Sleepovers, SPRING!!, and new chores :)

Well, I was going to write about how we've been having the most glorious weather, and then I woke up freezing ( I forgot that I had turned my furnace off the yesterday bc it was like 70 degrees outside.)  It is now 30 degrees outside!! :(  Oh well, you think I would be used to this since I have lived in Ohio my whole life, but its still a bummer!!  Anyways, before today, the kids have been outside alot and having so much fun!!

of course Lamby had to come out and enjoy the weather with Elsie :)

I actually really enjoy winter and snow and all that, but I am tired of being cooped up in the house!! And its really weird because Im usually always burning up when Im pregnant, but this time I have been cold, so Im ready for some warm weather!

Jude and Elsie had a couple sleepovers lately ( my friend Stephanie and I just traded a kid for a night ;) ) I think its so fun to see the kids interacting with other kids and having a good time! Gibson stayed with us the first time and I sent Elsie off to stay over with Ava, and it was a success! so a couple weeks later we traded opposite and Ava stayed with us- I forgot to snap any pics of the girls, but here are some of the boys!

Brushing teeth ( and checking out how handsome they are :)

They had so much fun! 

Another new thing my kids are doing is making their beds every morning.  They actually dont mind doing it and do a pretty good job

both the kids just got "big kid beds" and so it makes this chore a little more fun! And, yes, that is a boppy on Jude's bed- I pulled it out the other day when I was going through our baby stuff, and he found it a couple days ago and has slept with it ever since...silly kid :) Also, they must like making beds bc they tore my blanket off mine and made a big one on the floor...

I also have to mention that I have done very good about keeping my ocd in check with their bed making- I see that the blanket isnt perfect or flat, but I tell myself, "leave it alone!!" And I do!! haha, I really dont know if I would be diagnosed with OCD, but if not I am definitely on the verge, so this is a big deal for me :)  Which reminds me- I have made a new rule in our house- no food or drinks off the kitchen table, now that my kids dont do sippy cups anymore, I was so nervous having them take cups all over the house and spilling them! I know you are thinking "duh, why didnt you think of that earlier" and.....I dont know, I just didnt care when it was sippy sups and taking bowls of cereal or snacks didnt bother me much either, but  ( OCD again) I am constantly vacuuming!  This new rule is cutting down on that a bit. More of a sanity saver for me :)

Anyways, here are is a juice we have been enjoying lately ( Im usually not a juice person unless its orange juice, but I LOVE this) 

It almost tastes like baby food but in juice form- really tasty! 

Lastly, we have made the decision to do public school for kindergarten.  We went this past tuesday to register and here is all the paperwork we brought home!

Jude is sooo excited!! I cried all the way home.....yes, Im a big baby!!  Im just not ready for him to be in school! I will just miss having him home all day with us, but I'll have Elsie and the new baby ( which is a BOY!!)  to keep me busy :) 

Well, I need to get some cleaning done ( seriously, Im OCD) so until next time, enjoy this freezing weekend!

I'm Lame

Wow, failed the very first week after my promise to post once a week!! haha, thats why I don't make new years resolutions- I have a hard time sticking to them! :) Anyways, I have not been motivated to write anything bc.....we've been pretty boring around here :)  But one thing I wanted to blog about was sending Jude to kindergarten this fall- Im dreading it!! We are debating between a couple schools and doing visits and all that stuff, but Im just so bummed that he's already old enough for school :( Obviously we are finding it hard to decide between public or private-  money or convenience, blah blah blah....I have my heart set on one place, but its a little bit of a drive and with gas prices sneaking up again, Im feeling like we are going to have to settle just for convenience of the drive.  Also, what are my biggest priorities? A great academic school or one where Im positive he'll get the spiritual encouragement I want him to get out of school??  Just lots of decisions to make and Im also getting ready for the baby to come in July, so we'll just be making a lot of adjustments and having to be really organized ( which Im pretty good at, but not daddy ;)
Sigh, I would love to hear from you all about how you made your decision on where to send your children to school- its a big deal, but I do know that he is sooo excited to go to "big kids school" so that eases my mind a little ( as in a teensy tinsy bit)

Randomness

Well, I am going to try really hard to do a post a week at least!! Hopefully I will be able to stick with it :) Its seems though, that every time I start my new post, the kids need something.....they're hungry, thirsty, want a book read to them, are bringing every toy they own down the stairs....etc so I have to sneak this time in when I can.  This week has been sort of a bummer week for me, for a couple reasons.  First a sweet woman at our church has a daughter who is pregnant, but just found out she may have cervical cancer.  My heart is just so sad for this mother and daughter, please remember to pray for them. I cant imagine how hard it would be to find out your child may have cancer, that dreaded disease, but to add to it that she is also pregnant, would just be terrifying!  Please, please remember these precious ladies!  

