Countdown to Summer

Well, we are on the final home stretch of our structured daily life: school is almost out and we survived our first year of elementary school!  We are ready to party hardy this summer and make it totally bomb (thinking of Loni as I write that). 

Blogger must have done something to change their uploading process because it was a heck of a lot different this time and took me a while to figure out.  We have been missing from our blog for nearly a month and please accept my sincerest apologies!  Our computer went through an incredibly slow period and getting on the internet was an impossible task.  Then of course, just taking the time to blog and make it sound worthwhile to read...sometimes that can be hard!

The last couple of months have been full of fun things.  In April our ward had their father/sons campout.  Only in our ward, a couple of the younger daughters got to go.  So Matt took Reagan and Nolan and you guessed it...momma got to stay home and PLAY!  How sad that playing consisted of me cleaning the house for 3 hours, then watching Downton Abbey till I fell asleep.  They were back from camping the next morning.  

They had a great time!  They got to do smores around the fire at night and then sleep in a tent (big stuff for Reagan and Nolan)!  They went on a hike and then explored Rock City the next morning.  Camping is so dirty.  Seriously, 10 minutes after the camping party arrived home, my 3 hours of cleaning was a waste :) 

Our weather has been pretty much perfect (minus the horrid allergy season upon us) so we have had some warm days, some medium days, and a fair share of slightly cooler days.  The hot days called for a run through the sprinklers and slip and slide. 

Nolan is my little buddy these days.  He still cries a bit when mom gets out of his sight and part of me secretly likes that.  He talks a ton and sometimes has a hard time shutting up :).  He has the cutest little "man" voice.  Anyone who has been with him in recent months knows what I am talking about.  He has a low raspy voice and I still have yet to figure out if it is his real voice or if he is playing around.  He loves Wall-E, Lightning McQueen and of course, THOMAS his bff forever.  He asks me almost every other day when we can go trick or treating.  He loves yogurt, veggie flavored crackers and cherries.  He has been potty trained for a week now and is doing FABULOUS....as long as mom doesn't forget to ask him if he needs to go to the bathroom.  We've had a few accidents, but he picked it up pretty quickly.  Putting a pull-up on him at night has become a must and he HATES it!  We fight him at bedtime over this every night.  I sure love Nolan and he has brought such a fun atmosphere into our home!

Reagan is my little princess.  Seriously.  She really is into this princess thing and we are rounding the corner to 6 years old.  I thought it would have been gone by now :)  Besides that, she is growing up right before my eyes and it is such a sight to behold.  She has so much compassion for others around her and is always concerned.  The day before Easter, a little girl from her elementary school was killed along with her father when they were hit by an SUV while riding their bikes.  It was such a sad situation and we had many long talks about this with her.  She didn't know this girl at all, but just knowing what had happened and driving by and seeing where she died really stuck with her.  She made pictures and took them to the scene where she was killed.  Then a few days later, her ladybug she had caught and made a home for, died.  We had quite the emotional week.  I don't think Reagan has been the same since.  She has become much more vulnerable and realized how difficult things can come to good people.  I am grateful for her sensitivity and compassion towards others.  She will make a great mom someday.

Other fun things about Reagan: she LOVES Phantom of the Opera.  Random, I know.  What almost 6 year old likes this musical?  Oh, she TOTALLY does.  We have the 25th Anniversary on our DVR and we watch it all the time.  She knows most of the songs and likes to listen to it at night when she falls asleep.  She had me curl her hair this morning for school so that she could look like Christine.  We also watch youtube videos of all the performances.  She is really into singing and it will be interesting to see if she pursues that because heaven knows I had NO interest in that stuff when young.  Another fun fact about her is she LOVES that she is a redhead.  She is very proud.  She points out others who have red hair when we are out in public.  Lots of strangers comment on her haircolor and I can always tell when she overhears.  She gets this look on her face like, "yeah I pretty much freakin rock."  I love it.

Reagan recently lost one of her front teeth and it is one of the cutest things I have seen.  Pic to come later, it is still on my camera.

We took a trip to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum one Saturday.  My kids loves owls lately (they love the book Owl Moon).  So we got to see all the owls and their injuries.  We saw the bald eagle presentation and the kids petted a gopher snake.  Funny story: my allergies SUCK this year and I didn't buy Allegra at first because it is expensive.  So I was taking Benadryl.  I took 2 capsules before heading to Lindsay Museum and yeah, right in the middle of the bald eagle show it hit me....like a ton of bricks.  I could have laid down on that hard linoleum and slept.  Matt was a kind sir and let me go sleep it off in the car.  90 minutes later, they were done and we drove home.  I slept 2 more hours after arriving home.  I decided investing in Allegra was worth the price after that. 

Thanks for reading, friends!  More to come.  Life is good :)  Love to you all!