Christmas Junkie!!

I cannot say enough how much I love Stevie Joy's age!!!  I thought I loved 2 year olds, but 3 year olds are where it's at!!!  She gets soooo excited about things and is so easy to teach!  At this point, I feel like she will be so much fun to homeschool someday :-)  

 This week we are talking about the letter "R" as in reindeer and Rudolph!  It doesn't take much to get her into things!  She has been singing the song all day long now, and drawing her letter "Rr" everywhere :) I put her in this Rudolph shirt for pajamas tonight and she was ecstatic!!

She found this ball and made herself a red, shiny nose!  I love her little imagination and creativity!!

She wanted me to be Rudolph too :-)

We are creating a little Christmas Junkie!!  We do some type of Christmas craft everyday!! 

We are both in Heaven!

We made a little Christmas countdown,,our plan is to take the number off each day as we get closer to Christmas day and write on the back of the number card a reason we are happy that Jesus was born, then put the cards down inside this Star container and review the cards and the reasons that we are so happy that Jesus was born 

 

Stevie Joy has been saying the funniest thing, she holds her toy gun up in the air and shouts, "Who wants to go shopping?!"  I guess she knows how intense the shopping crowd is out there :-)

~~~~Onto Neela Grace~~~~

Check out pretty Neela's locks are!!

 

And her big, beautiful eyes!!

 

Just chilling by the tree :)  It's where you can find her most of the time!

I love my little Christmas Junkies,,,we have found a nice balance of talking about Jesus's birth and the other Christmas type things there are,,,they love discussing the birth of Jesus each morning after breakfast and singing Away in a Manger, they even know all the sign motions :-)  We talk a lot about giving, but truthfully, we do these things all year round!  Next weekend, we plan to give out mistle toe up at the local grocery store here and minister with the kids to our local neighbors :) I did not grow up in a family that discussed a lot of Jesus things around Christmas time, so I am relying a lot of Seth's traditions and we are making our own up as we go along ;)  And enjoying every minute of it!!

Ending the Holiday Break!

Each year of my life seems to be getting better and better, at this rate I am going to be one happy senior citizen, haha!  Thanksgiving break was the perfect combination of relaxing, going, cooking, eating, cuddling, decorating, etc.  We hated to see the break end, most of all we hated to see Seth go back to work all day long.  Sunday night we decided to do one last fun thing with the kiddos before heading back to reality.

After the kids got up from their naps, we headed to McDonalds for icecream (this particular McDonalds has a big play area that has the tables inside the playroom so the kids can play while pausing for icecream breaks, we love it!!).

Neela loves ice cream, and happily finished off everyone else's when they got up to play, haha

 

Stevie Joy did enjoy a lot of her ice cream too ;)

 

Playing!  

He goes up and down the slide the WHOLE time!! he loves it there!!

After playing for a while, we rode around and looked at Christmas lights, there is one house near there (which I *just* now figured out that a good friend of mine lives there) that has the lights that are timed with the music playing on your radio,,I still have no clue how this kind of thing works, but I think that it is sooo neat!

The kids were in awe!  We sat there for about 4 songs, which is kinda long for 3 toddlers,,,Titus kept pointing at the lights with his finger and saying "oooo", Stevie kept saying, "Oh my gosh, that is so cool, look at that my daddy, you like that?" haha, and Neela made up a silly little song that goes, "I wanna go home! I wanna go home!" haha, she is not a fan of Christmas lights and she actually for some reason finds them scary?  She's so crazy!  Here is a video of the house in action!

We rode around in Hahira for a little while looking at all the new lights our fellow neighbors had put up over the break.  We had so much fun!  I am not sure if it was the sugar high or what? but Seth and I could not quit laughing at the kids!!  They were being so funny, we were literally giddy they had us in tears,,,maybe we just caught the Christmas spirit? or maybe our kids really are that funny???  

I have to share a funny story, and I hope no one gets offended, but it was so funny to us, we turned down this road into a trailer park to see the lights in there and Stevie Joy shouted from the very back of the van,,,"NO! Don't go in here, Santa does NOT live in a trailer!"  bahaha, we were tickled (p.s. I lived in a trailer until I was a freshman in high school, so if I am not offended, then no one should be, haha!).

We had some fun family time, then headed back home, changed into pj's, read some books, cuddled, prayed and put the kids to bed.  Seth and I were not too far behind them (3rd trimester makes me tired, and I guess Seth has my sympathy pains). :-)

Playing at the Bee!

I love having a playground across the street from our house,,we play over there nearly everyday!

It really helps us to do something out of the house, but we don't have to pack all up and drive somewhere :)

