1,2,3...Awwwwwww!

Sunday morning was my morning to sleep in, which meant hubby was up bright and early, and I mean...EARLY with the kiddos.

So, hubby was pretty tired most of the day and at one point in the afternoon, he just CRASHED with the baby boy.

So of course, I had to take a picture so that your hearts could melt too. :-)

2008 Reflections

January

I began my third trimester, pregnant with Christian. I was staying home with the kids during the day and working nights at a nearby hotel. I was always so very exhausted. Kids and I had fun during the day. One day, we brought the snow inside, since it was too cold to play outdoors, and we made little snowmen.







February
Andrea came for a visit. It was wonderful to have her over for the long weekend. Audrey also had her first dental appt. this month.



March
We moved Isaiah into a toddler bed, to prepare for baby who would need to use the crib. Funny, Christian is still sleeping in a pack 'n play in our bedroom. (That will change next month)


Grandma, my MIL, came for a visit. She was hoping to be here for Christian's birth, but ended up flying home the morning I started going into labor.


Speaking of labor, I had Christian on March 23rd, Easter Morning. I wrote a great post (I think) about his birth, which was at home. You can read it HERE.


His first photo




GG and Papa also visited, helping to take care of my rowdy kiddos while I tended to the new baby boy.

April
Audrey went to her second daddy/daughter dance, but ended up leaving early, after eating a cookie that had nuts in it. Ay yi yi! Her allergy is REALLY BAD! They both still had a wonderful time, and I am insisting that the daddy/daughter dance stay a yearly tradition, especially since her siblings are boys. She needs special daddy time. I don't think either one of them (Steve or Audrey) mind. :-)






May
Audrey's dance classes were slowly coming to an end and her class was preparing for their June recital. Here she is with her class, practicing. Well, trying to at least. Their teacher was absent that day and none of us moms knew the dance...so the girls did a bit of improvising.
Audrey is in the pink, 3rd one on the left.




I also wrote This Post about little things that I hope to always remember.


June
Audrey had her dance recital.



And I mastered making Shirley Temple-esque ringlets in her hair.

I started my new job at 5 Minutes for Mom, which has been such a blessing and I am so thankful every day to get to work with Susan and Janice, and to be able to work from home.


I also found this awesome wooden kitchen for Isaiah for $10.00, which really was exciting!



July
Isaiah turned 2!

..

I no longer worked nights at the hotel, so my days calmed down a bit.
I also went to Arizona with Andrea, to audition for American Idol.





I didn't make it past the table judges. Oh well!


August
Slow month. My baby boy was getting bigger though, and he had his first rice cereal, and I talked a lot during the whole experience.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

September
I finished my 3rd quilt.



Audrey started Pre-K, missing the kindergarten cut-off out here by 2 months. :-( She goes M,W,F for a couple of hours.




October
Yes, the month of Halloween and the torture I went through to sew a costume for the 1st time. THAT was quite the experience....but it didn't come out half bad.




Christian and I took a road trip earlier in the month, to visit Andrea who lives about 6 hours away. That was a relaxing weekend. I also came home to a spotless house. What a GREAT hubby!!!



November
Audrey turned 5!! She is getting so big.
birthday

December
This was a crazy, busy month for work, as was November. WOW! I tried my best to have fun with the kiddos, but I worked A LOT!!!!! Of course we just celebrated Christmas, and it was Christian's first.

Merry Christmas

I tried to get a pic of the kids while at church on Christmas Eve. But that didn't work out too well.



See what I mean?


Isaiah (2) loves guitars. LOVES THEM. He was thrilled to see that the 5 men in the worship band played guitars. Once the sermon started though, I ended up walking around the church with him, going up and down a flight of stirs at least 20 times. They didn't have childcare last night.

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Christmas morning, Audrey (5) wore her dress to bed. The kiddos were so excited for their presents.

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It was Christian's (9 mos.) first Christmas. He had such fun and loves his new toys.

This is a Perfect Day

I picked up Audrey (The Miss) from school today and she bounced out of her classroom with goodies in hand. Today was their Christmas party. She had a special present from her teachers and a bag of candy.

Once all of the kiddos were piled in the car, she asked for a candy cane and told me to give one to Isaiah (The Mister) as well. He was thrilled. She then asked begged and pleaded to open her gift.

As she opened up her present, I turned on the car. Much to Audrey's delight, Alvin and his chipmunk brothers were singing their Christmas song. It happens to be one of her favorites.

With a big smile she proclaimed...

"This is a Perfect Day!"

Pictures!!!!

For the grandparents who I know visit every day to see the little ones...

Here are some shots from Thanksgiving at Tiff's house....

