Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Hope it's full of...

sparkles

smoke 

safety

 

food

family

 

and friends! 

P.S.  These pictures were taken at our homegroup's Fourth of July shindig at the Marshes...love you friends!  So blessed to have all of you in our lives! :)  

Mothers Day 2011

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Prov 31:28

Mothers Day this year was wonderful!

I started the morning with three gifts from my hubby and kiddos:

A Flower Pillow from my boy

A "Chocolate-covered Strawberry" from my girl

And My Ssekos!! 

Then, we went to see the African Children's Choir

It was awesome!!  I thought it might be a little hard to see such sweet little kiddos from the same continent as our children that we are waiting so {im}patiently for, but honestly, it was so good for my heart!

We then went to Trevor's parents' house for lunch {we celebrated with my mom the week before} and then home for a NAP!!  Yep, you read correctly...I got to take a nap.  I had one kiddo on each side of me, even though I was the only one who slept.  It was heavenly! :)

I am so, so thankful for the mothers in my life.  I really spent the day reflecting on how blessed I am to have such an amazing mom and mother-in-law and to have the opportunity to raise my two sweet, beautiful kids.  In addition, I love having the opportunity to do this stage of life with so many supportive friends {and my sister and sisters-in-law} who also have the same struggles and wins with their kids and who help keep me accountable for being the best mom I can be. 

Thank you, Jesus, for always placing the right people in my life at just the right time!

Easter 2011

This Easter was an amazing time of reflection of what Jesus Christ sacrificed for us.  Words really cannot adequately describe His gift, but I am so humbled and thankful.

We celebrated Easter this year with LOTS of music!  Our church choir performed twice {once on Good Friday and once on Saturday} and we rehearsed almost every day the week before Easter.  It was so cool to be a part of spreading the true meaning of the holiday through song.  I LOVE to sing and have a renewed sense of the gift God gives us through songs after sitting last semester out of choir.  Taking that "sabbatical" really helped me to realize how awesome it is to have the opportunity to

"...sing and make music from your heart to the Lord."

~Ephesians 5:19

To memorize the musical, we listened to it over and over in the van, so, naturally, Camden and Melia knew every word to every song.  Their favorite was "Oh, Happy Day!"  I have to admit, it was one of my favorites, too.

On Easter, we spent lots of time with both families after church and did a couple of {indoor} egg hunts.

One thing to note...this was the year that Melia found out there is no Easter bunny.  Honestly, we've never done the Easter bunny.  We just never wanted to take away from the true meaning {and Melia has always been terrified of large holiday-related costumes, so it was a natural choice}.  I'm not sure that she even knew what the Easter bunny supposedly does, but when her friends talked about what all they got from EB, she crawled up on her teacher's lap and said, "Mrs. Schmidt, could you E-mail my mommy?  I don't think the Easter bunny visited our house."  Mrs. Schmidt, in her amazing-Christian-woman-that-we-are-so-blessed-to-have-for-kindergarten-in-public-school wisdom, said, "Melia, honey, why do we celebrate Easter?" to which Melia answered "Jesus".  {Insert Proud Mama smile here!}  So we talked about it and she gets it and she was totally cool with it...especially since she still gets a small gift in a basket on Easter morning to symbolize the gift that Christ gave us through His death and resurrection. :)



Top Eleven Things I Will Miss About Christmas Break

1.  My hubby as my hubby, not my boss.
2.  My kiddos coming in to wake me up each morning, not the other way around.
3.  Playing, coloring, and eating with C and M.
4.  Staying in my jammies past 6:00 a.m.
5.  Hours and hours of talking with Trev about anything besides school-related issues.
6.  Staying up until mid-night for no particular reason and with no particular regret.
7.  Coffee in a mug vs. a travel cup.
8.  Family movie time.
9.  Making a list and accomplishing every. single. thing. on it in one day instead of a week or two.
10. A perpetually clean house.
11. An up-to-date blog.

Good thing I love my job, or tomorrow (the last day of break) might just be a very depressing day! :)

This is probably the last time I'll see *almost* midnight until Spring Break!

Happy New Year 2011

There is exactly one hour and 17 minutes left in the first day of 2011 and I should be in bed, but I CANNOT let the day go by without just a little blogging! :)  After all, it's only 1-1-11 once, right?!  I'll just ask the Sophomores to forgive my drooping eyes as I present the gospel in their Sunday School class tomorrow! :)

Anyway, when I think about the potential for 2011, it is quite overwhelming!  I'm not much of a NY resolution kinda girl...I never have been and the years that I've thought maybe I was, I broke my resolution within a couple of weeks!  What I have found is that life is WAY TOO unpredictable to think I know what I will do better, lose more of, etc. etc. for an entire year!  That's a lot of days, people! 

