A Mama's bag of tricks

There is "snow" weather like KY weather

2012-01-17T19:19:00.001-08:00

We had our first snowy day in the area last week which worked out perfectly with our snowy learning time then this week we started off the week with 60 degrees and thunderstorms!! Oh Kentucky weather you have a way of changing the way one understands seasons!

Seriously though. We just kept moving right along with our winter topic and have been having big fun with it. We will continue this with some polar bear and penguin stuff coming up and probably some more snow and snowman stuff too. Here is a quick look at what we've done so far.

I can't believe we haven't done this before as it was one of my go to's when I was teaching in a public school classroom. First my lil lady painted a snowy scene with shaving cream and then we just had fun exploring it some more. Every once in a while I would draw a shape or make a letter in it, but mostly she just had fun! By the way, while we were doing this it actually started snowing! Just flurries, but it was still sort of magical ;)

We painted with ice which was really fun, but really messy!! Next time I won't be lazy and will go upstairs and get some popsicle sticks to make it less mess :)

It wouldn't be winter in KY without a random almost 60 degree day looking for interesting rocks at the lake and then some smiley swing time!

We had snowman ice cream sundaes.

We also made egg carton snowmen. Lylah likes these so much that we had to make two!! And I couldn't pass up the sweet footprint snowman!!

One morning Nathan was home and I needed to run to town. There were a few activities that we hadn't gotten to so daddy filled in as my sub!!! They made this sweet toilet paper snowman!!!

That same night it snowed!!! So the next morning we went out for some super cold snowy fun!!

Lylah thought that Ezra needed to be cozy so she covered her up and read her "A Snowy Day"!

The best way to play in the snow....in a sensory bin!!!!

A few short days later, the snow was melted and it was 60 degrees and stormy!! That didn't stop us from doing a counting buttons on a snowman activity!!

And building an indoor snowman! Lylah LOVED it!!! She just kept giving it one more hug all during lunch!!

And we finished tonight with some snowman milkshakes!! Yummmmy!!

We also have been doing some letter, math, and Bible activities but I shall blog about that later :)

Thank You Pinterest for helping me get organized (a bit)!

2012-01-12T20:08:00.001-08:00

I've been trying to organize and get rid of some clutter this new year. Enter pinterest! Such a useful little tool for someone like me!!! Here are a few projects I've been up to!!

Cleaning and Menu Planning dry erase.

Remote control caddy.

And my favorite, a mail sorter made out of a cereal box!!! Yay for working on projects I pin!!!

Reflecting back and looking forward

2012-01-05T09:54:00.001-08:00

This New Year has been the strangest that I can remember. The celebration was a ball; spent with good friends and yummy food, but I've just been funky really. I wish I could explain it, but it really all boils down to trying to find happiness in people and circumstances instead of finding joy in Christ. I can thank a wonderful Wednesday night sermon for that reminder. Anyway, with that being said, I finally feel that I can usher in the new year in my heart as well as reflect on 2011. If my memory served me better I could give you a month by month play by play, but alas I am not a good memory keeper so an overview will have to do. :).

We began the year with accepting the call to expand our family through adoption. That took us on a journey of watching God provide in some pretty amazing ways through fundraisers, private donations, and even one family supporting our adoption monthly. Wow-what a precious thing to watch the hand of God!!!

Other memories from the winter of 2011. We played in lots of snow!

With the spring came making the decision to leave my teaching career official by telling my precious assistant. Later, the day before my 30th birthday, I let my principal and super attendant know. I love the kiddo's and parents at Cherry and am able to keep up with many of them on facebook, but every single day since the end of May I have been thankful for the step of faith we made in our decision for me to stay home. Not only do I get to teach and train our lil lady, but we have also seen God provide again and again just like He promises.

We said "see ya later" to some of our very best friends a they made the journey to Swaziland. We of course continue to miss them tons, but are enjoying our pen pal correspondence as well as our skype and phone calls!

Nathan tried out for the fire department during the summer and got put on the future hire list. That basically means that the door has not been closed on that possibility, so we continue to pray for God's will.

We took two vacations in July. One to Gatlinburg and one to Mississippi. Lylah got to see the ocean for the first time and love it!

We ended our vacations and went straight into party mode a our lil lady turned 2!!

The fall brought the beginning of tot school as well as an opportunity to share about sensory bins with our MOPS group. Fall also brought new friendships and a bad case of Vertigo for Nathan.

And like most of you we ended the year by celebrating Thanksgiving and cherishing the season of our Savior's birth.

So as we look forward to 2012 we know it will be like every other year as far as having peeks and valleys, but we are thankful that we will not go alone as Christ has gone before us.

We would appreciate your continued prayers concerning our adoption. Things are at least moving again. We are praying that we will not only accept a referral for our sweet Lydia some time this year, but also brig her home. Please pray that the after referral wait time speeds up. Right now they are saying 10-15 months after the referral. God's timing is perfect, but we also know that He is bigger than that time frame. Also pray that we will wait well for His perfect timing especially if it is not this year.

One thing that 2011 has taught us is that God is faithful so we will choose to praise Him for His faithfulness in 2012 whatever that ends up looking like.

Advent

2011-12-26T09:40:00.001-08:00

Last year we started a tradition of being intentional not only with a family advent devotion, but also with doing some fun activities together during the season. For our devotion this year we used two things. First we went through "What God Wants For Christmas" which a friend gave to us. We LOVED it!!!! We were going to just do it again and again, but then several people recommended an ebook called "Truth in the Tinsel". We loved it too!! Check them both out next year if your kiddo's fall into the 2-7 age range. I think even older kids would enjoy these too! Here are a few pictures from out different activities.

Light up BG

Checking out the cabin during KY Christmas at WKU.

Kung "Who Fanda" at the Opryland hotel.

Gingerbread Nativity

Family game night.

Making "footmade" Christmas cards.

Making cookies

A Jesus birthday party with friends.

Christmas in Indy and meeting our sweet new cousin/nephew!

We also watched "The Very First Noel" and Veggie Tales "The Little Drummer Boy". We visited a local live nativity that is by far the best ever! We visited for the first time last year and loved it so much we couldn't wait to go back this year! We walked around our neighborhood and looked at lights one night and one night we enjoyed some hot chocolate :)

We ended our advent celebration with a birthday party breakfast! Complete with decorations, singing and birthday cake pancakes!! Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Handmade Christmas

2011-12-25T13:00:00.001-08:00

This year there were lots of handmade goodies given by the Mattingly's. I guess it was partly because our budget is a little tight this year, partly to keep things more simple, and partly because crafting is just fun. Anyway, here is what we made.

Love how this little dolly turned out!! Soooo easy too!!

There were of course two of these :). I didn't even manage to get a picture of my sweet mama wearing them :(

This was before I put the waistband on it. It is a toddler tool-belt for my little builder!! Of course she wouldn't try it on for me :(. I'm sure she will love it eventually though!

Now this is what I loved the most!!! Nathan made the seat using materials he already had. I made the chandelier and banners also out of materials I had on hand. The book shelves are actually rain gutters and were the only things purchased!! What a fun place for our lil lady (who loves books) to sit and read to her friends!!!!

I also made a roll out kitchen mat for a very special lil lady in Swaziland and a couple of phone charger pockets, but I didn't manage to get a picture of those either :(. Anyway, it was super fun to try a few new projects and even more fun to give them away!!!!

Christmas learning time

2011-12-25T12:40:00.001-08:00

We have so enjoyed this season together!! For our learning time this month we have done lots of fun crafts and activities. Here is a quick run down.

Decorated a felt Christmas tree.

Painted a "shape" Christmas tree. Lylah is really loving water colors lately!!!

Longest to shortest Christmas tree.

Sticker Nativity

This is a little devotion we have been doing.

Dressed up like a Shepard and found baby Jesus.

Decorate a Christmas tree sensory box. So fun!

Sorry for the lack of detail, but trust me when I say we've had fun!!!

I want to remember tonight

2011-12-13T18:58:00.001-08:00

It's been a weird week for me. Not sure why. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's adoption, maybe it's missing some far away friends, maybe it's a handful of other things call "life on this planet".

That is why I want to remember tonight. That's why I NEED to remember tonight. It wasn't really an out of the ordinary night. Nathan had class so Lylah and I tackled making cookies and then we read stories and played on the couch. We laughed like crazy as she pinched my belly skin and said she was making me a "fat belly button". She tried to climb into my shirt like "when she was a tiny little baby", we laughed like crazy again.

I didn't realized the treasure in those moments until I heard the following conversation through our lil lady's monitor:

"I made cookies with mommy. They had yellow icing. I like yellow icing."

She was recounting our evening to all of her stuffed animals! The conversation continued...

"I was squeezing mommy's belly. That was silly.". "I was on the couch with mommy and we were laughing. It was fun. I liked it."

At this point I began to cry. I have been so wrapped up in what is not happening right now that I am forgetting to soak up what IS happening!! Don't get me wrong, I had an absolute blast with my lil lady tonight, but I want to really savor those moments the way she is STILL upstairs savoring them right now!! Lesson learned from darlin' two year old. Not the first. Won't be the last. Just one that needed to be documented-lest I forget.

It's time for an adoption update...that's not really much of an update...

2011-12-12T19:21:00.001-08:00

Adoption. Sigh. We coasted along at the beginning of our little journey and of course those of you who have been keeping up know that originally we even thought we might have Lydia home by Christmas. Then we learned a little lesson called 'adoption is unpredictable'. Things slowed down and we thought at least we would have a referral (picture and more info) by Christmas. Then we were reminded of the truth that sometimes God's timing is different than ours. So as of right now we have no referral, not one in sight really. Things have slowed way down for a number of reasons. Basically after we do get a referral there will still be a significant amount of time before we would even be able to travel (something like 6-9 months) with that being said we just have no timeline anymore.

So what are we thinking at this point, you may wonder. Well, of course we want Lydia home. We have days when we feel frustrated, sad, and discouraged. We also have peace in knowing that God is Sovereign and that His timing (while sometimes different from our own) is perfect. We will continue on this journey because God has called us to it. We know and are thankful that He persevered for us so that we could be adopted into His eternal family. Our hope is that one day we can tell Lydia the story of how she came to be in our family, but also the even greater story of how she can come to be in His family. So please pray for us to have strength and patience to continue on. Pray that things would pick up in Congo and that we would get our referral. Also pray for guidance as we wait and seek His will. Thank you to everyone who has been asking about our process and praying for us!

And now just because you may need to smile...

Jesus is the sweetest gift

2011-12-05T21:11:00.001-08:00

Some of you who are on Pinterest may have seen the Gingerbread Nativity, maybe you even pinned it.

We had so much fun working together on ours tonight as part of our Advent Celebration!! Your family should definitely give it a try too!! We all laughed and laughed as people were toppling over and as our donkey looked more like a giraffe!! There is nothing sweeter than the gift of Jesus, and it was such a joy to finish our advent study and then work on this fun project together!

Lylah sat at the table the whole time-helping some, and eating lots. She couldn't wait to lay Baby Jesus in the manger and then couldn't take her eyes off Him. My prayer is that we too fix our eyes on Jesus, not only this Christmas season, but everyday.

Time to focus...

2011-12-01T13:16:00.001-08:00

....On the God who came down to find you (and me). Line from my favorite Christmas song by Sara Groves.

Thanksgiving fun

2011-12-01T12:33:00.001-08:00

We spent a couple of weeks of our "learning time" focusing on turkeys, thanksgiving, and being thankful. Here's a little recap:

Starfall turkey story. Lylah loved this!!!

Sorting feathers. She couldn't quite get past just feeling the feathers to actually sort them!

She was very proud of her name turkey!

She really loved this game too! I would tell her a number (1-5) or a shape and she would run to it and then gobble like a turkey!

Coffee filter turkey. These coffee filter crafts always turn out good I think :)

Playing with Thanksgiving theme stamps. She likes to stamp her body!

As a family we made a thankful turkey. Nathan wrote with a pen so that's why it looks like some of the feathers don't have anything on them :). Lylah has been working on memorizing the verse from 1Thesselonians.

We also did a couple little random activities that we didn't get to the week before.

Pom-pom patterns

Sorting capital and lowercase "f" footballs.

F is for fall

2011-11-13T19:13:00.001-08:00

This week we worked on some letter "F" activities. FUN! Actually, Lylah was not much in the mood for some of the activities. We had a crazy week last week and this week she was really ready to play babies again!! Anyway, here is what we got into....

Both o's the above activities were Mighty $ finds and are on our shelves for November. The top is a giraffe number puzzle and the bottom is a magnet letter matching game.

Our favorite "F" fall sport...football!! Lylah said, "I have a football like Tim Tebow has a football!! Tim Tebow loves Jesus and I love Jesus!". So funny!!

"F" is for feathers.

"f" is for fall. Lylah's torn paper fall tree.

We also did playdough. I believe in the above picture Lylah is saying "Look at this little baby playdough." (In her best sweet baby voice no less). I revamped her fall sensory bin (which will be on our shelves through November) and she playing in it. We also went outside and played in the leaves!!! Something that didn't end up in pictures was our Bible time activities. We danced to the song Psalm 139:14 on our Seeds family worship CD. We also talked about God made people (and me). We cut people out of magazines and made a "God made people collage". For the next couple weeks or so we will focus on the letter "T" and thanksgiving!!!

What Lylah likes at 27 months

2011-11-11T13:34:00.001-08:00

So if you really know our little lady, you know that she has always been a little quirky. We are so okay with that and enjoy being quirky right along with her!! Here are some of the quirky things Lylah is into right now.

Jammies. She will wear jammies any time we are home. If we leave for a bit, the first thing she wants to do when we get home is put on jammies.

Black olives. The girl would seriously eat a whole can! Meanwhile, I could not for the life of me get her to eat a pumpkin muffin with cream cheese icing this morning. Really?!

Rocks. She picks up rocks everywhere we go and then cries if we tell her she can't keep them. One day recently we were at Pelly's and she had apparently filled her pockets with tiny little pieces of gravel. When I went to change her clothes-her pants started raining gravel!!

Ezra. Our dog. Last night she played doctor with Ezra (even put the plastic bandaid on her!), she sung to her, and brought her some lunch. She needs her sister to be home!!

Bandaids. One of her best buddies got her some car bandaids which she would have stuck all over herself if we let her!! She all the time has "boo-boo's" that only she can see apparently. I finally am operating on a no blood-no bandaid policy-no fun I know :)

Stuffed animals and books. These are really the two things she will just play and play. I'm perfectly okay with this being one of her likes for a very long time.

Zippers and socks pulled up, up, up. I'm not gonna lie. This one sometimes wears me out. The girl has to have her socks and zippers pulled allllllll the way up. Not as much of a problem with zippers, but socks....geez. We are all the time stopping to pull socks back up-again!!

