Trip to Virginia

We went to visit my niece, Brenna, and her friend, Nikelle, down at SVU last weekend. Here's what happened:

So, I love this one of Will. 

At a yummy Italian place for lunch.There's Tommy (nephew), Will, Evee, me, Steve (nephew- love the "rar" hand), Nikelle, and Beanie. Brenna is taking the picture.

Evee in a high chair. We usually feed her in a swing, so this was fun for her.

Such a sweet picture of Steve and Evee. This is main street of Buena Vista, where Southern Virginia University is.

Brenna and Belle after a football game.

Lighting is bad, but this is Evee her first time swimming. She had a ball! She loved it. She is a natural swimmer, too. She was just a kicking her legs and splashing around. She was going to town on that water. She got drenched by splashers and didn't even care. Can't wait to take her again.

Giggles

Evee has such a funny sense of humor. The other day Will kept touching the spatula to her nose and she was completely cracking up. She died down by the time I got the camera, but Belle tried it again and this is the result.

That baby is typically such a happy baby. She loves to laugh. If you look at her in a certain mischeivious way, she knows something fun is coming and she will bust out laughing. Last night she was giggling like crazy when I was looking at her cross-eyed. I love to tickle that girly, too!

Walking in Sunshine

We have been completely enjoying this lovely weather. Today the girls were in shorts. Love it! Yesterday we went on a walk around a lake at a park with some friends. It was lovely, and Belle thoroughly enjoyed it. Truth be told, so did I.

This goose came swimming right up to Belle. Unfortunately by the time I could grab my camera it had turned away.

This is Eva (pronounced A-va). What a funny little chick! This girl makes me smile.

We saw a little snake in the path. Belle wanted to touch it, but was too hesitant.

That is Kristina pushing McKay, and Beanie is pushing Eva.

In other Flythe news: Evee now has a tooth on the bottom front with another following closely behind. And she started crawling today! For about a month now she will crawl her back legs or feet but has not been able to figure out alternating her hands to go forward. So it has just looked kinda crazy - crawl back legs, then flop down, repeat. Well, today when we were waiting to get Will into the doctor she figured it out! She's no pro, yet, but she crawled three seperate times! So fun. She also loves to eat, that girl. When we feed her she says, "Mmm mmm mmm," every bite. I got a litle video of it. The fan is loud in the background, and she's not quite as into it, but nevertheless, here it is:

I also found out some news that I'm a little distraught about. I guess kindergarten in Maryland is full day. Yuck! Belle doesn't go for another year, still, but I originally wasn't planning on putting her in preschool. I have been teaching her at home, and we get together with friends a couple times a week, so she has been getting a lot of social time with other children. I figured it wasn't necessary and I could keep her home a little longer. Now that I realize it is full day I figure I should probably put her in the school's preschool this fall to get her used to going to school. That means four days a week half time. Sad! I am not prepared for her to start all these school shinanagens! I told her she can't grow up. Why doesn't she listen? I don't understand why these schools think it is good for a five year old to be in school all day. Why can't children just be allowed to be children? I hate it! I think by making children go to more and more school younger and younger we take away their creativity. I don't want to put her in the preschool, but I'm afraid if I don't full day will be such a shocker to her. I just don't know. We'll see if I can stand it!

Book of Mormon Stories

Belle was singing this at bedtime tonight and I just thought it was too cute.

Mt Vernon

Yesterday we went to Mt. Vernon (George Washington's home). Here's our experience:

Good times with family!

Letting it go

Well, I think I am finally getting the hang of it. School was making me about want to blow my brains out (not literally). I was ending up frustrated and in tears often (literally). Poor Will, frequently getting an earful about how hard it has been. Thank goodness he has been very patient and helping me through it. It has been really challenging trying to do well in school, be a good mom, a good wife, take care of the house, make dinner, and take time for myself. Do I do all those things now? No, only the important ones. The stress level had built so gigantic I thought I was going to explode last week.This last weekend I have been able to let it go. I am able to see it is okay if I don't get perfect grades. I am able to not constantly worry about school. We are back to the girls and I going and doing fun things and more interaction with each other again. And Will and I enjoy most evenings together that I am not in class. I think I have figured out how to balance it all. The biggest key for me is not to stress! That has been hogging up all my time. So my house suffers. I figure if each room gets cleaned really well once a week I will count it good. We have a couple good dinners a week, and the others Will or I just wing. We are surviving. I have never been able to let housework go before. But I have to now. My girls and Will are the most important things to me, and I need to do well in school so I can do my life's work that I feel I have been called to do. So if you stop by you will most likely always see a heap of clean unfolded laundry on my couch and remnants of last night's dinner on my kitchen floor. But that's okay, because this phase of my life I can't do it all. And I am embracing it.

Purple Hair

Today when we were at the mall Belle threw a penny in the fountain and made a wish. She later told me her wish was to grow up. I asked her why she wanted to grow up. She told me so she could have purple hair!

Mad baby

I thought I'd post a little video of Evee. She LOVES applesauce and this is after it ran out. She was upset.