I'm Most Thankful For....

The miss (5) came home from school yesterday with some Thanksgiving artwork. One of the things she made was an "I'm Thankful" placemat, adorned with painted leaves and a list of the three things that she is the most thankful for.

I chuckled a bit as I read her placemat......

I'm thankful for hippos,

I'm thankful for squirrels,

I'm thankful for zebras.

She's 5

Well, on Wednesday my baby girl officially turned five. I still can't believe that she is 5.



Here are some pictures of my little girl through the years....

My daughter has got spunk, lots of spunk. She's my dress wearing, Star Wars and Batman loving princess. She speaks her mind, she knows what she wants, and she tries hard to achieve it.



She is full of energy and is always on the go. She is inquisitive and loves to learn. She loves to dance around the house. She changes clothes constantly.



She loves to get a rise out of people. Although she pesters her two-year-old brother quite a bit, she still shows her tender side with him at times. She has such a caring heart.



She can be sassy, my little girl. She loves to laugh and to make others laugh. Her laugh is infectious. She loves animals. She loves to paint.



My little girl is going to achieve great things someday, because she doesn't take no for an answer.





Happy Birthday Princess.

For My Wall-E Loving Friends

Thought you might enjoy this....

And stay tuned to 5 Minutes for Mom. A little birdie knows that perhaps a Wall-E giveaway post will go up today! :-)

Someone's Turning 5

We had the miss' birthday party today, a STAR WARS birthday party. It was fun! There aren't many pictures at all, because I was running around the whole time. :-)

And Sara had brought hers, but the darn thing was missing batteries. Oh Well.



We all had fun. And the miss got one present that she was soooooooooooo excited about.

birthday




Then almost all of the kids piled onto the couch to watch a bit of it and they were super cute. I took a picture, but my camera was dying, and it didn't come out. DARN!!



Here are a couple more pictures. Her actual birthday is next week and I will be writing a special birthday post on that day. :-)

A Handmade Halloween

So this right here, this Princess Leia costume, was quite the experience. My daughter is a Star Wars fanatic and HAD to be Leia for Halloween. When I saw that most stores wanted $30.00 for a Leia costume, I thought that there had to be another way. So I googled and searched for Leia costumes. I saw that Simplicity and Butterick made patterns, but boy oh boy, they weren't cheap. More googling brought me to this blog post all about a homemade Princess Leia costume, using a nativity angel pattern and a turtleneck. How hard could that be, I thought.

Now keep in mind, I have only sewn quilts. I had never sewn from a pattern before. It was my lucky day, when I ran to Joann during a phenomenal sale. I found an easy sew nativity angel pattern, usually $11.50, on sale for 99 cents. I decided to buy white cotton flannel in case it ended up being cold on Halloween night. The flannel was also on sale. And they had a child's black witch wig on sale for $1.00, that would be a great length for rolling into cinnamon buns on either side. For about $9.00, I had all that I needed to make a Princess Leia costume.

I had absolutely no idea that the easy sew in 3 hours pattern, would actually take me more like 14 hours to complete. I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Opening the directions and patterns, oh my gosh, it was like reading something written in a foreign language. I was already overwhelmed and I hadn't even started yet. I quickly pinned and cut my pieces, which was surprisingly easy. I sewed the front and back of the gown together and added the little collar as well. It was going well. I even thought, hey, I can do this.

But then, it was time for the sleeves. I could not for the life of me figure out the diagram in the directions. I kept sewing the sleeves on incorrectly. I kept ripping out stitches to try again..and again...and again..AND AGAIN. Every time I sewed them, I would excitedly turn the dress right-side out, only to find that the sleeves were stuck on the inside of the dress....or that I had sewn the whole side of the gown together, so that there weren't arm holes.

I was about to give up. Ripping out stitches is not fun and doing it about 7 times in a row, is enough to leave anyone in tears. My grandmother-in-law saved the day.
I scanned the diagram and emailed it to her and she walked me through the steps. Soon, my gown had sleeves. I then discovered, after trying the gown on her, that the shoulder portion of the sleeve hit her in the middle of her arm. Not wanting to take the sleeves apart ONE MORE TIME, I moved the fabric up a bit to shorten the sleeves.

At this point, I had already spent one night up until almost 1:30 A.M. sewing. It was now the night before her school Halloween party and she still needed a hood. The pattern didn't come with a hood, but I figured I could wing it. Yeah, um, no such luck. After cutting several pieces of fabric, that in my mind would make perfect hoods, I realized that I was completely out of my element. I headed to Wal-Mart, since it was 11:00 P.M., to purchase more white flannel, to keep on trying my hand at hood making. But, they were completely out of white flannel. Thankfully, I found a hooded shirt on sale. I took it home cut the hood off and decided to sew it to the back of the turtleneck that she wears under her gown.

