2008 year in Review

January - We were so blessed to celebrate Emma's 1st Birthday!
February - Emma and I flew to Knoxville into visit friends...ended up in the ER with a very sick baby.
March - We celebrated Chloe's 3rd birthday! She is getting so big so fast!
April - We went to Oklahoma to celebrate Grangran's 91st birthday!
May - Went to Georgia on a mission trip.
June - Flew to California to see Loreal and her family! We also got to go to Sea World! YEA!
July - We went to Branson for one last little get away...without kids!
August - Maci arrived via c-section!
September - Chloe and Emma started preschool and MDO.
October - We thought our house had sold (for the 3rd time) but contract fell thru....again.
November - I got to go to the New Kids on the Block Concert!
December - We celebreated our 8th anniversary. We went to Oklahoma for Christmas. The girls LOVED playing with their cousins.

Christmas

We road tripped to Oklahoma for Christmas this year! We opened presents with the girls a few days before we left. Here are a few picts of our Christmas! This one is Chloe playing with the new doll house that Santa brought her and Emma to share! She didn't know where to begin!

Next we have Emma and the doll house! She was so overwhelmed by everything she didn't know where to start!

Next is Emma riding her Pony's that G-ma bought her! I think perhaps G-ma should have bought bigger ponies for Emma to "ride." Sooo funny!

And sweet little Maci! She found a new friend at g-ma's house! This is a doll that G-ma had that Maci LOVED! When she would start to cry we could get her "friend" and she would stop and just coo and smile at her. So adorable!

Maci the chatter box

Wow, what a difference a week can make! Maci was doing simple coo's when we left to go to Oklahoma for Christmas. This is what she started doing while we were there! So sweet!

Before leaving, I wanted to make sure our Little People Nativity was all together. Upon checking it, I noticed that Jesus was missing! I searched everywhere for Him and couldn't find Him anywhere. Having no luck, I finally asked Chloe if she knew where Jesus was...and in the cutest 3 yr old voice possible, she replied "Yip, He's in Bef-la-ham" So cute! The next day I found Him! I yelled "I found Jesus" and Steve thought I was out of my mind...he didn't know what I was talking about! LOL I thought this was such a great reminder from the Lord to remember that Jesus is the reason we all exist and should be the focus of the holiday season!

The sweetest Christmas wishing

My sweet blue eyed baby! She was just bathed! She is getting so big! Such a sweetie! Here is cute Emma and her bubble beard! She is loving the new found freedom of bath taking. She is no longer confined to a suction seat...so she "swims" in the bath.

25 things about me

1. I never dreamed that I would be a mother of three girls.
2. I overthink my thoughts and decisions too often.
3. I went to college 4 years and got two degrees....my B.S. in Psychology and my MRS. degree
4. I love being crafty...anything hands on!
5. I wear black and brown too much.
6. I miss Loreal like crazy and can't wait to see her again soon!
7. I was born on my moms b-day.
8. My husband makes me laugh...daily. He's so goofy!
9. I rush my kids too much and wish I could stop.
10. I love Target!
11. I'm a coupon shopping diva!
12. I hurt when others hurt.
13. I often wonder why God chose me to walk the journeys He has.
14. I clutter up the house and am trying to stop that.
15. I have a stock pile of diapers, wipes, and formula in my basement.
16. I enjoy dressing my girls a like!
17. I hate seafood.
18. I am a facebook addict.
19. I was a cheerleader in highschool.
20. I dye my hair every 6 weeks...the grey keeps coming back.
21. I need a workout buddy.
22. I have never been a girly girl.
23. I am comforted by my Father daily and love Him dearly.
23. I have an amazing group of girlfriends...yes you are one of them!
24. I love baking.
25. I am amazed that one can love three chidren as much as I do!

Holiday stress...

I love the Holidays. I love the shopping and giving of gifts. I do not, however, love the stress. I told myself this year that I would not rush my girls. I do it everyday. I can't seem to stop myself. I hate being rushed, yet I am doing it to them. "Hurry get your shoes on", "hurry climb in the van", "hurry put on your coat". It's out of control how much I rush them. I am going to just be late for now on...no more rushing.

