And so it begins...

Last week marked the beginning of my new career...I became a "stay-at-home mom!"  I am so excited to begin this new phase of my life.  I love knowing that I will be the one to spend each day with my children, to put Lauren onto the school bus and help in her classroom, to take the twins to storytime at the library and to have a slower pace of life than I've had as a working mom of 3 little ones.  We need this for our family and I feel so blessed that I am able to do it.  Teaching will always be an option for me but my children will only be little once.  I don't want to miss a thing.

Celebrating my birthday!

I love the look on Kate's face here.  I wonder what she's thinking?

So that's why baby swings have four leg holes!

Lauren's first day of summer 4K.  She was pretty excited!

Kate got to have a "first"!  She was the first to figure out how to crawl!  Now there's no stopping her!

Now they are in to EVERYTHING and tend to go in opposite directions.  Fun for me!

Double Trouble.

Awwww.  Love this.

Lately Maddie laughs all the time and for absolutely no apparent reason at all.  She cracks herself up which of course makes us laugh too :)

If you know Chad, then you know he enjoys a good "house project".  Here's his biggest one yet...building us a deck!

Haha....the first time he got to enjoy a cold beer on his new deck.  Granted, the deck isn't finished yet but I don't think Chad cared at this point :)

 What's new with us?  Lauren is loving her summer 4K program.  I take her each morning (and lug the twins in with me in their jammies) and pick her up at lunchtime (again, lugging the twins but at least they are dressed now!)   Lauren was recently distraught because she couldn't decide what she wants to be when she grows up.  She was torn between being a "Menards worker", a juggler in the circus, or a teacher like Mommy.  Daddy told her to be a Menards worker so he can get a discount.  But don't worry--she made her final decision.  Wait for it....she's going to drive a steamroller.  And lay down new pavement on roads.  Where does she come up with this stuff?

The babies are crawling all over the place now!  Kate has even started pulling herself up onto things.  I was feeling bad for her because Maddie has had all the "firsts" to this point (okay, except Kate was born first but does that count?).  Kate surprised us all and was the first to crawl!  Now there's no stopping her and she is quick!  This has been a big week for Kate--she also got her first two teeth.  Consequently, she has awakened in the night a few times but has been easy to get back to sleep with a little help from Tylenol and Orajel. 

Chad is having fun with his new deck project.  He even had me out there for a few hours today, hammering away at putting the base of the deck together.  I have to admit, it's kind of fun to help him with it.  It even gave me an excuse to quickly run through the neighbors' sprinklers to cool off for a minute (when they weren't watching, of course).

I'd better run.  As part of being a stay-at-home Mom (and pinterest addict), I created a cleaning calendar for myself. Every day, there are a few cleaning items that I attend to.  It helps me to stay organized.  Plus, if I'm going to be spending more time at home, I'd rather have it clean anyways.  So far, I've been able to stick to it for the past week and a half.  I need to go do the last item for the day (mopping the wood floor) before I call it a night.  And while I haven't needed it yet, Chad and Lauren think I ought to have a sticker incentive chart for myself to see if I really keep to this cleaning schedule.  Ha!

Good night!
~M