. happy 2011 .

 

. words to remember .

we were driving in the car today and drove past the hospital here in town where both girls were born.  karsyn started talking about the day mykah was born and our conversation went from there.

i explained to her that the doctors checked mykah out to make sure she was healthy, breathing, and had 10 fingers and 10 toes.  she said "did they have to take her shoes off to count her toes?"

we then went to her explaining that she wants a baby brother and a baby sister.  she said "so we can just keep mykah and then have a baby brother." 

i love her thinking.

. o holy night .

 
{ here's my chalkboard this morning. }

merry christmas. 

. to my sweet girl .

oh sweet karsyn,

 
tonight we put you to bed for the last time as a 3 year old.  tomorrow, at exactly 10:42am, you'll be four years old.  and my heart almost stops just thinking about it.  i simply do not know where the last four years have gone. 

you have obviously grown bigger, but oh how you have grown as a person.  you have an amazing personality, a laugh that lights up the room, an attitude that lights it up even more, and a smile that melts my heart.  you are very smart and impress me daily with the things you can remember from the past.  you are, and have always been, very independent, but i love that you still need me. 

you are an amazing big sister.  becoming that sweet sissy has been the most remarkable thing.  you have loved mykah from the very beginning and i love watching you with her.  i'm so very thankful that God made you the big sister.  you fill that role completely and beautifully. 

thank you for being you.  thank you for reminding me to be silly.  reminding me to take time to do the little things.  reminding me that being your mommy is the most important job in the world and the best blessing God could ever give me.

i love you, sweet girl.

xoxo mommy

. from our house to yours .

 

. seasons .

i really like that there are seasons of life.  i most definitely don't always like the season that i am in at the time, but sometimes i love it and don't want it to change.  right now i'm in a season that i cannot wait to get out of.  this past week i've been stuck in a rut and am trying to peel myself out and doing so in whatever way i possibly can.  i've missed some sleep.  i've missed some meals.  but life goes on. 

i'm typing this because i am a real person.  i didn't want to.  i didn't want the parents of the children i take care of in my home to think that i'm a crazy person.  i'm not crazy.  i'm human.  just like all humans make mistakes, all humans have struggles.  all humans deal with life in their own ways.  so, yes, i struggle.  but in the same note, i try my hardest to not let my struggles, my grumpiness, or whatever it may be to interfere with the lives of my children, whether they be my own or the 4 others that i get to love on every day.  sometimes i fight the frown through the smile.  ever heard the saying "fake it till you feel it"?  that's what i've lived by the last week.  i'm just in a fog.  just in a pit that i know i'll get out of in a matter of time. 

my ruts typically come about because i stay home.  i stay home all day, every day.  every single day, monday through friday.  if you don't know what that's like, try it and see how you feel by friday.  if i don't take care of myself, take one night a week to just go out with a friend, or have "me" time, satan uses that to drag me down.  and he drags me down fast.  this rut that i am in is a little different, but i know that the same changes will effect my mood, my patience, and my overall health just the same.  tomorrow i have a day off.  and i'm looking forward to it.  i do absolutely love my job.  absolutely.  i have been so extremely blessed to have this opportunity to take care of other babies in my home.  but everyone needs a break at some point.  and the "me" time comes when i make time for it.  having friends has been key for me.  just finding someone who will pray with me, laugh with me, talk to me, and know what i need. 

if you are a stay-at-home mom, you know about ruts.  and we all get out of our ruts in our own ways.  but i take one day at a time.  one hour at a time sometimes.  and with prayer and the right words, it'll happen.  the next seasons of my life is sure to be great.

. Christmas artwork .

since i have other children in my home, we do crafts pretty regularly.  this is one of my new favorites though. 

 
  
as soon as they dry, i'm going to put them in black frames and have them on display.  such a sweet remind of how precious these times are when they are small.  this is definitely a piece of their artwork i will hold onto.

speaking of artwork ... i still have not figured out how i am going to store all of their artwork that i do keep.  i have one big tub in my closet that has everything in it, but it's running out of room.  i've thought about just taking pictures of each piece and keeping the picture.  that would definitely save room.  i can't keep everything and i'm not the most sentimental person either.  but one day, i just may want to be able to look back on these things.  

so, how do you save artwork?  how do you choose what you save and what you don't?  you just may start seeing more artwork pop up on my blog from now on.  just a warning!   

handprint ornaments

we made these handprint ornaments today and i absolutely LOVE them. 

i mixed 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and 1 cup water.  mixed it well until it formed a dough, then rolled the dough into balls.  this amount made 4 baby sized handprints.  i flattened out the dough into circles and pressed their hands into it. 

they baked for 3 hours on 200*.  before i baked them, i used a pencil to make 2 holes in the top for ribbon.  take a look ...

when i had everyone's handprints done, i still had some extra dough, so i made this..

i love them!  and now they are all 3 front and center on my tree ...

 
 
 

 
 
 

. ballerina birthday party .

saturday we had karsyn's 4th birthday party.  well, actually it was the first of 3 she is having.  what a spoiled girl.  she's big into dancing and ballerinas right now, so we had her party at the local dance studio where she attends classes. 

 


sweet baby had a blast.  she loves dancing like sissy does.  i'm pretty sure everyone had a great time except the birthday girl.  she insisted on practicing her attitude for her tween years.  i'm just glad the party went on. 

 
 

it was a great party and we are so thankful for the friends that came.  karsyn got lots of barbie stuff which is her favorite thing right now.  

december 2.

so much changes here from day to day.  i really like change.  i like rearranging things and the excitement that comes with change.  HOWEVER.  one thing has not changed around here and i don't see it changing anytime soon.

sweet baby and her thumb and "ganky" (as it's called around here).   i'm surprised that thumb hasn't fallen off yet or rotted.  if that's even possible.  she keeps it in her mouth.  i know, i know.  i'm going to have fun breaking her when the time comes.  but for now, i kind of think it's cute.  for now.  when she's 10, not so much.

december 1.

we have never done any kind of advent activities and i'm not sure why.  i think we're always too busy to sit back and enjoy the season.  so this year i wanted to implement more and start new traditions. 

we always put the tree up and decorate it together.  that was important to me growing up and i wanted to carry on that tradition with my own family. 

we keep our tree simple for many reason.  the main one is because of the little fingers that linger around it each day.  our ornaments are shatter-proof and we have no tinsel.  simple.  but i really like it that way. 

other than our tree, i wanted to always have a box of Christmas books close by our tree.  we had a few, but i wanted more.  snow books.  snowman books.  Christmas books.  night before Christmas books.  books about the birth of Jesus.  i want a good variety of them all to keep out every year.  this is how i implemented that into our traditions ...

 

this is our "advent" calendar for this year.  our countdown to Christmas.  my sweet mom found a bookstore going out of business and snatched up 24 Christmas books.  i wrapped them, numbered them, and sat them on our mantel.  the girls didn't notice it all day, so we waited until we normally read books at night to even show them and explain to the girls what we were doing.  tonight we opened our first book.  of course they wanted to open all of them, but i think they finally got the point. 

i absolutely love this idea.  next year, we'll do more Christmas activities to countdown to the birth of Jesus.