Another Birthday!

Well, I really did plan to do this the day of his birthday, but Photobucket and I don't always get along. It seems they probably made things new and improved, but I can't figure the dang thing out. Anyone have an opinion about Flickr?
Beside my technological ineptness, Myles' birthday was perfect! Truly such a special, special day.  The girls both have school on Monday's and we had some plumbing issues at home which needed Spencer's attention; i.e. backed up sewage in the basement. Gross! I digress. We dropped the girls off, which allowed Spencer to get to see their classrooms and meet the teachers. Since he leaves at 6:15 every morning he misses all the school getting ready, drop off fun. Oh, and let me tell you it is fun. ha!
We decided we needed to start the day off right with coffee (for us) and a donut for Myles. He got to pick it out himself and enjoyed every bite. He was such hoot to watch eat that thing, icing and sprinkles first. After that we headed to the zoo to get a few animals in before we had to meet the plumber back home. It was so great to just have one kid!!! Don't get me wrong, but it was almost like a date with just one child to take around. We basically did all the "rides" through the zoo and savored the ideal weather. Since Myles still doesn't talk, we mostly had  uninterrupted conversation. He fell asleep on the way back; which was totally unlike him, we picked up Haydee and then got back in time for the plumber. Yeah! No more poop in our basement.
After swim lessons and dinner Myles got to rip into some of his gifts. It was so sweet how he oohed and aah-ed over every gift and wanted to take time to play with each one. He truly got so much joy over every item wrapped for him. I loved it!
We topped the evening off with some DQ ice cream and some Facetime with Gram and Papau while he opened the toys they sent.
Myles is so much fun and I still am praising the Lord for giving me a boy. Such a unique adventure after muddling through trying to get two girls through their toddler years. He loves to wrestle, hit things, throw things, and yet he is my tenderhearted cuddle-bug; if he sits still long enough. Having learned a few things with the first two I also enjoy being a parent to him even more. Some of the mystery is figured out, I suppose. Or maybe, I have just learned to relax a bit more and treasure the simple moments. Which is probably why even though his vocabulary is fairly limited I am not stressing about it too much. He cracks everybody up with his caveman grunts and clever ways of communicating without words. I mean the kid has got it figured out; I think he just enjoys not having to make the effort of forming words and yet gets everything he wants. Males. I know what you are thinking, and yes, I have spent over 20 minutes trying to get him to say something he wants before I give it to him, but this guy is as stubborn as his sisters,combined. He loves animals now, plastic, stuffed and real. Cars, trains, and planes. Old-school Fisher Price people and playing outside. If everything could be outside, he would be in heaven.
Enjoy the pictures, you'll have to click the link and it will open in another window.
Happy Birthday sweet boy!!!!
http://s1088.photobucket.com/albums/i332/spenceramywicks/Myles%202nd%20birthday/?albumview=slideshow

Instagram

I know, I've been terrible. I tend to do things in spurts, I've noticed. I do so great for awhile, but then I fall off the horse. At least that is just with the blog, well, maybe just the blog. Wish I could be superwoman!
We had a great Spring, enjoyed playing outside everyday thoroughly enjoying our cul-de-sac. What an incredible blessing our new neighborhood is, it is amazing, truly. They threw us a block party, which was lovely and they happily enjoy all the noise our kiddos make playing early in the morning. I finished some projects before our Memorial Weekend Wicks/Hansen reunion and then summer hit. Company, trip #1, trip #2, swim a little, trip #3, more company, wicked heat, and now we are squeezing in playdates before trip #4! I haven't taken a single picture with our really nice camera because Instagram has taken over my life, but I sure am thankful for it! My in-laws are on it and it so kindly posts to FB where my dad and siblings can see what we are up too. Lately, we don't even need to call and talk, because they know what is going on. My mom on the other hand....
So, I have no pictures to upload, just crazy stories of all the driving WITHOUT air conditioning, how amazing the girls can swim, Myles's spider bite and being cured of his fear of dogs, and how HOT Missouri can get in the summer. So, now I am reminded to walk around and take some pictures of the little updates in the house, which will motivate me to do more projects, which will make me too busy to write on the blog... I kid; sort of.

