We are...

Thinking fall I am so ready for fall. I had a dream last night that I woke up and it was May, and getting hot again, and I missed the whole fall, winter and spring! I am ready for cooler weather and all the things that come with the fall and winter... the holidays, the food and Brody's birthday (which I've already started planning). I've also started to think Halloween costumes and Christmas lists. Summer could end tomorrow and I'd be thrilled.

Watching the Olympics We are loving the Olympics at our house. I remember getting into them when I was a kid, but I don't remember caring too much about the last few recent Olympics. Maybe it just proves that I watch a lot more TV now than I ever did before...who knows. My favorite part of the Olympics is telling the kids about it. Brody watched the men's floor routines, and before you knew it he was doing his own floor routine. Funny kid.

Potty Training Madelyn decided she wanted to go potty on the big potty, so we went with it. She has had very few pee accidents, but she has yet to poop on the potty (since we've been actively training). I've worked on following her cues and getting her to sit on the potty (watch tv, iPad, read books, sing songs, etc). She's been holding it in a lot, and just going in her pants. It will happen, but I'm thrilled that we're at the point that we are at. We're done buying diapers for a while! We've been buying diapers for almost 5 years. It will be nice to have a little break!

Redecorating I have been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately and have the decorating bug. Right now I'm working on the playroom. Lots of ideas for down there, mainly for clutter/organization sake. I guess I've gotten the clue that I will not be getting that room back as a family room, so I have decided to give it some kid flair. Pics and details to come. Other rooms getting a make over include the kids rooms (just planning at this point), the dining room (have curtain fabric picked out, just waiting to pull the trigger) and I am going to pull out all of the pictures and all of the frames off the wall and do some rearranging. I picked up an old shelf at goodwill for Madelyn's room. I am going to paint it white along with her dresser/the changing table. I have big girl bedding picked out for her, but I'm just not ready to move her to the big girl bed yet.

Getting Back to Reality We took the first week of the month to go to Chicago, and I still feel like I haven't gotten back into the groove. The weekend after Chicago was spent downtown for Lindsey's wedding, last weekend 3/4ths of us were sick and last weekend we went up to Omaha to visit family. School starts in just a couple weeks, so we need to get back to normal sooner than later! I made it to Jazzercise 4 TIMES during the month of July, and 2 of those days were today and yesterday!

Consigning After a shopping trip to get the kids some things a few weeks back, I was looking at the baby stuff and decided that the fact that I have complete wardrobes for each gender, it would not keep me from buying new baby clothes when the next one comes along. I was also saving stuff for Julie, but you know that she will do shopping of her own on top of all of the gifts she'll get. So, I decided to sell the stuff that I didn't love or would be out of style by the time more babies come around. I'm almost done pricing everything, and I'm well over $600 total. I'll get 65 or 70% of that (haven't decided if I'm volunteering or not yet). That will give us a good chunk of money to put towards our new fall and winter clothes. It's a lot of work, but it will be worth it when I can pay cash for the new clothes!

Signing Up for Sports Brody is signed up for soccer and flag football. I had no idea how early you had to get signed up for these things. We missed the spring soccer league, and the official T-Ball league for the summer, and when I signed up for soccer I had to pay a late fee and he won't be with kids from his school because we were too late and the team is full. Which really isn't a big deal, but it would be nice to start to get to know some people that we'll go to school with. I sent Heath the list of things he'll need for soccer, and he was pretty excited. I wouldn't be surprised if we head up to Dick's before the weekend.