Friday Five

1. I love my new application that Tyler bought me last week!  Thank you Christ staff and families for all of the Script money, so we were able to buy iTunes gift cards.  I bought Pixelmator, and have been playing around with it.  Check out this awesome picture of Natalie!

2.  I had a great week at work, but it was hard saying goodbye to people.  Luckily I have put off saying goodbye to everyone until later this next month.  I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to any of them!

3.  I love my bible study friends!  We have a blast, and I am looking forward to celebrating tonight for Kristi's bachelorette party!!

4.  I found out that my insurance is going to give me back the money that we had to pay for Natalie!!  I am so thankful.  I have a really high deductible ($3,000) and we just found out that we also have GAP insurance, which will pay me back for my time in the hospital!  I wish we would have known about this with Brandon too!!

5.  I am so thankful for my loving husband, who is going to have both kids tonight so that way I can go out with the girls!!  It is going to be a blast!!

Family of Four . . . 5 weeks

New things about Brandon:  Brandon is spending his first week up at grandma and grandpa's since Natalie was born.  He is having a blast up there, but has been getting up super early!  He was able to go try out a new park too, since school is out now.  He misses daddy and sissy, but is having a lot of fun with grandma and grandpa.

Swinging away

New things about Natalie:  She is growing like a weed!!  She also slept through the night last night!!  It was amazing, and so nice to be able to sleep.  She only slept until 5:15 this morning, and finally fell back asleep when it was time to leave for the doctor's office, but at least she didn't get up at 2 or 3 too.  She is a lot more active now, and she still doesn't like to be on her back.  Today during my meeting, before the other teachers went to pick her up, she kept looking like she was trying to roll over, and was rolling to her sides.

One month check up

New things about Tyler:  He is done with school!  He had a lot of fun at the graduation, and at the end of the year party with his class.  He is excited to be on summer break though!

New things about Cassandra:  I have had to say goodbye, even though I am avoiding actually doing it so far, to coworkers, and friends.  There is a lot of change going on at Shepherd this year, and some of my favorites are leaving to go on to start new journeys.  I was able to take Natalie with me to work this week, and everyone loved being able to see her.  I also took her in to meet both of our classes, and all of the kids loved being able to see her. This week has been very go, go, go, and I am looking forward to relaxing this weekend too!

Avoiding saying goodbye!  Happy birthday Chelsea!

Current Weight:  137

Total Weight Gain / Loss:  I am up half a pound.  I have been drinking a lot of soda at the different parties we've had this week.  I think for the month of July I am going to try to only drink soda when I have a drink.  :)  I know cutting out the soda will help me take off the pounds, as no one needs the extra sugar.

Wordless Wednesday

Thoughtful Tuesday

I think the saying is true, you never know how good you have it until it's gone. I went to work today for yearbook signing and then graduation is tonight. I am going to miss these people. I am going to miss my daily hugs from E. I'm going to miss talking with Eileen after school. I'm going to miss my good morning shouts from down the hall. I'm going to miss the witty humor. I'm going to miss the sounding board. Most of all I'm going to miss my best friend, the person I could go to at any time. I'm going to miss knowing she's right next door, and ready for ice cream whenever I had a bad day. I know God has much bigger plans for her, and I've been blessed by her friendship and love for the past three years, but I'm going to miss her.

Friday Five

1. So thankful we got to go out for a walk this week. We were able to walk a little over six miles this week! It was good to be able to start exercising!

2. I have been working on my teacher binder for next year, and have my monthly planning calendars done! I love them and can't wait to use them.

3. Fast and Furious Six came out today!! Can't wait to go see it with Tyler. Hopefully we're going on Monday!!

4.  Swings. I hope Natalie learns to like hers soon. We're going to have some long days if she can only hang out on my chest.

5.  I finished the first part of the Baxter series by Karen Kingsbury.  I can't wait to read the next five books on the series!

Family of four . . . 4 weeks

New things about Brandon:  Brandon has loved being up at grandma and grandpa's house this week!  He gets to go outside and play, go to the park, and he has been enjoying his toys that he has up here.  We were so blessed with an abundance of toys from awesome school families, that he has a total new set of toys up here from what we have at home.  This way we don't have to worry about transporting toys, and h doesn't really get tired of his toys because he can only play with them a week at a time.  He has also been enjoying his water table that my parents bought him.  It is so funny to watch him stand out there and play with it.

