School in November

This is a little post of the fun we've had in school for this month, but then I also found some pretty stinkin adorable photos on the computer so I decided to go ahead and post them to! Enjoy the cuteness!

The boys got haircuts! 

                                         Malachi, decorating a star with paint and glitter!

                          And a couple cute football lovers! Not sure what Malachi was being nervous about.

                                                 
                                           And a precious baby girl "helping" me make dinner!

We made pizza with Ham on it for H day.  The boys were eating the toppings as fast as I could put them on there!

And since I don't think I have shown it before, here is Malachi's school board.  We've kind of skipped over the Nursery Rhyme portion in favor of Bible memory verses of which he now knows 3!

Malachi still has a huge preference of letters over numbers.  He's like his Mama in that regard ;)  But he has been doing a really good job with some simple math stuff.  Here's a video of some of his number skills he is working on!  

First Dentist Visit

Imagine the fear in my eyes when at our last pediatric appointment our pediatrician said it was time to schedule Malachi for his very first dentist visit.  Malachi has a bit of a hard time with new experiences and I know I hate going to the dentist so I wasn't looking forward to it FOR him.  With that being said, we definitely knew that going to a pediatric dentist was going to be important for him, since they would know how best to handle kids who may have a bit of fear. 

We also had a little bit of concern over a possible chipped tooth on Eli, so we decided to just take them both in.  This worked really well because as soon as we got there Malachi started shouting "no!" So we decided to go ahead and let Eli go first and let Malachi watch.  We were banking on Eli being a good patient ;)

They did a great job of warming the kids up and letting them see how all the tools worked.  This got Malachi really excited and within minutes he hopped right up on the table to play with the assistant!

As hard as it was to believe, it didn't take long before Malachi had some birthday cake flavored polish and was letting her clean away.  He wouldn't lay back, but this was pretty darn amazing for Malachi.  We sure were proud of him!

 

He got a bit jealous when it was Eli's turn, so they distracted him with a dragon who needed his teeth brushed!



And Eli was super compliant!  He got to watch Mickey Mouse on the tv on the ceiling while he got his teeth cleaned!

 They did awesome!  The dentist said we're doing everything right and their teeth look great!  We also spent a lot of time talking about Ethiopia and adoption since their dentist adopted from Ethiopia a year ago with our same agency! The boys had a blast playing with toys and watching tv while we talked to the dentist.  It was a perfect first dentist visit.  The boys did not want to leave and Malachi still talks about the fun he had at the dentist.  And here I thought Fun and Dentist were oxymoron's 

Mommy Brain

I was an avid babysitter when I was a teenager and I often noticed the moms I babysat for had something I commonly referred to as "mommy brain".  I never understood why it took them 3 trips to the car to remember their purse and their keys. Pr why they would sometimes forget appointments or spend 10 minutes trying to find their car keys. I often just thought that these mother's were "airheads" and if any of these woman are now reading this blog, let me give you my most sincere apologies.

I now too, am a sufferer of "mommy brain".  I often forget to do the most simple of tasks.  I often feel overwhelmed and I also often lose things (such as my library card that I found exactly one day after getting a replacement).  If I can get in the car and remember all 3 kids AND everything I needed for the diaper bag on the first try - I am doing great!

Today I went grocery shopping as I often do on Sunday's.  Lately I have been taking one of the boys with me to get some one-on-one time with them.  Needless to say I was feeling a bit out of sorts as it was exactly 2:08 AM last night when my head finally hit the pillow after Peter and I had both taken trips in to deal with a fussy baby girl.  I pulled out of the drive way and was thrilled that I got everything I needed on the first trip to the car (kid, keys, purse, coupons, shopping list)!

Eli and I had a fun time shopping as he pointed out all of the items in the cart and practiced saying what they were.  I picked up the last item I needed and then tried to get ahead of the game by sorting through my coupons and getting my reward card out.  This is when I realized that I forgot the most important part of my purse.  In all the fun of online Black Friday shopping, my debit card was currently sitting on the desk at HOME!  I also realized that I forgot my phone at home too, so there was no one I could call to help me out, not that it would do much good  because I had all the car seats with me so Peter couldn't come to my rescue.

