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More pictures!!

Here are a few more pictures of the house. I don't know why it has taken so long to post them. I still need to post some pictures of the kitchen, which I forgot to take, and of our room. I have a few more decorations to get for our room and I am looking for an elastic bed skirt. I hate having to take off our mattress, which is a king and very heavy and bulky, when I want to wash our bed skirt and Degas loves to rub up against it. I REALLY love my house! Now I just can't wait until baby comes to make our family complete!!

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After



Hall/Foyer Before

Hall/Foyer After



Playroom Before

Playroom After


Laundry Room Before

Laundry Room After

Kristen's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Kristen's birthday, early. I had originally planned to have it the weekend after her birthday, like every year, but with my c-section being scheduled on Friday the 17th (the day after her birthday) I had to change it. She was really confused because she kept asking if she was 5 and I would say no, not until your birthday. I think she finally got it, but very confusing for a 4 almost 5 year old. She was so excited about her birthday party and said it was the best day ever! I asked her what her favorite present was and she said, "I liked everything." I told her that was the perfect answer!

The theme she wanted was strawberries. Not strawberry shortcake, just strawberries. She kept making that as clear as she could. She Loves fruit and strawberries are probably one of her favorite. We talked about what she wanted and she wanted a strawberry cake, pink cupcakes and strawberry shortcakes. We also made some strawberry pink lemonade and had fresh strawberries to dip in chocolate. She wanted pink and red decorations. I was able to find some strawberry shaped balloons that looked like they were dipped in chocolate at Party City. The strawberry cake was very easy to make and decorate. I just used a small heart shaped pan and decorated it to look like a strawberry. I didn't think my icing was going to get red, but it finally darkened up a little. It didn't turn out the deep red that I would have liked, but overall the cake was pretty. I think in the end things really came together and turned out good, even though I was very unsure of the strawberry theme at the beginning.

Random Ramblings

My little Lauren, or maybe I should say my big girl Lauren, has conquered potty training like a CHAMP! I really am amazed at how she just got the hang of it. On Sunday and Monday we had one accident, but have been accident free since then. Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and I knew I would be getting an ultrasound and then hooked to the monitor for 20 minutes checking the movement of the baby, heartbeat and any contractions. I hadn't gone to the store to pick up any pull-ups, which I know are basically just diapers, only more expensive. I found with Kristen that putting her in diapers only when we went out and for bed was kind of confusing to her, but pull-ups were different so she was inclined to keep them dry. So, I decided to put Lauren in diapers because I wouldn't be able to take her to the bathroom if she needed to go. I told her to keep her diaper dry and to tell me if she had to go potty. When we got home it was still dry. We had a 40 minute drive to and from the doctor, had to stop for gas and at the grocery store, so I was very impressed! Also, this morning her pull-up was dry when she woke up and she has gone to the bathroom all by herself all day long. So, my hope to have her potty trained by the time the baby gets here doesn't seem unattainable. Praise God!

As the title says....this is a totally random blog post.




I read somewhere that parents have the most impact on their child's lives during the first 5 years of their life. We have already started molding them and directing them down the path they will take in life. The foundations we establish during the first 5 years will be the ones that stick. When reading that I thought of the saying "Everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten." Which is true. After reading that article I realized that I can do much better with my two girls. They should be learning from me. Not just the three R's, but the most important foundation and that is about God. I, as a parent, can't just rely on Sunday School, Awana's or church to do that. God called ME to do it and Paul to do it. What I want my girls to remember about their Mommy is that I always put God first, had a servants heart and loved like He did. I have been singing in my head today the song by Brandon Heath, "Give me Your Eyes".

Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see

(On a side not, imagine the difference Christians could make in the world if we all saw the world like God did.)

So, I decided to order a book from Lifeway that had lessons for preschool aged kids. I also have a book I ordered from Awana on character building and started these lessons with them this week along with teaching them some other things. Kristen is writing and Lauren we are working on colors and shapes. Every color to Lauren is blue. Kristen LOVES learning and Lauren does too, she just gets bored and has to move on from an activity faster. We all have enjoyed doing the lessons and spending quality time together.

Now in pregnancy news...My c-section is scheduled for February 17th, the day after Kristen's birthday. I am not sure if I will make it to the 17th. I am already having contractions and just feeling crampy. I think I have gotten as big as I am going to get, I am not resting well at all, I am ready to be heartburn free and to be able to bend over and tie my shoes. Actually, I will just be happy to see my feet again and that is NOT an exaggeration. I move slow, waddle and have so many aches and pains it isn't even funny. We won't go into how many times a day I go to the bathroom. So, I am ready for our new little bundle of joy to arrive. His room is complete, clothes washed. I just have to pick up a couple more little things and we will be all set. I will definitely enjoy him more on the outside than the inside.

