Giveaways are so fun!

Lindsay over at Passionate Homemaking is giving away an Envibum cloth diaper. If you'd like to try and win head over here and enter too!

Brayden is Home!!!

This past Saturday Brayden was able to come home from the hospital. Andrea had been at the hospital the previous two nights so the doctors could see how Brayden would do if he was just nursing. He did really well and was discharged the next day!


Holding my new nephew!


Andrea with her two boys - Benjamin (2 years) and Brayden (1 month)



Megan, the proud older cousin. She was so excited to hold Brayden for the first time.

Randomness of Today

This morning Sofia wanted to color like big sister Megan was coloring... with markers! She usually does ok with a marker for a minute or two but this morning decided to color her face instead of the paper.


Megan had a loose tooth (#3!) but it wasn't quite ready to come out yet. Last night, however, while Megan and Joshua were playing they had a little head to mouth bump and out the tooth came. There was a little blood and LOTS of drama. What else would you expect from a 6 year old girl. She's fine now and proud of her new smile.

Unfortunately, the tooth fairy didn't make it to our house last night. Probably due to the 1/4" of snow we recieved over night. (Because Arkansas slams to a halt on the prediction of snow, which will forever make me laugh!) I tend to think the tooth fairy was really tired because she's pregnant right now and just plum forgot. Megan was a little disappointed but sweet about it and very willing to give the tooth fairy another chance.

This is what we woke up to. It's very pretty, right now. We are expecting 4-8" more throughout the day. Who knows what we'll really end up getting.

Ready or Not...

...it's coming, AGAIN!!! A year ago, this week, we got the worst ice storm Arkansas has seen in twenty years, or something like that. (I don't remember the exact stat.) Sometime this afternoon we're going to get hit again with what they are saying could be the #2 or #3 storm in twenty years. We'll see what the weather actually ends up doing. We're praying it's not as bad as they are saying it could be.

Here is my blog post from last year's storm. We have plenty of food and firewood and are about as prepared as we can be.

I'm a little jealous of some friends of ours who are down in Florida right now. They are scheduled to fly back to NWA tonight but my guess is they won't be able to fly home today and will be "stuck" down there a few extra days.

We'll see what happens...

My new nephew!

My sister, Andrea, was pregnant with her 2nd little boy. She was due March 2nd. On January 2nd she ended up at the hospital having an emergency c-section, due to preclamsia. Brayden Seth was born 8 weeks early! He weighs only 3lbs. 2 oz. and is 16 1/4 inches long.

Andrea is doing well. She is still in the hospital but is feeling much better and may go home tomorrow. Brayden is also doing well, all things considered. He's breathing on his own and not loosing any weight. He will be in the NICU at Washington Regional Hospital for probably about 3-4 weeks.

Keep Andrea, her husband Brian, their 1st son Benjamin, and their new little one Brayden in your prayers.

Blogging Failure

I know I have been failing at blogging lately, but I'm not a drop-out...yet! There is so much I haven't blogged about and that overwhelming feeling of needing to catch-up on it is probably what has kept me from it most of all. It is on my mental "to do list" and little by little I hope to work on it.

Some of the things that I have wanted to blog about are:
(1) Megan's first soccer season - Jaime was the coach
(2) Megan lost her first tooth
(3) Joshua's third birthday collage
(4) Joshua's third birthday party
(5) Thanksgiving

Here's hoping I can get to this sooner rather than later!

A New Look for Fall

I know I haven't updated the blog in a while. Since school started things have been pretty busy around here for me. Trying to keep up with household chores, take care of three kids, and school Megan is more than enough to fill my days - all of them!

I did decide it was time for a new look on the blog, since it is officially fall. It doesn't quite feel like fall here in Arkansas. The days have been cooler but the leaves aren't really changing yet. I love fall and all the beautiful color and aromas that comes with this season! I'm hopefully for a very beautiful fall this year!

Hopefully soon I'll have some time to do some new posts about soccer and pumpkins and other fall activities. Until then enjoy the new look!

Megan - 6 Wonderful Years

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Eating Corn

I was changing my son's poopy diaper this morning and I noticed it had some corn in it, which I mentioned to him. So, of course, he asks to see it. I show it him to which he says, "Can I eat that corn, mommy?"

"No, son. You already did!"

What Can An Engineering Degree Get You?

The ability to do THIS:

Cooking and Canning

This past weekend we made a big batch of salsa using tomatoes, yellow peppers, and onions from our garden. Once we finished preparing it, we canned most of it. We are looking forward to enjoying our salsa over the next few months.

We also went blackberry picking this past weekend which I turned into blackberry jam. I canned it as well.

I wish we had more and better pictures of our time at the blackberry farm. Those of you who know Joshua, also know he can be a handful in situations like this. It was all we could do to maintain control of that boy! His white shirt was completely purple by the end of our time there, as well as his hands, arms, and mouth!

We had a good time and are enjoying our homemade jam!

Happy 1st Birthday (+ 1 week) Sofia!!!

