Another Busy Weekend

Life is fleeting - might as well make every single second count, right?  We did that last weekend.  We started Friday afternoon at the school's fall festival.  Our two older (cooler) children did their own thing which left me with Miles while Matt set up camp at the popcorn/water booth - PTO duties.  Miles and I immediately got in line for the haunted house (sponsored by the 4th grade classes).  It was well done and the right amount of scary.  We made our way to all the different classrooms, racking up on suckers and candy bars as other parents passed us with 2-liters, cakes and live goldfish.  Oh, the joys of Fall Festival!  Miles favorite room was the putt putt golf where he got two holes in one - he got in line for that a few times throughout the night.  He was also fond of the bowling room.  We finally got all the kids wrangled around 6:30 and headed out the door with our "wins".

Matt and I got home, got dressed and headed in town for the Evans Annual Halloween party.  This year's theme was the 80's.  I knew immediately we'd go as Garbage Pail Kids, one of my favorite 80's memories.  I went as Cute Tippie and Matt as Stuffed Steven.  I love homemade costumes - cheap and simple - only spent money on Matt's straw hat, a fake crow, Styrofoam balls, green spray paint and spider web (total cost about $10).  However, my back and neck paid dearly for the labor - four days of Advil and ice packs.  See if you can recognize any fun 80's characters in the picture above (Gem, Rainbow Brite, Richard Simmons…)

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed to IHOP to meet some friends for breakfast and then went over to the Hot Rods stadium for their annual BUDDY WALK - supporting Down Syndrome of South Central Kentucky.

We met up with the youth group at Greenwood Park to show our support for Ella Kate Nelson, the daughter of our close friends Matt and Michelle.  After a performance from the Rockerz, everyone joined their perspective teams on the ball field and did a short walk around the in/outfield.  The main purpose of this event is to raise awareness and offer support.  If you'd like more information or would like to donate, visit http://www.dssky.org

Sweet Ella Kate Nelson smack dab in the middle - you're our hero!

Saturday evening was Karson's BIG night - celebrating her 12th Birthday with a mall and movies party.  Karson is fairly easy to please on the birthday front - she wanted something small and low-key with some of her closest friends.  In order to make things simple, I decided to order a sandwich tray from Jimmy John's and brought chips and drinks for dinner.  I had also ordered a cookie cake from The Cookie Store.  The girls met in the mall food court at 5:15 for dinner and dessert.

Amelia (far left) and Karson met at 212 academy last year and in my opinion, won the "friend of the year" award for the night.  She's in 7th grade and runs track for South Middle and had a meet in Lexington at 2 p.m. that afternoon and managed to make it to K's party.  Wow!  Karson and Amelia have had a couple of playdates and really enjoy each other's company - lots in common. Both Elizabeth's follow Amelia in the picture - cousin Elizabeth Maglinger, even though she is only 10, fits like a glove with Karson's friends.  Karson and Elizabeth Warder have been buddies since kindergarten and have played sports together for years.  At Fall Festival on Friday night, I ran into Jamie, Elizabeth's dad, who was holding a two-liter and cake.  I told him "you are racking up."  He excitedly announced "Warders are Winners!"  I love it and them - sweetest family and are winners in our books.  Jamie will be Karson's rec. basketball coach this year, so we will get to hang out with them a lot!  Next to Karson in the picture is Kaitlyn.  Karson and Kaitlyn have also been friends since kindergarten and are pretty much inseparable these days.  There aren't many afternoons that these girls aren't together as she is also our neighbor.  They practice volleyball, ride bikes and 4-wheelers, make movies, play with make-up, lots of good times together.  The far right is Madelyn, Karson's friend from South Middle who was on her volleyball team.  These two hit it off immediately.  Madelyn has never met a stranger and is the easiest person to get along with - she and Karson love spending time together which isn't often now that vball is over =(.

 

After dinner, the crew walked around the mall and shopped with Matt and my sister monitoring them at a distance.  I left the mall and headed over to Regal Cinemas to purchase tickets to the movie "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."  When I met back up with everyone at the mall, the girls were in Justice and heading over to Payless Shoes to try on heels.

Shoe Fashion Show - I'm sure the Payless employees LOVED us =).

Girls just wanna have fun!

 

We headed over to the theater around 7:00 to grab some seats.  My sweet sister purchased one of those jumbo popcorns for everyone to share.  Many of the girls also decided to get Icee's.  The movie was in one of the smaller theaters, and we managed to snag the entire back row.

