What's happening around here

I feel like our days have been crazy since school started, but I think I have to get used to this busy life because it doesn't show signs of slowing.  I'm not getting to blog as much as I want but I've been writing down what we do each day and tucking it away.  Just one line on a note card, the highlight of our day.  I started it Sept. 1st and it's amazing what would have already slipped my memory if I hadn't written it down.  Here's some other fun stuff that's been going on at the Whyte house:

The girls are in love with school right now.  I hope it stays that way until they graduate from college.  It seems they come home with a new project, craft, and nugget of information every day.  They both adore their teachers and have made some really good girlfriends in the class.  The one they talk about the most is Rylan.  She lives in our neighborhood and they always want to ride bikes by her house.  It's so funny to hear them tell stories about her and everyone in the class.  The teacher told me the other day that one of the girls in class got hurt and was really upset.  Reese and Ryan were all up in the mix of things--wanting to know what happened, was she going to be okay, can they help, etc.  They are so their mama's daughters.  I was the nosiest, most curious child and now it's payback since I have two of them.  They are such curious little busybodies and you can't slip anything past those two.

Ryan is still the comic relief of the family.  The other day she asked me what we were doing for the day and I listed it all off for her.  She told me, "Well that's kinda boring.  Maybe we can go to Mimi's house".  It sounded so in her little squeaky voice.  Another funny Ryan moment happened at the last soccer game.  We were sitting on the sidelines watching the game and she told me that she liked Jacob & Kai's faces and bodies.  She got kind of embarrassed when I asked her if she thought they were cute.  I think it's so funny that they already know how to like boys and have little crushes.  She is the best storyteller around and has us in stitches most of the time.

Reese is still our little crafty girl.  You can always find her drawing, writing or coloring around the house.  She likes to write everyone's names out and likes to draw her stories out instead of tell you every detail.  I love that this is how she chooses to express herself.  She has an amazing imagination and I love seeing it come to life in her drawings.  The Little DaVinci class has been so wonderful for her.

Reese in the stage where she's challenging me a bit more.  It always seems to switch back and forth.  A few months ago Ryan was such a handful and giving me so much grief on a daily basis.  They've pulled the ol' switcharoo and Reese is having way too much fun giving mommy a run for her money these days.  It all seems to ebb and flow and I just have to remember to take some deep breaths in the 4-6pm witching hours :)  I'm always SO excited when I hear the door open and Cory is home for the night.

I'm getting ready for the DSMOM rummage sale and cleaning out the girls' closets.  I saved all their 4T pants from last year hoping they might fit.  Not a chance.  Ryan tried on a pair tonight and they were about 2 inches too short and the 5T tops are like belly shirts.  Cory told me to sell it all.  He's a purger like that.

I'm still doing Ryder's updates once a month, but that kid is such a riot right now.  He wants to be outside 24/7.  He's discovered the plasma car and wants to be on it all the time.  He'll stand at the door and cry, "Outside, Mama, outside!"  How can you say no to that, even when it's 100 degrees outdoors.  He has a few favorite books and we read them every night before bed, just me and him in his rocking chair.  Cory will put the girls to bed and I get some alone time with my Ryder boy.  It's my favorite time of the day.
 

Art show

Little DaVinci had an open house/art show on Saturday and Reese & Ryan got to show off all their artwork they've been working on.  The two paintings they've done so far turned out so good and the girls were so proud to show us.  They had the dance room set up like an art gallery and it was so fun to see their paintings on display.  They were so cute dressed up in their fancy duds, showing off their lovely canvases.

Little Ree with her most recent painting.

 Here's sassy Ryan with her beautiful painting.

 These were the first paintings they finished a few weeks ago.  I love the clouds and seagrass.

Our last swim lessons

The girls finished their last swim lesson for the summer and Ms. Mary took some fun underwater shots.  She has a great scuba camera and the pictures turned out so good.  I am in love with the one of them holding hands.  So sweet :)

Pedicures with Mimi

Mimi took the girls to get pedicures and their toes look SO pretty.  Reese & Ryan were so excited and they had so much fun with Mimi.  Such a fun outing for the three of them.

