Turning 2!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our wild, sweet, little peanut!  You have brought us so much joy and we cannot imagine life without your constant energy and chatter!  Athaiah you are a bundle of energy, constantly on the move!  You speak so well it is unbelievable.  In fact, you have been known to speak for your brother at times, and you know no stranger.  You are a mommy's girl still-but love your daddy and get so excited when he comes home or walks into the room! You LOVE shoes and that is probably an understatement, you walk around all day putting on new shoes, and it doesn't matter who's shoes they are, so long as they are shoes! You are a blessing to our family. We love you to the moon and back!

We were blessed to be able to go home for Athaiah's 2nd birthday and spend it with family and friends! Thank you to every one who came out.  These are just a few pictures from the party!

 Cake Time!

Pretending like she won't make a mess!

 Thankful we removed the shirt! My messy girl!

  This is my favorite picture of the afternoon.  This is our family with all of our grandparents-so the kids great grandparents! They are all still living and we are blessed beyond belief that they have been able to share in our children's lives.  This picture will forever be a treasure around here!  Thank you to all of you for making such an impact on our lives, we are blessed to call you our grandparents!

 The birthday girls! My baby sister's birthday is the day after Athaiah's. Very glad we got to see her that close to her birthday this year! No matter how old you get and how many children I have-Alyssa you will always be my "baby." I can't believe what an incredible woman you have turned into.  I love being able to call you my sister!

This is the birthday girl the next day in one of her new outfits.  She was so excited to get so many wonderful presents.  She spent the next day looking through them all again and playing with them all! Thank you again to everyone that came out.  It was GREAT to see everyone of you and to be able to catch up a little.

Happy Birthday Peanut!

Big Bed-Big Kids

We decided it was finally time to get the 2 older ones a big bed! Athaiah has still been sleeping in the crib and Elijah has been in a toddler bed. After looking through all of our options we decided on a mini loft bed with an extra mattress on the floor, that way they could have a "bunk bed" but we would be able to better reach the child on top!

They are so excited about their new bed they play in it at every opportunity that they can get.  We are beyond pleased with it.  It took some rearranging to make everything fit for 3 kiddos in one room! But I think we finally accomplished it with it not looking too terrible cluttered!

This was them on St. Patty's day(the only recent one I could find of all 3 of them)

The dressers/changing table! They love the set up-Athaiah loves having access to all the shoes. We may need to rethink that option LOL! But it is nice because they can help themselves now when we ask them to find their shoes!

They are looking forward to many fun nights in their new beds.  We still have yet to officially move Avery up-hopefully this weekend we will start with that process!  Then we will have no babies in our room(at least for now!)

Plastic Bags

I have an abundance of plastic bags. Ok, not any more, I tackled this problem and thank goodness! I wish I had a before picture to show you how awful my broom closet looked.  Just try to picture no room for anything, and a ton(about a million) plastic bags all crumpled up everywhere, and you are maybe close to how it looked!

This is what I have after the fact.  I have one big container for the broom closet, a glass jar for under the bathroom counter, and I have an old Lysol wipes container for down in the laundry room.  Looks great right!

Now to show you how I did it! It is super easy.  Remember making paper footballs in high school?  Well that is all we are going to do, just out of plastic bags instead of paper.  This took me quite a while to tackle them all the first time, but since has been so much easier for our busy life and really helps me feel less cluttered.  Way worth it in my opinion!!

 Lay your bag out flat, and push out all the air.

 Now fold it in half. Pushing the air out again.(when you do this by moving from the bottom towards the top, you don't want to pop a hole in your bag). I typically use them for garbage bags, holes make them unusable.

 Tuck the handles in!

 Fold in half once more!

 Start by turning one corner over, to make a triangle, keep going in the pattern until you get to the top of the bag.

 Now that you are almost to the top, you are going to fold the last part into the top of the triangle.  Make sure you stop when one of your triangles bottoms is up that way you have something to tuck the end into!

All done!  Now just put in some wonderful Tupperware containers and you have them all nice and neat for much easier storage!

 I can now enjoy my nice clean broom closet!

The Little Things

Some days, OK most days, it is all about the little things.  All too often we get caught up in the bad that has happened that day or that moment, and we let it ruin our day, and our lives.  Am I looking at the little things? We have been sick quite a bit this winter.  With sick little ones that require extra attention, and with a sick mommy running low on energy it seems to not take much to "ruin" my day.  My motto for today specifically, but all from now on will be: What are the little things?

When I say What are the little things, I am NOT talking about the little things that can seem to ruin my whole day or run my patience dry. But rather, what are the little things that I love, what are the little things that make(made) me smile, what are the little things my children have accomplished or done today.  What are all THESE little things, all these wonderful little things given to me each and every day, and often several times a day.

So, what are my little things?  Today they are many and I'm sure I cannot list them all but it has done wonders for my attitude to remember them through out the morning.

My little things are:
The way my snuggle bug(Athaiah) climbs up into my lap asking to just be rocked.
Elijah calling his sister his sweet girl and asking if she needs anything.
Sharing and playing so nice with their barn and the animals that go with.
Their energy level, even while sick.
The baby's love of snuggle time, and her new interest in big girl food.
When Elijah hurt Athaiah(partially an accident) Athaiah pulls out her Bible and tell him "see brother, be kind to one another" -Makes my mommy heart melt that they are learning, especially when they are disciplined.
Athaiah putting her bunny and baby on the couch and covering them up, kissing them, and telling them goodnight.  It makes me think of her a long way down the road and what a wonderful little mommy she will make!
Them running through the house singing songs. I love the sound of their voices singing in unison.
Playing basketball together-the whole time saying please and thank you while taking turns shooting baskets. And being great encouragers: when they miss they let the other sibling try again,and when they make a basket they break out in applause!

