I love it

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE having a backyard? It is seriously the best thing ever. The kids play out there for hours. They especially love it now that we got a new sandbox. They are obsessed with it (although now Ella has been asking for a trampoline....). I cant wait for summer, I am totally going to buy a ghetto plastic pool and everything! They can play in that or the sprinklers while I sit in the sun and read. Ahhh I am so excited. The weather has been so weird lately, one day it will be nice and sunny and the next it will be cold and windy. Maybe I should just enjoy the 60-70 degree weather before the 110 degree days are here.

Yes, Kash is in his pajamas, don't judge me.

A day late...

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is how I found Ella when I picked her up from preschool- as a leprechaun. She explained to me that you get pinched if you don't wear green and she was very concerned that she did NOT have anything green to wear the next day. I told her I was sure she had something green, but she was not satisfied until we picked something out. I never really cared about this holiday, but now that I have kids who are getting old enough to understand, you better believe both were decked out in their green this year! Ella was so funny because as we were running errands if she spotted someone not wearing green she would get so nervous for them and say, "Oh no Mom, they aren't wearing green! They are going to get pinched!" And then she would get so sad for them and it was all I could do to stop her from crying!

Trying to be creative...

I am not the most creative person. I wouldn't exactly call myself crafty. I think about making cute things, and then decide I will save time and money if I just buy it instead! With my luck I buy all of the supplies, spend hours making it, end up hating it, and then have to go out and buy it anyways. Depressing, I know. I wish I was more talented haha. But this time I had some success. Only because I have friends that tell me to meet them at this time, this place, and buy this stuff. So with their help I made a few hair accessories for Ella. They were super easy and before I knew it, it was midnight and I HAD to go home! They are very simple but now that I know it is possible for me to create something, maybe I can expand on it.

Ella was thrilled when I showed her what I had made for her, she kept saying, "oh thank you mom, thank you!"

I know most of you make way more elaborate bows than this, but I am impressed with myself!!:)

Yum...

Our dear friend Cody came over to play games one night but he didn't come alone. He brought pretzels and chocolate with him! Yum. It was pretty funny to watch him try to make this little treat for the first time. At first he was all smiles....

And then the blobs started making him a little nervous....

And then he got he got the hang of it, realizing it was all in the "wrist."

They were yummy no matter what they looked like! Good job Cody.

Poor Kashy

Kash is seriously such a tough guy. He gets hurt ALL the time but rarely cries. I know if he is crying then he must have gotten pretty hurt, because it doesn't happen often. The other day we stopped at Matt's work for a little surprise visit. Before we even got out of the car I knew it was a bad idea. I unbuckled Kash from his carseat, went to get something from the front seat, and before I could turn around he had slipped getting out of the car and landed face first on the gravel. He was screaming and spitting up blood for a good 5 minutes. I was afraid he knocked out a tooth, but luckily he didn't. His poor bottom lip had turned into hamburger and his chin was scraped up. I took these pictures after he had healed for the most part, but you get the idea.

Two nights of fun

The other night Matt wanted to BBQ and let the kids go in the hot tub for the first time. They thought it was so great to have their own little "pool." They really had the royal treatment, they got to swim while Matt fed them their dinner. They loved it. I assumed Matt was going to get his swimsuit on as well, but he said no. Hmmm ok honey, and what happens when you have to jump in after one of them? But he wasn't worried.
The kids were walking around the edge of the jacuzzi having a lot of fun and before I even left to go back inside, Kash slipped and went under in the middle. So....in jumped Matt with all of his clothes on! I could NOT stop laughing! Is it ok to say, "I told you so" in this situation?

Here they are going around and around:

And here is Matt taking off his soaking wet shoes:) He ended up staying in the jacuzzi the rest of his night with his jeans on.

They soon discovered they could stand in the middle and be just fine.

The next night they had the same routine except I made the dinner and delivered it to them. Oh and this time Matt decided to wear a swimsuit!

