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Valentine's Day Box Catch Up!!!

2012-02-15T15:28:00.001-06:00

Love-my life is overflowing with love!!! Valentine's day is a day to reflect on that!! I LOVE the simplicity of V-Day!! We did fun things like baked heart shaped cookies, and put out the heart covered table cloth, a few simple LOVE decorations and we just relished it how abundantly blessed we are.....okay okay enough of the gag me your life is so peachy stuff right!! :) Want to know how vday really was?? The above statement is totally 100 percent true LOL!! BUT it was also filled with making a vday box to top the year's past, filling out tons of tiny valentines that do NOT make the line big enough for a kindergartner to write her name!!!, running out of time to make Tim a heart-shaped meatloaf and not getting everything done exactly the way I wanted it!!! I spent most of the day wishing I was a stay at home, homeschooling mom because there were so many other things I wanted to do and now Valentine's day is over and well WAHHHHHH!!!! oh and my husband got this funny card for me except that when I read it...I didn't laugh............. yeah...... His reason for a funny card instead of a romantic one "DeAnna you always gripe about how you hate 5 dollar expensive cards and all the romantic ones were 5 bucks" SIGHHHHH WHY did he choose to listen to my frugality on THIS lesson!! REALLY!!!!! He made up for it with pretty flowers and a scrubbed bathroom :) Tim had to work last night so we had dinner at my mom's house with my sister and her kids and they talked most of the way through GLEE ummm yes those who have read here long no that this in itself is a travesty! but we did laugh a lot and had a really great time so I guess they are forgiven....... I hope you all had a great Vday too!! :) Don't give up on me yet okay! I am determined to make a blogger out of myself!! SOON....yup REAL SOON!!! ya know a blogger that posts more than 2 times a month....ahem.... moving on :)

So Carleigh was in pre-school for 2 years and then kindergarten this year so we have done 3 Valentine Day Boxes, I must tell you that this is my most favorite project of the whole year! I LOVE IT!!!! I wanted to document her other two boxes on here since we didn't have a blog when we made them!!!! So here you have it The giraffe was pre-school first year, and the puppy was preschool 2nd year and the gumball machine was this year!!! Yup I looooove me some Vday boxes!! These were all great because Carleigh got to be very hands on in making them!!!

Next year my brain will have to work over time as we will have two blond hair giggling girls in need of fancy boxes!!! :) I can't believe my baby baby is going to be going to school!!!!

Rockin her way to 6!!!

2012-01-23T22:16:00.001-06:00

I can not believe that my precious sweet 5lb 4z, 18 inches of preemie sweet baby girl

the one I didn't put down for the first year of her life unless it was to very rarely share her with her daddy or another family member!! The same one that I rocked, and sang to, and cuddled and kissed until I am sure she would have slapped me if she had been able too!! oh her cheeks were IRRESISTIBLE!! she looked like Mrs. Magoo with her big blue eyes and bald head! Really she couldn't have been any cuter if she tired!

She was my real life baby doll!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVED being a mommy!

Anyway back to the unbelievable......SHE TURNED 6!!!! 6 years old! No way right! I am still in some kind of denial!

But denial or not she Rocked her way right to 6 and celebrated it in a big way! We rented out the community center in Auburn ( for 25 bucks, this is the way to have a party!!) and she invited her whole class plus all of our friends kiddos of which the final count at the party was..ohh umm 21!! CAN WE SAY INSANE!!! The theme as you can see from above was A Rocker theme so we set up a stage in the corner and decorated with Christmas lights and Carleigh's Auntie Tricia brought us an amp and her zune and it was way more awesome than any DJ service! (this party would not have been a success without the help of our auntie trish!)

We hung up Rock star Poster's made from her rock star photo shoot! ( I was able to make 5 posters for around ten bucks!! total steal!)

Dessert table which had Guitar shaped suckers, cupcakes, guitar cake(made by ME! my best yet!), & M&M's

We don't have a picture but Meme brought up the mother load of balloons which added the prefect touch to each table!!! and then all heck broke lose when all the kids arrived! It was pretty much controlled chaos!!

We have lots of fun pictures, We tried to get Carleigh's picture with each kid, I can't show them on this blog since it is public and I can't show identifiable pictures of other people's kiddos but trust me they are great!!!

The macreana!!! ( I felt old when my nieces had never done this dance before!!!)

We all had a great time celebrating Carleigh turning 6!!!

Myself included!!!!

Carleigh Girl, mama can not believe you have been my baby for six years already!! You are so special and spunky, adorable and funny, smart and joyful, and just all around a great kid! You are in kindergarten and are already reading independently, doing math, and scoring AWESOME on your report cards, you get along well with others and don't know a stranger. You get your feelings hurt easily when other kids don't want to play with you but you easily move on to the next friend who will. You are eager to help me, and don't mind doing things around the house to help out! You are stubborn when you want to be but that is mostly a good thing! You are an AMAZING big sister, you are patient and kind with Caylee, you share well with her and love her. You have never had a moment of sibling jealousy and I hope neither of you ever will! We go to the doctor in a couple of days for your 6 year check up so I will have to update your stats but you are changing and growing every day!! Your dad, sister and I love you SO much and we can't wait to see what the next year brings!!! XOXXOXO

I have..... but I haven't.....

2011-12-21T13:21:00.000-06:00

Giggling Girl's first ever Gingerbread house attempts, Caylee's is on the left Carleigh's on the right, she said her's was hit by a blizzard!!

I have spent much of my time from the week before Thanksgiving until now getting ready for Christmas, we have gone to the festival of trees and seen Santa a time or two, I helped host a Breakfast with Santa at my dad's work where I was the Elf who took Santa pictures, we have done a mitten drive and Carleigh has lost her first tooth, I have done a cute craft project with Tricia that I would rather shoot myself in the foot than attempt to do again! I have threw a birthday party for Tim and my brother-in-law at my house which prompted me to clean like mad the weekend before Christmas which was a wonderful thing going into this crazy fun holiday week, I have watched Carleigh in her Christmas plays and made Christmas bows and treat bags for her class, I have baked some goodies and read lots of Christmas stories to my giggling girls, I have shopped Black Friday and had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I have watched the CMA Christmas special 500 times because Caylee LOVES to dance and sing to the music, I have made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and milk cartoons, made real Christmas Swags out of branches off of my Christmas Tree and watched LOTS of Christmas movies, I have driven around looking at Christmas lights and relished in the ooohs and ahhhs and the "it's boootiful mama's" and I have let the girls unwrap Christmas presents early, I have taken down my dead Christmas tree the week before Christmas while being extra glad I put up two this year and I have LOVED every single minute of this Holiday Season but I haven't : even started wrapping, not close to being finished shopping, haven't decided what all to bake, ordered my Christmas cards, mailed said cards, or even taken the picture to go on the said cards, I haven't read a full Christmas fiction novel which I must tell you is a TRAGEDY folks! I haven't picked out my Christmas outfits or done any blog post with picture updates, in fact I have not taken a ton of pictures. I haven't video taped and we haven't made it to the festival of lights and I only have 2 more days to finish!!!! Did I mention I work a full-time job?? ...........................It is quite possible that this year I am going to be okay with not sending out the Christmas Cards and that I am okay with the Children's Christmas stories replacing my beloved Christmas novels..........I mean who doesn't like the book Santa's Stuck??? Right, the story line is incredibly complex and I just didn't know if they were ever going to get him out!!! 2 DAYS 2 DAYS HOW IS THERE ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT TO FINISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Mary!

2011-12-15T10:13:00.000-06:00

( Sorry for the messy look of our blog! I am currently working on winterizing it but it takes more time to do that than I have had lately! I also know I am WAY overdue for some updates and I have lots I need to get wrote down like Carleigh's FIRST visit from the tooth fairy!!! :) I will definitely be back to do a catch up post but for today I had something else on my heart)

Christmas is all around us, I see it everywhere I look. Facebook is full of it, I have watched everyone around me as they have prepared and relished in the season. I have seen tons of "generic" posts about making the season about Jesus rather than Santa and other posts defending why they choose to do Elf on the Shelf and Santa even though they are Christians. I have heard lots of great Christmas carols and enjoyed lots of good Christmas goodies. I LOVE Christmas and always have, it has always been a magical and special time at our house, I secertly think that my mom is one of Santa's Elves and always has been! I enjoy teaching my kids the traditions I have grown up with and watching their eyes light up. I LOVE that Carleigh can tell you the WHOLE Christmas story and that she is intrigued and in love with baby Jesus's Birthday and I also love the sparkle I see in Caylee's eye's as she opens a present. It is definitely a magical time of year!

I will never forget the first Christmas that I was mom for. I was nearly nine month's pregnant with Carleigh and I was watching a reenactment of that Christmas Eve so many years ago. It was in that moment that I "got" Mary. My tummy was heavy with child, and I could understand how tired she must have felt after such long days of endless travel, My ankles hurt and I had comfortable shoes on, she wouldn't have had that luxury, I had comfortable maternity clothes to help support the heaviness of my baby, Mary wouldn't have had that either. I had a wedding ring on my finger and everyone knew who the father of my baby was and their were no doubts about that. Mary didn't have that kind of security. I was in my early twenties, Mary would have been younger than me by far.........and yet she had a maturity about her that I STILL don't have even though I am now 29, yes my first year as a mom I was able to understand Mary in a way I had never imagined and the tears filled my eyes .....
The second year I was a mom for Christmas I had a 11 month old on my hip who I loved more than I could ever imagine, she was my everything and I couldn't (and still can't) imagine my life without her. My second year as a mom I "Got" Mary even more.....I now knew the love she felt when she looked down at her sweet baby boy for the first time. I know how her heart swelled with love and how she tired to pick out what features of her He had. I understood her love for Him in a way that I had never been able to before, and not only did I understand a side of Mary I had never understood before, I understood a side of Jesus, he came just like any other baby, he looked up at his mommy with those sweet baby eyes and puffy newborn lips and He LOVED unconditionally just like my babies love me that way. He loved her in that "you can do no wrong because you are my mom" kind of way. My second year of Christmas I understood a mother's love like never before.....and it was breathtaking.
I am now going into my 6th Christmas as a mom, and the wonder of it still takes my breath away. This Christmas I am getting to experience Carleigh understanding, truly understanding, Christmas. She understands how babies are born (well at least that they come out of your tummy), She understands that Jesus was a baby born to his mommy Mary and that God is his Daddy but that Joseph was there with Mary, She is starting to put it all together and that is enough for now, but I am praying that someday she will be able to look at me, while holding her own baby and say Mom, I "get" Mary now, I truly understand how she must have felt on that dark night with the North Star shining down on her, oh the love she must have felt.

Thank you Mary, for loving and mothering our Savior in only that way that a mother can. Thank you for rejoicing over each milestone He made and for kissing his booboo's and rocking him to sleep at night, thank you for nursing him through illness and for teaching him. Thank you Mary for making a sacrifice that no mother should ever have to make.....

This song means more to me than any other Christmas song now because I understand a whole lot more than I used too!

Craft Time!!

2011-11-23T09:55:00.000-06:00

Let it be known that I was so sick for a week :( Our whole family was, I contemplated doing a post on it but truth is I don't want to relive it! HA!! It was one of those weeks where I was trying to be super sick, the girls were both sick, I was trying to work, and bleach the house like a mad woman and it just made for an exhausting experience! BUT we survived! and We are well for thanksgiving!!! But it does mean that we missed 2 craft nights so Trish and I had to make up for that last night and so I present to you our Thanksgiving Day Turkey shirts!!! Trish came up with the hand print idea!!

I didn't take pictures as we went along because I always forget I have this fun blog to keep up!! :) So anyway, you start by your kiddo's hand onto a piece of paper and then cutting it out and tracing it onto your fabric, the we used iron on transfer and adhered it to the back of the fabric, and maybe onto my ironing board cover, but ya know that isn't really all that important to know, except that if you are in love with your ironing board cover, don't use it :), Next you arrange your hand prints on your shirt and then you use your iron to iron them on, we then used brown fleece and cut out a turkey body, we just did this free hand, we hot glued on some googly eyes (NOTE: If you use hot glue on your shirt you CAN NOT dry them in a dryer, really you can't, don't ask me how I know...LOL!) and we used a piece of felt to make a beak which we also hot glued on, Ironed on their names and

this is our finished product which

Carleigh modeled for me this morning and happily wore to school! Happy Crafting and

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Be Blessed but most importantly, Be A BLESSING!!!

