Monthly Memories For Me

One of my favorite parts about blogging is to go back and read what I typed a year or two ago.  It's like my own little scrapbook or diary.  It seems like time is a precious commodity these days so I'm finding it easier to do a big blog post with lots of details instead of a bunch of short ones.  And that may change at some point.  But here's some thing I want to remember from this month!

1.  Hayden lost his 5th tooth while he was at school! He was so excited to tell me that he ran home from the bus stop!  The next morning after the tooth fairy came, he smiled and said he thought I was the tooth fairy!  I knew he was asleep when I left the dollar, so I asked why he thought it was me.  He said, "Because you have a lot of dollars".  I said, "Well... so does the tooth fairy!" And that was the end of the conversation.  I have a feeling this is the year he will start to question Santa and the Easter Bunny.

  

2.  I made chocolate covered strawberries!  They were quickly gobbled up!

3.  Austin is walking more and more everyday!  He's still crawling the majority of the time, but I'm glad he's finding the confidence to walk.  He's also working on another skill... Climbing!  I took Krissy potty one afternoon and left Austin unattended for about 2 minutes.  I came back to the kitchen to find this.... I quickly took his pic and got him down! I had no idea he could climb a barstool!  The barstools may take a vacation to the garage if this climbing continues!

4.  We had a few days of nice weather and my kids got to play with their favorite neighbor boy.  Allie calls Jagger her "boyfwend" (and I am so not ready to accept that).  They were holding hands and happily posed for pictures.  I sent these to Jagger's mom and told her I'd save them incase they really did get married :) then I told Jagger that Allie couldn't get married until she was 21, and that would give him time to go to college and get a good job and in the meantime he needed to treat her like a princess.  He agreed to all my demands lol!  Hey, I've got high expectations for ALL my kids, especially my girls!

5.  I splurged on a beauty blender.  So far, I'm loving it!!!

6.  We had lots of snow this month!  All the kids enjoyed playing in it!

7.  I found this heart sweater on clearance at Express.  I haven't been in that store in probably 10 years, so it kind of felt like seeing an old friend from high school. I completely enjoyed my shopping experience there and hope to shop their clearance again soon!

8.  My friend Candice was throwing a bridal shower.  I offered to help make cupcakes.  I love cute toppers on cupcakes, so I decided to make my own!  It was easy and fun!  Hope to do it again soon!

9.  I snapped this picture when I woke Krissy up from her nap last week.  She doesn't nap every day, but she sure is happy when she wakes up!

10.  Austin and Krissy found a sippy cup lid piece and they both used it as a paci!  Austin never really took a paci, and Kriasy would still take one to this day if I'd let her, so after I took this picture, I threw that lid/sippy cup away!

11.  Kevin went to get us a late night DQ snack one night.  He brought home this ice cream cake too!  He said all their Valentines cakes were half off and he knew I loved them, so he got it for me!  It was a sweet surprise :)

12.  Austin fell asleep in his high chair for the first time ever!  I went to quickly put on makeup while he was eating and the poor boy just couldn't wait for me!  

13.  Austin has had so many milestones this month!  He's talking up a storm!  His new words for the month are: Allie, PaPaw, CeCe, ball (baw), balloon (baoon),  ninight/his blanket (nawnee)  He already knows mama, dada, no, & stop (top).

He loves the camera and gets smiley anytime he knows I'm taking his picture!

(P.S.  My garlic toast was horrible- none of the family ate it, except for Austin!  He loved it!)

We are cutting up his food less and less and he loves taking little nibbles off his food!  It ends up being less messy to clean up too!

14.  Harry got lost for 12 hours last Thursday.  We ended up finding him on our neighbors front porch under a little desk, just as we were starting to hang up "lost" posters!  We decided to make him start wearing a collar again, just to be safe.  I'm not against microchipping him, but he hates the vet and I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle and stress on both of us!

He was so happy to be home and sitting on the couch!

15.  I downloaded the you version kids bible app (it's free) and my kids are obsessed with it!  It tells popular bible stories and it's interactive so the characters move and talk and act out the story.   Get it for you kids if you don't have it!

Charlie @ 7 Weeks

Yes, I'm obsessed!!! My little Charlie is turning into quite a handsome boy!  I received another round of pictures last night. 21 to be exact!  Here's my favorite 10!  Less than three weeks until he moves in!

