No More Perfect Moms Intro

Carson and I both have bronchitis.

I never got dressed today and I did leave the house today for a work meeting and doctor appointment. 

I encouraged Noah to watch TV today so I could rest, and I just couldn't do much playing!  

I'm falling behind around the house.  Grocery shopping needs done, floors need mopped, laundry needs done, you know all the fun stuff!

It's New Years Eve and I'm home with my boys in bed, lounging on the couch. 

I am so far from perfect today that I'm not even on the spectrum and it's okay!

This year isn't starting out how I would have chosen,  but it's a perfect time to share what I have been reading because this book is packed with stuff I have needed to hear.  

I am beyond blessed to get to be a part of the launch group for "No More Perfect Moms" by Jill Savage.

When I first heard about this book, I was so excited because our culture today strives so much for perfection and ironically enough that is the first chapter's title The Perfection Infection.  It was a good one too,  one of my favorite statements from it was this....

"We compare our messy insides---our struggles, our failures, our less than perfect lives--to other women's carefully cleaned-up, perfect-looking outsides."

I struggle so much with the comparison game and wrote about it not too long ago here.

" No More Perfect Moms" doesn't come out until February but there are a few things you can do right now.

1.  Sign up for Jill Savage's " No More Perfect Moms"  31-Day Email Challenge.  You don’t need to read the book to be part of the email challenge (the book doesn’t come out until a month later anyway!). It’s designed to help you start the year right.  Sign up today and encourage your mom friends to do so, too!  You can sign up here.

2.  Don't buy the book yet, but get ready to do so.  For moms who are interested in the No More Perfect Moms book, Hearts at Home and Moody Publishers are offering an incredible deal of over $100 in additional bonus resources if you wait to order/buy the book between Feb 4-9.  You can find more info on that as well as a sign up to be reminded when to pick up your copy of the book here!

3.  Visit " No More Perfect Moms" website.  This is where you can share stories, learn more about the book and view motherhood resources.  

4.  Let me know if you are interested in doing a book study on this book in February/ March.    I am about halfway through the book right now and it has spoken to me so much already and  I think it would be awesome to go through with other moms and take off our masks together!  

A pdf copy of this book was provided to me as part of of the launch group but all comments are my own.  

Where have I been?

I haven't been blogging much lately and here is why...

I have been relaxing!  Taking some naps, watching a little more TV, hanging out with family, reading and sometimes just doing nothing.

I'm always go, go, go, always have something to do and I got tired of it.

I wanted to de-stress and enjoy life for awhile and that included paying attention to where my time was going.  I have been working on some priority shifting which I'm still working on and forever will be but blogging was something I cut out for awhile.  November and December can be crazy months and I wanted to slow down, enjoy and make some memories instead of being stressed out about my to-do list 24/7.

 I have always wanted to be the Monday - Friday blogger, do fun link ups and really get into the blog world but boy can that suck a lot of time away from more important things and get you caught up with a lot of things that don't even matter!  I have missed  blogging and finding new fun blogs to read, but I'm still trying to figure out where this fun hobby of mine will fit or if it will at all.  Nevertheless, I will always blog randomly about my boys, well because those posts are for their yearly books I print out and are so much fun to go through but as far as other stuff not so sure yet.  As far as other posting, I want them to matter,  I want them to be real, and want to make a difference for someone and not be the typical social media that can drag us down ( ahem, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloggers- the organized ones, super creative ones like I will never be, super fit ones, and perfect mommy diaries), you guys can sure knock me down!

There is some exciting stuff  I will be sharing soon!  I am so excited  to be part of launch group for an upcoming book that you will be hearing lots about!  I'm excited about the book, I believe in in so much and their whole campaign along with it!

Carson at 16 months

Carson at 16 months you,

-have been sick poor baby, but hopefully are on the uphill climb now that we have you on meds and breathing treatments.  

-still are holding your weight around 24 lbs, wearing 18-24 months tops and smaller bottoms

-always look like you are sticking your chest out, I think it's your way of looking tough for your older brother

-have been talking up a storm and repeating all sorts of words that we say, the other day you copied Noah after he told you to stop it.  We are in real trouble when you really start talking on your own, this house is about to get louder

-climb on anything and everything and make messes everywhere you go.  I really do try to keep you out of trouble and from getting hurt but some days it's just nearly impossible!  You are soo soo stinking active!

-have 10 teeth

-still taking 2 naps but will probably be dropping one soon

-love snacks foods and don't like to much good food.  We have been struggling with the eating department majorly lately.  You throw what you don't want and keep getting rid of foods you will eat instead of adding them.  

-are still a major temper tantrum thrower and have started hitting (alot), I wonder where you have learned that from?

-love running around and wrestling, with everyone but Noah!  Loves play horsey rides and flying on our feet.  

-Still don't really like TV, you won't really watch anything for longer  than a flash.  However you will read books for awhile, You love them, I can't complain there.

-Still has the silliest little bunny tooth smile.  Still only have 2 teeth in the front with a big space.  It's not looking too promising there!  

Carson you are such a fun little boy and you get so playful sometimes, I love it!  I love playing peek a boo and chasing you and just hearing that cute giggle of yours! 

Love you buddy!

