A little different Thursday.

Instead of about writing about what I have learned this Thursday, as is my normal routine.  I am choosing to share a little from the heart.  I hope you are all okay with that.  If not, to bad.  It is my blog. ha ha

Last night, my baby sister welcomed her first little baby to the world.

I have been envious of her all day.

I keep thinking back to all four of my amazing births, and the magical feelings brought on those first few days.

I love being in hospital staring at the face of a familiar stranger.

I love the adrenalin I feel after many long hours of labor.

I love feeling so tired, yet too excited to sleep.

I love bringing a baby home….

 

To be a part of our life. 

To help make us more complete.

Those moments are gone and past for Jonathan and I.

I can’t help but feel somewhat sad.

My two sisters are just beginning that journey.

My chapter of making babies is over.

We are in a new chapter of raising babies.

I must say that I would do it all again.

I would go back to that “birth-day” of our first born son.

I would go through the struggles of nursing.

I would do sleepless nights.

There is something so heavenly about being a mother to a baby.

Someone who relies on you completely.

I will miss the moments today, but tomorrow I will move on.

I will reflect on how wonderful it is to parent toddlers and young children.

I am sure I will look back on this time at some point, and miss the magic of cleaning up high chairs, wiping off sticky fingerprints, and diverting a tantrum.

Today, I vow to treasure the little things.

Today, I will try remember just how quickly time can escape us, and make time to sit down tomorrow and capture some of that time.

Tonight, I will be vow to be the best Aunt ever, and enjoy watching my sisters share in the magic.

Congrats Lindsay, Dave and London.

P.S.  I couldn’t help myself today.  I had to make time to scrapbook Tessa’s birth.  I think it made me reflect on it even more, and it helps to know that her birth story is frozen in time.

 

 

Parties make life FUN!!

I hosted a fun little baby shower for my friend last week.  She will be having a baby boy soon.  So I went with the Vintage Car theme.

I found a vintage car brush from Brusheezy, and used them in photoshop to make the little picks.  Muffin liners are around the outside, and then I hot-glued them on skewers.  I used a piece of felt over the stick and the paper to keep it together better.

 Then I designed a few T-shirt transfers with them. They made the most adorable T-shirts, decorations and gift.

 I pulled out my trusting sewing machine and made a baby banner.  It was so cute that I offered for her to take it home.  She is able to hang it in the nursery because I made sure to use her colors.

The food was delicious.  I made sugar cookies(recipe here).  It was so fun to frost them.  They looked beautiful on the table.

I had some friends bring some side dishes(which were to die for), and then I served Chicken Salad on homemade rolls.

Chicken Salad Recipe

2 Chicken breasts boiled and shredded

1 C. grapes chopped.

1 green pepper chopped

1 onion chopped

Slivered almonds if you have them

Add those ingredients together.

Mix:  1 C.  Real Mayo

1 C. Sour cream

with 2 tsp. dill, 1 tsp. salt and pepper to flavor.

Add to the chopped ingredients.

Let refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

My friend, Tracy helped me throw the shower.  She always finds the most adorable cakes.  It was blue with brown polka-dots.  Sigh. So adorable as part of the table scape.( I wish that I wasn’t so busy hosting and that I remembered to take pictures)

Last but not least, I made these poms for over the table.  They are everywhere in the blog world; I found tutorial on Martha.

I love them.  Since the party, I have used them here.

 And now they adorn my room.

 

So cheap, and easy to make.

I love a good party. 

Parties make life FUN!!

N.I.N.E.

beautiful months.

She gets more wonderful every day we spend with her.

Nine months is such a surreal number.

That is the number of long long months of pregnancy, and yet somehow…

the nine months with her here have gone so quickly.

My absolute favorite about her at nine months is her ability to say Mama on cue.

She is so smart.  She says mama when she wants me, and mama when I pick her up.

She can pat-a-cake, and will even clap along with someone else.

She patiently waits for me to come get her out of her crib.

She waits and waits with those beautiful eyes peering out the railing.

She is crawling everywhere, and thinks she is pretty hot stuff.

She has been known to pull herself up on a few occasions.

She enjoys eating, her most favorite food; marshmellows.(what? she’s the fourth child)

 She loves her mommy, and is content in my arms all day.

We love to snuggle in the morning and watch Baby Einstein.

