LOVE FAITH HOPE

Valentine's Day has become a Hallmark Holiday for Byron and I. We choose not to celebrate it really other than to say "Happy Valentine's Day" in addition to the words we say daily and sometimes multiple times during a day "I LOVE YOU!" Whenever we are asked how we will celebrate Valentine's day and we provide our response... we don't have anything planned, or don't do anything for each other there is a stare of disbelief pointed right at us. But it is true we really haven't and don't put lots of efforts into celebrating this particular holiday. However this year because we have kids and I want them to enjoy the holiday and learn about giving we have embarked upon a few homemade crafts that will decorate our home.

I have been wanting to get back to being creative or crafty. I chose to make for my own decoration this felt styrofoam heart wreath pictured above. I being a pinterest addict have had the creative juices flowing because of all the wonderful ideas I have found there or repined. This was one such project! Though I have deviated from the directions found on the link to the original project I have enjoyed taking the time for myself and enjoyed working at this project for a few days when I find time. It really helps me to unwind. It won't be up for Valentine's day (today) because it is not completed. But the project will be finished soon enough and I will be proud of my handy work. Ty and I spent some time this past weekend working on a project of our own for Byron. The idea of course stolen from pinterest pins. But I love it. Ty and I painted his hands, thumbs and feet with gold glitter acrylic paint and pressed them onto the piece of poster board I purchased. I then wrote the words ACT, LOVE and WALK and finally wrote the words justly, mercifully, and humbly. We framed it and will give it to Byron tonight when he arrives home. Take a look!

Let us not forget our little guy Caleb! We have a few things to complete on his work of art! I had painted his feet and stamped them onto a piece of card stock paper. I will embroider around the feet making a heart shape and write his name at the bottom of the piece. Finally I will frame it. Since we don't have the finished project yet I will post that picture at a later date! So much fun we had creating these projects to give to each other. So much fun I had documenting the time and growth of my children in a creative way. I did get a bug in my bonnet to show Byron that I do love him on a daily basis. So I bought a frame and put the sticker words I love you because:...... on the glass. This morning I filled in the blank with a red water based pen. I am going to find a place to hang this probably in our bathroom or somewhere in our bedroom. Each day we can write to each other another reason we love each other. What a great reminder, surprise and way to share our love for each other. Well with that and all the mushy stuff... Happy Valentine's Day Ya'll! May you find simple pleasures and ways to share your love not only today but everyday!

Pack it all in!

That's what I say pack in everything you can and don't waste a minute.. But be prepared for melt downs and or exhausted children running on empty. We reap what we sow right? Right! Last weekend I did just this. I packed in a Super Hero 4 year old Birthday party.

Our family dressed up as Superman, Wonder Woman, Ty's rendition of Batman, and Baby Caleb's Super Baby onsie. This was super fun. We had blue velvet super hero cupcakes made from scratch! We decorated the house with red, yellow and blue balloons, Batman and Spiderman streamers and hanging decorations, as well as the appropriate super hero confetti. Activities included large coloring sheets, stick the Batman sticker on Batman's chest, and tattoo station. Party favors were in abundance. Each kiddo left with a homemade personalized super hero cape and a Batman bucket full of party items. Kids had a blast.

As you can tell I love going over board for my son's birthday parties. Each year it takes me at least a month in advance to get the right invitation, theme and pull everything together. Ty and his friends absolutely loved the party. There were many adults in attendance what was neat about that is that almost every adult dressed up as well. Wearing t-shirts with superhero's on them or creating their own superhero costume fun was had by all. Whew that was one tremendous party! Happy Fourth Birthday to my oldest son Ty! May this year bring you lots of fun exciting things to learn, to do and may your growth continue to be a blessing in our lives!

