Our Signing Beauty...

Penny has just picked up a BUNCH of signs within the past couple of weeks. She uses them on a regular basis and it's great!! I tried to upload a short video, but it's much too long for Blogger to handle. I might try to upload it to youtube, but we'll see. Here is a list of the signs she does... i'm so excited it's finally kicking in for her!!

• more
• milk
• all done
• water
• drink
• eat
• sleepy
• outside
• cracker
• light
• juice
• banana
• toothbrush
• hair
• bye-bye

And in addition, she's started talking more and more, which is exciting. She has a handful of words that she says which are slowly turning into much more words... the funniest is "weeble". But of course, her "weeble" doesn't sound like "weeble". But "bee-bir". That's right, at the ripe young age of 17 months, she's got the fever... The Beiber Fever!!

She seems to be talking about the same time as Finn, but is signing much later than he did. But it seems that her vocabulary is bigger than his was. She is also our "mutterer". She mutters all the time. Sometimes under her breath, and other times, just baby talk. It's so cute. But she is very much like her daddy: she doesn't want to be the center of attention and will hide her face if she thinks that she is. But she has her moments of being a ham too, which I enjoy!

I Saved Us Some $$

That's right! I saved us some money. I am usually pretty good at spending it, and finding things that need to be or bought. Take our tax return for this year. We got some money back... and what was the first thing I was thinking?? Not, lets put it away, but "ooh, this will help with the back yard remodel we need to do," or "Oh, the basement door needs to be replaced", or "I'd love to have an island in the kitchen." I am so good at spending money.

For the past 2 years, I have consistently woken up with a sore lower back. I used to go to a chiropractor, and stopped doing that. And my back is sore. I sleep with a pillow between my legs. I tried sleeping on my back, or on my side. I sleep without a pillow, or with three pillows. There is nothing that helps me to wake up and NOT hurt. At Christmas time, we went to my parents house and Ken and I slept in my sister's bed. She was given one of the early generation air number beds. After 5 nights on that bed, was waking up without pain. I was waking up without soreness, and I didn't have to shuffle around as took those first steps in the morning. I was pain free. I was convinced that we needed a new mattress. That is the only thing I could think of . I began thinking that we needed to start shopping for a new mattress... there was just no reason why my back would be hurting for so long, and then, it stops hurting for a week, and the day we returned home, it would begin hurting again. UGH...

A couple weeks ago, my pillows got switched, and I was laying on big, fluffy cotton pillows, or large down filled pillows. My usual pillow was switched with one of Ken's pillows, you know, those FLAT cotton ones, that are not bigger than a piece of paper. And guess what?? Although I miss my big pillows, I DON'T have a sore back. I wake up every morning pain free and able to move my legs without being stiff or looking like I'm 80 yrs old. And I thought back, my sister has those super skinny pillows too, and that is why I had no pain while in MI. Sweet!!

Holy Mackrel! I saved us some money by trying a different pillow, and now we don't have to buy a new mattress!! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Ok, I don't like to admit that Valentine's Day is a "Hallmark" holiday. Because, let's just say it... everyone likes to be told how much they mean to the person they love!! But, this year, just like in every other area of our lives, we've cut back. So, this year, my sweet darling got me a $2 box of chocolates, and a card, and I made a home made card for him... For our sweet babies, instead of toys or candy, I found these SUPER darling plates...

They are like the "Wooly Willy" toy that you find with the magnet shavings. So fun to construct!!

This was Penny's Lunch... Turkey and cheese pinwheels for her hair, and peach dangly ear-rings.

This is Finn's lunch: Strawberry curly hair, Fluffy cream cheese mustache with ritz crackers and cheese shirt. :)

Here they are, gobbling up their lunch!!

And this was the scene shortly after... Penny is usually really messy and so I held off giving her her chocolate milk until later in her meal. But I heard Finn offering a drink of his chocolate milk to her, getting out of his chair and gently holding it for her to have a little drink. He did it several times, and I was so pleased to know that they are finally "falling in love" with each other. They are finally finding joy in playing with one another and learning to be kind and loving towards one another. What an answer to prayer, after a rough few months.

Valentine's Sweets...

I'm a sucker for anything that is holiday inspired. I just think that it's fun. So, for Valentine's day, I made my sweet hubby these cookies out of some leftover dough that I had in the freezer, and some simple icing... Granted mine didn't look this beautiful, but it was fun to "whip" them up.

