Monthly Family Recap: March 2022

Recapping our March!

This month Kye had a big milestone kinda month! He officially became a teenager on his birthday and he and I went to the orthodontist for the first time. We visited Hester & Morris Orthodontics and had a FANTASTIC experience from start to finish. They did this awesome 3D imaging of his teeth and we had a consult to discuss the future for him. He still had quite a few baby teeth left and at this point we went ahead and made an appointment to have several of them extracted. We needed to give him the space for his adult teeth to come in and are holding off on getting started with an orthodontic plan until those adult teeth have time to come in and we can have the full picture as to what we’re dealing with.

He was my tagalong for the day with our Ortho visit and then he went with me to my well check up. We were able to have lunch together (no more kids meals for this kid though!) and he was in one of those rare super chatty moods where he was talking a ton and laughing non-stop. I loved it and wished I could bottle it up and keep it forever! So thankful for the bond we share 🙂

Kye had the opportunity to take a couple of trips this month. He went to Athens with TSA while Zach and I were in Hawaii. His team won state and he won 2nd in speech and 1st in inventions in the entire state! He had a blast and was able to tour the UGA campus and even the football field. I’m so, so thankful for his TSA coach as he’s also who is also in charge of the morning announcements as he’s been instrumental in guiding Kye throughout his middle school experience.

Kye also had a trip with the archery team to Richmond Hill for a competition!

Now that Kye is 13 Zach and I are letting him stay up a bit later than the other kids for bedtime (in bed at 8:30, allowed to read until 9:00). We are also allowing him to start watching PG13 movies WITH us during those evenings together. It’s been nice to have that quality time with him and we’ve enjoyed it! The first night he stayed up later the three of us played Tripololy and he balled out.

Katie and I even recruited Kye to watch Dune (with Zach) for us during our Oscar Movie countdown! He gave us a detailed recap so we counted it as having been seen leading up to the awards show 😉

It’s crazy to see how much Kye has GROWN. He has truly hit his growth spurt and I’m pretty sure we are at the point where Britt will probably stop being taller than him at every age like she’s used to being!

I love that even though he’s officially a teen now that he still has so many little kid kinda moments, especially with his younger siblings. He loves having sleepovers with Tess and inventing games with the littles in the playroom.

On the same night that lightning struck our house, we got home and Kye got his LEG STUCK in our balcony. It was hilarious because it was just one thing after the next. He kept twisting and wiggling and it finally came loose!

Kye also had a team build a STEM pyramid and they won!

Kye came home one afternoon feeling very stressed and overwhelmed and I had him sit down and write out everything on his plate. I know he inherited my “small plate” and I’m being purposeful in not carrying guilt about that. Instead, I’m seeing it as an opportunity to better show up for him in these moments because I can relate so well and do have so many of my own personal experiences to draw from. His stress quickly turned into laughter and then we conquered that list together and figured out the items he could control. couldn’t control and how to handle the things he did have control over!

Britt made a BIG decision this month! She’s LOVED gymnastics for YEARS now and just mastered her major goal of doing a backhand spring unassisted. But we had a big talk about the future and how IF she has a desire to play sports in middle/high school that THIS is the time she needs to be trying things out. She quickly decided she has an interest in volleyball! We signed her up and Zach took her on a special date night where they bought her a volleyball and knee pads and had dinner together.

They also went out to the land together too – she’s all about that special Daddy time!

She went into volleyball knowing NOTHING about the sport and caught on really quickly and instantly decided she loved it and opted to stop gymnastics in order to have the time to devote to it fully. We’re so excited to see where this new path leads for her!

As a non-athlete myself I’m just in AWE of her and her talents! To go to her first practice on a Tuesday and literally know NOTHING to going to practice that Thursday and already being able to serve the ball over the net – she’s amazing!

Britt loves doing hair (which is a win for me because I LOVE my hair being played with!) and she enjoys helping Tess with her hair in the mornings before school. I just love seeing them together.

Britt is always asking me about when she’ll be old enough to attend Book Club with me and this month she got her chance! With her volleyball practice falling the same night at our monthly meet up I took her along with me and Robyn brought Lorelai and the two of them had their own table to eat pizza and chat it up.

Out of all my kids Britt is sick the least often and this month she got a little bit of the crud so she enjoyed the sick kid days perks like getting to watch TV on the couch and getting to drink Gatorade in the living room 😉

While Zach and I were in Hawaii, Britt struggled the MOST with missing us. By the end of the trip she was pretty emotional and called me with tears in her eyes just eager to see her mama again. I do think she’s really entering into such a tender stage of life where she’s going to need me more than ever and it’s so important to me to be intentional in showing up for her and pouring into her during these crucial preteen years!

Another big milestone for Britt this month was that she officially hit the 4’9″ height which means no more booster seat! Kye didn’t reach this moment until right before middle school and she’s a good year and a half earlier.

Tess also really needs mama-time and I try to make sure to spend individual time with all of my kids on a regular basis. Tess went with me to Belk on the hunt for Easter outfits during a partnership with them and she loved getting to choose everyone’s looks. We had dinner together and did some other shopping too. She is def my big feelings kid – our chatting at dinner quickly turned into tears as she was thinking about how life someday ends. We hugged each other through tears while both crying and laughing in public about it 😉 We decided we both just need to live to be 1,000 years old. Plus we got some ice cream because that solves all of life’s problems right?

Tess had the opportunity to read to a pre-k class at school and it was so cute because she was smaller than a lot of the kids she was reading to 😉 She did SUCH a great job and I told her she’d make an awesome teacher someday but she said “no thanks I’m going to be a Mom like you”

Tessie LOVES being little and is in no hurry to grow up or especially to physically get larger either. She is for real concerned about going through a growth spurt bc she doesn’t want to get bigger – she was def hungrier more than usual and she started cleaning her plate at dinner and then asked to eat an entire pear after!

