Join Me

My sweet friend Jill and her family have been through a lot these past few years. Getting pregnant with Judah James was such a blessing, a beautiful ray of sunshine. Recently, during a routine ultrasound, the doctors found some issues. Jill and her husband Josh were sent to a hospital to have a full work-up. MRI, ultrasound, the whole deal. They found issues with his heart and diagnosed him with Dandy-Walker Syndrome. The doctors told them that with all of the issues he has it is a possibility that he could be a still-birth. If Judah does make it he'll need heart surgery immediately after birth.

That is terrifying news for any parent. But Jill & Josh are staying strong and holding fast to Jesus, believing for a full healing. Please join me and hundreds of others throughout the world as we pray for the Robinson family during this difficult time. My heart breaks for them, but I am excited to see how God is going to continue to be faithful throughout this journey and ultimately be glorified through it.

Here is the link to Jills blog if you'd like to read more: http://jillianmaranna.blogspot.com/2011/11/update-on-judah-112911.html?spref=fb

Tuesday night musings

I love the things my kids say. They have such random thought patterns. For instance, this morning when we were driving to the gym. Alexis had asked me to put on Chris Tomlin's "Our God" album (her favorite song is "Our God" and she sings along so loud... Very cute.) She stopped singing right in the middle and said: "Joel has a penis." I tried not to laugh and just said: "yep, he sure does." Then she proceeds to name off all the boys she knows... "Daddy has a penis, too. And Malachai and Seth and Anthony and Brett and John... Cause boys have penises." I didn't really know how to respond, so I just agreed with her! Then she said: "Can I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when we get home? And watch Dora, too?" Lol, and that was the end of our "sex talk!" Too funny.

After we got home from the gym (which was *KILLER* since I hadn't worked out in a week and was a complete glutton for 5 days straight) I threw dinner in the crockpot. I've been loving the simplicity of the once a month crockpot cooking! I'm so glad I did it! & I'm wishing I had done it sooner! My whole family is very happy =) Everything we've eaten so far has been delish! A few of the meals have even been big enough for leftovers and we've gotten about 4 lunches from it! So it's definitely worth it. No longer do I blankly stare into the fridge wondering what I'm going to throw together. And no longer am I met with silence on the end of the phone line after I tell my husband what's for dinner! (since I'm usually throwing something together at the last minute) Anyway, tonight we had moroccan lamb w/ brown rice. It was sooo good! & the lamb was very moist & tender! (I was a little worried, because I know lamb dries out pretty easily.) Even the girls liked it! The downside was that it made my house smell like a sweaty mans armpit :-/ I really hope Morocco doesn't smell like that or I will vow to NEVER visit! Luckily I'm not pregnant or I might have gagged all day long. So after putting away the little bit of leftovers (have I mentioned I *hate* wasting food?!) throwing away the crockpot liner & lighting a holiday-yummy-goodness-scented candle, things are back to normal ;)

Here's to another fun-filled, productive week! Hope yours is as well ;)

How was your thanksgiving??

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Mine was very low-key and enjoyable. Usually Jeremiah and I are driving all over kingdom come, and by kingdom come I mean to Pasadena and back. But last year we decided that we actually wanted to enjoy our holidays and so we would be trading off each year. Last year we spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family and Christmas Eve (which is when both of our extended families get together) with Jeremiah's side. This year we switched so we spent Thanksgiving at my Grandmother-in-laws house. She lives close by, so it was nice to not be stuck in holiday traffic, that was for sure! The girls had a great time playing outside with their Papa, Joel had fun being passed from one person to the next (he handled it like a champ!) and us adults even got to play a few rounds of bingo! We all ate too much and the short ride home was a quiet one. Lexi and Joel both fell asleep in 5 minutes!

Once we got home we put Joel to bed and got our "second wind." We decided to have our "2nd annual christmas decorating party." Jer brought the christmas decor in from the garage then ran out to get hot cocoa and snacks while the girls and I started decorating! We had our holiday music playing (Michael Buble's new christmas album, actually) and everything was up in no time! We finished around 10pm and were all exhausted. Luckily we were all able to sleep in the next day. I'm VERY thankful that my kids are all good sleepers. Even Joel slept until 9am!

Hoping you're having a great holiday season so far. If not, then just look at the joy on my sweet baby's face! How can that not cheer you up!? ;)

Talkin' Tuesday

It's funny how much personality oozes out of kids while they're playing "make believe." I mean, I knew Alyssa was bossy... But geeze! Apparently I had forgotten just how bossy she was! And kids take their playtime seriously. They don't mess around! She told me I had to measure three cups of "flour" (aka dirt) into the bowl and I only did two (just to see what she'd do) she totally caught it and politely asked me to add one more cup. I did a huge, heaping, overflowing scoop and she actually scolded me! She said that was way too much, then took the scoop away from me and said I couldn't help anymore, I just had to watch! What the?! She's 6!!! Then there was sweet little Lexi just minding her own business and digging next to us making her own "cake" (which was just a pile of mud) and she very sweetly offered to let me help her. Now, she can be bossy too. She's given Alyssa a run for her money! But I guess she was feeling sympathetic towards mommy at the moment. Gosh, I love my girls. They bring so much joy to my life!

