a little break

the girls had their last day of school at our lady of the presentation. 

i was super sad to say goodbye to such a wonderful school and

their amazing teachers, ms. kay and ms. susie.
look at them at the beginning of this year:

and now:

literally, i'm still not over it.

presentation closes down for a week before they start their fall semester and

since the girls weren't starting in warrensburg until the middle of august,

we scheduled a little family vacation down in gulf shores, alabama. 

i had never been but i know the destin/pensicola area enough to

know that the sand would be white and the ocean would be pretty.

good enough for me. 

(plus its wildly cheaper than the 30A area)

at first, ronnie and i thought we would fly down there... 

14 hours in a car with a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old is a special kind of torture.

BUT after realizing that we would have to buy 4 plane tickets because

both girls are now old enough for their own seat, we rethought driving.

hello $1700! 

plus, we would have needed to rent a car anyway, so why not take our

own and forget the hassel of packing car seats. 

blah. driving.

i'm happy to report that although the drive was loooooong, 

(so long that i think my hip is broken. yes, i'm that old.)

the girls did a wonderful job.

yes, there was fighting and screaming, but for the most part,

they would eat snacks, color, watch movies or sleep. 

ronnie and i made sure to stop at a chick-fila on the way there 

and back to give the girls the opportunity to run and play during our break.

in fact, we didn't even have them eat. 

we ordered their food to-go and let them run wild the whole time we were there.

i figured they could eat in the car and i would rather have them

burn some energy while they could. 

once we got to golf shores i was pleasantly surprised by our condo.

i booked this back in the spring and kind of forgot what i rented. 

we were basically in the penthouse of a condominium. 

both sides overlooked water and there was a pool and tennis court.

we had a full kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and two-n-half baths. 

it was perfect.

we went grocery shopping the first day there so we could

eat some meals at home. 

we only ate out once a day, which made it easy to swim or play at the beach

as long as possible because you didn't have to worry about 

changing clothes or getting ready for lunch. 

i loved it. 

the girls loved swimming. 

we went to both the pool and the beach everyday. 

gulf shores is also a nice little town with lots of 

restaurants, ice cream shops, a cute little park on the beach and shops.

i tried to read reviews before we went out so we

could just do the best things, since we weren't in town that much.

we loved a place called The Hangout and i would suggest 

going if you're down that way.

live music, beer, foam machine, good food, and a play place for kids.

it backs to the beach so we spent a whole afternoon here and then 

walked out to the beach that evening. 

it's nice to get away and it makes ronnie and i both want to go 

and do more and more. 

i hope since the kids are out of that baby stage, we will.

(i can't imagine vacation life when you don't have to worry about naps either)

we made it back yesterday and tomorrow the girls both start school in warrensburg. 

i cannot believe i have a kindergartner. 

she told me yesterday that she's scared and happy.

i'm excited for her. 

we went to meet her teacher yesterday and she seems sweet.

she's a great combo of 15 years experience but still young.

i think brette is going to like her.

i hope they both have great experiences this year. 

i've been skeptical that pulling them out of Presentation is the best 

decision, so i have my fingers crossed that this will prove

to be the best place for my kids.

first day of school pics to follow.

i'm just praying Brette lets me pick out her outfit.

reid is three

i've been waiting for this day.

i'm pretty sure i've been telling people that 

life should be a bit easier once my kids are 

three and five.

and here we are. 

i DO think i was right in a way.

brette and reid are very independent and i'm

asking them to do more and more, which

means i get to do less and less.

pick out your clothes.

load your dishes.

get your own drink. 

get yourself in the car.

its soo nice. 

but reid is just now three and she's 

also developing a little bit of a demanding attitude. 

i literally posted on facebook that she was pure sugar,

because she WAS. 

and then, she turned on me.

screeeeaming at me.

yelling at me to do what she wants. 

i guess i should have knocked on wood. 

she's still so sweet but she's very opinionated too. 

she's also very smart. 

she can spell her name, tell you her shapes, colors, counting.

i can't take the credit though, she learns SO MUCH at school.

during the fall/winter she went five days a week, but 

i wanted them to feel like they got a summer break, so 

she's only going three days a week right now. 

summer school is over next week and then she'll move to

her new school in warrensburg. 

i'm super sad to pull her out.

i can't tell you how much relief it is once you find somewhere you

are completely comfortable sending your kids.

i have that with our school in lee's summit.

i'm worried about starting over at this new school and 

part of me wishes i could just leave her in 

lee's summit for the next two years. 

we'll see how warrensburg goes and if i'm not happy (or reid)

then i might re-enroll her in lee's summit and just take

her with me everyday. 

we shall see. 

what else can i share about reid...

-she LOVES purple. 

everything has to be purple.

her room, her cup, her clothes. 

