it's not easy being green

as the parent of three children and a bible believing christian, i feel the need to do my part in caring for our planet. God gave us the earth and as his people, i believe we should take care of it. unlike many tree huggers, i do not believe that it will go away if we do not. i believe only God can do that. just as i should take care of my body even though God will choose when it will no longer be needed. all that said, we still try to do our part here by recycling cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, etc. we try not to litter or waste materials and so on. i am sure we can do more. and, we try to incorporate things as we become more aware. 

i know many people use these:

and, i think that is great. it is not for me. as a parent of three, i can hardly keep up with the laundry we produce, much less if i had a bucket full of these at the end of each day. plus, our almost three year old boy is still in diapers (i know, i know) and, well, if you saw what was in them, you would agree that we shouldn't use cloth ones too.

but then, i found these:

seriously, some things should not be reused. if you don't know what they are, look real close. that's right. i understand some of the benefits of cloth diapers, such as: 

saves money

safe for the earth

healthier alternative

the same benefits apply to these i am sure, but, really. 

and, i don't care how cute the fabric print is, that's just gross!

ugh!

"what in the world is lightening mcqueen doing on my hard wood floor?" you ask. i was wondering the same thing, so i investigated. 

paper? no.

sticker? no.

what in the world.

oh my gosh.

it's a rub-on. 

a rub-on. on my hard. wood. floor.

and it wasn't just lightening. it was doc. it was sheriff. and it was other various cars inspired parifinalia.

seriously. how did this happen? 

well, it turns out the cars rub-ons were in a box of stickers and paper miller begged to bring home from meme & papaw's. turns out, no one knew they were in there and miller didn't know what they were so they had gone unused. turns out, that his sister found them, knew what they were and knew how to use them. hmpf! of course, it did not turn out that she knew how to clean them up. ugh!

the colonel

are you a blog stalker?

i am. my friends and i talk about it all the time. how you click here and here and before you know it, you have fallen down the rabbit hole. then, when you land on one you love, you start at the very beginning and read every post they have ever written. if they still have your heart, then you add them to your favorites or your google reader or add yourself as a follower. and, within a few posts, you're besties. or at least you feel like it, but you've never met them or talked to them. like i said, you're a stalker.

one of the girls i stalk just so happens to be a bride of josh's. she has chosen to document her wedding ideas and plans on a blog. what a great idea! when i got married, you used a 3-ring binder. i still have it. somewhere. 

now, when your husband is a wedding photographer, you look at a lot of wedding pictures and, therefore, a lot of dresses, flowers, decorations, cakes, shoes, etc. i actually enjoy this. it is fun to see what people come up with. i think that is why i enjoy reading the pink paisley bride. she has a humorous way of covering all the details you dreamed about from the day you were born and still enjoy admiring long after your big day. another reason i like her blog is the nickname she has given her fiance-captain fantastic. i may have to steal it. it just sounds cool. example:

captain fantastic and i took the kids to the zoo today. 

oh, wait, if my husband sounds like a super hero then i will have to change my kids names, too. hmmm. 

and, the other reason i read the ppb is that she loves many of the same things i love-monograms, paper, silhouettes, etc. i know you love these things, too. so, i thought i would share a recent find on etsy.

you can find it here. i love it! i want one. but not of colonel awesome and i, but of our three wee ones- super diva, lieutenant awe, and the babe. (okay, so maybe the new monikers sound a bit ridiculous.) how cute would they be! but, for all you brides out there, this would be really cool with one of your engagement pictures. then, you could put it on thank you notes, a return address stamp, enclosure cards, etc. and, i would definitely frame one, too. oh, i can't wait!

oh, yeah, and if you are a blog stalker, comment every once and a while and then it's not so weird-advice i am going to take myself.

a little boy

i cannot believe it is happening. it breaks my heart a little. i know it will only get worse, but it has definitely begun. 

