a "plan" with her for them both to get up and sneak to my bed.  We have had many conversations about how it's not okay, and how he just won't fit in my bed now that I'm so big (and I need 55 pillows to sleep).  But then last night he got up and told Brian to come to the couch with him to sleep!  Ha! 

Reese has been a dream though. Hopefully she keeps this up!  She hasn't been napping, but she wasn't doing much of that lately anyway.  At least she's getting a good night's sleep!

Katie Graduates!

My little sister graduated from high school last weekend!  It's crazy that her graduation was 12 years to the day after mine.  As with most graduations that involve 450+ people, her ceremony was loooooong, but there were 2 good speeches, and 1 not-so-good one (some smart kids are smart and witty.  And some are just...smart :))! 

The kids weren't allowed to take their cell phones into the ceremony, so meeting up with Katie after the ceremony was a bit of a challenge, but we found her!

Dad, Mom, and Katie!

Matt, Me, and the graduate!

Katie and Aunt Michele!

With her diploma (and her shot record?  They put a copy of their shot record in every one's diploma?) Which is really only funny because her actual doctor's office LOST her shot record when the Pediatrician's office sent it over - I'm sure her physical for college was fun!

My parents with Katie and Stevie!

Stevie and Katie!

After the graduation ceremony we had lunch at the Oceanfront.  Sooooo good!  I think I ate every single bite of my crab cake sandwich, fries, and key lime pie! I was hungry!

I can't believe that she is going to be leaving for college in (less than) two months, and she'll turn 18 two months from today!  Craziness! Fortunately she got an iPhone 4 for graduation, so once I qualify for my upgrade in October we'll be able to Facetime.   The kids tell me all the time that they don't want her to leave and go away!  Ha!  Congratulations Katie!

Baby Minnie: 28 Weeks!

I can not believe that I am 28 weeks pregnant with our baby girl!  It feels good in an "it's almost over" kind of way to be this far along.  In the actual physical sense?  It doesn't feel so good!  Ha!

• How far along: 28 weeks!
• Size of baby: She's about 16 inches long and 2.5 pounds. And she's just going to get bigger!
• Total weight gain/loss: I'm still up one pound!  I swear it isn't from lack of trying!  I eat and eat and eat and eat and...nothing!  My glucose results all came back normal, so I'm in the clear for gestational diabetes.  I did find out at my appointment last week that I need another ultrasound at 32 weeks.  One doctor wants to do it because he wants my placental scarring checked before I go in for my Cesarean, and the midwife wants a fetal weight check because I haven't gained any weight.
• Cravings: Ice cream sandwiches, plums, strawberries, cereal, icee pops, and Port wine cheese on Triscuits.
• Maternity clothes: Jeans, t-shirts, dresses.  I love my pregnancy shirts.  I tend not to fit back into my other clothes when I'm breastfeeding!
• Gender: She's still a girl!
• Movement: She is constantly on the move.  Right now I'm getting big nudges all over.  She's really, really low too, which means more trips to the bathroom for me!
• What I miss: Right now?  Being pregnant and working! Ha!  This is my first "stay at home" pregnancy, and I am tired all the time.  When I worked I woke up ridiculously early, went to work for 8 hours, and came home.  My job was sitting.  Like, all day I sat down at a desk.  When I wanted to get UP from the desk, I went to fill up my water bottle.  Then I got up to pee.  And the cycle continued for 8 hours.  Staying at home is different.  I'm shuttling kids to swimming, and chasing them around the house, and cleaning up after them.  And forgetting to drink water.  It's honestly incredibly exhausting!
• Sleep: It's difficult to get comfortable, but I'm not up too much.
• Symptoms: The carpal tunnel. Hip pain.  I'm tired.  Exhausted.  Like, don't want to get off the couch to do anything.  I am starting to feel out of breath pretty easily. 
• Best Moment this week: Her kicking sprees at night are pretty awesome!
• What I am looking forward to: Settling on a name for our little bean soon!  Our next appointment is in 2 weeks and it's with my very favorite doctor (she has delivered our three oldest), and I'm hoping that our talk leads to a Delivery Date for this one!
• Goals for this week:  Keep chugging along on cleaning and organizing our room to get it set up for our new room mate.  I'd also like to start pulling her clothes out of the attic so I can make sure I have everything! I'm honestly waiting for the whole nesting thing to kick in because my energy level is not meeting my expectations for baby preparation!  Brian and I also need to make a list of baby items that we need so that we can get them as we get coupons.  I can't believe how close we're getting to her joining us!

