The Best and Worst of Times in May

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

What a whirlwind of a month. We had some awesome days, and some really really tough days. I’ll get right into it…

Brax turned SIX!

The first Monday after we got back from Disney was Braxton’s 6th birthday! We had so much fun celebrating our oldest boy. We started out with a birthday tradition of donuts for breakfast. While he was at school, my sister had Crumbl Cookies delivered to our house to surprise him when he got home!

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He has been obsessed with all things Mario (especially Mario Kart) lately, so he was STOKED about his birthday present from us…a Rainbow Road Mario Kart track!

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Once Kinsie got home from school, we got carry out dinner and went to one of Brax’s favorite parks. His dinner choice was sushi (just like his mama). So we enjoyed our sushi at the park, then let the kids play for a while.

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We also ventured down to our favorite waterfall area of the park too. Even Evie got to join!

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After fun at the park, we went to get our favorite ice cream, Jiffy Treat!

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Evie got to try ice cream for the first time, and so gobbled it down! Afterwards, she was shivering! It must have made her cold!

It was such a fun day. I love my kids’ birthdays. I love spoiling them and making them feel special all day. I think our boy had a wonderful birthday!

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First Pool Weekend

We stayed at my parents’ house for Mother’s Day weekend, which became the first pool weekend. It wasn’t THAT warm…maybe high 60s/low 70s. But the kids still really wanted to swim…and they did. They swam Saturday night and all day Sunday. The pool was warm, so as long as they stayed in, they were good. They even had a poolside lunch so they didn’t have to get out!

PoolDay

Brody turned TWO!

I’m not really ok with the fact that my baby is two…but I am also obsessed with watching him learn and grow every day. He keeps us busy, but constantly entertained. He is so funny, loves doing everything his siblings are doing, and is very independent. He is also the cutest stinkin’ little boy ever!

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Again, we started our morning with birthday donuts!

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He was SO excited about his birthday present. He is obsessed with his Daddy’s Jeep, so we got him his own! He spent the majority of his day riding around in it!

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Brax was already out of school, but Kinsie still had a week left. Since both boys had May birthdays, we took them to Build-a-Bear to make birthday bears. Brax made his roar like a dinosaur when you squeeze his paw, he had a Stitch outfit, and a glowing light saber. Brody just picked out a basketball, so I added the IU shirt to go with it!

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After his nap, we got out the water toys for the afternoon. Then we had Mother Bear’s pizza for dinner.

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Brody loves the Happy Birthday song, but he does NOT like it sung to him and being the center of attention…as you can see from the second picture below! Typical toddler! We had another great day celebrating our baby boy!

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Take me out to the Ballgame

This month involved lots and lots of time at the ball fields. The kids are enjoying their seasons of softball and baseball, and we are loving watching them. Brody mainly loves eating snacks, climbing on Brax and Kinsie, and putting on sunscreen!

Games

“Swimming” Birthday Party

We had another combined birthday party for the boys. Brax wanted to have a swimming party at my parents’ house with his cousins, so that is what we planned on! The forecast looked like it was supposed to be a beautiful day, with maybe a few scattered showers later in the afternoon….but this is Indiana. And the forecast is almost always wrong!

Party-1

Right before the kids planned on going swimming, it started storming. Luckily they still enjoyed playing together in the basement for a while.

I used my Cricut skills to make a banner, birthday shirts, and party favors for the kids – color changing cups with their names on them. Brody especially loved all of the cars, trucks and bus decorations!

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Party-2

The storm stopped for about 30 minutes at one point, so the kids all sprinted out and swam for a little while. As soon as we heard thunder again, they had to get out. But they enjoyed it while it lasted! Afterwards we did the piñata and presents in the garage.

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The boys loved all their gifts from everyone!

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Finally, we came inside to sing happy birthday and have cake and ice cream. Again, Brody cried and hid under the table when everyone sang to him! But he loved the cake and spending time with all of his cousins!

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Even though the day turned out different than we expected, we still had a great day. The kids were genuinely happy to be together and play with their cousins, and that is all that mattered!

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End of the School Year Activities

May is always SO busy but SO much fun. I love all of the end of the year activities that happen…especially now that the world is opening back up and schools are having programs, etc.

Guest Day – Brax’s school has a “Guest Day,” where they can choose any adult guest to come join them at school for the day. They weren’t able to have it last year because of Covid, but they were able to do it this year. Brax was very excited to pick his Papa!

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End of Year Luau – Brax’s school always goes all out with the end of the year luau. They decorate the hallways, play Hawaiian music, and plan lots of games and activities.

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Family Fun Night – Kinsie’s school held a “Family Fun Night” one evening. Ryan was working, so I brought the kids and they had a blast. There was a book fair, snacks, games, and crafts.

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Writing Celebration Picnic – Kinsie’s class held an end of year picnic, where the students got to share their writing from the school year with us, then we had a picnic lunch. Brody loved getting to see his sissy at school and eating lunch with her!

EOY-Picnic

Last Days of School – I can’t believe how much Braxton grew this year…physically, academically, socially, emotionally…the list goes on. I know I made the right choice sending him to half day Kindergarten, and now I am 1,000% sure he is ready for 1st grade!

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Kinsie also had a fantastic year. She’s always been smart, but she was painfully shy. She made SO much progress this year and made lots of friends!

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Kindergarten Grad

We loved getting to see Brax graduate from Kindergarten! It was really important to me to see this. If you recall, I didn’t get to see Kinsie graduate from Kindergarten. This was when Covid shut the world down. They had a drive-through graduation, and I was stuck in the hospital with Brody, so Ryan and my mom brought her and recorded it for me. So I was very happy to get to see Brax’s graduation!

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Brax had the sweetest Kindergarten class. He was emotional before the last day because he didn’t want to leave his friends. We are so proud of our Kindergarten grad!

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Lots of Hours Outside

We are trucking along with our 1,000 Hours Outside goal! We are just short of 500 at the end of May! We’ve been able to get outside for at least an hour or two every single day lately. It helps that we recently got some nice outdoor furniture for our back patio. We’ve been eating lunch and dinner outside pretty much every day!

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We also just hang out on the patio and color or play too. We spend a lot of time on the driveway with all the cars, scooters, bubbles, chalk, and sports equipment.

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When Kinsie was still in school, the boys had lots of quality brother time!

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We even tested out our new fire pit to make s’mores!

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Lately, the kids even want to play outside when it’s raining!

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Ending our month with Covid

After 2 years, it finally got us. We were careful for SO long, and lately we let our guard down and started living our life again. We knew the risk was low, but still there. I thought for sure that if we were going to get it, we’d get it from a place like Disney World…but no. Kinsie got it from someone at school on her last week of school.

On the last day of school, we got an email saying that someone in Kinsie’s class tested positive. The next day, she started getting a sore throat. The next morning, she also had a headache and a fever, and we pretty much knew what that meant. We tested her, and it showed up positive right away.

Covid-Kinstest

At that point, we knew we all had been exposed and would most likely all get it too, but we still tried to mitigate the spread just in case. We put a TV in Kinsie’s room and let her quarantine in there. If she came out of her room, we all wore masks. She came out to eat dinner with us…another reason our outdoor patio furniture came in handy! But other than that, she actually enjoyed her alone time in her room!

Covid-quarantine

The day after Kinsie tested positive, I started to get a scratchy throat. I was certain that I had it, and I tested myself that night, but it was negative. I was still convinced that I had it, so I tested again the next day, and low and behold…positive.

Covid-Karatest

Again, we knew Ryan and the boys would probably get it, but I still wore a mask around them until I knew for sure. Luckily Kinsie already was starting to feel better, so she came outside with us to play and take walks. Ryan continued to test himself throughout this entire process, and each time, he tested negative, so he continued to go to work (They are too short-staffed to lose any doctors from being close contacts).

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The day after my positive test, I was MISERABLE. I was up all night throwing up and suffering from body aches and chills. Luckily Ryan was off work on this day, so he was able to help with the kids. Even still, Brody always wants to lay and hang on me, and Evie always wants to play…so I didn’t get to relax quite as much as I would have wished.

On this day, Brody woke up from his nap with a fever. We decided not to even test him, we pretty much knew he was positive too.

Covid-Karadown

The next few days I spent trying my best to recover. I napped when Brody did and tried to just sit down and “relax” as much as possible. But I was pretty miserable for a few days. The body aches and extreme exhaustion completely kicked my butt. My best comparison to how I felt was when I had Swine Flu in 2009, plus the exhaustion of the first trimester of pregnancy all wrapped up in one sickness. Covid was the only other time I felt that kind of exhaustion. And I’m vaccinated!! I am so grateful that I am vaccinated because it could have been SO much worse for me had I not been.

Brody had a fever for about 1.5 days, and a little bit of congestion, and then he was 100% fine and back to himself. He is still our only unvaccinated family member, so I was SO grateful that he had the most mild case.

The CDC recommends testing yourself if you’re a close contact about 5 days after the exposure, so Ryan and Brax (still completely asymptomatic at this point) both tested, and were both negative. I wasn’t sure how they had dodged it! But then, 3 days later, almost a full week after Kinsie tested positive, Brax started going downhill. He wasn’t acting like himself, and he kept telling me he was so tired. Later in the evening, I felt his forehead and could tell he had a fever. I tested him right then, and another positive.

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He had a high fever and some congestion for about 1.5-2 days, and wasn’t his usual silly self, but after just a couple days, he was much better. It honestly made it easier once he had it, because then Ryan was working every day, and the rest of us all already had it, so we didn’t have to quarantine or mask up or any mitigation measures at that point.

RYAN STILL NEVER GOT IT! We couldn’t believe it. Maybe all of the small exposures he had at work over the last 2 years gave him some immunity. We don’t know, this virus is crazy.

As of today, the kids have been stuck at home for 10 days. Brax still has a couple days to go, and then they will all be free! Thank goodness it was nice outside, so we spent tons of time outside.