Tessa is loved by her siblings, and will even cry because she can’t handle all the attention.

She has the most adorable laugh.  A deep belly laugh, especially when you tickle her.

She is very busy.  She has to have her hands in something or on something at all times. She is constantly moving her arms.   She flails them up and down.  It is most annoying when I am nursing her, but endearing at the same time.

Sometimes the smallest thing will catch her off-guard and she will bust a gut.

Tessa we think you are amazing.  Thank you for the joy you bring in to our home.

P.S. Sorry for the picture overload.  I had so much fun taking these, and just couldn’t pick.  They show her personality, sense of humor, and facial expressions so well.  I love when I can capture the moment.  That is what makes photography so much fun. 

A moment or a person frozen in time.

What I have learned Thursdays on Friday again.

First off before I get to what I have learned, I wanted to direct you over to my friends blog.  Her name is Rebecca Cooper of Simple as that.  She has such a neat blog.  This week she posted a whole bunch of summer fun ideas.  Click on the picture below  to take you there; you just might even see a little feature there about our Alphabet Summer.

On to what I have learned.

Well okay first an apology.

I have been slow with this post, and I must make it known that our summer has been a little busy.  Please forgive my untimely nature, but I will make NO promises that it will get better.

I am hoping that once school starts that life will slow down.  I am however just getting in to the HEAT of the summer.  4 birthdays, a baptism, 2 sets of company, well-child checks, dentist appt., back to school, a new church calling, and one small  big  thing; a mother of four and wife to a busy resident.

So there you have it, now neither of us will have any expectations.

Now, on to what I have learned.

Just because someone else is doing it doesn’t mean that you have to do it too.

Remember when our Mothers would say, “If so and so jumped off a cliff would you do it too?”

Well, I am here to say that being a little unique and out of the ordinary is a good thing.

I enjoy being a little intriguing and eccentric.

Case in point:

I received a phone call a few months back from AT& T.  It went a little something like this.

“Hi, this is so and so from AT& T.  We would like to talk to you about adding a new service to your plan. It is called Uverse.”

“Yes, I have heard of it”, I said.

“Would you like to upgrade to it?”

“No, Actually I was going to call you today and cancel our cable.”

“But, Maam everyone in your neighborhood has upgraded to Uverse, and if you cancel your cable how will you watch the news?”

“We are going to just use an antenna.” I replied.

“But, you won’t be able to record your favorite shows.”

“That is okay, we need to save some money and it is time to cut out the cable.” I smirked.

“But everyone has cable, how will you keep up?”

“Sigh”….

…and it went on and on.

Needless to say, I turned off the cable.

I realized that just because the whole world is doing it, it doesn’t mean that it is the best thing for our family.

We don’t have to get a Wii just because everyone has one.(I am not saying that we never will, I am just saying we don’t have too)

We don’t have to take a summer vacation because that is what everyone does in the summer.

I don’t have to give my kids everything they ask for just because their friends have one.

Every teenager does not have to have a cell phone.

I am in control. We as adults are in charge.

We are the only ones who can make the best decisions for our family, and ultimately our children. 

….Excuse me for a moment, my phone is ringing.

Okay, I am back.  You will never guess who just called.  It was AT& T wanting to sign me up for Uverse.  ha ha I am laughing my head off.

Isn’t that Ironic.

Any hoo, back to my story. 

After and even before we shut off the cable I thought that people might think we were crazy.

I wondered if I might go a little crazy.

Guess what people.  It is the best decision we ever made.

We have so much more time for each other as a family.

I find time for my scriptures.

Instead of sitting on the couch vegging at night, I am usually running.  Then after I get home, my husband goes for a run.  Then we enjoy a nice evening together drinking a protein shake.

We have more time for games as a family.

We read more, and I have $70 extra dollars in my pocket each month.

My point: just because the world does something does not mean that you have to also.

Just because television is the norm for most homes does not mean that we all have to do it too.

What in your life could you stand to get rid of?

I am not saying that it is the best thing for you to get rid of your cable.

What I am saying is to take the time to think about what you have, or what you have bought that you really didn’t need.  All in the name of someone telling you that you can’t live with out it.

When you find that something, let it go.

Who knows it might save you some money and in return give you some time.

What I have learned after two months without cable?

That just because someone tells me I need it, doesn’t mean I really do.

