Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Three months of Baby H

 Little Miss H is three months old! A quarter of a year! She’s really sweet and talks and smiles. She is a pretty good sleeper and I can count on her to go 7-9 hours of sleeping at night! Whoot! My favorite thing she does is stretch. If she’s the tallest Kibbe it’s because she does the best stretches. It’s so funny to watch and it makes me and Lee wish we could stretch into all the positions she does because she looks so satisfied with herself when she finishes. 



Her siblings love her. J loves to get on the bed with her and C makes sure her paci is never far. She’s getting baptized this weekend so that’s on her agenda. I think she’ll be pleased soccer seasons are coming to a close because outside of work with me, she has spent a good chunk of her life in the sidelines.

Saturday, October 16, 2021

A is 6!

This week A turned the big six! 


We celebrated over the weekend with his requested Dirt and Worms cake - which is actually a cake (dessert really) that I got to make - Grammy and E (with Papa's help) are much better bakers than me. 


A is quite the busy guy. He loves to be outside getting dirty or doing a job. Hence the skateboard, boogie board, shovel and blower he got for his birthday. 


I made him close his eyes because I wasn't going to try to wrap a shovel. Currently A is into emptying the sandbox of all the sand, making piles of leaves to burn, burning leaves and cleaning off the playset with his blower. 


He has settled into K and made a few friends. He comes home from school EVERY day with his white uniform shirt FLITHY. But that shouldn't surprise us because this is him making sand angels after school before swim practice. He is enjoying swim team and soccer. C is still his best partner in crime even though they can fight terribly - they are great for each other if they are outside. A is taking J under his busyness wing and they swept out under the stairs in the garage over the summer. 


Who knows what the next year will hold for A but I'm sure it will be busy and dirt-filled. He said next year he needs to get a gas blower so he doesn't have to wait for the battery to charge on his new one : ) Spoken from the kid who poured gasoline in his plastic lawn mower a few years ago! 





Thursday, October 14, 2021

7QTs - Soccer, birthdays, & other grateful things

Linking up with Kelly ... It only took a month to finish my seven summer updates. Here's to some more of the latest and greatest. 

---1---

I think I left off the weekend of Js bday which was action packed with soccer, a flat tire 



After choir practice, while Lee was in Raleigh for church. Very thankful for the boy who stopped me before leaving the parking lot - because I had no idea - before we were heading 20 min down the road for Mass. It could have been a disaster because I would not have known who to call. A friend whose daughter is in choir happened to be picking up her kids and was like - oh my husband can fix that! Insert all the praise. He came and was better and faster than AAA - which we don't have. He was telling the kids all the stuff he was moving around and super patient with the flurry of questions. God was watching out for us because we were rolling a zillion miles a minute that day. 

The next day was As bday but not without a swim meet first 


It was the first home meet we had since January 2020. 


It was a fun, fast and close by meet which are all PLUSES in our book. 


A swam and did well. He almost didn't DQ in backstroke - he flipped over on the last stroke and his 50 free was funny to watch because everytime the coach said something to him, he stopped and looked at her and took FOREVER to get down the lane. 


Then it was As bday celebration!


---2---

Last week was blessing of the pets... 


aka Es least favorite day of school because... dogs. But the Tortuga came and got blessed. E threw some fresh grass and leaves in his cage before - so it 'looked better'. 

Speaking of animals


See that hump in the roof - yes? 


Wasps were building a nest up there and separated the gutter away from the roof/house?!?!?! So random! I thought there were going to be hundreds but when Lee sprayed them there were maybe twenty or so? 


---3---

Lots of soccering without many pictures... Papa needs to step up his game!



I was conned into Italian Ice after one of M's games


But it was hot and she played hard. I took A and R out that night much to the other two's chagrin. C did not get the nod because she has basically gotten on the field and started crying. 


But this week Lady C held it together and played and got her post game refreshments for the first time this season! and scored a goal or two. Proving to me (and hopefully herself) she can do it but I think I'm going to hang up my C coaching hat in the spring : ) 


A celebrated his 6th! bday with his soccer team in a late night (for 5 and 6 yr olds) games. I brought cupcakes - in addition to the snacks - and his team sung him Happy Birthday! It was late but it was fun. 



These girls are so intense playing and super fun to watch


Ms friend from school is on another team but are all smiles when the game is over. There's alot of good action and games in Ms age group at the moment. I don't know if it is the energy of the coaches or the quality of the players but it has been a really fun season of games to watch - and there's still a few more games left!
 

---4---

H is embracing her role at the office... 


I think she much prefers hanging out in the bouncy seat or on the floor with toys and plants to look at than this swinging chair BUT it was cute while it lasted. I think she'll warm up to this and get some good exercise soon. 