The next, I'll be vague about, just got my feelings hurt by a few harsh words and I guess its just pregnancy hormones, but it has had me bummed out all week!  ugh...

Lastly, last week, Jude had to go to the hospital.  He had been sick all weekend, but on tuesday about 1 in the afternoon, he started complaining about his right side hurting really bad.  Naturally I just thought, "oh no, his appendix" so, I called his pediatrician and on the way to the appointment, Jude started really hurting and crying, it just killed me.  Well, the doc checked him out and told us to go straight to Dayton Children's ER.  On the way, it was horrible, Jude was screaming in pain.  I had never seen him act like that before and it really had me scared!  After a three hour wait in the waiting room ( which was ridiculous) Jude got some x-rays and the dr. pretty much told us Jude was full of gas a poop!!! Ugh, I don't even want to know how much that just cost me!!  So bummed about that whole thing bc, essentially its my fault ( don't we always do this as mom's, blame ourselves?)  b/c we hadn't been eating the greatest, just a lot of snacking around during the day and not eating meals very well ( although, I rarely buy junk food, just not eating regularly or things with a lot of fiber can mess you up)   Anyways, I felt horrible about not being more mindful about my children's eating habits.  Im sure these are things that most mom's can relate to....its daunting being a parent! I think sometimes, " you know, my kids probably think Im nuts!!"  When you're little you always think that your parents should have it all together and never make mistakes.  Now, as a parent, you understand how wrong that idea was.  We are all still human, still learning and growing too, along with our kids.  I have to remind myself of this often, like those days that Elsie has an accident and we had planned on being out all day and it didnt even cross my mind to make sure I had extra clothes in the truck, or when I send my kids to bed for the 3rd night in a row without brushing their teeth. "I am human, I make mistakes, my kids will not be in therapy bc of this silly thing...." maybe this is my new mantra haha!  Anyways,  ( although I highly doubt anyone had it in their heads that I had it all together!! ;) ) I hope this in a weird way, is an encouragement to you, our kids will most likely turn out pretty darn good even though they have cavities and $3 leggings from walmart bc we forgot the extra clothes :)  I'll leave you with a few things that I have been trying to capture from our daily lives....I read this blog www.beckyhiggins.com and she does a POTD ( picture of the day) every single day and has for about 3 or 4 years I think.  This made me really want to kind of document our daily lives with pictures, so here's a few pictures of things that I think describes our lives day to day.........

I'm usually not a big pringles person, but I really like the dill pickle chips flavor ( can someone say "pregnancy stereotype!!")

Please tell me your silverware drawer looks like this too??  With all the kids little utensils and medicine droppers and straws, this is about as organized as it gets!

Each member of our family has a big nalgene bottle that we drink out of here at home ( the kids each have smaller versions too)  We love these!

Is your family brand-loyal to anything?? We are definitely a Mac family.....and I so wish I had an iPad to photograph, but its definitely on my wishlist!! Also we are with Sprint, so Im hoping that by my next renewal that Sprint will have the iPhone!! I just think Mac are such better quality and look sleeker and cleaner, blah, blah, blah ;) 

I'll leave you of a picture of my kids this morning who were still sleepy and wanted a video after breakfast......Have a great weekend!!

p.s. this was Jude's 3rd pancake that morning!!

Saturday Morning Breakfasts

Well, usually on Saturday mornings unless Thad has to work, he makes us breakfast.....which I l.o.v.e.!! Also Thad can get pretty inventive when he cooks so on the menu this morning was mint chocolate chip pancakes......soooo good!!

And while I love and appreciate this yummy breakfast this is the part that I don't like....cleanup, but I figure, its only fair ;)

The kids inherited their love of chocolate form their mommy...