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The kids also did lots of crafting, LEGO projects, and Kinsie made a bunch of different small desserts that she came up with on her own.

Quarantine-crafting

They really were champs through all of it. I tried so hard to protect them for 2 years, but I knew the risk would always be there, and at least we made it until 2 out of our 3 kids were vaccinated, and once the variants were a little more mild.

Here’s a breakdown of all of our symptoms:

Kinsie: sore throat, fever, headache, congestion
Kara: scratchy throat, tired/weak, body aches, vomiting, coughing
Brody: fever, some congestion
Brax: fever, tired, some congestion
Ryan: Miracle human

So now hopefully Covid is behind us and we can TRULY move on. I will still get Brody vaccinated as soon as it is available for him, and the kids will get boosters after a few weeks as well. This virus is no joke and I hope to never get it again! We’re looking forward to officially starting SUMMER! We can’t wait to venture out to parks and splash pads and the pool! Enjoy our 1 Second Everyday video for the month of May!

3Mar2022

Feelin’ Good in February

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

February is usually one of my least favorite months. We usually have the worst snow storms in February, and even though it is a shorter month, it always just seems like it takes forever to get to March. But this time, it was better…probably because we went on our first real vacation since October 2019! But before I get to that, I’ll discuss the rest of our month.

Spending Time Outside (Before the Snow)

The first day of February was amazing – it was in the 60’s and sunny. Brody and I spent most of the day outside. And when we did go inside to eat lunch, he didn’t want to take off his hat and boots! The funniest part is that is was warm enough that he didn’t even need a hat or boots – but that’s what he wanted!

Once the kids got home from school, we went to the walking trail. Kinsie and Brax brought their bikes and Brody rode in his little car. It was a perfect day to ride on the trail and let Brax practice his new no-training wheels bike skills! There was a huge snow and ice storm coming the next day – so we savored the amazing day. (Also, don’t judge Brody’s crazy hair – he was getting a haircut in a few days!)

Snow Days

As I said, the very next day we were due for ice and then snow. Kinsie’s school went ahead and called in for e-Learning days for the next few days since the ice was supposed to start that afternoon. Kinsie had a class meeting on her iPad, and she brought a friend to class! When she was doing her school work, Brody wanted to do some too!

We didn’t get much snow the first day, just some ice. But the next day, it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. It snowed heavily for the entire day. Luckily Ryan was off for a few days, so he got to enjoy being snowed in with us. Once Kinsie was done with her schoolwork, we all bundled up and went outside. The kids loved sledding, catching snowflakes, and playing “arctic animals.” However, it was REALLY cold and windy so we didn’t spend as much time outside as we could have liked.

The next few days were much more bearable. The snow stayed but it was a tad warmer, no wind, and the sun was out…so we ventured outside for several hours each day. We enjoyed LOTS of snow activities including sledding, making a snowman, snow painting, snow volcanoes, following animal tracks and more!

And of course we had to make snow ice cream!

Even when the kids went back to school, Brody and I still tried to venture outside whenever we could. He’s always in a better mood outside!

One day after school, Brax had a sledding playdate with his best friend from school. They had a wonderful time together!

Haircut for Bro

This handsome boy was LONG overdue for a haircut…he hadn’t gotten one since September! But between the Omicron surge, the holidays, and the fact that Brody HATES haircuts, it just wasn’t a priority. But since we were going on vacation soon, I knew we had to get it done. He definitely didn’t enjoy it, but it’s Ryan’s cousin who cuts his hair and she was patient with him and loves him so she didn’t mind – and he looked SO handsome when he was done!

Gym Ninjas

Kinsie is still loving gymnastics, and recently I signed Brax up for a class called Gym Ninjas at the same place and time. He’s had one class so far and he LOVED it! One of his best friends from school is in his class too so he was so happy!

Valentine’s Day

We got to squeeze in some fun Valentine’s Day activities before we went on vacation. We always love making cookies, and we even got to enjoy making some with the kids’ cousin Griffin!

And here are the cookies we made at home!

Brax’s class needed an extra parent volunteer for their Valentine’s party, so his teacher asked me to step in. I love getting to volunteer for his class! I love seeing him in the school environment and with his friends.

And here’s just a picture of my cute boys in their matching Valentine’s shirts!

A tradition we started a few years ago includes a heart for each kid every day starting February 1 until Valentine’s Day with a reason why we love them.

Another tradition includes a scavenger hunt around the house that leads to their Valentines gifts!

We love our sweet valentines!!

VACATION

We finally went on a real vacation for the first time in over 2 years! We didn’t feel comfortable traveling with our unvaccinated, unmasked infant for a while, but also…life kept us very busy the last 2 years. We finished residency, moved to a new state, started a new job, had a baby, and built a house all during a global pandemic…so vacation wasn’t exactly at the top of our priority list for a while. But now that we’ve settled into our new lives, and 2/3 kids are fully vaccinated, and cases are dropping significantly, we were ready for a vacation. My parents were going to our condo in Siesta Key for 3 weeks, and they invited us to join at the tail end of the trip. I was so excited to get my babies on the beach!

Brody’s First Flight

I really haven’t taken Brody many places in his life, so this trip was a whole new world for him – starting with the airport. He was so nervous with all the people and new things to see. He clung on me like a koala bear all through the airport, including through security. Once we were on the plane, he got more comfortable and acted like his crazy self.

Our flights were later in the evening, and we had to stop in Atlanta for a connecting flight. Brody was a wild man on the flights! He just didn’t want to sit still. Ryan and I took turns throughout the first flight passing him back and forth. Kinsie and Brax were absolute traveling champs, making it much easier on us. The second flight was better because it wasn’t a full flight, so we found an empty row and Brody was able to have his own seat and more room to wiggle. I was hoping he would sleep on this flight since it was well past 10pm at this point…but nope. There was too much to do and see! Overall, he was a great traveler!

The Beach

We were all SO excited to get to the beach the next morning. It had been at least 3 years since we’d been to the beach, so Kinsie and Brax didn’t remember much about it either and were so excited. Brody wasn’t sure what to think about the sand between his toes at first, but he quickly learned to love it and was a happy little beach baby! He especially loved the ocean…but we had to watch him like a hawk because he kept wanting to run straight into the ocean!

Around lunchtime, my sister’s family flew in also and met us at the condo. The kids were so excited to have their cousins to play with on the beach! They spent the next few days digging holes, building castles, boogie-boarding, and finding sea shells.

The pure joy on this sweet boy’s face while he experienced so many new things made my heart so happy!

Enjoying the sunset with my girl

Big Cat Habitat

After a couple days on the beach, our family needed a little bit of a break (we all had sunburns!), and my dad had told us about a cat sanctuary nearby, so we decided to check it out. It was called the Big Cat Habitat, and it was really neat! Kinsie and Brax both got to feed a bear and a liger (a lion mixed with a tiger).

There was also a fun petting zoo area.

Eventually, Brody conked out in the stroller with his hand in the goldfish bag!

Kinsie and Brax showed off their stickers proving that they fed the animals. It was a fun day!

Other Florida Fun

Our time in Siesta Key also included sitting on the dock waving to the boats passing by, shopping at the village and sharing snacks and smoothies with cousins, swimming at the pool, and lots and lots of crazy cousin fun!

DISNEY

I’ve been dying to take Brody to Disney World since he LOVES Mickey Mouse and all his friends. When we decided to go to Florida, we really wanted to make it happen. We planned on driving to Orlando and spending the last 2 nights of our vacation there, including 1 day at a Disney Park.

Fun at the Resort

It was my sister’s idea to stay at a Disney resort, and I am so glad we did. Not only are the resorts amazing, but you get extra perks at the Disney parks when you stay there. We left Siesta Key Saturday morning and headed to Orlando. We got there around lunch time, and got to spend a few hours by the pool. The kids loved the slides and splash pad area!

After swimming, we went to Disney Springs for a little while, but it was insanely crowded. We went to the big Disney Store and walked around a little, but it was honestly hard to maneuver around so many people and trying to stay distanced. As we walked around, Brody took a little stroller catnap…which made him wired later on at bedtime! But eventually we all went to sleep and prepared for our big Disney day!

A Magical Day at Hollywood Studios

We chose to spend our 1 Disney park day at Hollywood Studios because it has some of the most sought after rides that are often hard to get into unless you get lightning lane passes for them, and you can often only get lightning lane passes for them by staying at a Disney resort. It was also great because it was so close to our resort, so we were able to take the skyliner to the park!

Here’s our whole crew with our neon tie-dye shirts (that I helped make with my Cricut!)

The best part about the entire day for me was Brody’s reactions to Mickey and Minnie. He loved them SO much, just like I knew he would! He could have stayed there with them all day if we let him. All the other kids enjoyed seeing the characters too, but mostly everyone loved watching Brody’s interactions with them!

We also met Olaf, Chip and Dale, Pluto, and Doc McStuffins. Character interactions certainly aren’t what they used to be before Covid, but they were still magical…especially through the eyes of a toddler!

We also had some fun dining reservations throughout our day…including lunch at the Sci-Fi drive-in theater…

And drinks and snacks at Oga’s Cantina. The girls particularly enjoyed the limes that came with the drinks!

Papa and Yaya were in the happy place with all their babies!

We had a blast on all the rides. This was Brax’s first time riding Slinky Dog Dash and he LOVED it! Thanks to lightning lane passes and child swap, Kinsie and Brax were both able to ride it 3 times…and Brody loved watching us all ride the “Doggy!” We also loved Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Toy Story Mania, Aliens Swirling Saucers, and Rise of the Resistance (Ryan’s fave!)

The sweetest cousin crew!

For dinner, we had reservations at Hollywood & Vine, which is a character meal. We were excited for Brody to get to see more characters! Before dinner, he dozed off for a nap, but we woke him up in time to see the characters.

