Holiday Gift Giveaway Hop!!!

The Wonderful Simply Stacie, My Wee View, Little Yayas and Stockpiling Moms is hosting a Holiday Gift Giveaway hop and I wanted to get involved with it too! There are over 200 blogs participating in this draw so you will have many chances to win!!

So I am giving away a $25 dollar gift card for Best Buy!! 

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Holiday Gift Giveaway Hop!!!

Last Diaper

Well its only a few months later then I had initially planned but at least it's happening.

 Tonight Jaclyn is wearing her last diaper. 

I start toilet training in the morning!

 Saying goodbye to this stage for me is a sad and happy time. 

Sad because it means that my children are no longer babies.

Happy because it means I don't have to change anymore diapers! And because my children are learning to have more independence (this is also a little sad). 

It's times like this when my children are going through another development stage that I am thankful that I take so many pictures of them. I love going back and remembering what they were like as younger children/babies and seeing how far they have come.  It makes me more excited to see what kind of a people they will be when they grow up.

Now back to toilet training, I have to tell you that I am super excited that we are starting this tomorrow. 

Both Jaclyn, mommy and daddy are ready to be done with diapers!

David is also excited for Jaclyn to be out of diapers and wearing underwear. 

I think that David has felt like Jaclyn was left behind because she was still in diapers when the rest of us wear underwear. 

For instance tonight when I took David into the bathroom for his night pee, he said to me "mommy, I'm glad that Jaclyn will be wearing underwear tomorrow and not diapers, because then she can be just like you and me and daddy"

 And then earlier when David was saying goodnight to Jaclyn he told her "Jackie, when you have to go pee or poo on the toilet you tell me and I will help you in the bathroom and call mommy for you, OK". Jaclyn responded with "OK David, thanks"

I have a feeling that toilet training Jaclyn is going to be a bit of a family ordeal.

Last Diaper

snow, snow, snow!

This is what I woke up to this morning and it is still snowing

View from my front window

 My front entry way

 My backyard

I know that it is cold and it means that we all have to wear more layers of clothes and that the roads are not always the best for traveling but I love snow.

I love the way that it looks and how it brightens up the trees! I also love that sometime I get snowed in, its a great reason to stay home and play with my kids or catch up on some reading with a cozy blanket and cup of hot tea!

snow, snow, snow!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I just love Christmas!!

I start to play Christmas music on November 1st and then we decorate our house sometime in the last two weeks of November.

Both of my kids love Christmas as well and they start to ask when we can decorate our house even before they hear Christmas music, and even more after they have seen the first snow fall. David has asked us everyday for the last few weeks if today is the day that we will decorate for Christmas.

I am happy that are kids have had such good memories with Christmas and that they get excited about doing things like putting up decorations. This afternoon, after what seemed like the longest wait for my kids, we brought out the decorations. David got home from school and we decorated our tree and our house together as a family.

 My little girl after the tree was up.

 Our Tree

I asked David if I could take his picture with the tree and this is the pose he gave me.

 The kids watching a Winnie the Pooh Christmas movie after decorating.

This week I should be able to finish up my Christmas shopping and start on my Christmas baking. It is amazing how putting up a tree and decorations really feels like the Christmas season has fully come.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Book Review: Then sings my soul

 Is there a festive season of the year that is complete without one of your favorite hymns? Not only do hymns connect you to great memories, but they also reveal the faith of those who lived throughout history. As Robert Morgan explored the stories behind some of the best-loved hymns, he found fascinating accounts of tribulations, triumphs, struggles, and hope - ordinary people who connected with God in amazing ways, sharing their experiences through song.  Taken of the back of the cover of Then Sings My Soul

A lot of people sing songs without paying attention to the words. I have always been someone who likes to know the words of the song I am listening to or singing. The book Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan takes singing a song one step further by telling the stories of how and why a song was written and who the author was who wrote the music. This book covers 150 Christmas, Easter and many other favorite hymns.

The layout of this book is where one side has the song lyrics and music and the following page(s) tells the story. Personally I love the way the this book is written, when I am reading a story I can go to the song and read the words as well which makes the story almost more personal for me. When I was growing up I heard a lot of older hymns and I have really enjoyed reading the history of the songs.

For instance, the song Great is thy faithfulness by Thomas Chisholm was given new depth of meaning after hearing of the life of the author.  Having had a life of up's and downs which included sickness, job issues and other troubles, Chisholm discovered faith at age 27, and through the next years began to discover the truths of the bible in scripture.  This was written after reading through lamentations, and though it is not in any way part of a hugely dramatic event, it showed the steady work and faith of someone growing in their faith through many up's and downs.

