Kyley's "big girl" room!

So, with the help of a lot of people contributing to this, Kyley's room is now a 'big girl' room :)


   













She is absolutely in LOVE with it.    Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Happy 6th Birthday Kyley Grace!

I love you more than you could ever know! You are one special little girl!



   

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

 (I want to point out that our ornaments are NOT finished yet, we  are still in the drying process, but I'll post more pictures when they are complete!)

My kids are all about the crafts. 
Ok KYLEY is all about the crafts. So we made some ornaments. Here is the recipe we used:

Craft Supplies:


Cinnamon
Apple Sauce
Craft Glue
Cookie Cutters (cut by hand if you like)
Ribbon
Toothpick

Craft Project Instructions:

Mix equal amounts of apple sauce and cinnamon and add 1 teaspoon of craft glue for every cup of applesauce.

Mix all the ingredients until you have a firm but wet dough. If you like you can substitute small amounts of cinnamon for a little nutmeg or ground cloves.

Roll out your dough to at least 1/4 inch thickness (less than this will make your ornaments a little weak and they break easily) and cut shapes with cookie cutters.

With a toothpick, poke a hole at the top of each ornament that is large enough for a ribbon to be pulled through. Place ornaments on a cooling rack or tray to dry completely. Depending on how large your ornaments are, drying could take a couple of days; it's best not to touch your ornaments during this time.

Once your ornaments are dry and if there are a few rough edges, you can easily remove the roughness with a little fine sandpaper. Sand your ornaments gently, as it doesn't take much to remove the little edges.

Tie a ribbon through the hole and, if you like, you can paint these ornaments or add a little glitter. Be sure not to cover the entire ornament with paint or the wonderful scent will be lost.

oh and Elijah thinks they're cookies... and he wants this one.

Rockin around the Christmas Cards

Ok, so I am SERIOUSLY the worst Christmas Card sender in the WORLD! I have always had good intentions of buying cards and sending them out, but I somehow always seem to run out of time! 

ENTER THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD OF ONLINE ORDERING AND PHOTO CHRISTMAS CARDS...

I've been browsing the Christmas Cards at Shutterfly, trying to pick just the perfect card, for the perfect picture for our card this year. 

AND I STILL CAN'T DECIDE!

They have so many awesome cards to choose from, that I can't make a solid decision.

Do I go with a traditional, simple card?  With just a single family portrait?

Or how about something with more pictures, where I can share my faith as well? 

Or, maybe even something fun and whimsical with fun pictures of the kids

I just don't know! I even like this for whimsical and different!

or how about another simple one?

I don't know. What would you choose? They have TONS of Christmas Photo Cards to choose from!

Or if you choose to go with something more "holiday" rather than "Christmas" to meet all of your needs they have PLENTY TO CHOOSE FROM HERE AS WELL! 

They even have INVITES for your favorite holiday party.

AND I still don't know what I want to order!

Thankfully, Shutterfly has made it easy for bloggers like me to jump into the Christmas Card giving this year!

I just joined in on this FUN PROMOTION and I'm going to get 50 free Christmas Cards delivered right to me! I can't wait to get my order and ship them out to our family this year! 

monochromatic friends

Superheros

I sure love these two superheros!

Hope you all had a super Halloween!

Elijah

My boy has a new favorite toy.

He LOVES this bear, because it reads his book to him.


And then he sticks his finger in the bears mouth.

And giggles.

Because "mommy, the bear bite me!"

This

is what the men of my house were doing just a few moments ago :)

BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Seriously, the last two weeks have been a blur. WOW.

We are prepping for our annual "Hallelujah Festival" at church, so we've been spending insane amounts of time working on that.

I had two photo shoots in the last two weeks that I've been working on getting edited and ordered (ALL DONE! Just waiting on them to be printed!)

Obviously, school work, and normal house work etc.

AND I've been working hard trying to get Elijah potty trained. We're getting there but not quite "there" yet.

Yesterday he used the potty 4 times and had 2 accidents in the amts of time we were home and he was not in a dipe. yay!

Everyone is doing well, we are just busy!

It's Your Life

 I've been hearing this song on the radio a LOT the past few days and I don't know what it is, but I just love it. I've loved it since the first time I heard it.