A little later I went back inside to start lunch and one of the neighbors came out with her cute little dog. She's 12 and the girls just adore her.... Why am I even typing these mundane details?! Who freaking cares?! ANYWAY! I've been trying not to let any food spoil like I usually do every month! So I used some left over pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni and light string cheese to make mini pizzas. I used sliced, toasted hawaiian rolls as the crust. They turned out pretty tastey! I went to call the girls inside to eat and this is what I found:

Thats my little lexi-loo singing on her portable karaoke machine. I think it's called "paper jams"??? But she was just standing there singing her little heart out. I thought it was the sweetest thing =) 

I was pretty dang productive throughout the rest of the day. It's amazing all the things you can get accomplished in the two hours that the kids nap! I have to admit, I was pretty proud of myself by 4:45pm when Mr. Wonderful walked through the door. Dinner was in the crockpot, the house was clean, laundry had been washed and all three of the kids were in one piece! Not to mention none of them were crying or fighting with eachother! Haha! Dinner ended up being sooo yummy and we even made homemade ice cream afterwards! I got the idea off of pinterest (duh) for homemade vanilla ice cream in a ziplock bag. (Here's the link: ice cream in a bag). We added mini chocolate chips to one batch. We omitted the vanilla and added a few tablespoons of canned pumpkin, a teaspoon of cinnamon & a few dashes of allspice to the other batch. Both of them turned out so good! We probably should have shaken them a little longer, because they were a little bit runny. But overall it was creamy & delicious! The girls thought it was the coolest thing in the world. They had fun helping shake the bags, too! I decided to make some pumpkin spice whipped cream since I had left over heavy cream and pumpkin. Somehow Alyssa talked me into making hot cocoa and I was surprised at how yummy it was to top the cocoa with a dollop of the pumpkin whipped cream. (...I don't know why I was surprised... I guess it sounds pretty good??)

The best part of the day, hands down, was at about 5pm, when we were all sitting around the living room playing Joel's new favorite game, peek-a-boo. He was cracking up. Like, real, uncontrollable belly laughs! This of course made everyone else crack up and we were just sitting around staring at him and laughing at how freaking cute he is. Life isn't perfect, but in that moment it sure felt like it! 

A solution to my problem!

I have a huge problem with throwing my keys down and losing them! I know that this is an issue many people face, so when I saw this idea for a  picture frame key holder on pinterest I was inspired! I started with a plain ole' rectangle picture frame

I painted it with two coats of my new favorite color (turquoise) and then used a paper towel to rub, blot & wipe white paint over it. Just to give it a different look. I found a piece of cute scrapbook paper and used some letters I had to spell out the word "keys." I had some iridescent rhinestones and glued them to the letters. I screwed 3 white hooks into the bottom of the frame and then put it all together! 

Voila!! 

Champagne bottle lamp

Ok, so this isn't really a lamp. It just looks like one. And of course I got the idea from pinterest! Haha ;) I started with an empty champagne bottle:

and an old, crappy miniature lampshade that I got at the thrift store for like $.75

  I  wrote the phrase: "You and I... For all our days" around the thickest part of the bottle with white puffy paint. This was the same phrase Jer and I had inscribed on our cake knife and cutter for our wedding. It has a sweet inside meaning between the two of us that started when we were dating and I figured it would be nice to bring a personal touch to our bathroom. Lol! I also added some little dots around the bottle neck just for fun. I spray painted the bottle with a coat of white primer and about 3 coats of regular satin finish white spray paint. While each coat was drying I got started on the lampshade. I wasn't sure what I was going to do at first, but knew the fabric had to go. So I stripped it down to the plastic base. I saw a few ideas for lampshade repurposing using fabric, but I didn't have any that would be right for my bathroom so I went to option number 2. I found a page of scrapbook paper that would work, but didn't think I'd have enough, so I found another one similar. I cut them each into think strips like this:

I mixed together about 1/4 cup elmers glue with about 1/4 cup water (not exactly sure because I just eyed it). Then I dipped each strip into the solution and started wrapping the lampshade vertically. I hung it to dry like this: 

After everything was dry I just placed the lampshade on the bottle. This is what it looked like: 

Cute, right?! I'm going for the shabby-chic look and I think this fits perfectly ;) 

Yet another DIY pinterest project

I saw an idea on pinterest to paint the inside of glass jars and thought it was really do-able! (Here's the link: painting glass jars) I was looking to spruce up my master bathroom and was trying to use as many pinterest ideas and repurpose as many things as I could. I had a near empty jar of fruit spread which was tall and skinny and kinda cool looking as well as a few jars and a small votive candle holder that I got from a thrift store. I had a lot of the turquoise paint left so I just poured in about a 1/4-1/2 cup of paint in each glass and rolled it around inside until it was evenly coated. I turned the glass upside down to drain as much excess paint as I could and then just left them alone. It took about 3 days to dry completely. Here is the finished product:

I used them like this:

There are q-tips in the covered jar. 

I'm very happy with the outcome! And the whole project costed me less than $7!! Whoo hoo!