Favorite Link Friday

I got lost this week searching online for cute new ideas. I found some fun ones that I hope you all will enjoy.

*I thought of my friend Cutzi when I saw this weekend sewing. I just love the picture of her sewing at the bottom. I would definitely sew if I had a cute desk like that.

*I wish I would have seen this princess party hat for Lily's birthday. She would have loved it.

*I love this site, Bakerella, simply b/c of her pictures. And she made those perfect Hello Kitty pops. I'm so envious of her gift.

*A fun and easy cupcake

*These little headbands might be our next art project.

*A friend lent me a Bella Band and I love it. And now I just found this! I'm so excited, two of my favorite things.

Have a great weekend!

Poll

So I put up a poll on the side for you to guess the sex of the baby. The twins part was a joke, or maybe the joke will be on me, but I don't think there are two in there.

We didn't find out the sex with our first two, but this time, it just seemed like it fit to find out. I didn't really care before, but I really want a girl and Dave really wants a boy. So, we are breaking into the present a little bit early. I'm sure it will be fun to know.

You've got a 50/50 chance, take a guess!

A new look!

I had to update the look of the blog. What do you all think?

And I have the new name up and running. Number 3 is now welcome to join in on the blog :)

A wonderful and efficient designer, Hannah, from Sherbet Blossom whipped this cute little design up for me. I would highly recommend her.

Lily turns 2!

I love 2 yr olds. They talk non-stop in words you can't understand, they want to do everything for themselves, and they throw the most amazing tantrums over the most ridiculous things. Dave and I can't stop laughing at our little Lily. She truly is the grace we needed,(read more of her story here).

Lily is her sister's best friend. She antagonizes her, follows her, argues with her and give her the biggest and best hugs. She imitates everything her big sister does and tries to do all the things big 3 yr olds get to do.
Lily is independent but loves to snuggle at a moments notice. She is constantly getting into her dresser to pull out dresses. She changes them at least every 15 minutes and with every new outfit comments, "look at me, I beautiful". She is also sneaky, finding ways to pile Valentine's day boxes on her daddy.
She is always the first to suggest an activity, walking into the room with her finger in the air saying, "hey, I got an idea". When inquiring about the idea, it's always, "park". This is also her response to the question at dinner, "what was your favorite part today?" um....Park!

I had so many people tell me how great it was going to be having two close together, especially those with same sex children. My response was usually, yeah right, but I get it. They were right! It was hard in the beginning, but I truly love having these two little girls so close in age. I'm becoming less and less a part of their world and they are becoming more of each others.

Lily Grace you are a blessing and today we celebrate your perfectly timed birth into our family.

We celebrated Lily with a small family party and big cupcake cake.

Favorite Link Friday

I hope you all had a great week and enjoyed the Valentine's Day ideas. I'm not quite ready to jump into Easter so we'll go with some random links for now. Enjoy the weekend.

*I love Alison Krauss. She is one of my favorite singers. I made a sleepy CD for Eloise and Slumber my Darling is one of my favorites. I also love, love, love this Christmas one for next year. I love the message, everything.

*We are starting a chore chart in the coming weeks for our two little girls. This post offered a great template to start with.

*What cute little magnets. I think we may make these.

*I am going to attempt this cake this weekend for Lily's birthday. We are making it into a giant cupcake.

*I found this cute little blog, How About Orange. I'm not big on modern, but it looks like she has some great ideas.

*This was an addicting educational game. Let's just say the entire Midwest is foreign to me. Aren't they all shaped like a square? I think I scored an 87%

the retreat

It is a rare retreat to come home and say, I feel refreshed and renewed spiritually. I've always had a great time with friends and enjoyed the scenery at the beach, but this time I walked away reflecting and focusing on the ways in which the Lord revealed himself to me.

I love the women of my church. They are kind, loving women who earnestly seek after the Lord and who they can be to offer themselves up as examples of his love. We usually have about 100+ women, this year we had around 90. All varieties of ages and backgrounds. Even some young moms with their tiny babies still nursing.

The speaker, Jody, whom I feel completely blessed to call a friend and mentor, spoke this year. She made a point of not coming across as just a speaker to talk about the importance of a life led by Christ, but to stand beside us as we come into His presence throughout the weekend. She achieved just that. I learned from her teachings but sat beside her learning. It felt like a large group of women praying and listening together. And that is what left me amazed and refreshed.

The beach helps. Cannon Beach is gorgeous and our weekend there always seems to include beautiful weather. The drive down was filled with snow, but sun appeared the next day as we had free time to shop and have girl time. This amazing rock below is the signature of Cannon Beach and it was absolutely gorgeous on that day.

So I feel refreshed and renewed and ready to give out of what has been poured into me. Life doesn't seem that incredibly different and I'm fairly certain that my impatience will give way at some point this week, but I am walking a little closer to Him and that provides a hope and peace beyond what I can muster up.

Thanks for letting me share my good weekend.

So what did I do?

Last week I asked what you all would do with 24 hours by yourself. Many said they would organize, sleep, and relax. I took you up on all your suggestions, especially the one about not being bored or freaked out.

