Bow board

I've started making bows for my girls, I figured since I have 2 girls it will be a lot cheaper if i'm able to make them instead of buy them. Anyways, now I need somewhere to keep these bows that Logyn can't get to. :o) I was going to make one that looks like this...



But since I have 2 girls I wanted to do something that would work for both of them, so I decided to make them a bow board! First I got a piece of plain canvas-I used an 11x14 but you can use whatever size you want-enough material to cover it, ribbon to match, scissors and a glue gun.



I turned the canvas face down on the back of the marterial.



Then I took my glue gun and glued the sides to the back of the canvas. Be sure to pull the material as tight as you can.





Be sure to fold the corners down...



Then I took the ribbon and glued 3 pieces of it on the board.



Then glued one piece of ribbon across the top.



I then took a long piece of ribbon and tied a bow, I tweaked it until I got it to look just how I wanted. Then I glued the ends of the ribbon to the back of the board. And Ta-da!!!




I'm very pleased with how it turned out and now I finally have somewhere to keep the girls bows...can you believe i've been keeping them in a baggy all this time?! :o) Next i'll have to post some pictures of the bows i've made!!!

Konner

I've done several posts about my kids, in fact most if not all of them have something to do with at least one of them. What can I say? I'm a stay at home mom, the kids and house work pretty much make up my day! :o) But today I want to take some time to talk about Konner, indulge me while I get a little picture happy! :o)

I was 18 years old when I found out I was pregnant with Konner, I had babysat for most of my life and really thought i'd know what I was doing once he was born. As I said, I was only 18 so I was quite naive! :o) I went through the pregnancy counting the days till he would finally be born, finally got to my due date and...had to wait another week to finally meet him. That was the longest week of my life by the way! But finally, on Feb. 28th-which is my birthday by the way-I went into labor. I was up all night long and at 9:40 the next morning Konner was born!



He came into my life and filled a huge hole in my heart I didn't even know I had. My days became filled with wonder just watching this sweet tiny miracle grow and change. It was clear very quickly that he looked just like his daddy!







He grew so quickly from baby to little boy and has just continued to grow.He has always done things to make us laugh!


























All in all, he has been my pride and joy for the last 5 years. I've learned so much from him and absolutely can not picture life without him in it. I'm so blessed to call myself his mom. I love you Konner and am so proud of the little boy you've become!!!

Just one mom's perspective

I recently took some time-while folding laundry-to rewatch the "Anne Of Green Gables" movies and fell in love with Anne all over again! I haven't watched those movies in such a long time and it brought back so many memories, I think I laughed harder, and cried harder for that matter, this time than I ever have before. Now that I’m older and get so much more of it the whole thing just came so much more alive for me. I remembered being a little girl and having the imagination of Anne and even wishing I could be her, she had a much more interesting life than I did and she had red hair! I would've loved to have red hair, it would've been much better than plain old dirty blonde!

One of my favorite scenes in the whole movie is where a mouse drowns in the sauce for the plum pudding that they were making for dinner that evening. She tries so hard to tell Marillla that she was imagining she was a nun....and forgot to put the cover on the sauce and a mouse drowned in it. That was me as a kid! I had a poster hanging over my bed that said "I mean to work hard Lord, but I keep running across things that are much more fun to do!" That was my life! I lived in my books and in my imagination. I thought there was nothing greater in the world than putting on my dress up clothes and walking into my world of make-believe.

However I lived in my world of make-believe for far to long, I took it with me into my teen years and even the early years of my marriage. I grew up planning what my life would be like and what kind of husband I would have, all the romantic things he would say and the 1000's of times he would bring home roses. I was going to keep a perfect house and raise the perfect children who of course would always look liked they just stepped out of a children's clothing add and would never dream of disobeying me! I of course would be the perfect american housewife, I would always be dressed in the latest fashions and keep a spotless house, and of course there would be a beautifully cooked meal on the table for breakfast lunch and dinner every single day! My christian walk would be picture perfect, I’d never miss a day in my bible reading and would be known among my friends as the "perfect Christian"! I would also be the perfect mother; I’d never ever lose my temper with my children who were just as perfect as I was. After all, they would have me as a role model, why wouldn't they be perfect?!

To that description all I have to say is....HA! I would love to say that I just described our home to you but I didn't even come close! While yes my husband is amazing, he sadly doesn't sit around all day dreaming up romantic things to say to me, nor does he come home with a huge bouquet of flowers each and every week! He loves to sit and watch tv or work on the computer instead of listing all my charming attributes, imagine that! My home is far from perfect! The outside needs painted and patched in several places, it is far from the dream house I’d always planned on; and the inside? Lets just say you can tell 3 kids live here! As for those 3 kids, they are amazing and absolutely the cutest kids in the world-in my humble opinion!-but they are hardly ever fixed up and perfect looking. On the rare occasion that they are fixed up just right with every hair in place, it usually only lasts until I place the finishing touches on them if that long. They don't mind me all the time and have been known to throw some royal fits! Which is of course shocking, after all, they do have me for a role model. Why aren't they perfect children?! Oh yeah, they have me for a role model...