Wonderful Memory

Last night Matthew suggested we take our boys out to see some Christmas lights, we have already been and I didn't feel like getting the boys ready to leave anywhere but I agreed and said the boys would go without shoes and coats and I wasn't getting dressed either.  We hopped in the car and headed to town, made a few stops and then went to the park to drive through the light display.  I'm so glad that I said yes and that we went because I will probably never forget the fun our boys had and the laughs we all shared.  We got each one out of their seats, Carson sat on Matthew's lap and Noah sat on mine.  Carson immediately grabbed the steering wheel and started moving it from side to side just laughing at himself and Noah joined telling us that Carson was "crazy".  They whoa'd at all the lights, Noah talked about the things he saw and my favorite is when he says baby Jesus, just so stinking cute to hear from a young boy and Carson got so excited about steering he started shaking his head front to back, hit his head on the steering wheel hitting the horn.  Then we all really lost it and he tried to do it a few more times.  It sounds so silly as I write, but I wish I had it on tape.  Such a sweet short memory, and so much fun I had with our little boys.  I'm so blessed to have my little family this Christmas season and get to make memories like these!  Love so many things about this time of year!

Elf on the shelf

This year we decided to hop on the bandwagon and do an Elf on the Shelf.  I'm sure Noah will understand a lot more in a year or two but decided to do it anyway.  Saturday we got out the book after his nap and read him the story.  He listened to the story really well and we got to the end and asked him what he wanted to name him again since he didn't answer during the book and he said choo-choo.  The only reason why he picked choo-choo was because on the last page, there was a choo-choo!  I tried asking him about every other name I could think of but we still came back to it. Someday he will probably ask me why we let him but it makes sense because he does love his trains now anyway.  He kept telling us also that he wanted a train like the one in the picture the same colors and everything.  After we finished reading the book we set him up on a shelf in our living room for the night.  I don't believe he liked the idea of the elf watching him, in fact he even told us he didn't like it.  After he was up there he didn't really seem to even think about it or care.

Then yesterday we put him flying in our fans in the living room and he laughed when he saw him up there and imitated to me what he was doing.  I didn't really say anything about him all day.

This morning was the picture above, Choo-Choo is hanging out in one of the stockings and took an ornament off our wreath and Noah was really laughing at him this morning.  I used the Elf different today each time he has done something good I have been telling him to go tell the Elf what he did and he gets all excited to do so.  He told me this morning "Elf going to tell santa, I a good boy, mommy"  Positive reinforcement really works well for him!  He loves thinking he made someone happy!

We will keep doing it this year and see how the rest of the month goes.  Thanks to Pinterest we have plenty of idea of things to do with our elf, Choo-Choo.

Outsmarted

For those of you that think Noah is a quiet, look from the sidelines type of kid, you are correct if he's around a bunch of people.  At home quite the opposite, not to mention ornery.

Today he wanted to throw a bunch of his trains downstairs, well he got a few done and I let him know as  I saw him run to get another one that if he threw anymore he was going to his room for a time out.  He took the last train, held it through the railing, and just looked at me.   I reminded him again what the consequences would be and after standing there with it dangling between the spindles, shaking for a little bit he takes it out, gives it to Carson and then, yep you guessed it said "Carson do this"  as he motioned to throw it down the stairs.  I just stood there in shock.  One of those moments I just don't know how to respond or what to say. All  I could think was it he can outsmart me at almost 3, I'm doomed when he's older!  He is just too smart for his own good sometimes!

Less is more

This year I breaking out of my normal Christmas mold.

How many of you send out Christmas cards?
Look for the perfect coordinating wrapping paper, ribbons and bows?
Love to have all the presents wrapped and under the tree for weeks before Christmas?
Or just do certain things at Christmas because you feel you HAVE to?

Well I love and usually do all 3 of those but this year have decided not to.

I have recently read Jill Savage's book " Living with less so your family has more" and just read half of it for the second time this week.  It has really made me think a lot and makes me want to get rid of half of our stuff and live a lot more simple than we do.  ( the book Seven made me want to do the same thing, I think its time I read that one again as well.)  More on the book later, but I have decided to focus on what really matters this season.  Spend more intentional time with my family and less money and less stressing about the things that really don't matter.  For many of you those items above may not stress you out and I envy you for that ( I clearly have other issues to work on as well, haha) but I always find something to stress about so I'm focusing on keeping more things that I REALLY don't have to do off the to-do list that's  I feel is never ending.

 I love having a theme or color scheme for my wrapping paper and all the ribbons and bows,  but I found myself spending way too much time  trying to find the perfect stuff that matched our tree and realized it was stressing me out and stupid so I bought character themed paper for the boys and a few random rolls of other paper for everything else and called it a day! Then with Christmas cards I kept thinking of what poses we should do and what outfits we would all wear and realized we could save the money and the time and just not do them!  Do I feel like I'm slacking in a way, yeah I do, but it doesn't matter, my boys aren't going to remember how fun it was taking pictures for our annual Christmas card or how cute the card mom picked out in 2012 was.  However they will remember the time we spent with them watching Christmas movies, looking at lights, reading Christmas stories , and other actitivities that will make lasting memories.

My goal this year is to slow down, relax and just enjoy this season with our boys.  Noah is at such a fun age and I want to start creating traditions and memories for him that he looks forward too and not remember his mom being a grouchy, stressed out mess each Christmas season.

One of a Kind

Noah I can't believe you will be 3 in less than 2 months.  I never thought I would be one to say I wanted to turn back time or take you back to when you were younger but I'm about to.  You are just getting so darn big and sometimes it just makes me sad.  The other day when you went potty all by yourself and said "mom I do it by myself"  it made me want to cry.  You do so much now and don't need me to help you.  Granted it's quite nice at times but this is going to take some adjusting!  You are for sure in the independent stage you want to do everything on your own most days but then sometimes you want mommy to do it so you are always keeping me on my toes.
You are so particular some days.  You know what cup you want and what color plate.  You want to sit in your chair at the table before I put Carson in his seat, you want me to cut up your food on the island some days and others you want to watch me do it on the kitchen table, then some days you want your cheese in squares others in rectangles, you don't want any lights on until you get in the room like the playroom if  I turn the light on before you walk in boy am I in trouble.  You have so many other quirks I could write all night.