Fortunately Customer Service was more than happy to hold on to my groceries while I drove back home and got my debit card and returned to the store.  My quick trip to the store ended up taking a bit longer than I would have liked but seriously, being a mommy has turned my brain in to MUSH!  Life is so busy and there is just so much that us mom's have to try to remember (not to mention we're EXHAUSTED)!  I swear that my children have killed at least half of my brain cells!  Oh well, until next time Mommy Brain!

Spreading the Christmas Cheer

Thanks to Smiley360 and Kmart, I had an awesome opportunity to get a jump on some new Christmas decorations for our home!  Peter and I took of with Kmart giftcard in hand to liven up some Christmas decorations for our home!  We haven't really added to the decorations in our home too much these last few years, so it was fun to get to add a couple little extra things to our house!

The first thing we bought, that I saw on Pinterest this year was taking a plain ornament and writing the year and memories from that year on the ornament!  Thanks to my blog, it wasn't too difficult to go back over these past 6 years and make an ornament for each one and I am sure it will be much easier to keep track of in the coming years!  Already it was a great reminder of all the great things we have done and accomplished in our life together!  

Another simple addition was some garland for the mantel!  We also got to add another stocking to the Christmas decorations this year, and I was thrilled that it was another Minnie Mouse :)

And our final piece of new decorations was bringing life to our Christmas wreath on the front door.  The wreath has been very plain, so we bought some ornaments and Christmas lights that match the house and brought some life in to the dull thing!  It looks much more festive now!

This was a really fun opportunity to add to the Cheer in our home!  If you want some great deals on Christmas decorations this year, check out KMart!  Also, if you would like to join me on Smiley360 and get some awesome opportunities to try new products and get free giftcards here is the link to all the fun!  Join SMILEY360 HERE!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

We had a very nice Thanksgiving this year!  It started bright and early as we joined Peter at his early (and cold) Give N Gobble run!  

                                                                      There they go!

             Thankful for reinforcements in the form of grandparents while Daddy was off running!

Daddy did a great job (even though he was a little disappointed) and finished 24th overall and 2nd in his age group!  We're proud of you :)

Then it was home to take naps and off to Great Grandpa and Grandma Fair's for dinner!

                                Malachi thought he was VERY handsome!  And he was right!

Boo, bad mommy didn't get a picture of Eli all dressed up before he got it all dirty at Thanksgiving Dinner.  He was quite the handsome boy too.  

So many blessings to be thankful for in my life.  I admit at times that in the busyness and hectic moments of this life, that I forget just how blessed I have become.  Earlier this week, I had an appointment with my doctor and her one comment helped remind me of how blessed we are.  It was just 3 1/2 years ago that I sat in her office having a difficult discussion about why we weren't able to have the family I always dreamed about.  This week I went in there with pictures of my 3 little one's and as she looked at them she got this big grin on her face and came over and gave me a big hug and said "Can you believe it?  Look at all these babies of yours!"  Wow, it is true.  I have been immensely blessed!!!  

Another Great Old Navy Sample and Share!

I once again had a great opportunity courtesy of Crowdtap and Old Navy to get a FREE dress!  Now for me, dress clothes are most definitely not something I wear often which also means it is something that I very rarely purchase.  So to have the opportunity to go in to the store and try on dresses with no particular event in mind and to pick something brand new out for myself was a real special treat!

Peter and I and ALL the kids ended one of our date nights at Old Navy where I grabbed a bunch of different dress styles and headed for the dressing room!  I had Miss Sabrina with me and she wasn't the most patient of ladies, but I was able to at least try everything on.  I will admit that this still seemed like a bit of a challenge for me as I still feel like I am in this odd post-partum body phase (even though I have lost all of the pregnancy weight).   So I was a bit self-conscious and there were quite a few outfits that were just NOT flattering at all.  But the last dress I tried on, I felt really good in and I feel like it looked really good too!