 

The Song

We've loved being "snowed in" the last couple days.  We haven't really been stuck at home, but we have just enjoyed all of us being home.  Kevin ran to Walmart on Monday to pick up some essentials, and he asked if I wanted him to grab a Redbox while he was out.  I browsed through the app on my phone to see what was out and saw "The Song" was on DVD.  I wanted to see the movie while it was in theaters, but we never got around to it.  Our senior pastor at church has ties to the movie.  His son helped produce the movie and he even had a tiny role as a pastor in the movie.

I knew the movie would have a good message, but I was surprised by the PG-13 rating.  I think they gave it that rating for "adult content" (drug use, suicide, and some physical violence)  Does not sound like your average "christian" movie, but it was really really good.  The acting was great.  The music was fantastic (in fact, I want to go buy the soundtrack next time I'm in Evansville).  It's a great movie for any adult to watch.  You won't be disappointed!

And just a fun little fact, the main character, Jeb,is part of a band in real life :)  Anthem Lights is their name. 

Father Daughter Dance 2015

Kevin took Krissy and Allie to the Father Daughter Dance at our church this past Friday.  Allie had been talking about it non-stop for about a week.  This was Allie's 3rd time to go and Krissy's 1st time.  This past fall, I bought the girls some dresses from a kids consignment sale.  I made them both furry white capes to wear (actually they were for the wedding they will be in next month, but I thought it would be great if they could get a few more wears out of them!).  We spent about an hour getting ready.  Kevin got himself ready while I got the girls dolled up.  Once they were ready, they were waiting in the family room for Kevin.  He ohhh and ahhhhed over how adorable they look then gave them both a little gift.  It was a sparkly purse with some girly essentials.... tissues, lipgloss, and fruit snacks!  They both felt like little princesses and that's what it's all about!

They went to dinner before the dance at China Bistro with my brother and his two girls.  The cousins love being together, so that in itself was a treat.  Then the girls danced and danced until the clock struck about 8, and they were all pooped and ready for bed.  I love this event so much and look forward to it every year just about as much as they do!

I had a night in with my boys.  We made homemade pizza and ice cream sundaes.  They loved it!  We are already looking forward to it next year!  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated Valentine's Day for the last few weeks!

We took the kids to Portrait Innovations and did a single pose package ($15!) and sent some valentines out to family and friends.  

I made 3 different batches of heart cookies too!

Kevin and I read a fantastic book with the underlying message of love.

We also did several crafts and decorated the house for the holiday!  I hope you all enjoy the weekend as much as I will!

What I've Learned About Potty Training

I have potty trained 3 out of our 4 kids, and I have learned a lot along the way.

Hayden was the definition of perfect when it came to potty training.    When he was about 18 months old, he started waking up dry in the mornings.  Shortly after that we started potty training and by the time he was 2, he never wore a diaper again.  That's including at night!  I had no idea how lucky I was.

I fought Allie from 2-3 to get her potty trained.  She simply was not ready and I had a hard time accepting that. I thought it was some failure on my part. Sometime after she turned 3, it all started to click, but she wore diapers at night until her 4th birthday.  

With Krissy, I just had no expectations.  If she showed interest, we'd go with it, but I didn't want to make us both miserable trying to do something she wasn't ready for.  We had a failed attempt about the time she turned 2.  She was interested but she just wasn't ready.  Early in January, she really took a liking to her stash of big girl undies.  She wanted to go potty, and she knew everytime she went I'd give her a candy heart. Candy hearts and new undies were the motivation she needed.  After the last few weeks, I can officially say she's got it down!  I still put her in a diaper at night and although she doesn't love that, I'm happy with it!

One more kid to go!  I can't imagine never buying diapers again.  It's been part of our monthly budget for so long! It will be a welcomed change in a couple years :)

Proud if my big girl!

Charlie @ 6 weeks old

My Charlie baby is getting bigger!  The breeder has been so sweet and has been emailing me updates along with pictures of him.  She tells me about his sweet personality and always wants to hear what I think of his newest pictures.  He's looking more stripy and I can tell his eyes are starting to change color!  I'm hoping this week to make a "Charlie countdown".  The kids keep asking how many more days, so I thought it would be  a fun visual reminder!

Also another random fact, the name the breeder gave him, "Patmos," didn't beat out our favorite name (Charlie) so we knew we were going to change it.  I started getting curious about what that unusual name meant, so I googled it.  It turns out that John, the author of the book of Revelation, was banished to the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9) and that's where he was given the vision of Revelation.  Kinda cool, but we are keeping the name we picked out :)

And here's Krissy saying his name.  She says it so sweet!