52 Week Photo Challenge Week 8

We have had a crazy, batty couple of weeks recently, and we worked hard to get back to somewhat normal this week.  "Normal" for my girls means sleepovers.  I have those girls who think they need a friend over 100% of the time.  I always want our house to be THE house, so as often as possible when they want friends over, I try to lead with my yes.

Daddy wasn't going to be home till late this past Friday night, so I decided to drive myself even battier by letting both girls invite a friend over.

Jadyn and her buddy Skyla.  Jadyn has never been one for playing with toys.  She prefers talking!!!

Rylee on the other hand is a doll lover, and lately is showing a lot of interest in barbies.  Her friend Ally here is obsessed with barbies so Rylee LOVES getting to hang out with her!

My heart adores the fact that Rylee is very much 7 years old.  She is certainly not one of those kiddos I would say is growing up to fast.  Ok I actually don't always adore this fact.  She also thinks I should still dress her.  That I do not adore.

Sweet girls and sweet memories!

Turns out I am not the only DIY decorator in the house!  My girls have jumped on board with this duct tape trend.  The barbie car didn't stand a chance!

Colton isn't old enough for sleepovers, but he does enjoy the park with his friends!

52 Week Photo Challenge Week 7

I am a week late with this weeks photo challenge.  Boo!

For not so fun reasons, we got to spend last week with Aunt Staci.  The reason she was here wasn't a pleasant reason, but we did have a great time with her!  The kids thoroughly enjoyed one on one time with Aunt Staci (cousins Jacob & Kaleb weren't able to be here)!

We spent 2 days shopping at the mall.  One of those days Uncle Aaron, Aunt Wendi & Brett joined us.

Brett in the mall playplace

Something I have never done is actually take my camera to the mall.  This week I am capturing fun pictures that I normally would never actually have taken without this challenge.

Colton enjoying his Chickfila sweet tea



Brett enjoying his chickfila chicken nuggets

One of the most fun things about this particular mall is inside the food court, right next to the tables, are several coin operate ride on toys. 

Colton LOVES these things, and I don't EVER even give him money to use with the ride ons.  He just likes to take turns sitting on them.  And, since I always chose a table near these ride ons, I get extra time with my friends (sister in laws).  A win/win I think.

And, of course, a few minutes must be spent in the actual playplace! 

We had SO MUCH FUN with Aunt Staci here!  I am sad, though, that somehow I have missed taking a single picture of the kids with her.  Aunt Staci, thank you for coming here to help us out this past week!  We love you and can't wait till this summer!

Oh, and just for fun.  A photo of Jadyn and Rylee.  They were working on homework when I asked for a quick picture of them together.  Jadyn was in a great mood.  Rylee....yeah, not so much. 



52 Week Photo Challenge Week 6

After 6 years, 2 seasons a year, of soccer, our girls have moved over to Volleyball.  We are still playing for the YMCA, and Rusty is coaching Rylee's team.  We are having a blast, and REALLY grateful for an indoor sport during the winter!  Yesterday was our first volleyball game of this season, and both girls did great!



Rylee serving (she scored!)





Jadyn serving (she scored, too!)



And what is a 2 1/2 year old to do during a volleyball game?  Well, climb the bleachers of course!

Rylee's Baptism

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

On Monday night October 24th Rusty spontanousely decided to take the girls to see Team Impact hosted by Second Baptist Church at The Berry Center.  Rylee (in traditional Rylee fashion) fought hard not to go.  Our Rylee is a strong willed child and anyone who has a strong willed child knows that you fight a million different
battles a week.  I do my best to avoid any unneccessary battles.  I considered this one of those unneccessary battles, Rusty on the other hand felt very strongely that both girls needed to be there with him that night.

Rylee came home that night with a big announcement.  She had prayed and asked Jesus into her heart.  The team gave an invitation for anyone that would like to pray and ask Jesus to be their savior to come forward.  Rusty said Rylee was laying her head on him and he truly didn't even think she was listening, but she turned to him, looked up and asked if she could go up.  Wanting to be sure of what she was asking to do, he asked her what she was going up for.  She said to ask Jesus into her heart.  Obviously, he jumped up and took her forward.

I admired Second because they were prepared for baptisms on the spot that week.  Rusty declined though since Mommy (and many other family members) weren't present.  She had her opportunity to celebrate her decision with her baptism this past weekend though at our church.

We were thrilled to be told that daddy could baptize her too!  It was also very cool that she was baptized the same day as a couple of her friends from church!

Such an exciting and emotional day.  We celebrate with service that morning with Nana, Noonie, Poppie, Aunt Wendi, Uncle Aaron, Kyle, Mrs Amanda, Mr Aaron, Jackson and Skyla.  We continued our celebration with a delicious fajita lunch at El Palenque. 

I am so incredibly thankful for both daughters salvations, but on October 24th I went to bed incredibly thankful for a Godly husband who leads our family so well!

