Progress

So the house is supposed to be done in 2 weeks. I am doubtful. I will keep my fingers crossed though, maybe they will pull it together! So what's left?

Flooring(wood and carpet), some chair rail in the office, media room cabinet, some baseboards, appliances, mirrors, and our shower doors. And then tons
Of touch up cause I'm picky!

But here is the unfinished kitchen so far. My favorite room in the house!! Also the picture is half cut off, not sure why.

pre-weekend update

Boots is a very funny kid. He is always keeping us on our toes with the things he says.
Yesterday I told the kids that Uncle Gar would be babysitting while mom and dad have meetings. They asked "why does he ALWAYS babysit for us?!" I answered "because he is the best uncle ever!"
Boots quickly said "NO, Uncle Eric is the best Uncle ever! Garrett is just the man of the house!" hahaha Natalie then chirped in with "No Boots, Papa is the man of the house." which led to an argument. But I was dying in the front!

These early mornings are killing me, and my kids. They usually sleep till 8, SOMETIMES 730. But with Natalie waking up at 640 every morning, with me, she has been the biggest grump ever. She pouts through getting dressed, going to the bathroom, especially getting hair done, then shoes, and lunch, and breakfast, then walking, then breathing. EVERYTHING is a sass with her and I am so over it! Well at the beginning of the week I noticed that Boots was waking up to us as well, so we moved Natalie into our room on the floor until we move, in hopes that of course noise level would go down. When I woke up this morning at 640 to wake up Natalie, his light was on, he was dressed, and the bed was full of babies(stuffed animals) and toys. I have NO idea when that kid woke up this morning. Nor do I want to know. UG! This better not be a habit!

So mix the early morning with our late nights of not getting to be before midnight, and my studying(getting real estate licenced), and trying to get to the gym daily, and my calling at church? Oh and driving and extra 30 min to drop off Nat, and another to pick her up daily. I AM EXHASUTED! So Wah Wah Wah I only have 3 kids, but people it is tough for this momma and I am having a hard time making life happen!

I understand that this next section is very boring to everyone who is NOT me. It is a house update with some very TEASING photos to remind me of the progress...

Things around here are going. Just for a quick update, Our house should be done mid October. I am not getting my hopes up for anything though! They did just put in the bathroom tile, the kitchen cabinets, the kitchen counter tops, and the bathroom cupboards this week. Today they put in the sprinkler system and landscaping. I forgot to check if they had done the fence yet or not. So they are coming along. There are a lot of changes that will have to be made and touching up a lot, but I am going to be so picky and not leave anything undone or say "I can live with it, it isn't that bad!" NO I am not doing that. They will fix it all till it is perfect. I have waited this long!! I am getting so anxious though. I am excited to decorate an all new house. It has been fun to get an idea of what I want to accomplish in this house and go and find the pieces to make it happen. Now the task if finding the inexpensive version of all that I want! The rug was the first shocker to me. We looked into getting one custom made for our family room... Ya that wont be happening at 4500$. I am just not there yet! With 3 little kids running around? That thing is sure to get ruined. Lucky for me, I looked and looked and looked and came up with nothing. UNTIL we went to Canton, tx (giant awesome flea market in east Texas) and found ALMOST the same rug, obviously not as lush, for 120$. SOLD. I can deal for 120 bucks. So little things like that. We have our couch picked out, and bought our bed frame, just no mattress yet! We have a list of MUST buys but really feel like we need to wait until the house is done and we are in to get a feel for what it will all be like. It is killing me to not go buy everything though! The list of "to buy" is endless, and it is sad that we cant buy it all right when we move in. This house will be a work in progress getting just what we want and where we want it. I do think it will be beautiful though! 

I am younger than 30

This week is always a big one in the Rawlins' homes. We have 4 birthdays in a few days of each other. Cam and Court share, then Garrett... then a few days later is me. For gar, Boots make this lovely sign to leave out side of his door for when he woke up. He obviously loved it!! 

