Easter 2012

We had a beautiful and fun Easter weekend with Oma & Opa. They came to visit us and we have enjoyed them being here!

They flew in on Good Friday and we stayed home and relaxed for the evening except for a quick trip to get froyo before bed time. Yum!

Saturday we dyed a few eggs and then spent the rest of the day at the zoo. Such a nice day and the kids loved going with Oma and Opa. Saturday evening Hubby and I {and Itty Bitty!} got out for a little bit to see a movie while the big 'littles' stayed home and played.

Sunday we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ by going to Easter service and then came home and had a yummy dinner of ham and fixings - a la Hubby. I seriously have it made!


After Little Dude woke from his nap we had an egg hunt out side and played with bubbles. And we ended the day with a play at the park!

Such a great weekend to realize how blessed I am and to be grateful and so thankful for all my Jesus did for me.

How was your Easter?!

Christmas Decorating 2011

'Black Friday' was anything but that for us this year. Actually we haven't even participated in the up before dawn festivities. There has never been anything that I want or 'needed' that badly. And I hope there never is!

Our Friday following Thanksgiving was, in my opinion, much more enjoyable! My mama was here and I wanted her to be a part of our setting up and decorating for Christmas. Holidays have been hard for her with both of her parents passing away in recent years and she is an only child. I'm so glad that she has our kids to give her things to look forward to! They are her future. :)

We set up our tree, village and Nativity scene and pondered what traditions we would like to start with our family. I always remembered doing an advent calendar when I was growing up. Maybe you know the kind, that has the doors for each day and you have to find the right one for that day. Behind each door was a piece of chocolate! Every kids dream. I wanted to do an advent calendar with my littles but I wanted it to have a little more to it.

We also, when I was growing up, would do a different activity with the my mom that had to do with the Christmas season. Nothing crazy, just simple and a way to savor the holiday each day! I like that idea and wanted to do that with my littles. So I did what any 2011-itching-to-craft mama would do and searched through Pinterest for ideas of a calendar I could make for our family to use this year and in years to come!

I settled on this one:

{Photo and idea credit here}

And after adding my own twists and ideas into the pattern here's how it turned out:

I used burlap instead of linen and I love the effect it turned out to have!

Once I had the holder I needed to figure out how to fill it. I came across this advent calendar and activity set for little ones and can't wait to use it with the littles!

Click here to buy it for yourself!

It comes with a little word/picture card for each day's activity and scripture reading. Each day has a scripture reading and an ornament to make that goes along with that part of the Christmas story. After going through the whole calendar we will have read and talked about the Christmas story of Jesus' birth! I also alternated a chocolate kiss or candy cane in each day. :) 

There are also a few traditional {and a few new ones} activities that I wanted to include so I made my own cards for those and put them on the days I think they will work best for us. For example, driving around to see Christmas light displays, Zoolights, making goodies for gifts, writing a letter to our Compassion International child, and having a birthday party for Jesus!

Tomorrow is our fist day of our advent calendar and I can't wait to dive in with my littles!!

We also started a new tradition this year with our Nativity scene. Growing up we always kept baby Jesus out of the manger until Christmas morning! I got an idea from here {love this blog btw!} that we are going to start doing each year:

We wrapped baby Jesus in wrapping paper {I debated poking wholes for his nose so he could still breathe} and we'll open Him as our first and most important gift on Christmas day! 

Little Lady helped me wrap Him up and reminds me He's there everyday. What joy! 

Friday evening hubby and I left the littles with their Nana for some quality time and we went out to have some of our own. After a lovely dinner together we headed over to a local Christmas shop that is very popular locally because they have anything and everything imaginable for Christmastime! We picked out our family ornament and one for each of the littles, another tradition we plan to carry out each year. Here is our family ornament this year:

It's SO perfect and displays our family just way we see it, minus the baby bump of course!

And I just had to share my thrift store find from yesterday, as it makes an adorable addition to our Christmas decor!

I have been wanting and looking for a child's wooden rocking chair forever it feels like. And I finally found one yesterday for $10!! And the littles both love it as much as I do! Little Lady's feet don't even touch the ground yet so I know we will get many years of use out of it. I hope to pass it on to their littles some day too!

What are some of your Christmas traditions, old and new?!

Change

Change is good.

Change keeps us from getting into routines and being complacent. Routines feel safe, I'll be the first to admit that! But that's not always what is best for us. Routine keeps us from relying on God and believing we can do life with out Him. When we have change, we are often forced to rely on God and trust that He will take care of the things we can't, the things that are unknown.

