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{baby} weight loss wednesday - obedience edition

2012-02-01T13:04:00.000-06:00

Been on my new eating plan for a month now...exciting news is that I'm down 5lbs.. not so exciting news is that I'm a bit bored with what I'm eating! Sunday night we had NO groceries in the house and traditionally Sunday nights are frozen pizza night here at the household. The 3 previous Sunday nights before I'd found something else to eat. We literally had no groceries so I ate pizza along with my family.

It was either pizza or a can of diced tomatoes.. no joke. It's all we had in the house.

Then Monday night hit.. grandma Yoder night. What was for dinner? A casserole ladened with cheese, cream of mushroom soup and macaroni noodles, but of course.

Last night I made manicotti in which I ate one.. did I want 3 of them? Yes. But I ate one.

This whole time I've been decently good at avoiding white flour. Until the past 3 days.

But talking with Darin last night I realized a few things. Number one, I want this healthy lifestyle to be just that.. a lifestyle. I don't want rules about no sugar and no white flour dictate my life. Is pizza and pasta bad for you? Not totally.. it's all about moderation. I can't avoid sugar and white flour my entire life.

Number two, I think God called me into OBEDIENCE with my eating and exercising.

Have I been honoring God with what I've been eating?

Yes.

Have I been overeating?
No.

Have I stuck to my exercise routine?

Yes.

Am I striving for health, not a magic number on the scale?
Yes.

(But I'd be lying if I wasn't a little concerned at what the scale says in 6 months!)

Have I been obedient in what I believe God has called me to do with my body and what I'm putting into my mouth?

Yes.

I feel like my last 3 days of little bits of white flour have been a lesson to me.. a lesson in obedience. I have worked hard and felt like I'm eating and exercising in a way that would make the Lord proud. He's not going to be mad what I've had a few white flour items.

Nope.

So I'm going to press on.. and not feel bad if some sugar or white flour enters my mouth! God's not legalistic so I'm not going to be legalistic with my eating. =)

{baby} weight loss wednesday - guilt free edition

2012-01-25T13:59:00.002-06:00

This post is going to be short and to the point.. have a serious head cold and I want to go lay down and watch some PBS with my Adie as the other 2 nap!

Darin took his ladies and I out last Saturday night to a steak house where the yeast rolls melt in your mouth. Just as that cinnamon butter melts all over the roll.

And all ya gotta do is ask for more and they will bring them at your beck-n-call.

But I was totally satisfied with my side salad, grilled chicken and no-butter sweet potato.

We talked about how my new eating and exercise plan was going on the way home and I told Darin that I feel soooo good. Not only do I feel strong and energetic and don't loose my breath walking up the steps and don't mind squatting and picking up things off the floor.. but I have no GUILT with the food I'm eating and with my exercise plan. This is not how I used to roll. Food and exercise controlled me... everything would cause me guilt.

I would feel guilty if I ate something sweet after dinner even tho I craved it so (or felt like I deserved it).

I would feel like I HAD to exercise to burn away all those extra calories I ate or wanted to eat.

I felt guilty when I ate low-fat ice cream full-out knowing that I am NOT eating a serving of it.. that crazy big dip size is actually a 3 serving size.

This time loosing weight and staying on my health plan has been SO MUCH easier! And I think it dawned on me.. food and exercise is not controlling me.

I am in control of it.

There is no guilt when you stick to the plan and do it God's way. Food and exercise do not have a foot-hold on you if you realize a few things...

Exercise to be healthy.

Eat to live, don't live to eat.

I don't feel like I'm depriving myself.. don't think of all the foods you can't eat, think of all the foods you CAN eat!

Ok.. I know this one is short and to the point but this time taking off the weight feels different. And I feel like since I'm not obsessing about it and feeling deprived, the Lord has rewarded me with goal jeans that slip right on. =) Yep.. those white-stitched size 5/6 jeans fit! This makes me smile.. big.

{baby} weight loss wednesday - exercise edition

2012-01-18T12:57:00.003-06:00

Alrighty! We've talked about rules/goals and food.. now it's time to get that exercise plan out there!

Sunday night dad stopped by the house and dropped off this:

My mom's medical records.

He has been trying to get a copy of them so that my brother, sister and I can know the history of her health.

What could most likely be OUR future health.

She had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the bone.

A really bad hyper-thyroid.

And after reading those documents lots of visits to the doctor with sicknesses before those two major health problems in her 40's!

My mom lost her battle to cancer almost 9 years ago.

She was 51... I was 22.

Before I lost mom I exercised to get skinny... as skinny as I could get. Workouts were filled with thoughts of getting smaller, being "cuter" and trying to keep my at-the-time boyfriend happy because he once made the comment he likes super skinny girls.

And it's not just mom's cancer... I've been handed some bad genes. My dad's mom died of MS when she was 42. My grandpa died of cancer 2 days after his 50th birthday. My dad didn't have either parent at the age of 25. My mom's parents died at 79 and 84 but both were overweight, had diabetes and heart disease.

So far this is doom and gloom but the good news is that God gave me a body that I can move and exercise and beat some of these diseases!

Chapter 3 in Made to Crave talks about our topic today.. getting a plan. I LOVE the analogy she uses about a garden. Every summer I drive by and covet amish people's gardens. By golly they can't have electricity or color on their houses but their gardens are THE most colorful, gorgeous pieces of land! Lysa says that sure, we'd all love a pristine, perfect garden lacing our property but they take WORK. And lots of it! Every time I drive by one of those amish houses 9 out of 10 times there is a little amish lady with her hind-end in the air pulling weeds. We want to reap the benefits of gorgeous flowers and nutritious veggies but we don't want to give water, pull weeds and spend hours to harvest all the veggies when they are ready to pick.

We want the results but have no desire to put the work in required to reap those results. (pg 35)

The same is true of exercising. I'd loooooove to not work out another day but still reap the benefits of a strong, energetic, healthy body that exercise produces.

I've come to the conclusion that I HAVE to be active to be a better mom, pull those pants up with ease and be attractive to my husband.

And to do everything I can possible to avoid a medical record folder the size of my mom's.

So with that said, yes.. exercise is hard and a pain in the butt. (sometimes literally) BUT lets look at it differently and be thankful that God gave us able bodies to move and sweat and workout. It can't be a 1, 3 or even 12 month plan.. exercise HAS to incorporate into your every day life.

Ok.. with those thoughts out of the way I'll tell you what I've been doing for the last 4 weeks!

I am a exercise DVD lover. I know some people hate it but I enjoy the variety that they give. Over the years I've acquired 6 or so that I rotate along with some ellipticalling. (Is that a word? I run on the elliptical for those who don't understand my made up language.) In the nice weather I enjoy run/walking a few miles.

Like I said in my first {baby}weight loss post.. my goal is to exercise at least 30 minutes 5 times a week. So far I've exceeded that goal! Now. It's winter and I'm still on my maternity leave with my business so I have more time on my hands than normal BUT I do have 3 children and a very busy schedule. You have to deliberately make time to exercise.. it's THAT important! So if I can do this you can too!

Here are my favorite DVD's along with my reviews:

Lindsay Brin's Shed 5 Fast - This is my fave! She's also a mom of 3 so she's CONSTANTLY reminding you to hollow out your belly to help with the mama pooch and tuck in your hips to help with bladder control. She's also inspiring to look at because she's had 3 babies of her own and she's super tone! Her website is moms into fitness and the first time I found it I spent an hour on it! Believe me you'll be dripping with sweat after you do this 30 minute DVD!

Lindsay Brin's Boot Camp 2 - another amazing DVD. This dvd has six 10 minute workouts so you can pick and choose what you want to do for the day. Some are for toning, some concentrate on your belly more.. and there's 2 amazing cardio 10 minute exercises too.

Jillian's Shred it with weights - also a great one! She uses a kettleball in this one and I love it. =) It's more toning than cardio so I usually do 10 minutes of the elliptical after this DVD. And watch out if your kiddos are around when doing this one.. you swing the kettlebell all the time and I'm always afraid I'm gunna knock out one of my girls. Ouch!

Jillian's Burn Fat Boost Metabolism - You will be dripping with sweat after this one. The cover says it's 40 minutes, she says in the workout that it's 45 minutes.. both are lies. It's 50 minutes of constant moving and you will be sucking air! I love it about once a week if I can find time for a 50 minute workout.

Jillian's Ripped in 30 - This one has 4 levels and she does her 3 minutes of toning, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs pattern like she does in 30 day shred. I like it because I feel like I've done a little of everything with the way she does the "3 minute, 2 minute, 1 minute" thing. I've only done up to level 2 because my Lindsay Brin DVD's came in the mail so I'm sure Jillian's level 3 and 4 will kick my butt. Looking forward to it. =)

I try to rotate them often so that I never get bored. And so I "confuse my muscles" like the P90X infomercial says. HA! Too cheap to buy P90X but by golly I'll steal their exercising methods from an infomercial!

Ok.. I've talked enough. And you've read enough! Now go get your plan whether that is DVD's or running outside and start moving! Once you've done it for a few weeks you won't be as sore and you'll hopefully learn to enjoy it. =) I'm at that point.. I love the results and am not sucking as much wind so by-golly I'm going to keep moving!

And by the way.. I lost 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks.

Praise Jesus!

New bathroom

2012-01-17T14:39:00.002-06:00

My hubs is a teacher.

This means he had a 2 week break off for Christmas. We had a lot of family shin-digs and he had a bit of a surgery. Not much around the house got accomplished like it usually does! He looooves a good project and if I can dream it and draw it up, he'll build it! The boy can't sit still and loves to build, build and build some more.

The second day he was back at school a new bathroom design for the girls popped into my head and I emailed him and asked if he was interested in remodeling the bathroom that weekend. Apologized that I didn't think of remodeling the bathroom DURING his 2 week break.

The email I got back was, "when we going to Menard's?"

I love that boy.

So $105 later (no joke.. yes.. for everything thus far!), 4 hard workin' days of painting, putting up wainscoting, some shopping, nailing up crown molding and some more painting.. we are almost finished. There are still a few little things that need done but it was done enough for me to take pictures to show you all our new bathroom!

Most of ya know we completely remodeled this home to make it what it is today. And yes, we had remodeled this bathroom when we moved in. But that's been 5 years so it was in need of a face-lift again! I am running out of rooms to re-do so they are getting re-re-done again!

Her it is before and after...

Dark Chocolate brown with a black vanity and a shower curtain that I wasn't fond of. at all.

And now here it is...

We had the shower curtain.. we actually got it as a wedding gift that we only used for a year at our old house!

Lots of ideas off pinterest.. including my favorite part of the bathroom.. the girls' silhouettes.

Another pinterest idea.. these shelves behind the john. Good storage and looks great too. The girls' bows and headbands are in the white baskets.

And since it's the girls' bathroom.. I wanted the emblem for a public bathroom's ladies room to be somewhere in the room. Here it is on one of the shelves. Just found the image online and tracked it onto my cardstock, cut it out and added some rub-ons.. scrapbooking. I miss you!

So here is the before, the 2nd before and the after.

I love how bright and white it is. (My external flash helps out a bit in the lighting department of the image too!)

And I had to include this picture. Trying to show you the back of the john's shelves and take a look at the hand print on the mirror...

Yes.

I had just cleaned the mirror. So no matter how bright and white the bathroom is, it's still the girls' bathroom. It will always have hand prints on the mirror, Joya's pants on the ground because she's allergic to keeping them on after she potties and there will always be globs of toothpaste in the sink.

I love it. =)

You all thought...

2012-01-13T13:45:00.000-06:00

I was only going to post on Wednesday's and ignore the blog the rest of the week,eh?

Well.. that's the way it's been looking! =/

Sorry! Life is blazing by, as always. I can't really blame it on not being home because we're actually home more than we've ever been before! I've never had a newborn in the winter and it's so much easier to stay at home then to tote around all 3 girls in the cold! Last week we stayed home from Monday night until Friday afternoon when I got to go to the post office and bank by myself. I just about skipped all the way there because I was so anxious to get out of the house! Here's a few things we've been up to:

*My mother's ring came in. =) I LOVE it! Darin got it for me for my birthday and Christmas combined. I had someone tell me that they were watching on Facebook to see if I had Emery in October or November to get the pink birthstone I wanted. Atlas.. she was born in November so the poor thing is stuck with an orange birthstone. I do, however, LOVE it on my ring! Got the colors of the rainbow on the ol' ring!

*On a whim last Friday afternoon I emailed Darin at work and asked him if he was up for re-modeling the girls' bathroom.

He was.

So we spent all last weekend painting, painting and painting some more. We'll hopefully finish up this weekend and and I'll post pictures next week. I LOVE it! Almost to the decorating phase and I always look forward to that the most. =)

*Adie started Upwards Cheer-leading last week. She came home and told me that she really liked her "ackward" cheer-leading practice. Man that kid says some funny things!

*Emery is already past 2 months old and she's getting so smiley! She loves her bath time in the evenings. =)

And speaking of.. the baby is waking up so off to cuddle while the other two are napping.

{baby} weight loss wednesday - food edition

2012-01-11T09:08:00.003-06:00

Today I'll get into the nitty-gritty of what my eating plan is. Next week I'll do my exercising plan.