You are officially potty trained I would say, we have been pretty successful lately with our issue and most days you do good, I figured out the trick, I have to leave the room.  I don't blame you there at all buddy!

Anyways just wanted to jot down some of the funny things you have done/ said lately.  I can totally understand why people say these are the best years of your life because toddlers are a riot.  Things are crazy, stressful and hectic but you sure can make us laugh.

You are pretty much just like me and make all the same responses I do in certain cases even the ones that are a little embarassing like "Stop your whining Carson" and  A few weeks ago we were eating out and Carson spilled something and you said,  "uuuggghh, darnit Carson"

You call Carson buddy, and my favorite "sweetie pie" in a southern draw when he gets up in the morning.  Yeah you copied that from me.  Now you know I love it so you do it even more often

We will ask you a question if you want or need something and sometimes you reply "no I"m good"  I haven't figured out where you got that one yet

You say, "Noah so excited" a lot I love it!

Sometimes you ask us for kisses and hugs, because I'm always asking you and you say love you just down right adorable

You are obsessed with the word crocodile, you say it all the time and I have no idea why.  Tonight you actually used it as a word instead of something fun to say and told me the crocodiles were in your bed and that's why you couldn't go to bed.  Nice try.

I could go on and on and I'm sure will add some more over the next few days because when I want to write down stuff I can never remember.

Carson at 15 Months

Carson at 15 months you

-weigh 24.2 pounds.For as active as you are you still put on a few pounds in the last couple months

-finally have more teeth.  All of a sudden last week we noticed 4 new ones in the back.  You have been such a trooper about them, got them all without any medicine because well we didn't know/realize

-have went completely independent with eating.  You won't even let me feed you mac and cheese or yogurt anymore.  Yeah, mealtimes are pretty much a complete mess!  You have to feed yourself everything.

-have been cuddling with me again, not rocking but you really like to cuddle at certain times during the day

-still love the darn potty and my pot and pan cabinet!

-love your kisses and the way sometimes you say mwah

-give high fives

-love singing songs, I think your favorite is Elmo's song, it's pretty much how I get you to hold still to change your diaper and Itsy bitsy.  I swear you say spider but it could be me wanting you to say it.                          

-you are finding ways to let us know what you want even though you can't say it

-love being chased

-do not like to go to bed at night by yourself.  Everytime we put you to bed before Noah you throw a fit but if we put you both to bed at the same time you usually do just fine.

-loves looking at pictures of us.  Your favorite are the pictures in the hall of you and Noah.  You light up when we let you touch them.

-are a climber, anything you can try to get on or up you do!

-started saying Noah, and yelling at him when you can't find him.  It's adorable.  You also just learned puppy and that they say ruff, ruff and kitty cat and meow.  I think you are going to explode soon with talking.

-seriously have one of the cutest personalities I know.  You just talk and talk sometimes and really think you are telling us something.  Your smile kills me, you play so cute with your cars and walk around and make noises for them.  You love your brother so much and want to do everything he does.  I thank God for you every day, so blessed to have you!

Crappy Morning!

Disclaimer:  For  those of you who don't want to read about the disaster with poop on Monday stop here, I'm about to tell the whole story.  I blog to make books for my kids and this is definitely something I want to be able to show Noah when he's older and maybe someday laugh about! 

Anyways Monday was probably my worst mommy day yet.  I was upstairs doing what I don't remember while the boys were playing downstairs and Noah yelled up "uh oh, mommy big mess".  I started to go down the stairs and saw a bunch of what looked like poop and moved a little faster to where Carson was crawling up the stairs and noticed he was covered in poop, his hands, clothes, feet, yeah a mess.  I was so confused!  I got downstairs and then saw the real mess.  Noah had went in his undies and didn't have pants on, so my guess is somehow it all fell out and as picky as he is don't think he must of known and I really know he didn't run over it on purpose but he did with his little mega blocks dump truck/wagon.  

Then still without knowing I'm guessing he ran the wagon around the big circle in our basement like he usually does until he got back around to the beginning where he could see the tracks and the mess that I'm guessing Carson made worse by touching and walking around in it.  

It was an overwhelming moment of where do I even start and I don't know even know if I can clean this up. I got the boys cleaned up first, cried, yelled and took a breather outside while I sprayed the wagon off and then was ready to conquer the mess.  I had a carpet cleaner brought over and began cleaning the carpets.  It actually came up really well and it didn't take as long as I thought it would.  We made it, but hopefully this will be the last incident like this I will ever have to deal with (knock on wood).

To All Moms

I'm not going to lie,  I struggle...
I struggle to do it all!
I compare myself to mom bloggers.
I compare myself to mom's posts on facebook
I compare myself to people I don't even know on Pinterest.
Comparing is such a battle for me.  I'm working on it and know it will always be something I will have to watch out for but the last couple years it has just seemed to take over!

There are days when I feel like
-a terrible mom, like I'm not doing enough fun things with my kids
-a terrible wife because  I don't have dinner made, house perfectly clean and haven't planned a date night in forever
-my house isn't perfectly decorated
-I'm failing my family in the food I provide/ let them eat
-I'm not creative enough
-I'm not skinny/healthy enough
and the list could go on and on.

Where did all of this come from?  Well I know that I have always had some of it but social media for me has truly made this worse and worse.

On Pinterest and blogs I see all the fun things I should be doing with my kids, all the projects and recipes I should make, the 100 ways to make my man feel loved, all the clean eating blogs/ posts, all the workout tips and great bodies that are dressed super trendy and all that can make me feel junky if I choose to let it (which does happen a lot).