miller is no longer a baby or a toddler, he is a little boy. it hasn't happened suddenly. i have noticed one thing here and there. after giving birth, of course, i noticed how much bigger he looked and how he no longer looked like the baby he had the day before. but, then i noticed his hands had thinned out and were no longer chubby or dimpled. then, i noticed that he was just so full of energy all the time. he already creates running games that appear to have no true rules or goal. one such game took place while we were waiting for our valentine crayons to cook at my parents' house. 

my parents have this crazy steep hill in their back yard. miller would run to the top of the hill and then run as fast as he could down the hill looking as if he would fall every step of the way.

ready . . .

set . . .

run!

smile! 

well, at least that is what i said when i wanted to document the crazy outfit he was wearing. this is not what we wore to meme and papaw's house! my kids are obsessed with changing clothes at my parents' house. miller found these pjs from last summer and demanded he wear them. we gave in, of course, so we could laugh at how ridiculous they looked. they looked even more ridiculous when he put his converse on to go outside. now, you tell me, does he look like a toddler anymore to you?? where did my baby go?!?

a valentine tutorial

we made these really cute heart crayons for our valentines this year. they are not a new idea, but i thought someone might want to know how to make them. so, here goes!

first, we peeled the paper off of the crayons.

then, we broke each crayon into four pieces and separated the crayons by color. 

next, we placed about 12 pieces in each heart of the heart shaped mold. somehow i have no picture of this step. oh no, this tutorial is going badly already! then, we placed the mold on a cookie sheet (to protect your oven & make for easier in & out) and put it in the oven at 275 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until the crayons had completely melted.

this is what the crayons looked like as they began to harden. i say begin because, if you look closely, you can see where each of my children put a finger in one of the top molds. 

here they are once we removed them from the molds.

this was a great craft for the kids. peeling the paper, breaking the crayons and separating into the heart molds is great for fine motor, too. (sorry, that is the teacher in me!) but, beware that when taken out of the oven, it is like hot molten lava and is not a kid friendly. i think this would be fun for various holidays or birthday party favors. in fact, you may see them again in a few months!

tips & tricks:

i have received several questions so i thought i would answer them here in case anyone else was curious.

*the crayons were purchased in single color packs of 12 at www.dickblick.com.

*the silicone mold was purchased at target in the $2.50 section. i would not use the same mold for food because i doubt it would ever come clean enough. 

*i put the mold and cookie sheet out of the oven straight into the freezer to help speed up the cooling process.

*you do not want to overcook the crayons because the wax separates and some color is lost.

i adore . . .

i adore any holiday that you can make decorations for. i guess you could make decorations for all of them, but i think it would be weird if you were to walk in my house and see a banner with several presidents hanging on the mirror. it would at least be a little creepy! so, instead, i will create things for the day of love.

so, here is a simple banner made with a fun scalloped oval. it is simple because i couldn't figure out how to embellish the oval shape without it looking weird. but, simple is good. i like simple.
i love it's location. i thought because it was such a short word, it needed a smaller home. i liked the way it looked so much, that i told josh it may hang there until september. why then, i don't know. i guess it just sounds far away. i have high aspirations for crafting this week, but we shall see!

splish, splash, spencer's first bath 01.31

so, um yeah, we are just keepin' it real here in blogland! if you read the entire title which includes the date of the photos, you are probably thinking to yourself, "her first bath was january 31st, wasn't she born on december 29th?" and, yes, you would be correct!

hey, don't be a hater! she is third, and until she can take a bath with the other two, bathing her will be, well, inconvenient. just to give her this bath, someone had to empty the dishwasher to have a place to put the pile of dirty dishes in both sides of the sink and do several loads of laundry just to find the counter.
and, someone had to go in the attic and find the correct box that contained the newborn bathtub and someone else had to rinse it out. we also wanted for the weather to warm up just a bit as not to scar her mentally from taking a warm bath in a frigid, old home.
and, honestly, we waited that long because we just never had time to do it before. i know it is sad, but life is a little hectic with three children and a husband who works multiple jobs! and, it's not like newborns get dirty!
just look at that sweet face. doesn't she look precious and happy and clean!