There's no name to it or any kind of website I can guide you to.. just something I came up with. I had a lot of help from one of my best friends, Erin.. she did a lot of what I'm doing but more extreme last year at this time to loose 65lbs of her own baby weight. "More extreme" meaning she is super creative and does research on how to cook things like quinoa. I can't even say quinoa yet alone know how to cook it! (It's an AMAZING blog with all kinds of recipes so go on over and salivate and be healthy doing it!!)

Ok.. what I eat. As I told you last week I'm cutting out as much white flour and white sugar as possible. Someone asked me how I'm doing that because "isn't sugar in everything?"
Um, yes.
My goal is to not eat refined sugars.. this means I eat sugars that are natural.. those found in fruits, milk products, carrots, raw honey, etc.. those I'm eating. I'm staying away from diet foods, artificial sweeteners, cookies, brownies, etc. With the white flour.. I am allowing myself to eat wheat flour so I'm still able to do sandwiches at lunch with wheat bread if I'd like or even have a piece with an egg white omelet in the morning. (make sure there it's solely wheat flour.. they trick you with a lot of "wheat" bread and stick white flour in there too!)

Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: Strawberry Greek Yogurt (Aldi) with 1/3 cup of granola, 1 cup orange juice (probably should give up the orange juice but I haven't had a cold in over a year.. I'll say it's from the vitamin C and the marvelous taste is just a bonus.)

Snack: hard-boiled egg with 1/2 the egg yolk

Lunch: 2 pieces of whole wheat toast, 4 super thin slices of turkey, plain greek yogurt instead of mayo and pickles

handful of plain baked chips

Snack: 1/2 an apple and sugar free/flour free oatmeal cookie

Oatmeal Drop Sugar Free Cookies

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup coconut flakes

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. all spice

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup mixed nuts, finely chopped

1 cup dried fruit

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup canola oil

1 t. vanilla

350 degrees for 20 min on parchment paper.

Dinner: Sante Fe Crock Pot Chicken with brown rice, a handful of whole wheat pita chips and a pretty large and in charge "side" salad. Spinach, romaine, carrots, mushrooms and cucumbers. Did Fat Free Ranch with that.. (haven't given up that diet food yet!)

Snack: I might split a Monster Spinach Shake with Darin.

(I am writing this Tuesday evening) I'll let you know how tasty it is.

I try to drink as much water as I can stand. I got some great advice from the moms into fitness website that suggests that you drink a big ol' glass before each meal and one in between. We might all float away but I'm trying it!

My goal is to get 100 grams of fiber and 100 grams of protein a day. Not sure I've hit it yet but by golly, I'm going to try! Last week I made an amazing black bean soup and ate that every day for lunch. I tweaked the recipe a bit but man, it was good AND filling! I had to make myself eat a snack last week because I just wasn't hungry. (trying to make sure I keep my calorie count up for the nursing and the exercising I'm doing.)

I've also taught myself to like greek yogurt. I remember the first time I tried it I called Erin and told her she was crazy loco for eating yet alone liking greek yogurt. I thought it tasted like straight up sour cream. And a bad version of sour cream at that. BUT I found a yogurt that I like at Aldi of all places! 89cents a small container.. have one every day. I've also used the plain stuff in cooking and Darin's actually liking it now. He's finally looked at the nutrition label and realizes how crazy good it is for ya. Basically it has a crap-ton of protein in it and all the other benefits of yogurt like live-cultures and such. Usually don't like to eat things that are "live" but they help your digestive system so eat that yogurt! I even replace it for mayo on my turkey sandwiches. There's a great ranch dip recipe I want to try with it as well. So yeah. Learn to love greek yogurt and it will help you in the protein department.

I have another goal to eat a bag of spinach on my own every week. I did it last week. =) Before dinner as I was preparing if I had the munchies I wrapped 3 leaves of spinach around a baby carrot and man, it was good!

So there's a peak into what I'm eating.

Again.. it's all about choices. My hubby and girls ate this on Saturday morning...

While I ate this:

A one full egg and 3 egg white omelet with spinach and fresh mushrooms with a plain piece of wheat toast.

Did I want the pancakes?
They smelled good but I was actually content with my omelet! I'm so determined to NEVER see this weight again that I'm going to stick to my plan. = )

One little scripture to leave you with as I close up this food addition of the {baby} weight loss wednesday blog.. a scripture that was in Made to Crave a few times that I NEVER applied in the food department of my life. Here it is, plastered by the handle of my frig to make me think when I pull food out...

I want beneficial things to enter my body.

Things to make me strong.

Food that helps me keep up with my little ladies.

Food that makes me healthy, not feel guilty after I eat it.

Stuff that keeps me energetic for my hubby. (he's hard to keep up with!)

I want my body to be a tip-top vessel where Jesus can live.

We only do this "life" thing once. Are you putting beneficial things into your mouth to make this life worth living?

{baby} weight loss wednesday - goals and rules edition

2012-01-04T10:53:00.004-06:00

It's here!

My first {baby} weight loss wednesday blog post. For those of you that haven't heard, every wednesday I'm posting about my weight loss journey and hope to inspire you as well. I had my 3rd baby 2 months ago and we confirmed last Friday that she will be our last baby. Darin won't let me elaborate. I had a funny comment and he made me delete it. Good thing there's one classy person in the house!

So since my baby making days are over, I am more that ready to get this baby making body back in shape! It usually takes me 9-10 months to get back down to my pre-baby weight and I'd love for my last time to not take that long. I'm taking you all along on my journey and will let you know how much I'm loosing, maybe motivate you to shed a few pounds as well or even reclaim an area of your life that is out of control. All with God's help, Yo. The only way to do it. =)

Thought long and hard about what I was going to talk about and I think I'm going to lay down some rules and goals for my journey on this first post. These rules aren't meant to be legalistic in my life like food/exercising once was in college.. but they are meant to act like a guideline to see shed some baby lbs. I need to start out this strict because if I want to see some changes, this area of my life needs to be a bit regimined.

Alright.. let's get started with some rules (for me.. not saying these need to be your rules)

Rule #1. Only weigh myself every other week.

On Wednesday's.

Preferably after I've nursed and pooped. =)

I was so happy on Monday when I stepped on the scale and I was down 2lbs from my 6 week appointment that was 2 weeks ago. And Christmas happened with all it's cookies, white trash and cheesy potatoes. Then I made the STUPID mistake of weighing myself yesterday morning. I was up 3lbs from Monday. So not cool. After a good cry and a reminder from Darin to not weigh myself every day, I vowed not to step on the scale for another 2 weeks. Amen. Weight fluctuates and I have a feeling I'm not going to drop weight super fast.. therefor stepping on the scale will be every other week.

Rule #2. No white sugar.

This is hard for me.

I love it... I'm the kind of girl that puts 1/4 cup sugar in my coffee because seriously.. who likes straight black coffee? Bleh.

The kind of girl that needs something sweet after lunch AND dinner to completely feel satisfied.

The kind of girl that started to watch what I ate in the 90's when the "fat free" craze came out and all everyone worried about was fat and not the massive amounts of sugar they were putting in everything to make it taste good to compensate making it fat free. I've also read that sugar helps belly flub stick around and that's my problem area.. so no white sugar for the time being.

Rule #3. Thou shall not finish my children's food.
This is HUGE for me because for some reason I don't think nibbling off my kids' plates when they are finished aren't real calories.
Some reason I think it's wasteful to throw their food away or cover it up for them to eat later. This mind set needs to change because I'd rather it go in the trash or take the time to put it into a container then to consumer extra calories AFTER my meal is finished.
Joya reminded me of this last night when she finished and pushed her plate at me and said, "Mommy eat the rest?"
Nothing like your 2 year old's words kicking you in the butt.

Rule #4 Exercise (minimum of 30 minutes) 5 times a week.
I really do like to exercise.. I feel better.
I can run up the stairs and not get winded.
I sleep better.
It makes me shower every day. =)
It's just MAKING SURE I find the time daily or at least 5 times a week to be active. Let's face it.. we're all getting older and life and kids and busyness gets in the way. But God CREATED these cool bodies of ours and I want it to be in tip top shape.

Rule #5 MINIMAL white flour.
It's hard to completely omit it when I cook for 3 other people. I'm cutting down on the amount of pasta I make and if I make rolls with dinner.. I will not partake. I want to be realistic and I want my healthy lifestyle to be sustainable when I do reach my goal weight... but white flour is like white sugar and it likes to make a tire around your waist. I don't need any help in that area.. 3 little girls made their homes there for 9 months and stretched that skin out just fine. =/

Rule #6 Diet, caffeine free coke only 2 times a week.
This one is HARD for me! I've had a can of CFDC every day for years. It used to be normal DC but I gave up caffeine with Adie's pregnancy and realized I feel SOOOOO much better without it! It really is a drug that I was addicted to. So anyways, CFDC seems harmless but I realize that this is a crutch for me.

I love it too much.

So I'm limiting it.. and detoxing it from my body. I do want to allow myself to have a can once or twice a week because it's will be harmless when I put it back in place in my life. And Burger King's CFDVCC will be a great reward. (caffeine free diet vanilla cherry coke.. yes, I am serious. It's there and it's amazing!)

Now let's talk goals.

I have 20lbs to loose.

Blah.

I hate even admitting that because the next time you locals will look at me and try your darndest not to imagine me 20lbs lighter! I know you will! I would do it too.

Anyway.. Darin motivated me to make a goal to when I wanted those lbs off. I said my birthday.. July 27th. He did the math for me because he's a genius like that and said I only need to loose 2/3 a lb a week. Woah, that is achievable!! Especially since I am still nursing and have to keep a precise amount of calories for Emery.

Another goal...

Some really cute jeans with the white stitching that I've been wanting. They got more popular while I was PG and I have craved them bad. So I got a size 5/6 and am 1 inch from zipping them up. Once inch away but it makes a horrendous muffin top. =) So the goal is to wear these babies (with minimal muffin top) by March 1st.

Oh yes.. these babies will be on. And I'll take a picture, K?

And this goal I'm not so sure about.. Darin's also been on a health kick and wants to run a mini marathon in July. I am not sure if I'm completely on board yet because I loath long distance running.. but I'm open to the idea. If we can't find a race locally to run then he said we'll map out 13 miles close to home and run it here. I might need some persuading on this one.. and an amazing reward once I've done it. =)

So there we have it. Some rules and goals for {baby} weight loss wednesday's. I didn't get into the book too much or too deep into what I'm eating and how I'm exercising but that will come in future posts.

I will leave you with a scripture..

Hebrews 12:11
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Come along and produce a harvest of righteousness with me.. and PEACE with our bodies!!!! Righteousness can be a hard goal to achieve but it starts with the right choices every time. Every time you put something in your mouth.. make it the right choice. When you decide to exercise for 30 minutes instead of realizing you wasted 30 minutes on facebook, you've made the right choice.

Come on gals.. map out your own goals and rules and we can do this journey together.
Who's in?

Look who's 2 months old today...

2012-01-02T14:32:00.001-06:00

Miss Emery.

Time flies, I tell ya! I knew it would go fast with her being born right before the holiday's but man, can't believe we've had our baby for 2 months now!

She is as cute as ever..

Receding hair-line with a Mohawk and all.

She has her own look altho you can tell she's definitely one of ours.

Another little one of ours wants to be like mommy...

Joya LOVES to take pictures and kept getting in my way as I was trying to snap a few of Em. I was really ok with it.

And count-down to the first {baby} weight-loss wednesday's blog post!!! I'm already working on it and am a day and a half into my new health plan. So far so good altho I was a tad bit grumpy last night (I'm avoiding white sugar) just ask my family. Sorry Darin, Adie, Joya and Emery! I'm detoxing the sweet stuff, yo!

Come back on Wednesday for the start of a new little adventure on the ol' blog! Have you gotten your copy of Made to Crave yet?

Workshop!!!

2011-12-21T13:40:00.000-06:00

Over the years I've been asked many-a-time from friends, clients and complete strangers (ha!) on how to use their fancy digital slr's. And so has my friend and wedding shooter partner, Amanda of a.tonagel photography.

So.

What did we come up with to help out that mom that mom that has a fancy, schmancy digi slr and sticks it on auto to be a glorified point-n-shoot cuz she has no clue what all those other dials and buttons are for?

We came up with hosting a beginners photography workshop, but of course! =)

We're gunna have fun, teach ya how to use your camera in manual, have a little breakfast and talk cameras. Oh yeah, and you get a really cool gift too. One that I want too, it's that cool!

Come hang out with us! And space is super limited.. already have 3 out of the 8 spots filled up!

please note that this is not for a beginner photographer pursuing a business that's looking for ideas on posing, workflow or anything photoshop.. it's just camera talk. =) Thanks! Hope to see ya there!

busy, busy, BUSY!

2011-12-17T13:35:00.000-06:00

Life is CRAZY around here with preparations for Christmas, school programs, church programs, baking and dinner parties. Just thought I'd post a lovely picture of my little ladies decked out in their Christmas PJ's. =) A gift from a great family friend. It was close to bedtime so Emery wasn't in the posing mood..

Coming soon to a blog near you...

2011-12-08T14:40:00.000-06:00

Weight Loss Wednesday's on this little blog.

Most of ya'all know I strive for healthy living. I've always had to watch what I've eaten because my good ol' family genes give me a tendency to be fluffy.... along with diabetes, cancer and heart disease to name a few other fun things that come along with being fluffy.