Spring has sprung

We've lived in Kansas City for three years. It seems longer some days and yet other times I can't believe its been that long. Now that we've bought a house, it feels more like home and I've learn to appreciate almost everything here, except the summer humidity. Along with everyone else in the US we've had crazy weather and even broke a few record high's in March. I wanted to make sure document some of the beauty of our Midwest neighborhood. We knew the outside of our house would look more appealing come summer, but it has been fun to discover a whole new aspect of this home we love. Happy Spring!

18 months

 Goodness! Myles is 18 months! I figured I'd better post this before that is no longer the case. He loves hamming it up for the camera, can you tell? His first ice cream cone. Usually, he has to share with the girls or mom or dad, but we decided to splurge and put up with the mess. What a mess it was, but worth it. He is such a little man! Always wanting to follow daddy around, playing with any tools that he can get his hands on and trying to mimic the projects. I really need to video it sometime. He doesn't have much to say, so the pediatrician did recommend speech therapy, but I still feel like it's because he's a boy, the third, and his sisters just take up all the communication time. Regardless, he communicates just fine and can follow direction implicitly well, except when he doesn't want to. His favorite toys are the spray bottles and dirty towels under my kitchen sink, I kid you not. He really enjoys pretending to clean our floors and appliances, if only it wasn't a health hazard. These days are going so fast; I try hard to soak in all the precious and even the not so precious moments.

Houzz

Yep, there's an app for that. It is also a web site, another fun thing to waste valuable time on. I have been inspired though and also made to feel very, well, inadequate among other things. I am not a naturally creative, artistic person nor am I a great decorator, so I heavily rely upon web sites like Houzz and Pinterest. Before them, I would actually have to ask our friends for advice or heaven forbid a decorator! I kid. I am a person who prefers to take a systematic approach to things, like I want to have all the walls painted in the house and all the items purchased to put on those walls to lay out and hem and ha over their permanent location. It is true, I have a fear of commitment, especially when it means putting a hole in the wall, so I have to take my time. These decisions should not be made lightly people!!! It doesn't help that my wonderful husband has strong opinions and often not running in the same vein as me. We have persevered though, and even though all our walls are not painted as I hope, we put some holes in the walls and hung some pieces new and not so new.
Here are a few new additions to the house, including our hearth room I've pictured before. What a difference a rug makes, eh? Love it and super inexpensive at Walmart.

My mother-in-law made these beautiful curtains. I knew that was the material for me as soon I saw it and so thankful Linda could take it home and whip these up faster that I even imagined!

This is in our massive entryway. Another part I love and my father-in-law is building us a small table to place opposite our door. I can't wait to see it. Aren't we spoiled? The chairs are from a church camp Linda's family used to go to and she thinks they are around 100 years old. She fixed them up years ago and saved one for each of her kids to have. We finally have the space and it is perfect. These were those vinyl words you can buy most home decorating places and the cross is made of metal pieces shaped to look like wood. Of course, this is where Spencer and I differ on tastes, but I am really thrilled how it turned out and thanks to him it is actually straight!

This is our master bedroom and bathroom. We have 5 closets in our bathroom- it is crazy and I hope we never fill them! We love all the room we have and eventually I hope to add a sitting area, curtains and more pictures, but I might have to paint a few more walls before I can commit to too much more.

Toy Room

   Before, the ceiling with skylight, very messy magnetic primer, magnetic wall being used, and finished!                                 