Ramblings

2011-11-09T20:17:00.000-06:00

I need a wine bottle with a nipple on it today, I have had a long day and I don't drink but tonight a bubbly glass of Verde would go down pretty smooth!! But instead I will drink my ice tea in a wine glass and watch the CMA's, right now there are some blond hooche mama dancers shaking it for Luke Bryan, I wonder how much it would cost to have my body made to look like theirs?? We would have to take into account the feeding tube they would have to put in because I would have to have my jaw wired shut so I could stay looking that way, but cost is no object in my dream world right!! I forgot to put a sandwich in Carleigh's lunch box today, and my desk at work looked worst when I left tonight then it did this morning when I got there!! I am feeling run down from being sick but am feeling much better than I have the past few days, looking forward to the three day weekend! I always decorate our house for Christmas on Veteran's Day, this year is no exception!!! The blog will be getting a Christmas makeover too!! Be watching for it! Tis the Season to be Jolly even if tonight I am feeling like the Grinch!! I am suffering from MAJOR writers block, I tried to write the follow up post to my Dear Me at 16 post, I deleted it, I will try again another day! For now I am signing off as my darling daughters are sleeping and I am feeling a tug toward my big cozy bed, Do you think if I turn off the lights on the house so I can't see the mess, it means it really isn't there?? I am going to try it tonight! I will let you know in the morning how that works for me!!! Buenos Noches Blog Friends!!!!!

Don't sleeping babies make everything right in the world!!! LOVE THEM!!!!

4 years ago........(M1)

2011-11-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

4 years ago on this day I was pregnant, I wrote a journal entry about the best birthday present ever....Tim and I had received a phone call that we were pregnant after months of rigorous fertility treatments, Carleigh was finally going to be a big sister! The next words out of the nurses mouth were, "are you sitting down?" and I said sure why? and she proceed to tell me that our HCG levels were through the roof at a whooping 2400, she said everything indicated that the pregnancy would be twins or possibly triplets!!!! OH MY WORD PEOPLE! LOL Tim and I laughed until we cried!! You see, this was the last cycle that our fertility doctor was going to do with us before we began IVF, which was a road I just didn't want to have to embark down, so these babies were an answer to my prayers, begging God to spare me from IVF. We called our parents and siblings and put Carleigh's big sister shirt on her and took pictures and sent them out via cell phone, we celebrated because when you suffer from infertility your baby is a baby from the day it is made, there is no debate in a fertility office of when a baby is a baby at least not in my head!! and we started talking plans about where we would put multiples and how I would most definitely have to quit working and we fell in love with these tiny little babies that were nestled warm and snug in my belly we were SO naive about what could happen, today I am going to let the story end there, I am going to relish in those happy moments we felt when we found out that we were indeed expecting and that it was probably twins or triplets, I am going to reread that journal entry and laugh at Tim's reaction and recall my own which was "Holy Sh*t Brenda(our RE nurse) are you kidding me!!" I felt safe with those high numbers because all through my first trimester with Carleigh, they told me we could lose her because the numbers were low and not rising correctly, fear NEVER entered my mind that day. What a beautiful day it was 4 years ago...........

Miscarriages are such a taboo subject, they aren't talked about often and yet they happen in 1 out of 4 pregnancies I am going to do a couple of posts of how having a miscarriage affected my life and those around me and how I dealt with it, I am doing this for a couple of reasons, one being I want it documented for my girls in case they ever have to go through it as I was the first one in my immediate family to experience it and it can be really hard for people to understand, and secondly because there isn't much information out there what it is like, mostly there is info about the emotional parts of dealing with it years later.... so come back and read if you are interested they will be scattered throughout the month, if this isn't something that you feel comfortable reading I will title the post with the letter M and a number in the sequence I write them and you will know that it is a miscarriage post!! Thanks for reading and come back soon!!! There are a couple of craft projects a brewing that you won't want to miss!!

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-31T09:29:00.000-05:00

Dear, Me at 16

2011-10-27T10:47:00.000-05:00

There is so much I wish I would have known at 16, 21, and 25 so I am going to do a little series called "Dear Me"

Dear Me at 16,

First and Foremost, embrace that pant size, I am hear to tell you it is the smallest your ever going to be, don't be ashamed of your body because that will only bring down your self-esteem and you have a lot going for you. Love yourself because you are special, just because, you are YOU. Drive a little slower, life is going by fast enough, don't be in a hurry to get anywhere else, any sooner than you need too. Dance a little more, don't be a wall flower, the boys your trying to impress, really aren't going to be swayed but your dance swagger...Speaking of boys.... OH MY ....... that one your holding so tightly too, tell him what it is you have been meaning to say, don't wait......don't wonder, put it all out on the table.....even up the score so that you know right then and there if he is worth waiting for, being with, and giving a piece of your heart to, because you see, my dear, the waiting, the wondering, it grows into something beautiful but eventually becomes stunted, the weeds choke it out and you are left with a bunch of "if only's", it would have been so much better to have known, than to give that piece of your heart away, because it is so hard to reclaim it, and you can never get it all back....and you silly girl are the kind of girl that will grow up to find the positives in it all, you won't regret it, but if you could change a few things about how you did it you would definitely do it differently. Moving on, that homecoming party, don't hold back, just be you and go with it, don't be scared, this night will be one from your high school days that you will look back on and laugh about, and cherish, and just a side note, make sure and learn the difference between cop sirens on CD and real life ones....JUST SAYING! I guess, the most important thing I would say to you is that, it is all going to be okay, the life you are dreaming about it IS going to come true, you ARE going to get married to a WONDERFUL prince charming, you ARE going to be blessed with two BEAUTIFUL baby girl's and you WILL find fulfillment for that empty filling that all 16 year old girls have. So for this season in your life, just enjoy being a kid, enjoy lazy days sleeping in, read all the books you possibly can, spend as much time as your parents will let you with your friends, steal sweet first kisses in the headlights of your car, listen to the radio as loud as you can stand it. All of that grown up stuff, it is coming, and then you are going to be wondering what the hurry was!!

Love,
Yourself!

Caylee -31 months

2011-10-24T11:06:00.000-05:00

Sweet Girl Caylee you are 31 months old today!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe you have been in our lives for 31 months already! You weigh 52 pounds and are 41 inches tall!!! This precious time is just flying by, I know mama holds on a little tighter because you are my last but I am so proud of all the big girl things you are doing and I am really relishing all the ways you are still my baby!! You are a talking pro, their isn't anything you can't say. You can definitely tell us what you are wanting when you want it. You call Carleigh sis or sissy and you love to go in and give her kisses each night before bed. You have really gotten into reading and like to sit and read books with us. You are a great eater but you won't eat any kind of vegetable, you love everything else. You are also a milk addict! you drink it like CRAZY!!! It is very possible that you still have a bottle and a binky but I will never tell, it is our little secret!!

Your facial expressions are priceless and you have a definite strong will to your attitude.... you are our little Denise the Menace and unlike any child that has ever crossed the path of our family yet. You are going down in the family record books as "more rotten than Tommy Jr!!!" LOL! and that is saying something because he was a very spirited child! We wouldn't change anything about you, although chasing you, I should be a size 6, funny how that doesn't work that way! Some of the things I want to remember about you at this age are : " I have a milky pweeeseee" "We take sissy to scool now mommy? ""mommy me go with you" I wuv you" "you're my bestest fwriend" You also LOVE to sing!! You know the words to Gullah Gullah Islands many songs altough Blue's Clue is your new favorite, you really like Joe and Dora is becoming a fast favorite!! You are so excited about Halloween this year and I can tell that this Holiday season will be a favorite with you and Carleigh! You both are very animated and love to see the lights on houses. We drove around last night and you kept saying "pumkins and It scare me mom It scare me! I can't wait to see how much you change and grown in the next few months, it is hard to believe that when Carleigh was your age you were growing in my belly! We love you Caylee Michele!!!

Love, Mama

The Weekend!

2011-10-21T11:12:00.000-05:00

So the weekend is upon us and I am SO excited because we have NOTHING planned!! I am excited to cuddle up with my kiddos who aren't feeling 100 percent and sit by the fire and watch Halloween Spongebob and The Elf!! Making countless batches of coco in my cocoa motion machine and I am going to make Halloween hair bows and do another fun craft project I got out of a magazine and just enjoy the down time!! I think I will even finish painting my hallway and tackle the rest of my Mountain of laundry! We may squeeze in some Christmas shopping and some outdoor projects as well.....Oh boy it looks like my doing nothing weekend is filling up! I better quit typing about it before I have a list two feet long!!!!!!! :) Have a great weekend everyone!!! and for a Flashback Friday morning I present to you..........

The Clothing Drive Post Pt 3 I didn't know I would write!

2011-10-19T12:39:00.000-05:00

You can read part 1 here and part 2 here

I didn't expect to write anymore about the clothing drive, It was an amazing event but I had shared everything I intended to and then I received a message from a woman who attend the clothing giveaway and she had inadvertently left a bag of clothes that she had found for herself on the floor by a chair. It just so happens where she sat the bag was the same place we were putting the clothes that needed to go out. I told her I would talk to the other ladies and see if by some chance they picked it up or moved it, this poor woman was almost in tears as she told me that her daughter and her had been so excited to find clothes in her size as she had just lost a bunch of weight and couldn’t afford to shop for clothes…….I hung up with her determined to help her out some way!! So I called Tricia who in turn called her mom and we came up with a plan to use some clothes that didn't make it to the clothing drive and were going to make some arrangements to find some pants in her size so that we could at least give the woman SOMETHING, I called the woman back and asked what sizes she needed and she told me and I called Trish back our plan was going to work but it wasn’t the greatest plan as this woman had shirts and jackets for winter in her bag too and that was when I remembered that I had the bag of clothes in the back of my van . This particular bag never made it to the clothing drive because when I went to pick it up, I got busy talking and never put it into the back of my van, I then ran over it. Tim was supposed to stop by and get them the next day and forgot so we FINALLY picked it up late Saturday night, I rushed down to the van with Trish on the phone and I said to her “If I open this bag and it has 2 pairs of size 8 jeans in it you are going to hear my gleeful screams in Divernon!! I about fell to my knees when I opened the bag and it was FULL of size 8 pants and small and medium shirts! There was even had a jacket in there!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!! There were really no words!! GOD IS AMAZING!!!! I know now that there was a reason I was flighty and ran over that bag of clothes and then Tim was absentminded and forgot to pick them up of that porch! God had handpicked them for this special precious woman!!!! I called her back and she is was so relieved, when I dropped them off last night she was so thankful, and I was just without words!! Me SPEECHLESS!!! I think Jesus got bored with the fish and five loaves story and has decided to dabble in fashion!! LOL!!!

and He met me there! Clothing Drive Part 2

2011-10-17T17:45:00.001-05:00

It was a boys table, size 10 -12, and it was one of the fullest boys tables we had when the event started and now I looked at it and the pants were gone and there were a few shirts left, as I straigthened up what was left a man walked in and I heard him saying to himself, please have size 12 please have size 12, my heart sunk, and I immediately wanted to look at him and tell him I would take him shopping right then as I knew we were all out of that size, at the moment it didn't matter to me that we had already helped so many, in that moment I felt like this was going to be a complete failure because to me having someone walk through that door anticipating there need would be met and then failing at that, that felt worse than any good we could have done. I looked up at him and smiled and then I looked back down at the table willing it to grow some pants, not even joking, I was like, begging it to sprout them! As I got ready to tell him we were out of size twelve a lady from my church walked in the door and up to me with a tote full of pants and said "here, these are a size twelve, look can you believe my son never even took the tags off!!!" OH MY GOSH, I didn't know if I should cry or jump up and down and act like a crazy fool!!!!! I mean my table just grew pants, it was amazing. The gentlemen was very grateful and said to me that he could now let his middle son wear his oldest sons pants and these would cloth his oldest son! Across the room there was a woman looking for clothes for her daughter, she had some success and thanked us as she left, she came back a little while later carrying a bag of clothes. She said that these were clothes her daughter had outgrown and she wanted to give back to our cause and that she was so thankful for the clothes she had found in her own daugther's size. The clothes she brought replenished another table that was near empty. A couple hours later an elderly lady walked in and in her hand she had three pairs of pants, I went to lay them on a table and minutes later another elderly lady came in looking for the same size... JESUS MET US THERE ALL DAY LONG!!! I kept SEEING Him in so many tangible ways. The first time you may have been able to call it a coincidence if you are a non-believer, and the second time could have been luck but by the third time you would have been in awe!!! It was a modern day fish and bread story straight out of the bible!! I feel like the amount of clothes that exited the church that day had to far surpass the amount that we put on those tables on Friday. And as if this wasn't enough, Jesus must have really wanted to show off! This is the part of the story where a young single mom enters in, I don't want to give out to many details because I want to respect her privacy but believe me when I say she has her hands full of babies, she didn't enter into the church that day expecting to find anything more than free clothes, she definitely didn't come knowing that she would leave an impact on 5 ladies at cornerstone but she did, and the next day she allowed her little girl to attend church and Sunday school at our church!!! Can we get a WOOT WOOT!!! Yup Jesus, He met us there at our little ol' clothing drive, in a church in a small town in the middle of cornfields, He was there amongst us and man do I wish I could have given Him a high five and a big hug because I will NEVER be the same. I may look the same, and even act the same but I will be forever humbled at getting to witness a small town country miracle that day!

