Sugar & Spice

2011-07-19T01:30:00.002-04:00

My children love books that we can sing along with. So when I saw “ABC Sing-a-Long” by Gloria Seymour, published by Dorrance Publishing, I knew it was something my children and I would both enjoy. The cover immediately appealed to both of my children as they are a lover dogs. I was a little surprised to find the illustrations inside the book were not colored. Although at first I was a little disappointed, I think it could really enforce and help learning the alphabet by having the children color the pictures themselves. There was one thing that was slightly puzzling for me and that was one of the pages I just couldn't get to rhyme no matter how I tried pronouncing and changing the way I said it. But both of my children love the book and ask for it to be read to them or I see them “reading” it themselves.

I received a complimentary copy of ABC Sing-a-Long as a member of the

Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com

to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Earring Holder

2011-04-05T13:54:00.000-04:00

I have wanted to make this for sooo long and I'm glad I was finally able to. I'd love to "upgrade" it someday. I just used a frame that I had on hand that the glass had broken out of it. I'd love to find a frame that I really loved. I lot of the one's I've seen on the internet used flowery lacy material which I knew I wouldn't like but I might try and find something I little more detailed then what I have here. You can't really tell from the picture but it is a real light green material.

Since this picture I've hung up the rest of my earrings. I'd really love to expand my "collection". JT wasn't quite sure what to think about it but I absolutely love the idea. It's so organized and easily accessible! The ones I've seen looked way better though....

I think I first saw the idea on Trey and Lucy.
Isn't it adorable?!??!?!
Here's a link to that and more lovely things that she's made.

I really like the idea of doing it in a 3D type box so I could put some fabric behind it that I liked as opposed to the lace being the "main attraction".

Christmas Gifts 2010 "2"

2011-04-04T13:43:00.000-04:00

I seemed to have forgotten to take pictures of all the things that I had made. One of the gifts was a little clip for Addie that I loved! I really want to make one for the girls.

Another one I forgot to take a picture of was a bean bag tic-tac-toe game. I just sewed a large square out of some material I had on hand and then sewed down some ric-rac to make the 9 squares for the game. Then made two sets of bean bags in different materials. The girls then throw the beanbags at the "game board" to try and get tic-tac-toe. They loved it! When Emma's a little older I'll probably maker her one.

I also made some superman pillows for some of the younger boy cousins on my dad's side.

But I did manage to get pictures of some of the stuff I made for the kiddos!

For the little girl cousin on my dad's side I made a crayon roll...

Exact same thing as the crochet holder....just smaller. I really want to make one for Emma!

For my sisters I had picked up some t-shirts on sale and wanted to "decorate" them.

For Sammantha I made a flower.

And for Grayci a caterpillar.

I probably would have chosen bolder colors but I tried to only use material I already had on hand.

And for Miss Addie Sue I made a scarf...

This is from left over fabric from Emma's baby blanket I had gotten more then 3 years ago! Glad I was able to use some of it!

Already planning gifts for this Christmas!! Can't wait :)

Christmas Gifts 2010 "1"

2011-04-03T13:20:00.001-04:00

This last Christmas we were on a pretty small budget as far as gifts went so we tried to make as many of the gifts as we could. For the last couple years we had gotten the Grandma's calenders made with the girls' pictures in them. So this year I made them using scrapbook paper I already had.

Most of them were pretty simple. I hadn't planned ahead and had to get them done very quickly. This year I'll work on making them better quality!

One of my mother's wishes was to have matching stockings for everyone but as soon as she thought she was done having kids...she wasn't. And then we got married...and then we had babies! She just couldn't keep up! I was going to make matching stockings but ran out of time so I ended up getting these pretty cheap at Wal-Mart and used fabric paint to put the names on.

My mother's children and husbands. I decided to just add the husbands names on the same stockings as wives because there would have to be a ridiculously large amount of stockings!!

The Grandkids....so far. We're already needing one more because of Laini Ann and we'll need another one before Christmas for our little booger!

But...I'm hoping to have solved that problem for at least a couple years :) I think I bought 15 to 20 extra!

For my MIL I made a crotchet hook holder...

lol When taking pictures I didn't have any hooks on hand...but I had crayons! You can tell I'm a mother!

All rolled up! I still need to make one of these for me :)

Park Fun

2011-04-02T12:48:00.000-04:00

Emma asks almost everyday if she can go on the slide and we were actually able to tell her yes the other day! We've been having some really nice weather and we wanted to take advantage of it!

The park closest to us was pretty busy so we decided to walk a little further to the other park....which happens to be a little nicer and has more equipment as is tucked in behind houses so you have to walk to get to it. So unless you know it's there, you wouldn't be able to find it. There was only one other family there!

First stop was the slide...

Where Emma goes...

Sophie follows!

The slide was definitely a favorite!

Sophie enjoyed the swings....Emma still won't get on one...

Next was the rock climbing. Daddy helped Emma figure out where to put her feet and hands...she didn't really understand what was going on but felt pretty good when she got to the top!

Can't leave Sophie out :)

Emma ditched her hat so of course Sophie needed to wear it. She loves her hats.

Last fall we tried to get Emma to climb the wall but she didn't have too much of an interest. She was definitely interested this time!!

She was so proud of herself!

She climbed that thing once with daddy's help and that was all she needed. It was like she accomplished this huge thing and so she kept doing it and doing it and doing it. By the end she was doing it by herself and extremely quick!

We were headed out of the park until we realized that someone had left their basketball... so we had to play some of that!

Mommy and daddy played pig....and I lost horribly! lol And evidently walking half a mile to the park and then playing for 45 minutes can really take it out of you...

She just laid down on the walk back like it was a completely normal thing to do!!

Garden of the Gods

2011-04-01T12:08:00.001-04:00

JT was on Spring Break this last week so we took advantage of a couple of the days to get out and about. On Saturday we went to Garden of the Gods. When JT and I were out here in July we drove through it and he's been there twice doing the Walk-A-Thon with the school but I've had never gone and walked around.

The views were definitely worth it!

Emma's Apple Strudel mountains :)

The girls enjoyed being rolled around....while mommy and daddy got a work out :) It's not just flat walking here. A lot of ups and downs.

There was a large slit in one of the huge rocks that people climbed in to take pictures. Emma and Daddy had a little adventure...

Only got stuck once :) I just noticed the picture kind of makes it look like she could fall quite a ways but it was in no way dangerous. I promise :P

The Soph and I just took our picture on the outside.

After walking around and around looking for picnic tables (we packed lunch) and not finding any we climbed into the car and drove around the park to see if we could find some. We finally did and had a nice little lunch. I think Emma enjoyed eating outside.

She liked the little seat they carved into a tree trunk.

It was definitely a fun filled day and one that wore everyone out! If you're having trouble getting your kids to sleep make them go hiking!! lol They both fell asleep in the car on the way home and continued to sleep after we moved them into their beds. Daddy and mommy both took a nap too :)

Erin's Wedding

2011-03-31T11:54:00.001-04:00

The girls and I went to Michigan earlier in March because I was in a wedding. She was in my wedding 4 1/2 years ago...

She's the one standing to the right of me in the picture.

It was a fun day. But....I have no idea where my head was because I think I took like 10 pictures of the wedding/reception/etc. And absolutely no pictures of the rest of the trip!!

Her dress was gorgeous! I loved it.

Not really sure what I'm doing in this picture..... The bridesmaid dresses were so cute. Mine had some little malfunctions because of being pregnant but I'm am so thankful she chose one that I could grow in to! I'm not sure what I would have done. Because it cinched right above my stomach I looked about 6 months pregnant instead of 4....but at least I looked pregnant and not just fat :)

Erin surprised her new husband by having a tractor drive them away! It was fun watching her get in it :) If JT and I had it to do over we would definitely be riding away on a motorcycle...I would make it work :)

It was a nice little quick trip home...but quick is definitely the right word! But we were excited to be coming home to JT. We all missed him very much.

Sophia's First Birthday.....wayyyy late

2011-03-30T11:39:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Miss Sophia's first birthday while we were home for Christmas. She was the New Year's Baby :)

Me decorating her cake in one of my mothers MIL's aprons lol

The finished product. I needed something I could put together pretty quick :)

Sophie's little cake. We took the blue candies off when we gave it to her because we didn't know if she'd choke on them.

She wasn't too enthused when we first gave her the cake.

I think her favorite part was licking the frosting off of the duck!

My dad gave her an old doll bed. We laid the baby in it and covered her up....and then Sophie decided it was appropriate for her to just climb right in with her!!

My dad and Miss Emma Rose :)

It's A Boy!!

2011-03-29T17:22:00.003-04:00

It's a boy!!!

I think the thing that makes me the happiest is how happy it has made JT. I think he feels such a sense of relief. He is the last namesake in his line so we needed a boy.

It will such an adjustment for us. I know nothing about boys. Nothing. I have 5 sisters. It will definitely be a learning experience!

But....I am very excited about the things I will making for this little squirt. I have been planning for this day for a while now and have saved up all of the awesome ideas I've come across. Some of my favorites that I'll definitely be doing....

I am Momma - Hear Me Roar - She will pretty much be my ultimate source of boy things. She has got two of the cutest boys I've ever seen and she makes some awesome boy "things"...

(click on pictures to go to tutorial)

I believe her sister actually made these ties. I'm not sure that I could get away with making him wear a tie every day...but he might have to at least once a week. I mean...what's cuter then a little boy wearing a tie??

And I am in LOVE with this blanket on this mama makes stuff...

It's made with men's flannel shirts found at a thrift store!

And I can't forget about the ton of ideas on etsy...

Super Hero Capes - meandmydoll

A sword & shield - I'd probably modify the shapes a little bit... freakyfleece

I can't help but love this - LondonBridgeChildren

If you can't tell I'm leaning a little more toward the cowboy theme :) - TheTrendyButterfly

....and no...the name is not Tyler :P

Chaps?? Um...YES!! Jenmarf6901

I think I have hundreds of ideas that I want to make for a little boy on my computer....(don't even ask about the number of girl things!). Unfortunately most of the stuff I saved I forgot to site my source so I have no idea where I got the idea from :(

Can't wait to get started and even more excited to meet the little man :)

All About Sophia

2011-03-29T10:41:00.001-04:00

I did a little update on Emma so I thought I'd do one on Sophie. I really love the age that she's at right now. Still cuddly and just learning to give kisses and hugs. Still desiring to make mommy and daddy happy :) She does have her little quirks though...

