I am Crazy, I know...

With all the joys of motherhood and home making, I am very much a busy gal!  Loving it all!  Learning more of Christ through it all...and enjoying every fleeting moment!
So with all of the responsibilities and tasks of managing a home, keeping every living body in our home clean and fed....and oh yes..safe, teaching and training, feeding my own soul....and then there is a blur of laundry and crumbs on the floor I see as I whiz through my home...whew!  I am tired even talking about it!

But on top of that I tend to the blessing my photo biz is, and then ...dun dun nuh duh!  I blog.
Oh, those four little letters!  BLOG.
It is so fun to blog.  But boy it sure does feel like having a garden sometimes!  Blogs needs nurishment too.  Blogs need love and sun and fun pictures, right?
So with my two blogs I have, I am adding two more to my life.  Two more precious plants to my growing garden.  I know, I am crazy....

Yes,...

Yes, she loves colors.

Yes, she loves skirts and tights...together or alone.

Yes, she loves patterns.

But no, she does not know who to mix all three.

And yes, he is adorable...

"Happy Birthday to you!...."

Happy Birthday Sharon!

We hope you have a supercalifragilisticispialidotious 

Birthday today!

You are such a gift to us and we are SO grateful to God for you!

I am always humbled by your humility in seeking out counsel, your deep desire to seek the Lord and trust in him in ALL things, your love for your hubby and how you cherish him continually, and also how you love our little kiddi-poos.

You are such a GIFT and we are all aware of God's tremendous grace in your life!

We hope you have a very blessed day as you meditate on God's specific love for you!

Loveyou!

Ryan, Lillian, Ella Reese and Dean-o 

Rain Rain Don't go away!

I love all the rain today!
Ella Reese has pretty bad allergies when Spring hits.  Poor child.
So this past week I have been watching this yellow/green layer of pollen coat everything outside.  And I wince.  Poor Ella.  No outdoor fun today.  It hits her hard, even with allergy medicine she takes.
So we have been cooped up last week because it was getting worse outside.
Ryan and I jumped for joy when we saw it rain today!  THANK YOU LORD!!!!
So tomorrow we are hitting the park, with a picnic and bicycles....!

Hooked on Phonics

Ella Reese is "hooked on phonics".  I had snagged a huge bag of alphabet magnets at a garage sale and last week the kids had them all scattered on the floor playing with them.  Ella Reese was putting the letters in one long made up word and pretending to make words.  So I asked her,
" Ella, can you make the word CAT?".  She sat for a moment then started to sound it out.  I sat watching her.

Easter Sunday

The week prior to Easter I dropped the Bible lesson we were going through and started to teach her about Jesus Resurrection. Yeah, try teaching that to a 3 year old. So I think she kind of got most of it.
I tried to integrate it with other activities. So along with the Bible Story I tried to do other short lessons that integrated the theme of transformation and life.
We talked about insects. Well, really caterpillars and how they turn into butterflies. I showed her videos online of caterpillars transforming into butterflies. We even ordered some live caterpillars that will turn into butterflies. ( http://www.shop-insectlore.com/Butterflies/Live+Butterfly+Culture+3-5+Live+Butterfly+Larvae.axd ) . We talked about dead things and live things etc. I had these little pill things that you drop into water and little sponge insects would come out. It was cool.
And just when I thought she was kind of getting it she would look up at me and say, "Can I watch Sesame Street now?" then hop off my lap. Hilarious.

Refreshing....

I need this copied and printed in big bold letters hanging in my home!
I hope you are encouraged this Wednesday afternoon!

"He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater;
He sendeth more grace when the labours increase;
To addeth afflictions he addeth his mercy,
To multiplied trials, he multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done;
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
His love has no limits, his grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of his infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again! "

From Transforming Grace. Page 150

Funny story

One day I said in response to something Ryan told me, "NO WAY!". I can't remember to what I was responding about. Ella Reese immediately tells me, "Mommy, don't say that . That is not kind.".
I laugh. And tell her that NO WAY is something someone may say in response to something exciting. She says, "oh...". Then she asks me to ask her something.

Oh Lord, Help me...

Oh Lord, help me to not only love and train my children. Help me to see their giftings and grow them into service unto you!

