One Thousand Blessings

1. The smile I get when I pick the kids up from school (even though I know one of them is trying to hide their smile because he is cool like that!)

2. Playing basketball in the house with the kids even though I always tell them not to

3. Knowing that there really is a floor in the playroom and actually finding it

4. A husband that doesn't mind me taking pictures of him and Lillian

5. A cute drooling baby

6. Smell and feel of fresh warm laundry

7. Knowing the next day will most likely be a snow day

8. Watching the snow fall knowing that we don't have to get out in it

9. Ordering Ann Voskamp's book: 1000 Gifts A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

10. Memorizing a new scripture from Colossians In a Year (Thanks to A Holy Experience)

Blessings, Lisa

Mini Cheerleader!

Over the course of the past few days Lindsey has had cheerleading practice for her mini cheer camp performance she did Saturday night! She loved it, cheerleading and dancing are two of her favorite things, along with gymnastics. It was quite entertaining to watch, Lillian and I went in early Thursday evening to watch at practice! Let me point out that watching kindergartners dance is beyond the cutest thing! I am amazed at how fast those little girls picked up on the cheers and dance routine, it would have taken me a month to learn all that!

Lindsey loves being in front of a crowd and never seems to get nervous, she doesn't get that from me. I believe the total number of girls was around 64 K-5th graders! The coach said this was her biggest turn out! Chad and the boys stayed home during the performance, so Lindsey showed them her routine at home instead. She had to do it without the music because Justin Beiber wouldn't come over to perform!

So when it was Lindsey's turn to perform like the mamarazzi I am I hurried down to the front row to do my job! Here are some of the pictures I took from Saturday!!!!

She loved watching the older girls!!!!

Here is a group shot of all the future cheerleaders!

Lindsey had a blast at cheer camp and I am so glad she enjoyed herself! I am sure she will do it again the next time they offer it!!!! Blessings, Lisa

Kitchen Colors!

Goodness gracious have we been busy lately! With basketball, 4-H meeting, Lindsey started cheer leading tonight, doing preschool with Jacob and working at the other house, I'm ready for a vacation! Oh yes and not to mention that I really don't like getting out in the snow! Is it spring yet, only 53 more days?!

I am having the hardest time picking out a wall color for our kitchen! I know it's just paint, but I really don't like the idea of having to paint over it again! OK that and I guess you can call me lazy! I really want the color to match the glaze around the cabinets edges, not to much to ask for now is it!? I am afraid the color that I have chosen may be to dark, it's Benjamin Moore's Golden Chenille seen here. It looks lighter on the Internet than it does on my swatch!

I went to the local hardware store today to pick up some polyurethane for the stairs and had to stop and look at their paint colors! And of course pick up a few colors to add the never ending pile of colors! Hopefully by this time next week we will have the kitchen painted and ready to put the flooring down next weekend.

Speaking of flooring check out this kitchen's floor in the picture below and aren't' those cabinets pretty too! (Photo credit: Country Living)

I could have chosen pink for the walls! Ha! Ha! Just kidding! I will keep that for an accent color since I have a pink mixer, pink mixing bowls and pink cooking utensils!!!! Blessings Lisa

Bullying

Bullying is a topic that had reared its ugly head into our family! My sweet Kyle has had to deal with this issue at school recently. I know that I have had to deal with a bully at some point in my life but watching your own child go through it is hard. This was the first time that we have had to deal with a bully before and hopefully the last! I'm not sure why the child was targeting Kyle but he did. Kyle is such a sweet, shy, caring, fun loving awesome boy!

Kyle has come home off the bus for quite some time now literally upset to tears. Apparently a child on the bus has made it his mission to make Kyle miserable. Thankfully, Kyle has done his best to ignore him and not do anything to get himself into trouble, which makes me proud but I am sure it was hard to do! The last thing I would want is for one of my children to be in a fight, it isn't worth it I tell them.

This bullying had taken place mainly on the bus to and from school, which would be an easy place to do something like that since it's a confined area. Kyle mentioned that it didn't really happen a lot at recess. So on the way to and from school Kyle has had to deal with this bully saying degrading things about him, kicking him and pinching him to name a few! Yeah, not fun! The bad thing about bullying is that it isn't always a one man band, it's seems to be easy to pull in others.

I would have to build Kyle back up again by telling him that those kids are wrong and not worth putting any effort into and how much stronger he is for just ignoring them. I feel the best things to do is just ignore them no matter how hard it is and not to let them know how upset he really was. Thankfully Kyle is not afraid to talk to us about things that are going on at school. I know for some kids it is hard for them to tell their parents about the negative or even positive things happening at school. I am so glad our children know they can always come to us, lets just hope it stays that way as the get older!

Thankfully the bully has been dealt with on the bus and hopefully he won't find another "victim"! Kyle was happy to see that the bully had to deal with the consequence and was doing the victory dance for his patience has payed off! Thank goodness! Blessings Lisa

Snow Day!

Today was a snow day for Kyle and Lindsey, how exciting! The kids were very happy to be able to go outside and play in the snow. So here is our day in pictures!

My nephew came to play in the snow with the kids too!

We had to come in for some hot chocolate!

Little Lillian was slept the whole time we were outside!

We also made cinnamon rolls using this recipe, but they didn't turn out very pretty! They would have made it in the world's most ugliest looking cinnamon roll contest! But they tasted really good, and that's all the matters! Not to mention the icing, I could literally make a meal out of!