She is a lover of......trash. We have to keep the trash on the counter because if there is barely anything in it she drags it around and knocks it down and climbs in to find "treasures" and if it's full enough for her to reach things she's as quick as lightning I swear. She sticks her hand in and has it in her mouth in less then a second....and then runs away before I notice her or she tries to get away from me chasing her.

I wish the second thing on this list was something a little less disgusting....but I'm afraid it is not. Along with the trash her second most favorite thing to do is play in the toilet.....we were able to get away with just making sure it was closed for a while but she just recently learned how to open the lid. So now the door has to be kept shut...which kind of stinks for us because with the door shut no heat gets in there...gets kinda chilly. Her favorite thing to do is find something small and then run to toilet and throw it in before you can catch her.....she's so gross lol
She loves cereal. Frosted shredded wheat is her favorite but she likes almost every other kind.
Her new favorite food is cheese! I don't know how I managed to have both of my girls lovers of cheese but I did. They really, really, really like they're cheese.
Unlike her sister she loves sweets!!
She loves to have bye bye to daddy and say "night night" or "love you" to him at nap time and bed time. She gets the biggest kick out of it and it is the cutest thing ever.
She loves to dance. She moves around and bends her knees and flaps her arms. It's really quite amusing to watch :)
She does a happy dance when I'm getting her something to eat or drink. Sometimes she even squeals and talks in excitement. That's even funnier to watch!
When she wants something to drink she finds the nearest cup hands it to me..or throws it at my head and walks away toward the kitchen very confident in the fact that I will get her something. She'll finally turn around and notice that I haven't gotten up and you'd think I'd broken her little heart!!
She climbs. Emma wasn't ever really a "climber". The other day she climbed on top of Emma's bed so she could climb on the little end table so she could look out the window. Which she then fell off of.
She plays by herself. *sigh of relief* She'll go off and occupy herself for the longest time. I love it.
She loves her big sister. She almost always wakes up from her nap before Emma and she'll longingly look at Emma's door waiting for her to wake up.

Sophie is my squishy little bumpkin and I love her. She's definitely a mommy's girl but I think I can already see her growing a little bit out of that. Not sure how I feel about that :/

All About Emma

2011-03-28T10:38:00.002-04:00

We celebrated Miss Emma's 3rd Birthday this last month! I can hardly believe it's already been three years since I first saw her little face...

But at the same time I can hardly remember life without her!

A little about Miss Emma Rose...

Drew her first "girl" the other day.

She would take about 3 baths/showers a day if we let her....although only once in a while does she actually want to stay in there more then 5 to 10 minutes.
She still isn't very enthused about desserts. She'll eat a little cake and ice cream. But as far as desserts go...she won't even try them. She likes candy and candy bars though.....enough for about 5 people....
She LOVES when I bring her new library books. And gets very protective of them. She does not like Sophie to touch them. Sometimes I think she gets upset if Sophie looks at them for too long.....we're working on that.
Her favorite foods are cheese, ketchup, milk, juice, pickles, pretzels, and macaroni and cheese.
She loves to watch Apple Strudel (The Sound of Music) and most recently listen to the soundtrack in the car.....every time she is in the car. Which at the moment isn't too bad. We get a break from Veggie Tales and Go Fish's Bible School CD.
We've lived here long enough that she knows when we get in the car we're from point A to point B pretty quickly. So if we're in the car for any considerable amount of time she asks if we're on our way to Mow Mow's house....
She asks if she can paint every single day.
She LOVES to watch Caillou. (Kai-u) I mean....LOVES....
She tells me at least once a week that she wants to go to the mountains and every now and then tells me she loves them. She gets really excited when she spots them when we're driving around. I can't wait till Spring when we can go hiking again! Most recently she has started calling them "Apple Strudel Mountains".
If given the choice she always says she wants to wear a dress.
If the smallest amount of water or liquid spills on her clothes she finds it absolutely necessary to take it off and either get a new one or just go without....which doesn't really help with the laundry situation....
She loves to go to the park and go down the slide....but refuses to sit on a swing. She'll lay on her stomach sometimes and swing back and forth but she acts scared to death if I try to put her on one. A year ago she loved to swing.
She does things intentionally through out the day to annoy Sophia or make her cry....which drives me nuts.
She chews her nails....which I haven't seen her do lately so maybe it was just a stage...I hope so....if not I'll have to buy that stuff that tastes nasty so you don't bite your nails. I don't want her to have that habit...
One of us said "cool" the other day so she's been testing out where that fits in her daily vocabulary. Emma and I were grocery shopping the other day and she said "Sophie's at home with Daddy?" Me: Yep. Emma: (pauses for a second) That's cool. I just laughed which made her smile and now she keeps trying to fit it in places which results in more laughing.
She watched Cinderella for the first time while we were home for Erin's wedding and that girl is in LOVE with her now!

I'm positive I could go on and on with more little facts but I think I'll stop myself. She is so much fun and get's funnier everyday. She's just an awesome little girl and I'm blessed to be her mommy!

Emma's Third Birthday Party

2011-03-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

We had Nathan over to celebrate Emma's third birthday! She had a blast.

I was a little disappointed to not be able to decorate a cake for her this year but she loved her little pink cupcakes with sprinkles on top :)

Her favorite gift of the night had to be the play dough. Nathan got it for her and they had a great time!

When JT's Grandma sold her house I was able to go through some of the toys that he played with as a child. I saved back a play dough toy that you shove the dough in and different shapes come out. They both thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

After Nathan left Daddy stepped in to play with her and I honestly don't know who had more fun :) He was making 'al-dig-gators' and some sort of made up species of dinosaur he was pretty proud of :)

Bath Time!

2011-03-27T02:16:00.002-04:00

Sophia has been quite the little booger when it comes to her baths. I can't remember there ever being a time that she did enjoy them. In fact she loathed them. I hated to give her baths because I thought the people living upstairs would think I was torturing her because of the screams of terror she belts out. I did mention to them the other day if they heard her screaming like that I was most likely just giving her a bath!!

Well....I asked my mother if she had any suggestions and she said to try and let her keep her clothes on during the bath to see if that helps and put her in with the tub empty and slowly fill it up. And it worked!!

The first time...

Then the second time it was a no go. So I tried taking a bath with her and she loved that. But I was not going to be climbing into that tub with her every time she needed a bath.

So after a couple of times with that I put her and Emma in the tub and slowly filled the water up and she acted like she had never had a problem with it. It's to the point now where I just plop her in the tub and she gets excited and gets mad when I try and take her out! But I'm not complaining!!! Way easier to deal with that :)

Remembering...

2011-01-27T11:47:00.000-05:00

Evidently I can't handle it when two dates on a calender have to share a square. Like the 24th and the 31st this month. I made my first doctors appointment for the "baby in my stomach" as Emma calls it, a couple weeks ago. And I just wrote the time down on the calender.....not thinking about the dates. So.....Emma and I left the house very excited to see the baby! Then getting there I realized that we had come a week early. I told Emma we had to go and you could she was very disappointed and said "no, I want to see baby in stomach!" I felt so bad. We got back home and JT was disappointed too. No pictures for him.

I hoping they do an ultrasound when I go. I'm thinking they did the first time when I went back in Michigan but I'm not sure that they will. They do it so they can take measurements and try to get a more accurate due date. But I just like the pictures.

I am now 11 weeks :) It really seems like the time is flying by. Probably because I haven't been to the doctor yet and other then being VERY tired there isn't any other physical sign. I've "felt" sick but haven't thrown up. Which is 10 times better then when I was pregnant with Em and Soph. Amazing really!!

This is the size of the little baby right now. I'm trying to think of a little nickname I can call "it" so I don't have to call "it" an "it". Any suggestions? I was thinking Pickle, or Peanut....or something like that...

All this talk about having babies and actually "almost" getting to her the little heartbeat has really made me want to hold a little baby again. And has brought back a lot of memories of when Miss Emma and Miss Sophia came into the world.

Poor Emma came out looking like a little old man going bald. This picture shows a little bit of hair on the top of her head....but in most of the pictures just the hair on the side of her head shows up. I loved to just hold her and cuddle her. She was a very cute baby though...I just usually kept a hat on her for a while :)

Miss Sophia was a gorgeous baby. Lots of hair. Which I was hoping the heartburn I went through had a purpose! lol

It just amazes me how each of them can be so different. My mom had six girls and not one of us have the same personality so I guess I can count on that. It's just hard to imagine what the personality of the third one will be. But I'm very excited to find out.

Big Changes

2011-01-21T13:58:00.003-05:00

This new year has brought on some big new changes already and we're only in the third week!!

While we were home for Christmas we told our families that we are pregnant again! We're very excited. My first doctors appointment is on Monday and I'm very excited to listen to the little heartbeat for the first time. I had to find a new doctor out her and this will be my first time meeting with them. I'm really hoping they are a good group of people.

I asked JT if he preferred a gender. He said he loves his little girls and wants more of them.....but he'd like a little boy (or a couple) to ease his mind as far as carrying on the family name. We've been talking about names but we won't get serious until after we find out the gender unless we stumble upon one that we just love.

Another big change is this one....

She is being weened. Poor little booger. We started on Monday so it's been a week. It's definitely gotten easier but she still looks at me like I'm breaking her heart sometimes. But......at least one very good things has resulted. She know understands that there are other people in the world besides me. One of JT's hardest things to deal with was Sophie really didn't pay him the mind of day. She didn't care if he was here or there. Now when he walks in the door she gets all excited and jumps up and down and wants him to hold her. It really is adorable and I'm so happy that it looks like they'll be able to finally bond (at least more then they were before).

This is Sophie's new favorite spot.

If you can't tell she is standing in the drawer. Which of course drives me nuts because it's not good for the drawer.....and because she puts her grubby little hands all over the computer.

I do not have any new pictures of the Emminator. VERY SAD STORY......the LCD screen in my camera broke....so I can still take pictures, just can't really see what I'm doing. It's driving me nuts not using it though so I think I'll just start blindly shooting and hope for the best. I took the pictures above that way and they didn't turn out too bad. I'll try and call around and see how much someone would charge to replace it... It might end up being cheaper to get a new camera...we shall see.

JT is gone all day at the Men's Advance at college. I watched a little bit of it live online. Slightly jealous that he gets a taco bar for lunch :) (FYI: mexican is my current craving....) So.....it's just me and the chica's this afternoon. Soap just went down for a nap. Emma just ate lunch which included two things she hasn't had since we got back home. Cottage cheese and blueberries. She was REALLY excited.