"We only have here five loaves of bread and two fish, they answered, "Bring them here to me," Jesus said and he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to Heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied and the disciples picked up the twelve basketful's of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men besides woman and children"- Matthew 14:9

Be Blessed Today!!!! Jesus Loves YOU!

video courtesy of youtube.com

I Saw a need......... Clothing Drive part 1

2011-10-16T23:00:00.000-05:00

My mind is reeling from this weekend, please stick this post out with me, I promise you will be glad you did. A couple of months back I blogged about an inspiration to jump on the bandwagon with Patrice a fellow blog mom who issued the Get your Serve on Challenge, as most you of you know I decided to organize a community clothing giveaway at my church because I felt that times are hard for just about everyone, of every income level right now, and over the past few weeks with the help of many of you, I received numerous clothing donations and this weekend my best friend Tricia (who jumped on board with me, no questions asked, knowing she was getting herself into a big project and a lot of work! I couldn't have done it without her!!!!) and I along with a handful of wonderful ladies from my church, made the clothing giveaway come to life, in a bigger way than I EVER EVER dreamed possible!! You see, I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember, I have always believed in God and known Jesus Christ as my Savior (don't click off the page, stick this out with me, I promise I am not going to get preachy on you! Although I do think Jesus is pretty amazing and I hope you take the time to get to know Him!) and I have always prayed to Him when I was feeling happy, and clung to him when I was feeling scared, a I begged of him until my heart was raw when I was trying to get pregnant, and I cried out to him when we lost our babies to miscarriages but never in all of my years had I SEEN Jesus, I have felt him comfort me, and calm me and give me peace but never have I witnessed a moment where I SAW Jesus visibly in a room. (Are you sticking with me???) On Friday we spent all day organizing, folding and hanging up bag upon bag of clothing we had 20 tables and 3 hanging racks along with these coats racks to utilize!

People we so generous, this picture was taken a few days before we went to organize, there was more than this people, the response to our call for donations was amazing!! When we opened the bags we found clothes that were in great shape, lots of name brands, and lots of things with the tags still on it. There were winter coats, Halloween costumes, shoes and suits and so much more! On Saturday morning we set up platters of cookies and juice and made signs to hang up around town, I kept telling Tricia I was nervous no one would show up! At 8:50 we went outside to put a huge banner on the side of the building and there were two cars in the parking lot by the time we were done!! I was so excited! We went back in, did a few final things and at 9:00 I went to open the doors and ,oh my gosh guys, there was a LINE of people!! It was JUST like black Friday! They rushed in to our tables, we stood back in awe, within fifteen minutes I counted more than 50 people going through the tables with more people walking in, (not a shabby start in our small town!) they were filling up shopping bags and garbage bags and for a few moments I panicked! There was absolutely NO WAY the amount of clothes we had on those tables was going to last as long as we had planned for especially with everyone filling up shopping bags and trash bags! and so I prayed that those that needed them worst would get there quickly and went around to help the ones that were already there!

and the people kept coming and going, the ones leaving were so appreciative and thankful, people were kind to each other and other's were in awe that everything was completely free and that there was no catch. We heard from numerous people saying that this helped them because they weren't sure how they were going to get coats and clothes for winter. And then the inevitable happened, one our tables got down to almost nothing, it was a popular kids size and we were only 45 minutes or so into the giveaway....

and now because it is Eleven o'clock at night and my daughter is still awake with a miserable allergy attack and a stuffy nose that is making her completely miserable I am going to have to leave you hanging! Watch for part 2 tomorrow!! This story just gets better and better!!!

THAT mom makes a reapperance!

2011-10-12T09:54:00.002-05:00

Oh My Goodness!! Has life been crazy busy or what! I love fall and all that comes with it but boy do the weekends fill up fast! We have had birthday parties, and cheerleading camp, soccer and performances at the football game, a candlelight tour of New Salem and school projects, pumpkin carving activites and allergies. The days are flying by and before I know it, it is time to fall asleep at night! I know this sounds picture perfect and in many ways it is but let's be real, how many times do we plan something and it go the EXACT opposite??? yup pretty much everytime! LOL! at least in my less than perfect world! It would seem that my darling, sweet, monster of a two year old is at the peak of tantrums, attitude and sass! (At least I am praying it is at the peak! LOL!) so all of these fun activites I have planned have had at least one moment where I was THAT mom. Ya know the one who is boderline pshyco?? Have you met her?? I am her! Let's share a few examples shall we?? Book Fair 2011 Auburn Elementary Library (remember I am a "single" mother during the evenings of the week) I pick up the girls and head to Casey's to order cheese sticks and pizza for dinner because we have a packed evening, making the most of my time I decide to head to the book fair while our order is being completed, we park, Carleigh hops out and I see my first error, I have no stroller for Caylee, right then I should have got back in the car, I mean I could hear that scary foreshadowing music in my head, but oh no, I got this, so I get her out and hold her hand and off we go, we stop and have a little talk, the three of us, of how we are going to be good girls, and only touch with one finger. We get to the door and they have a table set up,Carleigh has to sign in, Caylee tries to grab said pen and write on the table...I distract her, Carleigh finishes and we step ONE foot in the door of said library and bam a book is off the rack and on the floor.....SIGH... pick up said book, grab Caylee's hand, remind her of the one finger rule by showing her how to point with said finger, walk two more steps, bamm another book down....so I decide to pick her cute darling 50 pound 3 and a half foot self up and carry her on my hip like she is dainty. . . oh yes, picture now a child who is the size of a four and half year old, throwing her self back, yelling, crying and going into MAJOR meltdown mode, all the while her big sister is being an angel SLOWLY looking at each book picking out her favorites, here she comes, THAT MOM, watch out everyone! I whisper into Caylees ear, with that stern mom voice, that does NO good, "Caylee Michelle straigthen up right now or you are going to be in big trouble" nothing, nada, not evening a slight glimmer that she heard me...I rush Carleigh along and get up to check out, Caylee is still acting like a small hellion, we have to pay so I literally sat her down between my legs and held her there with my calf muscles while she acted liked I was killing her, I whisper loudly to her to knock if off before I give her something to throw a fit about, yup that classic line, remember when your parents used it??? I remember hushing up the second it came out of my parents mouth, Caylee was unphased, I then picked her up, and she dangled like a limp 50lb pound dead weight noodle. Can we say mortified!!! Everyone was watching us, I am sure they were wondering why I didn't spank her right then and there but I was not in a good mommy place to execute a punishment, she did not get to get her book that she wanted as her punishment and that was part of why she was having a fit,we get out to the car, I buckle her in, as soon as the seat belt clicked, the crying stopped, and there was complete silence. I drag my, huffing, puffing sweaty self, to the drive side seat, slump into it, I look and felt like I was just drug out back and beaten by a gang of huge men..... I look at the clock it had only been ten minutes since we had departed the car....................say what!!?!?!?!!!

I had some more examples, but reliving that one while writing it has worn me out!! How about you have you been THAT mom lately????

Falling

2011-09-28T12:36:00.000-05:00

and

LOVE

with these two each day!!!!!!!!!

We have kicked fall off with a bunch of fun already and the weekends of October hold a promise of much more fun! I am LOVING the stages the girls are at right now! :) So Much Fun!

P.S. I will be back with a full update from the weekend activites!

Kripsy Kreme Donut's Recipe!! YUMMY!!!!

2011-09-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

Carleigh was my donut cutter outter :)

MMMM Everyone I know loves Krispy Kreme donuts, they are a huge hit in my house and this weekend I used a receipe I found online that claimed to be like Kripsy Kreme and let me tell ya, I think they were pretty darn close!!

Sorry for no fancy plating up :) I remembered to snap a picture after I had already put them in a container!

Tim is raving about them, we filled a couple, that was fun too! :) I got the reciepe from Wiki How

Doughnut Batter

2 pkgs. regular or rapid rise yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105−115 degrees)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening
5 cups all−purpose flour
Vegetable oil

Creamy Glaze

1/3 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-4 tbsp. hot water

Let me know if you try this tasty treat!! I think next time I do it I am going to do some research and use butter instead of crisco and a little more sugar!! ENJOY!

GLEEfull!!!

2011-09-15T15:45:00.000-05:00

It is very possible that after reading this post you will think I have resorted back to High school. I will probably be called a ~~Geek~~ Gleek and a Loser, but you know what I am OK with that!! I am embracing my Gleekness!! and maybe taking my best friend down with me in the process....ummmm I would apologize Trish but I am not really sorry! LOL!! You see, the countdown to the Glee season premiere is totally on! I have a huge obsession with Darren Criss (Blaine) and well with the whole show really. I mean I am not obsessed enough that I would attend Glee in 3D on opening night.....

oh this picture??? ummmmm nope I sure didn't take that....

I am way to mature to go opening night, and we DEFINITELY didn't enjoy ourselves so much that we stayed for the second showing... NOPE not us!!!

And there is no way you would ever catch me in Glee paraphernalia.... that would definitely not be something I would be caught dead in, especially in public..........

It is possible that Glee is my favorite show of all times, it is also possible that I have converted my best friend, husband and daughters to love Glee also....it may be becoming a family obsession....only time will tell!!

Well I better get back to re-watching season 1 in time for the big show premiere next Tuesday, Hey Trish what good food are we going to have for our kick-off???!! Hehehe!!

Warning Signs

2011-09-13T09:29:00.000-05:00

Let me start this post with a disclaimer!! I am not a doctor, I am a wanna be doctor but have no degree :) I am a self proclaimed nurse by googling trade but am not licensed in any way, shape, or form! Ok, now that we got that little tidbit out of the way we can move forward with this post! I also don't know the rules of using Internet data so I am just going to tell you what I know about PCOS and the warning signs and symptoms that I have, and I pretty much have them all! If you suspect yourself or your daughter might have PCOS after reading this I strongly urge you to contact your doctor about it, an OB/GYN would probably be better than a family practice doctor, but I am sure your family doctor can recommend someone if she feels the need to! The biggest thing about PCOS is that it is often times misdiagnosed or not caught at all. It took my mom reading a magazine article, dragging me to the doctor and showing it to him to get the right diagnosis. There are so many reasons why finding out early is imperative! First and foremost, a girl with the side effects of PCOS is going to get made fun of at school, it is just a fact. But boy would I have felt better about the teasing if I would have known that I wasn't doing something wrong to cause the things I was teased about ( such as always thinking the extra weight was due to overeating, the gray patches due to not "scrubbing" hard enough, the crazy hair growth from not shaving often enough). And I can't stress enough how important it is to know about PCOS so as to protect what little fertility you may have! It is only by the grace of God that I decided to try to have babies so young, and only because I had gotten a PCOS diagnosis my senior year in High School did my OB/GYN start me on fertility treatments after just 4 or 5 months of trying. I never went back on birth control after I had Carleigh at age 23 and we started active fertility treatments when she was around 15 months old, in just 15 months my fertility had decreased even more, the treatment regiment that worked with her did not work with getting pregnant with my other pregnancies, by the time I conceived Caylee I was on the strongest doses of meds that you can do for IUI for 14 days and still only grew one egg, we had two insemination's and this was the last cycle we were going to do before IVF. That was a huge change in just a couple of years! My Reproductive Endocrinologist told me I was her youngest patient to date and that she wished more of her patients would seek treatment out earlier because the success rates are much higher!

PCOS presents with some or all, and even only one or two of the following symptoms. There may be more that I am not listing but you can check google PCOS and get a few really good websites if you want more information!

weight gain/being overweight and having a hard time losing it
insulin resistance
gray patches of skin on the elbows, knees, neck, groin
excess facial hair (sides of face, chin, upper lip) side note: in junior high the facial hair was worse on the side of my face, now I am just hairy everywhere! Thank you old age! LOL!
Delayed starting of period ( I was fifteen)
irregular periods- (I was put on birth control for this)
Anxiety- (this can also present as panic attacks, I have had anxiety since I was a small child, this was one of the first signs/symptoms I probably presented with, following with the weight gain)
Infertility
Male Patterned Baldness ( I do not have this one yet, but let it be known when I get it I will be turning into Daniel instead of DeAnna, this is your warning! )
Acne
Dry/Oily Skin
Elevated Blood Pressure (I do not have this symptom yet or at least it hasn't been diagnosed)

If you had problems with any of these areas and were never diagnosed I would urge you to get checked out and I would urge you to watch your daughters as they grow up. I would say that I was full blown PCOS by age 13, that is when I peeked with all of my symptoms. Next week I will compile some websites that have good PCOS information on them. There are many ways to alter your diet and physical changes you can make to help control your PCOS. (It is very possible that I find the diets extermely miserable and awful but I will never admit that!) There is also good infromation out there to help you to increase your chances of pregnancy! Have a GREAT Tuesday!! And even though this post was heavy, I sure hope you have giggling good day!!!

Labor Day Weekend!!

