Instagram update

I thought I'd share some of the Instagram pictures I have taken lately. These have all been on Facebook, so sorry these are repeats for some of you. :)

A few weeks ago, Malachi and Sapphira had hand, foot and mouth disease.  Malachi was able to tough it out, but Sapphira's poor mouth was covered in sores making it very painful to each solid food.  She lived on milkshakes and smoothies for a few days.  I took this picture when Malachi and I were eating and she found this top to pass time while she waited for us to finish.  Sweet girl.

Sapphira looooved watching her cousins perform in their ballet recital.  She chose her poofy-est dress to wear and even carried a little purse so she'd look like a "rina", too!  She sat in the aisle next to Grandma the whole time perfectly still and quiet in awe of the dancers.

There is a walking bridge over the river in our town that we hadn't taken the kids on yet.  They loved it and thought watching a log go under their feet and swirl in the currents was incredible!

Silly girl watching herself on momma's phone camera screen.  Love her! :)

A dear friend gave the kids a picnic table for the back yard!  Eating supper has never been so fun!

Helping Grandma wash her car (in between spraying her brother and cousins! :D)

Pretty in Purple

The church we attend has a mom's group that meets twice a month during the school year.  Each meeting, there is a different speaker with a topic that is applicable to our lives as young moms and wives.  I love going because it gives me a chance to spend time with fellow mommas, have some adult conversation, eat good food (!), and learn skills to be come a better mom.  Our year end brunch was on May 4th and I was in charge of table decorations.  I found this tutorial on pinterest (I think!) and a contractor husband of one of the other moms whipped up the boxes and Samuel painted them and drilled the holes for the handles for me while I was at work one day.  I lightly sanded the edges with our dremmel and used scrapbook paper covered tin cans for the flower containers.  I was able to find the beautiful flowers at Costco and then cut burlap squares to go beneath the boxes on the tables.  I was quite pleased with how they turned out and got lots of compliments on them, so they must have been ok! :)  What I loved was that I was able put together each centerpiece for a bit under $20 each...not the cheapest I've done, but still pretty good (I think)!

Someone at each table was able to bring the centerpiece home and when my friend (whose husband built the boxes) saw that I didn't have one, gave me hers saying her hubby could just build her another one!  What a sweet friend! For right now, it sits on a little side table in our living room, but once the flowers die, I found this tutorial that gave me idea to use it as a silverware caddy.  Could also be used as a desk organizer, craft organizer...oh the possibilities!!! :)

Hunger Games!!!

Once my two best friends saw the first previews for The Hunger Games, we started making plans to see the movie in the theater.  Since I had a few months before the movie came out and I had no idea what all the fuss was about, I decided I would read the book so I would understand the film better.  Well, the book is every bit as good as everyone says, so not only did I read the first book in the series, but also the second and third in the month before we went. (I've been in a reading slump for a while, so choosing to read this much and actually enjoying it surprised me.)  I was officially on the Hunger Games bandwagon!  I stayed up waaaay to late waaaay too many nights and had bad dreams about being a character in the book, but it was very worth it.  The three of us planned and looked forward to our 6:30 showing on March 29th with great anticipation.  We turned it into a couples night out since their husbands had also read and enjoyed the books.  It was so fun to have a kid-free night with other adults we enjoy spending time with and having grown up conversation!   The movie did not disappoint!  It covered the book much better than I thought it would and the actors did a great job capturing the book characters the way I imagined them.  The politics of the book wasn't touched on as well as I had hoped and we had to explain a couple scenes to Samuel after the show since they didn't make sense to him because of this.  We ended the evening with a stop for ice cream and spent some more time talking with our friends.  We both really had fun.  But you want to know the best part of this whole thing??  The next morning!  Since the kids spent the night at my in-laws house, we got to sleep in!  Simple pleasures, right?!  Yay for wonderful friends, good books and captivating movies!

8.14.11--Winged friend

While playing in the backyard one hot afternoon, this winged creature paid us a visit. We had seen several dragonflies zip around the yard that day, but this one landed and stayed put for at least 5 minutes.  The kids are really into the Wild Kratts tv show and the characters on the program always give their "creature friends" nicknames that describe the abilites of the animal or how they met them.  I'm sure this show was in the back of Malachi's mind when he names this guy Backwards Flyer, "Ford-wards" Flyer (I just love how he says forwards).

 I can't help but imagine the Lord having fun creating creatures like this...look at all those tiny markings.  So beautiful.

