Projects and pics... that's all I've got!

Long time no post... I know I know! Between all of the holidays we've celebrated recently and spring break, there just seemed to be no time for blogging. So this post is going to be packed with pics of all that's been going on around here. 


First up remember the st patricks days shirts I made for the kids? Well here is a pic of them wearing them. 

SG is impossible to photograph with her sisters these days so that's why she's all by herself.


Next up Easter. Thanks as usual to pinterest i found this tutorial for ruffled easter egg shirts. And here's how they turned out. (Warning you must tilt your head to see these... sorry in advance)

 (Ok seriously does anyone know how to rotate an image once it's on blogger? its driving me nuts that I can't figure that out!)


And last but not least here are some sweet ruffled skirts that i upcycled from jeans. While I was in NY visiting the bestie for spring break we ran across some premade ruffles that we thought would work perfectly for turning blue jeans into skirts. Here is her blog post about it. Because her daughter is smaller than mine she was able to just cut the legs off and sew the ruffles on, but mine required a little more work. I didn't take pics of the process but I'm sure there are a million and one tutorials about how to turn blue jeans into a skirt. But here is the finished product. 

Ok that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed the pics! More to come later! Have a blessed day! :o)

Happy St Patty's day!

Of course a new holiday brings new crafts! Don't y'all  just LOVE pinterest? I've never had such an addiction love of finding things on the internet before. Seriously, am I the only one  with the problem? ;) 


But here's what we've been working on around here. First up a little St Patty's day decor. A wreath inspired by the fabulous Toni of MakeBakeCelebrate. 

Then some free printables I found from Tai Dye Orginial. We don't believe in luck so this was the perfect addition to our little table.

I couldn't get a good picture of the other one, but you can see it in the back ground of the leprechaun trap. Hannah's teacher  asked us to make a leprechaun trap and I've always wanted to do that with the girls, but never have. Here was the inspiration:  Love Sweet Love's Tricky Leprechaun Hat

Next up of course the girls had to have shirts to wear for the green day: Skip to my Lou (if you're not following her blog, you should be... soo great!) turned me onto the freezer paper stencil idea. I love how these turned out! The big girls got these and SG got the sweet little shamrock on the bottom. 

 And of course no outfit is complete without a matching hairbow... :o) Those are just store bought shamrocks hot glued to hair clips. 

So that's how we're celebrating St Patty's day around here... of course there will be green snacks to give out to their friends at school for their class parties too. Thank you pinterest for once again making all of my crafting dreams become a reality! ;)

U is for Unique

For the most part I LOVE being a Momma. I love having 3 little girls who look to me for all of the answers to life's questions. I love that they love me unconditionally even on my bad days. I love that I get to see the world for the first time through their eyes. I love that they are each unique and bring their own perspective to each day. 


Then every now and again we will have a day like yesterday where everything seems just off. I'll be honest, if anyone actually witnessed my mothering skills yesterday, I certainly wouldn't have won any "best mom ever" awards. My baby is 16 mos old and gets into everything. And i do mean EVERYTHING! As i type this she just dumped out a whole bag of pretzels. Yesterday I spent all day following behind her cleaning up messes, including one yucky diaper that required a bath to be cleaned up. By the time the hubby came home I was grumbling like no other. "How was your day?" he asked. "Terrible!" was my reply. Then today started off just about the same. We went to a friend's house in which she insisted on playing on the stairs for the whole visit. And basically just keeping me from enjoying the time we were there. I came home feeling really defeated and frustrated that I couldn't keep her entertained long enough to get anything done. 


So as soon as we got home I fed her and Bekah lunch and took a few minutes for myself in the bathroom. If you're a mom you know how precious even 5 minutes alone in the bathroom can be. While I was in the library, as we call it, I ran across a really interesting article from magazine that I didn't subscribe too, but somehow started receiving. God must have known that I would need what the author of this one article wrote.   It was so good I'm going to quote it bc I don't think paraphrasing it would do it justice so here goes...


The article is called: Reality Check, when we're tempted to get discouraged  because of our shortcomings- or because of someone else's perfection- it's time to take a closer look. By Derri Smith


"Check #3 
Different children are made for different purposes, all equally valuable. God certainly put the right children into the right families.  The future God planned for one child requires an easy grasp of higher math; the future of another does not.  One child needs skill and knowledge for cooking with the most basic ingredients, perhaps bc his or her future will be far from an American style grocery store.  Another may become an ambassador, rarely cooking at all but needing to know how to relate sensitively and graciously to many types of people and perhaps in many languages.  The truth is God knows our children's futures.  He made them with all the gifts and interests they will need, and he will provide them with the experiences needed to fulfill His purposes. our charge is to stay in tune with Him and with each child, rather than trying to conform Sally to the image of Sue."


