Winterfest Part 2!

Here are the pictures I promised were keepers...

The tubing crew!

Uncle Eric and Aunt Hannah with Ollie! We love this boy so much!!

Ollie shouted..."I like your beard mom!!!" It was hilarious!!

Ollie sunk into his tube but he loved every minute of it...and he looked so cute wearing Eric's goggles!

Mom and Heidi with "their beards".



Winterfest!!

So...when you're feeling like this and you have the winter blues...what do you do?! You have....Winterfest!!

For the last few years my family has wondered how the heck we were going to get through the dreadful Iowa winters. Last winter we decided we were going to have game night once a week...just one more thing to look forward to every week to help us get through. That's when we discovered the love for many of our games mentioned here. This year my sister wanted to do Winterfest (something she had conjured up to help get through the winter, and all of us were 100% in on the idea!) It included a whole weekend of sleepovers, tubing at Sleepy Hollow, snacks and endless amounts of good food, game playing, movie watching, nap taking, and most importantly...some much needed time with your loved ones to "escape" from the real snow-ridden world for a weekend. It was absolutely fabulous. We plan on making it a tradition!

Here are some pictures from our weekend of Winterfest this year:

Cute Sully boy!! He's doing such a good job learning to sit. Look at that drool!! :)

Sully is in love with all of Ollie's Toy Story toys. It's adorable.

Grandpa's famous breakfast!

The cook himself!!

Not sure what Ollie was doing, but you as you can see, PJs were the dress of choice for the weekend.

Big brother making Sully smile!!

We had an appetizer night where everyone made an appetizer in lieu of dinner. Here are some yummy ham, cream cheese, and pickle rolls!

These are from Costco and are awesome! They're called firecrackers or something like that....

A different version of the typical taco dip...Heidi made this and I fell in love with it! Yum!

Beer bread and dip...best.stuff.ever.

My mom's new buffalo chicken dip recipe she made...it was fabulous! I especially loved eating it with the celery option!

Collachies (I think that's how you spell it...) They are an awesome breakfast treat!

I will share all the recipes from this post on another date...be looking for it because this is good stuff folks!

We also had some fun pics from tubing but they are on my sister's camera...I will have to share them with you when I get them because they are definitely keepers!


A few things we didn't get to do this year that we thought would be fun next year would be to do some baking and some kind of craft. It will be fun to see how the tradition evolves over the years. Can anyone tell my family loves a good tradition?! :)

P.S. Any fun ideas you have that you think might be fun to add to our new tradition? Anyone do something similar?!

Reflections on the anniversary of becoming a mother...

Today is my son's first birthday and all I'm really thinking about is Judah.  I keep thinking about how blessed we are and how thankful I am to have a wonderful baby and husband.  I am thinking about what I was doing at this time 365 days ago...

Has it really been a year?  

I am such a different person than I was then.  Or really, maybe I just perceive myself differently now.  I have realized I am capable of much more love and patience than I ever thought I was.  At times, I remember being afraid to be a mom.  I thought I would only ever be able to handle 2 children until I had Judah.  He's made me realize how great a gift children are and that the Lord's grace sustains me.

Judah's life has helped me see how much God loves me.  How much He gives to me over and over.  There are times when Judah misbehaves and I have to get stern with him and then not two seconds later I scoop him up in my arms and kiss him all over. I don't even remember what it is that frustrated me just before that sweet moment. That's the kind of love Jesus has for me.  I get that more now.

I understand the yearning God must have for me.  How He sits and waits to talk to me all day long (and does many days) if He has to. How He forgives me completely with each mistake. I understand the love that never leaves, not fully, but I have a greater picture now.

I am so very blessed to have had 365 days to catch more of a glimpse of the infinite love God has for His children. My days are not perfect, but His blessings are.  Through Judah, I have learned so much and my heart has been filled to a greater capacity than I ever thought possible.