Daddy finished up mowing the front yard just in time for Malachi to show him his new buddy and help him get a closer look before it flew away.

5.10.11--Bubba's Birthday Day

On Malachi's actual birthday, we were invited to another little girl's carousel party who is a birthday buddy! She was turning two so she and Sapphira are in the same Sunday School class, but her sweet momma invited all of us and even included Malachi in the celebration by giving him his own cupcake with candle to blow out!! I just love you C!!!

Before the party started, we got in a ride on the carousel...so fun (note Sister won't sit on her own horse...I have to hold her)

He loves riding the horses and picking just the right one!

Blowing out his special candle

It was really echo-y and loud in this room...Bubs wasn't a fan! :)

After we finished our snack, we headed outside to enjoy the first warm day of the year. I brought some bubbles which were a hit with everyone.
Modeling?? Whatever she's doing, she's just plain cute!!
After a bit more time outside, we headed back in for another ride since we needed to get going to Malachi's birthday supper. Sapphira decided it was time to ride her own horse...can you tell how much she loved it? :)

Malachi chose Red Robin for his birthday supper. GaGa, Boppa, Grandma, Papa, Addy and Bella joined us and Bobo stopped by for a minute after work. We opened a few small presents and got to eat a birthday sundae. It was a great day!!

5.7.11--Bubba's 4th birthday Party!!!

Since the weather forecast was iffy (it turned out to be a cold, windy day!), we were able to reserve a room at church to celebrate inside instead of at the park like we had planned. Malachi decided on a robot party, and I sure had fun planning and decorating!! Google, Photoshop, and CopyMax were my best friends this year!! :)

Robot cupcakes!

Matching table decorations.

Since we made the decision to have the party at church at the last minute, I had to quickly come up with some games to play. I gathered up some different size containers around the house and made a bean bag and the kids tried to throw the bean bag in one of the containers to get a sucker. I thought this up the night before and was sure the kids would think it was totally lame, but they were so into it! Doesn't take much to make kiddos happy!

Malachi LOVED the suckers! :)

After the bean bag game, we played red light, green light. Malachi loves playing this game at Cubbies, and I thought we could make the kids walk like robots on green light to make it go with the party theme. It was hard to get a picture of them walking silly, but they laughed and laughed when they were doing it!

Malachi's best friend, N, gave him a garbage truck and snow plow! We had a really hard time getting him to open anything else after these! :)

N and Malachi playing with the trucks.

He was so good about letting others help him open and look at presents this year. These two buddies had so much fun together!

GaGa and Boppa gave him a new book about giant tractors and dump trucks.

New Word World books...yay!!!

GaGa found a robot pencil sharpener! When you open it's chest plate, there is a place to put the pencil and as you turn the pencil, you wind it up...

...and it walks! So clever and a favorite craft time item! (She found it at the Goodwill Outlet of all places! GaGa is really good at finding fun things for basically nothing there!)

Sapphira got him a Mac truck from Cars that he has been so desperately wanting! So very exciting! :)

He loved being sung to this year! (Last year he got mad and started yelling and covering his ears when we sang because we made him stop playing :) Crazy boy!)

Did it all on his own!

Yippee!!!

GaGa, Boppa, Grandma, Papa, and Momma and Daddy all chipped in to get him a new big boy bike! I wasn't able to get any good pictures of him discovering it (we hid it in a closet!) since he was so excited and jumping and moving all around. Once the excitement wore off and he started playing with his other toys, Sapphira got a turn!

Playing garbage trucks and snow plows with GaGa.

They must have been deep in thought ;)

Goodness...I love that smile!

Party aftermath! :)

We all had so much fun! Malachi really seemed to enjoy the company of all his family and friends and of course his presents, too! :) I know that I get really stressed out in the few days before the kids' parties, but I really enjoy the actual party and watching them have so much fun.

Goodness, Malachi! How can you be 4 already?? It seems like just yesterday that we brought our sweet baby boy home from the hospital! You are such a sweet and thoughtful boy and we couldn't have asked the Lord for a better boy for our family. We can't wait to see what great things this next year has in store for us! We love you so much Bubba!!!

Long time no see!!!

Our friends, Robert and Teresa and their new daughter Chloe, came to visit us over a weekend in the middle of June. Malachi had fun with Chloe who was about 6 months. On Saturday, we went to the park where Chloe got to swing for the first time!! So fun! We hadn't seen them since shortly after Natalie was born, so we had fun catching up and spending time together!

Of course the boys had to play soccer!

Malachi running to find his new friend.