I've Been Krogering

(This post stems off of my previous post...Have I gotten so fancy that I now do Part I and Part II posts? Nope. I really just had some cute pictures...)



Those stickers make me laugh. They are reminder of my own childhood as we would anxiously wait to receive one at the check out. But, I only got one. Maybe two. Well, these days they always hand each of my children like 6 stickers each. So I smile and have the kids tell them thank you. Knowing that all those stickers will end up somewhere in my van, on my child, or on the bottom of my shoe.

I've Been Krogering. It makes me laugh.

Now when I go Krogering I have new memories and pictures in my head.

Trade Places

We all went to Sharon's Art Show at Webb a few weeks back. It was in the evening and Ryan and I were taking turns with each kid. Just being at an Art Show with the kiddos made me nervous. The possible bad scenarios ...well, I tried not to think of it. So with Dean in the stroller, I tried to move quickly. He was getting restless and wanted to walk. I stopped to admire artwork from one of the Art teachers Sharon teaches with at Webb. We talked for a moment. She looked down at Dean, much like many people do, smiling and cooing. I knew she must be remembering her daughter at this age.

Blowing Bubbles~

I put these little bubble blowers in Dean's Birthday party goody bags. Of course the kids have been begging to play with them since then. So the first sunny and warm day we busted them out. Oh my was it fun!

Rainy Day Fun

It is a rainy Thursday and I am all of a sudden unmotivated to pack my kids in the car to hit the gym and run errands. I will do it tomorrow instead.
So by 9:30 this morning we had done our morning stuff, colored pictures and did school. What next? Snack time and Sesame Street then I googled how to make Play Dough.
It was so easy! The kids helped the entire time. It was awesome, they LOVED it!
It was a mini cooking lesson then we talked about the shapes etc .we stamped into the play dough.
We will definitely be doing it again!

Here is the recipe. I doubled it and it worked for all three of us to play with.

Potty Business

I have been sporadically putting Dean on the potty.
Yesterday he did #2 two times in the potty and went pee 3 times.
In fact his first anything in his potty was a #2.

Yesterday I plopped him on the potty and told him, " Mommy has to run to the other bathroom to get more toilet paper, okay?".

Sunday planning night a flop...

Do not have your planning time in front of the TV when the Amazing race is on. Or anything else at that matter. I sat for an hour with my normal "planning stuff" scattered all over the couch ( coupons needing to be sorted, bills to be paid, my last week's schedules to see what I needed to move to this week, grocery ads) and I sat there with only my schedule for the week planned up to Tuesday at lunch.
Arghh. I was mad at myself for allowing myself to succumb to the vortex of a trap the TV is for me.

Today...

I was driving today and heard the very familiar sound of flow masters flood my ears. It is a deep roar that permeates the road it is passing through. My heart fluttered.
WHY you may ask. And WHAT is a flow master.

Chillin with my peeps...

Yo Yo Yo

"What's up man. Yo Yo Yo."

Okay, so the pink polka dots soften the look...

Love my little man~

I've got Pages on my blog!
It is a new feature from Blogger.
So now I can separate my thoughts into categories.
I am a list maker...so this makes me happy.
Really...I make lists of my lists.
It is sad really...kind of nutty.
So if you look under the header, or the pictures of my family as Squashes...you will see the Pages I have made.
Disclaimer: I am in no way suggesting that I am excellent at any of these categories simply because I have made "Pages". I stink at a lot of these things. And I really do not expect people to " follow me" or blog stalk me to see what recipes I post. Oh my...I hope not. I am a poor to moderate cook.
But really, I am doing all of this alongside of you!
So please, feel free to laugh, cry and comment.

Love you all! All 7 of the people who read this! Elizabeth B came out and told me she was one of the 7. Love you E!

Yes, we read!

Nope, not them. But they do love to get in our bed and pretend to read our books.

Okay ladies, get ready for a monologue!
God has recently given me a hunger to read lately. I am still really in shock. Since Ella has been born, my time for reading has slowly dwindled. Time? What time?! There is zero to NO time to read with little ones. But over last summer and through the fall God was building a DEEP DEEP desire in my soul for more of him and reading his word.