Finger Painting

2010-11-20T08:46:00.001-05:00

Emma had a blast the other day when we finger painted. We haven't done it in a while and she liked it more this time then last time. We painted orange, red, and green onto some brown paper and then I cut them up into leaves and put them on a string for a garland for the living room. I'll have to post pictures of the finished project later because I haven't taken any yet. But I did get some of the creating process!

I suppose the one down side of never buying paper plates is you don't have anything to put finger paint on.....we used an empty noodle box.

She saw me taking pictures so she wanted me to take a picture of her hand....

And then she wanted me to take a picture of this.... she said it was a whale.

Then we added glitter....because everything is better with glitter :)

Husband...

2010-11-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

My husband is.....well....unique...... Want an example??

The picture is slightly weird. Just looks like he got bored. The "unique" part comes in when he tells me they're finger bands.....you know....like sweat bands. They keep the sweat from dripping down onto your hand. Weirdo!

Dress Up

2010-11-19T08:54:00.001-05:00

The other day I went threw a box of our winter stuff. It's been cold this week and snowing some days so I thought I should get all the hats and gloves out. Well where I go the girls closely follow and we ended up having a fashion show and photo shoot of sorts....Sophia LOVED having the gloves on! She just kept clapping away!

Books, Books, Books

2010-11-18T15:40:00.000-05:00

If there is one thing these girls got from there mother it was my love of books....

Shoes...

2010-11-18T12:01:00.000-05:00

When do girls start their love affair with shoes?

Early!

Very early!

Sophia's Fashion Show

2010-11-17T19:36:00.000-05:00

I tried this dress that Lori made on Sophia the other day to see if it still fit her and decided to take some pictures. I forgot to put the bonnet on her though....

A VERY long update on how things are going!

2010-11-16T23:00:00.000-05:00

Just a little update. Our thankful tree is growing! I don't have a picture right now but I'll post one at the end of the month when we're all done with it :)

The same day I made tree I made a sign to put beside it with a verse on it. But after I put it by the tree it didn't seem to "match" very well so I moved it into the living room.

A couple days after I did that I made a "Faith" wall. I saw that Katie had made one and I thought it was a good idea and I finally got around to it!

On each of the brown papers there is a need that we have and then verses underneath that say that is something we can believe for and something that God has promised us. It's harder to worry when we have verses right there telling us why we don't need to! We had a need for a bed for Miss Emma and we got one free off craigslist!!! And it's really nice!! But I was a little disappointed because I forgot to put it on the wall so I couldn't take it down! I think it might be a woman thing....or maybe just me.... When I make a to-do list I'll write down things I already did so I can cross them off :P

JT had his audition at the school today for the worship team. He had never had to audition for anything like that before and he said he was nervous. He said he didn't understand why he was nervous. He wants to be on the worship team but if he doesn't get chosen that's completely fine with him. The worship leader tried to recruit him to go to her church so he could play there so I think he'll be alright. I really want him to get on it because he really loves to play his music and be involved on a worship team and I think it'll do him some good :)

We're one week away from Thanksgiving and I still haven't decided how much I'm going to cook. I'd love to go all out but really it's just me and JT eating so I think I'll have to reign myself in.

JT has 3 tests on Friday because it's the end of the first semester. He hasn't gotten anything below an "A" on a test yet....which isn't surprising. He studies for his tests but he's not stressed about them or anything like that which I'm very grateful for. I know how he used to be. He is really enjoying it there and I love watching him learn. I think we've talked more about God together in the last 2 months then we have in our entire marriage! We were just talking tonight that I'd really like to take the first year by correspondence so I could stay home with the girls. If I could take it this winter through the summer and then we could find someone we trust to watch the girls I'd LOVE to go to school the second year with him. We're starting to see where if we would both do this how it could have a positive impact down the road if he decides to be a pastor or something like that. Now we just have to believe for $4,000 to do the correspondence!!

Lately Emma has been having diarrhea which has resulted in a sore butt. It has been going on for about a week and I just could not figure it out. And then JT said he wondered if it was the grape juice and it just hit me like a ton of bricks! I had figured out months and months ago that Emma just can't handle grape juice. It gives her diarrhea like you wouldn't believe. The smell is almost unbearable! So...I stopped giving it to her. And evidently I forgot. But thankfully we figured it out so within the next day or two our problem should be solved :O)

I think my favorite thing that Emma is doing right now would be her singing and playing acting. She always sang before but she has learned new songs and listening to her versions of the songs just crack me up. Just recently she has started play acting a little more. The other night she put me and JT "to bed." We had to lay down and she covered each of us up. Shut the light off and right before she left she looked at us and said in a half scolding voice "now don't get up." lol We just busted out laughing. I have to tell her that every night. She played like that for about 30 minutes! She just loved it.

Miss Sophia has moved to the next stage in walking. At first she would walk when JT would stand her up and then I'd call her to me. But I've noticed her several times stand up on her own and then try to walk to whatever toy she is trying to get. She falls down if its more than 2 or 3 steps but she is doing very well.

Sleepy

2010-11-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

The other day we were trying to keep Miss Sophia awake until after lunch because I had to run into town and I was going to leave her here with JT. So we were all sitting down to lunch and we had just gotten down eating when we looked over to this...

It was so funny to watch. She would nod off and wake up, then nod off and wake up again. Poor little girl!

At The Park In NOVEMBER!!

2010-11-13T13:55:00.000-05:00

We went on a walk to the park the other day. Daddy put together Miss Emma's bike so we could take that. I think we would have skipped that if we remembered how bad it squeaked!! It just needs some WD-40 but we don't have any here. But she enjoyed it immensely!!

Sophie had fun waiting for Daddy to do that...

She also had fun playing in the sand at the park....

Emma had a lot of fun too! There were some kids there this time that she enjoyed playing with.

The weather was amazing!! It's November and we were out with t-shirts on!

New Car Seat

2010-11-13T13:39:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Gigi for the gift cards we were able to go out to eat to Subway! Which was VERY delicious! And we were able to go to Wal-Mart....

And we're finally able to get Miss Sophia her big girl car seat.....because she's a big girl! With Emma we were able to use the smaller car seat until she was a year old when she was able to switch to a bigger car seat that faced forward. Miss Sophia reached the weight maximum on that car seat before we left for Colorado but thanks to Gigi we were able to finally get her one. We still have to wait until she's a year before she can face forward in the car though. But she likes it.

We haven't been anywhere since we picked it up so it's still in the plastic. After the night out on the town we came home and the girlies had their bath...

Emma was so excited because her and Sophie had the same type of pajamas on :)

Picture of the Day

2010-11-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

My Grandma is the coolest ever!

An Angel

2010-11-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

I put this red poncho sweater thing on Emma the other day.

After I finally convinced her that there wasn't a place for her arms she stood there and looked down at herself and said "I'm an angel!"

And then started to raise her arms and said "I'M FLYING!"

Daddy

2010-11-11T12:53:00.000-05:00

My husband is pretty much awesome. He's the funniest person I know...

Or the weirdest.....whatever!
He's also an amazing father. When he's trying to watch music videos on the computer and the girls insist that they watch too he not only lets them climb up but also helps them play drums...

And when Miss Emma asks him to dance with her to Mommy and Me he does....

And after all that he still is willing to sit on the floor and roll a ball back and forth.

(P.S. My lens must have been dirty or something for these last two photos)

STICKERS!

2010-11-10T12:45:00.000-05:00

Emma got a card from Papa the other day and in it were stickers.

I gave them to her and she promptly sat down and put them on her feet.

When she ran out of room to put them on her feet she put them on her legs.

And when she ran out of those stickers she got more out of her new sticker book and added those.

Didn't you know that's where stickers are really supposed to go?

Elmo

2010-11-09T13:52:00.000-05:00

Every now and then Miss Emma leaves me little surprises. Like when I'm picking up the house and look up and Elmo sitting in the high chair :)

Sleeping Beauty

2010-11-09T12:35:00.000-05:00

Went to check on Em to see if she was sleeping. Evidently she likes lots of covers :) She has three comforters on top of her.

Emma's New Bed

2010-11-08T12:30:00.002-05:00

Emma loves her new bed. And so does Sophia.

I thought teaching Em to stay in her bed would have been a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK! Because you know.....it's Emma. She has her bed night every now and then. Really the hardest for her to calm down and put herself to sleep is for her nap because it's daylight out and she just wants to play.

I can't wait until I can get a little toddler bed to put the mattress on. And switch her to the other room that will actually be her bedroom. Then I can decorate her bedroom all girly and fun :)

Sophia Truth

2010-11-07T12:30:00.001-05:00

Sophie's many faces.....

And then I tried to set her down....

Emma & The Wipes vs. Sophia

2010-11-06T21:00:00.001-04:00

What happens when you leave Emma alone with Sophia and a new box of wipes.....

Thankful Tree

2010-11-06T13:06:00.000-04:00

This year for the month of November we have a Thankful Tree. From the first of November until Thanksgiving we each write something we're thankful for on a leaf and tape it onto the tree. JT and I each come up with two a day. Something more serious (Jesus Christ, our families, etc) and then some smaller things (my computer, JT's guitars). That way we're thankful for the big things and the small things in life :) Miss Emma comes up with one a day. She doesn't really understand what that means but when we're sitting down and doing it I ask her what she's thankful for and the first thing she says after that that's reasonable I right down. So far some of the things she's thankful for are Mommy & Me, cows, & squirrels.

This is how our tree started. Notice how its pretty far above the floor. Had to keep it away from little hands! Emma was very excited when she noticed it after she woke up from her nap. She looked at me with huge eyes and said "TREE!" Then she said "Squirrel in tree?" So I made a squirrel. Then when I showed her the squirrel she looked at it and said it was a cat! Little turd! This is our tree so far...

I can't wait to see how full it is at the end of the month.
My 8th grade year in school we had to come up with two different things we were thankful for every single day we were in school that year! I think we can do it for a month :)

Picture of the Day

2010-11-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of one of my younger sisters....holding a picture of my mother when she was a child.

Amazing!

Florissant Fossil Beds

2010-11-02T20:11:00.000-04:00

This last Saturday we had really nice day so we decided to go up into the mountains. We're trying to go up there as much as possible before it gets too cold! We decided to go Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. They have several hiking trails. We chose one that was 4 miles long and one that said it wildlife was common....unfortunately we started out on the wrong trail that was a mile long.....and not as exciting as the other trail would have been.