2011-09-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

Before the week is officially over I want to get these pictures up from Labor Day! We took the kiddo's camping and had a prefect weekend! It was hot enough to swim and cool enough we didn't die of heat exhaustion! But I will say that by Sunday night we needed sweatshirts and jeans which was insane since Friday it was 100 degrees!! What the heck weather!! Oh and did I mention that for the first time in like 6 weeks we got rain! Yeah, what the heck do you do with 5 girls aged from 13 to 2, and one Uncle/daddy in a camper when it rains???

Why Lego's, a laptop and sleep to the sound of rain pelting the tin roof of course!! (The two lumps on the bed are the 13 year olds?? Oh and that uncle/dad??

He can sleep through anything!!! UGH! I wish I had that special power!

We cooked some more pretty awesome meals over the campfire! Can I brag on myself? I ROCK the campfire cooking!! LOL!! I told Tim I need two campfires so that I can cook more at items at a time though! We did BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, hamburgers, cowboy baked beans, and some awesome grilled ham and cheese sandwhiches as our new things this weekend!! YUM YUM! We also had a pizza delivered to the campground on the first night there! Don't Judge, I never said I was a rustic camper! I like to mix modern conveniences and Amish ways! LOL!

We got up early on Monday morning to head out to our annual Labor day Parade and Picnic. We are a proud to be union family and take Labor day festivities very seriously! :)

Every year we get a family picture at the parade, as our family has grown our pictures have gotten a little more tricky to get!! I will say that this is the best/worst picture we have ever taken! and it was the best pick of all that we took! LOL!! Oh my goodness!! I sure hope that come October we can get our act together for our family portiats! :) Oh did I mention the wind was blowing so hard that we pretty much had to hold onto the small children, hences the HORRIBLE hairdo's!!

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend! Monday I will be featuring a "warning signs of PCOS post" Mom's of young girls, it's a post you won't want to miss!!

Get your SERVE on!!

2011-09-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

So I have been a part of the blogging world for a little over 2 years, long before I had a blog I read blogs. It is a fun hobby that I love! One of my ALL TIME favorite bloggers is Patrice (also known as Jonah's mommy!!) She is a down to earth lady who writes with humor about her everyday life taking care of Jonah who has EB. Jonah is adorable, really go over and check him out, he will make your heart melt into a million pieces! I wish he lived closer so he and Caylee could have a play date!! They are only about a month apart, I know they would be great pals! So Patrice is a definite go getter, she has organized great fundraisers many things, including DEBRA which is a foundation that helps out EB families, she also organized fundraisers to earn money to help baby Anton come home from the orphanage and now she has come up with this really cool idea called "Get your Serve On". If you get a minute hop on over and check her out! Grateful for Giggling Girls (I am nicknaming us GGG) is going to link up with Patrice and Get our Serve on. I have had this idea rolling around in my head for months since I read about the concept out in the blogosphere, it is a Community Clothing Swap and I am so excited to announce that I am putting this event together in our Community! My church is going to allow me to use our building to host it and the date is October 15th!! I haven't set on a official time yet! The concept is that I will accept donations (in abundance I hope!) and then set it up in the church like a store, and then those in the community that have a need for clothing in the coming months can come shopping for FREE, no money exchanged, no goods exchanged, no questions asked! I am hoping to arrange for help in the nursery so that mother's can shop while the kiddos play, and to have cookies and punch! Did I mention I can't wait!! One statement that Patrice said that really stuck with me was that an excuse that we often use, myself included, is that my kids are to young to get anything out of serving others, they aren't going to understand it, Patrice countered that argument by saying, what if our kids grow up never knowing what it is like NOT to serve, what if serving others is something they have always known... That statement really got me thinking! I want my girls to be eager to serve others, to always be helpful and not do things only to earn money or recognition! So do you have it in you? Are you willing to jump aboard the Get your Serve on train? With God's help we can change one life, one event, one community, one person at a time!!! If this is something that you want to consider, then head on over to the Get your Serve on facebook page, and join! There are lots of good ideas being shared over there! and hop over to see Patrice, she tells all about in her blog post The proposal !! If you do decide to jump on the movement, leave me a comment I can't wait to watch it grow!!

What IF????

2011-09-07T11:08:00.001-05:00

What If I hadn't been overweight as a child??
What If I hadn't been teased for the "hairness" of my arms and face???
What If I would have known that the dark patches on my skin weren't "dirt"
What If I would have developed apporiately for my age?
What If I had told Tim I may never be able to naturally conceive a child?
What If he had turned away and never looked back?
What If I had given up after trying naturally with no success of getting pregnant?
What If the treatments had never worked?
What If I can never get over the desire to have a big family?
What If I always long for just one more chance to be pregnant?
What If I didn't have to deal daily with the facial hair
What If I didn't have to deal with the horrible anxiety and panic attacks?
What If I could live one day feeling normal, beautiful, and less "manly"
What If I let PCOS rob me of my desires?
What If I let PCOS dictate who I am?
What If I let PCOS come between me and my faith
What If I let PCOS shape me?
What If I let four letters consume me?

What if that little girl at school getting made fun of, has a disease? One she doesn't even know about, and yet your child is taunting her for being overweight, or looking different? or teasing her for having "dirt" spots on her knees and elbows. What if you are whispering about how her parents should make her be more active? They should make her scrub those "spots" off in the shower? What if we took the time to educate our children and ourselves? What if PCOS wasn't spoken only in hushed tones at the doctors office? What if we took a stand to make a change, to raise awareness of PCOS and all that goes with it? What if we caught it when it first shows signs in young girls and helped them to battle it and to not be ashamed of it??

What if you could make a difference?

September is PCOS Awareness Month, Please help me to take the shame out of PCOS? I will be doing posts throughout the month, highlighting warning signs and symptoms, educating on PCOS, what it is and what it does. Please help me to make this four letter word, one that we aren't afraid to use!

image used from an online source

Flashback Friday on a Thursday!!!

2011-09-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

I am pretty confident that I could never deny that I am my children's mother!!

Giggling Girls Crock Pot Italian Beef!!! So Easy!!

2011-08-31T13:19:00.001-05:00

First of all, thank you for all the feedback on the Cleaning Reveal!! It is fun to hear back from everyone! I have to say that my weekend was filled with a lot of cleaning, but also with a lot of messing so I don't feel like I made enough headway to start yet! BUT I have higher hopes for this weekend! Anyway, I promised a recipe over the weekend, and I suck at doing blog posts on the weekends so from now one I am just not going to make that promise! LOL! But I am here today with a recipe that you will definitely want to try!!! It is a HUGE hit in my family especially among the men, and truthfully I haven't had one person not like it when we have made it! and it is SO easy!! and I am pretty excited because Kelly over at Kelly's Corner is doing a link up of crock pot receipes!!! So if you are stopping by from Kelly's blog we hope you will look around and come back and see us again!!!! It is always fun to meet new bloggy friends!

Crock Pot Italian Beef

Ingredients

Rump Roast ( I usually do between a 3 and 5 pound one)

Italian Salad Dressing (regular size bottle you will use half of, a small bottle use the whole thing)

The Dry Italian Seasoning Packet (Hidden Valley has a really good one!)

Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Salt

Hoagie Buns

Shredded Colby Jack Cheese (optional)

jalapenos (optional)

Start by taking your roast out of the package (don't forget that little pad thingy that sticks to the bottom, not that I would know that from cooking one on myself or anything!), we than season it generously with salt, pepper, garlic salt and then we put it into a preheat skillet to brown it on both sides. Once we get a nice sear on it we move it into the crock pot!! Now you can use your roast fresh, frozen or thawed out! If it is frozen you are going to want to let it cook longer in your crock pot! We turn our crock pot on high and set it for 8 hours or however long you are going to be gone, or just on high if you don't have a timer. Then I pour two or three cups of water on it, put the lid on and let it go slow cook. The longer it cooks the better as your meant will become fork tender. Than about an hour (sometimes I wait until 30 minutes before) I drain off the water that has now turned into beef broth, and shred my meat. Next add your small bottle, or half of your big bottle of dressing, (Sorry if you like exact measurements, I don't seem to roll that way! LOL!) your dry packet of Italian Seasoning, stir it all together and throw in your peppers if you so choose. Let cook for another 30 minutes or so and then serve on hoagie buns topped with Cheddar cheese for the best results...you can forgo the cheese but in my world cheese makes everything better!!

As always, Thanks for cooking with the giggling girls!!!! (Time for new apron pictures, I will get right on that!)

The Cleaning Schedule Reveal!!!!

2011-08-25T11:54:00.001-05:00

So I have created our cleaning schedules, I have posted pictures of them below! I am going to slide them into clear plastic covers so that we can mark them off with dry erase markers! I am pretty excited to implement these! My plan is to get my house spotless this weekend, all of my laundry caught up completely and start fresh on Monday! This works well because I am having friends over on Saturday, and that is always great motivation for my household! I will keep you all posted on the journey as we start! I plan to do an interview with Carleigh and Tim to see what they think of our new schedule too!! I definitely think it is important to include the girls in ways that they can help, I may do a little allowance or something but haven't decided on that yet. Anyone have any opinions on that?? I was thinking about having a few things that are expected but then paying Carleigh for anything extra, like folding washcloths for a quarter, something like that! I loved hearing all of the tips you guys shared with me! If you think of anymore please send them my way! I have some major problem areas with Socks, Rubbermaid Tupperware, and shoes, any suggestion in those areas would be fantastic!!!

And if any of you jump on the cleaning schedule bandwagon, please let me know! It would be fun to encourage each other!!! I am hoping to get a new recipe or two up over the weekend, So check back in with us in the next day or two!!! Have a GREAT day!

Working Mom Shortcut-Cleaning Schedules!

2011-08-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

So here at Giggling Girls we are getting ready to embark on a new journey. Now I am a pretty decent housekeeper! Not as good as my mom but I do okay. Well except for laundry! I HATE Laundry!! But we will get back to that!! I read quite a few blogs and I found a few stay at home mom's that use cleaning schedules. Now when I stayed home and even when I worked part-time, I felt that doing the housework was my job, I am a firm believer in roles in marriage and I believe the household duties fall to the woman IF she is staying home or working part-time. Now hold on all you stay at home people, don't go getting your undies in a bunch!! Just because that is my opinion doesn't make it yours and I am okay with that! That is just how my household ran, Tim helped out but most of the work including getting up with our girls fell to me (and his jobs were mowing the yard, taking down the trash, doing that "guy" stuff ) and I was good with that UNTIL we made the family decision that I would take a new job that would require me to go back to work full time. When we were discussing this I made it very clear that if I was going to work full-time I was not going to be the full-time maid, and Tim agreed. I started working and I did okay managing and Tim pulled his weight and all was fine and then the weeks passed and things started slipping, both girls became more mobile and more messy and things started getting left undone. So now, one of my biggest gripes is that my house is never as clean as I would like it, I know to some I hold a to high standard of clean, and I have learned to compromise somewhat but it isn't working well so I am going to implement a Cleaning Schedule!! You should see how excited Tim is!!! He just can't wait to find out what his new duties are going to be!!! So as I am creating our new calender and schedule (which don't worry I will share with you) I am wanting to know, what are some of your quick cleaning tips, your best kept secrets to a clean home, and habits you have gotten into that help things go smoothly!! I can't wait to hear them! Oh and don't worry I will touch back on the laundry thing ........(yeah maybe this is why I get piles of laundry, I ALWAYS run the other direction when it comes up!!)

8 years

2011-08-24T09:23:00.001-05:00

8 years ago yesterday, I got married to my husband, fulfilling one of my life long dreams. I had a storybook wedding, it was prefect and beautiful, I had the long dress and the pretty veil and the PRETTIEST flowers around (yes the flowers were my most favorite part of my wedding!) The church was over flowing with people there to share in our excitement and the reception was and epic Haines party, there was dancing and great food, and drinking, cake cutting and ice sculptures it was a PREFECT day.

Our flower girls, we had four of them but Lexie was just a baby and didn't stand for the ceremony! That is Lydia looking at us! Isn't she a doll!!

My dad walking me down the aisle, can you see my smile, boy that Tim he sure had me wrapped around his finger!!

My bridesmaids! Yes we did black and I love love love how the flowers popped against the dresses!! I can't believe that it has been 8 years!

Tim,

The 8 years we have been together have been filled with lots of ups and downs, we have smiled and laughed and cried, fought and wanted to give up but kept pushing on. There are days that you drive me absolutely crazy and days that I think being a lesbian would be a much better choice, but every night before I go to bed, even on the few nights we weren't talking, I am always thankful that we found each other on that blind date to the Olive Garden and I am so very happy to be sharing this crazy, wonderful, chaotic, busy life with you! I pray that God graces us with many more years to drive each other crazy and with many more moments of loving each other! I love you!

Love, DeAnna

Flash Back Friday!!!!!

2011-08-18T13:30:00.001-05:00

This night was October 5, 2002 and it was the night I fell in love with Tim and the night that I got kissed for the FIRST TIME EVER!!! I felt that we deserved a flashback Friday moment because on August 23rd we will be celebrating 8 years of marriage!!! But more about that later!
PS: I do realize I am posting a Flashback Friday on a Thursday, I have a busy day tomorrow and I didn't want to miss it and I haven't figured out bloggers advance post feature!!