Teeny tiny anything. She has been this way for as long as I can remember, finding the tiny little fuzz ball on the floor and such, except now she likes to carry them around! Ha!! Of course then the fuzz ball gets lost and she may or may not wig out!

So there you have it. That's my quirky girl and we love her just. the. way. she. is!!

What about your kiddo's?? What are some of the things that make them quirky??

From the mouth of babes

2011-11-10T14:00:00.001-08:00

A while back I wrote a post about the funny words Lylah says, well now that she is speaking in sentences I want to document some of the funny phrases she says too. Sorry if this is uninteresting to you, but I have the worst memory so this will help me be able to share some if these funny sayings with our lil lady when she gets older :)

"hold you". Meaning she wants me to hold her

"you tell it". Meaning someone has asked her a question that she either doesn't know the answer to or doesn't want to answer.

"see ya later excavator". She actually came up with this one on her own. Yes she is obsessed. On another note she will carry a tiny rock around all day so I think she is part excavator!!

She often tries to say a sentence and gets the parts of speech all mixed up. For instance today she said: "who gave me that too?" about some jammies she wanted to wear.

She copies phrases she has heard me use but uses them in a funny context. The other day I asked her what toys she played with at church and she said "hmmmm....books maybe"

I think it's funny when she is overly dramatic about her voice change when asking a question. Once she asked my mom "you wanna paper towel". You have to imagine her pointing to my mom and then her voice changing a couple of levels from the first word to the last.

She says "how bout that" all the time. I had no idea where it came from until I caught myself saying it several times over the course of a couple days. Anyway, the other day Nathan was wearing boots and pointed out that Lylah was too. Lylah's reply: "Daddy has boots like Lylah has boots-how bout that!". Needless to say Nathan and I cracked up!!!

She is over all very dramatic with her speech, and NEVER STOPS TALKING!!! Nathan and I are all the time cracking up at the funny things she says-seriously so much fun!!!

P is for Pumpkin

2011-10-25T14:14:00.001-07:00

Here is what we got into during our learning time last week.

Of course we did our do a dots. In fact I probably won't take pictures of this activity again, just know that Lylah loves using her do a dot markers and I love the hand eye coordination this activity develops :)

We did a letter matching activity that I had hoped to get out when we were learning "A", but it didn't happen. This activity then went to her learning shelf so that she could revisit it throughout the next couple of months. It has all of the letters we have worked on up to this point.

We continued talking about circles. We made a circle pumpkin (sorry no finished product picture!) and stamped with a pencil eraser.

We took a trip to the post office and talked about post office starting with "P" :)

How fun right??!

We put pom-pom magnets on our pumpkin page. This also went to our shelf for Lylah to revisit while we continue with "P" this week.

We had a couple of "P" themed lunches.

We sorted pumpkins by size. This also went to our shelf :)

We counted pumpkin candies and then of course ate them!

We were on Day five of creation for our Bible learning. We made a creation necklace out of beads a friend gave to us. We made the Day Five page of our creation books and we watched for birds. I wanted to make handprint fish, but alas we didn't get to it :)

Finally for fine motor we continued to practice cutting as well as spooning marbles (the marbles went to our shelf).

I got together with a friend and even made a "P" themed craft!! Like my paper pumpkins?! Thanks "P"interest!!!

More on the letter "A".

2011-10-15T20:44:00.001-07:00

This week we continued on with the letter "A". It actually ended up being a rather eventful week so we only got a couple days of learning time in, but that's the nice thing about our rather laid back method of tot school. If we are out and about we just learn where we are :)

I had actually planned on revisiting several of the things we did last week such as the apple picking dice game, apple tweezing and playdough. That worked out nicely because Lylah loved getting those game she was familiar with out throughout the day. Here are some other things we got into this week:

We glued acorn tops on the letter "A".

Made an alligator. A "big huge one" as Lylah would say.

Played our ABC puzzle sensory bin. Love this one by the way!!

Color sorted just because it's fun right?!

Painted circles with a TP tube!!!

We also worked on Day four of creation. We made another page for our Creation Book (you'll see our pages displayed in a bit), practiced our Genesis 1:1 verse (next week we get a new verse!!), used our creation sensory bin, and tomorrow we are going to paint a sun :).

One other super exciting thing we did was build and hang some display strips in our "learning room" so that Lylah's work can be displayed!! Yay!! When Nathan was working on hanging it, Lylah immediately said "I need my hammer!" and ran and got her toy hammer!! So sweet. Anyway it turned our GREAT!! I still have some ideas for making her learning room perfect so we'll see how long it take for those to happen.

Worth mentioning

2011-10-07T19:55:00.001-07:00

Do you ever have moments that just don't require a whole blog post, yet you want to record them for the sake of remembering or you just think people would like to know? Well that is what this post is for!

So, its worth mentioning that:

Lylah is mostly potty trained. She still has an occasional accident, and is mildly terrified of pooing inthe potty regularly, but other than that she is wearing her Elmo panties proudly. She will gladly let anyone who so wishes to come in the bathroom and watch her go "potty power" do so! I however live in a constant state of indigestion since she insists on having to go potty about a dozen times per each meal!

Nathan has had vertigo for the past couple of weeks. He has been a serious trooper and worked right through it despite feeling kinda junky. The exercises he has to do for it are very funny to me.

I have been baking like crazy. I really am enjoying it! I made the yummiest yeast rolls and have been keeping dough in the fridge to make artisan bread in 5 minutes a day. I need bread pans though so that I can attempt to make loaves. Hint hint mom and dad ;)

Lylah got a big girl hair cut. I only planned on it being a trim, but she wiggled at the exact wrong moment. The short cut suits her well I think :)

Speaking of Lylah she has been saying some super sweet/funny things lately!!! Tonight for instance, she picked a book to read and said, "mommy, I picked the perfect hilarious book.". Seriously, where does she come up with this!!!!??

Lylah also had her first friend sleep over. She was so excited!! We had great fun. I did realize that we have A LOT of work to do on sharing before Lydia gets here!!!

Speaking of Lydia, we are now #7 on the list and have our referral fee raised (thanks to lots of you)!! So when we move to number one we'll be able to accept right away!! We are now raising fees for travel and some other paperwork stuff. We are well over half way through with fees though!!!

I'm still way big time enjoying my Usborne Books and More business!! I'd love to show you these great books so just let me know if you'd like to get together and see them!! www.myubam.com/P3244

I've also been sewing more lately! I've even made a skirt and dress for myself. Turns out the one thing holding me back from being able to sew was the presser foot. Who would have known that putting that silly thing down was so important?!

Here are some fun pictures of our past few weeks as well!

A is for apple

2011-10-07T19:31:00.001-07:00

So we are still working on the format of our learning time....I recently decided that it was a little much to try and do letter, math, Bible, and theme activities for each day. I decided to try incorporating theme type activities into our letter time. So far I think it is working well. Of course there will be letters whereb it is a bit tricky, but we aren't there yet :)

With that being said, this week we worked on the letter 'A' while incorporating some apple activities as well.

This was a fun game for Lylah! She would roll the die (her favorite part) and then count out that many "apples".

She was super proud of her apple art!!! In fact after she finished she ran out of the room to show daddy....too bad he was working out of town and wasn't actually home!!! PS. Yes those are socks on her hands. What can I say, our daughter can be very quirky!!!

We had several types of Apple treats!!! Slices with shapes in the middle, cooked apples, and Jackson's apple cider slush!!! Yum!!

Our friend Kennedy got to come along for learning time a couple of days too!! Here Lylah is tweezing apples (or supposed to be) and Kennedy is playing the counting apples game.

The girls also made apple pie out of playdough. I wanted to make some cinnamon scented playdough, but just didn't get to it.

The girls also did do-a-dot 'A's. Lylah also painted apple prints, but that didn't make the pictures for some reason, and both girls made apple cores out of paper. We also did a few other activities this week.

Practiced cutting on straight lines. She also practiced writing straight lines. I was really surprised at how well she did with both of this activities!!

This was a great little fine motor activity!!! Balancing marbles on golf tees!!!

Circle art!

And a fall sensory bin!!! We also continued working on making our creation book. This week we worked on Day 3- God made the land. We used our sensory bin several times and also went on walks and talked about our beautiful land!!!

September learning part one

2011-09-23T05:59:00.001-07:00

We have been super busy lately, but have still made time for some fun learning!!!!

We have been working on a letter for like a week or so at a time. Lylah knows most of her uppercase letters so this is more for exposure to the sounds of these letters. Lately we've been working on "C" for carrot, caterpillar, and candy. We have also done "B" is for bear, baby, bumblebee, butterfly, bubbles, and ball.

We have also been doing lots of fine motor/math skills. Lylah is doing great with color sorting!! We try to practice counting every chance we get. She always leaves out the number 4 :)

We focused on The Very Hungry Caterpillar/Butterflies too. We used our Very Hungry Caterpillar sensory bin, a puppet type retelling game and also a retelling felt board story. We also read a super sweet book about Monarch butterfly migration called "Gotta Go, Gotta Go". I'm not sure on the author :(. Anyway then we watched a video about their migration on You Tube. Amazing!!!!

Finally I've been sort of all over the place with our Bible time, but a friend shared a great free online curriculum that I love for Bible time. We went going back to creation this week (but I'll blog about that next time). With part one of September we talked some about Noah and played with out little people set. We also did the "B" verse "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved" Acts 16:31. Signing verses continues to be a great way to teach Lylah (and myself) how to memorize them!!!

For those of you wondering these activities are sprinkled throughout our morning in between regular play. We try to do an activity in math, phonics, theme, and Bible three times a week. Sometimes the activity is super simple like reading a story and singing a song or playing a game on the computer. If Lylah is really wanting to play "Hi Ho Cherry-O" then that us our math activity for that day. Sometimes we don't get to all of the activities. It is very laid back for us right now. We'll add in more rules and structure when she is 4 :). What I'm trying to say is that a majority of our day looks like this:

I love books, so why not??!!

2011-09-02T11:56:00.001-07:00

If you know me then you know that I love children's books-always have really. I have taken special interest in children's books these past two years with our lil lady being around!! Well, my aunt called me a while back and asked me if I had heard of Usborne Books and More. I had; in fact we have checked out "That's Not My Tractor" over and over again from the library!! What I didn't realize that one could become a consultant and thus have a work from home business. My aunt shared this with me and then said she thought I should do it. I told her I'd check it out (not really planning on it), but one day I decided to look at the website-come to find out it is super affordable to get started and since I have a passion for the product, (it doesn't get much better than babes in the laps of family and friends with a book!) we figured it was worth a shot!!! My prayer is that this business will help with adoption cost as well as help me contribute to our one income family. So, do you enjoy books as much as I do?? Come on over to my house on September 13th at 6:00 and help me celebrate with the official launch of my business!!! In the mean time check out my website to see what great books we have!!!!

http://www.myubam.com/P3244

Here is just a teeny tiny sneak peek at some of the books available to my customers!! I know you will want to check out my website now :)Books on all topics for all ages!!!

Oh, and for the first 12 weeks, I can offer hostesses double book points for their home parties!! So let me know if you want to earn free books by hosting a party!! Feel free to email me at lara.mattingly81@gmail.com or message me on facebook with any questions!!!

August learning activities

2011-08-29T06:07:00.001-07:00

We have been having a blast learning in August!!!! We focused on a couple of letters ("L" and "J"), practiced color sorting and 1 to 1 correspondence, and reminisced about the ocean. Here is a recap!!!

We also did "L is for lion" and of course talked about how it is Lylah's letter. For "J" we did "J is for jellyfish", "J is for Jesus" and "J is for jump". We also made lemonade and jell-o!!

We made lots of alphabet soup!! (just beans, noodles, foam letters, and various play kitchen toys)

We did more than these ocean actives, but I didn't do a good job taking pictures apparently. The sensory bin was a big hit even though I didn't really like the way it turned out.

We did 1 to 1 with shells and a deviled egg tray. We also sorted the shells by big and little (sort of hard for Lylah), counted them and sorted pom poms by color.

Finally we learned about creation and the fall. I loved this Godly Play set idea that I got from pinterest!!! So did Lylah. We also colored a creation wheel from church, did part of a days of creation craft also found on pinterest (too hard for lylah), and memorized Genesis 1:1 in sign!!

As you can tell, I'm loving my new job still :). Up next a couple of Eric Carle book studies!!!

Seriously Big Fun Raffle

2011-08-18T14:16:00.001-07:00

We are having a seriously big, fun raffle in conjunction with our picnic fundraiser coming up September 11th!! Don't worry because even though the winners will be drawn at the picnic you don't have to be present to win (although we hope you can make it because it's going to be just as fun as our raffle). First I'll let you know what we're giving away then we'll talk details.

A Standard Medium TEMPUR-PEDIC pillow donated by our friends at Crouch Family Chiropractic.

A super awesome original wooden canvas piece by Ashley Miller.

A complete TimeWise Miracle Set donated by independent beauty consultant Marianna Lucas.

An Onyx Medallion Travel Collection Set valued at $71. Donated by Thirty-one independent consultant Monica Porter.

Two separate gift packages from Lindsay Mayo and the folks at Total Fitness, Solar Connection, and Total FX.

Prize 1: 30 day membership to Total Fitness Connection, 1 Free Spray Tan Session at Solar Connection, and $35 off any service at Total FX.

Prize 2: 30 Day Tanning Membership to Solar Connection, 2 Free Spray Tanning Sessions from Solar Connection, and $35 off any service from Total FX.

A super sweet Toy Story rag quilt (toddler size) donated by Launi Hermens. LaunisRagQuilts.wordpress.com

We have three different handmade jewelry sets to give away. These were donated by the very talented Melissa Jolly. Each will also have earrings :)

A Taste of Barren County package. Spend the day enjoying Barren County businesses Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese,The Berry Patch and Landscaping, and The Country Oven Bakery. These businesses are located minutes from each other and are very dear to our heart. $20 gift certificate to The Berry Patch, $25 to Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese, and $30 to Country Oven Bakery.

We also have $50 certificate to Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese. Seriously, if you haven't tasted their cheese yet, you must!!

We also have two paint kits, one from Porter Paints and one from Classic Paints!!

Also two dozen cake pops (YUM!) from the very talented Jennifer Hart!

Finally we have a handmade new mommy nursing gift set with two burp cloths and a nursing cover. Donated by Martha Jolly and Emily Jochim.

So that is like 16 total prizes!!! Are you as excited as I am?! You should be!!! So details:

1. Tickets are only $2 each or six tickets for $10. The tickets you buy will go with your name on them into one big pot and we will draw names for each prize.

2. We will need payment (cash or checks) by September 11 to be eligible. Just message me on here or facebook or give me a call or email (lara.mattingly81@gmail.com)with how many tickets you want and I'll get you our address!

