Mr & Mrs Smith

I wanted to write a little bit about us wrapping up year 4 with Lexi in case it takes me a little bit longer to catch up once the baby comes... Lexi had her 5 year doc apt already so that she could finalize her shots for school. We submitted the registration paperwork and now just wait for orientation mid-April. She will do great; I know she'll thrive and it's really only 3 hours so I think it'll be perfect. She is doing great with sight words and trying to sound things out to read. There are still some struggle sounds like "r" that she says the "w" sound for, but I know she'll get there quick enough. The rules of English are horrible but she is great with repetition. Although when it comes to her online pre-k program, she really just gets through the reading & math so that she can play the games. Learning through play is a good thing.  I'm excited to see her learn & grow even more. I'm mostly excited for her to be around mor...

This came together last minute, but I've debated about what to do for the typical American "Easter basket" - I'm sure I posted about this last year & you know how I feel about gifts, not wanting anything to take away from why we celebrate Easter. We enjoyed a spring carnival last year, and I wanted to keep any gifts or egg hunts at that - spring fun. I found cute, small gifts in the Target $1/$3 bins that I wanted to give them but I didn't want to just gift them you know? So this is what I came up with for this year if you're like me and need an idea: Easter Treasure Hunt. They basically had about 7 gifts to open, from bouncy balls, a small wooden bowling set, some little wooden figurines & a book. So I wrapped them all up. Most were for them to share, sometimes there was one for each. I took 7 envelopes and Mr Smith & I came up with 7 Easter/conference related questions, namely: Why do we celebrate Easter? What does the word Resurrection me...

Insta post: My little TWO year old man! Who is oh so sweet when he isn't frustrated (very assertive). The squishest, ticklish, cuddliest boy. Who is potty trained!! Only after several long weeks. He loves books & cars & the tv. 31lbs doesn't weigh him down too much. He loves his "sissy" and my favorite phrases are "I did it!" & "the end". He still likes to crawl into our bed during the night. He loves to be pampered. He feeds off his sister's mood 🙃. He likes boundaries of "this is mine & this is yours" but is willing to share if you're nice about it. He is always up for a good tease/chase & "piggy" with his toes. Doesn't like to sing along or get too dirty. We took the kids to McDonalds Thursday night to play & eat french fries on his birthday. Saturday we saved to really celebrate & take some cute photos; Dad even gave him another haircut. He also took them both to the church parki...

The latest is that February flew by in a very mundane way. We have been home more than not which is hard on me & the kids, but we're making it work. Part of that was due to our minivan being in the shop (but it has also been really cold, even snowed a good bit). We have only paid for a transmission fluid flush at this point; I dropped it off yesterday for a second transmission opinion so we're just waiting. Always waiting and lately it has been for bad financial news. But what's a car in terms of heaven.  Life is expensive & there is always something. But it has been frustrating nonetheless to want a dependable minivan for the 3rd child and dealing with this before she even comes.  I'm just very frustrated if all this drama was due to a missing dipstick that has been missing since we bought the vehicle. The question is if the transmission will go, is it worth the other quoted RARE mechanics eventually needed as well as the regular stuff. It's hard to in...