Carleigh's First day of Kindergarten

2011-08-17T12:51:00.003-05:00

Carleigh,

Last night we got you all packed up and ready for your big day! You even had homework to do! You colored your very best ever picture so that you could get a sticker from your teacher!

Today we woke early and you hopped right out of bed, which is rare for you because you like to sleep in and cuddle in the mornings! You raced into the bathroom asking where your dress for today was and then you raced off to get dressed! You ate your breakfast great and got your hair done with a smile on your face and even requested a pony tail which you NEVER do!!! You looked so pretty and grown up! We put on your shoes, grabbed your brand new Littlest Pet shop book bag and out the door we went! After dropping Caylee off at Meme's,

(she was wanting to be just like you, she looks up to you and loves you so much!)

and doing a photo shoot in front of Meme's pretty flowers like last year!

2010

2011

Off we went! We got to school and the first person you looked for in line was your very best friend Chloe!

Then the bell rang and it was time to go into class! You went right in and found your name at your table!!

and guess what!! That silly teacher sat you right next to Chloe! OH MY GOODNESS!! You were so excited! Next we put all your supplies away, this took quite a while because you had LOTS of supplies!!

These were just a few!! Then we hung up your book bag and it was time for mommy to leave! I was pretty sure that I would cry when I left but you were so brave and happy and excited that guess what!! Mom didn't cry either!! I couldn't cry when you were doing such a great job, that would have made me a silly mommy!! We are so excited to see what kind of new adventures you are going to learn in kindergarten!! I know you are going to do a wonderful job!! Here are a few facts about you as you started kindergarten! We went for your physical and you did a great job getting all three of your shots! You weighed 67 pounds and were 47.5 inches tall! The doctor said your weight is good for your tall height! We also went to the eye doctor and your vision is right where it is supposed to be, most kindergartners see at 20/30 but you are already seeing at 20/25 and 20/20! You can already write your first, middle and last name, count to 25, draw and name all your primary shapes, you know all of your colors, and all of the alphabet, you can write all the letters of the alphabet and know all of the sounds the letters make!! You already have such a great start that I know you will pick up on all the new stuff in no time! Last night you also tied your shoe for the first time. . . my oh my how grown up you are getting!

Love, Mommy

(Update: I just talked to you and you said your first day was so fun! You can't wait to go back for a FULL day tomorrow!!)

I am not ready to let her go....

2011-08-16T09:44:00.002-05:00

8 years ago in November I began my quest to motherhood, a journey that most know was long and heart wrenching for me, basal temperature charts, pills, sperm samples, post coital tests, numerous doctor's appts, tests, shots, progesterone gels, the list could go on, and then on January 13, 2006 after an emergency c-section, the doctors placed my sweet baby girl in my arms and I thought to myself I am never going to let her go,

I am going to hold her and rock her and cuddle her and sleep with her, and I didn't put her down, I swear to you Carleigh didn't know what it was like to be in a bouncer or a swing, Tim and I fought over her, and when our family was around we still weren't very good sharer's! LOL! We took her with us everywhere we went and never left her with a babysitter until I had to go back to work and then I only worked a couple of weeks and I quit my job, because I wasn't ready to let her go....and we played and cuddled and loved, and then I went back to work part time and she got to go stay her her meme's whom she adored,

and a I let a little piece of her go, but I would rush home to her and the years passed and it was time for pre-k, and I debated on whether or not to send her, It was an internal battle that I fought with myself and finally after much coaching and a lot of prayer for strength

2009

2010

I let her go for a few hours each morning and she loved it.......and now, today, the day before I am supposed to send her to kindergarten, where they are going to make her so independent, and teach her the correct ways to say bikini, and steal the rest of her babyhood away, they are going to teach her to correct ways to say all of her cute words, and she is going to be in charge of tying her own shoes......., she is going to have to open her own applesauce and carry her own lunch tray and be in charge of her own work, and today, I am just not ready to let her go..................

WE ARE. . . . . .

2011-08-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

Soooo excited to tell you !! We just can't wait to shout it!!

It has taken us a few trials and errors!! But Caylee is Happy to announce!!

SHE IS WEARING BIG GIRL UNDIES AND IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!

Caylee we are so proud of you!! We had done a few triall weekends since you were 24 months but the doctor told mommy to wait until you were 27 to 29 months and that would be your golden time frame and boy was she right!! You are 28 months and one Friday you just decided it was time and we started working on it and you did great! We switched to undies and haven't looked back!! ( you still are wearing diapers for nights and naps but mostly wake up dry from your naps!!! so this is just precaution for a while!!) You are even telling us now without being asked and pooping on the potty too!! YOU GO GIRL!! We are so proud!!! XOXO!

Infertility Sucks!

2011-08-03T21:39:00.001-05:00

I know quite a few people who struggle or have struggled with infertility, I am here to tell you that just because you succeed in having a baby doesn't mean the struggle with infertility goes away, at least it hasn't for me and I have two babies... I am at the age right now that all of my friends are having kids. Tim and I had our kids pretty young, thankfully, the fertility doctor says this is one reason we succeeded with getting pregnant, anyway it seems right now that everyone I know is having a baby or trying to have a baby and I am VERY happy for them, I really am! They are all going to be great parents and most of them are already doing a great job and are just adding to there blessings, but seeing them, watching them and cheering for them is also a reminder that for me that chapter in my life is closed. I have tried very hard to find peace with being done having babies, I have prayed and talked it out and prayed and threw fits and thought about doing the treatments one more time, and prayed some more. I love kids, I love the chaos that is my life with kids, my kids are crazy little firecrackers that never EVER stop, they are loud and can turn any situation into a 3 ring circus...I tend to be high strung and probably am not the best choice of a mom for fire cracker children, God thought differently, I don't do well when my kids are wild in public or when they have a meltdown where the whole store is watching, for all of these reasons I should be OK with being done having babies, but that desire doesn't die for me. I want one more... I do, it is a fact. But infertility robs me of that choice. I am so jealous that woman can just get pregnant, I am so resentful of the fact that I will never experience that feeling of peeing on a pregnancy stick and getting a plus sign just because I had a fun night with my husband, and I am so bitter about the fact that I can't seem to get over being infertile...I always thought I would get over it, move past it, cope with it, but I am learning you don't just get over something that is a permanent part of your life and I am fed up for all of the woman out there who can not conceive at all, I am so saddened and burdened for them. I feel like God is cheating them out of something wonderful, the injustice of it makes me sick to my stomach, I know that people say "they can adopt" and adoption is a beautiful wonderful thing but it is very challenging, and I feel like if they have the challenge of being infertile they shouldn't have to have a challenge to adopt....Tonight my heart is heavy for everyone suffering from infertility, I want to say to you that I am so sorry that you have to carry this cross, I am so sorry for the tears it will cause you to cry and I am sorry of the things it will rob from you. I know that words can't fix it, I know that hurting doesn't stop just because I tell you that I have been there, and I know you will find no comfort in my telling you it will be okay. So tonight I am not going to say any of those things. Tonight I am going to be sad with you because you know what , Infertility sucks....

http://youtu.be/e8HgAVenbUU

But there is HOPE for the hopeless. Jesus bring the rain!

A CHRISTMAS camping we will go!

2011-08-03T13:04:00.001-05:00

We went camping this weekend and the campground was hosting Christmas in July, we had a fun time!! We sang a few Christmas Carols, did some Christmas Crafts, hung Christmas lights on our camper and did some ice block sledding!!! Lydia and I like to entertain ourselves by campfire cooking! This weekend we did, pancakes, pizzas, ham, cheesy potatoes, greenbeans, and donuts! Everything was delish!!

Santa Beards

Ice Block Sledding

Fun Times had by all!!

The Mommy Guilt

2011-07-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

The infamous mommy guilt, do you have it???? I am going to guess that every mother experiences mommy guilt on some level! Whether it is the working mom guilt, the stay at home mom guilt, the part-time working mommy guilt, or the single mommy guilt!! It is out their on all levels and we as women are plagued with it everyday! Are we feeding our kids healthy enough, is my kid to big or to small and did I do something to make them this way, do I work too many hours, or is my baby clinging to me because I am with him/her too much. Am I a bad parent because my kid goes to daycare or because my kid doesn't socialize enough since he/she is home with me everyday....IT IS EVERYWHERE!!! SO today I am going to make you feel better about yourself in regard to your mothering skills!

1. My 29 month old daughter still has both a bottle and a pacifier and I am OK with that :)
2. Last night my kids ate Olive Garden Bread Sticks(grains) and corn puffs dipped in can cheese(dairy) for dinner topped off with a strawberry daiquiri (fruit) (of course there was no alcohol in it what kind of heathen do you think I am!) :) (are you feeling better about yourself yet?)
3. My five year old has snuck into my bed 3 out of the last 5 nights and stayed there all night long right between her daddy and I...
4. My 2 year old uses dammit and bullshit consistently in her everyday speech....and laughs every time she says it...it's all fun and games until she says it in church...
5. So I finally finished ALL of my laundry a few weeks ago and while I was folding the mountains MOUNTAINS of it, I found winter pants and shirts. (don't judge) All you AWESOME laundry mama's out there can kiss my fluffy white butt!!
6.I bet you have never found sippy cups or bottles with old curdled milk in them, and just thrown them away because you didn't want to deal with it, yeah me neither, I am a MUCH better house keeper than that!
7. I may work a full-time job but that doesn't mean that when I get to the office my full-time mom and wife job stops, seriously, just ask my cell phone....(this one always gets me that people assume that while I am "relaxing" at work my other roles stop....uhhh no)
8.I have been known to prepare my kids a separate meal from what I have made for their dad an I, on more than one occasion. (why should I always have to eat off the kid menu!! and why force them to eat off the adult one when it is just going to end in a battle of the wills! I would rather take the extra ten minutes and make them something they like while encouraging them to try what I made for us...okay really I am just to lazy to mess with the battle....spoiled? maybe?
9. I am the mom that in most "mommy conversations" where we are having our children demonstrate there new ~~tricks~~ skills such as naming colors, and counting or saying there ABC's, my children demonstrate "girls gone wild" by lifting up their t-shirt to show off their tummy or put there hand up to their forehead in the shape of and L and say LOOOOSER (L is a letter of the alphabet, we have been working on our sign languages skills....) I mean every kid can do the normal tricks but it takes talent to pull off those unique skills!!
10. My kids are off the growth chart in height, weight and head circumference, that must mean I force feed them, water them with sugar and sit around at night rubbing there heads into a really round shape.....really people, have you seen their dad and I .....

I am probably not going to win the "mother of the year" award for having the healthiest menu planning, and best "home" schooling techniques, I am pretty sure I am not going to win "housekeeper of the year" because the mountain of laundry is never completely finished, the empty sippy cups are always going to be there and the floors usually have crumbs on them somewhere, and I am confident that my husband would tell you that "wife of the year" is out of the picture too, just ask Carleigh she seems to think my bed holds special powers....her dad used to think that too! HA! So when you feel plagued by the mommy guilt, just remember their is someone out there who is doing a worse job than you :) And remember ladies, always smile as you are dragging your kicking screaming child out of the store in the middle of a tantrum, that will really give those other woman something to talk about!!!

Cannon Ball / Model Carleigh!!

2011-07-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

I love this video!! She is truly my child :) and I think she looks ADORABLE in her zucchini (her word for bikini!) Always wanting to be graceful enough to be the model but rocks out the cannon ball! LOL! She makes me laugh EVERYDAY!! I hope that today she makes you giggle too!! ( I am also aware that when she sees this video as a teenage she will be mortified that I captured her on video this way! but for today she is okay with it!) I love how confident she is and I hope she always maintains that!!

Tripp

2011-07-21T14:03:00.000-05:00

There is a little boy name Tripp, he was born with a very rare skin disease and he needs our prayers!! I have been following Tripps's journey with EB since before he turned one! His mom (Courtney) dedicates every hour of each day to his care. Tripp is very sick and in need of all the prayers we can give him! They didn't expect him to make it to his 2nd birthday but HE DID and now he is fighting for his little life. Could you please say an extra prayer today for Tripp and for Courtney and her family. Pray for God too give them a peace and to hold them extra close to Him. Thanks guys!!! If you would like to learn more about Tripp's journey please visit http://randycourtneytripproth.blogspot.com/ or click on the button on the right side of my blog page!!!

What do a Torn MCL, Mono, Strep, and E-Coli Poisoning have in common?

2011-07-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

A Haines, Fuchs, Hall, Gasen, Vacation of course!!!! Now, this may sound like the setup for the worst vacation ever but I must tell you it was in truth one of our best ones yet!! LOL! We had WONDERFUL weather, lots of pool and lake time in the sun, and a lot of laughter! We boated to different places to eat our meals, and played on beaches and water slides(where we obtained some wicked E-coli poisoning perhaps), we swam in the pool and played sand volleyball (where the torn MCL happened), The strep and mono happened to a friend who was on vacation with us and he actually got it right upon returning home! I am not going to jabber to much but will let the pictures tell the stories!! We were in the water so much that bathing suits were our main wardrobe which in turn means not to many pictures of all of us because well we don't want to be seen like that! HA!