3. If you live out of town and you win, I will ship your prize to you. If you live in town and are not at the picnic I'll meet up with you, that way I can hug your neck!!

4. There are a few prizes that are meant for locals (Total Fitness packages, Kenny's Cheese packages, and cake pops). If your name is drawn and you live out of town it will be put back in the pot unless you let me know ahead of time that you will be making a trip to this area to enjoy your prize.

So there you have it!! Thanks so much to all of our super awesome sponsors!! And just in case you were wondering we are number 8 on the list now!!!!! Yay!!! So please share this on your facebook wall or on your own blog!! Can't wait for Lydia to meet each of you!!!

Our birthday countdown

2011-08-15T13:52:00.001-07:00

Last year we got Lylah a birthday book for the five days leading up to her birthday. Fun, but not quite the tradition I was looking for. So this year we did a birthday countdown. It was much closer to the tradition I wish to put in place to celebrate the gift God has given us through our children (specifically Lylah this time). Anyway it was really simple actually. I made tags with my Cricut and attached them to white paper bags. You could just write numbers on too, but I like an excuse to use my Cricut :).

Each bag had a special family activity or a little treasure (all of which were purchased at Mighty $). I should add that the little treasures will all come in handy for various learning/art activities we will be getting into in the coming months. Anyway, here is what was in our bags:

7: family movie night-in bag; popcorn, Nemo movie (already had), and a special Nemo cup (found at an outlet mall on vacation)
6: toy crane (perfect for our transportation unit we just finished)
5: water park with friends-in bag; swim diaper (already had)
4: little stampers
3: smores and lightning bugs-in bag; a glass jar
2: little animal figures (I'll be using these in up coming sensory bins and Godly play kits)
1: flower leis to wear for her party
0: birthday blowers

We opened each bag at breakfast time so that it would sort of be a routine. Lylah only asked a few other times to open a bag when it wasn't time. Once she was sassy about it. Over all I feel like it went really well especially considering how young Lylah is. I hope to do more activities in the future, but the little treasures help for nights when we have other things planned.

As for this year, Lylah loved it! I'm sitting here trying to decide which activity she liked the most, bit I really can't decide! She was super sweet watching the movie!! She watched he WHOLE thing! She laughed on funny parts and was concerned on concerning parts. She is getting so big!! She also loved the water park and had fun with some friends who met us there too!! The smores and lighting bugs ended up being snow cones at our house with our small group. Who wouldn't love that?! The funny thing was on the days that the bag item was not exactly exciting (swim diaper, glass jar) she still got so excited!! I decided at one point that if you put anything in a bag to open up it must become way cool!! Anyway, we will most definitely be doing this again next year and for all future birthdays in our house!!

Big Day #2

2011-08-15T12:48:00.001-07:00

So Lylah's birthday party was on the Saturday before her birthday. We decided to have her party at my mom and dad's house again this year because let's get real August birthday's are almost a must for pool parties!! Anyway, that morning, it was NASTY weather! Lots of yucky rain and clouds. I was bummed. We just kept looking at the radar trying to decide if we were going to have to party in the garage or what. Yay was that didn't have to happen!! The party was supposed to start at 11:00 and literally the rain stopped at about 10:30, just enough time to decorate and get ready!!

My parents went to Hawaii in November so we decided a luau theme would be fun. I kept it simple this year and just did a few little things with the theme, but I think it still turned out really cute!!

My sister and my friend Kristy made the tissue paper flowers. My mom got the table runner and I found some grass skirts at Mighty $ that we hung up next to the banner. My mom also bought some leis which were fun of course!!

I was totally banking on Lylah to really get into her party this year. Well, I was sort of wrong, sort of right. She was actually a little shy and grumpy most of the time, but she DID get into present opening and scarfed down her cake! She was so funny when she opened the presents that were wrapped; she had to get every little piece of tape and wrapping off and really didn't pay attention at all to what the box revealed! What can I say? She's a little obsessive :) She was so excited when Papaw brought out his way awesome yummy ice cream cake! By the time we sang I was holding her back to not just grab a handful! Once the piece hit her plate that is what she did-ate it by the handful!! Who can blame her!

It was a great party to celebrate a great blessing!! Thanks of course to everyone who helped make it special!!

Big Day #3

2011-08-12T19:05:00.001-07:00

Don't worry, you didn't miss the post about big day #2, I just have to do that post from the computer since all of the party pics are on my camera, and since I'm having a slumber party with our lil lady who keeps wigging out when we put her in her crib, you get number #3 first.

So, Sunday was Lylah's actual birthday! I can't believe she is two. I can't believe how much she has grown and changed this year, and I can't believe how much more sappy I was this year at birthday time. Yes, I'm admitting it. I got sappy. Not in front of anyone, just in some of my own quiet thinking moments. I think it's because I realized how many lasts we've went through this year. Last time nursing, eating baby food, in a baby car seat, wanting help on steps or with much of anything for that matter, the list goes on. With that being said, our lil lady doesn't seem like a baby very much to me. Don't get me wrong, I know she is still a baby, but I can carry on pleasurable conversations with this little girl who last year at this time knew under 100 words/signs. So anyway, you can see why I would be sappy right??

We had a very busy day on Lylah's actual birthday, but by the time we were all home together we managed to have a sweet relaxing evening. For dinner we had banana pancakes with candles for Lylah. After that we went to the "big playground" which is actually the school playground here in The Grove. Lylah also enjoyed a wonderful cake pop which we ordered to help support my sister's Adoption process. My goal of having a relaxing evening was met. We ended the evening playing with the party blowers in Lylah's "0 days till your birthday" bag.

Nope, our baby isn't really a baby anymore. But then she always will be our baby anyway!

For those of you who are curious about some of Lylah's recent development then read on. This is mostly to help me remember :)

Fine Motor
Holding pencils, crayons, markers with pincher grasp

Picking up small objects and placing on glued area

Signing more difficult signs (ex. "I love you", scissors, yellow)

Pulling pants up and down if wearing a disposable diaper (the fluffy bun is harder to get over :)

Putting on her own crocs or sandal type shoes

Gross Motor
Galloping
Running
Jumping (almost getting feet of floor)
Climbing (esp. noticed at playgrounds!)

Learning
Reciting ABCs
Counting to 10
Identifying lots of letter names and some numbers
Singing songs like Jesus Loves Me, Baby Bumblebee, ect.
Identifying any and all construction vehicles
Telling when objects match
Using her imagination A LOT

Mood/temperament
Joking and understanding other people joking
Faking crying as an attempt to get what she wants
Tattling (even on herself)
Bossing
Understanding when she is not obeying
Showing lots more affection (which we love)
Helping with chores (pouring laundry detergent and dog food, putting bowls in sink, throwing things away)

Sorry if this post is rambling. If you know me then you know I will not remember these things of they aren't in writing.

Ps. Look for birthday party post this weekend :)

Big Day #1

2011-08-05T09:30:00.001-07:00

We have a series of big days this weekend. Today was a big day because we took a big trip to the post office to mail a big pile of papers called our adoption DOSSIER!!!! We are very excited to be able share with you that we are now #9 on the waiting list!!!!!! Wooowhooo!! Please join us in praying that we would wait well and that would see some movement on that list in the coming weeks!!!

And don't forget about our big adoption picnic on September 11th from 4:00-6:00 at Covington Woods Park shelter #2! See ya there!

Adoption picnic fundraiser

2011-08-03T05:37:00.001-07:00

It seems like it's been a while since I posted about out adoption progress. Well, the big news is we will be mailing off our dossier paperwork on Friday and once our agency gets word of that we will officially be on the waiting list!!! We of course are getting super anxious to see Lydia's face!! It also has been a while since we've had an organized fundraiser, but with the referral fee being the next payment due ($8300) we thought we would ask our precious friends and family to join us again in helping bring Lydia home. This time we are having an adoption picnic! How fun!! On Sunday, September 11th we hope you will bring your family out to Covington Woods Park Shelter #2 in Bowling Green anytime from 4:00-6:00. We will have a hot dog dinner for $5 per person (max. $20 per family). There will also be games for $1. Come out and try your hand/feet at cake walk, tin can bowling, bean bag toss, or baseball throw! You could even get a ballon animal or get your face painted!!! I should add that all games will have prizes!!! There will also be crafts!! Decorate a block for Lylah and Lydia to play with or make a card to put in Lydia's baby book!!! (cost for the crafts will be $5). As you can see this is going to be a great family event!!! Consider getting several families together and coming out to enjoy a night of fun, food, and fellowship while helping bring our sweetie home!!

Live a little too far away, but still want to help??? Keep your eyes peeled for our AWESOME raffle!! Winners will be named that day as well!!!

Transportation

2011-07-29T10:52:00.001-07:00

Our lil lady is a bit obsessed with transportation. She can spot any machine from a mile away and call it by it's proper name 9 times out of 10. So it just made since to have our July theme focus be transportation. Now our July was VERY busy so we didn't get as much fun in as I was hoping, but here are a few things we DID do.

Played with our construction sensory bin. Thanks Bebe and Papaw for the awesome little vehicles!!!

Painted with cars.

Made a traffic light out of paper pieces. We also played red light, green light which she loved!

Made and drove a cardboard box car. As soon as Nathan got home this day, Lylah said "show daddy green car". She was very impressed with this activity!

We even talked about vehicles at Bebe and Papaw's pool!!!

And the grocery store. She most defiantly cried when we had to leave!!

We also continued to watch for vehicles at our new library site.

Some other things we did was played with road playdough and hot wheels (how did I not get a picture of this??!), made ramps, raced hot wheels across the dining room floor, and read pretty much EVERY transportation book front the library! Oh, we watched Bob the Builder "On Site" DVDs too. Great time really learning about one of our little lady's favorite things! Next month we will focus on what else....Beach/Ocean.

Vacation ocean style

2011-07-29T09:52:00.001-07:00

Well we are on the road heading home from what has been a wonderful vacation. One thing about vacationing with a toddler is that it forces you to relax a little which was way nice. The trip didn't fly by and we had plenty of fun. We basically did the same thing everyday: woke up loaded the car and ate breakfast on the beach followed by a few hours of play time. We were back at the resort for lunch and naps, plus a little reading for mommy and daddy. After nap we wolf play inside, Nathan and Lylah would watch the holders from our balcony while I made dinner, and then after dinner if it wasn't raining we would go to the pool at the resort and if it was raining we would let our lil' lady bounce her brains out at an amazing bouncy house city. The only exceptions to our little routine were the day we went to a wonderful little children's museum and the day it rained ALL day in which we shopped salvage stores :)

To say that Lylah loved the beach would be an extreme understatement!!! It was a love at first site relationship for sure! In fact the first night we arrived we went in street clothes just to show her the ocean and before our little visit was over Lylah was naked because she had soaked through her clothes and diaper from all the splashing!!!! She loved playing in the sand, splashing on the shore, chasing seagulls, and burying her feet in the sand. We also visited a pier and saw lots of ocean wildlife! In all we saw a horseshoe crab, sting rays, crabs, hermit crabs, fish (one very big and a different one that Nathan tried to catch with his hands!), sea gulls, pelicans, and we even thought we saw dolphins way out one morning! Every night I would put her to bed she would say "more ocean tomorrow mommy?". So sweet!!!!

She also learned some golf rules while watching golf from our balcony (our resort was on a golf course). She loved telling the golfers "good job" as they walked to their balls, but she understood to be very quiet once they got there and were ready to hit. Look out Tiger, maybe we have a future golfer on our hands!!

We did enjoy our pool at our resort as well! They had a baby pool that was just shallow enough for Lylah to walk around in. She would move her arms and say she was swimming. She also liked to jump off the edge of the big pool and count for mommy and daddy as we did the same.

The little museum we went to was called the Lynn Meadows Discovery Museum. It was a very small museum and although it made for some crowded exhibits, it was wonderful! The exhibits were right up Lylah's ally with the downstairs being train and harbor (boat and crane) exhibits. Anyway, I'm a major fan of children's museums and this one did not disappoint especially with the $18 for all of us price!!! AWESOME!!!

Here are a few pictures from our fun. Of course a BIG thank you goes out to my mother in law who let us have her time share. The cost she donated to our adoption!! We love you Nana!!!

Our summer so far...in pictures

2011-07-16T20:07:00.001-07:00

I warned you that I probably wouldn't be able to blog much because I was sure we would be having so much fun. Well, that was an understatement!!! So since I've fallen way behind on the things I wanted to blog about I'm just going to put it in pictures for you!

We made a new friend :)

We went to the zoo with our buddies.

We looked at butterflies.

We played at Bebe and Papaw's pool for 4th of July weekend, which included our first smores!!

We ate free chicken, yummy!

We ate ice cream cones. Hopefully you did too because it's been HOT!!

We played on our swing set...a lot!

Went to Hobby Lobby several times, but sometimes we even met our Bella Boo and Meme there too!

We rode on a boat.

We watched LOTS of machines, but especially loved watching the machines working on our new library!

We took a long weekend with the family in the mountains.

As you can see we have been having so much fun!! I can't explain how excited I am that this is my new job!!

Prayers for this child

2011-07-05T20:44:00.001-07:00

I have been a Sara Groves fan for a very long time. In fact I feel like every happy, sad, and in between moment of my life has a Sara Groves song that goes with it. We had "He's Always Been Faithful" played at our wedding. And I can't even begin to recount all the times her other songs have ministered to my heart. Well, this weekend Lylah and I took a little road trip and since my lil' lady fell asleep that meant that I got to listen to mommy music- my choice of course- Sara Groves.

Anyway, I was driving along singing and thinking about how tough the adoption process is. The waiting (which there is lots of) gives me time to worry, "what if Lydia doesn't love us", "what if I can't fix her hair?", "what if family and friends don't accept her" it also gives me time to doubt, "this is too big-we'll never see her face to face", "the funds will never come in", "no one will come to our picnic". You get the idea. Anyway, then I hear this song (which I have already cried all the way through several times as I was pregnant with Lylah):

PRAYERS FOR THIS CHILD
I do not know how I am to pray for this child
as a mother I don't want my baby denied
but in the waiting in the waiting
I learned

every instinct in me wants to shield him from pain
take the arrows of misery heartache and blame
but in the sorrow in the sorrow
I learned to hold on

I only have two eyes - be all seeing
I only have two hands - be everywhere
I do not know enough - to be all knowing
I give this baby up into your care

I do not know how, how to pray for this child
I want to guard her from everything wicked and wild
but in the trial in the trial
I learned to hold on
And in the trial, in the trial
I learned to hold on to the heart of God

God reminded me through those lyrics. That wherever Lydia is, and whatever she is going through, it is part of her story. God knows. All the other trials, waitings, and sorrows that she (and Lylah for that matter) experiences even after she is with us will in His grace be used to show her His heart. So. I DON'T NEED TO BE ANXIOUS. That is obviously easier said than done as I'm sure it always will be (can anyone say teenage years?), but I can think back on my own life as a testimony of the truth behind the lyrics and even now as we wait I will now pray that I will hold to the heart of God. I can rest in this waiting, knowing that God will use every moment of Lydia's life, even those moments before she gets to us, for His glory. It is all part of His Soverign plan for her. I'm so thankful for that truth and I'm also thankful for song writers who can communicate those truths so well. I'm also thankful that He brought us to this adoption journey, and one day to Lydia.

