For The Little Girl That...

begs her daddy to catch a cloud out of the sky for her to hold when she's swinging...

spontaneously busts into song...

dances, skips or runs everywhere she goes...

smiles and giggles her way through her days...

and takes on everything with her whole heart and fierce determination.

Preschool, brace yourself.
Here she comes.

Eagerly Anticipating

Crafting tonight...therapy for the soul

Pumpkin Spice Lattes arriving at Starbucks
& AJ starting soccer September 6th...signs of fall and new beginnings

Kids starting school September 7th...quiet, peaceful, alone time...

Brody arriving September 15th...such a long awaited joyful blessing
I love the infant stage and not being pregnant.

Family pictures October 8th...capturing and suspending fleeting moments in time
I will heavily bribe my children with candy in order to allow these moments to be captured without giving mommy an ulcer.

Coupon class October 22nd...feeding an obsession

Breaking Dawn coming out on November 18th...indulging the teenager in me

Jess coming out for Thanksgiving...sista bonding time

BUT in the meantime until all these fabulous things are here

Let's...

word?

A New Week

Hello waffles and orange juice with Andy before the kids got up.
Hello sheets and towels laundry day.
Hello only 2 more weekends until Baby Brody is here.
Hello coffee flavored ice cream waiting for me in the freezer...can't wait till our rendezvous at nap time today.
Hello new fun fabric and ribbon!

What shall we make Abby out of you?!
...a classic pillowcase dress?
...a simple sundress?
...a funky knot dress?

Hello important Monday decisions!

I Love This Song

Super Cute, Super Easy Kid Craft

Inspired by Little Bit Funky
we made some great monogram art for the kids' bedrooms this week!

Total side note that has nothing to do with this post:
I got that fabulous table top paper dispenser from Ikea this week!
$7 for the dispenser and $5 for the roll of paper!
That right there (& kids eating free on the weekends till Labor Day)
made dealing with the crowds worth it.

Back on track...
You just need paper, water colors, and some painter's tape!

Got to love an easy set up and an easy clean up!

So bright and colorful!

Can't wait to get a couple inexpensive white frames and hang them in their rooms!

AJ, Chicken Noodle, Sugar Muffin Man...

No matter what we call him...

I love this boy to the moon and back...
as deep as the ocean...
as high as the mountains...

more than Dr. Pepper, chocolate...
and Krispy Kreme doughnuts...

(These are the games we play...that go on and on.)

He is sensitive, compassionate and determined.
He warms my heart and makes me smile everyday.

He's my one I want to keep a protective bubble around when I send him out in the world...
not a protective bubble like a helmet and pads that Abby will need...
the kind that protects him from hurtful words and unkind people.

He loves happy endings and eating tomatoes out of our garden.

His favorite book series right now is Henry and Mudge
because it reminds him of himself and Latte.

He loves to give my Brody belly hugs and kisses and can't wait to meet his baby brother.

He loves to play the game Break The Ice, test the spaghetti noodles by throwing them on the front of the oven, have an afternoon snack with his momma on the glider, eat corn on the cob and drink fruit punch kool-aid.

His current favorite word is animosity.
He works it into every conversation and all his playing scenarios.
When I finally asked him if he knew what it meant...
He sounded truly hurt and offended. He crinkled up his nose at me and replied with,
"YES, I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!
IT IS ANOTHER WORD FOR 104!"
Then he stormed off...

Good thing he stormed off because I was laughing my butt off...
and might have wounded his tender spirit.

Strawberry Cake Cookies

The boys had a day out, so Girlfriend and I decided to make some cookies.

You need these four simple ingredients:
1 box of strawberry cake mix
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 carton (8oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 cups confectioner's sugar...

and a cute little, eager helper

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, egg and whipped topping...

Let your little friend stir it up (Abby stirs every time she adds an ingredient)
as she sings a little song about making cookies with mom...

Watch out for spontaneous spoon licking...

Put powdered sugar in a little bowl.
Drop dough into sugar and roll it around to coat it...

Place 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
I had to bake mine longer because I made them so big.
We were not about to do this with 5 dozen tablespoon size cookies.

2 dozen big cookies was manageable with a two and a half year old.

Basically you want them lightly browned around the edges.
Cool on wire racks.

Get a glass of milk and enjoy!

Abby Doo, Abby Cat, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Girlfriend...

No matter what we call her, she has a personality all her own.

We have a running list at our house...

