Summer Fun!

In an unexpected turn of events, we have actually been busy doing lots of fun summer stuff lately! Usually we are more of the "stay at home and relax" variety, but I have really been trying to get the boys out and about this summer. You know, the whole "we are busy making memories!" kind of thing. Well, that and the "they both take much longer afternoon naps if I wear them out" kind of thing....

Some highlights from the past few weeks include a trip to Honey and Papa's house in the Hill Country, a family beach trip to Galveston and our small group trip to the lake! Our sweet friends invited our entire group (and all our kids!) to spend the weekend at their great lake house. Everybody had a blast!

Playing some golf with Papa!

Stealing Honey's sunglasses!

Matthew did great on his first trip to the beach!

Lunch break!

At the lake! All the little "Mamas" wanted to take care of Matthew!

There would have been more water if my son hadn't thrown half of it out...

The kid table!

We have a few more fun activities planned for our last few weeks of freedom. I think Jonathan is getting pretty used to our schedule of sleeping in later, playing all morning and then resting all afternoon. He is in for a rude awakening when school starts back up! Then again....so am I!

My favorite Pinterest finds!

Since I am so positive that you are all waiting to know exactly what I love on Pinterest, I made you a list! (Hopefully I am not breaking some unwritten rule in blogland by linking to other blogs....I found them on Pinterest, so obviously their information is already out there...)

Brown Bag Pop Corn- Put 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels in a brown lunch bag and fold the top over twice (no staples....you know, what with metal being a fire hazard and all...) Microwave for 1 minute, 30 seconds. Top with your favorite toppings. WAY cheaper and WAY better for you than regular bagged popcorn!

Cheap Foaming Hand Soap- Once you are done with a bottle of foaming hand wash, refill the bottle with about an inch of regular hand soap, body wash, baby shampoo etc....Fill the rest of the bottle with water and shake well. Voila! A whole new bottle of soap for next to nothing. I just did this with some Aveeno Baby Body Wash and it totally worked! That stuff is expensive so I was super happy to find a way to stretch it out. It lathered up really well, smells just as nice and worked the same!

The quote: "Let him sleep. For when he wakes, he will move mountains." I want to find a really sweet print for the boys rooms, but so far the majority of what I can find are vinyl wall decals. Has anybody seen this as a cool printable?

Baby flashcards- These are done by the Wee Gallery brand and I love them. We had hard copy cards for Jonathan, but gave them back to a friend for her own kids. When I found these pinned from the Similac website, I was so excited. Matthew LOVES to watch them as a "peek-a-boo" game and the animals even make sounds. Now, I am not an advocate of putting your baby in front of the computer for extended periods of time, but 5 or 10 minutes never hurt anybody!

Funfetti Cake Batter Cookies- These cookies are freaking awesome. They are yummy, easy to make and look cute too. Obvious win.

So what are some of y'alls favorites? If you are not into Pinterest, have you found anything out in cyberspace recently that I need to be aware of? Please share!

You know you are a mommy when....

I laughed pretty hard writing these today because I realized that I have done ALL of them in the past week! What are some things that you guys would add to the list?

1. You are driving by yourself when you see a garbage truck. You immediately yell, "TRASH TRUCK!" just like your little boy.

2. You find yourself hoping that your little one will wake up to eat around 3:30 am because it means he will go back to sleep and stay asleep much later in the morning. This seems stupid, but all I know is that when Matthew doesn't wake up to eat, he wakes up for good at 6:00. If he does, he will sleep until 8:00! 20 minutes in the middle of the night in exchange for 2 hours? Obvious answer.

3. When you are getting ready in the morning and the baby barfs on you, you decide to wear the outfit anyway and if anybody asks, you tell them it happened in the car and you didn't have a change of clothes.

4. You rush to get all your chores done with both babies crying on your hip so that you can use nap time to catch up on the Real Housewives of Atlanta and not cleaning the bathroom.

5. You justify feeding your toddler macaroni and cheese multiple times a week because you bought the organic kind.

6. You "pin" a bunch of really over-achieving activities for your toddlers so that your friends who follow your board will think you are super mom.....even though you have never and will never actually do them.

