Summer: Full Speed Ahead!

I started this post a while ago, and I'm finally getting around to posting it.

 (First of all, I didn't want to blog without acknowledging the Little family as their beautiful, 6 year old Molly has gone to be with Jesus after close to a year long battle with DIPG. I personally know their family as Julie and I grew up together.
 If you don't know about DIPG, please familiarize yourself with it. It's a horrible disease that there is currently no cure for, and we can all take action by donating to help fund research so that a cure can be found! 
 Molly's parents and sisters--Peter, Julie, Samantha and Clara--are grieving now and it's something that they will never recover from. Their faith has been solid and it's amazing to watch them as they give God the glory through everything, but I cannot fathom the pain they are feeling now. Please keep them in your prayers. To find more information about how you can donate and see their Facebook page full of beautiful pictures and updates, please click here.)


The school year has finally wound to a close and I'm looking forward to enjoying days with the kids with no schedule. With younger kids not in school, the days all run together and are the same, but when they are school age, summer is anticipated and every free day cherished. It baffles me how parents can look forward to school starting again so the kids are gone every day and they have their "freedom" back. I mean yes, everyone needs a break from their kids now and again, but seriously? Great way to give your kids the impression that you love spending time with them....

 That's another blog post in itself that I should probably never write. ;)

 Moving on.

 I have a lot of thoughts mulling around in my head right now that I hope I will have time to turn into blog post soon. I love how God can use something small said by someone else, the line of a song, a verse in his word, or a snippet of a sermon to start a work in our hearts--if we are open to it. I'm so thankful that God doesn't just save us and then leave us to fend for ourselves. We are a constant work in progress that he is molding and making into what he would have us to be, often through ways that we don't like or understand.

 But like I said... I hope to type out my thoughts soon. :) For now, some recent pictures of our crazy, wonderful life.

The day after Mother's Day... Un-matching pjs, holes in socks, yellow lighting. It's perfectly imperfect and I cherish it.

Seeing them read thrills my heart

He's 9 months old now, pulling up to his knees on everything, smiling 80% of the time, getting ready to pop tooth number 2 and wearing his eye patch 1 hour a day for another 7 weeks. Progress has been made over this past month so we are happy for that!

Kindergarten really clicked with him the last month or so of school. I'm so thankful for God's grace this year--I shed so many tears feeling totally incapable but thanks to a lot of hard work, support from Nate and a huge dose of God's grace he passed Kindergarten! On to 1st grade!

This one keeps us on our toes. He doesn't require much sleep, has a very stubborn will and is totally independent. He's also melt-your-heart sweet and loving a lot of the time which makes him totally irresistible. ;)

His first mischievous act was committed this month. He was having fun!

Brooke with 2 of her teachers at the awards ceremony

Her end of the year project. We had so much fun working on this together, even though I probably micro managed way too much. This was a great year for her and a learning experience for us as well. We will be homeschooling this upcoming year and even though it's not easy, it's what is best for our family and what we feel the Lord wants us to do. I feel like I missed out on about 9 months of her life with her being gone 10 or more hours per day, so I'm looking forward to getting to know her again this summer. Birthday post for her coming soon as she just turned 8... what?!

The rain here has been crazy to say the least. Homes have been destroyed and several people have died--devastating to say the least. I'm thankful that the Lord has kept us safe. Each time it starts raining I think that even the Lord can't go very long without crying for sweet Molly's family.

Have a safe weekend, friends. Hug your loved ones tight.

Modest Mondays: Easy like {Saturday} Morning

My mom loves white tops and owns several. For some reason I shy away from them--I always want colored everything. But there are just some times when white looks so classy and perfect (kind of like my Mom!). Instead of trying to find something to match the pretty but hard-to-match tone of my skirt, I threw on this easy white top, skipped doing anything to my hair (which happens often) and added a hat with a little pop of color. Such a fun, easy like Saturday morning outfit.

 (Because if you get 4 kids dressed up and out the door every Sunday morning at 8:30am, there is nothing easy about Sunday morning). ;) 

 Needless to say, I will be on the lookout for more cute white tops for this summer!

The wedges were a recent purchase from Ross. Higher than what I normally wear, but they are Clarks and honestly thee most comfortable shoes I've ever worn which is why I bought them in the first place. Maxi skirts/dresses are always dragging, so a good comfy pair of wedges is perfect to raise me up a bit. ;) I've literally worn them almost every day since I bought them a few weeks ago, because the comfort, plus they go with everything!

Outfit Details:

Fedora Hat: Target

Necklace: Local boutique ($4)

White Top: Target (I also have light green and black because I love the style)

Skirt: JCPenny, free with coupon ;)

Shoes: Ross (Clarks)

We are in the last  half week of school and could not be happier. Bring on Summer!

