Shadow

Look mom! My legs are really long. 

Fresh breath

I'm very inspired right now to be creative. To write, to craft, to create, to discover. I'm hoping that means another start-up on my blogs. I'm hoping that means more crafting for me and for my kids. I'm hoping that means more organization. I'm hoping that means more play and exploring and discovering with my kids. I'm not sure where to begin but I'm inspired nonetheless and I'm using this inspiration to create a plan of action for me, for my kids, for my home, for the kids I "daycare," etc.

I love when inspiration hits and then capitalizing on it. I know it doesn't always last long so I make a great point to take advantage and make habits out of my inspirations so they stay in place well after the excitement dies down. Hopefully you'll see me more, on here and my other blogs.

Daredevil

I'm pretty sure it's a second child thing; she's got to do what big sister is doing, but she doesn't realize she doesn't have the experience that comes with age therefore the coordination nor the agility either.  She is willing to do anything.  This little accident happened at the river last month.  She took off at full speed down a slightly descending dirt trail and tumbled forward scraping her forehead, nose and even the inside of her mouth.  

A week later, the scab was completely gone (thanks coconut oil!) and she was all healed up and ready to take on her next monkey adventure.  

Bogart

Bogart...

You make our couch look tiny.

Amélie's first time coloring

Amélie loves to try coloring by grabbing a marker and scribbling on a page but the cap always stays on.  Today was the first day I decided to let her have a go at the real thing.

And she loved it.

But I think I made a mistake by letting her pick her own colors.  Yellow was fine, of course, but black, obviously I should have known it wouldn't be a good choice.

I was so busy snapping pictures and next thing I see through the view finder on my camera the marker touch her face...

and with intention, it seemed, she scribbled all over her mouth, with black marker.

And she was so proud.

Just a day in our life

Thought I'd share some pictures that seem to capture a couple events that are regular in our day to day.  

Jordan and I have school time every day (well, almost every day anyway) after Amélie gets laid down for her first nap.  I'm pretty proud of this little punkin who is learning to read, write and use critical thinking skills to solve word puzzles.

Her lines are still a little shaky but she's doing great staying on the lines and she's finally worked up the confidence/courage (not quite sure the right word here) to write them on her own without tracing; look at that beautiful 9 that she wrote on her own!

This is the second book we've used in this "series."  We loved the first one that teaches great math skills along with the dexterity to cut lines.  By the end of the first book (she was 2 1/2) she could cut circles without any help!  (along with many other skills, of course!)  This second book is a more advanced version of the first that also dives more deeply into writing as well.  We absolutely love these books and recommend them highly.  We've also been using several other books that we've picked up from various stores, had homeschooling friends generously pass on to us that they didn't use or we've even gotten one by posting a want ad on craigslist!

And here is my other sweet little munchkin who is all over the place, into everything, climbs, climbs, climbs, tries to escape constantly if the gate isn't up and makes us all smile abundantly.  

I am sure blessed with some wonderful little girls!  Thank you Lord for pouring out such blessings on us!

One day this summer

One day this summer Jordan grabbed my cup of water off the table and decided it looked like the perfect place to stick her foot.  I caught her sitting in her little chair having a BLAST dipping her foot in the water experimenting with dipping each foot and her hands too.  It certainly kept her entertained for quite some time...until it tipped over and we had to clean up all the fun.

Look how much fun she was having!  Sometimes I miss being entertained by such simple things.

The girls

My mom just got back from a really long trip with my grandma.  They were gone nearly a month taking a road trip to West Virginia to visit relatives.  My great aunt got the girls some West Virginia University shirts so I snapped a picture today while they were both wearing them.  Jordan was so excited to wear hers today!  She's so goofy in pictures lately.  She gets a funny grin like she wants to smile but she's nervous to.  In some other pictures I got I asked her to smile big so she opened her mouth really wide, then got distracted watching TV and forgot her mouth was open.  It was quite comical.  

Amélie was having a blast taking pictures.  I took a massive amount of pictures and in all of them she was looking at the camera with a big grin.  She's become a little crawler in the past month.  It's fun to see her moving all around exploring...until she finds cords plugged into the wall or the dog toys (gross!).

My little sweetheart.  She looks and feels so much better when her hair is pulled back, but I'm usually too lazy or she's too much of a stinker!  :)

And this one here is getting some hair that needs taming on a daily basis too.  I'm going to be busy doing hair from now on!  I'm seriously SO thankful for all the hair tutorials available online.  I've learned so much!