I am not one of those people that is able to eat whatever I want and still fit into my jeans comfortably. I have to work... and HARD! My college years I got a little too into "being healthy" which translated into "exercising compulsively and eating oatmeal for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner."

I dropped down to 105 lbs.

That is CRAZY small for my body type. I am comfortable right around 130-135lbs. I've always had an athletic, solid build. The death of my mama and a good kick in the butt from Jesus changed my mind set from seeing how small and tiny I could get to being healthy. Making this body a place where Jesus can dwell and to take care of it to the best of my ability. Over the years God has blessed those turned around thoughts by making me able to have babies (something I was VERY scared I wouldn't be able to do after my eating disorder) and kinda look a bit fit... fit into my jeans comfortably and keep up with my crazy active hubby.

So. I'm 5 weeks post baby-having and just started to work out again. My eating will change at the beginning of the year because let's face it.. it's Christmas time and there are buckeye's to be eaten! Yet alone the last 5 weeks we've been blessed with friends bringing meals to help with the dinner burden as we learn to be a family of five. I had to try all the baked spaghetti, enchilada lasagna and apple pies, right?

At the first of the year I plan to kick it up a notch and take you all along on my journey with a blog post every Wednesday. I'll have you help me stay accountable, share what I'm eating and my exercise plans along with sharing my struggles and frustrations of not being a naturally sized 4, big boobed, tiny waisted, could-run-a-marathon-without-training gal.

I am none of those things.. cept for the ta-ta's.. but those are filled with milk so my tiny, triple "A" long sized boobies will come back when I'm done nursing. =)

With my other 2 girls it's taken me about 9 months to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I really don't want it to take that long this time. We're pretty sure Emery is our last baby and I'd love to knock out this weight once and for all!

If you want to come along with me, that'd be great! Make sure you pick up a copy of Made to Crave because I'll be quoting it probably every blog post.

Lets do this thing together.

What do you do...

2011-12-02T12:00:00.000-06:00

With some snow and a huge hole in your yard where your in-ground trampoline usually resides?

Well you make a slide run, that's what you do!

Seriously has created hours of fun for the girls (and daddy).

Darin named it Holsopple Hill.

The snow is melting so I hope it snows again here soon for even more hours of fun!

And what is Emery doing while the girls and daddy are playing outside?

She's successfully busting out of her swaddle.

Aka burrito wrap.

Her straight jacket.

She usually loves it. Altho I've been finding her like this lately. I think she likes the freedom cuz I always find her with her arms above her head. =)

Had her 1 month appointment yesterday and she's already up to 9lbs 4oz... ah.. this last baby business thing going way too fast!

"Who needs boys?"

2011-11-28T12:48:00.048-06:00

Darin's new saying since we found out he'd be the daddy of 3 girls is

"who needs boy's"

This saying is always followed by something hilariously done by our little ladies. Had to tell you about a few...

***The other day Adie called Darin into the bathroom. He thought she needed help with something.. nope, she just had to show him the ginormous turd she had just laid. Darin's response?

"who needs boys?"

followed by,

"Gross."

***We stayed the night at an indoor water park this past July and Adie (whom was not super keen about swimming & putting her head under water) went down every twisting and turning and super fast water slides. Both of them would float to the stairs at the end of the slide with big ol' smiles smeared on their faces. Darin's reply?

"who needs boys?"

***Joya's new trick is to climb up on the kitchen counter top and jump off. The first time she did it I gasped and said, "that is dangerous, Joya!" And Darin replied,

"Awesome, girl!"

She wanted to show you her skills...

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***But her fearlessness led to a pretty big ouchie a week and a half ago.. she pulled over one of our solid wood bar stools onto her forehead. She's a pretty tough cookie so we always know that something hurts when she screams like she did with this tumble. Here it is right after she fell...

Bout 10 minutes after the fall... she's pretty proud of her bump...

And here it is about a week after. I kept telling myself to get a picture of the double black eyes but by the time I actually got the camera out, the bruises had turned a bit yellow.

Darin reeeeeeally wanted a newborn picture of Emery in his hands because they are so massive. She was 2 weeks old before we got the picture but I'm so glad we did....

So yeah, Darin's sweet, delicate flower little girls aren't afraid of much and love to show off their impressive poop size. It's so fun to watch him with them because I know he wouldn't trade them for anything.

Who needs boys, right?

Learning this party of 5 stuff...

2011-11-15T09:25:00.000-06:00

Life has been a bit crazy since we brought home the wee one! Adjusting from 2 kids to 3 has been challenging. Seems like there just isn't enough of me to spread out among everyone! Today I took a shower at like 8am and I told Darin,

"wow.. I should shower more often! I feel great after one of those babies!"

Life is good, tho. I love being a mommy to 3 little girls. They are pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. =)

I've given up cleaning up the house for a bit. This is also thanks to my father for gifting me back all my barbie stuff from the late 80's. Darin had the great idea of getting all 4 boxes of it out to occupy the girls. This has created HOURS of entertainment. The Barbie princesses have collided with the 80's barbies and are getting a long well.

Look at all this pink mess...

That is only half of my old Barbie stuff too. I've come to the conclusion I was the biggest Barbie brat ever growing up. =/

Oh, and over Darin's little break when we had Emery he finished up my shelves and this is what the entertainment center wall looks like thus far. I have a few things to add to the right side of the shelving because it needs more.

And we don't know those people in the 11x14 frame to the right. I really wanted a classic picture of all 3 girls to put in that one and it was pretty much a disaster. Between Joya sticking her tongue out, Adie giving me a big goofy grin and Emery screaming.. this is the only semi normal shot we got...

Joya isn't looking and looks like an amputee from the knees down, Adie's grin is super, super natural and Emery is between screaming. Not really frame worthy. Yes.. this was the best one out of the 50 taken!

Oh.. and Adie has been helping me out by dressing herself. This is what she's sporting today...

Papa Smurf and Peyton Manning sure would be proud!

Emery is still adorable and snugglie. We're still trying to figure out her quirks. She's growing so fast and I've mourned every second.. we're pretty sure our family is complete so I've prepared myself to enjoy her tininess and all the "last" baby things we'll experience with her.

And she's already copped an attitude with mommy's picture taking...

"mom.. do you REMEMBER our first 2 newborn sessions? I'm not jiggy with one million pictures shot of me while I try to sleep!"

Few more images I've edited between feedings and breaking up fights with the two bigs.

Only one I got of her smiling.

Having 3 girls means there's a great deal of drama in the house. This picture shows that even our yawns are a bit dramatic. =) Love it.

All in all we've survived the first 2 weeks. This party of 5 thing is fun but crazy. =)

Miss Emery Ellison is here!

2011-11-09T14:42:00.000-06:00

We are overjoyed to announce that our new baby is here!

Emery Ellison

was born last Wednesday afternoon at 3:59pm weighing in at 7lbs 6oz and was 18.5 inches long. She came into the world just a day before my sis came to visit. I made it to 38 weeks, 2 days.. longest I've gone in a pregnancy yet!

Darin approved birth photography by one of my besties Amanda just 5 days before Emery arrived. He had said no to having birth photography but had a change of heart over dinner the Friday night before we delivered. He said he knew it was something I wanted badly and he thought I may regret not having it 5 years from now.. and for him he wouldn't ever regret having it done. So Amanda was there. Go on over to her blog and see more pics than the 2 I've posted here. And she gave me all the 590+ images she took and I got to see myself give birth. Gruesomeness and all. now I know why it hurts so badly! And why I'm still a big sore! Anywho.. LOVE that I'll have those images forever and ever. They will always be so special and I think Emery will appreciate them when she's older.

And I've been playing with her and some newborn images as well. =) She was super naughty when Amanda came over to play on Sunday afternoon and then again when we had a photographers newborn session play date on Tuesday morning. =/ Thankfully I keep trying and have gotten a few keepers. Little stinker. =)

Her hat is by Adi & Ellie Designs. WAY cute!

And no, I don't put lip liner on my girls. They've all had amazing lips at birth!

We love her so much and the transition with Adie and Joya has been great as well. They love her and fight over who gets to hold her next!

Waiting on a pizza in the field behind the house...

2011-10-25T13:06:00.000-05:00

one of my besties snapped some images of my last few days/weeks of being pregnant. We had them (the Tonagel's) over on Saturday night and we all watched the Papa John's driver drive past our house and head back to the store for better directions. With an extra 45 minutes to spare and perfect lighting and the swing set to entertain our kids, Amanda snapped a few belly pictures for us.

And I LOVE them! They are candid and fun and beautiful. =) I will treasure them forever and hopefully baby Emery will like them too. =)

And I'm pretty sure I'm being mocked in these pictures...

Thanks again, Amanda! Super, super fun waiting-on-our-pizza-in-the-field-behind-our-house mini session!

Giggles before bed...

2011-10-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

Man.. I super suck at blogging again! Been BUSY with photo sessions to end out my time before my maternity leave. If everything ends up right I will have done 18 sessions in 23 days here in October. Wowzers. Lots of them have been senior girls and I LOVE seniors!

Anywho..

The other night I had to grab my camera as daddy and his 2 little girls were busting a gut before bed. Hard to believe in a few weeks we'll have another little girl to add to the clan! We are so excited to meet her and I'm really thinking she's going to be a great baby. This has been my easiest pregnancy yet! We're ready to meet you, Emery!

Lotsa random schtuff

2011-10-06T12:08:00.088-05:00

I used to post random happenings all the time on my blog and haven't done one in awhile.. so here we go! No rhyme or reason to this blog post!

***

Last Friday Adie had a school field trip to the apple orchard. Darin decided to take a personal day and attend the trip with her. As he was putting her to sleep the night before she said,

"daddy.. I'm going to call tomorrow the best day ever."

Man did that warm his heart!

I sent him on the trip with my point-n-shoot and he promised to take pictures. Very important ones like Adie stuffing her face with an apple.

perfect. =)

***

The benefit of living in po-dunk-ville of Indiana is that you have family members that call you up on a Sunday evening and ask you if you want to go on a tractor pulled hay ride. Um, Yes!

Joya wasn't so sure... my happy go-lucky 2 year old had this expression the entire 45 minute ride..

but the older kids loved it!!!

(Sorry bout all the point-n-shoot images.. don't feel like hauling around my big dog camera along with the ginormous belly here lately!)

My girls have been attending a Wednesday night program at the church Darin attended in high school so my bro and sis-in-law called last night and asked if they wanted us to pick them up via hayride again. So the girls got a hayride again but I couldn't help but think,

"You might be a redneck if you don't know if a tractor driving by

your house is to harvest a field or if it's your brother

coming to carpool your kids to Wednesday night church."

Kinda hilarious but they loved it!

***

Yesterday I had the honor of attending preschool with miss Adie Grace as she showed off her stellar abilities to be the line leader (aka your kid's snack day).

Here she was yesterday...

This is Adie as line leader exactly a year ago.. oh my word she's grown up!!!

Took some images of her outside playing at recess too. =)

Oh to be 4 years old again where your biggest worry is whether or not you'll play barbies or polly pockets when you get home from preschool!

***

We can't leave out baby Emery! Grandma Holsopple finished her quilt the other day. (Yeah, in like 2 weeks flat) I LOVE the way it turned out!

The more I wash it the more it will fray. Now we just need baby Emery to make the room complete! 34 weeks now and wondering when she'll arrive. I have just 2 and a half weeks left of photo sessions so it would be nice to get all those in. (most of them are seniors)

Will she be an October baby or a November baby? The selfish side of me wants her to be October because my birthday present from Darin is a mother's ring with my girls birthstone's.. haven't ordered it yet because I'm not sure which month Emery will come! I'm pulling for October because the birthstone is pink.. goes with Adie's emerald and Joya's diamond much nicer than the November orange stone.

Yes, I am that vain.

And lots of you know how I feel about pink! Pink threw up at our wedding! Darin's a saint for letting me have that much pink. =)

My sis comes out to help (without her own boys!!!) from Nov 3-9th so it would be pretty handy for Emery to come then too. I can't wait for my sis to be here. I am going to use and abuse her. Actually she's going to be a tremendous help and I'm SO thankful her family is giving her up for an entire week to spend with us! We've always been pregnant together and this time she didn't get the PG memo. We haven't helped each other out before sine we both had newborns at the same time and she wanted sooo badly to fill that whole of having-a-mom-when-you-bring-home-a-newborn for me. I am so honored. It's a big gap to fill and I know my house will be cleaner and my Emery will be sleeping through the night before she leaves! Just (kinda) kidding!

Emery's due date is November 14th but my Adie came at 36 weeks 6 days and Joya came at 37 weeks 6 days. Watch it be Thanksgiving and Emery isn't here yet.

Um, that's what I call "really not funny".

In other Emery news Darin approved her middle name. I LOVE it! Been on our 1st name baby girl list for 3 pregnancies now! Excited to finally use it!

***
And I 'll leave you with a cutie video of my Joy-Joy telling you that she's not my baby anymore (sniff, sniff).

I'm having troubles with that! She's been attached to my hip for 2 and a half years now. Ahhhhh...

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Lesson Learned

2011-09-30T09:00:00.001-05:00

I usually keep my photography and normal blog separate but I felt led to share this story over here on my personal blog as well.

