the oldest babe got her hair did~

My girl is so grown... it's ridiculous. I took her to get her hair cut yesterday & to my delight she picked a short cut AND it's even got a little funk to it. We didn't go to her usual stylist. The day before Christmas Eve w/o an appointment: (as the middle babe would say) "You get what you get & you don't throw a fit". The girl did a great job! The place I went to gives a discount to kids under 12. They thought I was lying when I said she was only 10.... typical. 

Here's the before & after.

Before: 

After: 

My sassy shooga booga. 

We are about to head out to Kentucky for Christmas this afternoon to spend the holiday w/ the hubby's family. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. Love you!  

YAM

The hubby's latest creation is complete. The Young Adults Ministry (YAM) website is up & running! We head up the Young Adults Ministry at our church. I am super excited about some of the plans we have for '09. The most anticipated is a missions trip to NYC in August!!! This will be the ministries (Young Adults) first missions trip ever. I think it may also be one of the only, if not the only, missions trip in the states that the church has ever been on. We are also planning a huge New Years Eve Youth Bash in the new youth building of our church 12/31. The hubby's band will lead worship & we'll have tons of fun stuff to keep everyone busy as we kick off '09. I'm excited about 2009. '08 has been OK, but I feel like '09 is going to be a very purposeful year. I've made some major decisions & things are slowly but surely falling into place (more details to come soon  :0)...) No matter how things end up I really want to make sure that YAM stays top priority. I feel like I'm at a place now where I can make sure that happens.

Every month there is a different department within our church that gets highlighted (a blurp in the bulletin & a video in one of the services). It's a good way for the congregation to see all of the different things that actually go on in the church. Well YAM made it for December... which meant we had to get in front of the congregation & speak. ARGH. It didn't go so bad. Neither one of us passed out so that equals success in my book. The congregation also seemed pretty stoked about some of what we shared. So I'm excited that they are excited. I mentioned the missions trip from the pulpit that night & there is already big buzz about it so I expect all of the slots to be filled!!! I can't wait. We have an interest meeting in January... so we'll see. 

Here is the video Stephen created to show in the sanctuary. It was a hit. I love the tambourine line. It cracks me up every time I watch it.... 

So anyway, I say all that to say... when you're praying will you mention the ministry every now & then? I know God wants to do big things & I want to make sure we stay focused & on track in 2009! 

Christmas Traditions... New & Old

The thought of bringing more toys in the house was not very exciting to me considering the condition of the girl's room these days. I feel like they have cleaned their room so many times lately. I realized this week that the problem is the amount of junk in their room. SO today we had the first annual Family Clean Sweep. I actually got the idea from another blog. The post is about Christmas traditions. I took the time to read through some of the 500+ comments & got some really good ideas for new traditions... the bedroom purge being one of them. We added our own "Clean Sweep" touch to it & pulled all of the girls stuff (I mean EVERYTHING) out of their room & threw it into a huge pile in the nursery & then we sorted everything into Keep, Trash & Goodwill piles. We ended up with 3 bags of trash, 5 bags of Goodwill, a heaping laundry basket and a VERY clean & organized bedroom. The hubby, being the video editor that he is, declared that we should create a family video out of it. So he is working on the video. (BTW... the Christmas Tree video hasn't even started. He has been too busy to teach me. I started the tutorial again & just need to finish.) I'll post the Clean Sweep video as soon as it's finished. I feel much better about bringing more toys into the house now. I think we have a new tradition. Its good for the girls too. They have a clean room & feel good about getting rid of their old toys because it's going to a good cause... and hopefully it will encourage them to keep their room clean. We'll see how long it lasts :0) 

We spent most of the day cleaning so we decided that we'd end the day with another tradition that we've always done. The Tacky Light tour!!!! We had a great time. We found a new house this year @ http://www.tackylighttour.com/ It's a house with synchronized lights. 
 Check it out... 

It was so awesome we didn't want to leave. We sat outside of the house for about 20 minutes or so. 

Then we checked out another new one that we found on the site...

We saw this one and pulled over. The lights were so pretty over the water...

We ended our tour with a house that I think I've seen every single year. My grandma used to live right around the corner from this house. Just in the past few years the family's son moved next door, so now it's 2 houses on the same street. It's so much to see that you just have to get out! (yes, that's the babe tucked into my coat) 

I LOVE Christmas time! 

"Baby Wise" Book Review

I LOVE this book! The new mother's ministry blessed us with a gift basket & in it was "Baby Wise". At first I thought who has time to read a book while taking care of this little baby. But the words on the cover won me over eventually... "Giving your infant the gift of nighttime sleep". Frazzled @ midnight with a crying baby had me thinking more like.... "giving ME the gift of nighttime sleep!!!!" (which it has) 

The book is by the same author who wrote the Growing Kids God's Way curriculum... Dr. Ezzo. Basically it teaches you how to get your baby on a good schedule. Even though she was about 5 1/2 weeks when I started reading it & was already on a bad schedule we were able to get it together in about 2 days. The babe had even been diagnosed with reflux because she was crying so bad in the evenings. Come to find out it was simply because she wasn't getting enough rest. 

