Sick! and Trip to Doctor

Well it turns out that my hoping Kae was better was just wishful thinking.  I knew by Sunday night/early Monday morning that she was not all right at all.  She spent most of the night crying and holding her ear.  I spent most of the night feeling helpless to comfort her pain. :( I of course called the doctor in the morning and got an appointment.  Turns out she has strep throat and possibly a ruptured ear drum.  There was so much fluid and junk coming out of her ear that you couldn't really see in her ear.  She is on meds now and hopefully no one else will get it and we will all be healthy soon.  I'm so ready for normal family life.  This little bit of sickness has reminded me how fortunate we are to have such healthy children. Thank you, Jesus!

5 minute Busy bags

So after calling the doctor yesterday morning, I lamented the fact that I still hadn't made the busy bags I had been planning to make.  (I've been thinking, I needed to make these for months but never gotten around to it.) I thought man would they come in handy today as I always try to take something for the kids to do. I had pinned several busy bags posts on Pinterest and I thought let's see what we can come up with in just a few minutes.  Since we were headed to the doctor and Kae was sick, I wanted things easily cleaned/sanitized or disposable.  After looking at all the posts, I used one of their ideas (The nuts and bolts).  Apparently felt and pipe cleaners are big in busy bags and I didn't have either.  We will have to pick some up for when I make more bags. Here is what I came up with.

I didn't really have a plan with the cotton balls and toilet paper roll but figured we could fill the roll up with balls or shoot them through. They didn't play with that one or the nuts and bolts but really enjoyed the rest. The other cotton ball bag is a game.  I had printed numbers on construction paper and had them pull out one paper and then count out that many cotton balls. Kae really liked that one (I think I will make that again with the colored puff balls for our "official" busy bag collection.)

Josh liked spinning his cars.  If they didn't fly off on their own he would throw them off.

I think one of the reasons I took so long to make busy bags was I thought they would be a lot more work then they actually are.  Next I need to stop procrastinating on freezer meals.  Having one ready to go would sure would of been handy yesterday as making dinner when you're exhausted is not much fun.  Anyone have any good recipes for those?

Not so Fun

Long week

Last Sunday, Rylee woke up with a stomach bug but I wasn't really phased.  (That was the day, I wrote my last post.)  Kaelynn had a little stomach bug the previous week and it lasted less than 24 hours.  I figured Rylee would be better the next day.  Well she wasn't and not the next day either.  And not only did it take her awhile to get better, everyone else in the family got it too.  Do you know what is not so fun? a stomach bug!!  We are all better and were all geared up to go to church today when Kaelynn woke up with a slight fever and a sore throat. (She seems fine now, so I hope it's nothing).  Since the flu has been going around, we didn't take any chances and her, Josh, and I stayed home.  I was really bummed not to get to go to church.  It kind of made me sad after such a long week not to get to go worship with our church family.  But on the way home from making the bulletins before Chris left for church, the song on the radio was saying "God is good all the time; All the time, God is good." And it was a great reminder that no matter my circumstance, God is good and deserves my praise.   

Today's Picture

So I still managed to take pictures most of the days last week to keep up with my year in pictures. They didn't turn out super "fun" but you do what you can and roll with the punches.  Today's picture was taken while we were home from church and it captures the stage that Josh is in.  I just love that boy and his face and personality.  He is just a bit of sunshine.  (Oh trust me he is not always a sweetheart, like everyone thinks he is.  Just put water in his sippy cup and you will see his angry side!!)

One of Josh's favorite thing to do is to sneak into your chair when you've left and steal the remote and change the channel.  He does this to Chris and I often.  He think it's hilarious. That little smirk is classic Josh.  Just thought I'd share this pic here and explain it a bit more.  Isn't he just a cutie?! If you missed the last post her is the link to my share site where I'm attempting to capture our year in pictures. 

2013

More fun

So I think I used to be more fun.  Or at least I remember myself as being fun.  Growing up, in college, even as a new mom, I think I was more fun.  But now that we have four it seems like we are just getting through the day.  With all the stuff (chores) that have to get done, it seems like there is hardly any time for fun or at least fun for me.  So this year, I want to have more fun.
Side Note: This is in no way a New's Year Resolution!!!!! I don't believe in those (probably because by February I've already failed or forgotten about them). 
One of the ways, I want to have more fun is to try new things or retry things. I want to get out of my rut! Last year I discovered I like mushrooms (who knew!), uncooked tomatoes aren't too bad (I will never just grab one and bite it though) and lobster isn't so good. So this month, I tried again to make pizza.  Before my pizza crust had always turned out.....hmmm, how do I phrase this....BAD. But after quite a discussion (or two) with my sister and friend Jamie, I decided to give it a try.  So long story short, I made pizza this Friday for family game night.  Crust #1 turned out ok (oddly shaped but tasted fine) and crust #2 turned out, dare I say "good" or at least "pretty good." 

I forgot to take a pic before we dug in.  This is pizza #2. 

Next month I am going to try making bread (I don't know what is more fun than bread!). And we will be planting trees. Which I am also very excited about.  

Also I am going to try and play with the kids more.  Less chores, more play!  (Ok, I'm not sure if we can really swing that.  Maybe less Facebook, more play). It seems like all my energy is focused on tending to their needs and the needs of the house, that I have lost my ability to just have fun. I found this great printable from Pinterest and we have started playing. 