7. You don't make yourself your own meal because you are too tired and you know your toddler won't eat theirs anyway so you can just have that one.

8. When you walk into the salon to get your hair cut, your hairdresser says "Wow.....it has been a LONG time since you've been here.

9. You have perfected the "Oh friend, I have sooooo been there" look that you give to the other mama in the grocery store when she walks by with two screaming babies in her cart.

10. You can carry on an entire phone conversation with a baby screaming in the background.

My thoughts about the 4th of July

Let me first get a little rant out of the way...I hate fireworks. Not the beautiful, large city-wide or neighborhood fireworks, but the super loud, super annoying little crappy ones that a million people in my neighborhood shot off last night. I know this makes me sound like a grumpy old woman and I am okay with that. Fireworks serve one purpose, to look pretty. Black Cats and other equally annoying firecrackers are not pretty and they wake up sleeping babies at all hours of the night. Oh and then, my super special neighbors left all their trash in the streets. So let's recap....they are loud, wake up babies, are not pretty in any way and leave a huge mess behind. I guess I can see why teenage boys enjoy them so much.

On to better things....

We had a great day at our house! We spent the morning walking in our neighborhood parade and checking out the fire trucks and ambulances that came to drive in the parade. Later, the Ley's came over to grill some burgers and then we ended our fun day at a party thrown by our sweet friends! Jonathan had a great time at the party and really enjoyed swimming in the pool with his friends!....until he threw all his food in the pool. Hot dog and all.....

Speaking of, I freaking love grilled hot dogs. I wish they were even a smidge healthy because if they were, I would eat them all the time. As it stands though, they are a special treat in our house. Stupid unknown ingredients.

Hope you guys all had a great day too!

Bringing up the rear of the parade!

 Sweet friends!

Jonathan chillin' in the water with all his friends!

Leaving the Ranch

(I wrote this on my last day of school but couldn't post it until my resignation was official. Today it became official. More tears.)

Since the day Jonathan was born, I have struggled with the desire to stay home with him. Part of me wanted to be with him every second of the day, but part of me still wanted to be able to work and get out of the house. Once Matthew was born, my desire turned more in the direction of wanting to stay home. I hated leaving my children in the care of somebody else, while I helped raise somebody else's children. It didn't make sense. So I started praying that God would provide a way for me to be with them.

And He did.

In March, somebody suggested that I look into teaching preschool part time. It would give me the chance to get out of the house a little, but the boys would come with me. I loved it! And to say that God's hand was in this situation would be an understatement. I contacted an old friend of Zack's who works in the Children's ministry at a local church and told him to keep me in mind if they had any preschool openings come up. He emailed back within 20 minutes and said "Katy, I'm so glad you emailed. Along with the addition of the infant class I decided to add another 4yr old class. I have been interviewing this week with little success. We are really looking for sound christian women who can lead our classes academically and spiritually as well as reach our families for Christ."

Are you kidding me? I couldn't believe how perfect this sounded. There was a possibility of a job, a class for Jonathan AND a class for Matthew. And ya'll....it worked out. Within a few weeks, I accepted an offer to teach a 3 year old class for the 2012-2013 school year. There has been a whole lot of drama deciding when to resign with KISD, when to tell friends and bosses, when to let go of Jonathan's spot in his amazing day care....But suffice it to say, it has all worked out. God is good.

And so that leads me to today. Leaving Morton Ranch Junior High. The only word that comes to mind is "bittersweet." I know I am moving on to a situation that is so absolutely perfect for my family.....but I did not want to leave. I cried all afternoon. I would be crying right now if I allowed myself the chance. I have been at MRJH for the past 6 1/2 years. I have taught with the most amazing language arts team, the most fun, silly and wonderful 8th grade team, and have had some great bosses. My MRJH family has been there with me throughout a move, 2 babies, unexpected bedrest, some really trying students and a whole lot of other life experiences. They have been supportive, loving, kind and so, so fun.