It's Your Life by Francesca Battistelli


This is the moment
It’s on the line
Which way you gonna fall?
In the middle between
Wrong and right
But you know after all


(Chorus)
It’s your life
What you gonna do?
The world is watching you
Every day the choices you make
Say what you are and who
Your heart beats for
It’s an open door
It’s your life


Are you who you always said you would be?
With a sinking feeling in your chest
Always waiting for someone else to fix you
Tell me when did you forget


(Chorus)


To live the way that you believe
This is your opportunity
To let your life be one that lights the way


(Chorus)


So, what I want to know is. Are we living the way we believe today? Are we living our life like it's the open door it so clearly is?   Do we see Jesus in our reflection (2 Corinthians 3) ?
So many times it's easy to SAY what we believe, but when faced with the moment of SHOWING what we believe in, we fail. And we fail miserably.   Anyone out there with me on that? I know I do.

Lord, help me to live my life the way YOU want me to live it, to live out my convictions every single day. To be more like You, and to love like You.

melt my heart.

a donut? or a burger? or both?

Derek just had to try this Krispy Kreme Donut Burger at the fair this week. (it probably has more calories in it that you should intake in a day in that one burger!)

He really seemed to enjoy it. One of his best friends enjoyed one and well and they both said that what made it awesome was that they grilled the donut before putting the burger together!

My Three Little Pigs

Baptism

This weekend was a special moment for us. 

Our sweet Kyley, made the decision a few months ago that she wanted to be baptized, but she was a bit scared as she wasn't exactly sure what to expect.

 This weekend she finally got her chance to find out, and we couldn't be more proud of her. 

 It was made sweeter by the fact that she was joined with 4 other girls who are some of her closest friends.  What a party that was going on in heaven I can imagine!

 

(I love that even though these pics aren't great quality I captured her daddy's smile in the background too!)

 

 Matthew 28:18-20 (New International Version)

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

18 weeks!

How Far Along: 18 weeks

Size of baby: Week 18 shows your baby measuring about 5 ½ inches long, with a weight of almost 7 ounces.

 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: none

Maternity Clothes: trying not to wear them, but I've pulled a few things out.

Gender:Guess we'll see when we see :)

Movement: Feeling a bit here and there. 

What I miss: my clothes that don't fit well anymore, and energy.

Sleep: some nights I sleep well, others not so much.

Symptoms: stuffy nose and a few aches here and there, nothing major. Still a bit nauseous here and there.

Best Moment this week: Just making it day by day. They keep on ticking by! Come on March!

What I am looking forward to: scheduling an ultrasound (hopefully soon!)

Acorns

a trip to the park

It isn't often these 4 kids are all in one spot.  We are loving it!

Lily

I tell ya what. I miss this girl.



She's been over an hour away at her nana's house while the school year is going on, so we don't get to see her very often.

Kyley has missed her terribly and Elijah asks to see her often.

So, this week is her fall break, and she's here visiting and the kids couldn't be happier! We're so grateful to get to spend some special time with our Lu Lu!

my boy

I can't have a post of Kyley pictures (HERE)  without a post with Elijah pictures to follow soon. So for your viewing pleasure, here is my boy. Who just so kindly threw my spare set of keys into the toilet and flushed them. I kid you not. Boys will be boys huh?

new this week.

My niece Lily is in town. Kyley is STOKED to get to spend some time with her! Today we (my daddy and I took all the kids to the park (look for many pictures to come soon!) and the kids had an absolute blast! They wore us out!

The fair is also in town for the week. We are looking forward to taking the kids and enjoying the circus, etc.

17 weeks! I haven't done a weekly update in 2 weeks, I keep slacking. Things are going well! I still haven't gained any weight, which is good for me since I was a bit overweight to begin with. I can't believe it's almost half way over already! The second half should seem to fly by seeing as how the holidays are coming up and such! I can't wait!

We are working on plans for halloween. My kids STILL don't know what they want to be! Hoping to pick out the costumes this weekend!

I have two big photoshoots within the next week. Looking forward to those and the fun I'm going to have!

my little model (warning: picture overload of kyley)

What these two have been up to!

I just love these two crazy kids. And they love each other. Melt. My. Heart.
We have been busy bee's lately with homeschooling and church activities and the like. Kyley's been working hard on learning to read and is loving MATH in school. She MUST be her daddy's child. She starts ballet again this week and she cannot wait to see all of her friends and teacher. She's also been working hard on the drama for church that the BOMB drama team is performing in big church this week! I can't wait to see them! They performed it (while missing a few kids) last night at CiCi's pizza and did a great job! She loves playing outside and is so excited that the weather is cooling down so we can go out more often without sweating to death or being eaten alive by mosquitos!