Embarrassing Moment

Ella has been known to escape. She sits in her bedroom window that faces the street and when she sees kids outside playing she has gone right out the front door without my knowing about it-the deadbolt doesn't stop her. We quickly got a chain for the door and it hasn't been a problem since.
Until today. I put Kash down for a nap and put Ella in her room for "quiet time" and laid down myself. I was exhausted, I didn't sleep well the night before and wasn't feeling too great so I was hoping for a little nap.
Probably about an hour later I woke up to the doorbell ringing....I decided to ignore it and hoped it wouldn't wake up the kids. I slowly got out of bed and decided to check on Ella, she had been so quiet maybe she fell asleep as well. I couldn't find her. Anywhere.
Then I heard a voice from the garage door that leads into the laundry room. "LINDSAY????" It was a voice I didn't recognize. I ran downstairs to find a lady I had never seen before standing in my garage( how was the garage door open?) with her teenage daughter. The daughter had Ella on her hip. What the!!!!
"Um is this your daughter?" Oh my gosh I wanted to die. This sweet neighbor I had not met had found Ella near her home and gone door to door to try to find out where she lived!! She explained to me that she noticed her and thought she was waiting for the kids to get out of school (we have an elementary on the next street) but realized that wasn't the case and got a little worried. She finally found a neighbor on my street who told her where we lived and that my name was Lindsay, and encouraged her to poke her head in the door and check things out! She was worried I had passed out or something! Why else would my 3 year old be roaming the neighborhood by herself? Something must be terribly wrong, right? Ummmm or her awesome mom was napping!
I cannot tell you how embarrassed I am. I am also so very grateful to know we have such sweet neighbors that are looking out for each other, even if they don't know who you are!
She told me how Ella had told her that she opened the garage herself, she just pushed the big button. So we have discovered the hard way that she can indeed open the garage! We will be getting a lock tomorrow for sure. I just don't know what to do with this girl, she is, to say the least, a handful.
What a great first impression I made huh? Oh and I didn't even mention what I LOOKED like besides the obvious crazy mom that can't handle her own child. I was in my bath robe, my hair was a tangled mess, and I had NO makeup on besides traces of mascara smudged under my eyes. I really did look like a crazy person. Maybe I am. All I can do is hope that my "I'm sorry" cookies and thank you note helped out a bit. I decided I better go over there, properly introduce my family, and make sure they met Kash, so they know where to return him the next time he escapes as well.

It's time...

I never really wanted to do this, but I think it's time. The McLaws Family blog is going PRIVATE. We have had a few incidences that make me realize it would be for the best, and Matt has wanted to be private from the beginning. So please leave me your email if you would like to continue checking out our blog. I still have to take the time to figure out HOW to go private because I have no idea, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will be official. Thanks!

Who new?

Who new what a blessing our very own backyard would be? We LOVE it. It is the best feeling to say, "go play in the backyard!" The kids love playing out there and I love having at least a few minutes to myself! We are so lucky that it is totally fenced in so we don't have to worry about them wandering off. I can't wait to get a trampoline and a sandbox, but right now they are content exploring together.

Here they are making their own fun. They dragged these boxes over to the steps and jumped into them! They thought it was great, and Ella even blind folded herself while jumping:) Who needs a playset??

I spied on them while they were having a "picnic."

Hiding in the trees

This is my favorite part of the back yard. The SHED. It is so nice to have the extra storage space!

We also have this super nice jacuzzi. We just need to have someone come out and get it running for us. Then we can have people over for hot tub parties!

It will be fun to slowly add to the backyard and make it a fun place for the kids.

SLEEP OVER!

I have been promising my cute little cousins that we were going to have a big sleep over party once I had a house. Well, its been a few years since I made that promise... but better late than never, right? So I decided to take in FIVE extra kids while Matt was out of town. I know it sounds a little scary but these kids are angels and entertained Ella and Kash for me.

Here is Julia, Madeline, and Ella making homemade pizzas for dinner.

Lauren, Sydney, and Braden

Ella loved making everyone play dress up with her.

And in the morning while I was making breakfast I heard screams and squeals and found this: Everyone was trying to fit on the same chair. I believe there are 6 of them here...

It was fun and I think we are going to have to make this a tradition!

Here it is...

I have had a few requests for pictures of the house, so here are some of the rooms. I didn't go through the entire house but here are some of the main areas:

Entry

Family Room

Kitchen/Dining

Master(I couldnt get a good angle of this room so its all bed)

Master Bath

Master Closet...I am so in love with my closet...it is really big with nice built ins....ahhhh! I decided to just show you my shoes that I can actually find now!

Kash's bedroom

Ella's bedroom. You would think that I would have picked up her room before I took a pic, but no.

They share a jack and jill bathroom which is nice.

The playroom! I love being able to shut the door and not worry about what a mess it is. The closet is awesome too, it is all shelving for their toys.

And the laundry room. This isnt very exciting to most of you, but i had a closet for my washer and dryer in my old house! So, this is heaven. I love all of the storage and the deep sink.

Well, thats it more or less. I didn't want to show you the empty rooms that I can't buy furniture for! hehe And there is obviously a lot of decorating still to do. But if anyone wants to see it in person, please come by!! And don't forget I have a guest room for visitors!

Slacker

I have been slacking on the blogging! We have been super busy with the house and we have had company every weekend so far! Plus this past week the kids and I have been in California so we are trying to get back into our normal routine. I also have not been taking ANY pictures. So once again the word that comes to mind is...slacker. I am lacking the desire to get back into this blogging world but we will see how it goes.