My sweet mother was able to be here for just 3 days so we went out to her fav place, Christina's and enjoyed some more Nana time and of course to celebrate my birthday week. What some may or may not know about me...I LOVE my birthday. I dont care about the presents or anything, I just love to have a little extra love from a few people in my life and a reason to celebrate!! Well this year I turned 29, which is reason to celebrate!!  I am actually very much looking forward to next year turning 30! Although I will feel old, so I will enjoy and live up my last year in my 20's.

My actual birthday, Brian was gone on a scout camp out, so I woke up with the kids and the weather has been so beautiful here so we decided to go out on a morning walk. We got back around 9:30am and what more could I ask for than a giant sugar cookie and a route 44 Diet coke for breakfast? My in laws are the best and know what this momma needs!! I headed out to Boot's tball game (where he got two hits and 1 run) yeahh!! 

I had been wanting to get together with some of my girlfriends for my birthday, so I asked Kathleen to organize it for me. I am lame, I totally organized it, I just asked her to email everyone so I didn't seem so desperate to plan my own party! haha So me and 8 and of wonderful friends went out for an awesome lunch at Breadwinners. YUM! It was so good and the company was awesome! I am seriously so blessed with these wonderful ladies around me. I have friends from different paths in my life and different times, but I bring them all together because I love them all so much! This was especially fun since I had 2 new comers... Libby of course was awesome to have and then STACEY! The friend I have known the longest, since we were 3 years old! She has just recently moved about an hour away and it was so much fun to have her there! Who would have thought that 2 girls born and raised in Alberta would be celebrating a 29th birthday both living in Texas! ha

Libby got these adorable shoe cookies as a favor for me to hand out. They not only were cute, but tasty too! Oh, If you didn't know calories don't count on birthday week.

I am just so happy in my life to have wonderful family all around me and great friends that surround me and build me up. I always have someone I can call and talk to, or just give me a hug. I am so in love with the man of my dreams, have 3 beautiful children, and couldn't ask for anything else in this great year I turn 29!! Happy Birthday to me! 

whirlwind

HOW is it possible that my baby girl has turned 2? She is no longer a baby is she? I will have a hard time swallowing that and realizing that she isn't anymore.  The 2 weeks before her birthday, the other kids were so excited for the big day and were counting down till her big day. All day the girl had a huge smile on her face whenever we would talk about her birthday. 

On her big day, my mom just happened to fly in early that morning on her way home from another trip for a quick 2 day hello. So we headed out to lunch at cheesecake factory for the celebration!! She always sits in a high chair but thought this time we would try the bench for once. She is soo not ready to be released yet!! I tried to put her back about 20 minutes in, that just wasn't happening. It was a disaster! She got happy afterwards with her ice cream sundae though! 

After lunch we took a spin on the carousel and a little shopping. 

After picking all the kids up from school we had a little family party so that my mom could be at a party!! We just had some pizza's and fruit and LOTS of playing. Courtney LOVES to have the attention and loved being sung happy birthday! Of course she got spoiled, and she hasn't even opened all of her gifts yet! We have another family, from the other side of the family, celebration tomorrow! 

You may call this a poor attempt at a family photo... I call it REAL LIFE family picture. To make it more true, it should have had one of my kids crying, one of them pouting, and me getting mad at them or something. haha

Her favorite gift was the vacuum cleaner. It turns on and really picks stuff up. The girl will follow me around every time I get the vacuum out and she will try to shove her little toes underneath. She likes the way it feels, or sounds or something. The girl is obsessed with vacuuming! So now, happy vacuuming to her all of the time!

Courtney has recently hit all new levels of personality. Just in the 2 weeks before she actually turned 2, she has started getting into her terrible 2's. She has been pouting, whining, screaming, kicking, hitting, saying an abundance of NO's, and any other naughty behavior she see's the other kids doing...she will do. She is crazy if she doesn't get her way, and is very particular with the way things are done. She is obsessed with making sure you hear her and will repeat everything she says until you reply. TRUST ME. Everything is repeated! She loves babies, of all ages, and baby dolls. She has been hating nap and bed time and will thrown a fit every time it is that time of day. I dont know how to handle it! 