***

Last weekend I had 4 sessions scheduled. Then it rained buckets ALL WEEKEND and all 4 sessions needed rescheduled. Monday I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with my already full schedule and now needing to find 4 more slots for the weekend rained out sessions. All while very pregnant and a due date creeping up on me very quickly.

Then some photographer friends got some new toys. And I coveted a bit and started looking online for what my next new toy would be. I've worked hard, right? I started to feel like I deserved some new things! Usually sessions keep me busy so I don't shop for new toys as much! I started to be discontent with the equipment I have.

Then I got a text from a client that made my worst photography nightmare come true.. we had scheduled a session together and I forgot to write it on my calendar.. I already had a full schedule on the day she thought i had her down for. I have always had this fear that I'd completely forget about a session and stand a client up.

So I began throwing myself a pity party. I made a HUGE mistake, had to reschedule a bunch of sessions due to rain and haven't had a fun new equipment toy for almost a year now.

Ten minutes into my pity party I received a call from a client whom was in tears. Her sister in law (whom I met at an extended family session last November) had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Within days she had gone from feeling a few weird symptoms to learning she had multiple cancer spots in her body. She has 3 young boys and is in her 30's. My client was hesitant to ask but I am SO GLAD she felt led to ask if I had any time to do a session for this family before Heidi (mom) started treatments. She wanted to make some memories before the treatments might alter her looks or make her feel bad.

Suddenly everything came into perspective.

I don't take pictures to make a name for myself.

I don't take pictures to lift myself up.. give myself an identity other than "mom" or Darin's wife.

I take pictures to create memories.

To document the love that people have for one another.

God gave me an "eye" and some equipment to bless other people. It really doesn't matter what camera or lens I'm shooting on... it matters that this family will have these pictures for the rest of their lives.

My pity party ended, the search for a new toy is put on hold and I realized why it rained all weekend. I didn't even think twice about my work load because my work load didn't exist since I didn't have any sessions over the weekend! I had no editing on my plate. God even orchestrated the weather to cooperate so we could be outdoors in front of their home.. just what they wanted. I usually fret all day if it's raining and Tuesday it rained all day long. I am serious when I say the rain quit 30 minutes before our session and started back up as I was driving away.

God cares about the details.

Enough about what I've learned and back to Heidi. Please join with me and praying for her.. for ultimate healing and for peace during this trial in their lives. She has a caring bridge site the she's writing updates on her health. It's already been a blessing to me and I'm guessing it will bless you as well. They have a long road ahead to health and please help me lift her up in prayer to the ULTIMATE Healer.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heidisiemensrhodes/journal

As you can see, her kids are young.. Theo is in the 3rd grade, Adam is in kindergarten and Ira is 14 months old. Thank you so much, Rhodes for asking me to capture your precious family during this trial in your lives.

I think of the verse, "she is clothed with dignity and strength" from Proverbs 31 when I look at this image...

Her mom was visiting as well so we were able to get some great images of her and her mama.

Parents of the year award

2011-09-26T14:41:00.000-05:00

So my Darin and I try to have a date every week. Sometimes this may or may not include bringing the two little lovies in our lives. This past Saturday night, they were invited to join us (interpretation: didn't think to get a babysitter in time.)

Our 4 1/2 year old has grown out of naps UNLESS she is in the car around 4:30 in the afternoon. Then she thinks it's sleepy time in the van. She then refuses to wake up once we are inside the restaurant and it gets ugly.. super ugly for all involved. This leads to tears, tantrums, trips to the restaurant lobby for her to "get it together" and refusal to eat. She's a DOLL when she wakes up from naps. She gets it from her father. Ok, I the worst nap-waker-upper in the world so I'll claim that beautiful trait of hers.

Anywho.. she started dosing off on the way to Mishawaka on Saturday at 4:30. My attempts to keep her awake were failing so Darin gets an amazing idea to pull over at the 7-eleven.

And get her out of the car to stretch and wake up?

No.

To change out the DVD to something that would keep her awake?
No.

To get our 4 year old a diet coke.

Well yes, actually. =/

Yes.. you read that right! My stellar mom idea was to go the candy route.. but Darin thought the diet coke would work faster. Um, he was right. A few sips later and she was drunk on Diet Coke and in her happy zone. Her non-grumpy-in-the-restaurant happy zone. We couldn't stop laughing at her!

We had a great time at dinner and a few shops and were heading home for the evening. A little background information on our little Joya Jae.. she is quite the back seat driver at 2 years old. Her little quirky back-seat-driver-ness started on our 7 hour trip to Iowa in July. Every time (and I'm really not joking about EVERY time) we hit the breaks on our trip she would ask,

"What happened?"

We'd explain why were applied the break and 2 minutes later when we would break again she was ask again, "what happened?"

It's really not annoying at all. =/ So on Saturday night on our way home from our family date night Darin stopped at a 4-way stop. She of course asked us what happened and we told her we had to stop at stop signs. Then she replied,

"Dang-it."

Darin and I looked at each other and wondered if we'd heard her right and tried to contain our laughter so it wouldn't egg her on to say it again.

So I guess she was momicking me a bit because Darin informed me that I say "dang-it" quite a bit. Oops.. guess that little trait came from me as well. Adie has never been a big "word-repeater" so I guess I didn't watch it as much. My feisty little Joya Jae is going to be a tad different, I'm afraid.

So now that it's proven that we are the best parents ever with buying our 4 year old a round of diet coke to keep her awake and teaching our 2 year old very important phrases like "dang-it". You can feel a little bit better about your parenting today.

Your welcome.

Can't leave you without pictures because no blog entry is complete without them.. here is actually something we did with the girls that doesn't include forcing caffeine beverages and teaching naughty phrases to our girlies.. pumpkin pickin'.

MOTTT'S

2011-09-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

I took my camera on Thursday to opening day of something near and dear to my heart..

MOTTT'S!

It stands for Mother's of Tots to Teens. Just wanted to dedicate this blog post to the most wonderful bible study there is.. in my book, that is. =) Four years ago my sister in law and I (Natalie) ventured to Wakarusa Missionary Church (not our home church) to try out a little get-together that our friend Erin had been apart of. One visit and were were hooked. Just a little background.. MOTTT'S used to be a MOPS but they didn't like that you got "kicked out" of the group once you didn't have preschoolers anymore. They also didn't like the fee and wanted more of a bible study like feel. So MOTTT'S was created. And man, am I glad that our elementary and high school aged moms still come! We learn SO MUCH from them!

Every year we pick a book that will act as our "study" and gives us all kinds of topics to talk about. This year it's "More than a Good Bible Study Girl" by Lysa Terreurst. (The Made To Crave author.. you KNOW I'm excited about this book!)

From year to year we alternate the theme of the year long book we study with topics like parenting, marriage and ourselves and our walks with God... obviously this year is more about our personal relationship with JC. I've read the 1st chapter and it was our author's testimony.. um, I'm hooked!

Yesterday at our first meeting of the year we had about 50 women. It's so fun to see old friends and meet new ones. =)

I'll give you a little glimpse of what the morning looks like in case I've got locals that are interested in coming... we'd LOVE to have you!

9am - We drop off our kiddos to their classes filled with quality workers that my kids ADORE! Of course they go through screening to make sure they have clean records and such.. wanna make sure your kids are very much taken care of. =)

9-9:15am - Eat the AMAZING breakfast that everyone takes turns bringing. When Hannah brings her cinnamon rolls.. DO NOT miss. You will regret the calories being added to your thighs.

9:15am - One of our leaders, Pat pictured below, starts us out with announcements and such. Pat is just about the most God honored women I know (right up there with my mama). She seeks God in everything she does and I admire this woman so entirely much. She puts her heart into this ministry FULL OUT.

9:40ish-10:10ish - Pam, our other AMAZING leader, teaches and leads a discussion from our book. She is another lady that I look up to immensely. She can lead a bible study like no other.. always has the right questions to ask, gives us things to think about and just does an amazing job with us. Love her. =)

10-10:30ish we do prayer requests, praises and Selah moments (how you've seen God in your life). Many, many women have prayed for houses to sell, for women to get pregnant and for kids to sleep through the night.. just to name a few. God hears us.. it's so amazing to see how He answers when one or more are present to pray. Yeah, just can't say enough good about it!

It's an AMAZING program and if anyone is local and wants to try it out, let me know. I'd love to give you even more information!

Why yes...

2011-09-08T14:14:00.000-05:00

sometimes we do parade around on the kitchen counter top in our Dora undies with one glove, sunglasses and a hat. Thanks for asking!

The pizza that Jesus gave us

2011-09-07T20:27:00.001-05:00

***this blog post has been brought to you by papa smurf.. Darin Jay himself. He asked me if he could write a blog this week after a comment Adie made. Um, but of course!***

God has blessed our family in some pretty crazy ways. He has given us so much. He has provided everything from a stove to a hot tub from a sliding glass door to scooters for our girls. Darcy and I have often been amazed at the way God continues to provide for us. Someday soon we will give an entire post to the crazy ways that God has provided for us, but today I just want to share one story. This is special because Adie recognized the provision.

Saturday afternoon we ordered some pizza to be delivered. It came right on time...but was the wrong pizza. This order was bigger than ours and was full of delicious specialty pizzas. (The kind we never order) The delivery guy obviously did not want to make an extra trip back to our house to deliver our smaller order, so they just gave us the bigger order. I was pretty excited about this and the pizza was enough to give me a little comfort as I waited out the rain delay in the Notre Dame game. Three hours later, while we were still watching the game, the doorbell rings. It was once again Papa John's and this time they had our correct order. When I told the very confused delivery guy what had happened he gave me the extra pizzas for free.

Bottom line, we got three pizzas for free. The best part of the whole story is that the next day, on the way home from church, Adie declared that for lunch we should eat "the pizza that Jesus gave us." Darcy and I looked at each other and realized that neither one of us had used that phrase. She was able to recognize that God was the source of this blessing.

"Father God, thank you for blessing us in so many ways and showing your provision in a way that a 4 year old can understand."

All about Miss Emery...

2011-09-02T13:30:00.000-05:00

She must know this blog post is all about her because she's kicking like mad right now.. Or maybe it was the handful of m&m's I just ate?

Regardless.. this one is for the baby girl we've yet to meet! Emery's room has been vacant for the last few months since we merged Joya over with Adie in Adie's room. I know we went back and forth with whether or not to find out what this bean is, but man am I glad we know now so I can get a jump start on her room! We've had the same colors and bedding in the nursery for both girls and I did it way back when we didn't know if Adie was a boy or girl. It was painted green and had coral, blue and yellow everywhere. I was a bit tired of the old stuff so it's getting sold in the Resale next weekend.

I was ready for something bold.. something new.. and possibly something she could grow in to after her baby years. Grandma H has been asking about what I wanted for Emery's quilt and I finally got over to Joann's and Hobby Lobby to get all the fabric picked out. I've leaving the room green and Darin's mom gave us a yellow arm chair so I picked out a few other colors to splash in there. And of course there's pink.. how could I NOT incorporate my favorite color!

Here's the fabric right before it was dropped off at Gma H's house...

It's going to be simple 4x4 squares with the seems on the outside so it frays oh so gorgeously.. kind like this quilt found on pinterest...

Here's a picture of her room in the corner..

The 3 japanese lanterns were purchased for $1 and I made the other 2 pom poms out of tissue paper. Idea from Pinterest, of course and directions HERE. Got the long curtains on clearance at Target for $13. No joke. For TWO of them.. hate it when curtains only come in a package of 1 panel. Barf. And seriously, what are the odds you'd only need one?

Anywho.. Got Miss Emmie (as Joya called her) her name in block letters at Hobby Lobby and they were raw...

Now they are pink. (And Rustoleum Paint in Watermelon.. gunna put my notes here on my blog in case I need to get more. now someone will have to remind me when I did the post about her room.)

And now you know what types of cereal my family eats. The good ones. =)

Kept debating back and forth about what I should do with the picture frames that were already in the room.. keep them white or spray em' pink? I ended up spraying them pink so the room could look more girlie.. they went from this...

To this...

So far I'm in love with her room. I still have a crib dust ruffle to make and different wall art I'm planning on doing too. Of course ideas came from Pinterest. Her room is going to be a room built off of pinterest ideas. =)

And now for some pictures of Miss Emery! Well, in utero, that is. Last weekend I helped shoot a wedding with my bud Amanda and we stayed at her parents house that night with the drive and how late it ended. The next day we played around with a few maternity pictures.. these are the results...

I had no clue my feet were that dirty until after it was edited...

I was shooting Amanda because she needed a profile picture done of herself. =)

and in b&w...

Love the way they turned out. =) And yep. some will go in the nursery. And flipped into b&w.. the barns and my black and grey don't really go with the color scheme... duh.

Really...

2011-08-29T12:24:00.000-05:00

there wasn't ANYTHING in her bed when we put her to bed. I guess she needed something to occupy herself for the hour and a half she chatted in bed, huh?

My girls.

2011-08-25T20:38:00.000-05:00

Wow.. I blink and over a week goes by without a post! Sorry about that!

This post is dedicated to my girls.. my goofy, quirky, silly girls.

***

I don't usually dress them in matching outfits but I did Sunday for church.. called for an image or two...

This picture was taken right after I finished up Joya's hair and went to do my own in my bathroom. Adie came bursting into my bathroom holding back tears asking me to

"please put curls in my hair so I can be like you and Joya."