Here is the link for these. Ways to Play Monthly

Our Year in Pictures

So last night, I was playing on Pinterest as everyone else was already in bed and it was only 9:30!  After clicking on a link, I found this blog called Joy's Hope. I started looking through her other posts and saw her idea to take one picture every day for the whole year. She would caption it and use Shutterfly to put them all together. (That post is here). So I decided to try something similar.  Since it's already January 20th and I don't have a picture for each day I decided to try and get 3+ pictures a week.  I created a share site on Shutterfly so I can post these pics every week or two.  I'm captioning them and leaving the date on all of them so I can see my whole year in pictures.  I'm so hoping I can keep this up. My kids are quickly leaving the little stage and I want to remember this time. If you want to follow along here is the link to the share site. 

Old Navy, Crowdtap, & Christmas Savings

I was lucky enough to be chosen to another Old Navy Sample Share.  This time it was for activewear.  I was pretty excited.  

I do try to workout regularly (though I had been slacking lately) but I don't really have workout clothes.  I usually just use old shorts and tank tops.  I was really excited to get some new clothes and maybe some added motivation. :)  I took my sister-in-law Dre with me and she was excited as well.  We got to go shopping just the 2 of us which was great!  (Thanks to other family for watching all the kiddos) I found some great workout clothes (in purple!) and I've really liked them so far (though with Christmas, New Years and anniversary trip, I haven't used them too much yet).  I'm so thankful for these great samples shares from Old Navy and Crowdtap.

I also recently added up all the gifts I bought on Amazon with gift card and it totaled $80.00.  Yep I saved $80.00 by using gift cards I had earned through mostly Crowdtap (some did come from Swagbucks)! If you are interested in joining Crowdtap use the link below.  There is a swidget on the side of the blog if you are interested in joining Swagbucks.
http://bit.ly/x967EW

Old Navy Dress!!

I'm a big fan of Old Navy.  They have great clothes.  I've bought quite a bit of clothes there over the years, jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, sweat pants, etc but never a dress.  So I was really excited about being chosen for the Old Navy "Spice Up Your Style in Old Navy Dresses this Fall!" sample share from crowdtap.  I'm not a huge fan of dresses in general but I have been adding more to my wardrobe which my husband appreciates. Old Navy had such a cute selection online so I was optimistic going in but still a little worried I wouldn't find anything I liked.  But I was wrong, I found several dresses I liked and only didn't like one of the dresses I tried on. In fact, it was kind of hard to decide because I really liked two.  Jeannie also quickly found one she liked and it looked great on her.

Jeannie looking through the dresses. 

Jeannie's dress.  Second one see tried on and it was the one.

 Sweater Dress.  I like it but figured I'd only get get it wear it a few times a year here in Texas.

 My kids entertaining themselves while we tried on dresses. 

One of my favs.

Down to these two.  Hmm hard to decide. 

The one I got.  I forgot to take a pic in the store.  Can't wait to wear it out somewhere. 

One more pic just for fun!

I Got Lazy

After our garden was finished in July, I was wiped out and just wanted a break.  So I didn't start any major projects and let a lot of things go.  I stopped working out and eating right.  I let the yard go. I stopped messing with coupons as much. Basically I took care of the kids and kept the house clean (well at least somewhat). I probably needed the break but not for 4 months!  So I realized today, I needed to get back to getting thing done and doing projects that need done and projects I enjoy. I need to get back to planning meals and keeping things better organized. I had started doing something over the last month (like preparing for Christmas) but I need to get back to more of it.  So I worked out today and ordered a gardening book (so I can prepare for next year).  So.... what's the whole point of this post.  I'm not really sure other than to remind myself that projects, working out, and even planning aren't bad things and honestly I probably have more energy when I do all these things.  (I might need to reread this post when I'm tempted not to workout tomorrow or the next day.)

Fun at Old Navy!

So I was chosen for an Old Navy beach assecories party from Crowdtap.  Which meant I got to take 3 friends to Old Navy for free beach towels, bags, flip-flops, and sunglasses. I was very excited because I love Old Navy!

So my sisters-in-law Jen and Dre, my mother-in-law Jeannie, and I went this last Saturday. Thanks to the helpful advice from my mom and sister to hold my mail and pick it up Saturday morning, since the package was a bit late in coming. (The mailman did not understand my excitement over a white mailing envelope). Anyway, we had a great time at Old Navy looking at all their bags, towels, sunglasses, and flip-flops. We got great free stuff (unfortunately our Old Navy was out of stock on Old Navy sunglasses) but we really liked all the other stuff. And 3 out of the 4 of us picked out the same bag, so now we can be matchy, matchy (good thing we live a ways apart). And of course, we got some other stuff too. I got some really cute shorts. Most of all it was a wonderful time with just the girls and no kiddos. (Yep, we had NONE of the 8 kids with us!) We finished off the day with lunch and some more shopping. We might have to do this more often.  Shhh...Don't tell Dre's husband Daniel.

 Found a towel to match her purse

So many bags to choose from...

 Cute Towels

 Trying out the different shades

 So many different colors

Our matching bags.  But we did all get different towels and flip flops.