SNOW!

We got hit with snow pretty hard here last week.  It started on Friday morning and didn't stop until late Saturday night.  I think we got around 18 inches in all!!!  Which is just totally crazy and unacceptable...I don't like snow.at.all.  I told my husband that when we are rich we are going to buy a second house in Florida and we will live there from January 1 - April 1 :)  The kids on the other hand, thought all the snow was amazing and have enjoyed playing in it.  I think they are ready for it to melt now though.  I haven't been out in it but once for a short amount of time, but headed out with all four of the kids today.  It was Jude's first time in the snow and his first time on the swing.  I think he loved the swing.  And the kids loved pushing him! 







Eight more weeks and then I'm hoping we will be into the warm weather.  It's usually in the 60's - 70's here by the first week of April.  I'm counting down the days. :)  I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Remember you can comment here on the blog or chat with me on Facebook & Instagram.

MENU MONDAY

Last week I never got a chance to post our menu.  I've been working on some new and exciting things and have been extra busy lately.  Be sure to check back on the blog later this week to hear more about all that! We had about 18 inches of snow hit here this week!  Ah!!! I hate snow and being cold so I was not happy about all the snow and being stuck inside for days and days.  I like it when it snows just enough for the kids to play in it for the day and then it melts by the next morning.  Snow that lasts for weeks is just too much.  We went grocery shopping on Wednesday last week instead of Saturday because I knew we were going to be snowed in by Saturday and didn't want to be eating oatmeal every meal for several days :)  I'm so glad I did because the snow started Friday morning and didn't stop until late Saturday night.  Alanna wanted no part in going out in the snow while it was snowing because it blew in her face and made her too cold.  But she did go out with me today and enjoyed it a lot.  I'm sure we'll all be bundled up out in it tomorrow because I'm feeling pretty claustrophobic about now and need some fresh air :)  So look out for some snow pictures in the next few days.  Anyways... here is our menu for this week!  Enjoy! 

Oh if you missed it I posted {Part 4} of our Home Tour which shows our Before and After pictures of our house.  I know a lot of you were asking me when I would show those.  You can check it out {here}

Saturday:
B-Scrambled eggs with cheese & 2 mini cheesecakes
*I love these cheesecakes.  They are the perfect little size and so yummy!
 L- Turkey and Cheese sandwich on whole wheat sprouted bread , clementine(E)
D-  Leftover Chicken and green fries from the THM cookbook page 218 (S)  
*These green beans are so good.  

Sunday: 
B- Apple Crumble from the THM cookbook page 338
*This is one of our most favorite breakfasts!  We love to eat it hot with warm almond milk poured on top of it.
L- Chicken and Shrimp Quesadillas (S) & Shake  Kids: Ham & Cheese quesadillas   
D- Spaghetti with sausage over troodles from the THM cook book page 222.  Kids over whole wheat pasta.
*The troodles were awesome.  So happy I now have a way to eat spaghetti without all the carbs.


Monday: 
B- Banana Cake from the THM cookbook page  298 (E)
*I'll have mine with PB for a CO
L- Turkey hot dogs (no bun) with mozzarella cheese & homemade greek yogurt with peanut butter, truvia & sugar free chocolate chips (S) Kids: Leftover spaghetti.
D- Chicken pot pie from the THM cookbook page137
*I got the THM Baking Blend and it was so wonderful in this recipe.

Tuesday:
B- Ham & Cheese omelets(S)
L- Me: BLT Salad with ranch dressing, yogurt with fruit (S) Kids: PB & Jelly, yogurt with fruit
D- Turkey & Bean Chili (E)  

Wednesday: 
B- Giant Blueberry Pancakes from the THM cookbook page 261 (E)
L- Ham & Cheese & Turkey Bacon Wrap (kids in a tortilla shell) fried in butter, shake (S)
D-Taco Salad (E) Kids: Tacos

Thursday:
L-Turkey hot dogs, Sweet Potato, fruit  (E)  
D- Chicken & Shrimp fajitas (S)

Friday:
B-Scrambled eggs, fruit
L- Yogurt & granola from the THM cookbook page 254. Turkey & cheese roll ups (E)
D- Homemade Pizza & Salad (E)


 
Snacks:
Peanuts, cheese, fruit, yogurt, shakes, hard boiled eggs, cottage berry whip, hot tea, popcorn. 


I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or you can chat with me on Facebook & Instagram

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And because every post needs a picture or two or three...



