School's Out For Summer!!!

My baby is officially a second grader. Boo, hoo, sniff, sniff. He finished his last day of first grade on Thursday. I remember when I was in second grade for goodness sake! I just cannot believe it.

This was his awards ceremony. I thought he looked quite handsome in his plaid shorts.

We were really in a crowd of parents, so the photos weren't top notch. Slade received the Social Studies award. He told me that Mrs. Johnson whispered in his ear that we knew everything about states and maps! So cute!!!

Slade and Mrs. Johnson. We were so blessed to have her as his teacher this year. She loved my baby all year long and taught him so much. He loves Mrs. Johnson.

This is my girl at her end of year Sugar and Spice program. She performed a Mockingbird Song in her straw hat. She likes to perform. She kept waving at us-even though she couldn't see where we were in the crowd. I messed up recording her song on my camera. It has video and after she was done, I realized I never pushed the record button. I sat through the whole song thinking I was recording her. I was so upset I missed getting it. But take my word for it, she was terribly cute!!!

A Few Changes

Kyle and I are doing some "home renovations" to our bedroom and bathroom. Badly needed ones, actually. Where do I begin??? Here is the first of many posts about this ongoing project. We won't even get into the insanity I feel that I'm living in with everything moved, stored, misplaced, etc. I can't even get to my socks some mornings. It could drive a person mad-this unfinished mess. But that is a discussion to be expressed between a therapist and myself.


So today's photos show the big window in our master bedroom. We have two windows in this room. We left the other one to the right(not pictured) alone and will just replace it with an airtight one. Meaning that the windows we have had are NOT airtight. I like to call them tissue paper windows, because that I how much protection they provide. I hear every. single. bark. of our neighbors devil-possessed dog. The way I feel about this dog, is again, something to be discussed between a therapist and myself. I'm not even lying when I tell you that at least three times per week, this dog wakes me up barking. And when you have tissue paper windows, it seems like the dog is standing one foot away. And then there's the winter chill. Basically, we freeze during the winter months. There is a draft and boy does it get cold at night! Really, really cold. We spend the winter with all our extra blankets blocking out the draft. It's pretty pathetic actually. So, these so-called-windows are really a ridiculous excuse for a real window. An embarrassment to the window profession.

Here is the original tissue paper window. We don't have a headboard, so our bed and big pillows just lie against it. The window blinds are always closed. We decided to just do away with this problem seeing that as long as we live here, our bed will always be up against this window. Before..................

After.................... Isn't it dreamy!!! I absolutely love it. We closed the wall, put the glass blocks in, framed them, and added sconces. I love it. And the room color is an awesome indigo blue. You can't see the color in this photo, but it is really pretty. And do you notice the new white crown moulding. I love love love white trim. And when I say "we" did this, "we" is the little handy man we hired. "We" aren't too experienced in the construction area. We have to call the professionals at times like these.

I'm so happy with this little project. I don't know who is more thankful. Me? Or the neighbor's dog who's life was just spared. The last time I checked, dogs weren't blessed with nine lives.......

The Roller

Aurora likes to make tortillas. And evidently, so does Finley. She is a roller-in-training.

Harper Jean

Welcome Harper Drake! This was the little bundle of joy we were waiting on to arrive last Thursday. She was born around 2:30pm on May 13th and weighed 8.8 lbs.! She was a chunky monkey! Her mama is my fellow partner-in-Twilight-crime. They live in Dallas and I wish very much they lived here.

Big brother, Luke and little sister, Harper. It's really neat because Luke looks like dad and Harper looks like mom. Brandi and I are planning to visit them at the end of June. Congrats, Natalie & David. She's precious!!!

Chicks

Literally, we have chicks.

Slade's class at school hatched baby chicks. They grew in an incubator for a while. It was very exciting. We heard about the chicks progress each day. Evidently there is an art to hatching the little boogers. Right temperature and moisture-more than I had ever thought about. There seems to be some expert chick hatching teachers in first grade.

Kyle likes to blame it on me, but I know better. He thought we could take some chicks home and keep at his shop. The Smart's now own 4 chicks. At one point, he and Slade were planning on a chicken coop and mass producing our own fresh eggs. They have calmed down now. Chicks, you see, are quite a handful. And they grow fast. Really fast. They had hopped the bucket and were resting on the lawnmowers the other morning Kyle got to work. And they eat a lot. We are in the process of acquiring a larger habitat.

