Changes

So with the news that we would have a special houseguest staying with us for an extended period of time, (Yay, for Aunt Melodee to come and live with us!!! ) I have been anxiously trying to get things rearranged so that she will have her own "space".  We have a spare bedroom downstairs that I had been using as the girls' playroom.  As soon as preschool ended I took everything down and moved it upstairs to our "loft".  It is a little crowded but eventually I will get everything organized.  We have been really fortunate up until this point that we have not had to put the girls' toys in their rooms.  Emma in particular had a very difficult time falling asleep when she has distractions around her, so her room has remained pretty bare.  It's coming together though and will be nice for the girls to have their toys upstairs. I also transitioned Vivian into a toddler bed yesterday.  She has been able to climb out of her crib and so I figured it was time.  It was so bitter sweet for me.  I was truly emotional as I took apart the crib.  We moved it to another room for future use.  (No that was not an announcement):)  Anyway, I knew it would be a struggle for her since she loves her crib, but she has done better than I thought.  Last night she cried herself to sleep in front of the door.  I had to move her to her bed, but she went down "super" easy for her nap, so I think she will be o.k.  Emma was the most emotional about it.  It was so funny.  When she saw that I moved the crib out she just started to cry, "Now Vivi will be able to get out of her bed and play with her toys like ME!@!!!"  She was really upset about that for some reason.  Oh, funny kids.  Anyway, I am also in the process of painting Aunt Melodee's room and we are trying to figure out what to do about a bed.  We have been "needing" to get a new bed for ourselves pretty much since we got married.  6 years and 2 kids later we are still sleeping on a full sized bed.  So this is a perfect opportunity to upgrade, the problem is that if we upgrade we want to truly "upgrade" and that requires spending more money than we are prepared to at this time.  So we either splurge now, or just get another twin bed for Melodee that our kids will end up eventually using.  Anyway you look at it we will use this other bed, but I sure would like to see that new bed for us.  :)  Any suggestions?  We've sure done a lot of research and we really want a nice "all latex" mattress.  I like soft, Mike likes hard, and that is the only mattress that we have found that will last us a long time and fits both our needs.  Unfortunately they are also some of the most expensive mattresses you can buy.  Yikes.  Anyway, we are sure excited for all the fun changes coming our way. 

They were having a tea party and then made a choo choo train with the chairs.  Vivians room minus the crib.

 Here is our new loft/playroom.  It is a little crazy and over stimulating, but I'll get it figured out at some point. 

Butterflies

This is the second year in a row that we have "grown" our own butterflies. The company that distributes the butterfly habitats is located not far from us so we picked us up some new caterpillars. It is so interesting and a lot of fun to watch the whole process. When you first get your caterpillars they are so small, almost the size of a grain of rice and then they just grow a lot everyday. It is honestly like the book the big hungry caterpillar. After a week they are fully grown and at least and inch long. They crawl to the top of their little cup, make their chrysalis, and then you put them in their "habitat". After another week they emerge as butterflies. We released them yesterday and I was lucky enough to get a few good pictures.

So this picture of Emma is her being a little startled as one of the butterflies flew away. (O.K. so notice the random street sign in the background. O.K. this is seriously a mystery. We came home from church on Sunday and noticed this cross street sign stuck in our fruit tree! How crazy is that. We have not idea how it got there. Either our neighbors tossed it over their fence or someone seriously came into our yard and placed it there. Either way, Scary!) Anyway back to the butterflies. Such a fun experience. I highly recommend purchasing them and trying it out for yourself. It's about $20

Cute Family

Here are just some random photos that I love! Sure love this family of mine.

Emma's first "Salon" Haircut

So of course Emma has had haircuts in the past, and always by actual cosmetologists, but she has never actually been to a Hair Salon. She was a little nervous and so we really talked it up. She did SO well and was extra excited to get the sucker at the end. Yay! for a much needed trim.

6 Years and Counting

Every anniversary we say that we are going to get away and do something really fun, but then it comes down to it and we just never plan in advance or don't really have the money or babysitters for that matter, so we usually just end up going out to dinner. It is always really nice and we spoil ourselves while we are at it. This year we decided to try some place new. There is a Buck Owens museum/restaurant here in Bakersfield called The Crystal Palace. We had heard it was fun, but had never been. Pretty much it looks like this old southern hotel/saloon. There is memorabilia that you can look at and then the tables surround a stage and dance floor. There is also a balcony level. I wish I would've been able to get some good pictures, but honestly it was pretty dark inside and we were having too much fun to take pictures. So the food was great, but the best part was the live band. Every night they have a new artist and sometimes they have some pretty "big" acts. It is actually where Garth Brookes proposed to his current wife Trisha Yearwood. Anyway, so you have the band you can listen too as well as dance too. We could tell there were a few "regulars" because they knew every dance step and line dance. We haven't been country dancing since we were dating and so we had such a great time. We were there for 3 hours just eating, dancing and being entertained. It was such a great anniversary date, and I can't wait to go back again! This picture is pretty funny because it was so dark in the restaurant that when the flash on my camera went off it pretty much blinded us. Poor Mike. Ha Ha

End of Preschool 2013

Emma, as well as Vivian enjoyed their year of preschool. So Vivian didn't actually attend EVERY week, but she loved participating when it was at our house. She loves singing the songs and had to be included in every activity. A while back we had a presentation from a bird rescue organization. We did this last year as well and they came and showed us a baby owl. Lots of fun. By the end of the year Emma was the only girl left with 4 boys. She held her own, but I'm sure it got crazy at times. :) For our last day we went to Roundtable Pizza and had a tour. The kids had a great time watching the dough being made and getting to make their very own pizza's. That night we had a graduation/pool party. We had a great turnout and all the mom's made the cutest things to give to the kids. I'm not sure what we are going to do with Emma as far as preschool goes this coming year. I know that she will sure miss out on all the socializing and it has been nice for mom to have a break in the week. We'll see what I figure out. Crazy that she will be going to Kindergarten next year!