Class Picture

Well, yesterday at preschool  we got our pictures back! And my oh my,  I'm glad I had decided only to order the little $15 class pic/individual  pic combo because they are sort of a hot mess lol. But  I wanted at least this to document her little class, even though I predicted the pics would suck :-P

And they we have  it! Ready for the hope chest, so she can look back at it and make fun of how I dressed her in 20 years :-P

She did the chipmunk smile! lol...good grief, I don't  know why she bites her lip like that for pics

(FYI, obviously these are all pictures of pictures so the quality in real life is better)

And now the class picture. I mean seriously, if you were a photographer who knew you were photographing a class of 3 year olds wouldn't  you bring a noise maker or *something* to get them to look at you for the picture? There are like 6 kids not  even looking! Shaking my  head here lol....

And here is a zoom in on Raya's favorite friends hehe...

The  girl next to Raya (in the white  sweater) is Miss C. and seems to probably be Raya's best friend so far as I can tell. Then Miss E. (lower right corner, in the solid brown dress) is  probably  the one Raya talks about second most. Raya's third friend is Miss M. (lower left wearing purple). Raya refuses to play with any boys, and she has really  never mentioned playing with any other girls (occassionally she mentions them in passing)...but in general it's always Miss C. Miss E. and Miss M. that she proclaims to love and adore! hehe

And the hilarious thing to me is that those three little girls are probably  the three loudest/most talkative/outgoing girls in the class. Miss Raya is definitely drawn to the outgoing kids and she loves to be a follower :-)

Lastly in preschool news, remember  my post awhile back about how I was boycotting the 5 morning a week preschool at the public school and I wanted to stay at this small private preschool next year for only 3 mornings a week?

Weeeeeeeeelllll......I signed her up on Monday for the 5 morning a week one :-o  And I'm not super happy about it!!! But long story short, the 5 morning a week one is way cheaper (we're talking it averages out to $2 a day! haha) and since pretty much *everyone* else was going for the cheaper option the private preschool doesn't think they will have enough students signed up to even run 4 year old preschool next year. So there was me and like 3 other moms who kinda wanted the 3 mornings a week still, but we'd have to gamble.....and if they didn't even up offering that class next year then we could possible be out of luck because the public school one fills up fast.

So anyways, next year I'll be dragging my butt to preschool 5 mornings a week, leaving at like 7:45am....cue my crying :-P  On the plus side? Alll the money we save will allow me to sign Brielle up for fun things like gymnastics that we can do in the morning when Raya is gone. And I'll get used to getting up and out the door early in the morning again, so when I go back to work the following year perhaps it won't  be such a shock  to the system haha. And Raya will  be pumped  to learn  that they raise chickens at her new preschool next year ;-)  However I was chuckling to myself about how different some parts of the country are for preschool. I keep reading about some people's kids basically learning to  start reading in preschool because by kindergarten they  start right in with sight words,etc.

Well the 5 morning a week preschool, through our public school system, specifically told us that they are still play based. Our kindergarten here is still the kindergarten I remember when I  went to school apparently (learning abcs and 123s), because the preschool said that next year Raya will work on recognizing her name and possibly a few letters, but they do no formal instruction on the alphabet  etc. (She already can recognize pretty much all the letters).  I guess at least this way I'm certain she'll  be prepared for kindergarten because it's all in the same building and  obviously  the preschool teachers know exactly what the kindergarten teachers right down the hall  expect....so if they say the preschoolers just need  to recognize their name when they start kindergarten I guess Raya will be advanced! haha  That's Iowa for you :-P

Changing the lock

Tuesday was the day from hell!  ....let me  explain...

So on Monday  night/ Tuesday we got another  snowstorm. Tuesday preschool was cancelled and we were snowed in (i.e. the girls were driving me crazy!) So shortly before  lunch I decided that  we could go out and build a snowman (even though I hate playing outside in the cold lol).

I  spent a good 15 minutes bundling us all up and getting us  outside. After about 20 minutes outside I had  about reached my max lol...and we had a very sad looking  snowman to show for our efforts

At this point Raya is begging for all sorts of  Frosty accessories---particularly a carrot for Frosty's nose. So finally  I  say "ok,  stay right here, I'll run inside quick to get one and then  we're going inside for lunch"

I go to walk in the house and....

THE DOOR IS LOCKED! We are freaking locked outside. I  spend the next 15 minutes  checking all  of our doors and windows---it's a fortress, we ain't getting in! People, even my cell phone was locked  inside.

By this time Raya is *screaming* at me "I WANT A CARROT!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  God  help me.

