What Have I Been Up To?

We took the girls Trick-or-Treating in Willard tonight. The girls ahd a blast with their cousins getting candy. I really debated letting them go this year. I don't mind them getting candy at the campground because being mid-October we can seperate that our from Halloween as a "camping activity." I'm not so sure about regugular Trick-or-Treating though. Nathan and I oppose all that Halloween stands for and the heritage it comes from. We don't think Trick-or-Treating itself is wrong but how do you explaine to a 4 year old that you can get candy tonight but we don't celebrate Halloween? It's hard though when I grew up doing it and all of their little friends do as well. I guess this is just one of those things that is hard for those who are not spiritually mature to recognize the difference. So next year we might be staying home instead, but it's a year away so there is plenty of time to think about it. Here is another cute pic of my Bo Peep and her sheep!

I'm VERY cautious about introducing new foods to Caroline and about her only having healthy foods, especially with her dairy allergy. I'm not quite organic with my kids (yet) but I really limit sugar and such. Well I kinda had a weak spot to night and let Caroline taste a sucker from the Trick-or-Treat candy. I figured one lick can't kill her. Well, she clinched her teeth down and would not let go! I eventually got it out of her mouth but had to throw it away because she was chomping on it and getting big pieces off!

So the past three days of spinning ribbon has lead to this! I listed my first auctions on ebay tonight...see link to the right -------->

This is one set that I listed. It is a Made to Match Gymboree set that goes with their Imaginary Friends Line.

I also completed and listed this "Give Thanks" album this week. There are tons of journaling cards in it to journal about being thankful for you family, friends, home, and faith. This album was made out of coin (mini manilla) envelopes. You can check out the "My ebay auctions" link to the right for that one as well.

So as you can see I've been kinda busy around here this week. That's probably why my laundry is a tad bit behind??? Hmmm? I just figured I'd get some of this stuff on ebay while hubby was gone each evening working. I''l be listing more as I finish them.

Photos from the Weekend

Sorry that I didn't post all weekend. Obviously we were busy Saturday with the pary, but we are still trying t0 get into the swing of Daddy having a 2nd job as wel. Plus...My ribbons arrived! Yeah! Yep, after my 900+ yards of ribbon came I have been busy spinning them around doll rods to bake for step 1 of the bows. I think I have about 5 yards of each of the 20 somthing colors I ordered done? Nathan and I figured out that each bow takes about 6 1/2 yards and most people order the bows in piggie tail set of two, so that means about 13 yards of ribbon per order! Lots of spinning, cutting, and no-fray-ing are headed my way!

So here are a *few*pics of my sewwt (and sometimes rough) Emma Grace's Tinkerbell party. She had a blast and loved being the center of it all. She took a late nap that day so she was kinda crabby when the party started by warmed up pretty quickly. We chuckled because after she was done eating, (still waking up...) she came and laid down on the floor by me and said

"Get the van!"

"Why do we need the van Em?"

"We gotta go."
"Where do we need to go?"

"We gotta get the van and go to Grandma Bobbie's"

Mind you my mom is at the party? So I remind her that she still needs to play games, open pressents, and eat cake and she decided she would stay for her party. That Goof!On the way home she was WIRED! I think the late nap + lots of sugar + loads of fun made her giddy? No for real she was jabbering nonesense more Like Maddelyn was an deven laughing at her own Emma jokes? She was goofey as all get out that night and like Nathan siad, thank goodness we were just driving 50 min home and not on a road trip!

So here they are:

Getting Tinkerbell "Pixi Dust" applied

Daddy being caught on film doing the "follow the fairy" game. Hun, you're political career will thank me for those wings someday!

My niece-on-the-way playing pin the wand on Tinkerbell (Hannah feel free to cut and paste, I have more as well.)

Caroline with my 1st cousin who was born in JULY! Yeah there is less than a pound difference in them. What a peanut!

The result of having no hair and a grandmother, aunt, and uncle who are trying to entertain themselves while big sister opens her gifts. Poor Caroline. Someday you'll have hair! It took Emma 3 years to get what she has, but at least she's not bald!