mawwage is what bwings us togetha today

carter has been obsessed with getting married for a while now. she is always telling me she wants to get married and tries to get miller to pretend they are getting married. (for a long time he said no, but he is coming around. poor little brothers being bossed around by their older sisters!) 

it is not uncommon for carter's preschool teachers to brag about something she created. when i was teaching next door (before spencer was born), they would frequently come over to show me something she had made. if you know carter, you know she loves to create-kinda like her momma, i guess. so, anyway, one day i was greeted at the door by ms.carla telling me i had to see what carter had made. she was right. it was precious. when i asked carter what is was, she said, "me and milluh getting mawwied." 

i love it! i love the detail. i love the hands glued together! i love that she loves her brother. and, i love the stage when girls want to marry their daddies and brothers because they love and look up to them so much. one day, somebody will have mighty big shoes to fill!

let it snow 01.20

a few sweet pictures taken before preschool on one of the many days it has snowed here. look at the single flake on miller's eyelash! and, carter trying to taste the snowflakes. i love that they think snow is magical (even if i am over it this winter!)

cause & effect

everyone asks, "how do carter and miller like her?" or "what about carter & miller?" or "do they like having a baby sister?"

and my response is always the same: "they love her!" and it is true. and then i say, "sometimes too much!" and that too is true. see example below.

A

plus

B

equals

C

we joke that her first words will be "go away" because she is never left alone. bless her heart! everyone wants to be loved this much, right?!?

to whom it may concern

dear mother nature,

i believe you have made some horrible mistake. or maybe i am trapped in a bad cold dream. it seems you have forgotten that i live in the "midsouth". it is here that we have ridiculously long and humid and hot summers; very short, blink and you miss them springs and falls, and mild might snow once winters. this has been the pattern for as long as i can remember. so, why must you change your mind now? are you angry at all al gore's fame? i know i think it is ridiculous too, but must you punish the rest of us just to prove your point. please, take pity on this precious new one that just entered the world.

should she look like an eskimo just to drop her sister and brother off at preschool? she has on more layers than one should. thank goodness she's not mobile yet because she wouldn't be after the way i dress her to keep her warm. not only are the temperatures ridiculously cold, but the wind, oh the wind, makes it feel worse. then, the rain and the snow-we have gone to preschool twice with snow on the ground. yes, i said on the ground! i know, i am being a bit melodramatic. okay, maybe more than a bit, but seriously. please, help me. i can't take it anymore. my skin is dry, my hair is static-y, my house is cold. i need sunshine and warm weather. soon. 

sincerly,

bitter & cold in tennessee

oh, and noggin, winter is not the most wonderfulest season.

iphone pics

one of the things i have come to love about my phone is the camera and note pad. i had a camera phone before, but the pictures were horrible. my iphone produces pretty decent pictures and the note pad allows me to keep lists and document little quotes or stories all on my phone. it has practically become my life line. i really don't want to forget these things they have said or done, and now, maybe i won't. i thought it would be fun to see some of the things we have captured since i got my phone.

this is miller at ikea in atlanta. when you go inside, they give you a pencil and paper to keep up with things you like. josh put his pencil behind his ear and miller wanted to be just like daddy. too cute!

carter trying on some blingetty bling bling shoes at macy's one night. i truly believe she walks better in heels than her mama. so sad!

"i sister!" is what miller proclaimed when he put carter's bow headband on his head one day at target. he is too funny!

the little mama one saturday morning with her "baby". we have been revisiting this game the past few days. i had to pry two children out of this stroller today alone.

never a better time to preserve a memory than when your children are riding a jackass with a skeleton! here they are outside one of our favorite mexican restaurants.

one sunday morning on the way to church, miller put a pull-up on his head and thought it was hysterical. carter and i thought so, too. i literally pulled over on the side of the road to take this picture.

moose ears and a book about cookie-gotta love the dollar section at target!

bob the builder, can you fix it?

bob the builder, yes he can!

miller helping renovate meme and papaw's house.