Tess decided to no longer do gymnastics either and instead is loving doing some art classes on YouTube and she is so talented with her art!

Girl loves a good theme like her mama and gets really into dressing up for days at school! She had a red day dress up and she rocked it!

Playing dolls is one of her favorite things right now, especially playing school. I had some quality playtime with her and she was so cute teaching the class division and even word problems – pretty sure my doll struggled a bit with the assignment 😉

While we were playing I noticed even more ways she’s like me. She kept pausing the game we were playing in order to fix something or put something away. I totally struggle with relaxing because I can’t shut off my mind and I see that trait in her and it’s a good push for me to make sure I encourage relaxation for her NOW so she can better learn how to decompress and RELAX.

Tess also had her first post-Covid field trip this month! She got to go to a space-themed place in Tallahassee and it’s right up her alley because she LOVES all things space-related!

On her assignment at school about super heroes, she said “If I was a super hero I would give money to the poor, help sick people, help people who are not following God. I will help them worship God. I would fly up and look for anyone that needs help and I will do it every night.”

Spear had Donuts with Dad at school and I always love the little “About Daddy” forms they fill out and the cute crafts!

I love this stage of parenting at this age because Spear is SO FUN and gets SO excited about even the littlest things. A costume? A bucket of toys? Getting to sit on a tractor? Being allowed to paint? SO EXCITED! He appreciates everything!!!

Spear loves to draw more than I remember any of my others enjoying it at this young of an age. He loves to draw tractors!

Kye passed down his castle guys to Spear who LOVES playing with them! Right before we left for Hawaii I got the dreaded phone call from school that Spear was throwing up. Bless his heart. Thankful it was a short-lived tummy bug!

Our special thing together is running errands in the mornings before school and a milestone Spear hit this month was asking not to sit in a shopping cart and instead walk around the store and down the aisles with me. He did an awesome job obeying and not touching things 🙂

I love that Spear enjoys reading so much and he especially enjoys reading books from my own childhood. I love soaking up the snuggles!

Casey, Aunt Karen and Little Mama all complimented how amazing Spear did while Zach and I were in Hawaii. It’s so interesting to me that he is the kinda kid that does GREAT when we are away – but then when we got home he had a tough time readjusting and having good behavior!

Spear is a lot like Kye when it comes time for bedtime. He loves snuggling and having Mommy Talks right before bed. I’m not sure if it’s a boy thing? Or if the girls just talk to me so much throughout the day that the boys just so happen to save their chats for bed! I also love that ALL of my kids gravitate to my bathroom in the mornings while I’m getting ready. They all love to visit.

Nothing makes me quite as proud as seeing my little guy create a hidden mickey 😉

Love seeing his progress with his writing at school – he’s getting really good but he still pronounces his name “Sphere!” 😉

While we were in Hawaii the girls started to match every day for school. They sleep together and dress alike. It’s seriously the best to watch their bond!

Tess and Spear are precious together too. They asked to play outside together and when I checked on them they were snuggled up in a chair together talking and later told me they were talking about the clouds. So precious.

I love how much ALL of our kids love being together and playing together. They especially love to wrestle on our bed and it’s so cute!

We play a lot of family board games and the week leading up to Hawaii Zach and I DOMINATED at Tripolely against the big kids and didn’t even care that they were upset about it because it was SUCH a crazy week and we needed the WIN 😉

While it’s fun to have the kids involved in activities after school – it’s also a LOT and makes me a little sad that we’re not able to play family games every night like we used to or have a set routine like we could when Kye and Britt were little. It also makes me FULLY appreciate those slower nights and the times when we ARE able to all hangout and enjoy each other. Hearing my babies laugh together and making memories as a family is EVERYTHING to me!

Friend time this month I got to hang out with some friends during the school day for a bit and at Book Club but the BIG moment this month was finishing up all the movies for Oscar Night! And whew it was a DOOZY for an awards show night with the slap heard round the world from Will Smith. Movie wise we were happy with the movies we saw this year.

We were thankful to be in the theaters for lots of the movies but the perk for streaming movies is that we saw THE MOST movies we’ve EVER seen. All the best picture noms, all the best actress and best actor noms and the majority (if not all) of the supporting as well!

Even without the big slap, the Oscars itself was just a great awards show too! It was more fun than it’s been in a few years, more enjoyable to watch, and we had a great time. Loved all the wins and supported the ones that won!

In sad news, this month my sweet buddy Mortimer died. We had him for just at 2 years and found him during the shut down quarantine days in March 2020. We found him dead and it was really much harder for me than I’d ever anticipated. I just adored the little guy. Watching him eat brought me SUCH joy and I’m so sad he’s gone.

He loved sitting under this rock so we put it as a “headstone” of sorts for him. The girls were with me when we found him and they were both totally fine and unphased. Tess even picked him up to make sure he was really dead. Meanwhile I sat there sobbing for a solid 40 minutes! We made my fav cookies as a treat that night in his honor.

And, as if to cheer me up, my good pal the garage lizard showed back up on our back porch to say hey. He’s this HUGE lizard who has, no joke, lived in our garage for a straight decade. He scares me on a regular basis haha!

You can see and read my little tribute to Mortimer here.

Saying goodbye to Mortimer made me even more appreciative of our sweet Lily. Our outdoor cat who sure does love to visit us inside and sleep with Zach and I each night 😉

This month we had a few Instagram collabs that resulted in some cute pics I want to be sure to have in the blog books – Tess’s biggest fear is ANTS and she can’t STAND walking on grass without shoes because she’s so worried about ant bites. Our partnership with an Ant Killer/Preventer product was perfect and Zach gets to be the super hero and save the day 😉