Happy Birthday, Judah!  You are God's blessings in the flesh.

no ever tells you being a mom is confusing...

there are many things that i have yet to understand about my child...over the past few days i have found myself making a mental list of the things that confuse me the most. i will give you the short list,as the long one seems to grow by the hour. here goes:

Confusion #5: Why would you want to sit in your own poo longer than you have to?? as of lately, diaper changes have become a struggle. and i mean this very literally. like, it takes both my hands, feet and elbows to keep her and her stinky bottom from squirming away. i have to make every kind of animal noise imaginable or sing a ridiculous song to keep her from remembering the reason why she's laying on the floor. i can't wait for the days when diapers are a distant memory.

Confusion #4: Why beg to go outside when it's 20 degrees and raining? i consider myself more of an "indoor" type of gal, but peyton has taken an interest in being outside (like her daddy...go figure, everything else is just like him). so she will find her hat, put it on all lopsided and crooked and stand by the door rubbing her belly (which is her way of signing "please"...hey, at least she's polite!). yes, i think it's adorable, but after the 47th time of saying "no, peyton....it's too cold to play outside today", i start to wonder what is so enticing about playing in freezing rain anyway?

Confusion #3: I don't understand the urge to climb EVERYTHING. she literally, climbs on the corner of the couch/chair, stands at the very edge and then will DIVE in one direction or another. most of the time she lands on a cushion, but it's a rare day where i don't hear a head conking on something.

Confusion #2: Why didn't God give me a snuggle baby????? the girl is a product of two snugglers. why, oh why will she not lay still long enough? it drives brandon and i crazy.....we're going to try to train our next baby (whenever that may be) to be a snuggle baby:) peyton has been on the go since day one.

Confusion #1: When you're sick, wouldn't you want MORE sleep?? oh no. not this munchkin. over the past few months, she has had her share of colds and fevers (in fact, she has been sick most of the week) and i have come to sadly realize, that in peyton's mind, feeling sick equals sleeping less. i tell myself every excuse under the sun (her schedule is off, she's teething, she can't breathe very well....) and all i want to do is rock her, pat her back and snuggle her. see confusion #2. no dice. on top of less sleep, she is more needy and whiny and i'm ready to call in a babysitter by 9 am. anybody know of any? oh wait...i AM the baby sitter:)

these quirks have grown on me and though i may question my parenting on a daily basis and frantically search for my sanity every 30 minutes, i adore my little girl. she is my heart beating outside of my body and i will happily live in confusion each day, as long as it's with my sweet Peyton girl.

A Whole Shoe Box Full of 'em...Dangly Ones!

One of Eric's favorite things to say to me is from the movie Home Alone....remember when Kevin's mom is trying to buy someone's plane tickets to get back to her son on Christmas? Well...she tries to bribe an old lady with money and anything else just so they will give her a ticket. She is offering her earrings as a desperate final attempt and the wife's husband interrupts to say, "she has her own earrings....a whole shoebox full of 'em...dangly ones!" as he dangles his fingers by his ears.  Why is this one of Eric's favorite things to say to me (fingers dangling and all)? Well, it may or may not be true that I have a small earring fetish. I just love them...especially big, dangly ones! In fact, the bigger and more dangly the better! lol
I most likely have one (...or two...) shoe box(es) worth! However, I don't just stuff my precious earrings into a shoe box.....no! In fact, I am going to share with you a creative and decorative way to store your earrings!

One of my besties, Meg, made me this for one of my bdays:

Isn't it awesome?! It has definitely been put to good use. She is so creative. She bought a frame, painted it black, and put a mesh screen on it so I could hang my earrings. Maggie's parents ended up making one for her as well and her's has a stand on the back--she keeps it in her bathroom and it seriously looks great as a decoration! Maybe she will share a picture with us sometime :)

As my earring collection continues to grow...I am running out of space on my cute little frame. I am needing to acquire one more like the size of this one:

This one is my sister's. She loved mine and wanted something like it, so when she found this old screen at a junk sale it was just perfect. It's big, I love the color, and she didn't have to do anything to it! She has it hanging in their bathroom and she put little hooks on it so she can also hang necklaces and bracelets on it...genius!! My mom, sister, and I love old, antique things. I never thought growing up that I would follow after my mom's style of "country/antique" (not because I didn't like it, but just didn't think it was what I wanted--in fact, I loved my mom's style...it always felt very cozy and just like home should feel). I should've known better!  :)

Hopefully the next time we go on a junk hunt I will find a similar one! Anyone know of a junk sale coming up or a good place to get stuff like that?!

