Big girl bed

Since Alayna and Chandler are less then 15 months apart, we have to do some things a bit earlier than normal.
We only have one crib and it's Alayna's for now. She just turned 18 months and I thought I would just try taking the side off her bed to see if she would stay in bed. She has a twin bed already in her room, but I didn't want to take the entire crib apart move it to Chandler's room and have trouble with her at night to the point where she needed back in the crib. BTW why don't they make cribs so they can fit through a standard door??? I have to take the crib apart just to put it back together again. Gee Whiz!

So anyway we are on her fourth night and she is doing great. Yes, she gets out once and a while and sits and plays with books, but we just put her back in her bed. She doesn't scream or cry, in fact she is pretty quite and kinda sneaks out of her bed. I really wish we had a video monitor in her room to see what she is really doing.

We are going to take the crib out in the middle of February so Chandler can finally have a bed. He has a pack and play to sleep in, but he doesn't sleep in it. He is still in his car seat, but that is all coming to an end. This mommy is cracking down!

I am about to have only one left in a crib, I am going to miss these baby stages. I have been telling my self "these are the best days" one day I am going to look back and only remember the joy and the fun little things I do with the children, I'll forget that I had to say "no" 200 times in one day or that I had to send someone to time out just so they could learn how to be behave. I'll remember their smiles, the cute little things they say and the way their hand feels so little in mine. These are the best days!

Eyes

Last week was kinda crazy around here. Taylynn scratched her eye with an unsharpened pencil and cried off and on for four hours before I took her to the Dr. We just went to express care and they checked her after I paid the co pay and said they couldn't see anything because they don't have the right equipment to check eyes. So they sent us to a specialist where we had to pay an even higher co pay to get in. He confirmed she had a scratch and because of the scratch her vision was really blurred. She could only see the letter on the top of the chart, nothing else. When it comes to eyes, it's pretty scary. We never really think about being able to see, but it is such a blessing. She got an ointment that helped the corneal abrasion, but she hated it!

One of my friends is married to an eye Dr. He is my friend too. I actually set them up and they ended up getting married.....anyway.....We went and saw him a couple days later for Preston's first eye appointment and he went ahead and checked Taylynn and her eye was great and she COULD see! Yay! Dr. Swader is the best Dr. he explains things and lets me know what he is doing and looking for when he checks their eyes. I really appreciate Dr. that take their time rather than rushing just to get done. Plus I know him as a really great daddy so of course he is going to be great with my kids. He even checked Alayna's eyes so she didn't feel left out :)
Here are some pictures of the visit:

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
Matthew 6:22

Hand full of Prayers

Last night while I was up with Chandler just enjoying the quite moments of the night with him, I held his hand and began praying for each of his fingers and how God will use them when he is a man. It was one of those moments I don't ever want to forget. A moment where I recognized that Chandler is not just MINE, he is God's child and I am just a temporary parent. I have chosen to be the best parent I can and raise Chandler to be the man God has planned for him to be. All I can do is set the foundation and pray for him. So Chandler dear, this is my prayer:

Left hand

pinky finger:

Lord, I pray that you will hold Chandler's hand when he is in a time of need. Guide him through a smooth path and allow him to feel the comfort of your hand.

ring finger:

God, my prayer is that Chandler will find other believers in his life and spend time hand in hand with them, as he walks them through rough moments and they walk him through his rough moments.

middle finger:

God I pray that Chandler can bring unbelievers to you. I pray that he will share his love for you with everyone he knows.

pointer finger:

Lord, I know its important to know your word. I pray that Chandler will search and discover your word, leaving his fingerprints among all your stories.

thumb:

Lord I pray that Chandler will come to you with his hand clutched together in prayer and with thankfulness. I pray that he uses prayer in all moments of joy and sadness.

Right hand

thumb:

God, I pray that Chandler's hands will often be found in his wive's hands. I pray for their love for each other and many years together.

pointer finger:

God I pray these hands will be used to serve you. I pray he uses the gifts you have given him to surpass his expectations where they will meet yours.

middle finger:

Lord I pray that he will lead his family. That he will step up and be a godly father and husband.

ring finger:

Lord, I pray that these hands will often be lifted up to you in praise. I pray he won't be timid about lifting his hands up you.

pinky finger:

God, I pray that one day Chandler will have a little baby of his own whose hand will be wrapped around his pinky. Bless those tiny hands and those sweet moments Chandler will have with his children. I pray Lord that one day Chandler will be on his knees praying these things for his own children.


To all my children, These are just some of my prayers for you. I have dreams and hopes for you, but on top of it all I just want you to know Jesus and build a relationship with Him. He will then guide you and be with you and take you beyond your dreams and hopes.
Love you much!
Mommy

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. Lamentations 3:41

68 years

I know of a great love, one that has lasted 68 years. Although I have only seen 28 of these years, I know true love when I see it.
After being married myself I have learned that a true love really does grow stronger through the years. Love always hits rough spots, but from pain and hardships comes understanding and a great sense of life. If a love can stand through these trials it can grow into something beautiful, something my grandparents have.
I pray that one day Aaron and I will get to share our 68th anniversary. I know that if we put God first then our marriage will always go in the direction God wants it and even if life only gives us 20 more years those years are the best years ever!