The fact is, when I think of all the things that could happen in 2011, there are SO MANY UNKNOWNS!  Will I have the same job?  Drive the same car?  Have the same size family?  Have the same friends?  Live in the same place?  The questions could go on and on, but the fact is, I have no idea!!  Some of these things I sure hope are the same (for example, I better still be driving my new-to-me van in one year!) and some of them I hope are different (I hope we increase our family by 33.3% by the end of next year). 

But the fact is, all of these questions (and more!) are things I cannot know the answer to and that's part of the fun.  Because, let's face it, when I realize that I have NO CONTROL over my life situations, I have to realize that GOD IS IN TOTAL CONTROL!  He knows exactly what my life will look like in one year from now and He allows me to take this journey with Him.  How amazing is that?!

I read a blog post that kicked my tail by Missy over at It's Almost Naptime.  I wanted to share it, cuz I think we can all use a little tail-whippin' sometimes! http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2011/01/crazy-in-2011.html

Happy Grandparents' Day!

Did you know today was Grandparents' Day? I don't know why, but this holiday seems very underpublicized to me...Come on, Hallmark!! ;) In all honesty, I'd like to give a great big pat on the back of the founder of Grandparents' Day. I mean, seriously, a day to say thank you for the amazing amount of love and affection that my parents and in-laws pour into my babies...now that is a GREAT idea!

Melia's school did a precious little Grandparents' Day performance on Friday and she was represented by one parent (me), three grandparents, and a great-grandparent. She is one loved little girl!

Here's a little clip of it (please ignore my horrible videography and the fact that I so eloquently captured two older gentlemen's ears on either side of the frame!)

Today to celebrate, we went to eat at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse with both sets of grandparents, Aunt Jen and Uncle Travis, and some cousins. How amazing is it that we got to spend Grandparents' Day with all four grandparents?! God has blessed us so much with our family!

Special shout out to Mom, Dad, Jan, and Terry...HAPPY GRANDPARENTS' DAY! Thank you for being the best grandparents to my kiddos that I could ask for! We LOVE you all SO much!!!

SuperHero Party!

I love party planning. I really do. I think I should have like a hundred kids so that I can plan parties year round. OK, maybe that's going a little overboard...I do want to show you the super-simple SuperHero party that we just did for my 3 year old, though.

Camden is so into SuperHeros right now! I knew I had no choice in the matter when we came back from Spring Break and my parents told us that he talked about his SuperHero party every day we were gone. So, the party planning began. I had seen some super cute SuperHero stuff on the web and my friend, Amanda, from http://www.isewdoyou.blogspot.com/ told me how to make her super easy (and WAY cute) capes. I found a FREE pattern for masks on this website: http://www.ambrosiagirl.com/blog/dax-and-kais-superhero-party/ and also got some other decorating ideas (i.e., use stars everywhere!) Since we only do "family" parties until the kids turn 4, I decided to make 6 cape and mask sets...one for C, one for M, and one for each of their 4 cousins. I am THRILLED at how they turned out:


I mean, seriously...couldn't you just eat those six up?! They are SO cute!!

Anyway, the rest of the decorating was pretty simple...we stuck with stars and the Dollar Tree was my best friend. We got balloons, plates, napkins, cups, star-shaped candy holders, Spiderman water squirters (Spiderman ball for the little one), and a Spiderman coloring book for decorations. Daddy and Granny made ice cream cakes, Nana provided the M&Ms, and we had SuperHero punch (aka Strawberry Lemonade) for treats. It was super low stress (once I got the capes done!) and SO much fun!

Mr. Camden Is 3!!

Well, my baby is now officially 3 years old. His birthday was May 6th and, as we tend to do, we totally went overboard with celebrations!

I was fortunate to be able to take his birthday off so we could spend the whole day together with Sis. We woke up to Daddy's special "birthday waffle" complete with three candles that Mr. Camden had a bit of trouble blowing out!


Once breakfast was over, the kids played together until 8:30 when we left to take cupcakes to preschool so that he could celebrate with his buddies. In keeping with the SuperHero birthday theme, we brought SuperMan cupcakes and juice boxes. It was so cute to see him interact with his little buddies. He was so proud it was his birthday!

