Bug Hunting

Hannah was so happy when the Oakes Family came to visit. Hannah Grace gave Colten his birthday present, which was a bug catching vaccum. It sucks the bugs into a little chamber where you can better examine them. Colten seemed very concerned that he couldn't seem to find any bugs in late December. The kids had a great time together and we had a nice time visiting.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Did you miss us? What can I say we've been on the road and very busy! We had a wonderful Christmas in Sewickley, PA. We got to visit with some friends and spend lots of time with family. We stayed at my Dad's house, which was so fun. I felt like a kid again waiting to come down on Christmas morning. Above is Hannah and Hudson they have been "soul mates" since they met @ 3 weeks old in a married couples class. They just love to hang out, RUN and play.

Christmas Eve we were so excited to go to Christ Church at Grove Farm and see our friends and Pastor John Guest. We attended the 4pm kids service. Each of the kids got a little gift. Hannah Grace got a devotional that she wants to read every morning. It is so fun.

After I forgot to buy the asparagus for our chicken and asparagus dinner. Whoops! We played cards. We had tons of fun. Although it was interesting how Dad kept coming up with new rules as the game went along.

The kids had a blast with Uncle Matt. Hannah got him to play bingo numerous times. Uncle Matt just couldn't say no to sweet little Hannah.

This was Matt's idea. You had no idea what type of cards you had, but everyone else did. Matt won this round, which was funny because he lost every other time he played and knew what was in his hand.

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning we had lots of fun !! I must say the highlight for me was getting my new dishes! The day after Christmas we spent the day in Upper Burrell, PA at Brian's brother's house. We had so much fun!! Auntie A made us a delicious meal! Grandma brought the JELLO salad for me and we even got to see the Oakes Family.

New Years Eve we were home and celebrated with our good friends the Colemans. It is so fun to see our kids really playing together. Hannah Grace just loves Anna, but best of all Carter and Anna Gracie love each other. Although it is an odd relationship they can't stay away from each other, but they fight like brother and sister. Too cute.

New Years Day we went on a road trip with the Coleman family to Baltimore, Maryland. We let the kids pick the Port Discovery Museum. It was really fun for them, but I think the adults would have much rather gone to the Aquarium. Thanks Coleman Family, we had a great couple of days with you!

NOISE

As all of you Moms know. Our job comes with tons of noise. Sometimes cute noise and other times it is an instant headache. I must give little Janie tons of kisses for sleeping 10pm till 9am every night. I can handle any noise as long as I get my sleep!

So the other day I was in the kitchen cleaning up from lunch when I here Hannah Grace coming. She bursts into the kitchen, tears running down her face, and cries, "Momma, Carter BITE-ed me!" So I quickly respond and kneel down to her level. "Hannah Grace why did Carter bite you?" I asked in a soft, calm voice.
Now little miss Hannah starts her wheels turning. I can tell she is really thinking about this one. Suddenly I have eye contact and she blurts out, "because he must think I am just food!"
It took everything I had to not laugh. I just love the things the kids say!!

Super Hero Kit

Many of you have inquired about the Super Hero Book. Well here it is and here are a few of my favorite pages.

How to put on all of the super hero "stuff". The book comes with a cape, masks, wristbands, and an emblem making kit.

I love the naming section. We are still working on a name for Carter. We are accepting any suggestions.
















I think this page is so cute. They show how to move like a Super Hero.

Super Hero Carter

Carter is ready for take off. He has read the book on how to become a super hero and he is ready. Thank You Grammy.

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bell Day at school.

Jingle Bell Hair.

Smiles.

Spinning.

Thank you Grammy for the jingle bells. Hannah wants to wear them 24-7. I just love to hear the little tinker bell running around the house.

Dragon Baby

A few people have asked what the nebulizer looks like... well here it is. The kids love to see Sarah Jane do this because the smoke comes out the dragons mouth. Carter likes to growl the entire time.

