The Mayberry sports update

** I am writing most of these posts from my phone. I have no idea why some of the pics are only showing half of the picture or why it mixes the pictures up after I add them. Sorry!** Ansley is playing "spring" soccer (why it's called spring soccer when it was 28 degrees for the first game is beyond my understanding!). She seemed to have a knack for it and did quite well in the fall, so she's playing on 2 teams (several of the girls on her main team are playing up a level in the older age group- no extra practices though, just 2 games on each Saturday). The first games were actually cancelled because it was so cold but one was rescheduled for the following day when it was "warmer" (low 40's, though the "feels like" temp was more in upper 30's. It's all cold to me! And then last week it was cold AND rainy! I think the temp was around 48 but I know it felt much cooler with the wind and little but of rain. Thankfully most of the rain held off till the end. Cole & Luke were the supportive brothers (not)... Notice Luke completely covered from head to toe under the blanket - he did have my iPhone under there to keep him company but he got that taken away when he spilled BBQ sauce on it. Urgh. Thank goodness for the otter box case!

Cole finished up basketball...it wasn't the most productive season (they won almost all of their games by a lot of points), but he had fun getting to play with his friends, and being a new kid, that was a good thing... His team won their little championship but it ended up being a much closer game (the final one) than the others- tied for most of the game. Cole did great bringing the ball down the court under pressure & made a huge basket at the end to put us up by 4.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I decided to get into the valentine spirit a little more this year, so I decorated the kitchen table and made heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes and the kids favorite muffins (applesauce). Cole & Ansley got new devotion books, and Ansley got some hair things and a little craft project. The boys got coloring books (star wars & scooby doo) and Star Wars electronic helmets (on clearance at Target with coupon!). And of course, the kids brought home too much candy from school. I think it was a fun day... Chris had his regular season basketball game that night so all our celebrating was done earlier in the day.

A few tidbits...

Luke finished his basketball season...yea! We had already decided he wasn't going to play baseball (he started out strong for both soccer and basketball but by the last few weeks he just wasn't into it). Decided he's a little young...he wants to play flag football in the fall, so we'll see...

Kallie has learned how to pull her pants off :-) She is also grabbing her diaper when she has a stinky and sometimes when it's wet... I'm hoping that means she will potty train sooner than later! She is so observant - she helped "set" the table the other night. Got a bunch of forks and set them all around the table (I think there were about 10 forks total on the table!). She helped me unload groceries the other day and I was impressed that she knew where to put some of the items (like bananas that go on the countertop - she couldn't quite reach to get them up there). She also helps unload the dishwasher (though sometimes the dishes are dirty so this can be a problem if I don't catch her!). She knows where most of the items go that are on her level (pots and pans, bowls, etc - mostly non-breakable items!)... She has mastered the word "no" quite well :-(, though I don't think she fully understands it (I can ask her if she wants crackers and she will say "no, no" but then proceed to eat several of them).

I know you're wondering why in the world there are is a picture of these shoes, right? Funny story...hopefully not too much info... Luke has a bad habit of using the bathroom and not flushing the toilet. I'm constantly calling him into the bathroom to come flush it, usually because the smell has called me in there. So... the other night, Luke had left a little "nugget" in the toilet. Gross! Chris was getting ready to give Luke a bath, and he (Chris) needed to use the bathroom himself, so he pushed the handle to flush the toilet but also started peeing in it at the same time (while the toilet was flushing). Also at this time, Luke is undressing to get in the bath and he kicks his black school shoe off - which flies off and lands in the toilet! Also, the toilet is starting to overflow. It stopped before overflowing on the floor (another story about this in a sec) but the shoe is still in the toilet and Chris was trying not to pee on it. Luke did get the shoe out (which he put outside) and Chris got the toilet cleared up, and gave the kids a bath. He told me about it shortly after, so I decided to head immediatel to Wal-Mart (I had actually meant to take Luke shopping that day for new shoes but never made it there - he did actually need new ones). I had no desire to try to clean a shoe that was starting to fall apart anyway, so Luke got new school shoes (they have to wear solid color - all white, black or brown, or these navy and white Keds). I took a picture of these to ask Chris if he thought they'd be ok. And honestly, I didn't care at that point - at least he had a pair of clean shoes to wear the next morning!

A side note about the toilet - Luke put too much toilet paper in the toilet (the one that he and Ansley, and eventually Kallie, share) a few months ago, and it overflowed onto the floor. For some reason, a lot of the houses here have carpet in the bathrooms. Ours is a little different in that there is at least tile around the toilet and bathtub area, but there is carpet around the sinks. (Cole's bathroom is small and is completely tile). So, thankfully there was just pee in the toilet that time, but it still overflowed and managed to spread on down to the carpet some too. I cleaned it and put baking soda on it and sprayed Febreeze, but it still had this yucky smell. (WHY is there carpet in the bathroom??). We had the carpets cleaned (including the bathroom) and it smelled better, but this "almost overflowing" incident has made us decide to get new tile in there - soon! :-)

Bit of mischief

Nothing can be left on the kitchen table now because Kallie can reach it. And if she can't, she climbs on the chair to get it. So after several cups being dumped out by her, papers being scribbled on with a pen, pencil, crayon, or whatever she could find, and older siblings leftover food being eaten by her, we have ( mostly) learned our lesson... but not quite, as you can see with the chips everywhere. Someone left a Pringles can of chips, which was mostly just broken chips & crumbs left in the bottom of the can, on the table, so Kallie took the lid off & dumped them everywhere....then started eating them. And of course we had just had the house cleaned (by someone other than me, so I was really savoring that "whole house clean at the same time" feeling, which clearly didn't last long! A side note, we have started putting stuff on the kitchen countertops, which is a little taller than the table so still out of her reach...but she's figured out she can push the chair to the countertop and climb on the chair, though she only does this for something that's really important (to her).

A friend made a very delicious chocolate cake for me for my birthday. Kallie enjoyed that too--- the girls in this family are definitely all chocolate lovers! :-) Luke & Ans wanted to pose in a picture too with the little messy face child.

Bye bye daddy

This is what Kallie does most mornings. Stands by the door and waves to Chris, yelling "Bye daddy". So sweet.

School day afternoons

I wish I had 3 or 4 more of me in the afternoons/evenings...one to help with homework, one to take Kallie outside to play, and one to fix dinner... I'm sure I could use one more too, but I can't think of what it is right now :-) Anyway, here is what was going on here this afternoon... Cole working on a project for school (book report on a Boxcar Children book), Ansley practicing her spelling words on the computer, Luke getting into everything! Actually, he played nicely with Kallie (which he is usually bugging her till she comes crying to me), so it was a nice bonus today.

Luke has learned quite a bit this year, as I'm starting to see. I'm really not big into preschool (I love that he goes but I don't care if he does/doesn't learn much), especially since we are holding him back next year (not starting kindergarten till the following year). But he is writing a lot more letters, and he is cutting with scissors much better too... Coloring still has some room for improvement. :-)