Books

I've really made more of an effort this year to unplug from electronics and instead read more.  I have always loved reading, but 4 children, a blog, an iphone, an imac, and many DVR shows later...I just haven't done as much of that in the last few years.  But I have soooo many books that I have wanted to read.  So, I've sort of renewed my first love and have been diving into more books the last few months. 


I wanted to recommend a few because they have just been that good.  I can't NOT tell you about them!

SEVEN

by Jen Hatmaker

Have you heard of Jen?  If not, then go to her blog right now (jenhatmaker.com) and prepare to fall in love with her.  I want to move to Austin, TX and be her best friend.  I feel like she is my soul sister.  The beautiful thing about how God has gifted her is that I know pretty much everyone feels like that about her.  She is amazing and yet she is so real and honest and I just triple heart love her!  She has written a lot of books, and 7 is her most recent.  It is hilarious and challenging all at the same time.  I am looking forward to doing my own challenge soon.  I really really want to stop living with so much and give up more of myself to others.  I think that is what Jesus wants too.  If you haven't read the book, buy it now!  

Sparkly Green Earrings

by Melanie Shankle

This book is written by the popular blogger Big Mama (thebigmamablog.com)

She is hilarious and real and this book is basically just a memoir on motherhood.  There are so many sweet moments, but mostly it's just so funny and so relateable!  I loved it!

A Praying Life

by Paul Miller

I think I've mentioned it before, but really wanted to recommend it again.  It is sooooo good and has really transformed my prayer life. Paul Miller is really easy to read and yet so challenging at the same time.  He is so real and honest about his own struggles and shares a lot of what he learned about prayer through raising 6 children (one of them being special needs). 

Happy Resurrection Day 2013!

thanks DeDe for our beautiful outfits:)!

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice, and for defeating death once and for all!  Thanks that your resurrection means life everlasting for those who follow you.  Thank you that death truly means life.   I pray that I continue to learn that and live it out here on earth.  I pray that the truth and beauty of the cross knocks me to my knees daily.

Once and for all, our debt is paid, 

There on the cross it is finished! 

The Lamb of God for us was slain; 

Up from the grave He is risen! 

Up from the grave He is risen!

~Chris Tomlin

Dyeing Eggs!

 I wasn't sure I would get to it this year, but alas I already had the kit in my pantry and enough eggs to do it! Love when it works out easily like that! 

The big girls had a blast dyeing eggs this morning.  

I had fun editing the pics on picmonkey:). 

 Have you tried it yet?  It's a really fun free editing software online.  

And I will enjoy eating the eggs! 

 

A Bullet Point Post

• Things are about to get C.R.A.Z.Y up in here!  Ellie Kate is playing soccer and Samuel is playing baseball.  We also have gymnastics for the girls one day a week.  I'm not big into over scheduling our kids so we shall see how this goes with so many activities.  

• Anna Mitchell is 13 months and I should do an entire post on her but I won't because I don't have time.  She is hilarious.  Trying to talk all the time.  She never stops moving and now she rarely stops talking:).  Her real words are Da-Da, Pepper (the cat), Baby, Uh-Oh,  wats tha (what's that?), Um (yum), and sometimes Mama.  Then she tries to say Ball, and Where Did It Go but only we would understand what she is saying.   Annie still takes two naps and is sleeping well at night!  She still gets her morning and bedtime bottle but now usually only gets her straw sippy cup throughout the day.  I will hopefully phase out these last two bottles in the next few months.  Yay! 

•  Samuel is still doing mostly good and learning a lot about self control and obedience.  God has really taught us all how to be more patient and Samuel has especially learned that he can control himself and he can have very good days.  It's his choice.  It has been so great for him to succeed and we have given him rewards for how awesome he's been.  He knows ultimately that God is His biggest help in this time and has really answered our prayers!  We still struggle with bad attitude and some behaviors that are unrelated to ADHD...just normal kid elementary school stuff that is not fun at times. 

• Ellie Kate is rocking it out at gymnastics.  She can do so much and I'm so proud of her and what all she has learned in such a short while!  She is also reading up a storm and loving it!  My little Ellie Bellie continues to be such a drama queen and so emotional about everything though.  I'm a little nervous about the teenage years.  I've said that all along, but lately she has just been soooooo dramatic about everything and soooooo emotionally driven in every response.   But otherwise, she is smart and fun and also never sits still!  

• Abigail is our sweet child.  I'm not playing favorites but really she is.  She has always been our most compliant and moldable child.  I'm thankful that God gave me one of those because I now know fully that our children's compliance is really nothing we do as parents...it's so much of what's already in their nature.  Sure, it's our job to train and discipline but man when they are already by nature compliant, that job is so much easier.  Abigail still struggles, but for the most part she is just sweet and easy.  She aims to please me and her daddy and most of the time her siblings.  Although, she certainly knows how to push Ellie Kate's buttons and sometimes seems to enjoy that role:).  Abigail is also doing gymnastics right now, but I think she wishes she could do soccer.  Ha ha!  Our little tomboy is very excited about the warm weather so she can return to wearing gym shorts and tshirts everyday.  