We named them Piper, Marcus, Olivia, and Alice. I snuck my Twilight name in unbeknownst to Slade. He told me no Bella or Edward. Little did he know about a sassy little vampire named Alice Cullen! We have had lots of fun with the chicks so far. Not sure how much longer they will be Lubbock residents. We are considering a move to the ranch. They can be serious chickens there. They would be ranch chicks, not city chicks.

And since we are discussing chicks, here's another one. This chick loves to pose. Then she likes me to show her the photo of herself immediately afterwards. She's never known a life without digital cameras. When I was a child, you took pictures until the film roll was finished, sent it to Kodak, and basically it was a huge surprise what you got back. The biggest decision was whether or not to get glossy or matte, singles or doubles. Boy, don't kids these days have it easy...........

A Day of Happy's

What a great day for a birthday!!!


Happy 1st Birthday, Logan Wells aka "Button Nose"

How cute was his baseball cake!?! Look at the little grass sprigs!

Sweet Logan diving into the cake! Careful, that icing will wreak havoc on a gallbladder.

Happy Birth-Day, Harper Jean Drake!!!! Who is being born at this very moment! Her mom was an 8 the last time we called. Push, Nat, Push!!!

And Happy 24th Birthday, Rob aka "Robward". Thank you for my Twilight Obsession. It's like before I had my children-I just can't remember what life was like before the Saga.

Did I miss any other birthdays??? This seems to be a popular day.

300th Post!

I could think of no better way to display our Smarty Pants 300th Post than this.............................

This Kid

As a mom, I sometimes find myself pointing out to my children the things they've done wrong, instead of praising all the good things they do. In my defense, I think I just want so much for them to grow up-to do the right thing. So I'm quick to jump in and point out what is wrong so that we can correct it. This kiddo right here is the one I do it to the most. Slade really is just an awesome little boy. He has grown from being a rowdy, hyper, into something all the time, crazy toddler to being a young boy. He is such a joy. And I don't tell him enough how wonderful he is. He is such a good kid. Don't get me wrong-he still picks on his sister, gets frustrated at me, yells at Finley, tears up perfectly good toys-but the good so much outweighs the bad.


He turned 7 after Christmas and overnight, he just grew up. He is so kind. He will bring me a cool wash cloth if he hears me say my head hurts. He writes sweet notes that I find lying around his desk. He is content to be in his room, building Legos, reading nonfiction books, playing games. Sometimes he's so quiet, I have to go look for him. He is a big bike rider now. He rides all over the neighborhood and comes back and checks into me when I say. He takes out the trash for me now-love that so much. It's so funny how for so long you take care of their every need and then they start to become self sufficient. He will just go make himself a peanut butter sandwich and one for Finley, too. It's such a funny feeling as a mom to see them help themselves. They are little human beings.


He gets himself ready for bed and turns out his own light-that just makes him seem so old to me. He has an opinion now. He had to memorize a poem for school a few weeks ago. I felt pressed for time for him learning it and suggested a shorter poem. He told me that he would do the long one because he would get a higher grade. Ok, one for the kid!!! Not once in two years have I had to make this child get up for school. We wake him up and he immediately heads for the shower. He has not once ever complained to go to school. Kyle and I even kid with him and ask if he wants to skip school and he'll look at us like we're crazy and says, "No! I have to go to school."



He is such a good little student and so smart. I'm so grateful that school seems to come easy for him. He wants his work to be correct. He was upset to get an 88 on a paper, for goodness sake!!! I was thinking the other day that I don't think he's made less than a 98 on a spelling test the entire year. I sat there and thought, my gosh, I have got to praise this child. I just expect him to do well now, but I really need to tell him every single day he does a good job. Two weeks ago, I took him to a movie on Tuesday night for doing so good in school. Just us two. I'm so glad we did that.


He is very cautious. He tells you to put your seatbelt on. He's set in his ways and doesn't like change. He hates to be late. He is so my child! I could go on and on about Slade. I love this kid. He has been the light of my life ever since they rolled me into the nursery and I saw him laying in the warmer. He was mine-they were actually letting me take him home. I would give my life for him and all those other things a mother feels for a child. God picked well. He's definitely a keeper.