Happy 4th of July!!

2011-07-04T12:42:00.001-07:00

A little visit from a new friend.

2011-06-24T19:29:00.001-07:00

Lylah met a new friend last week. He came for a short visit, and even though he had never been to visit before, he was actually very social. His visit was short as we didn't have any food he liked and no comfortable bed for him.

Lylah wanted to name him Lydia, but I told her that was her sisters name so she had to choose something else. She chose Africa. So sweet. His little visit left quite an impression as she hasn't stopped talking about him and she loves to look at the above picture on my phone for long periods of time. So even though "Africa" is happy in the forest now, he is welcomed back to our house anytime.

Gardens

2011-06-24T19:14:00.001-07:00

We decided to give a garden another go this year. Last year our garden was not a total flop so we're hoping this years will be even less of a flop. Anyway with that being said, I knew I wanted to start some "learning time" with Lylah as well. Now this learning time does not look like school. Most everything we have been doing is hands on and of course we read lots of books. Other than continuing on working on some very basic math and phonics skills, I thought it would be fun to have a topic as well! I decided that it would be totally appropriate to learn about gardens. So we've been talking about every plant we see outside and caring for our garden and Lylah's flowers. I also made this really fun sensory bin:

I used soil and some small pots as well as a toy trowel some worms (pipe cleaner pieces) and Lima bean seeds. I also made some little seed markers and put in sone fake flowers. Funny thing is much to my surprise when we opened the box to explore it.....

The Lima beans sprouted!!! I thought it was too cool and Lylah did too probably because I did :)

After talking about the parts of the Lima bean plant Lylah dug in....for about three minutes!! We'll try again when she is in a better mood-we've been fighting tummy yucky this week.

She did enjoy her soil play dough though!! It was actually chocolate play dough. I gave her little pots and fake flowers again plus some flower cookie cutters.

Next topic for July....transportation!

A field trip revisited

2011-06-15T19:00:00.001-07:00

Some of you who have been following my blog for a while may remember that last year we did a field trip every week of summer. I plan on doing that again this year, though I'm not promising that every one will be blogged about in it's own post. However, when we decided to revisit the airport this year I figured it was "own post worthy". If you remember last year was not exactly what I had planned. Good news, this years trip was a BIG success!!! We got to see two planes take off and land. Lylah is even more into planes (and all transportation) this year so it was so fun to see her reaction. She kept saying, "plane there it is...over there!". So sweet!!! Since then she has actually mentioned the trip several times. I think it left an impression!! :)

Best Friends Already

2011-06-07T21:00:00.001-07:00

Part of Lylah's bedtime routine includes saying her prayers before bed. I'll hold her next to her crib and ask her who she would like to pray for. The names change each night. There was one night that she wanted to pray for Bebe and Papaw; that same night they actually had a tornado go right through their neighborhood!! God sure does hear the prayers of His children. Anyway, one name that is ALWAYS on her prayer list is Lydia. In fact there have been a couple of times when we have been eating dinner and Lylah stops to want to pray for her sister. When we pray for Lydia before bed, we always pray for her protection, salvation, and provision that she would come home soon. We also pray that she would have a smooth transition and that she and Lylah would be best friends. Well today Lylah was in the back seat of the car signing. One of the signs she did was "friend". I asked her who her BEST friend was to which she replied, "Lydia". I thought it was sweet that she understood my prayers for her and her sister! Now we just need little Miss Lydia to be home so they can begin practicing being friends!!!

As far as the adoption goes we are very close to being able to send off our dossier! We have our finger print appointment next week!! God has continued to prove to me that I set very lame boundaries on the fundraising aspect of this journey! In the past few weeks we had another significant donation from some friends, and continued ongoing support from some other friends. We had a successful thirtyone party and an AWESOME yard sale. We also had a barn quilt donated by a friend of ours' sister. We have already sold it and have several interested in ordering one!! I'll blog more on that later because it is just that awesome!!! We have plans to have a cookout fundraiser in July (more on that later as well), and I have a couple other ideas in the works too. We still have blocks that we would love for friends and family to decorate for a suggested donation of $10. So as you can see, God is moving as we work to bring Lylah's best friend home!!

Back yard "O" fun

2011-05-29T20:57:00.001-07:00

What started out like this....

Slowly grew into this. At this point when we asked Lylah what Papaw, Papa, and Daddy were building she would say "new library". Not quite sweet girl....that's down the road.

But after a little over 6 hours, okay maybe a day and a half over 6 hours, this is what was standing in the back yard waiting for our lil' lady to wake up.

When I went to wake Lylah up and was talking to her about her "new library playground" she said "like it, kiss it". We talked about how she needed to give Daddy and Papaw a kiss instead to which she replied, "Daddy, Papaw work harder harder". So sweet!! Well of course Lylah LOVES her new playground!! When I brought her out she squealed several times and then, in perfect Lylah fashion, slowly explored every inch of it. She is surprisingly good at the climbing wall and the glider! Here are just a few pics of Lylah enjoying her "Lylahbrary" as Papaw named it.

Thanks Bebe and Papaw for the fun swing set!!! Thanks Daddy, Papaw, and Papa for building it!! We can't wait for Lydia to come home and enjoy it with us. Oh, all of our friends can come play too!!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-05-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that there are big changes in store for our family as we are awaiting the arrival of our little Lydia. What some of you may not know is that is not all the changing that will be going on for us in the not so distant future. At the beginning of this month, the day before my birthday to be exact, I resigned from my teaching position effective at the end of the school year (six working days from now). Anyone who really knows me, knows that I have been wanting to be at home since I went back to work after my maternity leave. Nathan had that same desire for me so we set out on a journey of planning and praying toward that goal. We have minimized our expenses and have eliminated almost all of our debt (all as soon as our land sells) all in hopes of making it easier for me to stay at home come August. Nathan picked up a second part time job and I will be doing a small work from home job as well to help make up for the extra insurance expense.

We know that this next year while we wait for Nathan to get his Associates Degree will not be easy. I'm sure we'll still have weeks or months when we will have to do some penny pinching, but it will be worth it to be able to pour into Lylah and eventually Lydia. I want to snuggle them, play with them, teach them, and train them in a way that working full time is not allowing me. I know that some mothers work full time and make it look effortless, I am in awe of those women. I found out that I am not one of them! I was coming home every night totally drained trying to put dinner on the table and keep some sort of order in our home plus sneak in some play time with our lil' lady. I found that I was getting stingy with my weekends because I had so much to do and so little time to do it, not to mention that the weekends were the prime time to play!! Anyway, that being said, I was asking Nathan today if he was scared about this next chapter in our lives. He said, "Of course, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's the exact thing we are supposed to be doing." I'm so thankful for a husband who has such faith! So even though it may not make since to most people, we are stepping out in faith, believing that this is what God has for us for this season. We are of course scared, but we are even more excited and hope that this journey along with all others we take will bring Him glory.

Chattanooga

2011-05-18T18:34:00.001-07:00

Last week we took a little trip to Chattanooga. It was sort of a thirtieth birthday/mother's day/we really wanted to visit their children's museum before Lylah would cost money (yes we are cheap, I know) kinda trip. It was loads of fun for sure!! We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, which was really cool and perfect for our little transportation lovin' lady. We spent the afternoon just walking around looking at the trains/gardens/pools/elevators and such. We did take a train tour which was fun except when the man would stop to talk which would prompt Lylah to say, "more train go mommy". To say she wasn't interested in the history behind the Chattanooga Choo Choo could be considered an understatement, but at least we were the only ones on the tour!! The conductor also let her ring the train's bell so that sort of restored their relationship. That evening we ate some Taco Bell on our balcony, mainly because I think eating at restaurants with toddlers is incredibly overrated. We ended our first day with a little dip in the pool. Lylah liked the pool much more than she did last year. We took turns jumping in and floating like a boat, needless to say, I'm glad we were the only ones at the pool too :)

The next morning we woke up and went to the Creative Discovery Museum. It was great!! Double fun for Lylah was that we took the city bus to et there (I really wasn't kidding when I said she loves transportation). Anyway, the museum was just as good as we had heard it was. The exhibits were all very interactive and hands on. Lylah was at a great age for it too! Her favorite exhibits were the art exhibit which had art, music, and drama and the yellow house exhibit which was like a play kitchen times 100. I didn't take very many pictures with my phone so you'll just have to go see for yourself!!! I did take a couple at the water exhibit because I thought it was sweet that Nathan wore a rain jacket too!

We had so much fun in fact-

We wore the lil' lady out. She slept ALL THE WAY HOME!!

God is building our family and you can help!

2011-05-13T14:04:00.001-07:00

How fun are building blocks?! How much more fun would they be if they helped tell a story? Super fun, right? Well, that's where you come in!! As you probably know if you have followed this blog for long we are in the process of expanding our family through adoption. Our next fundraiser gives YOU a chance to help tell Lydia's adoption story. Curious??

We have a set of blocks similar to the picture above and we would LOVE to have you "craft" a block. You can write a message, verse, or just your name. You can paint your block or scrapbook/modge pouge it or just leave the background plain. Now for the fun part-Lydia and Lylah will play with these special blocks that tell all about how God built our family through friends like you!!! I'm hoping right now that you are making a list of family members who need to "craft" a block and that you are pulling out those sharpies, paint pens, scrapbook paper, ect. We are asking for a donation of $10 per block. Our set has 100 pieces (some of which are already painted)! Will you please help us get each block "crafted" with verses, names, and messages that can be shared with our girls for years and years?? Just leave a comment here, facebook me, or email me (lara.mattingly81@gmail.com). Oh and help spread the word!!! Please blog about this, and/or repost it again and again on facebook!! Im sure the towers the girls build with this set will be wonderful, but not nearly as wonderful as the story they will tell!

Surprise!

2011-05-08T14:33:00.001-07:00

Okay, so anyone who knows me knows that I'm not any good at surprises, but yesterday I had one of the best surprises ever! My super sneaky hubs and my way awesome sis were not going to let my 30th birthday just pass by with the usual flair. They worked together with the help of my parents to plan a way awesome surprise birthday cookout!!!!! So for the sake of wanting to remember the details here I go:

Nathan had mentioned earlier this week that he thought it would be fun to cook out at a park when my parents came in on Saturday. I agreed. So yesterday Nathan, Lylah, and I loaded up and headed into Bowing Green. Nathan had mentioned that we needed to stop by church because he needed to move something for Stu. I didn't think anything of that, and only got a little bit suspicious when Nathan took a long way to church to bypass "Derby Traffic" (like we lived in Louisville or something). I also thought it odd when I called my mom to see if they knew which park to go to and she said not to worry they knew where they were going (I didn't know at that point that we had even finalized which park since I thought this was relatively impromptu). Other than that I had no idea that anything was up and I certainly didn't expect after our "tour" of our church's new gym (the box Nathan had to move was "already moved", imagine that!) for most of my very favorite people to be standing in the women's locker room waiting to surprise me!!!! How fun!

After the surprise we alllllll headed over to the park where my dad was grilling away. Turns out the whole trip to the church was a diversion to give a real element of surprise. That it did sneaky hubs, that it did!!

So, thanks to my Hubby and Sis for planning, to mom and dad for doing an amazing job at food (as always), and to Beth, Ben, and MLK (who came despite a very big party planned for them later in the day), Laura, Will, and Hunter, Kevin, Kristy, and Xander, Shaun, Deanna, Taylor, and Gabby, Jeff, Mary Beth, Maddie, and Annye, Jason, Christin, Luke, Brenna, and Ali, Kasey Jo, Cash, and Baylen, Karen ( my MIL who drove all the way from Indy), Tim (my sweet FIL) and Stephanie for keeping the secret and making this girl feel very special on her birthday.

Ps. Sorry there aren't any pictures with this post-I've gotten spoiled by my blogger app and I failed to take pics with my phone- you'll have to use your imagination :)

30's got nothin' on me.

2011-05-04T19:32:00.001-07:00

Tonight I am enjoying a quiet evening at home knowing that in the morning I'll wake up and I won't be in my 20s anymore. Now I've joked with my class all week about getting "old" but really I'm sadly not a generally sentimental gal so really I'm as excited about this birthday as I am every birthday. If you know me, you know I love birthdays! So in celebration of saving farewell to my 20s and hi-de-ho to my 30s I thought I would compile some lists.

20 things I learned in my 20s (in no particular order)
1. College wasn't nearly as complicated as adulthood.
2. The first year of marriage can sometimes be compared to torture.
3. If you hang in there after that torture part, marriage is fun stuff.
4. Buying a house requires LOTS of signatures.
5. A real interview for a job you've spent four years preparing for is much more intimidating then interviews at Wendy's.
6. Everyone needs a Cricut.
7. Staying up late is a bit over rated.
8. Getting up before it is daylight is too.
9. Church family is a precious gift.
10. So are good friends.
11. My mom was right on a lot of stuff.
12. It's not fun paying bills.
13. Traveling abroad will change you forever.
14. So will becoming a mom.
15. There is nothing sweeter than a daddy's girl.
16. Sign language is awesome.
17. Goodbyes are never easy.
18. God is always at work.
19. Making hairbows is addicting.
20. You can learn a lot from a good blog.

And while I'm at it:

30 things I'm anticipating for my 30s (again no particular order)
1. More gray hairs
2. God's mighty hand of provision
3. Some since of organization
4. Freezer cooking
5. Crafting
6. A brown skinned babe named Lydia
7. A graduation from college for the hubs
8. A DIY play kitchen
9. A wooden swing set
10. A post placement visit with THE best social worker ever.
11. Long distance friendships
12. Baking bread
13. Learning the ins and outs of African hair
14. Being a part of MOPS
15. Pinching pennies
16. Traveling abroad again
17. A vacation to the beach
18. Becoming an advocate for the fatherless
19. Montessori school elements for the girls
20. Being a part of one of Cindy Starr's Bible Studies
21. The new library in The Grove
22. Giggling with the hubs and our babes
23. Making lists
24. Still not getting everything on said lists finished
25. Reading for enjoyment
26. Going to another secret church
27. Our land selling
28. Making new friends
29. Haubfest
30. Adoption assistance picnic

So most of those things will probably happen before I turn 31, bit that is even MORE proof that my 30s are sure to be just as big as an adventure as my 20s!!!!