This spoke to me so strongly. Here I'd been comparing my baby to my other girls and complaining about how "difficult" she is to care for instead of viewing her as the one who God created her to be and nurturing her into that person. I was reminded that my sweet little curious girl who always wants to try on everyone's shoes, and wants to dump out every container, and empty every cabinet all while standing on top of a kitchen counter... is a special unique creation of a loving Father who must have known that she would need that curiosity to accomplish what he'd designed for her life. 


I hope you will take the time today to see each of your children for exactly who God created them to be and take a moment to appreciate just how unique they are! 

Happy V-day!

Happy Valentines day! We don't really celebrate Valentines day as a couple, but my Mom always made sure to have a little something for us while we were growing up, so I am continuing the tradition by making sure my girls have a little celebration too. After all, what's wrong with telling those we love how much we love them! Since I took the month of January off from crafting I'm officially back in full swing! In the last 48 hours I've made 4 headbands, 2 shirts, and decorated for my girls to have a little party with a couple of friends. Makes for a tired mama but Happy girls so that's what really matters! I saw the idea for these headbands and shirts on pinterest somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it. So to whomever inspired theses... Thank you! They were so easy and my girls LOVED them! 


Here are a few pics...

Bekah not happy about picture taking... And I have no idea how to turn this picture around... oops!

The headband

So that's how we're celebrating today. Are you doing anything fun? I hope that you're getting to spend time with the ones you love! :)

Sponges

Yesterday on our way home from church my 4 yr old noticed an Enterprise car rental place. Immediately after her saying "There's an Enterprise!" My 6 yr old said "We'll pick you up." I was so shocked that Bek knew what Enterprise was and even more that Han knew the slogan for this company! I don't think we've rented a car in several years and I don't even think it was from enterprise then. This got me really thinking... We don't usually let them watch tv with commercials. They typically watch either PBS or Netflix. So I don't think they regularly hear the commercial for Enterprise. But obviously only hearing that slogan a few times stuck with them. It was a great reminder that our kids are sponges. And that everything we say and do affects them. That they really are watching us.


It made me wonder what they think my "slogan" is? What do they typically associate with hearing my name? What do they think their mom most frequently says to them? I pray that it's not "Go away" or "Stop bothering me". I'm not saying I never say those things, but I don't feel like I frequently use those phrases with them.  I hope it's "I love you!" I pray that its "Jesus loves you, and I love Jesus!" 


I'm thankful for those little reminders that our job as a parent isn't just about their needs right now, but really shaping them to be who they will be in the future. As for me... I'm going to be working up the courage to ask my kids what they think my slogan is! 

Mom- I forgot...

Have you ever had your kid tell you the night before that they need something for school the next morning? Well this isn't the first time this has happened, but bc my girls are still little it hasn't happened that often. Thurs night Bekah informed me that she needed a Snowman shirt for Friday morning for pre-school. So after a quick trip to Target and Old Navy left me empty handed I thought "I can make one!" I promise you that that thought has NEVER entered my head before bc "crafty" certainly isn't an adjective that I would use to describe myself. But thanks to some really special friends and my bestie the last couple of months I've discovered a love of crafting. In fact at one point we did a sewing project for our Mom group and I had someone else sew mine. I had zero interest in sewing. It's amazing how our interests change! I love the challenge that these little projects present and I love how my girls look when they tell someone with pride "My mom made it!" I love that in some small way I get to show my girls how much I love them by making them something as simple as a shirt. 

So here is her snowman shirt:

So what has your kid asked you to do the day before it was due? <3

New Year New You Blog Resolutions

Ok maybe I'm not the only one who hates the thought of New Years resolutions. I hate the thought of starting something knowing that I'm probably going to give up on in a few weeks. Every year I say 'This year will be different..." knowing full well that it won't be. For the last 9 months I've been on a fitness/weight loss journey. I've been successful at times, and struggled at other times. I've lost a little over 50 pounds, knowing that I still have a long way to go on  my journey.  


The entire time I've said that I didn't want it to be just a physical journey, but a mental/spiritual one as well. So for the last week I've made it a point to get up before the kids get up and do a work out, take a shower and have my devotions. I was already doing all of those thing, just not in that order, or before the kids got up. I can't even begin to tell you how making this small change in my routine has made me feel. I feel so different, but I'm not really doing anything different. It's amazing how such a small change can make you feel. 


So my new years resolution is simple, to continue my journey towards physical and spiritual fitness. I pray that if you have a new years resolution you'll have success! Just remember it takes 30 days to make a habit... :o)