Yo yo...

my booties...available in just about every color under the sun and free shipping at their home site till tomorrow and they also ship free at Milk Shop! A little bird might have told me the electric blue ones were on their way to our home for a certain little boy! (just don't tell Billy. He thinks anything metallic is for girls).

On another note, Billy received a bonus at work and we were able to replace our stroller...now if only it would arrive! I forgot how much easier it was when I could just push Micah and Isaac around together and Billy could man the shopping cart! It's not a travel system like the last one, but since Isaac is getting bigger I am hoping this one will still work out fine...we shall see soon enough!

Going to the chapel...

My little sister got married today. I so wish we could have been there!!!

They will have a celebration when they are back here in California and Keaston is back home from his deployment... But I still hope they are celebrating in Alabama! Congratulations you two! I love you both! And my sweet little nephew!

swoon

Pretty much in love with these Italian leather baby booties.



...oh yeah..and think I'm head over heels for this lil guy.

a happy birthday :D

When I had my cancer scare a couple months ago, something became very clear to me. It wasn't just a passing thought or a cliche thing to say. The words have become written on my heart: Life is Precious.

It truly, truly is. And because this has never rang more clear to me I feel extra blessed to have celebrated another year of life here on this Earth. Tomorrow is not promised to us and only He knows the number of our days, but I am so thankful for every breathe I take.

My husband (who is normally not a big 'birthday' person) and our boys went above and beyond to make this day extra special.

Thank you Billy, Colby, Micah...and even you Isaac :) And thank you to all who wrote and wished me a happy birthday! Every comment was so sweet, I appreciate you all!


Billy let me sleep in (yeah) and when I woke up he had decorated the table: setting out a table cloth, he had bought party plates/napkins/forks, tied balloons to all the chairs, bought a chocolate buttercream cake infused with bailey's irish cream and caramel temptation (yum!). He also had these cute little mexican paper flag banners hanging from the ceiling that he had hand cut himself! Did I marry a good man or what?

He and the boys made me birthday cards and he stocked our fridge with Mexican coke in the glass bottles, my favorite. My mom kept the boys for us so we could have dinner alone and thanks to my sweet men, I am now am the proud owner of this. I have wanted it ever since Isaac was born...my 3 boys are my 3 rocks so it has special meaning to me.

Now I'm off to watch Slumdog Millionaire. I have wanted to see it forever, just never got around to it! What a great day!

Little Love Bandits...

Little crazies! Isaac was mad I wouldn't let him roll over to his belly.

Such a little phony!

Finally! 3 happy boys!


So...it's Sunday evening...weekend is coming to an end. :(

We had some sicky little boys but they are feeling better now...even managed to make a trip over here to pick up a couple things for the house. Some of their items are really cheap quality, but we managed to find nice storage containers for our nuts (is that weird? I stopped putting chips in Colby's lunches and started supplementing them with cashews, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds), but having plastic baggies full of nuts in the cupboard was driving me...well...nuts! Even got some decent chairs for the dining room table.

We somehow snuck in a date (with Isaac) at the California Pizza Kitchen, so that was a rare treat! How did you spend your weekend? Hope it was a good one!

So thankful...

for every new day. :) Not too much going on with myself and the love bandit boys. I did order one of these elephant watering cans...so now I think I'm going to need some plants to water...I would love to hear your house plant suggestions!



...Other than that we've just really been hanging out at home...fulfilled a couple shop orders...and we've been trying to convince Isaac that his new walker is fun. He hasn't bought into yet...but we hope the flashy lights and music will win him over real soon because our arms need a break from this lil' chunky boy!



I actually like slow days...the weather has been so beautiful, it's nice to just sit back and relax! Our phone hasn't worked since Sunday and today was the first available appointment, so we are currently waiting for AT & T to get here and hopefully fix the line! Happy Thursday everyone!

Why...

Sometimes do weird, random things happen in your life and you just have to ask why? Sometimes there are good random things...like when someone helps you push your car through the In N' Out drive thru because you ran out of gas (yeah...that was us last week...thanks again In N' Out guys) but sometimes they are bad.

Like today. Billy left early with Micah and Isaac to pick up a book at the library...He wasn't even there for 20 minutes. Well...he ended up forgetting our stroller in the parking lot. Now. You would think that most people would not want to steal someone's stroller or that they would turn it in to the library...or maybe leave their number so the owner of the stroller could contact them....nope. It's g-o-n-e. Billy went back twice and no luck :(.