It was now midnight, and my brain had officially shut down for the evening. When I sewed the hood onto her turtleneck, I also sewed the turtleneck shut. I sewed both the front and back together. Almost in tears, I ripped out the stitches. It would probably need to be sewn on by hand, but I am not really good at that either. I then remembered that I had some iron-on velcro. SO in a few steps, I had a removable hood that attached with Velcro. I then quickly made a belt. I WAS FINALLY DONE!

I think it looks very homemade. The gray felt pieces on her belt are falling off, and the stitches in the back have already come undone, from wearing it to her party. But I will make the few needed fixes this afternoon, and it will hopefully stay put for her Trick or Treating adventures this evening.

The miss absolutely LOVES her costume. Before she left for her party, she took a look in the mirror, and squealed with delight. She also proudly told her teachers that her mommy made her costume.


Her little squeal and her huge smile, made it all worth it.

But Jesus Said We Must Have Dessert

The Miss (4) asked me what it was we were going to have for dessert tonight. I told her that we are not having dessert. She then said to me that Jesus says we are always supposed to have dessert. She has her mommy's sweet tooth.

Teasingly, I asked the miss, who can not read, to find in the Bible where Jesus says that we are always to have dessert.

First she pointed to the verse that says, love your enemies. So I told her she had one more try. She closed her Bible, opened it up again, flipped the pages and pointed to the verses that she just knew were all about having dessert.

Do you know what verses she pointed to???
Matthew 6:16-18, which are all about fasting.

MISSisms

The other night I decided to splurge on the hubby and get him Panda Express. It is one of his favorite places to eat, but I am not much of a fan. So I brought home Panda Express for the both of us after running an errand. It was around 8:00 P.M. and although the kids had eaten, we had not had dinner yet.

The miss immediately ran into the kitchen when she saw that I had brought food home. She doesn't like Panda Express, but she still searched through the bags and our plates for little things she could pick at. She took some of the carrots and eggs from my rice as well as a fortune cookie.

A little while later, she found my egg roll, and confiscated it. I told her that she was being a scavenger. She then asked me what that meant. So I explained it to her and also told her she was successful, because she ended up with my food. She then of course wanted to know what successful meant. After answering her and then again describing to her what a scavenger was, I asked her......

Me..."So if you decided you were going to come find yourself some food, and in your searching, you found my egg roll, and you took it for yourself and are now enjoying it, what does that make you?

The Miss: "HUNGRY!"

10 Things I Love

Courtney over at Chaos Is Us, invited us to join in her 10 Things I Love Meme. After leaving a comment, she would respond to us with a letter. I received the letter L. So now I am to share with you all 10 of my favorite things beginning with the letter L.

If you would like to play along as well, leave me a comment, and I will send a letter your way.

1. Laughter - I LOVE laughter, especially my kids' laughter. There is nothing better than their hearty belly laughs. I also love how I feel after a huge, energetic laugh.

2. Lasagna - My grandmother came to the United States from Italy, so as you can imagine, I grew up eating delicious Italian meals. One of my favorite dishes is lasagna. It is such a comfort food for me. I surprisingly don't mind Olive Garden's lasagna with some of their peach iced tea. YUM!

3. Long Island, New York - I had an Aunt that lived in Long Island for awhile. I remember visiting her about 8 years ago and falling in love with Long Island. It is so green and gorgeous. The houses are beautiful and the city is just a train ride away. If I ever come into lots and lots of money, you will find me there. :)

4. My Limited Jeans - A friend of mine treated me to a new outfit a few months ago. I received a brand new pair of jeans from The Limited, and I LOVE THEM. They fit me soooo well and they are very flattering. I have realized if I stay away from Juniors sizes and wear clothes intended for women, things fit much better.

5. Lindt Chocolates - Although they aren't my absolute favorite candy, they are up there on the list. I LOVE all things chocolate. And although my friend, Andrea, loves the peanut butter ones the best, my favorite are the red ones.

6. Lavender Roses - They are one of my absolute favorite flowers. Well, actually they are called sterling roses. They made up my wedding bouquet and are given to me by my hubby when he really wants to surprise me. The prettiest ones I have come across are at AJ's.

7. Lyrics - I absolutely love song lyrics. My favorite songs are ones with meaningful and beautiful lyrics. I am constantly googling various songs to read the lyrics.

8. Lazy Days - I don't get these often. They are very rare. So if I ever get to enjoy a LAZY DAY, I milk it for all it's worth.