It was truly a wonderful day. It was crowded, but very manageable. Having Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes were SO helpful and let us ride almost everything. My sister did an amazing job planning and booking everything, and now I’m learning everything I can from her so I can do it when we return to Disney in April!

Heading Home

The next morning, we were able to sleep in and have a nice breakfast. The kids enjoyed Mickey waffles with a view! Afterwards, we packed up and headed back to Sarasota for our afternoon flight home.

My parents were on our flight this time, which was nice to help with the kids. It was also a direct flight which was very helpful too. We were all exhausted so it was nice to finally relax on the plane. The kids watched shows on our iPads and Brody actually slept most of the flight! It was a quiet, relaxing way to end our wonderful vacation.

Bookends of Nice Weather

We started February with beautiful weather, and ended it with more beautiful weather. When we got back from Florida, it was freezing, raining, or freezing rain for about a week. So when it finally was warm enough to be outside again, the kids were ready!

It was a great month, and I don’t usually say that about February! We may have to plan more February Florida trips in the future because it definitely helped break up the dreadful winter months. Now we are ready for SPRING!

Here is our February 1 Second Everyday. Enjoy!

1Feb2022

The Never-ending January

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

WHY does January always seem to drag on? Every year, it never fails. January seems like a year long. We had a pretty good month, but I’m ready to move on. I’m over you, January.

We managed to stay pretty busy for a winter month even though we hardly go anywhere. We’ve had lots of home projects, activities, and goals to keep us busy and keep our sanity in tact! Here is a recap of our LONG January…

1,000 Hours Outside Challenge

We heard of this challenge from a friend, and knew it was right up our alley. So as a family, we have a goal to spend 1,000 hours outside this year. Living in Indiana, I knew the winter months would be a challenge, but I also knew that we should be able to make up for it in the other seasons. Overall, we had a really cold January. But if the temperature was around 25 degrees or higher, we would try to spend at least a little time outside here and there.

We’ve had to get creative when it’s cold and the kids didn’t really want to venture outside. So we’ve done a few special walks, like an apple cider walk and a hot cocoa walk!

Brody has been the biggest champ about this so far. He loves being outside, even when it’s cold, raining, you name it. He loves bundling up and playing outside or going on walks with me when the kids are at school.

It took a little while, but we finally got a few days of snow. They were minimal, but the kids were still excited!

When it snowed around an inch or two, we spent the evening after school outside as a family.

The kids have been dying to try out their new sleds and our sledding hill on the side of our house. Even Brody loved it! And like last year, Ryan strapped the sled to his Jeep and pulled the big kids around the open lots.

We spent an entire weekend outside playing in the snow…and got some good hours into our goal!

And of course every time we come inside from snow play, the kids have hot cocoa!

My Newest Hobby (and obsession!)

For Christmas, Ryan got me a Cricut Maker 3. I’ve always wanted one, but never wanted to buy it for myself. After watching hours of videos learning how to use it, I’ve finally got the hang of it and have had so much fun creating projects!

I started out with a few vinyl projects. I made myself a mug, and I personalized this baseball water bottle for my nephew’s birthday.

Next, I learned how to do iron-on projects. I made shirts for everyone in the family!

Our family has been OBSESSED with the new Disney movie, Encanto. Even Brody loves it, and always wants to watch it or listen to the amazing music. He calls it “No No,” from the song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” I made Brody his own “No No” shirt, and made myself a shirt to channel my inner Luisa!

My nephew Briggs, turned 10 this month! He was having a birthday party with some of his buddies, and they were going to play Minute to Win It games and needed blind folds, so I made some for all his friends. We did purple because it is their school colors. I had 2 bandanas left, so I made headbands for my nieces!

Freezefest

I heard about this event from a friend, and knew we needed to check it out. It was called “Freezefest,” and you could walk around and look at really neat ice sculptures. The kids loved it!

100th Day of School

Kinsie and Brax both celebrated their 100th day of school this month. Neither of their schools asked them to make special shirts, but my kids are something extra so they wanted to do that anyway. Kinsie really wanted to wear the shirt she made in Kindergarten with 100 gems on it. I was surprised it still fit her!

Brax was excited for me to make him a shirt with my Cricut. His teacher and his friends loved his shirt!

Brax’s class had a “100 Museum,” where they each brought in 100 items. Last year he brought 100 dinosaurs, and he wanted to bring something different this year, so he brought 100 animals. They also each had a display with a photo of what they would look like at 100 years old, and what they would buy if they had $100. He said he wanted to buy a Dino Lego set!

Cousin Play Date

My parents and my sister’s family came over one Saturday to spend the day with us. There was still some snow on the ground so the kids all brought their snow gear and they played outside for a long time! They had a blast!

Afterwards, they came inside and they all had different snack requests, so we did them all! They had hot cocoa, snow ice cream, Gatorade snow cones (made from real snow), and cookies!

Home Projects and Activities

When it’s too cold to be outside, the kids find fun things to keep them busy inside. One night, Kinsie set up a “Fancy Restaurant” in the living room, with snacks, water, a fire, and soft music!

Kinsie loves playing teacher, and I always told her we would set up a little classroom for her sometime. The problem is, she doesn’t want her little brothers messing it all up (as they definitely would!) So I set up a small classroom area in the guest room closet. She loves it and often plays teacher with her stuffed animals in there when she needs a break from the boys.

Ryan loves doing science experiments with the kids. One of the Christmas gifts we got for the kids was an Owl Pellet dissecting kit. Science is usually more of Ryan’s thing, but I used to dissect owl pellets with my 5th graders so this brought me back to my teaching days! The kids loved it! I mean, what kid doesn’t love dissecting owl puke and finding rodent bones?

This next picture is my life summed up in a picture. Oh the life of a mom of boys!

We are always reading in this family! Brody loves picking books in his room, crawling up onto his chair and reading.

The kids got a 300 piece Encanto puzzle for Christmas. At first, both Kinsie and Brax were helping me with it, but Kinsie quickly got bored and did something else, but Brax and I kept going. We finished it within a day or so, and he loved it and wanted to do another one right away! I ordered a few more puzzles online and we kept going. A few more with 300 pieces, and one with 400 pieces. If you remember, Brax has always been my puzzle boy. He was doing 50 piece puzzles independently as a 2 year old. Now he rediscovered his love for puzzles!

Home Adventures with Bro

With the Omicron variant surging in Indiana this month, Brody and I stayed home as much as possible. The only places I take him are to drop the kids off at school, and grandparents’ houses. Luckily, he doesn’t know any different than to be home all the time. Even so, life at home with Brody is never boring!

Brody is still majorly a mama’s boy, but lately he has really loved his Daddy time. Whenever Ryan is home, Brody is all over him! He loves climbing on him and dancing with him. And it’s a nice reprieve for me to have Brody hanging on Ryan instead of me every once in a while!

That was our January. February is usually a rough month as far as winter blues and bad weather, but we are looking forward to February because we are going on our first real vacation in over 2 years! We are going to Florida for a long President’s Day weekend and we could not be more excited! Now that all of us are vaccinated (except Brody), and Omicron is starting to chill a little, I feel a little better about traveling again. I can’t wait to get my kids on the beach!!

Here is our 1 Second Everyday for January. Enjoy!

1May2021

A Much Better April

Posted in Baby, Family by klmatthews16

This April was MUCH better than last year. Last year the start of the pandemic was still fresh and overwhelming, the kids were doing online school, I was insanely pregnant not knowing what my birthing experience would be like with the new Covid restrictions, and to top it all off, my grandma and sweet dog Addie passed away. I remember my emotions last April. I remember crying randomly every day. Even though it was a year ago, these emotions are still fresh on the surface when I think back to that time. My anxiety was through the roof, and pregnancy hormones added another level of stress. But here we are now. We are still in the pandemic, but we are finally seeing better days ahead. We are finally starting to creep toward normalcy. The place I was in this time last year is tough to remember, but it makes me even more appreciative of where we are now. We are stronger as individuals, we are more firm in our faith- despite not stepping into a church in over a year, and we are closer as a family than ever before.

Spring weather is officially here! Arkansas always had to best spring weather. Indiana’s spring weather is hit or miss…this year we’ve had a lot of rain and a few random super cold days, but overall it’s been nice to be able to be outside on a regular basis again. Both of the kids started up some spring sports which has kept us pretty busy too…it’s taken some time to re-adjust to actually having activities on the calendar, but it feels good to get out of the house a little more. Here is how our April went down…

Easter

Ryan had to work on Easter, so we did some family Easter activities the days before. We made Easter cookies, had an egg hunt in the backyard, and dyed Easter eggs. The kids loved it all, and Brody enjoyed all of his first Easter experiences as well!

Ryan didn’t work until 9am on Easter, so he got to spend Easter morning with us and see the kids with their Easter baskets. Once he left for work, the kids and I loaded up the van and went to my parents’ house to spend the day. Can I just say how nice it is to be able to do this again? Holidays, birthdays and other special days were always so hard while living in Arkansas…because Ryan was usually working and I really missed my family. Now, we just have a quick hour drive and we don’t have to spend these days alone anymore, and I am SO grateful for that!

We had a great Easter Day. It was a beautiful day, so we spent most of it outside. The kids had a cousin egg hunt, we had an awesome dinner, and other than that, the kids just played together outside all day, and the adults just hung out together. It was such a beautiful and relaxing day celebrating our risen King!

Kinsie’s Softball

Kinsie’s softball season is in full force now, and she is enjoying it! It took some time for her to get the hang of it, but we have been practicing with her almost every day and she has improved tremendously! She has awesome coaches and a great team. The first few games, she didn’t get any hits, but she did a great job in the outfield backing up first base. We have enjoyed watching her games so far…even Brax and Brody (although, Brax’s favorite part is the concession stand…just like me when I was a kid at my sister’s games!)

