Some days, they are best friends, some days they are worst enemies. I’m so thankful for these two and can’t wait until littlest brother is squished in these pictures!
I hope these two (and baby brother) are always close!
Reed is full of energy these days. He’s growing, changing, and still being Reed.
He is such a crazy child. You never know what you are going to get with him. Sometimes he is hot, sometimes he cold. We still love him though!
His favorite food is still pizza, all day, every day. ha! That boy would keep a pizzeria in business solely. We do occasionally get him to eat other food – especially if we liken it to pizza. One night he said lasagna was yucky and we told him it was just like pizza and he ate it all up and leftovers the next day!
He has adjusted to his new teacher at school pretty well. She’s quickly become attached to him and his classmates and she really seems to make learning fun for them. I’m thankful to have someone who just loves them and cares for them. It has helped with the transition for sure! 
Reed’s best friend at school is Maggie. Those two love each other greatly. They play and talk and come up with all kinds of stuff between the two of them. One of the teachers sent me this photo one day after lunch.
This past week, Maggie also very generously gave Reed her Skye puppy (from Paw Patrol). He came home one day saying Maggie had let him bring her home because he only had boy puppies and not girl puppies. The next morning, we made sure Skye had a good breakfast of “dog food” before going back to Maggie.
When he took her back, Maggie was insistent that Reed keep Skye. Such a sweet girl. Reed has loved having Skye live with us. She went to church this past weekend. He is funny with his slew of pups. He makes them bite or lick people by saying “bite” or “lick”. We’ve also had some puppy potty accidents on the floor. ;) Love his imagination!
One evening I was sitting in the kitchen helping Ava with her homework and Red came to see me with his Mickey phone. He told me the phone let him see the baby.
He still talks about his fire station and his fire stationers. It’ll be a sad day when his fire stationers go away.
Reed wasn’t so sure about having his class Valentine’s party. He was in his “off” mood when I dropped him off.
But when I got to school to pick him up he ran up to his teacher and yelled “WHERE’S MY BAG?!” and then was so excited he could hardly get his words out to tell me he got bubbles! :) 
He brought me a basket of laundry the other night after I asked him to and instead of pushing it over to me, he picked it up and carried it over to me. Zach said to him, “Wow, Reed. You are strong! Where did you get those muscles?” He replied “From Jesus!!!!”
Reed is picking up lots of new stuff these days, too. He’s also being a typical little brother in so many ways – loves tattling, loves “helping” when Ava’s getting disciplined, antagonizing Ava! I’ll be curious to see how he transitions to his role of BIG brother in about three months!
I thought since it’s been a while since I have regularly blogged, I would dedicate a post to each child to come up to date on what’s been going on with them.
Ava seems to just be growing up before our eyes. She’s halfway from six to seven and I’m just amazed at all she’s accomplishing these days.
The thing most noted about Ava right now is that we s-t-r-u-g-g-l-e daily with homework with her. She’s just lazy and doesn’t want to mess with it. Learning sight words has been downright frustrating. It really wears my patience thin because she doesn’t try, she cries and it’s just all out drama. I was starting to get concerned with her abilities and what I thought she should be doing at this age.
Then came her parent/teacher conference this week. She is expected to read at a DAR level 4 when she leaves kindergarten. She is currently about to be at a level 6. Say what? I didn’t even know she could read because when we would try it would just be a fight. Gig’s up sister! She is also doing math, writing sentences and everything she should be doing and more. We just have to figure out how to motivate her to do work at home!
She has also been having some friend issues at school, which makes me sad. I know that’s part of it and I know that it’s inevitable, I just wish it hadn’t started so early. What’s worse is that she is upset and embarrassed and doesn’t want to talk about it with us. Through a series of other happenings and events, we finally figured it out. We’re keeping a closer eye on it and encouraging her to play with new people. Hopefully she can work this out and we don’t have much more drama related to it.
She has started getting used to the idea of having another brother. At my appointment last week, my doctor referred to the baby as a girl, and the heart rate had increased from the time before. I joked with Zach that maybe they got it wrong. Knowing we have another ultrasound in three weeks, I wasn’t too worried because I know we can get a confirmation peek. Ava heard us talking and I asked her what she would think if we found out they were wrong and she said she didn’t want the sister anymore, she just wanted our boy. I’m thankful she has come around! :)
She has recently decided she wants the new American Girl doll of the year. I told her she could ask for it for her birthday, or for Christmas. She cried about that being too long. I told her that we have to work hard for things we want and that we don’t just get them because we want them. She asked if she could earn the money. We talked about it and agreed that she doesn’t need an allowance for normal things we expect of her (cleaning her room, picking up toys, picking up her laundry, etc) but for things above and beyond her normal duties, she could work on earning money. I’ve had her cleaning baseboards and other bigger jobs. She also had a prepaid gift card to anywhere from a birthday, got a little Valentine’s day money and has earned $32 (most of which is the birthday gift card). She has quite a ways to go. She’s sly, though. This past weekend she told me we should go visit her cousin, Luke. Then she casually threw in that they have an AG store close to where Luke lives so we could probably stop and buy her doll. I’ll be curious to see if she continues to want to work for it b/c if so I have plenty of things I need to get done before the baby gets here! ;)
So that’s what’s been going on with lady. She is growing up before our eyes and I’m thankful we get to raise this little girl!
Oh, hey there! Remember me? I haven’t graced the halls of this blog in quite a while. I just haven’t gotten in a groove with blogging. Either I don’t have the time or energy or I just don’t have anything to blog about. Maybe one of these days I’ll get back into a groove!
Anyway, Saturday marked 25 weeks pregnant! I feel like this is flying by. We have 15 weeks to go and I just know it will pass so quickly, especially since this time of year is so busy with the end of school and various other things.
As you can see, baby boy and I are both growing. There’s not a whole lot to report. I don’t have many symptoms and the ones I do have are the same as they have been. I am still just flat worn out. Even being in my second trimester, my energy has really never returned. I get home from work each night and am exhausted. It’s rare that I see past 9:00. But then again, I have several nights where I wake up and am awake for 2-3 hours so I have a feeling that is what makes me so tired at the end of the day.
Sweet boy is moving like crazy right now. I feel jabs and kicks all over the place. They have definitely gotten stronger, too, as Zach and I have both felt them from the outside. The kids like to try and feel but they get impatient waiting. I’m sure it won’t be long until they can feel him.
We are no further along on a name for this guy. We discuss it but nothing is just jumping out as his name. The ones I like Zach doesn’t and vice versa. We have a few that we agree are okay names but nothing we want to commit to yet. Saturday night Reed suggested we name him Groundhog. :) His other choices have been Marshall and Chase (the pups from Paw Patrol).
At my next appointment I have to have another ultrasound. At my last one, they weren’t able to see his spine and something else just because of how he was laying. They’d like to get a second look so we’ll do that in about three weeks.
Other things of note: I’m craving pasta in the worst way. I usually am not a huge pasta eater but it all sounds so good! I’m also craving smoothies. I have found a freezer smoothie with strawberries and yogurt and I just have to shake it up. That’s my breakfast most mornings!
We haven’t made any progress in getting Reed’s room ready to be the boys’ room. We need to get rid of a couple things, buy Reed a new bed and put the crib back together. I’m hoping if we can get Zach through the next four weeks of his Master’s program, then we can focus on all things baby!
So that’s what I’ve got today. Little man is healthy and growing well. I’m getting so excited about meeting him in the next few months!