9. Love - It's a given. Who doesn't love LOVE???

10. Lavishing gifts onto others - When I can afford it, I really do love giving gifts to others. I enjoy thinking of what things they would love the most. It is so much fun to give.

Apparently I am Overpopulating the Country

So when I go out with all three kiddos, usually at a grocery store, I always hear things like...

"Wow, you must have your hands full!" or

"Wow, you are a busy mommy."

Today an old man said something to me I had yet to hear. I walked by the cute old couple in the bakery section. They started inching toward my cart and I was prepared to hear about how sweet the kids are or how they have a ton of grandkids or something along those lines.

Instead, they barely glanced at my children. But the old man came up to me and said....
"You are overpopulating our country."

I kid you not. I just smiled and went on my way.

I am not sure how 3 kids is overpopulating the country. He was old, maybe he has double vision problems or something.

The Beginnings of a Caffeine Addict

The Miss (4 1/2) just asked me if she could have some Pepsi. But she didn't want it because she isn't allowed to have it or because she is thirsty. When I asked her why she wanted Pepsi, she said:

"Mom, I want it so that I can stay awake when we go to the park tonight."

And that my friends is how the caffeine addiction begins.

Morning Conversation With The Miss

The miss (4 1/2) was in the kitchen singing.....
"I love him. I love him. I love hiiiiiim.

Me: Who do you love?

The Miss: Nothing. I am playing a superhero game. Don't say anything. Just do your work!!!!!!!!!

Me: Superheroes walk around singing, I love him???

The Miss: No, only girls do.

Me: But I thought that you were playing a superhero game?
I then made a silly face and stared her down.

The Miss: What???

Me: I didn't say anything.

The Miss: Stop looking at me.

Me: Swan

Every time she says stop looking at me, I usually always say swan. She then says swan back and then the conversation ends.

Our Sunday Hike

Photo Credit:Infared-IR (flickr)

We recently declared Sunday as our family day. But I am beginning to think that it would be better if Saturday becomes our family day, because between church and football, our Sundays fill up quickly.

This past Sunday, we went on a hike at a nearby park that I found online after searching for easy hiking trails in the area. When traveling with three young ones and a double stroller, you need easy.

I discovered there was such a park nestled within a neighborhood about 20 minutes away. It was funny, because as we approached the park, hubby was all sorts of confused. You would never know that hidden among the houses were miles of beautiful trails.

It was so beautiful. We were immersed in greenery. There was also a little creek that ran alongside some of the trails. The air smelled so crisp and clean. The kids had such a wonderful time.

The miss(4 1/2) wanted to run through the trails, eager to see what was around the corner, or what the next trail had in store. She is like her mommy in that way. I hardly ever slow down. The mister(2) walked slowly, taking it all in. He wanted to study everything. He walked around with his finger out most of the time, pointing to the various plants, trees, flowers and even the clouds. The baby boy (6 months) slept most of the time, surprisingly. The trail was bumpy and in his stroller, he was off-roading.

We stopped at a little picnic table next to the creek to eat our picnic dinner and it was a nice time. It was great to get out of the house. The kids LOVED it.
The park is pretty close to Tiff's house. So we are going to go again on Saturday with her kiddos.

My camera is pretty much useless, so I didn't get any pictures of our hike. I did find some pictures of the park online, including the one at the top of the post, so I am going to share them with you.



Gorgeous, isn't it?

Hopefully when we go again this weekend, Tiff will bring her camera, so that I can share pictures of the kiddos with you.

Are You Ready For Some Inspiration?

Here are some projects that I am itching to try. Some would make great gifts for Christmas. I think that I could pull them all off.

This one isn't crafty, but really, this gal intimidated me...and all I was thinking was how great it would be if I were to freeze a month's worth of meals, not that I have that much room in my freezer.

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Okay, Christmas will be here before we know it, and I have always wanted to make a cute Advent Calendar. This Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar will make such a fun project.

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I have been thinking about making crayon rolls, for a couple of years now. This link has been in my bookmarks for a long while. It's Skip To My Lou's Crayon Roll tutorial.

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These Teapot Softies are stinking adorable.

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I have to make these decoupage silhouettes of the kids.

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These adorable chocolate bath fizzles would make great gifts.

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I want to make these lavender pillows for myself and others.

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The kiddos would love to bring these nature cans on our hike tomorrow. But I don't think I can make them in time.

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This T-Shirt bag looks simple and practical.

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These felt sugar cookies would go well with the softie teapot.

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Okay, that's enough for now. I have plenty more to share with you. You'll just have to wait until next week.