For his Valentine's breakfast I'm making him yummy stuffed french toast. Another, simple recipe, with simple ingredients, but something that I don't make all the time. 2

And tonight, I made a delicious raspberry lemonade drink that was a nice deep red color... and everyone had some :)

Raspberry Lemonade Smoothie

(** Keep in mind that most of this is not measured... just guessed)

1/4 cup (or so) of Raspberry Lemonade Concentrate

1/2 cup - 1 cup of crushed ice

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup frozen raspberries

2 tsp sugar ( or to taste)

Add all of these things in the blender and turn it on until it's nicely whipped. If it's a little too thick you can add more water.

Super Yummy, and super adaptable to ANY kind of drink you like. You can also use orange juice concentrate and add in some whip topping for an "orange julius" type drink. YUMO!!

I also made these this morning... I didn't have a donut pan, so I just used a mini muffin pan and then dipped them in frosting and we put on sprinkles. They were SUPER good. Next time, I'll make a double batch, because 24 little ones went really fast :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh, No!! There's a 3rd Transformers Movie!!

During the Super Bowl, the new Transformers 3 movie trailer was aired. I was taken a bit off-guard when it aired, because I didn't realize that a 3rd installment of this movie. I was surprised when I saw it and walked down memory lane... I was pregnant when the first two Transformers movies came to theaters, and I saw both movies in the theater while largely pregnant. And while, I can't possibly be hugely pregnant by July 2011, that doesn't mean I can't be pregnant...

No, I'm not currently pregnant, but thinking of a 3rd is on the horizon and we're just waiting for God to announce our timing. But I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't wonder how many Transformer movies they're will be?? Hopefully not more than 3, cause that's where I draw the line!! :)

Valentine's Packages

My sweet children have wonderful grandparents that simply spoil them all year round. Grandma Morgan has a wonderful "habit" of sending small gifts in the mail with a little letter to each child. About once a month, the kids get a wonderful piece of mail. Finnegan is old enough to understand that the mail comes every day and something could be in the mail for him. About 10 days after his package has arrived, he begins asking again (daily) if he has any mail. :) It is so cute. He'll even say, "Mommy, we need to go get my mail in the box!" Recently, Ken's Mom sent another wonderful package for the kids, and I got the excitement on camera.

Finn gets so excited when we open the package. He always tries to guess what's in the package. He usually thinks that it's a car. This time it was a cars coloring book, and Penny got a sweet Little People Bus.

(This is Finn Jumping in excitement as Daddy opened the box!)

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day, and the kids wanted to do a craft... I couldn't really think of anything (my craft book has been loaned out to a friend). So this is what I could come up with. Construction paper, glue, beans, macaroni, barley and wild rice... :) They had fun!

Potential...

As a kid, I appreciated someone approaching me and saying "I see potential in you". I'm not sure what about the statement that touched me... was it that someone had observed my present and seen those hidden traits that could prosper in the future? Or was it the simple "I believe in you" that is silently weaved throughout the previous statement. Regardless of the route that they arrived at the thought, I thrived on those types of statements. And I remember them. I remember a friend who called me out for service. I remember a mentor who challenged me with a goal. I even remember my mother giving me a tour of a beautiful home of a mutual friend, telling me that she thought I would have a home like that one day...

As an adult, you just don't think that those types of situations will come along any longer. There's no one looking to make you a better person, doling out opportunities and encouragement for greatness. As an adult, unless your in a highly trainable work situation, never do these situations happen.

So, I am pleased to say that as an adult, I've had one of those rare opportunities. Several weeks, ago our Bible Study Leader, offered a chance for any of us ladies to teach Bible study one week to give her a break. I thought at the time that that might be fun, but I wasn't sure I could do it very well. Our Bible Study Leader is a retired school teacher and just does a wonderful job. So, my fleeting moment came and left as I compared my inability and lack of experience to her extraordinary teaching ability. Last week, our leader mentioned that she'd planned a vacation in a couple of weeks and she needed someone to teach the study. Our usual "fill-in" is out of the country visiting family and therefore she asked for someone to volunteer. I made a note of it in my binder and thought "ok, perhaps I should pray about this and consider it." That was on Tuesday. I closed my book after study and that was the last I thought about it. However, God had other plans. On Thursday, our leader called me. She called and specifically asked if I would lead Bible Study while she was gone. She went on to say that she thought I could relate to many of the women in our group (as many of us are in that transition part of our lives... young kids, busy husbands, discipling, etc) and she "saw the potential" of me leading my own group one day. WOW! I'd never thought of that. I decided to take her up on her offer and "challenge" myself to something new. And I figured, that God didn't need to speak much louder on the issue, unless he wanted to appear in front of me. :) I took her call as a clear sign that God wanted to stretch me a bit.

So in 2 weeks, I'll be teaching a chapter of the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. I'm pretty excited. And I'll let you know how it goes...

Who encourages you with your potential??