The scenery.....

The trail we did take took us past several of these fossilized trees. They were MASSIVE!!! You can't really tell because we weren't able to walk up and stand beside it but hopefully you get an idea. They said they were red woods.

You can kind of tell because of the buildings around it.

You might be able to tell a little better in this one because there is a guy in the background standing next to one.

We did try to start on the right trail after we got done with the first one but we were only a little while in and the girls were really cranky. It was about 1:30 and they hadn't had lunch or naps. So we turned around and headed back. We did have fun though....Sophie was in her favorite seat!

We both took turns carrying her in the carrier...

Emma was pushed.....

And she pushed.....

And she sat....

The trail we did end up taking was really nice. It was considerably wide and nice enough to push a stroller on. One thing that slightly cracked us up was that the surrounding area was this large....

And the deer/elk pooped here....

Over and over and over again. The trail was only a mile long and we had to go around piles of poop at least 6 or 7 times!!

Miss Emma had a lot of fun running around and having Daddy catch her. She'd run ahead and yell "Daddy catch me! Daddy catch me!" Using that much energy results in very tired little girls...

Trunk or Treat

2010-11-01T14:16:00.001-04:00

This year we have a tomato.....

And a kitty...

Before the face paint.

We needed to use things around the house so Sophie's was really easy. Just found all red clothes and pinned Bob the Tomato on her head! And Miss Emma had all black clothes and I used one of her headbands and made them into ears with some felt. I had made some pink ears for Sophia to be a pig but JT didn't really think she looked like a pig with the ears and wearing all pink so we changed into the tomato at the last minute.

We went to one of the churches that we had visited. They were having a trunk or treat. I was a little disappointed because they're was quite a bit of "scary" things there. We went to one last year and there really wasn't anything bad. I think it helped that it was during the day too. This one was at night so it was dark and people were dressed like that and Emma was getting scared. Half the time she wouldn't let me put her down. Can't say it was just the bad costumes thought! They had a large orange puppy that was walking around and she was very scared of that! lol

She did have a lot of fun though. She played games and got lots of candy.

Her favorite game was throwing a huge basketball threw a hula hoop. If we would have let her she would have done it all night.

Geocaching

2010-10-30T03:09:00.000-04:00

So today after the girls woke up from their naps we went geocaching for the first time! (Basically you go the geocaching website and find a geocache near you, punch the coordinates into your gps, and go and find it.)

lol We spent forever looking for this thing and it was supposed to be an easy one! But we didn't really know what we were looking for. Now that we know it would have been really easy to look for. Some of them are small (like the one we found) and some are larger. The larger ones have little trinkets that people leave behind and then you can take one as long as you leave something in it's place. The one we found just had a little paper that you sign your name on and what date you found it. It's just kind of like a modernized treasure hunt. JT wasn't too excited but he said he'd like to try to do it up in the mountains instead of the sidewalk behind the house :) It would have been hilarious to watch us. We were walking around with the gps taking one step forward, two steps back, three steps sideways, etc. just to get the exact coordinate location.

She had a lot of fun running ahead of us.

The tree we found it in....

Yay us!

After we found that we decided to walk back to the park and let Em run around for a while and I took pictures.....a lot of pictures....
....of Jeremiah....

Of Jeremiah trying to grab that bar above his head and watch him slam into the slide and land like.....well that....

Of him pushing the Soap....

Some lovey dovey pictures.....

Some not so lovey dovey :)

We tried to take some family pics but Em just really wanted to play.

....and play she did!

And Miss Sophie....

An Afternoon At Home....

2010-10-29T02:43:00.000-04:00

We spent the afternoon at home today. Emma loves when JT gets home from school. She runs to the door screaming "DADDY!!!" and then insists that she unlocks and opens the door instead of him. This particular day Daddy heard Rascal Flatts "Life is a highway" on the way home so he went into Sophie's room to BLARE the song on the ipod dock. Which resulted in dancing and twirling.....

They had lots of fun!

Ending in hugs....

And of course air guitars were definitely used :)

Just within the last couple weeks the girls have really started actually playing together and enjoying spending time with each other. Meaning.....Emma isn't purposely trying to bug her as much :) :) and Sophie is getting older and able to do more things!

Emma thought it was great fun to pull Soap on the blanket....

Sophie enjoyed giving Em a back rub....

She's such a cutie :)

She has discovered the cupboard my pots are stored in.....so I pick them up about 5 times a day!

And this is the face that I have been dealing with lately! Grr....it bugs me just to look at the picture! Every now and then when she doesn't get her way this is the face I get and it does not fly with me! It's actually a little worse than the picture shows but she fixed it a little bit while I was getting the camera around.

About a week ago JT and I had a conversation about our "parenting style" and exactly what that was for us. After our talk and deciding what ours was and how we were going to handle certain situations, this week has been amazing compared to what it has been. Not that Em is a bad girl, but we were very inconsistent with what we did because frankly we had never really talked about it and decided how we were going to handle it. We're still learning but I'm very happy with the results and Emma seems to even be happier with a little more structure in her life.

We are still adjusting to life out here. It doesn't feel like we've completely done that and I'm not really sure that will happen until we get a bed and some dressers so we don't have to have our clothes on the floor. We are sleeping in the living room (with the tv) so we both get to bed later then we should. And JT doesn't really have a place where he can go and be alone to read his Bible right now. But we'll get there :)

Webcam Photos

2010-10-29T00:07:00.010-04:00

So...the other day I forgot to take the camera to the park so I could take pictures to post. Today I got one step closer! I remembered the camera when we went to the library today.....but forgot to take pictures! And sadly they would have been pretty cute pics. They have several very large stuffed animals....larger than Emma....that Sophia absolutely loved! She was even attempting to drag them with her.....which of course didn't really work!

I let Emma pick her own books out today at the library. Usually I just go and flip through some books and pick ones I think she'd like. Today I asked her to pick some up and she just pulled a book off the shelf and handed it to me. Didn't even look at it. She did that 7 or 8 times and that was that. And the funny thing is she did better than I usually do. They're all books she really enjoyed.......because I had to read them all tonight! I thought we'd wait a week before we went back but maybe we'll make the trip sooner than that!

After that we went grocery shopping and the girls really weren't in the mood for that! They were tired and slightly grumpy because of it. And hungry. They actually did better than they could have been. After shopping we headed home (and I didn't get lost :P) and both the girls fell asleep. I finished the first coat on the room upstairs that I'm painting. I'll finish that up tomorrow :)

We still don't know if we'll be able to come home for Christmas. I've kind of come to terms with not being able to but I'll be pleasantly surprised if we're able to :)

So....because I don't have "new" pictures I thought I would post some pictures I was looking at the other night that literally made me laugh out loud!

The last one is my favorite of all time. I seriously can not look at this picture and not laugh!

How things have been.....

2010-10-28T02:09:00.004-04:00

Just a little update and a lot of pictures :)

We have been the park since the last time I posted but I forgot my camera :( I get texts from my sister almost every night asking if I'm going to post so last night I took some random pictures around the house.

JT did what he always does when I stick the camera in his face....and I always laugh!

Emma pretty much spent the evening looking at the scrapbooks of herself.

Sophia was in a very good mood last night.....

She has the cutest gap between her teeth! She has 6 now I believe....with one about to come through....and she's had the attitude to prove it!!!

JT is still really enjoying school. And we actually went to a church last Sunday that we both liked! We're going back again this Sunday! I'd really like to get settled in a church but don't really want to rush into a decision either. They are looking for a drummer :)

JT heard about a job at FedEx yesterday and called about an interview. The hours were 2am to 7am. He had to go in this morning at 4:30am along with all the other people interested to see exactly what the job was and then if they were still interested they were supposed to go back and pick up an application. AND they had a $1,500 college tuition grant. But.......after he got there they explained that 2am-7am was just kind of an estimate. It's a seasonal job because of the holidays coming up so if they're busy they could go in at midnight and not get out until after 8 or 9.........and his school starts at 8. So that was a no go.

The owners of the house upstairs asked us if we would be interested in painting their living room/stairway/hallway for them. So that's what I've been working on. We haven't both been able to work on it because the girls don't seem to want to take a nap at the same time. I wasn't able to work on it today because JT volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House. And he has to go back tomorrow to install a sink so I'm not sure when I'll be able to finish it. Hopefully soon!

Emma has had some major changes.....at least in a little 2 year olds life :) She is potty trained!!!! Well other than naps and bedtime!! She does really well and goes days without accidents. The only time she seems to struggle is when she is playing with Nathan because she doesn't want to take them time. And........she is sleeping on a big girl bed!!! Well.....kind of. We just have the mattress we came with. We're going to hold off on buying anything until JT gets a job so it's just on the floor right now. But I am pretty much shocked!! I thought it was going to be this huge battle of the wills but it hasn't been. Granted we just started today so she's taken one nap and went to bed in it once......but....usually it starts out pretty bad so I'm hoping for the best :) I think she's just excited to get out of that pack and play!!

Tomorrow we're headed to the library to take back books and a movie. We watched The Blind Side for the first time and we really liked it. I hadn't realized that it was an NFL player that was still currently playing!! After the library, grocery shopping........I wish I still enjoyed that!

It has been incredibly cold here, windy, and rainy. But the mountains still look awesome :) I still wake up some days and can't believe that I live in Colorado!! Even a year ago I don't think I would have believed that! It's amazing the ride that God can take you on if you let Him!

Focus On The Family

2010-10-23T01:37:00.002-04:00

Today we went to Focus on the Family with some friends. They have a two year old son and Emma loves to play with him. We all had a great time and the best part is it is completely FREE!! They do have a Soda Shop you can buy things from but that's completely up to you. They also have a pretty big Christian book store upstairs that was fun to look around. I can't wait to go back! My sister-in-law got us a gift card there and I'm going to have a lot of fun shopping :) Today I got Emma a little plush toy of Junior the Asparagus and a children's book about Rahab.

First we went to the little kids room. They have a large room set up with toys that the kids can climb on and they were made out of some type of material where they kept there shape but were kind of soft so they wouldn't get hurt on them. We spent quite a bit of time there and when we finally moved on it was because us adults were ready not the kids!

They also had a two or three story indoor slide that the kids could go down. But we found out after the dads and the kids climbed all the stairs that they were too short :( So they had to walk all the way back down! They did have a smaller play area with a slide that they liked. It was more along the lines of McDonalds playhouse.