My dad used to coach softball, so he has been coming to town a lot and helping her learn and practice. I think recently, it finally clicked with her, and she started hitting the ball more and more when we practiced. She finally got a hit at one of her games, but she got out at first. Then at her next game, my parents and my sister’s family all came to see her play, and she hit the ball and got on base ALL 4 TIMES she was up to bat! She was a rockstar, and was even given the game ball from her coach! We were all so proud of her and I know she was so excited!

Since Kinsie has been practicing softball so much, this has sparked an interest in Brax with baseball. He always wanted to practice with us too, and it turns out, he’s a natural! My dad even surprised him with a new bat for his birthday, and he loves hitting the ball off the tee, as well as when we pitch to him. Next spring, he will be old enough to play in the 5 year old baseball league here in town, and he can’t wait!

Brax’s Soccer

Brax really wanted to try soccer this season, so we signed him up. At his age, it is more of an academy, where they just do fun drills to get the hang of the sport. He has had one practice so far, and he loved it! Ryan even stayed late with him once practice was over because he wanted to play longer! I think he will be our little athlete!

Kinsie’s Lost Teeth

Kinsie has lost SO many teeth lately! In the matter of about a month, she lost 4 more teeth – putting her at 8 total (which is the same number of teeth that Brody currently has!) One tooth in particular that she lost, we give credit to Brax. They were wrestling one day, and he got too rough and kicked her tooth out! Now she is the prettiest little jack-o-lantern face we’ve ever seen!

Outside Time

Whenever it isn’t raining or freezing, we are usually outside. We live on a cul-de-sac with several open lots, so the kids have plenty of room to play. The kids love their bikes and scooters, and Brody loves his little car!

One of their favorite things to do lately is ride down the driveway while the sprinkler is on. Ryan also mowed part of the open lot next door into the shape of a baseball diamond. So now they enjoy playing softball and baseball there, or just running around in the open grass!

We’ve had a few Sundays this month where we had dinner with my family. Whenever we are there, the kids always have so much fun together…especially when Yaya breaks out the parachute!

My sister gave me this awesome collapsible playpen, and it even comes with a sunshade. We’ve used it inside a lot to contain Brody when needed, but we’ve recently been able to use it outside as well. At first Brody wasn’t a fan because he didn’t want to be in there alone, but once Kinsie and Brax joined him, he was happy as can be!

First Vaccine!

I finally had my turn! I received my first vaccine early in April. I had been anxiously awaiting this moment for SO long, so it felt great to finally get to do it. If you haven’t already, go get your vaccine as well and let’s kick this thing to the curb and get back to normal!

Brody turned 11 Months!

I’m still in denial that my baby will be one soon. This year has flown by, and we have absolutely loved watching him grow into the precious little boy he is. He is seriously SO much fun. He is in such a cute and silly stage, and he makes us laugh every day! He learned a lot this month and developed some cute and hilarious new habits.

Our Brody boy at 11 months:

He has 8 teeth. He popped 4 teeth at once, which made it a doozy of a month, but now that they are out, he is a happy camper!
He learned how to wave.
He learned how to clap.
He shakes his head “No” (all the time – he thinks it’s so funny!)
He can give high fives.
He can give hugs (and it melts me every single time).
He loves getting into the pantry and trying to steal his snacks.
He can say “mama,” “dada,” “hi,” and “more” with meaning. He can also sign “more.”
He cruises around furniture constantly.
He still loves to climb everything, including the kitchen cabinets and counters. He tries to use the cabinet drawer handles as a latter, and he legitimately tries to do pull ups on the countertops.
He loves to rub whatever he is eating into his hair.
He suddenly hates diaper changes. He tries to roll over and kick me so he can escape. This is exactly how Braxton was too…fun times.
He loves playing outside.
He still adores his brother and sister and screams excitedly when they walk into the room.

Big boy with his walker!

Always climbing up onto the kids’ art table!

Hanging out in the pantry – always!

He loves his brother and sister so much.

And this is no joke how Brax carries him around and Brody doesn’t even care!

Sweet Brody faces at 11 months!

He’s growing up too fast for me to handle!

I know I’ve said it many times, but Brody is such a blessing from God. I didn’t know it at the time, but God knew how much I needed him throughout this time in life. When I think about this time last year, and not only how I was a complete emotional roller coaster, but also how I was so physically miserable from pregnancy, and then I see my life now…he was worth EVERY SINGLE OUNCE of emotional and physical pain I endured before/once I had him. he brings us immeasurable joy, and I can’t imagine our lives without him. Next month, he will be ONE!!

We love you SO MUCH, our sweet Brody!

And that’s a wrap for April. Lots of exciting activities planned in May, including two birthdays for our boys! And here is our 1 Second Everyday for April. Enjoy!

3Apr2021

The March We’ve Been Waiting For

Posted in Baby, Family by klmatthews16

It’s been a whole year since the pandemic hit the United States hard. How crazy is that? I don’t think I would have ever expected it to last this long, and I am so glad that a year ago, I didn’t know that an entire year later we would still be in this mess. I have tried not to think too much about the emotional roller coaster that I was feeling this time last year, because my anxiety then was sky high, and even though we’re still dealing with a lot of the same, we have come so far as a family throughout this crazy year. I certainly have a lot more hope today than I did a year ago…and every vaccine that gets put into another arm is getting us that much closer to normalcy again… something that I am desperately looking forward to, but also somewhat terrified of. I have a feeling it is going to take me some time to adjust back to normalcy…because life with masks, social distancing, and staying home has become my new normal. I’m sure it will take time for me to feel comfortable in big groups again and walking around with a naked face. But before I get ahead of myself because we’re probably still months away from that…I’m just looking forward to getting that shot in my arm NEXT WEEK!

Anyway…March was an exciting month for the Matthews family, and I’m sure you know why! We finally moved into our NEW HOUSE! And it has been an absolute DREAM! We had other fun things this month and some beautiful weather which was good for our souls. Here is a rundown of our exciting March…

Fun Activities at School

Brax had “Dr. Seuss Week,” where they celebrated Dr. Seuss with different fun dress up days. He actually had a lot of fun with this. Sometimes he would be hesitant to dress up, but eventually we would convince him and he ended up loving it.

Monday was Silly Sock Day…

Tuesday was Hat Day…

Wednesday was Wacky Wednesday… (he wore a pickle shirt, dinosaur pants and socks, two different shoes, and a Forky hat)

Thursday was Crazy Hair Day

And my personal favorite was Fancy Friday…

Kinsie had a few exciting things going on this month at school too. She got to write and “publish” an informative book about hippos and share it with the class.

The day before spring break, her class also had a “Beach Day” where they could dress like they were going to the beach, and bring a stuffed animal as well. She loved dressing up herself, but also dressing up her stuffed animal!

Finishing Touches on the House

It was so much fun to see the final touches on the house. Seeing the entire process from digging a hole to the absolutely beautiful home we are now living in has been such an amazing experience! My favorite was after the cleaners came in and made it sparkle!

Spring Break…aka MOVE IN WEEK!

We were so glad to be able to work it out to move in when the kids were on spring break. That way we didn’t have to worry about dropping off and picking up the kids throughout each day, and the kids could just enjoy their week off in our new home. We were able to recruit some family to help us on moving weekend, so we got a lot more done than I expected. It was a busy, exhausting, but wonderful move-in weekend.

Ryan still had to work that week, so he did what we could when he was home, but I wasted no time getting to work on unpacking and organizing. The kids were so excited to have so much space to play, and to get some of their toys back that had been in storage all year. But we have absolutely LOVED being in our new home…even Brody! The first few days through all of the chaos, I was either wearing him, or he was in a little playpen until we could get a baby gate in front of the stairs to the basement.

The kids hanging out in Brax’s dinosaur bed…

Brody is excited to finally have his own room! And I was excited to finally create a Harry Potter nursery for him!

One of the kids’ favorite spots is the “book nook,” a closet under the basement stairs. We made it cozy with blankets and pillows and books!

It rained a LOT the first week or so that we moved in, but every so often we’ve had some amazing weather. The kids LOVE hanging out on both the upper and lower deck!

While digging the basement, the workers find a large limestone rock so they threw it out back, and now Brax is convinced that it is a dinosaur fossil!

The kids drew pictures that we sent to our builder along with a thank you note. We even got an email back saying they could be architects someday!

St. Patrick’s Day

We didn’t do anything special on St. Patrick’s Day, but I had to share this cute picture of my kids all dressed up!

I also wanted to point out that 4 years ago on St. Patrick’s Day was also Match Day…where we found out we were moving to Arkansas for Ryan’s residency. Seeing this picture always makes me emotional because I remember the emotions I was feeling in that very moment. I was excited but completely terrified. And now it’s crazy to look back at that time and see how far we’ve come. We are so grateful for our time in Arkansas, but we are also so glad our residency years are behind us and now we FINALLY get to settle in our forever home!

Sleepover

Near the end of the kids’ spring break, Kinsie and Brax went to spend the night at Aunt Renata’s house. They had such a great time playing outside, roasting marshmallows, watching movies and doing fun Easter activities. Brody stayed home with me and we got some quality time together too going on walks and playing outside.

It’s Finally Spring!

After the dreadful February we had, we were thrilled to get some nice weather this month. We have especially enjoyed exploring outside of our new home!

We also spent a day after school going back to one of our favorite parks and taking a quick hike by the waterfall.

Brody is 10 Months Old!

I’m in complete denial that my baby is going to be one year old soon. This year has been so weird. In some ways it has dragged on, and in other ways it has flown by. Watching this precious boy has been the absolute sunshine of my year. He is so sweet and silly and snuggly and we just love him to pieces!

