Young Party of Four

Or so Kenzie would lead you to believe sometimes. As Kenzie is getting older, we are getting more strict with requiring her to do specific chores. Our goal is to teach her some responsibility and respect for her belongings as well as her home and us. We have always pushed manners with both kids. Kenzie is great about saying sir and ma'am. Will and Kenzie are both amazing at please and thank you. Will even said excuse me (which sounded more like "scue me" and was adorable) the other day and he told Kenzie "sowy" when he ran into her the a few days ago. I'm calling that a parenting win! However, we have been having a difficult time not only pushing for Kenzie to do chores that are age appropriate, but also adhere to a plan and stick with it. We all have those nights that we are too tired and I tell the kids that we will worry about cleaning the playroom in the morning because my goal is to get them in bed so I can have a few minutes to think without little o

Well, that's a wrap! I can't believe that Kenzie's first "year" of dance is officially in the books. Steven and I have talked for 4 years about what activities Kenzie might like one day when she was bigger. We knew long ago that we wanted her to try dance. She has loved to dance anytime she hears music since before she could walk. She loves all things tutu and frilly so dance seemed right up her alley. You might remember our post about her first lesson back in February. Wow! Even looking back at those pictures from that first lesson she looks so much more grown up now. She has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 4 1/2 months. She is still LOVING dance. She talks about it all the time and is constantly showing someone things such as first position, plies, shuffle steps, or arabesques. Every time she learns something new, she wants to show it off. She will randomly start dancing while singing her recital song. It doesn't matter where we are or what she i

Our goal is to check off at least one or two things every week on our bucket list. We purposely made a bucket list with thing that are out of our norm and we didn't purposely put things on that list that we KNEW we were going to do anyway in an attempt to get ourselves outside of our usual routine and change it up a bit. So, I have come to the realization that I might have been a bit too ambitious with a bucket list for a family with two young children especially since I didn't account for things that I knew we would do. Oh well. As long as we try out some new things and have fun while doing it, we feel pretty good about it. I'm also noticing that we are checking off the super easy things first which leaves me to wonder how many of the "harder" ones will get done. Harder is relative. We have two small children with schedules (like Will's nap time) and shorter attention spans so "harder" for us is something like visit an aquarium. We don't have on

Dads are amazing people. They are these men that love their children unconditionally. They do everything necessary to make sure their family has what they need (and as much of what they want as possible.) They make sacrifices to do that. Yet, they don't get nearly enough credit a lot of the time. I have three dads in my life that deserve so much more credit than they ever seem to get. My husband is the most amazing Daddy I know. Watching him become a dad has been one of the best times of my life. I didn't know that dads could be as amazing as him until I got to see him in action. I will never remember the first night in the hospital with Kenzie. After a c-section, I wasn't allowed to get up. He took the reigns. He changed diapers, got up anytime Kenzie cried to hand her to me to nurse her (and then fell asleep standing up while waiting to put her back in the bassinet. Haha!!), and was right there every step of the way. He ended up being better at swaddling than me. Now,

Our summer bucket list has been in effect for about a week. We have actually checked off a few activities on the list already. =) Will ended up finishing his final swimming lesson so as part of the celebration for how awesome he did this year in lessons (and also because we miss Daddy during the week), we decided to meet him for lunch after Will's final lesson. We ended up going into this office because the kids think it is cool to visit Daddy in the office. They also like to see Ms. Yvonne who spoils them. Both kids came out with toy cars and Kenzie also walked away with a bracelet and sticker. Will would have gotten those too if he wanted them, but he was being a bit standoffish and chose to just drive his car around the floor while we chatted for a few minutes. We then left the office and went to Chick Fil A. We sometimes walk around Lake Eola and go to Panera, but we thought the kids would like Chick Fil A better. It worked out well and we had Daddy back to work within the h

I don't know whether it is the fact that we are less than 2 months away from Kenzie's fourth birthday or maybe that Will has started to do some adorable things that are so similar to things Kenzie used to do or something else entirely that I just can't put my finger on, but lately I  have seriously been realizing that time waits for no man. People talk about it all the time. How quickly this time goes. Honestly, some moments drag. Will not sleeping for almost a year seemed like 10 years. Kenzie being on Zantac for reflux for 6 months seemed like it went on for years. But at the same time, time moved so quickly and got away from me that there are things that have changed in our children and I can't remember when the transition happened. 2.5 year old Kenzie LOVED school buses Last night Steven and I were talking about Will's new obsession with "zooms" aka airplanes. He will literally run full speed out of the garage if he thinks he hears one and start