Recently At The Crockett's

Here is a random and completely out of order update of our lives.  But who are we kidding, someone is going to need my attention soon and I don't have FOREVER to organize this post.  :)

I went to JoAnns recently and bought a few kids crafts for the kids so they wouldn't be super bored this summer.  (They both set a goal to make Wednesday's for this month "No TV Days.")

Anyways I bought a kits to make Perler Crafts.  Did you ever do those when you were a kid?  I loved them.   Wes didn't even know what they were.

Anyways after lunch yesterday, Wednesday,  the kids made one.  And then Novalee made another today.  I was kind of surprised at their skill.  I thought they would struggle with coming up with a design and figuring out how to place it but they did really well.

Here's Jared's:  Superman the new version with cancer on his face.  (I thought that was strange but I think he just wanted to be done already by the time he got to the face.)

Novalee on the other hand is obsessed with one person.  And her obsession runs deep.  Yesterday she made herself.  She came up and put together the dress and earrings all by herself.  She even made a cute belt to go with it.  And while she is 5 and likes herself, she isn't obsessed with herself.

But she is obsessed with a certain pop singer that wears A LOT of purple.  Any guesses?  

 Justin Bieber

And look how excited she is that her "Novalee" dolly gets to hang out with Justin Bieber.

And that they get to KISS!  

Today I would like to award myself with the "Pro-Parenting Award."

Kinsley did this while I was holding her.

And none of it got on me!  Oh ya, I'm awesome!  :)

Sadie has been really into "coloring" lately. 

However it hasn't been on paper...

You put nail polish on a girl's nails ONE time and then they become addicts.

I found Sadie doing this the other day with one of Novalee's fabric markers.

And if she gets bored of just doing her nails there is always the rest of the body.

 Kind of reminds me of the children's book. "Ain't Gonna Paint No More."

And this is one of Sadie's favorite past times and what she decided to entertain herself with this morning. 

You'd think I would learn to close the door by now. :)

 Good thing she's cute.

 Kinsley's first walk in the stroller.  

Daddy with everyone.  Sometimes I wonder why we bought new couches. 

 Here they all are piled on the loveseat.

Sleeping Kinsley

 At night both Sadie and Kinsley get needy for Mommy.  I guess that is what you get when you have two so close together.  Luckily Sadie is willing to share most of the time.

 A friend told me about this activity she found on Pinterest.  Basically you freeze a container of water full of toys and then you let the kids "dig" them out.

 I wanted it to last so I told them to go very slowly as if they were digging fossils. 

They loved it!

 Here's Kinsley at four weeks.

She looks a lot like Sadie to me.  But Wes thinks she will look different.  

He's probably right.  I don't think she has as round of a face as Sadie did.

 Sadie giving "our" baby lovin's.

 Sadie is so cute.  I love that she actually smiles when I take pictures.

Kinsley at one month old. 

Dad bought us new sleeping bags and he wanted to try them out.  Sadie wanted to help so she set up her own sleeping area at the end of the bag.  :)

Just cuz she's cute.

Happy baby with mommy.  She about three weeks old here.

 This Sunday the kids decided to build a fort outside and then asked if they could sleep in it.  I said it was fine with me which I almost immediately regretted.  Of course it was supposed to rain and of course it was cold outside.  And of course the kids are pretty little and even though the yard is fenced in what if something bad happened to them.  

Dad also didn't think it was a super great idea since he had to work in the morning.  But I figured they would give up as soon as it turned cold outside.  Novalee did give up at about 11pm.  

Jared was our brave, fearless warrior, to the chagrin of his parents.  I was nervous about him being on his own but super tired and had to take care of Kinsley.  So Dad offered to sleep on the couch with the window open to make sure he was fine.  At 3am we were both still too worried about him to get too much sleep so I went and got him.

He's in there and if I hadn't gotten him he would have been out there the whole night.  :)

  Kinsley yesterday.  She was one month, two days old.  At her doctor's appointment she weighed 10 lbs, 3 ounces.  I just love that she's getting chunky.

She's Smiling.  :)

 And that is life for us right now.  It's a little crazy.  Kinsley has turned into a needy baby and "needs" to be held almost all the time.  She goes through phases of not sleeping well at night.  We were on about three nights of little sleep until last night when she only woke up twice which made me a thankful Mommy this morning.  At least she doesn't cry when we are holding her at night.  Sadie would just cry and cry and cry regardless of what we did at night.  So we should count our blessings.  :)

A Jared Update

Finally, it's Jared's turn.

Jared has changed so much in these last few months and even weeks.  All in really good ways too.  I just love seeing his progress as he grows up.

On Tuesday this week I took the kids (all 4) to Novalee's gymnastics, JoAnns Fabric and Ross.  Holy cow I can't describe to you how much I was dreading the experience.  While even just a few months ago there would have been drama at every turn it was actually surprisingly uneventful.

Jared has been my boy that up until now has needed to poke or touch everything around him during shopping trips including his sister.  If that doesn't entertain him then he will find some other way.  Dancing around the cart to the elevator music, sliding on the floors, hiding behind products on the shelves, tackling his sister at the check out stand are all part of what gets Jared through a trip to the store.  And I don't even want to go into the amount of complaining about how much he hates shopping, that he does the entire time we are preparing to go and driving to the store the few times I actually take him (normally I try to do it when he is in school).