Giveaway winner

And the winner is....

#3 - Kelley

Congratulations!  Be on the lookout for an email from me.

silly girls

Giveaway!

For 5 years, General Mills has partnered with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Foundation to bring breast cancer support to local communities, and this year they are making their annual donation of $2 million to the foundation to advance breast cancer research and support education and community outreach projects.  General Mills' donations will be divided between two important Komen programs:  the Treatment and Assistance Program, which assists women in securing care they otherwise may not be able to afford, and Prevention Research, which helps unlock the keys to preventing breast cancer.  This month Sam's Club stores are featuring exclusive pink packaging on some of your favorite participating General Mills products in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and by purchasing said specially marked packages you can help decide how half of that contribution will be donated by voting at Pink Together from now until April 14, 2012.  Voting results will be announced on Mother's Day 2012.

One of you lucky readers will be receiving a $25 Sam's Club gift card!  Don't get discouraged if you don't have a Sam's Club membership because the gift card may be used at Walmart as well!  To enter please simply leave a comment on this post and include your email address so I can contact you if you're the winner.  One comment per person.  I will be closing the contest on Monday Oct 10 at midnight MST any entries after that will be deleted.  I will announce the winner Tuesday.

*Disclosure:  The information and gift card have been provided by Sam's Club and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Oops, I did it again

I just couldn't seem to get that last hair style to fix correctly so I went back and had her change it up for me a bit.  Here is the result:

Quite a bit shorter but I love it!  I'm still working on figuring out how to get it as perfect as my stylist did (ha!) and thanks to Kate at The Small Things blog, I think it's going to happen.  She has a similar style only a bit longer and some really good hair tutorials!

Someone got a haircut

ME!  I've actually been sporting the shorter style for a couple months now but last night it got a tad shorter and I realized that most of you haven't seen me with my new short style yet at all so I had Brandon take some pictures...and we got a little carried away.

Cookie monster

 Apparently Cookie Monster is in disguise because Jordan claims these banana pieces are him.  Here are the body parts as she explained it to me.

Kid's imaginations make me chuckle.  I love seeing their creativity and how clever they are!

To be honest, at first I was a bit annoyed that she was making a mess on the table and was about to tell her to stop but before I got the chance she told me that she was making Cookie Monster.  It wasn't until she said that, that I decided to let her go ahead with it because it really isn't hurting anything; I was going to have to wipe the table up regardless and it wasn't intended to make a mess.  This is what I try telling myself when I get too uptight about things.

some fun things we've been up to lately

I saw this cool bubble blower thing in an issue of Family Fun magazine last year and we finally got around to doing it a few weeks ago.  It's a really cheap project.  Take an empty water or soda bottle and cut off the end, rubber band on a wash cloth (I used a baby wipe), wet the wash rag down then dip in dish soap and blow!  Super easy, super fun.  Here's a video of us doing it, the bubbles can hang on for a long time but she kept stopping and wiping them off.  

This was a fun project I recently found on the blog hands on:  as we grow.  Start by pouring baking soda onto a cookie sheet and let your kid play in it if they'd like by drawing shapes and letters with their finger while you dye vinegar with some food coloring.

Then using a medicine dropper, turkey baster, spoon or any other thing you can come up with squirt colored vinegar over the baking soda and watch it bubble and fizz.  This kept us entertained for about 45 minutes.

We got pretty lucky with this next project.  The people who lived in our house before us left behind quite a few things and this peg board with colored pegs just happened to be one of them.  I used this to keep Jordan entertained one day while I was cleaning up and when she said "ok, Mama, me done."  I looked over and found this:

Why I haven't worn make-up in a week

This little munchkin found my mascara and went to town with it all over her face, arms and...

...the toilet.  Yes, my mascara that I had just opened and used for the first time that morning took a dip in toilet water after being rubbed all over someone's face and all over the toilet seat.

 Here she is with her "masterpiece."

Someone got a hair cut

I can't say I was completely ready for it but we decided to get Jordan's hair cut for the first time and even up all the natural layers.  We had it cut to the top layer which means it is pretty short...I'd say she got about 6 inches got chopped off!

She was such a good sport sitting there.  I was very proud of her for sitting so well.

All finished (this was the best picture I could get at the time) and she got a "prize" and a balloon.  She and the dog were quite entertained by the balloon the rest of the day.