Working(Jess) and Not Working(Me)

This week we've pretty much gone over to our house every evening as soon as Jess is off, to work on some things.  One night he and my dad got a few of the heavier things from storage, that wouldn't be in the way when the guys come to put in carpet.  Like the fridge and our couch.  It's an Ikea couch, so he had to put it together again.  Neely helped, very seriously, and Paige and Cason made foil outfits for themselves.  I took pictures.

 

A couple of other nights, Jess reluctantly painted.  Don't think he's a big fan of that job.  I don't mind it, but I'm pregnant and all.  The kids got to help one night.  So the next night, when we were running low on paint and Jess told Neely she couldn't help this time, she was NOT happy.  She marched around the room, swinging her arms angrily and saying things like "I want to PEENT!" and "I'm bad!".  Then to prove it she kept trying to touch the light bulb, and sobbed when I'd stop her.  So after a minute or two of this I took her back to Grama's house with me, since I was no help and she was yelling and trying to get into trouble.  She was mad until back at Grama's.  Then she was just sad.  It actually was really sad, she sat at the end of the couch far away from me and Grama, and stared quietly at the wall.  If we said anything to her, she'd just quietly say, in a sad little cracking voice on the verge of tears "I just want to peent."  Eventually she fell asleep.

 

Paige and Cason stayed with Jess, and I picked them up a bit later.  We should get the carpet in later this week sometime(possibly not until early`next week) and if we do we'll be able to really move in this weekend.  Until then, we're still at Grama's.  She always worries that we're uncomfortable because we're all 5 in one room.  We brought a twin mattress over and the boys usually sleep on it, and the girls and I are on the full bed in the room.  Gia takes over Grama's couches at night.  Neely likes to tuck her into a real bed though.

 Speaking of tucking things in, she likes to put all her babies to bed lately.  One afternoon she kept tucking in all the toys and kissing them good night.  Then she would get in her spot and go to "sleep".  Cason came in and got in bed with her babies, and she was not pleased.  She kept telling him to leave.  He smiled over at her and she glared back.

 

 

Cason's been strangely wild for him lately.  He's still his sweet sweet self, but gets in these crazy moods where he just runs around like a wild man, making hilarious faces and sounds, and randomly attacking Jess.  

In first grade, they have a goal to read 100 books.  Or 100 chapters if they're reading chapter books.  They took the first couple of weeks to figure out everyone's reading level and then sent home books for each kid to start with.  Paige got her first one this week, and has been reading it to me.  I'm still amazed by how well she does.  She can read words that I would think would be tough, they're not really pronounced phonetically but she just seems to get it.  This book is good for her, I think, she can read it easily, but once in a while comes across a word that she can read but has to stop and ask me what it means.  She apparently likes to read tucked in between the beds on the floor.

 Neely likes to put on her accessories, especially sunglasses, and then tell me she's "rock style".  Haha.  We had to pick up Alex and Faith one day after school and parked there early.  They were hanging out up front with me and got sunglasses on.  Neely looked at herself in the mirror and then told me "Mama, I wooked at myself and then I was rock style."  Ha!

 I was also blogging about the baby shower on Saturday, and realized this was one heck of a long post, so I'll probably wait and post that tomorrow. 

Artists, Soccer, and a Non-Moving Day

We've had a pretty nice week.  Paige is still happy to be back to school.  We get lots of cute work sent home each day.  While she's gone, the other two have done lots of coloring.

Neely drew a rocket ship "bwasting off".   

Great Grama even joined in.

Saturday Cason had his first soccer game.  He did such a good job, hustling just like at practice.  He looked kind of upset/angry half the time though.  He did fall and get trampled once, so I'm sure that was part of it, but later he told me it was because the other team scored.  Ha!  Apparently he's got a competitive side.

 

He scored at least three goals that I know of.

We had a couple of hours before Paige's game, so she and I had a Starbucks date.  She got a chocolate milk, and I got a decaf pumpkin spice latte, which happily tastes exactly like the regular version.