Camden with his "best buddies," Cade and Kenna

Camden's class
When we left preschool, we had a little bit of running around to do so that we could get a few things for his party and then we went to the doctor's office for his 3 year check-up. (I know, I know, it's mean to make him get shots on his birthday, but I actually had the day off, so I had to get it done when I had the chance!) He weighed in at a mere 28.8 lbs. (20th percentile) and measured 37" (30-40th percentile). What a little peanut!! We also found out that his hearing is horrible, which is a little crazy because of his extensive vocabulary and the fact that he can perfectly match pitches! We are going to aggressively go after his allergies in hopes that we will clear up the fluid and maybe avoid tubes.

After the doctor's visit, we met Gigi for a delicious, nutritious picnic lunch from McDonalds at a local park. Melia and Camden had so much fun playing in the dirt on the playground and really enjoyed getting to hang out with Gigi for a little while!

We went home for a nap and then, when Daddy got home, we went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. It was fun, but Camden was a little confused because all the birthdays he has been to at CEC have been big events with tons of friends, presents, cake, etc. Once he got past the confusion, he had a good time playing the games and collecting tickets with his sister. On the way home, we stopped at Braum's for some ice cream...yum, yum!


Saturday, May 8th, was his SuperHero birthday party. I'm going to do a seperate post for that one! :)

Easter

Another free digital scrapbooking design by Smilebox

An Incredibly Good Friday

Good Friday means a lot of things to our family. First and foremost, it is time to think about and praise God for his ultimate sacrifice. Though I have been a Christian for a long time, the sacrifice of God's only Son means more and more to me with each passing year. I also have to say that being a parent has brought a whole new meaning to what was actually done to save me from my sins!!

Another thing about Good Friday is that, as educators, we usually get the day off to spend with our family. Since our lives are ridiculously crazy (seriously!), it was so nice to just take the day and spend quality time with each other. We went to Springfield to this amazing fabric store to purchase fabric for our upcoming reupholstry job (more on that later) and then took the kids to Incredible Pizza. I had some left-over free coupons for the kids, so we all had free buffets, drinks, and $20 worth of game play for FREE!! That's my kind of bargain!

Customize your own picture slideshow

When we got home from Springfield, we went to church for our choir program. It was so cute because before our second song, the kids in Melia's Sunday School class and the year above them (the Kindergarteners) came out and sang "Deep and Wide." She did so good...she's a natural on stage, even if she is a little shy! It was a neat way to wrap up the day celebrating the reason for our day off...Christ's death and resurrection.

Our 10 Year Anniversary Trip

Customize your own scrapbook Well, we did it...we left our kids for 7 days and celebrated our 10 year anniversary in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. We had an amazing time of sun, relaxation, and reconnecting. I would absolutely recommend a life "time-out" for any married couple...it was totally worth it to invest in each other and our relationship. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for watching our little angels so we could take our trip. We totally owe you!

Trevor's Surprise 30th Birthday Party

This free slideshow design created with Smilebox

So, I'm a little late with this post, but I'm always late, so that probably goes without saying!

My beloved hubby turned 30 on March 1st. I could NOT let it go unnoticed, and you KNOW how I love me some party action!! SO, I booked a surprise birthday party at the House of Bounce (yes, it is traditionally a kid's place, but, we're sort of like kids...ok, only at heart!). Anyway, we had his party the Saturday before his birthday and it was super fun. We all wore out a little faster than I anticipated, but I guess that's what you get with a party of "old folk"! HA! It was not without it's flaws...I am a horrible liar, his mother asked him what time his party was, etc. ;)...but I think we pulled it off the best we could.

P.S. To all our friends who came to the party; thank you for continuing to be our friends even after I made you run up and down the Cars slide until you felt like your lungs were going to explode! We love you all dearly for humoring us and seriously for being such an amazing part of our lives! :)

Birthday Backpack

Yesterday was our friend, Aubrey Peterson's, second birthday. I wanted to make her something for her birthday and when she was at our house not too long ago, she was carrying around a bag with all sorts of little treasures that she'd found in the kids' rooms. So, I decided that she needed her own bag to pack her treasures and carry around her house. She is so into Mickey Mouse, and I found this super cute and very subtle Mickey Mouse material at Hobby Lobby (my fav!). I had no pattern or tutorial, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Aubrey's mama, Lisa, says she loves her "pack-pack" and she's ready to "Go a Kohl's!"