Updates on our Bro Bro at 10 Months…

He loves to climb. He tries to climb on anything and everything.
He has discovered our dog Koda and likes to chase him and grab him. Koda is not amused!
He has 3, maybe 4 new teeth…which brings him to a total of 8 teeth!
He still loves food of all kinds.
He has learned how to use his sippy cup and he loves it. He chugs his water during his meals!
He is still a major mama’s boy, but now he is starting to voluntarily go to his Daddy, grandma or other close family.
He is the king of babbling. He talks all day long. “Da da” is his favorite phrase right now. We think he is starting to gain some meaning with his babbles.
He finally sleeps in his crib (it was in storage until we moved) and he loves it! He even likes playing in there.
His favorite place to hang out is in Brax’s shark tent.
He can walk with his walking toy. He also cruises along the furniture constantly.
Kinsie and Brax both like to carry him. Kinsie is at least learning how to support him better while she holds him, but Brax just holds him around his belly. At first Brody didn’t like it, but now he is used to it and doesn’t seem to care. Third kid problems!
He has been spending a lot more time outside this month and loves it. He especially loves riding in his little car.
He loves playing with his brother and sister and wants to do whatever they are doing!

Examples of his climbing, or just diving into his toy box!

Walking like a big boy with his walker toy

Just hanging out in the shark tent!

Sweet sleeping baby

Always being carried!

He loves riding in his car!

Sweet Brody faces

Growing month by month…

I genuinely can’t imagine life without this boy. I thank God every day for giving me this precious gift. He brings so much joy to our lives, and we all just can’t get enough of him. He adds another level of crazy and loud to our family, and we love every bit of it!

And that about wraps up our March. It was a good one. Much different than March last year. Moving into our new house was a long awaited time…not just the 6 months that it took to build, or even the year that we’ve been planning it. Ever since Ryan and I got married 9 years ago, our lives have always been “what’s next?” Between med school, residency and everything between we never fully got to settle anywhere. We always knew that we’d have to pick up and move again soon. I knew this was part of the medical gig, but I have been looking forward to the day where we were finally done with the “what’s next” part of the journey and finally get to settle. After 9 years…really longer than that since I knew back in high school what Ryan’s future entailed…we are FINALLY settling in our forever home. I can’t even tell you how good it feels. We are looking forward to making many many memories in this home!

And to finish off this post, here is our 1 Second Everyday for the month of March. Enjoy!

1Mar2020

Hello, Third Trimester!

Posted in Baby, Family by klmatthews16

We are officially one month closer to moving AND to meeting our sweet baby boy! For some reason, February seemed to drag on a little more than I expected, but we are excited for March to be here and for spring to come. We had a lot going on this month, so enjoy our recap!

Preparing the House

We had a lot of work that needed done to the house to prepare it to sell. We are SO lucky to have the resources that we do, including my dad and sister, who sell houses for a living and know exactly what to do to prepare the house, AND Ryan’s parents, who manage rentals for a living and know exactly HOW to prepare the house. Ryan’s parents visited at the beginning of the month to help us do just that. We got a LOT accomplished in just a few days, including lots of power washing, painting, and repairing. Ryan did all the power washing outside and decided to have some fun with it, and to entertain the kids…see picture below!

Again, we are SO grateful for the family that we have and how willing they all are to help us with anything at the drop of a hat…hence the reason why we are moving closer to them!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Last year, Ryan and Kinsie went to the Daddy Daughter Dance in our town and had a great time, so they did it again this year! Kinsie loved getting dressed up and having a special night with her Dad. With his schedule, any quality time with him is so special to all of us, and she enjoyed every moment! And I know Ryan enjoyed time with his little girl as well!

Family Campfire Night

The kids are all about campfires and s’mores, so we try to fit them in whenever we can. Ryan’s schedule has been tough lately with lots of evening shifts, so one of the only nights we had available was a very cold night! But we bundled up and made the most of it. It was so cold, in fact, that Brax actually agreed to wear a hat and gloves! If you know him, you know this is a big deal and he really must have been cold! We had a great night roasting marshmallows, eating s’mores, snuggling by the fire and telling knock knock jokes.

Artwork, writing and crafts

With lots of indoor time this month, the kids have been really into drawing and crafts.

Kinsie recently learned about American symbols at school, and loves teaching us all everything she learned. I still can’t get enough of her sweet writings she brings home from school!

Below are some of Kinsie’s most recent drawings. I love her details!!

It’s pretty easy to tell what she draws these days, but just in case you can’t tell…

Top left- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Mickey and friends; top right – The Avengers; bottom – Frozen and Frozen 2 characters

Brax has learned all of his letters now, so his newest obsession is writing his name and lots of random words. He also has gotten much better at drawing people and animals. I’m obsessed with his little imagination!

Top left- a gorilla going to the eye doctor; top right – two sharks chasing fish; bottom left – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Mickey and Friends; bottom right – dinosaurs holding hands

A few more…Kinsie drew all the Disney princesses along with their friends, sidekicks, significant others and accessories! Brax drew dinosaurs in the jungle

And finally, here is a picture of drawings that the kids made me when I was having an extra rough and exhausting day. They are the best!

Kinsie recently discovered a short series on Disney+ called Family Sundays, where they have families doing Disney themed crafts together. One weekend, she saw an episode about making Frozen 2 themed soap. We needed a Saturday family activity to get out of the house anyway, so we took a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought supplies to make soap. She loved watching the video and following the step-by-step instructions. While we were at it, we made unicorn soap too!

Holly’s Baby Shower

One of the intern residents’ wife is someone I’ve become very close with this year, and shortly after they moved here from Arizona last summer, she became pregnant with twins! She already has 3 kids, so now she’s adding 2 more to her crew. The ladies from our bible study and I threw a small baby sprinkle for her so she can get some extra stuff they may need two of now. I loved getting to celebrate this sweet friend of mine and the baby boy and girl that will make their appearance soon. Meanwhile, Ryan took our kids over to her husband’s house and they ordered pizza and let all the kids play. They had a fun Daddy Kid play date!

Valentine’s Day Festivities

Valentines for class

The weekend before Valentine’s Day, Ryan worked the ENTIRE weekend…two 12 hour shifts in a row, which was rough on my very pregnant body and mind. However, we made the most of it and did all of our Valentines fun and prep to keep busy, starting with the kids’ valentines for their classes. Brax picked out shark valentines, and Kinsie, my little overachiever, always like to buy a kit and make her valentines. This time, she picked heart emojis, so she could design each heart with different features. This is the first year that Brax could address his own valentines, so he was excited to get to do his own!

Valentines Cookies

This is a yearly tradition now, and the kids love doing it. They worked so hard and we ended up with lots of beautiful, delicious valentine cookies!

Valentines Day Fun

The kids had a great time at each of their class valentines parties. Brax made lots of cute crafts, and Kinsie worked hard on her “love bug” valentine bag they made in class.

Another tradition I started last year, was every day from February 1 – 14, the kids receive a heart with a reason why we love them. They loved waking up each morning to see what their heart said!

Ryan worked another evening shift the night of Valentines day, so, like last year, I made the kids heart-shaped pancakes for dinner. I even made them extra special this year and added Nutella and pink and red sprinkles!

Overall, we had a good Valentines Day. However, my sweet Brax started not feeling great that evening, which started his week of sickness.

Sickness Strikes

Our little guy doesn’t get sick very often, but when he does, it breaks our hearts because he’s not his perky, silly little self. On the afternoon of Valentine’s Day, he went downhill fast. He didn’t want to play, but just wanted to snuggle, and I noticed he was getting a fever. Everything escalated pretty quickly, and we could tell he felt terrible. He’s not a big fan of medicine, so I had to trick him and sneak some into his gatorade. He felt better for a few hours (while the medicine did its job), then he went downhill again once the medicine was out of his system. Ryan had to work that evening, and the kids and I had some valentine fun, but you could tell Brax just didn’t feel good. He ended up vomiting once that night (I already struggle with vomit…add pregnancy on top of it and it was almost unbearable to clean up). Once I got him cleaned up, he fell asleep on the couch. I let him sleep out there on the couch with me until I was going to bed…mainly to make sure he didn’t vomit again. The next few days were still pretty rough, but at least Ryan was home to help. Brax was mainly really tired and sluggish with a high fever. The only way to manage it was to keep him medicated (which, again, I always had to trick him into taking it!) He never sleeps well when he’s sick (who does, really), so we all didn’t sleep great. A few days in, he started complaining about his ears. Luckily, we had a doctor in the house and he was able to check his ears, diagnose him with a double ear infection, and prescribe him with some antibiotics. FINALLY Brax started to feel better!

(In the bottom photo below, it was a beautiful day so we tried to take the kids on a wagon ride…Brax tried to have fun, but he just wasn’t feeling it!)

A little more outside time

This month, we were able to get a little more outside time than last month. Ryan worked lots of evenings and 12 hour weekend shifts, so we definitely needed activities to keep these kids busy that didn’t require a ton of extra energy on my part.

We did lots of chalk and tracing of each other and stuffed animals…

Lots of bike and scooter races and tree “climbing…”

Bubbles, bow and arrow practice and hula-hooping…

And a few trips to the park complete with playground fun and climbing/rolling down the hills.

Papa and Yaya visit

My parents were able to make a long weekend trip to come visit us. The breaks between family visits in the winter always seem especially long. This month has had its rough moments for me with feeling mentally overwhelmed and physically exhausted, so getting to see my parents was a breath of fresh air. They helped us with a few last minute things on the house that I wasn’t able to physically be much help on, and they also helped us with the logistics of what’s next on our house-selling adventure. But most importantly, they just got some quality time with us…which is what we all needed most!

Pregnancy Updates – THIRD Trimester

The third trimester creeped up on me fast. It seems like all of the sudden, I am to the point where I can barely reach my feet to put on socks or shoes, and I can’t get comfortable no matter how hard I try. The kids often forget that I’m getting bigger and less mobile, so we have to constantly remind them to help me out in whatever ways they can. When the kids are at school, I usually use that time to run my errands and get as much as I can done. I still do that to an extent, but overall I’ve been trying to use at least part of that time to just relax, which is easier said than done for me, especially at such a busy time in our lives.

