Little Wranglers

We made a trip to the local feed store to get potatoes for planting and they had a free little horse ride.  The kids thought was grand!  :)

Water Play

Drew  still loves to play in the sink and when he doesn't feel good but I really need to get dinner on the table, this is what he is content to do.  Watch Mickey Mouse and play with "Bubbles" in the kitchen sink!

Carli's GT Project

We have confirmed that Carli is still a very strong willed, opinionated child.  :)  Her GT class did a project over the presidents of the United States.  They were going to do a living museum and give a speech on their president.  Carli was assigned Thomas Jefferson.  She thoroughly enjoyed the research part.  She enjoyed planning her display and shopping for all the stuff to do it, it was after all pretty close to doing art!  But when it came time to talk about how she would dress...that was another story!

Carli was NOT going to dress up like a boy.  That was just "weird" and she wasn't going to do it.  After attempting to talk to her about it several times she announced she would be making a big nickel and she'd stick her head through it b/c Thomas Jefferson was on the nickel.  Okay, well, I decided I better enlist the help of her teacher since I was making no headway.  Her teacher confirmed that the nickel idea was not really what she had in mind but she had to give her credit for the creative thinking and told us that it would be okay.  Well alrighty.  So we made plan to make a big nickel...

But then someone suggested that Carli dress as Thomas Jefferson's wife and she decided that was a good idea too!  Argh!  I wasn't going to attempt to even make such a costume, so we ordered one online and it turned out pretty stinkin' cute.  But she said we still had to make a nickel!

Do you know how hard it is to explain what a speech is to a 2nd grader?  And then to get them to write one?  It is hard.  We enlisted the advice of Grammy and she suggested the Carli write a letter to Naggy telling her all about Thomas Jefferson and from there we could turn the letter into a speech.  That worked really well and the speech writing wasn't nearly the nightmare I feared.  It took us four days working on it a bit at a time but we got it done and she practiced giving her speech to anyone who would listen!  She definitely knew her Thomas Jefferson facts by the time it was due!

The living museum was on President's Day.  Each class from 1st Grade through 3rd Grade walked through the gym and the kids were scattered around the gym to tell them about their President.  When we figured out that they weren't going to have more than a few minutes with each class we got Carli to put her speech down and just use her board and nickel and tell them about her President.  She did awesome!  Her butterflies went away and she thoroughly enjoyed herself!

Write that one down in the books.  First big project completed and we all survived.  Now just think...next year Ava will be doing a GT project along with Carli.  Ya'll start praying for me now!

Valentine's Day 2017

As the girls get older, our creativity turns into survival when it comes to Valentine's Day activities!  :)Since they are really into emoji's we found a printable online and went with it.  The girls wrote their own Valentines and we put small bags of Hershey kisses on the back.  Pretty simple but still cute! 

I wasn't going to do our traditional heart hair b/c last year Carli was not very happy that I did her hair!  Yet she was the one who was appalled that I didn't plan to do anything.  So they were almost tardy but at least they looked good getting there!  :)

Drew and I managed to get to school for both parties and he had a blast helping both sisters polish off their ice cream sundaes!

Ava came home from school with Jax's very first Valentine.  We made sure to take a picture and send to Aunt Megan and Uncle Kevin so Jax would know he was loved!

And can you believe, not only did Keith and I go on a date, but we went ON Valentine's Day!  Yep, it's a rarity!  We went and watched the Jim Brickman concert at UT Tyler.  It was really good and we enjoyed our time out!  We are very thankful for Grammy coming to spend her Valentine's with all our minions so we could go out!

Our Valentine's week wouldn't be complete without a sick kid.  Drew wasn't feeling so well Sunday morning so we spent worship in the cry room.  Could be his sister passed on her weak virus that she had last Monday to him.  They are pretty inseparable when they're together!

Making Dog Food

Not to be outdone, Shea's ear allergies have gotten so bad that she's had to be sedated twice in the last three weeks so they can clean them and put in medication.  We've tried many foods and it was getting expensive so we decided since we are having to already having to feed Chuy special heart food now, we might as well jump on the homemade dog food wagon for the other two dogs.  I was worried about where I would find approved meat.  The vet wanted us to use novelty foods, meaning foods that are not normally in dog food and thereby Shea would not have an allergy to it.  I posted on FB and we were very blessed by the amount of response we got with folks offering us their old deer meat.  So Wednesdy morning, I got to work making dog food.

It's pretty basic right now, and will be for the next month to make sure that Shea reacts well to it.  We did 1 cup of deer meat to 3 cuts of peas/sweet potatoes with 1/2 cup white rice.  I think next time I'll just put it all in a bag and measure when it's time to feed.  I give them 1/4 cup every morning and night.  We weighed the dogs to make sure they don't lose weight.  We will weigh them again in a week. 

