Okay for those of you that did not click away after looking at this beautiful picture…

I promise this is the last feet picture you will ever see of me again.

(I hope.)

I took this Saturday, March 31,  at about 8:30pm after I had finished mowing and weed eating our yard.

All 3 acres.

Which consumed about 3 or 4 hours of my night.

It looks so beautiful when it’s all cut and weed eatted (is eatted or eated even a word…hmmm you know what I mean right?!)

Well this is what it looked like yesterday…………

but I swear it already looked like this Monday

As I stated yesterday and in my blog before that it has been very warm here in Missouri for March and April, and we have also been getting intermittent rain showers

equaling long thick green grass…

that you have to mow every other day!

BOO!

Plus, dandilions have taken over my yard in a bad way!

My girls love it, and I do NOT!

In other news today was one of those intermittent rain shower days, so most of the day the girls and I did…

NOTHING.

Shhh don’t tell.

It was wonderful, but then we all got a little stir crazy so….

I filled the bath tub with water balloons

Because that was the only logical thing to do right?

Brooklyn kept saying “Thank you Mommy! This is so fun!”

“Look Mommy!”

And filled some of them with food coloring…

(Side note: the yellow you see is from the previous balloon even though it may look terribly like pee )

This one was red..

another red one

“Oh yellow!”

Saying “Balloon, Balloon”

Aspen wasn’t too sure about popping the balloons until she watched Brooklyn do it then she was excited

After her first balloon pop she loved it and all the balloons were gone pretty quickly after this shot

Brooklyn said “Look Mommy, red and yellow make orange!!”

It was a fun time and the girls had fun picking up all the water balloons afterwards (which I would advise so they do not end up down your drain… I’m sure your hubby or plumber would not appreciate that)

My girls pretended like they were fish and chased them around the tub until they had nabbed them all!

“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right”

No seriously..

I love to be organized.

My kids just resist it. 

These baskets are currently in a state of empty in my daughters’ drawers because of the mess you see below them.

The pink was Brooklyn’s, 3 years old, shorts and skirts and the blue was Aspen’s.

Now there is this beautiful pile.

Unorganized, unfolded, undone on the floor.

Remember that quiet time I wanted to soak up yesterday….

Ya, quiet time as a mom can also be a sign of something terribly wrong!

And if you ask me this mess is just wrong, but if you ask Aspen it’s pretty hilarious!

Also, I would like you guys to know that today… I used my Swiffer sweeper vac on my counter…. it was a last resort after an awful mess right before we ran out the door for the day.

Yes, I changed the pad first.

(I think.)

Oh motherhood.. you are messy.

And, I love you anyway.

BUT mostly I love what you have given me

Today it is almost 80 degrees.

Pretty warm for early April in Missouri considering we have been known to have snow later in the month then this.

Nothing better then sweet tea in a mason jar outside on the deck!

Now that sounds nice right….

Well…

Is there anything better then sweet tea in a mason jar that has had dirty hands and pizza in it?

..because I am pretty sure that is what you could find in my tea about 3 sips in!

That basically sums up motherhood.

Dirty and hands on.

Pausing this post for a yell from the bathroom to wipe a bottom…..

told you it was hands on…

and dirty!

Back from the loo…

don’t worry I sanitized my hands.

We are now into our 4th month of Jesse’s new schedule and oil field work.

Things around here have been pretty crazy and I spend most days chasing the kids around the house until we all fall asleep.

Especially my youngest, Aspen.

You literally can’t turn around or she is on top of something, creating artwork on the nearest thing that isn’t paper, or riding the dog like a horse.

Here is some beautiful artwork from the last few days.

I am pretty sure that no matter how many times I tell her not to do something that it only makes her want to do it more.

Short of beating her I have tried everything.

I have threatened that too, but she just laughs.

Ahhh terrible two’s have set in early at only 19 months!

(No, I really don’t beat my children.. much.. just ask them! )

Tomorrow we are headed to a petting zoo and some other fun events hosted by Purina Farms, so hopefully I will have some great photos for you guys from that!

My kids are napping, so that means I am going to soak up the silence and work on reading The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks.

(Can’t wait for the movie!)

I haven’t been on here in quite sometime – I actually have only been turning my computer on to upload pictures to my personal facebook and the rest of my days have literally been spent outside non-stop with my girls.

A few things have happened since I last wrote.

My Uncle on my father’s side lost the battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease (a form of muscular dystrophy). It was very unexpected since he was a very strong man and had been doing fairly well for a long time, but at the same time he was frustrated and tired of his disease ruling his life. He couldn’t have went in a more painless way…. my grandmother thought he was only sleeping on the couch when he had actually passed away in his sleep.

It was a very sad day, but what gives me hope is that I know I will see him again some day! Can’t wait for Heaven!

On a lighter and much more hysterical note:

I reported my own van stolen.

When in fact….. it was sitting in my garage.

I had forgotten that during the hail storm the day before I had pulled it in the garage.

I did in fact call the police and everything.

The call back (only a few minutes later) to them was pretty interesting…

The woman on the other end could barely contain her laughter

I just had to laugh too!

*(I would like it noted that I had only about an hour of sleep the night before)

In addition to the note above about no sleep..

My youngest has been having night terrors for sometime now (6 months or more)

They are finally seeming to subside, but are only basically gone when Jesse is home.