Before we go any further in this story let me explain who's fault this all  is---LEE'S! You see, we've  *always* left the door from our garage into our kitchen unlocked. There is no reason to lock it because we just use the garage door opener to get in the garage and then can go right inside, but  no one else can get in. However recently Lee has suddenly been locking this door from time to time, and I kept telling him to stop, because I had no way of knowing when he locked it and  I knew I'd get locked  out.

Well I guess on Tuesday morning he was feeling especially paranoid and he locked  it---without telling me :-o So I took the girls out that door to build the snowman and shut the door behind me like I always do!

So back  to the story....at this  point all I could do was walk next door and pray that our retired neighbors were home. I've met them all of like 3 times haha. So I knock  on the door and bless their hearts, they usher me and the girls right in, give the girls some cookies, let me use their phone, put on Barney and pull out some toys that they had for grandkids, and let us hang out at their house for about 45 minutes until Lee could get home from work. (I have never been so glad in my life that I put on clothes! I  was seconds away from just putting my coat on over my pjs because I didn't plan on staying outside  very long. This would have been even more embarassing haha)

Lee gets home and tries to break in a window...bent our screen all up but couldn't get in the window. So then he used some torch saw or something to literally cut the doornob off our door...

So  what did we learn? Well, Lee learned  that  it's a good thing to have your wife call you from the *neighbor's* in situations like this, because if there hadn't of been  witnesses around during this phonecall  I can guarantee I would have had some choice  words for him in this situation! :-P And two, we learned to hide a spare key! Although neither of us really want to deal with this situation ever again, so Lee bought this:

Keys be damned---we now  have a keypad! :-)

(Oh, and  I guess Lee  learned  a third thing too....he learned that when you aggravate your wife she may spend the following day shopping,  and  buying the adorable ruffle shorts from Children's Place that she's been eyeing. So I guess something good came from all of this :-)

My store had these  ruffle knit shorts  on sale for $6 after coupon---I got three pairs! It's possible  I bought the tank too---Lee deserved it ;-)

Aren't they  stinkin cute?! And  at only  $6 she can wear these to the park, etc. and I won't feel bad if they get dirty--most stylish "play clothes" ever ;-)  I think I will monogram her  a shirt to go with these.

On second thought, maybe it wasn't so bad getting locked out! :-)

Cat fight!!! (Wordless Wednesday)

...and  once  Brielle  gave up and left, guess who turned  on the charm?! :-P

And baby makes five....

***ATTENTION!  Before  the rumors  start to swirl let me just clarify that  none of these cute little legs belong to me or my family! lol   Rest assured that Raya and Brielle are limited edition....this baby making shop is closed :-)

However, my friend (my sister-in-law's sister to be exact) is  expecting baby  #3 and she asked me if I'd take a picture for them and make an announcement---how fun!

The idea for the announcement was theirs, but I did the photo, editing, and created the announcement. Can't wait until the weather warms up again so that I can do some more photography!

So what do you think---cute  right? (Her husband came up with the little saying hehe...worked great with  all their cowboy boots)

Here was another photo I had taken...we had a couple different options to choose from

I had done a vintage edit on this one :-)

Maybe some girl cooties from our house will rub off on them now---I think a little pair  of pink boots would fit right in! We'll see soon enough.....

Trendy Tot Tuesday--jackets!

Yeah, yeah, yeah....it's Trendy  Tot Tuesday  on a Monday night. But  it's been a busy  day and I wanted  to get my  post done so that  it counted as a Monday *and* Tuesday update hehe.

I'm  linking up again with lots of others to share  tot fashion---and this week I'm blogging about jackets!

Sadly here  in Iowa we tend to be bundled up in winter gear when it's cold enough for a coat,  but for our very short spring/fall seasons when a light jacket is appropriate I like to be prepared with lots of options ;-) Recently I found this adorable coat for Raya at Gymboree Outlet, I believe the Homecoming Kitty line, and then I hunted down a matching hat. At the time my mom was shopping with me and said something like, "does Raya really *need* that?"   .....um, clearly  not....but is  she rockin' it like nobody's business  today? Clearly yes!! (I  couldn't pick a favorite  photo, so I'm  including them all!)

She is so stinkin' adorable!

And then here Brielle is rockin' an Old Navy jacket/blazer and a Children's  Place  hat. Both of these are  too big, but I intended the jacket  to be for *next* year....she is  just wearing it today for Trendy Tot Tuesday purposes  ;-)   ...once  again, I couldn't  pick a favorite photo!

Go away paparazzi---the show is over!!!!!!!!!!!!  :-)

I appologize!

