Weekend Family Trip

 Last weekend we made a trip for a family gathering and had a wonderful time getting caught up and, of course, the kids thoroughly enjoyed all the activities - indoor water park, arcade, go-karts, and lots of food.

Big Sister spent the first couple of hours on Daddy's back, but then starting really enjoying leading him around the water park area. She was exhausted by the end of the day.

Big Brother loves the water - he spent many hours playing!!

That is Big Brother at the bottom of the water fall! It was fun to get this picture.

Quote from Big Brother: "The slide was really scary - it was so fast...and dark...It took forever to get down it - around each turn I kept waiting to come out and then didn't." He loved it the second time around - knew what to expect.

Little Sister loved all the attention and also loved being in Mommy's Ergo most of the time.

Yes - this is Big Sister eating a cucumber instead of the ice cream cone in front of her. She did end up eating both, but I had to laugh - she loves her veggies!

   

Family Guidelines

This is our Family Guidelines project that Mommy recently completed. This is a list that Daddy and Mommy came up with that our family wants to make every effort to live by. The list below is the complete list - some of them are difficult to read in the picture.

LOVE GOD:

all of our hearts, minds, and strength

Slow to anger slow to speak quick to listen

Do everything without grumbling or arguing

Be CONTENT with whatever we have

Actions and words GLORIFY GOD

Conversations be full of GRACE

Focus UPWARD and OUTWARD, NOT INWARD

LOVE each other as GOD loves us

Spur one another on toward love and good deeds

‘It is more blessed to GIVE than to receive.'

FORGIVE as the LORD

has forgiven us

Choose JOY in all circumstances

Take care of what

the Lord has given you

Wife: Respect Him Husband: Love Her

Children, Obey Your Parents

Fathers, Do Not Exasperate Your Children

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

Yes - We Sometimes Play With Our Food

Every time Mommy makes Chicken Noodles with Mashed Potatoes - Daddy and Big Brother build damns with their potatoes and vegetables before dumping on the noodles. They enjoy seeing whose holds out longer and how much they can put on before it breaks through.

Ready for Bed

Our two little cuties bathed and ready for bed!

Little Sister - Dedication

 We had Little Sister dedicated a couple of weekends ago and were so blessed to have so many members of our family in attendance. Little Sister was dedicated along with many other beautiful babies! What a great celebration to be a part of.

Our hope is that our daughter will become a young lady whose heart is sold out to the Lord. We want her to be compassionate and have a servant heart - to be one that is always looking to help others in need. We hope she will be humble, joyful, and content in all situations. We pray she will be secure in her faith and beliefs.

Genesis 18:19 - For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD and by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."

Daddy chose this verse as it was a great reminder that our hope is to raise our children to know the LORD and then they will in turn share that same love and faith with their children.

Our precious Little Sister! What a joy she is!

Smiley Little Sister - LOVE IT!

This is one of the best pictures I have gotten of Little Sister smiling - just love it!

Mommy Celebrates 38!

Yes - Brother decided it would be fun to put all 38 candles on Mommy's birthday cake.
Boy, did it let off some heat! I had a wonderful birthday and am so blessed to be where I am today.
It is amazing what the last 38 years has brought me. I am so thankful for what I have!

Valentine - Balance Board

This is Brother's balance board that Daddy and Mommy made Brother for Valentine's Day. So easy to make - just cut a piece of board and dowel and Mommy decorated them with black and white duct tape. Yep - that's it....and he loves it. He has also been using it as a scale and I am sure he will figure out soon that he can launch things with it...kind of surprised he hasn't tried it yet.

Valentines - Felt Sugar Cookies

This was Sister's gift for Valentine's Day from Mommy. I found this great idea awhile ago, but unfortunately, the original post was no longer available to the public, so I decided to recreate as best I could and make my own tutorial to share with anyone who is interested. Sister loves her set and is often offering cookies to us and putting the pan "in the oven" to bake the cookies. This was a great addition to her felt food stash.

 TUTORIAL:

Items Needed:
Cream colored felt
Tan colored felt
Pink felt
Embroidery thread to match felt colors
Heart-shaped cookie cutters
Fabric pencil
Needle
Scissors

I located an old cookie sheet that I no longer use (I am all about recycling) and cute out two layers of cream colored felt a little smaller than the size of the cookie sheet (this is the dough). I then cut out the cookie dough with cookie cutters I had on hand so I just used the outside edge instead of the beveled edge. Again, this should be done in two layers.

I then traced and cut out two layers for each "baked" cookie from the tan felt.

I did not get a picture of the pink being cut out, but just follow the same step as above with
a smaller cookie cutter for the pink frosting to be stitched on top of the "baked" cookies.

The next step was pinning all my pieces together so I could hand stitch around the edges to give a nice finished edge. I also put polyfill in the "baked" cookies to give them a more realistic look.

So, this is the finished set. Sister already had a rolling pin so I didn't worry about picking up a new one (again, love to recycle and use what we already have on hand).

A Real Snow - Finally

After a long day of work on Saturday, Daddy decided it was time to play in the snow on Sunday with Brother and Sister.  The goal was to build a snowman the size of Daddy, but it was decided the size of Brother made more sense.

Of course, it just wouldn't be much fun without a snowball fight in the midst of the building...

Putting on the finishing touches...

Ta da - Mr. Snowman

Going Grocery Shopping

Big sister loves to pretend to be going somewhere. Here she has her bag, cup of coffee, and baby in the grocery cart. I love her imagination. She is often busy playing kitchen or playing with her various toddler activities during brother's school time. She occasional wants to join us, but most often just does a great job keeping herself busy.

Loving Her Daddy

4-Wheeling

Big Sister absolutely loves riding on her brother's 4-wheeler. The weather recently has been so nice that we have had lots of days outside with just hoodies.

More Completed Projects

I knitted this scarf on my round loom and then added a button hole and button for a different look. I found the orginal button idea here.

This is the menu board I just completed. I am very hopeful this will keep me more organized when it comes to meal planning and just general housekeeping. I found the original idea here, but made a ton of modifications to make it function the way I wanted it to.

This is the actual meal planner. Love how the ingredients are on the back side of the meal names to make the grocery list making so much easier. I made sure to include cards that noted Leftovers, Eating Out, and blank ones too so I could add new meals as I try new recipes. I have Sunday through Saturday on the left and then an "other" clip below for items such as homemade granola, yogurt, bread, etc.

This is a quick area to write down items we are needing at the store. This then gets transferred to my master grocery list. I am forever forgetting to add things to my list in my binder, so this is a way to make sure the milk and bread get picked up when needed.

The bottom section is for my daily schedule - I can switch it each day so we know what are day will look like and also what areas I need to concentrate on for cleaning. This section also includes our Family Fun Cards for the month.

Some January Pics

This really shows how big little sister is getting. Big sister loves to hold her and talk with her.

Brother is so good at caring for his sisters!

They love their Daddy!!!

Cuddling with brother...so sweet. Although brother wasn't really in the cuddling mood.

Gotta love the shoes and the stance!