Nutty Nance

I know that you are all wondering what happened to me. Right? Well I have been going through some trying times. Did I mention that I am really low on sleep and am a little slap happy now.
So Hannah Grace went to the ER last week because she fell down our icy steps and was acting really strange. Well there was no head trauma, but she had an ear infection. This is just the start... we all have the cold/cough now. Sunday, we stayed home from all activities to try and recover. Monday was going ok until nap time. I got all 3 kiddos to bed and then I got to run out to Sam's Club. Brian was working out of the house. Well I return to find that Hannah Grace had a bowel movement in her pants and decided she would take it out and I'm not sure where it goes from there, but it was all over. I don't want to get into to much detail, but lets say that it was REALLY REALLY bad. So while we are trying to wash Hannah and her entire room the doctor calls me back (I called earlier in the day about Sarah's cold). They wanted me to bring Sarah in right away. So Brian and the kids go to our friends house for dinner. Jena it was so yummy. I took Sarah Jane to the doctor and found out she has a double ear infection. So we finish out the night hanging with the Hostetters. Hannah and Carter had a BLAST with Owen.
I get the kids to bed and finally my head hits the pillow and Brian starts to snore. It was REALLY loud! I know that he is sick, but this is crazy. So I was not sleeping well when Carter fell out of bed. I go to check on him and he just looks at me as he stands there with his blanket and says, "Momma, up please go night night." So I him back to bed and really can't fall back asleep. Oh yeah and the photo above is a few hours after Sarah Jane was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Too cute.
Tuesday morning comes just as I shut my eyes. Brian has to leave for work early so I got up at 6:30am to try and get some things done. I did!! I put away all the dishes, did 2 loads of laundry, took my shower, wrote out my menu for the next two weeks, made a shopping list, and ate breakfast. Then, it was time to get all the kiddos ready and fed. Right as I was walking out the door to take Hannah to school Sarah Jane throws up. It is everywhere so I start to clean her up along with the floor and as I turn around I realize that Hannah and Carter have totally undressed. My entire drive to preschool I was blasting the praise music, which got me crying because God is so awesome. Needless to say Hannah Grace was 10 minutes late for school and I am a little emotional. Next, Sarah Jane has her well baby check up at 10am. I go and find out that Sarah Jane needs to be using a nebulizer every 4 hours. Does it stop? Not yet. I also mention to the doctor that Carter is running a low grade fever and acting super fussy. So she checks Carter and he has a double ear infection too. Now I have been at the doctors for 1 and 1/2 hours and I need to leave so I can pick up Hannah. I get to the school just in time and then take the kids to the grocery store. I drop off the prescriptions and start shopping. I had a front and back of a long list paper. We made it through the store, got everyones medications and Hannah says, "Momma, I got to go pee right now. I can't hold it!" So bad into the store I go trying to keep Carter and Sarah under control while Hannah goes to the bathroom. Did I mention i also have a cart FULL of groceries.
We got home, ate lunch, and I put the kids down for a nap. I did some cleaning, another load of laundry, picked up all the toys and got my meals in order.
Brian was supposed to be home around 1pm but the wonderful Comcast crew kept him late. So he didn't get home to our 3 crying children until 7:30pm. I did however get to write out some notes I had been meaning to write.
So anyway I have had very little sleep and am starting to just laugh. I hope this post makes sense.

Gingerbread Houses

So last night the kids made gingerbread houses with Sue. Sue is a very experienced gingerbread constructor. She had been the contractor for a few houses in the past years. She came prepared with a blueprint for our design, which is shown above. So lets note we realized early on that we were going to deviate from the plan. Sue went shopping and brought all the supplies.

Hannah Grace checks out all the supplies.

Building starts. Although it went something like this... one candy corn for the house and four for me. Whoops. Needless to say Hannah was up singing very late and Carter just got slap happy.

Sarah Jane spent most the evening hanging out with her Dad.

Sarah Jane and Allison hanging with the Dads.

What happened to snowman #3??

Carter Happened! Ha Ha Ha.

roof construction.

Chris and Carter take over the building when the girls went to play.

Our Final Projects!

Thank you so much Chris, Sue, and Allison. We had so much fun and can't wait to do this again next year! Click below to see even more photos of our fun night!

Gingerbread House

DOPS

God is good, but today he is SO good to me. I just feel like the Holy Spirit has just filled me with so much love today that I can hardly stand myself. Do you know what my only complaint is today, that I have so many Thanks You notes to write. Is that a blessing or what?

First, I want to give a HUGE shout out to my AMAZING husband, Brian. This morning I had a dentist appointment at 9am and I needed to run to the store to get my fruit platter, which was what I was assigned to bring to MOPS this morning. So Brian was on his own with all 3 kiddos. He got them all up, dressed, and fed. He even remembered to put a blue shirt on Hannah Grace, which is her color for Moppets. So he got them all ready and met me at the church for MOPS at 9:30am. WOW! Side note: I do have to say that I still managed to beat Brian to the church. Maybe being a Mom isn't as easy as it looks. wink.wink. Brian was also such a good sport. He was the only man in the building so of course he got a few strange looks and questions. Finally, he told one woman that he was here for DOPS. For anyone who is confused... MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. So maybe I am the only one that finds that so cute and funny. What can I say... that's my husband and I love him so dearly!!

