July fun!!!

This month has been great! I LOVE July. It's one of the hottest months, there is so much fun to be had in the sun, and most of the time everyone is in a good mood because of all the vitamin D! :) And July in Texas is just the best. I am kind of partial to my Texas sun - always have been, always will be. :) Here are some of our great moments this month! And, of course, our Tot school moments!

Justin got a fun little toy...well, not so little. Actually it's about the size of me! :) 

The letter "D"!

I have been "trying" to organize for Tot School...We shall see how long this lasts! :) Just trying to figure out a system that works!

One of last Monday's projects was pipe cleaner beading with pony beads. It.was.a.hit.

Out of order, but here is the foam letter sorting/sticking onto construction paper project! 

He stayed on this for like twenty minutes straight, just stringing beads along, happily. I had no idea he was so good already! 

Brookelynn trying really, really hard to string her beads onto her pipe cleaner! :) She is SO close to getting it!

Kaleb's creation, done completely by himself! A "snake"! (He came up with the name too!)

Foam letter sorting

They pulled the chairs up to the window so they could watch the rain like the second rainy day we've had here this month. What a good rain it was, though! They love to watch it, because we don't see it often!

Another one out of order, but K was trying to be cool or something. He put the hat on and started acting really funny, almost like he knew it was "cool". Lol. "Sup?"

And after the rain, the rainbow! God is good, all the time, ya'll! 

Sand!!! They LOVE it. Got some funnels this week to try out in it, and I'm so excited!

Waterpark! We took my mom with us this day to the Big Spring Aquatic Center, and had a blast. I think the kids are going to be little fish. :) 

Family photos! My sweet friend Deb came with her sweet boyfriend who is also a photographer, so we got like double the great shots between the two of them. They are both awesome! 

The letter "F"!

Just using beads to shovel and scoop

She loved it...so much that...

...afterward, the floor looked like this. Oops.

But we did get some water action in today. Gotta love the waterhose.

Kaleb made me an "ice cream cone," too, after we were done with our water fun. He found one of the funnels I bought for the sandbox and put a rock into it, and told me it was my yummy ice cream. He also made some for sister. I am continuously amazed at his imagination. :) (And p.s. - the water play today was totally random, so the clothes were...well, wet.)

Notice her drink. This is where she sets it after she is done, and ready for her nap. :) I love this girl!

Like I said, we've had a great month. I am almost sad to see it go! Justin was off from work for a few days and we went to the waterpark in Dallas, just the two of us. Nana watched the kiddos for us, and so did Oma for a few days. We have been SPOILED. :) We also had the privilege of being in a good friend's wedding, which was awesome, too. What else...Oh, very, very excited that one of my best friends, Kristine, will be having her baby tomorrow by C section. That's random, I know, but very excited to see her cute little Lily. Kristine has had quite a time with this pregnancy and I know she is very ready to meet her! Pray for her recovery too, if ya'll get a chance and think about it. She is a bit nervous about it. She's had a C section before, but this one entails a bit more, and also involves having to go up a flight of stairs each day. Wow.  
That's about all I can recall at this moment. I am ready for August. I think it has great things in store, too - one is that one of my other very best friends, Kelly, is having her baby. SO excited for her, too! Her little one is also a girl. 
In September we will make it to Washington for the first time in four years (AND the first airplane trip for the kiddos - PRAY for us!) since I've been back, to see her little one. So very excited for that. 

Well, blessings to you all, and happy August, everyone! :) Yay for more sun! (Can you tell what season is my favorite yet???) :)

Kalebisms and Brookeisms

Here's just some cute stuff they've been doing lately! 

Kalebisms:

* "I love hugs."
*"I love Justin." (This is his little cartoon he likes to watch, and would watch every moment of every day if we let him! It's called, "Justin Time".) We checked it out on Netflix because we liked the name and one of Justin's coworkers said their kiddo liked it...and it turned out to be pretty cool.
*"I'm perfect." Not sure where he learned this one from, but I like it!
*"Go that way, sister!" This one definitely reflects his two year old personality. He loves to tell her where to go at home (like down the hallway away from his cars or trucks, or out of his room!), along with everyone else! Right now, he tells me which way to turn in the car...
*"I love lollipops." He is in LOVE with lollipops. He first saw them in his Hungry Caterpillar book (and pretends to eat it, along with all the other food on the page in the book, every time we read it!) and today we saw some at Dickie's restaurant. We told him if he was good and quiet at the restaurant we would get him one. Well, he sat in that chair and was quiet almost the whole time! And when I told him not to get out of the chair when everyone else at the table had gotten up, he stayed put right there, smiling. He earned his strawberry cream lollipop tonight, I think. And savored. every. lick.
*"I'm tired, mommy." He is so sweet to tell us this!
*"You have an ouchie, mommy?" and if I say yes and show him, he will kiss it, and say, "Is that better mommy?" And I say yes, of course. :) 
*He also loves bandaids. He has also said he "loves" them. Recently, he has been stung by a bee twice in the same week! So, he received a bandaid for it, even though it really didn't need one. But now, every time he gets bit or stung by anything, it needs a bandaid! 
*He loves to spin. In circles. Every time a worship song comes on. I think it's his way of dancing.
*He now says sentences most of the time. 
*His tantrums are slowly leaving! I am SO looking forward to three! 
*Today he asked sister for a high five, and she gave him one. He was praising her, "Good job, sister!" for something. Not sure what, but it was sure cute!