Yesterday was a stress filled day for our family. So much sadness filled our day. My brother in law, who is a fireman who I have so much respect for, came upon a wreck and did everything he could to save the mom. The kids were okay, but she didn't make it. I am in awe by how much strength it must have took for him to do that. He is amazing and I feel I don't appreciate my family (verbally) enough. I cried like a baby for this family who lost a love one. This mom...of girls. It brought back memories of losing my own mom and that pain. I hurt for this family. It reminded me of how precious life is and to live in the moment. Don't rush! Don't take family for granted. Tell them you love them every chance you can. Invest in them.

A few hours later, Steve received a call that again reminded us how precious life is. Another lost love one. A church family had lost one of their children. As he was heading out the door to be with this family, we received a call from his dad. His mom was in a car wreck. We had no details to go on, we had to rush to pick up his dad and head to the ER. The world stops when a loved one is in an accident and you have no details. We were grateful and blessed to find her with little injury. She was emotionally shooken up, but who wouldn't be?

All of these crazy happenings right at the holidays. I am left to wonder what God is intending for me to learn from all of this. Life is fragil, it's short, and we should appreciate each other more. That is what I have concluded thus far. If you are reading this blog entry, please know that God has placed you in my life for a reason and me in yours alike. I praise God that He uses people and circumstances to teach us more about Him and His love. Love you!

(I promise fun picts and lighter blog posts in the near future)

Holiday happenings and forever friends

We have had a busy last two weeks! Time is flying these days! I thought I would log on and upload some picts from our latest fun! These are a few of my girlfriends girls. We were having a lazy winter day and thought letting the girls play together would break up the indoor boredom. They enjoyed themselves and as you can see, there were lots of little girls over here that day. 3 mommies and 8 daughters!

This is my oldest little angel! She was one of three angels in her preschool Christmas program. The angels were selected by behavior. Just kidding! I was such a proud momma. I cried as she sang "Happy Birthday Jesus, I'm so glad it's Christmas" There is nothing sweeter then hearing your child sing about Jesus at Christmas! And she even got the words correct to the "sheep song" by singing "I DON'T want to be a hypocrite". We were worried after many weeks of her singing "I just want to be a hypocrite". We caught her singing Happy Birthday Jesus to her baby doll as she had it wrapped in a blanket. So sweet!

Chloe got to enjoy watching her daddy in his role as "Tony" in the church Christmas Dinner Theater. This is the face she made after her mommy talked her into trying fruitcake! Guess I won't be asking her to try that again. She is such a ham...just like her Daddy!

Oh and Maci gave her first laugh! I will try to get it on video and post it soon!

Christmas jammies....

This is about how the other 30 pictures we took turned out. Below are some cute ones though!

As you can see above...we couldn't get a great one of all three of the girls...but here are two good shots.


Emma has pig tails in this pict...you just can't see them!

Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich how to...by Chloe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHzVMf8TZoA

Some of my favorite money saving websites!

http://www.freebies4mom.com/
http://www.dealseekingmom.com/
http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/
http://www.stlmommy.com/search/label/free
http://www.bargainshopperlady.com/
http://www.moneysavingmom.com


b-day freebies
http://freebies4mom.blogspot.com/2008/12/birthday-freebies-december-update.html

Nursery

Here it is as Chloe's room. It had lots of stuff in it...I've scaled back, with the other two!

This is Maci's room! Above her bed reads "Sweet dreams"
This one was Emma's. I don't have a pict of her bedding on here, it's really cute!

So I thought it might be fun to post all three girls nurserys! It was Chloes's first...very girly. I loved the softness of the pink. Then it was Emma's. Yellow, bright and fun. Now, it's Maci's sage, quiet, and simple. I have loved the room each time!

Thankful...

My mother-in-law has a tradition of saying what we are thankful for at the dinner table while we celebrate our thanksgiving meal together. Each year I have taken the easy way out and have always said my hubby and kids. This year I really spent some time thinking about all that I am thankful for. Wow, there is so much to be thankful for. God is sovereign. That is what I am most thankful for. He is in control of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I am so thankful that I can rest my head each night confident that He is in control and knows what's best for me and my family. As a mother of three little princesses, I often worry about this or that. He has freed me to trust Him. He is my Abba Father, my place of rest. I, honestly, do not know how people journey thru life without Him. I would be a wreck.