This photo was taken at 28 weeks – baby was the size of a head of lettuce

Symptoms this month include:

Braxton Hicks contractions
Starting to get very uncomfortable. It’s hard to be comfortable in pretty much any position except laying on my side.
Shortness of breath – mainly because the baby is often up in my ribs!
Mind constantly racing and sometime experiencing anxiety – like I’ve said before, my mind is extra “busy” when I’m pregnant. With a busy mind, but a body that’s physically unable to do much, I have a problem. I’ve been having to rely a lot on devotionals and reading to help with this problem.
LOTS of baby movement – again, I love it, and I am going to miss it when I’m not pregnant anymore…but goodness, this kid is already strong! I often wonder if he moves a lot in his sleep, or if he just doesn’t sleep because he is constantly moving. The kids LOVE feeling him move all the time!

This month I had to do my glucose tolerance test. This is where you drink an extremely sugary drink in 10 minutes, and then get your blood drawn an hour later to check for gestational diabetes. You are supposed to fast for 2 hours prior to drinking the drink, which created a problem for me. My test was in the morning, so I had to wake up early and not eat anything, and just drink this sugar-filled drink. Ryan was originally supposed to work this day, but I asked him to switch his shift because I had experienced dizziness during this test in my previous pregnancies. It was a Friday so Brax didn’t have school, so he would have had to come to the doctor with me…another reason I wanted Ryan to drive me… I did not want Brax in the car with me if I was dizzy. Well, its a good thing Ryan was able to switch, because in the car, halfway into my “hour wait” between the drink and my blood test, I got extremely dizzy and threw up the entire drink in the car! I was mostly upset because I knew there was a good chance they wouldn’t be able to draw my blood now, and I would have to completely redo the test. Unfortunately, I was right. I was super bummed and nervous that I wouldn’t handle it well the next time too. I picked a different flavor for the next time, and made an afternoon appointment so I wouldn’t have to fast all day. The day of my retest, I ate a big breakfast before my 2 hour fast. Luckily, the test went much better this time around. I kept the drink down and passed my glucose tolerance test!

We are ready for March! March has always been one of my favorite months because we start to see some evidence of upcoming spring. We are excited to be one month closer to lots of exciting life changing events for our family!

Here is our 1 Second Every Day video for the month of February. Enjoy!

30Sep2019

A Scorching September

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

Like usual, our September seemed to go by pretty fast! Now that both kids are in school and all of their activities have started, we stay pretty busy, making the days go by faster. After a LONG summer, I needed some faster-paced living. Unfortunately, the scorching summer has not subsided yet! This was the hottest September I can remember. It was almost consistently in the high 90s with very high humidity. I’m so ready for fall!!! Crossing our fingers that October will be our month!

Here is the run down of our month…

Brax Started Preschool

Since Kinsie had already been in school for a month, Brax was so excited to start preschool himself! He has had such a great start to his school year! He loves his teacher and has been really excited to learn. Last year, he was hit or miss on whether he would cry when I dropped him off, but this year he has been an absolute champ!

He has already had lots of fun learning opportunities and projects this year!

School has really sparked Brax’s interest in learning to write. He learned how to write his name over the summer, but now he’s learning the rest of the letters. He is constantly asking me how to spell words so he can write them!

Brax’s Ninja Class

This is the first year that Brax was old enough to do an extra-curricular activity. The place that Kinsie does her gymnastics also offers “Ninja Zone” classes, which got Brax really excited. His first class didn’t go quite as expected…he got a little freaked out and didn’t want to participate. After some coaxing, he finally did and has not looked back since! I think at first, the idea that we were now watching him instead of him watching Kinsie freaked him out, but now he does great!

Rare Days Outdoors

I’ve been somewhat depressed about the weather this month, mainly because I didn’t expect it. I thought we would get SOME relief from the heat, but we really didn’t. We did, however, have maybe 2 or 3 days where the heat didn’t hit hard until the afternoon, so we took advantage of those days. One morning we took a walk around the lake.

Another morning we went to the Farmer’s Market downtown and let the kids play at the rock park!

Family Visits/Grandparents Days

The other 2 years we’ve lived here, the kids and I traveled to Indiana for Kinsie’s birthday. This year, we weren’t able to do that since Kinsie can’t really miss school as easily now. Instead, my parents came to us! We got really lucky that her birthday weekend coincided with her school’s Grandparents Day! We had such a great weekend with my parents and it was MUCH needed since we hadn’t seen them since the end of June.

The next weekend, Ryan’s parents came down for Brax’s grandparents day at school. We loved having family here back to back!

My kids are beyond lucky that they’ve never had a Grandparents Day at school without at least one grandparent there…even with living so far away. Our parents are absolutely amazing!!

Kinsie’s 6th Birthday Celebrations

Kinsie decided that she just wanted to have a family birthday party this year, which I was totally fine with! Luckily, her birthday fell on a Saturday, so we had a whole fun day planned.

Kinsie decided she wanted to go downtown for her birthday. We started out at the rock park, and then took a trolley ride around the city.

Then we went to the nature center where they did an animal scavenger hunt! After that we went to a pizza place for lunch. It was such a fun morning, and my parents loved spending that time with us too!

We had a mermaid-themed birthday party for Kinsie that evening. She loved the intimate family-only celebration with balloons, a good dinner, presents, and cake!

She had such a special 6th birthday, and we were so grateful my parents were able to join us in celebrating our girl!

Since Ryan’s parents were coming to visit the next week, we kept all the decorations up and had a birthday celebration part 2 with them! We had the other half of the cake from the previous week and sang happy birthday again and she got to open her presents from Grandma Bev and Papa Tim. She loved getting 2 birthday parties and getting to celebrate with both sets of grandparents!

And that’s a wrap for our September. October is going to be SO busy, but we have lots of excited things happening. We will be traveling to Indiana for a family wedding, spending a week in Orlando at some of our favorite theme parks, and enjoying some of our favorite fall traditions for the last time living in Arkansas. We are excited to continue our traditions back in Indiana next year!

Here is our 1 Second Everyday video for September.

31Jul2019

Surviving July

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

Full disclosure here…July is tough for me! It was a very long month and I hate to say I’m somewhat glad its over…please no judging! I am mentally exhausted after this month. Don’t get me wrong, we had lots of fun adventures in July, but it just comes to a point where the kids (especially Kinsie) are just over it. She’s over summer vacation and she’s ready for school. It is really hard being full time entertainment for 2 VERY busy children, neither of whom nap, and are both in need of constant mental stimulation…and throw in the fact that it’s too darn hot to step outside most days! Kinsie is so ready to get back into a school routine, be surrounded by kids her own age, and an adult who isn’t me! She starts Kindergarten on Monday and she could not be more ready! I am so excited for her and can’t wait to see her thrive. Brax doesn’t start preschool again until after Labor Day, so I still have a little while with him. Overall, he’s pretty content doing puzzles and playing board games all day so we should be able to get through it ok!

We had a lot of random adventures this month to keep us busy. We had one week of great weather, but other than that, it was your typical high humidity Arkansas heat. We found a lot of indoor activities and projects to do to keep us as busy as possible. Here is a rundown of our July…

4th of July

Now I do love 4th of July. Ryan always makes a point to try to get this day off because we enjoy our 4th of July traditions here. Like last year and the year before that, we went to the 4th of July parade in our town, had hot dogs for dinner (they always sound good after watching the Hot Dog Eating Contest…is that weird?), then to the park for fireworks. The parade is simple, short, and sweet, but the kids enjoy getting candy and seeing firetrucks, etc. One float in particular always tosses out popsicles…which is brilliant. They loved it!

After our hot dog dinner, we walked over to the park. We enjoyed some treats, played a few games, then just chilled in the field until it was time for the fireworks. The kids were slap happy so they danced and tackled each other until the fireworks started. And as always, the park put on a great fireworks show!

Kinsie’s ear piercing

Kinsie has been asking to get her ears pierced for almost a year. I wasn’t quite ready for it at the time, so I told her it could be her 6th birthday present. Well we decided to let her do it a little early before she started school. She was SO brave and didn’t even flinch! She loves her earrings and takes every change she gets to show them off.

Pool Days (of various sizes)

A few times a week, Ryan and I lift weights together…and unfortunately, our garage is the only place we have room for all of our equipment…which means those workout sessions in the summer are brutally hot! At least we have some huge fans to help us get through it! Anyway, when we workout, the kids usually put on their swim suits and play in their kiddie pool. That pool has been the best $10 I’ve ever spent! They stay content for hours in it. After our workouts, we cool down by having water balloon fights with the kids. Fun and staying cool…win win!

There is a community pool in our town, and we try to visit it once or twice each summer. We decided to use one of Ryan’s days off and make it a family pool day. The kids had a great time, and we even ran into Kinsie’s best friend from school, so they were especially pumped to have a playmate!

Indoor Adventures

We spent most of our July indoors. Most days, the heat index was between 100 and 110 degrees. Therefore, we explored every play place possible in the city of Little Rock. And when we weren’t doing that, we were playing games, doing art projects, and making obstacle courses in the house.

The Wonder Place

We actually came here twice. The kids love it and its a great place for them to play for a few hours, and I brought along a book and read while they played!

Altitude Trampoline Park

The kids love this place, and usually we beat the crowds and hardly see anyone there. However, we went on one of the hottest days of the summer, so everyone else apparently had the same idea we did! The kids still had fun though, and it got some of their energy out (just some).

Kiddie City

This place is neat, but pretty expensive. Luckily, I’m in a moms group in town and once a month we get a discount day, so we take full advantage! The kids love this place, and after the last time we visited, they even created their own version of it at home.