last week after preschool miller started talking about "mr.socky". i turned around to find this. no shoes or socks on his feet, but a fun little puppet on his hand. look how funny he thinks it is that "mr.socky is poopy"-ugh, boys!

and then sunday, i walked into the living room to find this. apparently, miller's moose wanted to check out the view. what do you see, moose?

i never know when i might need to capture something my kids say or do, especially if miller is involved. as seen above, that kid is FuNnY!

sunday morning 01.11

one sunday morning while josh was at church, miller found a box of packing peanuts by the back door. we believed they were in a safe location before being disposed of, miller believed they were the perfect opportunity to pretend it was snowing. that's right, snowing. 

first, he dumped the entire box on the floor. enter tired, blurry eyed mama. what in the world? he said ms.donna brought "snow" to school and they played and had snow ball fights and it was so fun. did you clean it up? i asked. no, ms.donna did. once the mess had begun, i just went with it. 

here carter is trying with all her might to push miller like he is sledding, but to no avail. by the way, the box is what originally contained the "snow". nice size, huh?

then, it was time for "snow" angels.

in case you are wondering where all the "snow" is-umm, try under every nook and cranny of my living room. the clean-up took for-ev-a. mostly because miller refused to help. he lost many toys to the attic that morning. we picked up peanuts for days. days, i tell ya. ms.donna, why didn't you help clean up at my house??

the above photos are all thanks to my only memory tracking device, the iphone, and were taken from my nursing perch on the couch.

newborn favorites

i don't know why or how, but we tend to forget so many things about newborns. i have had three children all of similar weights and yet each time i am shocked at how tiny they are. but, like i said, i have had three children and what i have found is that some things are, and will always be, precious about newborns.

1. milk lips: these are the milky white look of their lips right after nursing. it has to be my absolute favorite newborn trait. if you have no idea, what this is, look below. another favorite nursing trait, the nursing callous that forms on their top lip.

2. pterodactyl cries: this is my terminology for the newborn cries. i don't know about you, but all three of my children have sounded like a pterodactyl when they cried as a newborn. it is a distinct cry, not the same as the older infant or toddler cry.
here is spencer making the pterodactyl cry during her newborn photo shoot. of course, we had to change our idea due to this response.

3. newborn smell. i don't think you need any help with this one. ummm, so yummy.

4. tininess: is that even a word? tininess. i love that everything is tiny. especially with this one. 

miller was not. his head was (and still is) huge. not on the chart until after a year. he was long. 21 1/2 inches long. and he grew quickly for the first year. 

spencer has the tiniest feet i have ever seen. so tiny. her head is so tiny. she is so tiny. with this tininess comes tiny diapers, tiny clothes, and tiny everything else. 

it's these things that make the sleep deprived nights, caffeine induced stupor, and baby brain seem a worth while exchange-well, at least for a little while.

and baby makes three

oh my goodness! i couldn't decide which one i liked best, so you get to these few. i could just eat them all up, especially miller's giggle face in the second one. they just love her as you can tell. they want to hold her hand and sit with her in their lap and show her their toys and sing to her and kiss her and hug her and teach her where her hands are and on and on and on. it is just too sweet! and the best part is, there is no sibling rivalry with her yet!

with her, no one makes ugly faces or screams or takes her favorite toy or hits or stomps or says mean things or colors on her paper or on and on and on. that's right, we have begun the battle here. don't get me wrong, it is not all day, and they love on one another way more than they fight. and the way they love each other, almost makes you forget that a few minutes ago they were playing tug-of-war with the stroller and carter was making an ugly face with her teeth bared together while miller screamed his shrill scream at the top of his lungs and i nursed spencer while screaming over it all to stop fighting. oh, the joys of motherhood! it makes you realize your parents were right, even more than you already thought. and if you are reading this, thinking my children won't act that way-ha! just wait a few years, or months!-because we all fight with our siblings, just think about your own!

