Glasses for Claire

Claire's preschool director stopped me one day and told me that Claire may need an appointment with an optometrist to check her vision. They had just done the vision screening tests at her school, and though Claire has 'perfect' vision with both eyes, it turns out that one of her eyes is pretty weak.  Her teacher said that during the screening when Claire covered her right eye, her left eye could barely read, and Claire kept "cheating" by peeking through her fingers with her good eye! I can totally see her doing that.

So off we went to the optometrist and sure enough, she has perfect vision in one eye, but is farsighted in the other eye. There is a small chance that as she grows and the eyeball grows it will correct itself, but for now we are pretty happy with our new glasses.


This is Claire after her dance performance. Hence...the lipstick

So far Claire has done really well with her glasses. We have talked them up so much that she feels so "special" to be the only one with glasses in the family. Her only problem is that she is 4, and forgetful sometimes. She will take off her glasses to change a shirt, and then set them down somewhere random, and forget where she put them. We also broke them after only a week because the girls were bouncing on the bed, and somehow Scarlett bounced onto Claire's face and broke the glasses. Thank goodness for the 1 year warranty!

Children's Museum

This was our first Saturday after soccer season ended, and we found ourselves with nothing much to do! Daddy was out of town, so it was a "girl's day" as Lydia called it. We started out at the Children's Museum here in Midland. The girls had so much fun they would have stayed here for hours...if it weren't for their pregnant momma who needed to eat!

There is a section of the museum called "our town" I believe, and it has a kids-sized grocery store, fast food joint, veterinary office, homes, and even a news station

 

 All the girls really enjoyed the dinosaur quarry, where they got to climb on dinosaurs and dig for fossils. We lasted in this section about 20 minutes, and then Scarlett started dumping sand on other kids.

 

 So then we went to Scarlett's part of the museum, the soft-play/nursery rhyme area.

 

 

It was a fantastic day. After a morning at the museum we went out to McDonalds, then to the nearby Dennis the Menace park. It's November, and its the best time of the year in Texas. Its in the 70's! Love it.

My two soccer stars

This was a special season in soccer for two reasons: it was the FIRST season that Claire got to play, and the LAST season for me to coach Lydia's team.

Claire is such a joy to watch. She really really loves to play soccer, but for most of the season she was just a part of the "crowd" that runs along with the ball but doesn't kick it. The few times that the ball would come her way, she would kick it with all her might (sometimes the wrong way) then stop to look at us with her gorgeous smile and give us a thumbs up! We were so proud of her for her effort and her attitude. For family nights we would play 2-on-2 in the backyard, and in the coming games Claire was a little more aggressive. She even had a breakout game where she scored 4 goals!

Claire's team is called the "Barbie Bandits". They are coached by 3 dads. Yep. I have my opinions on how that went, but I will keep them to myself. The girls are all so sweet, and there are at least 3 real superstars on the team, so we beat every team we played. It was a great season.

Lydia had another great season. She really is turning into quite the soccer player. She's a good defender, has good footskills for her age, and has the fire inside her to win. We used to bribe her to score every game, but that was too easy, so now the deal is she has to score at least 3 to get her special surprise, which is usually a snowcone. Even on the rare days when she didn't get 3, there's always a good consolation prize.

Whenever someone on our team scores, they sprint to the sideline to give me a big hi-5. Here's Lydia after 1 of her 4 or 5 goals in this game.

 

I sure will miss coaching these girls, but with my baby due right in the middle of the spring season, I just had to give in and hand the reins over to someone else. Purple Power has been a great team for 4 straight seasons, and I know they'll continue to dominate.

And of course... this soccer season wouldn't be such a success if it weren't for our favorite watergirl and number 1 fan. Everyone had better be ready...the next Viets soccer star is coming up :)

Our BRAVE Halloween

This year we dressed up as a family for Halloween. I really enjoy getting in costume for Halloween, and so do the girls, but Josh... not so much. So as a compromise, the deal is that he only has to dress up every other Halloween. And this was our year :)

 

Since the movie Brave came out this summer, Merida has been Lydia's favorite princess, mostly because she is tough and has crazy curly hair. I loved the movie too, and could easily see Lydia as Merida...so it was set... we were going to do BRAVE for Halloween.

 

Lydia as Merida:

She won first place in her school costume contest!

 

Claire as another version of Merida:

She actually really liked her headdress/wimple.. but only for short periods of time.

 

Scarlett as the Bear:

What does a bear say Scarlett? .."Raaaaaaaah"

 

 

And Josh and I as King Fergus and Queen Elinor:

He won't admit it, but Josh had fun being King Fergus. Even after the party, he took the girls trick or treating around our neighborhood dressed like this.

 

 

Here's all of us at the church Trunk or Treat party. Claire wanted to have hair like her sister, and I don't blame her - its pretty cute.

 

 Pretty close, right? But when we asked the girls how we looked they'd say "But daddy you aren't very big." And for me it was "You look like the queen...except for your face. Can you get a mask?"

