Fruit of the Spirit Bulletin Board

I finally put up a new bulletin board at the church building! The last one had been up for a year. I was doing pretty well at putting up a new board every 3 months or so but then I just got too pregnant. lol! Now that I'm finally getting the hang of all things baby mixed with the rest of life, I was able to get another one done.

I did it on the fruit of the Spirit. I found the fruit online and then put the text on them. The fruits with different colors are done with the overlay technique. I blew them up on the copier and then copied them on the colored paper. If you want the fruit with the words on them just let me know and I can email them to you!

Coupon Clippers

In our house...

...we clip coupons.

So far this month...

...we've already saved $14.70.

But some of us clip coupons...

...a little differently than others! :)

I definitely think it's worth the effort to clip! We also save money by buying the store brands whenever there isn't a difference in quality (which is a good bit of the time). We never buy diapers or wipes without a coupon, which saves us a lot. I also participate in a rewards program that our diaper brand does. We've been saving up points to get Reagan three Sesame Street board books. We should be able to get them as soon as I put in some more codes. There's also a really great site that I don't use often enough. It's called couponmom.com. She gives you links to online coupons every week as well as telling you which products both are on sale and have a current coupon. It helps you strategize to buy things at their lowest price. If I can get back on top of it, that will help save even more!

Do you clip coupons? How do you save money at the grocery store?

Reagan Has a Buzz Cut!

Ok, well, not really...but look at these pictures!

This is what her hair normally looks like.

This is what it looks like if you lift up the long hairs!!!

It really does look like a buzz cut or something under there! She's got a ton of new hair growing in! It's making her look more and more blond. It kind of feels like a buzz cut too. I wonder what it's going to be like when it grows in...will it be curly and a little crazy like her baby hair? Will it be easier to make it stay put? I guess we'll have to wait and see!

On the Road Again

I'm very excited about this coming week! We are going to the Memphis School of Preaching Lectureship. MSOP is where Justin attended preaching school. We spent the first two years of our marriage there and made some great friends. This will be our first time going back since Justin graduated and will be the first time we will see a lot of friends in a long while. I'm also very excited to meet Kristen and her son Benjamin! We knew her husband, Carl, while we were in Memphis. They got married after we had moved away. We became internet friends over the past year or two, but haven't ever actually met! They are staying with us at our hotel, which should be fun and interesting! Two babies + four adults = good times! :) You can even listen to some of the lectures online if you'd like at http://www.msop.org/. I've scheduled some posts so you won't completely be left hanging. ;)

It's getting late and I still have several things to do before I can go to bed so I'll leave you with a few pictures of another one of Reagan's new talents...

crawling over to the toy bin in the living room and completely emptying it! :)

...And Again

So, just yesterday I showed you that last week Reagan had learned to sit herself up. Well, yesterday afternoon she did this:

At this rate, she'll be walking in a week! Actually, I think some teeth will come first. Her gums are looking whiter and whiter. I'll be excited for teeth, but I'll also miss that toothless grin!

Today we also had a play date with Harper. She is the granddaughter of one of our elders. We went over and spent the afternoon with Linda (aka KK) and Harper. She and Reagan are about three weeks apart in age. It was hilarious how little Reagan was compared to Harper! As soon as they saw each other they both started babbling, smiling, and reaching towards one another. They had a great time talking and taking toys from one another and rolling over each other.

Warning: Large quantities of cuteness below!

Hi!

But I want the book!

Linda had mentioned that Harper would always take her socks off no matter how many times you put them back on. I guess since she didn't have any she thought she should take Reagan's off as well. :)

Harper kept sticking her feet in Reagan's face...and Reagan kept trying to eat Harper's foot! haha!

Let me grab your face!

They had so much fun that Harper passed out during a diaper change! When Reagan and I headed home it was already past her nap time...she didn't even make to the house before she fell asleep. :) We had a great play date!

She Learned Something New...AGAIN!?!?

One day last week, Reagan and I were playing in the living room floor. She's was laying on her belly playing with a toy. I looked away at something else and when I looked back down she was sitting up. I was a little confused. I thought to myself, "She was laying down wasn't she?" Later, it happened again, but I had yet to actually see her do it! The next morning we heard her blowing raspberries so Justin went to get her and he found her sitting up playing with her blanket. This is how we find her most of the time now when we go to get her out of her crib:

And I was finally able to catch some proof the other day!

It seems like since she has learned to crawl, she has learned something new every other day! I don't know if I can keep up with this pace...it just might be too much! What happened to my little tiny baby?!