Thirtyone reasons you need a bag from Thirtyone

2011-04-30T20:33:00.001-07:00

Actually....I've got only one reason....I know you can't wait to meet Lydia and we can't either!!

That's right folks our next fundraiser is coming from another friend who has an in home business, this time it's Thirtyone!!! Have you seen how cute their bags are?! Oh, I know you want one OR what about birthday, or early Christmas shopping? Monica will be donating her portion of the sales (25%) to our adoption!!! Yay!!

I will be hosting a Thirtyone Open House on May 12th from 6:30-8:30 and would love for you to cone by and visit as well as shop. Live too far away to come OR busy that night but still want to participate? You can order online!!! Here's how:

on the websites www.mythirtyone.com/monicaporter there is a tab at the top that says "place an order". That will take you to a screen that says "place an order" again over on the right side under a picture. From there you can choose my party where it says "shop now". you should be able to click through and order from there. You might want to open the catalog in a second window if you don't like the way the ordering pictures work. Anything ordered on this website will be held until we submit your order. If you want it to come to your house with the order, you will not have to pay the extra $4 shipping.

If you have any trouble or questions just email me and let me know. lara.mattingly81@gmail.com

As usual, please tell your friends and help spread the word!! That has been a HUGE part of our fundraising success so far!! Okay, Happy shopping and thanks so much for helping!!!!

Easter blessings

2011-04-28T18:21:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Friday night Nathan and I went to a simulcast of The Secret Church. I'm not gonna lie-I thought for sure I would fall to sleep, but is was such a wonderful time of teaching and worship!! Now I did have to take quite a nap on Saturday, but I'm not as young as I once was either ;)

Saturday Lylah and I did a little craft that I found at Mighty $ a while back. It was a simple banner that said "He Lives" and it had stickers that went on the letters. Lylah loves stickers so this was the perfect little craft for her!!!

She especially loved the Jesus sticker. In fact it never made it to the banner because she had to show it all around her room. She did however insist on calling it Noah!!

We hung the banner on the front porch and she just thought that was about the coolest thing!! Every time we pull up to the house she squeals "he liiiives"! Love it!!

We also made "empty tomb cookies". They were really fun to make!!! They are not very cookie like, but were delish nonetheless!!!! Each ingredient had a passage from the Bible that went with it. We did not read through the passages (not ideal when cooking with a toddler), but we did talk about each. My favorite part was taping up the oven and having to leave our cookies overnight. Lylah's favorite part-tasting the vinegar. She loved it!! Weird, I know!

Crushing the pecans. Symbolizing Jesus being beaten.

Smelling the vinegar. She tasted it too and loved it...

Taping up the oven. Symbolizing the tomb being sealed.

I forgot to take a completed picture or a picture of Lylah tasting them!! Oops!! Anyway, you may want to bookmark the recipe to try with your little ones next year!!!

A Seat for Your Sweetie to Help Bring our Sweetie Home

2011-04-19T19:05:00.001-07:00

What do you think??

Wouldn't this make a great seat for your little sweetie?? Maybe the perfect piece for your flower garden?? I'm sure you could think of dozens of ways to use this handmade bench!! This is custom designed by my very own daddy!! Oh and guess what else?? He wants to make MORE!!!! He wants to make lots more because he wants to bring his grand babies home! Yes, my clever, hardworking daddy is offering his talents as a fundraiser for not only our adoption, but my sisters as well!!!!!! Interested??? Suggested donation is $65. Just leave me a comment here or on facebook or you can email me. lara.mattingly81@gmail.com

Pancakes, crafts and a big God

2011-04-18T19:45:00.001-07:00

As many of you probably know, Saturday was a big fundraising day for us. We had a pancake breakfast that morning and a craft bazaar that day. To say it went well was an understatement. The day started off with Lylah and I spotting a rainbow as we came into town. I was reminded that God keeps His promises and Lylah was thrilled that the rainbow "came back". Anyway, the next sweet moment was when our dear friends daughter (who is a forth grader) donated 3 original paintings for us to sell at the craft bazaar. In fact one of them sold almost as soon as I got there!!!! The breakfar went off without a hitch. We had several friends who helped serve, sell tickets, and bus tables. Mom and Dad helped with Lylah, who of course had a blast running around the restaurant. Lots of people ate pancakes many making donations above the $6 each cost. After the breakfast I took off to the bazaar and Nathan went to help some friends move some brush. As I was working with my bow making partner in crime at our booth, Nathan was accepting a generous donation toward our adoption from the friends he was helping!!! The bazaar went amazingly well. The total so far of these fundraisers+the donation is a little over $1500!!!! Wow!!! We still have a few bow orders to finish up, but to say I am amazed at the outcome is an understatement!!!! Our second agency fee is the next payment we'll make and it is $2300, but now, thanks to many of YOU, we're almost there!!!!! In case you don't know, the adoption process can be a bit exhausting, but it is these baby steps that help get us closer to our little gal!!!

Thanks again for your continued prayers and support. Our home-study is very near completion and our I600A has been sent to our home-study agency. We are getting closer and closer to being on a waiting list for a referral. Oh and if you haven't heard yet, we will begin praying for our little gal by name, Lydia. We haven't seen her yet, but God knows the very hairs on her head!!

20ish months

2011-04-17T12:21:00.001-07:00

Lylah turned twenty months earlier this month!! We had a little getaway to the Louisville Zoo during spring break so I guess you could call that our celebration!

We went with our dear friends and their son (one of Lylah's best buddies) and we had a great time! Lylah does indeed love the zoo. Every time we tried to leave one animal to go on to another she would get upset!!! Anyway, the day ended with some splashing which may have been her favorite part!!

We did enjoy our little outing, but we're what we're enjoying even more is all that our lil' lady continues to learn!!! Here's a few things we're seeing:

She knows all of her colors. She loves telling the color of cars driving by or the clothes she is wearing!

She knows most of her letters. I attribute this to her signing and her bathtub letters.

She talks ALL the time, often in multiple word phrases. She loves to copy things we say, we call her an eavesdropper!

She is starting to be interested in counting and can sometimes count to 10 with signing help.

She is feeding herself with a spoon/fork occasionally. She does okay with it, but clean up is of course a little more work!!

She likes to pick her own shoes for some reason.

She has recently started trying to put on pants. She can get them on her legs but can't pull them up yet.

She still loves books. We sit and read books sometimes for complete evenings!! The other day while I was cleaning the bathroom she "read" Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear. She turned each page and said the animal, then said "the end" when she finished! So cute.

She has also taken to singing. Her favorites: The Tractor Song, Jesus Loves Me, and The Wheels On The Bus.

So as you can imagine I'm counting down the days until summer break so I can enjoy more tune with our sweetie!!!

Donated crafts for our adoption

2011-04-05T19:06:00.001-07:00

I met up today with a friend who had purchased a magnet for our adoption. We had a picnic and let our littles play on the playground. It was a fun time indeed! My friend is also a crafty gal who happened to participate in a craft bazaar this past December. Well, much to my surprise she donated a tub full of goodies to sell for our adoption!!!! Thanks so much Stephanie!!!! Here they are:

Small rosette wreath, great for your mantle!! $10. This is the only one available.

Gumball candy dish. Only two available. Wouldn't this be precious on your office desk?! $15

Decorated cloths pins. $4 per set. Three sets available.

These are darlin and would be GREAT in Easter baskets!!! Crayon bag with notebooks. Only four available. $10 each.

Decorated "chip clip"!! How fun!! I have two. $4 each.

This is way cute!!! Wool felt beaded necklace. Only one available!!!

Pearl and ribbon necklace. This is stunning!!! Only one....$15!

Wool felt bead pin cushion ring. Purple one SOLD. One left $8!

Tea apron! Perfect for hostessing. $10

If you are interested in any of these just comment below or email me lara.mattingly81@gmail.com

Remember in purchasing one of these items you are not just buying a cute hand made craft, but you are helping bring our baby home sooner. It is our hope that we will have the money needed for our second agency fee by the time we get our fingerprint appointment. Please consider joining with us. Thanks in advance from us and from our little one waiting.

Lost in translation and other things I've been meaning to blog about

2011-04-04T13:22:00.001-07:00

Lylah has been talking for a while now and we can almost always understand what she is saying especially when she adds her signs as well. With that being said, she does have her own way of saying some things and I just have to blog about them now because I realize one day she will not have these little "sayings" and I don't want to forget them!! So enjoy this little list of Lylah translations....

Blanket is "beddie"
Medicine is "meno" (said like "no" in French)
Amen is also "meno"
Emily is "Meme"
Rabbit is "baba"
Cantaloupe is "o-pa-lope"
No is sometimes "no, humah"
Mikayla is "payla"
Ezra (our dog) is Ez-r
Love you is lubba-ooo

Just trust me when I say these are super sweet in person but hard to sound out for a blog. Something tells me I'll still be able to read them years from now though :)

Other things I've been meaning to blog about:

Have your tried letting your toddler pour things from one bowl to another? This idea stemmed from the fact that Lylah loves to pour the dogs food. Anyway, consider it another way to get dinner cooked while your little one has fun!!

Have you tried painting with your toddler?? In the past our lil lady has NOT been a fan of painting, but recently when we were learning all about Dr. Seuss, she was loving some painting!!! Of course I guess we do lots of hand painting crafts so she thinks she is supposed to paint herself!!

Have you tried cutting your toddler's sandwich with cookie cutters to make fun shapes? Here is Lylah's shamrock sandwich for St. Patricks Day!

Have you tried to keep your toddler from climbing in/on things?? Yeah, let me know how that goes! :) Around here we just make sure we check the dryer before we start it ;)

T. C. Cherry Craft Bazaar fundraiser

2011-04-02T20:18:00.001-07:00

On April 16th T.C. Cherry will be hosting the second annual craft bazaar. My talented crafty friend and I will have a table set up with "Clips for Congo"!! We will be selling a wide range of hair clips with all of the proceeds going toward our adoption journey. The bazaar will be from 9:00-3:00; I hope you can stop by and pick something out for a little darlin' that you love!!! My sister will also be there with a table of her own with lots of sewing crafts supporting their adoption!!! Oh and if you haven't gotten your tickets to the pancake breakfast for that same day make sure you let me know how many you need!! :). Here is a little preview of the items I'll bring to the table:

I'll post more pretty's later but I hope you have already found something you would like to stop by and get!!!

Lately...

2011-03-31T19:51:00.001-07:00

...We've been battling sickness. I was actually out of school and in quarantine for two days. Nathan and Lylah then got whatever I had, just now as bad.

...We've been organizing the house a little at a time. We will eventually pick up the futon and cabinet Beth :)

...We've been filling out more adoption paper work and finishing our home study meetings! We love you Meredith.

...We've been taking up orders for Scentsy and seeing God provide again and again.

...We've been teaching Lylah some counting.

...We've been reading "Adopted for Life" and loving it.

...We've been enjoying Blue Bell banana pudding ice cream. A. LOT.

...We've been cracking up at our lil lady when she say "ewwww, diaper!".

...We've been cutting pancakes breakfast tickets, magnets, charms, and other crafts (to be revealed this week).

...We've been blessed.

Benefit pancake breakfast April 16th!!!!!

2011-03-26T07:54:00.001-07:00

On April 16th there will be another great way to help out with our adoption!!! From 7:30-9:30 Applebee's will be hosting a pancake breakfast to benefit our adoption!!!!! I'm sure you are planning on eating that morning so why not come on out to Applebee's and fill your belly!!! Tickets will cost $6 per person with $5 of that going straight to bringing our baby home!!!!! Just let me know in the comments section or on facebook how many tickets you need!!!

That same afternoon there will be a craft bazaar at TC Cherry Elementary school. Me and one of my good friends will be selling hairbows and other crafts to also benefit our adoption!!!! I will be blogging more about that soon!! Until then, make plans to order your tickets quick!!! Let's fill that place up!!!!!!

Keep Congo close to your heart

2011-03-23T18:49:00.001-07:00

I originally made this little pretty for myself.....

.....well now I would love to make one for you!! We will be selling these to benefit our adoption so you can keep Congo and our sweet baby close to your heart too! The cost of a charm is $10. If you need the whole necklace the cost is $25. I could even put a ribbon on a charm to make a bookmark!!! ($10).

So there you have it-another way to partner with us in our journey to bring our baby home. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

What a glorious day!!

2011-03-13T18:40:00.001-07:00

You may remember last year I wrote about my favorite thing about spring. Well the tradition continued yesterday. Lylah and I had our flower field date. We had so much fun. Lylah immediately started smelling the flowers and then had to let her friend Rhino smell them too. She kept telling me to pick "more flowers yellow", which of course I was glad to do :). We would talk about the flowers and then she would talk about the sky and look for planes. I did have a slight Meme moment when I had to fight back tears thinking about how much our lil lady has grown since last year and even the hope that by this time next year I'll be sitting in my favorite field with two little sweeties....Sigh....
We ended with some play tine at the park (Lylah could see it from the field) so needless to say it was a precious time and though I didn't have my camera, I did manage to get some cute shots with my phone. I'm sure we'll go back many times. We've got to go with our neighbors you know.

Our next fundraiser makes a lot of scentsy!!!

2011-03-09T18:41:00.001-08:00

First of all, thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement concerning our first home study! It was a very long day at school yesterday, but God gave me strength to make it through the meeting. We love our social worker and felt right at home talking with her. She and her husband have adopted two children so she has a wealth of knowledge to offer, not to mention that she was the home study coordinator for the first DR Congo adoption in KY!!!

Anyway the meeting went well and gave us a second wind so to speak on fundraising and paper organizing!!! Are you ready to hear about our next fundraiser??

A friend of my has started selling Scentsy. Have you heard of it before?? Well it is a wonderful flameless candle. You pick your scent (all of which are wonderful) and put on the tray, plug it in and enjoy the wonderful smells!! Anyway, my friend has offered to let me have a party and take orders and she is in turn donating HER profits to our adoption journey!!! Isn't that awesome?! What is even more awesome is how practical this fundraiser is. Everyone loves a nice smelling house right? :)
Maybe you need to get a jump start on Christmas shopping?? They also have these sweet little scentsy buddies, which are stuffed animals with scent packs that make them smell sweet for your little sweetie!! Are you excited?? Are you ready to shop!?? There are a few different ways how:
1. Order online through my party https://amandalt30.scentsy.us/Home
Just go to the buy tab and then choose Lara's fundraiser.
2. See me and I'll show you a catalog.
3. Or (this is the most fun option) come to my house for the party on March 31st and smell lots of scents and hang out and have fun shopping!!

And of course I would so appreciate anyone who wants to spread the word!! You could tell your friends, blog about it, or spread the word via facebook. Spreading the word was an important part of the magnet fundraisers success. So of course words cannot express how thankful we are for those of your who have chosen to partner with us in that way!!!

