Christmas is coming!

We have started our countdown to Christmas. We have an advent wreath that I made with a group of ladies at my church. Each day Bay gets to open a present off the wreath. We tell her what the item is and what it symbolizes. Then Daddy reads the Bible verse that goes with it. Bay really enjoys opening presents. I hope this is practice for her so she will know exactly what to do on Christmas morning. I am ready to start packing for our Christmas road trip. With each paycheck I buy items needed for a better trip. I am still trying to get together a couple of things for Bay to do in the car. I am thinking since we are splitting the trip up by staying with my mom that most of the drive they will be asleep. They are good travelers. I am really enjoying this season this year. We have pancakes on most Saturdays but now we are making pumpkin pancakes and they are wonderful. This time I let Bay stir the batter and watch the pancakes cook. She loves to help with anything. Also I have been entering so many giveaways on blogs and am yet to win. Tonight I went to a ladies exchange party. Everyone brought 6 similar gifts and came home with 6 different awesome gifts. I will definitely do this again next year. One of the gifts I brought home was a beautiful ornament which I put at the top of the tree. Our couches are a barrier around our tree which protects the presents but also creates a place for Bay to climb on and pull ornaments off. So they are on and off the tree throughout the day.

He's in a band, I am in a guild...

Yep, Tony is in a small band(friends from work). He is excited about it. And I have an innate need to craft and I found a quilting guild that meets at my church. The average age is probably 65-70 but they know so much and I am ready to learn.Our generation seems to be lacking in the sewing department. I want to make one of those warm log cabin kind of quilts one day. One you would wrap up in during the holidays. I have to get my sewing machine claeaned and repaired first. I haven't been posting lately because our computer has been hijacked. They like to send out mass emails and make our internet company cut our internet off. We were told to reprogram our computer and reinstall windows and install an antispyware thing. Whatever. I wish I knew more about computers. It is not happening as fast as I would like it to. We are going to Greenville, MS for Christmas! We have many people to see. We will probably be there from the 23rd-28th. Speaking of Christmas, I finished the dolls for the girls. Here is a picture.I wonder which one Bay will choose.

Fall Feet

The fall leaves have been at their peak this past week. I couldn't help but take pictures and enjoy the beauty that will quickly fade. The weather has been warm too. I was able to get some good fall pics of the girls. You know how you need to run outside real quick but you have socks on and you don't feel like putting the tennis shoes on? Well in the fall my toe socks correct this problem. I know it looks silly but it is great for taking the garbage out.

Halloween

Here is Strawberry Shortcake and Apple Dumpling. Cute and simple costumes. I sewed June's yellow hat. It took me two hours. It is a bit big but still cute. Tony and I were chips and salsa. I saw a pic online that I copied. We ate, got dressed, and went to the church for a fall festival and then we went to Mimi and Poppy's house. It went by quick but it was fun.

October Fun

We have been very busy with grandparents the past two weekends. We have celebrated June's birthday a few times now. We went to Slowpoke Farm to pick pumpkins, see farm animals, and take a hay ride. I was reminded how time flies when you are having fun. Saturday, we went to All About Kids for the first time. Both girls had a super duper time. They have inflatables to slide and jump on, tunnels to crawl through, and balls to play in. We will definitely go back. Tony is about to take a small vacation (camping with Dad). We will miss him for a couple of days. I am in the process of making a felt/fabric doll for each of the girls. A group of ladies at my church decided to make them so I joined. I will post a picture when I finish. I still have to finish June's costume for Halloween.

