Our Piano

Samantha started piano lessons in September and has been practicing on a keyboard, so we just couldn't put it off much longer-we needed to get a piano. We had looked around and found a used one that we were going to get, but then my mom offered me her piano at a great deal (free!!) so we took her up on it.
I wish that I had taken some before pictures. I worked really hard this week to clean, sand and stain it. I didn't want to strip it down so I just lightly sanded the worst parts and stained it to match the old stain and then lacquered it to make it shine. The bench was well used and it showed, so I re-upholstered it. I am really happy with how it turned out. It still has some character from its former life but that just adds to its charm, right?!

Wrestling Season...Again

Well, it is wrestling time again for Tyler. He has been waiting for this since it ended last year. Between Tyler and Joe you could almost feel the excitement in our house this week . Today was his first meet. I was a little nervous about how it would go because our team hasn't had any practices this year so far and other schools have but apparently it didn't make a difference, he won all three of his matches and pinned them all.
I, on the other had had mixed emotions about wrestling. Much to my surprise I really enjoyed seeing him wrestle last year, but those meets are hot, sweaty, noisy and long. Plus I have Brenna and Braelynn with me, trying to entertain them and keep them out of trouble for 4+ hours. I had decided that I would get a little bag with a few new toys that they could only play with during wrestling meets so I hit the dollar stores and got a backpack out of the closet to put them in. They were so excited about the Dora the Explorer backpack (one that Sam used for preschool) that for the first hour they just packed it around without even opening it. When they did open it, though, it worked. They played and entertained themselves for quite a while. Mission accomplished. One of the things I bought was a little toy camera for each of them. They had fun taking pictures of everyone and playing with Mr. Potato Head.




No wrestling pictures today, I don't feel like going through all of them right now, but we have another month of wrestling so I'm sure we will get plenty posted.

Smithalicous Rocks

Tomorrow is Tuesday. Tuesdays are crock-pot days. Here's why, tomorrow I have to:

Have kids fed and ready for school and Samantha to the school for choir at 8:00. Myself, Brenna and Braelynn ready to go by 8:30 to head to work in the daycare in the gym (in exchange for a free membership). Hopefully get done there by 10:30, head to Walmart for a huge out-of-everything shopping trip that I didn't get done this weekend because I was out of town that, no matter how hard I try never lasts less than 1 1/2 hours.
Scrub bathrooms, throw in some laundry. Leave by 2:20 to pick up Veronica for Violin lessons. Get home about 3:45, Get Sam to Piano at 4:00, take Tyler to scouts at 4:30, pick up Sam, have dinner on the table by 5:00 so Joe can leave for work at 6:00 and pick up Tyler from scouts at 5:30.
Have kids do their homework, check it, do spelling words, sight words, reading, baths, dishes and mop the floors.

So, tonight when I was thinking about tomorrow and what I could throw in the crock pot while going through my cupboards (remember, I am out of everything...hence the Walmart shopping trip) I turned to a very cool blog that my sisters, sister-in-laws, mom and I share. I love this blog, I turn to it on a very regular basis. You should check it out. www.smithalicious.blogspot.com

In case you were wondering, I decided on Crock pot Chicken Alfredo by Brenda. By cooking the noodles ahead of time and throwing them in right before serving, it is always a winner in our family!

Sam and Tyler

This is another remembering post. Samantha celebrated her birthday in her class today since she is a summer birthday. As part of the celebration, she had to share an experience and she chose this one that she obviously doesn't remember but we have talked about. Since I had the scrapbook page out, I thought I would post it because it is very funny. The pictures were stuck on the page good and didn't want to mess with it so I just scanned the whole page.
Samantha was about 10 weeks old and I had just gotten Sam and Tyler bathed and was going through the bedtime routine of lotioning, dressing, etc when I looked down to see Samantha sucking on Tyler's toe. I stopped her once and she started doing it again so I grabbed the camera. Tyler was very accommodating as you can tell from the picture.

Shopping List: Envelopes

With Veronica, it was paper, she used tons and tons of it...Samantha was return address labels. She used many address labels on every picture she would color or draw which was usually more than once a day. With Brenna it is envelopes. At least five a day and that is with me catching her in the act a lot of times and stopping her. Until yesterday it was just drawing on the envelopes but now she draws on the envelopes, stuffs it with another piece of paper and puts it in her "mailbox".
I have resorted to saving envelopes I get with the mail. Yes, envelopes are fairly inexpensive but what you see in the picture is the damage after 30 minutes of letting her have free reign while I was helping Samantha with her piano! Notice the ones in her hand and the ones in the couch.
And that is her mailbox, the couch and the couch pillows.



On another note, that is Tyler after making sugar cookies at scouts yesterday. Flour all over, even in his hair. I hate to see what that poor scout leaders' kitchen looked like afterwards.

Never before seen...

Tyler is a smart kid, does well in school, gets good grades and reads at grade level (This year, he actually is above grade level now!) but he just doesn't enjoy reading, even at times hates it. But I diligently either read with him or have him read for his required 20 minutes a day every day. But like I said, he doesn't enjoy it and therefore doesn't just sit down and read and heaven forbid we go over the 2o minutes.
But...Veronica, Joe, Grandma Haley and other friends/relatives that Veronica could convince to read it have read the Fablehaven books by Brandon Mull.

One day this last week I walked into the room and Tyler was....reading! On his own, without me having to almost tie him down! He had decided to read Fablehaven.
He will still only read for the 2o minutes but he doesn't fight me anymore. My goal is to have my children love to read and read well, but at this point in his live, I will settle for this!
Needless to say, I highly recommend these books!