Although this book is not incredible, it certainly helps to bring added meaning to many songs that we sing, and I would recommend it to any who have a desire to think about what we sing in Church.

I am a member of Thomas Nelson Publishers Book Sneeze program. Thomas Nelson provided me with a free copy if this book in exchange for my review of this book and I am not required to provide a favorable review.

Book Review: Then sings my soul

Potlucks

I love it when our church gets together for potlucks! Just last week we had one of the life groups in our church over for a potluck. It was wonderful getting to know some of the people in our church a little bit better and sharing a meal together.

There were six kids here that were older then David and Jaclyn and they loved having older children wanting to play with them and in their bedrooms. 

At the end of the night, when most of the families were getting ready to go home, our kids were a bit overwhelmed and over tired. To give them a bit of a mellow time we ended up setting the kids up on our bed to have a little quiet time while watching Little Bear. They were so cute we had to take some pictures.
 

Potlucks

My New Hair!

This afternoon I went and had my hair cut and colored. I haven't colored my hair since before Jaclyn was born and for the last year Chris has been cutting my hair. 

So as you can imagine I was a little nervous about how my hair would turn out. 

Before

After

What do you think?

My New Hair!

bed time

My family was asking about Jaclyn's hair and how curly it is now. I thought that this was a good picture to show some of her curl.

I took this picture after the kids decided one night at bedtime that they were going to sleep in our bed.

I just love the faces they make while they are "sleeping"

bed time

Woody is that you?

Somehow I don't think that the creators of Toy Story thought that Woody the cowboy doll would be dressed in a diaper, baby bonnet and baby bib wrapped in a pink blanket.

And yet here he is... 

Jaclyn and her baby Woody doll.

Woody is that you?

a girl and her hair

Jaclyn wakes up every morning with an idea about what she wants done with her hair. She will come up to me and say "pretty hair". Our conversation will then go something like this:

Mom (me): How would you like your hair done?

Jaclyn: umm....with a pony.

Mom (me): one or two?

Jaclyn: two, then its beautiful!

Mom (me): OK.

She will then run to the bathroom and stand on her step stool and wait for me to style her hair. Then she will declare "I am so beautiful".

There are times that her hair has clips and ponytails or just hair clips. One thing that is always the same is that she announces to the whole house (or whoever is listening) that she is beautiful and waits for someone else to complement her.

One thing this girl has is lots of self confidence.

I told her I wanted a picture of her hair and these are some of the faces that she gave me.

a girl and her hair

Ice Cream shop

As I didn't have Internet for a good portion of the summer I am going to be writing about some of the adventures that our family had this summer.

My birthday was in August and my kids really wanted to do something for me to celebrate as a family. Chris managed to convince them that a birthday party or cake would not be the best idea this year. So instead we went to this cute little ice cream shop that is only open for a few months of the year. It's really cute!

One other thing I should say is that I was really sick for my birthday. The day before I went to the doctor and found out that I had as the doctor put it "bad strep throat and tonsillitis". I felt horrible and all I wanted to do was sleep but my kids really wanted to do something for me so we went out for ice cream. My kids had a great time and really enjoyed the whole day. Through out the day both my kids would randomly say happy birthday or they would sing the happy birthday song to me.

I sure love my kids they can make me smile even when I felt so gross.

Ice Cream shop

Bathroom Playtime

This is how my husband found our kids yesterday afternoon. I love how anywhere can be a great play area when you use your imagination!

They played in the bathtub for almost an hour, it was very quiet around here during that time.

Bathroom Playtime

Cozy Circle Time

This summer we stayed at a house that had one of those circle chairs that you sink into. Both of my kids thought that it was a really cool chair. Here are some pictures that I took one of the times that they weren't fighting over who got to sit in the chair that time. 

All cozy watching Veggie Tales together.

Cozy Circle Time

David's First Day of School

I know I am a couple of weeks late, but I still don't have Internet at my house. Soon....very soon I will again.

I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. It feels like David was just a baby and now he is in school.

Now I know its only pre-school but its still school and its still time that he is away from me during the day.

Both Chris and I have always wanted to have our kids in a French program at school. Chris was in French immersion for nine years of his schooling and sees the benefits as an adult with learning and understanding other languages and we wanted to give our kids a chance to learn a second language and what better time to learn then in school. In fact we have enrolled David in a full French school.

