Get Your Skate On

I mentioned that missing the skating party caused for a very upset Sage on Saturday.  So Travis promised her that he'd take her on Monday night, and he did.  Of course, Jaggar heard that and said, "Can I skate too???"  So we ALL ended up going, which was fun.  I didn't mind; I wanted to go.  Sage was SO excited, and when she got up for school that day, she put on all white to prepare for the black lights.  It was pretty funny because she did stand out in that.  Jaggar didn't hesitate to put his "skate boots" on, as he called them.  He, of course, had no fear and in holding him up, it was like holding up jello.  He was going every way possible, and I thought he'd break my feet a few times as he rammed them with the wheels.  I was definitely NOT on skates.  

The lighting in there is beyond terrible, so my pictures aren't good but you get the deal.

Look at Jaggar on skates!  How funny is that!

Helping Jaggar skate.  He really wanted Travis to help him because he was on skates, too, and I guess he didn't feel like he was skating with me.  He kept asking me if I was going to get my skate boots on.  Then he'd say, "Are I'm skating??"  Sage was pretty shaky at first.  It'd been a while for her, but she got the hang of it really quickly, and was 100x better towards the end from when we arrived.

Notice her glowing

Shiny white teeth

I don't know what happened to Jaggar at the end here, but he was mad.  He started off loving it, and then he said that he never skated and that he didn't like skating.  Right here we were sitting, and he started jumping off the edge.  Watch him here.  This was still fun for him. 

Notice the look on his face suggests frustration.  Sage was having a blast.  Watch her skate here.And then we went to this.  This is Jaggar in his finest form.  If he doesn't get his way, a lot of times, he'll say, "You know what???  I'm gonna go to my room!"  But his room wasn't here, so this was the next best option.

Getting ready to leave.

This is how Jaggar left.

All in all, we had a great time, and we will probably head back to the rink so that Sage can get even better.

Baby's New Ride

For the past several weeks, Babies R Us has been running a promotion called "The Great Trade In." It's basically to promote safety in possible recalled products for babies. You could bring your car seat, stroller, pack n play, exersaucer or high chair (as many as you'd like in all of these) and get 25% off of a new one for each item that you brought. I used Sage's infant seat with Jaggar, too, but it's 8 years old at this point. I read that after 10 years they expire, and it's good to have one less than 5. SO...not needing everything from the ground up in terms of baby (and knowing what is useless to start with...ie: wipe warmers), I figured I'd need a new seat. Mom just got Jaggar a new Britax seat (you know, the cow) last year, and he's still in it. This baby will be able to use that when he's bigger as Jaggar will be out, and that's great, but I wanted a new infant seat.

With this promotion, it was a good time to get it so I could rid myself of the old one and save money. You can't consign car seats because they have no way of knowing recalls and if its been in a wreck. SO, all that said, Jaggar and I headed to Birmingham last Friday. I took my entire travel system because I didn't know exactly what I was doing...if I got an entire new travel system, just one item would be sufficient, but if I did a stroller and seat separately, I'd need both. It took me all of about 20 minutes to decide on what I wanted: the Graco Snugride 30. It's light weight, as is the stroller that coordinated with it, so it's good that I brought both items because I got 25% off of each, saving $55. The "travel system" stroller is awful in terms of heavy, so I'm very pleased with what I got. I also didn't want to go crazy in terms of strollers because that implies I'll actually be going places. Thank you, mom and dad, for this gift!

So, Babies R Us and TOYS R Us are in the same building...so guess who thought that they were on their own personal shopping spree? He grabbed a Halloween bucket and was filling it with everything he could find. "We gotta take this to our house!" he'd say. I couldn't help but laugh at him. This busy day is why he didn't get to nap and why he slept the entire time at Ikea.

I assembled the stroller myself, and guess who put it to their own personal use pretty quickly? I just never know where or how I'll find things around here. Oh, when I was finished putting it together, Jaggar came in there and saw it and said, "OH! Thank you so much, everybody!!!"