But, change is hard.


We have some change come up in our families routine in the form of a new job for hubby! The change has been unexpectedly harder for me than I ever thought imaginable. It's change in schedule, pay, insurance, and everything else we are used to. All the changing, it's brought out the ugliest of ugly in me! Yikes! The last few weeks were some of the darkest and hardest I've experienced in a long while. My rebellious spirit against the Lord was a rude awakening to some much needed change in my heart.

And slowly, I've been able to humble myself to allowing God to use the change for the better in our lives and in our family. I don't trust very easily, and that starts with my relationship with God. If I can't trust the one who made me or has my fate in His control, who can I trust? God's word tells me He is trustworthy.

During this past Sunday's message at church, it was said that "The greatest contender for God's best isn't the 'bad' things. The greatest contender for God's best are the things that I think are good." That statement could sum up the struggles that I've been wrestling with the past couple weeks. God is removing or weaning me from {asking me to let go of} things that in themselves aren't bad or sinful. They just aren't the best He has for me. But I try to tell myself, it really isn't bad or is God really requiring that of you? Which is just the Devil trying to get me of course with my greatest weakness, not trusting in God.

Change is good.


When I let go of those things that are not God's best for me, I feel free! I feel like me again and not a grouchy, ungrateful person that has been me for a couple weeks. I no longer face misery and self pity each morning, but instead see the unmeasurable blessings before me! I am so glad to be coming out on the other side of this cloud and seeing so much clearer that God loves me and He has a plan and He has better than better for me, He has the best!

I can not wait to see what it holds my family. I'm going to try my best to embrace the changes as they come and choose joy for the Lord!

Our Life with the Littles.

"Yes, this is our third."


"Yeah, we'll have 3 under three in February."


"Yes, we know how this happens..."


"No, not a single one of them is an accident according to God's plan."


"No we aren't crazy, although we feel like it most days."


These are things I find myself saying aloud, both to people we know or complete strangers. I also often find myself thinking things like, This isn't a muffin top, there is a bun in the oven, as I struggle with being the biggest weight I have ever been in my life.

Hubby and I spend a lot of time feeling like zombies and counting down the hours to bed time as we get through each day with a goal of surviving. Of course that's an exaggeration but you get the point. With two littles who are boycotting nap time and believe the latest trend to be waking up for the day at 4:30 AM and being a melt down mess by 8:30 AM, on top of that exhausting mess of a schedule I'm rounding the corner to the 3rd trimester and feel worn out and winded after sitting up in bed first thing in the morning.

I'm not complaining, who am I kidding, I'm definitely complaining!

As difficult as life with a 2 year old and 12 month old and one in utero is {can I just add that in the last 27 months only 13 months have I not been pregnant, and that's split into a 6 month and a 7 month period}, we do realize this is a season and it won't last or be at this pace forever. And not only that but this, all of this, it's God's best for us!!

He knew it would happen. He knew we couldn't handle it, not with out Him. That's His plan all along and this is the life He has given us. So we might complain and make sarcastic comments about the most difficult things we face right now. We probably will find ourselves day dreaming of a different season, past or future, but when we remember why we are here and Who led us to this place and we remember this is the life He chose for us there is no way we can't be glad in our hearts and praise Him for all of this.

This life He has given us. Our Life with the Littles.

California Vacation

Last week we had a wonderful time in Southern California visiting my dad and step mother. The kids did amazing on the plane ride and slept better than they do at home most of the time! Now that's what I call vacation!!

We took our camera and our camcorder but either left both at home when we went on an adventure or forgot to charge the battery. Darn! So we have gaps in pictures to reflect all the fun stuff we did. :) Hubby made a slide show of the best pictures we did take so instead of posting a huge long post full of pictures, I'm just going to put the slide show in this post. Your welcome!


And I'm going to do a quick summary of what we did each day, mostly for our record of memories for the littles. Feel free to skip it if you aren't interested.


{make sure to have your sound on :) }



California Vacation 2011 from Katie B on Vimeo.



Day 1


My dad and hubby went scuba diving @ La Jolla beach and the littles and I tagged along. We hung out on the grass near the sand where there was a play ground for the littles. When I learned that the temps were over 100 deg back at the house I was really glad we chose the 70 deg temps where the beach breeze was so refreshing and relaxing!


