family

Thumbsuckers

April 8, 2013

I was at a baby shower yesterday and saw the sweetest two year old boy sucking his thumb. I so wanted to pick him up and snuggle him!

It reminded me of my kiddo’s….we had two thumb suckers.

First there was Jack….

And then Emmie….

But today, we had a major reality check from those cozy, snuggly years of thumb sucking….

Our first visit to the orthodontist!

Jack starts tomorrow and Emmie starts phase 1 in about 9 months. So at least that will spread out the expenses of having two kids in braces! {I’m trying to find the silver lining in all of this!}

But was it all worth having two sweet thumb suckers?! One could argue that they probably would have needed braces anyway. So maybe it was worth letting them have their thumbs. After all, I did get tons of snuggles out of them!

jen

By Jen 3 Comments Filed Under: about me, family

Back to blogging after vacation….

February 4, 2013

Sorry for my absence!! Dan and I went on vacation! Nine days away….and it was divine! We took a cruise to the Caribbean with 8 of our friends. No kids. No cooking. No laundry. Unfortunately, there was also no sun and no flights! Ok, maybe that’s being a bit dramatic. There was sun. But there was also rain. And while there were flights, ours were canceled…on BOTH ends of our trip! Though with a group of positive and fun people, we really had a great time and made light of a few crazy situations.

Since I’ve been MIA on the blog lately, I figure I owe you some pictures of our adventures!!

Here is the entire group!

And here is Dan and me….in the rain! We saw some ruins in Mexico, which were far more interesting than I had anticipated!

In this picture, we are making a pyramid at a pyramid! {Hey, when it’s raining on your tropical vacation, you have fun when you can!}

The above two pictures are both in Honduras….where it also rained!

But yes, we did have some sun….

And like I said earlier, despite the stress of canceled flights and rain, we still had a great week.

Now it’s back to reality. And back to blogging!!

jen

By Jen 5 Comments Filed Under: about me, family

Advent Tree

December 1, 2012

Every year I come across advent calendars of one sort or another. Cute ones in catalogs or in people’s houses. I always think it’s such a fun idea….. And it always feels like too much work. So for my nine years of parenthood, I’ve done nothing.

Then a few days ago, I saw the perfect advent tree at It’s Overflowing. It’s a simple table top tree with star ornaments numbered 1 to 25. Then on the back of each star is a bible verse. What a perfect daily reminder for the kids {and me!} about what this Christmas season is really about!

So with my new found inspiration, I got to work on my advent tree {which really wasn’t that much work at all}.

Here is my version…

The tree is from Ikea. And the stars are handmade. The kids wrote the numbers and I wrote the bible verses on the back of each star. You can see the bible verses over at Amy’s blog, It’s Overflowing.

Today we read our first bible verse from the star numbered ’1′.

The kids loved looking the verses up. They are both really into highlighting in their bibles right now too, which made it extra fun for the kids.

Only 24 more stars to go! Thank you, Aimee, for a great Advent Tree idea! I hope to use it for years to come!

Jen

linking up to:

hi sugarplum, centsational girl, home stories a to z

By Jen 4 Comments Filed Under: Christmas, family, holidays, Home Decor, tutorials

What a weekend!

November 11, 2012

On paper, this weekend probably looked dreamy. Cozy days at home. Hanging Christmas lights. Homemade comfort food for dinner.

But the reality was a weekend of strep throat, whiney kids and a meatloaf dinner that didn’t turn out.

Friday night Jack came down with strep throat. And I think Emmie kicked into high whine mode from the attention Jack was getting. Then the new recipe I tried tonight was a bust so we had waffles instead.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely the Christmas lights….

Despite being sick, he got all bundled up and helped Dan out with the lights.

And Emmie lost her front tooth during the festivities {which was fun until the tooth fairy forgot to visit last night! Oops!!}

Yes, we are blending holidays {you can see my corn stalks AND Christmas lights both on our porch}. But the lights will stay off until after Thanksgiving.

Thankfully tomorrow is a new day. And it should be a day with healthy {and hopefully not whiney} kids.

jen

By Jen 5 Comments Filed Under: Christmas, family, holidays, house

We’ve Been Flocked {with a Great Fundraiser}!!

November 10, 2012

A few days ago, we woke up to this in our front yard…

The kids loved it!

And they immediately got busy assigning genders to the flamingo’s. ”This is the mommy and this is the daddy…” They also had fun feeding our new pets grass clippings. {Who needs a real pet when you’ve got plastic flamingo’s!}

Attached to the back of the sign was a plastic bag with an envelope and this letter…

The letter stated that we were flocked by 8th grade class {as part of fundraising efforts for their class trip} and that it was done in good spirits. Some of our friends paid $25 to the 8th grade class to send the flock of flamingo’s to our yard. When we were done with the flock, we just texted the phrase “remove flock’” to the phone number on the letter. And a few days later, our feathered friends disappeared. Our $25 donation will pass on the fun to another family in our community.

It was so fun to be part of this fundraiser. I love the creativity. And I love the joy that it brought to our kiddo’s!

And not that I’m surprised, but we even received a hand written thank you note on our front porch this evening thanking us for participating.