Brave Retreat

Carey, Jenny, and I drove to Lexington, KY to hear Angie Smith speak. Her blog,Bring the Rain, is so awesome in many ways. Mostly because she points people to the Lord. The retreat was held the Hyatt Hotel. As they were marking our names of the the list I saw a very elegant room with fruit, chocolate, candles, and a gift at each seat. What more could a woman want, right? As we walked to our table I saw Angie. I must admit I was starstruck. I have been reading this lady's blog for a while now getting to know her and her family and I never thought I would see her in person. I spoke to her and we chatted for a while a took a couple of pictures. She is so sweet, genuine and funny. Very easy to talk to. Her family-Todd and her 3 girls were there too. We had a wonderful time of singing and worshipping throughout the night. She spoke about her story with Audrey. It was just as moving in person as it was on the blog. She also compared the story of Jesus calming the storm from the three Gospels. She related to the men in the boat as they faced the storm with Jesus as he slept. Our Lord is so powerful. Why are we so fearful in times of trouble? Do we not trust God? She spoke of how one learns to trust Jesus during the storm and learns to look forward to the lightning instead of fearing it. Angie reminded us that, "for it is the lightning that allows us to see Jesus' face if even only for a second". Angie talked Todd into singing a couple of songs at the end. He has a beautiful voice. We had a discussion of what women struggle with at our table and then it was time to go. I had a wonderful time with friends from church and was able to meet a very special woman of God.

And KeithAnn, I wore the necklace you gave me so you could be in the picture too. Thank You for sending me the link to her blog.

Several things

Ever since I took painting and photography I always notice the light outside. It is the most beautiful in the morning and in the evening. I see color in different ways now. Anyway, I knew that the sun was brighter and closer in the winter but never really cared until someone bought me a prism. I could not find a place to hang it where light would shine through it. I found a spot in Bay's room. I hung it in her window. The thing is that we only get rainbows on her wall in the fall and winter due to the difference in the sun. It starts at 4 pm(about the time this pic was taken) just as Bay is waking from her nap. I tried to take a picture but you can't really see it too well. As the sun sets, the rainbows get bigger and brighter. This time I wrote it on the calendar. I want to see if it happens on the same day again next year.

Both my girls had this next problem. Today I must have left the bathroom door open. What is this?

And this:

Oh June, NO!

We always keep the bathroom closed for this reason. At least June didn't eat it like Bay did. Crazy kids.

Bay just figured out that the cushions come off the couch and make a new toy.I remember playing on the couch when I was little and it was super fun so I don't mind the mess for a little while.

And the last little thing: I made these paper puppets (printed from a website I can't remember) and then put mommy and daddy's face on them. Bay got a kick out of them. It is kinda fun to see us as king/queen or prince/princess. I love you Tony!

HFCS

I stay away from High Fructose Corn Syrup. How about you? It is really hard though since they put it in EVERYTHING! I believe sugar of any kind in large amounts is very very negative. I saw two commercials supported by the Corn Refiners about HFCS being basically good for you. It is made from corn and it is sugar. What is wrong with that?right? Wrong people! They give you a website to learn more about HCFS. I read a lot of it but not all of it. They were trying really really hard to bring out every positive thing they could. It basically is good for those who use it to make a product(it's cheap,better shelf life,etc). Who cares about what it does over time to the people who eat it. Then I read some research findings on another site that showed the negative effects of it. It definitely is an eye-opener once you are educated about food. The following is our goal. I say "goal" because this is not the way we eat all the time. We actually have gotten really bad about it in the last 1-2 years. We have both gained weight too.
Organic and unprocessed as much as possible!!!!!!!
Whole wheat bread,flour, pasta, crakers, cereal,etc. No bleached white stuff!
organic cane sugar (as little sugar as possible)
no soft drinks
little amounts of juice
small amounts of red meat
no pork
chicken,turkey, and fish are good
fresh fruits and veggies galor!
I totally agree with the food specialist(I think he is a chef) on The Biggest Loser: Shop on the perimeters of the grocery store. Items in the center are going to be more processed. That's were much of the junk is.
So go away HFCS! I want real food that hasn't been sweetened to affect the flavor. If God wanted sugar in everything he would have put it there, right?

Tree

First of all, I sold my old manual camera(I used it for a photography class in college) and bought a new digital camera since my other one broke. It is awesome. A few weeks ago we had a minor thunderstorm and a huge limb was broken but hanging from the tree. A few days later it fell. Daddy drug it to the backyard were it became a wonderful toy for Bay to climb on. It was just the right size for her. That is all she wanted to do. "climb tree?" she would ask. Look at her little feet and toes. Just like her mom.