We took her into the Dr for her checkup, and all looks good for her! She is in the 96% for weight and the 99.87% for height. She's so big! She is darling and will make us laugh all day long!! I cant believe she is 2 and cant wait for more birthday's to come, as long as she always stays my baby! Love you Baby cakes!

T ball master

You gotta love walking into your car in the morning and finding dangling wires from where your DVD player was hanging the night before. The Violation that you feel. It is just sickening. Then to look over and try to find the big case of water that you just bought and find that they have taken that as well! They must have been thirsty!! What are people thinking though? That DVD player was not only 10 years old, but it only sometimes works, AND it isn't the kind that you put the DVD right into. They would have been better off taking a carseat!  

This last weekend we went to a little marching band concert that ourfreshman Cousin was in. Sat morning they marched through a nearby neighborhood at 830am and then played a little concert in the park. The kids all got together and loved it!!  I will tell ya, if I was in my house in that community and heard that, I would have been ticked that it was going on at that time in the morning. Luckily, we love Brandon and we dont live there!! 

Later on that day we headed to Boots' first T-ball game of the season. Man, these little 4 year olds playing baseball is so cute. Cuter than soccer for sure! They would be at bat and after hitting the ball, they would run to catch their own ball instead of run to first, or else they would catch it and tag their same teammate also running for the ball (Boots accomplished this one!). Tripping over each other and just being little made it all so cute! Boots had his big league chew and Natalie had some seeds to munch on and we were all set to play ball! Boots was awesome and got 2 outs (both tagged), caught and threw the ball a bunch and was full of hustle. He didn't hit the ball when he was at bat but that is ok! He WON the game ball for being such a great hustler! Way to go Booters! We sure love you bud!!

Today in the car we were driving along and out of the blue this was the conversation we had:

Boots: Mom, do you remember that lady that jumped out of the helicopter?

Me: You mean the Queen at the opening ceremonies?

Boots: Ya, do you remember that? 

Me: Yes I do! 

Boots: Well when she jumped out of the helicopter, I was NOT expecting that! 

I love the way his mind thinks of things and so random ALL the time. Little minds have to remind me how smart they are and the things that they remember. It makes me sad for all of the parents who allow their children to watch filth thinking that it wont make an impression on them and that they will forget. Those sweet innocent minds are always watching aren't they?! 

Today marks the first of many days in Jeni's birthday week. That's me. I love my birthday and I will celebrate all week long, 2 if I have to. When I was pregnant with Courtney, I was so scared that I was going to have to share my birthday with her. I know this sounds selfish and many of you would love to have your kids share that day with you, well guess what? I like my own day, thank you very much!  I am fine to share the week with her, especially because we have so many family birthdays this week! So, I guess this also marks the beginning of Courtney's birthday week as well! My little tiny sweet innocent baby is turning 2 and I cant handle that she is growing up. (I too am growing up way too fast... next year will be my golden year so I will make this last year in my 20's great!!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK TO YOU AND ME COURT! 

It better last

Courtney is the only one home now with me ( well 3 days a week ) and it makes mental sad! Soo her being little better last!
Boots started preschool 3 times a week for a few hours today and he was so excited about it! he wasn't scared or shy at all, just walked right in like he owned the place and turned around to say "bye mom! See ya later!" I just about cried. I'm really proud of him and he will do awesome, but can't he be kinda sad to be leaving me?!

Natalie is loving school still as well. She did get moved into a different kinder class which kinda sucked after being in one class all first week, but for all she knows, that is what you do in kindergarten. She begs me to buy lunch everyday, and today learned what a burpie is in PE. She got to do computers today and you would have thought she had been handed 10 new ponys with how excited she was!

As for our house, they got the stair rails in today and have started, almost finished, painting the house. I'm not sold on the color, I swear I picked something way more grey, but I guess it is hard to tell with just a little swatch in the design center! We have about 3 more weeks though!! I'm so excited and hoping it doesn't get pushed back much! I'm ready, more than ready, for my own space, my own area to make a
Mess in and to clean and to cook and to do laundry, and to be lazy, and yell at my kids, and just be us!