For fun: Pregnant with Hudson at 27 weeks!

Father's Day

We had a very low key Father's Day.  And when I say we, I mean me and the kids.  Brian was at work until 4 (and he had to be there super early), so the kids didn't even see him until he got home.  Wyatt threw a fit last week when I told him that Brian had to work on Father's Day, so I didn't even mention it to them until he was almost home!

Once he got home they gathered up their cards (the big kids each worked on one at school, and we did a little Father's Day questionnaire that I found on Pinterest) and sat down to give them to their Daddy!

Reese was not happy that Wyatt got to go first.

But everything was better once they heard each other's responses to the card!  Brian asked if I wanted him to change out of his shirt before we took pictures. This is one of his very favorite (VERY FREE) white shirts to wear under his polo at work!

Love this smile!

She was very proud that she wrote "Dad" all by herself on the card without looking at anything!

And never satisfied with being left out, Wyatt jumped in the picture, too!

After we opened cards, the kids each gave Brian a present.  We got him the first 3 Spiderman movies on Blu-Ray (I still firmly believe that Spiderman 2 is one of the greatest movies ever), and each one of the kids gave him one.  He got a grill set from me.  I really wanted to get him an iPad, but we have too many other things we want to "invest" in right now - a swingset for the backyard, and another trip to Disney World  - so we decided together not to get it (there was no way I was spending that much money without asking him!  Ha!).

We ordered pizzas and went over to Brian's parents house for dinner and to let the kids play.  They had fun, but Hudson is itching to play baseball with his Daddy and Baba and Wyatt, and I know it bothers him that he isn't big enough yet!

Here is the link to the printable that we did on Father's Day!  It was super cute to sit down with the kids and talk about their Daddy.  Basically, all of Reese's answers involved hugs and kisses, and Wyatt's centered around how happy he is that his Daddy coached his baseball team!

Source: homemadecosmetics.blogspot.ca via Brittney on Pinterest

Calder Cup Champions!

The Norfolk Admirals won the 2012 Calder Cup last weekend!  Brian has had season tickets all year (as well as play off tickets and he's reserved his seats for next year), so he wanted to go to the parade in Downtown Norfolk to celebrate.  Wyatt and Reese both LOVE hockey, and around here we very rarely have the opportunity to go celebrate local sports teams winning anything!  We've got Triple A baseball and the AHL and that's about it.  So we decided to make it a family trip!

While we waited for the parade to start the new light rail, The Tide, passed by!

The team coming through.

Another group of players.  Wyatt's favorite is in the light blue shirt.  Brian says that his job is to be the Enforcer, which I think means that he's just there to start fights.  Of course he would be Wyatt's favorite!

The Calder Cup!

While we waited for the team to come up to the "celebration" we waited in some nearby shade!

Both kids in their Admirals shirts!

This was her favorite spot because she could see everything!

Wyatt's favorite player being interviewed by a local sports anchor!  One of the day's "events" was that a bunch of the guys on the team shaved their beards to support the St. Baldrick's Foundation to help kids with cancer.

The team thanking the fans for coming our an supporting them!  The next day it was announced that the franchise that the Admirals were under (Tampa Bay Lightning) decided to move their AHL affiliate to Syracuse.  Which means that all of these guys will be moving to Syracuse and we will be getting a team of AHL players for another team next year (it's rumored to be the Ducks?). So we'll have a totally different team next year.  Brian is not happy!

Heading back to the car.  Wyatt looks so tall to me!  I rarely pay attention to how tall he is, but standing next to Brian (who is over 6 feet tall) he looked huge!  So we measured him next to me that other day, and the kid comes up to my shoulder blades!  The curse of being short - your children will outgrow you before they're 7!