I, sadly, am not the perfect american housewife that I planned to be. I am not always dressed perfectly; in fact right now I am still in my pj's drinking my coffee! I don't think my house has ever been spotless and I have NEVER served a beautiful breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one day! I am not a perfect mom, and sadly, I often lose my temper with at least one of the kids and even my husband! I am far from perfect and have made some pretty huge mistakes in my life. But you know what? I'm ok with all this. I will never be mistaken for Martha Stewart for my elegant home or Julia Child for my gourmet cooking; you will also never see me on the cover of a fashion magazine and I’m ok with that. I'll probably never be up for Mother of the Year, and I sure won't be known as the best and most perfect wife, and I’m ok with that. And would you believe it? I'm not a perfect Christian! I actually go days without reading my bible and even sometimes would just rather stay home and sleep than get up at 6:30 in the morning to go to church!

See my goals for my life have changed, I no longer try to be all those things and I no longer expect all those things from my husband or kids. I have accepted the fact that I am not a gourmet chef or a wonderful house keeper-I actually rather hate cleaning! I'm also not the world’s greatest mom and I’ve even stopped trying to be. I no longer expect perfection from my children or endless romance from my husband. I'm learning to accept each of them for who they are with all their strengths as well as all their weakness. After all, that's what I want from them!

You know, I’m not the perfect mom and yes I do lose my temper way to often with my kids but you know what? There is no one in the world who loves my kids more than I do and no one who will try harder to make their dreams come true for them-excluding my husband of course! My new goal is to always hold them when they cry, to laugh at their silly jokes, to do everything I can to encourage their dreams and to teach them everything I can about having a personal relationship with Christ! As for that "perfect Christian" stuff?! Once again...HA! I could sit here all day long and name every sin I’ve ever committed and never even finish. I don't know how many times I’ve asked for forgiveness because I’ve committed the same stupid sin once again! But thankfully my Heavenly Father is incredibly forgiving, He allows me to come to Him each and every time and willingly offers forgiveness, love and grace each time I mess up.

I don't know if anyone else has ever dealt with these things or if anyone will even be able to relate to what I’m talking about but if you can I want to say something specifically to you....Relax! Take some time right now and breath. Stop trying to be everything for everyone and just be who you really are! No one will ever be Jamie like I can be Jamie! No one will ever be you like you can be you! I've taken some time lately and still am in fact trying to figure out what I want from my life-Martha Stewart and Julia Child aside-and while I may never have it all figured out I am getting some of it figured out. I challenge you to do the same.

Logyn's 1st birthday party!!

We had Logyn's party last night here at our house, we had a great time and i'm still exhausted!! :o) I made the cake-or cupcakes this time-again so that was fun and not near as stressful as Lexi's birthday, I wasn't up till 2am working on it so that was nice! Here's the cupcakes...



And here's a close up of the cupcake and her smash cake...



She had fun and as usual was walking around and being our "busy bee"-and yes her shirts does say "Busy little bee"! I actually found that at Walmart last week, I was so excited!!






She enjoyed her cake, although she wasn't to sure about it at first...



But she figured it out. :o)




All in all it was a pretty fun night! Now time to start planning Konner's birthday...it's just one right after the other around here! :o)

2009...our year in pictures

Well since this is the last day of the year many people are reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the year ahead. So I suppose i'll join in. :o)

2009 was a very special year for us, we welcomed our beautiful Logyn to our family in January.


Watched Lexi grow from toddler,



To little girl.




Saw Konner mature even more from little boy,



to just boy.




Colby and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary,




And got to go on our first vacation.




All in all we had a great year and I can't wait to see what next year brings! So from our family to yours...Happy New Year!!




May 2010 be the best year ever!!!

Another post so soon?

I can't believe i'm getting the chance to post again so soon! It's not going to be another month and a half before i'm back! :o) I don't really have much to chat about so this may be a bit scatter-brained but since I have the chance I thought i'd take it...

I can't believe Christmas is a week from tomorrow!!! It's crazy how fast it snuck up on me this year. We still have so much to do though and i'm trying to not get overwhelmed with all of it. We're making pretty much all the gifts for everyone other than the kids and I still have quite a bit to do on all that, plus we haven't even started shopping for the kids yet! Yes, we will be some of those crazy people out next week trying to get everything at the last minute! But thankfully we don't go crazy on gifts for them, they each get 3 gifts and their stocking. For the 3 gifts they get something they want, something they need and something to read. And for their stocking they get things like fruit snacks, socks and underwear-old family joke in my house-and then a few little toys. So I don't think we'll have a real hard time getting everything taken care of...at least I hope not!