here are a few pics from my phone of us there the other day (when it was nice and warm).

 (left to right) Titus eating fruit snacks (currently his favorite thing to eat), group shot, Sweet Tea!!

Toms are perfect for preggers, I never get tired of Stevie Joy picking me little flowers!!

P.S. the girls call it the "bee" because there is a little bumble bee riding toy there, ha!

Now that the weather has finally cooled off, we haven't really been over there as much, last year Neela and Titus both caught pneumonia, so I am super cautious about them getting too cold :-/

So this week we have stayed indoors much more than usual, gives me a chance to catch up on laundry (haha, yeah right) it's still a HUGE massive pile on my love seat!

Our Day (typically)

I saw on another blog that I read (she has 5 kiddos all a year apart, so she's inspiring to me), that she did a post of "Day in the Life" where she basically wrote out everything she did in a day.

I thought it would be a neat idea, help hold me accountable, see where I waste time, make the most of my time, etc.  So here it goes,,my version of "Day in the Life"  :-)

7:00 Hear Seth wake up and get ready for work (he is such a sweet hubby and picks out his clothes the night before and puts them on the couch to get ready in the living room and even brushes his teeth, deo, and cologne in the kitchen, so that I can get some extra sleep without being disturbed),,I know I hit the JACK POT with my sweet, wonderful husband :-)

7:30 Wake up open the door to let the girls get up,,they are pretty much always awake and talking/laughing with each other waiting on mommy to let them out of bed.  Then we cuddle on the couch with a quilt talking about what we want to do for the day while waiting on Mr. Titus to wake up

7:45 I hear Titus playing in his bed so I go and get him,,,I line all the kiddos up and change diapers and put on clean diapers or panties (for Stevie)

8:00 The kids sit at the table while I prepare breakfast, normally I ask them what they would like for breakfast, most often they will respond with legit breakfast meals, but sometimes they say "goldfish" or "chocolate cake" or "I want Neela for breakfast" ha!

8:10 we eat breakfast together and then after breakfast while we are all still sitting at the table, we have our Bible time, prayers, and sing songs to Jesus :-)  They are amazing at how well they soak it all up and really enjoy it!!  I brush their teeth while they are still at the table

8:45-9ish We take off pj's and put on real clothes for the day, depending on what we are doing that day decides rather we have play clothes or "real clothes" on

9:15 Titus goes down for his morning nap and the girls and I have our Learning time (which lasts about an hour),,we talk about the day of the week, months of the year, weather, Holidays/Birthdays, we have a learning board that we do that contains the weekly letter, number, color, character trait (honesty, courage, etc.), and most often we have some sort of craft to work on,,some days it is elaborate and some days it is super simple, also we read books that go along with the learning theme for the week.

10:30 I am usually ready for a little unwind time, so I let the girls have free play while Titus finishes up his nap,,I check my email, gchat with Seth while he is at work, facebook (duh)

11:00 Titus wakes up, change his diaper, and we can either go outside to play, go on a golf cart ride, run an errand, visit friends/family, go to see Daddy for lunch, play at castle in the mall, whatever our hearts desire, if it's raining then we may make movies with the video camera, play dress up, play hide n seek, etc.

12:00 lunch and clean up

12:30 Read a book (lower level so Titus will semi stayed interested), then they can watch a show until nap time, sometimes Praise Baby  (Titus likes it the most), sometimes Diego,whatever short show on Netflix they choose (we don't have cable)

1-4 nap time/rest time in the house (I have my quiet time, work on Babies Can't Wait stuff if I need to,blog, facebook, check emails, make any necessary phone calls for the day, talk with Seth, text friends, sometimes yoga/exercise, sometimes lay out in the chair to get a little vitamin D while doing these things)

4:00 Nap times over boys and girls :-)  I fold laundry, play with the kiddos, clean up a little bit, start dinner, basically free play for the kids, sometimes we play little games (Memory, Candy Land, etc.), but with Titus awake too, it's tough,,visit the playground that is RIGHT across the street from our house, often this is when we would do a "Holiday inspired craft" snowmen, pumpkins, easter type things  :)

5:30 or 5:45,,the Glorious time when Sethie comes home from work!!  We eat dinner together and clean up, then have some fun family time (bike ride, walk, golf cart ride, visit family, or run an errand or two)

around 6:30 or so we bathe the children (which you can imagine takes a while to bathe 3 kiddos), they like to play a while in the bath, dry them off, put on pj's, and cuddle/play for a while on the floor.

7:00 we put on a little Netflix or a movie (often the girls will choose to watch Lion King in their room), then bed time, Titus goes to bed first then the girls,,,we read a little story and say little prayers with each of them every night.