This is by no means a complete list, but it is some of the little things that have made my mommy heart smile this morning.  And with a night when I was up more than I was a sleep this is what I needed today.  I needed God's gentle reminder that even when my day may "seem" bad, He is there and His love is shinning through. He is with us and guiding us.  He is helping us grow up our children according to His word, and most of all HE is there helping me make it through the day-carrying me when necessary, and reminding me of all the little things!

Take the time today to look for your little things.  All those little blessings you have been given.

Remember: "This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24

(I know it isn't the best quality-it was taken via skype) But I love this picture of my family!

Elijah-3 year old

Mommy's little man is growing up.  He turned 3 today(well actually he turns 3 at 7:34 tonight but you know I guess we can say today.  It is surreal to think this time 3 years ago I was in the hospital waiting to have my little boy, our first born.  We were so excited we could barely stand it.  We had the bags packed and ready, full to the brim with all kinds of little boy clothes.  Greg was beaming and so excited that he was going to have a boy and we could barely contain our excitment in waiting for him to finally make his appearance.  He ended up coming that evening via C-section.  One of the most cherished moments of my life was getting to hold him and see him for the first time.

Now we see him growing into a little man.  His vocabulary is changing by the day and getting ever broader.  I am amazed by the things that come out of his mouth some days!  He is very inquisitive and always likes to know what we are doing and why.  He loves to read his Bible stories and learn his verses.  He loves to sing and play the drums(old coffee cans), and the piano.  If there is music playing in the house then he will dance around to the music or tap out the beat.  He is my little music man!  He loves music and the beats that go with.

He loves his "coffee"

Cars....need I say more.  This little man's world revolves around cars.  Every nap time and bed time he must have at LEAST 2 cars in his hands to sleep with. He will sit by the hour and play parking lot. (A game his daddy taught him) He loves this!  He has taught Athaiah how to play with him and he is always giving Avery cars because he wants her to learn how to play!

He loves his sisters!  He would do anything for them.  He is my kind and compassionate boy.  If one of them starts crying he immediately runs over to them and says "hello sweet girl, it is ok, I love you.  Are you going to be ok? Yes, you are going to be ok, we will make it all better."  Nothing sweeter than hearing your rough little boy speak so sweet and lovingly to his sisters.

He is rough, like most little boys.  He loves to wrestle and run and just have fun. Racing cars or boxes or whatever he can find is always good for entertainment.  He loves to go down the big slides at the park and climb up by himself.  He is starting to be more and more independent.  Where has my little baby gone?

He also loves to pretend.  He runs around the house fighting dragons, building towers, and making food in his kitchen.  He is a boy of many talents and interests.  He is not afraid to play babies with his sisters or help his mommy in the kitchen.  He also loves to help clean up around the house. I'm telling you-one day ladies he is going to make a great husband!

7 Months Old

My baby is 7 months old today....where has time gone? I know I say this all the time but I just can't believe that she is over 6 months old now. Getting closer to her being a year old and I just can't even imagine her more than my "little" baby.  On another note-my first baby will be 3 in a week(that makes me feel old!)
Here are some recent pictures of my cute little monkey!

 On Christmas morning opening(eating) her stocking.

 In her big girl outfit.

 She would only smirk for me this day...

At the zoo with the goats!

She is a little over 25" long now(still a bit of a shorty), and is over 18 lbs!  She can say hi and dada. She can sit pretty well by herself, although she is very uncomfortable sitting without someone close by and will scream if you walk away and leave her sitting by herself.  It is kind of cute!  

She loves her big brother and he is always begging to hold and snuggle her.  She squeals and giggles every time she sees him.  When she sees her big sister sometimes she cries and sometimes she gets so excited and the slobbers all over her face(aka giving her kisses).  

Her big sister adores her and is always begging to hold her and snuggle her as well, often leaving the two older ones fighting over who gets to love on her first.  Which for me, is amazingly cute that they love each other so very much!  

We have been blessed with 3 children that love each other so much and help each other out with everything daily.  We have a ton of fun and cannot wait to see where the next couple of months lead us in this little ones life and watching her grow!  We pray she will grow to know the Lord and will have a kind and compassionate heart.  We are truly blessed by you little girl.  We love you!

Play Kitchen

We decided that we wanted to give the kids a play kitchen this year for Christmas, but that a new one was slightly out of our budget.  After looking at all the fun ideas on Pinterest we decided we would just make one! And we love a good project around here.

Before! 

We found this entertainment center at a garage sale for $15.

After!

We spent a total of $20 on this, doesn't get much better than that!

We had so much fun making this..

First, we sanded it down a bit, then primed it!

We painted all the pieces the colors that we wanted.  We picked Red since we had an abundance of it left over from painting another room in our house.  We used grey for the appliance to look like stainless steel appliances.

We used an extra cabinet door handle for the "oven door handle" For the oven and burner knobs we used some of our old cabinet door knobs.

 Inside the oven.. The oven rack is just a cookie cooling rack!

 The front of the kitchen.

For the kitchen sink, we used a cake pan from the dollar store.  For the faucet and the handles we used old PVC pipe.  We then spray painted them silver. We paid 75 cents for the faucet.  

To insert the kitchen sink we just cut a small hole in the entertainment center and then glued it to the sides so that it would stay put.

For the burners we used old outlet covers and painted them black(these were 25 cents at the Reuse It Center).

We made the kids aprons so they have some to wear when they are playing!

  Side with the oven mitts...

We are super excited to give this to the kiddos this Christmas.  Since they are both so helpful in the kitchen and love everything about cooking.  I'm so excited to see them open this at Christmas time!