A few random pics...

Why aren't these random pics of your children, you ask? Maybe because trying to get them to hold still long enough for an "un-blurry" shot is nearly impossible these days. And since my camera is still dead I'm trying to take shots with my phone.

So here are a few of my current favorite things in our new home...

Firstly, Owen's big boy bed! I love how this room looks. It might be my favorite room in the whole house at the moment. It's just a happy place... :)

Here is my newly organized pantry! We've only lived here for nearly 2 months...and it was time to organize since I kept buying duplicates of all of my canned goods. ;)

Here is a picture of my dining room with my beautiful white mirror!! I just love it! We got it for a steal at a garage sale and then had a heck of a time figuring out how to paint it, but in the end just love how it turned out. The dining room is about to get a little makeover in the very near future. Very excited about that. :)

Speaking of this dining room makeover, were you thinking I was leaving these red snowflake chairs in here?? No sir. I'm going to make an attempt to re-upholster them myself. :/ Let's be honest, I'm probably going to have to call someone and pay to have them finished, but I'll give it the 'ole college try anyways.
Imagine this beauty with a fresh coat of glossy white paint and some new grey and yellow fabric on them. I'll let you know how it goes.

And I promise to keep making attempts to get some sort of kid pics up!

We are Alive!! I promise!!

We are alive over here, I assure you! :) between the exhausting task of moving and getting settled, Hails getting settled into her pre-k routine, a laptop with a crashed hard drive and misplacing the charger to my camera blogging has been difficult.

I will, however, be getting my fully functional laptop back tomorrow and will order a new charger for my camera soon...maybe my sister has some pics I can steal, er...I mean borrow... ;)

Oh, Mikey...

Here's Mikey...as a horsey...or maybe a pack mule?? At any rate, the kids had a blast playing all together on Sunday. Here's the action shot...
Ah...good times. :)

I drank the Kool-Aid... :/

Or at least that's what Todd and my dad keep saying. ;)

My sister recently started selling Norwex products and to support her new business I hosted a party.

It.was.awesome.

Here is the pile of things that I got FOR FREE just for hosting.

Who'da thought I'd ever get this excited over housework?? It's magic, I tell ya! ;)

Milton Festival

One of the things we are really going to love about living in a smaller town is stuff like this! A parade in the morning...that we walked to from the new house...

Here is Hailey...in heaven after finding the princesses! Owen wasn't sure he liked them. Then Todd made a comment about it being "too girly"...right in front of Peter Pan. Oops! :/The Boy Scouts had a rope to walk over for the kids. Case and Hailey did so awesome! Neither of them were scared one little bit. ;)

Here's Maggie talking to Alice...you know, from Wonderland. She had a "british accent". I use the quotations because it wasn't very good. :/

This was Case right as he walked up to us. He's so cute...er, I mean cool in these sunglasses! Love that kid.

All in all it was a fun day had by all. Except the people that got dragged on stage against their will to learn to hula dance. Let's just say we practically dove under the table and slinked away when that all started! ;)

In the words of little orphan Annie, "I think I'm gonna like it heeeeeeeeere!!"

For Granny. :)

What a busy time we're in, but we still take the time to have lots of fun. :)

Case, Maggie, & Christy came over today for a playdate. Hailey was in the throws of playing "wedding" when they got here...complete with a fresh flower bouquet that Nana made her from roses and hydrangeas from our yard. It was actually a really cool looking arrangement. ;)
Here's Hailey..."pinning" away on Pinterest. She is as excited about putting things on her online pin board as I am. ;)Here she is in one of her new school outfits. She's worn this top non-stop since we brought it home. So cute.

Hails now teeters between the sweetest 4 1/2 year old you've ever met and the sassiest 14 year old on the planet. I always say that 90% of the time she's the easiest kid ever and then the other 10% she's a little...um...strong-willed. Did you honestly expect anything different from our kid?? ;)

And here is Owen in his Superman PJ's. Every little boy needs pajamas with a cape!

This kid just kills us with his cuteness. His verbal skills have kicked up another notch lately and he's speaking in mostly complete sentences! This baffles me, since at 15 months we were entertaining the thought that he might need some speech therapy! Nope. Just took his own time. My favorite things he says are...

"Sho-sher" (That means "hold me".)

"Einstein!" (He has a new obsession with "Little Einsteins" on the Disney Channel)

"Love you Mommy" (He recently switched it up from Mama to Mommy. Melts my heart every time)

And here he is...snuggling my Norwex dish towel. Seriously. He was rubbing his face on it the other morning the whole time I was making his breakfast. ;)

a family that plays together...

We had the amazing opportunity to join Todd's former youth pastor at their annual Wakeboard Camp trip again this year. We did program (silly walk on/skits) and found roles for almost our whole family. ;) Here I am...dressed as "Bebe". And here is my trusty assistant..."Baby Bebe". ;)And this is Todd. Dressed as the "Leader 3000". He's a robot...just in case you weren't sure.

His costume consisted of a silver painted cardboard box, an old cordless phone, silver ducting and potholders for his arms and hands, silver spray painted snow boots, a pair of women's grey tights (that he was not told about until moments before his debut) and a grey pair of boys' medium cotton shorts. It was awesome.

God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt!

My kids would spend the whole day in this dirt pile if they could. :)

Sweet Pea's First Birthday...

Sweet Pea is 1! Hails and I found her "birth certificate" the other day and realized that she had turned 1. We just had to celebrate with a trip to Build-a-Bear. :)Yep. She has Sketchers Twinkle Toes. Real ones.
Hailey got home and immediately did her best to find a matching outfit to wear. We did ok with the shoes and the jean skirt, but when it came to finding a top that was another story.

Seriously.

There were tears.