8:00-PARTY!!  ha, just kidding, but we do really enjoy each other at this time without the distraction of little babies, most often we both need a little unwind time, where we will hop online and surf or some social networking, then we will talk, joke around, cuddle, eat yummy snacks, watch shows, "make more babies", etc.

Seth goes to bed waaaaay later than me, I am usually asleep by 10:00,,I think he goes to bed around 12 or 1 most nights, he reads the Bible, surfs, watches shows, etc.

We both need to add some more alone time with the Lord to our daily "schedules" and we need to add some exercise to our schedules,,ha!  We have an elliptical machine that we *use* to work out on a whole bunch,,this should take place again, haha

Maybe this post was inspiring to other mommies, maybe it was super boring, maybe no one is even still reading, except Seth (hi Seth, lol),,but I thought it would be a neat thing to look back on some day and see what we were up to :-)

Guess Who Is Back???

Titus is FINALLY back to his old self again!

And he is cracking us UP!!

 

He loves wearing wigs

And we love having our little buddy back to his happy, playful self :)

Ahhhhhh New Boots

Sethie, my sweet, funny, handsome, FUN, charming, smart hubby bought me some boots offline,,,I cannot wait for them to come in :)

I love them, and he did SOOOO good picking them out for me!  He prides himself in knowing his wife so well!!  I am thankful for a wonderful husband who cares so much about little 'ol me ;)

Decorating for Christmas

Seth is very hardcore about "No Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving", but I like to enjoy the Holiday cheer as long as possible, so our compromise is to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  *Sometimes we shop Black Friday specials, but really we find better deals online, so what's the point?

Here are some pics of our day today, spent decorating and enjoying some fun family time :)

(Read: this is a lonnnnng post, sorry, I got picture happy!)

I love digging through the box of ornaments and talking about all the little trinkets in there

It takes us nearly all day to decorate the house, because we stop for lots and lots of breaks to do this:

 

Seth cursing putting up the tree ;)

we got a fake tree this year for a couple of reasons, 1) saves us money, b/c we already had the tree 2) the cats 3) the toddlers in our house may pull it over, *particularly the tot whose name starts with a "T", ha! 4) we will probably kill it, neither one of us EVER remember to water anything that's not a human around here (the girls remember the cats' water dish more than we do!!

We do love the tradition of going out to the tree farm, so we may still go and just look at the trees and talk about where the trees come from, and visit the little animals they have out there

I thought it would be fun to add some little Santa hats to some pictures that we already had hanging up, to make the house more "festive"

I love this painting of us, my friend Autumn painted it for me for my bday this past year :)

Titus took his morning nap, and Seth took the kiddos up to Dollar General here in Hahira to pick up a few "supplies" garland, etc. I realized it was almost noon and "I" was the ONLY one STILL in pj's, haha

The girls picked out some little ornaments at the store that had the first letter of their names on them "S, N, T" 

Seth said that Stevie wanted to get a "R" for Rocket, and had no clue why we would be wanting an "O",,,who is Olive? haha :)

It was sweet because the girls wanted to place the ornaments very close together because quote "they love each other like we love each other and like to be close"  awww, can they please just stay this sweet, loving, and innocent forever? :)

 

This was a great year for Stevie, she even remembered some specifics from last year's Christmas and really enjoyed helping us get the house all ready

 

Neela was still a little out of it, but when is she not, haha, she lives in her own little world most of the time

"1998" BABY!!!

Seth was very proud of his mantle piece,,,we are so thankful to his Aunt Susu for hooking us up with the stockings and the stocking holders 

The girls have a little fiber optic tree in their room that they were able to decorate, we found it at a yard sale for like a buck!!

How cool is this pic that Seth got of it?

I love letting the kids have freedom when it comes to decorating,,,,all the candy canes in one corner,, nice :)

Titus woke up from his nap and the whole house was giddy with anticipation to see how much he would like all the decorations,,,

He loved them, of course ;)

Speaking of love, I love how some things never change the pic on the left was taken her first Christmas,,,, when she sees a Christmas tree, she feels the need to lay under it and look up at the lights, so sweet! (see, her own little world)

Titus and Neela decorated me in beeds

and themselves ;)

How different does Buddy look since last year at this time?

Onto outside decorating:

Frosty surely would've melted today,,,it was pretty hot!

Can you tell she is pretty excited about all the decorating?  she gets it honest :-)