Happy New Year! - Resolutions

Tonight at dinner we went around saying our new year resolutions....

Sophia's(4): "Celebrate more!" ;) (and learn her numbers and clean her room)

Sienna's(2): potty train! (that might have been a suggestion but she is pretty excited about it. hehe.)

Mine: BE in the moment more.. figure out a system to stay on top of the house stuff better.

Ben's: Do lots of fun stuff with the kids. spend less money.

And....... I started my gym membership back up and ready to go back post baby!

I love to run on the treadmill and watch downtown abbey..

when I finished watching the past two seasons the gym lost it's fun factor...

glad it's coming back on!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Life with 3 Kids- 6 Week Update

It's a kid rule: If mommy sits down everyone needs to sit on her!

The photos below are proof of this theory. ;)

Loving, but still adjusting, to having three kids.

Not gonna lie... I'm exhausted. haha.

I feel like I'm back in college and did an all nighter to study for an exam in the am...

 but it's been 6 weeks of that.

I'm sure it'll feel easier once Micah sleeps through the night better!

right?... right????

Lie to me. I need you to lie to me. haha.

I love these babies. Even in this newborn coma.

I love the snuggles and the dance parties. I even love when I catch sienna

wiping her snotty nose on my sleeve. ridiculous child.

These kiddos definitely keep us laughing...

And Sophie and Sienna are the cutest things when they play together.

They are always walking around the house in their play

pink high heels going to "Target" or the "doctor."

One thing that I have noticed: going places is a huge production!

Everything takes a bit longer to get done

because if one baby doesn't need you the other two do! at the same time!

But I remember this when we had sophia.. and then when we went to two when we had sienna.. It'll always be a bit tricky no matter how many kids.. And eventually I did get the hang of  it so fingers crossed that happens soon with 3 babies. :)

I feel like I'm running a race trying to get to the finish line

(the finish line being sanity or being able to function...)

and then someone starts throwing up or gets into the fridge and makes "dinner" 

when I'm not looking and we start  alllll over again.

So I think I'm just going to mentally tell myself..there is no finish line.. just clean and work when I can. as long as the kids are clothed not crying and fed..we are good.

oh and preferably bathed. bathed is good.

PHOTO BELOW - LESSON LEARNED....

DO NOT LEAVE FULL LAUNDRY BASKET IN GIRLS' ROOM.

IT TURNS INTO "THE BEACH"........(SAND?)

So many fun exhausting silly cute moments with these sweeties...

here's an iPhone dump for you!

Our life seem so much calmer via pictures...haha.

I have realized that things come out of my mouth that I

never thought I would have to say...or say as often.

"stop eating ___ (fill in the blank with food or random house items)!"

"get your entire body out of the fridge"

"stop taking off your clothes"

"please don't bite your sister"

After writing this down..I'm realizing this is mainly

sienna related quotes haha....... 2 yr old.

Have a great day!

Rocky Road Peanut Butter Candy Cups - Easy NO BAKE Recipe!!

A friend dropped these off over Thanksgiving...

and I tracked down the recipe because they were AMAZING.

You need to make these: Rocky Road Peanut Butter Candy Cups

And..if you need an excuse.. gift half ;)

(It's the week after Christmas..so lots of stores have these candy

cup liners on sale! Got my pack for 99 cents at my grocery store.)

Rocky Road-Peanut Butter Candy Cups

INGREDIENTS:

11-oz. pkg. peanut butter and milk chocolate chips

2 T. creamy peanut butter

1 c. crispy rice cereal

1 c. miniature marshmallows

3/4 c unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped

 

DIRECTIONS:

Microwave peanut butter and milk chocolate chips in a large glass bowl on high for one to two minutes or until melted, stirring every 30 seconds.  Stir in peanut butter until well blended.

 

Stir in rice cereal, miniature marshmallows and chopped peanuts.  Spoon mixture by heaping tablespoonfulsevenly into miniature paper candy cups.

 

Chill on hour or until firm.  Makes about 3 dozen.

 

It's a no bake recipe so it comes together really fast..