Brandon's toy corner

Playing in grandma and grandpa's backyard

New things about Natalie:  Natalie has been enjoying her time with grandma and grandpa as well!  She has had lots of snuggle time with all of us, and Brandon has even enjoyed holding her after bath time.  She has been awake a lot more during the day now, and is sleeping for stretches at night, some longer than others.  The other night she slept from 9 - 1:30!! Amen!  She does not enjoy being on her back, but is slowly getting used to the bounce chair.  I was able to put her in the chair long enough to take a shower yesterday!  It is also so hard to believe that she is already four weeks old!  Where has the time gone!

Sleeping Baby

Nap time with Grandpa

New things about Tyler:  Tyler is excited that all of his grades and comments are done.  He is now starting to pack up his classroom, as he gets to move into the new building this year!  He is very excited to be able to do that, even though it means moving classrooms again!  He has been enjoying his week at home, getting lots of sleep, but misses the kids and I.

New things about Cassandra:  We have been going on nightly walks.  We have only been walking a mile at a time, but something is better than nothing.  I just strap Princess on the front of me, and my dad has been pushing B in the stroller and off we go!  Brandon loves his nightly walks, and enjoys seeing the animals and airplanes around my parent's house.  We also got to spend some time with my grandma this week, the kids great grandma.  Brandon started to warm up to her before the week was over, and they had a lot of fun.  

Enjoying our nightly walks

Weight: 135.5 pounds

Weight loss: This past week I lost another half pound.  Not too bad.  I have been eating healthier up here at my mom's house, especially since she eats that with me.  I'm hoping that I will be able to keep this up when I go back home next week, but I am more worried about when we go on vacation during June.  Here is to hoping to keep getting it down!

Bubba loves his sissy!

Wordless Wednesday

Thoughtful Tuesday

Brandon's new island

We are so lucky to have grandparents who love Brandon, and Natalie.  Tyler's parents are great, and close to the house, and will help out when they can.  My parents are awesome, and buy crazy toys like this for Brandon that he can play with at their house!  I really don't know what we would do without a support system like them!  The kids and I came up to grandma and grandpa's house on Sunday afternoon, and will be here until this weekend.  My parents are amazing with how much they jump in to help with the kids.  We are going to have a great vacation in June, but we will miss my parents, the kids will miss their grandparents, and I think my parents will secretly miss the kids too!  (Even though she will enjoy sleeping at night again!)

Daily Five

1.  We have termites . . . again!!  YUCK!!  This is the third time that the have appeared in our bedroom wall, so instead of calling our same warranty company I decided to finally go with Terminix.  I was so happy with their service, and how prompt they were.  Now granted it is going to cost me a lot more than the warranty I was paying for before, at least I know that they will repair something if there is more damage!!  When I told them what our other company did they couldn't believe we waited so long.  If only I knew more about what people should do to treat termites!

2.  Our athletic banquet was last night.  It was fun to go and see everyone, and even more fun that a couple of us went out for a drink afterwards.  I forget by not going to work how much I miss my friends at work.  I love staying home with my kids, and if I could I know that I would stay home in a heartbeat, but I do miss them!

3.  I reread Lord of the Flies this past week.  I read the book while I was in high school, but as part of our bucket list this year we are reading 24 books.  I have almost reached our goal, but part of it was that we had to read some classics.  We agreed that a classic was anything that an English teacher might make you read.  I forgot how disturbing Lord of the Flies is.  It's crazy what would happen to a group of kids if you left them alone without adults, and what they could do.  I would recommend it, it is a great book.

buy here on Amazon

4.  I have started planning for next year!  I know it seems crazy, but we will be gone for a big chunk of June, and I have a lot to look into for next year.  Plus I will have 26 kids, so I am trying to figure out how I can best accommodate all of them, and still teach everything.  I have started working on my teacher planner first, and have found some that I really like on TPT.  I am too cheap though, and don't want to pay $8 for a document that I'm going to have to edit any ways, so I'm working on creating my own!  Who knows, maybe I'll even set up a TPT store this year!

This looks like a great planner, and where I got a lot of my ideas!

5.  Looking into next year, I have also checked out our new science standards for the state.  They are very different then the ones that we've had for the past five years I've been teaching, so it's time to look for all new material for science too!  It should be a fun year!

Family of Four . . . 3 weeks

New things about Brandon:  He is loving playing with his cars, and has tried sleeping in his big boy bed this week!   We started the process Sunday night, and while it hasn't been the easiest transition, it hasn't been horrible.  There has only been one night this week that he has made it through the whole night.  That night he decided he wanted to wake us all up at 5:30 too.  There are pros and cons to having him in a big boy bed, without a gate on his door, that is for sure.  We need to go and find a gate soon, so that way he can stay in his room.  He won't take a nap in there yet though, so we need to work on that too.  Brandon was able to spend the weekend at grandma and grandpa's time share, spending a lot of time at the pool!  He loved this!  I wish I could go swimming with him, because then we could be out in the backyard every day!  It would be great exercise for me, plus it would wear him out!

