Owen's First Sunday School Party

"running over, running over, my cup is full and running over..."

Healthy nose pick.

I love this sweet boy!

Blessings

So, our beloved dryer died the first week of Sept. I have to admit that doing laundry is one of my least favorite chores (chore being the accurate word) around the house. I can normally get it washed and dried - even folded, it's the putting it away part that gets me hiccuped.

But, since our dryer has broken I have enjoyed hanging it out on the line (don't tell nate!). There is something so happy about seeing little Liv's clothes hanging in a row. (i mean seriously - i never imagined I'd be taking pics of laundry! :)

I began to think about it. We're in November now. We have been without a dryer for 3 and a half months. The Lord has not given us a "new" dryer yet, but He HAS given us delicious weather that has allowed us to dry our clothes outside. Isn't He good!? Even when we think he's not answering our prayers (that truthfully I haven't been praying about enough) He is still taking care of us!

I love it! I love that He cares about little 'ol me in birdsboro, pa. I love this beautiful fall that He's given us, and I LOVE looking at His provisions hanging out on the line.

Family Photoshoot

Can't you just hear her laughing??

LOVE HIM!!!

They are the best. Really.

I love this pic.I don't know why. Maybe because he seems so big to me here.

This was so fun playing peekaboo with them!

I love this picture!!

I have no words....

It has been FOR-EVER since we all had our pics taken as a family. I wanted to get a family picture done to decorate our basement and also to do our Christmas cards (and take advantage of this AMAZING deal!) So, here are a few of the results! I am quite pleased!

What do you think? Do you send out Photocards? Do you include a letter?

These are a few of my Favorite things....

Can't you just hear Fraulein Maria singing??

Here are some of my favorite things lately.

Let's start out at the beginning of my day (let's not kid ourselves! sometimes it's noon!!) But I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. It saves me 10 minutes after I get out of the shower. It is an indulgence for me - and SO worth it!!

I love seasonal drinks. Pumpkin lattes, hot apple cider, peppermint mochas - love them all - but i do not like to pay for them. So, i like to experiment and make my own versions of my favorites. The last few weeks it's been Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider! A wonderful little cup of joy!

Here's how I've made it - Hot Apple cider, a small (i mean small) shot of sugar free caramel coffee syrup, homemade whipped cream (heavy whipping cream, a little honey and vanilla) and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. YUMMY!!

I love this website!!! I love all things handmade. I love the creativity and whimsy of so many of the items on this site. I especially love making things for my store (shameless...I know!) Let me know if I can make anything for you!

I love tights and flat shoes. These are my favorites so far this year. Doesn't hurt that they came from another one of my favorite things - TARGET!!

I am also enjoying this book again, along with this VERY helpful aid.

What is something that you are enjoying right now?

Harvest Party

Little Miss Livvie the Lady Bug

donuts on a string. the kids had to get the donut without their hands!

I threw a Harvest Party for our MOMS group at church. It was so fun. We had about 16 little ones ages 1 month - 4 years. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Happy Half Birthday Liv!!

Today our baby joy turns 6 months old!! She has got to be the world's smiley-est baby girl! Couldn't have asked for a sweetier pie!! :)

Covergirl??

Owen knows that he does NOT look as good as his momma does in Raisinberry lipstick!! UGH!!
(this is from april or may...)

The lipstick on his nether regions and legs was UNBELIEVABLE!!!

How could I have forgotten?!

The crew minus 1 (he wasn't feeling so photogenic)

Jackson and Jordan clowning around

YAY! he liked the cake! :)

Little Visor craft

The table :)

Our good friends bought a moon bounce for their kids
and offered to bring it for Jackson's party! He was THRILLED!

Cheapy treat bags

My Jackson turned 3 in MAY!! (only a little late with the pics! sheesh!)

Jackson asked for a Thomas the Train birthday - which baffled me since Curious George was his beloved friend at the time and we NEVER see Thomas the train.

We (I) thought that it would be nice for him to have friends for the first time for his party instead of Aunts and Uncles etc... (which we did at a different date)

I made him a little train cake with a car for each of his little buddies to eat. So, enjoy the pics.

ALREADY??