Then the hurricane winds came in from Texas and we had a few more big limbs fall. Daddy drug them to the backyard so that we could saw them into pieces and slowly add them to our garbage.
So, I watched her play and enjoy naturefor a few days. A tree service truck was a few houses down so I asked them to take my trees. They did it for $25. They were all mulch in about 2 minutes. I wish Ihad that machine. We get sticks and limbs all year long. We need to buy a fire pit to help get rid of the sticks in a fun way. Bay was a bit sad the tree was gone. She would say,"no tree" with a sad look on her face. I can't wait to get her a swing set. She probably enjoyed that tree more than she would a swing set.

Louisville Rocks!

The family went to the waterfront yesterday and had a lot of fun. Sorry no pics this time. We skipped rocks in the river, Bay saw the artsy bird sculptures, and played on the playground. We met a lady who is the director of children's music at the Louisville School of Rock http://www.urock2.com. I know, isn't that awesome? I didn't know we had one. Louisville has such cool things but sometimes it is hard to find them. Many things are downtown and we just don't make it there very often. She gave us a free egg shaker along with a free drop in class. June loves egg shakers! Now we have two. They have a class for 2-3 yr olds. So, one day our family will rock there. Hopefully soon! I think Tony might enjoy playing all the instruments more than the girls. This lady, Heidi, also told Tony about a unique coffee shop called Ray's Monkey House and Kid Cafe http://www.raysmonkeyhouse.com. It is a coffee shop with an area for toddlers. We are so there soon! They have movie night and Kids open mic night. We probably wouldn't be able to do these right now but at least we know it is there. They also have people read stories to children on certain days. I think we may do this one saturday afternoon. These are two things that we could do throughout the winter season. I am in search for more. (Otherwise we will get stuck in front of the TV. Blahhhhhh!) To end our evening, we went out to eat and then looked at the ducks at a pond outside the restaurant. Bay had so much fun.

2 years old!

We had Bay's birthday last weekend. It was great. She really had fun. Early that morning, we went to the zoo with daddy and grandma. All the animals were out and about. Later, Mimi and Poppy came over. We ate BBQ and birthday cake. We busted our pinata that I made. I made it a bit too strong and we had to throw it on the ground to bust it open. I made and decorated her cake. I think it turned out well. It had Dora's face on it. So, we have had the evil cake here with us this week. How did this cake know our names? I guess it heard them at the party. It seemed to call our names everytime we walked past it. We finally ate it all, so no more cake! We want to lose a bit of weight around here. The funny thing is that Bay never really ate any. Maybe two bites of the cake the entire week. She would ask for it and I would hold her while she scooped some icing on her finger and ate it. I now have a month before June's birthday. What am I going to do for that?