Errands consumed the first part of the day. I was amazed at how tired I got running in and out of stores. But it sure went fast not having to unbuckle and buckle kids into carseats. I came home, turned on some food show and fell asleep for an hour and a half. Ah...bliss. Then onto the organizing, cleaning, and over to dinner with friends.

Sleeping alone was weird. I stayed up extra late so I would be tired and fall asleep quickly without hearing all the freaky (made up in my head) noises around the house.

Sleep was restless but I did manage to wake up at 7 and fall back asleep until 9. I haven't slept until 9 in 3 1/2 years! It was great.

Then I was off to the women's retreat at the beach. I'll save that for the next post b/c it was an AMAZING time away with the Lord--and 90 other women!

Thanks for all the suggestions and I hope you all can catch a little time to refresh as well.

Favorite Link Friday - Valentine's Day

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's day. The cheesy jewelry commercials, the pajama gram ideas for men, and that horribly annoying mail order lover bear. Yuck! But I love it for the kids. So here are some fun ideas to do with friends and kids. (sorry, no lover ideas)

*Heart Hair Clip - adorable!

*Cute mobile and possibly easy to make

*Printable Valentine's

*Brownie heart cupcakes. These look delicious!

*Make your own peanut butter cups. Now this one I'm going to try.

*Because I'm sure you are all curious about the pajama gram.

Enjoy the weekend!

Random fact #2

Maybe I can stretch out to 25 by the end of the year. I don't know, you might all get bored with that.

Last fact was grinding my teeth. Which, btw, produced some great suggestions. Now it's time to work on the motivation to do something before I grind my teeth down to a pulp.

Fact #2: I rarely, if ever, use the horn in my car.

I can honestly say that I use my horn, maybe, once a year. And if it's any more than that, it's b/c Dave has reached across and honked it for me.

I don't want to offend people. Don't get me wrong, if someone is headed into my lane and obviously going to take out my car, I'll use my horn. And if some idiot in front of me is looking straight at the light that has just turned green but has failed to notice, I'll use it, but not before I have given a little "toot toot" of my voice (as if they are going to hear me inside my car).

All other horn purposes, don't apply to me. Road Rage: I don't have it. I have never been overcome with frustration to the point of using my horn just to get someones attention to flip them the bird. In the rare times that has happened to me, I have felt devastated when I've received that nasty finger. I also don't think the horn helps people learn how to drive better, or rather the way I want them too. Dave still holds to that philosophy. That's why I drive all the time. I can't handle hearing the horn.

So I'm going to continue keeping peace on the roadways. You won't be hearing my horn anytime soon.

What would you do?

If you had 24 hours to be at home in your own house without your husband and/or children, what would you do?

Would you organize? Would you sleep? Would you be at a loss of what to do b/c you are so used to having chaos happening around you at all times?

My girls are going to Nana's for the weekend on Thursday, Dave is going to Cali with some buddies and then Friday I'm leaving for the beach with the ladies. So on Thursday, it's just me. I'm a little freaked out by all this free time. Don't get me wrong, the uninterrupted sleep will be fantastic, but that's only half the day, what do I do with the rest? I think I may get bored.

So I need some help. What would you do?

Favorite Link Friday

Enjoy the links!

*Bath Bombs might be alot of work, but if you needed to make a few gifts to have on hand, it might be fun.

*I never even thought of fallen mother's in the Iraq War. This is a great tribute to them.

*These are so sweet looking. I wish I could knit b/c I would whip one of these up for this little babe.

*Easy, Fun, and Tasty

*Very inspiring and encouraging. I needed this.

*I want to do this with all my crayons. I have some great muffin cup molds.

Have a great weekend!

Random fact

My Facebook is being dominated by these notes of "25 random facts about yourself". I keep getting tagged and frankly, can't really come up with 25. It would take ALOT of time. But I did think about it for 5 minutes or so and came up with one.

I grind my teeth.

And I don't just mean occasionally, I mean consistently and aggressively. I've woken Dave up out of a deep sleep grinding! My friend Angela once asked me if I ever had my teeth filed b/c they were so even. I now know why.

When I get stressed, it's even worse. Dave wakes me up alot in the middle of the night to tell me I'm grinding and I wake up with a massive head and neck ache the next morning.

I was at my dentist for this last visit and he noticed that I had chipped my tooth and strongly suggested a night guard or my teeth would be ground down to nothing. 'Nubbins' was the word the hygenist used. Then I found out it was $500 and not covered by insurance. Awesome. I have yet to get that night guard.

So there you have it. Random fact #1. We'll see if I can muster up a few more.

celebrating daddy

I'm quickly becoming a fan of family parties. They are small, intimate and don't cost that much money.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to throw parties, but in our state of economic tightness, it just doesn't seem a huge priority to pull out all the stops.

So today we celebrated Dave's 35th birthday with a small, family birthday. Eloise and I made Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes for dessert and I made Rustic Italian Tortellini Soup and garlic bread. The girls had a great time blowing out the candles and singing happy birthday. And of course, Dave had a great time lounging on the couch watching the Super Bowl.

For the next birthday, which is Lily's at the end of the month, I think I may pull out some decorations to add a bit more flair to it all.

All in all, I think I'm sold on the family party. Next time, I need to remember my camera.

Here's a pic of Dave and the girls last Father's Day.