Things We Find Ourselves Doing With Abby That We Never Had To Do With AJ:

Avoid multiple sinks in the house because they are all full of her clothes soaking in Oxy Clean

Google how to get crayon out of a tablecloth

Google how to get Sharpie out of clothes

Google how to get dry erase marker out of clothes

Buy Mr. Clean Magic Erasers 2 boxes at a time

Hide or lock up any and ALL writing utensils

Google how to get blood out of carpet
(because when you run everywhere you go, sometimes you don't make that corner & run right smack into a wall resulting in a double nose bleed...nice)

Repaint a bathroom wall because she "painted" it with the thickest, greasiest sunblock we own

Hide the wipes due to obsessive cleaning of any and all surfaces...
except for the ones she just wrote, drew, colored or "painted" all over...go figure

Throw away a set of sheets because she hid a hot pink ink pen in her bed room
(and there just was not enough Aqua Net in all the drugstores in the area to save them)

Hide the hand sanitizer before she rubbed her hands raw

Move her clothes out of her room so she didn't try them ALL on in one day

Call poison control, spend a day in the hospital with a two year old,
and lock up all the flower seeds


I am sure I will think of more items to add to the list...
and many more will come up over time...

because this little girl may be small and look innocent,
but has the personality and will power to rock this world one day.

We Got Rid Of Cable And Survived

Well, you may notice more sporadic posts as we adjust to our new house rule...
very, very limited, nearly non-existent screen time.

The fight has progressed all summer to get AJ and Abby away from screens and up being active.

We set a two show a day limit and limited computer time, but
every time I would come downstairs from switching a load of laundry or come back from picking one part of the house...
they would have an iphone, an ipad, be on the computer, or have the TV back on.

Then they started developing an attitude with me about it...
you know that lovely preschool yelling back talk with complete and total illogical reasoning.
"I HAVE TO WATCH THIS SHOW TO BE READY FOR MY MEETING!"
What meeting? You are five.

Anything that makes my children yell at me
is.not.something.they.need.in.their.lives.

When they would play, it was simply re-enacting a TV episode they had seen.
When they would talk to people, people would look at them like they were crazy because it was something from a cartoon that had nothing to do with anything in the context of the real world.

Their abilities to have independent thought and entertain themselves was rapidly decreasing.

I.was.done.
done.
DONE, I tell ya!

And when this pregnant, hormonal woman is done with something...
things happen rather fast around here.

So we turned off the cable and hide the iphones and computers during the day.

Guess what?
They didn't shrivel up and die.
They do not bug me constantly that they are bored.

They run, ride bikes, play in the sand box, play in the basement toy room, "read" books,
paint, color, use their imaginations,
build forts...

and play together.

All of this helping maintain my sanity and saving $65 a month.
Why didn't I do this months ago?!

Lil Bit Of Random For Ya

My family calls the peeps on the corner holding signs Sign Monkeys,
and I think it's freakin' hilarious when they are busting a serious move...
I mean come on if you are going to stand on a corner and hold a sign, do it with some passion.

I think tattoos on men are sexy.

I believe that Spanx should be standard issue in the hospital after having a baby...
seriously it's an instant ten pound weight loss.

We are that family that tears off the top section of paper off our straws and blows them at each other, and we laugh our butts off every single time.

I love orange flavoring...
I eat orange tic-tacs two at a time...
I can't drink just one glass of orange kool-aid...
and I always eat the orange Flintstones vitamins first.

I so want to be part of a flash mob one day.

Lava Lamp Fun

Today we made lava lamps from Family Fun!

The kids loved it.
It was easy and took only a few supplies.

You need a bottle(s) , water, vegetable oil, alka-seltzer, and food coloring.

I filled our bottles half full of vegetable oil,
but I think it would work even better if you filled them a little more than half full.

Fill the bottle the rest of the way up with water...leaving about one inch at the top.

Drip 10 drops of food coloring into the bottle...

Keeping a close eye on your youngest, so she doesn't drop the entire bottle of food coloring
into her bottle...

But if she does, have fun fishing it out of the small bottle opening
while your children are impatiently waiting...

Break each alka-seltzer tablet into 4 pieces and have your kids drop them in one at a time...

waiting for the previous one to stop bubbling before you drop in the next one.

Have fun watching the magic over and over again.

You can keep your solution, and do this again and again...
until your solution starts getting cloudy.

Getting There

T-Minus 38 days till baby Brody arrives, and we are almost ready.

We attempted to merge AJ and Abby into one bedroom a while back to free up a bedroom
for baby Brody.

Sharing a room: FAIL

It was like a party all.night.long.
Not what this pregnant momma needed.

So the third child will start out with a nice little corner in his parents' room.
If he is anything like his siblings, he will be sleeping through the night by 8 weeks...and jump the crib by 9 months...
So he may be in a toddler bed...
or sharing a bunk bed with his brother before we know it.

After already giving away most of our baby paraphernalia,
we survived this little surprising bundle of joy by the generosity of our friends.

Everyone has been so gracious in helping us build back up our baby supplies.

We are truly blessed.

This will work out...
right?