That's it for tonight! Have a good one! :D

Stressful Week Gets Worse

So as many of you know the past couple of weeks has been pretty stressful with getting ready for Emma's party, having 2 vehicles in and out of the shop constantly, dealing with stupid insurance people and so much more. Well it ended on yet another sour note today. I hit a car! Yep, I was driving on the interstate on the way to the girls' ballet practice and clipped a car in my blindspot. We were all ok...PRAISE GOD and the 2 vehicles weren't all that bad. It truely was a miracle that we were all okay since I jerked the van pretty hard once we tapped. I honestly did not see the other car until after we had tapped and we were pulling off the road. So after my parents taking me out for steak and going clothes shopping with my mom this afternoon (woo-hoo new clothes from Old Navy!), I feel much better. Yeah it's frustrating that we have yet again repairs needed on my van and a ticket to pay off, BUT we're all ok! That's the most important thing! Praise God in ALL SITUATIONS!!!!

Allright, well I'm going to go and enjoy spending a little time with hubby watching a movie (kidos are with grandparents in Willard.)

More Camping Pictures

Here are a few more cut pictures from camping....Why I don't have enough time ot upload them all in one night I have no clue? Maybe 3 kids, ebay, party planning, daddy working 2 jobs, house cleaning, laundry, and homeschooling has a small somthing to do with it? Anyways here they are:

There are actually 4 girls and 2 boys not pictures that were camping with us! Yeah...kids everwhere! Funniest thing is they are all cousins!

Gotta Love that Children's Place Hat!

Our hobo-village windbreaker around our fire rings. Camping ='s tarp city!

Borrowing Big Sister's bike! Grandpa Greg put her up to it of course!

Well I will have to get the rest tomorrow hopefully. I have to get these up so I can add the birthday party ones on Saturday! Please be in prayer for us this week as well. Nathan started a second job this week and it has of course added stress on the family as we try to adjust to one parent in the evenings. The girls are not fond of not seeing daddy and they don't understand that he doesn't really have a choice of not doing it. Also be in prayer for me as I try to get used to pulling days and evenings with the girls. You kind of get used to "handing them off" when daddy walks through the door.

I also added a couple things to ebay today and tomorrow will be adding a Thanksgiving album I did today. To see my auctions, click on the "My ebay aucitons" link to the right. I also purchased... well let's just say a lot...of new ribbons for korker bows, so if anyone is interest in having some made off ebay, email me or leave a comment and I can send a color chart and a price list.

Well, I need ot run! Ballet in the morning!

Little Bo Peep and Her Sheep

I kinda got a late start posting tonight, so I'll just share a few pictures from camping. These are my little cuttie pies and the reason they won best group costume this year! How sweet huh? My mom made Emma and Caroline ther sheep costumes and she made a matching one for her dog Sadie. We found Maddelyn's costume on ebay and it ended up saving quite a bit of $ instead of buying all that lace. We had so many people stop us to take their picture and everyone kept saying how cute they all looked! We had to wake Emma up early from her nap to got Trick-or-Treating. You can tell by her wonderful expressions in the pictures! I threw in a few pictures of the girls "collecting candy" as well. Caroline had no clue what we were doing but she loved chewing on all the candy wrappers and all the extra attention!

Enough for tonight...Caroline is ready to eat again before bed. I'll post more tomorrow as well as an update to what we've been up to!

What's for Dinner???

So after a CRAZY day, I thoguht I' cook Nathan one of his favorite meals tonight Chicken Alfredo Shells (Turtle Shells as we call them.) This is a pretty simple meal but it is a big hit in our home.

INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) jar Alfredo sauce
2 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
21 jumbo pasta shells, cooked and drained

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine the Alfredo sauce, broccoli, chicken and cheeses. Spoon into pasta shells. Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until heated through.

Not too much details on the crazy day but lets just say it started with me loading 3 sleeping children in the car at 6:30 this morning to pick up daddy sitting in the rain with a yet again broken down car! I have lots to post about our weekend camping as well as tons of pictures, but I haven't had the time to sit down and upload all my pictures. I'm still trying to unpack and wash all of our campfire smelling clothes and coats, as well as get ready for Emma's party this weekend. Maybe I'll get them up tonight???

Baking Cookies

So here are a few cute pics of my kidos baking cookies with me. We learned about Fall in preschool today so we made peanut butter oatmeal cookies with Fall candies in them. I couldn't keep Emma form eating all the dough and she had to wash her hands repeatedly because she couldn't keep her hands off Tinkerbell (the cat) while baking! O' Emma! We also went on a walk collecting Fall leaves of all sorts of colors for our craft and leaf rubbings tomorrow. I think Emma might have picked up several more things than leaves in her bucket? Is roadside trash considered a Fall craft item if it is collected in the Fall?