I give the movie two thumbs up!  It was super funny and everyone seemed to enjoy it, especially the 60 year old guy who sat in front of us and cackled the entire time.  I got more laughs out of watching him than the movie. All the parents picked their kids up around 9 at the theater, and we called it a night!

 

I was determined to carve pumpkins with the kids after church on Sunday afternoon.  Matt and I picked up some pumpkins at Priceless IGA on the way home from church.  I got each of the kids their own pumpkin.  Sunday afternoon was GORGEOUS - besides the mosquitoes who lit Karson up, we were able to spend the afternoon outdoors carving.

 

Looking forward to Halloween weekend! Our pumpkins have morphed into Jack-o-laterns!

 

Beautiful Inside and Out - 12 Years Today

“Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ” - Elizabeth Stone

I can't recall where and when I heard that quote, but it is the truth if I ever spoke it children (to quote another wonderful woman, Mamaw Deaton).  Karson Ann Deaton celebrates her 12th birthday today and holds my heart - my beautiful daughter, both inside and out.  We share a special bond.  Some of my favorite times of the day are when she comes up to me from behind and puts her arms around my waist, hugs me, and just lingers there for a moment with her head on my back (the top half of my back, I might add - the girl is tall). I'm not sure how she has changed this much overnight.  I can barely get her hair in a ponytail because she's almost as tall as me.  Before too long, we will probably be sharing shoes (one size away).  Who is this person?  I look at her and can hardly believe she has grown right before my eyes.  She's almost a teenager and turning into this young woman with goals, dreams and passions.  Just this morning (her birthday day), she got up at 6:45 to get ready for school because she had to be there at 7:15 a.m. to work with her 6th grade showcase team.  She's stayed after school until 4:30 p.m. the last two days to work on both showcase and the student lighthouse team.  She was recently elected as the School Ambassador for 6th grade.  She travels to 212 Academy every Thursday (her second year) to be challenged academically and increase her level of thinking.  The girl works independently and receives high marks in everything.  To say she has set the bar high for her siblings, is an understatement.  She sets the bar for herself - no prompting needed from us.  She has truly exceeded any kind of expectation I ever had for her.  To top it all off, she is selfless - what a trait!  She's not concerned about what others think about her and likes to do her own thing.  Clothes and popularity aren't something she cares about yet.  She's not into boys and doesn't notice them staring at her (I do - yikes).  She's truly the total package.  If you can't brag about how awesome your child is in a blogpost, when can you, right?  I love her to pieces.

We've decided to do a simple party this year for her birthday - it's what she wanted. Mall and movies this Saturday night and Olive Garden for dinner. 

Thank you K for  making me a Mommy - I couldn't ask for a better daughter!  Love you!

Eight Years Young

Our baby turned eight on Friday.  It's hard to believe that over eight years ago, I was fitting into my post pregnancy (Isaac) jeans and psyched about it.  My jaw dropped when I found out I was pregnant with our third.  We'd actually tried to get pregnant with the other two kids - it was intentional.  My pregnancy with Miles, not so much.  Trying to process the fact I would have three kids, three and under, was a hard to concept to grasp.  It didn't take Matt long to tell me that he was scheduling a vasectomy.  We knew we wanted more than two kids, but with a third on the way, it was time to make that decision.  

(He actually had his appointment in November right after Miles was born).

 God knows best - and thinking back, I'm glad it happened the way it did.  All of our kids are almost two years apart which couldn't be better.  They are close in age and love to hate each other =). 

A dear friend pulled me aside at a party the other day and told me she was mad at me.  This friend just had her third child recently (kind of a similar situation - three very young kids, stair steps apart).  She said, "I don't think you properly warned me.  You didn't tell me how hard this would be."  She was/is absolutely correct.  I told her I don't remember much of Miles's first year.  It truly is a bit of blur between sleepless nights and two small toddlers needing my attention every second.  To make matters even more insane, I was also teaching preschool part-time.  Miles was a fairly easy baby but never took a pacifier which made it difficult to soothe him.  We made our laundry room his "temporary" bedroom.  I put a pack-n-play in there along with a covered shade on the door and a small space heater.  Anyone with two small children know how integral schedules and nap times/feedings are.  I wasn't about to let our other two wild ones interrupt his schedule - primarily naps (and my sanity).  The only way to separate them from him was keeping him on one side of the house and them on the other for crowd and noise control =).

