I'm baaaaack (again)

So much has happened since I last blogged!  I mean heck, it's been since December!  My goodness, how irresponsible slack of me!  Honestly, it's a time issue.  I'm not very technological and so it takes time and effort for me to grace this blog with pictures of what I write about.  I have to (assuming they are loaded on the computer already) save them as smaller files to upload, edit them, watermark them, and make sure they are "cool" enough to fit in in blog land.  At least that's the pressure I put on myself.  On top of that I have to be creative to have something to write about and keep folks entertained, psssh that's not happening.  Especially now that times 3 now my brain has shrunk with the pregnancy of a child.  So yeah Rowen's here now (there goes more time).  But, (did I just enlarge the fact that I started a sentence with a but?) now more than ever I NEED to blog!  My children are growing up right before my eyes!   Baby boy, Rowen, Bubby (all names we like to call him), will be 2 months in 3 short days!  I don't do a good job at recording their milestones or experiences or the cute things that come out of their mouths so I must blog them.  So this is for my sweet sweet Darby (4), Carson (2), and Rowen (as we previously established almost 2 months orrr zero as Darby likes to refer to him).  They may not be the most graceful writings you've ever laid eyes on, or the coolest ideas, or have the best pictures ever (shoot, it may not have pictures at all), but I'll be glad to have a record for my babes.  I hope that pictures will frequent this blog but you can consider the ideas or recipes a bonus when I have time for such!  No pictures for today BUT I will leave you with probably the sweetest video of a baby ever in history (of course I am biased tho).

Make sure you turn the volume up and for some reason it automatically starts instead of you pressing play so you can stop it and restart it....no time to figure it out and as I said...not too technological here.

Are you still my friends???

I can't be to sure if I have any blogging friends left after my ridiculously long absence...but alas I am back at it ; ).   I finally feel like I may have some more time for this blogging business!  I am telling you it is the shorter days!  It makes all the difference.

So what should I start you off with?  I don't know...but I have been in the worst mood lately.  It is getting on my nerves and I so I can only imagine how Chady feels about it.  (Well that sure was a downer to start off with...but that is what came to my brain.)

What else...well we went punkin pickin the other day and here are some pictures from this event!

The last picture is us girls with our choosen pumpkin...

Husband Showcase...

Warning....

This blog might turn into a place that I showcase my husbands amazing skills...

So I am here to present to you his second video...

It was shot this past weekend at our friends little girls 1 year birthday party.  I may be biased but if you ask me, he has got enough talent to knock your socks off ; )

Oh and I will just go ahead and tell you that our new pet is none other than...

Princess Fiona, the guinea pig.  She is cute on one hand and then a rodent on the other...hopefully I will get a picture up of her soon.  You may not believe me but I am serious, she IS cute, she has messy hair not the straight kind.

Anyway~back to the video...
I would challenge you to click the little tab at the bottom right side and bump up the quality of the video.  720p is HD but may run choppy or slow so I recommend the 480p bc it is still better quality but not as slow...your choice ; )

 

Back with a video...

Well I sure hope you weren't holding your breath waiting for my next post...lol.  I am the worst blogger in all the land.  Summer is a crazy time.  We have been having sooo much fun tho.  I will just briefly fill you in so far....


*God has done miraculous and amazing things in a family situation that has been troubling for quite a long time.
*I still haven't introduced you to our new pet.
*I maybe had or didn't have mono.  I didn't feel like I had mono...well according to some of the stories I hear.  All I know is my first test was positive and the next which was a week later was negative.  So who knows...
*We had and thoroughly enjoyed Carson's first birthday party.  She is growing up so much!
*We went to Disney World.  Stayed at the Wilderness Lodge and just had a fantastic time!  I am going to share pictures soon.


Those are the main events.  


My hubby has been aspiring to do these creative films and is really still smack in the middle of learning software and getting ideas but for fun he shot this CUTE video of sweet Carson and I will share bc I think he did an absolutely AMAZING job.

Taste of the cake...session.

Okay sorry again for the slack blogging!  I have been really busy but also I am outside so much more with this spring and summer weather.  I noticed alot of my bloggy buddies have cut back dramatically in their blogging and so I don't feel as bad ; ).  I guess until the time changes again and we are stuck inside to avoid the cold weather we just wont be writing as much! 

Exciting things are coming up!  Darby and Carson are having their birthdays!  Yay.  Darby's is this coming weekend...oh man that reminds me I better get my stuff together!  Then Carson's is the following weekend.  I'm thrilled to be celebrating my sweet girls. 

So my friend Amy has done it again....she took THE cutest pics of my babe (and my sister's babe).  We had a smash the cake session!  Here is your small taste until I get them all!  Go to her photography blog to see more!

Recently I saw the movie Avatar!  I mean I am a little behind on the times but...Oh my goodness.  I loved that movie!  I LOVED it.  So if you haven't seen it then you should. 

