All about Miss Alivia

Alivia and mommy!

Daddy singing Happy Birthday and apparantly Alivia wants him to stop

Good Morning Beautiful 6 year old!

Every year on the girls' birthdays, Jas and I think back to the day they were born. Alivia Lin Lee was born 6 years ago yesterday, and wow how awesome its been to have been blessed to be her parents. Gosh 6 years already, Jas and I are still both in denial that our once little babies are now 6 and 4.

Overall the last 6 years she has grown from the perfect baby to this brillant little girl. She is as sensitive as they come, yet likes to rough house with daddy and Addieboo. Her new love these days is definately school. She lives and breathes everything school. We had parent teacher conferences last week where we were told she rarely gets in trouble and is always VERY truthful, (hmmm wonder if she got that from her mom;). Her teacher, Mrs. Almageur says she always finds notes on her desk that Alivia has written her and her writing folder is overflowing with stories so she is going to help her put a book together.

Alivia loves to read books and is constantly trying to learn new things. She is the sweetest little girl who always knows what to say when mommy and daddy are having a bad day. Even when her little sister is being a pain in the butt about what alivia has, she shares it or tries to include her. We can't wait to see what this little girl will learn over the next year.

We are celebrating her birthday tomorrow with her friends from school and other friends of ours. Mommy and Daddy rented a huge moonwalk and will be having pizza and Hannah Montana cupcakes, pics of course will follow in the next few days!

Alright a few pics for the night

New house kitchen

backyard

Front of house

living/dining

another kitchen

Tball!

All ready for the game

And I found this pic on addie's camera, her and liv were doing a photo shoot I guess. Hmm jas are we gonna have some problems in the future? Is it the "snap" in her fingers, the shake of her hips, the stiletto heals or complete sass look on her face?=)

Yea I"m still here

Just when I think life can't be any crazier, that seems to be the jinxing thought for more to welcome itself into our lives.

So wow its been a month since I last blogged, geez what have we been doing. Oh yeah we moved during record rainfalls, a total of 17 inches over 4 days, streets were 6 inches under water, yard was completely underwater, yet jas and I and the girls were moving. It was not pretty, daddy and I had several drinks when the whole thing was said and done, but again, we accomplished a huge task as a family. Our new house is now 7 miles to the beach (boo hoo) but it does have a nice GRASS yard (those of you who have lived in the desert or had rock yards will appreciate this). I was all unpacked in about 3 days which i know sounds extremely crazy, but I am really a pro at packing and unpacking, this move marked number 7 since December of 2006, so yes 7 moves in 4 years. Jas and I were talking about how we've never been in one house for 12 months, not one. We're hoping all that is over and done with. I would add some pics of the new house, but I am feeling icky tonite and am not in the mood to fight blogger.

The girls are playing tball this fall, and daddy gets to be the coach. Both girls are on a team full of boys, wearing pink batting helmets and smacking that ball with a pink bat. I'll add pics of that soon too! They seem to be enjoying it, we don't keep score so everyone wins in the kids eyes! Season runs through November, maybe it'll cool off by then.

We will be celebrating miss Alivia's 6th , YES 6th, birthday on Friday, oh how our lives have changed since she was born, makes me wonder what the next 6 will bring. We are going to have our nails done after school then Sunday she is having her whole class and a few other friends over to the house for a Hannah Montana party, with HUGE bounce house and all. I hope to do a special blog on her birthday.

Its just 2 short months till my family will be here and we all absolutely can't WAIT. Even though I absolutely LOVE living here, part of me misses Iowa things. My family and friends mostly. Other things include fall, the leaves turning color and the smell in the air during harvest, happy joe's pizza, the ability to be able to watch a Hawkeye football whenever we wanted instead of scouring channels and the internet to even HEAR it. I've missed a lot by being away, my best friend from high school's baby being born a few weeks ago, a very close friend's little girl growing up and a very special cousin's baby boy's birthday. Not to mention my grandmother's 70th birthday party or my baby sis's 21st birthday. But I do love calling south Texas our new "home".

I never seem to have anything to blog about or maybe I don't think I do. I know some of you would love to know every ounce of our lives, but I just don't think we are that interesting. Yes we spend lots of time at the beach, we are so very lucky and blessed to live where the palm trees are plenty, the beach is natural and beautiful. Where at the middle of October we are still at 88 degrees with no sign of fall coming soon.

Guess that was a whole bunch of randomness from me tonight, this should show you how scattered my mind is at this stage of the game. Hopefully I can do a post tomorrow night about my first experience in juvenile court (and no not for my children) =)

A couple big girls

These were taken at the Aquarium today!

The sun was so bright

"Mom, we can't see"

Me and my babies

Daddy and Girls

Hello Ms Attitude, when did my baby turn 4 going on 15

And my first born that i've been told by her latchkey coach "is the most pleasant little girl they have there"

How long is our wingspan?

We may look innocent but we give mom and dad a run for their money....

These 2 cool chics are no longer babies, uggg how fast time has gone.

MOLD and MOVING

I briefly mentioned finding mold in our townhouse last week, and wanted to show everyone that I'm not crazy! Here are the pics we've taken so far, landlord is still refusing to acknowledge a problem.

Vent Cover to a bedroom upstairs

Inside of duct work, he says there's no problem cause his look like that too-UM DUH!

