Warm Rain Again and Some Other Things

Almost one year ago exactly we played in some warm rain in the TLF on Tyndall Air Force Base right after we moved back to Florida.  It was crazy to me that just the other day we had almost the same exact experience!  Except everyone is one year older and we are in a different (but still temporary) house.  The boys just had a BALL getting absolutely soaked in the downpour we had.  Sorry for the horrible pics... I was standing in the garage and my lens kept fogging up in the humidity and also I'm still not very good with my camera in the first place.  

Scooping up a worm in the driveway...

This was completely spur-of-the-moment... hence the clothes and lack of swimsuits.  The boys were so happy to be outside and actually a little bit cool for once.

Love my two little buddies...

Meet Firefighter Thor... from the 1980's classic, "Big Red Fire Engines" on Netflix.  It is the most cheeseball little show for kids but it is one of the only things that will keep Reid's attention for more than 10 minutes.  Phil and I have seen it so many times we could recite it, but Reid loves it so we keep on watching.  :)  The real firefighters on the show are from FDNY and are actually pretty fun to watch (they have the best thick New York accents) and I've even learned a few things from watching (like the difference between a ladder company and an engine company), but the cheeseball part is the actor who hosts the show ("Firefighter" Bob) and the two cheesy kids that are his sidekicks.  Reid loves to put on his construction worker outfit now and pretend he's Firefighter Bob.  He says, "Help me put on my Firefighter Bob!"  It's funny.  

Here he is watching...

... with his fire station (that was a gift for Jackson long ago) close at hand...

And last, but certainly not least, Phil and I celebrated 12 years of marriage last Sunday with a kid-free night out and an amazing dinner and a bottle of wine.  Yay!  I love this man so much.  We have definitely had some tough moments together over the years, but I am very proud of how strong our marriage is now and how much we love each other (even though we have little to no time to ourselves as a couple and have only been away together twice for one night since before Jackson was born).  I actually think that this crazy year of moving across the country and moving in and out of temporary houses and building a house and having a fourth baby has made our relationship even stronger and better.  I really think we are just such a great team (at least when it comes to raising our family... don't think we'd do so well on the Amazing Race or Survivor or something like that... I would be a lim fact for sure... lol).  Anyway, I love you, Phil and am so thankful for you!

First Week of School

Here are a few pictures from our first week of school.  I know there will probably be a variety of opinions about this when people read it, but we are trying out homeschooling this year.  We have several friends who are homeschooling now or have done it in the past (and just rave about it), and it has been on my heart pretty much since J was born.  When it came time to enroll him in Kindergarten I just really felt like this was the route we needed to take for now.  So we're doing it!  And liking it so far!  It is a little chaotic right now with the two little ones in the mix and nowhere to put anything in this small, disorganized house, but we're making the best of it.  Here are J and E on the first day of school...

E was very excited (as you can tell), but J was a tad nervous and apprehensive... not knowing what to expect, I think.  Once we got started he cheered up quite a bit.  Then after Daddy came home from work that night we all went to the pool to celebrate our first successful day of school.

Emmett wanted a picture of himself blowing bubbles under the water.  :)

Best buds...

 

Please excuse my ugly legs here, but I was holding Reid like this for a little bit and swinging him up and down and he said out of the blue, "We're moving like a digger!" which I thought was very creative.  :) Diggers are his favorite right now.

We also joined a homeschool group called Classical Conversations to get us out of the house a little bit and help us meet some friends.  Plus I love what the boys are learning there.  We meet at a church once a week for three hours and then all eat lunch together and play on the playground for a little bit.  The boys just LOVED their first day this past week.  Here they are during our "fine arts" time learning about the 5 basic elements of shape...

Davis found school totally exhausting.  Lol.

We did have one small little mishap that week... I was working with J and E and noticed it was kind of quiet and thought to myself, "Where is Reid?"  I heard some water running in the bathroom so I knew he was in there, but then I got sidetracked and didn't check on him for a few minutes like I should have. When I went in there he was up on a little stool "brushing his teeth" with just water and there was only a little water spilled on the countertop so I figured that wasn't too bad.  So I just brought him out to the kitchen and made everyone a snack.  E walked by Reid's plate on the way to his seat and said, "What's all this hair on Reid's tray?  Yuck!"  I thought maybe it was just crumbs that looked like hair to E, but then when I went to check I saw this...

... and then it all came together for me... the scissors on the bathroom counter next to the sink where Reid was brushing his teeth... Duh!  He had cut a chunk out of his hair on the top of his head.  I am SO THANKFUL that he didn't cut off a fingertip and that you can't really tell where he cut.  Needless to say, I'm making sure to keep an extra close eye on R from now on.  Other than that, the week went really well!  haha!

House Progress

Trim is on around doors and windows, siding is up on upper level, some trim is painted, and siding is painted!  Our builder sent us this pic on the day that they painted the siding and I internally freaked out... "The gray looks blue!!!"  That was the one thing I didn't want and I did extensive internet research to find a dark gray that didn't look too blue.  I say "internally freaked out" because we really have no other option other than the color that's on the house... we have no money to repaint and this is the color that the Architectural Review Board okay'ed so it has to be this color.  So I kept telling myself that maybe it was just the picture or the lighting.  

Then the next day Phil texted our builder and asked him to send a few more pics and I felt much better.  In person it is definitely the non-blue gray that I wanted.

The trim will all be black, since the stucco on the bottom will be white.  I really wanted an all-white house with black trim, but there is already a house with those colors in the neighborhood and the ARB doesn't like it, so I had to choose another color for the siding.

To some the house may look a little boring and box-y, but I'm hoping some extra trim and shutters and landscaping and lighting, etc. will add interest.  Really with the size lot we have and having to build a two-story house it kind of had to be a big box in order to get the layout and size we wanted.  I freaking love it and all its boxy goodness.  :)

Yes, our backyard is small, but it's actually big for this neighborhood and is plenty of room for the boys to run around and throw/kick a ball.  And less yard for Phil to have to mow, right?

The boys are already having fun in the yard...

And getting covered in dirt.  Thank goodness for the outdoor shower at the pool.  We're putting one in on the back of our house, too (an outdoor shower... not a pool).  :)

We have a little drainage easement on our lot with this little "creek" that runs out to the lagoon.  The boys just love throwing dirt, rocks, etc. in there.  I know they would probably love to play in it and the water is actually pretty clear (even though it looks dirty), but we worry about snakes and bacteria.    Lol.  So they will have to stick with throwing stuff in there. We'll have a fence up, of course, so they won't really be able to get down there, but with boys you never know.  Lol.  There are a few ponds in our neighborhood, too, and with all this rain we've been having we worried that the "creek" would get really high, but it actually stays pretty much the same depth no matter the amount of rain, whereas the ponds get filled to the brim.  Weird, but good for us I guess!

Man, he was dirty that night!  :)  And then on Friday they put the two fireplaces in!  Phil got a pic of the very beginning stages... this is the outdoor fireplace for the screen porch.

Still pretty far from being done (darn all this crazy rain!), but getting closer!