They did have a room where you walked through a closet to get to Narnia but we didn't go in there. Our next stop was the Adventures In Odyssey room. They had an area where you could dress up in the clothes of the Adventures in Odyssey people and get on a stage and act. And a puppet area.

Sophie was kind of just along for the ride for this part....lol

Then they had a fill in the hole place...

I took a picture of our friends family but with their camera!

We had a really great time and I can't wait to take my younger sisters when they come out and visit!

The Reading Tent

2010-10-23T00:51:00.000-04:00

Emma had her first make believe tent today. She played in it for about.....25 minutes. I was hoping for hours of entertainment. That didn't quite happen. But she did like it. Sophie enjoyed it also so that's a plus.

I crawled in and lifted the blanket so we could take a picture. Sophie looks like she's going to bite my cheek off!

And then Daddy crawled in to read Emma some books. After a couple minutes I realized Emma was reading the books herself. When I looked this is what I saw..... lol

These are a couple of random pictures taken within the last couple of days. The one of Soph with her shirt off I think Emma took......

Picture of the Day

2010-10-22T18:42:00.003-04:00

Walk Around the Neighborhood

2010-10-19T02:42:00.000-04:00

After the girls woke up from their nap we decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood. We were going to just walk to the park that's just down the road from us but there were quite a few people there so we decided to just keep walking and come back a little later. We ended up making a pretty large circle. I think we figured it was maybe a mile and half or two. It felt good to get out and about!

Sophie was really fascinated with her hands.....

When we did make it back to the park Emma had a great time! After she finally convinced herself to go down the slide she went over, and over, and over, and over. And then cried when we finally told her we had to go.

She went down the first time and this is what happened!

I'm not entirely sure if he's capable of taking a normal picture :P

And what did the Soap do? Swing!

Crags Trail

2010-10-16T02:29:00.001-04:00

We want to get some hiking done before winter comes so we decided to go up into the mountains this weekend. We wanted to try a different trail so we went to Crags Trail. We left around 11am. After many, many detours including drive-thru for lunch, Wal-mart for a baby carrier, and a couple more we finally started to make our way up into the mountains and then Miss Emma got car sick and puked on everything in the back seat. After stopping and cleaning that up we continued to the nearest Wal-Mart (for the second time that day) to try and find a new outfit for Emma. After that we were off again.

The girls fell asleep about 10 minutes before we got there so they were in AWESOME moods when we woke them up to go hiking......note the sarcasm.

Sophia liked to ride on Daddy's shoulders....the only thing that would make her happy unless I was holding her. She wasn't very nice to daddy's ears though :( She kept picking at the tops of them and actually drew a little bit of blood!

Some family pictures......

Emma had fun discovering new things.

Beautiful creation!! JT said he did prefer the other trail because it was more open and you could see the landscape. This trail pretty much just went through woods. I think if we would have kept going it would have opened up but after a mile or so we turned around and headed back. The girls were kind of fussy and it really was not an easy trail to travel with two little girls. Emma could hardly walk by herself because of the slope.

It was a fun day.

Emma's New "Friend"

2010-10-14T02:17:00.000-04:00

I'm glad that Emma doesn't know what a boyfriend is because if she did we might be in a little bit of trouble.

This is Nathan.

Emma likes Nathan.

Nathan likes Emma.

We went out with some friends the other night and we met Nathan for the first time. And I am SOO thankful. It has really helped Emma start to get settled and feel more "at home" having a friend. She asks for him at a couple times A DAY! It sounds something like this "Nafan come home? Nafan come home?" Which translates..."Can Nathan come over?"

They were both pretty shy during dinner but when we got up to leave they decided to hold hands and giggle the whole way out to the vehicles. He is a very good little boy and pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Mueller State Park

2010-10-09T01:51:00.000-04:00

When JT and I came to Colorado earlier this summer we went hiking up at Mueller State Park. My sister-in-law wanted to go up and hopefully get some family pictures taken for their Christmas cards this year. I think she got some good ones :)

We had fun once again. JT just loves the scenery up there and if he could we would be living up there right now!

He decided to go off the trail a little bit to see what was over the hill. I think it almost did him in! Emma wasn't phased a bit though!

I LOVE this picture! They are walking in the exact same way!

Her eyes are closed but I love this picture of her!

Cute little family picture.

Me and the Emma.

Miss Sophia....

Daddy!!

2010-10-07T01:50:00.000-04:00

After a VERY long month for Miss Emma she FINALLY got to see her daddy!! She was really excited and then seemed to settle into a state of shock. Sophia on the other hand just kind of stared at him.....nothing really seems to phase her. Well, unless I walk out of the room.....then a major melt down ensues.

We got here early in the evening and spent a little bit of time saying our hello's and letting the girls play with the *new to them* toys....

Emma is in love with the little play house outside....as you can see from her expression!!!

Then Granny had to get in....

You can tell who she's got wrapped around her little finger to get two grown men to crawl into a play house!! I love the look on her face!

Oh Miss Sophia. You and your faces! She did really love the swing though!

This is pretty much the look JT got for the first day while she got used to him again! Silly girl!

After reuniting and catching up a little bit we went right to work unloading so we could go eat!! We went to Golden Corral and it was awesome! Love that place!

COLORADO!

2010-10-06T03:21:00.000-04:00

WE FINALLY MADE THE TRIP!!!

It seemed like we'd never get to do the day where we would actually leave but we did! And the girls did awesome......well....under certain conditions. I had read several different places that when traveling with young children it works really well to leave in the middle of the night so they sleep for most of the way. Which works great......if they go back to sleep. Mine did not. IF we decide to try that again I won't drive, I'll sit in the back and make sure they go back to sleep.

I had asked my sister-in-law to ride with me and the girls because I knew there was no way I could make that trip in the car with just me and the girls. Needless to say I was right. I drove from 3:30am the morning we left till about 6:30 maybe. We stopped to get breakfast. My original goal was to drive till about 7 or 8 but the girls were screaming and crying and we just needed to stop. When we got back on the road Rhiannon drove and I sat in the back with the girls and it was like magic. They were perfectly fine. Well...other than the typical problems that would arise on any given day. Rhiannon was pretty much a life saver. She drove the whole rest of the way.

We stopped that night in York, NE. The hotel had a little playground out front that me and the girls were very thankful for. It was great for them to be able to play and stretch their legs.

I brought along A TON of toys and games to keep the girls occupied. Like......way to much. But by them time I figured that out there wasn't any room to put it anywhere else so we were pretty much staked like sardines in there. I think the second day I had organized it enough to where I could put my feet on the floor. But that only lasted until we got some of the toys out to play with.

I was SO glad to finally get to Colorado Springs!! Not only to see JT but to get out of that car!!

Tubes

2010-09-28T03:05:00.001-04:00

Don't those eyes just make you sad? More poor little babies. The reason the girls and I had to stay behind while JT went to Colorado was because the girls needed tubes in their ears.
Emma had already gotten them earlier in the month but she got an infection in her ear that caused her ears to drain and the tubes started to come out. So...she had to get them again :( It was one thing for it to be a new experience and she doesn't really know what's going on other than she spending some time with mommy in a big building. It's a completely different experience taking her back to the place where she woke up feeling nasty. We no more than pulled in the parking lot and park at the hospital and she sad she wanted to go home. She said "no socks, no socks" which translates.....they gave her blue socks last time and she thought they were pretty cool. Well....she doesn't want any blue socks.

THANKFULLY my mother came with me this time. I don't have any idea how I would have handled both of them getting tubes on the same day. Emma wasn't happy because she knew what happened last time. And Sophie wasn't allowed to eat or breastfeed until after the surgery. So I had to hold her and keep her happy FOREVER until they took her back. She actually did way better than I thought she would. She looks so pitiful in the picture above because she was sooo tired. We had to leave at 5am to get to the hospital by 6am.

Emma took a little bit to wake up from the anesthesia. She was grumpy but after a Popsicle she was feeling much better. Sophia on the other hand was. not. happy. I felt so bad for her. She did NOT like the feeling of waking up from the anesthesia. She cried. And cried. And cried. I think she finally stopped crying because she wore herself out.

We were almost home when Emma started to say that her stomach hurt. It takes a special type of Grandma to sit there and catch your grandchild's puke while your driving down the road. My mom is pretty much irreplaceable. We all went home and took a VERY MUCH needed nap and then.......woke up and everyone was perfectly fine. I mean really. The first time Emma had tubes she was kind of grumpy the rest of the day. They were perfectly fine. There was no way to tell that they had just gotten tubes!

Now I have to deal with putting ear plugs in their ears every time they take a bath/shower or go swimming :(

4-H County Fair

2010-09-27T01:55:00.000-04:00

So...it wasn't until I was an adult that I learned that it's not entirely normal for people to go to their county fair every single day pretty much all day. My sisters and I showed various animals (mainly goats) and entered 4-H projects throughout our youth and I loved it! When we moved off of the farm we stopped showing goats but we continued to do cake decorating. Which I still love to this day and am very grateful that I learned how to do that at a very young age. I can now squeak by with semi-good looking cakes :)

Needless to say I still absolutely love the fair. Logically it doesn't make sense why it would be so much fun to me. Our fair really isn't that big. I stopped riding rides after my Freshman year of high school. I just can't stomach them anymore!! And to be honest I'm really not that big of a "people person." I really wish I was. ~I'm working on that~ But I love it. Walking around, and around.....and around. Looking at the 4-H barns, the animal barns, and the main drag. Eating the food :)

I was really disappointed that JT couldn't go with us this year. Although he's usually sick of it after a couple of hours and could care less to go back until the next year. He was disappointed though that he couldn't take the girls.

We went a couple times this year. Emma was having a hard time being away from her daddy so we went on a date one night.

Posing with Papa in one of the barns.

Lori wanted to take a picture with the girls on the bench with her dad's name on it. I can't decide if I like this one better with Em's eyes cross-eyed.....

.....or this one with Soap being really cute!

This is what happens when you give a two year old a lollipop.

Sophie loves her Mow Mow!

As you'll see in a little bit Em was "slightly" scared of getting on the rides. This one on the other hand she kept asking to go on over and over. We did go twice. It's just a HUGE slide that you go down on a sack.

She's such a graceful little girl :)

Pretty sure I couldn't begin to explain how much I love this chubby little baby.

Like I said....she wasn't too thrilled about getting on the rides. All she talked about was riding the dragon....riding the dragon. And then we sit down and she FLIPPED out! I tried to get her to be brave but after about two seconds of that we just got off. After that no more rides for Miss Emma. She was completely content to watch Sammi and Grayci...other than the big slide of course :)

Another very lovely picture :)

Sweet chubby cheeks....