Playing in the pool with grandma 

Shopping with mommy and grandma at Old Navy

New things about Natalie:  She is doing great!  We are back to waking up every three hours at night to eat.  I try and make sure that I get her up every three hours during the day as well, so then hopefully she will last longer at night.  We are almost out of newborn diapers, so we are going to try to transition into 1s.  I can't believe we are moving out of newborns already, but I really don't want to go buy a bunch more.  Here's hoping that the size ones aren't too big, and if they are, then off to the store we go!

Sleeping on our tummy in our pack and play

Thanks for the shirt Aunt Megan!

New things about Tyler:  He has had a rough couple of nights with Natalie getting up every three hours.  He has had some late days at work too, as he is trying to get everything done since our school year ends in two weeks!  He is looking forward to being able to sleep next week when the kids and I are up in Prescott.

New things about Cassandra:  We have been trying to get out and do one thing a day this week.  We have been successful two days this week.  We were able to get out and do some returns at Kohls, and check out Old Navy one day.  Then another day we ran to the mall to return stuff to Macy's, check out the dollar tree for work, and went out to lunch.  We wanted to take Brandon to the park too, but the one I drove to didn't have a play structure, just grass!  I am on the hunt for new shorts, and I think that I found some I like at New York and Company.  I didn't try them on though, so I may be on the watch for a good coupon and go in and see how they look.  They also had some pants I really liked, but once again, we live in Arizona, so I don't know how many pairs of work pants I need.

Weight:  136

Weight lost:  I gained a pound and a half this week.  I knew this was going to happen as the baby weight disappeared, and I continued to eat what I wanted without working out.  I need to start watching what I eat a lot more, and making sure that I am not snacking on just carbs or sugars.  I need to start working the veggies into my diet more, and cutting back on the carbs.  I am going to slowly start working out too, hopefully getting out to walk next week while we are up in Prescott will get me going.  I am not really supposed to do much for another three weeks though, so we'll see how active I can get without hurting myself.

Wordless Wednesday

The last of my maternity clothes, ready for Nicole!!

Thoughtful Tuesday

I am so glad that Brandon loves Natalie. I just wish he would talk to us and tell us what he needs or wants.

Friday Five

1.  My precious baby girl always wants to be held. I love this, but it makes for getting things done quite hard. Brandon was okay sitting in the swing, laying on the boppy, or on the floor. Mrs. Natalie loves laying on mommy. I'm going to have to try and figure out this baby wearing thing.

2.  I finally managed to get my wedding rings back on today!! They aren't as lose as they once were, but they're on!!

3.  My mind has been tossing and turning with ideas for school. I know I missed the TPT sale earlier this week, but I'm going to look through tons this next month, and hopefully they'll run a big summer or back to school sale.

4.  We tried two new Pinterest recipes this week. Both were shrimp recipes, and we probably won't try either one again. The scampi just didn't turn out good enough for how long it took, and the other shrimp was okay.  (I'll look up recipes when I am on the computer and not on my phone.)

5.  I'm excited for my dad to come visit this weekend and for him to be able to spend more time with the kids. Brandon loves his grandpa!!

Family of Four . . . 2 weeks

New things about Brandon:  Brandon had a very hard time on Monday when he woke up and realized that Daddy wasn't here to play with him.  He really enjoyed having Tyler home with us all last week, and wasn't so excited when he saw that it was just Grandma and I on Monday morning.  He is learning more and more though, and is quite a helpful big brother.  He leaves impressing our visitors too, and making them laugh when they come over.

Big brother love, May 9

Our new favorite saying, thanks Uncle Ben, "Oh yeah!"

New things about Natalie:  She loves to sleep on me, or on any one.  She isn't too big of a fan of sleeping in her bassinet.  When I can get her to fall asleep, lately I have been putting her on her stomach to sleep at night, and we last a little longer.  We have gotten up to a four or five hour stretch at night!  We are loving this!  She still likes to sleep and eat during the day, and occasionally stays awake for a few hours.  At her doctor appointment on Tuesday she weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces!!  She is putting the weight on!  The doctor was very happy!

May 5

Special visitor, Francesca, May 8

New things about Daddy:  Daddy went back to work on Monday, and he was ready for it.  His hardest adjustment is the getting up in the middle of the night to get bottles for Natalie.  He is glad to be back in a routine though, and is having a good time with his kids before the year is over.