Then we went home to get ready for her game.  Right before it started the ref informed us she'd have to take her earrings out.  She was freaked out.  She's not supposed to leave them out for a full six months, and she was also scared because at the six week mark we changed her earrings and it was a traumatic experience.  The new ones had shorter posts and a few days later I saw blood on her ear.  She told me it had been hurting for a couple of days, but she hadn't wanted to tell me.  We realized the posts were too short for her ears, and one of the earrings looked almost embedded in the back of her ear, and it was all red and puffy.  :(  It was a hard day of convincing her to let us get them out, clean them, and finally later that night, after lots of tears and a bit of yelling, we got the old pair back in.  Her ears look good again, but she thinks changing her earrings will always be that awful.  So she says she would rather never play soccer again than take her earrings out.  :/

So, her career may be over.  

We were supposed to be in our house this weekend.  The renters asked for an extra day, which we said was okay, since we still had Monday(Labor Day) to move.  So Monday rolls around, and our storage unit is closed for the holiday.  :(  You use a keypad to get in, it's not like they have to be there, but they had it set so the gates wouldn't open.  Lame.  Or I thought so at first.  THEN I realized we could just use the day for painting.  I figured our helpers would bail since we couldn't even move, but instead Chris, Sarah, and Uncle Tim all helped paint!  Not JUST paint, but paint popcorn ceilings.  Sarah painted the baby's room grey for me too! 

It look so good, and the ceilings looks SO much better and cleaner now.  They are awesome, and so is Grama, who watched our kids all day long, with only a few popins from me to check on everyone. 

We're having some carpet put in hopefully on Friday too!  I can't wait.  

Also, 5 weeks left, I was 35 weeks on Sunday.

Cason is FIVE!

This soccer playing fellow turned five on Sunday. 

 He'd been counting down the days for quite a while.  Saturday we had to go to Las Vegas, because Jess had to go to a meeting.  It started out as probably the most stressful day trip I've ever been a part of.  Ha.  The kids were tired from their sleepover with Alex and Faith the night before, and everyone was yelling all at the same time while we were rushing to find the Apple store and get my new phone in time to get Jess to his meeting.  We did eventually manage to get me a new phone(mine had been broken for almost two weeks), and got lunch. 

 

Then we dropped Jess off for his meeting and the kids and I went to Party City so Cason could find some stuff for the Iron Man party he wanted.  I got probably the grumpiest I ever have with the kids during the drive because everyone was fighting while I struggled to find my way through Vegas, (and navigation has NEVER been my thing).  I was so grumpy I made Cason(our sensitive one) cry.  The girls didn't care a bit that I was mad.  Well, Neely did, but she just got mad back.  Ha.  We eventually found what we needed, and went back for Jess.  After that, we took them to Chuck E. Cheese for the birthday boy.  By then, our day was much better.  Especially for the kids of course, who got to run around playing games for a couple of hours.  I mostly watched from a booth, one I could BARELY fit into.

 Cason was everywhere, I never even got a picture of him.  The only one I got of the girls is this one of them on a "ride", which they were enjoying even if it doesn't look like it at all.  Ha.

Then we ate and took Cason to Toys R Us for a birthday boy shopping spree.  He picked out some Iron Man and War Machine toys.

He had his party here at Grama's house the next day.  

While we prepared, Paige managed to blow up her first ever balloon.

 He loved it, and later told me it was "probably his best birthday ever." 

He was funny, blew the candles out the second we started singing "Happy Birthday" to him.  Later he told me "I just kinda forgot cuz I haven't been to any birthdays in a while."  Ha. 

He loved all his gifts, but was VERY stoic as he opened them, and would quietly say "thank you" while barely moving his mouth.  :)  He gets embarrassed by that stuff.  Guess we'll have to talk to him about smiling so people know he likes their gifts.  Ha.

Oh, I was also 34 weeks on his birthday.

"Cars Can Drive"

Aivree had a birthday party a couple of weekends ago, which Neely and I missed because Neely was sick.  Paige and Cason did cute Mickey and Minnie cards for her.  I can't find a picture of Cason's.  :(

Here's the one Paige did though.

We had a couple of weeks left of summer to just hang out together.

Grama came home the weekend before school started and they were SO happy to see her.  Cason had been asking daily how much longer until he'd see her.  

