More Pictures!

So, our family is a sight to see. Jeff's dad, his sister, and myself all have these huge DSLR cameras! I think we looked like the paparazzi taking pics on the beach and the pool and then out on the lawn trying to get some family pictures. Jennifer got a great one of the entire family that hopefully I can get from her sometime soon. But, here a few of the ones I got...

here are the sweet sisters before dinner one night


Abigail with Dede

It Was The Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

The "Best" Times for my kids usually involve something outside! Yesterday, Samuel caught a frog and he and Ellie Kate loved it!!!

More good times involve family. This weekend, we have been able to enjoy some rare time with my brother and his wife (Ryan and Erin). They made us homemade ice cream last night and the kids thought it was so cool!

The Worst of Times are shown in the following pictures...

See a difference from my usual crisp and digital SLR awesomeness?

I have sad, sad, sad news...nearly devastating actually. You know the really nice, really expensive camera I JUST bought in March? The flash is already messed up! Sometime during the ice cream making adventure, it just stopped working. So, now the only really good pics I will get is on manual mode (which I am learning how to shoot in) or outside. I am actually pretty mad about this. I am having to really pray that God would calm my anger and the frustration that is boiling up inside of me when I think about it. I know it is just not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it just seems like this type of thing always happens to me. It is under warranty and I can send it off to be repaired but who knows how much that will cost and it can take up to 6 weeks to get it back! Have I mentioned yet that we leave for Colorado in about 3 1/2 weeks and will be gone until the end of July?!!!

I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm praying that God will just miraculously make it work again and if not, then this is just another good reminder for me not to idolize my material possessions. But, if you really want to know the truth...I just want to scream and cry like a baby about it.

To end on a good note...here is a great pic of my family today (shot outside so no need for the broken flash). I love them and am so thankful for a great weekend with them!

Show Us Where You Live Friday

Dining Room Edition!!! 

Visit Kelly's Korner to see other rooms

I'm posting a bit early since tomorrow is a busy day! 

You can click here to see my kitchen and here to see my living/family rooms.

Welcome and enjoy the tour and let me know if you stopped by...

I really love having a dining room and we actually use it quite a bit.  I LOVE to have people over and entertain and cook for them!  The cleaning up afterwards part...not so much.  Anyway, I got the table and chairs for my 30th birthday last year and am so thankful for such a wonderful gift! I had been dreaming of a formal dining room for a long time.  That said, I still really want to get a buffet and/or china cabinet to add to the room at some point.  

Okay, so here is the view from the kitchen

View from the front door/foyer area

I love my table and dried hydrangeas (my sweet mother in law gave them to me)

So, this might be my favorite piece of furniture in the entire house.  It's a very old armoire from my grandparents.  In our home in Georgia, it housed our big tv and was showcased in the family room.  Now that we have moved into this house and have the built in bookshelves I don't feel like this beautiful piece is being used and shown off like I want it to. 

 HELP! Any ideas on how to better use this in my house?  

By the way, it's huge and heavy and hard to move! 

Here is what's in it right now.  Ha!!!! 

Hiking

Late yesterday afternoon we decided to head over to a little park that's about 5 minutes from our house.  They have ball fields, a playground, and also lots of little trails in the woods for bikers, runners, and walkers.  Samuel loves going there!  We had a great time and were amazed at how our wild girl hung with us for nearly an hour!  

blowing dandelions

it was truly a beautiful day! 

stopping to play in the dirt (it was a slow moving hike for sure)

and of course there was a stop to empty a certain someone's bladder 

I love how the trees made a canopy...this picture doesn't really display the beauty of it that well

abigail took a snooze

It is times like these that I always imagined and dreamed of doing when I longed for children.  What a blessing it is to enjoy afternoons in God's creation with my precious family! 

Shopping Trips

I usually make my Publix and CVS runs on Monday.  Yesterday was a pretty good day.  

Here is what I bought at CVS

1 pack of Huggies Swimmers Diapers

$8.99 - $2 CVS register printable - $3 Manufacturers Coupon

2 Dry Idea Deodorant Sticks

$5.00 with card - 2 $2 off 1 printable coupons (from coupons.com)

1 pack of Peanut Butter M&Ms 

(a little treat for a certain someone who used the potty during our 5 minute stop)

$.77  - on sale

Total out of pocket = $4.73 and I earned $2 in ECB (extra care bucks - from the deodorant deal) for my next trip and I still have $3 in ECB that I didn't want to use yet. 

Publix had some awesome deals this week (sales run Wednesday to Tuesday here).  Some of the highlights were 2 boxes of free Ritz crackers after BOGO (buy one get one free) deals and coupons, $1.50 Maxwell House Coffee, $1.50 boxes of Kellogs cereal, $.01 pasta sauce, and $1 Kraft Cheese cubes.  I was able to stack manufacturing coupons and Target coupons and then I had a $5 off $30 purchase Winn Dixie coupon!  Actually the cashier was pretty impressed with my savings as well! I'm thankful for the Lord's provision and hope to get even better at saving money with coupons and BOGO deals at Publix!!!!!!

"Monday, Monday"

For some reason, that song "Monday, Monday" is stuck in my head, so that's my post title!  It's a beautiful Monday here in Alabama.  I absolutely love spring weather like this...where there is a little bit of crispness in the air.  I am going to get moving and go on a walk with the kids here in a little while! 

This little girl is growing up WAY too fast.  

Abigail thought she was big stuff getting to sit in the big girl chair for her dinner last night.  

And, even though she is nowhere near crawling at 6 months like her sister was, she is starting to push up more and rock some and she can totally get around by rolling over and over and over. I'm actually very thankful she is a little behind where EK was developmentally.  I do NOT want her to be crawling yet! 

Our little garden is doing so good.  We've got tomatoes growing fast.  This monstrous thing is a cherry tomato plant. 

It just keeps growing and growing and growing.  I think it may get taller than our fence soon....and we are going to have a TON of ripe cherry tomatoes soon which are Samuel's favorite veggie.  

Here are some of our regular tomatoes that will hopefully be ready soon! 

And here are some beans.  Have no idea how to know when those things are ready, but it's been cool to see them grow. 

Samuel still loves to catch bugs! He was after a roly poly today in the sandbox. 

 

These two can get into some fights! I feel like a constant referee! 

And, finally....an update on potty training. 

Today on my shopping trips...we made one bathroom trip at CVS and 3 at Publix! We still usually have about 1 accident a day, and sometimes more...but she is doing pretty good for the most part.  It is really nice to only have one in diapers right now (and I have stocked up on diapers for Abs so I shouldn't even have to buy any for several months)! 

WHEW!!! That was a lot of pictures!!!