Good Deals, Picnics and Bare Feet

"What if you woke up this morning

with only what you thanked God for today?"

A friend posted this on her status the other day and I was saddened to realize that I would have basically nothing if I had only what I thanked God for. It made an impact on me and I'm working on being more thankful for the little things.

Today I'm thankful for my good deals grocery shopping...and my crazy little helpers that make it, although challenging sometimes, exciting and fun :) 

I'm thankful for warm, sunny weather. Warm enough that we're in bare feet...

...and warm enough that we had our first picnic of the year.

I'm thankful for the little girl in my lap right now, watching me type and singing a made up song to herself. "You will get saved, you will get saved. Look out the window, there's a person waiting for us. Prepare to hide...so he cannot see us..." Hey, at least she has a good imagination!

My heart is overflowing with happiness and I'm feeling inadequate of all I've been blessed with. But while I know I don't deserve it, I'm cherishing every moment of it. If I wake up tomorrow with what I thanked God for today, my heart would be full.

Classic

We were all getting out of the car after church today. I grab the normal pile of stuff out of the car and walk around to the other side where Brookie had gotten out. She was standing all pretty in pink, white shoes and pink hair clip. Her beautiful big brown eyes looked up at me as she pointed to a mutilated bug on the ground below her.

"Mommy, look at that fly. I got him." (May I add it was much bigger than a fly--I'm thinking grasshopper or cockroach)

Thinking she squashed it with her shoe, I said, "eew! How did you get it?"

She sticks her thumb up in the air. "With my thumb, with my little nail. He can't see now. His head is cut off."

Don't let this innocent face fool you. In this house, no head is safe until properly decapitated with a "little nail."

Brookie turns THREE!

WARNING: LONG!

My little girl turned three years old last Tuesday. I was heart broken to say the least. Excited that she's learning new things, exploring a new little world of sentences that make us crack up every day, but sad that the past 3 years have flown by. Everyone tells me it goes too fast. I'm finding it to be true!

My sisters and I planned a pool party to celebrate. The weather is nice and hot and we are blessed with a huge pool in our subdivision along with a huge kiddie splash area. We invited her little friends and started the decorating plans.

It began with a recipe for a pool cake. Looked great on paper--wasn't sure if we could pull it off! But we went for it!

Brookie:

After the strawberry cakes that you requested were baked and cooled, Anna started frosting them. Of course we let you sneak a little yummy frosting!

Mommy felt like she spent about a hundred dollars on candy for the cake, but it was really "only" about 8-9 bucks.

After Anna frosted the cake, Mommy started with the ladder, made out of pull and peel licorice. Or whatever it's called. Not sure. Sounded good though!

Your cake had starbursts, licorice, now and laters, peach rings, jello, gummie octopus, smarties and gum on it. Every kids dream birthday cake!

Amazingly, it turned out incredibly! The jello was all jiggly and looked like real water. We were all very excited!

Of course, Mommy took about 127 pictures of your cake. You know your Mother!

Next we decorated the table. The macaroni salad went in a bucket. Which you now love to use in the pool. I love the dollar store and I love practical decorating!

We hung the orange and yellow balloons for "sun" and the blue on the table was for the pool. WE put flip-flops and sunglasses on the table. We also put little containers of fishies for you and your friends to eat while we were getting ready for lunch. Everything was fun and colorful!

Remember what I said about the dollar store...practical decorating.....

This is you right before the party started! You were all ready to go swimming and looked so cute! I couldn't believe that you were turning three!!!

You had so much fun swimming with your friends! You love the water and the sun (good girl) so this was a great theme for you!

Of course, Trinity, Charity and you couldn't last long without a snack! Char and Trin are the only girls your age, and they are 6 months younger than you!

After a few hours of tons of fun, we got this picture of you and your little friends. I love it because it's so chaotic. :)

Paton, Greg and Joe were ready to go by then!

You look like such a big girl! I had to get one last picture of the cake...and you of course!

Blowing out your candles like such a big girl.

Mommy with her sister-in-law, her sisters, her sister-in-laws sisters, her mother-in-law and her sister-in-laws Mom.

Are you confused yet?

You had so much fun with the boys bouncing and tipping over in your castle!

Mommy and Daddy bought you a pretty pretty princess dress. At the end of the day you were tired from so much fun and ready for a nap. Mary held you while I captured this absolutely precious picture of my sweet 3 year old princess.

I love you my Brooklynne. It didn't take you long to become one of my best buds. I love that I can be home all day with you! You are my biggest helper with dishes, cooking and helping with your little brother. I love hearing everything you have to say to me. I love reading to you and listen to the things you come up with. Yesterday you found a random object and said, "Dear Jesus, I like this." Mommy heard you and laughed pretty hard! You bring me so much joy and you are such a sweet spirited little girl! I love you so much!

(And now, if you made it through this entire thing, smiley face for you! :) Thanks for reading...I like to record my memories so I don't forget!)

Hi Everyone :)

Hello Faithful Readers!