So as you can see this is going to be a fun fundraiser and is helping our sweet little one (who we are getting more excited about by the minute) get one step closer to home!!! It really just makes "scents"!

Tomorrow

2011-03-07T19:15:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is a big day for our family. Tomorrow at 4:30 we have our first home study meeting. I haven't blogged or really even talked much about our adoption journey lately for a number of reasons. It's not that we aren't seeing God's mighty hand of provision daily because we are. It's not that we don't already love the precious one we are waiting to bring home because we sure do! It's just that sometimes this whole thing seems bigger than me. Tonight while I was signing and initialing papers for the agency I was reminded about how overwhelming and even scary this process can be, but I was also reminded of something else. This whole thing IS bigger than me, but it ISN'T bigger than God. It might overwhelm or scare me at times, but it doesn't God. What peace that brings. He knew from the beginning of time that we would make this journey and He is not going to leave us alone in it, and for that I am thankful.

So please continue to pray for us- especially in the next few weeks as we complete our home study. We are also still selling magnets ($10) as we will be for as long as people want them :). I am also planning a little crafting project to raffle off soon. We have some other things planned too including a pancake breakfast, craft bazar, yard sale, swing raffle, and a cookout/carnival. This blog is a great way to keep up with our journey (you'll even get some fun Lylah posts too), so consider bookmarking it and checking back regularly. Thanks so much again for your love and support as we follow God's call to love and care for the fatherless.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

2011-03-06T18:17:00.001-08:00

My plan of lots of Dr. Seuss fun this weekend hit a bit of a halt with the lil lady not feeling well. We did manage a little bit of fishy fun on Saturday though.

Sadly, Lylah didn't eat much of her lunch :(. She did talk to it quite a bit though :)

For a craft we made a stuffed blue fish. I just used a baggie and we found all of our blue "stuffing" in my craft room! And no my craft room isn't cold, Lylah just loves to wear hats :)

From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.-Dr. Seuss

Funny things like this lil lady with baby bloomers on her head!!

Dr. Seuss fun continues

2011-03-03T18:23:00.001-08:00

Tonight was "Green Eggs and Ham" night. So we of course....made green eggs!!!

We talked a lot about colors while we were doing this. Lylah does really well with pointing to a color you tell her to point to, but she is so funny when you ask her "what color is it?". For example this was our conversation:

Me: Lylah, what color are the eggs now??

Lylah: "purple.....noooooooooo". "blue......noooooooooo".

Me: Are the eggs green??

Lylah: *signs "green"

Very funny and super cute. Almost makes me want her to never learn her colors :). Anyway, the good news is that Lylah really liked the taste of her green eggs! She even had a second helping!!

And yes we did go shirtless most of the night...classy huh?:). Next we read the story. Lylah wasn't really interested the first time when daddy tried to read it to her, so we did our craft first.

The craft was really easy. I just cut out an egg, green yolk, and slice of ham from construction paper and let Lylah glue (which she loves)! Notice her 'cat in the hat' toy's hand sticking out, she loves him!!! After that we tried the book again, skipping some pages, and she sat still for most of it :)

We ended the night playing with green playdough.

I wanted to give her a green bath (bath tablets) as well, but that just didn't happen....mommy was too tired, but I do have an old green bath picture that I'll insert here so that we can pretend that we got to do that too :)

"You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say!". -Dr. Seuss

Let the Dr. Seuss posts begin :)

2011-03-02T18:57:00.001-08:00

It's been a crazy week! This is actually the first night I've been home to celebrate one of my favorite children's book authors (Dr. Seuss) with one of my favorite children. I have several ideas up my sleeves, but we started today with a book I hadn't read before-THE SHAPE OF ME AND OTHER STUFF.

This book seemed appropriate because the idea I had for our activity was an outdoor one, and it just so happened to be a beautiful afternoon, and I just so happened to NOT have a meeting after school. The book is all about shadows of different "stuff" so I traced our lil lady's shadow.

Then I guided her in drawing different parts on her shadow. Now,I realize that shadows do not have parts, but it made the activity more fun for Lylah.

Finally, Lylah sat in her very special rocking chair and we read the book!! This is the board book version and like I said, it's a really cute book. Lylah had fun pointing to the shadows of the different objects in the book and it of course had the wonderful rhythmic pattern that we love from Seuss!

Notice the super adorable thing one and thing two clip that my awesome friend made!!

"of all of the shapes we MIGHT have been...I say HOORAY for the shapes we're in!" -Dr. Seuss

Thank you.

2011-02-25T20:12:00.001-08:00

We have lots of magnets ready to be delivered and a thank you blog post is long over due. So here it is. Thank you. Thank you for coming along side of us for the sake of our next child for our family. Thanks for your words of encouragement and for your prayers. There is no way to explain how much we appreciate it.

Because of your support we have our first home-study meeting on March 8th!!! Keep praying and stay tuned for more ways to join our journey!!

A piece of our hearts

2011-02-17T19:17:00.001-08:00

Since filling out our application to adopt from DR Congo we have not stopped thinking about our baby. Right now we are narrowing down some choices for our home study and just wanting to get the ball rolling. Of course the reality of everything is setting in- so our minds have been racing trying to come up with our first fundraising project.

Will you partner with us in our effort? We are selling Africa magnets. Each magnet has a small heart in the area where DR Congo is located. The suggested donation is $10. These are very simple magnets, but can also serve as a reminder to pray for our little one. If you would prefer you could have a pin or a hair clip instead (I have worn one or the other everyday this week!). Lylah also tried one on!!

Are you ready to join us? If you would like to place an order you can email me at lara.mattingly81@gmail.com OR leave a comment here OR message me on facebook. Oh and please spread the word however you can!! We are praying for a loaves and fish sized miracle!! Thanks in advance for your love and partnership!

And so the journey begins

2011-02-12T19:07:00.001-08:00

Nathan and I have been talking about adoption for a long time. Actually we began foster care classes in 2008 but then I found out I was pregnant and so we stopped going mainly because I was ready for bed before 7:30! Now that Lylah is 18 months old we have been talking a lot about our desire for a second child. Adoption had not left our hearts so it in fact came up again with these discussions. This time we began talking and praying about international adoption specifically through Congo. In our research we found that one in five children in Congo die before the age of five. Many children are forced to become soldiers or the girls become sex slaves. So after even more prayer we sent off an adoption application this morning. We will be using One World Adoption Services as our agency. Please join us in prayer and consider partnering with us (more info on how coming later). We realize this will be a journey of faith as it will surely come with trials, but we believe that in the end we will not only be making a difference in a beautiful child's life, but also bringing glory to our Heavenly Father who adopted us. If you have questions or would like to partner with us right away feel free to email me lara.mattingly81@gmail.com

Thanks in advance for joining with us on this journey!! Here are some sweet pictures of children in Congo (pulled off of google images). Be ready to fall in love. Pray!

18 months

2011-02-08T19:24:00.001-08:00

Eighteen months with our lil lady seems like a blur at times, but we are enjoying every minute for sure!! Today was suppose to be Lylah's appt but because of the snow we opted for rescheduling. So, we had a great day playing together!! We started out our day making cinnamon roll toast that was oh so yummy!! Then we played babies most of the morning. Lylah loves to play babies!! She loves playing babies more than anything. In fact I have a whole post on that coming later. Lylah enjoyed her first PB&J for lunch. After a nap we had some snow fun.

Yep, we made an indoor snow man with real snow and Lylah wanted to squeeze him just like one of her babies!! In fact she cried when I put him outside on the roof by her room!! Later when Nathan got home we went to an indoor play pace in bowling green. Lylah's favorite thing there was a little toy vacuum. She buzzed all over the place with it.

At eighteen months Lylah amazes me with how quickly she is learning. She is also really starting to use her imagination during play, which I love!! She is always making associations and her memory is so good that it's sometimes strange! I love having little conversations with her. I can tell she really understands the things she hears. She is also starting to put two word sentences together sich as "baby sleep" or "daddy up". She is still quite the little signer-recently she has taken a liking to alphabet signs!! We realized last week that she actually knows her abc's if you are signing them!! I still think she gets her personality from her daddy. She is such a little funny lady!! She also has learned the meaning of "no" just in the past couple of days and she says it A LOT!! Either way we love her to bits!! Cant get enough of this cheese smile!!

February 2nd and our favorite groundhog

2011-02-02T18:54:00.001-08:00

Happy Groundhog Day!! In case you didn't hear the groundhog predicts that spring is right around the corner! Sounds good to me. I'm ready for more days like this:

But since I've never been one to put much hope in groundhog weather predictions, we'll just keep on having inside fun! Tonights inside fun had a groundhog theme. First we watched a groundhog story. Lylah loved it so much that we actually watched it like 3 times!!! She kept clapping her hands and saying, "YAY!". Too cute!! After that we made a groundhog headband. Lylah really liked her hat for about 3 minutes and then she ripped it up :) Finally, we had a groundhog treat (small candy bar, m&m ears and nose, choco chip eyes, and sprinkle teethe) thanks to the first grade class at school! I don't think I need to comment on if Lylah liked it :).

All of that was lots of fun, but the best part of our groundhog day was celebrating our favorite "groundhog's" birthday!!

We love you Dad (Poppy)!!

Make a difference: bows for babies

2011-01-26T11:00:00.001-08:00

It is no secret that I enjoy crafting. I especially enjoy making bows. I have been selling my bows for the past couple of months and have kept a somewhat steady business. However, right now in our lives we do not need that extra income. There are people, in particular little baby sized people and their mommies, who could benefit greatly from it. My heart is burdened by the fact that 1500 mothers and 10,000 babies die each day due to complications that can be prevented by the presence of a skilled birth attendant. It also saddens me that 24,000 children under the age of five die from diseases that could be prevented with a simple vaccine. Soooo, the idea of "Bows for Babies" was born. From now until at least the end of the summer the profits from my bow sales will go straight to Compassion International's child survival program. Now, you may wonder why on earth I would be blogging about this. Well, here's why: because I'm sure some of you know a lil lady or maybe even a big lady who would love a pretty for her hair or a pin for her sweater and just think, everytime she/you wear it you can think and pray for the little ones you are helping through your purchase. Now that I'm sure your mind is racing with names of people you would like to give a bow to, here is the most efficient way to get it done: first let me know your order (via facebook, email (lara.mattingly81@gmail.com, or call me if you have my number) then go to my fundraising page From there make a donation in at least the amount of your order. I will get an email that the donation has been made and I will make your bows and get your order to you!! Easy peasy ham and cheesy!!!! Oh and one more thing, please tell everyone you know who may be interested!! Wouldn't it be awesome to raise enough money to start a new child survival program??!!! Okay here are some pretty's to temp you!!

$4 valentine bow

$12 three flower headband

$5 felt flower clip or pin.

$5 different type of flower

This is my way of telling you to view my facebook album called "little treasures" for lots more fun bow options!!! Thanks in advance for helping me help compassion help mommies and babies!! Ps. That's a LOT of helping!!!

Some of my favorite things you do: Lylah version

2011-01-23T18:24:00.001-08:00

I was watching Lylah tonight and thinking about all the sweet funny things she does that I love. Thought you might like to hear them too!

The way she stretches like 100 times before standing up in the morning when I wake her.

The way she clings to my legs when she wakes up but is still sleepy.

The way she "runs" to something/someone when she is excited.

The way her eyes get wide open and she says "whoa" when something impresses her.

The way she motions for me to "come here".

The way she mimics me when we play babies and then I see her do the things she has learned later.

The way she signs letters of the alphabet.

The way she says "daddy" and gets really excited when she hears the door close.

The way she laughs.

The way she remembers things in books and "tells me about them" when she wants to read that book.

The way she snuggles up to me after her bath.

The way she struts her stuff when she is doing something "important".

The way she helps.

The way she studies everything.

That she signs and says "more" after I sing her the "My God is so Big" song.

The way she hold our hands and bows her head to pray.

The way she runs into my arms when I pick her up from the nursery/sitter.

Well, obviously this post could go on forever. But who can blame me. This girl is just that lovable!!

Lylah's first sensory tub

2011-01-22T20:03:00.001-08:00

I have been wanting to make our lil' lady a sensory tub for a while, but couldn't make up my mind on what to put in it. Thank you Mighty $ for the inspiration!!

This tub is a Valentines Day theme. We also have lots of v-day books from the library. The tub has fake petals and little plastic hearts for the "filler" type item. It also has some pink pompoms and some red glittery hearts. I put in a scoop and some little heart containers for filling. Finally a squishy ball and some little bracelets. I know, I probably went overboard and put too much in, but Lylah loved it!!! She kept smelling everything though and I didn't really put anything in to appeal to that sense- so note to self next time I need something smelly in it :)

If you have never heard of sensory bins just google it for much better ones than this. I just like the idea of offering Lylah sensory experiences in the form of little treasures that she gravitates to anyway (ex. Pompoms, cottonballs). So plan on seeing more posts like this one in the future!!

Three for the price of one

2011-01-10T19:17:00.001-08:00

Here are a few thoughts that are to short for their own posts, so you have a three for the price of one today!!

Mini-post 1.
Lylah has a new favorite toy persay. It is "beddie", meaning a small baby doll quilt my mamaw made for me when I was young. First off let me say that my mamaw is a very special lady to me. She picked me up for church every Sunday growing up so needless to say, "beddie" was a special toy to me too!! I had plans of having it framed so I could hang it on the wall in our lil lady's room, but as soon as she found it (a couple weeks ago) she has loved it. She will lay down and say "beddie" and want to be covered up. She covers her babies and tells them "shhh". Sometimes she even just looks at it and giggles, hugging it tightly. So sweet! I hope she never stops calling it "beddie". Thanks mamaw for making "beddie" for me to enjoy and then pass down in love to my lil lady!

Mini-post 2.
My sister recently made me some cloth wipes. You may remember from some of my previous posts that we cloth diaper Lylah and LOVE it!!! Well, I've been wanting to use cloth wipes at home and on the go for a while as it just makes since with cloth diapers. Anyway, I love them too!!! I made some solution that I keep on the changing table (water, baby shampoo, and baby oil) and I just spray the wipe a bit before using it then I toss it in the pail with the diaper!! Easy peasy ham and cheesy!! Now we still plan on using disposable wipes when the lil lady's poos are out of control just for the sheer fact that they would be a bit yucky to rinse out :( All in all we are sure we have found a new cloth love!!

Mini-post 3.
Our lil' lady has a hat addiction, but only if SHE is the one who puts the hat on. I think it comes from the shear fact that three of her favorite guys wear hats often (daddy, poppy, and Nate- the babysitter's son). Here are some pica of her latest hats.

