Put a little love in your heart...

I have a million things to do, but I miss sharing all of the goodness of our little ones with ya'all so here I am.

We are on the mend here, I have a very scratchy scruffy voice still, but I feel great!

Friday I decided to do something special and fun with Weston. It was a long week for all of us and sometimes I feel like the days slip through my fingers and we dont get any "good" solid, quality time together just he and I.

So we decided to make Valentine decorations :) He was the best helper and we made a big huge fun mess while sister took her morning nap.

He cant use scissors real well yet, so I had to do the cutting, but he loves tape and the buttons so he had fun gluing them to our banners.

He loved when I cut out the hearts and I cut extras and let him "tape" them around the house and stick them to wherever he wanted.

The only problem with letting him decorate is he thinks he can take them down whenever he wants also, so a lot of our "extra" hearts are already gone :)

It was fun. Sometimes I wonder if he enjoys these things, and later that day I got my confirmation. His granny and grandpa sent us a Valentine package and while he was opening it they said something about Valentines Day and he went and grabbed some of the paper hearts we had made :) He understood and put the two together, I was so proud.

So that is it. Our house sweetened up with special banners that he and mommy spent the day making. I am amazed at how long it takes us to accomplish things these days :)

We made Valentines Day cookies and brownies today to take to some friends of ours house tonight. They invited us over for dinner and we were supposed to bring dessert. They have four kids and it was fun to watch Weston,  he had a ball :)

I thought I would share my mom's brownie recipe with you guys since sweetie day is just around the corner!

I LOVE her brownies and you really cant beat them. They are a big hit around here and Cam request me to make them all the time :)

They are super easy and I have everything on hand, which is very dangerous :)

Mom's Brownie Recipe:

1/2 Cup butter, soft

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

3 T cocoa

3/4 cup flour

Cream butter and sugar and vanilla. Then, add eggs and cocoa and next, stir in flour.

Bake at 325 degrees 30-35 Minutes

And one more thing before I go...

I know some of you have little ones and like to do little projects with them so I will put the link to how to make the banners at the bottom and I want to share one more little fun thing with you.

In my dad's birthday card I wanted to send a little something extra from Weston. 

It is super easy to make and would make a sweet Valentine for grandma's and grandpa's or daddy!

It says: Papa I Love you (front) this much (accordian paper) love Weston (back)

So there you have it, lots of "lovely" things for you to enjoy as Valentines Day approaches!

Have any of you been doing anything special or have anything special planned?

And here is sister being cute in her walker so she doesnt get left out :)

Well, that is it for me! We have a super busy week! A lot going on and of course all the catch up from last week! We are getting ready to make the big trip to Missouri again next weekend and that takes a lot of prep too :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

You can get the directions for the hand cut out at: A day in my life

And both of the banners directions are at: Simple as That :)

Rainy day in Texas

My day today started at three am with Weston crying. I went into his room to find a stuffy nose and a really wet diaper. I changed him and sang to him and a few minutes later Cameron came and got me to feed Ally.

I remember Cameron kissing me good bye at six and then the next thing I remember is both of my little ones waking up at seven forty five and me scurrying around to get them.

By nine I realized "one of those days" could easily be setting in so I decided to do something productive and decided I would clean our bathroom. I put Ally in her swing (she didnt feel like sleeping today) and I let Weston run around half naked trying on all the clothes in his dresser. He learned how to dress and undress himself today.

Afterwards I got dressed and started lunch. By eleven thirty it seemed that there was hope and I may get things pulled together. Ally finally settled into her nap and I walked out of the room for laying Weston down at one and I let out a breath. Ahhh...rest.

I made some coffee, lit a candle and began sweeping up a mess Weston made while I tried to get Ally down. And then Ally cried. And I spent the next two hours getting her to sleep and then five minutes later her waking up.

I gobbled down a bowl of cereal in between her napping and waking and by four when Weston woke up I gave up. I am still not sure what had her bothered....teething? Maybe she is gettng Weston's runny nose?, hope not.