 Paige started back to school last week.  Since we moved home we decided to put her back in school.  I really liked homeschooling her and I still think it's awesome for lots of kids.  She just is such a social butterfly and gets a lot of enjoyment out of being at school with classmates that I felt like she was less excited to learn, which is most important to me.  Plus, what makes me think I'M qualified to teach her?  Haha.  She was VERY excited.  Especially when she found out she'd have daily math homework this year.  I notice she still wants some time to play before DOING that homework each night though.  :)

The other two are having fun together.

 Paige and Cason both started soccer practice.  They're both excited, but Cason is SOOOO excited.  He gets dressed about 4 hours before practice each day, cleats and shin guards and all.  Around 8:30 am he starts asking me "how many minutes 'til soccer practice?"  He has never (so far) cared much about sports-he's more of a robots and superheroes kinda guy.  Apparently soccer is his thing though.  He works SOOOO hard at practice.  He has a coach who takes it fairly seriously apparently, because they do way more running than I've ever seen kids that age have to do.  Including having to run when they aren't paying attention to the coach.  Ha.  Cason is always the one who IS paying attention, and he runs as hard as he possibly can the whole time.  It's so cute, he hustles harder than anyone in history. 

 His team is "The Hound Dogs".  

Neely has been doing lots of drawing.  Lots of "fwiends".  She likes to tell me who each one is and how they feel.  There's usually a "happy" guy, someone who's sad because they lost a toy, and sometimes a guy who "doesn't fink(think)".  Ha. 

She asked me to do a boat for her one day so she could put "fwiends" in it.  I love her little waves beneath it.

 One day while drawing she was having some tea.  Cason asked her if she wanted to come play with him and she asked him to let her finish her "coffee" first.  Ha. 

I've missed some belly pics, so here's two Sundays ago-32 weeks...

...aaaand this last Sunday, 33 weeks.

It's at the point now where I'm getting the twin comments or the "any day now huh?" from strangers.  Ha.  People who know me well claim I'm not very big.  Don't worry family-I'm not sensitive about having a big baby belly.  Kinda like it in fact.  At least now, while I still have 2 or 3 shirts that SEMI fit.   

I had a doctors appointment yesterday.  Grama kept Cason, but Neely wanted to come, so she and I met Jess at the office.  She made a friend in the waiting room, a little girl a bit younger than her.  The girl didn't talk, but managed to befriend Neely anyway, by approaching her with a big smile and handing her a Smurf toy.  Neely accepted it, smiled at the girl, and they stared for a few seconds.  I guess Neely wanted to make conversation, because she did this cute hand gesture like she was going to say something important and told the girl "Cars can drive."  Haha.  We were cracking up.  Now we like to randomly say it to each other the same way she did. 

A Robot Punched Her In The Face

The morning after we got home, Jess went straight over to start unloading the U-Haul.  I got the kids up and ready, and fed them breakfast, and we met him over there, right about the time Grampa and Grammy both showed up to help.

The kids had seen Grampa the night before, but this was the first time they saw Grammy since before we moved in January. 

Grammy entertained the kids, especially the girls.

Jess, Grampa, and Cason did all the hard work, while I moved some smaller boxes and looked for things we would need soon.  Cason was awesome, carrying seriously heavy boxes and refusing help because he's way too buff.

It was really impressive actually, some of it seriously was heavy and it was really hot out too.  He took a much needed rest after a bit.

Everything was in by lunch time!  Not bad.  

We had lots of little things to take care of for the next day or so, but a couple of days later the kids had a couple of sleepovers.  One night Alex and Faith, and a couple of nights later they had Lily spend the night.  Veronica and both girls hung out for a while first though.  Neely and Aivree were really cute on the porch swing together.  

Apparently Neely was shy.

She's not shy around Cason though.  He's her "fwiend."

She woke up the other day and told us all about her dream, which included a robot that punched her in the face.  She still brings it up at least once a day and shows us just how he punched her.  She goes "The wobot punch me in the face, wike THIS!" and then fake punches herself and goes "HA!!!" every time.

AAAAAND....last Sunday I hit 31 weeks: