Big Kids and our New Home!

It's hard to believe that its already the middle of October!  I just look at my kids and our house and our life and i can't believe how the time is flying.

Scott started his second year of preschool this year (i get emotional when i think of him being in kindergarten next year!) and he is growing so big and tall.  And our little sara girl is growing like a weed!  she's already coming up to scott's shoulders.  its amazing to think that a year ago she was still a little baby.

here's our scott man all ready for preschool.  he carpools with his buddy luke and i'm pretty sure that makes his life.  

another huge developement in scott's life is getting a Big Boy Bike.  scott and i got up early a couple saturdays ago to go garage sale searching for a "new" bike.  we ended up with this bad boy for $15.  he struggled a bit at first (scott inherited his mom's patience with difficult tasks) but he has conquered it and LoVeS to ride it whenever he can.

sara gets really  jealous when scott gets to ride a bike and she's stuck in the stroller so we give her a turn now and again...

and look at these kids having oreo cookies with friends (luke and dane) on our back porch after swimming.  they're such social kiddos.  and it has to be said that scott (who's official name, by the way, is Batman Scott James Palmer... and he tells this to anyone who will listen) anyway, scott taught himself how to swim this summer.  When we first moved to AZ he wouldn't leave the steps in the shallow end of the pool and now he swims all over the place and does cannon balls and dives and all sorts of tricks into the deep end of the pool.  we still watch him like a hawk (of course) but the kid has seriously impressed me and made life so much easier!

sara has been undergoing a lot of changes lately that have been a bit hard to handle.  not only does she have to say goodbye to scotty for six hours a week while he's in preschool but her body is going through all sorts of changes.  she has gotten the last of her teeth and she's constantly fighting allergies.  she's learning to talk and wanting to fit in with the big kids.  she's still a sweet little girl but sometimes her evil twin surfaces when she has really bad days.  at times i wonder if she's experiencing early pms.  and while i know that's not really possible, it makes me dread the day that she experiences it for real.

something that has been instigated in full force with our new home is Chores.  scott is responsible for emptying the clean silverware out of the dishwasher, cleaning his room and picking up toys around the house.  sara is responsible for putting away all the shoes that are strewn about and taking out all the toys, books and (pretty much anything) that scott and i have put away and placing it back on the floor.  in order to make clean up time more fun we have started taking "before" and "after" pictures so scott can see his progress.  here is one example of a "before" picture of his messy room.

and here is the "after" picture.   i have been really impressed by this kid.  he really did clean it up all by himself.  it takes a while for him to get into motion but once he gets there he is very serious about his cleaning.  he'll shut his door so noone can see and he makes sure everything is put away really nice.  i still help him make his bed but he does everything else (including making sure his chairs are folded and set against the table... which i find hilarious.)

and finally... here are pictures of our new home.  (though i realized as i was doing this blog that i forgot to take a pictures of the front of the home. duh.  but we're still working on the landscaping anyway, so i'll post that when we're done.)
This is our main living room.  our house is pretty small and only has one living area.  but its a really open concept with vaulted ceilings so we like it.

the kitchen... i love the high ceilings and the breakfast bar but the cabinets HAVE to be redone.  someday it will happen i hope...

our lovely new piano that i got off craigslist.  and with this piano i've started teaching piano lessons!  something i've always wanted to do and i'm really enjoying it. 

our library.... okay, its just a wall of books but it was my moms idea to make it look like this and i really like it.  speaking of which, i have to thank my mom who came out for our move and seriously got to work in helping us move in and make our house a home.  she was such a blessing.  thanks mom!

here's our back yard and our pool... our pool... i still can't believe we have a pool.  but its so nice to just hop in whenever we want to and hop out and go right inside our house.  we've really loved this thing.

and of course we have a teather ball pole.  we had to buy the ball but i had no idea how much fun this would be for the kids... until they get wacked in the ball with the head... which is pretty much inevitable.

and here is one of our garden plots.  we have three different areas that we have planted vegetables and fruit to see where it grows the best.  so far... okay.

i do have a picture of the front door of our home.  but that's mostly because i got this fabulous wreath off craigslist and i love it. 

our master bedroom... the one room in the house that's not quite done yet.  i'm still searching craigslist for a dresser so i can organize everything better.  but i posted this just so you'd have an idea of what it looks like.

our master bathroom... so light and open. i love it! 

sara's room.  i love this room.  its all princess's and fairies and i love that she finally has her own girly room.  though, it won't be her own for long!

i already posted a pic of scott's room ealier in this blog so i won't repeat but this is the little corner nook in the hallway outside the kids' rooms.  i'm proud of this area because it was a serious eye sore when we bought the house and now i think it looks so warm and nice (again, thanks to the help of my mom).

here are a couple random photos to tag on at the end.  my cute family eating a yummy chocolate dessert that daddy made.  (this photo was taken today actually.)

and a kind of sad but kind of funny photo of scott after he (very secretly) got into the face paint.  this would have been funnier had he not "cleaned" his hands off on our very light colored carpet after.  i was a little more than unhappy when i finally found him.

and here's the cute kid with his lincoln logs.  i love that he's old enough to build and play with the cowboys and indians.  though ironically enough, sara is now at the age where she tries as hard as she can to demolish anything he builds.  poor kid.  but he's nice about it... sometimes.

and last but now least our funny little sara girl.  she is seriously hilarious.  i could just sit and watch her all day.  i can't help but wonder what these kids are going to be like when they get older but mostly i just hope the time moves as slowly as possible!