Not as fast as it would be if you made these WITHOUT two little chefs...

but the kiddos loved helping! Lots of pouring in of yummy fun ingredients. :)

Keep any eye on your ingredients..some might be eaten

up before they hit the bowl.. ::cough:: sienna & marshmallows ::cough::

One of my all time favorite kitchen tool purchases....

My Cookie Scoop!

It is a huge time saver and makes recipes so much easier..

Especially with this messy one!

Enjoy!

Grief- Asking Why

I haven't written about Shannon in a while.. I'm actually in bed right now.. Everyone else is snoozing away.. Baby Micah included. I should be taking advantage of this and sleeping too, but Shannon is on my mind. I haven't written much about her lately on my blog. A part of me avoids it.. Because writing down your thoughts makes you THINK about it even more.. And plenty of days I don't want to. I'm still struggling with thinking only about the way I lost her.. Rather than the time I had with her. I feel like the horrific details of her murder overshadow my thoughts of her.. I desperately wish that would pass. The shooting in CT stirred up emotions in me that I think many of us felt. It took me a while to want to talk about it....to tell my husband how I felt. How it reminded me of Shannon.. The horrible act of violence that shook my world... Was shaking the worlds of these poor families... Even more so with it their own child! I can't imagine. I couldn't help but ask the same question in my head about this tragedy that I did with shanon...... Why?...... Why a school?? Why little kids?? Why at all??..... I ask myself those questions with Shannon too. Why did he do it?? Why did he shoot her again when she was on the ground?? Why did he throw her in the back of his truck?? why did he drive to his house and not the hospital?? Or call 911?? I ask these questions in my head often even though I know that no explanation will do anything. It won't console me or bring her back. It won't help make sense of it. No explanation can. But I suppose this is just part of grieving.... I'm praying for peace for not only me and shannons family and friends now .. But those families in CT. And for anyone affected by acts of violence. I wish there wasn't such evil in the world. I am thankful to have beautiful examples of joy and love and purity of heart in my little ones.. They lift me up and remind me of the good in our world.

SIck Babies

Day after Christmas was a little rough.. we had 2 sick babies in the house.

Sienna threw up ALL DAY. She couldn't keep anything down..

She slept the whole day on the couch. which is very strange because

this girl is a non stop mover. it was so sad.

And Micah has croup or the cold sienna had last week. (but no fever)

We had to take a trip to the doctor's office fast in the morning before the snow storm hit!

Luckily they weren't too worried about micah so we didn't have to go to childrens' hospital.

One of the hardest parts of being a parent is seeing your child sick!

It makes me so grateful for the healthy days.

Luckily Sienna is feeling way better today. Still out of it but not throwing up.

Via instagram I saw a lot of you are in the same boat with sick babies!

Something about this season that gets everyone sick. no fun.

Yesterday I just kept going from holding one sick baby or the other....

Thank goodness Sophie felt ok and was an ANGEL all day.

It's like she knew mom and dad needed her to be good!!

She was such a sweetie to her sick brother and sister.

Micah looked like he was feeling better yesterday evening..

but today his little coughs work him up ever so often. poor thing.

Hoping that it goes away soon so he can relax and be comfortable again.

He is such a good baby though..even when he is sick he is pretty easy to console.

 

Wishing you a happy HEALTHY week and New Year! ;)

And safe travels to anyone on their way home!

Christmas Morning 2012 VIDEO

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day!

Here's a video of ours.. A fun awesomely exhausting day. :)

God Bless you and your loved ones!
Hope you enjoy this video..
the beginning starts a little shaky.
I love having these videos to look back on!
The end is full of some too
adorable for words singing and dancing... hehe.
(to prevent skipping: pause and let the video load a bit before watching through)

Christmas morning

is hard work!! ;)

Our 2012 Christmas Card- Merry Christmas Eve!

Hope you are having a great Christmas Eve!!

Excited to share our Christmas card for this year!

I wanted to wait to post till everyone got them in the mail. :)

I created all of these designs in Photoshop...

Printed the year in review card and video blurb card at home..

and then printed the 3 photo prints at target! (150 cards for $22.. not bad at all!)

I was determined to get cards out...