Projects and Crafts

Kinsie has a lot of creativity in her little brain, and needs lots of outlets for it. We did lots of play dough, painting, and crafts this summer. Remember the Toy Story 4 project she started after she saw the movie last month? Well we took it a step farther and laminated all the characters, labeled them and strung them together to create a banner in the playroom!

Baking Fun

In one day, we spent a few hours baking different recipes from Kinsie’s princess cookbook. We made muffins, princess popcorn, and fairy wands. The kids loved getting to help and making as big of a mess as possible!

Farmer’s Market and Splash Pad

We LOVE the Farmer’s Market. This was the first Saturday Ryan had off since May, so we finally got to go. We loaded up on all our favorite jams and granola, and the kids got to paint a picture and a statue at one of the booths.

After the Farmer’s Market, we ventured down to the splash pad. The kids (and Ryan) had a great time!

Birthday Parties

Two of Kinsie’s best friends from preschool had birthday parties this month. Judah had a firefighter party, where they got to visit the fire station and explore and climb on a real fire truck. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Luke’s party was at a place called Urban Air Trampoline Park. It was similar to the other trampoline place we go to, but there was lots more (it’s also a lot more expensive, so we’re lucky we got to go for free since it was for a birthday party!) There were trampolines, ball pits, tubes and slides, rock climbing, a foam pit, ropes courses, and more. It was a really neat place and the kids were in absolute heaven!

The One Week it was Nice Outside

We had one week of pure perfect weather. So we spent most of those days at the park. We hadn’t been there in a while since it’s been so hot, so we loved exploring our favorite park again. One of the days we met up with some residency friends, and the other days we just played on our own. It felt so good to be outside again!

Zoo Day

One of the other days that we had nice weather, I took the kids to the zoo. We usually go to the zoo with Ryan since he loves it too, but he had to work and we really wanted to take advantage of the nice weather while Kinsie was still out of school. We had such a great time. The kids were so well behaved and loved everything we saw and did. It was one of my favorite days with them this summer.

Kinder Camp

Kinsie’s school had “Kinder Camp,”, where all the incoming kindergarteners got to bring their school supplies and meet their teachers. Kinsie was awestruck. She was so excited to meet her teacher and see her classroom. Her teacher seems so sweet, so we are looking forward to a great year!

We are looking forward to August, especially for Kinsie to start Kindergarten. Once September gets here, I feel like time goes a lot faster…so before we know it, it will be June and we will be moving back! We are so excited, but enjoying our time in Little Rock while we can.

Here is our 1 Second Everyday video for the month of July!

2Jun2019

Enjoying the ‘Rays in May

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

May was SO busy! When I think back to the beginning of the month, it seems like it was 3 months ago. May always tends to be one of the busier months of the year with the end of school and all the programs and activities that go with it, the end of sports seasons, etc…but we loved every minute of it! Here is how our May went down…

Brax’s Birthday

I’m still in denial that my baby is three. And the crazy thing is that ever since he turned three, he’s acted older. He talks like he’s older, his fine motor skills and agility have taken off, and his behavior has improved (for now). Our special boy deserved a special birthday!

His birthday started off with surprise donuts from Dad. Ryan had been on a string of night shifts, and he stopped by the famous Hurts Donuts in Little Rock on his way home from work to surprise Brax!

Next, Brax got to spend part of his birthday with his teacher and friends at school. We sent cupcakes and Avengers napkins for them to enjoy.

After school, we let him open a few presents. He loved his shark tent and chair from his cousins, his talking Hulk from Papa and Yaya, and his robot from us!

Next, we took him to his favorite restaurant for dinner, All Aboard. Every time we go, the kids get so excited to watch the train deliver food for everyone.

After dinner, we came back home for birthday treats. He was grinning from ear to ear as we sang to him, and loved every bite of his blue birthday cookies!

Brax’s Birthday Party

We decided to have a mini-party for Brax when some family came to visit for Kinsie’s Pre-K graduation. We decorated the kitchen in Avengers decor, with a special banner made by none other than Aunt Megan (this banner now hands in his room!) We ate burgers and cake, opened more presents, and dressed in superhero masks and tattoos. It was a great night!

Kinsie’s Ballet Recital

Kinsie has been loving her ballet class this year. The season ended with a special performance to show off all the skills they learned throughout the year. Kinsie did a fantastic job and loved getting to perform on stage!

Mother’s Day

Ryan has been in the MICU this month, which is one of the toughest rotations in residency. He works extra long hours and gets fewer days off. I was really bummed to learn that he was going to have to work a 24 hour shift on Mother’s Day this year, and he wasn’t able to change it. I was bummed, but we did our best to work around it. We went out for a sushi dinner the night before, and then some residency friends took the kids and I out for a Mother’s Day lunch after church. After that, I spent the entire day at the park with my little loves. The weather was perfect and we actually had a great day together.

In between our activities, I had a special delivery from Ryan. He sent me some flowers (which could be planted in the yard of course…we’re not big on spending money on flowers that will die a few days later!) and some treats. It made my day that he was still thinking about me even though he couldn’t spend the day with me.

The kids definitely made me feel extra loved on Mother’s Day!

Kinsie’s Graduation

I can’t believe my big girl graduated from preschool and she’ll be starting Kindergarten in the fall! I have no doubt in my mind that she’s ready, and she’s SO excited! She wants to be a teacher like her mama when she grows up, and she has LOVED every second of her schooling experience so far. I know she’ll do great in elementary school!

Again, it wasn’t the best month for Ryan. Last month, he was selected as Chief Resident of his program, which we were very excited about! However, this required him to go to an out-of-state conference the same week as Kinsie’s graduation. As soon as I knew he wouldn’t be able to come, I recruited some family to come for her special day. I know I’ve said it before, but we the BEST family in the world. My mom, Ryan’s mom, Megan, Nate and Griffin all came. Kinsie loved having so many people come for her graduation, and I know it helped her not be too sad about her daddy missing it. But we took lots of videos for him to watch when he returned!

Family Visit

We loved having some family visit us for a few days. The weather was beautiful, so we spent a lot of time outside at the park.

One day when Kinsie was at school, Brax helped both of his grandmas do some gardening in the front yard. He loved helping!

And cousin pool parties are always a good idea! Griffin loved his first pool experience and the kids loved sharing it with him.

Last Day of School

The kids had a wonderful school year. They both grew and learned so much. Brax especially did amazing for his first school experience. He adored his teacher and loved meeting new friends!

Kinsie’s first and last day of school…

Brax’s first and last day of school…

And together…

Kinsie definitely grew this year! She is much taller and no longer has a baby face, but is developing into a beautiful little girl. Brax doesn’t look a ton different, but you can tell he looks a little taller and slimmer!

The kids had the BEST teachers this year. Mrs. Lina was Brax’s teacher, and she was the sweetest, most patient and kind teacher, which was perfect for him in his first year. Brax started out the year very shy and wouldn’t talk much to her, but he ended the year hugging on her, and running around acting like his silly self at school. Kinsie’s teacher, Mrs. Suze was also perfect for her this year. She really helped Kinsie mature, and prepare for Kindergarten. She did tons of creative projects with higher-level thinking, which is perfect for my imaginative little girl. Of course, my passionate and emotional Kinsie Kay bawled like a baby when she had to say goodbye to her teachers and preschool! It broke my heart, but also made me happy that she loves school so much.

Last Day of T-Ball

Kinsie wrapped up her last season of T-ball. She had a great experience and a great coach for both seasons she played. If she decides to continue, she will play softball in the fall. She had a great season and we loved watching her!

Brax’s First Dentist Appointment

My big boy had his first dentist appointment recently. When we first got there, he was a little nervous and wouldn’t look or interact with the hygienist. However, she was so great with him and took lots of time talking to him, and showing him all her tools so he would become more comfortable. By the end, he was giggling and talking to her like he knew her all along. And of course, Kinsie was the best supportive big sis, holding Brax’s hand and showing him how to open wide!

LOTS of Art Projects

Kinsie has loved art for a while now, but now she is sharing that love with her little brother. Brax has taken a huge interest in drawing lately. I’m not exaggerating when I say that he spends at least 2-3 hours a day drawing. And he has gotten really good!

The kids each have a sketchpad and some markers that I keep in the car for them. I am amazed at the creations they draw in such a short amount of time. The pictures below include Kinsie’s drawing of an eagle, and a mermaid castle.

I just can’t get enough of Brax;s little concentration face (which is the SAME as his daddy’s), and his precious little drawings. He has come a long way drawing people and animals. Right now he especially loves drawing smiley faces and jelly fish.

Kinsie’s imagination has been off the charts lately. Her new favorite thing to do is draw pictures and tape them to popsicle sticks and put on “puppet shows.” We love her imagination and love how she shares it with Brax.

Outside Adventures

The first couple weeks of May brought lots and lots of rain. So much so, that there is severe flooding in many parts of Little Rock. The flooding isn’t directly affecting us luckily, but we had many umbrella and rain boot days during that timespan!

The second half of May has brought much better weather. The summer heat is here and the upper 80-90 degree temps often starts as early as 8 a.m. each day. If we happen to have a day where it’s only in the 70s, we venture to the park.

Most days lately, we’ve been in our bathing suits playing with the sprinkler, water table and baby inflatable pool. Believe it or not, the kids have so much fun in this tiny pool. And popsicles don’t hurt either!

Sprinkler fun!

We’ve had lots of critters around the house lately. We’ve seen multiple lizards, and even a snake in our yard. Ryan caught the snake and put it in a bucket for the kids to look at, of course. No worries…he’s working on a fellowship in wilderness medicine and knew that the snake was non-venomous. That didn’t stop me from staying as far away as possible though! The snake appeared in our yard twice, and after that Ryan walked it down the path a ways so that it hopefully found a new home!

We recently upgraded the kids’ inflatable pool to a bigger size and they have been loving it! No joke, I’ve spent about 3-4 hours a day outside with them while they play in their pool!