This is how we originally found the plywood in the attic, now he has replaced this, but nothing else

Needless to say we are moving out, but our landlords have already declared that we have no right to be breaking lease (again they don't see the issues) and are keeping our $1700 deposit. So we have taken plenty of pics, have a sample of that black substance that is on the vent duct and contacted a mold inspector in San Antonio to test it. We will be taking them to small claims court to retrieve our deposit. We have found a new place in the Flour Bluff area (still in Liv's school district) and actually not far from where our house was when we lived here in 08-09. The house is for sale and really would be something we would consider buying, but we are renting for now. Its going to be hard leaving the island, and seeing those sand dunes everyday, crossing the cosway and seeing the ocean, but in reality we will be about 7 minutes from there and in a house, not a townhouse, condo or duplex where we share walls with neighbors. Another bonus is that this house has a nice big GRASS yard!! which for dogs and kids will be great, we have rock now! the house is about 300 sq feet smaller than ours now, but is all tile (another bonus for kids and dogs) except in the master bedroom and was built in 2005 so is mostly updated. We are very excited to move into this house and bartered our way into it. They wanted an outrageous amount for rent (more than what the house payment would have been) and wanted to take some of the appliances. But I had time on my side since the house had been listed back in May with no offers and they were moving. We have a very busy few weeks ahead of us and are just so irritated we are doing this same thing again after just moving 5 months ago, all the packing, change of address, utilities, etc.. But it will be for the best.

We are moving Sept 21-24 which falls directly in the middle of the week, but jas and I will be taking one day off of work to finish it up. I will also be gone for 2 days at meetings for work in San Antonio on the 15th and 16th, my first night away by myself maybe EVER! So Jas will be playing Mr. Mom while i'm gone getting both girls off to the correct places and picked up on time at night, cooking, cleaning and laundry, plus add in the move just 5 days later.

Alivia is loving school and latchkey is going better, she enjoys it now and was bummed to know we had a 3 day weekend this weekend. She is really thriving and enjoying every second of learning and interaction she's getting. Addison seems to be adjusting better, I still hear how she misses sissy, but the clinging has gotten better in the mornings. They seem to be fine with the move, they loved the house and can't wait to play in the yard and ride their bikes.(sand/rock backyard + fire ants, and very busy street do not make for a good place for kids) we may attempt to have them share a room again, they are trying to convince us of that, but not sure if we're ready for the 2 hour process of bedtime like we've gone through before.

Sorry for all the random thoughts, my mind is lost these days and I haven't been sleeping well at night, I was actually up at 5:20 am on a saturday morning worried about work, uggg will life ever calm down? or if it does will it be better or will we find it boring then?

Happy Labor Day everyone, we will be spending it not doing a darn thing but laying on the beach with our two little babes!

Follow me!

If you are reading this please click the "follow" option, so you then get updates as to when I am blogging. thanks a bunch!

Alivia's first day of school, weekend of fishing and beach

All out of order=(

If ya look really closely, you'll see the fish on the end of addie's pole

Alivia's first day!

Let's start with Alivia's first day of school, she has been waiting for this day for the last year! Everyday we would drive by her school in the mornings and she'd have to say "hi my school". Sunday night we layed out her first day clothes and she jumped right into bed and fell asleep. She woke up bright and early monday morning and was dressed when she came down the stairs. Both mommy and daddy and Addison were taking her to school on her first day, so we headed over to the school. She walked right into that classroom sat down and said "bye guys" no tears, no hugs and kisses, nothing. Her first day went wonderful, she loved every part of it. However, the afterschool program was NOT a hit on the firstday, I think she had different expectations as to what was going to happen at Latchkey and was kinda caught off guard. Latchkey allows the kids to have a lot of free time drawing, painting, dancing, playing outside, legos and in small groups, I think she thought it would be very structured and in a learning environment. But that seems to be improving also, she is getting used to Latchkey and actually liking it. Momma had some freakout moments during the day where I paniced wondering if she was okay in that unfamiliar environment, if the day was too long for her, if her teacher was nice... But Tuesday morning brought a whole new level of freak out. All along she's told us she wanted to ride the bus in the morning, and in all honesty it is more convienent to put her on the bus instead of dealing with school traffic every morning. But that's my baby, on this huge bus, crossing that huge island bridge, all alone....thank goodness Jas was stronger than I and put her on the bus, because I don't think I would have let her. In the end, she LOVES the bus, thinks its the coolest thing since juice boxes. I'm so happy she loves everything and anything about school, but mommy is still in huge denial she is actually "in" school now.

Addison had a few struggles this week going to ms norma's without her older sister. They had never been apart for a full day, EVER. So of course the minute we said goodbye to Alivia at school, addison's head drops to my shoulder and she tears up. Now darn it, I was doing good at not crying till that happened. Addie said "I don't want to leave my sissy", ugggg heartbreaking. We really played up how cool it was to be the oldest at ms norma's and how she was going to get to go to school next year! Her sadness quickly went to anger when we went to pick up Alivia that night, she was then mad because "alivia got to do ...... its not fair" "mom, why can't you let me go to preschool here" Every morning when I dropped her off this week she was clingy when I had to say goodbye, but slowly as thursday and friday came, things got better. I am optimistic tomorrow will go just fine!

Jason is recovering from harvest and playing catch up on sleep, he got to take the girls fishing this weekend, which i think will become a frequent hobby with him and the girls.

I have a busy week of training at work this week and a meeting in san antonio in a couple weeks. I also am working on 2 classes right now too.

And.....packing......

those of you who aren't on my facebook don't know...but super LONG story short, we found mold in the attic at our townhouse that we rent, landlord gave us the run around, fixed things to cover it up, but won't do a mold inspection to show there's no mold in the ductwork or walls, the kids and us have been experiencing many health symptoms of mold so we are taking NO chances and are breaking our lease. We will almost 99% sure we will have to take the landlords to small claims for our deposit back since we are moving out due to their negligance. Blah Blah Blah, anyway, we are looking for a new place, not ready to buy yet, but we will be out by the end of sept! Super NOT cool after just packing and unpacking 5 months ago!!