I had to get off the phone with my mom because they both started crying and the last thing she said "Savor every minute"

Savor
Every
Minute

You mean even the ones where I am getting ready to put Weston in the bath and he comes walking toward me with his hand out for me to hold and I take hold only to realize he put it down his dirty diaper and now we both have poop on our hands!

You mean even when I cant seem to fix it?

I bet you she does. Every single minute of it.

I am not down in anyway...it takes about a month of hard days to really get me down, just reflecting on the day and all its craziness. The four nasty diapers, the crying, the tiny stirofoam balls everywhere, the rain, the three favorite books three times, the lunch thrown in the floor, the leftover potato soup, the giggles, the list of things that didnt get checked off.

I like to look back over the day through pictures. Sometimes I am so "into it" I dont cherish things as much as I would like. So when I look back over pictures and see the beauty in scattered crayons or a mess I am thankful I "savored every minute" even if I wasnt realizing it and can look back and cherish it again or for the first time.

There really is beauty in the everyday and in the little things. I am thankful for my days...they are pretty much the same everyday, but I never know what curveball will be thrown and I know with God's help I can be the mom and wife I want to be and when I really find myself struggling I know it is because he wants me to depend on Him and draw near to him.

Parenting really is great, but it is hard work I will say that. And it is wonderful in all its little and big ways.

I am thankful I get to do this all again tomorrow. I am thankful for these sweet ones and for the lessons learned....tomorrow we wont have so much applesauce ;)

Tomorrow I am going to savor every minute :)

Catching up...

Hello there! I feel like I havent been on here in forever! It has only been a week, but I have covered some ground. I wrote Friday's post last Wednesday and scheduled it for friday and decided to take a wee break and work on a few things.

Some physical, mental and always of course things around the house.

 

I didnt want to say anything because I didnt want anyone to feel like they needed to bolt down here and save me, but the past few weeks have been HARD and I needed a break and to reorganize my time. I think Ally is finally getting a bit of a routine lined out and it only took a month and some tears of exhaustion from her momma before we got things lined out.

I remember Weston going through this stage... where everything is so exciting and they get over tired and you work so hard to get them down and then twenty minutes later they are up and mad because they are up and neither one of you can find out why they are and it just breaks both your hearts... :(

It is funny though, I have been praying Romans 8:28 over every circumstance in my life that I have been struggling with, yes, even something as small as an unhappy baby (that is a big deal when you are the momma:) and God really does work all things together for His Good. The past few weeks have been heart breaking, exhausting, and overwhelming, but by pressing on and saying "God I will praise you when we have a great evening/day and I will praise you when we have a terrible evening/day" has pulled me through and I feel stronger by His grace that was shed through that time. I can look back now and see how that time blessed me, I love my baby girl even more (didnt even know that was possible) and love being a mom even more (didnt know that was possible either:) and it is all because I went through a bump that he used to bless my heart.

So, there you have it. What I have been up to. Trying to take care of everyone in my family with all that I have and praising and seeking God when even that isnt enough.

Of course we have done other fun things too....
I have been working in their rooms and hope to show you some pics soon.
Cameron got off early yesterday and Ally and I went for a walk while they boys washed and rode the Rhino :) I am really out of shape...I realized that yesterday when my legs felt like jello after a small walk...and I realized how great of shape I was in while I was pregnant; all that walking and swimming paid off :)
Weston and I have been having lots of fun together while sister sleeps :) He likes to drag out all the pots and pans and "cook" and then make me eat it.
He calls me all the time. He will pick up the phone and talk away and everytime I ask him who he is talking to he say "Ommy". :)

Ally is officially in her 3-6 month clothing completely. This was my favorite sleeper of hers in her 0-3 month clothing. So, before church Sunday morning I took some pics of her in it.

The bee on her bottom is my fav :)

Such a sweetie :)

Well, that is all for now and I apologize if this post didnt make any sense at all. I know what my heart is trying to say and share, but sometimes it is hard to get it out on paper...or computer in this case.