Passing it on

2011-01-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

I got a Kitchen Aid for Christmas. I'm not going to lie, I was a little intimidated by it. You see, I don't really bake, I like to eat baked things, but I really don't bake. But there is something about having a machine like this one that really makes a person want to bake. So, tonight I tried my first real recipe- homemade pizza crust. This is a special recipe from my dad and I really wanted it to be yummy. About two weeks ago my dad gave me a very helpful walk thru on how to make a tasty pizza crust. Well tonight while my dough was rising, my lil lady came to the kitchen gate and kindly signed and said "cook" ( I guess she takes after her poppy). So I did what my dad did for me- I walked her thru making a hopefully tasty pizza!! It was really special baking with Lylah like my dad baked with me, it was sort of like I was passing on a special secret!

Punching the dough. Sorry the pictures aren't the best- I had my phone handy so that's what I took the pictures with.

Time to roll the dough out. Just before this we greased the pan and sprinkled it with cornmeal. Lylah kept eating the cornmeal!! She would say "mmmmm" and eat some more. I've mentioned before she likes to taste test!

Spreading the sauce.

Adding some yummy toppings.

Posing before we put our pizza in the oven.

The finished product-YUM!!

It was so yummy!! I must say, I was very proud!! I can understand why people get into baking!!! Oh and by the way, Lylah asked for more bread (pizza crust)!! Love it!!!

2011

2011-01-01T11:31:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!! Here's to growing in the Word, family adventures, snugglin' our lil' lady, crafting bunches, and whatever else God has in store for our 2011!

Snow Fun!

2010-12-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve brought another blanket of snow to The Grove, it also brought a rather long trip back from Indiana. All the way home (all 4 1/2 hours of it) I thought about how mad I was at the fact it was snowing. I know, I was probably the only one, but after a delightful day of celebrating our Savior's birth we decided to venture out in the snow on the 26th. We took Lylah out to our farm, that happens to be for sale if anyone is interested ;), and found the perfect hill for Lylah's first sledding experience. To say she liked it was an understatement. She squealed and screamed with delight each time we slid down. Once we reached the bottom of the hill, she would promptly sign and say "more", well right after she ate a handful of snow.

We had so much fun that day that Lylah asked to go outside the next day and play in the "no" as she calls it. A lot of the snow had melted and she wanted to ride her push bike. She rode and rode it. After our long ride she took a break in her new rocking chair from our good buddies. Once she started to eat some "no" I gathered some up and we went inside for some "cooking". Lylah LOVED snow cream!! She kept taste testing it while we were making it, and then when it was finished she ate it all (I only helped a little) and cried when it was gone! We will definitely have to make more next time it snows!

Our final fun in the snow happened with Bebe, Poppy, Meme, and Bella!! First we took a walk and Lylah rode her push bike again. When we finished our walk we borrowed my neighbors sled. It is perfect for babies/toddlers. It sits up off the snow and has a back rest. Lylah and Bella had fun riding while Poppy and Phoebe pulled!!

So all in all the snow that I was hating on Christmas Even ended up being triple fun!! And we learned that our lil' lady is a real snow sweetie!!
What about you? Did you have any fun or not so fun snow adventures??

Bath Crayons

2010-12-29T20:54:00.001-08:00

One of the best Christmas purchases I made turned out to be Crayola bath crayons. I wondered if Lylah would be able to use them, but the colors are very bold and show up easily even when her grip is not real strong. She LOVED them. She just kept coloring and every once in a while would say "Yay!" and keep coloring. She would look real close at her art and say "ooooo". She did not want any of the crayons in the water or out of her hands for that matter. Anytime I would try to sit one down, she would say "uh oh". Also, they were super easy to wash off so she'll be able to use them more often. In fact the only bad thing is trying to pry them out of her hand when bath time is over!!

Banners

2010-12-29T20:42:00.001-08:00

Crafts make me happy, but that really is no secret. When something I craft helps add to someones special day or moment it is even more fun for me!! That is where my banner addiction comes in. Banners are different then hair clips and sewing projects though, in that I can't make them over and over again for Lylah. Sooooo, I'm thankful when someone asks me to make one for them!!! Here is a peek at the latest banner I've been working on:

There are actually two banners. The theme is Mickey and I was really pleased at how the "2nd" block turned out!! I liked it so much that I decided to duplicate that idea for the names banner end pieces.
Thanks for letting me share!! I have a baby shower banner and more birthday banners coming up so I'm sure this won't be the last banner post you get!!

Lylah's winter bento

2010-12-22T07:26:00.001-08:00

Happy winter from Lylah's lunchbox!!

Snowman sandwich with dried cranberry buttons, cheese nose, fruit leather eyes, Cheetos arms and veggie crisp hat.

Bananas with cute snowmen food picks.

Snowballs: yogurt covered raisens.

The Countdown is On...Update

2010-12-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the month I posted about our Advent devotion and tree. Now that the countdown is nearing its end I thought I would update about all we have been up to. First of all Lylah still loves the advent candles. In fact tonight when Nathan went upstairs after dinner instead of going right into our devotion time I thought Lylah was going to hyperventilate. She kept yelling "daaaaaddyyyyyyyy" and then blowing like crazy. It was too funny. Anyway it has been a sweet time as a family, obviously Lylah doesn't yet comprehend the actual devotion, but we are excited to watch her understanding grow as we continue this tradition each year.

The activities we have been doing with the devotion have been going very well too. Here are some of the highlights:We decorated the Christmas tree. Highlight: going out to the sidewalk together to look at the tree. (Nathan and I have been doing this since we moved to the Grove)

We watched the parade in the Grove with some great friends. Highlight: Lylah really thought the whole parade was for HER!

We made sugar cookies (break n bake). Highlight: Anytime Lylah helps in the kitchen is a highlight. She loves to taste test!!

We went to "A Walk Through Bethleham". Highlight: that we got to go! We loved it, and the weather was icky the rest of the weekend so we were thankful that we didn't miss out on this little gem! Bonus: It was fun watching Lylah give kisses to baby Jesus and hearing her say "heehaw" most of the night!

We made the trek to Nashville to check out the lights at the Hotel. Highlight: Hanging out with some dear friends that we don't see nearly enough!

One other favorite activity was taking Christmas candies to our some of our neighbors. What a great time to hang out and share the reason for this special season. Now there were also nights when things didn't go as planned for one reason or another and we didn't do a specific activity. For instance, tonight we weren't feeling well so we just hung out, but really isn't that one of the points of this tradition?

Easy chicken Parmesan for your toddler

2010-12-17T14:34:00.001-08:00

Lylah eats mostly what we eat, but there are occasional meals that are to spicy. Anyway the other night we were having chili and had accidentally bought all diced tomatoes with green chillis SO I had to come up with something different for our lil' lady.

I used some of the noodles from our chili. I Made some chicken nuggets-Tyson has a good kind that is 100% chicken. Then I poured a bit of sauce over the noodles and topped with the chicken and cheese. Lylah ate it all up and it was easy-peasy!!! Only bummer is I didn't get a picture of her spaghetti face!!

The first snow of the season

2010-12-13T11:03:00.001-08:00

The Grove is covered in a thick (for our area anyway) blanket of snow. It's Monday and I've spent the day snugglin' our lil' lady; yes the first snow also brought the first snow day! Yesterday we ventured out back to play for a bit. We all bundled up. Lylah was in a big coat that actually won't fit her right until next winter, a scarf her "Meme" made her, a sweet hat I forgot about buying last year, and socks for gloves. She did fine with walking in the snow, but sitting on the sled was another story- all the clothes kept making her topple over. She swung in her swing, but signing "finished" was a hoot because she couldn't bring her arms together because of the big coat! We played for probably 10 minutes and then we were all ready to go warm up. Today we have been enjoying the snow from inside. We sat on her toy box for a while this morning looking at the snow and "talking". We have read "A Snowy Day" and a snowman book that I got for a dollar at Target. When she wakes up we are going to do some kind of craft, but for now I'm going to work on making some Christmas candy and be thankful for snow days!!

The countdown is on

2010-12-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

Our church has created a wonderful devotion for families to use during Advent. We have really been enjoying our time together each night after dinner. It is funny to see how Lylah reacts to us singing. She also likes to try and blow the Advent candle out even though it is across the room! Anyway, I decided to take our Advent celebration a step further by decorating an Advent Tree. With the help of my Cricut and my Martha Stuart Scoring Board (early Christmas present). I made tags and a cute little tree topper.

On each tag I have written an activity for us to do as a family. The activities range from really simple (play with Christmas stickers, listen to Christmas music), to crafty (make ornaments, party hats for Jesus' birthday party, paint a Christmas tree) to fun activities that we would be doing anyway (going to grandparents houses, the Smiths Grove parade, Oprymills Hotel). Our family activity for each Sunday will be to find different pieces of Lylah's fisher price Nativity Set that her Bebe got her on sale from Target. My hope is that the family activities coupled with the devotions will help us all keep in mind what this season is all about, Christ and His birth. I also hope it will be a fun cherished tradition that we look forward to each year.

Color Practice

2010-11-29T18:53:00.000-08:00

Lylah loves the Signing Time video about colors!! So, I found a little idea on a blog, to help her experience her colors in a new way. I just painted the different sections of an egg carton in each color. I went to Hobby Lobby and got some colored pom-poms and let Lylah go to town. She was so excited! She started signing colors and saying "bow" which means rainbow. She liked putting the pom-poms in the sections even if they weren't always right. She also loved walking out of the room with a handful of pom-poms and then coming back and putting them up. She's a hoot!!

DIY Cardboard Box Kitchen Play set

2010-11-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

I am a BIG fan of Family Fun magazine. I've had a subscription since before Lylah was born in anticipation of one day being able to use the fun ideas with our children. Well, I have used several ideas already, but NONE compare to the Cardboard Kitchen Play set found in the December 2010 issue!!! As soon as I saw it I knew we had to make one too!! In fact, I went back and forth with some other more expensive DIY ideas and was going to make one for Christmas, but I talked myself out of it thinking maybe Lylah wasn't quite old enough. Well, this one was going to be so darn cheap that it wouldn't had been a big loss had it gone unnoticed by our lil' lady. Anyway, here is the finished product:

First of all, I was SOOOO wrong about Lylah not being old enough. She loves it!! She goes to the sink and pretends to wash her hands, and she turns the knobs on the stove.
Second of all it was SOOOO easy to make!! I actually went to Lowes and bought boxes (if you were better at waiting then I was you could probably find some for free) The two main boxes were 18x18x16 and cost $1.29. The box used for the shelf cost .95cents, but I'm not sure of the size. We had to cut it down a bit anyway. I got colored duct tape with a 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby for $2.99. From there we just followed the directions in the magazine, easy peasy!! For our stove knobs we used the tops off of old spices we never use and Nathan drilled a hole in them. Then we actually found some knobs at Lowes for .80 cents a piece for the cabinets and oven. You could use anything though. Here is a closer picture of how that turned out.
My favorite part is the window. Our little pizza shop here in the Grove donated a box that just so happened to have a great view of Italy!! I added the pillowcase curtains and there you have it!! So cute!
We did also get some adhesive hooks to hang towels and a little hand broom bringing the grand total to under $10. Well worth the fun that Lylah has been having!!

So Thankful

2010-11-29T17:59:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little late on this, but Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year so here I go with a little post about all things Thanksgiving. First of all what's not to love about Turkey Day?!! The colors are beautiful, the food is YUM-O, the company is a hoot (at least at our gatherings they are) and the purpose is giving thanks which we all could do a lot more often.

Anyway, I'm very thankful. I'm thankful for my husband. The fact that his knee is healing and that God has been providing while he is unable to work. Speaking of my hubs, I'm thankful for the way he makes me laugh even when I don't want to, for the daddy he is to our lil' lady, and for the leader he is and is becoming more and more everyday.

I'm thankful for our lil' lady. The fact that she seems to be going to sleep right now without screaming (we've had a rough past couple of days in that department) and for the way I am reminded of our Awesome God as I watch her grow and learn. Speaking of our lil' lady, I'm thankful for the way she runs up and squeezes my legs for no apparent reason, for every time she calls me "MAMA", and for the way she is developing her very own personality (however strong willed it is)!

I'm thankful for our families. They love us, support us, laugh with us and sometimes give us someone to laugh at!!

I'm thankful for our house. It is over 100 years old, it is drafty, it has a permanent layer of dust, but it serves its purpose and is home to us.

I'm thankful for our church. We get to God, grow in Christ, and give to others there.

I'm thankful for our friends. We started as a gang of nearly and newly marrieds and now are a bigger gang of young mama's and daddy's!! We have prayed together, laughed together, cried together, and praised together.

Finally, I'm thankful for God from whom all these blessing flow.

Now, with that being said, you know I can't post without some fun pics. These are from a craft Lylah and I did!! It is a "Thankful Turkey". Lylah "told" me what she was thankful for: mama and dada, our extended family, Bible and Jesus, signing time, snacks, and Mrs. Kim. Then she drew pictures on each feather and I glued it together with hot glue. It was our centerpiece for our Friday Thanksgiving dinner!!

Time to think Christmas Cards

2010-11-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

I'll admit it. Last year I went back and forth about Christmas cards. I really wanted to make ours, but realized that there wasn't enough time in the day to get enough made to send out. I wanted something that would be cute and showcase our family as well as communicate our love and faith to family and friends. I ended up rushing to an area drug store for cards that were okay, but could've been oh, so much better. This year I plan on being much more prepared and ordering from Shutterfly! Shutterfly is the solution for anyone facing a Christmas Card delima. They have lots of great options. There are plenty of color choices:
I like the black background with the multi-colored letters on this card.

There is the traditional green and red always cute, cute!

Or blue and white for a frosty feel!

Once you know a color scheme to go with then you can choose from 1 or more pictures!! The layouts are great-giving the cards an almost hand made appearance without all of the time that hand made requires!
So whether you have one,

or more pictures,
you are sure to find the right Christmas card at Shutterfly! I can't wait mail our "just right" card this Holiday season!!

And right now Shutterfly is giving back to us bloggers!! They are offering 50 free cards just for spreading the word about their great cards! All you have to do is sign up, blog, then pay shipping and tax costs!! While you are there you can even do some Christmas shopping or get a little something to help you count the days until next Christmas!!

A little off the top

2010-11-07T06:46:00.001-08:00

Our lil' lady refuses to keep hair clips or pony tails in her hair which usually results in the above looks.