Broke my heart.

This is what scares me about having girls.

Comparison.

Different body builds.

Jealousy.

Just to name a few of my fears.

Darin had made a big deal about Joya's hair "looking like mommy's" and Adie got sad. Super sad. That stuff usually doesn't bother her. But after we did her hair and Darin talked up her super pretty straight hair that's prettier than Rapunzel's.. she was holding her head high and loving life. Ready for church.

Ah.. for some reason the good Lord is giving us 3 little ladies so I'm gunna trust He knows what He's doing. A little reminder to cast all my cares and fears over to him. Again. They are HIS girls and He loves them more than I do.. He just trusted us to help out in raising them for a bit.

***

Enough of that sad stuff. Funny story about Adie last week.

The puppy was barking at the neighbor doggie and Adie ran over to the sliding glass door, stuck her head out and yelled,

"hey Bark-Face, stop your barking!"

Hmmm. I'm SURE she heard that from Darin.

Um, sure.

Then she and Joya climbed up on the chair to watch me make dinner...

And yes.. sometimes we cook in our undies, thank you for showing us all that, Joya.

Anywho, Adie asked me to teach her how to cook so "when she leaves this place she knows how."

Um, she's 4.

Thinking ahead bout leaving the nest, I guess.

Then she commanded Joya to not touch that hot pot or she would die.

A little dramatic. Also gets that from her father.

***

Realized I'd taken like 20 personal photos in the month of August on like the 20th. =/ We went to the park and snapped a few.

The benefits of having a photographer as a mother.. you have a lot of professional pictures done of ya.

The definite NON perk of having a photographer of a mother.. there are no candid, everyday pictures of you because you are working so much and taking pictures of OTHER people's kids that you don't have your camera glued to your eye like you should. =/

Forgive me girls.. I'll try to get better.

Just had to show you my little Joya.. 2 and a half and just cut her last incisor tooth. Silly girl...

Potty trained and finally has all the teeth that a normal 18 month old has!

A little ruffle-y sompin' sompin...

2011-08-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks I have been going through the girls' clothing to see what they need for the winter and what I have for baby Emery when she gets here this fall. My first 2 girls were in the same season so I thought I was golden with hand-me-down's.. cept that Adie always tended to wear a size bigger than her age and I just bought Joya a 6-12 month sweater for this winter.

It fits like a little big.

She'll be 2 and a half when she wears it.

So yeah, who knows what size Emery will come out as but I'm trying to revamp some of the clothing we have because quite frankly.. I'm sick of looking at some of these hand-me-downs by my 3rd girl!

So here's my first "revamp". cute little GAP cardigan that Joya graced with a spit-up stain...

After I was done with it.. it looks like this...

I'm a sucker for ruffles. And pink so yes, I am in love with it.

This is what I did to get there.. I found an old t-shirt in my closet that i wasn't wearing anymore... matched the pink just lovely. Traced large flowers and cut out about 20 flowers...

Then I folded the flower in half and then half again. Did a few stitches a the corner where the folds met to keep it secure. Did about 5 of these this way...

I folded 8 of them just in half and then stitched a few stitches in the middle.

I layered the double folded and single folded flowers and stitched them onto the chest of her new cardigan making sure I covered up the stain and here is the before and after...

Wala! A sweater I was going to trash until I revamped it and like it even more than when it was plain. =)

What did I do with those extra flowers, you ask? Well, I made matching hair attire, of course!

Wish I had more time to do stuff like this. I LOVE making something old new lookin'!

In honor of my 600th post...

2011-08-14T13:42:00.000-05:00

I will share just one of the 600 things my poor hubby will have to do because he's going to be the daddy of 3 little girls...

Sport princess band-aids because we ran out of the normal ones.

Unclog the shower drains 219 times in his life because their blond hair has clogged it up AGAIN.

Break up the 142nd "who had the doll first" fights.

Train 3 little girls how to ride the tiny Barbie bike without training wheels.

And dry 364 tears because one of their friends hurt their feelings or some punk boy broke their heart.

Yell for the 492nd time in the bleachers as they play cuz I'm pretty sure our girls are going to be sports kinda of girls.

Send 3 little girls away to college.

Walk 3 little girls down the isle to their grooms that BETTER love them just as much as he does.

It's so fun to see Darin with the 2 girls he already has. And talk about new baby Emery to come. I love you Darin Jay and am so honored that my babies call you daddy. And I'm really sorry that I didn't have any normal band-aids. They are on the grocery list.

You sure did look hot in the princess one, tho!

A day in history...

2011-08-11T13:18:00.002-05:00

This day goes down in Holsopple History.

It's the day that Joya sat still and let me braid her hair. =) Adie was less than 2 when she let me.. read about it here. It's fun to see how different they are. =) In looks and majorly in personality!

She is WAY MORE antsier than Adie ever was so I was considering cutting a cute little stack for her and one of my besties who does our hair even came over last week to do it and I couldn't bring myself to cut off her curls. =( So a few inches came off to even it out and I can still do this...

She kinda looks like a little conservative girl but I think she's adorable. =) AND she left it in all day! Even through a nap!

My baby is growing up. =( Potty trained (not poopy trained) and sits still for me to do her hair. I'm really going to be sad when Emery isn't a baby anymore, aren't I?

This growing up thing goes FAST!

Lazy days of summer...

2011-08-05T13:50:00.004-05:00

Whoever made up that term was NOT talking about my family!!! Not once this summer did I think was lazy. People always inquire about renting out Darin to do some of the "to do" things on their list.. um, he stays nice and busy here at home! Although our house is nearing to completion.. there are always things to be done to make it even more our own and add some pazazz. Darin still has a week left until he goes back to school but he's in full force football now so I'll do my annual "summer project update" blog now. Watch out.. lotsa pictures coming at ya!

First things first.. I wouldn't say we've been the most "green" household on the planet. We don't have a garden, don't eat organic or have a compost... we try to make the best decisions we can with the money we are given to make as green of choices as possible. Wow, that was a run-on sentence if I've ever written one! (Never claimed to be an amazing writer, that's for sure!) But we do recycle, we run our air and heating as little as possible.. yeah, just little decisions here and there that are suitable for our family.

** With that being said, this summer we invested in cloth diapers. If you would have told me a few years ago that my 3rd baby would be a cloth diaper baby, I would have laughed out loud at you! Most of you that know me know that I'll do just about anything to save a buck. Well.. the fact that we'll save over $1,000 in diapers with just Emery alone peaked my interest. And the fact that Darin told me I needed to go "hear out" the consultant at the cloth diaper party I went to.

So I went.

And I heard out.

Tried them for 10 days in the sample pack they give you.

And now we invested in cloth diapers for the remaining part of Joya's diaper life and for Emery.

Helps that they are so adorable. =)

I'll probably do an entire blog post about cloth diapering just so you nah-sayers can know more about them.

And not judge me. =)

HA! I am no where near a tree hugger!
Lots of my friends have asked about them and I'm amazed to say that they are pretty easy.

Anywho, the cloth diapering decision led to the new clothes line in the back yard going up...

I have wanted one for a few years now but i was being so picky with where I wanted it to go that I kept dragging my feet. The cloth diapers pushed me to make a decision (because they stay nicer longer if you hang them to dry). Happy to say that my line goes away when I'm done with it.. I didn't want a permanent one because clothes lines aren't the most attractive things ever.. so ours hooks to a pole that is covered by our tall grass and hooks the other end to our shed with an eye hook. It goes away when it's not in use. Amen.. LOVE IT!

** I've shown pictures and you all can see that I still haven't made up my mind on decorating our entertainment center...

But Darin made it and hung the TV without buying a TV mount.. yes, put that bad boy up with something he rigged out of an old mattress steel frame. And pretty much the TV will be sold with the house because that thing is not coming off the wall it's up there so sturdily! Is that a word? If not.. you know what I mean. =)

**At the beginning of the summer Darin and I wrote out a list of goals we wanted to achieve with the girls before we added another baby girl to the family. Adie getting herself in and out of the car seat was one, Joya potty trained was #2 and Joya getting into a big girl bed and then moving over to Adie's room was #3. Both #1 and #3 are complete and Joya's pretty darn close to being potty trained! Adie and Joya now share a room.. it's actually going MUCH better than we thought it would! Emery's nursery is now open and I'm keeping the green color but am changing up everything else.. thank you pinterest. =)

** This one has been on our list for years now.. finish the walls down to the basement. The visible side into the dining room was drywalled all the way down the stairs but the other side of the stair walls was block. Painted block but still basement-y block. Finally made up my mind in what i wanted (do you see a theme here?) and off Darin was building our new board and batten walls. We also decorated down to that chair rail of the board and batten too. When I say "we" I mean I got all the pictures around and Darin scales the wall and stair railing to get the pics up. =)

So hear it is when you walk into our door...

A view from the top of the stairs...

And a view of it looking down the stairs...

Another look.. it's done in cherry to match all the other wood in our house...

Am doing my nieces and nephew pictures differently. They used to be on my frig but now thanks to Pier One and pinterest I came up with this frame..

(I am missing my youngest nephew, James.. all his pictures have writing on them for b-day invites. Denise just got me some new pictures to put up) Love the way my frig is cleared off now and also love the way this came out. =)

And my most favorite picture of Darin ever is finally up! It was taken in January by our Pastor Jim, the canvas given to Darin for valentines day from muah in February and then Darin whipped up a frame for it this summer. This picture will ALWAYS be up in our home. I just love it. Darin was having quiet time at our Elder's retreat and our pastor candidly shot this picture of him.. when he got home he realized the pane of the window along with the curtains made a cross. Darin was sitting at the foot of the cross. What a reminder to us all to take time every day and open our bible's and sit at the foot of the cross! Just love it and everything it represents. =)

** If you remember from way back up there.. one of our goals with the ladies was to get Joya potty trained. Summer is so much easier to train.. accidents aren't as annoying when they are outside. Just gotta hose off her legs and get her some new panties.

Invested in new panties.. when I say invested I mean it.. $15 I spent! Anywho.. cheaper than diapers, right?

Darin did most of the training.. he was the one usually outside and he had it down to a science. He gave her chips (to make her thirsty) and then pumped her full of liquids. Then figured out (by his trusty stop watch) that she went every 7-9 minutes. Sat her on the john that often and she had a bunch of successes at the get go so she was super excited.

And a big round of applause for Darin being in a shirt this blog post!

We're on like day 10 now and she'll 90% of the time tell us when she has to go. The poop still hasn't hit the pot yet but I'm just hoping for less time than it took Adie. Only took her 6 months but who counted, right?

Showing off her princess panties...

She looks thrilled, doesn't she? She just woke up from a nap here...

**And another thing that was majorly on our list but we didn't have an extra $10k to cement our drive or $2k to asphalt it was re-doing our driveway (Might I say I did NOT want asphalt!) So we called a stone place and they said that laying limestone on top of our existing 40 year old asphalt would be a great choice. For $300. And we LOVE the results!

Darin did a little work before they got here taking out some of the old asphalt in front of our garage so that rain water would drain properly. Notice the potty chair. My hubs is a hard core potty trainer.

And then the big stone truck came. The girls loved watching it! And look how ugly our drive was before.. it was the last "eye sore" of our fixer house that I desperately wanted to update.

And here is the after...

We've even gotten quite a bit of rain since we had it put in on Monday and it drains wonderfully. The asphalt had sunk over 40 years and was quite a bit lower than our yard.. we'd get a mote in our drive every time we'd get a decent amount of rain. Not anymore! LOVE IT!

**We also refinanced our home this summer to get a better interest rate. We had to have the house reassessed and it is worth over twice as much as we paid for it. =) That was SO FUN to know and love the equity we've built!

**Darin also put up new cabinets in our garage and in my laundry room. Forgot to take pictures of those and I've already posted 16.. I think you get the jist of what he did this summer. =)

**We also spent A LOT of time with these two ladies.. lots of bike rides to the park and swimming dips in grandma's pool. we love these little ladies.. love that Daddy can spend extra time with them in the summer because he's a teacher...

So there you have it! Our summer to-do list update. Never know what will be on the list for next summer and what this post will look like in a year!

Dear Darin...

2011-08-01T14:36:00.003-05:00

I just kissed you goodbye before you headed off to football 2-a-day's. The season has begun. I joked as I said, "See ya in November!" but it's kinda true. I know you have been gifted to be a coach and it's one of your biggest ministries. I love how much you love it. It's what separates the good coaches from the "ok" coaches.. you have a passion for the sport and even more you have a passion for training those boys for LIFE which makes you a stellar coach.

I know coaching came with the marriage and I always tell myself that I can't complain.. I knew what I was getting into before I married you. We both know it takes up a ton of your time but I know you are teaching these kids' more than just how to catch a football.. you are an encourager, a role model and I believe you will never know how your weekly bible chapels before every Friday night game effect those boys each and every day of their lives. And thanks to you the boys in the classes of 2005-2009 will always refer to me as Mrs. Smiley. =) Your chapels motivate me so much I want to suit up and go knock down a few of the poor opponents too! Man you are good at what you do! Those kids are lucky to have you as a coach.