 

And my mom and dad joined us for a picture too. My mom easily had the best costume of the night.

Four kids, and other pregnancy ramblings

As most everyone knows by now, Josh and I are expecting our fourth child in April. For the first time we are feeling the weight of that question that we've been able to avoid for so long:

 

Are you done?

 

I always knew I would have at least four kids if God were to bless me with them. WHy?

I couldn't have just one, because an only child is usually spoiled rotten, and needs a sibling to play with. That's not always the case, but I'm not a good enough mom to control myself, and I'd spoil my child rotten.

I couldn't have just two, because everyone else has two, and I wouldn't get any sympathy for the mess my life is (your house is a mess? It shouldn't be, you only have 2 kids - get it together! You look like crap? Why? You only have two kids to deal with)

I couldn't have 3, because I don't want a middle child. Not all middle children have issues, but mine would.

 

But if you have 4 or more children, life is a party. When things go well, people think you are super-mom, and when they don't, well, it's just expected because "poor thing, you have your hands full"

 

So here she is - baby #4 (We don't know the sex, but we're assuming she's a she).

Instead of posting the profile pic, here is the scary frontal view of my little baby! Creepy little skeleton head :)

But... Are we done?

 

I think I am writing this post to convince myself that I am done... though in reality I won't seriously consider it until my fourth baby is happy and healthy in my arms and I can look at her and feel comfortable that she is my last.

From the beginning, when Josh and I developed our 10-year plan for our family - yes, we're both engineers - we decided to have 4 children because of logistics and practicality. Everything evens out. With 4 kids, everyone has a window seat in the car. At amusement parks everyone has a buddy to ride with. On airplanes we split up 3 & 3, and in hotel rooms its 2 to a bed with the sofabed.  If you add another child to this, the degree of complexity increases to a level that I am not comfortable with.

 

Though the real reason I want to feel like I am done is because I have realized, especially in this first trimester, that I am not a great mom to my other children when I am pregnant.

I am TIRED. I can't keep up with the chores and picking up after the girls like I used to. And the worst part is that I haven't been as available to my kids. Every afternoon when Scarlett naps is usually my special time with Claire. We play games or make pictures, but lately I have used my special time with Claire to just rest. And bless her heart, one time I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to see that she had put her "cozy blanket" over me and snuggled up next to me for a nap too. I love her so much.

I also have a SHORT temper. Sadly it rears its ugly face toward the people I love most - my husband and my girls. They have gotten a little used to it now, as one night I was angry with Lydia for taking so long to get ready for bed, and she just smirked and said "Mom, sometimes when you yell I just ignore you because I know you don't mean it." Ugh. I couldn't help but smile at my defeat.  I've definitely apologized too many times to that girl.  

I am also unreasonably EMOTIONAL. I don't like for my girls to see me cry, but its happened too much lately. I mean, heck, I cried watching 3:10 to Yuma the other day, which is a western, for cryin out loud. I'm a mess!

 

So yes, I think we may be done. When we have four beautiful little girls and are tempted to try one more time for a boy... I will come and read this post. And I will be so grateful for the little angels that are my daughters right now and will want to move forward and focus on being a great mom for them.

 

Our beautiful girls

School pictures are here! So of course I need to save them to my blog :)

Can I just freeze time right now? I'm not sure I want them to get any older.

Pumpkin Patch

Last week we visited the St. Luke's Pumpkin Patch with our playgroup from church. It's a small patch, but just big enough for our kids to really enjoy.

Lots of silly cutouts for pictures

Claire and Addison...

Scarlett and Ema...

And at the end of the day we each came home with pumpkins and coloring projects. What a fun playdate!

A Child's Prayer

I wish I had a recording of some of my children's prayers, though that might be a little sacrilegious. There is just something so sweet and special about listening to a preschooler talk with her Heavenly Father.

In our home Claire blesses the food and Lydia says bedtime prayers. We need to rethink these arrangements because Claire's blessings on meals take forever....or at least it seems that way when we are hungry. And it's because sweet little Claire wants to bless a whole lot more than the food...

Please bless the missionaries that they will have a good day
Please bless the cars that they won't crash
Please bless Lydia that she will close her eyes for the prayer
Please bless the bad guys that they will be nice
Please bless God that He won't get angry and make a storm
Please bless Scarlett that she won't be naughty
...
and a few more "Please bless..." lines in there. But these are my favorites

I am sure that each evening that there is at least one car that didn't crash because of a child's prayer.