Day 2


Hubby stayed at the house with the littles and I got to go do some shopping by myself! We met up with my dad after he got off of work early and headed to the Disney store at the mall. We wanted to get a Mickey and Minnie mouse doll for the littles since we were going to Disneyland the next day! Little Lady had a blast, she's really into the princesses and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.


Day 3


Disneyland!! It was a gorgeous day in the 70's and we just went with the flow and did the things we wanted to do first, then what ever we had time for we'd try and do too. At least as long as the littles were content. :) They stuck it out until 7pm, and even then it was more their tired mama who was ready to get back to the house. Little Lady was so excited about the choo choo so we rode two different ones! We took them on 'It's a Small World' and I thought about my grandma the whole time {It was her favorite! I really miss her}, and 'Pirates of the Caribbean', and the Jungle tour. We also went through Goofy, Mickey & Minnie's house and Little Lady got to meet both the mouses!! {Little Dude slept through it all...} She wasn't scared at all! She went right up to both of them and looked at them like "Aren't you going to say something?!" The only princesses we saw were in the parade but Little Lady loved it all the same. Can't wait to go back when she's a little older. :)


Day 4


On Wednesday we decided to stay close to the house and recoup a little bit. We took the littles to a children's museum and hubby and Little Lady throughly enjoyed themselves!! After lunch we headed back to the house where the kids napped and we got some laundry done. That evening we played and enjoyed the clubhouse pool where my dad lives.


Day 5


Beach day! We took the littles to Oceanside, CA and after enjoying a delicious lunch at In-n-out we played in the waves and in the sand until we couldn't take it any more! Which for Little Dude was much sooner than the rest of us, considering he made a face plant right into the sand and got it up his nose, in his mouth and all over his body. Poor guy had sandy snot for several days. He recovered and ended up taking a cozy nap snuggled up to his mama while hubby and Little Lady continued to play. Hubby even got to boogie board some and had great waves to catch. The one time I went out to enjoy some waves a wave caught me and knocked me off my feet. It shoved me to the shore and drenched me in sand! I was over the water after that. :)


Day 6


Opa and Oma were off work so we headed up north from the house to the Long Beach Aquarium. Little Lady enjoyed sticking her hands in the water where they had sharks and rays you could pet, but she wouldn't pet any of them. No, she just wanted to taste the water... She ran and played in the little splash area they had and we saw lots of different fish.


Day 7


On our last day we headed down to San Diego were the weather was perfect and the breeze was refreshing! We took a Seal tour on one of those bus/boat thingys. It drives on land but turns into a boat when we get in the water... Lets just say I was glad I took a motion sickness medicine before hand, I actually got to enjoy it! It was windy but the littles did pretty well. They were over it close to the end. We headed back to the house and packed our bags for an early flight home.


Thanks Opa and Oma for a great time and thanks California for a lovely vacation! Until next time...

Summer nights

I look forward to the summertime. But really it's the summer nights I love.

The last three summers I've realized that we do more family things. Maybe it's the longer days, but I don't mind the kiddos staying up later and there are many spontaneous outings as a family!

Sometimes we go to the park or just for a walk through our neighborhood. Sometimes there is a detour stop at the Dairy Queen. Saturday night, though, it was the new self serve frozen yogurt (aka fryo!) place near our house! We will probably be frequent visitors all summer. Yum!

My personal favorite is any chocolate froyo with all the different Chocolate toppings! I may have a slight problem. :/

Little lady could care less about the frozen yogurt. She is much more entertained by the game they have for the kids. Basically it's a video game projected on the floor and you move around and use your feet to play. Saturday night she was the entertainment of 4 junior high school girls. They laughed and encouraged her silliness and she was in heaven with all the attention!

Have you tried self-serve froyo yet?! If not, what are you waiting for? It's soooo good!

What's you and/or your family's favorite part about summertime?

Sickies, sickies go away!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, in spite of the dreadful sickies that wanted to hang around our house.

It started last Tuesday when Little lady woke up with a 104 deg fever. Hubby called in to work {my life saver} to stay home and help me since I haven't been getting hardly any sleep at night most nights. Mostly because Little dude rolls over in his sleep and wakes him self up, he hates being on his stomach and it makes him mad, then he's awake. :(

Any way, where was I?

Oh yeah, the fever. We gave Little lady some Tylenol and her fever would come down for about 30 min before it spiked back up to 102-103 deg. We spent most of the day laying around and hubby and I took turns holding her. She wanted to be held the whole time and slept most of the time in our arms.