 
 

SLOW DOWN & ENJOY THE MOMENT

The past few weeks have been a little different for me.  I've been working on some changes and it's made it a little challenging to get blogging done.  (More on this later) But through the past few weeks, I've kind of forgotten to take pictures of the kids most days.  In some ways this is good because it forces me to be more present with them, but I also don't want to miss capturing the moments that mean so much to me.  Jude is my fourth baby and he definitely has the least amount of pictures of him of all the kids.  Not because I want it that way, just because I'm so busy it's easy to forget.  So the other morning while I was getting him dressed, I was overwhelmed with my love for him and how beautiful he is.  I needed to get some other things done and was trying to hurry with getting him dressed but I decided to slow down, grab my camera and take a few pictures of my sweet little man.  They grow so fast at this age and change so much every day.  I'm so glad I decided to slow down and take these few shots.  










Sweet baby smiles that melt your heart, thigh rolls, elbow dimples, little ears, those small little toes and fingers, the wrinkles on the wrists!

These pictures may not be "perfect" in terms of photography but they are perfect to me because they will always help me remember all the little things I love about my sweet little baby.  

Tomorrow I want to slow down a little and enjoy all my kids a little more. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday & if you're in the middle of the snow storm like I am...stay safe & warm!  If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or you can chat with me on Facebook & Instagram

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{PART 4} TEARING IT DOWN TO BUILD IT BACK UP

When my husband started working on fixing up our house, we were living with my Dad.  My Dad's house is about 30 minutes from our house.  My husband was also working at the fire station and at a car mechanic shop (part-time) when he started working on the house.  He was working so many hours during the first month of re-construction.  He would would be at the house until 1am many times and then have to be up at 6am to leave for the fire department until the next day.  Then he would head to his part time job, come home for dinner and then head to the house to be gone until 1am again.  He was extremely exhausted.  After a month of that, he had to quit his part-time job.  It was just too much to keep up with.  It took four months for Nathan to get the house ready for us to move in.  He worked so many hours, so many nights.  He put everything into it.  He worked so hard and did an amazing job!  

Here's how it went:

This is what you saw when you first walked into the house.  We hated that big wall and the little wall.  It made the house feel so much smaller.  We wanted to be able to see into the kitchen when we walked in.


So Nathan knocked out the little wall and cut down the big wall.  He moved the hot water heater down to the crawl space, and built a space for a counter to go over the washer and dryer.





Did you catch a load of that wall color???!!!

This was the hall bathroom.  The toilets in the house were so awful.  At first Nathan had said we were not replacing the toilets and sinks but then one day I showed up to see how things were going and he surprised me with ....



 New sinks & toilets!!!  Oh thank goodness!



 Nathan took the wood beams off of the ceilings.  Let me tell you...sanding down a ceiling is not easy.  It was a lot of hard work. 



I don't have a picture of every room but this was the color of one of the bedrooms...orange!  Another room was purple and another was brown!  It was terrible.


The boys liked it when we went to the house to see how things were progressing.




I was pregnant with Alanna during all of this, so I wasn't able to help very much.  But I did manage to get out to the house a few times to help Nathan paint a little bit.  It was a really difficult experience going through buying a short sale and then having to do so much work on it, but it was also rewarding and well worth it.



After four months, the house was finally at a place where we could move in.  Fresh paint, new wood floors, a few cut down walls, a new pantry, and a lot of hard work and love!

This is what the house looked like the day before we moved in.











I was so thankful Nathan knew how to do all of the things he did to the house.  He did an amazing job! We still have a lot of projects we'd like to do to the house, but all in time.

Next time I'll be starting posts on what the house looks like now that we've been here for almost three years.  

RUY LATELY

Ruy will be nine years old in just three months.  Every time I look at him lately, I feel this tug at my heart.  He is growing up way too fast and I'm just not ready for it.  He is still so little in so many ways but I can see the young man he is growing in to and I am so proud of him.  

Ruy is one of the sweetest little boys you will ever meet.  He loves to draw me pictures, give me kisses, sing to me every night, have his back rubbed, write me sweet little notes telling me he loves me, and he still hates it when I go out anywhere without him.  He says it's ok if he goes somewhere without me but he doesn't like it when I chose to leave and go somewhere without him...(Mommy's boy & I love it!) 


He is so good with little kids.  Alanna is his little buddy.  She loves to play with Ruy.  She loves it when he reads to her or when he plays with her in her room.  He loves to push Alanna on her swing or help her go down the slide on our play ground.  The other day he came out of her room and said to me "Mom, Alanna is so cute.  I just love her so much!"  So many times when we have been at parks or museums, I have gotten compliments from other moms on how kind Ruy is to their kids.  