Sad Mommy

Have you ever seen your child get pushed for no good reason? Why do kids want to hit others? I guess it all goes back to that sin we are born with. We are so mean and selfish even from the beginning. We went to church yesterday and dropped the girls off in the nursery as usual. Both girls were promoted a few Sundays ago so they are in new rooms but mostly the same kids. I always love to peak around the corner to watch Bay play when possible. Bay's new room is now on my way to the sanctuary so you know Mama will be peaking every Sunday. Especially after what I saw this past Sunday. So, I saw her and another girl playing on a slide. They were both on top and then Bay slid down. After the other girl slid, she stood up and pushed Bay and then laughed. Now, this angered me but I thought, "kids are kids, they are mean and push sometimes. It was just one hit. no big deal. it didn't seem to both Bay too much." This was me trying to rationalize the situation since I am not really suppose to be watching in case Bay sees me. These rooms have a two way mirror for nosy moms like me who want to check on their kids. So back to the story: Bay was minding her own business and the girl pushed her again, harder. That's 2 pushes, people. Oh Bay. I love you so. You should have seen the frustration on her face. She didn't know what to do but it made her sad and angry. She scrunched up her face with frustration and sadnness and looked down as she clinched her fist beside her. That was it. I had to step in. As I was about to say something the girl pushed her two more times. That is now 4 pushes. She pushed her from the slide to the changing table. I was so mad. They were behind the teacher and she was changing a diaper. She looked very busy. I told her that the girl had pushed Bay and apologized for intruding. I had never needed to do this before. All through church Bay's expression when she was pushed kept going through my mind and it sadden me so. It brought tears to my eyes. I felt so sorry for her and wanted to protect her so bad. She was completely innocent. When we went to pick her up I saw the girl push her again. This will not happen next Sunday. I will make them fully aware of this bully. I don't know why Bay was the target. Maybe because she is so darn cute. For the rest of the day I talked to Bay about when others push her: "pushing is bad, say 'no pushing', tell your teacher, mommy, or daddy, etc". I am not sure if she understands. I will remind her before this Sunday. I could not fall asleep last night. I think I stayed awake until 1:30 or so just thinking. I kept seeing the event in my head and it brought tears to my eyes. This probably seems silly to people but it truly disturbed me. Since I was awake, I was talking to God and I began to think of Mary and Jesus. Jesus was completely innocent and yet he was nailed to the cross to die for us. I felt I could relate to a small small small piece of Mary's sadness as she watch her son be hurt by others. She could do nothing. I would not have wanted to be Mary at that moment. Thank you God for sending Jesus to die for me. Thank you for your grace and mercy on me. Thank you for your love. You are an awesome God.

Sunflowers

They are finally here! My sunflowers are not very tall but they are beginning to bloom. I have two different blooms. go figure! I guess I need to fertilize them next year. I am definitely going to have more veggies and flowers next year if money allows us. I for sure want to grow pumpkins. I think the girls will be at a good age where they will be able to get excited about it too.

Special Day

Today has been a special day. First, it is Tony's birthday. I like to celebrate birthdays. I like to include balloons, ribbon, streamers, and some sort of baked goods. We are always low on money during birthdays and holidays. This one was no exception. When Tony fell asleep last night, I went outside and drew with Bay's chalk. I wrote "happy birthday" and drew other birthday pictures on Tony's path from the door to his truck. I attatched a balloon and ribbon to his truck. Bay and I have done some special things for him today to give to him when he comes home. I hesitate because I wouldn't want him to read this before he gets home.
Also, Bay knows her name. I asked her what her name was and she said "Bay". She also said "sister" one time which is also true. I saw a monarch butterfly today. I rarely ever see that kind. They are so beautiful. Speaking of bugs and such, I am going to help teach Honeybees for Jesus this year. It starts next Wednesday. I asked that Bay be in another class so she wouldn't be a distraction for me. It should be very fun and also interesting to see Bay learn short Bible verses.

Chalk Painting

Bay loves chalk and she has drawn on our shed door outside once before. It washes off so I don't mind. After a rainy, we went outside and found her wet chalk in the grass. Our shed has a nice little porch on the front of it. So, on the porch part of it Bay started drawing with the wet chalk. It turned into a great finger paint. I made a palette of colors for her which I wasn't able to take a picture of since she wanted to pour water on it. I wasn't about to stop her from cleaning up, right? Ha ha. When she realized she had paint instead of chalk she went to her door and finger painted. I tried to show her how to mix a few colors. Not sure if she caught on to that. Anyway we both had fun and this is the final painting and a picture of our shed that will hopefully become a stage for all kinds of fun stuff once I put up a spring rod and curtain (puppet shows, "fishing", singing, dress up, acting, etc.) I can't wait! There will definitely be posts about those. I think I need to plant a bunch of stuff around the shed and in the pots to add drama and beauty. Got any ideas?