---5---

I made a discovery recently while giving blood (I give for the cookies : ) ...

 

I'd never heard of it and neither had the other donors who were at the blood drive. Alkaline water. Apparently the pH is supposed to help your body hydrate better? I guess it has been around for a while and I'm late to the party (shocker) - more investigation required. It does a little bit different than 'regular' water. 

---6---

With all the time and energy going to carting kids to and fro and soccer coaching (which I do like but man it can get stressful), a friend's bday was an excuse for some me time


We went to a wine tasting and apparently they are every month so we might need to carve out friend more often. We had a fun time and tasted some interesting wine - some we liked and one really earthy cava that I thought tasted kind of like dirt. H behaved and Lee held down the fort and all its dinnering, showering, homeworking and go to bed glory. 



---7---

Despite all the busyness, I can't help but think of this family and how their world was turned upside down; pray for them. Their daughter was two days older than H. Between them and my niece who is still in the NICU - but doing great! - it causes Lee and I to pause and be grateful for our wild routine because every day is a gift. 

Monday, October 11, 2021

J is TWO!

Our sweet baby J turned TWO. He is still so snuggly and pretty chill most of the time. I adore his moppy head that he loves to twirl a small little piece in the back when he sucks his fingers.


J is such a Papas boy. Every morning he shouts from his crib PAPA PAPA PAPA. If Papa is eating breakfast at the table J is right there with him. He love to SHOUT BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE the moment he thinks Papa is about to leave for work. 


J loves being a big brother to H and will hold her and get on the bed next to her when she's waiting for a new diaper. He's got a great group of big sibs who look after him and who J thinks he can boss around just by shrieking at them. 


He likes to squeeze my face and put his nose right up to mine when he wakes up or when I pick him up from school and sometimes during really inopportune moments like at church when I have to use every ounce of control not to completely bust out laughing 



He is a hard working guy who will likely follow in A's footsteps because he loves to ride cars, get dirty and stay busy around the house - as evidenced by the broom he got for his bday that is custom sized (thanks to Lee's handy dandy saw) to his height : ) 









Sunday, October 10, 2021

Update 7 of 7 - The Reno

The final installment of Updates... I DID IT!





The long process of getting to the reno started probably two years ago. It was just before COVID shut everything down that we really decided we need to go all in with our current house or move. Well we didn't move. We decided to make the reno process more livable by not doing it all at one time. Phase one was the right back side of the house. 


It started in January when the power company came to move the meter. (The cable company came too and it took three months to get them to rebury the cable line!) 


Then it rained for the entire month of February so the footers were not poured until the first of March. Lee and I were out there often with one of his pool pumps draining the footers out. 


This is the view you had walking in from the garage into the mud room / laundry room 



This is was the view for a good portion of the process. Getting the water and power run so they did not have to keep moving the washer and dryer back and forth was a game changer. 


This is the finished product. The barn door and the auto light that comes on when you walk in is really cool. 


The wine cooler fit nicely next to the duct work. And no we are not all much into wine but we never really had a spot so its the cooler now instead of a wine box in the front hallway. 


Yes there are nine cubbies and yes everyone counts them... because we have that many more cubbies to fill. 


Everyone already has all their cubbies full... 


Including Lee and I


Round the cubbies to the left is the back hallway. The only thing I've found so far I would consider changing is the opening between the pantry and this hallway. 


To the left is the chapel - which is a perfect media room 


But that's not what we will use it for


Then Lee's office which is currently full and when he finishes making the bookcases I'll write about that. 


Then there is the kids study/library. It is my favorite room of the project because they needed an escape from the noise where there aren't toys everywhere.


The window seat is great and I still need to get fabric for the cushion. 


We are still working on desk chairs 


And Lee is going to do a builtin bookcase for ALL. THE. BOOKS.


The view from the back door


The bathroom is right there so dirty feet won't traipse through the house for bathroom breaks and showers. 


We went with pebble tile in the shower and it is really cool and no rubber mat required. 


The lights are really neat. We weren't sure about them at first. 


Then next to the bathroom is the laundry room. We put a divided kitchen sink for soaking stuff 



The folding station with sock drawers underneath. Our contractor asked - you want me to make drawers for socks? I'm not a sock folder so all the socks get put in the middle drawer until they are paired up. Girls on the left and boys on the right. It sure beats the laundry basket of pairless-socks that was a figure on the fireplace. 


And the hanging racks. Between uniforms and bathing suits there are alot of clothes that get hung. 



Overall we are thrilled with how things turned out. There were times we wanted to pull our hair out and kept asking ourselves if we could even attempt phase 2 which would be kitchen and master bedroom so time will tell. For now we are enjoying our new spaces and freed up rooms so people can carve out spaces/rooms for themselves.