Life Changer: 15 Minutes of De-cluttering a Day

I started a 6 week weight loss/healthy living challenge almost 5 weeks ago. I'll probably do a blog post with how I ate and exercised and what my results were when it's all over, but this will be about one of the healthy habits I chose to do during these 6 weeks.

 15 minutes of decluttering a day.

 As soon as I saw it on the list of choices, I knew it was the one for me! I struggle with keep my house orderly, and honestly if you have small kids I don't know how you wouldn't struggle with that. Anyway, I knew that the push to do something extra each day was the perfect motivation for me. Plus, because the challenge is a "game" with points, if I didn't do it I would have to subtract daily points and nobody wants to do that!

 Each day, I choose a small area. A corner in my room, a closet, a drawer, laundry room shelves, even a basket of toys. Shockingly (haha) I haven't run out of an area to de-clutter yet! 

 It's super simple, even for the busiest of people.

 1) Pick an area to declutter or straighten up

 2) Set a timer for 15 minutes

 3) De-cluttter!

 4) Leave it when the timer goes off. This might be the hardest part. Whatever you're not done with, leave until the next day, so you don't get carried away. The idea is small amounts of time every day to keep it fast and easy. Slow and steady wins the race! ;)

 That's It!

 Over the weeks I've seen little areas in my house that I've been avoiding shape up, and it's so nice to open a drawer or look at a corner and see it neat and tidy. It's SO simple, but pretty much life changing!


And now I leave you with some pictures of a baby eating watermelon.

Happy Friday!

Parents + Mothers Day

Last week we had a very big surprise planned for the kids, and boy were they surprised! The doorbell rang, the dog barked, the kids ran to the door and opened it to find Nonnie and Poppy standing there! It was such a great moment and perfect surprise. Just the two of them came on their 31st wedding anniversary and it was truly a perfect week. I only wish it could have been 3 weeks! ;) We relaxed and played and ate and loved every moment!

Them being here last week meant I got to spend Mother's Day with my Mom, a dream come true. She is my inspiration, the one I call with all motherhood questions and concerns, my role model and my hero. To get to spend time with her and spoil her was such a joy! We enjoyed an amazing 3 course meal downtown that was a true culinary treat. Pat's girlfriend, Allison showed us the ropes and we got the royal treatment and it was so much fun! We tried oysters, bone marrow and ceviche along with several other amazing dishes.

Spending a whole week with my parents and getting them all to ourselves was such a treat that I hope happens again very soon. ;)

Nicolas Jay: 8 Months

Nicolas is 8 months old now, really 8 1/2, and sooo much is changing with him I had to do a quick post on what is going on in his life right now.

 I gave up baby books in 2009. ha. So really this is an online baby book for me. Feel free to read along if you wish. :)

He is FIN-A-LLY sleeping through the night (for a month or so now). He started waking up again, so I've let him cry 2-3 nights over the past few weeks but he does great now. 10-11 hours solid, and I'm looking forward to when 12 hours becomes a part of our lives.

 I've noticed a huge change in the solid food area of his life this month. He has cut way down on nursing (not sure how I feel about that) and loves to eat real food. Bread ranks his #1 favorite right now, followed by bananas, sweet potatoes and carrots. This week he tried pizza and was a huge fan. He really eats everything at this point and feeds himself really well! The baby-led weaning style of eating has been so much easier than the way I fed my other kids. I love it!

He's been rocking on his knees and standing on all fours for a few months now, but he won't actually crawl more than a few times before back into scooting where he gets all over the place fast. His favorite place to be is under the kitchen table. :) He loves to pull himself up to standing if the object to pull himself up on is low enough, and then he gets pretty proud of himself.

His eyes are still very blue with no signs of changing yet. My other kids had blue eyes this long, but they were changing at this point so I'm wondering if he'll keep the bright blue?

 And speaking of eyes, he was diagnosed with stribismus, which is the fancy term for wandering eye (or lazy eye). Since it was caught so young (his 6 month well visit) it's not gotten too bad yet and his vision is still fine. He wears a patch on his good eye for 1 hour a day and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen! It really doesn't seem to bother him at all. We go for another check up in a few weeks to see if we can cut down to every other day depending on how his muscles are strengthened through this month. I had a list of several pediatric orthopedic Doctors and chose one at random. I was super impressed with him and his office. Later, a friend with a son who has the same problem told me he was the best in our city! I love how the Lord works out little things like that.

His looks are changing quite a bit, but he is still twinnies with Brooke, which she loves.

Phone captures over the past few weeks...

 Happy crawler

First day with his patch

Standing at the couch and tickling big brother's foot ;)

His second fever in just 3 weeks... we all had a day like this yesterday. I think it's teething, because besides being fussy and warm, he has no other symptoms. I do garlic drops in his ears just in case it's that.

I couldn't end on that note, so here's one more of my little guy who is happy 99.9% of the time. ;)

Happy Friday, friends! Have a great weekend!