***You turn you're head to get baking sheets and find this! I guess at least they washed their hands?

I need to run and do a couple more things before bed...I know it's 11:43, but we leave Wed for our annual family campout and I haven't even started packing yet! Tomorrow is filled with a MOPS visit to a pumpkin patch, getting my van repaired AGAIN, laundry/packing, and hopefully Nathan coming home? There is a chance he could come home late tomorrow night instead of Wed? And as far as the van...please be praying that I keep my Christianity if they dealership does indead find out that Pepboys sold me bad Wheel Barrings. I will REALLLLLY have to pray on my way to Pepboys if it's true. Not a good week for them to mess with me! Especially not good to mess with a military wife who's hubby is gone and she's been chilling with three kids 4 and under for 2 1/2 weeks! Little do they know! LOL!

Organizing Clean-Freak Mandi Takes Over!

So what started as a no plans weekend turned intot a pretty full one! We started out with the birthday party on Friday night and then I made a last minute decision to go to A2Z Essentials first scrapbooking crop in their new crop room! The girls had a great evening of making cupcakes and going to a Fall Festival with Grandpa and Grandma and Caroline of course went to yet another crop with Mommy! Heidi and her mom totally out did themselves on the new A2Z Crop room! What a treat it was to see all the galls from the store I used to teach at and work on some class samples to be taught at A2Z's next class. What fun papers!

So today was church as normal but this time I was coming from spending the night at my parents in Willard. After a wonderful service we headed home for a *relaxful* afternoon. Then.....OCD Mandi kicks in! LOL! So friends and family, this small glimps into my afternoon is why we are always running late and why I get in bed long after I say I'm going to!

So I was planning on taking a Sunday afternoon nap with the girls like we normally do but I thought I'd check my email real quick since I was expecting some custom bow orders. Well after doing that and checking on my auctions I thought I would check on an item I was watching, and then since I'm there why don't I see if anyone has listed the shams to match the girls Pottery Barn bedspread they are getting under the tree. Nope. But, I did see a cute bed skirt. I wonder if anyone has a matching one? Nope. I wonder what else I can find that does match? So 2 hours later and after the girls wake up, I'm just getting of the net! There went my nap!

I then decide I need to put the spare blankets away that were laying out. So I go to place them onto the shelf in my laundry closet and I realize the blankets had shifted and there was no room. So what else is there to do but re-organize the closet? Yep, even down to sorting and bagging the skrews in the tool boxes down there. Gotta keep it sorted and organized! So I finish up the closet and place my laundry supplies on the new spot on the slef and realize some had dripped on my dryer. Of course I need to get a rad and cleaner to wipe that up. Well, I mine as well wipe the set down while I'm doing it, and the inside of the lid, oh and the ring my liquid fabric softener left around the wash tub. Then I went to put the cleaning supplies back and realize Emma had dug some bubbles out of the bottom of my sink cupboard and of course knocked 1/2 of the stuff onto my kitchen floor. Whatelse to do but put it all back and of course re-organize it all while I'm there! So how did I get from checking my email real quick to under the kitchen sink? I know wierd Mandi! Now if I only had that Dymo label maker I want, I could label the new rag bin I made on my laundry room shelves! LOL!

And I thought Maddelyn was the Actress?

So since you all need to hear about potty training in our home, I'll share yet another Emma story........

So we are at a friend from church son's birthday party. I walk past the kids and think I smell something. So I say to Emma:

Mom: Did you poop your pants?
Em: Yep!
Mom: You pooped!!! Emma! You pooped your pants?
Em: Yep!
Mom: I thought you were a big girl! Why didn't you tell Mommy you had to go? I can't believe you pooped your pants after being potty trained this long! Stand right here while I get a pull-up and wipes form the van.....
Mom: Let's go to the potty to get you cleaned up. I can't believe you pooped your pants Emma! That's nasty! How gross Emma! Big girls don't do that!

(At this point she begins to waddle into the bathroom like one does when they feel how nasty their poopy pants feel.)

So we proceed into the bathroom stall and when I change her I realize she's dry??? So I say......

Mom: You didn't go poopy??? Did you?
Em: Yep!
Mom: Emma you didn't?
Em: I went poopy!
Mom: Where did you go?
Em: Right there (pointing to the inside of her pull-up.

Oh my goodness Emma!!!! what crakes me up is that she was waddling in to the bathroom like she had that messy pull-up feeling! Too funny!

Happy Birthday Emma Grace!

