18 months old!

Holy moly, My baby is a year and a half old!

He's almost 25 lbs now (seems so tiny but he's grown so much!).

He loves to run, jump, and squeal.

He talks a LOT. He gives a 'doe' which is short for potato (a fist bump) and a high five

He blows kisses and says I love you (well, I Yooooo).

He loves to chase after Kyley and Elijah and squeals and giggles when he gets them.

He started calling his grandma, Gigi.

He says all kinds of names now, Pey Pey (Peden), Nanas (Savannah), Bit Bit (Brittani), BeeBee (Abi), Ki Ki (Keisha).  

He also loves to shout BUBBA and KY KY at the kids.

His little vocabulary is growing quickly. He says no, please, and thank you at appropriate times.

He says Paw Paw, and Nana, Matt Matt, Mamy (Amy), and "You can't see me" (Thanks Uncle Mikey!), He also says Ry Ry, and Bella.

He can climb a ladder, or anything else he wants to for that matter (including the kitchen table).

He sleeps all night (most nights).

He has 9 teeth, (one of which is a new molar!)

He loves "keee keeee" (translation: kitty kitty) and he'll get super excited to see any kitty kitty's running around.

He can now ask for a drink, or to eat on his own accord if he is hungry or thirsty.

He loves to hug and give kisses.

He also loves to dance.

He is so full of life and energy and I just adore watching him grow older.
 
I love you Asher John. I can't wait to see where the next half a year takes us!

In our lives lately.

I've had such a hard time being motivated to write.

Because I've been busy with these sweet kids



(that's my niece Bella)

and this



Robot army for preschool snack

   

and standing beside this awesome guy sharing Jesus with kids.



and celebrating birthdays (this was my gift from Derek :) )



and loving this cutie!



and shopping with my besties :)

Needless to say it's been a busy few weeks, and this doesn't even include weddings and preschool starting and Back 2 School Bash, etc.

God is moving, and for that I'm grateful.

Unique.

It's hard being a parent. 
There's such a fine line between enabling your children to be spoiled little brats and encouraging them in a Godly way to know that they are unique and special.

I've spent a lot of time over the past few months really pondering on the best ways to sow these seeds into my children.

How can I encourage them to know that they are special. They are unique. And God wants to use them.

Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

We recently had a battle with lice. My 7 year old took this personally. Actually she told me "I'm just a big old nasty lice. I am the lice."   Where does she get this stuff?

Thankfully Dayspring has created some awesome ways to share how we are each U-Neek.

I recently got the chance to experience one of these sweet little guys. Thanks to Dayspring Inspired Deals I got a chance to check a few things out for myself. 


Meet Alliebird.     Ok this thing is precious.  What kid WOULDN'T want to have one of these for their very own.
 

We prayed over this sweet little owl, and we're sending her to a little girl, who's family is traveling next month to bring her home from S. Korea!  It is our prayer for her that she knows that she is loved and that being unique is a great thing!


If you'd like to check out her story, you can follow her family here.   They are SO close to being fully funded to bring her home... Won't you consider donating to them to help them get her here!

Another great way to encourage your kids are through these adorable little cards.
shared these

There are so many to choose from and they just are so stinkin cute.




My sweet Kyley loves giving people cards, and I can't wait for her to be able to share these with someone she wants to bless.

Above all, I want my kids to know how to share Christ with others. and what better way than these awesome school supplies.   We put these in our donation backpack for our Back to School bash.  We loved being able to bless a few kids with things that will help them show their friends the love of Christ.   So awesome. 
   






















I'm not such a big fan of the "I'm just saying" one.  I feel like it's a little harsh, but overall we love these Dayspring products.

   










All School items are currently buy 2 get one free!!!

I really love that all of these things are filled with Scripture.

I picked up a weekly planner at Walmart from this same line, and I love that every week has it's own verse. Definitely something to help us all hide scripture in our heart.

What are you doing to help your children share the love of Christ?   How do you show them that being unique is a great thing?


** In full disclosure, Dayspring provided the products pictured in this post for me to share with my kids and their friends.

16 months

My sweet little tiny if 16 months old today!


   




Where did all the time go?



This week he got a new toddler bed (see the previous post)



Last night he slept in it all night long, he woke up about 7:00 am.



A few weeks ago, he willingly sat on the baby potty and went pee. Good grief I can't handle him growing so fast!


He still loves to talk, we don't understand much but there are still a lot of words we do understand.



He climbs on EVERYTHING. The boy will find a way to climb to get what he wants.



He can also open the sliding glass door by himself. We have to keep it locked now, or he escapes.



He also likes to open the potty to play in the water, EWWW so that door is staying shut as well. The things we do to keep our kids clean and safe haha



Elijah gave him his first hair cut *sigh*



Other than that, he just loves life. I love this kid, he's always happy.


He's full of smiles and hugs and kisses.


Definitely a light in our little world.





We love you Asher John!

A Big Boy!

This little tiny, got himself a new big boy bed.


   








Fact is, he's been able to climb out of his bed for a while now. He DOESN'T climb out, but he's able to. He knows if he does he'll fall,so after the first time, he hasn't wanted to since. I've had the toddler bed on my mind for a while, but things fell into place today, and here it is. I went and got him a big boy blanket and pillow, and he's sleeping there tonight for the first time.

I don't want this boy to grow up, but I'm also excited to see what lies ahead for us!

There's an App for that.

I've been working on this post in my brain for a while. So it's time to put it out there on the blog.


I love having a smart phone. I didn't think I'd love it as much as I do. But I love the availability to do things, right there on my phone.

I polled a few of my friends, and by far the most used app is Instagram.  I have to agree that I love this app.  I love the filters, and I love the way how I can post just to there, or I can choose to share on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

 A few others mentioned were Pinterest, Etsy, Iheartradio, and Pandora.

The Pinterest and Etsy app can only be found for Iphone at this time, but I could see how one would love them, though I've never used them.

I LOVE Pandora. For obvious reasons that need no explaination.


My husband wrote a post a while back with all of his favorite apps, and I still think it's a great resource as well.  

For me, I use Instagram and Facebook the most.  Those are definitely the most used apps on my phone. I love to get cute pictures of my kids and post it to Instagram, and well Facebook is just really convenient that way.

Amazon App Store is awesome for freebie apps. I love that I can sometimes get a popular app that costs, for free.

I use an app called Lose It! to keep up with weight loss and calories.

I use Evernote to keep up with Children's Church stuff mostly, I have mine sync'd with my husbands so we can update each other.

Blogaway is a great blog app. Though as you can see I am bad about using it.

Zoodles is awesome for the kids. It's an entire interface that takes control of your phone and (MOST) kids can't get out of it if they can't write yet anyhow.

A lot on my mind.

This week I took my baby girl to her very first church camp.


It's been a LONG week without her. I can't wait to pick her up tomorrow morning and hear all about her week!




On the way home we took the boys to Peach Park.  My boys have never been!
 



Oh and I took this tonight...

Asher apparently thinks learning the Old Testament books of the Bible is exciting!

Asher also got his very first haircut today (no pics yet).  His brother did it. *sigh*  Thankfully he only got one snip, so it'll grow back and it isn't very noticeable unless you know what you're looking for. But mommy still isn't happy.

I'd love it if you guys would head over to my friend Malerie's blog and considering sponsoring a puzzle piece to help bring their sweet Gia home.  They are so close, and just need a little more to be done with their fundraising.
They are also still selling T-shirts, and they are adorable. Kyley loves hers! (Thanks Mal and Kev!)