So MOPS was so awesome this morning. Although we had a tearful start as we remembered Meredith, one of the moms, she passed away last week due to a sudden brain problem . Just reminds us that we never know when God will take us. She left behind her husband Drew and 2 little girls one 6 years old and the other 3. She was such a great mom and person. She left us with a prayer request to pray that things are put into perspective this Christmas season. That may have been a passing thought for her, but it will remain in our hearts for some time. Next, we enjoyed a speaker lecturing on disciple and it was so encouraging. I plan to blog more on this topic and include her website, which is so insightful.

Sorry that my thoughts are all over the place! I just want to add how important it is to remember and pray for your marriage everyday. Today I was reminded why I love my husband so much. I know he got the kids ready, but he also really gave some love to our marriage today. It was just some short playful text messages, but it really made me feel like we were dating all over again. I am just so grateful for Brian and our kids!

Moving along with all that made this day so wonderful. I received some answers to prayers today which was so awesome. I don't want to get into all the details but thank you to Leah and Julie for the all the great food. Thank you to Elizabeth for the booster chair. Thank you to Jen for sharing such a meaningful song and a great bookmark, which is something i really needed for the GREAT book I am reading called Love and Respect. I will be blogging about this at a later time too. Thank you to Tiann and Julie for the gifts. Thanks to all the women for holding little Sarah Jane so I could enjoying eating. I just don't think I can include all my gratefulness in this short blog entry.

Today while I was in the car I just keep thinking about all the things I want/need to blog about. So I am just going to give you some ideas of what is to come and I hope that you will encourage me to get to all these great things/ideas. I really want to share more about the wonderful speaker we had today, I would love to give you a book review on Love and Respect! I want to share the words to the song Jen shared or maybe she will share and I can just link to her. hint hint. I want to share how my passions in life are really starting to come to life. I want to hit on the topic of marriage and I want to share about our new Sunday School group that I am so excited about. I want to share about the new Hollywood food hang out and a great website for managing money. So I hope i can fit this all in before the year comes to an end. Well I am going to start working on some other posts...

SORRY for all the random thoughts!! I just love you all so much and want to share everything on my mind!!

Snow Day

The kids had a great day. Hannah Grace had a snow delay so she got to hang out with her girlfriend, Anna. They enjoyed chatting at Starbucks and then walking over to the train display. After dropping Hannah at school Carter, Sarah Jane and I went back to meet Anna and Beck for some Chocolate World fun. We had so much fun hanging out.

Christmas Cheer

I just love this time of year. Snow. Hot Chocolate. Christmas Music. Lights.

Stockings.

Friends. Tonight our friends came over and built gingerbread houses with the kids. I have lots to share about the experience, but it will have to wait until I have a little more time.

Christmas Tree.

Snow Mowing

Today we got a ton of snow. So I had all my curtains open so the kids could watch the snow accumulate. While cleaning up the kitchen I heard Hannah yell, "No, they are taking all my snow away." I could not imagine what she was talking about so I walked over to the window just in time to see a man ride by on the lawn mower. Yes, you heard me correctly he was mowing the snow or the grass. I am really not sure what he was doing.
So then I walked past my front window where I could see the cars trying to drive up the hill into our neighborhood. The cars were going every direction except for up. Most ended up with the hazard lights flashing pulled to one side. One woman just gave up and walked up with all her groceries in hand.
So I am just wondering why the maintenance guys didn't stop mowing and throw some salt or attempt to shovel or plow. The residents couldn't even get into the neighborhood to enjoy the freshly mowed snow/grass.
Anyway it gave me a good laugh. Although, had I been one of the cars trying to get into the neighborhood I would have been really angry.

Pimp my Diaper

Who says that being a mom can't be fun? Today I read an article on a state fair website. Can you believe this... they have a diaper decorating contest. The parents were instructed to decorate the babies diapers. Only children 24 months and under where allowed to be entered in the contest. I think this could be very interesting.
Do you think there could be a market for bling diapers? I have seen pacifiers decorated with bling and the stars will pay hundreds for just one pacifier. I just can't imagine. I feel like I get so irritated when I lose a pacifier and mine are $5 for two.
So, I am challenging you to submit ideas and lets see if we can come up with a winter diaper line.

School Photos

Silly Little Grin

Sarah Jane with a silly little grin

Yeah! Momma is back to blogging again. I am sorry for the long break but I have had a lot on my mind and I am wanting to try some new ideas. So lets hope I get a few quiet moments to try them out later today.

Sarah Jane has a battle wound from Carter in the car. I think he was trying to get her pacifier.