Jace is crawling!

He's been army crawling for a little while now and he's been rocking on his knees lately, too (but not going anywhere), but starting today, he got on his knees and crawled!  I couldn't believe it!  He's so darn cute when he's crawling, too.  I'll need to get a video of it so I never forget it.  On another note, I saw a vintage rosette headband quite a while ago and fell in love with it, so I finally looked for a tutorial on how to make them.  I'm a pretty crafty person, but I tend to start things and not finish them.  It's a real problem...lol.  Anyway, it was surprisingly easy, but I did get a cramp in my hand with every flower.  Regardless, I'll definitely be making more.  The picture I'll post today is my sweet eldest daughter modeling the headband :o)

 

Wordless Wednesday's: Dog Days of Summer (1)

Since this is my first post on this, I should probably explain.  A friend of mine (Amy McMaster from http://amymcmasterphotography.com/ has started something called Wordless Wednesdays: Dog Days of Summer.  From now on, they won't have words to explain the picture, but it'll be a picture of what goes on around here during the summer (or something like that...lol).  All I'll post is what action/texture I use on it.

 Processed with Sands of Time (tweaked) and Sand Dollar Texture from Amy McMaster's Olive Juice Shoppe

My sister-in-law's b-day

Yesterday was my youngest sister-in-law's birthday.  She turned 5.  I can't believe she's 5 already!  And what's more is that means Kelsie will be 5 in a mere 4 months!!!  Good grief, these kids are growing up too fast (which means I'm getting old too fast...lol)!  Anyway, it was a fun little party at my mother-in-law's house.  My favorite thing about it was another of my sisters-in-law, Mary, made her clowning debut.  She made the sweetest clown ever and the kids absolutely LOVED her!!!  She painted all the kids faces, but I didn't get a picture of those.  (I'm hoping to have a little face painting gathering/photo shoot for her soon to really capture her work.)  Mary welcomed all the kids to the party with silly string, which was a big hit.  She plans on introducing juggling and balloon animals soon, so I can't wait for that!  Without farther ado, some pictures from the party :o).

Mary (official clown name TBA)-

Jace wasn't too thrilled, but part of the reason is cause mommy wasn't holding him...lol.

Kids left to right: Kelsie, Reagan, Abby, Jada (the birthday girl), and Ashlin

  Jada with her cake:

 Last, but not least, Jada's "I'm excited about my presents" look:

 

 

Tasty Tuesday

I decided to participate in Tasty Tuesday with a friend of mine.  Pretty self explanatory, but every Tuesday, we take a picture of what we made for dinner and post it.  I thought I'd put some effort into it and make a nice meal to show off, but that so didn't happen...lol.  Instead, I threw together a quick buffalo chicken salad (for me...the kids just had chicken tenders and fries).  The only thing that would have made my salad better would have been some carrots and maybe some celery :o).

 

Fourth of July

First of all, my blog might look funny, but I can't get my new background to work right, so I'm sorry about that and hope to have it fixed soon.  Ok, now into the details about the fourth.  Daniel and I spent all day getting ready and then at four, when everyone was supposed to be at our house, my mother-in-law texted and said, "it's still at 5, right?".  So there was a bit of confusion there, but everyone got here about 5 and it was so much fun.  My sister-in-law, Mary painted faces and we had hot dogs, chips, pasta salad, peach punch, and a cheesecake that looked like the flag.  We also swam and the kids loved that.  At dark, we shot off fireworks.  Kelsie stayed in the house cause she didn't like them, but as long as I was holding Jace, he loved them.  Ashlin liked them, too, but she staying inside with Kelsie and Abby getting face paint on the floors and walls...lol.  I got a few pictures of the fireworks, but I didn't want to go overboard and miss out on really seeing them.  I have a ton more pictures on my flickr of the rest of the party if you want to see them.  Here are a few pictures:

It's finally here!

Almost, anyway.  Our 4th of July celebration is tomorrow!  I can hear fireworks right now and it's getting me excited.  I've been preparing a lot of today by super cleaning the house.  Now that's something I can spend all day doing and never get done.  It seems like as I clean the girls go behind me messing things up.  It doesn't help that I have to constantly take breaks to stop Jace from crying (like the break I'm taking now to type this out).  My goal is to finish all the cleaning before bed tonight because I have grocery shopping, cooking, and decorating to do before 4 tomorrow, plus I'll have to straighten up the house again, no doubt.  I'll try to post about our party in the next few days and I'll include pictures.  On a totally different note, Jace pulled himself to standing on a pew at church today.  It was his first time doing it.  He tried it again this evening, but I had to help him by holding his hands on my shoulders...they kept slipping off...lol.  He says momma and dada a lot now, but not on command and to no one in particular.  I'm sure this means that it won't be long before he starts saying it to Daniel and me, though.  He's growing up way too fast...WAHHHH!!!!!!

Summertime, it's summertime!

          It's been almost a year since we went on our vacation to the beach, so I've been thinking about what we'd do for a vacation this year.  Daniel didn't want to make the 9+ hour trip again with 3 kids, so no beach for me :o(.  It ended up being ok, though, cause we decided to get Dollywood/Splash Country (local theme park/water park) passes.  We've been to Dollywood twice and Splash Country once in the 3 weeks since we bought them, but we'll for sure be going way more.  Kelsie is scared to go on any ride but the ducks that go in a circle (or other little baby ride like that), the bumper cars, and the motion ride (but she would only sit in a non motion seat...lol!  She's not tall enough for the roller coasters since she's only 46 1/2 inches, but that doesn't matter since she wouldn't even think about riding one anyway.  Ashlin will ride more of the rides and really seems to enjoy herself.  The only thing Kelsie likes at the water park is the lazy river.  She's not very adventurous...
          Jace will be 8 months old in 7 days.  I can't believe how big he is already!  He has 2 bottom teeth, rolls over all the time (esp in the middle of me changing his diaper.  He knows he's naked and tries to make a run for it!), loves baby food, and loves his momma.  He's such a mommas boy.  His newest development is army crawling across the floor...or something like that anyway.  He uses both arms and one foot to get from one place to another and it's absolutely adorable to watch him explore!  He keeps making a "ma ma" sound, but every time I tell him to say "momma" he laughs at me...what's up with that?!
          I wrote in my last post, I think, that I had a goal to lose weight.  Well for once in my life, I made that goal and stuck to it.  I haven't lost all that I want to, but I've lost 17lbs so far.  I'm so happy to have that gone and I hope I never gain it again.  Now to tackle the last 23 or so pounds...
          Since we have a place fit for entertaining, we'll be doing just that this fourth of July.  We live in the county, so we can legally shoot fireworks...yay!!!  We'll be having my in-laws, my hubby's aunt, uncle, and their daughter, and once of my friends and her hubby and 2 boys.  It's gonna be a lot of people (20, including Daniel, me, and the kids), but I've been looking forward to this since before we moved in here.  Kelsie's super excited for it and talks about it constantly.
          Picture time!  Enjoy!