Sleeping on the drive to the Ozarks, we left around 4:30 a.m. so that they could sleep for most of it!

Driving the boat with Pa!

Trying to pose all these kiddos for one good picture! HA! I am pretty sure we didn't succeed!

This is the life!! (Yes she still has a bottle at two, don't judge! she does know how to drink from a cup)

Swimming at the beach, there were these tiny fish swimming all around the girls! It was unreal! (and maybe a little gross!!)

Carleigh couldn't wait for Pa to take her on a "circle ride" (that is what she calls tubing!) They had a blast!

Most of the place we went had these swim up bars!! There are even bar stools in the water!!!

We wore them out each and every day!!!!

LOL! Tim will love this one! But I couldn't resist! Apparently he had a few drinks and got nice and relaxed!! A fun time was had by all!!! :) Wish I had more pictures to share!

Do you ever wonder?

2011-07-14T15:13:00.000-05:00

I know I have a vacation post to write :) I haven't forgotten and it is coming, but probably not until the first of next week!!

Do you ever wonder about Heaven? I am a Christian, I have grown up in church, went to VBS, and youth group. I know the passages in the bible about Heaven and I am confident that I am going to get to meet Jesus one day! I hope you get to meet Him too! I am a dweller, I like to ponder things and a lot of times that gets me into trouble, I am a thinker and an over analyzer and I often wonder about Heaven, about what it is going to look like, what it will be like to meet my loved ones there again and I have a special reason that I think about Heaven, you see I have had miscarriages, one of them we know was a little girl, and she would have been born around the 4th of July maybe that is why Heaven has been on my heart the past couple of weeks... I don't talk to my family about them often but occasionally I will mention to my mom that I wonder what she would have looked like, how she would have acted, She would be older than Caylee and the odds are she would have white blonde hair and blue eyes...Would she have been my calm child, can I even make one of those?! HA! The biggest thing I wonder is will she be there in Heaven waiting for us? Is she sitting up there along with our other babies we lost? Are they being rocked by Tim and I's grandma's? Are they terrorizing Jesus like their sisters back here terrorize me?? Will they be there and run into my arms when I get there, it is a strange concept for me to grasp, the fact that these little people that we never got to meet might be waiting to call me Mommy and run into my arms. I know many people have told me I need to read the new book that is out about Heaven, I haven't yet but it is on my to do list. But for today I just wanted to know do you ever wonder????

Working Mom Blah's

2011-07-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

Can I rant here? Oh yes I can!! LOL! So let's be real for a few minutes shall we, and this is a disclaimer notice to all the lucky stay at home mommies and daddies this is going to be working mom rant please do not get a funky taste in your mouth over it okay K!

I love my job, I am lucky to have my job in this AWFUL economy, I have a great boss and I don't really have any co-workers, I can watch Netflix or Hulu while I work and I can chat on fb or email while I do my reports, I work from home on Friday's in the summer and I can take time off whenever I need it...HELLLO DREAM JOB....It is true I have no reason to whine but the fact is I still have to WORK, I still have to leave my kids and although I am lucky that they are with family I still think it sucks that it isn't me :) cause there ain't nobody like mama!! BUT I did make this choice, I made the choice to work because it provides for my kids, it gives us the chances to make memories and go on vacations and afford to live the life we are living. For some people those things aren't important for other's they are :) I like being able to do the fun things but that doesn't mean that I don't hate the hours that I am gone!!! and after being on Vacation for 11 days I was kicking and screaming the whole way back to work!!!!!! and now I am here, on my lunch break, and this rant seems irrelevant... it won't change anything, I am blessed to have the job I have.... I just wanted to let the other working mama's know that you aren't alone on Monday mornings when you are dragging yourself back to work away from your kids.......it's okay I hate it too!! :) I would love to be at home cleaning my house, folding my piles of unending laundry, wiping snotty noses and breaking up hours of sibling rivalry, I would rather be in my kitchen burning cookies and making gourmet meals, and doing ABC's and 123's a million times a day.....just thought you should know!!

My Heritage

2011-06-28T12:01:00.000-05:00

I consider myself pretty young, I never feel like I am closer to 30 than 20 and I never feel mature for my age...really I don't! More often than not I feel too immature to be the full-time working mom of two and wife! The past few days I have had to attend or am going to be attending 2 funerals. Funerals ALWAYS make me feel old, they always make me feel mature, I realize they are a sad part of life and that as an adult I attend out of respect and love for whomever has passed on. On Sunday I was sitting in that too small room with the urn and beautiful picture at the front of the room, surrounded by beautiful flowers and all I could think was that I was so relieved that someday, hopefully after my girls are raised, I will have family to stand up and surround my coffin, they will celebrate my life, they will cherish memories made with me and even though I will be rejoicing in Heaven, it makes me happy to think that through my girls a little piece of me will live on...It was the first time in my life that I thought about the heritage that I am passing on through my daughters. I have always wanted them to be well behaved when necessary and have tried to instill good values in them, but on Sunday, at that funeral, I realized that what I really want to pass on to them is my zest for life, I want them to be optimists, who always look at the glass as half full and a cloudy day as partly sunny! I want them to throw their heads back and laugh REALLY laugh that loudest laugh in the room because life should be fun, I want them to never know a stranger and to be friends with everyone, and I want them to embrace family and spend as much time together growing up as possible so that they have a great sister bond as adults. I am so thankful that God blessed me with my girl's so that a little piece of me will always live on through them... So I am going to start worrying a little less about the ever growing mountain of laundry that, let's face it, I am NEVER going to conquer, and start concentrating a little more on growing my heritage!! So that when I am up in Heaven looking down one day on my sweet girls, I will smile because they will be laughing through the tears at my funeral, because a story told is always better with giggles and I want the story of my life to be all about giggles we shared, so that my laughter can live on through them :) Plus growing my heritage is going to be so much better than doing their dirty laundry! of this I am sure!!

Have You Ever???

2011-06-27T09:40:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a dream that you just couldn't shake?? I had one last night and it is driving me crazy this morning! You know the kind that makes you where you can't focus because you keep going back to it? I dream ALOT, pretty much every night I have dreams that I can re account for in the morning, they are usually vivid and stupid but I remember every detail! I also dream about my past alot, not bad things, just about the people who were important to me years ago even though I may have absolutely no interaction with them today. Is that weird? Tell me I am not the only one! LOL! I also notice that scents trigger dreams for me, if I smell the cologne that my grandpa used to where then I usually see him in a dream within a few days, if I stay outside late at night and smell the fresh dew it will take me back to camping with my church youth group....So tell me do you dream? Are they vivid and of people in your past? Do you think that God tries to send us messages in our dreams?

Pup-Cake Cup Cakes 101

2011-06-23T13:19:00.000-05:00

Many of you know that I am a self taught, wanna be Food Network great, self proclaimed, cake decorator! It has been a year now since my debut cake which was a beach cake and I have come pretty far!! ANYWAY enough background! So my niece Lexie turned 10 this week :)

We are very proud of the young lady she has become! I can't believe it has been ten years since she came into our lives! She was the cutest little thing and has a personality that is one of a kind! She has went from growling at strangers to having the prettiest smile! We love you Lexie Lou and can't wait to see what the next year brings you!!

and now back to the cupcakes!

Okay so Lexie has always been a lover of dogs (hence why she growled when she was a toddler, I am pretty sure she acted like a dog for the first few years of her life! We embraced it and let her play in (clean) dog kennels and gave her Reese peanut butter cereal as dog food!) umm Caylee may be following in her foot steps....video footage of that soon....

ummmm back to the cupcakes

so I saw these cute dog cup cakes in a book called "Hello Cupcakes" and I had to try them! They turned out super cute! Wanna see???

now I can't take all the credit even though I really want too... because I mean they are stinking awesome...but I had an intern for this batch! My oldest niece Lydia, she did half of them and did a great job! really she almost showed me up and it was her first time!Carleigh did one too, can you guess which one??

(cell phone picture=bad quality Sorry!)

She did this 100 percent by herself, she used marshmallows for her eyes and gave it a collar that you can't see! Future pastry chef???

So how did we make these little puppies! Well first you bake your cupcakes just like always, and you have to let them cool completely! Than you decide on your dog color and ice the top of the cupcake. The trick for the nose of the dog is a marshmallows cut to the height of your desired snout. place on cupcake and then ice it too, and then we just used piping tips to draw on our faces! To make the ears we used rolled out tootsie rolls! One think we learned is that next time we will buy a bag of colored tootsie rolls so that we don't have to put icing on top of them when we want something other than brown ears! and that's how we did it!

This was a long post thanks for hanging in there with me!!! Have A GRRREAT Day!

Because my head is going to explode!

2011-06-21T13:09:00.000-05:00

UGH!! I am in the middle of my big yearly audit at work and if I have to think about it for one more minute my head is going to explode all over my office!! So I decided to sneak over here and do a little catch up! First of all I missed Flashback Friday, yeah I know I am not good at this blog thing, hopefully I get better as soon as things calm down a bit!! Second, I have no pictures for you today but I do have a fun post coming up that will include some cute pictures of Project "Pup"cake! oh yes my friends it was a fun project for sure!!! My girl's are ~~monsters~~ darlings as always :) they make me smile a million times a day! Caylee is now using Bull Sh*t in context frequently along with dam*it, I think maybe we need to start watching our mouths a little more...although she sounds pretty cute and funny when she says it so I can't help but laugh! Would I be a bad parent if I admitted to trying to capture that cute little toddler accent voice saying it, on video??? Sounds kinda like buww tit and nammit....okay I won't admit it then....well my friends, the auditor's are calling, can you hear them??? Sounds kinda like "DeAnna get your arse in here, we need to take a chunk out of it"...!! Good thing I have ALOT of cushion!!! Have a great day!! I will be back with pictures SOON I promise!

Flashback Friday!

2011-06-17T12:21:00.000-05:00

So I think that Flashback Friday is going to have to change to Must See Monday this week!! :) I have had an extra full week that has included both cars breaking down, getting ready for a week of an audit at work, and lots of other things!! I want to be an avid blogger and I sure am trying but not doing a very good job!! Once I get past my audit at work hopefully I will be able to jump back in with both feet!! I hope everyone has a GREAT FATHER'S DAY weekend celebrating the men in your life who have loved supported and raised you and those who love and support and raise your babies!! :) Be back on Monday with a post you won't want to miss!

Rock-a-Bye Baby

2011-06-15T12:58:00.000-05:00

You won't want to miss this receipe!!!!

2011-06-15T08:53:00.000-05:00

(I am definitely not a photographer of food!! )

So a month or two ago my mom snagged me a homemade ice cream maker, brand new, still in the box with the plastic, at a garge sale for 12 dollars!! It was such a fun bargain!! It is electric and works like a champ!! We have tried a couple different things with it but on Sunday we made the BEST peanut butter ice cream EVER!!! The receipe came from allreciepes.com and was melt in your mouth great! So I just have to share because you are going to want to try this! You will not regret it!!!

Ingredients

1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped

Directions

In a medium bowl, beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until thick, about 3 minutes. Set aside. Pour milk into a small saucepan, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Gradually drizzle the hot milk into the eggs while whisking vigorously. Then pour the whole mixture into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil.
Remove from heat, and whisk in peanut butter. Allow to cool slightly, then whisk in the sweetened condensed milk, half-and-half and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Fold in peanut butter cups when mixture is still soft, then transfer to a container, and freeze until solid.

You should really visit allrecipes.com they have TONS of great things to try!!!

FlashBack Friday!!!!!! (a few days late) but well worth the wait!

2011-06-13T12:01:00.002-05:00

Put me back!!!

I am learning how to use blogger and they have a feature where you can write a post and predate it which is how my Friday posts will be during the summer!!! But I didn't get that done for this Friday so lets have a Flashback Friday on a Monday, K!!....K~ Here is a five year flashback to one perfect little Ms. Magoo looking Carleigh Lou!!!! Oh my how she stole our heats!!! and look at these two!! PRICELESS!! aren't the just too stinking cute!!

Oh how time flies!! Come back next Friday!! You may just be surprised at who we flashback to next!! :)

Carnival!!!! Family Reunion!!!!!

2011-06-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

Oh wow I have missed blogging!! Summer got here and life kind of exploded on me! But I think that I have gotten things under control and back into a semblance of a routine!! So let's play a little bit of catch up! The girls are both doing great! Caylee is cracking me up at how much she is mimicking Carleigh right now! She wants to do everything she does! It is pretty stinking cute! and Carleigh doesn't seem to mind at all! (Yet!) I am sure it is coming!! A couple of weeks ago the carnival came to town and we had a lot of fun, but it was very eye opening to me that Carleigh is definitely leaving the pre-schooler era and turning into a big girl! She rode most of the big kid rides!! and LOVED THEM!! Caylee is the prefect age for the toddler rides and Carleigh rode some of those with her too "just to be my helper"! This was the first carnival of the summer season and even though Caylee did some rides last year this was time she squealed and laughed and loved them and cried when we left! Carleigh had to get arm art :) Fun stuff! I am pretty sure she didn't wash that shoulder for like 7 days!

