Kendal's Birthday Party

I am super tired, so mostly this post will be the pictures of Kendal's lego party.

 These balloons show the color scheme.

 The "lego" wall hanging.

 Kendal woke up to find ballons all over his bedroom floor.

 The birthday boy in the birthday chair

 The cake table

 Clear vase filled with legos and a lego #3

 The lego candy dish with Kendal's favorite candy- Hershey Kisses

 Kendal's lego name sign

 The lego block cake.

 The lego candy cake

 Both cakes

 Fork and spoon holder

 Lego juice boxes

 One of the only things Kendal asked for was "a big green present"

 Opening his presents.

 Blowing out his candles.

Preschool is over, now on to Kindergarten!

 

Back in May Kizzy graduated from Preschool. She is officially done, and will be a kindergartener this fall.  She is enrolled in Connections Academy, the online public school. We had some major concerns with our school district's schedule and bus system so we researched what our options would be and found Connections Academy. Kizzy will be a very young 5 when the school year starts, so if online school is not a good fit for her, the worst case scenario would be a repeat of her kindergarten year. Most of the children the same age as her within a week or two of her birthday are starting next year anyway, so repeating Kindergarten wouldn't be so bad for her. She is ready for the academic challenge though, and we are excited for all that CA has to offer.

 

 

Kizzy on her first day of Preschool

 

                                                        Kizzy on her last of Preschool

Home

People have requested pictures of our new home, so here they are!

 

 

Dining Area -note my fireplace in the corner

                             From this view you can see our sliding glass door and our patio beyond

 My kitchen as viewed from the dining area. Forgive the mess, I was taking pictures while baking cookies. I love this room! I have so many cupboards, all the cupboards have pullout drawers and organizers. I also love my low bar stool area, it's so nice for kids art projects and lunches.

                                                   View of the kitchen work area.

                                                  The entire kitchen/dining room

 This is the living room. It's too large to catch the whole room in one picture, so this is the front half.

 This is the second half. The wall backs up to the kitchen if you are wondering about the layout.

 View of the entry of the living room. That door you see is the coat closet at the top of the entry stairs.

                                            Basement guest room. (Also being used as an exercise room)

                                                         Downstairs guest bathroom

 1/2 of the family room, with the window seat. We have painters tape up because we are working on painting the trim and eventually the shelves. I plan to cover the window seat with new fabric. And hopefully soon we will have our couch down there and the tv hooked up!

 The other half of the family room. Above the fire place is the cut out for the TV. The room opens up into another area we've named the "library"

 Kids area! I love that it's down in the basement and I'm not tripping over it all the time!

                                                                    Our "library"

                                              Downstairs bedroom turned play room

               Downstairs bedroom turned office space. This room is still a work in progress. So far Kyle does his personal studying down here, It still has a ways to go before it can be used as a home office for either of us. And when the kids get older it will probably be the first to be turned into a bedroom.

                                              Back upstairs this is Kizzy's bedroom

 Directly across the hall is the kids bathroom. The bathtub needs to be replaced and is unusable, but the rest of the room is exactly what the kids need. Behind the door is a linen closet that is huge!

                                                     Karter's side of the boys bedroom.

                                                    Kendal's side of the boys room.

 This is a fraction of the walk in master closet. I couldn't get a good angle of the rest of the closet, but it is enormous! There's a window, built in ironing board and more than double the amount of organizers than you can see.

 Master bathroom. The tub is jetted and there is another sink I just didn't take a picture of it.

                                The master shower. Around the corner is the separate toilet area.

                                           The master bedroom. I love our stained glass window.

 This is currently our only hooked up tv, so this area of the master gets pretty messy from the kids. The door you see leads out to a patio that over looks the swing set. If you look in the ceiling you can see our skylight.  It's hard to see, but Kizzy is sitting in the lovesac watching something.

                                                The other half of the master bedroom.

                                The first patio off of the kitchen through the sliding glass doors.

         The second patio from the other kitchen door, the steps up lead to the area outside the master.

            The view of the swing set. I love that I can see it from the kitchen and the bedroom.

And there is the virtual tour of our home! Now come see it in person! We'll take visitors any time!

Celebrate!

Lately we've been celebrating this wonderful boy. It was Kizzy's idea to have a special night where we celebrated Kendal because he's officially potty trained! So last night after dinner we made homemade milkshakes and celebrated. He is a remarkable 2 (almost 3) year old.  I think he averages about 1 temper tantrum every 6 months... maybe. He always wants to help me. He's the first to put toys away, wash dishes, fold laundry, put clothes in the hamper. He also has been known to get the vacuum out all by himself and vacuum the living room rug. His all time favorite is mopping the bathroom floors with the swiffer.  Kendal is the best brother Kizzy and Karter could hope for. When ever he earns a potty treat (his pick, Hershey kisses) he always breaks the tip off and gives it to Karter. He's quick to give his big sisters hugs, and if she's sad about something he goes out of his way to find something to make her happy, even if it means sharing his beloved blankie. Whenever I pick up Karter to take him to another room Kendal will shout, "don't take my baby brother away! I want him!" If Kizzy is ever given an assignment, (eg. pick up your room, put this toy away, pick up your dirty clothes, etc.) more often than not I find that Kendal did it for her.  He has such a funny personality. He's extremely possesive and protective of his family. He is 100% a daddy's boy and cries everytime daddy goes to work.  I love my little guy and am so proud of him! (not to mention thrilled that I only have 1 kid in diapers.)

Lucky day

So February 8th is officially my lucky day. On Feb. 8, 2007 I was offered and accepted a ring from an amazing man, the love of my life and my best friend. Now 6 years later on Feb. 8, 2013 we are signing a contract on our very first house. Not just our first house, but our first home after living in my in-law's basement for the last 3.5 years. Yes, I like Feb. 8. It's a good day.

Speaking of...

So here's the latest on Kizzy's speech. We had her evaluated by a different speech therapist in December. This lady took some time to actually listen to our concerns. By the school district's standards, Kizzy still does not qualify for speech therapy, yet. If she tests the same after Feb. 19th (her half birthday) she would fall in the bracket of needing therapy. But an answer to what the root of her struggles might be came just today. I had wondered (mostly to myself) if her very slight tongue tie had anything to do with her unclear speech. Well Kizzy went to the dentist for the first time today. She has no cavaties (hooray!) but the dentist gave me a quick assesment and a very casual statement he made suddenly made everything make SO much sense. Kizzy has a crossbite. You can see it in her sweet little smile. It's not a big deal. Nothing that braces when she's older can't fix. But when the dentist told me about it, I noticed it for the first time and I suddenly got a very clear picture in my head. So I did a little research, found a few articles and medical journal publications and this is what I found: A crossbite is when teeth are not alligned properly. Notice how on one side of Kizzy's smile the lower teeth jut out over the upper teeth. This causes the room inside her mouth cavity to be too crowded for her tongue. She frequently bites the inside of her cheek and her tongue on accident. This is because of her crossbite. And since her tongue is crowded her words are not clear!  This is how she literally can pronounce each and every sound in the english language. Her "l"s are more pronounced than some 6 year olds I know. And yet her speech is so slurred.  While it's not a solution on helping her clear up her communication, it's a relief to have a WHY.