• I am very proud and excited because I have finally lost all my pregnancy weight from Annie.  It only took me 13 months!  Geez.  This one was the most difficult to get back to normal from for sure!  So, now my goal is to continue to get back in shape and lose even more weight so I can get back to what I was before infertility.  In the last 3 months I've lost almost 10 lbs and over 17 inches.  I've gone down two pants sizes!  Wooohoo.  

Well I think that will just about do it for this morning.  Like I always say, if you want a more day to day idea of some of what we do around here in picture form, find me on instagram:).  I usually take 1-3 instas a day. 

A Very Fine Tea Party!

As you can see, we had a tea party for Ellie Kate on her birthday.  It was so much fun and possibly my favorite party yet!  I had so much fun coming up with all the details and making everything in our house so pretty:).  Ellie Kate was sooooooo excited to have her school friends see her house and come to the party.  I loved watching how excited she was.  Her friends are so sweet and they all seemed to have so much fun!

I borrowed a lot of stuff from my mom...the tablecloth, silver tea set, and cups and saucers. 

I had sweet tea in the tea pot and the girls LOVED pouring that into their teacups.  It was so cute!  

I also had pink lemonade in their milk bottles in case they didn't like the tea.

When the girls arrived, they had to get ready by putting on a hat (dollar tree finds by my mom),  pearl necklaces (from amazon.com), and lip gloss that I applied.  They all looked so beautiful when I was done with them:). 

Outside, I had a few activities for them.  First, the decorated little tea pot foam frames.  They loved that of course.  Then I had little purses from Hobby Lobby and fabric flowers (I asked a sweet friend Allison to make them for me) for them to pick out.  I then hot glued the flowers onto the purse.  They loved these too!

Since Ellie Kate and her friends are so into American Girl dolls, I had them bring their favorite doll to the tea party.  I made little party hats for the dolls that turned out so cute.  I found the template on pinterest.  I was going to have a table set up for the dolls to have a tea party at, but I just sort of ran out of ideas by the end of the week and couldn't implement that one, so the dolls just got carried around a lot and then sat on the chair together during tea time.

 

For food, I did a Publix cake, fruit, Publix petit fors, chips, cheese straws, and little sandwiches (not pictured).  Simple and mostly cheap (besides the cake).

I think EK will remember this party for a long time.  It was so much fun and we loved celebrating our special 6 year old!!!! Now, I am just soooo glad to be done with parties for awhile!  My children have birthdays all in a row with Christmas in between and it's exhausting, but fun:). 

Happy 6th Birthday Ellie Kate

Six years ago, you burst into our lives and it hasn't been the same since:). 

I can't believe I get to be your mom. 

I can't believe I carried you in my tummy for 38 weeks and then had the experience of giving birth to you.  Something I never thought or dreamed I could do.  

You. Are. A. Treasure. 

My first daughter.  My first born second child. 

There will never be another you (although I think Annie is a close second:) Ha)

I love your zest for life and your shining personality. 

Everyone loves you because you are so fun and so sweet and so smart. 

You are passionate about what you love and what you hate. 

You still pitch fits and you are still very stubborn. 

You might tend to be a little bossy when it comes to your siblings especially Abigail.

You love hard and you are full of emotion! 

You have grown so much this past year and I am just so proud of who you are and who you are becoming. 

You love school.  You love your friends. 

You never stop moving and you never stop talking.  I love that (most of the time).

You have a hard time saying your sorry and you do not like to be wrong.

Your favorite thing to do is play with friends and draw.  You love to color and write things out.  

You make beautiful pictures for me and daddy everyday.   

You love to "talk" at night in bed about important things:). 

You are a sassy little diva and we love you soooo much!

Happy 6th Birthday Silly Girl!!!

Anna Mitchell's Room

It's not as great as her original nursery from our old house, but I still do love Annie's room in the new house as well.  It's very soothing and soft and will grow with her I hope!

Again, this room (or any in my house for that matter) is not a decorating dream or anything.  We use mostly furniture that is given to us or that I buy at garage sales! 

I just love documenting my kids rooms because they do tend to change a lot:).  Ha ha!  I am not known for keeping things the same for long.

Most of the same details from her first nursery are in this one.

  I did find a mirror for a steal and a moved a bookshelf we already had into the room, but I think that's the only new things I've done in her space.  Oh, and I did add a bumper pad.

Her old nursery post is HERE

You can sort of see the little built in "desk" area behind the chair.  Well, that is Anna Mitchell's changing table:)

That awesome chalk painted mirror I scored for $30!  What a steal! And yep, that small frame in the front up there...still has no picture.  Good thing I'm not OCD about those kind of things:). 

This beautiful baby book was made by one of my friends mother!  This was her gift to me:).  It's beautiful...and currently empty.  Better get on that! Ha ha!

And here is the wild woman herself.  This girl is crazy y'all!  She is beginning to have quite the personality these days too!  I love my itty bitty baby girl so much.