Lately, we have done a little rearranging here at our house.  We have a little room on the back of the house that has been our tv/playroom for awhile now.  This room has been a few things- first just a junk/storage area and dog room ( poor Lucky) it did have the original lanolium that was getting nasty from Lucky and so after she wasn't in the house, we turned it into the tv room, that (as with everything in a house with a toddler) slowly turned into a playroom.  We finally two years ago got carpet laid in their which made it much warmer and more comfy for movies.  Just a couple weeks ago though we decided to let it be just a play room- with two kids and one on the way, it just made sense. Soooo.....we moved the tv into our bedroom (meaning, it really never gets watched anymore which is fine by me....more on that later) and let the kids get a new little toy storage and bring alot of their toys from their rooms downstairs.  The room is always total chaos and desperately desperately needs painted, but alas, here are a few photos of the new playroom...ugh...

all of the dvd's were still on top of the drawers and those white chairs hadn't been moved yet ( they've since been relocated)

This one above- you can see where Elsie found a good place to write with a pencil on the wall ;)

Speaking of painting though, my very talented and good friend Janine painted Elsie's room this fall for me and it turned out perfect, just like I'd hoped! Her room was originally tan like the playroom, but we painted it a sky blue and she did the pink and purple tree and birds

we are supposed to start working on Jude's room, but Im still undecided about what I want- robots, dinosaurs....something that will be cool even when he's 10, so I can wait awhile to repaint ;)  

The kids have a few times managed to talk me into letting them watch a movie in my room ( we only have 1 tv in our house...I know....rare, but we watch mostly on our desktop bc we do netflix, so we hardly ever get dvds and I must admit that if I let my kids start watching tv, they could sit ALL DAY LONG....so I avoid it haha) I did let them snuggle up on my bed and watch a bunch of old cartoons that we have on dvd- they had a good time and look so cute :)

We've been having ALOT of bad weather lately though, so lounging around in pj's in mommy's bed watching old cartoons sounds like just what the doctor ordered ;) Hope everyone is having a great weekend.....we are :)

Merry Christmas!

Well, I hope you all had a good Christmas! We had a great time around here!  We do alot of running around on the holidays which Thad hates, but I have always done it that way so I'm used to it.  For Christmas eve ( Thad worked all day) I took the kids to my grandmas house on my dads side and did our Christmas there.  The kids LOVE going to her farmhouse and they always have a good time.  My grandma is the kind of lady that will not let you out of her house without something to eat and you always end up going home with something ( last time I was there it was two bags of frozen fresh picked blackberries for pies and some black raspberry jam!!  Anyways, the kids ate some lunch there and then opened presents ( my dad was so cute, he was about as anxious as the kids! )

Dont worry she got a baby doll too ;) she loves playing with boy toys, and I think this was her favorite present from pappy

Of course Pappy opened everything and they started playing while my grandma and I had some much needed coffee :)  We had a great time at the farmhouse and Elsie was passed out before we got to the end of the driveway!

We rushed home to help Daddy get ready to do the Christmas Eve candlelight service and then headed over to Thad's parents house to do Christmas there!  Mendy ( always the awesome cook) made a Honey baked ham ( sooo good!!) a turkey, and all the sides! So, we had a feast and got to the presents ( no pics bc I forgot my camera so they are all on Thad's phone! But we had a great time and the girls could hardly hold in their giggles when Thad opened his butt paste from his stocking that they stuck in there for him!! ha!

After relaxing for a little there, we headed home and got the kids to bed ( I already had changed them into jammies at mamaw and papaw's house.)  

The next morning we got up about 8:30 and of course the kids were ready to open presents!  I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves :)

So, needless to say, they really liked toy story 3 haha! Thad and I opened our gifts on Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed and here's what I got!!! I was soo excited!

The Nook!! Thad knows how much I LOVE to read, so this was the perfect gift for me!! I love it!

Soooo.....after we opened gifts at our house, we headed to my other grandma's house for brunch and of course, more presents!! We had such a good time bc we dont get to see that side of the family as much as we would like, so we stayed until about 3 then headed to Thad's grandparents for dinner and......presents! They love going to Mamaw and Papaws at Christmas bc Mamaw's whole coffee table is filled with different tins of candy ( the adults love it too!! )  we stayed here until about 7 then headed to my parents house for about and hour and opened more presents!!!  The kids were so crazy from exhaustion that we didnt stay too long or my kids would have destroyed the house!! When we got home Jude wanted to put his race track together that grandpa got him ( he's obsessed with Hotwheels too! ) so daddy helped Jude build his track then at about 10 we all went to bed!! Thad had to work the next day and the kids and I had church.  We came home from church and put all of our new stuff away and played a little too :) all in all, a busy holiday, but so fun!  

