Handwriting

Kayson has always been fascinated by numbers and letters. We started working on the sounds that letters make a few months ago and I have slowly been teaching him to read. I'm not exactly where he learned to write from, though!

It's so exciting to see the things that he learns and how his handwriting changes so much.

First School Project

This week was Zoo Week at Kayson's preschool. They wanted us to come up with an animal and then create a cage for that animal. Kayson was pretty sure that he wanted a farm animal. (Probably because he was insistent on watching Baby Einstein's "Old Macdonald Had a Farm" five times a week for what seemed like forever.) Anyway, he decided that he wanted to make a cage for a cow.

While I cooked dinner, Kayson and Andrew painted the popsicle sticks. We started out with him finger painting, but he did not want to get paint on his hands. I'm all resourceful and stuff, so I had the idea of using Q-tips to paint with (because I can't find our paintbrushes!). That went so much better!

Kayson helped us out with painting the popsicle sticks, coloring the puddle (for his cow to drink from), and gluing on the grass. After he went to bed, Andrew and I had the task of putting the fence together. Phew, all in a day's work. (We totally had a whole week to do the project, but being the procrastinator that I am, we started on the last day. haha!)

 And here's the finished project!

Kayson was pretty proud of it.

Playing Catch Up!

It's been a long time since I have posted. I have been managing coupon Facebook groups, two Instagram pages, doctor's appointments, running Kayson to school, and it's been crazy! Plus, it was super annoying trying to figure out how to upload pictures from my phone to the blog. That was a simple fix. So here we go! Playing catch up from November to now.

Bette got married in December!

We celebrated Christmas morning at Ma & Pa's house. 

Kayson loved his new trampoline that we got for him!

We celebrated the New Year by taking Kays to get a haircut!

Kayson visited the Phoenix temple for the first time.

 Shaving with Daddy. Andrew used a razor, K used a plastic knife.

We went golfing!

Valentine's morning/afternoon was spent at the park

 Valentine's evening was date night for Andrew & I!

Cookin for Twelve

When Andrew and I were first dating, it was a bit of a culture shock eating dinner with his family. I'm a Southern girl, so I'm used to white bread, ground beef, fried foods...you know, the delicious, artery cloggin' food. It was just something different to get used to. I had never had ground turkey before, and I will be honest, I absolutely 100% did not like it when I first tried it. It was just...different.

I had to show them how it's done Southern-style. I remember going to the store with Andrew, and the main thing I wanted to cook for them was BBQ ribs. That's the one thing I had mastered with cooking. I could make some mean ribs. We hit up the grocery store, and of course, the prices were higher. I bought like 4 racks of ribs thinking it would be enough. Chile...

I cooked for what seemed like hours! haha! I don't even remember what sides we had because the main focus was on the ribs. I'll tell ya this, I probably should have cooked more. There was Ma, Pa, Andrew, Me, Anita, Lane, Bri Bevan, and Bette. Do you know how much 9 grown-almost grown people eat? Goodness gracious. Bones were licked so clean, though, that I felt mighty proud of myself.

Now I haven't been home for Thanksgiving in about 5 years. I can't believe it's been that long, but it has. If I can't go to Georgia for Thanksgiving; I'm just going to bring Southern Thanksgiving to the desert. This time, I'll be cooking for twelve. It would be more folks, but they're living in Utah. My menu plan: collard greens, potato salad, macaroni & cheese, deviled eggs, cornbread, banana pudding, and a sweet potato pie. Somebody else will have to make the turkey and ham. I think I'll be quite busy.

I remember, growing up, my Bigma would be busy in the kitchen the night before Thanksgiving. It just made Thanksgiving day flow better because the food was already done. I'm hoping to do the same. So exciting! My stomach is growling just thinking about it. Praying that it'll turn out alright! Of course, I'll take pics!

I Love Mommy, I Love Daddy, Yes I Do

Preschool is a blessing. I never thought I'd put him in it because I mean...I'm a sahm. It's part of the Job Description, right? Stay home and teach your kiddo, which is what I would do even if I were a working mom. I have noticed such a change in Kayson since he's been in preschool, though.