But the only way I was able to get a shot of all 3 with Micah

so little, was to lay them on the floor and stand above on a chair haha.

My mom was there making faces and arranging for me...

I should post the outtake photos......ridiculous. ;)

The newborn photos of Micah were taken the week before.

I blogged about getting those shots at home here

I knew that a whole family photo just wasn't going to happen. 

So I made up a little card with a photo of ben and I...

and a message for our friends and family to visit my blog Christmas Night

for a video message! I added in a QR Code for people with that app to

be able to scan with their iPhones and go directly to the post! :)

I couldn't resist....we had a newborn! ;)

Sophie loved being Mary... I first had her in a blue sheet and

she told me no no mom...white. Sienna thought her halo

('dollar' bin area from joanns) was so silly...but quickly turned non angelic.

I didn't have wings..so...we photoshopped some in!

I hung up a sheet, wrapped Micah in my scarf and used an old

IKEA rug in the girls' baby doll crib...

boom. nativity scene.

Sweet micah didn't make a peep.

He was getting into the Jesus role very well.

I made up a little year in review card!

I had seen the idea on Pinterest and ran with it!

My favorite part is the girls' favorite foods. That was the order they told me..

It's funny they said cheese roll ups.. because plenty of people probably

had no clue what that was since it's kid language. haha.

(tortilla..with cheese.. rolled up.. :)

We included a Birth Announcement in the envelopes going out!

I can't get enough of this sweetie. :)

My 2012 Christmas Cookie Exchange Party!

Having a 4 yr old..2 yr old.. and almost 5 week old has

delayed this post a week or so. :) But here it is!

I really look forward to this party with friends every year.

I LOVE to bake... It's fun seeing the variety of cookies everyone brings...

and I love any excuse to get the girls together and have a party!

Here's a round up of photos from the fun night!

With a 4 week old at the time, the party details were cut to a minimum.

And with Christmas around the corner...extra budgeting is happening.

But I was happy how it all came together and

that we could have a fun girls' night!

First things first...the invite! I e-mailed it out to some of my girls.

I love having a creative project to work on....

but I also need some brain power to do DIY Projects and

my kids have currently zapped all brain power from me.

So I tried to keep it simple this year.

I feel like a walking zombie plenty of these newborn days..

A lot of things happened the couple days before with a baby strapped to me,

during naps, or while nursing (creating printables).

I had little helpers while making my sweets. :)

Here's how the set up looked like before everyone arrived and

placed some of their cookies on the taste testing table!

This year I used all my own plates from pottery barn..(wedding dishes)

and my reindeer (target couple years ago). The mini trees are from Big Lots ($6) and I put some gold ornaments on them from the dollar store. (our tree is all silver or I would have used those!)

I made a banner in Photoshop and then strung it up with some tinsel from the Dollar Store.

I got a sheet of gold sparkly card stock from JoAnns on clearance..and used my circle punch to cut out circles to place around the table for a little sparkle. :)

I also created some tented cards with numbers on them for the cookie voting.

I also had favors for the ladies.

I grabbed up a variety of mugs from our local thrift store...

50 cents each.. ran them through the dishwasher..

then used an OIL BASED Sharpie to decorate them!

Baked in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Sophie LOVED them..

so she got her own too. it says sophia on it. :)

(she is reallyyyy into hot chocolate with marshmallows right now. hehe.)

I filled up some of the extra clear bags with a marshmallow mix and marshmallows...

then tied with the gold curling ribbon from the dollar store.

The prizes this year were edible. (above are shots of work in progress)

Edible amazingness.

Oreo Truffles.

All time favorite dessert right now..... dangerous little things.

I made up some cute tags to go with them.. and packaged them

up in clear bags and dollar store curling ribbon. 

The cookie competition was fierce this year... ;)

Lots of yummy varieties to sample...

We loaded up our little plates with a taste of each... and got to voting!

 It's a tough job but someone had to do it!

 

Like previous years, I made up Ballot Cards for the voting!

I think it adds a fun activity to the night.

After the cookie sampling and voting was done...

it was time to load up the cookie trays!