word world

carter has always had her own vocabulary. she mispronounces words or creates her own. i know we should correct them, but i know one day they will all be pronounced correctly and i will miss each one. now, don't fret, we don't perpetuate the situation by pronouncing them the way she does. we just allow her to make the correlation on her own. but, some are so cute, i just have to share. 

hamptry (n): a room designated for storing non perishable food products and the washing machine, clothes dryer and any such materials.

created from a combination of the words hamper and pantry.

for those of you with a large house, you are thinking how can this be one. in our tiny house, we are just thankful to have our washer and dryer indoors and next to one another. in our first house, the washer was in the kitchen next to the stove and the dryer was in the pantry. so, if you have a hamptry in your house, consider yourself lucky!

pictographer (n): a person who takes pictures

created from a combination of the words picture and photographer.

carter's preschool class is currently discussing community helpers. she came home saying her friend's dad is a dentist. he is actually a lawyer, but i am not sure how the confusion began. she talked about dentists several times before i asked her if she knew what josh and i did. she said, "yes, daddy is a pictographer."

babing suit (n): a item of clothing typically worn in the warmer summer months when at the beach, pool or sprinkler park. 

mispronunciation of the words bathing suit,

or created from a combination of the words babe and bathing suit.

this is one of her first word creations. it started two summers ago. we relished in it thinking it would be corrected the next summer, but it wasn't. and, deep down, it made us happy. 

everyone loves a little boy in uniform

seriously, how cute is this?

but, wait, i think this may be even cuter! i can't decide. what do you think?

too bad the firemen & emts that visited our house early new year's day weren't this adorable. 

yes, you read right, we had a short visit, followed by an ambulance ride, early last thursday morning. spencer was born last monday and we came home from the hospital on wednesday around noon. early thursday morning, after i finished feeding spencer, she turned her head and spit up blood. what appeared to be pure, red blood. i calmly woke up josh and asked him to turn the light on and get a burp cloth. then i told him spencer had spit up blood. as i sat and looked at it in the light, i was suddenly struck with "now what?" i got up to see if our pediatrician had an emergency number and josh started looking it up in the biggest waste of paper ever printed. as i was about to call the office on my cell phone to see if they listed an emergency line, spencer projectile vomited blood and brown yuck all over me and her. i freaked and dialed 911. this is the bottom line-my baby was 2 1/2 days old. it was a holiday. and it was 5:50 a.m. no one else was available and i wanted to know for sure why there was so much blood. although the emts were not concerned about her condition (she was calm, she was pink, she was breathing) they did think we should be assured that the blood was mine and not hers. they speculated the blood was mine, but it just seemed like a lot to me to be all mine. so, i held spencer in a blood stained gown, blanket and burp cloth wearing mismatched clothes also covered in blood all the way to baptist in the back of an ambulance. surreal is all i can say. surreal. once there, spencer endured various tests including a tube down her throat to pump stomach contents, 2 vials of blood drawn, blood pressure cuff, rectal thermometer readings, etc. they collected blood from the burp cloth and sent everything off for 2 different tests to be run. after 2 hours, they both said that the blood was all mine. apparently there is a nursing condition called "rusty pipes" in which blood in drawn through the milk ducts during nursing. the condition is more likely to occur with subsequent children and occurs in the beginning when oxitocin is released in the body during nursing. thank goodness the emergency room pediatrician knew a lot about breastfeeding. he called a lactation consultant at baptist women's for any recommendations (just more nursing). and, we were released and home before 10 a.m. so, spencer and i took our first ambulance rides together-me at 30 and her at 2 1/2 days. let's pray it will also be the last for all of us!

oh, but now that you have read that crazy story that i had to document before all the details are blurry, look back up to the top at those adorably cute pictures. now, that's better!

* my mom corrected me. the condition is called rusty pipes, not leaky pipes. crazy baby brain! i told you i needed it documented before i couldn't remember the details. you're lucky i used the correct child's name! 

baby love

spencer abigail malahy arrived monday, december 29th at 1:51 p.m. weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. 

we are all smitten. she is just precious! 

thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!