Preparation, Excitment, Event, Relaxation

Wow I have packed a variety of things into my weekend on top of working a full week! My son Ty is turning 4 on the 31st of this month which means we are having his birthday party this weekend. We are excited to have little friends of his over to the house and celebrate his birthday. He has requested a Super Hero themed party. I have been planning this party for a month now. I have completed the Super Hero capes and accessories, the goody buckets, and have three activities for the party. Decorations are next and the cupcake making and decorating will be completed by the weekend. Oh the preparation has taken a tremendous amount of time. It has generated excitement in our house as the topic of conversation continues to be around these fun activities, who is coming and the visuals of things around the house as they are produced. What a fabulous theme I might add. It is interesting to me that many of my friends who have hosted 4 year old birthdays all have had a Super Hero type theme. Must be developmentally a choice that kiddos make. Not only are we having a birthday party to celebrate 4 years of life we are also having our son Caleb's baptism, to celebrate his new life in the Catholic church. This is exciting for us. We have been very impressed with the increased knowledge of his faith now that our 4 year old has now that he is attending Catholic preschool. We look forward to raising Caleb with the same faith and are looking forward to watching his growth. Both Byron and I are becomming more and more involved with the happenings of Ty's school and our church. Caleb's baptism will be such a joy for us to witness! There has indeed been preparation for this event as well and it has generated excitement as well. We are looking forward to friends and play dates on Friday evening as well. It is amazing how busy we all get with the every day things life offers, work, school, actviites , making dinner, and finding time to be together. We are blessed to have friends to hang out with that our kids enjoy being together and we enjoy hanging out with. Details are all worked out and we are ready to have some fun. I am also looking forward to all of this being over. Funny but it is exhausting to plan, create, prepare, enjoy and ensure enjoyment for others that I will look forward to relaxation.

Routines are Vital

Getting back into a routine has been a bit difficult with the addition of a new little one. But you make it work as best you can. It eventually becomes a new routine. Being a full time working mother of two, a wife, and student has its challenges. Yes I am back to work from a shorter maternity leave than what I would have like and back to taking continnuing education classes for my administrative licensure. (Crazy some would say!) But fortunately my husband is excercising his right to paternity leave on an intermittent basis making the transition a bit easier for both my son and myself. I can't say that it will alleviate future transitions for Byron but it has been great from my perspective. It is interesting to leave home in the morning for work and leave Byron and the kids to get ready for their day and to come home and greet them after a full day of work. It has been a shift in perspective for both Byron and I. He has greater appreciation and understanding for people who stay at home with multiple kids and the chaos that sometimes ensues AND I have greater appreciation for his perspective of just going to work and coming home to a spouse and kids. Meeting each other in those different times of the day and the different parts of the routine takes a sort of finess. You must quickly gague what is going on, how to jump in and where to support when needed. You certainly don't have time to be selfish and take a moment to yourself to relax. You must address some sort of situation be it a request to play, doing the dishes, or relieving the other in order to give them a breath of fresh air. Mostly you must know which routine you are in and where to fit in. I love coming home to spend time with my kids and my husband. It is the highlight of my day though sometimes there is not enough time to share that tidbit with them. I do love it! I love seeing the fort when I come home, helping with homework and playing whatever it is that I can quickly jump in to play. When I am at work I find myself looking at photos and wondering how to get rich quickly so that I could spend even more time with them.. I have been reading my sister's blog "Good Luck with That" where this month is sweepstakes month and I am holding out that one of their blog posts will give me the secret to that wish! Not likely I am sure but I am still holding out. For me as I have now been in my second full week of work since returning it is imperritive to get back into a routine. I never knew how difficult that could be. Yes I am getting things accomplished and yes still in a timely fashion but I have had to add in other things to create a new routine such as "pumping" since I am still a nursing mother. Sometimes I find myself staring at my computer at work and then my to do list on my glass window. Staring to spark some sort of new interest in working. Other times I am staring at the clock to see what time it is. You know what they say, "a watched pot never boils!" That is the truth so I try not to stare at the clock. Overall I am caught up and just getting back into my routine. I have also added one more thing to my ever so busy life and that is continnuing education. I am yes, taking another class. I have three more after this one to complete my final license renewal for my administrative license. It is an online course with readings, blog postings and discussions. I am figureing out how to fit that into my nightly routine before going to bed, after nursing and either before, after or during my television relaxation time. I try to reserve my weekends for family fun, birthday parties, time with my husband and the ever so mundane tasks of cleaning the house and just living. What would we do without routines? I really don't have a clue! Routines are where it is at for me at this point in my life. I rely on them with an occasional surprise or hiccup but am glad to be back to normal or a new normal. I wonder how many routines we run through in a given day or week for that matter. Think about it.. How many do you have? Is your life chaotic or do you rely on routines to provide structure? I know I do!