In speaking to the doctor about it I knew that there was basically nothing except what I have been doing that will help with the terrors, but I did find out that children her ages usually suffer from night terrors due to seperation issues and since she sleeps better with her daddy home….. we probably have our cause.

He said she will grow out of them and that there is not much you can do…

It has been a struggle waking up with her 4 or more times a night, and then during the day she is exhausted because she didn’t sleep well the night before.

When children don’t sleep well… it only makes night terrors worse… in other words waking up 8 or 10 times a night sometimes.

It had taken a tole on me and I stopped tending to my blog.

I do apologize for my absence, but I felt it best for the situation.

I plan on being back with regular posts soon because I miss writing and I have SOOOO much to show you guys with everything the girls and I have been doing this spring. (That in Missouri has felt like Summer since it’s been 75-85 nearly all of March!)

Sorry no pictures in this post, but MANY MANY to come

The invitation (our first time playing with water beads)

Ages: 18 months & 3 years

“look mommy they are like jumping beans!”

A climbing in

Nope, didn’t like the way that felt

“I like it mommy… it’s squishing between my toes”

“I LOOOOVE THEM!”

putting away the sensory table toys

Wondering where you can snag these water beads? Wondering if they are safe? Are they expensive?

I got these water beads from my local Dollar Tree and they were already “hydrated” (this is about 3 containers in my sensory table).

However, wal-mart sells them in the fake flowers for about $2 a bag (dehydrated – it takes about 24 hours to get them ready and they grow about 200% in size)

I bought some from ShopItAgain.Com for $.69 a bag and usually once a month you can request a FREE sample of them (with FREE shipping) HERE is the current FREE sample!

They are reusable as long as you add water to rehydrate the water beads.

They are non toxic and made out of basically the same thing as contact lenses.

Do NOT let your children eat them, and when my daughters play with them I am right by them the entire time.

Thank you, PAHMs for your ideas!!!

Burt’s Bees just announced the above statement on their facebook, so hurry over to snag your FREE beeswax lip balm!!

68 degrees in February…. Yes, PLEASE!

“Look at all my pine cones Mommy!”

Collecting pine cones with cousin, Michayla!

Miss A’s first pine cone discovery!

One of many attempts to climb this tree!

balancing on the tree

Michayla and Miss B

For most of the walk Aspen wanted me to hold her hand, and it did not hurt my feelings one bit

taking a break

checking out the stump insides

Aspen exploring the stump insides

Michayla on the giant stump

JUMP!

Cousin, Michayla, helping Brooklyn climb the tree

“look mommy this fits”

the whole way back to the car she had her head down in search of “acorn lids”

“look Mommy acorn lids!”

“look how far they go up mommy”

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
– Mark Twain

walking in the door you will see this on the wall to your right

the first thing on the wall is our growth chart … head over here for the tutorial on how to make your own ruler growth chart for $10!

This is the second thing on the wall: a dry erase board and oil drip pan turned magnet board

the last thing on that wall is a set of hanging bookshelf that I made about a year ago – we actually have two sets in our house!

I love them!

looking straight ahead from the door is the craft table with an old dish drainer that holds our regularly used crayons and different sheets of construction paper.

looking to your left from the door you see the closet door (closed in this photo) and the sensory table

also to your left you see the piano and the light table right as you walk in

here is another shot of the sensory table and the shelving we have for our sensory items

we use everything from sand, water, and dirt in this and even jello

here is a picture of the closet door open (as it usually is) and the girls (1 and 3 years) have full access to this

this is the inside of the closet with more craft supplies and the girls also have all access to this even though most of what they use is on the door…

in the back on the left is our box full of things to repurpose:

milk jugs, egg cartons, baby food jars, and so on

this is our newest investment can’t wait to do some new fun things with this $20 beauty!

daily calendar ready for Monday

our newly built light table

we have only used it once so far (only 2 days old lol) , but just put this mirror behind it today while my girls were at my MIL’s house so can’t wait for them to see it!

D.I.Y TUTORIAL ON THIS COMING LATER THIS WEEK

another shot of the light box and the shelving we have for the light box toys

This is our newest setup in my daughter’s old bedroom.

We decided that we needed more wall space then what was offered in our previous playroom, and we don’t have a finished basement so our regular playroom with the bounce house and other toys are downstairs but they much prefer this room.

Pictures to come of the basement playroom later.

The first 10K people to request this coupon will get it! It is for FREE milk form the Milk Mustache Facebook page. This is going to be gone quickly!

** UPDATE: AFTER PRINTING IT IS FREE AFTER YOU BUY 3 BREAKFAST ITEMS

(Good thing I am out of bacon, sausage and I can always use eggs )

Okay, I am pretty excited about this new place I just found!

It is basically like an online thrift store!

You can buy new or used things, and just for joining the website you receive a FREE $10 credit!

(Yes, there are TONS of  things $10 and under!)

The trick is to find the items that offer FREE SHIPPING, but their are TONS of those too!

(Unfortunately the credit can not be applied to shipping costs so if you pick something with shipping you will have to pay that out of pocket!)

Apply your credit and you’re good to go!

One thing I want to mention is that most items have a listing fee of $.60. All that means is, when you checkout, you will be charged $.60. I guess that means it wouldn’t technically be free but really, I am not complaining over $.60!

Here are just a few examples of the 1,000′s of freebies you can snag:

I have seen everything from bags, jewelry, clothes, and so much more go check it out!