Even Sick You Can't Avoid Mom's Camera

Rylee missed more school within 2 weeks this month than she has missed altogether in the past 3 years of school.  After 2 trips to the dr's office, being sent home from school early 3 times over 2 weeks and missing 4 full days (not in a row), she was diagnosed with bronchitis.  It was a very long, boring, homebound 2 weeks. 

Lots of movies, books, computer games and MEDICINE!  Hands down the worst part of being sick for Rylee is the taking of medicine.  Other than berry flavored Ibuprofen she does not take medicine well.  In fact, when she was 3 I was trying to force her to take Children's tylenol and she SPIT IT ALL back at me, I lifted her up and stomped off to the kitchen.  I then tripped in the kitchen.  A fall that resulted in a small crack in my left knee cap.  I have yet to let her forget it.

Parents are always saying that they hate when their kids are sick.  I have a confession....I kinda like it.  They are calm, well behaved, and it is apparently the only time I can get Rylee to model for me.

Yep, I made my sick child model for me.  I am so mean.  I did pay her.  Does that make it ok?

DIY Camera Bag

I said I wanted to share my craft/diy projects here.  I realized during this project that I was also going to have to share what a FLOP they could turn out to be.  This was almost one.

http://jototes.com/handbags/rose-black

 Having seen these camera bags that look like purses I knew that I wanted one!  Rusty and I share an illness that requires us to try to DIY anything before we buy it.  Well, at $89 I wasn't really in the market to buy this bag anyway.  Like all things just search Pinterest for it!  I found this tutorial over at vanillaandlace.blogspot.com. 



vanillaandlace bag

I am not going into how to make it (just see her tutorial).  No, instead I am going to tell you the couple of things I did wrong.

First off, I didn't read the instructions.  I have a bad habit of having too much confidence in my abilities.  Particulary, those abilities that require a sewing machine. 

Second, and this wasn't my choice.  The tutorial calls for foam padding to be between 1/2'' - 3/4'' thick.  All I could find in Hobby Lobby was 1" thick foam.  I had to use a sharp knife to slice through it so that my sides would not be too thick.  Not easy my friends.

Third, I bought fabric without deciding which purse I was going to use.  Great fabric.  Only problem is I ended up deciding to go with a brown purse that I had that was a perfect size.  Brown and black wouldn't have been my first choice, but the color combo is very trendy right now.  This turned out to be a happy accident.


The turqouise is an accent color for another camera project

Fourth, I did not read instructions.  Yes, I said that already.  But it needed to be repeated.  I got to measuring, cutting, and sewing.  Got all 4 sides almost attached for the base.  Then read instructions and realized that I did not need 4 sides just 2 long ones.  I was thankful for this mistake because one of my sides was too long anyway. And, it didn't fit into the purse either.  Oh boy.  Easy enough fix.  Just remove the 2 small ends that were unneccessary. 

All in all, after all mistakes were corrected, it turned out great!



Lots of room for my camera and lenses.  And plenty of room for the new lens that I want....hint, hint, hubby ;)

You can see a little bit of the camera strap I made to coordinate with the bag.  Very happy with it all!  I am making a promise to myself to save time and fabric in the future by reading instructions though.

I am sharing over at Kristens Creations

52 Week Photo Challenge Week 5

Noonie and Poppie are in town this weekend for Rylee's baptism on Sunday (more on that next week!).  Jadyn spent the night with her friend, Seerdyn, on Friday night to celebrate Seerdyn's birthday.  On Saturday my mom treated me to a mani/pedi and while there Jadyn and Seerdyn came in.  It was a neat moment watching Jadyn enjoying having her nails done with a friend.  In that moment she seemed so big, so grown up.


Poor quality iPhone pic

I found myself caught up in a moment imagining my girl as a teenager.  I am hopeful, excited and a bit nervous about those years! 

Colton was also introduced to computer games.  More specifically http://www.pbskids.org/!  He has gotten pretty good at maneuvering the mouse, and his particular favorites are anything Curious George!

And a little collage just for fun!  Our nephews Kyle and Brett spent the night with us on Friday night.  Saturday morning I attempted pictures (for this photo challenge).  Rylee and Kyle refused due to some squabble ensuing with them and Brett just flat out didn't like the camera.  I did think Brett's objection of the camera was particularly cute, though.



Rain, Rain, DON'T Go Away

After the exceptional drought we Texans have suffered with this year, any little bit of rain is a big deal.  We are very thankful, though, for the several rainfalls we have enjoyed this January and now into February.  Yesterday, Colton slipped on his froggy boughts from Aunt Staci and enjoyed a bit of puddle splashin'!

Unfortunately, we had to run errands during the actual rain so we missed out on playing in the rain falling this time.

Colton didn't care, though.  I don't have a smiling picture because he wouldn't look up from the puddles long enough for me to snap the picture.

For the record the puddles are bigger/deeper than they appear through my lense!

He is now Temple Run.  If you remember from a  past post, he thinks Temple Run WANTS to jump in the water.

Time for the boots to come off and "swim" into the "lake".

Colton told me over and over "This is fun"!  I think it is as much fun for me watching you, too, little man.

Oh, and I may have an addiction to PW's colorized action.