She still had a fever on Thursday but hubby went to work and we made it through the day which was much like the day before, but with a lot more crying because she still wanted to be held all day but I still had a Little dude who needed my attention. {Here in lies the hardest part about being a parent of two littles,  at least in my opinion. One is sick and wants to be held, one is a baby and needs to be held.}

Some how we made it to Friday and by this time her fever had changed to 99-100 deg and I held off from giving her Tylenol unless she was too miserable. The fever usually broke on it's own but then would be back just several hours later. I was confused and frustrated that it kept coming back. I was ready to have a healthy, happy little girl back.

Friday night I was hopeful that Saturday would be a new day with all fevers gone. Saturday morning proved to have it's own agenda and we quickly realized that Little lady was experiencing a first not one I was looking forward to write in the baby book.

She had her first ear infection. :(

I am so grateful that our pediatrician's office is open Sat. mornings for this very reason. We called once they opened and got her in. They gave us a prescription and we went right to fill it and get our girl on her way back to good.

Saturday night we met hubby's cousin and family at our church. They are looking for a church in the area and we loved showing them ours! We hope they decide to come back too. :)

Sunday we had a laid back morning and enjoyed hanging out the house mostly. Hubby finished making his traditional Easter cheesecake {from scratch! And SO bummed I didn't get a picture :(} and then we headed over to some friends house {Sheryl & Glenn's, aka Lolli & Pops!} for the rest of the day.

The edible birds nest no bake cookies I made! 

We had a blast with so much great food, great company {I think there was 20 or so there!}, and great games and fun! These friends never disappoint for a good celebration and they always go all out. I'm really bummed that I didn't get more pictures. Maybe I can get some from the others who were better at taking pictures.

The tournament board, designed by Jaeson Fricke.

One of the games that is always played and is a really big deal is the Egg Tournament!

Hubby with his egg and his game face!

Everyone gets a hard boiled, colored egg and after the tournament order is decided two people face off. They collide their eggs together across a white table cloth and who ever's egg loses ANY peice of it's shell first is out and the other person advances to the next round! It's so much fun and it gets so crazy competitive {to include a surprise raw egg!} that there is always a LOT of laughs to be had!

Carrying around her candy bag :)

This year Glenn added a new game... Where he pulled out the big Nerf guns and had each dad take a turn to shoot and knock down a stuffed animal from the banister above the living room. Sounds strange, but it was a fun and unique way to keep the guys involved! Even if it was "all for the kids!"

Among these 'grown up' games there were many eggs hidden around the house for the youngins to hunt and plenty of sugar and candy to give all the kids sugar comas for the rest of the evening!

Even though there was an attempt to ruin our weekend with the sickies, fun prevailed!

Zoo Day

Yesterday was a beautiful day! 

We decided to have a family day at the zoo.

Little Lady rode the "Choo Choo" for the first time!

Hippo and Rhino had a conversation...

I got to try out my new camera. :)

And we renewed our membership for the year since last summer I took Little lady at least once a week, if not more!

I hope to do the same this summer, but with two little monkeys!!

Drill weekends.

As much as I might dread or complain about drill weekends**, they do have their positive moments.

I only say dread because I hate being away from my babies that long and it is extra work getting things ready for a sitter and what not. But I take privilege in my duty to serve my country and I enjoy working with the men and women who serve also. I'm grateful for everything that serving as done for me as well, like building my confidence, giving me a sense of fulfillment in doing something to serve others and my God. Not to mention I met my hubby while serving!!

But there is a certain anxiety involved with drill weekends. I'm with my kids pretty much 24/7 and these weekends interrupt our routine and therefore puts the kids in weird moods for us to come home to after a full day of working. In summary, it's good but it's stressful.

But I am thankful for several things besides the privilege to serve:

1. My lunch break is usually spent with hubby and we get to have a mini date two days in a row usually!
2. I get some adult interaction, an opportunity to be productive outside of the home and make some extra $$.
3. My hubby and I get to enjoy and get a laugh out of the hilarious things our daughter says and does. For example, we'll imitate her and say words the way she says them, the toddler version, if you will. And it helps us appreciate and just miss her and her brother like crazy!!

So even though there are dreaded things about drill weekends, they have their pluses too!

I honestly don't know how you working {outside of the home, that is} mamas do it....

** Drill weekends are the one weekend a month duty hubby and I do to fulfill our commitment of being enlisted in the Air National Guard.

Little Lady {18 Months}

Little Lady is 18 months!!!!