It's so funny to me how big Christmas gets once you're married, when I was growing up I wanted Christmas to last for a week at least but it always seemed to end so fast. Now it really does last for days and days since we have to go to each of our families for get-togethers. I think we have at least 5 functions we have to go to, we'll go to my mom's house, my dad's, Colby's parents and his family in Borger and then my friend Chelsea's house at some point so the kids can see their "Gigi"-she's an official yet unofficial grandmother to them. So now it really does last more than 1 day! :o)

The kids are loving the Christmas tree though and so far Logyn has really left it alone which totally surprised me. I just knew she'd mess with it constantly but she hasn't even noticed it really. We get a real tree now which is a new thing for me but it's one thing about Christmas that Colby really loves so i'm all for it! He's a bit of a scrooge about Christmas, he's better than when we first got together but he still has his moments. He wants to get the cartoon "Grinch" for the kids to watch, I swear, that's his theme song throughout the holidays. haha! But like I said, he's improving. :o)

Um lets see...can I think of anything else to talk about? See i'm actually trying to put off house work, that's the real reason behind me sitting here talking to myself! haha! But nope, I can't think of anything. Guess i'll have to actually get to it then... :o)

Overall update...

Well since it's been about a month and a half since I last posted I guess it's about time for an update. Last time I posted we were getting ready for Lexi's birthday, everything went so great!!! I did make her cake and it turned out really great so I was very relieved. Here's a pic for ya...




My friend Brianne and I stayed up till like 2am working on that thing but Lexi loved it so it was totally worth it! :o) Now we're getting ready for Logyn's first birthday! I can't believe it's already time for her birthday, it doesn't feel like she's been here for a whole year but at the same time I can't really remember what our life was like before she came.

A HUGE part of me is very sad right now, she's our last baby so while i'm exited to watch her grow and learn new things it's also really really hard knowing that she's the last. There won't be another baby to watch learn how to roll over, or sit up, or take their first steps...she's it. So i'm trying so hard to enjoy all my time with her because I won't have another chance at this. I know I have 3 kids and i've enjoyed every bit of each of their lives, but there's just something so final to everything Logyn does.

But like Colby says, eventually there will have to be a last baby. Even if we were to have 20 kids there would at some point be a last one so i'd have to deal with this eventually. Honestly though, i'm ok with not having more kids. I can't imagine having more than these 3 running around here! :o)My mom is a little devastated that we're stopping with 3, she thinks I should have 10 kids at least! haha! But like i've told her, it'd be better to only have 3 kids and be sane than to have 10 kids and go insane! :o)

All of the kids are doing great though, Logyn is still growing like crazy and I kinda wish she would slow down. I still can't believe she started walking at 8 months! Pure craziness!! Lexi is still my little drama queen, but she's growing more beautiful every day. I looked at her today and couldn't believe how grown up she looked! She was just wearing a pair of jeans and a plain shirt but yet she looked like a little girl, she no longer looks like a toddler and it just kinda caught me by surprise.

Konner is also growing like crazy. Every day he gets more and more mature. He's changing from little boy to just boy and I don't like it! :o) The way he talks and the things he says...he's just growing so fast. The other day he asked me to teach him how to cook so that when he gets married he'll know how. He also said when he was kids he wants a boy and a girl, he'll name the girl Flower and the boy Incredible Hulk so I guess he's not fully matured! :o)

I wish there was a way to slow things down and making them last just a little longer. For the longest time-and honestly even sometimes now-I felt like I was stuck in this rut and would never get out of it. For the rest of my life I would be changing diapers and getting cups and snacks and doing all the things you do with toddlers. But i'm starting to see more and more how quickly all this will be gone. It's like that country song "You're gonna miss this", before I know it i'll be in the next faze of life and the kids won't need me to hug them when they hurt. They won't want to show me each paper they color or want me to kiss-hug-and by them before bed. They'll grow up and move into their own lives and while that's good and how it should be it's just hard to accept sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want them to stay little forever-at least I don't always want that-it's just kinda hard realizing there will come a day when i'm not everything for them. While I can't wait for them to grow up and become amazing men and women of God it's hard to believe they won't still be my little babies anymore. I won't have all the answers, I won't be able to fix every problem and hurt with a kiss and that's just kinda hard. It's so easy to get caught up in the nitty gritty every day stuff and forget that my purpose as a mom is more than just changing diapers and getting cups. My job, the whole point of being a mom is to train these kids to be world changers for God! These 3 kids can make such an impact and make such a difference if we raise them the way God wants us to. That's our goal, to raise world changers for God. To raise kids who aren't afraid to stand up for what they believe no matter the cost, kids who believe in something greater than themselves, kids that make a difference.

Anyways, i'm not exactly sure how I got off on all that. haha! Went from Lexi's birthday party to my job as a mom! See when I just start talking the topics start flowing. :o) But that's ok right?! Well now that i've rambled on I guess I should get to some house work-I also need to raise kids who help clean house! haha!