Is this really happening? Is my itty bitty 5 month old REALLY up on all fours and rocking back and forth!!??!! *sigh*

LOVE THEM!

Owen Samuel -2 * Olivia Adeline - 5 mos. * Jackson Chase - 3

Free Sandwich at Chik Fil A!

For Labor Day, Chik-Fil-A had a promotion that if you wore a team logo to their restaurant - you would get a free chicken sandwich. We had NO sport logos in the house - so i quickly uploaded the Philadelphia Phillies Logo on the computer and commenced painting it onto the white t-shirts that we had around the house! One hour worth of work for me (FUN!) lead us to yummy sandwiches, fun family time, and a cute photo op!!

They are darling aren't they!

Jackson and Owen's First Day of Preschool

Pledging to the Flag! (looks like he's reciting "O Captain, my Captain!"



Sitting at their "Learning Table"






This was the Color Red day! They wore red, had a red snack of strawberry Jam on bread and water in a red cup.

Under the Learning Tree.

Jackson and Owen started preschool this week - in our basement :)
We have had great fun this week learning/reviewing about the letter A, the color red, safety and stop signs etc... Here are a few pics of our "school area" and their first day.

I keep forgetting that you can't record vertically with my camera - so, just tilt your head a little :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Owen

I love this little kid! Owen turned 2 (can you even believe it??) on August 21st. (I am a little behind!). We started out the morning with our Birthday tradition of Pancakes in the shape of their birthday number. Sadly, the #2 I made broke while flipping it, but Owen didn't seem to mind as much as I did. :)






























































I asked Owen what kind of birthday party he would like this year and he said "Socka Monkey Party mommy!" So, off I went! These were the invitations I made. Owen LOVES his sock monkey! His Nana has made one for each of the boys. I found a picture of the cake that I wanted to make and then decided to modify it a little bit since no one really eats the cakes anyway! Why go to all the work!? So, I tried my hand at Fondant for the first time and I was so happy with the way it turned out! Owen saw his cake and said WOWEE!!

We are so thankful for our little boy! He is a lively, expressive little guy! We have enjoyed watching him grow up and learn his ABC's and little bible verses. He's a great little goofy boy!

Happy Birthday day Buddy! We love you!

Introducing.....

I am so happy to share with you Brown Eyed Girlies! It's my new Etsy store and I am sooo excited to finally have an outlet (and some inspiration : thanks Liv :) for all things girlie!
I am selling these baby bracelets, bow holders, bows, headbands and flower clips!

Here are a few pics of things that I have made - Let me know if there is anything I can make for you! I would be happy to put together something special for you to match an outfit etc...

HERE'S A SPECIAL -

Buy a Bracelet and receive a free solid color bow in the color of your choice! (just let me know you saw it on my blog)

Refer a friend to my site and if they Purchase a bracelet you will receive a FREE WHITE FLOWER CLIP!!!

Good through September 2009!

Hope you like what you see! I have so much fun making them!

Painting Our Bedroom Furniture

We never bought bedroom furniture when we got married. We were given two dressers and have used them for the last five years. They don't match each other - and they didn't match our room. I began searching craigslist DAILY for bedroom furniture to no avail. I began to get REALLY discontent that all of the rooms in our house except for ours had made any progress in the last five years.

I got convicted about my attitude and surely didn't want to put any unsaid pressure on nate b/c of my attitude. So, one morning, i woke up - looked at my dressers and decided that they were getting painted that day!

Nate left for work and came home at lunch and we had a "new dresser!" The paint was free from a Glidden Promotion that they were having in June for a free quart in any color you wanted. I thought that I had got a green for Liv's room, but when it came and was black - i knew it was providence! :)

So, with a little TLC and some new glass knobs - voila! One of the dressers! I'll post the rest when I clean my room! LOL

A conversation with Jackson

So, today i was taking a shower and Jackson was sitting in the bathroom waiting for me to get out. I decided to ask him "What do you want to be when you grow up?". This is the conversation that followed...

m-"hey buddy, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
j-"I want to be a good man. And actually, I want to be a good daddy."
m - that's great bud - but what makes a good man?
j- i will be a hard worker, and go to my office with my daddy to work.
m- so you and daddy will be working together?
j - yup.
m- do you think that you will get married?
j- no. only girls get married.
m- well, actually men and women get married to each other, like i married daddy.
j- ya
m- you said you wanted to be a good daddy - how many kids do you think that you will have?
j- 4.
m- wow. should mommy and daddy have another baby?
j- sure mom! how about a girl for olivia. you can name her olivia.
m- well, that's really nice, but we'd need to come up with another name b/c we already have an olivia.
j- actually, let's have a boy instead for me and owen.
m- what will his name be?
j- Luke.