A Little Change...Well Maybe Not So Little

Well, today I had my hair died back to my natural color. Close to my natural color at least. We'll have to wait for it to grow out to see for sure. I'd been thinking about changing it back for a while. Ever since middle school I have highlighted or dyed my hair blonder. I would go through short periods of letting it go back natural, but it was almost always colored. It's been about 5 years since it was my natural color. I was just kind of tired of having to go get it colored every 8 weeks. I also thought it the amount of money I was wasting on it was silly. We could use that money for so many other things. I also had recently had a not so great coloring experience. The last time I got it lightened they couldn't get the color to lift (lighten) like it was supposed to so they just kept leaving me under the heater. I was sweating to death and my head was burning and itching from the bleach. They blamed it on my hormones still trying to balance out after having the baby, but I wasn't convinced. A few days after I got it colored, my head was super itchy, still burning, and my scalp started flaking really badly. That pretty much sealed the deal that I was going to go back to natural.

The before.

The after.

Slightly different don't you think? :) It's going to take some getting use to, but I like it just fine.

Oh yeah, LOST is on tonight! Whoo hoo! I'm excited to learn what's up with Richard Alpert! Who is he? Where did he come from? Why doesn't he age? Exactly how long has he been on the island? So many questions!!!

The Not-So-Good Ones

I stole this idea from my friend Katie. I always show you the cute pictures of Reagan. Recently there have been some pretty funny not-so-good ones, so I thought I would share those as well. Do enjoy. :)

More food. Less pictures!



She's always moving...there are more pictures like this than anything else. :)

Huh?

I'm not sure what she's doing but it makes me giggle. :)

And finally...the one that makes me laugh hysterically and I can't stop laughing as long as I'm looking at it...

I was trying to take pictures of her watching Sesame Street. I think she got excited and turned to smile at me but I somehow caught this instead. I think it's pretty hilarious.

Bringing Her Up Right

Train up a child...

in the way he should go;

even when he is old...

he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

Ok, so that is a slight misapplication. I somehow don't think that is exactly what the Holy Spirit had in mind when He inspired that verse. But it's still pretty stinkin' cute! :)

Another Month Older: 7 Months

My little baby girl is seven months old today! That just sounds so old :( I don't know why but it does sound so much older than 5 or 6 months. She is growing so fast and learning so many new things. She's eating baby food like a champ now. The major thing this month was crawling. She's getting better and better at it too! Some of her other favorite things are:

Being silly with Daddy.

Drinking water out of her sippy cup.

Chewing on Mommy's phone.


Being cute.

Chewing her bottom lip.



Being cute some more.



Blowing raspberries.

Standing up against the couch or Mommy (and trying to pull up on Mommy).

Watching Murray and his Little Lamb on Sesame Street.

Wearing Daddy's hats.

Being cute while wearing Daddy's hats.

And trying to make friends with Tig (he is very interested in her and will get up in her face and lick and sniff her, but as soon as she tries to pet him or crawls towards him he growls and runs away :/).



She has so much personality and is usually such a happy baby. We are constantly working on our routine because every time we get it worked out she decides she wants to do it a different way. At the moment, we are getting up between 7:30 and 8, eating, watching sesame street at 9, then napping at 10. She will usually sleep until close to 12 so I try to work out, shower, do chores, whatever I can get done before she wakes up. around 12 she eats lunch, then plays until around 3 when she takes another nap. This one usually lasts until around 4 when she nurses. More playing ensues (especially once Daddy gets home from the office) and then she eats supper around 8, gets a bath, and goes to bed around 9 or so. I'm hoping this schedule sticks for a little while because it works pretty well. I'm sure now that I'm into the grove of it, it will change again. :) She is such a fun and sweet baby. Justin and I feel incredibly blessed to be her parents!

Happy 7 months baby girl!!!

Spring Bulletin Board

This is a bulletin board I did last spring. The sunshine's face is a little strange, but other than that, I thought it was pretty good. The clouds are somewhat 3D ( and glittered...who doesn't love glitter?!). I just stapled one edge then puffed it out and stapled as I went. Sadly, it is still up right now. :( Having a baby kind of made me into a slacker on the bulletin board. I'm working on a new one though and should have it ready soon!

Nom, Nom, Nom

I don't really know what to call these...

How about...

Delicious.