Happy 68th Anniversary to a couple with a treasure loved and a beautiful life. I love you Grandma and Paw-Paw. Thank you for teaching my parents how to love and showing me how to love. You have something so special. You are so loved by all of us. Have a great day, love you so so much!!!

Alayna is a year and a half

Alayna,
It is hard for me to let you grow and get older, but with much reluctance I am! From about 6 months I have said "this is my favorite age" and I still say that. I love these last "baby" months. The months where you still need and WANT me. I love when you walk up to me and grab my hand, or when music comes on you come up and put your hands out to dance with me. I know I will always be special to you, but it makes me feel so special and loved just by you wanting me.

I sometimes stare at you and say "I just can't get enough"; now this isn't always the case. You have your stubborn side and since you don't talk the only way to communicate that your upset is by your scream/cry. And you don't stop!!! I still love you. I will always love you even when you aggravated me or do something I don't like. My love for you will not fail. Even more so God will and does love you more than I can imagine. His love goes beyond the moon and back, it reaches further than the length of our arms. When I say I love you to pieces, God loves you to a billion pieces.

Alayna you live in a world with so much hurt and pain, but your life right now is perfect. You know no hurt of the world, you typically feel no pain (unless Preston is around). You are precious and innocent and it is beautiful to think that you don't lay in bed and worry or stress about anything. You just get to be you and be happy. This period is short, it's the period of time before you realize this world isn't perfect. I will use this time to surround you in happiness and show you that right here in this house is love. I promise to dance with you every time you ask. I promise to hold you when you need me to. I promise to drop anything I am doing to give you a hug. I promise to share with you what a personal relationship with Jesus looks like through my own example. I promise I will fail at times, but I will never hurt you on purpose, I will always love you, I will own up to my mistakes and I will be honest with you. I love you Alayna and the best way to teach you how to love others is by loving you the best I can.

I want to remember this special age so I will fill you in on the things you are doing lately.

You just started climbing onto the table. I am not so happy about this because you don't listen when I tell you to get down. Your first climbing experience happened about 6 months ago when I found you on Preston's queen size bed. That was a shocker, but now here you are climbing on anything and everything.

You say, momma, dadda, uh huh!, all done, and up clearly. You say about 100 other things that only mommy and daddy can typically understand. You do have a bit of a made up language. We ask you to say something and you repeat it in your own way and then smile. Since daddy and I laugh so much when you do this, you seem to think it's funny too and you do it all the time.

You love Barney and you get so excited when he comes on TV. Your a music girl just like your brother and sister, so you love that it's mostly music. You love the itsy bitsy spider and you know all the motions to that and three little ducks and patty cake. You have just started to try and sing when songs come on.

I sometimes wake you up at night just to hold you. I don't try to wake you up, but you easilly wake up. I will hold you for a bit and sometimes take you into my room and lay down with you, but you don't ever want to lay, so I don't do this often.

You are a lover. You will kiss everyone goodnight if we ask you to and they are the sweetest kisses.

Speaking of goodnights, you go to bed like an angel. We stopped your morning nap about 2 months ago so now you take one nap somewhere between 12 and 2 and you sleep anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours. You go to bed at 7 and you are quite as a mouse. You wake up around 7, just in time for daddy to get done with his work out and for the two of you to have some time together. You have this purple blanket that you love and you cannot sleep without (assuming, I have never taken it away from you). Taylynn shares a room with you, but you have to fall asleep before she goes in or you won't sleep a wink. You don't wake up at night, unless it's my fault.

You love to eat, although the past two days it's been a challenge getting you to eat your veggies, but I would say that's pretty normal. You favorite thing to eat would probably be bananas, but you love donuts too :)

You love playing with the kids leapfrog games, but when I say play I mean turn on and touch the screen until it does something cool. You also love books, your elephant toy you got for Christmas, baby dolls. You hate animals that talk or move and Preston's noisy guns and whoopee cushion.

You wear size 5 diaper. You have gone potty on the toilet, but it's been a while. You think it is fun to sit on your little potty, but not for more than 4 seconds.

You weigh 32 pounds and your growing taller everyday. You wear mostly size 2T and size 6 shoe.

I cannot imagine the changes you will make in the next six months. It's bitter sweet, I want you to grow up and see you grow as a child of God, but I also want you to stay little for a little while longer.

Mommy and Daddy love you, along with many many other people. You are surrounded by love Alayna. Kisses....lots and lots of kisses!

Mommy

Silhouettes DIY

My friend Kim made some really adorable silhouettes of her family and I LOVE it so I decided to make some too!