Even though Eric teases me, you know a good husband when he still buys his wife earrings for her bday, Christmas, etc....even if she does have a whole shoebox full of them! :)

P.S. Stay tuned for another awesome jewelry hanger/display post...Rach made it for me!

Friends are the flowers in the garden of life... err, something like that ;)

The topic of friendship has been on my mind a lot the past few weeks.  I consider myself a relational person but by no means do I have the corner on what it means to be a good friend.  However, since good friendships are one of my many passions, I thought it wouldn't hurt to write down some ways that I have found to make a friendship strong:

#1 Encourage, encourage, encourage.  I so wish I was better at encouraging!  As women, we can do a pretty good job of tearing each other down but our love for our friends should be verbally evident. Sincerely complimenting a friend and telling her how much she means to you, goes a long way.  Be spontaneous and unexpected-- not just complimenting a new outfit but also your friend's personality and the things that mean a lot to her (her ability to be a level-headed mother, her knack for organization).

#2 Know what "language" your friend speaks.  Does she like to talk over coffee?  Receive special gifts? Give you lots of hugs? You can often tell what someone loves by what they do for you.  We may think we're really loving on someone at a given moment yet we find out they aren't catching our drift because we weren't speaking the same language.  If your friend loves words of affirmation but you always vacuum her house-- it's not gonna go far.  Learn more about this sort of thing in The Five Love Languages-- a must read book!

#3 Listen!  One of the best ways you can love your friends is to listen to their hearts.  Ask them what's going on in their lives and really pay attention to what they are saying. When a friend brings up something going on with her, thoroughly engage in the conversation and don't just switch the topic over to you.  Follow-up at a later date by asking her about the things she was sharing with you previously. Active listening is a lot of work but it's well worth it!

#4 Go out of your way to serve.  Some of the most meaningful things my friends have ever done for me were things I knew they did out of their love for me and not because they were gaining something in return. I've had good friends help me unpack, do my laundry, help with projects around our home, make a meal for my family... and those things go a looong way.  Philippians 2:3 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves".  That verse does not mean we shouldn't think about our own needs or our family's, we need to be healthy enough in the relationships with our children and spouses, that we have time and love to give freely to our friends.

# 5 Take care of yourself.  It's very true that if you don't take care of yourself, it's pretty darn hard to be a good friend.  I am the best at being a friend on days I have set aside time with the Lord, had some moments to regroup, styled my hair, played with my son or had a little order to my day.  (Mind you-- this is hardly ever done all in the same day!)

#6 Pray for her.  There is nothing more beautiful you can do than go to the Heavenly Father on behalf of your friend.  Make it a point to pray for your friends through the highs and lows of their lives.  If time is short for you, pray in the shower, on the road, during commercials, when you're going number 2 :)  Whatever you have to do to make it happen, do it, because nothing will help your friend or friendship more.

#7 Quit saying you're too busy.  When all is said and done in this life, the most important thing we can leave behind is a loving legacy. There will always be things in our lives that take up our time but people should never be treated as burdens. It's hard to be good friends with someone if you aren't available.  Return phone calls, do your best to email back when you are emailed, make a regular girls night out with the special women in your life.  It doesn't have to take hours a day to be a good friend...

#8 In fact, it just takes 5 minutes. ;)  Sometimes we don't have an hour to give to a relationship but we can usually take 1-5 minutes to let a friend know we are thinking of them.  Send a quick note or email. If you find something at the store you just know your friend would love-- get it for her. Have takeout delivered to her house for her family's dinner or when you're preparing dinner for your family, double the recipe and give her half.  Make a list of spontaneous and easy things you can do for your special friends and make a commitment to do one thing off the list per week.