Miss Independent did her own hair ( I am so not ready for THAT stage!!)

The weekend after the carnival was Family Reunion Weekend, Tim's Dad and Step Mom Carla came up from Texas and we camped the weekend at Tim's cousin's house! The rest of his family came on Saturday for a cookout! It was a nice time, it rained :( that was a bummer! It was cold like sweat shirts and long pants on memorial day weekend! UGH!! but we made the best of it and had a blast! I however was busy cooking, cleaning, chasing kids, playing in our new camper, chasing kids, unloading a sandbox and multiple other forms of entertainment. ( I like to feel like Mary Poppins with my magic bag of tricks!) and trying to get some visiting in!!

I enjoy being the butt of the family jokes ;)

Magic show anyone? Carleigh made this leaf disappear and reappear!! She that little speck on the ATV out there, yeah that's Caylee, she was a ATV pro!!! She LOVED it!

Not to be shown up by her sister and cousins!

Tim and all his cousins and brother? I am curious can you tell which one is his brother?

Gigi and Pops!! We like to make Gigi laugh :)

Tim's Aunt, Son, and Uncle :)

Caylee thinks she is going to Stow away to Texas! Her mama thinks NOT!

Okay that catches me up on major events :) Check back tomorrow for our first ever "Flashback Friday!!!" I can't wait to post it!

Must see!!!

2011-06-06T16:14:00.000-05:00

Okay so I promise to be back to regular blogging soon so please please hang in there with me! Life has been a little bit insane but I am hoping to be back to normal in the next day or two!!!! Until then this is the most adorable you tube video I have seen! I am so going to teach my girls this so that we can be bonafide Gleeks!! Carleigh is already pretty good!! and Caylee shakes her booty like no other!!

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bxuWSXwR4Mc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Writer's Block, Memorial Day, Busyness and a Receipe Oh My!!!!

2011-06-01T13:37:00.000-05:00

So sorry for the delay in blogging!!! I have a million ideas for posts but for some reason I can't get them communicated onto this screen in a way that I like them!! UGH!! I guess they call that some form of writer's block!!! We had a WONDERFUL Memorial Day weekend!! I wasn't on my computer at all over the weekend to do a post but we enjoyed camping at Tim's cousin's property with his Dad and Step mom, cousin's, brother, sister-in -law and nieces and nephews and aunt's and uncles! It was a great time that deserves it's own post just as soon as I get my hands on some pictures! On top of all of this I have been SWAMPED at work! and it isn't looking like the rest of the week is going to be any better! so for now I will leave you with the recipe I promised last week!! and I will be back soon with some new updates, and pictures!!!

This makes an awesome appetizer! Tim brought the receipe home from a coworker and we have made it numerous times since!!!!

Sausage Bread

2 cans crescent rolls
1 pound of sausage (mild or hot depending on your taste buds!)
1 package of cream cheese

Roll out one can of crescent rolls onto a cookie sheet
brown your sausage until fully cooked and then drop in your block of cream cheese and mix into the sausage until it is melted and mixed together.
Take mixture and spread onto rolled out crescent roll
Take second can of crescent rolls roll them out and cover the other crescent roll and mixture. Press sides firmly together to create a seal all the way around and cook at 350 until golden brown. Slice and enjoy while hot!!

Ramblings of a Working mom! Crazy week!

2011-05-25T11:21:00.000-05:00

So first of all thanks for sticking with me through my first month of blogging!! I AM LOVING IT!!! and you guys have been a GREAT audience!! I am always looking for ideas of things you would like to hear about so feel free to leave me a comment if you have a post idea!! I have big plans for my blogging future but first I need to get through a crazy week! Although my week seems boring in comparison to those poor people in the lower states who have lost everything! I find myself being drawn to the TV watching the devastation and it is making me realize that in ten seconds your whole life can change....ten seconds, a blink of an eye and your whole world comes crashing around you, makes me wonder if I am equip to handle something like that! Is my faith strong enough? and I a strong enough person to have to start over completely from scratch? UGH! I know for a fact that I definitely am not but that God is and I believe he will spend the next months and years helping those poor people pick up the pieces to their lives if they let him! In the mean time I am praying for them and I hope you are too! My week as already consisted of a sick child, a flat tire, more roof damage, lots of cleaning, forgetfulness, and a very messed up pool!!! BUT the rest of the week is going to consist of making grocery lists, and lists of what we need for our new camper, getting it stocked up, making new curtains while my mom makes new seat cushions and just getting organized! This weekend my husbands family is coming from all over for a family reunion and we are going to camp with them!!! SO EXCITED! I will be back tomorrow with another new recipe!! This time for an appetizer! You won't want to miss it!! Quick, easy and delicious it is another family favorite!! After that I will be absent for a few days!rest assured I will be back soon with stories or our adventure!!! HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY EVERYONE!!!

Ten things my parents DID NOT warn me about when I was becoming one!

2011-05-24T15:24:00.003-05:00

10.That I would tear up, clap, and wrap a box full of presents, over a bowel movement, ( a child's not my own, well maybe my own after the delivery!!)
9. That it would be years before I would be able to start and finish a new novel without having to reread the same chapters over and over again maybe only progressing a page or two at each attempt because A. I fell asleep, B. the baby cried, puked, pooped, was hungry or maybe was doing all of these things at one time, or C. I fell asleep
8. That even after my kids started sleeping through the night I would never be able too again because they may be cold, warm, or stolen making me get up to check at least once or that I would need to pee and get my own drink.... and so sleepless nights continue :)
7. That I would need to develop A.D.D. to keep up with my children and husband.....
6. Wait what was I doing again????
5. That I would develop an insane protective instinct and I would feel really ugly feelings toward anyone who attempts to criticize my children, they may be spirited and busy but by golly they are mine and you better not say one negative word about them, I definitely have a bad case of mama bear syndrome!
4. That I would one day sound just like them!!! ( maybe they did warn me of this and I just didn't hear them...hmmm seems familiar!)
3. That our sex life would be forever changed(can I say sex on my blog?? just being real here people!)....or wait did I ever have one of those?? I have seem to forgotten...
2. That my idea of a fun night out would include sending my kids to my sisters, donning my jammy pants and cotton t-shirt, re-reading those chapters of my novel and falling asleep by ten......

and the number one thing my parents forgot to warn me about is.................

1. That I would develop the language skills of a 2 year old, the attitude of a 5 year old and the mental capacity of man in order to ~~cope~~ embrace the joys of being a working mama!!!!

2 year photoshoot meet the "true" giggling girls!

2011-05-23T21:32:00.000-05:00

So I am about two months behind schedule on our two year pictures :) but hey she is going to be two for the whole year right??? LOL! Oh the pressures of motherhood! Make sure they are fed, bathed, clothed, loved, played with, don't forget to take pictures with your camera all the time and by golly don't forget to make sure and schedule those professional pictures at 3,6,9,12,18, & 24 months! along with Doctors appointments for each of those milestones as well! Throw in your second kid and then it gets even trickier because those milestone months may be a couple of months off from each other and you have to make the decision on which kid has to wait!!! oh the demands of motherhood! ANYWAY Auntie's photography to the rescue as usual!! Here are a few of my favorites!!

looking a bit windblown!! We didn't realize how windy it was until we started our impromptu shoot!

AND THE TRUE GIGGLING GIRL'S!!! These are the ones that will be gracing my fireplace!

We are here to Graduate, cause we learned alot!!!

2011-05-20T21:56:00.006-05:00

Carleigh,

Today you graduated Pre-K, I can't believe you are already done! .It seems like just the other day I put that bright colored back pack on your tiny 3 year old back and it almost touched the ground it was so big compared to you. Today you were a head taller than every single kid on stage! You have lost your baby look and are looking more grown up everyday. You have learned so much this year, from handwriting your full name to memorizing your address and phone number! You count well and you can can tell me your numbers and your full alphabet! You have learned all the sounds and how to identify capital letters and lower case! You have mastered pattern's and are getting really good at rhyming words! You are a very happy, social little girl and you make your teachers smile and laugh! You love all things art and the smart board is one of your favorite things to do at school!! Last year you wanted to be a Rock Star when you grew up, but this year that changed to a hair stylist! You have lots of years to decide what you want to be and we can't wait to see what you choose!!! Your daddy and I are so proud of the sweet, smart little girl you are and we can't wait to see how much you grow and learn in kindergarten!! We love you Carleigh Lou!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Our All Time FAVORITE family receipe!

2011-05-19T22:03:00.001-05:00

In the blog world other bloggers do weekly features that you can link up with, This week I am linking up with Kelly over at Kelly's Korner! She is doing "Show us your life-Main Course Dishes" Oh yeah baby!! I LOVE FOOD! This was the prefect chance for me to share a little bit of comfort food love with ya'll! ( side note: I had every intention of making this dish and taking pictures as I went along but my husband failed to pick up my ingredients at the store and I didn't realize it until it was too late! better luck next time! Ha! )
The dish I am about to share with you is one that I have been eating since I was tiny! In fact it is a dish that many of my family and friends have probably had at one time or another at our home :) and the best part about it is that it is SUPER easy!!! I MEAN SUPER!! So do you have your pens handy?? Let's start with a grocery list! When we make this meal I always pair it with mashed potato's, green beans, and applesauce :) and then we like to use the sauce on top of the mashed potato's like gravy!!!!

Chicken and Crescent Rolls

What you Need : 2 cans crescent rolls (any brand!) 1 bag Colby jack shredded cheese, 2 cans cream of chicken soup, 2 large cans canned chicken (or you can shred your own boneless skinless chicken breasts, or use the rotisserie chickens that you can get cheap at the store and shred those!! I have used these all and my preferred method is the canned chicken but the other ways work too!) , and salt and pepper

9x13 pan and a mixing bowl and a fork and you are all set to go!

First you are going to take 3/4 of your bag of cheese and dump it into your mixing bowl, then you are going to drain off your cans of chicken or shred your chicken breast, dump the chicken in with the cheese, add a dash of salt and pepper, and mix it together with a spoon. Next you are going to open your cans of crescent rolls and split them up individually and put a heaping spoonful of the chicken cheese mixture into the center of the crescent and fold the edges around the mixture, so that the mixture is tucked securely inside, then lay it in your 9 by 13 pan. Repeat this step until all of your crescents are full. Next your going to open your cans of cream of chicken soup, pour into a bowl and mix with 1 to 1 1/2 cans of milk, stir, and then pour over the top of the crescent rolls, sprinkle with the remaining cheese and bake at 350 until the crescent rolls are golden brown! and then ENJOY!!

The other great thing about this meal is that it can be frozen and then pulled out and cooked at a later time!

How did I get here?

2011-05-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have those moments where all of a sudden you stop and think to yourself, How did I get here?? How did I get to this exact moment in my life? I had one of those tonight, I was doing my night time routine with my girls and all of a sudden it stopped me dead in my tracks and I thought to myself, How did I get here already? How am I already the mom to a five year old and a 2 year old and a wife of almost 8 years, How am I already helping to plan my ten year high school reunion, How in the world did I grow up so fast? I love all of those things but tonight I was thinking man I grew up so fast! Those years of being a kid, they went by really quick...I loved my childhood, I loved my school, my friends, the guy that I spent four years of my life chasing, I loved working at the Christian bookstore, I loved living at home with my parents and siblings... I loved walking to church on Wednesday nights for youth group and then going to the park across the street and swinging and talking until curfew, I loved laying on the grassy lawn of my best friends house and looking at the stars and laughing for hours all of those moments shaped me into who I am today....it is so strange to me now that all those years ago all I could think of was wanting to be to the point in my life that I am at today. I wanted to be a wife, a mom, to have a house filled with giggles, a lawn for my kids to play on but wow how in the world did I get here already? How can it be that I am already 28 years old and working to create awesome childhoods for my children like the one that was created for me..... How is it that my girls are already 5 and 2 when it was just yesterday that they were fresh and new in my arms, I am determined to relish in there youthfulness, to cherish each stage and each moment (okay maybe not the moments when they are melting down in the middle of the grocery store or killing each other) because I feel like the more days that past the faster my life is going and all to soon I am going to be looking at my girls and instead of graduating Pre-K they will be graduating college and I am going to be wondering... How did I get here already.........

Mirror Mirror on the Wall. . .

2011-05-18T11:13:00.000-05:00

This is not great quality and is dark because it was on my phone in bad lighting but it is worth watching!!! This is life with Caylee!! I have blogged about Carleigh and was waiting for the prefect Caylee thing and I am glad I held out!!! She is so funny, she talks well and says all kinds of cute things but to capture her true personality you have to be paying attention because she does the funniest things when she thinks your not watching! She was sitting in the living room rocking chair by herself when she started doing this and I came to check on her and grabbed my phone to video what I witnessed!!