I also loved what Jill Savage said at the Women's refresher conference (more on that later) but she said she likes to call Facebook a highlight reel where all we see is people's highlights and that can be so true!

Anyways didn't mean to bare my heart and soul (not good at that either) but wanted to share a post that was on Jill Savage's blog this week.  Totally smacked me in the face and really made me think so I felt the need to share with all the moms out there.  We worry and compare so much, I just loved reading a true biblical description for myself as a mom!

You can read the post here.

Enjoy!

Carson at 14 Months

Carson at 14 Months, you are

-Not letting me rock you anymore.  This one totally bums me out.  I was enjoying that so much!
You don't ever want to miss out on anything your brother is doing
- Are getting much, much pickier about what you eat darnit!
-You hate diaper changes and going to sleep!
-You have been throwing some major fits lately.  You get so upset about not getting what you want.  It amazes for someone your age.  You just throw yourself to the ground, kick, roll around whatever you can do to make your yourself known.
-Are into everything, cabinets, toilets, closets, climbing.  You my son are pretty quick and fearless.

I love you so much buddy but not going to lie, this last month has been a challenge with the fits and constant messes.  Lucky for us, Noah has really started to like picking up so he has been helping out a lot.  But yet that also comes back to bite us because he's always yelling at you to not make a mess.

-You still can be such a sweetie.   I just love that face of yours in the  morning!  And you still have your bunny teeth that just kill me!
-You still have 6 teeth.
-You are still wearing 12-18 months
-Still having a milk bedtime bottle.  Although I think this week we will start trying a cup, you usually like to walk around and drink it over about a 1/2 hour and you don't use it to go to sleep so maybe you will let us stop the bottle.
- You will only eat if you can use your hands except macaroni and cheese you will let me feed you.
-You are getting so big and such a cutie pie!  We realized your hair grows incredibly slow so your silly haircut is lasting for awhile.
-You love reading books and you make up your own stories sometimes.  You are the quite the noise maker!
-Speaking of noise, boy oh boy do you make plenty of it in the kitchen with the pots and pans!  You absolutely love the sounds of the lids on the tile floor!  Yeah, mom doesn't so much.
-You don't really have any new words you use.  Sorry buddy we need to get working with you.  Second child we have been a lot slower with stuff!  There are a lot of times you may of said something but I just wasn't sure and didn't hear you say it again to know for sure if you knew what something was.  That's our project this month, new words and face parts!

Carson, love you so much buddy! I'm your mom  I will take the good and bad and still love you all the same!  That smile and laugh of yours just kill me.   I just love watching you and Noah when you play and laugh, my heart melts!

Marriage

I heard Katie speak at our Mops Auction earlier this year and have been following her blog ever since.  She writes about her kids, books, motherhood and yesterday about marriage.   I just loved her post and wanted to pass it on to you all.

You can go to Katie's post here

I think my favorite thing she tries to do was this one 

When I do my husband's laundry or something else for him I use that as an opportunity to pray for him. Whenever I am hanging up his work shirts I am thinking God for how hard he works for our family.


 I just loved it.  What a great idea!  It's so important to pray for our spouses and what better time than when you are doing things for him or come across something like his clothes that make you think of him!  


It's so easy to become like "roommates" in marriage or to put the kids needs above your hubby's!  But she definitely has some great ideas to combat those!  Marriage is work and there is definitely some things I could do much better and these are great ideas to put into practice!  

Hope you all enjoy her post as much as I did !  

Homemade Granola Bars

I have made the time this week to  try some of my pinterest pins.  I finally tried one of the homemade granola recipes I have been looking at for months so I thought I would share.  There are so many out there but here is the one I actually made.

http://laurassweetspot.com/2012/09/20/homemade-quaker-chewy-granola-bars/

I took pictures and was going to post them along with this, but lets face it I stink at picture taking and this bloggers are way better so you get to enjoy her pictures instead!

Mine weren't setting up as fast as they should have ( I think I put in a little too much honey) so I put mine in the fridge.  They are a little sticky but taste really good!   I will try them again with a little less honey next time to make them more like store bought ones!

The thing about these is they aren't "clean" since there is brown sugar in them, and crisp rice cereal but hey it's a starting point and still much better for you than store bought!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

My husband loves tacos.  Each week when I ask if there is anything he wants me to make he always says well I always like tacos. Of course I don't mind either, they are EASY.  And since I have been trying to make healthier meals tacos are a good one.  We can use whole wheat tortillas, some veggies and to top it off homemade taco seasoning.  Taco seasoning isn't expensive but at $.50 to $1.00 a pack making your own can save a little bit, it's easy and the most important it's so much better for you so why not!  We've all seen a million different pins of homemade taco seasoning but I made this one a little while back to try it, loved it so made some more today.

I took the recipe and x'd it by 10 so  I would have some for awhile.  I bought generic spices when I could and still have plenty of spices left over to make more again when I use it all again.  

Here is the recipe that would season 1lb of meat.

1 Tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper

All you have to do is mix it up and it's ready for the beef!  

Family Night

Can I just say Saturday was wonderful.  We didn't have anything we HAD to do or anywhere to be all day!  

We thought about going to the pumpkin patch in Arthur but since we didn't know how Carson would do we decided to just get some pumpkins in town.  When we went to get pumpkins Noah was way more excited than I expected and he picked one out for Carson and him and then I picked out a bigger one for Matthew and I.  Once we got in the car they both wanted to hold their baby pumpkins.  

Just love their happy faces!

Excuse my boys in their scibbies, didn't want to ruin any clothes!  Also not sure how it happened but yes Noah is missing a sock, haha.  

Noah was very into painting his pumpkin. Carson on the other hand wasn't so much. He dipped his hand in paint and messed around with his pumpkin  for a little bit and was done. 