Day Adventures

Library

The kids love the library. Even though our library is small and doesn’t have many activities, they love picking out endless stacks books to read together.

Behind the library, there is a nice deck area where you can walk around the pond. The kids and I ventured out there and had a blast. We made friends with a swan and several ducks. The kids love finding nature outside, and they could have stayed watching those birds for hours.

Chick-fil-A and Sonic

We don’t do this as often as the kids would like, mainly because we can’t afford to eat Chick-fil-A every day, but every so often we do have lunch dates there and spend some time playing. The kids always love it. We’ve also discovered Sonic’s happy hour. It’s been a fun little afternoon activity to get the kids out of the house and enjoy some slushies on our hot days.

Kiddie City

This is a new place in our town that I’ve been wanting to try. We spent the morning there one day and the kids were obsessed. It was perfect for their age, with tons of play fixtures, slides, play kitchens, dress-up, and more. The kids have been asking every day when we can go again!

Family Trip to Memphis

Ever since we’ve moved here, we’ve been wanting to go to Memphis, mainly because they have hippos at their zoo. It’s only about a 2 hour drive, so we knew we could take a day trip there. However, Ryan had a short 1.5 day stretch after Memorial weekend, so we decided to make it an overnight trip. We drove to Memphis in the afternoon when he got off work, and spent the night.

The afternoon we got there, we went to the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid. We love Bass Pro anyway, so going to this unique one was a cool experience.

The next morning, we woke up and headed to the zoo. We had such a great time. It was hot, but it didn’t get unbearable until it was almost time to leave. We got to see the hippos, which wouldn’t get as close and put on a show for us like Fiona does at the Cincinnati Zoo, but we still loved seeing them! We also loved the gorillas, the polar bear, feeding the stingrays, and the camel ride!

Another highlight was the bird house. Anytime we go to a zoo with this, it’s always one of the kids’ favorite things. They love feeding the birds and having them land on their feeding stick!

There were also lots of fun interactive activities in between exhibits. The kids loved playing the drums and pretending to hatch out of eggs. It was such a great little family trip, after this long month of Ryan being in the MICU, we definitely needed this quality family time.

So that was our month. We had a LOT going on, and even though Ryan had to work a lot, we stayed very busy and had lots of fun. We have a lot going on in June as well, and the kids and I will hardly be home! It will be nice to visit our family in Indiana while we have the time off in the summer.

Another exciting event that happened this month was that Ryan signed a contract for Bloomington Hospital starting in August 2020…so we will officially be moving back to our home state of Indiana in about a year! We are so excited, especially to live in Bloomington where we both attended IU. We will definitely miss the home we’ve made here in Little Rock, but we can’t wait to be close to family again and finally SETTLE!

Here is our 1 Second Everyday video for the month of May. Enjoy!

30Apr2019

April Sunshine

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

We had a lot going on in April! We had a lot of fun experiences, stayed busy, and had an awesome visit from family. While April is usually filled with lots of rain, (which we still had plenty of), we had tons of beautiful sunshine as well. Like I’ve said before, spring weather here is Arkansas is on point. We probably spent more time outside this month than we did inside. Any chance we got, we spent it outside. This was good for all of our souls, and we soaked in every minute of it. Here is a recap of our April.

Brax’s First Movie Theater Experience

One of Braxs’s favorite Disney movies is Dumbo, so as soon as we knew that they were making a live-action version, we wanted to see it right away. We don’t go to the movies often…it has to be something we really want to see for us to go. Since our boy loves Dumbo, we figured this would be a great opportunity for his first time at the movie theater. The movie was wonderful, and the kids did great! Brax spent most of his time eating popcorn, and climbing all over me asking when the movie would be over…but once it actually was, he kept saying he wanted to see it again!

A Ballerina Birthday Party

Kinsie was invited to another friend from school’s birthday parties. This time, Daddy was able to stay home with Brax, so I got to have a little girl time with Kinsie. This party was a ballerina themed party, with a guest visit from the Sugar Plum Fairy. Kinsie was a little starstruck, but loved spending time with her friends and getting her face painted.

No More Pacifier…and No More Naps

Last August, we took Brax’s pacifier away and let’s just say, it was a complete disaster. We gave up and decided to try again later. The time had come again when I knew we just had to suck it up and do it. We prepared him for weeks, telling him he’s a big boy now, and big boys don’t need pacifiers. We told him that his baby cousin was coming to visit soon and he needed to give his pacifier to Griffin. Luckily, this time around, things went much better! He still had a couple of rough nights falling asleep, and a few very early mornings, but overall, he’s done great! This was a huge hurdle for us considering he was very attached to his paci at night.

Ever since we got rid of his pacifier, naps have gone out the window. Each time I tried, he wanted nothing to do with it. I knew this might happen, so at least I was somewhat mentally prepared. Back to the minor setbacks he’s had with this big change, one morning he woke up at 5am and refused to go back to sleep. The next day, I made him go to his bed for a nap. Again, he wanted nothing to do with it and fought and screamed. I just left him in there, and eventually we noticed on the monitor that he was sitting up, but not moving. That little stinker was stubborn, but exhausted. He fell asleep sitting up in his bed! I still laugh when I look at the picture below on the right. Sorry buddy…Mama won this battle!

T-ball is in Full Swing

We are in the midst of t-ball season, and it is keeping us busy. Kinsie still loves it, and Brax loves going to watch her. She even had a special visitor come to one of her games. Even though Megan and Griffin were only able to make it for the last inning due to a diaper blowout, Kinsie was excited that they got to see her bat.

Give us ALL the Outside Time!

Even though I miss it, one plus side to Brax not napping anymore is that we don’t really have as much of a schedule on when to be back home or back inside…so we’ve been spending all day every day outside.

We like to change it up between the front yard, backyard, and the park. Even when we stay home, they always come up with creative ways to play, like having picnics, or making “stew” out of leaves and grass. They especially love finding critters, like ladybugs and slugs. They also love washing my car!

We have spent lots and lots of time at the park by our house. It really is a win win…I get some exercise by pulling them in the wagon to the park, and they have lots of fun once we get there!

Lucky little Brax gets even more park time since Kinsie goes to school 5 days a week. We go to the park any day that we can. We’ve even had a few picnic lunches at the park.

Lately, the kids are really having a hard time getting along. They are always fighting about something, or just trying to get under each other’s skin. Everything changes when we go to the park though. Somehow, they magically get along and are each other’s best friends. Maybe this is why I don’t mind spending so much time there either!

One Saturday, Ryan had to work a 12 hour shift, and it was a beautiful day, so we packed a picnic and headed to the park. We spent hours there. After our lunch, we played on the playground and had a nature scavenger hunt.

The kids loved finding pine cones, sticks, and flowers on their scavenger hunt.

Later after dinner, we heard the ice cream truck outside. By the time we got outside, it was driving around the corner, so the kids and I hopped in the car and chased it down! We got it at its next stop and the kids loved it! It was a great way to end our day. This honestly was one of my favorite days I’ve had with the kids in a long time.

Cousin Love

We haven’t seen Megan, Tim, and Griffin since Christmas, and we were so excited that they agreed to come spend the week with us for Easter. Megan and Griffin flew in, then Tim drove here a few days later. The kids were in heaven. They ADORE their baby cousin. They spent most of their time on the floor swooning over him. Griffin stayed very entertained while he was here!

We did various activities while they were here. We took several walks around the lake, and Griffin either enjoyed the view or snoozed.

We walked on the Big Dam Bridge. The kids were being goofballs the entire time, so again, Griffin stayed entertained.

We even got to take Griffin on his very first zoo trip. It turned out to be a much colder day than we expected, but the kids still loved showing him their favorite animals and attractions at the zoo.

We also took them to hike Pinnacle Mountain with us. Griffin was a trooper and seemed very content throughout the hike. Kinsie took twice as long as usual because she wanted to touch and explore every leaf, acorn, and stick along the way. Brax split his time between being a good little hiker and riding on Daddy’s shoulders, or being an absolute terror and refusing to go anywhere. But hey, that’s life with a toddler.

The view from the top of Pinnacle Mountain never gets old!

Easter Activities

We like to do lots of different crafts and activities to celebrate Easter. I always try really hard each year to still have fun with egg hunts and such, but making sure the kids know the real importance of Easter.

Dying Easter Eggs

The kids loved having Griffin watch them dye their Easter eggs this year. Griffin even got a little too excited and knocked over the bowl of yellow dye. The kids got a kick out of it and decided that his favorite color is yellow. Kinsie decorated all her eggs like unicorns of course, and Brax just put as many dinosaur stickers on each egg as he possibly could fit.

Easter Cookies

Making cookies is another tradition that I started since we moved here, since Aunt Renata always made cookies with them before. She even still sends us supplies in the mail to make cookies each holiday! The kids, Megan and I enjoyed decorating bunny, egg, and flower cookies…and Griffin just loved watching the madness!

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Our church has a big Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter, and the kids had a blast at it last year, so we knew we wanted to go again this year. They split it up by age group, which is perfect so kids don’t get overwhelmed or intimidated. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time finding eggs and learning more about Jesus.

Easter Morning

All the kids woke up to a full Easter basket and enjoyed their treats from the Easter bunny. Then we all went to church for an Easter service.

After church, we made brunch and then had another egg hunt for the kids. Kinsie hopped the entire time, Brax screamed happily, and Griffin chilled. What a trio!

We LOVED our time with the Mosier family, and we were so thankful that they made the trip to spend Easter with us. Holidays can be really tough being away from home, especially when we can’t always make the trip to be with everyone, so it means the world when family comes to us.

Another month down, and now May is upon us. My baby is about to be three in a few days, and I can’t even deal! We are excited for May, and hoping we can survive another hot Arkansas summer!

Here is our 1 Second Every Day video for April. Enjoy!