• He's making his own friends. Let's face it, Kayson is not the biggest fan of playing with little girls. They trap him into corners and try to dress him up. He would rather throw a ball to them or wrestle. But hey, the liddies (little ladies) are drawn to him. Maybe it's that curly fro or those big brown eyes. Who knows really? But, he's got two friends who he talks about all the time. Their names are Evan and Darryl. Apparently, Evan's slogan is "Evan Evan, no push." (I wonder if that's what the teachers tell Evan and Kayson is a little parrot. lol!)

• He's learning all these cool songs that I have never heard! Let's face it, I'm not the most creative person when it comes to teaching a 3 year old. Most days, I haven't a clue what to do. I always had my little sister or cousins to play with and we made up on own stuff. I don't remember adults actually playing with us, but then again, my memory pretty much sucks. I have a hard enough time remembering what I ate for breakfast. (Wait...did I eat breakfast?) Anyway, I picked Kays up from preschool on Friday and he started singing me this little song, "I love Mommy, I love Mommy. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Mommy hugs me. Mommy, kiss. I love Mommy, I love Mommy. Yes, I do." And then he repeats it saying it, replacing with Daddy. It just melted my heart. Oh, I live for those moments! 

• He's learning about gardening. They have a garden at their preschool and they get to water it everyday. There are actual living vegetables and other plants. How awesome is that? I tried my hand at gardening once and yeah, let's just say that nothing has lived so far. But, now my son kinda gets to teach me what he's learned!

• His artwork is so fly. Seriously. They do the neatest little art projects.

  

• His speech is improving!! He's starting to speak in longer sentences. Sure, sometimes his sentences are in Spanglish. (Es blue plate..."It's a blue plate.) And sometimes the beginning and ends of his sentences make sense but the middle is gibberish. Nevertheless, he's beginning to speak in sentences! So exciting!

I'm pretty sure we're going to keep him at this preschool until we move out of the area or he starts kindergarten. Even if he doesn't get another scholarship, it's so worth it.

Party Like a Rockstar

I forgot to post this back in March so here it is!

Woke up this morning with a bangin' headache. Why? Because we were out partying from 5-10pm at the Blacklight Run! 

They started off with a pre-party with music banging. They were throwing out glowsticks and glow packs that people were opening up and swinging around.

Kayson was excited seeing the powder being thrown! He kept naming the colors. So cute!

I carried Kayson into the middle of the group and it turns out that's where all the powder was being thrown. I caught three Glow packs! Since Kayson was on my hip, he caught A LOT of the color. I kept asking him, "Do you wanna go see Dada?" (Andrew was hanging out in the back with the stroller.) He kept saying, "No, no." We stayed in the group for about 15 minutes just getting covered! (Kayson doesn't look so thrilled in this picture because I carried him away from the middle of the color group so that we could get him some food.)

When the 5K actually started, I could tell that Andrew really wanted to run. He would walk ahead at some points, but then he'd backtrack and come back to us. I finally just told him to go ahead and we set up a meeting point. It was awesome, though, because I got to hang out with my MOM friend, Vanessa!

 Had to get a picture glowing under the blacklights!

Vanessa started the 5K with a clean white shirt. She was covered after the run because there were stations where they threw the powder!

 Met up with my honey! He finished 20 minutes before us! (Kayson was asleep by then.)

AFTER PARTY! I'll tell ya, my head wasn't hurting in the midst of the music last night, but it's throbbing the beats now! There were some points where they would do a countdown and everyone would empty their glow packs. Being in the middle of all of that was cray-cray! It was like being in a neon dust storm.

 There was a really sweet proposal, too. Of course the girl said YES!

The aftermath was us completely covered in powder! Andrew didn't even recognize me when I came out of the After Party group. Heck, I don't even recognize myself!

The Blacklight Run is super awesome because they donate a portion of the money to charities like the Phoenix Children's Hospital. The amazing lady who started this program is in my MOMS Club.