The girls will have to grow up a bit before the entertainment gets good. The best ones will be with both the girls! June is showing signs of being a singer or maybe just one who talks a lot. Yesterday, at the park there were about 4 kids running back and forth screaming. June screamed along with them each time they ran past us. She wants to get up, run, and play with the big kids so bad. Daddy also said that he was giving Bay piggyback rides around the house. Guess what June did? Crawled behind them. Precious! I didn't see it unfortunately. I was at a wedding. Kids are so fun! I think we have them so we can have more kid fun.

blog world

Today is one of those days when you find so many cool people and things in the blog world that it just overwhelms you.There isn't enough time to read all of these. I am sure you all can relate: one link takes you to another link that takes you to another link that takes you to another link, etc... There are so many crafty moms out there. Since I have seen all these cool things, I have a long list of projects I want to do. Unfortunately, I will probably not get around to them or when I find time I will have forgotten where I found that cool project. I may just have to start printing out some stuff. I am also overwhelmed with starting montessori activities with Bay. I am in the preparing and gathering stage since she is only just about to turn 2. I know that if I take the time to prepare she will be able to show me when she is ready how smart and awesome she is. I feel it is my responsibility to provide my child with as much educational opportunities as possible. Children as capable of soooooo much at a young age and I want her to put her skills into action. Plus, I am artisty and crafty and there is no excuse not to make food and educational projects naturally and in a fun way. I need a plan of action. I emailed a lady about this so hopefully I will organize these thoughts and crafts in head and start educating my child in a cool way soon.

We are back!

We are back from St. Louis and I feel like I am trying to catch up on rest. It was a fun trip. I think that the kids handled the stress of traveling pretty well. They got to meet there aunt, uncle, and cousin. Bay loved swimming and walking. She loved running down the hotel hall. Saturday was especially hot outside and while we were doing the VBS in the neighborhood, June got a heat rash all over. She still has a little bit of it now. Bay was so cute dancing to the songs with everyone. She was doing some of the hand motions too. One morning, June was so fussy that I just laid her down on our bed and she grabbed the cover like she does with her blanket, sucked her thumb, and she was out! Tony's dad was watching the pets and house while we were gone. When we got home we checked our garden and found a huge zuccini. Those things must have crazy growth spurts because it was only about 2 inches when we left. We ate it with our dinner that night. It was pretty good. Some of our cherry tomatoes were also ready to be picked. I let Bay pick those. It is a good learning experience for her. She learns her colors because "we only pick them when they are red, Bay!" She gets to taste good organic tomatoes from her own backyard. I think we will have a bigger garden next year. Here are a few pics of the trip, family, and the zucchini.

June Bug

Watch out people, here she comes. June is crawling. Not just slowly in one room either. She crawls all around the house. She has already found Daddy's work boots, Gibson's dog food and water, and the computer cords. I think she is very determined to walk so, who knows, in another month she might. She pats her hands on mine and on the highchair tray so I figured she was ready to paint. She did an awesome job. She painted two pictures. Here are two videos-one crawling, one painting. She crawls much faster now than she did in this video. She is crawling towards an egg shaker. This is a good and inexpensive baby toy by the way. She can easily hold and shake it.

Prrrrrrr!

Thanks to our "adopted" Louisville parents, Bill and Joyce, we were able to go see the broadway show "Cats" at the Louisvlle Ampitheater last night. Joyce had surgery so they couldn't go and gave us the tickets. Tony's dad came over and put the girls to bed and we headed off. It was packed......with old people. That's okay, it was a really nice warm night and I was alone with my husband. Neither one of us has ever seen "Cats" so it was all new to us. As we sat down we realized we were too short for the chairs. Our feet slightly dangled. This made it very uncomfortable throughout the night. The suits are a bit tight and they were moving those hips and genitals. It was kinda gross. I think we just aren't use to seeing wonderful performances like this. They sang and danced wonderfully though. I guess we were both expecting more of a story with a love story or something. It seemed a bit random. It was cool to be outside watching it. During the second act, I could hear the crickets. I did enjoy it and would go see it again. I think I would like it better the second time. I hope to do more things like this and go on more unique dates. Here is a picture of me and a cat. I thought she had the best face and makeup.