Elijah is pure BOY! He loves all things guns and cars. He got new shoes this weekend (thanks grandma!) and they have Lightening McQueen on them and he loves them! We are working on potty training but so far we are slow going. He knows when he has to go, but getting him to the potty on time is almost always a fail, and he will NOT use it if I just sit him on it ever so often, even with bribing. He's stubborn but that's ok! This kid can talk your ear off if you let him. My favorite things to hear him say are "looove looo" and "walk away." He's recently spent a lot of time telling Kyley to 'stop it sissy!' and 'SIT DOWN' is another favorite. 

We had a WIC appt yesterday and Elijah is now 32 lbs! and Kyley is 43 lbs! (she's not technically on wic but she got to get weighed to show Eli how to do it haha) They are both growing so fast!

Kyley is counting down the days until her birthday and Christmas. She can't wait for more than one reason. She's excited about being six for starters, she cannot wait to be a "big girl" and not five anymore.  But also she is looking forward to her Uncle Jared coming home, anytime we talk about Christmas she gets excited that he'll be home (he's in the AirForce and we get to see him about once a year).

I can't believe how big and smart my babies are getting! Someone make it slow down!

Milestones in a girl's life.

My baby is growing up way too fast.

Last night I took her and she got her very own library card, and checked out her first books all on her own.

She picked out some princess books and some fancy nancy first readers. Then mommy helped her pick out a fun book about nouns to use with our schoolwork this week and next.

I'm looking forward to many more trips to come and fostering her love of reading more and more through this!

14 weeks!

How Far Along: 14 weeks

Size of baby: Your baby is 3.42 inches (8.7cm) long and weighs about 1.52 ounces (43 grams) - approximately the weight of a letter!

 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: none

Maternity Clothes: trying not to wear them, but I've pulled a few things out.

Gender:well... it's too early to know for sure :)

Movement: Feeling a few more rolls than last week, but nothing significant yet. 

What I miss: I think it's finally hit me that things are getting real. eek. overwhelmed.

Sleep: some nights I sleep well, others not so much.

Symptoms: stuffy nose and a few aches here and there, nothing major. Still a bit nauseous here and there.

Best Moment this week: not really sure

What I am looking forward to: the kids and Derek being able to feel the babe move and it becoming more real

13 weeks!

 Ok, because Jen mentioned this on last weeks post I felt like I needed to "preface" this with the fact that under the "size of baby" answer, I typically copy/paste the short paragraph on size that week from a parenting website so the fact that I used the words "Junior" and "he" last week have no indication of what we are having.  Just so ya know :) (and the fact that it says "she" and "her" this week is totally not indicative either, just copying from babycenter.com

 

How Far Along: 13 weeks

Size of baby: Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.

 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: none

Maternity Clothes: trying not to wear them, but I've pulled a few things out.

Gender:well... it's too early to know for sure :)

Movement: Feeling a few more rolls than last week, but nothing significant yet. 

What I miss: not having a stuffy nose. yikes. I can't breathe!

Sleep: some nights I sleep well, others not so much.

Symptoms: eek my hips. ok but I think thats an alignment thing and not a baby thing.

Best Moment this week: Elijah kissing my tummy <3

What I am looking forward to: the kids and Derek being able to feel the babe move and it becoming more real!

3 weeks in.

 (this post contains no pictures *gasp*)

Homeschooling that is.

We are officially done with our 3rd week!

The first week was rough. On both of us.

I think we just needed that week to get used to the idea of working together to make this work.

The first day was the worst. I literally cried and asked God why on earth we came to this decision.

Thankfully, it HAS gotten better.

As the first week went on, we got more and more in tune with how we wanted things to work.

The second week was awesome. We didn't have any meltdowns, nor did we have any days she ended up in her room for lack of patience on my part for her attitude. (I'd call that a VERY good week!)

This week has been more of the same. We've been trucking through and learning a lot about each other and how this dynamic is going to continue to thrive.

I've finally found an efficient place for her to work without Elijah distracting her. She gets distracted sooooooo easily.  We've set up our own little corner in my bedroom away from him and his toys where we retreat to when we are working. He definately still comes in and out but it's not the constant distraction of being in the same room constantly. (and of course I still go and make sure he's fine throughout this time, I don't let him just fend for himself)

Anyways, so as far as everything else, we are working towards putting some field trips together with some friends who are homeschooling as well. I cannot wait to delve in deeper and continue to watch Kyley learn and grow!