Friday

Happy Friday! Eliana, Baby C and I spent a quiet day at home. She just loves our little baby friend and this week has been into stroking his head while I feed him his bottles and saying, "Aw, he's so cute!" She repeats this at least 6 times a bottle:)

The boys completed another successful week at school! We started getting homework for both boys this week but I think it will be increasing next week, as the teachers start adding in more things. Samuel and I had a rough time with homework last week. He and I tend to butt heads a bit over it but thankfully, we started establishing some better afternoon routines this week that worked wonders!

I have been letting the boys stay for 10-15 minutes to play on the school playground after school and then we walk home, with them telling me things about their day. We get home and I give them a snack and declare it "Grace Period" for a half an hour. That means they can do whatever they want: read a book, play a game, play with toys, lay on the floor like a log, whatever. After the Grace Period is over, they bring me folders (which contain all the papers and homework from the day) and we start going through everything and working on homework, while I start making dinner. This is one reason why we moved our table into our kitchen; so that I could do dinner and help with homework at the same time!

A friend invited the boys over after school today so they walked home with some buddies and that gave me extra time this afternoon! I picked them up after our friend came to pick up Baby C and the boys were sweaty, stinky and happy! We came home and made our homemade pizza and watched a Dr Suess video from the library:)

Eliana has been getting into some newer nighttime/naptime rituals with how she says goodnight. She wants to give me a "little baby kiss" and if she deigns, she will let me give her a little baby kiss on her sweet cheek. Then she says, "I want to say goodnight. Goodnight, Mama!" Then the last two days she has reminded me that we are both girls and "they" are all boys:) And then she'll blow me some kisses and after I close the door, she yells, "I LOVE YOU!!!"

She is such a sweet, stinker princess!! So lucky she has a strict Daddy to keep her under control...hahaha! (in case you don't realize the joke: She has her Daddy wrapped around all of her little fingers;)

Here's your proof:

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday!

Just had to share:

She is the sweetest little mommy ever!!

A Visitor, Child Labor and Fall!

 I have had so much trouble using google the past two days but thankfully it is working today! It was so very hot last week which made walking to/from school pretty miserable! On Friday afternoon, I was talking to Ben on the phone when I noticed something moving on our back porch out of the corner of my eye. I quickly realized it was a squirrel, which is unusual!

I crept closer and peeked out of our blinds and saw this:

At first I was afraid the squirrel was dying on our porch because it was panting really fast and kept laying out flat like a squirrel rug! But then I realized that the poor squirrel was trying to cool off since it was 96 degrees outside! The heat and lack of rain had dried up all the water in the birdbath, which they usually drink from. I ended up taking out a huge pot of water and refilling the birdbath. He came back twice to rest in the cool shade of our concrete porch but I am sure he is now enjoying the cooler weather!

We were planning on having a fun day as a family on Saturday but were thwarted by heavy rain all morning. So Ben got the kiddos working on scrubbing the bathtub ~ which it really needed! They worked hard and long, using our new natural cleaning supplies of baking soda, water and lemons! Oh, and don't forget the toothbrushes:)

And if you think this is child labor or torture, don't! They had a really good time:)

Today the kiddos are home from school and hopefully will be doing a lot of playing outside since it has cooled off so much. We are even starting to think about apple picking and maybe even a camping trip nearby before it gets too cold!

I may even start getting in the mood for some fall baking and quilting. It's my favorite time of the year!

Sickness, Sewing and Birthday!

 The cold germs continue. They consumed Eliana as of last night. She was suspiciously sneezing yesterday afternoon but the cold consensus was confirmed by the continual crying through the night and appearance of the dreaded runny nose.

Today she had "sick eyes" and I had constant nose-wiping duty. I just re-use the burp clothes I made when she was born for nose cloths because they are so soft on a runny nose! I hoping that she will be a wee bit less cranky tomorrow....:)

Here she is yesterday afternoon, tucking her baby and elephant into Baby C's bouncy seat:)

She sure loves her babies!!

Samuel reading a little "Chronicles of Narnia" to Daddy:) Samuel is just soaking up any and all time he can get with Ben right now. Playing catch, doing homework, reading books, hugs...