Where has the time gone?

Well we are fast approaching the new year 2012. Odd to say for sure. We will soon be saying goodbye to this fun-filled year 2011. Today we have remembered our year was full of CHANGE! We sold our house on a whim in one month flat. We were thinking of job changes and turned down some jobs. We found out we were having a new addition to our family and he was born on Nov. 8th! Welcome Caleb. We purchased a new home and moved. Our family had a wonderful trip to Hawaii and there is much more! What a fabulous year! As we look forward to what 2012 will bring we know that we will be enjoying every new moment our kids will share. Ty is turning 4 soon! We are looking at some cards and have thought the one posted looks nice but are not sure of it yet and still working out the details of the party for sure... Let me know what you think? The theme obviously has been requested to be SUPER HEROES! Caleb will share all of his first with us and to date they include, gaining a tremendous amount of weight in a short amount of time, lifting his head quite nicely,smiling, cooing and grabbing things. We are excited to have him around. His brother Ty is so great with him! He loves to kiss him, and cuddle! We shall see how long that lasts.. LOL.. Byron will be taking paternity leave shortly as I will have to head back to work with mixed feelings about that. (I am still trying to win millions so I don't have to ) Here's hoping 2012 brings that string of luck. I am looking forward to loosing baby weight and enjoying my boys! I have begun looking at what my new years resolutions might be.. I think one will be to engage in outdoor activity to support my needs of loosing baby weight and the second one will be to continue to record our live in some format or maybe multiple formats i.e., blogs, photo books and letters to my children every so often. I have to get one that for the new year for both of them. Want something to leave behind for them to have and cherish. On that somber note. Happy New Year all! Here's to 2012 may this year bring you all joy, happiness and a ton of adventure!

Dirty Dishes....

This song was shared on Facebook yesterday by a friend of mine! As I listened to the song I was reminded of all the things I am truly thankful for! As a woman I am thankful for my education. I am thankful for a wonderful husband, blessed to have one beautiful and smart child, Ty and blessed to be able to have a second child in just a few short weeks.  

I am reminded that though there is pressure to keep the house clean, I am thankful for a home! I am thankful to have things inside the home and outside of the home. I am thankful for a job, income and insurance.  As we face a very uncertain future for our kids and ourselves I must pause and give thanks.  So I am each day going to focus on  one special thing that I can give thanks for or to for the next month.

This is a great idea that I also picked up from another friend of mine on Facebook.  My challenge to you is to self reflect for yourself on the things that you are truly thankful for and publicly share that for 30 days.   If you need a reminder of what I am truly thankful for listen to the you tube music I have shared within this blog!

It has been a while since my last post... In fact I have written a few posts that are still in draft form awaiting pictures but never completed that particular process.  I guess it is because priorities have changed. Life happens.   We are three and 1/2 weeks or so away from meeting our little addition to our family Caleb Edward Williams.  I am getting super excited and anxious to meet him, see what his personality is like and to see how Ty reacts.

Ty is still loving school and making great strides. He is working on his phonic sounds with a ZOO Phonics curriculum that I hear him repeat over and over while he is playing here at home. He continues to amaze us daily.  He has his routine at school down as a three year old so I guess we are good to go for the four year old preschool already one leg up.  He recognizes the letters of his name and writes a wonderful T... the Y portion of his name is slowly but surely coming.  So proud am I as a mother!  We do our phonics homework each week and have him read or be read to each evening (which reminds me we need to fill in his pumpkins on his sheet for each of the 5 minutes of reading we do).  What a great age.  In January he will turn 4 years old.   Wow how the time flies.

Recently we have been fairly busy with two baby showers a third on the way and visiting with family in Vancouver or Battle Ground.  As I said Life Happens.  This week I am packing a bag for the hospital and packing a bag for Caleb for the hospital. Next week is the last doc appointment that has been scheduled for every two weeks and then it will be weekly.  We are still awaiting confirmation from the doctor as to which day we will be scheduled for our C-Section in November.  We are hoping to know soon so that we can schedule the rest of life to happen that day and so that we can manage the introduction of Ty to Caleb (which we want to be a private moment for our immediate family).  Well as I said... Life Happens and we take things one day at a time.

Pictures and other things to follow on this blog at another time.