My little cutie, snacking while we finished pumpkins

After Noah was done with his,  I let him put his hand in paint to put prints on our big pumpkin.  He acutally liked it for bit then asked to wash his hands.  Some things never change!

The front side of the finished pumpkins with help on the faces by Matthew

The back side, kids did on their own.  Pretty ugly, but we still love them!

We had such a great day/evening, wish every day could be that relaxing!

Proud Momma

 Don't let these faces fool you.  This boy is ornery, ornery, ornery and doesn't listen to his mom one bit.  However, for others he is usually the opposite and such a  good boy.

I was so proud of Noah yesterday when I got a text while he was at daycare letting me know my boys were doing great and that Noah was the kid of the day.  

Jen (his in home daycare mom) sent him home with a new book for being such a good boy.  After some fighting I finally got him to stop playing "shapes" ( don't judge, trust me we have been doing plenty of shape time) and hold his book for a pic.  Whenever he says cheese he always scrunches his face.  His eyes disappear just like his mommas!  

No matter how ornery this boy is, still love him sooooo much! Someday we will figure out how he ticks and get him to listen to me once in a while.  (crossing my fingers, anyway)

2nd Attempt

 At our last house, I always had color and lots of it mostly on the walls. When we moved to our current house, it had all white walls.  I was excited at the chance to start fresh in every room and really get it right.  Well anyone who knows me knows I change my mind a lot so to think I will every really get anything right can happen just not for long.   First off I knew I wanted to go neutral on the walls.  The first space we painted was the living room and it wasn't what I had exactly planned out the color was a little too gold but it still matched the big canvas I had bought for inspiration so we left it and went with it.  Below was the first after picture I took  after we painted and decorated which later we mounted the TV and added more curtains but I was never really in love and the room never truly felt like home or that it was "us".

Most of you probably saw my facebook post about the curtains but in case you didn't, one day Carson was playing peek a boo and pulled one of the rods halfway out of the wall.  I had to take the other half down and when I really looked began to realize maybe I liked the windows without curtains better.  However the way it was set up that wall just really needed something else besides a mounted TV and that is why we had got them in the first place.  Well after some talking and convincing Matthew agreed to let me re paint and get a "few" new accessories.

 The first thing I did of course was to scour pinterest for some new ideas.  I like to think I'm creative but I'm really just a big copycat! I really don't know what we used to do for ideas before Pinterest was around.  I use it for everything anymore.  

An idea for the color scheme came from this.  We have light brown microfiber and since it was just barely a year old, it had to stay so I loved seeing some colors with it. 

 Absolutely loved these ceiling medallions like most Pinterest projects theirs are much better than mine!

 Idea for our entry

Here is what we ended up with

We painted the room mostly tan (twice actually, the first color was a complete fail, instead of tan it turned out a weird shade of purple)  with 2 accent walls the one with the windows and the wall our stairs are in in the kitchen, moved the furniture a bit, mounted the TV over the fireplace instead of in between the windows, and got some new decor that I love !  

 Someday  hopefully sooner than later we will  replace those sweet fans and get some bookcases for under our ceiling medallions.  The space there still looks funny with it being so empty and it's one big wall.  

Closeup of my spray painted medallions 

 Our entry way, idea used from Pinterest

 Closeup of the pillows I made.  I ended up making 5 chevron, 2 green patterned and bought 2 orange.  We will never be short on pillows in this room!  

Since all the decor in the kitchen/dining area was red too I had to  wanted to change the decorations in there as well.   The picture is terrible but you can see my trellis curtains I love.  (I spotted them a while ago in Target and have been dying to find a spot to use them, I actual saw them in blue first but was even more excited to see them in a burnt orange color when I went shopping for stuff).  I also have always wanted a big spoon and fork and so I found the perfect ones at Hobby Lobby and the Eat letters.  They don't look that big in the picture but trust me in real life they are pretty large!  

Overall I really do like how it turned out.   I feel like it's a lot cozier with how we changed the furniture around and the look is more us!  I'm sure we will add stuff here and there, it's just to expensive to buy everything at once!  Decorating isn't cheap!  

Our Bedroom

When we first purchased our house last May, our room looked like this

Blah, blah,blah.  And for awhile it looked like this,  I wasn't going to put anything up on the walls until we had painted so bare it stayed until we finally painted earlier this year!  

 After well over a year we finally have somewhat of a finished bedroom. We painted, the hubby made me headboard and did a great job on it.  He knew I wanted a sleigh bed/ upholstered look and  he nailed it!  You can't really tell from the picture but the back is curved to mimic a sleigh type look and the middle is a creme canvas.  We got matching side tables and the latest addition was the 3 new family canvases to go over the bed.   I have known what I wanted up there ever since we painted months ago but just had to wait for the right family pictures to put up there!  Minus our dresser situation ( we still have the white ones) it feels pretty much finished!  

I forgot to take a picture but for a different wall I made flower boxes, here is an example and tutorial here.  I didn't follow all the directions but got them to turn out and love them.  I used creme and purple flowers to match our room!  Easy and cheap wall decoration!  Thanks again Pinterest!

Fun Mom Fail

Does anybody else feel guilty when they see all these pins on Pinterest of fun things to do with your kids?  I sure do,  I always see them, pin them, and never do any of them or even look at the actual link I just pinned. This morning I wanted to be the fun mom and do something different.  I really did have good intentions but it went downhill fast.  

Carson wasn't very happy about  the fact I had put him down.  

I couldn't get the packing tape off of the roll  

While I was working on the tape Carson got a hold of the blue paint, took off the lid, and spilled it all over the table, his hands and managed to try and eat the paint off his fingers.

Cleaned him up, got Noah situated, the fun only lasted about 2 minutes.