-she also loves skirts and dresses.

if you ever see reid out in a pair of shorts,

it was most likely because i forced her to wear them.

she always wants a dress on and she will probably end up 

wearing two to three a day, just because she likes clothes so much.

-she doesn't wear a diaper anymore at night and we

took the front railing off her crib so she can crawl in and out of it.

she's been doing really well and still sleeping through the night, 

but she's not sleeping late anymore.

brette was always my early riser but reid is even beating brette up.

she's up somewhere between 5:45 and 6:15.

it's brutal. 

- she loves snacks. 

we can eat dinner and five minutes later she'll ask for a snack.

most of the time she wants crackers, granola bars, cereal or fruit,

but she eats most anything and literally she's eating all. the. time.

- she won't let me do her hair. 

it's not cute and i hate sending her off for the day looking

like a scragglemuff, but i also hate fighting her to get her hair up.

i've been taking extra hair ties to school to see if her teacher

can talk her into putting it up. 

it's annoying and i hope she grows out of it fast. 

-she loves my parents and our dogs more than anything.

literally if you wanted reid to live her best life you 

would just give her mimi and papa with louie and leia. 

nothing makes her happier. 

i'm pretty sure when we moved into our house reid would

have chosen to stay at my parent's instead. 

her and my parents have a special bond. 

those are some basics about reid.

she's such a funny, sweet little thing and i 

can't tell you how much fun it is to see her grow and

turn into this little person. 

i think this year is going to be so much fun and

i'm excited for it all. 

love you reid! i hope you had an amazing 3rd birthday!

almost there

***so i wrote this on friday and never posted it.***

it's moving weekend!

wahoooooooooooo!

our house is not completely done, but

it's close enough that we can live there.

we still need to stone the fireplace and

tile the master bathroom floor and shower,

but hey, who needs those things?

if you recall we moved to warrensburg over

easter weekend - - the first of april and

here we are, mid-july and just now actually getting to

live in our house.

i plan to sleep there sunday night.

here's a little peek inside.

before we load our crap in.

before our dogs poop the floor.

before the juice gets spilled.

here's our house before life happens.

brette turns five

i've been meaning to write a little post about brette

and her birthday, but her festivities lasted all month, 

so i've waited until all our celebrating was done. 

we started off her birthday with a family dinner.

we met my brother and his girls, with my parents in 

lee's summit at brette's favorite pizza place. 

her actual birthday fell on a tuesday so she had school,

but her teacher invited me to come join the class for a

special presentation on brette's life and then i read her 

class a story because they don't allow parents to bring in treats anymore.

wah wah.

i did make her some rice crispy treats though for that evening, 

just as she requested instead of birthday cake. 

the week after her birthday, as a gift, we took her to a royals game.

reid had never been and i thought brette would like that as a gift.

it was blazing hot, but our seats were in the shade and as long

as we kept the drinks and snacks coming, the girls didn't complain. 

somewhere in here, brette had a doctors appointment for her

five year well-check.

we changed doctor's offices now that we've moved to the burg and

 we're going to one of my best friends in warrensburg.

i've known him since i was a toddler and it's so funny

that he's now our family doctor. 

brette knows him so she wasn't as nervous and he said

she seems happy and healthy and right on track.

she's 40 lbs and 41 inches tall. 

my baby has gotten so big. 

but she wrote our names for him and drew shapes,

hopped on one foot and answered his questions.

basically, i was only there to watch and it was crazy to see just

how grown up she seems.

(insert cry emoji)

and then finally two weeks after her actual birthday, we found

the time to have a little party with her friends from school.

her class has like 9 kids in it, so its the perfect little size for a party.

we invited everyone to the splash pad for pizza and cake.

such an easy party and brette loved life. 

so here we are, entering july and we can finally call brette's

birthday over, but no worries, i get to start celebrating ronnie 

next week and reid two weeks after that. 

my family was literally all born within a few weeks of each other.

makes for an eventful summer. 

ps- still not living in the house,

but flooring starts tomorrow.

i. can't. wait.

heading into summer

we've been pretty busy recently.

mother's day with family

campering for memorial day weekend

brette graduated from pre-k

moms night out

work picnic

and a fair.

lots of fun stuff and in between, ronnie is still

out at the house almost every night after work

trying to get stuff done.

i honestly don't even know what all he's doing,

but as long as i get to move in soon, i don't even care.

our painter started and he is close the having the basement done.

then he'll get started on the main floor. 

meanwhile, ronnie will need to tile the bathrooms and 

redo the fireplace and mantle. 

then the last step, flooring!

i'll take pics over the weekend of the basement and

share them soon. 

it looks SO GOOD with the white trim.

i'm getting really excited to decorate and buy some new furniture too.

i've been busy looking online, but it's so hard to actually

purchase something without the space being done.

either way, the fact that we're close enough to start thinking 

about furniture is exciting to me. 

pics soon!