I support you, I love you and thank you so much for an amazing summer and all the help you gave me with the girls and house work while I chase my photography goals. You pretty much took over the laundry this summer on top of all the other projects I made you do! I never once went to the grocery store with the little ladies and I can never thank you enough for that break! You pretty much just potty trained Joya by yourself and I owe ya BIG TIME for that one!

So I'm only half way joking when I say, "see you in November" just because I'm going to miss you. I love being around you. Your little ladies and I love you, Darin Jay!

Lov,
Darce

Baby Girl #3's name...

2011-07-31T13:03:00.002-05:00

We've decided to do something that we've not done yet with our other girls. We are going to share baby girl #3's name. The thought first came to my mind when Darin announced it at Bible Memory Camp last week to all the campers! HA! I thought, "oh, I guess we're sharing it!"

I had told some family and friends but Darin thought a handful of kids in Iowa needed to know. So it got me thinking.. I really think that the transition to bringing home our 3rd baby will go better for my older girls if we call her by name and make her a part of the family from the get-go. Call her by name. Let everyone else call her by name.

And the fact that Adie knows and I'm pretty sure she'll tell whoever asks, or doesn't ask. The day after we found out we were pregnant with this baby she went to her Sunday School class and told her teacher that "mommy has a baby in her belly." Yeah, we were like 3 weeks pregnant. =)

She gets the blurting-secrets gene from her daddy. Ok, ok.. or maybe a little bit of me too...

So to make the transition go easier for my girlies and to do things a little differently than we've done before... we are sharing her name.

Bet you all wish I'd stop rambling and just tell you, don't ya?

And her middle name is still out for discussion so I'm not sharing that until we decide.

Or Darin gives into the baby girl name that's been on our list for 3 babies now. =)

No pressure, Babe.

Ok, ok.. her name will be:

Emery

I love it more and more every day. =)

Both of our girls have family names incorporated into them. Adie is Adelyn where the Lyn is for my mama (Linda) and my middle name is Lyn.

Joya is Joya Jae and she is named for her Papa Jim (James) and Darin's middle name is Jay formed from James. We couldn't leave this baby out so she is named after Darin's only living grandpa, Papa Emery. We tossed around the idea of changing up the spelling to Emerie but keep coming back to the way Darin's grandpa spells it.. Emery. Kept it the simple way.

So there you have it! I am absolutely in love with it and can't wait to see my Emery's face for the first time. I'm sure she'll be every bit as beautiful as her name.

Feel free to call her by name cuz Joya and Adie will be too! Joya keeps playing with her baby dolls and walking into the nursery and saying, "Baby Emmie" melts my heart every time. =)

Man this baby is so loved already!

Happenings...

2011-07-24T12:22:00.060-05:00

Just back from our tour of the Midwest. We hit Lake Geneva, WI to visit a Purdue friend & her family, Bible Memory Camp in Iowa and then stopped in Chicago at an indoor water park.. we are whipped! My girls actually slept until 8am this morning and that is unheard of. Seriously.

First stop was to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to visit my best good bud from Purdue, Molly and her family. She's got 3 little girls too so we're about to join her club. =) The girls and Darin tubed on Saturday and Darin got to ski on Sunday.. we had such a great time catching up and letting our girls play together.

Last October we saw each other and forgot to snap a picture of the 2 of us... we didn't forget this time... and I look rough.. this is what I look like after photo sessions. =/ Your welcome for the great picture.

We took one of all our little blondies as well.. Josie was sleeping so we'll get her in the picture next time. And next time we'll add another blondie to the mix!

I did a little session with Molly and her family and then she snapped a few of us. LOVE this one! We hardly ever get family pictures of us!!

Next we headed off to Iowa for Bible Memory Camp. Darin was the Bible speaker for the week and it was another great year. Seven kids made first time commitments to Christ and lots more rededicated their lives. Even Adie was asking questions like, "Why did Jesus come to die on the cross?" And others like, "How can Jesus live in my heart but grandma Linda lives up with him in heaven?" Um, that one was deep! Each question warms our hearts because the greatest goal of ours is for our girls to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Our biggest ministry. =)

And even tho my big dog camera was at camp this year can you believe I didn't take any pictures in Iowa? Probably because it was 100 degrees each day with a heat index of 115. =/ I took the camp picture this year for them and it took 15 minutes for my lens to defog from going from our air conditioned cabin to the sweltering hot outside. =/

We decided to make our little vacation last a bit longer on the way home and stayed in Gurnee at an indoor water park. The girls LOVED it! They are just starting to get brave in the water so this was perfect timing for them to keep up their swimming skills.

And a blog post of mine would seem incomplete here lately without a picture of my Darin without a shirt! HA!

My favorite quote from Darin while we stayed at the water park was, "Who needs a son?" said after Adie made him go countless times down the big slide on an inner-tube. He's so content with his 3 girls. =) Love that about him.

And my favorite quote from Joya was, "Did you see that?" said EVERY time she went down the kiddy slide. She was so proud.

and I'll leave ya with a video of the girls having fun on the slide.

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All in all a great trip! Can't wait til next year when we do it all over again!

Daddy Daughter Campout...

2011-07-14T14:46:00.001-05:00

Thanks for all the votes on Facebook and comments here on the blog about our entertainment center area.. still haven't decided. Leaning more towards the shelf route. I'll definitely show you a picture when it's done! And Darin finished our basement stair area too so I have some more pictures to hang and I'll show you that area too. Cherry board and batten finish.. it's SO pretty!

And to answer one of my blog reader's questions.. the cords are hidden in the wall. My girls' closet in their room is behind that wall so he was able to hide the cords quite well. That was one of my criteria's for a flat screen.. didn't want to see cords running down from it!

***
Last night Darin fulfilled his promise to Adie Grace to have a camp-out in the back yard sometime this summer. It was a cooler night and they headed out after her soccer camp at church.

She was a bit excited as she grabbed her blanket, Baby, book and her tent..

This is really funny that I keep posting pictures of Darin shirtless on my blog because he's usually so modest.. he won't even take off his shirt to mow in the front yard. Probably because he's too drop dead gorgeous and doesn't want to make the lady folk neighbors stare out their windows and secretly water our yard so it grows more and he has to mow more. =)

Anywho.. here's my shirtless, modest hubby and Adie they go ready for the camp-out on the trampoline..

Setting up the tent...

Jumping while setting up the tent.. that always makes things easier...

Adie caught some fireflies while she waited for daddy to finish putting up her tent..

And here they are ready to go to bed! Or at least in theory. Adie didn't fall asleep until 11pm and Darin was about 1am..

They are so cute...

I love that Darin is sooo amazing with our girls. He's willing to play barbies.. run behind Adie on her bike in the 90 degree heat so she'll learn how to ride her bike safely... and sleep out on the trampoline in the muggy, mosquito filled night.

My bet was that they'd be in by midnight.. but they stayed out all night long! Adie even slept in to a whopping 6:45am. Not joking when I say that she was honestly sleeping in! It's usually 6:22am. Every. Morning. =) That's when the timed moon (night light) goes off and she knows she can get up for the day.

Love the memories Darin's making with Adie! I'm sure she'll never forget this. =)

Help me make a decision...

2011-07-07T20:34:00.002-05:00

Flashback to winter of 2009.

I was pregnant with Joya and we had just finished our master-bedroom addition so that Adie could have our old bedroom and our new Joya would move into Adie's old nursery. I decided on my color scheme.. beige, light aqua blue and brown. I wanted pops of mossy green but that color hasn't made it's appearance yet and it's 2 and a half years later. Note to self.. add mossy green.

Anyway, I took our pillow into Menards for color inspiration and found (what I thought) was the perfect color. I was running errands the day that Darin decided to paint the bedroom. I walked in as he was about to roll the last stroke of (what I thought) light aqua paint onto our bedroom walls.

And I about gasped.

It was THE most country-bumkin blue I had ever seen. My mother would have LOVED it! (Don't worry.. she's laughing in heaven right now! I am totally right! She would have!)

I vomited a little in my mouth and then told him I strongly disliked it. Ok, I may have used the word "hate".

After 2 wasted cans of paint and 2 additional purchased cans of paint we had the master bedroom color of my dreams. Which, by the way, I gave up my rights to pick out paint while pregnant and let my step-mom-of-an-artist picked out and love it.

I am THE most indecisive person when pregnant, amen. And apparently pick our horrendous puke-in-my-mouth country bumpkin blue paint to adorn my brand new walls when pregnant.

So I'm going to enlist your help, oh blog & facebook friends. Last weekend on a whim Darin and I purchased our first TV as a married couple. Yep, been married 6 years and purchased our first boob tube. We had a bunch of hand me down TV's that we call "special needs" because they all have special quirks to make them work. One of them turns off about every 20 seconds for the first 10 minutes it's on. That one is fun. And the most used living room TV you had to turn on the TV first, then turn on the VCR, then push "VCR2" on the remote so you could change the stations through the VCR. You didn't dare touch the channel buttons on the TV or a blast of eskimos in a snowstorm, loud fuzz noise would blow you over.

And yes, I said you had to turn the channels through the VCR.

And yes, those were seriously all the steps.

When we leave our girls with babysitters the list of how to run the TV, VCR and DVD player are longer than directions on how to take care of our children. No joke. So Allison, Steph, Kels, Kara.. Ellie.. your welcome. =) One time a bsitter, Steph & Kels, sat for 2 hours after the girls went to bed and looked at each other because they couldn't figure out the TV. The new TV has ONE remote and you push "up" and "down" on the channel button to change channels. =) Ahhhhhh... 2011 luxuries.

Ok, so back to the decision you need to make for me. Darin has the TV mounted on the wall I designed a TV cabinet below to house our DVD's and player along with some baskets I got at Hobby Lobby for $4 each. (I KNOW!) So all in all the only thing we've purchased is 3 baskets at $4 each and I got some red vases for accent color to set on the cabinet. Darin had all the wood and paint in his wood shop. Love projects like that.

This is what it looks like so far...

We'll clear off the stuff on top when we have big parties and use it as extra seating. I LOVE the way it turned out!

No indecisiveness in the design of the cabinet.

BUT.. I can't decide on where to put my family pictures and wall art.

Help me decide! Got some ideas off pinterest.com so I'll show you some ideas I like and then the little photoshop diddy I did for each option. I want at least three 8x10 or bigger picture areas for the most recent pictures of my girlies. Only criteria.

Here's the blank pic of what it looks like now...

Here's option #1.. pretty simple.... I can do simple. Probably won't get sick of it as quick, right?

Ok.. here's my inspiration for option #2. I wanted to add the light fixtures at the top too but Darin said that was a huge no-no for tv's.. um, I'm going for DESIGN, Babe! There is a huge 50" tv on my wall.. let me make it pretty!

Option #2...

Ok, inspiration #3. I have a lot of these shelves around the house. Most of mine have a little trim on them but I do like the looks of this sleek simple black shelf.

Option #3... shelves with the girls' pictures...

And lastly.. inspiration option #4. Throw some fabric in there. I'd do pictures too but love the color and interest of the fabric on the wall..

Option #4.. pictures, a clock so I know how much time my shows have left and some framed fabric.

And Joya didn't want to be left out. She found out real fast that she had a new surface to jump off. Hey, it's shorter than the kitchen counter-top that she jumped off last week. =/

Tell me what I should do with my new TV wall!

It's a....

2011-07-05T12:29:00.025-05:00

Did a little facebook toll this morning before our ultrasound to see what my friends thought the bebe is and it was 18 for a boy and 4 for a girl.. Adie and I thought boy and Darin thought girl..

Let's see who is right...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ate my little snickers and drank a DC and man was the baby active!

I cried when the ultrasound tech told us we would have our 3rd girl. I was totally surprised because this entire time I've been positive we were having a boy. Not because I preferred a him over a her.. just because I thought we were having a boy!

Can't believe God trusted us with one child.. yet alone 3 girls! Darin said in their teen-age years he's going to retreat to the basement during that time of the month and install a doorbell at the top of the stairs if any of us need him. =) He is SO EXCITED about having another girl! That's what he wanted. =)

The girls are going to be great big sisters. =) I can't wait to see them with her.

Adie keeps going,

"I forgot her name.. can you tell me again?"
Her idea was to name the baby cottage cheese.

I will veto that for the baby girls' sake.

Your welcome, baby girl!

So there you have it.. the Holsopple name will stop at our line of family but man are we going to have 3 beautiful ladies to move and shake the world.

I am filled with joy. =)

Ezekiel 16:44

“Like mother, like daughter.”

Times 3.

Lord, help me to live up to this verse every day of my life!

Another thing I need to be addicted to...

2011-07-02T13:46:00.000-05:00

Goodness.

Yes, I needed ONE MORE thing to be addicted to on the internet! Not only is there Facebook, blogs and etsy.com.. all time suckers. But now there is pinterest.com which could be the most time suck of all! If that's possible.

A friend had me try to explain it to her and I explained it as a digital magazine website where you get ideas from room designs to recipes to pretty quilts to DIY fabric rosette necklaces.

A creative mecca.

And all these people tell you how to do the said creative masterpiece.

Everyone goes to pinterest and posts their ideas with a link to their blog or site that explains how to make the said idea. Once you become a member (free) it somehow it links to facebook so pinterest knows who all your friends are. It starts by seeing what all your friends' favorite "pins" are. There's boxes all over your screen of your friends' favorite ideas. Then you can steal their favorite pins. You really have to go check it out to get the full effect.