  I'm not sure how I managed to make it through that first year.  In fact, I vividly remember visiting OBGYN Dr. Lyons - a female (even though my OBGYN was Dr. Davis - a male) and telling her I thought I was losing my mind.  She put me on Lexapro and told me she wished they pumped this medicine into the local water.  I'd stopped taking "the pill" cold turkey post Miles and post vasectomy.  I'm not surprised my hormones was all over the map.  I only took the anxiety medicine for about two months realizing this was a truly difficult chapter in  my life, and it would pass (lots of prayer, scripture and an amazing husband).  Sleep also helps.

Isaac loved his baby brother but quickly had to adjust to a toddler bed and give up his crib.  He also had to adjust sharing his bedroom with a brother.  Many mornings, I'd find them both in the crib playing.  Sometimes Isaac would be bouncing Miles by jumping on the bed.  He put all kinds of toys in there, and they would play.  Miles loved any kind of action Isaac would throw his way.

FYI: Miles plans to skip college and head straight into the NBA,  if his shots aren't falling- it's the basketballs fault, his favorite player is Kevin Durant, he wants to stack dominoes all the time (and wants us to video them), he shoots Nerf basketball when he's not stacking dominoes, he is quickly out growing most of his clothes and shoes, he has had two of his eight cavities filled (round II tomorrow), school is a hobby (took all weekend to complete the desert habitat to the left - grudgingly), he likes the song "Whoop There It Is", and loves golf!

Because we celebrated Miles birthday last month, he was a bit confused when his birthday arrived. He was asking about presents and all the goodies that come with birthday celebrations.  I explained to him that we had already celebrated his birthday with our family and friends, but we would do something special for him as a family.  I certainly didn't want him to feel like we "slighted" him on his actual birthday.  Of course, I took the traditional birthday donuts and milk to Plano that afternoon so he could celebrate with his class.  However, that morning, I wanted him to wake up to something special.  I had purchased eight balloons and attached eight different gifts to them - everything from Spongebob chapstick to a FatHead Jr. poster of Kevin Durant.  He was tickled by them all!

October is a busy birthday month for our family.  Both of my kids have birthdays along with my grandfather and uncle. My mom had a big celebration that evening for our family and some close family friends celebrating the four special days.

We are above and beyond blessed and surrounded by lots of love.  Happiest of birthdays to my sweet Miles - you make us so very proud.  You completed our family and infect us with your ear to ear smile each day.  Love you buddy!  Happy #8!

The Calm Before the Crazy

Three Tuesday Tots looking fancy for some family pictures.  Are they cuties, or is it just me?

Although volleyball has completely occupied every single second of our free time throughout the week,  it came to close this week.  Our 7th grade team took home first place in the district tournament.  They girls played really well and beat Drakes Creek in the finals.  

Karson got to see her closest friends play volleyball a few weekends ago - future Spartan players for sure!  I have a feeling her 7th grade team next year is going to be just as good as the 7th grade team this year.

I titled this post the calm before the crazy simply because bowling season started for Matt this week, and I signed both boys up for parks basketball this year.  On top of that, Karson will try out for South's middle school basketball team next week.  If that doesn't work out, she, too will play parks ball.  Whew!  It's gonna be a busy fall/winter running all over town to ballgames and bowling matches.

We wrapped our first Youth Theatre show in the Education department at SKyPAC last weekend - feature presentation Little Shop of Horrors.  It certainly FED our love for YT, some spectacular performers!  I'm a lucky gal getting to work with one of the best YT directors around, Zac Bush.

Zac calls himself my "work husband" but more importantly, he's one of my closet friends.  Our town is fortunate having such a talented person working with our youth.

I had to post this picture of my gorgeous daughter.  She and I spent last Saturday morning doing some shopping at the mall.  She got the red beanie from a newer store called Earthbound which has become her new favorite place to shop.

Argh!  Have a mentioned that Miles has the Karson curse when it comes to bad teeth.  At his last check-up, we learned he has EIGHT cavities.  Are.You.Kidding?  I remember sitting in St. Jo's gym at a volleyball game when Matt brought him in after his appointment and delivered the news blow.  Needless to say, we'll be broke over the next few months.  First round (of four) cost us close to $330 - on baby teeth.  Lucky us.

I used to think Karson cornered the market on selflies, but it seems Isaac has taken over with his constant selfie posts.  I follow him on Instagram (don't recommend it).  His posts are usually something of this nature.

Keep Calm and continue on…not sure how much I'll be posting in the next few months.  Highly doubt I will be home at all.  Enjoy!