Here is the dress that I left the store with:

Old Navy had some cute dress styles that I think everyone should go check out!  They were on a great sale while we were there too (and there are some great coupon codes right now for online shopping!)

Also if you haven't joined Crowdtap it is a really great and fun website to be a part of.  I've got numerous opportunities to try new products and have received hundreds of dollars in Amazon gift cards through Crowdtap.  So it is definitely worth checking out:

Parenting a 2 Year Old!

Being the Mommy to a 2 year old is an interesting challenge.  On one hand I now have this child who is fully potty trained, who can totally feed himself, and communicate with full sentences.  He can pick up the toys (when he wants to) and help me do simple tasks for his little siblings.  He constantly cracks me up with the sings he says and the things he does!

On the other hand, I have a child who is discovering independence.  One who's favorite word is "no".  A child who absolutely, no matter what I cook for dinner refuses to eat it.  Who will ONLY eat Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches for lunch and loves nothing more than to try and order me around all day!  He's a constant ball of energy that does not stop moving all day long and moves from one activity to another and on and on and on!

It feels like a constant juggling act to figure out where to allow independence and where to pull back the reigns a bit.  I admit that it is all still a work in progress as I often make mistakes and am learning how best to parent this phase myself.  The best I can come up with for this age, is that it sure takes a lot of praying and a lot energy! But I am so thankful that I have been given this challenge - not to mention I get to do it again - make that at least twice more!  I can't wait to see where all this little firecracker of a son goes in life!

7 Months

Well, our beautiful little princess is yet another month older.  I have REALLY enjoyed this month with her as she explores her world more and I get to learn more about who she is!  

Little Miss Sabrina is pure joy!  She is usually very happy and full of smiles!  She has a face that just lights up with joy!  She has beautiful (still BLUE!) eyes and the biggest smile whenever she see's me.  I really can't get enough of my little girl :)  

Sabrina is now 15 lbs 6 ounces.  A whole pound of weight gain this month - whoohoo!!!  She is in the 10-25%!  She loves food time!  She is drinking about 4- 6 ounce bottles per day and 3 meals of baby food.  Her new baby food she has tried this month were Cherries, Blueberry, and Cranberry!  She's also tried toast, crackers, eggs, and a few other finger foods!   She is still easily fitting in 3-6 month clothes, although she has more winter clothes in 6-9 month size so she wears a combination of the two sizes.  She is also still in size 2 diapers.

She is going down to bed around 7:00 at night and waking between 7-8 in the morning!   She is also still on 2 naps a day.  The boys went down to one nap around this age and she is showing signs that she might be getting there soon.  My life will be easier once she is napping at the same time as her brothers.

She is continuing to get better at sitting up on her own and is really moving all over the place now!  She slowly inches forward like a little worm, although she often goes backward instead of forward!  But I'm proud of her and excited for her regardless!  She is also babbling a lot these days.  She still won't say Dada but says Mama all the time, much to my complete delight :)

Sabrina, you are at such a fun age right now!  You are learning more about this world and wanting to explore it more and more.  You are a ray of sunshine in my life! You are my perfect little princess and I would love it if I could just keep you right like you are now!  But I know you must continue to grow up and I will embrace all the fun we will continue to have as you grow.  Just always stay my baby girl, okay?

Officially Official!

Everyone take a BIG sigh of relief with me! 

It has been a LONG 4 years coming, but today this came in the mail and made it all worth it!  

It took Peter 3 tough years to pass the exams and we had no idea that it would take another 14 months work to get fully licensed but it finally came and I am officially married to a CPA :)  So proud of Peter for his hard work and dedication to get to this place! (And one less thing on the list of things we are waiting for!)

21 Months

Elias is now 21 WHOLE months old!  Reality is setting in that there are about to be TWO 2 year old's in this house!  