We traveled to Oklahoma this year for Thanksgiving. It was quite the day. Chloe got sick two hours into our trip. We decided to go a head and go anyways. We got there and a few hours later, her eye was so swollen and we decided to take her to the ER. Turns out that she has a strep infection in her face. Four hours later, we were on our way home with medicine in hand. She woke up the next morning back to normal, no temp. We enjoyed our meal and our family even more. The girls were spoiled by all of the desserts that they had to choose from and feasted on the cherry cheesecake (thanks Aunt Kathy). I am ashamed to say that I failed to take pictures. I will try to get some from my aunt to post on here.

I won! I won!

I never win anything! Ever! Well, that's partly because I never enter things. My pedi game me some Enfamil samples which had codes on them for a sweepstakes that they were doing. I thought, "why not?" and entered the codes online. A few months has passed by and out of the blue comes an email! I actually won! WOW! I won a $1000 giftcard to Babies R Us! I am so excited about this! My house is a babies r us! We have three under four! We have two in diapers and one in pull ups (at night only). We are totally going to use it on diapers and baby food! I can't wait to get it. It will take 8-10 weeks...don't you know I will be watching for the mail man come January! :o)

Busy busy busy...

These are a few picts from our trip to Dallas. For some reason I can't see them on this as I am typing tonight, but will try to come back and edit and add more at a later date!

I love this time of year as it's filled with fun lights and holiday memories. I love spending time with my family and carefully buying each person gifts that I think will bless them. However, this time of year also comes with stress. The thing I hate most is feeling hurried from one place to the next. Today while running a quick errond with Chloe, I found myself saying "hurry Chloe, hurry" I do it to myself. I don't want my girls to think that the holidays are stressful, instead I want them to think it's time for family. Through the busyness, I was able to take a few pictures...here they are:

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Totally Blessed!

So I just turned 29! For real...my first 29th birthday! As I get older, I don't really look forward to my birthday with great anticipation of something fantastic happening. I never know really what to expect, except a few cards and phone calls. This year was filled full of great surprises! From the phone calls, to the delivery of chocolate covered strawberries, to the date night, to the night out with the girls...to the homemade muffin, to the unexpected gift card, to the lunch dates with mentors...WOW! I am so blessed to have so many friends and family that love me and know exactly how to make me feel so special. My birthday is a great time for me to reflect on the past year...so here goes: So I didn't lose the 50lbs that I wanted to lose, and I didn't invent something that would bring in millions of dollars, and I didn't master being super mom (or wife for that matter), but I did do one of the most important things...I grew in relationships with all of you! I carried and evicted my third daughter. I focused more on the Lord's will for my life and my family, and gave up my selfish expectations of how I thought things should go. I cried with friends who needed me to, I laughed at myself when I made mistakes, and I kept in close contact with a dear friend who moved back home (and was even able to fly out to see her! Thanks stimulus check!) I kept my mouth shut more when I needed to the most, and I put aside my "me time" to go outside with the girls. I have a lot more growing up to do (notice that I said UP not OUT!) and am praying that the Lord will continue to do a work in me. I pray that I will become more of a woman of action and less of a woman of words. I pray that you will feel more loved and valued by me in the days to come.

Messy Monday

This picture says it all...this is Emma after finishing her pizza. She was a total mess! She gets a bath after dinner every night because she usually looks like this.
I love this picture...they were all so relaxed!

They were having so much fun, laughing so hard! I love it!

We enjoyed the 75 degree weather today! It was so beautiful. I raked up a few leaves and let the girls go to town. They jumped in them, threw them, layed in them, kick them....just had a blast. It was so much fun to see them laughing and enjoying themselves. Afterwards, we came in and I made the girls english muffin pizzas. They think these are great and they are super easy to make.

Tooth Fairy

A family Halloween shot at the mall. Steve, his queen, and three princesses.
We forgot our candy bags, but thought that the Chick-fil-a bags worked great! Chloe got tons of candy was totally content!

Maci decided she wanted a treat, too. So she found her thumb and went after it! She will probably be a thumb sucker just like Emma. I've been trying to make her a pacie girl.

Emma didn't quite know how to say "trick or treat" but was very excited to walk up to people who were holding a candy bowl and watch them drop candy in her bag.