So my peanut turned 3 today! Now if you ask her how old she is, she'll say "TWO!" It seems like it took us all year to teach her how to say two and hold up those 2 fingers and now we have to start all over again. Last night Maddelyn helped me decorate the house in balloons and streamers and wrapped the present she bought. Maddelyn cleaned out her piggy bank yesterday and made a trip to the toy aisle of Walmart. After at least 4 trips down each aisle, she finally decided on a tiny doll and accessories for her sister. Even though I made sure she understood the doll was for Emma and not her, there still were quite a few fights over the new toy tonight.

Today my mom came over to help us celebrate the day since Nathan is still at camp with the guard. I asked my mom to bring balloons by for Emma today, from her daddy. She placed them by the front door and then knocked on it and ran to the side door. Emma then answered the door and found her gift that daddy sent. It's funny how military families improvise. We figured up the other day that so far our girls have had 7 birthdays and Nathan has only been to 3 of those 7! Yep...military life.

So we took Emma to Chuckie Cheese to spend the birthday tokens that she had and then out to eat at O'charley's. We had her open a few of her presents (since we wanted daddy to see her open the rest) and blow out candles on cupcakes. So here are a *few* of the pictures we took!

One Day to Go!

So this is Emma Grace's last day being 2! So we took pictures today for Emma's birthday invitations. When I had Caroline's birth announcements on ebay the lady asked if she could use Caroline's photos for her sample in return for another set of cars whenever I needed them. Well I tried my best last week to figure out photoshop on my own (see post below) and after that didn't work out I decided to take the lady up on her offer. So I did a mini photo shoot with Emma outside in her costume from last year. I just love that first picture of her! With those care feet and her giggling, she really does look like a pixie!

We also came to the moment I've been dreading for the past 3 years....I took the silkies away! Anyone who knows Emma knows about her love for silk of any kind. Since she was tiny she's always been a thunb sucker, but she'll only do it while rubbing something silky between her fingers. It can be anything: blanket, her hairbow in her hair, the linning to a coat, the tag on a stuffed animals, like I said anything. When the girls arrived at the hospital to meet Caroline we had the three girls' first photo and there sits Emma sucking her thumb with her brand new sister's headband! So today was day 1 with no silky. It wasn't that bad...yet. She did ask for it with tears at nap adn bedtime but I just reaffirmed that she's almost three and that means she'll be a big girl with no thumb. We;ll see how long she takes this easily?

My Weekend

So it was a buys weekend as usual around here! Saturday we had my nefew's 10th birthday party in Willard which was the first time we'd seen the family in quite a while. I can't believe my little buddy is 10 already! WOW!

I thought this picture was hilarious just because is shows a SMALL example of the boy to girl ratio in our family. The sad thing is that there are 4 more girls and only 2 boys not pictured! Yep, Poor Austin is followed by 10 girls and 2 boys (all 5 and under!)

I had to get a picture of Caroline in her Teenie Weenie outift with my aunt and uncle's wierner dog Oscar. I didn't blame him for not wanting to be in a picture with his when Caroline does this! She loves those dogs! When we come in the house and sit down she just starts squeeling!

Oh, another Emma story.......I came up stairs yesterday and was like WOW! My house smells good? Really good? The only time my upstairs smells like anything is when the diaper pail needs taken out? That's odd? Then as I went into the girls' room I realized it wasn't my upstairs, it was Emma that smelled so good (not a normal thing I said about her.) So now I start problem solving. Obviously she's been into something. So after searching the bathroom I find my hand soap almost empty! Hmmmm? Last time I saw there was at least half a bottle left and now just a smidge in the bottom! So obviously my little engineer has super steril hands now? Maybe she is missing her calling in the medical field?

Maddelyn has been having a lot of bad dreams lately so yesterday she was asking me what caused bad dreams. I was telling her that sometimes it's something we watch on tv or something we see and sometimes it is the enemy (as Maddelyn loves to say Satan and the Devil as this is a new concept in her world.) I told her that if we are ever scared that we can ask Jesus to help us and he will becasue He is always there to protect us when we ask Him to. So she just sits there in her carseat a moment and then says "Thanks you Mom!" I said "For what?" She said "For telling me that." How cute!!!

Here are the newest projects form my scraproom. The pink and green layouts were for my last month on the 2 Sassy Scrappers Design Team. I can't believe it's been 6 months already? The others were for a journaling challenge I hosted and the topic was: Journal about an event that changed your life.