Last day with daddy before he went back to work

New things about Mommy:  When Natalie sleeps, so does mommy.  My mom is staying with us now, and she has been great!  She lets me nap whenever I need to, and takes care of Brandon for me in the mornings so I can sleep in as long as Natalie lets us.  I went to the doctor today, and they said my incision looks great.  Still I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier than Brandon, can't take a bath, or swim.  Hardest part about that will be the not lifting B part.  I've been trying to find ways to get around that, so I can have him sit in my lap, or cuddle with me.

Weight:  134.2 pounds

Weight lost:  In the past week 6.2 pounds!  I know that is all baby weight, and not because of anything I've been doing.  We didn't really do any exercise this week, as we were trying to get Natalie to sleep at night.  I also haven't ben watching what I've been eating.  I know I will need to start doing that since I can't do any real exercising for another four weeks.

2 week appointment with Natalie (no maternity clothes)

2 week appointment with Brandon (maternity clothes)

Wordless Wednesday

 

Grandma and Bubba

Sleeping Princess

Thoughtful Tuesday

As I sit here snuggled with my baby girl on the couch I am watching my crazy almost two year old run through the house. I can hear my mom in the kitchen doing dishes, and playing with B. We are awaiting the arrival of my mother in law, so that way we can take Princess to her appointment. We are beyond blessed to have parents who love us, and love being grandparents.

Sleeping!

Our sweet baby girl must have been super tired from her photo shoot yesterday. She only got up once to eat last night, at 2:30, and she is just now waking up this morning at 7:15! Thank you Christina, you were right!!

Friday Five

What a week it has been!

1.  We are so excited to be home, and that we were all able to spend the week together as a family!

Brandon loves checking on his sissy!

2.  I have been a reading machine!  It is so nice having the Overdrive Ap on my iPhone, and it makes night time reading so easy when I am feeding Princess!  This week I have been reading Insurgent, which is the sequel to Divergent.  If you like dystopias, and young adult fiction, you should check it out!

3.  We are so excited for our newborn photo shoot with Patchwork Photography tomorrow!!

4.  We picked up a set of mini DVD players for the car at Target today!  They were on sale at Target for half the price as what they were at Best Buy.  Excited to be able to use these this summer for our crazy road trip to Nebraska and Indiana!

5.  Best Buy has their $5 coupon deal right now.  So, you take in any DVD you have, and they give you a coupon for $5 towards a Blu-Ray that costs $9.99 or more.  We have now traded in 15 DVDs, and were able to upgrade them to Blu-Ray.  The only down part is that you can only do 5 DVDs a day.  Our collection continues to grow!

Family of four . . . 1 week

New things about Brandon:  Our big kid is loving being a big brother!  He comes over to give Natalie a kiss all the time!!  He is understanding so much too! This morning I asked him to go get sissy's blanket for me because the air kicked on, and I didn't want her to get cold.  He went into the other room, grabbed her blanket out of the pack and play, and brought it to me!  He is having a hard time understanding why he can't have her bottles, and pacifiers, but it is getting better.  He is doing okay with the fact that I can't pick him up either, and daddy is spending a lot of extra one on one time with him.  We finally got him in to get a hair cut too!!  Man oh man did he need one!!  So thankful that he was able to get it cut before we take our family pictures on Saturday!!

Before our hair cut

After our hair cut

Hanging out with Daddy!!

New things about Natalie:  She loves to eat!  All the time!  At least at night, she loves to eat all the time.  During the time she has mastered the sleeping for two to three hours at a time thing.  At night, she likes to eat about every hour and a half.  Needless to say, Tyler and I have both been taking naps during the day.  Natalie is growing too!  When we went to the doctor on Tuesday she had already gained back 3 ounces since Saturday morning.  This just proves how much she loves to eat!

1 week old!

New things about Daddy:  Daddy went to the Minute Clinic yesterday, thank you CVS, and we found out that he has a sinus infection.  A few weeks ago we found out my mom and I both had ear infections, and Tyler just didn't ever make it into the doctor.  Thankfully he took this week off to be home with the kids and I, so he was able to finally go in.  He is starting to feel much better, but pulling a backyard full of weeds yesterday wasn't helping him too much.

New things about Mommy: I am recovering pretty well.  When we came home on Saturday it was really HARD!!  I felt bad for our friends who came over to visit, as I fell asleep on the couch while they were here!  Since then I have been doing things slowly but surely around the house.  Trying not to do too much, but still trying to get some things done.

Weight:  140.4 lbs

Weight lost:  I stopped weighing myself at home a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure last Monday when I went in to the doctor, so April 22,  was 154 on their scale.  I will be interested to see what they say I am next week!

April 25, right before I went to the hospital

May 2, 140.4 lbs

Wordless Wednesday