I made a purse! I have a bag-fettish and cannot have enough bags/purses. I absolutely love Vera Bradley because there are so many different styles and fabrics (some cute and fun, some ugly:) but they are super expensive and I can only get them once in a blue moon when I get my birthday discount plus a good sale.

So, I thought I would make one! It took about 3 days because the beginning stages of cutting out all the pieces and applying the interfacing takes a really long time. I added 3 extra pockets because I love pockets! There is one on the outside (you can barely see it) and one big/2 smaller ones on the inside. I thought the blue would be good for fall. Now, I will not show you any close-ups so you cannot see the mistake I made in lining up the exterior and lining of the purse:)

I have had to force myself not to pick up any books this week, just so I would work on my projects. If I have a good book, I can't put it down and focus on anything else. And I've read a LOT of books this summer so it's been good for me to focus on something else:)

I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my sweet Grandma! You are such a gift to me, FULL of love, wisdom, kindness and care for your family. I pray this is a special year, full of blessings!

Mommy-duty calls; I hear a sad little girl waking up crying.....

Fashion Show

 On Sunday, Eliana wore a skirt that my sister made for her. It's an adorable reversible skirt, which I told my sister is just perfect for a clothes-picky toddler! She started to throw a fit over the outfit I picked out for church but I quickly thwarted her by asking which side she wanted to wear. Tantrum averted and she wore what I picked out! hahaha~sneaky mama:)

My sister asked me to take some pics so she could use them online for her etsy shop. Hence Missy's fashion show....

There's only so much you can do with a 2 1/2 year old! :)

My crew!

Tonight I went to Samuel's open house to meet his teacher and see his classroom. His teacher, Mrs. D., is VERY nice and he just loves her already! She gives him lots of hugs, doesn't like loud noises (they bonded immediately on that one:), and has been teaching 3rd grade at his school for 8 years! He will definitely learn a lot this year. I had this moment when I was listening to his teacher describe their school day when it hit me, "THIRD grade!!" Wow, where does the time go?

I'm getting my crafty bug back! It's been seriously lacking over the last several months but finally I am feeling my creative juices flowing again:) I don't have much time to craft these days, as life is very busy but I hope to keep it up as much as possible. I need to have a little "me-time" to refresh myself. I bought a little diaper/wipe cloth case back before Eliana was born and I now use it to carry an extra outfit and panties (woo-hoo~no diapers!!). It was getting really limp and had weird stains all over it so I decided to create my own. Isn't it pretty?!

There are two pockets inside to hold the diapers/wipes or extra clothes. I gave the old one to Eliana to use for Baby Anna and she LOVES it! She put Baby Anna's dress, a diaper and some other random treasures in it and she carries it around with her:)

She rarely allows Baby Anna to wear her dress but she was feeling generous yesterday:)

Her imaginative play is really developing right now! It is SO fun to listen to her make her dolls talk (or bathtoys or cars, etc). She has been into these two little dolls I got her for Christmas. They are miniature cabbage patch dolls (about 6 inches high) dressed like Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. She has been dressing and undressing them, giving them baths in her dollhouse bathtub and carrying them around everywhere. She is such a fun little girl!

I also wanted to take the time to share a story and a link with you! My cousin, Charity, and her husband, Scott, are adopting a baby boy this fall, after a long journey with infertility and fostering. Scott started a blog a few months ago about life as a foster parent and now as a soon-to-be adoptive parent. He really has a gift with writing about all that God has taught them through these experiences. What started out to be an extremely painful situation, has opened their hearts and doors to bigger things than they ever imagined.

If you have some time, please consider praying for and/or donating to their adoption fund. They have stepped out in faith, trusting that God will provide all that they need and so far have been blown away by the support from family and friends all around the country!  They even have a sponsor, willing to match their first $5,000, which they are really close to reaching! Please feel free to pass on their story and link to anyone you know that may be able to help. Their blog is: http://yoderlife.tumblr.com and their fundraiser page is: http://www.gofundme.com/YoderFamilyAdoption

Have a good night!