I got silver dollar store trays..I thought they would be a fun alternative

to the christmas trays they had..

because the girls can use them for other occasions..

(like new years!)

I made Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies. A family favorite!

It was a fun group of girls!

I was so happy that we made this happen...

December is such a busy month.. 4 girls had to cancel last minute.

Here's some shots of the lovely ladies who came.
We all were happy to have girl talk and sample cookies... ;)
(ps. cute red straws below were from bed bath and beyond.)

Not only did the girls have the yummy oreo truffles...
but one of the girls that came sells Thirty One products, and
brought a handful of them for the winners to choose from! :)
A winner across the board was the Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies.

YUM! We all ended up with some pretty trays of cookies..
to freeze for Christmas... or to dive into right away.
we chose to dive in. ;)

If you want to check out my past cookie exchanges...

Here's from 2010 in our old rental...

and here's from 2011.

Thanks for stopping by..
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Christmas is almost here!!!!
Can't wait to share our Christmas Card(s) Cutenessssss.
Today the girls and I are going to decorate sugar cookies...
and on Christmas Eve we're decorating their gingerbread houses!
I have a feeling sienna will be eating most of the decorations. :)

DIY Newborn Photo Tips- From one Amateur to Another

I love taking photos of my kids..and when they are newborn, you

REALLY want to capture their tiny little cuteness!

Newborn Photos are soooo adorable...

and with a few tips and tricks you can get really cute photos YOURSELF!

I am not a professional..I just like to take photos..

and take them a lot...learning as I go!

I thought I would try out some cute newborn poses with my

Micah and share what I did to make these shots happen!

CAMERA: Canon Rebel T1i

LENSES: 18-55mm and 50mm

(I shot most of these on manual. If you are learning your

camera check out you tube for great tutorials. I learned a lot that way!)

Here's my round up of tips for getting great shots.

Plan on taking your time...can't rush this newborn cuteness!

Nurse to comfort and calm the baby.. hold your hand on him or her to make them feel secure while you pose...let off at the last minute before you snap some shots!

NATURAL LIGHT makes the difference. Most of these were shot in

the early afternoon while my 2 and 4 yr old napped.. some were shot in the late afternoon.

I moved my coffee table around to get different shots..some in direct light and some not.

I liked the variety of shots! But if you have limited time..go for the indirect light..

overall you get great photos with detail! (my favorite is the one above!)

Sophie was a little helper during one of the sessions...

Big Sister snuggler/comforter. I went to switch my lense

and caught the below ones of her quick. ;)

I LOVE my green and white striped blanket

(clearance from target 4 years ago.. but they have similar styles sometimes)

I knew I wanted some shots with that blanket..

I love the textures that it and the fuzzy blue blanket give!

My mom crocheted a sweet little hat for Micah. Isn't it cute?!

She has made up her own pattern so that the hat doesn't

have that weird point..so much sweeter. Maybe I'll get the pattern out of her to post! ;)

For this shot..I stood on the coffee table..carefully..

waiting to capture that smerk that he kept teasing me with!

Worth the wait..love this one!

 

Photographing your baby at different times..sleepy time..or his or her awake time...

gives you a variety of faces! I love the sleepy ones..but the ones with his eyes wide

open are what he looks like too and I don't want to forget it!

I could stare at this kid all day.

oh wait.. I do! ;)

one last thing....

Photo EDITING:

I use photoshop for all my photos.. 'Levels' is a big help in getting the right lighting!

If you have photoshop but want to get better at it..again..watch you tube tutorials!

I also use actions. you can search for tons of free ones!

It makes editing a breeze! you can use actions and

then tweak yourself till you get it the way you want.

Here's a ton to check out via a Pinterest Search.

And here's some favorites of mine.

LOVE this one..

Happy photo taking!! :)

Hope these tips and photos give you inspiration and motivate

you to pull out your camera and take some photos of your baby!!

My girls are used to me well documenting their lives...haha.

My sienna (2) pretends to take photos of me with her play phone...

 while she takes pretend pictures she says "one more"..."awww cute"... "one more!"

she might have heard these things from me.....possibly. ;)