I'm most excited about being able to simply lay her in the crib & walk away. This made her really mad at first. It's easier now. She gets tired right when the book says she should. I lay her in her crib & after a little bit of whining she is out. Do you know how much freedom is in just laying her down & walking away.... no more rocking in frustration, forcing the binky, pacing the floors with a crying baby... all that stuff was keeping her up & making her more frustrated. 

She eats every 2 1/2 hours & takes about an hour nap in between. At bed time she is sleeping well... in her own crib now, which is much safer for her. She slept through the night once about a week ago, but usually she wakes up for 1 feeding & goes right back to sleep. 

2 thumbs up for Baby Wise!!!! Imagine the glee when I got to the back of the book & realized he has an entire series!

• Baby Wise 2 (14-40 months) 
• Toddler Wise
• Potty Wise 
• Child Wise (3-7 years) 
• Pre-teen Wise (8-12 years) 
• Teen Wise 

I already received Pre-teen Wise & Child Wise is on the way. 

It was probably a little hasty having Child Wise shipped overnight Express (I'm kidding... but after all of those red lights, I was tempted) 

BUT... I'm happy to announce that the middle babe didn't bring home ANY red lights this week! (2 yellow... but we can live with that for now.) YAY! 

AM Smiles & Chit Chat

In the morning as soon as the baby wakes up she eats while I read. Once she is finished we always have our morning chat. This is my favorite conversation with her throughout the day because she is the most smiley & talkative. I kept telling myself... I really need to get this on video so I won't forget these sweet moments. So this morning I did...

Busy, Busy, Busy

What a busy weekend! It's been fun though. Friday night was my girlfriend's birthday party. Saturday was Linda's baby shower. Sunday the youngest babe was dedicated to the Lord & last night was the girl's school play... today my house looks like a hurricane came through it since I've been on the go so much. It's clean up time, but not before posting pics of course! :) 

The girls (The oldest babe... the shepherd)...

Me & the buds...

The good thing about having buds w/ kids is your kids become buds....

the baby's dedication... 

OK, time to clean! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS- please say a prayer for my family!

My mom has been diagnosed with pneumonia, my cousin has been sick since Thanksgiving & my aunt has been sick for awhile too!!! Not a good time to be sick & they seem to be having a hard time kicking it. Your prayers would be appreciated!

Yes, No, Maybe So

So, I've always known that I tend to procrastinate. I'd love to stop, but not really sure how. For now, I pray. However, I've also recently realized that not only do I tend to procrastinate but I can be very indecisive. I'm sure the 2 are somehow linked. I HATE them both! I should really read a book about these things... but I'd have to make sure it was a book by a trusted author. I'd hate to read a book by some weirdo & then have to unlearn all the crap that I just read. So deciding on the proper book would be the first challenge... hence the indecisiveness. Then I'd have to forgo the procrastination & actually make it to Amazon to purchase the book... I'm telling you, it's a vicious cycle!

On a serious note... I have a huge decision in front of me that I have to make. I've been struggling w/ this for several months now. Procrastination has pushed me to the point that I have to make the decision pretty soon. Now I'm freaking out because I want to make the right choice. That's really  the root of this indecisive thing... fear. Fear that I will make the wrong decision & then everything will be all messed up. Fear that I will make the decision that is not God's perfect will for my life (that's the ultimate fear). Fear is the opposite of faith so I know that the fear is wrong! I'm just trying to keep it real here... 

Of course the hubby has it all figured out. I'm pretty confident that what he is saying is the direction to go in... now it's taking the leap & actually committing to that step. That however would require a firm decision. ARGH!

There is a peace knowing that God already has it all figured out! It's my little pea brain that needs to get it together. 

A girlfriend reminded me of a scripture that has helped me keep things in perspective... 

I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans of peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled w/ hope. (Jeremiah 29:11) 

I am comforted knowing that God already knows every decision I'll ever make... including ALL of the mistakes (He knows everything... right?). He already knows the master plan & has a designated purpose for my life. 

Now I just wish He'd fill me in on everything so I know what to do next... which I know He will. Step by Step... isn't that what faith is all about?!? If He filled us in on the whole plan why would we need to rely on Him for all the answers. I just need to let God be the sweet Heavenly Father that He is... guiding me step by step through all the lessons & experiences He has for me. 

Wow, I feel a lot better than I did when I first started writing this blog!

I'm telling ya... this blog thing is like therapy :) 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In case you were wondering... 

the middle babe stayed on green 2 days in a row this week. Going for day 3 today!! It's a record! We're going for a green week. Come on girl, you can do it! 

Silly Girls

2 posts in one day... how about that? 

We had a photo shoot tonight. There were a few meltdowns involved... but I think the pics turned out lovely...

Here is a foot shot... 

Didn't turn out exactly as I planned but there were lots of giggles trying to get the shot anyway...

Rockabye Baby