He loves school so much!

His favorite class so far is craft time and he really likes to play with his friends in his class. 

I tried to take some pictures of David on his first  day of school and these are the only ones he would let me take. As soon as I pulled out my camera he said "Mom, what are you doing with the camera? I have to go to school and I don't have time for you to take my picture, they are going to be waiting for me. Let's go!"

So I quickly took three pictures and then we were in the car on the way to school.

Here is David holding his lunch kit that he picked out by himself.

Batman is his new favorite superhero. If you ask him what Batman does he will tell you that Batman saves people from bad guys.

David's First Day of School

summer crazyness

Wow, so I have had a really busy summer and have not been around a computer very much.

Oh, how I have missed blogging, I really do enjoy it, sometime I even dream about what I want to write about....I know kinda silly. Anyways our life is calming down a little bit now and I will be able to write more and post more pictures of my kids again. But first I want to share a little about what our little family has been up too.

Here is just a few of the things that we have been up to these last few months; visiting family and friends, packing, traveling, new job (for my husband), moving and now we are in the middle of getting settled in our new town!  All of these things I will be blogging about at a later date. 

Mostly this post is to say that I am still around, I have just been really busy. I will try over the next few days and weeks to share some of our family summer adventures.

summer crazyness

David's Four Birthday

Wow I can't believe that my little boy is 4 years old now! This year we had a Toy Story pool party.

I thought I would post a few pictures of our weekend, now that I found my camera.

Here is the cake that Chris and I made.

 David and his birthday buddy Jenna swimming together.

Starbucks before the movie.

We took David and Jaclyn to see their first movie in the theater.

We saw Toy Story 3 and both the kids did amazing!

David received a pair of Woody pajamas for his birthday and let Jaclyn wear his Buzz Lightyear pajamas.

I think that both David and Jaclyn had a fun weekend!

David's Four Birthday

lost my camera again.....

Sorry I haven't been here for awhile, I have been away with my family. And since I have been away my computer has started to call it quits, which is making it hard for me to do much on my computer.

Sigh......I wish I had the money to buy a new computer.

Some of the things that we have done in this summer are having lots of play dates with cousins and friends, swimming (I am happy to say that both my kids now like the pool and don't try and climb/claw me while swimming, they actually really enjoy swimming now), playing at the park and we celebrated David's fourth birthday with a Toy Story theme. All in all the kids are having a nice summer.

As soon as I find my camera I will post some pictures of our summer.

lost my camera again.....

busy - busy

So I have been really busy for the last week. Chris and I are in the middle of looking into some changes for our little family but at the moment I am not able to share the details, all I can do is ask the if you pray that you could pray for guidance for Chris and I in our current decisions. 

The kids are doing well, David is turning four this week and we are having a Toy Story Party for him and he is really excited. Jaclyn in learning how to count and today counted up to twenty. She is constantly amazing me with how much she is learning. 

The kids and I are having a great time swimming and visiting with family and friends.

This week I am getting ready for a birthday party. I am going to make a Toy Story cake, I have an idea in my mind I am just hoping that I can get it out on the cake. I will post pictures after the party.

busy - busy

sick kids + vacation = tired mommy

The kids and I are currently on holidays visiting some of our family. Unfortunately both of my kids have developed a bit of a tummy bug that is mostly coming out in diarrhea . They are both having a hard time eating much of anything, in fact I am at the point where if they ask for something even if that is all they have eaten for the last two days I will give it to them, just so they eat. 

Today the only thing that Jaclyn would eat was milk and yogurt tubes. And David has had milk and buns. 

Poor kids. It sucks being sick on vacation.

Today turned out to be a nice day here and some of my family came over for a visit, David and Jaclyn were really excited to play with their cousins. Unfortunately they were both having a hard time. Jaclyn ended up sleeping most of the afternoon and David was able to go swimming with the rest of the kids but was still overly emotional due to feeling sick. I even had to put them to bed before everyone left because they were so tired. 

Hopefully a good nights sleep will do them and me some good and they will be up for more vacation fun tomorrow.

sick kids + vacation = tired mommy

Funny Kids

This morning I was checking something on my computer in the living room. The kids playing together in the other room when it got really quiet. This is how I found them when I walked into the kitchen.

Apparently it was time for a pretend picnic.

I love these two!!

Funny Kids