Hooray for snow days!!!! Blessings, Lisa

Home Goals For 2011

I am joining in at the Nester's Home goals for 2011! My husband Chad and I have tons of goals this year for our home, it makes me exhausted just thinking about them! Ha! Ha! Our biggest goal is to move into the home we purchased last year on April 15th. Our new/old home was built in the 1880's and considered a Queen Anne Victorian. The home needed work done to it to satisfy our living tastes prior to moving in. The previous tenant apparently didn't know how to clean or take care of a home, plus it was pretty dated inside. Some of the things it needed were, a whole new kitchen and bathroom along with a new utility room. We found mold in our bathroom and had to rip everything down to literally the dirt below! Carpets were ripped out rewired the whole house and floors still need to be sanded and varnished, fresh paint in a few more rooms o my the list could go on and on. We have done almost everything ourselves on the house, we have hired a few things to get done but not much! So here is a list of the goals we have for this year!

~ Paint kitchen, bathroom, utility room, office and bedroom

~ Lay the floor in the kitchen, bathroom, utility room

~ Put up my beautiful kitchen cabinets that have been sitting in the box for too long!

~ Pick out counters and install them once they come in

~ Sand and varnish floors

~ Put carpet in the playroom

~ MOVE INTO OUR HOUSE FINALLY

~ Finish little room off the playroom

~ Put in all new windows

~ Privacy fence then move the playhouse from our old house to our new house

~ Watch the kids in the neighborhood drool over our playhouse that Chad built for our kids

years ago

~ New garage doors on garage

~ Put in french doors to master bedroom (this is my birthday present!)

~ Plant new flowers along with transplant flowers from the old house

~ Put in island in the kitchen

~ Have Chad make a pottery barn inspired storage unit for the playroom using Ana White's pattern found here

~ Organize and maintain organization in our home

Last but not least:

Enjoy our new home and make many new memories there!

We made our 12x13 kitchen into a 12x20 kitchen by taking out those posts in the photo below!

We decided to put up galvanized barn siding as the ceiling in our kitchen!

As you can see we will be quite busy this year with our new/old home! I am becoming quite anxious about moving in and ready for everything to be done! I have to give tons of credit to Chad, my amazing husband, who has done most all the work. Also my painter, since I was pregnant last summer and couldn't paint all the other rooms that needed to be painted! I guess I really lucked out last year, not so much this year no excuses here! I can't wait to see what we get done this year! Not to mention I can't wait to show all of you what we have accomplished!!!! Blessings, Lisa

Lillian 3 Months Old!

Oh my Lillie pie, you are three months old today! You are communicating more and more with others. Although, I think you are starting to recognize faces and if it's someone you don't know very well you start to cry! You say aagoo and coo more and also you squealed for the first time tonight after your bath! Which you still really love your bath by the way!

You love your dolly and little quilt I made you to match your big quilt I made! You are staring to drool more, which means I am going to have to make you some cute little baby bibs! Your hands have become quite fun to look at and to chew on! Your size 0-3 month clothes are becoming to short for you, but yet size 3-6 is too long! (Get used to honey, finding clothes that fit right is hard to do!) You did manage to sleep for 6 hours at time the other night, not sure why you won't continue on with that! You are trying to roll over, belly to back, if you only could figure out what to do with that arm that seems to block you from rolling most times!

Here are some pictures of you and your favorite dolly who has been there for you since you were born! She goes almost everywhere you go! I think you kinda like her!

Also you have joined us at the table for dinner! Even though you are not near ready for food yet, we like having you up at the table while making and eating dinner! Most of the time you take a little nap in your chair! You'll soon learn it's for eating not sleeping!

We love you to pieces little Lillie! Blessings, Lisa

Happy New Year!

I wonder if it would be possible to start 2011 over again?! So far this year has been rough for me, I want a fresh new start! My year started out with a broken phone, which I loved dearly. Luckily we could up grade our phones since they were two years old, our contract was up in November. I ended up getting the Droid HTC, not sure how to use it yet but I guess I'm stuck with it! It ended up being cheaper for me to get the more expensive phone than the cheaper phone by the time we added all the discounts up. (If that makes sense, trust me I was confused!) And I get unlimited Internet access on my phone now for only $5 extra a month! Last time I got a phone it took me forever to decide which one I wanted, lets face it I don't do well with change. Unfortunately this time had to just pick one out without doing research on online and reading reviews! Oh how I will miss my old phone!!!!

Next bad thing on the list, poor Lillian has croup! This morning she woke up at her usual feeding time around 1:30am coughing and wheezing and seemed to have difficulty breathing. When I had gotten her out of her bed and she seemed miserable and the sound she was making was scary! Chad said to take her to the emergency room just to get her checked out, and to ease my mind. I took her in and as soon as we got there she seemed a little better.

Then Dr. McDreamy (no that wasn't his real name!) came in and oh my Lillian was all eyes on him, smiling and talking to him, until she started coughing again! He was checking her out and then writing things down and said "you know what, it sounds like she has croup"! Thankfully they didn't think I was a hypochondriac for bring her in at 2:00 in the morning! He said it's better to be safe than sorry no matter the case, and if it eases my mind than that's all that matters.

Actually, my sweet little nephew who shares a birthday with Lillian had it before Christmas and I remember how he sounded and that was the same way Lillian sounded! So Dr. McDreamy gave her a steroid and me information on how to treat it. Thankfully it was just a mild case and she should be better by the end of the week! Let's hope so because oh my, croup is not fun and I dislike to see my baby girl suffer!

Also, to add to this Lindsey has a black eye from running into the edge of the counter! I think she tripped over Chad's foot or my dad's foot as they were standing in the kitchen talking and she was passing through! Ouch, my poor girl!

So I have decided that as of today I am starting the year over again! Here is to a wonderful New Year!!!! Blessings, Lisa