I've been busy and haven't posted for a while. I'm getting used to life with 2 children and I love it! It's a little more challenging and having a newborn takes up a lot of time--I think I forgot how much--but I am loving every minute of it. I know that so many people out there desire to be a Mom and for some reason God doesn't let them. I don't understand why, but I'm so blessed and thrilled that God has given me 2 healthy, happy children.

My Mom, Grandma, 3 sisters and one of my best friends are coming to visit on Wednesday! I am so excited! Claire is still here and her husband Greg arrived last night. They will be here for a week, so some of my family will get to see them too! YAY! By the end of October my entire family will be here! They are coming for our missions conference and then staying a whole week afterwards! I can't wait! During that time we will be moving into a much nicer, bigger house which I'm also ecstatic about and will post about another time. It's a really crazy, busy time around here but I couldn't be happier. Nothing is better than being with family and I haven't seen them all since April--the longest time that we've been apart. I can't wait for my dad to meet his little namesake..I know it will be a really precious moment.

Today we went to a pumpkin farm and enjoyed a cool fall day, very rare around here! We had so much fun and it was nice to get out in the fresh air for a while as a family! We got lots of good pictures which I will post soon!

Anyway, I will end with a Brookie classic. Yesterday she locked her brother in his room. When questioned why she did that, she replied, "because I'm only two!!"
As if she knew that she shouldn't know better--but she did. Needless to say, we all laughed. Sometimes 2 year olds are a little too smart!

Thanks for being faithful readers and commenter's! :) Love to you all!

The Big Day is Here!

Right now it's 1:13am. My water broke at around 10:45pm! The Dr. said to try to get some sleep and come in when I'm in real labor. I did try, for about an hour to sleep--so much running through my head, even though I'm extremely tired and wish I was sleeping right now!
I'm having contractions about 4 minutes apart that are lasting for 1 minute or more and are pretty strong. I think it may be time to go into the hospital soon. We are ready to go with everything packed, all I have to do is wake up my sweet hubby and drive there! I'm glad that one of us is sleeping! :)
I'm so scared to go through labor again, especially feeling these contractions, but I know I did it once before and this time (I HOPE!!) can only be easier and shorter! We shall see! :) I can't believe that within 24 hours I'll have my little man in my arms!
Today I set up his little crib and bought him a blue diaper bag. :) Good thing! Brookie helped me and was so excited--she wanted to put his blanket in the crib. The she leaned over the edge and said, "awww, he's so cute, I like him! He's a ducky!" lol lol!! She may be surprised when "baby Joey" is a little boy and not a ducky. Haha. Well, sometime today she'll get to meet her little brother! I can't wait to see how she reacts after waiting and being excited for so long!
I've had to stop typing a few times to get through a contraction. I'm going to get a few things ready and then head off. I remember this feeling--it's real labor!
Will keep you all updated as much as possible!

More cuteness :)

Brooklynne is learning about the moon and stars in the sky. Last night we were driving and she said "Mommy, I found the moon!" As we were driving through my brother-in-laws neighborhood, trees and houses blocked her view of it for a few minutes.
"Mommy, it's all gone. It fell off."
So cute. :)

Just wanted to share these cute pictures of her. Last week when I got home from a photo shoot, the sky was amazing and I had to get some pictures. They are a little blurry--I ended up stepping in a fire ant pile while I was taking them and they were running viciously all over my feet, each wanting a piece of me. Needless to say it burned so bad and I ended up with several bites and very itchy feet!

The pictures were worth it though! It was so beautiful! The pictures actually don't even do it justice! The tone was very orange and so perfect.
thinking "Mommy, why are you yelling and screaming and throwing off your flip flops and hitting your feet????"

Brookie's Recent Humor :)

This is more for myself, but I wanted to document the funny things that Brookie has said lately. She's talking more and more every day and constantly makes Nate and I laugh. :) Having a 2 year old can be challenging at times, but mostly it's so much fun!

Brookie is watching me get dressed. "Mommy, are you getting dressed?"
Me, "Yes"
Brookie: "Oh. good girl!"

Brookie is helping me put laundry into the washing machine. She picks up a pair of Nate's shorts. "Hmmm. These are pretty dirty!"

On Saturday night she wanted to eat and we told her that she could eat "tomorrow". Last night after church we were going out to eat and we were asking her what she wanted to eat. "I want 'morrow," she kept saying.
I asked her, "You want to eat tomorrow?" (As if it's a thing you can eat). "Yes!"
We pull into a restaurant. Her little voice from the back seat cries out, "Yay!! Tomorrow!"

At breakfast time, she's sitting in her high chair eating and I'm doing dishes. She makes a grunting noise and sticks out her belly. "Mommy," she informs, "I'm fat like daddy."

Today she is talking to my sister on the phone. We are in the midst of potty training, so her panties were all just washed and are being dried in the dryer. Since they are almost done, I didn't put a diaper on her, deciding just to wait until the panties were ready. So her little bottom is naked. :) She tells my sister, "Anna, I have a butt!"

So these are the things that keep me laughing. Life with a 2-going-on 22-year old is such a blast. I love being a Mommy:)