Impromptu playdate

These are the best kind.  When your friend just drops by on a whim and the kids get to play and have a blast together.  We are on opposite school schedules from Campbell and this does not make my girls happy.  They miss their little friend so much.  There's an hour gap from when C gets picked up and the girls go to school so the other day Karen stopped by with the kiddos and they go to play and eat lunch before Cory took them to school.  Here are a few fun photos I snapped of the 5 monkeys eating their lunch :)

 Look at these two cute boys!  I can't get enough of them.

Not the greatest photo of Reese but she always seems to close her eyes just as I'm taking the photo.  Her eyes were closed in all of them!

Lovely lipstick girl

There's my fancy girl, getting into my makeup again.  It seems to happen about every other day.  She loves the lipstick and the glosses.  She'll come in when I'm getting ready and say, "Oooohhh, I want to put some on."  I crack up laughing every time. 

 She's trying to figure out if she's got the right makeup brush to put on her lipstick.  She kills me.

 What a stinker!

You knew I was going to do it

I wasn't kidding about my Pinterest obsession.  We've done some really fun crafts this week and this one was the favorite for the kids.

 It started off a bit slow and we were all waiting to see how they were going to melt.  The girls were so excited!

 My arms got tired pretty quickly.  You can tell from my crazy wavy hair that I'm not used to holding a blowdryer for long periods of time these days.  Cory took over and the fun really started.

 It was so fun to see all the colors melt and blend together.  We glued a rainbow ribbon to the back and it's going in the hallway where the rest of Reese's rainbow drawings reside.

1st Soccer game

We had our first soccer game and the kids were SO cute.  There's something so sweet and funny about a bunch of four year olds running up and down the field trying to figure out what to do and where to kick the ball.  I don't think they keep score for this age group but we got creamed by the other team.  They still had so much fun playing and every day they are asking when their next soccer game is.  Here are some highlight photos from the big day.

Cory is the sweet and patient coach. 

He's got a knack for it even though it seems coaching four year olds is a lot like herding cats.

Reese did a lot of running and seemed to really enjoy it.

I think this is the point of the game where they were sick of the other team scoring so Reese and Zackary decided to guard the goal even though they don't actually have goalies.

 Time for a snack!  Ryan played really well.  I was expecting her to chase butterflies out there and look cute but she showed some real competitiveness and had some great moves.

Our attempt at a family photo.

Summer, are you leaving soon?

I think the weather has been so amazing the past two days.  We finally got a crazy monsoon storm last night that brought thunder, lightning, and a bunch of rain.  It seemed pretty tame until about 9:30pm and then the party really started.  Cory and I sat on the patio swing and watch the storm for awhile after we got the kids to bed.  I could have sat out there all night long.  The temperature dropped into the 80's and it was heaven.  Tonight another cool storm rolled in and the wind was blowing.  We opened the doors and windows in the living room so we could get a good cross breeze.  The wind was howling so loud and the girls loved it.  For a second it started to feel like Fall might be right around the corner and Summer will be leaving soon.  Here's to hoping.

Reesie's favorite

Ask Reese what her favorite foods are and she'll tell you chicken 'n dumplings or spaghetti.  I think she's got good taste in food because they are two of my faves also.  She's been requesting both on a regular basis and it feels way too hot outside for these warm comfort foods, but I gave into her requests and cooked the chicken 'n dumplings.  It's fun to make with the kids because they can help roll out the biscuits.  We roll them out like this and put a mixture of chicken, bell pepper, onion, & celery in the middle.

 Then you pinch up the sides to close it up so it's a nice little ball shape.

 And drop it into the soup/gravy mixture to cook up. 
Looks weird, huh?  It gets better.  I promise.

 They end up cooking for a bit and grow in size.  The kids love to watch the whole process start to finish.

That's our meal on this HOT day.  It tasted delicious and everyone in our family cleaned their plates.  I really like to serve it with a side of peas and mashed potatoes and then mix it all together in the gravy.  Pure comfort food.  Here's our little Reesie, loving every bite!

 Click here for the recipe in case you're dying to cook it.  Spaghetti's on the menu tomorrow night :)

Stroller ride

We took Muffin to soccer practice but she was too tired to walk home.  So Ryder said she could sit on his lap.  So sweet! 

Twenty months

Our baby boy is twenty months today.  Hard to believe.  He's so yummy I could eat him up.  I look at him most of the time and think that he's looking so big and grownup, a bona fide toddler, and then he'll do something so sweet and pure that reels me back into to realizing that he's still our little baby.  I know I'm milking the baby thing since he's our last and I probably will until he's 18 and leaving for college.