If couldn't tell by the title, this post is a week late. Last Friday Sofia turned one! Boy, how time flies. In so many ways this past year has just flown by, in other ways it hasn't. It also has been a wonderful year, as well as one of the hardest for me as a mom. Needless to say, Sofia is a joy to have in our family. Although she has only been a part of it for a year, it truely is hard to remember life before her. She fits into our family so well. Her little personality is coming out more and more each day. One of my favorite things is how she cracks up at her brother and sister. She absolutely adores them and they adore her as well.

This past Sunday (July 5th) my cousin Kristen and I had a party for our two girls together. They were both born the same day, July 3rd. We reserved a room at The Jones Center in Springdale and had a cute little party for the two girls. It was a great day!

(I will post some pictures as soon as I can find where Jaime saved them.)

Backyard Fun

We enjoyed a beautiful day today, working/playing outside. Jaime got some work done in our garden, cleaned up the weeds around the swing set, and did some other misc. things. Joshua and Megan enjoyed the pool, sprinkler, and spraying each other with the hose. Sofia even had fun playing in her pack and play in the backyard.

Our tomato plants are huge and needed to get cages around them. We finally got that done today.

Clearing the swing set of weeds.

This is one way to stay hydrated on a hot summer day!

Fun times!

What a sweetie!

This boy loves the water.

Sofia enjoyed being outside with the rest of us.

Pure exhaustion after a long day of playing.

Our trip to North Carolina

Lori with her two boys, Caleb (4) and Titus (2), and Baby Ruth #3 (due July 20th).


Titus was always playing in this mud puddle. He loves to get dirty!


Megan and Caleb became instant friends.


We couldn't get Sofia off this rocking horse. She loved it!


We were given some free zoo passes and decided to make the trip to Columbia, SC with all the kids. They had a great time. Joshua is still telling his daddy, multiple times a day, that he saw elephants and lions and monkeys at the zoo.


The kids looking at some fish.


Our best attempt to get a group shot of the kids.


Our two two-year-olds. The temper tantrums were frequent!


Our meals together.


Another attempt at a group shot.


Joshua got a summer buzz cut courtesy of Lori.
The before shot.


After. What a cutie!

Thanks Lori, for letting us come visit. We had a wonderful time. Can't wait to see you in the fall!

Hello from NC

Some of you may have been wondering why it seems as though I have fallen off the face of the Earth; why I haven't been answering my phone, why I haven't been returning e-mails, etc. Well... last week, somewhat on the spur of the moment, I decided it would be fun to throw the kiddos in the car and drive almost 1000 miles across the country to Waxhaw, NC. Why Waxhaw, NC? Let me tell you! My dear friend Lori is here. Her and her husband are missionaries in Southeast Asia and are back on furlow. Her husband had to leave for a 10 day training, so I called and asked if I could come over and play! She said "Sure!" and here we are. It has been great to catch up with her and see our kids interact together. I will post pictures of our week together when we get back home... that is, if we make it home. I told her I might need to stay a few more weeks because I'm not looking forward to doing that drive again, so we'll see!

11 Months Old

Today Sofia (and Bekah too!) turns 11 months old. It's so hard to imagine that she has been with us for 11 months already. It feels so fast but also like she has been around forever. It truely is hard to remember what our family was like before she came along. While she has been the most difficult baby of my three, she is little by little out growing most of those difficulties. She definately has a sweet personality which melts my heart and I adore that about her.

Some stats about Sofia:

She has 7 teeth and #8 is just about to break through.

She loves to lay her head on my shoulder while I hold her for a minute before falling asleep.

She still isn't crawling.

She loves to walk, if someone will hold her hands to help her.

She just learned to wave and clap her hands. (See video below)

Family Camp 2009

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to Family Camp with our church out at New Life Ranch. The kids had a lot of fun and were completely exhausted by the end of the weekend. Megan says her favorite things were the craft, swimming, and canoeing. Joshua says "Camp! Camp!" whenever he sees any of the pictures.

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Check out this video Jaime caught of Joshua. The poor boy was so exhausted by the end of the second day.



I didn't believe this could ever really happen until I saw it with my own eyes. The funniest part is what we didn't catch on camera. A few minutes after this video he briefly woke up and tried to take a bite of his breadstick (unsuccessfully, I might add), then fell right back asleep again. I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.

Tonight's Dinner

This is what we had for dinner tonight. It was excellent! If you're interested, click here for the recipe. These are the Grilled Rainbow Beef Kabobs. We had the Pineapple Chicken Kabobs yesterday. They are both super good and super easy. You can even save a little dinero here on the dressing used for these recipes.

The grill master!

My mother's day gift

For Mother's Day I asked for 2 new storm doors (I know, exciting stuff!) for the front and back doors. Jaime told me I could only get one for the front door. So, last weekend we picked out a door and brought it home. Yesterday, Jaime got started and the project quickly went from a simple storm door installation to a major project. The wood under the door was completely rotten and needed to be replaced. The more he took out the more he found that needed to come out. It just got worse and worse. In the end I ended up with two new doors, just not the two I initially wanted. He ended up deciding to replace the front door too! The project isn't completed yet. It will take him a while to get all the wood under the house replaced. (He's super busy at work so this project will have to wait until next weekend, I think.) For now the new front door is only wedged in place, no nails, no nothin'. Just the deadbolt!

Before:

During:



It just kept getting worse and worse!

I'll post some after pictures once it's all done!