After the game Brian and I decided to go to Doumar's for dinner!  Here is the world's first ice cream cone machine, as well as the sign that says that "Guy Ate Here!"  He did an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that featured Doumar's a few years ago!

We enjoyed our burgers, fries, limeades and sundaes from the comfort of our (loud) car!

I know that Brian is already missing some hockey, but he's finally got more time to invest in baseball and the Yankees! Ha!  Only 5 more months until hockey season anyway!

Wyatt's Last Day of School!

Wyatt had his very last day of preschool yesterday!  I can not believe how much he has grown since September.  But then again, when I look at him last year on his very first day of school ever, I still get a little teary eyed!

He had a fantastic year at school, and it is definitely all thanks to this lady!  Wyatt just loved his teacher Ms. Janette, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual!  When I think back to the first week of school when she called to tell me that he was chasing girls around the playground, I just giggle!  I was so worried about that, and it was really just a phase (okay, maybe it did happen some more throughout the year :))!

On Monday we went to school for his year end party.  There were LOTS of parents there, and we had a lot of fun watching the kids play!

Here's Wyatt with his buddy Kyle!  And his little brother coloring in the background!  Ha!

Wyatt with Ms. Janette and Isabella!  She may be the one that Wyatt chased the most :).  Poor thing broke her leg last week, but came to school to spend some time with her friends!

This is what Wyatt ended up doing instead of chasing girls most of the year! Playing soccer with the other boys - we may have gone by the school a time or two to "stalk" him on the playground!

We are so, so proud of this little guy!  He had such a great year at school.  He finished his phonics book in March and moved on to his first reader!  He ended the year with a complete Math Book (started with tracing numbers and worked up to addition), counting well past 100, working on Diaphragms in his second Phonics book, and reading his fifth reader!  He was right at the point where he was about to start working on sounding words out in addition to sight words, and that is where he'll pick up next year (although we plan to do a lot of work on that this summer)!

Even though he's officially a Kindergartener now, he will be staying at his school next year!  We love our school district, but we want him to keep his momentum going.  The beginning of the school year is filled with assessments, and usually he wouldn't even read until mid year, and we don't want him to get lost in the shuffle!  His teacher next year will already know where he is with reading, and she will get all of his work, so he gets to pick up right where he left off.  Not to mention, it's a lot easier for me to have the big kids in school at the same time (he would be afternoon K) and to be able to pick them up at the same time!

I can't believe how big this little guy is, and I love watching him learn and grow!

Reese's Last Day of School!

I can't believe that it has been 9 months since Reesie's first day of school!  It seems like it was just yesterday that we were getting her ready to go!  She has had such a wonderful year, and she has just learned so much.  Her units this year varied from Circles and Shapes to Nutrition to Dr. Seuss, and the zoo and farm and more!  She also covered nursery rhymes and tales, the holidays, and spring!  I love that their school supplements the "basics" with other units!

She started off the year reviewing shapes and quickly went on to patterns, sequencing, letter recognition and sounds, and counting and recognizing numbers!  Of course some of the highlights of her year were her Halloween Party, her Christmas Program, and her Spring Program! 

But the biggest highlight of all was her getting this book!  She was so excited to get her Phonics Book, and unlike her big brother, she loved coming home and telling me what she did every day in her book!

We were worried last night that she was going to miss her last day because she spiked a fever while we were out at dinner.  I took her temperature and gave her some Tylenol and then she threw up!  I think she just gagged and it caused her to spit up.  She woke up this morning feeling fine and ready to party!

I can't believe how big she is now!  She has grown so much and her hair has gotten so long since September!

She had a great day!  I actually went in for a little bit of her "party" and got to sit with her!  She was so cute talking to her friends.  She wanted to leave with me, but Ms. Megan was able to convince her to stay and play Bingo :).  She gave Ms. Jennifer and Ms. Megan the biggest hugs goodbye when it was time to leave!

I love that both of her teachers described her as sweet and funny with "such a personality!"  That's how I would describe her too!  She loved both of them so much, and I told Ms. Megan that Reese loves to come home and tell me all the funny things Ms. Megan says!  Her latest is "great balls of fire!"  I know that she is going to miss them, but she will love seeing them next year when she goes back!