In the last 3 months, Eli has gotten 4 molars and is in every way, a shadow to his big brother!  He is really developing verbally right now and we have also noticed that he loves to sing and dance.  It is pretty darn cute!  He is definitely starting to act like a 2 year old with a bit more defiance in his voice (favorite words are "no" and "mine") and he is starting to need some correction and trips to his timeout spot!

His favorite things are still balls.  He is actually pretty darn impressive when it comes to making baskets.  We may have a natural on our hands!  He also loves to climb and make messes.  Pretty much all of the things that boys are made of!

Right now we are currently trying to determine if he has a milk allergy. He has had a lot of stomach issues and the first guess is it being related to milk.  Time will tell.  We also just got back from taking him to the eye doctor to find out if he has lazy eye like his mom.  This was our second trip since it has been a little over a year since we took him to check the first time.  In pictures, it often looks like his right eye is off center, but the doctor has determined that it is just his eyelid making it appear that way.  At some point it could turn in to something, so he is the blessed child who gets to go see the eye doctor every 6 months.  But for now, he has perfect vision and takes after his father, which makes me happy!

I love my little curly haired, smirky cuddle bug!  He is probably the most serious child I've ever known, but there is something really cute and special about that too!  When you get a laugh or a smile out of that kid, you know you've done something pretty amazing :)  We love you Elias!!!

Preschool - Month of Oct Recap

Well, we are over 1 month in to our "school year."  Really, school is extremely basic for Malachi and almost everything in life is "school" when you are 2 years old!  We spend a lot of "school time" reading books, coloring, or playing with playdough.  Another very small percentage of the time is on actual projects.  Each week we have a theme, a word, a color or shape, a number and a letter.  We are also doing Bible memory verses as he is able to get those memorized.  So far, he has learned 2 verses!  Almost everything we are doing, is really review for him as he knows shapes, colors, letters and numbers.  So we just try to make the concepts more fun with color crafts and he is learning how to sign the alphabet and doing some very basic math!  He's also developed some mad gluing skills ;)

Here are a few fun things we have done this past month!

Fingerpainting!

                                            Making Banana Bread for the Letter B day!

                                                             Decorating a cake for C day!

                                                    Blueberry muffins for "Blue" Day!

                                            Daddy made rainbow pancakes for Rainbow Week!

                                       Malachi adding "clouds" to his Noah's Ark Rainbow!

So really, school is mostly just an organized time of play for us  to have!  Some days school takes 5 minutes and sometimes we can spend hours with it.  We just kind of do what he wants and I think he is learning a thing or two along the way ;)

Registered!

Well, we're all registered for our next running adventure!  I can't believe that I am saying it, but I am really starting to enjoy running, even if the weather stinks this time of year!  I am feeling pretty comfortable that I can run a 5K in just under 30 minutes which is seriously HUGE for me!  I am looking forward to the next challenge of getting up to 4 miles!  

Peter is making running look like a piece of cake.  He can do a 5K right around 20 minutes and is not even out of breath doing it!  His next race will be a 5K on Thanksgiving Day, so it is coming up here soon!

Registration opened today for the next race we wanted to run, so we jumped right on it and are officially registered for:

This is a BIG event that will be held on St Patrick's Day in downtown Portland!  So it is definitely a way's out but Peter will be running a 15K for this one, so he can use the extra training time!  I am registered for the 5K but there is a very slim possibility I may move up to the 8K.  With the race starting times there is a decent possibility that Peter could be done with the 15K by the time the 5K starts so he could run that one with me too.  Which I always prefer to run together if we can!  

So, there you have it!  I guess I really am going to stick with this running business!!!  

Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat 2012 is officially over!  All the kids behaved really well and Malachi even uttered a few "Trick or Treats!"  The weather held out long enough for us to get enough candy and all was happy in the world.  So with that being said, I'll let the pictures do the talking with Beauty and the Beast (and Gaston)!