Sorry I haven't been a very good blogger the last few days...I"m behind on commenting on other people's blogs and I have neglected my own as well! I have good reason though :-P

On Friday I was sewing orders for my Etsy shop like a mad woman. I then stayed up an additional hour or two cleaning house!

....cleaning house because on Saturday my inlaws came up and stayed overnight....but not before Lee, me, and the girls all drove to get our taxes done---which is about a 3 hour round trip because we go to a friend of his who gives us a really great deal. But it wasted a morning.

On the plus side we ate out twice on Saturday---mexican for lunch and my favorite Granite City for supper!

Then Saturday  night was lots more sewing.

Sunday morning the inlaws left and then I met my mom, aunt, little cousins, and grandma for lunch and then we came and got the girls and went back to my moms to visit (and Raya went sledding with my cousins).

And  now  I'm doing *more* sewing---but  all  in all a fun weekend and now I have a clean house which is always the plus to having company up haha.

So  with that weekend update I now leave you with random pics---enjoy!  ...and I will  try to be back with a more coherent blog post soon :-)

"But I'm noooooot tiiiiiiired!"    ....famous last words :-)

"Mommy, Sawyer and I are  getting married!"

Raya's  I  get---however Sawyer chose interesting "groom" attire :-P

She was a one man band at her  own wedding!

Maid of honor?

And lastly, just because this absolutely cracks me up....

....so Lee goes to get dressed and comes out asking me  how his shirt  looked ....apparently  I had washed and folded this shirt up in his closet and he put it on to discover the above LOL. After some investigative work we are hypothesizing that he had left this shirt downstairs where one of our dogs partially ate it, then I threw it in the wash without even noticing and folded it back  up in his closet!! I think it's so funny how it looks like we have fashion designer dogs who want to show off his belly  button ;-)

Hope everyone has a great monday!!! We are supposed to get  yet *another* snowstorm so I'm probably going to be stuck  inside again with my monsters darling daughters :-)

Daycare

Today was a milestone people---Brielle's first ever time at daycare!

For my newer readers who may not know, I continued to work as a school psychologist  when Raya was born. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom but my husband said, probably rightly so, that we should  at least try the working mom thing, to see if maybe I actually did enjoy it....rather  than let pregnancy hormones take over and have me quit my job due to irrational fear :-P So after a really nice 18 week maternity leave ( I was lucky!) Raya  went to an inhome daycare.

Now daycare actually went fine for Miss Raya. Certainly there were things I would have done differently from the daycare provider, but that's just a mom thing I think ;-) However there were a multitude of reasons why I still wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, so just a couple weeks after Raya turned 1 year old was my last day of working outside  the home!

Which means Miss Brielle here has never been to daycare a day in her life. She's stayed with  family and  friends for periods, but  I don't consider  that  the same thing.

Now I enjoy staying home with the girls regardless  of their ages, but most of my "issues" with daycare in and of itself are related to those baby days. Certainly I don't think Raya was permanently traumatized by daycare during her  first year of life, and if I had no other option both girls would have survived with a working mom. But in general I don't see any benefit to daycare for the under age 1 crowd.

That said, I *do* see many social benefits to daycare for toddlers! Not  enough so that I'm rushing to go back to work  quite yet haha (I plan to stay home for one more year and go back to work when Raya starts kindergarten), but Miss Brielle is definitely a huge Mama's girl with a healthy does of "stranger danger". She's never stayed with any sort of daycare provider, and for awhile now I have thought it would be good for her!

So long story (kind of) short, the younger sister of a guy I graduated with does in home daycare and Sawyer, Harper, and Finn all go there occassionally so I felt comfortable with the provider. So today the  girls went to daycare from 8am until 1pm! I had tons of Etsy sewing to do and got a ton done :-)

The daycare  provider said the girls were excellent! She said Brielle had stopped crying before I even pulled out of the driveway (when I left Brielle told me "I have something to tell  you"...and when  I asked "what?" she told me "pick me up!" lol). I  guess Brielle had a couple periods in the morning where she'd ask for me but then got back to playing pretty quickly. And the daycare provider said Raya  did awesome and I guess when they got downstairs to the toys Raya asked, "so what are the rules  down here?" hahaha. She said Raya was a really good big sister and also played nicely with the other  little girl there.  When I picked the girls up they both said they  had fun! (Brielle did say "go to Mama's house now" though :-)

So  I may try to take the girls over there a couple times a month just for a change of scenery and to keep Brielle used to it, since she will have to go to some sort  of daycare once I go back to work.

I'm proud of my big  girl, trying new things!

And I'm proud of Raya for making me look like a good mom by being on her best behavior! :-)