About 3 days in, Shea developed this hacking cough and refused to eat.  So we sent her home with Mom and Dad and they got her to the vet first thing Monday morning.  Her constant ear infections seems to have caused an infection elsewhere.  Her lungs sounded good but her trachea was irritated.  So she now has 3 wks of two meds to take on top of the 5 that Chuy takes.  Good thing I love these animals!

Decorating Progress

I have a hard time decorating...and a really hard time buying decorations!  But I do love organizing!  So I was thrilled to find the time to get my peg board in my laundry room set up...it only took me a month!

Drew is 19 mths old and I didn't have a picture of him anywhere in my house.  So I was determined not to put anything on my newly painted walls until I got pictures of Drew.  But finally, but blank walls are filling up and I have canvases ordered to do one last wall...then I will fill accomplished!

Playing Pick-Up Ball

We've come a long ways in our softball playing.  This time last year Carli didn't even want to play and now she's asking if she can play pick up on other teams!  This weekend, Carli and Rylee T. played with East Texas Attitude in a tournament in Henderson.  It was a little daunting at first but it was a good experience of doing our best and not sweating the rest!  We had fun and were glad to get to spend time with Rylee and her family!

Only Ava

Thursday's have turned into Ava and Drew bonding time while Keith and Carli are at pitching lessons.  Sometimes we go out to Bueno, sometimes we make mud pies outside or jump on the trampoline but ALWAYS we take bubble baths!  Ava has taken to practicing her spelling words in the bath.  On this particular day, Drew may have pooped in the tub.  And Ava's reaction was hilarious.  I've never seen her move so fast.  I figured that was the end of all bubble baths with Drew.  But after she showered off and I cleaned the tub and ran a new bubble bath for Drew, she couldn't resist the temptation and back in she went!

And then there's her emoji pillows.  Getting ready for bed tonight, I asked her how her day went and she replied:   Well mom, just look at my bed...pretty much that's how my day went.

Emoji issues.

Time with Ava-Boo

Drew and I went and had lunch with the girls last week.  When it was time for Ava to leave, she busted out in tears b/c I wasn't taking her home.  She's made comments here and there about not getting to cuddle with me or have alone time without Drew.  That afternoon her teacher sent me this picture of Ava's journal:

"What would you to go fo dinner?  I would like to go to Taco Bueno.  Would you do the zipline?  I mist you."

Talk about shrugging the heart strings!  So Saturday night, Ava and I went on a date together.  We talked, listened and sang fun music in the car and she let us eat at Daniel Boone's instead of Taco Bueno.  We had a lot of fun and I was glad to get to spend some alone time with my Ava-Bava Boo!

Carli's Christmas Date Night

One of Carli's Christmas presents was to have a date night with just Keith and I to an art studio.  Even though she wasn't 100% as she developed an ear infection the night before, she took some ibuprofen and was ready to be creative!  We went to Bless Your Art and Susan Sellers did a fantastic job!  We were there two hours and it was so much fun.  Carli dictated what everyone painted and  thoroughly enjoyed herself!

After our painting adventures we had dinner and made sure we put the phones away.  Carli got our undivided attention and ate it up!  And Keith and I enjoyed the time we got to spend with her!

Meanwhile, Ava and Drew spent the evening with Grammy and Pa!  They got to go to Aldolphos pizza and play video games.  They even brought home some little gifts to Carli.  Ava will get to use her date in March when the weather warms up.  I think we will do this every single year!  We had a great time!

Separation Anxiety?

Drew has been going to stay with Mawmaw since the beginning of January and I am starting to think the boy has separation anxiety.  He literally recognizes the way the car sounds/feels as soon as we turn into her driveway.  He starts crying and he cries until I leave.  He does willingly go to Mawmaw and bless her heart she has the patience of a saint!  She says most days it takes him about 10 minutes before he will start playing...sometimes with other kids, sometimes by himself.  He cries again as soon as I get there to pick him up.  This makes naps quite non-existent on Tuesday/Thursdays b/c if I attempt to leave him in his bed for a nap he wakes within five minutes screaming.  I've resorted to laying with him and the boy sleeps like a log...

Our House Cat

The cat is not a house cat, but he's determined to be one. He escapes the shop, sneaks through the backyard, slips through the doggie door and greets us good morning. If he didn't purr so loud, it'd take awhile to find him! And Drew loves him dearly!

Time to Play!

Softball playing, mud pie making, bike riding and cat chasing makes for a busy night at the Hays house!

Carli the Waitress

Carli and I got up early this morning and headed to Applebee's in Palestine so she could play waitress and raise money for her softball team.  This was right up Carli's alley!  She had a GREAT time and had a good turnout with all her friends and family coming to eat pancakes and eggs.  She makes a pretty good little server too!  :)

Best Friend Forever

We were walking out of church and Carli looked at Ava and said, "Ava, you will be my best friend forever." And Ava responded, "Yes, Carli FOREVER!"

Be still my heart!