Chillin'

This past week I have enjoyed lying down and gazing up at a big tree with Bay. She will grab me by the hand and say, "C'mon, Let's Go!" and we go to the ramp in front of the shed door, lean back, relax and say, "ahhh". Sometimes there is a bird or a squirrel we can watch. Mostly, we just enjoy the wind blowing the leaves and the awesome creation of God. In the picture of the ramp you can see Bay's chalk art on the door and the bricks. The other picture is our view of the tree which is much more beautiful than our little ramp.

worn out mama

Yesterday I was a bit sick but well enough to endure the fourth activities. This morning I feel like crap. And Bay is getting it too. Those awful runny noses. Yuck. For the 4th, we went to a friend's house for food, fun, and fireworks. I knew going into it that I would be very worn out. It is very challenging for me to feed June, feed Bay, make sure Bay is safe, and socialize. As soon as I got there at 6:30 I fed June dinner to get that out of the way. We were good for a while until it was time for everyone to eat. I still haven't figured out how to eat when everyone else eats at an event like this. Bay was too excited so she didn't eat much. They have a plum tree that is heavy heavy with the fruit. The limbs had broken off it was so heavy. Bay gathered her plums and tasted a few. This kept her busy for most of the night. Bay is much younger than all the other kids. The girls would say "Baby Alert!" when she walked in. Then around 8:00 June was tired, like she should be, so a friend fed her her bottle and we tried to lay her down like normal (in the pack-n-play). I am not sure if she slept any. She cried on and off for an hour or so. I finally just got her up. She didn't want to miss the fireworks I guess. Plus, there's nothing like your own bed. Bay was very tired. She even at one point told Daddy, "home". That is so sad. She didn't like the fireworks. They were too loud. We watched some of them from inside. June was up at this point and was able to watch some fireworks. She did fine except for one time when one was too close. It made her cry. So, I ended up inside with Bay while a friend rocked June who was completely happy and appeared very awake. That's fine with me as long as no one is crying!!!!!! This description of the night doesn't quite depict the stress that came with it. Overall, I am glad we went. We need the practice of being in public with our kids. So the plan was to let the kids sleep in right? negative. Bay woke up at her usual time except I found her on a blanket on the floor. She must have woke up and got out of bed but knew it wasn't time to wake up yet. I have a body pillow that hangs over the bed so she can slide down. It is hard for her to climb back on the bed with this in this way. So she wasn't in the best mood. June did sleep about an hour and a half longer. She wakes up unhappy too. Thankfully it is Saturday and Daddy is home now from a men's "Bible study"(group therapy). The kids are pleasant and still I am sick and tired. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be fun and eventful.

Canoe Trip

Saturday we decided to take the girls out on Daddy's new canoe. It turned out wonderful for all. I set my expectations low so that anything would be pleasant. You never know what will happen with an 8 mth old and a 22 mth old. It was rather windy and sunny. It was early in the morning so it was still cool. We were only out on the water for maybe 45 minutes-1 hr. Bay decided to test the water several times. "Sit down Bay, Sit down Bay!" was the poular phrase of the trip. We stopped to rest and play and did Bay ever play.... under the water. She leaned over to touched the water and fell in head first. My heart dropped. Thank God for the life Jacket. She only dunked her head and Daddy pulled her back in. She must have held her breath because she never choked. She was just very cold and wet. It was scary but we tried to laugh about it so Bay wouldn't be scared. I just knew she was going to be terrified of water for the rest of her life. But no, she went back to play with the water again. This time two hands were holding her- a mommy hand and a daddy hand. The last picture is soon after daddy pulled her out of the water. Daddy enjoyed taking his family out in the boat. June and I just sat in the bottom of the boat where it was safe. June liked it as much as an 8 mth old could I guess. She did get fussy towards the end. I don't think I have ever seen mommy and daddy work so hard together to get that boat to the dock. A baby crying sure can motivate you. I know the fishermen were laughing at us from a distance. I can't imagine how stupid we looked. We couldn't keep that thing straight and why did they bring a baby on the canoe? I got a good work out in my arms and legs. I surely hurt my back even worse though. Gotta go to a chiropractor as soon as our insurance is effective. It was a good family outing! We will have to go again when I am able to help paddle again.