Scarlett is TWO

 For the past month or so, Scarlett's answer to most questions is "I'm TWO".
"How are you today?" ..."I'm Two"
"What's your name?"... "I'm Two"
I guess in some ways it is an appropriate answer, because if there were any two words to sum up Scarlett right now, it would be "I'm Two"

Scarlett is exhausting. She is the only one of my three girls that I have ever felt I need a break from. In fact, she is the only one of my girls that does a lot of things that Claire and Lydia never did:
-Scarlett is a scratcher and a hair-puller. She makes at least one of her sisters cry every day.
-She is extremely independent. We tried to get her to share a room with Claire, but she refused. She was up all night until we finally let her go to her own room to sleep on a mattress on the floor.
-When Scarlett gets lost, she doesn't care. She will run away from me in stores and no matter how long she's been gone, I always find her contently playing with things from the shelf. Not even looking for me.
-Scarlett thinks she is as big as Lydia, and was trying cartwheels at 1 year old. In fact, whenever she's dancing to music she always throws a cartwheel into her routine.
-When its time to go somewhere and I tell her to get her shoes, she always goes to the dress-up box to find some princess dress-up shoes.
-There is NO shopping cart that can contain her. Not even the fun car-shaped ones. No matter how tight the belt is around her, she wiggles her way out. No matter how many cookies or lollipops I give her, its never enough. She and I go to battle every time we go shopping, and she almost always wins.
- She is very stubborn with us. Josh reads to her every night and tries to get her to say new words, but she just says "No Daddy". "Can you say Scarlett"..."No Daddy". But when she is watching her favorite show Dora the Explorer, she will attempt all of the spanish phrases and can say "ayudame" and "mas despacio" with ease.

Scarlett is a lot of work, but she is the ball of energy that our family gravitates around right now. She fits perfectly in our family and we all love being around her because she is so much fun.

We celebrated Scarlett on September 15th with a small family party. Lydia and Claire went with Daddy to pick out their gifts to her from the store, and then we wrapped them the night before. Scarlett had a lot of patience opening her gifts, but her sisters did not. She took her time exploring each gift, and even did a "happy dance" for each one.

 

Her gift from mommy and daddy was a new swingset. We sure didn't pay much for it, but that's why it took most of the weekend to put together! The girls love it, and its perfect timing too, now that the temperatures are "cooling off" down into the 80s. 

 

Scarlett is growing up fast. She is even attending a "playgroup" with some of her 2yr old friends from church. Every Tuesday they get together and play at a friend's house while mommies get a break!

Happy 2nd Birthday Scarlett! We are so lucky to have you as part of our party :)

School Days and Bus 26

Lydia is now in first grade! And since she is a very confident little lady I thought this year we would try riding the bus home. She wanted to ride the bus last year but I wasn't ready for it. This year, however, I am very excited about not waking up Scarlett from her nap to go wait in a car line.

I went to the school to figure out what bus she rides and which stop she will get off on, and I learned that she rides Bus 26. Bus 26! That's the same bus that me and my siblings rode to school when we moved to Midland in 1992. But surely its a different bus driver... then I read this article in the paper:

Bus driver to complete 21st year with MISD

It's Ms Cheryl! Holy cow how small town is that, that me and my daughter have the same bus driver. She has been so good to Lydia. Her first day on the bus, Lydia said she was nervous because she was "the only little kid..everyone on the bus is big" but Ms Cheryl asked Lydia to sit right behind her, and she talked with her the whole time. So everyday when the bus drops her off, there is Lydia sitting in the seat right behind Ms Cheryl.

Here is Lydia getting off the bus right in front of my house. I know! The original bus stop was just two houses away, but when Cheryl saw where we lived, she said she'd just drop off Lydia at our house each day. How freaking awesome is that!

So anyways, that's been the highlight of the school year for me so far. As for school and her class...nothing new there. Lydia loves her class and her teacher "is really really nice... but she warned us she might get serious." And I get the usual reports that Lydia is so sweet and so well behaved and does what she's asked...etc etc.  It's going to be another great school year for my Greathouse Knight!

Time for Dance!

The school year has begun, as have all the extracurriculars: soccer, playgroups, piano, and DANCE. This is Claire's second year to take a dance & gymnastics class, and I must admit she is a very good dancer. I wish I had a video clip her recital in May. She was a hit. She was that girl that the teacher puts front and center so that the others will follow her lead.

I'm so proud of my Claire-bear and looking forward to another fun year of dance! Here's some pics from her recital.

Claire and her best bud Brielle after the show



...with the sisters

And here's a few of her professional dance photos. What a doll!

Lydia's "Merida" birthday party



We celebrated Lydia's 6th birthday with a Brave-themed party at my parents' home. Lydia is slightly obsessed with Merida from the movie Brave because she's Scottish, she's a princess, and most of all... she's the only princess with curly hair.


Well done H-E-B !



kids loved their fancy goblets



Rex doing a "flip" to impress the ladies :)

We even had an archery contest. Best quote: "I'm actually a lot better with a real bow and arrow, not a play one"

 Later that evening we had a family party, which we got to share with cousin Madison who is in town for the month.

Lydia was spoiled with toys from her friends and family, and certainly got her fair share of Merida toys.

But her favorite toy has to be her bow & arrow. She is actually very good with it, and hit daddy right in the eye from across the room!