But on Tuesday he never complained.  He just asked how many stores we would go to before we would get to go home.  And even at Ross he just followed me around, including the boring clothing sections.  It was amazing and actually enjoyable.  Hallelujah!

Apart from shopping, Jared has turned into a great help at home.  One of his goals for this month is to say "please" and "thank you" more.  He has been doing wonderfully at it.  He still has his moments when his sister Novalee drives him crazy but for the most part he is showing more patience with her.  As an example, yesterday on the walk home from the park Novalee kept wacking him in the bum with a stick.  It was driving ME crazy but Jared just ignored it.  When I finally told her to stop, Jared just chuckled.  I was pretty impressed.

He's at this age where he is trying really hard to be funny.  I like that.  I remember when I just had him, a friend of mine had a boy about Jared's age now and he would always be trying to tell jokes that he made up.  Finally his mom told him that his jokes weren't funny and that they needed to have a punch line to be funny.  :) Whenever Jared tries to make up a joke I think about that and kind of chuckle inside.  He loves anything goofy or funny, especially when it's him that's making others laugh.  Right before dinner sometimes he requests that instead of eating with us, he gets to be the entertainment for the evening.  And he will either play the piano or dance or last night while eating he was telling "scary" ghost stories.  :)

Jared also just wrapped up baseball.  On Saturday he is getting a trophy.  Sometimes I think the idea of him getting a trophy has been more motivation for him to play than the actual enjoyment of the game.  :)  We will see what he thinks when he gets it.

He also came home at the end of the school year with a certificate for Student of the month!  He didn't seem too excited about it until I explained to him that Student of the Month is rare and quite the achievement (hopefully it still really is and they don't just make it a point to have each child be it at least once in a school year).  :)

Jared's report card came in the mail yesterday.  He is doing really well.  He is at or above grade level in all subjects!  I couldn't be prouder of his academic progress this year.  Hopefully it's something he keeps doing well at.

 His pretend "getting ready to catch the ball" pose.  :)

 After his last game we got ice cream to celebrate the end of the season.  Jared was really enjoying his.  Thank goodness for leather seats.  :)

Oh yes!  My little guy was Student of the Month!  

Oh how I love this kid!  

A Novalee Update

This will probably be short since Kinsley has been more demanding as of late.

But I wanted to remember a few things about  Novalee around this time.

Novalee graduated from preschool May 25th.  She missed her last day from school because her mommy was in the hospital.  I don't think she cared since she got to spend a whole day with Grandpa Larry and Grandma Lynne.

She did however make it to her graduation on May 23rd which was something I worried I would have to miss since it was around my due date.  I'm glad Kinsley waited.  Novalee was extra cute in her new dress.

As a side note: Her new dress she bought on her own.  I wanted to get her a new church dress.  She LOVED this one but I didn't think it was churchy enough and so I told her I wasn't going to get it.  She asked if she could earn it.  So I agreed.  I would split the cost of the dress with her. She would earn half and I would pay the other half.  I'm glad she pushed to have it because it is really cute.  

   Novalee with Papa Larry

                        Novalee with her good friend

 Novalee has also been vying for attention.  She always does but more than usual.  She loves to hop into any picture about to be taken.  Which is surprising because she usually ducks and hides.

 Daddy with two of his girls

                                     Novalee popped in this picture of Sadie.  She's pretty cute.

 This picture of Novalee in the pool posing reminds me of a picture I have of my mom when she was younger doing the same pose on my dad's truck.  Haha. (I wonder if that is going to be awkward for my mom...) Either way I kept looking at this picture thinking Novalee reminded me of someone and then it hit me.  I would be just fine if my daughter turned out to be as selfless and kind and smiley as my mother.

 Novalee has a natural desire to nurture.  Hopefully she chooses to be a mother someday because I think she will make a great one.  She is very sensitive to everyone's feelings and tries to make people happy.  When Kinsley cries she says things like, "Oh baby, baby.  What's the matter?  What can I do?"  Then when she can't get her to stop she says, "Mom!  The baby is crying and I can't get her to stop."  It's so sweet.

 She has been the one that has struggled with the adjustment of a new sibling the most but she still just loves being a sister.  She loves helping Mommy with Sadie since Mommy has her hands full with Kinsley.  I think that is wonderful.  Without asking her to help she will hold Sadie's hand when we get out of the car.  She will help her put her shoes on in the morning or help her out of her highchair.  She is a very good big sister.  Sadie and Kinsley are lucky to have her.

She has said that she feels there are already too many rules and there are even more now that Kinsley is around.  TOO many to remember.  I had to reassure her that there were only two more added.  One: Don't do dangerous things around your baby sister.  Two: Be quieter when baby is sleeping.  Which I think made her feel better.  :)

Her she is enjoying the spoils from Jared's last baseball game.  

I can't believe how beautiful she is.  I am amazed daily by her beautiful face.  I know that is silly but she is so pretty.  I wonder how I made such a beautiful little girl.  I love that she laughs and laughs and laughs.  I love that she is so aware of her feelings and knows how to talk about them when she feels like they aren't being appreciated.  I love that she is so smart and loves to learn.  She loves to try to be as close as possible to her brother.  She will watch a TV show she thinks Jared will want to watch that day while he is at school only to watch it again with him when he gets home so they can talk about it together during the show.  She will talk to Jared about TV shows while eating lunch or breakfast and try to explain the funny parts to him just to get him to laugh.  She loves art and bold/bright colors.  She loves to dance and sing.  

I love you Novalee.  

Thank you for being such a joy.