You know you need to see your hair dresser when. . .

2011-05-17T10:41:00.000-05:00

Your five year old draws a picture of you that reflects your highlights growing out!!!!

Ramblings of a Working Mom Weekend Review

2011-05-16T10:06:00.001-05:00

Mother Nature Sucks, just saying! The weather was crappy and horrible all weekend long and then boom wake up Monday morning to get ready to head for work and what do a I find but cloudless bright blue skies, yes indeed Mother Nature Sucks.....obviously her children are grown and she has forgotten what it is like to corral children indoors ALL WEEKEND long....so we did the only thing a responsible parent would do, we dressed our kids in warm clothes and spent from 10- 4 Saturday afternoon playing in the rain, and the mud and the puddles while Tim power washed off his grandma's house and I helped her with her landscaping, we were drenched, covered in dirt but happy :) It was a good day! The kids had a blast! and I didn't take any pictures because come on people it was RAINING!! and well I just don't think we need proof of how dirty we all were.......yeah it was bad! LOL! Okay now I am blogging out of order but on Friday night we rented Ramona and Beezus, and The Switch!!! I give Ramona and Beezus 5 stars! It was an adorable, funny, cute, kid friendly, didn't bore mom and dad, all around good movie!!! and The Switch was a fun date night movie! We ate popcorn with the kids, tried to make homemade ice cream which was a bust when the container wouldn't freeze fast enough, tucked them in and then had a movie date! Great Night! :) and now lets see that leaves us with Sunday! Oh yes Sunday ummmm I started it off with attempt number 5 of potty training Caylee...yeah that isn't going to happen anytime soon :) Sweet stubborn little darling that holds it until I let her get up off the potty and then starts peeing down her leg....She is only 25 months :) No hurry, last baby, she can where diapers until she is five, it is all good :) She has awesome bladder control, last weekend she held it for three hours until I put her diaper on for nap time....yup she is Tim's kid :) umm not about needing a diaper for nap time...about being stubborn HAHAHA!! Carleigh found Mr. Crab, in my bedroom, hiding by the bookshelf in my bedroom, which is a miracle itself....Lucky for him I had cleaned it last weekend! or else he may never have been found alive..... I read Karen Kingsbury's new book Leaving it was AWESOME, I finished it in a 24 hour time span which use to be the norm for me but anymore that is exceptional, Great book definitely recommend, and I made chex mix which means for the next few days my children will not eat any good solid meals because they will choose to exist on chex mix alone..................The End.

Because every post needs some cuteness ;)

Dear Mr. Hermit Crab........

2011-05-12T08:29:00.000-05:00

Mr. Hermit Crab I am very disappointed in the way you are acting right now! We saved you from captivity, we have given you hermit crab food and water and even treats of fresh fruit! We let you out of your home every night for a nice run around the rug and the girls check in on you a few times a day! But your behavior this week has been unacceptable! Mr. Hermit Crab I fear if you don't show yourself soon you are doomed to a ROTTEN life and that is going to make my girls and I very sad. You see because a rotten life is not only going to be extremely unpleasant for you but it is going to leave a very unwelcome stench in the air of my house.......So please Mr. Hermit Crab show yourself soon and while you are enjoying your travels outside the walls of your little pink cage please remember we will leave the light on off for you so that maybe you will show yourself soon.............................

Love, Your Family

Future Puppeteer or Bully??? The verdict is still out!

2011-05-10T11:10:00.003-05:00

This is our very first video on our blog!! I hope you enjoy it!!!! Carleigh performed this for me at Muffin's for Mom's on Monday! More on that later but for now here is a sneak peek at our day!I love the different voices that Carleigh uses as she makes the puppets talk!! She was doing a puppet show based on one of the Minivera books I think!

http://youtu.be/fH_rrEwJkSA

I am trying to get a video of Caylee but she isn't cooperating very much! LOL! so maybe I will just have to post one of her acting her ornery self!!

A Date at the Drive In!!

2011-05-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

On Saturday Night we took our little ladies on a date for pizza at JuanCarol's (Carleigh's name for DiCarlo's) and to their very first Drive In Movie!! It was so much fun and we highly recommend Rio!!!!

I was pleasently suprised with how inexpensive the treats in the snack bar were and it was very affordable to get into the theater too!! The girls stayed awake for the whole show and loved the singing birdies! Carleigh was confused at how the whole thing was going to work but then once we got the car situated and they lit up the big screen it was lots of ohhhs and ahhhs!! We had a great weekend filled with lots of fun! Mother's Day was great and I would love to do a post on it but I was super busy all day and never stopped to take pictures!! But pictures or not I got in a a lot of good time with my girls and am so blessed to be their mommy!! I remember those Mother's Day's when I wondered what the path to motherhood was going to look like for me and I remember thinking that I was going to accomplish being a mom no matter what path it took to get there! So to all you ladies who are wanting to be mommies and just aren't there yet! Hang in there and be determined!! The journey may be long and hard but the destination is well worth the wait!!! In the mean time I am praying for it to happen for you sooner rather than later!!

Ramblings of a Working Mom

2011-05-04T21:19:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else's husband unload the dishwasher this way???? (yes that is all clean Tupperware that someones husband didn't put away while unloading their dishwasher!Glad I am not that woman...HA!) sigh......

I bet your husband never buys a bazillion apple cinnamon oatmeal bars that you have no place for either! Not to mention they are something healthy! Seriously couldn't he bring me home a big ol' bulk box of twix bars!!! Thanks honey..............

And while Carleigh decorated the house with her art work, and mommy cleaned (This is our family, I was told not to touch it because she needed to add more people to it tomorrow)

She made this flower at school and decided it deserved a real place of honor in my bedroom! (precious!) (Man I need to straighten that picture of Caylee!)

Caylee decided to............... well lets just let her explain

This is her ~~going Goth on me~~ putting on her yipstick (lipstick) sigh................... Thank goodness for non-toxic Caroyla markers!!

Did I mention that I took the girl's out to dinner and while we were waiting for my parents Carleigh may have accidentally knocked down two metal chairs that made an extremely obnoxious clattering noise that turned the head of every single person in the restaurant while her darling little sister used her plastic bowl and metal spoon as a drum......or that Tim and I spent a mere 2 hours ~~destroying our house~~ looking for our lock box keys
That my friends is why mommy is ending her day this way!!!!!!

Okay okay it is just a pretty glass of Sprite but if I would have had the real thing I am pretty sure I would have deserved a glass!!!!!!!!

A moment in History

2011-05-01T23:11:00.003-05:00

Tonight our country is claiming victory over the death of Osama Bin Laden, I feel that this is an important piece of history to document on our blog, it will be many years before our daughters will even have a remote understanding of how monumental this night is but should they some day look back and wonder what they were doing I want them to be able to see!

Sweet Girls,

Tonight is a moment in American History, Today an evil man was killed, Osama Bin Laden was the man who orchestrated the 2001 Twin Tower Attacks in New York City, Over 3000 innocent people were killed that day and tonight those families have a small piece of closure. Tonight while President Obama was making this announcement you were sleeping soundly in your beds, safe with full belly's, no worries and with the comforts of all the things that being an American brings you, you are free to worship Jesus, you have freedom of speech, and you have so many rights that so many children around the world will never have. Tonight a moment in History was made and you were right where you should've been, dreaming sweet childlike dreams without the worry of war and bombs and so many other things that we can still shelter you from. Tomorrow you will wake up and the most important thing to you will be whether or not it is a "going to Meme's day" or not. Today I am so Thankful that we are Americans and that we are able to raise you in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

Love,
Mommy

A Prayer

2011-04-30T22:05:00.001-05:00

Deeeaaaarrr JESUS! Thank you for my family ummmmmm thank you for my Easter eggs......(mommy whispering- thank him for our food) Thank you for all the food and Jesus please make it not rain so I can go fishing I NEED to catch me big ol' fish! AMEEEENN! ~ Carleigh's Easter prayer

Jesus heard her prayer and it didn't rain on Easter day for us even though it was forecasted! The simplicity of this prayer leaves me thinking about Jesus and His job, can you imagine all the prayers He hears all day long! What a job! and I know He is heartbroken with each one that breaks our hearts which could make for a sad day on some days, which makes me love the picture that formed in my mind as she was praying this, It was of Jesus looking down on her and smiling with a big ol' grin, I bet He laughed a deep ol' belly laugh and thought to himself, Ya know Carleigh catch a big one for me too!!

This is Caylee telling me "Me catch a fish too!!" Pa tried to help her but she got mad at him and said "me do

it" so we had to take the hook off her pole for safety of her and everyone around her!!LOL

Myth Buster- Christian's shouldn't seek help with infertility

2011-04-29T09:20:00.001-05:00

One of my hopes with this blog is to help other's who are on the infertility journey. This week is National Infertility Awareness Week (click here to learn more) and I am joining up with RESOLVE for their "myth buster" blog challenge. The myth that I have chosen is that people of the Christian faith shouldn't seek out the help of a Reproductive Endocrinologist and fertility treatments. When I found out that I was infertile I was very conflicted about what people in my church would say if they found out we were going to seek out medical help to make our dream of being parents come true. It also tested my own faith because I felt like I was saying to God that I didn't trust Him enough to give me a baby without seeking intervention. I never doubted that I would choose to do the medical intervention but I did doubt that the people of the church would understand my reasoning for it. I remember thinking to myself that I couldn't believe that I would have to bear the burden of infertility and then be "stoned" for choosing the route of shots and treatments. It was then that I decided I would go public with our journey, to me not saying anything made me feel like I was ashamed about my choices and that I was hiding them. The reception I felt from the people in my church family when I finally opened up was amazing. They were all very supportive, they offered up many prayers on our behalf and they continued to be a huge part of our support system. I remember feeling such a peace when the pastor of my church prayed for us by name. But the one moment that made the most impact on me was when a mentor of mine, came to me and said, "DeAnna, never be ashamed of this journey, if you were diagnosed with cancer or diabetes you would seek the help of a physician, God has given Doctors the talents to be His hands while we are here, just as you would take the chemo or insulin they would prescribe you to fix those problems, it is okay to take the medicines to fix your fertility problem." That statement is so true! God doesn't ask us to bear our burdens alone, He doesn't see us seeking out treatments for medical conditions as not trusting Him, He sees it as us using the talents that He has given us to work with on this earth! There are many angles to fertility treatments and many reason's that some Christians are conflicted by them, to this I say, educate yourself, find out the methods of treatments that you can embark on that will not compromise your belief system. If freezing embryo's isn't something you agree with than have your RE only fertilize the ones you will be implanting, if you believe that your RE's collection room for semen analyse is filled with viewing material that you don't feel comfortable with, ask that your husband be able to use a different room, if you want your egg and sperm to meet up naturally ask for Intrauterine Insemination with your husbands sperm. So to all those who say Christians should trust God to have babies, I agree and I trusted Him by believing that He would give my Doctor's the knowledge to diagnosis and treat my problem. And He did and I am forever thankful for that!

Please vist http://www.resolve.org/infertility101 for more information on battling infertility. I wish I would have had more resources while going through my treatments and Resolve offers many different resources to make sure you know your not alone on your journey!

Rainbows and a Persistent 5 year old

2011-04-28T09:25:00.001-05:00

Last night we were driving home from my parents house and Carleigh saw a rainbow in the sky, It never ceases to surprise me how things I see as "normal" are still new to her!! She squeals "Look mom a beautiful rainbow!! Let's find the end of it! We need to find the leprechaun and the pot of gold!!" This made me giggle and then I decided this was a teachable moment and I went right into the bible story about Noah's Ark and the rainbow and God's promise, except I am not a teacher, and I am pretty sure I didn't get all the details right! LOL! But ya know I covered the basics, BIG Ark, rain for 40 days and nights, A dove sent out the window returning with an Olive Branch, and the whole reason for the lesson, God's Promise of never flooding the earth again which He showed us by putting a pretty rainbow in the sky, it was pretty basic and when asked she was able to tell the story back to me, and then she looked up at me from her seat exasperatedly and said "Now mommy can we go find the leprechaun and the pot of gold????" ..............

Welcome!!

2011-04-27T14:02:00.001-05:00

Welcome to our blog! I am so excited to kick this off! It is something that I have been thinking about doing for a while and just now got around to setting it all up! I am hoping to use it as a journal that I can make into a book for our girls as they grow, anyone who knows me, knows that I am an avid baby book keeper and I love to write! I hope you will come back and visit us often as I share the many adventures of our family! Thanks for stopping by and we hope you will come back soon!!

First Blog Glitches!!!!!

2011-04-20T13:37:00.000-05:00

Okay this starting a blog thing is not near as easy as I thought it would be!! I am becoming exteremly frustrated getting my templates, header and font all to look right!! It is making me want to scream and do away with blogging before I ever get my first post drafted!!!!