Today's Pics

When we go to the park, Kyle is usually content staying in his car seat/stroller. Today we went to a park without sand or wood chips so I let him out to explore. He was excited to be let loose and his sisters had fun taking care of him.

     

    

A Beautiful Day

After several cold days and one day of rain, today was a beautiful day. We walked to the nearest park which is half a mile away. We ate a packed lunch and played. Kyle sat in a swing for the first time and he laughed and giggled as his sisters pushed him.

  

  

Keeping Busy While Daddy is Away

Derek is away at a retreat.  Let me tell you, I was not looking forward to this weekend.  I love the weekends when he's home and I can get a little extra rest and catch up on some sleep  Well, to my surprise, I've had a lot of energy and we've been having a great weekend so far.

The night before he left, we met with our small group.  We are going through a parenting book and it challenged us to divert daily with our kids -- do something different.  Don't get stuck in the routine and the to-do's.  Parenting is a relationship.  I felt convicted about how I've been spending my time lately.

So going into this weekend, I decided I wouldn't worry about cleaning or tidying the house and making dinner.  I would just spend some quality time with the kids.  In turn, I've had a lot more energy than I usually do and the kids have been great.  Some of the things we've done include washing the van, painting toe nails, reading books and going to the park.  

I can't avoid the household chores forever (I've already had to lower my cleanliness standards and it wasn't super high to begin with!) and I can't pop a frozen pizza in the oven every night.  But it's been great for this weekend and I now realize how much of my energy is spent on chores.  I'd much rather spend that energy on my kids and moving forward, I'm going to try!  

Here are some pics of the park we went to today.

Back To Work

I've been back at work for about three weeks now.  I am only working one day a week for now.  I told my boss that once Kyle starts sleeping through the night, we would touch base again about my work schedule.  If I want to take on one more day and they feel they could use me for an extra day, we would change it at that time.

Going back to work hasn't been too bad.  We're SO thankful we have the same babysitter who has been with us since Makena was 2 months old.  She's is great with the kids and loves them so much.  I don't think I'd still be working if we didn't have her.  She seems to be doing well with all three kids.

I have to say it's easier to be at work than at home.  But of course I love being able to be at home.  Today we went to a park and the grocery store.  Despite my last post, I went to a regular grocery store and let both girls push their own mini shopping carts.  They did great at following the rules (no running, staying with me, etc.).

Here are a few pics from our time at the park.  They are growing up so fast!

First Trip to the Library

I don't know why it's taken us so long to take the girls to the library.  Both girls love to read/look books. I guess since we have so many books that have been passed on to us, the girls have been pretty content with their own collection.

At Karis' suggestion, we went to the library for our Friday Family day.  We arrived at 10 am for the Toddler Storytime.  The volunteer was great and I was surprised at how many parents and kids were there.

We stayed afterwards to look at some books. 

And then we walked past the lake on our way to the park. 

Makena unsuccessfully tried to catch some ducks.  

We eventually made it to the park and enjoyed playing in the warm weather.

Today's Pics

We had a couple of really nice summer-like days this past week.  Despite runny noses and coughs, we spent a lot of time outside.

I ran out to Toys R Us before the "heat wave" to buy a water table for the girls.  It was something I've been waiting to buy and with the oncoming warm weather, I thought it was the perfect time to get one.  Plus, I had $15 worth of coupons!

Here are a few pics of the girls enjoying the table.

Look how happy Makena is!  When both girls were playing together, Makena didn't appreciate getting splashed or having water dumped on her by big sis.  Karis went up to take a nap and Makena and I came back out to play.  She loved having the table to herself!

Grandma came to visit for almost two weeks.  In that time, Karis was able to go to the park a lot.  When grandma left, it warmed up so we continued to go to the park.  Now, all day long, Karis ask, "Park, now?" or "Bye-bye, now?"

The other day we dropped by a friend's local park for a few minutes.  When Derek came home from work later that day, he took Karis to the park before having to go back out to work.  When Derek left, Karis asked to go to the park AGAIN.  I told her, "Karis, we went to the park two times today."  To which she answered, "Three?" I guess in her mind, there is no limit as to how many times we can go to the park in one day!