Noah wanted down, I was bummed he didn't really think it was that great.  

Then the kicker..........

Once Noah got down, I ripped off the tape and gunky residue stayed all around the bag!  Awesome!  

I had had it!  I put Carson down for a nap, I got Noah busy doing something else and I began to attack the gunk on my table.  After trying multiple things, I finally found my Norwex cleaning paste did wonders on this mess.  I was thinking of trying it first but for some reason just really wasn't thinking it was the right thing for it so I tried 3 other things first.  Anyways about 45 minutes later I finally got the gunk off my table.

I finally tried one of my fun things to do with your toddler and it failed! Thank you Pinterest!  I ended up ticking off both my kids, mad myself and a mess!  Also learned a big lesson, never put packing tape on our table!  

Has anyone else ever had any Pinterest fails?

Would love to hear your stories!

Walmart Fun

Every Monday we usually go grocery shopping in the morning after Carson naps.  Some weeks I put it off until Matthew is home but usually I tough it out, go and hope for the best.  This week we didn't make it Monday and I tried to go Tuesday night after I picked the kiddos up. Matthew was out of the town for the day and I knew he wouldn't be home until too late for me to go so I figured I would just get it over with. 

The actually shopping went pretty well, we didn't need a ton so I zipped through most of the store then we got to the checkout.  Boy I really dislike checkouts and I try not to get all excited and relieved that I made it through another Walmart experience with two boys while I'm standing there because I have learned too many times that those few sometimes many minutes there can be the breaking point where everything falls apart.  And..... this week it did!  The normal Noah kept trying to climb out to get the candy, I'm fighting to keep him in, Carson's trying to get out as well and Noah yells at him telling him to stay in.  Then Carson sees some Teddy Grahams in a cup thing and he is reaching out and crying for them.   I give in, we have 2 people in front of us with full carts so it was going to be awhile.   I grabbed the Teddy Graham cup and give Carson some, he shoves all of them in his mouth.  He starts screaming while his mouth is full and mush is getting everywhere.  I pick him up, try to clean him off and he is done, throwing his arms and legs and screaming.   Everyone is looking (that's how it felt anyway)  and the people in front of me started talking about when their kids were little and how things like that don't bother them, it's always the worst for the mom.  

Then a lady in the next lane brings over a pack of smarties and asks if they can have them.  I must of looked/seemed/ to be pretty desperate.  I felt like junk for a minute thinking no one thought I could handle my kids but had to bring myself back to reality and realize she probably has smarties for moments like these with her kids and that no one was judging me.  Kids throw fits, kids get upset, they get tired of being in Walmart, I'm sure the employees see it all the time ( at least I tell myself that so I can sleep better).

I also am torn on what to do in this situation, I know with Carson's he's too young to rationalize with I can't really do a whole lot but with Noah I used to bring a sucker or something for him every time and as soon as we got inside he would reach for my purse because there was something in there for him.  I worked hard on breaking that before Carson was born but now I'm starting all over because I need something for Carson to make it through.  I hate letting them eat stuff to get  them to behave, I want the reward to come after not the reinforcement that if you act like this, you can pretty much have anything you see in this store so mom doesn't  get embarassed. I want my boys to someday behave in the store because that is what they are supposed to do not to get a treat or be bribed the entire time.   Parents out there who have been here and dealt with this any good ideas for us?  

Missing keys and Undies

This morning I was in the shower around 9 (extremely late for me, I decided to have fun with the kiddos outside first this morning) and as soon as  I got out the doorbell rang, Noah ran.  I was in my towel, I had a slight moment of panic.  I quickly grabbed some clothes, put them on and ran after him.  Noah had already unlocked the door and opened it for the Fed Ex man, awesome!  But not only did he open the door, he told him mommy putting on her undies!  Yea... things were a bit weird as I stood there to sign for my package.  The 10 seconds seemed like 5 minutes of awkward conversation making!

Then tonight I got the boys in the car to run an errand, got in my purse to grab my keys and they weren't anywhere in my purse.  I ran inside looked around and didn't see them.  Went back out to the car to really go through my purse and told the boys I couldn't find my keys and Noah quickly says, "keys downstairs in the  white bucket".  Little turkey had stolen my keys from my purse and put them downstairs in a bucket, in the toy box.  Definitely would have been a while until I found them there without his help.   On the bright side at least he could remember he did that and was able to tell me.

At this rate, I will be lucky to have hair in a few years!  These boys are keeping me on my toes!

Bad haircut

Wednesday I went to Champaign for the morning and when I left my baby looked like this.  His hair was getting pretty long, a little bushy and sometimes just down right crazy but I secretly loved it.  He looked so sweet and innocent and like a baby.  

When I got back, he looked like this!  Dad decided to help out and took him to get a haircut.  It didn't turn out the best needless to say.  It wasn't quite even in the front so Matthew tried to fix it but it only ended up getting shorter and shorter and now for awhile we are stuck with this short silly looking cut until it grows.  I know toddlers move and especially Carson so I wasn't mad, I know no one meant to ruin cut his hair too short.  Hair grows back, right? 

Bedtime

Bedtime has been pretty entertaining around here lately.  We have had Noah and Carson sharing a room so we can have a playroom as well.  We have always put Carson to bed first and spent some alone time with Noah for awhile before putting him to bed.   Well for awhile now Carson has been fighting bedtime a little more and has been crying for a bit instead of talking himself to sleep like he used to. He would usually be asleep by the time we would put Noah to bed.  However Carson now has pretty much stopped letting me rock him and he tries to escape from the chair and runs right back out to the living room to play with big brother.  Because Carson has been wide awake we have been putting them to bed together and have had some good laughs. Carson stands up and will start acting silly, Noah does something in the dark and they both end up laughing at each other.  Then Noah gets mad and starts yelling at Carson to " ssshhh, be quiet Noah sleeping" or my favorite he decides he is done playing games with Carson and yells " Carson not funny, time for bed".   Love these two, we have years of fun ahead.  They can be such buddies!