In a perfect world, everyone would have a toy room and those toys would stay in that toy room. They would be played with a couple hours a day and be put away in the properly marked bin and placed exactly as they should be on the shelves. Well, I live in real-ville, so that never happens, but I can dream about it! Regardless, I do love having a toy room, just so that I can actually have a chance to clean it when the kids are sleeping instead of the toys taking over their rooms. I had dreams of making one of the walls magnetic for all the kids art work and magnetic letters. The process was terribly messy and ridiculously time consuming and after all of that it barely works. I even wrote the company to complain, because I got so frustrated about it. They nicely offered a refund and I did decide to take it. Maybe I will invest it in some stronger magnets and be able to use it to the fullest. The pictures don't do the room justice. It has a great ceiling and brick flooring now a warm "Bamboo" color and a cheap, utility carpet that helps make it a cozier place to play. It is the pass through room off the kitchen and into the room hallway so I can't avoid the mess, but I can clean it!

The Move

Thankfully, December 17th was dry and around 50 degrees which was more than we could have hoped for. We rented a big truck, bribed friends with coffee, muffins and a spaghetti lunch and by 2PM had everything moved over to the new house. Amazing! So much to do, but I had prepared myself for the chaos and mountain of unpacking that would be mine to climb over the next month or more. Payge's birthday party was the next day, so we focused on survival the next 36 hours and hoped to find what we needed in our piles of stuff. I tried to mark and keep tabs on the boxes with Christmas and birthday gifts, but it sure is amazing how you think you mark things so clearly before you move them. Monday morning was rainy and the kids were playing amazingly well, while I tried to unpack a few more things. My first big project was to do the girls room and get some laundry done. I set out to do both of those things, but found that one of the girls had inadvertently locked their bedroom door and we had failed to realize it was a real lock, like, needs a real key kind of lock. My attempts at picking it were fruitless, but none the less there were plenty of other things to keep me busy. As, I stepped into the laundry room to move the clothes to the dryer I also stepped into a puddle of water. Another project on hold until Spencer could come home to help me get the cover off as I prayed that it would be an easy fix. I thought of a few things in our basement that I needed to bring upstairs. We knew their had been a leak down there for the previous owner, but there was an inch of water in the basement and there was water dripping down onto my carefully stacked boxes from the laundry room. Ugh! This first business day of home ownership, was not looking good. As events continued to unfold the washer was broken, well the drum was cracked, but thankfully the previous owners had left a washer that we could use. A cousin down the street helped us move things around so I could finish our laundry, we were leaving in a few days for Iowa and worse case I was prepared to pack dirty clothes and use the mother-in-law's washer. An uncle who lives in Lee's Summit happens to own a lock smith's shop and for some cake and ice cream picked open the girl's bedroom door (in record time) and recommend we change that handle asap. The basement was still an issue, as we went to bed that night and we continued to have torrential rain that was to continue well into the next day. There was now at least an inch of water in the basement. Turns out it wasn't just our leak, but a clogged water line. A plumber service (too bad no family close by in that business) the next day came out and cleared out the line and within minutes our 6, yes six, inches of water was gone. Poor Spencer had attempted to clear out the water with a shop-vac, but every flush of the toilet and use of any source of water was causing it to rise faster. That's when we called the listing agent on the house and he reminded us he had bought us a homeowner's warranty. We've heard some well know financial people say it is a waste of money, but in that moment it was gold to us. Just a few of my sentimental boxes fell into our "flood", but considering what could have been, I was just relieved to have our issues fixed without us having to call the bank and explain why we couldn't make our first month's mortgage payment. Mayhem left us for the most part, except the next day was dry and warm so as we played outside I thought I should sweep up our leaves. Myles, thought he should help me, but as he was next to me sweeping, he fell back into our uncovered window well, the one thing I said we needed to do before we moved in (ahem). My little man came out unscathed, but I was thankful we were going to be visiting the Chiropractor in the family in a few days. I did buy a cover that night. Payge's birthday was fun, Spencer's birthday was great and then we had an early family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning and then hopped into the car for Iowa. I was almost relieved to be leaving our new house. In-spite of the craziness of the first week, we are so grateful for this incredible blessing that the Lord had given us. I still am in awe every day.
Okay, okay, now for some pictures that I know you are dying to see, but really, come out for a visit! We have plenty of room now. I will post more, especially as we make changes or have since I took these. If you click on these, they do get bigger.