I spent the day today walking around the building with good friends, visiting with people in their classrooms, organizing my files and supplies that have carried me through the past 6 1/2 years and transferring important documents to my teammates so that they will not go to waste. I spent the entire day with one of my most favorite people, Kristin, and as soon as we started crying (which was early in the day) we would laugh at ourselves. Then we would cry. Then we would laugh. We were a hot mess.

And as I walked out of The Ranch for the last time, I walked out knowing that I was leaving a pretty special place. I knew I had made friends that would last the rest of my life and I was positive that my life would be forever changed. I am blessed to have spent my early teaching years in this place. It was crazy, super stressful, hilarious and wonderful and I am blessed beyond belief to say I am a Maverick.



My wonderful 8th grade language arts team! I will miss them more than they will ever know!

And now.....on to 3 year olds :)

Finally some family time!

Anybody that knows anything about my family knows that Zack works the most absurd hours imaginable. It is not uncommon for him to work until 1:00 and then wake up at 6:00 to go back to work. He even talks about accounting in his sleep. It's pretty ridiculous. So when he told me he had a few days off this week, I took it with a grain of salt. In the past, "time off" meant working all day in the living room instead of the office. But you know what? He really did have time off this time! We have had such a fun few days spending time as a family. It sure makes me wish we could do it more often, but I will take what I can get these days.

Here are some of the highlights :)

 The boys spent lots of time playing around the house

My Pinterest addiction finally paid off. We made cloud dough! It was really fun and they both enjoyed playing with it. My only advice would be to do it outside. It is messy and the baby oil leaves a film on pretty much everything.

We laid around and relaxed a lot (ignore the mess behind us....that's what happens when you sit around the house too long!)

 Matthew perfected his rolly polly skills! (he actually rolled under the bouncer by himself and then laughed at how awesome he is!)

 We spent the whole day Thursday at the zoo and Hermann Park! Jonathan loved riding the train and walking around the fountain, despite what his face may say. I think this picture is hilarious. So typical. If you are looking for a good deal on family activities, a membership to the zoo only costs about $100 a year for 4 people. We have gone twice now and our membership has almost paid for itself. A little cost upfront, but I am positive we will make our money back very quickly!

And after many days of family fun, the boys were beat! I love the way babies sleep in such crazy positions :)

The awesome news is that Zack actually has a few more days off around the 4th of July! So we have planned a few more fun activities. I can't wait!

Potty training and other equally annoying stuff.

Greetings from the flip side of potty training hell.

Okay, maybe that is a little dramatic.....or maybe not. The last week has been rough. But I am proud to say that I think we are on the upswing now. Jonathan has gone 4 days with no accidents and is totally out of diapers except at night and nap time. I honestly can not believe how well he is doing. I am so proud of my little guy!

I originally wrote out this super long explanation about how we did it (because I was convinced you are all as obsessed with potty training as I have been lately....) but I deleted it because it was boring and a little gross. You are welcome. In case you actually are interested, let me know and we can talk :)

In other annoying, yet necessary news....I have decided it is way past time for me to get back in shape. After Jonathan was born, it was very easy for me to lose the weight and get back in shape. This time around......not so much. I lost the weight pretty easily, but getting in shape has proven to be much more difficult. My biggest issue is logistics. First of all, Matthew hates anything to do with his carseat or stroller, so long walks/runs are out of the question for now. Second of all, I have no time to go to the gym. And even if I did, I canceled my membership to save money. So now, I am stuck trying to work out in our garage or to a video in the living room. This presents problem #3....motivation. The only time I can do these things is during nap time or after the kids go to bed. And y'all....I am freaking tired. Any Mom out there knows that nap time is sacred time. Especially if both kids are asleep at the same time. And after they go to bed? Yeah right. That is laundry, dishes, sweep/mop, bath, read, bed. Duh.

So let me present this question to my loyal readers....when do you work out? How do you have the energy to do anything active when the littles are asleep? Do you go to a gym? Do you take them with you? Do you suck it up and say "I will sleep when I am dead" and work out like a madwoman until midnight? What works for you? I am tired of looking like Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Just kidding, I know I don't really look like this guy :) I don't have a sailor suit.