Nice job, 8th graders! I’m so impressed.

jen

By Jen Leave a Comment Filed Under: family, young life

Guest Post…Thanksgiving Projects to do with Kids

November 7, 2012

Are you looking for a fun Thanksgiving project to do with your kiddo’s?

Today I’m over at Lori May Interiors with three very fun and simple ideas!

Come on over to Lori May Interiors to see these great projects!!

jen

By Jen Leave a Comment Filed Under: fall, family, guest post, holidays

HARRY POTTER HALLOWEEN

November 1, 2012

I know I’m a day {or two} late on the Halloween post. But I couldn’t resist posting a few pictures before we’re in full Thanksgiving mode.

This year, I highly encouraged the kids to select a costume out of our dress up bins. Fortunately, they discovered their Harry Potter robes {tutorial can be found here}. So this Halloween we didn’t have to purchase a thing! Jack was, of course, Harry Potter. And Emmie was Hermione.

My dad and step-mom joined us for dinner and some trick or treating too.

As soon as dinner was over, the energy level sky rocketed in the house. We quickly cleaned up and tried to get our pictures all taken so we could start knocking on doors. In the craze of the moment, I didn’t take any pictures of the kids standing up! So this is the only full body picture I got last night of the kids in their costumes…

The night was a success and we now have more candy than we know what to do with. But fortunately, my kids still ask before digging into their candy stash.

jen

By Jen Leave a Comment Filed Under: fall, family

Ashley Creek Farm

October 6, 2012

We had another beautiful day here in the northwest. The temperature ranged from 30 degrees when we woke up to a high of 74!

Dan had the day off. And since the weather was perfect, we headed out to a pumpkin patch. A few friends recommended a little hidden secret….Ashley Creek Farm. So we were anxious to check it out.

Ashley Creek harvests pumpkins, corn, gourds, garlic and more! And they sell them for far too cheap, in my opinion!

Look at all of these beauties!

We’ve been to pumpkin patches that are muddy…soggy and rotten pumpkins…stems broken off. These are all perfectly lined up by color and type of pumpkin. It was like shopping at a high end pumpkin patch, if such a thing exists!

Dan picked this pumpkin. Guess how much it cost. Do you have any wild guesses? Why bother. You’re probably guessing too high!

We paid a whopping $5 for it! Are you amazed!? {And Emmie couldn’t resist jumping into the background!}

Their corn stalks were $2 a bunch. They had several stalks wrapped together to create a bundle. And did I mention it was only $2 a bundle!!

And apparently there are no signs of running out of pumpkins anytime soon! As were were leaving, they pulled up another tractor full!

Before we left, we had to get a few token family pictures….

And here is a look at all of our goodies before we crammed it all into the car…

Other than having sweat drip down my torso in our blazing 74 degrees, the pumpkin patch trip was a complete success!!

Now I’ve got some decorating to do on my front porch!

jen

If you live in the area and want to visit this little hidden gem, here is the address…

Ashley Creek Farm * 9221 Littlerock Road SW * Olympia, WA 98512

jen

By Jen 8 Comments Filed Under: fall, family

First Day of School 2012

September 5, 2012

It was a big day here in this house…both of our kids are in full day school! That’a big milestone in the life of this mommy! It’s the first time in nine years that I’ve had a free day while they were both in school for more than just a few hours!!

I was scrolling through some old pictures this morning and was reminiscing over much they’ve grown through the years!

And here is Emmie this year….

And Jack this year…

They were pretty excited this morning. And they even posed for the numerous pictures that I took of them too!

Here’s to a great year!!

jen

By Jen 3 Comments Filed Under: about me, family

Football Season is Here!

August 26, 2012

This is the first year that Jack has played tackle football. That’s hard for me to believe….that 9 year olds play tackle football. But they do. I was nervous. Reluctant to throw my child into harms way. But I have to say, I’ve been incredibly surprised at how slow they take things….how they SHOW them how to tackle. Not just throw them onto the field and TELL them to tackle each other.

Today was the jamboree. Each team got to play offense for 10 minutes, then defense for 10 minutes {Doesn’t it seem like I know what I’m talking about!? Please do not be blinded by my apparent knowledge. Because there is NO knowledge. I know nothing about football. And since my son is going to be playing it, I have a lot of learning to do! }

Jack got his jersey today. And thankfully, I had my camera there to catch the excitement on his sweet face.

And he played quarterback and did a great job…

It was also a big day for Emmie! She has an irrational fear of mascots. She isn’t just a bit scared of them. She panics…freaks out…there is no reasoning with her when a mascot is around. The only way to calm that girl down is to completely remove her from the situation. As you can imagine, that limits us a bit….no trips to Chuck E. Cheese {ok, I’m not too broken up about that one}. No Red Robin. And certainly no Disneyland!

This morning, as Jack was warming up for his jamboree, who should walk by but a local high schools mascot! Fortunately, the girls long hair was sticking out of her giant bird head and her real arms were sticking out. Thankfully, that turned into a great teaching moment. Emmie could see it was just a teenager under that giant, scary head. She realized it wasn’t that scary after all. So we were able to go up into the stands and enjoy watching Jack! She still kept an eye on the mascot, making sure it didn’t wander up into the stands and magically appear right in front of her. But she was victorious over a huge fear today!