Brookeisms:
*She loves lotion. Today after her bath, she tried putting lotion on me. 
*She says, "Bye bye," "Hi," "Thank you," really well. And pretty much anytime you ask her to say something, she will try to say it, even if it comes out funny! Oh yeah, and when going night night, she repeats, "Night, night, wee you," for "Night, night, love you." She is still trying to say it! :) 
*She likes pink and purple already. I have noticed she gravitates toward those colors in the toy department! (This might be that her room is absolutely nothing but those colors, but I don't know! Yes, I know, I'm the cheesy mom that did bright pink in her baby girl's room! :)
*She loves baby dolls.
*She is starting to not like her hair being done!
*She does not like her diaper being wet or messy. This is a good thing!
*She loves pretty much everything except for green foods. Haha....
*She is more timid than brother about some things. But she loves to be tossed in the air, and to sit on daddy's shoulders. Not sure if that's just a phase but she still loves it.
*She's not so into rocking with momma anymore. :( I knew this day would come!
*She sleeps through the night wonderfully!
*She is pretty clingy when I get home and when I leave from places. She still loves her mommy time!

Just wanted to share a few things - things that I know I'll want to remember when they get older. :) I know that I am leaving out a ton of things, and that I may come back and edit this soon! But, for now, this'll work! 

Blessings, ya'll,

Week 2 of Tot School and other fun stuff!

So, I've found myself having a lot more time just this past week to blog.
I think it's actually because I made a schedule to follow during the week, and now, I don't find myself taking every spare moment to ask, "Oh no, what do I do now that I can catch up on while the kids are asleep???"
Funny how making an actual "schedule" for yourself helps you organize your life! I feel like I've accomplished something BIG! 
Really, all I did was write down one thing to do a day that I usually do each week (without a schedule) while the kids are asleep during their naps, and I've even added to my to-do list. It also helps that I've cut out Facebook a bunch (limited, limited time on there, mind you!) and other things that "take up" time during the day (like t.v., even though I hardly watch it anyway - so much of it is just mindless, and you end up wasting your day sitting on the couch when you could be doing productive things!). 
Recently our pastor did a sermon on forming good habits to take the place of your bad habits, and I went home thinking, "I am going to take note of all the bad habits I have (i.e. watching mindless t.v., etc.) and try and replace them with good habits." 
His main goal was to help us understand through his sermon that "we ARE our habits". 
I am realizing that is so true. What we spend our time doing with our lives is WHO we are, and WHAT we achieve. If we want to be a Facebook junkie, we will be a Facebook junkie.  
But if we replace that with another "better" habit, we will achieve more. Such as...making a list for ourselves to "do" our laundry during that time of day instead. 
Haha...I'm making it sound like I was a couch potato. Really, quite the contrary. But...anyway, all that to say, I am in the process right now of replacing bad habits with good habits, and it's great! 
I will now stop babbling, and share a few pics this week. I don't want to say that I want to post a blog weekly now, because I don't want to get TOO excited here, but - I do want to try and post MORE. So, here's to more posts. Lol!! 

Here's a bit of what we've been doing since I posted last! It's a combination of pics from yesterday and today, and sorry, a bit out of order! :)

We started out our day yesterday during "Tot School" coloring the letter "B" and saying our memory verse. Didn't get a chance to capture it on photo! But then we did our matching shapes and colors and I was able to snap a photo!

He's actually pretty good at it and of course, Momma is proud. 

We also strung (is that even a word?) together foam bracelets for brother AND sister. They both love jewelry!

Today we watched the rain, which never happens here in the dry West Texas desert! It was a welcome sight. It was cute - K saw it and took sister by hand to the window and said, "Look, sister, it's raining." So, so precious. He's already teaching her!

She has just begun to like baby dolls. Obviously!

Stringing of the foam bracelets. Okay yes, like I said, these are out of order! Sorry! ;) But, you get the general idea!

Yes, he's taken a liking to jewelry AND high heels.

And "hats".

Sister has too. This was all last night while I was watching "The Bachelorette," which, is one of the "habits" I may need to cut out. The more I stop watching it, the more I realize how silly it is! ;)

Oh yes. It would not have been fair for me to throw out the box this morning before he pushed sister around on the floor in it. She LOVED it. 

And this morning we worked on our "Tot Book," which is another thing I've learned from the 1+1+1=1 site. I'm tellin ya, the lady's a genius. Well, not really, I don't think, but she sure has a LOT of good info for this momma! :) It's just a file folder, cut in half, and made to be a book on the inside, filled with little slots for him to pull out numbers 1-10, and shapes, and colors. You can make any kind you want, and give it a theme. This one was a theme from the movie, "Cars," because K loves that movie. I plan to make another one with a different theme, because he loved it! :) It is SO fun to see your child learn, and these are amazing. 

Just goofiness this afternoon. Ha! Seeing how many silly shots I could get with the camera. A few moments later the kids were smothering me with kisses. Didn't get a good shot of that but sure got a lot of slobber! Hahaha.

And, had to top off the day with a bit of running through the puddles. :) Just fun. 

And, a good laugh at dinner. 

Friends, this is just two days in our household. We are so blessed!!! 
I won't say that it's always easy or fun but it sure is a joy. I wouldn't have things any other way. 

Kaleb is most definitely every bit of two. He still throws his tantrums and I have to correct him a LOT.

One last thing I will leave you with - 
Tonight I found out a sweet girl I never knew but was following on YouTube has died - she had cancer and her name is Talia. Please if you get a chance pray for her family, do so - I know this is a hard time for them, and I'm not sure if they are Christians. Here's a link - http://youtu.be/TxpCX7cpXyk

Blessings,