Now don't get me wrong. Yes, this news did put a damper on my mood, but I do know that it was an accident and that we all make mistakes. I just sometimes feel like I often get stuck at the end of them and I get left to sort through the mess. With this particular situation there is really nothing I can do (though I did place a lost ad on craigslist), but I'll be honest...I am just feeling a tad burnt out these days on fixing mistakes that aren't really mine. I dunno. Is that part of being on a married "team"? I'm not a marriage expert so I'm not sure. I know when my kids make mistakes that we show them how there are consequences to them...I know I am not my husband's mother but where does the line fall on that?

And that is not a rhetorical question...I am curious! In our house I am in charge of budgeting everything and paying every bill. I often wonder what would happen to Billy if I died! He just is not efficient in those areas. Sure none of it is fun, but I like to deal with the problems as they arise where as Billy will have a stack of mail that he won't even open! It drives me crazy! So if anyone has a method that works well for them please share! Our method works but I am getting really tired of being the one to deal with it all...

...so yeah. Kind of got sidetracked there! It's just that our stroller wasn't really in the budget but we decided it would be a better investment for the long run since it fit both Micah and Isaac...Billy said he would think up a way to remedy the situation...however the always so lovely Jacklyn did offer us an extra stroller. Such a blessing to me that girl!

Hope this is the last of our stuff to be taken! I am still bitter about being robbed last year and last week someone broke into our car again. They didn't get anything this time, but I mean enough already. Can people in the universe just go back to being nice like the guys at In N' Out Burger? :)

Happy Love Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's! Billy had to work all day so we aren't celebrating Valentine's Day until later this week. I did however leave a few surprises for Billy out by his alarm clock and I woke up to a beautiful water color drawing he made for me. I love thoughtful gifts and I especially love handmade!

Billy is so hard to buy cards for since he is usually always making cards for me and for others! I can't ask him to design one for himself! :) A few times I have made cards for him but this year I bought this card on etsy. We both love letterpress and being a vegetarian it seems like potatoes are nearly always in our meals so I thought it would be perfect for him. He laughed when he saw it so I must have done good. :)



So...Happy Love Day everyone! Colby and Micah are at my mom's for the night so I am off to watch some movies with my husband and maybe Isaac unless we can keep him sleeping! :)

Valentine's...

This year for Valentine's Day we filled up 30 of these little plastic containers with hard cinnamon dot candies. Billy created the tags using a vintage valentine and then we tied them on with bows. Sounds simple enough with the exception that those tags were a pain to get on! Oh well. Colby was really excited to pass them out at school, so we will count them as a success. :)

a half birthday...

I can't believe my baby boy turned 6 months old yesterday. Then again, I can't believe Colby is 7 or Micah is 3 either! Where did all the time go? Happy 6 months Isaac! I hope you know just how much we all love you. You thought those balloons were great and today we fed you baby food (other than milk and cereal) for the first time! Not sure you loved the bananas, but you did eat most of them!

Growing Young...

Last week Billy asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I had to stop and think. God has given me life, a loving husband, and healthy children. I truly feel so incredibly blessed.

So here I am going to be turning 26 and you know what? It feels pretty darn good to just be alive and being able to have my husband by my side and the honor of watching our children grow.

But... if the man of the house wants to get me something to commemorate 26 years of living, well who am I to stand in his way?...Let's just say I wouldn't mind if one of these made its way into our home. :)



Or I would really love to finally have Isaac's newborn pictures (the lady that was training the girl who took them in the hospital was extremely rude and so I didn't want to order from her, but you can order them online for up to a year after the birth of your baby). Hope you got an idea or two husband! :)

l-o-v-e-

Love day is coming! Sadly, Billy is working all day on Valentine's Day so we will just have to celebrate it another day...Last night we water colored a bunch of paper doilies and I strung them onto a velvet ribbon to make a banner full of colorful hearts! It looks so pretty I think it can stay up all year!


heres just a sample of them. top row by Micah and Mommy, bottom row by Colby and Daddy (Daddy made his pink for Mommy). So sweet! What is your family doing to get ready for Valentine's Day?

Listen...

Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child.
Anything can be.

-Shel Silverstein

Some days...

just seem longer than others.

Colby is on his second day with a fever.

Micah is fine just missing having someone to play with.

And Isaac. Well Isaac thinks the world is ending if I'm not holding him. My arms are literally aching from carrying this chunk around all day!

So, with Billy off at work for 10 plus hours, today seemed extra long! I wish I could say tomorrow will be better, but nope! We are being left for an out of town super bowl party...so at home again with 3 kids that miss having their dad around and we won't have a car to even get out. :( Hopefully Colby will be feeling better soon!

Hope your weekend is going better than ours!

The Gift To Be Simple...

For quite some time I have felt the need to simplify. When we moved from our apartment to our home, I suddenly realized how much STUFF we had acquired.

Thankfully, instead of packing it to move, I was able to get rid of most of it to the goodwill and to neighbors. I even had a small yard sale. It was a real eye opener to me that having a bunch of stuff is not how I want to live! It made me stop and think of HOW I had managed to buy so much stuff, especially when half of it was stuff that we had never even used or only used a handful of times.

They say the things you own end up owning you. I know personally I was not any happier because of the stuff I owned. In fact, for the most part it just stressed me out trying to declutter it all the time.

So here I am, and while I am MUCH better at it, I am still working on the art of simplifying. It's funny the things that actually make you feel better vs. the things that you think will make you feel better. We have 1 car. 1 television set. No cable. No cellphones. 1 landline. No call waiting...no caller id...and I really don't feel deprived! Sure..there are times when I wish I had a cellphone to call Billy to ask him to come outside rather than waking up and dragging 3 kiddos into his work...or times I'd rather not have to wait for Billy to get home with the car to run errands, but you know what? 99 % of the time it is not an inconvenience at all.

My house still has some little areas of clutter and I am slowly working on them...I think the hardest part is deciding what of the kids art work to keep and how long to store receipts/mail...But I am so much better than I was before.


*Isaac living life contently...oh the things babies teach us!

English designer William Morris said, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." Now that's a great challenge!

Another one I love is, "Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.” - Edwin Way Teale

I love a useful product and a beautiful item as much as the next person, but I don't want my life to be full of things. As cliche as it sounds, I want my days to be filled life and laughter.

I know in a culture that thrives on bigger and better and commercialism in all its glory, living simply is not exactly a well supported way of life. I absolutely love in Fight Club when Brad Pitt says,"You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your f***ing khakis."

I know where we got that idea that who we are is based on what we have, but when in the world did we start believing it? Why is it so hard for people to separate who they ARE from what they own???

I would love to hear your thoughts!

4 to 1.

That is the ratio of boys to girls in my home. So do not ask me to justify or find any common sense in this purchase because there is none.



Maybe it was my love of sunsuits? Maybe it was my love for vintage (in this case, vintage looking)? Perhaps it was the tiny anchors that did me in?

I really don't have much to say in my defense. But it was something I have wanted since I first saw it months and months ago. I even saved it to my desktop because I loved it so...And so this morning when it went on sale at The Mini Social, I took it as a sign and scooped one right up.

I love The Min Social. If you are not a member, you can sign up freely here.

A Sweet Baby Jamie quilt for my Sweet Baby Isaac.

Recently I found a wonderful seller on Etsy (who turned out to also be a fellow follower of Jesus!) who agreed to take a custom order for me! I love, LOVE quilts and I finally finished picking out the fabric for the baby quilt she will be making for Isaac! So far all the fabric has arrived but one print! I can't even tell you how excited I am to see the final result!

Because Isaac is my long awaited summer baby, I decided to stick with fabrics that would remind me of the cool colors in the ocean and the warmth of the sunshine on a summer day. I love how they all look together and I am thankful to God for directing me to such a sweet seller! You can keep up with all Jamie's beautiful work here.

Birthday Month...

I've beent trying to get Billy on board for "birthday months" forever...so far he has not taken to them or to celebrating my half birthday (August 23rd...Isaac's due date). BUT maybe this will be the year he stops being a party pooper...I mean NOTHING else is going on in February...its pretty much a lame month except for the birthdays, so why not celebrate every day?

So...I say let the celebrating begin! Happy Birthday Month Day 1 to me! (and you if you are a February birthday too!)



*image found at wideopenspaces