You had your check up today. Dr G just loves you! And you love her. As soon as she came in and sat down you wanted up in her lap and asked her to read you a book. She said she could sit there with you all day, we know the feeling. :) Here are your stats from today:

Stats

Weight: 24 lb 6 oz {50% - gain of 1 lb 4 oz in three months}

Height: 32 in {70% - gain of .5in in three months}

Head: 18 in {25% - gain of .25in in three months}

Sizes

Clothes: You are wearing mostly 18-24 months or even 2t, depending on the brand.

Shoes: You are right between 5 & 6. You LOVE to wear boots. You have two pair!

Diapers: You are still wearing a size 4. I have a prediction that you'll be close to potty training soon! We already sit you on a potty seat on the toilet before your bath to get you used to it.

Favorites

Books: 

Pretty much any  book is your favorite right now. You just love books. If I had to say the one you ask for the most is Little Quack that you got from Nana for Christmas.

Words/ phrases:

We hear a lot of words coming from your mouth. The words we hear most often are: 'uh-oh', 'poon' {spoon}, 'pho' {phone} 'ca-ca' {cracker}, 'ook' {book}, 'lello' {yellow}, 'dess' {dance}, 'isis' {kisses}, 'ga-ga' {glasses}, 'cwap' {clap}, 'poo' {pull}, 'eese' {please} and 'No touch'. Any time we ask you a question {such as 'Did you have fun playing?'} you most often reply 'No!' And you usually laugh... You are talking so much these days and you amaze daddy and I when we realize you just articulated something new. We usually do a double take and try to get you to say it again. Which you usually don't. ; P You love to blow on things when we tell you "It's hot!" Such as your food, our coffee/tea, the space heater, etc. You are just too funny :)

Food:

Any thing made with cheese {especially mac'n'cheese!}, juice, crackers, and peaches. Still working on getting you to eat/like vegetables.

Activity:

Cooking in your new kitchen and playing doctor. You love putting on shoes and trying to walk around the house in them. Any shoes, especially mommy and daddy's. It cracks me up when I turn around to see your whole legs swallowed up in daddy's boots and your big 'ol grin across your face because you are so proud that you did it all by yourself.

Song:

I'm teaching you 'Jesus loves me' and I'm hoping that we can start learning a few old hymns together!

Sleep:

You still take a nap once a day, usually around 10:30 or 11a and sleep for about 2 hours.

Can I just say how much appreciate the sleep you have become. You may not sleep through the night most nights {I'm up with Little Dude anyway} but the actual going to bed process is SO much smoother.

We have tried and we just aren't CIO parents. Considering that you were swaddled for 9 months and we usually bounced you until you were asleep for naps and bed time until you were 13 months old, it fees like a huge accomplishment to be able to put you in your crib with your pillow, blanket, squishy and stuffed kitty cat and tell you night night and you actually go to sleep. On your own!

Not always right away but that's ok. And sometimes when we ask you if you're ready for nap or bed time you actually nod and say yes. Score!

Character traits:

You are so sweet and love to give kisses, I know you have a kind heart. You are also so active and just go all the time. You rarely sit still for long. You even move a lot in your sleep because when ever I go in there you are all kinds of turned and twisted in your bed! I am hoping that you will desire to use all your energy to further the Kingdom of God.  Another trait about you is your enthusiasm! You absolutely love to make a surprised face, and if you get a laugh the first time you will do it again, multiple times! And when you finish something or accomplish something you get so excited and clap and say 'YAY!' with so much excitement. It just makes my heart happy to see you so enthusiastic, and it's contagious too! You are so full of joy and I love that. I hope that is something that you never lose.

Challenges:

While mommy and daddy would like to think that our little princess is perfect, we know that isn't true because we all have a sin nature. We are all born with it. And it would be a disservice to treat you like you are perfect instead of using this time to train and teach you the difference between right and wrong and that their are consciences for every action and choice you make in life. But honestly the real challenge comes with learning how to discipline. It's really hard to know what disciplinary action is needed when. There is always a conflict of wanting to do right by discipling you and in not wanting to discipline you. It's hard for me to discipline you, to see you struggle or crying or feeling hurt. But it's a part of this life in our fallen world and I have to remember that God requires it of us as parents and He disciplines us as adults too. It's all for our own good. We have the Word as a guide to do it right as well as those who have gone before us as parents.

You, sweet girl, are the joy of our hearts and you bring us more joy everyday!

We love you so much.

Mommy & Daddy

Verse:

"The LORD your God in your midst, The mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17