Ruy and Liam used to have a hard time playing together because of their four year age difference but Liam is at a good age now where they are interested in a lot of the same things and can play together pretty well.  They love to play out behind our fence in our woods and down by our creek.  They are forever getting wet and coming up with some excuse as to why they couldn't stay out of the water.  They love to ride bikes together, play basketball, and play tag.  Liam gets pretty frustrated with tag with Ruy because Ruy is so fast.  Liam always yells for Ruy to "run slow so I can tag you!"  Ruy's learning how to sometimes allow Liam to tag him or win at a race.  Just tonight Ruy came up to me and said "Mom, Liam's so cute. When I went into my room to get my pjs (Liam was already in bed), Liam said "good night Ruy sweet dreams!" Sometimes Liam really gets on my nerves, like when he turns out the light on me and then runs out of the room, but I really love him."  I told him that when they are older they will laugh at all the silly things they did to each other to annoy each other :) 

Ruy love Jude.  He loves to hold him and dance with him.  He loves tickling and making him laugh.  He can't wait to teach Jude all the things he knows.

Ruy and Nathan love playing board games together.  They will play for hours.  He loves being outside with Nathan, playing baseball with him, riding in his truck, working out in the yard with him etc.  Nathan works really hard to help Ruy learn his verses for Awanas and to help teach Ruy how to apply these verses into his life.  They are very close.

Ruy is doing so well in third grade.  I'm really proud of how hard he is working and I love teaching him and learning with him.  He's been helping Liam some days with Liam's preschool and it's so neat seeing Ruy do that for him.  

Ruy is still super into anything army/camouflage & Star Wars.  He wears his camo pants almost every day and has torn holes in the knees of his pants yet again.  He has so many Star Wars legos.  He loves to build with his legos on his little desk that's in his room.  Legos are his favorite toy.  He loves to create his own things with them and loves to tell me the stories that he's playing out.  Liam has just gotten into legos in the past few months and they've been enjoying playing together.  It's been a transition for Ruy having to share some of his legos with his little brother but he's gotten more used to it and told me tonight that he'd like to start teaching Liam how to follow instructions and build things.

Ruy loves to read.  Once he finds a book he likes, he will read for hours.  I love seeing him all curled up on the couch under a blanket reading.  Sometimes he reads at breakfast, while he's walking, or in the van.  I've always tried to encourage to him the importance of reading and I am so glad to see that he loves it so much. 

Ruy is my big helper.  Seriously, I am so appreciative of everything he does for me.  He has his daily chores that he does but he also does so much more than that for me.  When we're out he holds the door for me, holds Alanna's hand if I need him to, helps me carry groceries etc.  At home he will jump up and do just about anything I ask him to without complaining. 

Ruy is thoughtful, caring, loving, sweet, silly, super smart, funny, creative, and so handsome.  He is my little man and holds a special place in my heart.  






JUDE THREE MONTHS




Three.Months.
January 11, 2015

Jude turned three months on the 11th.  His little personality is just the sweetest.  He smiles so much now and has laughed a few times.  He loves to look at me when I'm carrying him in the Ergo.  He looks up at me and smiles really big....it's the sweetest!  He follows the sound of my voice when he's sitting in his little chair and then looks at my eyes and smiles his adorable little smile.  

He's got the cutest little ear that sticks out just slightly.  He got a few little rolls on his thighs that I love to squeeze.  He's got beautiful blue eyes and the softest skin.  He smells so good and is just so snuggly.  

He likes to chew on his fingers and his blanket.  He just started liking looking at books.  He smiles at it and gets so excited.  He loves baths but he hates being in his carseat.  He basically cries the whole time he's in his carseat unless he's asleep.  

He can hold his head up pretty well now.  He can roll from his belly to his back and pushes up on his knees and feet when he's laying on his belly.  

Jude nurses every 1.5-3 hours.  He gets up at 7:30am then goes down for a nap at 9am-11:30am.  He's up till 1pm and then naps from 1-4pm.  He stays up till about 5 and then naps for about 30 minutes in the Ergo.  Then he goes back to bed around 7pm.  He wakes up and gets in bed with me between 12:30-2:30am.  Then he sleeps next to me until around 5-6am.  At that point he starts to push away and I put him back in his crib and he falls right to sleep in his crib and sleeps there until 7:30am. 

He loves to have Nathan carry him around holding him out so he can see what everyone is doing.  He usually sits next to Nathan at dinner time in his little seat.  He holds Nathan's finger the whole time.  It's so cute! All three of the other kids are so crazy about Jude.  They love holding him, kissing him, and talking to him.  Liam is always saying "Jude's so cute!"  They love helping me give him a bath and Ruy's been trying to help me dress him. They are all such good siblings to little Jude!

He's such a sweet baby and we just love him so very much!  

Happy three months Jude David










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