A picture of the gang~ Minus two of my sisters.

Emma being extra adorable for a picture!

Last year we tried to get Emma to ride on a horse and she wouldn't have anything to do with it. We were actually surprised because she LOVES horses. This year she specifically asked to ride the horses so we gave it a shot. She was fine right up until I tried to put her on. We did get a picture though :)

It took a couple times of me giving the money to the monkey for Emma to feel comfortable to let the monkey take the money from her palm. She let him do it a couple times then she was "all done."

I was really disappointed to see that the pictures I took of her and Papa turned out blurry. This is the best one. That girl loves her Papa.

This summer Emma went through an "al-di-gator" phase so she was really excited to actually see a real live one!

Corn Hole Tournament

2010-09-12T01:43:00.000-04:00

For the last couple years our church has had a corn hole tournament which are really fun. I've played in the past but I'm usually out after two or three games. JT actually won last year!! Unfortunately he wasn't able to do it this year seeing as he was in Colorado! But the girls and I went to watch.

Or sleep.... poor baby!! She was so tired. She'd be swinging back and forth and every now and then her head would just plop right down.

She did have a lot of fun swinging though. Something that I can't get Miss Emma to enjoy. She loves to go and lay on her belly and swing back and forth but the poor girl acts terrified if I try to put her on the swing or in a swing that's even made for babies. Someday.....

Sophie enjoyed Aunt Rhiannon's fingers.....

I must say...I think she's adorable!

JT's 24th

2010-08-29T10:26:00.001-04:00

JT's birthday happened to be just a couple days before he was leaving for Colorado so we had a birthday/going away party. We had a lot of fun with all our friends and family over.

Miss Emma very much enjoyed the kiddie pools we had set up. Enough to get in with her dress on. She did have a bathing suit on earlier that day but the water was FREEZING cold. I suppose it wouldn't have been so cold if she wouldn't have peed in the water I let sit in the sun all day :) Anyway....after talking her into changing out of her bathing suit and warming up a little I find her like this.....

And of course such an occasion calls for putting ones children in trees.....

JT's buddies. He's going to miss goofing off with them. And as you can tell they're definitely good at that!

And because they love us all so dearly they played a nice round of basketball before they decided to come and stand around us ladies. They smelled.......well...you know.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-08-01T23:41:00.002-04:00

Busy. Busy. Busy. That pretty much sums it up right there. JT's been working a lot and I've been helping my mom fix up their rental house that got trashed by the renters. I can't believe how they were living. Horrible! Just horrible! And they were trying to raise kids in that mess! I just can't believe it.

There was junk and trash and mess everywhere. The kitchen was so dirty I told my mom that even if I never cleaned my kitchen it still wouldn't be that dirty. And they were only there a couple months. Just nasty horrible. We've gotten so much done but there is still a lot more to do. It's a really cute house though. I really wish that thing would just sell.

I had a WIC appointment earlier this week. They weighed both the girls and the nurse said that Miss Sophie is just above the 95th percentile...meaning only 5 percent of kids her age as fat as her!! She's just above the 50th percentile in her height, so she's "normal" in that area. And the nurse said that Miss Emma is tall and skinny.

I am so thankful for today. We went to church and then out to eat. But then we were able to come home and we all took a nap (all but JT, he went golfing). But then when we woke up I cleaned the house and the girls played and then I played with them and read them books. And that's it. I have been so busy going here and there that just a normal evening at home doing normal things felt SO good. I think the girls really enjoyed it too :)

Miss Emma is getting funnier and funnier. The other day I put on a black shirt that was open in the front and JT didn't really like it and said I should just leave it off. I started looking through the laundry basket and Emma looked at me and said "Daddy said no" very seriously! (Referring to me not wearing that shirt.) JT laughed out loud. He thought it was sooo funny.

The other day "Our God Is Greater" by Chris Tomlin came on in the car. I was singing along and I noticed movement in the back. I looked in my mirror and Emma was just going nuts on her invisible drums! It was the cutest thing ever. JT taught her that..and the guitar. And we usually do it to that song but that was the first that I've seen her do it without us trying to get her to.

Rhiannon taught Emma to say "GO TIGERS!" and pump her fist in the air. It's so cute. The other day we met JT for lunch at McDonalds and Lori and Rhiannon came. Rhiannon said she was going to go home and watch the Tigers. When we left and were headed home Emma asked to go swimming over and over and over again. Finally I told her not to ask again, that we weren't going to go swimming. She sat there for a second and then said "I wanna watch Tigers." lol It was adorable. She has no idea what she's talking about it. But it must be fun because Aunt Rannon doing it, right??

JT asked me out on a date the other day. We seriously have not had anytime together in such a long time. We actually canceled the date at one point during the day because he had to work late but we decided to go to the late show then. Brianna came over and put the girls to bed for us and stayed with them so we wouldn't have to wake them up to bring them home. It was nice to get out and have a date night! I'm already looking forward to having an empty nest! It's a long ways off but I'm looking forward to dating JT again!

Granny's Garden

2010-07-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

I took these a while ago in Lori's garden. They're seriously like the five pictures that turned out of....umm.....maybe 20!

MY FRIDGE!

2010-07-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

What happens when you take one VERY adorable 2 year old....

a fridge....

a permanent marker....

And 3 minutes unattended......I'm actually really impressed with the drawings on the side of the fridge :)

Colorado Trip July 2010 (6)

2010-07-16T23:53:00.003-04:00

Today was our last day in Colorado Springs. And a very blessed one it was!! This morning we got around and stopped at the Mr. Rooter for JT to pick up his application and low and behold...he has a job!! They are really excited to have him too because of the hours he is able to work. He has school from 8 to 12 Monday through Friday so it sounds like he'll be working 1 to 8 during the week. We're hoping it will only be about 3 days of week of that and a full day of work Saturday or Sunday. We'll be in contact with them closer to when we come out here.

After the successful stop at Mr. Rooter we ate the Cracker Barrel. Then we went to Focus on the Family. Emma would have absolutely LOVED it! They had tunnels and slides and lots of fun things for her to do! We'll definitely be visiting this place with the girls! Best part? FREE!! That's my kind of fun. While we were there I picked up a few things including these:

I'm really excited about reading these and hope they are as interesting as they sound! We'll see!

After that we drove, and drove, and drove!! More apartment searching! This trip wasn't too successful. We went down to Pueblo, Colorado which is about 30 minutes South of Colorado Springs. We heard that apartments would be a little cheaper there. But after a couple of hours of searching we really didn't see much that we liked. The town seemed a little run down and just not as nice. We did stop in Fountain on the way back. Fountain is right next to Colorado Springs at the South end of town. We did like a couple of apartment buildings there. Now we just have to look them up and see if we can afford them.

We finished up the night with Subway and packing! We miss the girls something horrible! You know JT is missing his babies when he sees a book at the Focus on the Family that Emma would like and is willing to pay SEVENTEEN DOLLARS for a children's book!!! Crazy man! We've found ourselves talking in "Emma" language.

Medicine - Smes-min
Noodles - You-youls
Will you hold me - Hold you?

I'm SOOO looking forward to not pumping anymore!! Ugh! I hate it. I can't wait to see Miss Sophie!! Her and all of her rolls! One and half more days!

Colorado Trip July 2010 (5)

2010-07-16T01:27:00.004-04:00

Today was a BUSY day! We looked at a TON of apartments! So far we've looked at 24! We're both getting a little tired of driving around in the car! Just in time to drive home! lol Almost all of our day was spent driving around doing that but earlier in the day we were able to stop at the Colorado Springs Mr. Rooter and drop off JT's resume. They seemed to be pretty excited about it so that's promising.

JT didn't really have a lot of "fun" things that he wanted to do in particular but one of them was horseback riding. So we decided to do that today. We used the GPS to get out there and "out there" it was. We drove, and drove, and drove up the mountain on this really bumpy dirt road. The view down the mountain was absolutely amazing! It kind of made up for the fact that there was nothing there to prevent us from sliding down the hill if we got a little too close! But beautiful nonetheless!

I couldn't really get a good picture of the view of the city in the second picture. You can see that it was raining but the view was AMAZING! You could see the entire city from where we were on the mountain!

When we FINALLY got there we had to sign a paper for liability reasons. The whole paper pretty much consisted of every possible way you could get hurt or die and how they can't be held responsible! It was quite comforting! We could sign off of the helmets if we wanted to but after signing that paper we decided just to wear them. Looking back we really did not need them but they didn't hurt anything.

When JT first climbed up there he was slightly concerned. It was a little more shaky then he remembered. lol But he was fine after just a little bit.
We had a lot of fun. It was great to get out and do something other than driving around in the car!

PS - I am completely aware I look like an idiot holding the reigns like that but they told me not to let the horse eat and when we stopped to take the picture what did it decide to do? And if you weren't aware those little boogers are strong. So that was my attempt at keeping him from eating and trying to pose for a picture!

One more day until we get to leave to see my babies!!!

Brushing Teeth

2010-07-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Miss Emma likes to brush her teeth.
I'm not sure how much actual cleaning goes on while she does it....
Well, the other day I heard noises coming from the bathroom.
My first guess was that Emma was brushing her teeth.
She stands on the toilet and puts her brush under the water.
I was not expecting this...
I think she's on to me.
She knows that if she's naughty she gets in trouble.
But if she's being cute WHILE she's being naughty then mommy goes through this whole 1 minute decision process of whether or not she should scold her or run and get her camera.
I ran and got the camera.
She did get in trouble too.
She knows very well that she is not allowed in the sink.
No matter how cute it was :)

Colorado Trip July 2010 (4)

2010-07-15T02:33:00.005-04:00

Three and half more days until I get to see my babies!!!! I MISS THEM SOOOO MUCH!!! We are having a great time and getting pretty acquainted with the city. Well...JT is getting pretty acquainted. I don't really pay much attention when we go places so.....

We've kind of messed up our time schedule up a little bit. We were up until 4 last night (which is 6am Michigan time) watching tv because we took a nap that afternoon. Which turned into sleeping till noon. And getting a REALLY late start to the day.

We decided to drive up into the mountains a little bit and check out a trailer for rent up there. After an hour of driving and the directions telling us to turn down a slightly eerie looking road and the gps telling us we were STILL a half hour away we gave up on that one. But we got to see some of God's BEAUTIFUL work!