In the end, I convinced Hails that coordinating with your best friend is better than matching anyway. ;)

So cute, right?? :)

Pictures for Nana...

We made an attempt at getting some pictures of the kids for Nana who is away on assignment at Creekside. Here are the results...

Here are Hailey and Sweet Pea...in their princess dresses.

Here she is again...posing oh, so sweetly.

Close up!

Here's Owen. He fell into the laundry basket just as I clicked the picture.

Then had trouble getting out.

Oh well...I tried... ;)

"I so-sey"

We've had lots of "I'm sorry"s going on at our house lately. Nearly always Owen saying it to Hailey. He sort of combines "I'm sorry sissy" into one word. He's all BOY and suddenly loves to hit, bite, and pinch his sister. Good times. When he does it he gets sent to time out and then has to apologize to Hails. This is what happens now when their relationship is restored and they give a hug... :)His feet come off the ground and she tries to twirl him around. So cute, but I'm seriously waiting for his head to accidentally pop off one of these times!?!
Oh, well. At least I can tell the paramedics that the motive was not malicious.

They love each other to pieces.

Hailey's Perspective

This afternoon Hails and I were sitting on a blanket on the front porch eating our lunch on this beautiful sunny day. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in weeks.

"Mommy...why are you wearing jeans?"

"Well, Mommy's legs aren't as cute as yours in shorts."

"What?? I love everything about how you look, Mom. You're beautiful!"

Ummm...ever been taught a lesson by your 4-year old?

Humbling...

Yep...there are 2 ribbons and a jump rope tied to her ponytail...

Hailey has become obsessed with Tangled. In fact, she's memorized large chunks of the movie and will randomly "cast" Owen, Todd and I in her performances. In this case, I was playing the role of Flynn Rider...also known as Eugene Fitzhurbert...

She's got some raw talent, I'd say... ;)

ETA: Sorry about the poor video quality and that this is sideways...it was an impromptu video with my camera... :/

Hailey & Owen Quotes...

Hails was in the car today and we were reciting Bible verses...she goes, "Mom. Here's a good Bible verse. What is mighty? What is lovely? What is powerful? What is in your heart?...is that a good one, Mom?" So cute. "Mom...are you thinking what I'm thinking??" This usually comes right before she has the brilliant idea for fruit snacks for lunch. Owen's new favorite words are "saw-vy" (sorry), "wee-ooh, wee-ooh" (oatmeal) and "wuv ooh" (love you) ;) "Mom...I'm gonna marry Jake today." Hailey's new crush is Jake...from Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the Disney Channel. And my new personal favorite is that lately when I ask her to do something she salutes me and says, "Yes, SIR!" Such cute kids.

We're Alive!!!

Yes, we're alive...and well! :) We've just had a lot going on lately and I've been horrible about taking pictures. I'm sure I'll get better about it once summer comes. I mean, you can only take so many pictures of your kids in their messy play room. ;)

Here's the boy. We've started the "paci in bed only" rule (for the most part), so Owen can be found here many times throughout the day. Sneaky boy... :)

He really does LOVE books, too, which is awesome. His vocabulary has had another big jump lately. He's learning his colors and animals and doing really well. And he has become very determined to be a big boy, too. He does NOT like to be left out of anything. If his sister has something, he wants it too...this will, of course, make fighting the picky eater and potty training easier. And here's the girl. She's just getting so big and so grown up right before my eyes...it's crazy. Last week we went on a field trip to the zoo with her class and it was so fun to see her with such a big group of her peers. But, the one she was the most interested in spending time with was her teacher! She's such a mini-adult.

Here's a bullet list of what else we've been up to lately:

*My 3rd Annual 29th Birthday! ;)

*Todd and my 8th wedding anniversary

*Put an offer in on a piece of property in Milton

*Offer accepted! We close in a couple of weeks!

*Meeting with architect, choosing finishes and planning for building our house on said property

*Doing more bookwork than I ever thought possible...and resolving to never be so behind on my bookwork again! ;)

*In the VERY beginning stages of potty training Owen. Like, letting him sit on the potty and nothing happens. I'm not pushing it AT ALL! I don't want accidents in the rental...

*Asking the Lord to make it very clear if this home we're building is what He wants for us...and asking Him to close the door if it's not.

*During the 3 days of sun we did lots of playing at the park and letting Hailey ride her bike.

*Missing my baby sister...a lot.

Well, that about sums it up for now!

Happy Spring!! :)

How we're spending these rainy days...

Here's Owen...very sad because he wants the birdie that he saw out the window to come in the house. Ummmm...no.She's getting older and more mature every day.
Oh, wait...now she's jumping around like her brother. ;)

Getting a picture of him holding still is nearly impossible.

And he's loving doing the somersaults his sister taught him...

That's it! Lots of simple fun. :)

My Funny Valentines...

This kid gets cuter and more personality every day!

Love him like crazy...He also just decided that he would wear hats. Which I love.
I mean, seriously... :)

And here is my Pinkalicious girl before her party...complete with her new Pinkalicious doll courtesy of her Nana. :)

(Party pics to come once I get them from my sister...)

Here's a cute pic of Hailey and Case on her actual birthday. They're best buds. :)

Quite obviously this post is missing a picture of my handsome husband...maybe he'll let me take a quick pic when he gets home from work today...or, wait...nope. He won't. ;)

Can't hardly wait!!

Tomorrow my baby turns 4 and I'm all ready for our special birthday breakfast...pancakes, bacon and chocolate milk. :)

I remember being at a MOPS meeting when Hailey was little and this gal gave a talk about making birthdays special. One tip she gave is to keep streamers on hand and always decorate your kid's door for their birthday morning...I've done it ever since.

Well, tomorrow I'll have a 4-year old. Crazy.