Heavenly.

Thought I'd share a little (SUPER EASY) idea.

Assorted glass jars filled with my summer flowers from my garden. None of the jars were purchased.. they are tomato sauce jars, pickle jars and my fave is the hot fudge jar cuz it has a pretty trim on top. Easy as that!

Now go sign up for pinterest. And kiss countless hours goodbye.

Summer thus far...

2011-06-27T14:45:00.006-05:00

Sorry for the 2 week unplanned sabbatical. Summer is among us and heck, I'm so busy with my biz and family events that I haven't been taking pictures of my own little ladies much. It happens every summer.

***Last weekend I shot a wedding. Never in my DREAMS did I ever imagine weddings being in my business plan. I tried one last summer. Loved it but didn't so much love that my hard drive on my computer crashed when I loaded 1,000 pictures on it when I got home. Then we left for a cruise the next day with me fretting about what we were going to do about a new computer! We picked up another computer when we returned home but yeah, that is why I didn't want to do weddings.. the extra stress of the most important day in someone's life. And seriously.. the pictures are a pretty big deal of remembering that said wedding. Anywho, when one of my former gymnasts contacted me to do her indoor wedding I decided I'd try another one since she is so special to me. Hired one of my super good friends, Amanda, to 2nd shoot with me and the day went so, so well. I enjoyed it, Sarah loved the pictures and my hard drive didn't take a dive. Amen.

Amanda caught these pictures of me in action. Bossing around the bride and groom, yo. =)

Amanda and I have another 2 weddings this summer (where I will act as her 2nd shooter) and I have another one in September for my photographer mentor's daughter.

After this summer I'll completely decide if weddings will be permanently added to my list of services. =)

And speaking of my business.. I made a little announcement today. Yep.. booked through 2011.

CRAZY, I know! Yesterday's sermon really touched me.. it was about our work ethic and how we are to work for God and not man. It really gave me a peace to stop booking at this point (booked up through October 22nd.. due date is Nov 14th) because my family is first priority. I'm also going to take a 3 month maternity leave except for babies in my baby package. I love my business but I love my family more. It's time to take a break and give them my complete attention.

**One thing that REALLY doesn't usually happen in the summer is me reading. I picked up this book the other day and man, what amazing truths are in this book!

This is a highlighter-by-the-bedstand read.

No joke.

I could just about highlight the entire book it's that profound. Some of my favorite quotes thus far are:

(pg 16) With Jesus, if we want to gain, we must give up.

If we want to be filled, we must deny ourselves.

If we want to truly get close to God, we'll have to distance ourselves from other things.

(Pg 16) We must ask God for the DESIRE to be healthy. Shallow desires produce shallow efforts.

(pg 20) We crave what we eat.

(pg 24) Truth is powerful. The more saturated we are with the truth, the more powerful we'll be in resisting temptations.

(pg 24) Everything is permissible.. but not everything is beneficial. (1 Corinthians 10:23)

(pg 29) God never intended for us to want anything more than we want Him.

(pg 35) We want the results but we have no desire to put in the work that is required.

(pg 74) We can be victorious. We can step on the scale and accept the numbers for what they are.. an indication of what our body weighs - not an indication of our self worth.

Ok.. just a few little snip-its of what is in that book.

Amazing.

Such good things to read as I'm on the gain-train being pregnant and all. I read 80 pages last night and then had a dream about mashed potatoes.

Seriously.

#satanisajerk#

It's gunna one of those books that I read over and over again. Looks like I'm going to have to!!

***
Baby H #3 will be using clothe diapers. We aren't the greenest people around but as you know we do like to save a buck or two! When we realized how much money we'd save over 2 years of buying diapers.. we were sold. We have this cool local company, Diaper HQ, that lets you try the diapers before you buy them. It was good to figure out which ones we liked and which ones didn't hold in Joya's corn-on-the-cob-poop-thru-a-screen-door poo. =/

That was a fun diaper change that kinda turned me off to the whole idea but Darin feels strongly that it's the way to go so we're doing it.

We're gunna put in our order once we know if we'll be buying green and blue or girlie colored ones! I think we're doing Bumgenius and Flips.

***

And I can't leave you without pictures of the ladies! It's been cool the last week but we've managed some pool and beach days. Here are the girls on Saturday at grandma's pool...

Cousin Zeke...

Daddy and Joya...

Miss Chloe Jem...

***Adie is full out riding her bike without training wheels. She even talked her babysitter last weekend into lettting her ride to the park in town. 1/2 mile away.. twice in the day. No fear that girl has..

And Joya is as spunky as ever. Just about chose "The Strong Willed Child" by James Dobson at the bookstore on Saturday instead of my crave book. That girl is going to know exactly what she does and doesn't want when she grows up.. we're just trying our hardest to channel that strong will in the right direction! Good thing Darin's home this summer to help! It's definitely taking both of us to stand our ground! But man is she a sweet girl. She'll come up to Darin and I and just plant a kiss on us or give us a hug out of the blue. This is after she's been in time-out for the 3rd time because she's hit her sister 3 times in a row.

Bean #3...

2011-06-14T20:37:00.000-05:00

I haven't talked too much about our 3rd pregnancy and I'm gunna devote this entire post to the bun in the oven! I'll just do a random list of facts about our baby H #3..

*We are due November 14th. This is weird for me because usually we birth babies in the spring and have daddy home for 3 months to help with the transition. That's cuz we planned being knocked up that way. Um, yeah, this baby wasn't so much "planned"... not planned but SUPER loved! But it's always fun to have a little pregnant surprise, right? Shake things up a bit. Please remind me of this when I pop out a baby at the end of football season and Darin's home for like 2 days and has to go back to school. =/

* I haven't really been craving anything in particular.. but I do make sure there are chocolate chips in the freezer at all times, Amen. And Aldi's version of baked Lay's. But I'm pretty sure I crave those when not PG as well.

* When you ask Adie what she thinks mommy's baby is she says "boy" every time. When you ask Joya what the baby in mommy's belly is she says "2!" Um, very funny little girl. ONE heart beat has been detected!

* If you are friends with me on Facebook you know that we've had a hard time making the decision on whether or not we are going to have an ultrasound and find out what the baby's sex is. Lil' bit of history for ya.. we didn't find out with Adie and it was awesome. We found out with Joya on Christmas Day and it was awesome. So yeah, having amazing experiences with both babies made it hard to figure out what we wanted to do. We are now 18.5 weeks so we gotta make up our minds here soon. Adie is pretty determined that the bebe is a boy so if it's not we may need 20 weeks to talk her into a baby sister instead.

* Speaking of.. I think we're having a boy and Darin isn't sure but is hoping for another girl. Seriously. =) He LOVES our girls so much and to quote him, "I can't imagine not having a 3rd girl to protect!" I know, sweet isn't it? Not sure we can fund 3 girls' tampons, mascara and 3 weddings. =/ The other day he asked if we would try for a 4th girl if we had a boy next.. um, NO! Four babies and our crazy schedules is just plain nuts!! I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around having 3!

*Let's get honest.. I'm a little scared about having 3 kids. Some days 2 kids kicks my butt. I've been warned that 3 kids have "done in" some of my friends so I'm trying to prepare myself. A friend once described having 2 kids is like running a man-to-man defense in basketball.. having 3 kids you have to switch to zone and that can get dangerous. Yeah, I don't do basketball lingo much but I get what he's saying and it freaks me out!

*Will we share names if we do find out? Nope! I've talked to some close friends about name options but we'll probably keep them to ourselves if we do find out. =) Sorry!

*Rooming arrangements.. Joya and Adie will share a room and the nursery will be devoted to the bebe. I'm thinking about changing up the nursery cuz it's been the same for 4 years. And I ran out of rooms to redecorate so I get a new project.. not sure Darin knows this yet. =)

* I am going to try my darndest to take a 3 month maternity leave with my photography. I tried to take February off and ended up with like 10 sessions for the month so yeah, you heard me here! Going to try to take a maternity leave and devote my time to my family. =) I'll still do my baby package babies, of course. =)

*And I left this last on purpose.. I'm 99% sure we're going to find out what the baby's sex is. =) I've had a ton of people ask and yeah, I think we are going to go ahead and find out. Unless we chicken out at the last minute and want to be surprised! So in about 3 weeks I'll let you know!

They are growing up...

2011-06-12T20:53:00.001-05:00

Ah... our little girls are growing up.

For about a month Adie's been asking when she can get rid of her training wheels.

They are totally cramping her style, yo.

So yesterday Darin mowed a "landing strip" of short grass in the way back yard of our house. We live on a relatively busy road so this is what Darin came up with to train her.

After they practiced a bit I went out with my camera to see how far they'd come. Of course I captured the worse tumble....

They were both fine.. no tears from either of them. =)

Adie got right up and tried again!

And here she is in motion...

They then took it to the road where she learned how to start, stop and turn corners. Happy for her.. sad for how quickly she's growing up!

She went to church this morning and told everyone she only needs 2 wheels on her bike now. Before this as we were turning into the church parking lot she said,

"We're at church! This is where I can't show anyone my panties."

Which really is a good rule of thumb for anyone but every week before we get there we talk about being a lady and keeping one's dress down while playing with one's belly button. She's learning more than just about Jesus at church. Solid life lessons.

Back to the bike riding... she's a happy camper with her accomplishments!

Then she came in from her bike ridin' and wanted to take a shower. Earlier that morning she was barking orders at daddy and Joya to get the house clean for when mommy comes home from her photo sessions. =/ Growing up way too fast, I tell ya.

And all that riding makes a 4 year old that's trying to grow out of her naps awfully tired...

It also makes a grumpy girl while mama wants to capture round 2 of your 4 year shots. This is seriously the best we got...

I just need to put her on a bike with only 2 wheels in the pretty yellow wildflower patch and she's be all smiles. =/

And we can't leave out Joya! She was taking a quality nap while her sister learned to ride a bike so she was all smiles when it was her turn for pictures.

Smiley and ORNERY!!!

One of Darin't track girls said she flipped thru pictures of Joya on Facebook and the blog and loved how all the pictures totally showed Miss Joya's personality. She's got it right! If you've never met her.. her pictures show her little spirit!

Did get this one pretty picture of Adie's profile.. and her complete annoyance that she woke up from a nap to take pictures...

And love this one of Joya and daddy. =)

Summer fun!!!

2011-06-07T14:55:00.000-05:00

Yep! Blog is getting the shaft because summer is in full mode. I love summer. =) If I'm not at a session or editing then we're outside doing projects or playing! Planned a fun little surprise 30th b-day party for a good friend last week as well.. she thought her hubby was taking her out for her birthday but she walked around the corner and saw 7 of us waiting for her..

Yep, they are the ones we went on the cruise with last summer. =)

The best part of the night was when I took her home and a spider crawled out of the bouquet I gave her and she screamed bloody murder. I don't think she's going to be cured of her hatred of spiders in her 30's. =/ At a red stop light I jumped out of the car and tried to kill the thing but it kept going inside a petal. Good times, good times. =)

This past weekend we took 2 of our track girls to the State track meet at Indiana University.

Where Joya figured out how to put her hands in her pockets...

And Adie felt how hot 102 degrees is. =/

We had a great time and our 2 track girls did great. Sophie did a great job in polevault and Becca placed 7th in the 300m hurdles! You make us proud, ladies!

***

Today we invested in a $7.99 Princess slip-n-slide because again it's like 102 degrees.

She's getting a tad bit better having water in her eyes.. she still ran and wiped them off on a towel every chance she got. =/

And Joya had a ball too.

When did my little girls get so big!?!?!?!?! Does every mom say that when they look at pictures of their kids?

You can see that the farmers tan is in full effect already this summer. =)

We nixed the diaper outside and she can't keep her bikini panties up without the diap...

She doesn't know that July has been designated potty training month for her. =( I refuse to pay for diapers for 2 kids so the training starts before the bean is born!

And daddy can still do a back tuck. =) Teasing me cuz I can't make sure I can still do one til next summer...

Finally getting to that point where I look pregnant and not just like I ate a really good meal or are getting chubs. =) 17 weeks here..

So yeah, that's what we're doing with our summer so far! Darin starts summer speaking next week so he's in full force preparing 5 messages next week.

Have I mentioned I love summer? =)

I miss Mayberry!

2011-05-31T18:21:00.000-05:00

What is THE highlight of every Memorial Day?

Our anniversary?

Well, yeah but the Maberry Parade comes in a close 2nd!

This year the girls were all pumped for the "circus" in the town that I grew up in. (It's really a parade but it was so cute to hear them call it a circus.) I decked them out in their patriotic attire and we sat on the curb and waited for the big parade to start.

They always start with the war Vetrans holding flags and a prayer. They always shoot their guns into the air 3 times. Not sure the meaning behind it but it always makes me teary. I get sentimental and have no clue what the sentimental meaning is behind it! If someone knows then you can clue me in. Until then I'll keep tearing up because I'm sure it's super meaningful .

And it's not every day you sit by an amish boy and his ma at the big parade.

As they salute the flag.

And comment on how cute my girls' shirts are.

Not joking.

And I went back and reminisced when we took Adie and Joya to the parade 2 years ago. She didn't like the guns then and 2 years later she's still not fond of them!

Had to show you my adorable niece and my hottie sis in law, Natalie enjoying the parade festivities!