My intentions were to walk you through the process with pictures, but when I get going stopping to take pictures is the last thing on my mind. With four children my craft time is short so I have to move fast. I do have a couple pictures to help you get an idea, but really this was a cheap fairly easy project.

Supplies:

-wooded quilt hoop (any size works)
-child
-camera
-printer
-wonder under fusible transfer paper
-cotton fabric of your choice for the face
-fabric of your choice for the backing Kim used canvas, I used burlap, but anything works
-iron
-tea towel
-scissors
-pencil

I got all my supplies first so I would know how big I needed to print the face.

When taking the picture of the child first make sure their hair is fixed the way you want. ..hint turn bows to the side so you don't just see their profile.
Set the child in front of a window an take the picture without the flash.
I had to take about 20 pictures of each child until I got the correct one.
I download the picture then put it on Microsoft word

Make a box shape and set it the size you want the head. I made a six inch head for a 8 inch hoop, but make sure if you do younger siblings you make them smaller the younger they get. Add your picture an enlarge it so the top of the head to the neck fit in the box and print on your printer.

I printed on cardstock so it was easier to cut and trace.

Once the face is printed cut out very carefully

Trace the face BACKWARDS on the smooth side of the transfer paper.

Iron the transfer paper on the backside of the fabric (follow iron directions that come with transfer paper)

Cut out face

Peel off transfer paper

Place face on back fabric and cover with damp cloth and iron (again following directions that come with your transfer paper)

Enclose the face with backing into your quilt hoop tighten and cut off excess fabric. I hot glued the burlap around to make a clean look.

I hung them with knobs from Hobby Lobby and fell in love with this wall. So happy an I am going to love it even more years from now.

If you are ready to take some pintrest ideas and blog about it be sure to link up here!! Their is a time line so get crafting.

Twine Lamp

DIY twine lamp. So simple and quick if your ready to jazz up your lamp shade.

You will need:
Lamp shade
twine
burlap or fabric
buttons
hot glue
needle and thread

I bought a thick twine from Hobby Lobby. The thicker, the quicker when winding around craft projects.
I start from the top and go to the bottom, hot gluing as I go.

For the flowers I used fabric around the house and then I spray painted some burlap blue. To form the flowers you can cut a strip of fabric 1 inch wide and about 40 inches long. Make a fold in the fabric and one stitch. Along the bottom of the fabric you need to make stitches all the way across then pull the thread so the fabric bunches up.
You the shape the fabric into a flower shape and stitch to secure it.
Hot glue a button and hot glue to the lamp and you're done!


If you are ready to take some pintrest ideas and blog about it be sure to link up here!! Their is a time line so get crafting.

Anniversary and New Years Eve

December 26th Aaron and I celebrated our 6th anniversary while in Bentonville. We stayed in a hotel went to dinner, did some shopping and had some great time to reconnect and enjoy the peace.

On New Years Eve we went to our Pastors house for dinner and some games. Then came back home and put Alayna to bed. Ryan, Heather Brody, Alyssa and Katie came over to ring in the new year. We let Taylynn and Preston stay up, and they did. It was so much fun that I didn't even think to take pictures, but the memories were made!

Chandler 3 months

Chandler you're three months today!
I have really been soaking in my time with you. I am really going to miss having a baby around, so I am not taking your first year for granted.

This month was a busy one, but a lot of changes for you Mr. Chandler. You love looking around and playing with your toys dangling from your car seat. You smile all the time and you are such a happy boy. You talk a lot, especially when you're sleepy. It sounds like you are singing yourself to sleep.

You have been sleeping well at night. You get up once or twice to eat, but always go right back to sleep. You still sleep in the car seat at night.

Your favorite thing to do is have your legs naked and lay down. You just kick them all around and coo like the world is perfect and it is.

You wear size three diaper and 3-6 / 6-9 month clothing.

You're 16 pounds.

Your mommy and daddy love you to pieces. We are excited to see the man you grow to be and the plans God has for you. I pray for you every night, and I pray that one day you will know your God and have a strong relationship with Jesus.
Love you Chandler Dean!!!

Christmas day!

Happy Birthday Jesus!
WE WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT! PSALMS 118:24

Santa arrived and ate the cookies. He left some goodies too!

Alayna was the first up and when we brought her in our room she woke up Taylynn and Preston. It didn't take Taylynn but 4 seconds to realize it was finally Christmas morning.

We headed down stairs and the excitement began. Actually everyone is quite mellow and they first walk around and look at everything then they finally sit down and check out all the goods Santa brought.

Since this Christmas was on a Sunday we had to quickly get ready for church then head out the door. I love it when Christmas ends up on Sunday, the service was beautiful and so was the music.

When we got back to the house my Grandparents came over and My brother's family came from Springfield. It was great to have everyone together and it was my first time meeting my brothers daughter Kaitlyn. She is about 6 weeks earlier than Chandler, so the two of them are going to have lots of fun in the future.

We had a wonderful prime rib dinner and then opened some presents.

It was a wonderful Christmas! A wonderful LIFE!