Ikea Trip

I've had a plan for a while now of things I wanted for the baby's room from Ikea. The problem was that I needed Travis to be able to go with me, and Ikea is over an hour from us. He told me that this past Saturday was the only day he'd have off until right up to my due date, so it was our day. Unfortunately, we had to miss a friend's birthday party, so the kids were none too happy about that, but this had to happen. I had been to Ikea one other time, and it was after American Girl for Sage's 6th birthday. I was pretty overwhelmed then, but not this time. I had a definite plan and list, and I am pleased to say that we got it ALL.

Let me tell you how God smiled upon us. Jaggar had had a really long day before that, and he had just fallen asleep as we were parking. Normally, you get him out of the car and he's instantly awake--especially if we are in a place that has a lot of people and noise. But that didn't happen as Travis carried him in. So we got a cart, and I suggested putting some pillows in to lay him on. I pretty much knew he'd wake up instantly, but again that didn't happen.

Folks, he slept through the ENTIRE store like this. For HOURS. We were right at the warehouse part where you pick up what you saw in the store that you liked, and that's when he was up. Based on how he was then, it made us even more thankful that we got that trip done with him asleep. It was truly a miracle.

Sage was especially upset that she'd missed the party. It was a skating party, and she was really looking forward to it. But once we got to the store, she thought it was great. She said, "I really liked that store. I want to go back."

That is one dresser in 2 boxes with 2 kids on top. Travis LOVED carrying that upstairs. All 200 lbs of it.

I was so relieved that they had everything in stock that I went for and that it all fit in the car. It's a good thing that we took out our 3rd row, or it wouldn't have happened, but I knew that beforehand.

After our shopping trip, we ate dinner at The Varsity, which I'd heard a lot about but never tried. It was pretty good. I'm not normally a burger and fries kinda girl, but I liked it. Their onion rings were awesome, and I don't even like onion rings! All in all we had a really nice day, and Travis assembled /hung ALL that we bought on Sunday in about 5 hours. I was worried that it'd be a pain, but he said it was one of the easiest, stress free things he'd ever built. Everything fit perfectly...and I just have to say, the room is looking awesome. I can't wait to show the final product.

Random Picture Updates

I had several pictures from last week and the few before that didn't have one in depth story, so I just decided to put them all in one post in order to stay somewhat current. So in no particular order...

Last week was "Lunch with a Loved One" and the book fair. I hate the book fair to be honest. It is crappy books at a very overpriced price, and I have to stand in a line and crowd like it's Black Friday (because they conveniently put the book fair on Grandparents' Day as well, and we all know what suckers you guys can be). Thankfully, Sage is realizing that the books there aren't great, so she really didn't want anything besides one book. Jaggar, on the other hand, had to have his OLIVIA book.

It was nice to go eat with her. Sage is always proud when we come to eat with her, especially when her friends go, "SAGE! Is that your mom??? She's pretty!" True story. And I QUOTE. Okay, maybe it was me that liked that more though. ;) Anyway, what Sage really loves is how entertaining Jaggar is to all of her friends without fail every time. I thought that both of these pics of them were super cute.

This is from Labor Day, but we went shopping at Publix in Pell City that day since we are getting one....one day, I guess. They are taking their sweet time with it for sure, but Travis suggested we go. I do weekly grocery lists now (I never did that before) AND plan meals for every day. I'm learning a lot of new things...mainly how to organize, and I hope to get even better, especially by cutting down on what I spend. It's EXPENSIVE to eat! BUT I've recently made pork chops for the first time, a few roasts, fish, chicken several different ways...I think everyone has been impressed. Travis said that he loves coming home now because the house always smells like food. So I'm thankful that this season has taught me that because I should've always been doing that, though Travis is a better cook than I am and does enjoy it more...just not after 13 hours of working.

The carts were cars, and the kids actually did really well in them. But Sage said, "I didn't like that cart. My legs were so cramped." I said, "Um maybe because you're 7 1/2 years old and don't need to be riding in a cart?" Nah, that couldn't have been it.