The pictures aren't the greatest because I took them through the car window :)

The clouds were just amazing today!
After we had made it all the way up into the mountains we decided we'd kind of like to see them a little more so we stopped at the State Park and took a little hike and took a couple pictures.

JT decided to do something a little different today....

The same day that we decided to go hiking. And ask the lady at the visitors center what type of trees the white ones were. To which she kind of looked at him like "typical motorcycle shirt wearing, mohawk headed city boy" and said "Aspen". (Which is what he had told me he thought they were before. Poor JT.

How could you not love him? FYI - I think he looks pretty darn good :)

After a much needed bit of exercise we got back in the jeep and headed back down. To which the huge sinus pressure in my head was VERY thankful. Evidently being 9,600 feet has it effects on people!

We stopped at another goodwill tonight and got some more deals! JT picked up some black cowboy boots! Yay! And he got a good start to some dress clothes that he's going to need for school! We looked at some apartments, walked around the mall (JT got TWO pair of aviator glasses from Aero. They were on sale for SIX DOLLARS EACH!!)

We ended the evening with some Cold Stone Creamery and some sandwiches we had packed back at the hotel. Now I just need to get to bed so we can get a little bit earlier of a start tomorrow :)

Addie Sue's First Birthday

2010-07-14T08:00:00.001-04:00

Miss Addie Sue, JT & I's FIRST niece ever and Emma & Sophia's FIRST 1st cousin ever had her FIRST birthday party. Her actual birthday is the 5th of July but we had it a couple of weeks earlier because they live a ways away and are having two parties for both sets of families & friends.

I loved the little cupcakes and cake that Jenni made. They were SUPER adorable!

Addie liked it pretty well :)

Miss Emma didn't really leave any doubt that she liked it :)

Addie Sue loved the card that Grandpa gave her! It sang a song but I can't remember which one....

Miss Sophie rocked her party hat.

Emma caught up on learning music :)

This is one of the gifts that we gave her. I made this and then decided it wasn't exactly a FUN gift for a one year old so I went out and bought a book at Wal-Mart that I read and ABSOLUTELY love!! It was about a mommy, daddy, and baby bear and how God gave the baby bear to the mom and dad. And now I want one :(

Anyway. I REALLY wanted to make one of these but my girls really don't have enough flower clips to justify having one. But in case you can't tell its just a picture frame that I spray painted and then put scrapbooking paper behind it and white elastic glued on. Could have used any ribbon really but I didn't have any matching on hand. And then you just clip the clippies on :)

By the way...if you didn't know. Having Grand Babies can turn this....

....into this :)

Colorado Trip July 2010 (3)

2010-07-14T01:18:00.002-04:00

Day one of actually getting out and about in the city. First stop?

Goodwill!! And I am in LOVE!! Its huge! It's cheap (even for goodwill)!! And they had some awesome stuff!! We walked away with some killer deals!! Even JT got excited!! Now that's saying something!

These are just some of my favorite little clothes I got for the girlies! And not one of them was more than 99 cents!!! I couldn't believe it!

And you can't really tell but this little outfit is Miss Emma's size. The pinks don't match but when I took a picture of just the sweater it looked like it would fit me! I am in love with the sweater. I love clothes that are "big people" looks but "little people" size. And the skirt is just adorable!

I saw this and just had to get it. Emma is going to love it!

And these are what JT got all excited about. Practically never worn Doc Martins for $14.99. They had a black pair for the same price but he decided that he probably wouldn't wear them too often and decided against getting those. Best part? They rang them up for only $4.99!! If he would have known they were marked down even more I think he would have gotten the black ones!

I got a couple other things for the girls and JT and I both walked out with some new clothes on the cheap so we're pretty excited. Also picked up a Christmas gift?? for my mother-in-law. Which I'm slightly jealous of because I really like it too!! And I can hardly contain my excitement because we saw an ad for TWO MORE Goodwills in the area!! You know where I'll be tomorrow!!! Soooo excited.

After our Goodwill shopping trip (that lasted a couple hours :O) we went out to the bible school and had a little tour. She just showed us where the class meets, eats, etc. We were able to talk with them a little bit about what areas of town seem to be nicer and what areas to kind of avoid (as far as housing).

We started to look for housing/apartments after that and we both seemed to get really overwhelmed. The enormity of change that we're making seemed to just weigh on us and bring us down and tempers up :( We decided to come back to the hotel and just chill for a little bit. After we both had a nap and we talked about it we were feeling better and ventured out again.

We drove past quite a few apartment buildings! I can't imagine what we would have done without a GPS. It just made things sooo much easier!!

Something that we weren't planning on seeing a whole lot of while looking for apartments were deer! But deer we did see!

We say this little guy eating grass but their basketball hoop and there are houses ALL around! We were almost thinking that it was their pet or something.

Then we saw this guy just walking beside the apartment buildings that we were looking at. Seriously, on one side of him was the apartment building and the other was a four lane highway. It looks like he is standing in a wooded area but it's just the apartment building landscaping!

And I swear JT was going to pee himself when he saw this!! Six huge mule deer just standing in this field in the middle of town eating away. You can't see it but there is a lane right in front of them that a lady was walking on. She had to yell and whistle at them to have them get out of her way. We could have walked right up to them but we we stopped right about here for safety! :)

We saw one more deer on the way home just wandering down the street. We had to honk at her to get her off the road. One very different thing we've noticed out here compared to back home is their poor lawns!! Oh, it's so sad! I guess the part about having sun almost all the time is there is no rain to water their grass! People either water their grass and then it looks good, or they don't and it looks bad....pretty bad. Or they fill in their entire lawn with rocks!!!

After lots of driving around looking at apartments we decided to get a bite to eat. We stopped at Old Chicago and we both really liked it. It was a pretty big Italian pizza place. We're thinking we might go back for lunch sometime this week...they have a lunch buffet that we can imagine will be pretty good.

Looking forward to some sightseeing and possibly horseback riding this week. And of course more apartments and dropping off resumes. We're going to look and see if we can find a church that has a Wednesday evening service we can attend tomorrow.

Missing my babies. But Miss Em looks like she is having a blast at Bible school. I'm living off the pictures that everyone is sending me!

Grandyma

2010-07-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

I had a talk with my Grandma the other day. I sat down with her while she was trimming her dogs' hair.
Asking her questions about her past.
Watching memories flood into her eyes.
Listening to her tell me about things she remembers from when she was 2.
Knowing I will treasure this time with her forever.
Loving her hands...

Colorado Trip July 2010 (2)

2010-07-12T22:23:00.002-04:00

We made it :) Soooo excited....not sure if I'm more excited to be here or to just get out of the car!! We're at the nicest hotel we've ever been in. Evidently the nicer the hotel the lesser "complimentary" things. Have to pay for internet and no free breakfast :( We get free ice! lol

It's been amazing to me to drive across all those states and see the differences. I have only been out here once when I was too young to remember anything so everything was new to me. The lowdown:

Iowa - Just cornfields, cornfields, and um......slightly more cornfields. Not my favorite to drive through :(

Nebraska - Cornfields, cows, hilly, and trees. I liked Nebraska. Pretty sure I've never seen sooo many cows! It was awesome to see them all.

Colorado - Cows & open fields of nothingness. Every now and then there was a cornfield and they looked amazingly green because they were irrigated so the fields were green but everything around it was brown because of lack of water. Mostly it was just huge fields of grass and (sage brush?). They were littered with cows and it was pretty cool because they have windmills in the middle of the fields and the cows know exactly where they are so they can get water.

As we were driving up to Denver and between Denver and Colorado Springs there were huge apartment complexes and then a field of cows.....and then more buildings....and then some cows. It was pretty funny.

Denver seemed just huge as we were driving past. Colorado Springs looks like a pretty big place too. But what wouldn't seem huge compared to where I live??

Looks like we're going to relax in the hotel tonight and take a breather. Looks like they have some awesome touristy things to do that we will try out. Probably make a stop at Focus on the Family at some point too.

Missing my babies!!

P.S. Not too long after we got in Colorado we saw two cowboys on horses walking through a field :)

On a side note....

2010-07-12T08:34:00.000-04:00

I found Emma doing this the other day....

In case you can't tell she's lining them up all in a row.
She is her mothers daughter :)

Colorado Trip July 2010 (1)

2010-07-11T23:59:00.003-04:00

We left for Colorado this morning!! :) :) :)
We dropped the girls off at church for the great-grandmas to watch and then Granny and Papa to watch until Bri could pick them up after she got out of work.

I tried a new way of packing this time around for the girls. I saw another blogger doing this and couldn't wait to try it. She put each individual outfit for each child in a gallon size bag so that she could just flip through them and grab the bag and everything was ready. Technically I'm not able to try this out myself because my mom has them all week but.....I was excited just to try it. And my mom will officially think I'm anal....which I'm not....I just like things.....organized.

Ugh. I'm already missing them SOOOO much!! They seem to be having fun though :)

We packed some food for the trip to save some money. And this was just the food that didn't need to be iced. We have a whole other cooler filled with water, pop, milk, cheese, meats, etc.

Unfortunately this isn't gone yet (poison ivy). But it looks a lot better than this. And this doesn't do justice to what it did look like just a couple days ago.

So far we are having a good time :)

The cruise control is sort of giving us fits so we had to kind of work around that....using some tweezers!!

So far we have seen LOTS of these and they are so awesome to look at! Want to know what else Iowa and Nebraska have a LOT of.....corn, corn, corn. And LOTS of deer signs!! JT's pretty sure the pictures on the signs are bigger.....lol

Tonight we are staying in Lincoln, Nebraska. We got on Expedia and got an awesome deal on this room!! They had a couple different themed rooms and we ended up with the Captains' Room! It even has a jacuzzi. Got to love Expedia :)

Right now we're just settling down to go to bed. If you think of it please pray for us. It appears that JT is fighting off more of cold of sorts and isn't feeling the best :( Thanks!

Daddy Feeding Sophie

2010-07-11T23:37:00.010-04:00

Daddy fed Sophie the other night. It was hilarious. He was making plane noises and mommy doesn't usually do that. She was looking at him like was CRAZY!

And of course Miss Emma was "helping"!

Emma's Library Trip

2010-07-11T22:43:00.003-04:00

Emma went to the library with Granny and Papa the other day. She came home with a goody bag and this was included. She took it out and it instantly went on her head....