My girlies. =)

And it's not every day you fight that same amish little boy for the candy the float people throw at you. That little amish dude wanted his candy! I wanted to tell my girls to be a bit more aggressive and beat the amish boy to the goods. But I refrained. I guess I don't have to worry about them reading my blog, right?

Here's the line-up of my side of the family's cousins. Minus my sis's 3 boys.

Joya's become quite the daddy's girl with summer break. So cute to see!

Til next year!

6th Anniversary

2011-05-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

Today marks a special day in our family history.. 6 years ago we were married! And oh what a perfect day it was. =) I'll take you on a little flashback of our wedding day.. many things that I forgot until I looked thru our wedding album and had a few laughs!

This was the verse that was all over our wedding..

And it was a day of rejoicing.. we'd finally found the perfect one for each other. Never a day in my marriage have I doubted my love for this man. It's only grown. Never once have I ever wanted to go back in time and not marry him.. never once have I doubted his love for me. God created this man for me.

Here are some of my favorite pictures...

And I should have plucked out the picture of me loosing it in our vows. You know.. the part where it says "for better or for worse". Those words still to this day have so much meaning for me. EVERY wedding Darin and I have been to together I always get a little hand squeeze when that part comes in the vows. Coming from the past that I came from where my 1st husband left me in the "worst"... I will never, never leave my Darin when things get rough. And I know he will never leave me. Yeah, we recited our marriage vows last weekend at our marriage conference and I still couldn't say the words without a ton of emotion!! Anyway..

How often does it happen that the bridesmaids you select to be in your wedding are STILL your best friends? I love these girls. =) Lucky to call one of them my sister and 2 of them my awesome sister in law's. =) The other 3 are just my silly, crazy awesome besties.

And yes I thought our day was perfect.. even when my sister forgot to grab Darin's ring for the actual ceremony and we had to do our own little ring exchange in the church hallway. =)

Don't worry. that ring wasn't meant to be.. Darin lost it in the ocean on day #3 of our honeymoon. =)

And our honeymoon.. man, what an unforgettable trip! First of all those best friends of mine decorated the ol' Honda before we left...

Tried to go thru the car wash before we went to the airport and it wouldn't come off. =/ The poor Accord sat in the Chicago airport parking lot all week sporting the Nookie Rookie label. =/ That is some heavy duty classiness right there.

Ah... our honeymoon in Acapulco, Mexico. CRAZY awesome! I worked for an International Department at the time and a distributor let us stay in his 4 bedroom, 4 bath condo in Acapulco for free. Not to mention paid for our meals and hired a private driver for us for the entire week. One that spoke English, amen. Yeah, it was crazy amazing.

And who could forget coming home to a freshly shaven Bailey cat. Um, yeah.. those best friends struck again. =) The good ol'. let's-shave-the-cat-on-their-honeymoon-so-he's-super-ugly prank.

After 9 weeks of dating,

a 5 month engagement,

3 different career moves between the 2 of us,

4 houses gutted and remodeled,
the death of Darin's dad,

1 church change,
a fun 5th anniversary cruise,

2 AMAZING little girls being born and changing our lives for the good,

the surprise of baby H #3 in the oven

and 2,190 days of being married...

I could not love this man more!

Darin Jay Holsopple.. you are the perfect man for me. I can't imagine going a day without your humor, accountability, leadership, passion and love. You've made the last 6 years the best of my life.. I can't wait to see where our love will be in 50 more years. You really do complete me.

Your Lilly of the Valley,

Darcy

Whew!

2011-05-23T15:18:00.000-05:00

Busy couple of weeks since I last posted! We finished up preschool, MOTTT'S and are in Darin's last week of school. Amen.

Darin and I also spent the weekend at A Weekend to Remember marriage conference this past weekend. It was AMAZING! If you ever have a chance to go, GO! Run! My dad had gifted us the weekend along with a 2 night hotel stay for Christmas. It was awesome to get away and just concentrate on us. We have a great marriage but are always willing to make it even better. =) So yeah, can't say enough good about the organization and the marriage conference.

Just a few pics of Adie's last day of the 3-4year old Preschool year.

Me and my first born.. don't smile, baby girl! First time I've ever thought we had the same eyes!!!

I thought this one was hilarious. =) Especially my nephew, Brayden in the green.

And I had to do the comparison.. this is Adie's first day of preschool back in September...

Look how many inches she grew! Her head is way higher in this picture!!!

And I can't leave out my Joya!! Here she is bed head and all cheesing like normal. =)

And Darin shot a few pictures of me this weekend for my photography blog. I had a client think I was the mom that is on my blog header of my photography blog.

Um, no.. that is my beautiful friend Melissa. =) The one we went on the cruise with last July. So.. in order to stop people confusing me with my beautiful friend Melissa... Darin shot a few of me in Indy. Sorry the belly isn't in the shot.. I am 15 weeks in this picture but still just look like I ate a really good meal.

And drank a crap ton of water.

And am having a very bloated day.

Yeah.. not the cute little prego belly that you are imagining that I usually never get. =) I usually get deep and wide.

Can't forget Joya's 2 year pictures!

2011-05-12T13:35:00.000-05:00

I can't forget to show you the first round of Joya's 2 year pictures! Since I kinda take pictures as a little job I have to find little bits of time to take the girls out and shoot em. =) With a camera, of course. I found the perfect magnolia tree and I love how sweet they turned out. Joya is a HARD one to capture so this is what we've gotten at our photo session part 1. =)

LOVE this one because it shows her 1 dimple and her ornery personality!

And I asked them if they would hold each other's hands and this is what I got...

It makes me laugh. I'm seriously thinking of making a print of it for here in the house! They really do like each other!

Happy birthday, Adelyn Grace!!!

2011-05-10T07:45:00.001-05:00

Happy 4th birthday to my sweet little girl, Adelyn Grace! I can't believe it's been 4 years already.. feels like we brought you home from the hospital. We love your thoughtfulness, your humor and even when you are a bit silly. We love you Adelyn and thank God every day He chose us to be blessed by you.

Just a few pictures of our 1st 4 year photo session. I found about a half an hour of time last week and we hurried out and captured a few shots!

Birthday Partay and the Jump-oline

2011-05-09T15:21:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we celebrated our little girls' birthday's! 30 friends and family members came over for the festivities. The girls are a bit obsessed with princesses and dressing up as royalty so we decided to have a princess party!

With the AMAZING 75 degree weather we had a bit ol' cookout, then opened some gifts and the kids played outside. Here are a few pictures...

She kinda looks like she needs to potty. =)

My Joya is a bit expressive when opening gifts...

And another...

I have no clue where she gets it!

Her father, but of course. =)

We had a bit of barbie princess cake while in our princess gowns....

Love this pictures of the girls and my nephew Jett blowing out the candles..

Then all the kiddos went outside to play in the sandbox...

And the new "jump-oline", as my girls call it. Darin and I and papa Denny and grandma Susie got the girls a trampoline for their birthday's. It was something Darin would have gotten them last year if I would have let him. =) I was still a bit hesitant because they are only 2 and 4 but Darin suggested the idea of burying it so the risk of them falling off it and breaking an arm was reduced. And I'm all about them learning some tumbling asap. So I agreed. =)

Last week we purchased it and put it up so Darin could get the dimensions and start digging. The girls were excited and gave it 2 thumbs up. =)

Or at least Joya tried to give a thumbs up, gave up and told me she was "2" instead.

And please excuse their ugly play clothes. My girls RUIN clothing so we have an entire drawer of ruin clothes!

As you can see, I think they approved.

So Darin started digging.. he came up with his own system instead of what we read online. He measured where the legs were on the trampoline and dug down the height of the trampoline's legs. He put down PVC pipe into the hole that was slightly larger than the trampoline leg. He put cement into the holes and stuck the PVC pipe into the cement. Let that dry for a few days...

Then yesterday afternoon before the party he dug for a few hours. =) He dug out the middle of the hole into a "dome" like bowl. Dug it deep enough so that when he and i jumped we didn't hit bottom. It will get drained and a weed barrier will be put down. yesterday the goal was to get it into the ground! And he finished at 4:35pm for a party that started at 5pm!

And this is the outcome!

My nephews trying it out. =)

And a little video of all the kids trying out the new in-ground trampoline...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We love it! (Hopefully) less injuries and I don't hear, "mommy, I want up!" and "mommy, I want down!"

Heavenly. =)

And happy birthday to my princesses.. my big 4 year old and my 2 year old baby!!!

Big girl bed

2011-05-06T12:12:00.000-05:00

We are on day 3 of Joya's naps in her big girl bed and tonight will be night 3 of sleeping in that big girl bed! She hasn't attempted to get out yet but I know it's coming.. Adie did the same thing. Showed us for months that she could be a big girl and stay in her bed and then we brought a bouncing baby Joya home from the hospital and we went thru 6 months of horrible sleeping habits with our first born. Oh well.. we made it thru and I can't believe it's time to jump Joya up to a big bed!

Her bedspread is finished.. thanks to grandma Holsopple finishing it up! I helped with the piecing and sewing and a little of the quilting part of it and she made all the rosettes and did the finishing touches. I'll show you all the finished bed once I get some new curtains and make a new banner for the room too. =)

Adie has been "reading" to Joya lately so I grabbed my camera to show you the sweetness...

Look at Joya cheeseballing for this picture...

Ah.. I love them. =)

Happy birthday baby girl!

2011-04-30T09:37:00.001-05:00

I CANNOT BELIEVE our baby is 2 today! Man, time flies! For those of you that don't know her I'll give you a few random facts about our little lady. She's pretty awesome. =)

Joya Jae is our little spitfire baby that is seriously tiny. She weighs 22lbs and I'm not sure how tall she is.. we go to the dr. for her well baby visit this week. Shes always been in the 5-10 percentile for height and weight so I'm expecting her height to be short too.

She is SO ACTIVE. She never sits still. But she loves to be held. She'd be content on my hip all day if I was moving around. She likes to know what I'm doing.

She still wears size 3 diapers.

She's a bit ornery. She's been known to hit her sister and run for cover. Many times daily.

She'll start potty training this summer. She doesn't know this yet. I've started praying for the process already!

She holds her own. One time in the nursery at church a little boy significantly larger than her took a toy from her. She walked up to him and put her finger right into his chest and said, "no-no-NO!" Best part was that Darin got to witness the spunk.

She got a big girl bed yesterday. We haven't started the process of moving her over from her crib yet but she sure thinks it's fun to jump on!

She's getting more words altho she still has quite a bit of baby jabber. She talks A LOT.. we just have no clue what she's saying!

Her nick-name is Joy-Joy.

She has a "B" which is her little blanket that goes EVERYWHERE with us. Thank the Lord we haven't left it somewhere yet! I can't imagine the agony she'd go thru if we ever lost that silly thing! Here is a picture of the girls before daddy's track meet last Tuesday. She's modeling her "B" for ya.

She still fits into her 12-18 month clothes.

She's not a big eater. At all. She really could care less about food. But she loves candy! She'd eat candy 24/7 if we'd let her.

She's still getting teeth. When you don't get your first tooth until your 15 months old.. it kinda pushes back the whole schedule! She's still waiting on her 4 eye teeth and those were doosey's with Adie. We've still got some sleepless nights ahead. =(

We love our little Joya Jae! She's been such a fun, energetic, spunky little thing in her 2 short years. I can't wait to see the little lady she becomes.

Mommy, daddy and Adie love ya, Joya!

Funny Adie-isms...

2011-04-25T14:45:00.002-05:00

Here's a little tip for all those mommy's out there that have funny kids.. I keep a Word document labeled "funny things Adie says" up on my desktop on our computer. I tried to have a notebook handy to jot things down but I can type much faster than I can write and I'm on my computer so much that this seems to work for me. I have the WORST memory and don't want to forget the funny almost-4-year-old things Adie says so this is perfect for us! I will scrap them some day soon. =0)

Here's some of her funnies:

January 12th, 2010 Darin had a 2 hour delay so he made us pancakes. Adie got out the eggs and daddy told her he didn't need them. She then replied, "Ok.

I'll put them back so they don't hatch."

January 2nd, 2011 "How about if I stay in my bed for four nights you take me to Florida to see Mickey!"

January 2011 Adie picks up mommy's bra and says, "Mommy, do you need your booby pads?"

February 2011 Adie shows me her dollhouse toaster and says, "this is what they grow their toast in."

February 2011 Adie is super excited about the "Daddy Daisy Daughter Dance" at church tonight!!

February 2011 "Mom, I need to find my green socks. Green is my favorite color after red and blue"

March 2011 While eating pizza at dinner- "Wow mommy! This is really good enough!"

April 2011 Darin brought Adie close to his (unshaven) face and she told him, "your face feels like a cinnamon roll, daddy!"

April 2011 A Saturday morning when daddy was at a track meet Adie was dressed up in her princess gown. She came up to me and asked me,

"where is daddy?"

I told her he was at a track meet. She replied,

"Well I need a prince to dance with!"

April 2011 I was cleaning out the fridge and I threw away an expired container of cream cheese. She asked me if she could try the "dip". I told her it had expired and she said, "Was it a really big spider?"

Here is a picture with the purse-point-n-shoot of them from Easter yesterday. I guess we had a circle theme for the ol' dresses? Didn't even plan it that way!

Finding their eggs at grandma's house. =)