And my head is a little fuzzy...I spent half the night in the rocker in Weston's room comforting a sweet boy who had a bad dream :)

I hope everyone is having a great week!

xo

Lyss

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose"

Romans 8:28

Happy New Year!!

Hello there folks! Happy New Year! Hopefully ya'all had a great time this past weekend! WE spent it at home just the three of us. Although, we did go to Cameron's boss' house New Years Eve and ring in the New Year, Weston even made it to midnight!

(Weston had a crash with the concrete sidewalk Friday night)

I didnt take any pictures that night. Sometimes it just feels good to sit. So that is what I did. Weston was on my lap, but he was busy playing the whole time and having snacks :)

 It has been beautiful here, just gorgeous. So we have been outside A LOT! Friday night Cameron and Weston built a fire and after the kiddos went to bed Cam and I sat out there until eleven, which was such a treat! Usually "our" time gets interrupted so it was wonderful to get to catch up!

So, that is what we have been doing! Eating outside every chance we get, building fires and soaking up time together. We learned this past week that our little girl is an oustide girl just like her brother is an outside boy!

I hope ya'all had a wonderful long weekend and are as excited about 2012 as I am. I am not making any resolutions this year! Crazy I know! But I am really content and for the first time super happy with myself and where I am in life. I learned A LOT this past year and I just want to have an open hand at what God wants me to learn this year! So far I think he is giving me a lesson in patience ;)

So here is to 2012, may it be as wonderful as 2011 was for our family :) Cheers!

xo,

Lyss

A few good things...

Hello there. I really didnt plan on posting this morning, but I had a little early bird get me up at 5:30 and I have a few pictures to share so here I am.

I think I even have a picture of that little early bird...oh yes, here it is :)

At least she is a happy early bird in her bumbo seat while I put daddies lunch together :)

One of the things I wanted to share with you is some pictures of Weston and I making Darby's Salt Dough ornaments last week.

They are so fun and easy to make and since a lot of you have children around Weston's age I wanted you to know that this is the perfect activity to do with them.

It is quick and kept his attention the whole time.

And most likely you have everything you need on hand.

It is just flour, salt and water you can click here for the full how to.

I let Weston do all the pouring and stirring :)

As you can tell, Weston really got into this project, flour on his face and all!

Because he loves play-doh so much he knew exactly what to do. As soon as I rolled it out he stamped out a gingerbread boy no problem :)

We made a lot of hearts and Texas shapes. I wanted to send a set of each of them home to our families with a note saying "Sending you LOTS of love from Texas this Christmas, but it didnt happen, but know we tried and we do send lots of love :)

While the ornaments baked (for part of the time) Weston played with his little nativity. I had to move it to the bar because it was gettting scattered everywhere!



Love that little dude so much :)

I am hoping to get some laundry done today, clean our house really good for Christmas and finish up my wrapping :) Speaking of, have you seen all the cute free printable tags out there? Here are my favs!

Love the vintage ones from Miss Pickles press

My absolute favs are from Jones Design Company... I printed them last year and decided to use them again this year:

But then I saw these and they are my favorite too :)

I am printing some of them today to adorn the few remainder presents lingering around :)

The are from Eat Drink Chic by Amy Moss (so cute)

And last, I wanted to share these from the Pioneer Woman with you (as if you havent seen them:)

Click here to get her full post! She has her wonderful cinnamon roll's with them for a cute gift idea!!

Her Christmas Special is on Food Network today at 11c! I had Cam record it because who knows what I will be doing at that time, but I dont want to miss it :) Maybe I will have some cocoa during naptime and soak up some mommy time :) we will see!!

Here are some of our special packages this year! I printed off some black and white photos from special events from this year and put them on our gifts with black photo corners. No tag needed for those the picture tells who they are going to :)

Wow, that was a lot... if you are still here have a great day :)

Love,

Lyss