Mather's Visit

Mathers is Rob's cousin from Alabama. She came to stayed with us for the first time last summer. The kids just love her, and we do too. She is a huge help and no trouble at all to have around.





I know Wyatt will probably want to kill me one day for these pictures, but they are just too funny and cute not to remember. He can play dress up with the best of 'em, and he can walk around in the girl's dress up shoes better than they can!

Doctor McCay (fyi never wallpaper if you still have preschoolers)

the weekend

We had a very enjoyable weekend! We started Saturday morning off right with breakfast at the only restaurant in our city -- Hardees! Then, we stopped in Ace Hardware to get a few things to plant in our early vegetable garden.

We planted two different kinds of lettuce, some broccoli, and a couple rows of yellow and white onions. We also did a little maintanence on our yard. I could stay outside all day and garden, I LOVE it!! Rob and the kids enjoy working outside in the garden and yard just as much as I do.

Onion Sets

Butter Crunch Lettuce

Wyatt and Daddy

Anna Lea wearing the leaf blower

After Wyatt took a nap, and the girls "helped" Marmee in her garden, we got ready to do some playing in Chattanooga!

After a little shopping, we ate supper at a yummy BBQ place called Smokey Bones, followed by dessert at Dairy Queen!!

Smokey Bones

Dairy Queen

We all had a great time!! (except for the drive home listening to a certain children's CD for the 624th time! AAAAAH!!)

Play Dough and Cornbread Crumbs

Yesterday it was cold and rainy so I stayed home (inside) all day long with all three of my precious children. For some people that may sound nice. It was not nice. Since we were all trapped inside together, it seemed that I was just walking around picking up one mess after another. It was really starting to get on my nerves. I totally enjoy having a clean, neat home. It bothers me when I walk across my floors and I feel crumbs or stickiness. I start to feel slightly out of control. Well, I thought that if I could just jump in the shower and get myself clean maybe that would help a little. I jumped in and hoped and prayed my children would not make too big of another mess while I was in there.

When I left they were all 3 sitting sweetly at the table playing with play dough together. When I returned the play dough was scattered randomly around the house as well as corn bread crumbs. I had made a pan of corn bread the night before, and there were a few leftover on top of the stove completely covered by a towel. Well, Anna Lea found them somehow and had been sweet enough to share them with her brother as well. So, there were cornbread crumbs all over my FLOORS mixed with the random play dough droppings. This did nothing to strengthen my mental state, and it definitely did NOT feel very well on my clean bare feet...

Right now I am in the middle of a Bible study of David's life by Beth Moore. It has been wonderful, and I am learning so much. One of the things we have been learning through this study is that we need to be able to confess our faults one to another. I will confess one thing I continue to struggle with during this time of my life is Ephesians 4:26, "Be ye angry and sin not." When I found the play dough and cornbread crumbs, I sinned. I did not handle my anger the appropriate way. I love what I read later that day in our study book, "Be angry and sin not does not mean 'be angry and do nothing'. God created anger. It energizes us to respond when something is wrong." Boy, did my anger energize me! Next time I will try to chanel it in the appropriate way when disciplining my children when they have disobeyed.

Can anybody out there relate????

Jumpin' Junction

We took the kids to Jumpin Junction today. They had a fun time sliding, bouncing, driving, and climbing! Great place for preschoolers!

FINISHED!!

Well, my 6 weeks are up!! I finished!! I am proud to say I did not miss one minute of my cardio these past 6 weeks. The dieting on the other hand is something I am going to have to continue to work on. I have decided that dieting in the winter when you are stuck in the house most of the time, makes it EXTREMELY difficult to not snack all day! I started off strong, only eating sweets on Saturdays, but ended eating whatever I wanted on Friday night through Sunday. I did loose a few pounds, so that was encouraging. I can definitely tell a difference in the way my clothes fit! I am going to continue doing my cardio 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week. I am going to continue to do some dieting, but will make a few changes from my original plan. One thing I want to implement is not eating anything after supper is over. (NO late night snacking!) For me, this is a good way to cut out unecessary calories. I am still trying to burn off some of my "fat pockets". If you have started a diet or excercise routine, let me encourage you to go ahead and FINISH! Even if you mess up along the way, get back on track and finish what you started! You will be so proud of yourself when you do!

It was good to be able to get out a little this weekend and get some fresh air and sunshine!

Here are a few pictures of the kids ready for church this morning, and playing outside on Saturday.

Closet Turned Office

This past Saturday we turned our very small closet under the stairs into a cozy home office. We have moved our "home office" a million times, trying to avoid certain two-year olds that like to tear all of the keys off of the laptop keyboard, and trying to keep it fairly accessible. We have had it in the bonus room above the garage (not accessible enough to be used), in our bedroom, in our guest room, and in the dining room (too accessible for wandering children). I recently had the idea to see if it would fit in this closet --that had a child-proof door handle -- and is in a very convenient location, right off the living area. I showed Rob my idea, and he came up with a plan to make it work.



The main problem with the closet, was that there was no outlet for the computer and printer. That was NO problemo for my husband the brand new electrician!! We added an outlet and custom built a desk to fit the small area, and viola! I am in here now typing away!! We still need to do some finishing touches like painting the desk area, but it is working out GREAT!!



(Did I mention that my husband is now a licensed Electrician, and we have started our own business ?? just checking;) you never know when you'll need a good electrician!)

Before

Making a spot for the outlet

It works Great!!

How'd she get in there?

Friday Night Just Needs to be Different!

I love to be able to look foward to something. When you find yourself in the same old boring routine, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands and spice things up a little bit!

Now, some of you will not be able to relate to this post, but I'm sure some will. When you are a stay-at-home mom, (who is trying to be as frugal as possible AND has preschool age children) sometimes your weekend is not much to look foward to. It probably looks pretty much just like the rest of your week looked. That is when you have got to get a little creative and give yourself something new and different to look foward to on the weekends, and why not start with Friday night? Everyone has some type of creativity in them. When I feel a creative urge coming on me, I usually end up looking through recipe books or magazines for a new dish to try.

We have recently made Friday night family movie night. The kids are starting to really look foward to it. Since we do Redbox, they have figured out they can look online with me and watch previews, so that they can tell their daddy wich one they have picked out for him to get them. This is how Family movie night works - we let the kids stay up and watch their movie, then after they are in bed, Mommy and Daddy get to watch their " big people" movie. Everyone wins.

I also had come across a couple of really good-looking fondue recipies that I thought might be fun for Friday night's dinner. We made a yummy cheese fondue and had pepperoni bites, pretzels, and broccoli to dip in it. For dessert, we made a chocolate-peanut butter fondue that we dipped bananas, pretzels, and chocolate chip Teddy Bears in. It was DELICIOUS!!! (Yes, I have modified my original 6 week dieting plan if you were wondering:) Fondue-ing was a hit!! As you can tell from the pictures, we all thoroughly enjoyed it!

Wyatt before dessert

Wyatt after dessert

Anna Lea loving dessert

Layla enjoying dessert

Nothing fancy, but really fun!

Ready for movie night! Everyone has to have their "blankie". They watched Nanny McPhee Returns. It was a really cute movie, and kept their attention for the most part.