#9 Be transparent and humble.  No one wants a friend that acts like they are perfect.  Share your flaws with your friends and before you know it, she will be sharing hers with you.  And don't always feel like you have to have an answer when problems strike your friends' lives. Sometimes we just need a hug and a, "I know life stinks sometimes" and not some Hallmark quote or off-handed advice.  (My friends know this is hard for me!)

#10 Don't be so insecure.  Insecurity breeds company and it doesn't do any good for your friendships when you talk bad about yourself or wallow in your own pitfalls constantly.  Breath life into your friends' lives by confidently loving yourself and others. When you love yourself, you love others deeper and will talk about/to them with kinder and gentler words.

#11 Prepare yourself for the worst.  If you are someone's go-to-gal, you may be on the receiving end of some pretty difficult times if and when stress strikes in her family.  Know how to be a good friend when someone is grieving, just had a new baby, lost a job or whatever BIG things may come her way. My very good friend Jessica has been through some pretty hard times in the past year and has written some really poignant blog posts about her loss and how to help a grieving friend.  It was amazingly eye-opening for me!

#12 Remember friendships are never perfect.  There is no such thing as a perfect friend so stop looking for her.  Look at the people God has placed around you right now and pour into them.   I'm not saying to never make new friends but it can be easy to feel like we just haven't met that perfect friend yet. Be gracious to your friends and don't expect them to hang the moon for you (I need to work on this!). Don't expect yourself to be the perfect friend either-- it takes a lifetime to master being a good friend.  Our Heavenly Father loves us and came to Earth to free us from the chains of imperfection.  Ultimately, quit looking at what you can get out of a friendship and start looking at what you can give. 

Being a friend is a lot of work.  It's not possible to be best friends with every person you meet.  There are certain people who come our way that we really connect on a soul level with and those are the people we should invest the most amount of time in.

I just read in my MOPS Momsense magazine this month about a Home Team.  It's a fabulous concept I have never heard of before.  Pretty much you look at who your Home Team is (the people you call in the middle of the night, don't feel like you have to wear makeup around etc) and keep in mind that they are the people you need to love on the most.  They need you as much as you need them. They are the people that will be there for you through thick and thin.  It's all too easy to feel like we have to meet every person's needs that come our way but that isn't possible and in the end our deep friendships suffer.  (Don't take this too literally and only stick with the Home Team, acquaintances and strangers need love too!)

I know this is SUPER long and probably confusing at times but I was on a roll and felt like I couldn't leave anything out:)  I could post it in two parts but if I forget to post the 2nd half you will only know how to be half of a friend ;) Ha!  Anyway, I hope it helped you in at least one area of your friendships.  I know I definitely have some things I need to work on!

P.S. What did I leave out?  What do you do to be a good friend?

bathroom facelift

in the spirit of room makeovers this week (check out hannah's new dining room color), i thought i would share our new and improved bathroom. we didn't do a whole lot of over-hauling, but just enough to really clean things up and simplify. unfortunately, i am terrible at taking before pictures, so you will just have to take my word for it. here are the few that i took before we started making changes:

first things first....the hardware. brassy, shiny, and not our taste. as you can see, they got voted out. and then nicely lined up so i could take a picture to post on craigslist. anyone want 'em?

the best pic i could get of the whole bathroom. this is still with the brass hardware. also note the purple and white sponge paint on the bottom half of the wall. hoo boy...that had to go.

a close up of the purple madness. imagine, if you will, various sizes and colors of lighthouse wallpaper, lining the top edge of this paint. making its way all around the bathroom. they got yanked during the destruction of the kitchen wallpaper...hence, no picture.

new color and new fixtures. sans wallpaper.

Add caption

this guy is so much more delightful to wash your hands under:)

replacement towel bars. these babies really proved my husband's good handiwork. he put these in all by himself, with barely any tools! sometimes i think he's a human level....the guy has an eye for straight lines!! ....if only he knew how to use the towel bars, which would eliminate the wrinkly towels, eh?

so there you have it. a (fairly) cheap and easy way to makeover a room. five rooms painted, two to go!

what do you think??