Ice Cream Party Details…

Saturday was a big day for our family.

We celebrated a birthday.

We like to make birthdays a big deal around our house.

It is tradition to spend as much quality time with each other, and make the birthday person feel so special.

We tried to do just that for Jonathan.

We had an ICECREAM PARTY.

Jonathan loves ice cream.

This is what we did:

The kids made cupcakes in ice cream cones.  The older two did this all on there own.

We used a muffin tin to hold them up.

Only fill the cone up to the line or they will over flow.

Any old cake mix will do, and it will make 24.

Follow the cake instructions for temp and time.

Once they were done we frosted them to look like this:

We also made this nifty cake stand out of the cheap plastic wear from Wal-Mart.(it was on clearance)  We used some cheap glass plates to glue to the plastic cups we got at Wal-Mart.

Next, Isaac was in charge of the cones.

We melted some chocolate chips.

He rolled the top in the melted chocolate….

….then in some sprinkles.

We set them on wax paper to dry.

This is the result:

Next we prepared the toppings,  they were our favorite part.

We had a hard time not sneaking a taste while we chopped.

Using my Pampered Chef food chopper, we chopped up Twix and 3 Musketeers mint candy bars.

Some mini M&M’s, hot fudge and caramel rounded out our toppings.

When it was time, we laid out the spread.

Don’t forget to buy good ice cream.

We like Homemade Vanilla by Blue Bell.

Hey when you don’t have time to make it homemade this will do it is just as good.

Break out some fun dishes to serve in, and neat bowls to hold your toppings.  I used my milk glass for the toppings.

Dishes really will make it feel more special.

We all dished up, and devoured. 

I think this was the best ice cream sundae ever.

The kids thought the cake in the cone was so neat.

It really added to the theme of our party, and it was something that they could make themselves.

Take the time to make the birthdays in your home special.  Include everyone to MAKE something spectacular for the ones you love. 

Remember that special doesn’t always mean a lot of money.

P.S.  Take the time to visit Project 365.  I finally updated after over a week.  Click on the photo to take you there.

OH…

Happy Day!!

Jonathan turned, well I don’t know if he wants that  number public knowledge; but his age did change today.

We had a great day.  The kids and I planned and prepared for our BIRTHDAY PARTY all morning; while Jonathan did rounds at the hospital.

Once he got home, we headed out to lunch.

We decided to eat at Children’s hospital which is where he is working.

I know that sounds strange, but they have the best food; and it accommodates to all our tastes.  They have so many items to choose from: salad bar, pizza, grill, and home- cooked, stick to your ribs kind of food.  With so many options, we can make everyone happy.

It is also such a fun atmosphere with a fun gift shop, and beautiful scenery.  The kids enjoy being a part of dad’s life outside our house, and Jonathan enjoys sharing it.

Jonathan pointed out some neat artwork that lined one hallway.  It was all done by children.  It had been framed and was a small art gallery that was a tribute to children and their creativity.  This was my favorite part today.  It helped me think about great art projects for the kids.  The two older kids could not believe how much talent that some of the small children have.

  We also enjoy hanging out in the lobby, and small park area. Just look at the scenery.

It is right across from the capitol.

It has beautiful streams and waterfalls.  These connect to little streams and waterfalls that are indoors; where sick kids make wishes with pennies, nickels and dimes.  We even saw a dollar bill in there today.

It was so beautiful that I couldn’t help but take a picture of the birthday boy with the crew.

…and all their birthday kisses.

Then we went home for our big party.

Stay tuned for details on how we planned and prepared for our

ICECREAM PARTY!!

Jonathan loves ice cream so it seemed like the perfect sort of soirée to throw.

We laughed, giggled, tasted and shared.

 

We enjoyed our time together eating Jonathan’s favorite treat.

Little Miss even got in on the action.

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Not me?

Yes you?

Couldn’t be.

Then who?

(our kids favorite song these days; they like naming off all their cousins as having their hands in the cookie jar)

It was a marvelous day. 

Jonathan’s night ended perfectly.  He was able to go out fishing with his BFF, Brady.

I think if he were writing this he would tell you that his 30 something birthday turned out pretty spectacular.

We love you Jonathan.

We hope your day was special.

P.S.  Stay tuned for details about our Ice Cream Party!!