Smarty Pants

Well, the whole " crap" saga has continued.  The other day Noah decided to say "stupid crap" in the checkout lines at Walmart a few times while I was putting our stuff on the belt.  Yes, it was pretty embarrassing.  I stopped ignoring him saying the word because that wasn't working and he started getting in trouble.  Well then his brain went to work and Noah decided to start saying "crack" or  "quack" instead so it wasn't quite the same but felt close enough.  The first time I heard him, I was like Noah what did you say? Then he really enunciated for me so I would  know he didn't say crap just something really similar.  I tell you toddler brains are amazing!

Oh crap

Call me a failure!  Noah was walking around the house this morning saying "stupid crap" .  Yeah no idea where he got it.  I honestly don't know of us using those words together.  The word crap yes we are guilty of a few times..

Yesterday he was playing and said " oh crap, Noah said crap. Oh crap,  Noah said crap. " I just ignored him because I thought if I made a big deal he would for sure start saying it all the time. Well that didn't work, he knows he isn't supposed to say and continues anyway.  This morning he also even told on himself at one point.  So apparently ignoring is the wrong route to go.  My sweet son of mine just loves to test me for some reason (maybe the fact that he is a boy and an almost 3 year old have something to do with it, haha)

Disciplining is not my favorite aspect of parenting for sure.  There have been many times lately I am just speechless and have no idea what or how to respond to the things Noah does or says. Its a battle I feel like I'm losing more and more ground with everyday!

Even though we have our struggles, being a mom is still the bet job ever!  I love being a mommy to our two little boys.  They keep life interesting to say the least!

Carson at 13 Months

This month we have really seen you grow up in a little toddler instead of a baby.

At 13 months, you

- have finally got more teeth you now have almost 6 teeth.  One on your bottom just popped through less than week ago so it's still barely threre

-are down to just your bedtime bottle with milk

-don't like to eat hardly anything off silverware.  Most of the time if you can't pick it up or hold it you won't try it.

- love playing on steps and we worked with you some and you have gotten much better so we have been letting go up and down them some

-still take two naps but really fight me on them sometimes

-can open our doors throughout the house and the door to the garage.  You scare me with this one because we leave the garage door open a lot throughout the day and I don't always think to lock it after daddy leaves in the morning.

-are starting to like toys more and more thankfully!

-are so cute when you play with cars, you push them around and make a funny car sound

-still don't like tv, but that's fine with me!

-loves outside so much, anytime someone comes, or leaves or we open the door for anything if you don't get to go out, you through a major fit!

-are such an imitator, you try and say and do a lot of things we or your brother does.  The other day it was so cute, you and Noah were in the living room taking turns spinning around and just laughing at each other!

- you don't say too many words yet but you have a few done, you say mama, dada, bye, ball, banana, all done, and have tried to say some others but just because you copy what we say

-you love when mommy plays lion with you, I run around or crawl and chase you and Noah and go roar.  You just run, laugh and roar back!  It's our favorite game we pretty much play every day!  Sometimes you just look at me and start roaring to get me to start!

-make the funniest faces sometimes.  Not sure where you got it, but you scrunch up your face, show your teeth and blow out of your noise, then you usually start laughing.  You think you are pretty funny!

-still let mom rock you.  I like to believe it's your favorite part of the day but I love that I finally can and love to rock my babies.  You usually let me every day that we are together at nap and before bed.

Carson, you are such a fun little boy.  You are so playful and just adorable!  We love you !

Breakthrough

After what has seemed like forever (4 months) Noah has finally done it!  #2 on the potty!  Wahoo!  Now we aren't consistent yet but in the last week he has 3 times, so at least we are making progress!  I will take anything at this point.  I was so shocked the first time he did.  You better believe I made the biggest deal possible.  I cheered so loud, I scared Carson to death and he started screaming and ran behind me.  I gave Noah some candy that I had been bribing him with this whole time and yesterday he asked for a balloon since I had also been using that one over the last month.  I am so excited that we have finally got somewhere and are another step closer to moving on from this potty training business!  It's the pits!  I was worried we would be potty training Carson by the time Noah was done, we may have a little bit of a break after all, haha!

Toddlers

Toddlers are so much fun and yet can be so challenging.  We just love Noah's current vocabulary.  Everyday he talks more and more even when we didn't think it was possible!  Some days by nap time I'm just ready for some quiet because he has literally talked all morning which I never thought we would say!  There is always new things he is saying that takes me by surprise.  Every day he says something funny and just has the cutest voice.   I love the way he talks because his voice goes up and down and he really emphasizes certain things and like a lot of kids he talks in 3rd person sometimes.  

The other day we were leaving our house to go to town and this is Noah's dialogue

"Bye Bye Noah's house, see you later

Mom when Noah home, 

Noah play with tractors, Noah play balls, Carson play with yellow car,

Noah hit Carson......"

Wait, what ???  So apparently his abuse to his brother is sometimes premeditated!  

I couldn't believe the words came out of his mouth!  

That same day Noah also told me  when I made him mad to "shh be quiet mom, in trouble"  (that's the terrible two part coming out for me)

On the other hand when I get hurt or I tell him to be nice to mommy and act sad, he completely changes tunes and gets so sweet to me.  He will get right in my face, rub my cheeks and tell me it's okay, be happy, sorry mommy and give me the sweetest kiss!  