This morning, I got out the signing time app, my scissors, and the first curl keeper due to the fact that Lylah kept closing her eyes tight like her hair was bothering her. Yep, time for her first trim! I say trim because if anyone knows me and my hair cutting history (my sister, my neighbor, and countless barbie dolls) then you know I have no business doing the full haircut thing!! Today's client thankfully walked away not looking much different-just a better view of those sweet eyes:

Mesker Park Zoo

2010-11-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

We took a weekend to head up to Indiana to visit mom and dad (Bebe and Papaw) recently. It was an absolute beautiful weekend and we took full advantage of it by visiting the Mesker Park Zoo. We have been to several zoos now with our lil' lady (Cincinnati and Louisville), but this one was by far the best zoo for a small toddler!! First of all there were no crowds at all. There were several times in the day when it seemed like we were the only ones there. That was perfect for Lylah because she could walk most of the time, which was what she wanted to do. The zoo is a lot smaller, but it still has some really great animals and some close encounters as well. They actually have a giraffe feeding which was really cool. Of course before the feeding we were helping the giraffe get to the leaves he was trying to reach. Lylah was so cute picking up leaves and taking them over to the giraffe, she was not nervous at all. In fact later on in the day when we were visiting the rhino, a zoo worker stood right outside the cage and was giving him a belly rub, Lylah just looked at us like "okay, it's my turn now". The girl loves her some animals that is FOR SURE!! She did all of her animal signs and noises and just really had a lot of fun! So did we for that matter!!

15 months

2010-11-06T18:25:00.001-07:00

Our little lady is 15 months old!! I feel like she has changed more in the past few months than she has since her first few months. Here is what is new:

She is walking to the point of almost running.
She can also spin and "jump".
She does very well going up stairs, not so great on the down.
She has gotten really good at her stacking rings, building blocks, and shape sorting.
She knows more signs than we can keep track of. Our favorites-penguin, excited, and 'i love you'. She is also talking more than we can keep track of. She remembers lots of things over time. For instance, when we pull up to dollar general she says 'balloon' because they have lots of the helium balloons. She REALLY likes to be funny. She is a picky eater and usually only eats one good meal a day. Her favorite things to play with are books. Her favorite books- anything by Eric Carle, books with pictures of real animals, and her Bible. She can even do hand motions for Psalm 47:1!! One thing that has not changed is how crazy we are about her!!! Who can blame us?!

Now and Then

2010-11-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

We recently went to one of our favorite fall places, the paved walking trail at Barren River Lake Resort Park. It is perfect for families who have to rely on a stroller for all or part of the walk. Plus, it is beautiful in the fall. The walk is mostly shaded and super peaceful. We discovered this little gem last year when Lylah was under 2 months old. We went a few times for picnics and walks. In those days Lylah slept as Nathan and I just watched her, thinking about how new and exciting every little move she made was.

Well, at our most recent visit, approximately a year later was much different. We didn't pack a picnic, but we did walk for a while stopping with our little lady to investigate pine cones and leaves. We let her walk and help push the stroller. When we finished our walk she promptly signed "playground" and started "ooohing and ahhing" at the nice play set they have. Lylah played and Nathan and I played along thinking how much she had changed and how we have enjoyed every single moment of this past year with our lil' lady.

Our little Cincy Vacation

2010-10-11T18:06:00.004-07:00

We wanted to do some little getaway for fall break but went back and forth as to what we would do. Our decision was made when we decided we wanted to get Lylah a play tent for Christmas. Do you know how expensive those things are??? I also looked at blogs and thought about trying to make one, but decided my sewing skills weren't up for it. I found a simple little tent on IKEA's website and so we decided to go to Cincinnati. We left early Thursday morning and went straight to IKEA for some shopping and lunch. After that we checked in our hotel and tried to get Lylah to take an afternoon nap....tried. She finally did fall to sleep for a while which was nice because we were really tired too. After our family nap time we went downtown to the river front (my favorite part of the trip). They have a beautiful river front with two incredible play grounds. They had lots of little areas to explore and fun slides. Lylah played for probably close to two hours and then we went and got some dinner to take back to the room. We did some swimming before trying to put Lylah down for bed.....again trying. Our lil' lady was not much into sleeping that day!! Needless to say we all slept in a bit on Friday morning. We got ready and headed to the zoo so we could get an early start. Thanks to Triple A we only had a small wrinkle in our plan when we locked our keys in the car... :) It was really fun watchin Lylah at the zoo. She would study the animal and then if she knew it's sign (monkey, penguin, elephant, giraffe, zebra, cat (for all cat like animals) she would start signing like crazy. If she didn't know it's sign she would just oooooooh and aaaaaah in amazement. In fact, since we've been home her animal books have become her all time favorites!! It really was a good zoo, but nothing we will probably do again just because we have two other zoos that are so much closer. We headed home in time for Lylah to get an afternoon nap (hypothetically since she really only slept for 30 min.). We stopped in Louisville for dinner and some more riverfront views and play time. Lylah even made some new friends!! All in all it was a nice time away for some family fun!!

Fall Fun: Part 4

2010-10-11T18:06:00.003-07:00

There is a little hidden treasure in the Grove....Pelly's is an extension of The Garden Patch. The Garden Patch has all the pretty plants you could ever wish for, while the barn (Pelly's) is more like a farmers market. They also host lots of great events throughout the peek season (March-Dec). This time of year they also have loads of pumpkins and some fun animals!! Lylah and I actually visited 3 times during fall break!! She loves the animals and now that she can sign "pumpkin", well, she loves them too. I love the fact that it is just around the corner from our house (a little under 3 miles) and the Pelly's are a super sweet family. This past Saturday, they had an old fashioned farm day. There were lots of demonstrations (corn grinding, along with sorghum and apple cider making), face painting and a live band. They also had cows, chicks, pigs, and a horse for Lylah to pet/feed and there are sooo many pretty places to snap some pictures. I have decided that the people in BG need to add Pelly's to the list of places to visit with their families in the fall. So, if you haven't made it up the rode to the Grove lately, why not come on out and visit!!

Fall Fun: Part III

2010-10-11T18:06:00.002-07:00

Chaney's-another BG tradition for many folks this time of year. It was a super windy afternoon, but that didn't stop us from enjoying some fun before we blew away!! Lylah even got to go on her first horse ride!! I was sure she wouldn't like it (I don't know why I thought that since the girl loves animals), but she actually really liked it, more that mama did I think!! Here are a few pics taken before we gave up and went to the barn for some ice cream :)

Fall Fun: Part II

2010-10-11T18:06:00.001-07:00

What is fall without a little craft time?? First Lylah got all dressed up in her pumpkin clothes:
Then we made this cute lil' sign:

Happy Fall!!!

Fall Fun:Part I

2010-10-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

Fall is my favorite time of year. The weather is cooler (usually), I get a break from school, and we can go on fun outings. One of the standard fall outings here in BG is a trip to Jackson's. We got a chance to do that with mom and dad when they came up for mom's birthday!! Lylah agrees with the rest of town that it's a great place to go this time of year. She enjoyed the petting zoo, esp. on little goat that she insisted on giving bunches of hugs!! She also LOVED, LOVED the cider slider!! She only went twice, but kept pointing to it and signing please the rest of our visit! The other thing she really liked at this trip was the little play house. *It is just one of those little tykes or fisher price ones with the door. She kept going in and out. We didn't do a slushie or hay ride for lack of time, but Nathan and I plan on taking her back for those important moments!!

*As a side note, if anyone knows where I can get a VERY cheap OR free playhouse similar to that one I know Lylah would be very thankful!!

An Oldie but a Goodie

2010-10-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

This little dress was one of my favorites when Lylah was a baby. Nothing fancy, just cotton and my favorite color-yellow. Well, she had A LOT of clothes at that point in her life and the weather actually cooled off in September so she wasn't able to wear dresses long. I think she must have worn that little yellow dress once or twice...sad day....

except that our little lady is a bit of a small fry, SOOOOOOO....
why not re purpose it as a shirt!! We aren't going to talk about how close I came to tears when I found the baby picture and realized how much she has grown (for a small fry) and changed since the days of sitting in the bouncy seat on the kitchen counter! Instead, we'll just say we've worn mama's favorite "shirt" several times lately!!

Thoughts on signing

2010-10-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

Once Lylah started waving, "bye-bye" we started introducing basic signs. I was so excited when she first sign "more" to communicate that she wanted more watermelon. Soon after learning "more", she started to sign "milk" and "water". We continued introducing other signs that would help our lil' lady communicate before she was able to talk. At one point this summer while at the library, I realized they had the signing time videos available for patrons to rent. Since then we have rented a couple every 2 weeks to watch and enjoy. I think we may be the only ones to rent them, which is okay because it means we get to choose which ever ones we want!! These videos are great not only because of the way they introduce the signs, but because they are very engaging and educational to teach verbal vocabulary as well. The thing I've heard the most as people have found out that we are signing with Lylah is, "well, will she ever learn to talk then?". The answer is, "YES!" When we sign with Lylah we always say the word too not to mention that we are always talking with her throughout the day. Research shows that babies who sign have a higher IQ and reading level later in life as well as less frustration as toddlers, plus it is so fun and super cute!!! In case you are wondering here are the signs our lil lady knows:

more, milk, water, eat, please, thank you, finished, play, play ground, swing, I love you, help, home, me, duck, bird, monkey, cat, rain, and even "signing time"

Here are the words she can say: mama, dada, hi, hello, bye-bye, bath, ball, balloon, bubble, baby, home, water, night-night, ruff-ruff (for dog), mooo (for cow), quack (for duck), uh-oh. That is a total vocabulary (including signs) of close to 40 words (and I'm sure I'm forgetting some). I also feel like signing has increased Lylah's understanding as well. We use lots of other signs with her that she hasn't started using yet, but knows and understands. She follows directions probably 80% of the time. The other 20% she is usually be stubborn :)

So if you have thought about signing with your child, then give it a try!! Remember that when babies sign they may not make the sign perfectly and that is okay. Lylah used to clap her hands for "more" but now she does it correctly. It is just like speaking in that she did what was developmentally appropriate for her at the time. We are very glad that we started signing with Lylah and we are even enjoying learning the language ourselves!!

I don't have very many pictures of Lylah actually signing, but I have accidentally caught a couple of her signing water.

signing water at the fountain at the Indy canal
signing water at the park when it was hot and she wanted something to drink :)

Look what I made!

2010-09-19T18:26:00.001-07:00

I was able to find The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book at the Friends of the Library used book sale. So, this afternoon Lylah and I snuggled up with her caterpillar rattle and the book. She loved the holes in the different items the caterpillar eats. She also loved "counting" the food as well. She didn't love any of those things as much as she loved making her very own caterpillar puppet!! I just cut out some circles on my cricuit and helped Lylah glue them down. At first I did the glue, but then I let her help me which she loved!! It is so neat to watch her try to place the shape on the glue. Her little fine motor skills just keep developing! I remember when she would try to put her paci in her mouth and miss and hit her forehead! After I put caterpillar on the stick, she played with him and the glue stick for probably 15 minutes!! Cute, cute!

Another weekend, another bento

2010-09-19T18:17:00.001-07:00

I love the weekends! I get to snuggle our little lady full time and I get to make her bento lunches too!! Here is the one I made today!

This bento had four heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches two of them complete with some fruit leather heart embellishments, veggie chips, avocado slices, and a plum slice smiley face with grape eyes and dried fruit nose and smile. Some fun facts about this bento: I did a jig in Aldi when I found veggie chips AND fruit leather (I love that place). Lylah wasn't as impressed with the fruit leather as I was :) I figured she wouldn't eat it yet, it's kinda tough. Okay with mommy because I really like that stuff!! Lylah ate the other food up, although this time she took her time!

Three Springs Park

2010-09-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

We took a family outing to Three Springs Park on Saturday. Lylah liked it much more than the last time and I was able to snap some fun pictures. Enjoy!

Almost twins

2010-09-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon Lylah and I got to hang out with our buddy MLK!! There was training going on for school so I watched her while her mom, Beth had her round of meetings. We had lots of fun! The girls really played well together. They hugged each other, they took turns (sort of) hugging babies, it was great. At one point I thought it would be big fun to take them to the park. So, I called our neighbor to and borrowed her double stroller. I was able to get both girls out the door by holding their hands. I was really proud of myself. So proud in fact, that as we were walking to the park I got to thinking about what if I had twins. The girls are only about 3 months apart so I figured it wasn't that much different. Still very proud of myself, I decided that I would be able to handle it like a champ.....then we got to the park.

Things went fine as long as the girls were interested in the same things. It was when they got going in different directions that really threw me off!!! Also, MLK is much more of a dare devil then Lylah is so at one point she was at the top of a piece of playground equipment while Lylah was on the steps of the equipment. MLK kept going back and forth while Lylah wobbled on the stairs. This of course was my moment of realization that a single handed park trip was not easy with "twins"! :) We still had fun and I actually did snap a picture of the girls in the double stroller and once we got home that I wanted to share. Oh, and just in case you were wondering...no toddlers were damaged during our little outing! That's a plus, right?

Lylah's first Bento Lunch

2010-09-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

I've really gotten into reading about Bento lunches that other moms are making for their kiddos. From my understanding, Bento lunches are actually very popular in Japan where you would find all kinds of supplies and accessories. If you are interested in seeing some really cute Bentos check out one of my favorite sites. Mine was very simple, but boy was it fun to make and I really think my little lady enjoyed it too. She usually eats like a little bird, but as soon as I sat the lunch down in front of her she started scarfing it down. I mean really scarfing!! I still wasn't able to sneak the tomatoes or black olives pass her, but she actually almost ate everything else!! Another thing that really surprised me was that she didn't even mess with the tray. I thought she might try to tip it over or at least take the muffin cup out, but nope she didn't!! So cool. Anyway, maybe it was a fluke, but I'd like to think that she appreciated something fun and different for lunch. So here is what it looked like:

You can probably tell, but here is what was in Lylah's Bento:
whole wheat pasta tossed in some Italian dressing (with tomatoes and olives)
two sunshine cheddar cheese pieces
four heart watermelon pieces
a handful of grapes sliced
and 1/2 a chopped up hot dog (not healthy, I know)
I decided to link this up here http://www.bentolunch.net/search/label/what%27s%20for%20lunch%20wednesday check it out for lots more fun lunches!
There you have it!! Now here are some shots of Lylah savoring the goodness!

A tribute to summer

2010-09-10T13:56:00.001-07:00

Summer was sweet just like a big juicy piece of watermelon.

It was full of smiles,

and was gone too soon,

goodbye sweet summer and goodbye first big slice of watermelon.

Weekend field trip: Indy Canal

2010-09-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

We went to Indianapolis last weekend to visit Nathan's family and on Sunday we decided to go into the city and walk along the canal. It is really neat and Lylah loved it! She kept signing water at every fountain she'd see and she panted at every single doggie! She even got to try her hand at rolling down a hill like her big cousins were doing. So funny!! It was a beautiful night and very fun indeed! I did manage to snap some pictures even though they were the only ones I took all weekend :( It is a lot harder to take pictures now that she is walking all over the place.