The great room

Some of my favorite things

5th Birthday Party

We moved into our new house on the Saturday before Christmas, if that wasn't crazy enough we had planned a birthday party for Payge the next day, at our new house. I know, ambitious, but I had promised her a party when she turned 5, I just hadn't planned on moving when I made that promise. Since, no one needed to be impressed, the house was mayhem, but the party was great! Mostly, it was because Aunt Laura helped to make it a beautiful princess theme. Payge adored every minute and it was so great to have all the space we needed for all our guests!

Bib of the day

Well, I know I have a lot of catching up to do, but who cares, really? So, I will just start somewhere easy. We've moved, celebrated birthdays, traveled, celebrated Christmas, more birthdays, New Years, unpacked, entertained company, had an anniversary, and now about to repeat part of that list again.
These are a few of the things we've been up to the last couple of months.
Swimming, indoors of course. Only two snowy days, but we got out to enjoy what we could. Running around in our great big house! Myles has discovered the joy of accessorizing, with bibs. It cracks me up. Most everyday he gets into the bib drawer and pulls out one for me to put on him. He then proceeds to wear it, oftentimes up to a couple of hours. We've been going to story-time most Thursdays, which the girls love and gives me a break from coming up with more school stuff to do. I love that they love learning and doing school things, but it's tough keeping up with them! Thank goodness Payge gets to go to Kindergarten this Fall. I'm really going to miss her, but she is more than ready. Besides painting and setting up house, these last few months have just been about enjoying all the moments big and small. savoring this time, before the next season gets here.

Thanksgiving

 It was our turn to be with my side of the family for Thanksgiving and originally we had planned to be traveling to Tennessee. As we have learned awhile ago, we might make plans, but the Lord directs our paths.
My parents are now back in Colorado Springs, exactly where the Lord wants them.
Because their home had been trashed by renters we had to all cram in my sisters home, but we had a great time celebrating all that we are thankful for. 

 I drove out with the kids by myself and thanks to lots of prayer they actually did really awesome. Considering it took about 12 hours with stops. Myles ate pretty much the whole way there minus an hour nap. We also found our perfect stopping place in Ellis, Kansas where there was a Subway and a fantastic play place so the kids could burn off some steam.

 It was so great to be with everyone and catch up with a few friends this visit. I am so grateful that Colorado Springs can be where we can be with my whole family and a place we will get to visit often. There is nothing like the beauty of the mountains and Colorado sky.

 Mimi and Aunt Aunie did a turkey craft with the girls, after we all chowed down a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls. Yummy, need to make those again.

 Cousin Dawson is growing up so quickly! Everyone enjoyed getting to play or hold him. Myles was so gentle with him, it was really precious to watch.

Kyle took a few family photos for us before we headed back home to Kansas City.
We are so blessed!

The great hair cut

Ok, so I am a little behind, I have lots of great reasons. Here is one of the random happenings from November. 
 While fixing a late dinner on a Tuesday, we heard the girls giggling upstairs. I thought, at the time, it was so great to hear them playing so nicely. After being at the dinner table for about 10 minutes I noticed Payge's hair looked especially odd. I looked longer, closer, and a shriek of dismay escaped me. Of course, the girls start crying right away, because they know why I am horrified. We assessed the damage and from what we could gather, Haydee was the hairstylist. Payge just went along for the ride, maybe, one can't be too sure. Payge now had bangs and random large chunks of missing hair and Haydee had back and side bangs. Mostly, it looked like a mullet. I kid you not.
I didn't get any "befores" of Haydee because it was just hard to see, as a whole, she fit right into Missouri style. The cute cuts are working out nicely now, though yesterday as I was hacking away I found it depressing for some reason.
Anyway, thought you would enjoy the pictures. At least they love their new style! Though today Haydee was telling me she wished her hair would grow faster.