you've got mail

kevyn has been in a real funk lately.  usually she is my "less challenging" child.  (that's me finding my nice words.)  she no longer wants to go to bed at night nor does she want to go to school in the morning.  we went from easy bedtimes that took maybe 15 minutes to lots of tears and no less than a hour to get her to wind down.  and it doesn't help that i have her sharing a room with kelby and her antics sometimes wake up kelby...

on school mornings she wakes up extra grumpy.  she doesn't want to eat breakfast, or get dressed, or get in the car.  everything is a struggle.  when we pull up to her school the kid literally goes nuts.  her teacher insists that as soon as she pries her off me i leave, kevyn is completely fine and does well in class.

and her overall behavior at home has just become, well, not kevyn.  she's a grouch.  lots of negativity about everything.  it drives me nuts!

last night after saying our prayers, i asked kevyn to say another prayer with me.  we prayed that all the unkind words and thoughts would leave her heart and that her heart would only be filled with nice thoughts and words.

that lasted for about 15 seconds.  when i questioned her actions and reminded her about what we just prayed about she stated "God hasn't checked his emails yet."

geez...

~becky

spring break 2014

unlike last year, this year for spring break with out busy schedules (and lack of planning) we decided to stay relatively local.  we ended up camping three nights at lake somerville.  we had planned on staying four, but mr. weatherman predicted bad weather for the fourth night so we packed up early and came home.

our days were spent kite flying, trail hiking, fishing, teepee making, bike riding, playground playing, book reading, and lots of s'more eating.  overall it was really relaxing and nice not to be on a schedule.  i'm totally guilty of forgetting that sometimes less is more in the way of vacations (and so much else).

and i'm totally going to use the less is more excuse for the short narrative on this post.  ;)  

you can check out my instagram feed in the right side bar for a few more pics from our trip. ->

this last picture makes me smile.  i was letting neely take a few pictures with my camera to keep her busy instead of trying to climb on the rocks and this is one of the pictures she took.  love it!

~becky

natalie's 7th birthday

i'm a little behind on this post...

natalie turned 7!  can you believe it?!?

and we now have to refer to her only as natalie.  not nat, or nat nat, or nattie.  or any other random nickname we come up with.  only natalie.  she's definitely growing up.  ;)

in our small town your pretty much stuck with having your party at your home, the park, or the bowling alley.  natalie decided to have her party at the bowling alley this year.  no complaints from me though...  bowling alley parties are super easy!  

the girls patiently waiting for neely's ball to make it to the end...

for some (ahem, neely), you get applauded when your ball actually makes it to the end.  who cares about how many pins get knocked down.  ;)

we didn't really keep score.  in fact, we didn't even really play games.  the kids just all took turns trying to knock down the pins.

of course bowling is only a small portion of what you actually do at a bowling party for 7 year olds...  you also spend WAY too much money on games that you are much to young to play for a fair chance of winning.

my sneaky eldest took all her report card money and tooth fairy money that she had received the week prior and cashed it in for coins for the games.  nice kelby.  i only found out when she asked me for $7 to buy a yo-yo at school (a fundraiser) and i reminded her about her report card money and tooth fairy money.  things got really awkward really quick.  

i think we could have bought the darn horses for the amount of quarters we put into this thing for these two...

happy birthday sweet girl!  i hope your day was super special!

(now if y'all could all just quit growing up i would really appreciate that!)

~becky