Sigh, so Im kind of exhausted just from typing all that we did!! haha! We have had some time to relax and the kids have been enjoying the snow ( although Elsie only lasts about 15 minutes!)

Its supposed to be in the 50's by Friday so, all the pretty snow will probably be gone :( but its Ohio, so Im sure we'll have some more before winter is over!  Probably in April! haha!

A Birthday and Sickness!

Well, one more year down for sweet Elsie.  She is the big 3 :) Time has flown! Im almost in tears writing this bc she is my baby ( for right now anyway haha) and its so hard, but so precious to see her growing into a little lady.  She is my little angel.

"But as many as received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" John 1:12

I love how the Lord puts such importance on children, children are our legacy and the greatest blessing the Lord could give us, and sadly we dont treat/think of our children that way most days.  During the mundane and hectic days of life children are still a wonderful beautiful blessing that should be cherished and treated as such, bc it really,truly goes SO fast and they're grown. Okay, now that we are all teary-eyed ;) I'll move on to Elsie's party..... 

The last few birthday's for both kids, we have been having them here at the house.  Its crazy how you think your house is big enough for a little party- ha!

well, it's a tight fit, but still sweet and fun.  This year for Elsie's party we had a few ppl who couldnt make it and so we werent so tightly packed in :) 

This year I also made the few little decorations and we just tried to have a stress free time getting ready- I hate that feeling of stressing out over a little kids party!! so silly to me! But we made easy food and just had a good time hanging out with family and some friends and celebrating Elsie!

So, after having the party and getting to relax that night, Elsie started getting a low grade fever and ended up being sick on her birthday and we skipped church also.  Jude had just gotten over the same thing and I still had a pretty bad cold, so we were a miserable bunch! haha, but we are all on our way to getting healthy :)

Okay, so Ive been trying to let my kids help me more in the kitchen and just with chores and stuff like that. The reason I say "let them" is bc I am very ocd and particular and so its hard for me to let anyone else do the cleaning and stuff around here, but, alas, I have given up some control :) Here is some proof.....( I washed all the glass stuff and knives first, but let them go at the plastic stuff and I have to say, they did a great job!!)

and ugh, Im kind of embarrassed about my almost dead flowers in the window, but Im trying to revive them!! haha I guess I could have pulled them out before I took the pics, but eh, you get it honest here!! :) well, Hope everyone has a great weekend and get out there in the snow!

I love Fall and the holidays!!

Warning....this post will likely have ALOT of pictures :)  I have been horrible at updating this blog, but i promise...I'm trying!  Firstly ( is that a word? ) I LOVE fall- its my favorite season!  I love the cooler weather, the leaves, pumpkins, and thanksgiving ( which I have no pictures of bc I forgot to bring my camera to thanksgiving dinner )  We have played alot in the leaves

Elsie has also been playing in whats left of the sand in the sandbox haha

We've tried to be outside as much as possible and enjoy this weather!

and, yes, thats a snow shovel he is using to "rake" the leaves bc we only have one big rake that he just can't handle yet.....but just give him a couple years :)

also, I have to show you what our favorite snack has been lately

we call them cold s'mores- yum!! 

Anyways, this snack has been a favorite of mine, and rightly so, because about 3 weeks ago, I found out that I'm pregnant again!!! We are so excited and blessed :) I was a little worried about mamas girl Elsie, but she is pretty excited too.  Both of the kids want a boy bc they want to call him Frederick.....?? I have no clue where they came up with that!  Anyways, I have been sooo tired lately and very much lacking in the motivational department, I just wanna be a couch potato all day- which is so not me-Im very type A and always try to keep myself busy.  So, anyways, I think Im entitled to a cold s'mores here and there :)

I'm a little less apprehensive about a 3rd one too bc Jude and Els have gotten so independent and self sufficient lately.  I rarely see them during the day- they are always in their rooms playing and will come down for food, drinks, and occasional potty break.  The consequence to that though is this.....

Their rooms always look like this! Yikes!

But, they are having so much fun pretending, that I really dont care too much :)

And atleast we have their rooms upstairs, so no one really sees it haha :)

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving and lots of good food!  Hope you all did too!

I'll leave you with Jude's funny faces...

Have a great weekend!! :)