Jackson makes me smile. He is a real thinker for such a little guy. I pray that he does grow up to be a good, godly man and daddy!

A-dorable Giveaway

Head over to Spend Freely for an adorable giveaway of one of these diaper wipe cases!
I was thinking about making my own to be "thrifty" but I am all about winning a free one!!

I like them all! Which one is your fave?

Oh what a beautiful mornin'!

So, I was perusing facebook yesterday morning and saw that my girlfriend was having a yard sale today and wanted to know if anyone wanted to bring anything over to sell. (hmmmm...lemme think??!!) So, i called her and then proceeded to empty out closets, grab things off of shelves and try to find things to sell. I got my loot together and in the process made a BOMB of my house. I was able to reorganize some things and make room for other things since I was hoping to get rid of most of it. I also had a ton of Mary Kay stuff haunting me that I needed to get rid of so this was a perfect opportunity!

So, this morning I woke up, we ran the sale and after 5 hrs. of work, came away with $205.00!!! Not bad for a few hours of work!

I couldn't believe the stuff that people bought of mine and the stuff they passed over. Everything that I thought would sell, didn't - and the things that I just threw in to see what would happen - sold!

I was also amazed at the amount of elderly people that came and bought our stuff. You'd think that their houses would be full of enough stuff by now to have their own huge yard sale!

The Lord really blessed us! Between the 5 of us we made $700!

Have you ever heard of Just Between Friends consignment sales? They come to select cities across the county. I went to one as a buyer in the spring and they are so great! Ours was filled with tons of clothes, shoes furniture, anything baby or maternity you could dream of. Then on the 3rd day of the sale (when I went) everything is 50% off! I am planning on selling in their fall sale and I am interested to see how I will do with the leftovers from the yard sale.

I had hoped to make $50 today.

Eph 3:20 - I was blessed exceeding abundantly!!

Monkey see....

A little monkeying around on Father's Day. Nate was so excited b/c he couldn't do it when he was little. Aw...all grow'd up and climbin' trees. I *heart* my little primate! :)

A little summertime face lift

So, what do you think?

I have been trying for EONS to do something new with my blog and FINALLY i found a site that was SO easy to use. It's called Aqua Poppy Designs . I have tried Cutest Blog on the Block and others and this one was BY FAR the easiest to use and didn't lose any of my settings etc...

So, what do you think? What site do you like to use to change up your blog page?

I scored this dresser on craigslist for Liv's room!
LOVE IT!! It matches perfectly!

It's coming together!!


The sleeping papoose

Jehovah Jireh!

I just wanted to share a little blessing with any of you who are still out there...

I haven't blogged very much in the last year or so for several reasons. But the main reason was because whenever I would think about something to blog about, it would be during the day (when I didn't have a computer) and by the time Nate got home with his laptop I couldn't remember for the life of me what I wanted to blog about. More accurately, I would get caught up in Facebook and then be too tired to write.

So, onto the blessing...

A friend of ours gave me a computer. Yup. Just out of the blue. They knew that we didn't have one at home and they got a new one, so they gave their old one to us. It has a great big flat screen monitor and I am so excited to be able to google at will (is google a verb now??) about a myriad of things that may pop into my head during the day. I am hoping that now I will be able to sit down and write again a few times a week again!

I have found that with my new toy I have had to set up some "rules" for myself so I don't waste time and get sucked into the black hole of cyberspace.

1. Have I read my bible
2.Have I completed a major task
3. Have I spent quality time with Jackson and Owen.

Do any of you have parameters like this set up for yourselves? What are they?