Last, but not least, here are some pictures of our new house. This isn't every room, just a couple that I snapped while cleaning. We are so happy here!

The living room before...


Here is the living room after...



Here is the hall bathroom before...


Here is the hall bathroom after...



The girls room before...


The girls room after...

Potty training...the 2nd time

I love being a mom, but there is one thing I absolutely DO NOT look forward to and that is potty training. I realized with Kristen that potty training is something that I am not good at. My first attempt at potty training Kristen I failed. I had all of these high expectations and realized very quickly that I had no control in the potty training situation. Then I decided to take people's advise and wait until she was 3. She did seem to get it a little better at three, but I think it was more because she hated to be wet, so one accident was all it took for her to realize that in order to stay dry, she needed to go potty in the pink potty. I didn't even attempt to potty train Lauren until three. Sadly, I received a BIG F for my first attempt to potty train her too. I felt like a new dog owner because she would sit on the potty forever and as soon as she got up she would pee in the floor. It was very frustrating, so I gave up. It was just easier to do that and tell everyone she just wasn't ready. So, like I did when taking her pacifier away, I made every excuse I could think of to delay the potty training. It was just much easier to put a diaper on her than clean up the floors. Well, the time had come to start the potty training. I had told Paul I was going to start on Monday, but when I woke up on Sunday I was just so excited (not really) that I started a day early. I put her in her Dora underwear. She looked so cute. She would look down at them then look up with a BIG smile on her face and say "Big girl underwear." We had one accident by lunch time with no success of any pee in the potty. I gave myself a pep talk. I just knew I was going to be cleaning up pee for the entire day, and that was okay. I was not going to give up and (with much prayer) she would hopefully get it by the end of the week before I totally went insane. After lunch she clearly had to go to the bathroom. We sat and sat. She would get up, pull up her big girl underwear, make it to the door of the bathroom, cross her legs and come back and sit down. This went on for an hour and a half. We brought toys and books in for her. I told her to show Boots, her doll, how she went potty. So, she stood up, stuck him the the potty and sat back down on him. I got him out and explained what was to go in the potty and it wasn't toys. Kristen really wanted her to go to the bathroom because I kept talking about candy and told Kristen she would get a piece but Lauren had to go to the bathroom first. I explained that this was how we taught her. After that, she was on board and Lauren's biggest cheerleader. I decided that since I could see in to the bathroom from the living room, I would go and sit down and try to give her some privacy. So, I went to go help Paul with something when Kristen came running to us happily exclaiming that Lauren had FINALLY peed. Now, at this point I didn't know if it was in the floor or the potty, but once I got to the bathroom I was very happy it was in the potty. We all made such a big deal and were so excited that we made poor little Lauren cry. I was a little scared that she wouldn't do it again because of our reaction, but for the rest of the day she went to the bathroom on her own. Took her own little toys in there and did her business and didn't even tell us. So, today is another day. I found with Kristen that there are really good days of potty training and really bad days. I am not sure what today will be, but I pray we have another really good day.

Just blessed...

There are those times when God knows exactly what you need! Today as we were getting ready to go out for my early birthday dinner, Kristen decided she needed to add some things to her outfit. I grabbed my camera to snap a picture because she just looked so cute. (Note: She did not wear the wings, shoes, gloves or cowgirl hat out to dinner.)



As I was looking back through the pictures on my camera I couldn't help but smile...and cry. Kristen had asked if she could take some pictures on the camera a couple of days ago and here are some of them.

She took a picture of her and Lauren's new bunk bed



She made Lauren pose with her baby doll



She took a picture of her "eet"



She took a ton of other pictures and all of them turned out good, but it was this picture that just got to me. (Maybe it is the pregnancy hormones.)



I realized how blessed I have been that for the last (almost) five years I have been able to put shoes on those precious feet. It also made me sad because one day, very soon, those feet aren't going to be as small. One day I am going to watch those feet go out into the big world without me and I am just not ready for that. I love being a Mommy to my two girls and have been so blessed with the opportunity to stay at home with them. God is so good and I am so blessed!

We are home!

So, we have been in our new house for almost a week now. The boxes are getting unpacked and things are finally starting to feel like "home" around here. I love, love, love my new house! When I say it is perfect for our family, I really mean it. I have one room left to unpack, a TON of laundry to do, some boxes for Paul to carry to the attic, a pile of Goodwill stuff and decorations and curtains to hang. I think I might get it all done just in time for the new baby to arrive. For those blog followers out there, I promise that I am going to start blogging more now that things are slowing down! Pictures of our new house to come!