With toddlers you just have ups and downs I've realized.  One minute I am completely frustrated with how to deal with him and the next minute he's being super sweet or making me laugh by something funny he said.  I definitely need to be writing more of the things he says down because he is just too funny sometimes!  

And right now he still give me tons of kisses and hugs and will let me love on him so I will take it and the best part is when he just randomly decides to say "Noah like mommy"  

This is the truth!

So we started potty training on May 18th,  today is September 24th, over 4 months later and would you believe that my precious son Noah has still NEVER went #2 on the potty.  Yeah it's driving me crazy!  I don't know what we have to do.  I would consider him pretty much trained in the other department we have accidents every once in a while or with #2, but for the most part does pretty well!  He wears undies every day all day, (unless he's at daycare since he doesn't do #2 he has to wear pull ups and at church because I don't want them to deal with the mess just in case)  so yes every day we have #2 undies I have to clean.  It's getting really really old.  I just don't know what it's going to take to break him of this and get him to go.  Any suggestions experienced mommas?  We need help, I'm so ready to move on from potty training by far our most frustrating obstacle thus far!

Bible stories

Sometimes just a few words out of the mouth of my toddler can just make me so proud of him.  Last night Noah asked us to read him bible stories.   Matthew had the ipad and Carson was already in his room where the book of bible stories was so he pulled up some stories from the bible up on it and there was pictures to go along with it.  Noah loved them.  It was such a sweet moment to see Matthew and Noah reading and talking about events from the bible.  Wish I had a picture to remember show, hopefully I can get one next time!

Carson's 1st Birthday Party

Sunday we had a full house of family to celebrate Carson's 1st birthday.  What a day he had.  He is so blessed to have so many people who love him!  We celebrated with an Elmo theme.   I made him an elmo cake and elmo and cookie monster cupcakes for the kiddos, found them on pinterest of course.  I'm really not that creative.  

If you want to see all the birthday pics and missed them on facebook, the link is here

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100390571189305.2386988.30406730&type=3

Once he saw the cake, he just couldn't wait to get into it.  I always hoped I would get to experience the fun messy 1st birthday experience.  Noah wouldn't touch his cake for his 1st or 2nd birthday so we finally have a messy one and boy did he go all out getting messy! 

 I just love his expression here!  Such a mess, but so cute!

 Here are my two boys, neat one on one side and messy on the other.  It's so funny how they are so different in this area.  At one point, Noah just looked at Carson like how could you do that to yourself.  

Needless to say Carson loved that icing, who doesn't love everything you shouldn't eat, shortening, heavy cream, powdered sugar?  This was a special occasion, he will not be doing this often.  In fact they didn't get any of the leftover cupcakes.  I got rid of them since I didn't want to be tempted either.  

 After Carson did the cake thing, we gave him a quick bath and then tried to get him to open presents.  He was a little preoccupied .  There were so many people and way to much going on for him to sit and help me. I got him to pay attention to a few but for the most part he wanted to move around.  Since then he has played with a lot of his toys.  This boy loves anything Elmo.  He got lots of books, and it amazes me how much he loves them.  I love to hear him "read" his little jabbering is so darn cute!

Noah on the other hand loved the present opening part, he pretty much thought all of the things were his too and quickly took them over.  Noah has been having a blast this week with all Carson's new toys and has pretty much claimed them as his for now.  

 Happy Birthday Carson!  

Hope you had a great day!  

Carson's 1 year doctor visit

Yesterday we had Carson's one year appointment.  He weighed 22 lbs 4 oz and was 30 inches tall. He was in the 65th percentile for weight  and 56th for his height.  She was pretty surprised he had gained weight since he had started walking since they usually expect a digression there. I didnt expect him to loose weight though he is a food eating machine when he wants to be.  Everything looked good and now our next step is to get him off his bottle.  I have already been working on it this week and pretty much have him down to 1 or 2 depending on the day. Yesterday we only did his bedtime bottle so that was good.  We used the last of the formula this week so he has just been doing milk, yeah for not having to buy that anymore!

New Blankie

Saturday while at Wal-Mart, I was in the fabric section.  Noah saw some Thomas fabric and wanted to hold it so I thought why not make him a blanket.  It will be fun and something he will like so I had the lady cut the fabric and found some dark blue to match the printed Thomas fabric we found.   He was way more happy/excited about it then I ever imagined he would.  He loves trains and he loves even more Thomas the Train ( I still have yet to figure out why kids like him so much.  I think the show is so boring and weird).  Throughout Walmart he just sat in the cart and held onto his fabric.  We saw my mom in there and Noah told her "Noah so excited".  I couldn't get over how much he just loved to hold the stuff.  Well then when we got home he told me he wanted to go night night, I'm guessing so he could sleep with it.  I told him we needed to eat lunch first and then he could nap with Thomas.  When it was time for nap, he didn't want his covers of course we had to use Thomas because Thomas "so soft".  Then when he woke up he carried it around and we had to run an errand and Thomas had to go as well.  I was just amazed at how a blanket, or still fabric at this point(something I wouldn't think a 2 1/2 year old would care about) was his favorite thing all day and that was all he wanted.  Since Saturday he has relaxed a bit about his fabric and we actually finally made it into a blanket last night.  He has still been taking naps and going to bed with it but at least it has been staying in his room and hasn't been a permanent piece attached to him anymore.  I never thought I would say this but I actually have been contemplating giving him a character room/ theme someday.   I never thought I would but to see the joy he got from that fabric really makes me not care about having a cutesy room for  them and having something they really like instead.  Love  this boy's smile!  He kills me with it sometimes.  Even worse, earlier today he just looked me in the eye and said "Noah like mommy", and gave me a kiss talk about a melt my heart kind of moment!  I'm going to be in trouble someday, these boys already have me figured out!