They are super simple to make. All you do is peel and cut up some potatoes. We like ours super thin because they get crispy and somewhat chip like. But you can do what ever thickness you prefer. You can also leave the skins on if you like. Coat with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Spread in a single layer on a heavy sheet pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cook in a 450 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, or until desired crispness is achieved. Flip potatoes every 10 minutes or so for even browning. They are sooooo good and sooooo easy! I've been making them a lot lately. We've still got some potatoes so we might be having them again soon! :)

Playing Dress Up

This weekend we made a trip to Tennessee. We left Thursday afternoon when Justin finished work and came home last night. It was a quick trip. We managed to see all 4 grandparents (which is a feat), even though we only saw Justin's mom for a few minutes outside of her work. The purpose of this trip was to pick out bride's maids dresses for Meeka's wedding. Meeka is Justin's youngest sister. She's getting married in October. She's the total opposite of a bridezilla. She let us pick whatever dress we wanted. We each (there are 3 of us) are wearing different dresses in the same color and a sash in another color. I love my dress! I took my camera but forgot to get someone to take a picture :( but if you are interested you can see it here. I will also be getting a short sleeved bolero jacket to wear over it so I will be comfortable and modest. It's really hard to find a modest bride's maid dress. When Keila (Justin's other sister) was trying on one that ended up being really low cut they said they can put in a modesty panel. If they would just make them modest in the first place you wouldn't have to worry about it! Moving on :)
The colors are the ones shown in the picture of the dress and the jacket will match the dress color.I had it all planned out before we went, but none of the dresses I had looked at online looked good on me:( I hate when that happens, but I'm kind of glad it did because I really like the one I picked out.
Meeka had planned to try on some dresses too just to see how different styles fit her. She had no intentions of buying. She had seen one dress on the internet that she liked and then saw another bride try it on while we were there. She tried it on and said, "I'm gonna get it. This is my dress." It was the only one she tried on because she was so in love with it. She got teary, her dad got teary, Keila got teary, and Justin got teary. It was so sweet to see them all so excited for her. I only took one picture all weekend and it is of Meeka in her dress so you can't see it! :)
Dress shopping was so much fun. I love playing dress up!!!

Can OCD Be Diagnosed in a Six Month Old?

So my child has OCD...wonder where that came from!!! ;)

And Now Everything Must Be Moved Higher...

Because...

That's right! She's crawling!!!

Yesterday afternoon Reagan just decided it was time to start crawling! We were playing in the floor with her and she crawled a couple of inches and fell. I ran to get the camera and Justin teased her with her favorite toy, my phone. :) She's getting pretty good at it already. This afternoon I put her in the floor and she crawled over to the coffee table and started trying to get the magazines on the underneath part. Crawling for one day and already trying to get into things and nearly hurting herself! Now she really will be a handful! :)

I love how she looks at Justin like, "Why do you keep moving it away from me, Daddy?!" And then, when I'm telling her good job and being all excited she just looks at me like, "What's the big deal?"

Spring is in the Air!

I love spring!!! Pretty things start growing out of the ground, the air starts to warm up, and I start to feel this strange urge to play in the dirt. :)

Butter cups are blooming.

Roses are budding.

I'm so not a gazing ball kind of girl, but when I saw this particular ball and this particular stand, I thought they were so pretty and had to have them. I bought them shortly after my bday with some of the money I got.

Saturday morning and this morning Reagan took nice long naps so I was able to get out in the flower beds and do some work. It was nice out Saturday, but even nicer today. It is 76 degrees right now! I actually broke a sweat out there. All of my beds are now weeded and planted. I put out seeds for zinnias in the back and a couple of other kinds of seeds in the other beds. As for the bulbs, I added more gladiolus to the front bed Saturday. When I went out to that bed this morning, there was a large hole right where I'd put in some of the bulbs. All around the hole were big'ole dog tracks and a couple of feet away was the outside of a bulb. Silly people and their dogs they don't lock up at night. :/ Fortunately, I think most of the bulbs were still there, so maybe he only at the one. Wonder if they will have a gladiolus pop up in there yard somewhere... :)

Another fun thing happened today. There are lots of little lizards around here. When I went to get the water hose I noticed one on it. As I unwound it I found another, and another, and another, and another. At least five little lizards were all hidden in between the hose. They didn't seem too happy when I unwound their little home.

Here are some pictures of what my flower beds look like right now. I will try to give some updates throughout the spring and summer of what they look like as the flowers grow in!

P.S. Stay tuned! I've got a very exciting Reagan update I'll try to post later. Hint: There will be a video and she will be on the floor doing something new! :)