So I probably bought myself the "meanest mom on the planet" award for this, but it was all I could come up with. I am totally a money saver...always looking for ways to make cuts and save. After paying a large dental bill this month on my own teeth, I couldn't stand the thought of paying more for the girls teeth. Emma is young enough that I can still get away with things. Chloe, on the other hand is much too smart for that! So before putting Chloe to bed, I told her that the tooth fairy might come tonight. Here is how the conversation went:

Mommy: Chloe, the tooth fairy is going to come tonight!

Chloe: The tooth fairy? Why is she coming?

Mommy: She is going to come and take all of your candy, and trade it for a new toothbrush.

Chloe: Why is she going to take all of my candy?

Mommy: Candy is bad for your teeth and she doesn't want your teeth to get cavities.

Chloe: Is candy bad for my body?

Mommy: Yes, candy is bad for your body.

Chloe: Are cookies bad for my body, too?

Mommy: Yes, they are.

Chloe: Then why do you give me one at the grocery store?

Mommy: It's a once in the while treat.

Chloe: I want my candy for a once in a while treat too.

Mommy: Okay but the tooth fairy is going to take it all tonight, so tell it bye bye

Chloe: bye bye candy, mommy, can we hide 3 pieces from the tooth fairy?

So it was successful. She was happy with hiding the 3 pieces (in the fridge, and securing it with the fridge lock!) and I was happy convincing her that the rest was gone! She woke up this morning, found her new toothbrush that lights up, and was so excited! "Mommy, Mama, mommy, mama, she came, she came!" I love it! I wonder how many more years I have doing this before she out smarts me.

Baby blue's and other things...

My baby will be 10 weeks old this week. It's so sad how quickly time is flying by. She is so beautiful and is such a joy! I honestly think that God placed her in our lives as a burst of joy and laughter straight from His arms at this stressful time in our lives. Our house has been on the market now for 8 months. We've had 3 contracts that have all fallen thru. Steve is still the interim pastor at church and is being challenged daily. We needed this sweet distraction in the midst of all of that!

Maci gives the cutest smiles now! They are totally intentional! We can't get enough of it! I will be totally surprised if these sweet baby blue eyes change. They are soooooooo blue!

My three little princesses

Here is my little bald Jasmine! Too cute! She is growing so fast and is changing daily! Last night she went 7 hours between feedings! It was so nice!
All three of my little princesses. Chloe staring as Belle, Maci as Jasmine, and Emma as Cinderella. Don't ya just love the "OHHHHHHHHHHHHH" that Maci is saying?

Sisterly love! If you knew the morning I had when this picture was taken, you would ask "How did you get them to hug and smile?" LOL It's great having dress up clothes, makes for easy and cheap costumes! I didn't have to buy any this year.

We are going to the mall to trick or treat...after eating our Chick-fil-a. Then we will come home and beg people to come to our door...which will only turn out to be about 5 kids.

For you grandma and grandpa...from Chloe

Chloe is learning so much in preschool!

Chloe continues to impress us with how much she is learning at preschool!

The cutest Twinkle rendition ever

Chloe's first hickey...

After Aunt TV was in charge for an hour, this is how I found Chloe. At first I was paniced that she was having an allergic reaction to something, then I realized what had happened. Square shape from the shape sorter, plus creative 3 yr old....this is what you get:

Annual trip to the Pumpkin patch

This was such a fun outing! Emma and Chloe had plenty to do and kept me on my toes. Emma is fearless...I couldn't look away for a minute...she was so quick to be gone, or up high on something!
Can you tell that she really didn't want to take this picture?
Emma looks so small compared to these HUGE pumpkins!
Here is Chloe with her girl friends up on top of a hay stack! So cute!
Here I am with all three of my girls! Maci looks like a baby doll with her bald head!
Emma, the worse place to stand around a horse is BEHIND it!
No Monkey business here! Chloe did a great job this year getting across. Last year she was not coordinated enough to even try this.
Here is Emma 10 ft up and fearless!
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Micky" as Chloe likes to say
Here is Emma with Olivia, one of her girl friends! Too cute!

What would we do without our girlfriends? Three of mine went with me that day and I must say that I am blessed to know these gals! God has surrounded me with great, godly women who challenge me to be a better wife, friend, and mother! Praise God!