This was that same day a few weeks ago outside, and I just never put the one of Sage and I up.

Here is Jaggar at church with some....strange fox/wolf type character? I don't really know what it is, but I do know that its name is Blueberri and it is a character, so Jaggar probably didn't leave him alone until he left or was physically made to do so. Jaggar is CRAZY about characters.

And this is this past Wednesday evening while I was at church. The nights are getting cooler, so it's so nice to take the kids outside to play. Travis let them drive their car until the battery died.

:) That should catch me up to now!

Seeing Clearly

Last year at school, they did an eye screening where Sage's results came back with a possible astigmatism. I called the eye doctor and asked them how accurate those results were, and they said not very. I didn't notice any issues with her reading, so I never made an appointment. But this year, I noticed her losing her place when reading and asked her if she had trouble seeing. She said, "Kind of." She's a child, and if she couldn't see, she probably really wouldn't know unless it was sudden. A friend of mine is married to an optometrist, and after talking with her, I decided that I wanted to make an appointment for Sage. We don't have vision in our insurance but because of diabetes, it is covered under medical...we'd just have to pay out of pocket for glasses if they were necessary. Sage was SO excited to go to the eye doctor. She said that she already knew what to expect after watching an episode of Blue's Clues. :) She knew more than I did because I've never had any issues with my eyes. She was also already planning on getting glasses for her American Girl to match what she believed she'd get. I think she was really looking forward to getting glasses. They did several tests.

The doctor checked her for an astigmatism (there was none), and I am so pleased/relieved to say that her eyes are perfect. He said that she is slightly far sighted, but most kids are at this age and that's a good thing. It must just be the smaller print in bigger books that she is trying to adjust to., but he said if he wrote an Rx for it, they'd send it back because it would be that weak. I mentioned that I couldn't tell if she had a problem or if she just wanted glasses. He said that is often the case, and he heard that they had some really cool non-prescription glasses at Claire's, where Sage wanted to go immediately afterward. Thank you, God, that this, though certainly a common thing for many, isn't a road we have to go down.

She'd tried these on at Target a few days before her appointment, and I think she thought they were awesome. :) Rest assured they were not purchased.

Picture Perfect

Last week (maybe? POSSIBLY the week before) was picture day at school. I don't think I've ever purchased an actual school picture because we can take much better pictures, but they do go in the yearbook. So Sage always chooses her ensemble with care, and she woke up early this year to ask me to curl her hair. I think that they should take school pics the moment kids get to school and not 4 hours later after lunch and PE, but few take my advice. So THIS pic is probably better than the actual school one will be. I think Sage looks beautiful. Also, I am SO happy that she is currently into bows again!!! I don't even question it, but I most definitely go with it.

Yoga Party

Our sweet friend, Cailin, celebrated her 9th (yikes!) birthday this past Saturday, and she chose something as unique as she is: a yoga party! We're kind of a packaged deal, so if you invite one kid to something, the other is going to show up. No one minds, and I think that they kind of expect that. Jaggar was up at 6:25 on Saturday morning, "Is it time for the birthday party???" He LOVES birthdays. Although, he was upset that Cailin wasn't allowing him to open her presents for her. The nerve. So, not really knowing what to expect, we headed to the yoga studio that morning. I didn't really know what Jaggar would do, but he grabbed a mat and plopped down right next to Sage. I had NO idea I'd be as thoroughly entertained as I was. Jaggar was SO into it.

Getting ready to begin.

And there they go.

Seriously, I've never laughed so hard.

He never moved. He never ran off of his mat or ran over to me. He was focused, and of course, Sage was too. ESPECIALLY when they did the headstands. She has been practicing those at home for weeks. For whatever reason, the kid is on her 5th year of dance, yet she will tell people that she's a gymnast.

Cute, cute. And don't you worry. I did take video. You are so welcome for this video here.

Posing at the end for a group picture.

Jaggar, Sage and Lydia

Happy Birthday to Cailin!