Miss Sophia

2010-07-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

Giving Thanks Always

2010-07-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

Every year the Fourth of July comes around I learn to love it more and more. I remember when I was a kid we'd have friends and family come over and us kids would climb to the top deck of our play house that my dad had built and lay there and watch the fireworks. My eyes darting back and forth between the fireworks and making sure I could see my dad through the smoke to make sure he was alright.

The more I learn about the history of this nation the more I love Independence Day. I'm very thankful for the sacrifices that were made so we could be free. Very thankful.

Thankful that I can take my baby girls to the local parade.

Thankful that when they get worried or scared I can tell them it's okay.....because it is okay. And they are safe.

Thankful that I can my girls have a big strong daddy to make them feel safe.

Thankful that I was born in a a country that some people can only dream of living in.

Thankful for an abundance of good clean water that we can have fun in all day long.

Thankful that my little babies never have to worry if they will have enough to eat.

Ephesians 5:20 - Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

She's Country

2010-07-09T11:00:00.001-04:00

She's country

From her cowboy boots

to her down home roots

She's country

To the songs she plays

to the prayers she prays

That's the way she was born and raised

she ain't afraid to stay country.

Pop! Goes the weasel!

2010-07-08T23:53:00.002-04:00

Half a pound of tuppenny rice

Half a pound of treacle.

That's the way the money goes.

POP! Goes the weasel!

If your going to do something, do it pretty....

2010-07-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Back in June my sisters and I ran a half marathon.

I mentioned that I had seen some women that ran in sparkle shirts.

And that idea grew into tutu's. Tutu's for us.

And tutu's for our fans.

Tutus signs.

Turns out people who were tutu's have WAY more fans. Seriously. Try it sometime. You're instantly a celebrity in their books. Even the good runners, the way good runners give you props!

Pretty sure the coolest part was running down the Notre Dame football tunnel, holding hands, in our tutu's.

And then getting hugs from my daughters when I was done.

And yes, Emma now believes that face is the appropriate face for any and all pictures.

Book Sneeze

2010-06-30T12:33:00.003-04:00

You'll see on the side of blog there is a new button for book sneeze. Just signed up for it the other day. Basically they have a few new releases they want reviewed at any given time. They send you the book for free. You read it. Right a review about it (your honest opinion). And then after that you can request another free book and so on.

I chose Beyond Opinion by Ravi Zacharias. I have one other book by him but I haven't read it yet.

Things are pretty quiet around here today. I stayed up too late organizing the kids clothes and JT didn't get home until 2 (maybe later). He was over at his friends house celebrating his friends' birthday. Miss Emma went to the doctor yesterday and has an ear infection. So they gave her shots in both of her legs so she's a little sore and definitely fussy. But she's doing better already.

And I'm also trying to decided who in the world thought of making a coat for a two year old dry clean only! I mean really? seriously? It doesn't even make sense. So....that's what I'm working on right now.

You Are My Sunshine

2010-06-28T09:29:00.000-04:00

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

when skies are gray

You'll never know dear

how much I love you,

So please don't take

my sunshine away.
Emma's new favorite song.

So guess what I've been singing 20 times a day?

Do Not Fear

2010-06-27T10:48:00.003-04:00

We didn't get to church today. The first time in like....ever! Miss Emma woke up not feeling the greatest and seemed to have a little bit of a temperature. I called JT and let him know, gave her a bath, and prayed for her and told the temperature where it could go! lol Well not really...but kind of :)

I was just reading in my devotional the other day that faith is a fear killer. I think sometimes it can be hard to be in "faith" all the time. It's a constant reminding to yourself that you have this, this is taken care of EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. you feel or hear something that would normally discourage you. I thought of another way to word it that seems to hit home a little more. Worry is a faith killer.

"And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful how is it that ye have no faith?" (Mark 4:40)

I think we sometimes think that worry just seems to be so natural. We say "well, I'm a mother, it just comes with the territory." or "I'm a father, I have to provide for all of you, of course I'm going to worry about money." "If I don't think about it, who's going to?" And to think if we would give all our fears and worries and problems to the One who can actually do something about them (or has already done something about them) we would be getting good results (because we're trusting in God), we'd be more joyful and happy, and we'd be more enjoyable to be around!

So whenever I find myself slipping into worrying or fear I'm going to remind myself that there is no reason to worry or fear. And I'm standing on Miss Emma being healed of her fever. It's already down a degree from earlier! Only one more to go :)

Emma and the Mosquitoes!

2010-06-27T08:14:00.000-04:00

I mentioned the other day that Emma seems to be a little more allergic to mosquitoes then most people.

Exhibit A - Mildly large bites on her back.

Exhibit B – A picture from the beginning of summer.

:( Poor baby.

It looks pretty bad but it didn't even phase her.

After her eye started going shut I took her to the doctor so they could give her something to get rid of it faster because I didn't want her eye closing all the way. I was pretty sure it was mosquitoes and they confirmed that at the appointment.

Needless to say Emma goes around smelling like she's taken a dive in a bottle of bug spray!

Bandana Dress

2010-06-26T20:08:00.000-04:00

I made an adorable dress.

A dress that JT was even impressed with.

And a headband to match.

And then I tried to put the thing on Emma. The arm holes were too small!

Craft fail :(

I have it in my plans to make another one though :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies For Daddy

2010-06-26T13:29:00.007-04:00

The other night Emma was grumpy. Very grumpy.

So in order to keep her not grumpy I decided to have a little mommy and Emma time. Which resulted in baking one of daddy's favorite chocolate chip cookies.

By the way. Don't let the picture fool you. She's just smiling because she didn't want me to have proof of the mood she was in. She sneaky like that.

She loved the flour. Which she quickly found out doesn't taste too good. She loved stirring.

We added the chocolate chips. More of her sneakiness...

This time I caught it! Evidently those tasted better then the flour.

We put them on the baking stone. Emma seemed to think that particular cookie had a little more than the rest and decided to help even it out when I wasn't looking.

While they were baking we took a break and read some books. She loves her books.
When they were done and all cooled off we put them on a plate for daddy and Miss Emma delivered them.....
er.... she tried to save them! P.S. The welts on her back are from mosquitoes! I didn't know they affected people like that!!
After the first attempt failed we tried again with this....

mission accomplished!

Quality time with Emma, Emma not in grumpy mood anymore, and a happy daddy!

Toy Story Three

2010-06-26T12:17:00.005-04:00

We went to see Emma's first movie at the movie theater. Toy Story 3. I saw the first one, like years ago, when it first came out on video. Didn't see the 2^nd one. But with EVERYONE talking about this one I really wanted to see it.

John called and wanted to go see it with us so we decided it would be the perfect time to take Emma to the movies. I really liked the movie. I thought it was hilarious.

Emma did WAY better than I imagined. She made it through ¾ of it before she started getting antsy. The popcorn definitely helped. Her and her popcorn. She didn't get that from me! Near the end JT took her out for about 5 minutes and then brought her back in but other than that she did awesome.

On a completely different note - when we had that nasty storm the other day my Mom lost her power and they were estimating it was going to be off for a couple days. She called and wanted to know if we had any freezer space. That is definitely something I have. We have a deep freeze out in the garage and we use it and need it but compared to most people we have barely anything in it. And I like it that way. Much more organized :)

Anyway. After my mom called I started moving some of the stuff to the inside freezer. And I put all the chicken meat my dad had given us in the fridge to thaw so I could boil it up.

So I just finished all the boiling a couple days ago. I boiled, shredded, and froze it in freezer bags. Two cups of chicken in each bag.

After looking at that and seeing how organized that was I decided to include my bananas. I had a bag full of a ton of bananas just flopping around. So I peeled them and mushed them all together and bagged them up in 1 cup servings. For breads and smoothies and such.

And then my dad gave me a TON of black raspberries! So what did I do?? I bagged them up in 1 cup servings for smoothies and Miss Emma, because she can pack down berries like they're nothing!

Oh organization! How I love thee!!

Easter

2010-06-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

I know this is a little late.....okay....maybe a LOT late. But better late then never right??? Right. So we had an Easter get-together at our house this year. And it was a blast. I wanted it to be fun so we had the little girls do an Easter egg hunt... And the adults had their own hunt....for jelly beans. Then we had an egg relay.... Jeremiah won.... We had an egg toss which Lori & Rhiannon won.... We also had tug of war.... And took pictures of cute families...

Church Tea Party Food

2010-06-22T23:00:00.007-04:00

I made these cake balls for the church tea party I went to the other day. I got the recipe from bakerella. Hers are much nicer and she gets VERY creative with them. You HAVE to go look what she makes these little boogers into!

I made a couple of different desserts for the church tea party. I couldn't decide on just one because I wanted to try a little of everything.

I made cake balls...
I had made these once before and thought they turned out much more beautiful the first time.
The only problem that I had with these was after they started getting to be room temperature they started plopping right off the sticks and onto the table! I used chocolate chips instead of chocolate bark so I'm wondering if that affected how well it stood up.

I made Cheesecake balls - which happen to be my favorite! I had also made these once before. The first time I stuck sticks in them for people to be able to pick them up.
Oreo Balls! These things are awesome! My mom doesn't even like oreo's and she liked these!
And I also made chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered oreo's.

Emma's 2nd Birthday

2010-06-19T14:41:00.001-04:00

So I'm only a couple months late in this but near the end of February we celebrated Miss Emma's 2nd birthday!! I wanted her to have a princess party so I bought a princess party packet at Wal-Mart and this is what we ended up with...
Now just a couple months later I discovered the wonderful world of blogging and my eyes have been opened to the AMAZING parties that people are throwing using the most creative things. I have been inspired and can't wait till Miss Sophia's first birthday!

Last year I made this cake for her...
So this year I needed a special princess cake for Emma. I saw the idea of using cones for towers but other than that I didn't really like any of the others so I just kind of meshed what I liked off of each cake and came up with this...
You'd think it would be a little better crafted after how many years in 4-H but I think it's adorable and it wasn't hard to do. It took some time...but not hard. The butterfly was actually harder believe it or not.

I know the picture is blurry but it's the only one and I LOVE it. Her face makes it all worth it!!
And what other thing do little girls need other than princess cakes?? A tutu!!! Unfortunately I didn't take the picture earlier in the night before she crumpled it up but you get the gist and it SO easy to make. Now that I've made this one I have high hopes for more to come that will be cuter and bigger and fluffier :P
At this point I believe she was a little out of spirits....but don't worry, she perked right up later on....
She's an amazing little girl. She lights up my world!