Grammy Sandwich

The girls and I were quite spoiled this summer since Grammy was officially retired.  She met us during the month of July and took the girls to the Library each Tuesday.  Sometimes we just couldn't resist a good Grammy sandwich to show our appreciation!

 

Ava's Four Year Check Up

We were a little delayed in getting Ava's Four Year Check Up.  We had to reschedule twice due to illness but we finally made it in at the end of July.  When we got to our appt, they couldn't find us on the schedule!  YIKES!  It was a packed house in the waiting room.  The nurse remembered making us an appt but she could not find us anywhere...so they worked us in.  It took two hours but finally we got to see the doc and Ava checked out just fine.

She had grown four inches this year and caught up to where Carli was at four years old.  She was pretty excited to see the doctor and made lots of talk with her and all was well until the nurse brought in the shots.

Life is rough when you have to get shots.  She recovered very well and did outstanding later that afternoon at swimming.   She's a growing girl!  And so proud to call her ours!

Ava's Four Year Stats:

Height:  40.25 inches ( 51%)
Weight:  40 lbs (78 %)

Just Keep Swimming

Back in February we started the girls in swimming lessons.  They went once a week for 30 minutes.  I'm pretty sure at least one of them screamed, cried or pitched a fit from February all the way through to June each week when we would go to lessons.  But Keith and I decided that swimming was a life lesson and so we stuck it out.  In July we put them in a week long class in hopes of helping to push them a little more to overcome their tentativeness.  We were so relieved when both girls made great progress by the end of the week. 

Ava went from refusing to put her head in the water or float to being able to float on her own and doggie paddling all over the pool.

Carli no only decided the floating was not as hard as she thought it was in her head but she decided she'd put her face in the water and went from doggie paddling to learning to do a stroke.

We have lots of video from the last five months of the progress the girls have made, but I think the smile on Ava's face after the completion of their week long lesson is proof enough that perseverance on all our parts paid off!

Cheeseheads

Keith has managed to hide his big cheesehead from me for the last eight years...then we had children and they are nosey and look what they found when we were unpacking!

VBS 2014

We had VBS in the middle of July.  The girls were so excited to have invited friends to come and they were able to come!  I helped with a group of 4 year olds and Keith pretty much did whatever anyone needed done.  VBS is one of those things that is great for the kids and wears the adults out...and all I did was chase 4 year olds!  :)  There's a lot of work that go into making VBS happen and for the folks that do all the behind the scenes work, we are appreciatative of them!

Carli with her OTA friends, Jayden and Addie

Our old neighbors came as well.  The girls were so happy to see the Woodley's again!  Kaitlyn was in Carl's group and Austin was in Ava's group.  We were so glad they got to come to VBS with us as well.

Ava's buddy from OTA, Kyndall came every night.  They were inseparable!  They kind of took care of each other - they were fun to watch.

VBS always confirms that my decision not to go into  the teaching field was the right decision - two hours at VBS wears me out!  :)

Chuy & a Toad

We had our water blow up slide out for pretty much the whole month of July as it kept the girls entertained so we could get some boxes unpacked!  At night it became a haven for a lot of toads.  We chased off as many as six one morning before blowing up the slide.  One morning we had missed one as it hid in a toe hold. 

Neither of the girls would pick it up to help it out of the pool area but they thought it was hilarious to try to touch it!

But then Chuy came out to investigate and he thought the toad was a fine toy to play with.  He was very confused as to what it was and unsure what he should do with it!

Keith finally came out and rescued the toad from the girls and Chuy.  It was a very entertaining ten minutes!

Bubble Bath Deluxe

One of the girls most favorite things about our new house, is the jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom.  They have yet to take a bath in their own bathroom!  I can't complain...it entertains them for a good hour!  And check out the bubbles!

A Baby Toad

The girls are enjoying our new big yard and have discovered that it comes full of a lot of toads!  They aren't really "tomboys" but they are very curious.  They finally worked up the nerve to catch and hold one of the baby toads...if I could only have captured their giggles and squeals!

 



Girls' Room

Keith's goal in finding a new house was for the kitchen and bathrooms to be updated.  He succeeded in finding such a house but the house we did buy had a few rooms that begged to be painted.  The jack and jill bedrooms were literally hot pink and orange...so bright we are pretty sure it glowed in the dark. 

We wanted to keep the girls in the same room but change things up a little.  It worked out perfectly to put the beds end to end.  Ideally we were going to get four tall bookshelves from Ikea...only they had decided to discontinue the bookcases we needed.  So we came home with three bookcases, just a little too short.  We are thankful for Daddy who can build and a Naggy who thinks outside of the box.  We were able to use a small bookcase that my Grandfather made me when I was little.  We painted it to match the IKEA shelves and Daddy built a platform to raise the bookcases up and after some trim, ta-da!

We lined the back of the bookcases with shelfpaper for the pink that the girls just had to have that went well with the bright pink rug.  We painted the room "Elsa" Blue and kept our awesome quilts that Naggy had made a couple of years ago.

I also was able to bring out my favorite books from my childhood.  We've already read three of the Boxcar Children books.  :)

Many of the books are still above the girls level of understanding but I got all of them out so they won't be forgotten.  :)

The girls room ended up being one of my favorite and it was the first room we officially finished.  It was nice to have one room with no boxes piled up and chaos everywhere!

Attitude Check

Carli and Ava stayed the night with Ms. Patty and Kayla so that Keith and I could work on their room a little more.  Carli had not been feeling very good this week but she was obviously feeling better as she had a bit of an attitude.  I told her she better lose it before she went to Ms. Patty's.  She asked why so I told her to ask Mrs. Patty how she fixed attitude problems.

At lunch after church I asked Carli if she asked Ms. Patty how she took care of attitude problems:

Carli:  Well Momma, do you have any wooden spoons?

Me:  Yes I do.

Carli:  Don't show Ms. Patty!

Awesome!  :)

 

Fourth of July

We spent 4th of July at the lake with Grammy, Pa, Deborah and Uncle Tone.  We enjoyed some yummy  burgers and Uncle Tone's fireworks,  After a long week of working on moving into the new house, it was awesome to just sit and relax and enjoy family.

 

 

Moving is Hard

Moving into our new home was kind of a hard week.  First the A/C quit working, then the warranty company refused to pay to fix it, then one of the girls got sick with an ear infection only for the other to come down with strep throat...and it was hot b/c we moved in the middle of July.

So who could blame a girl when she simply is too tired to even climb on the bed to take a nap...