This month has been a big month of change for Ryder.  His vocabulary has exploded with new words every day.  We think it's the cutest thing ever when he says something new or tells us what he's wanting (that's most of the time with our oh so persistent boy).  Cory and I will look at each other and say, "Did you hear that?  He just said____", like it's the most exciting thing ever.  It seems to be in our world.  All of a sudden he's into Spider Man, not because he's seen it on TV or played with any toys, because he received a hand-me-down pair of PJs from Haley that he's in love with.  He walks around saying "Spy man, Spy man" to the tune of the Spider Man song that Cory taught him. 

He loves playing outside even though it's been the hottest month on record for us.  He has no concept that it's too hot to play outside. He just tells me, "Hot, Mama. Mama, hot!" and "Wawa, Mama, wawa".  We installed drop down shades for our west facing back patio and bought a box fan so I can stay outside with him when he's kicking the ball or shooting hoops.  His other outdoor love is swimming.  I tell you that kid is a little tadpole.  He's fearless and has some pretty good swim moves.  He kicks really well and even uses his arms.  He thinks he can swim as good as Reese & Ryan.  He'll jump right off the edge into the pool even if no one is there to catch him.  Needless to say, we are always right by his side and it's best if there's more than one adult in the pool because he's such a kamikaze pool lover.

He's picky about what he'll eat, but the food he likes he can put away like a truck driver.  Breakfast seems to be the favorite meal of the day in our house.  He'll polish off a bowl of Cheerios and a slice or two of french toast no problem.  More favorites right now are cantaloupe, strawberries, and blueberries. If he doesn't like it he'll say "cocka" and spit it out.  It's hilarious.  We try it all but he's a tricky one.

We are still nursing and I keep thinking we're going to wean, but he shows no sign of stopping soon.  It's only 2x a day, maybe three if he's cranky or tired.  He's all about it first thing in the morning and that's when it will be the hardest to give it up.  We'll see how long it goes.

He loves playing with all of Reese & Ryan's toys, much to their dismay.  He can tear apart an organized playroom in 3 minutes flat.  He's such a riot, just look at what a stinker he is! 


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Love you so much, Ryder boy.  You are too much fun right now.  Thanks for filling our lives with joy, laughter, & craziness.

My new obsession

I just discovered Pinterest and I'm seriously hooked.  I just really got into it this weekend and I wanted to spend all weekend on the computer looking up fun things that other people have 'pinned'.  I may be way behind the eight ball because I usually am with most of this technology stuff, but I think this website is the going to be amazing for me.  Here's why:  I am not a crafty/creative person.  I can see something that I like and copy it, but I can't conceptualize something and bring it to life.  I'm the world's best copycat when it comes to seeing stuff I like.  That's why Pinterest is so awesome.  I can see other cool stuff that people are doing to their homes, creating for their kids, wearing this fall, cooking at home and copy it all.  Sigh.  Be still my heart.  Right now my eyes and clicking fingers are faster than my brain, so I need to pick a few things to focus on and try to implement.  Here's a few faves that I really want to work on soon:

I love this monogram with photos all over it.  I need to gather some photos together, but I'd love to make this for our entry way and IF (that is a big if) it turns out well do another for the kids' playroom.

Bubble wrap painting.  How fun.  The kids would love this.  Even Ryder is getting into the art stuff around here.  Next time we get a box with bubble wrap we're doing this.

 I thought this was so cool.  Both the girls would get a kick out of melting crayons with a blowdryer.  Reese would think it was the best thing ever.  She loves rainbows SO much.

 Love this ruffle top with a cardigan and belt.  I'm on the hunt for something cute like this for Fall.

 This might be a bit ambitious, but I love these Apothecary jars filled with candy corn and the gingham bows.  I'm starting to look around for jars.

Just in case...

we didn't have enough girly stuff at the Whyte house.  We thought we'd add some more :)

 

Mimi was so sweet to buy this for the girls and let me tell you, it's a household hit so far.  Haley & Rome spent the day/night with us and we barely saw the whites of the girls' eyes because they were so busy playing with their dolls and the vanity.

 This is what it looked like about an hour after we set it up in their room.  It's a great addition to their mermaid/princess/fairy tale room.