I didn't update on Carson when she turned 11 months!  I am so slack!  What can I say.  I will tell you though that in her 10th month she perfected the art of cruising around the furniture throughout the room.  She can clap and wave...she is still really quiet but she will say da- da and her version of ma- ma.  She is serious and if she sets out on a mission she is determined to accomplish it.  She still gets terrerized by her older sister but she LOVES her big sis Darby!  She is a cubby dub.  I she weighed 22lbs on a trip to the doc last month!  She is so sweet.

Soon I will be updating you on my 3 year old and 1 year old!  I can't believe it.

Overload...

I want to blog...I really do but the words aren't coming to me like I want them too.   I don't think I can say what I would like to say anymore eloquently than these two blogs that I read recently:

Cindy Foote @ this poetic present on the recent changes in our government and God's Sovereignty.

and

Joni Blair @ ECBC (my church) Women's ministry blog  on sufferings.


I know I have many new readers and most of them I don't even know.  I don't think I will be doing my blog justice if I didn't back track a little and post this link that explains my blog.  One of my favorite things about blogging is documenting my babes lives (especially since I am terrible at doing it on paper) but I also love to share some of my life and my walk with God as well.

I know I have asked you to read alot but I know you won't regret it if you click on those first two links especially...I hope that they will be good for some of your souls as they were for mine.

Blessings....

In case you want to know...

1. What's your favorite Easter candy?   Oh I LOVE Cadbury Mini Eggs!  I have only bought one of the little like single serving bags so far this year...I MIGHT allow myself to indulge in a big bag!  I also LOVE the mini robin eggs (u know like whoppers except to me these taste nothing like whoppers)




2. Who do you think is cleaner..men or women? Women, although I think there are guys who are really clean and women who are really not clean...



3. Which do you prefer..wordy blog posts or ones with pictures?  I like just the right amount of pics and words.  I have a bit of an attention problem if there are too many of either...


4. Were you popular in highschool?  I think I was just regular.  My friend Julie always says I was too cool for her (we became friend friends after high school and college).  I would say I was in with the "cool" kids but I was just looking for love and life and purpose in all the wrong places then....


5. What's your bra size? If this was not attached to the world wide web and it was just us girls chit chatting sure thing I would give this up to you but it would be my luck someone would "google" me (why would they be doing that?) and they would get a post about my bra size...



6. How many states have you lived in?  3, Louisiana, Florida, and South Cackalacky



7. What's one blog you read every day? um I can't think of an answer for this but usually when my time allows I just go down the list of blogs that have new post...I am more attached to blogs that I sort of establish a bloggy friendship with the person 



8. Peanut butter or Nutella?   Just the words peanut butter and nutella make me feel sick and almost give me a panic attack.  Like I have a serious phobia (no not the phobia that ppl have about peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of their mouth) but like the word and the smell and the thought makes me feel dizzy and want to throw up.  Just seeing the word on the computer screen and it was even worse to type it!  I am allergic...  and all this talk about it makes me feel like I need to go stab myself with an epi pen.  So I better stop!  Ha ha don't worry too much about me...I am aware that I am a freak.

My Beauty Must-Haves...

For the first time I am going to participate in Kelly's Korner: Show Us Your Life Friday! It is about beauty tips and products so here you go... I absolutely cannot live with out my Bare Minerals make up! I use faux tan as my all over face color bc I learned that I LOVE it better than the Warmth that comes with the original start up kit. I also love the buxom lip gloss they make! My favorite colors for now are sugar and tempest, it is GREAT lip gloss...but you better be ready to pay for its greatness. It last forever though!





Another new favorite of mine is the Murad skincare! I use the clarifying cleanser and I love it. It cost $26 but it last forever! Like 6 months or more.



I am in the market for a new moisturizer. I have all my life (well since I was 13) used the yellow face lotion from Clinique but I think it leaves bumps on my face sometimes so I am looking for a super healthy for my skin moisturizer. I may go with something from Murad but I also want to look in to the dermalogica moisturizers too. Any advice on this one????

SoMeThInG tO bLoG aBoUt....

Lately, I have been kinda boring! I do have lots of things I think about sharing with yall but then I don't have the motivation to write the blog. Then all my ideas get jumbled up and I forget some and then decide some aren't worth it and then don't know what to say about others. So tonight instead of not blogging I decided to blog. I am still not sure what it will be about tho... I had a hard and draining afternoon so please pray for me and then excuse my brain which has turned to mush.




Piggly Wiggly feeds your life! ha. Its feeding mine right now for sure. This month for every manufacterers coupon you use you get 1 greenback! You can save up your greenbax and redeem them for groceries, gas, trips to the waterparks, giftcards to the outlet mall (my personal fav), etc... So you can use 10 coupons a day so I plan to strategically get things I need or can stock up on, especially the more inexpensive items and go as many days as I can! I would LOVE to go everyday and earn myself 280 greenbax but that just won't happen.

I am making personalized homemade valentines for Darby's friends and I am so excited! Here is a sneak peak:



I will show you the finished product but I plan to have that image on a card that I fold over and staple to a bag of treats. I am so excited about them!

What else was I going to blog about??? I don't know... but hopefully this was enough to entertain you for a min!


"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever"

How fabulous is...

A shower after not bathing for 2 days?

A bagel and coffee in the morning?

Clean sheets and shaved legs at the same time?

A clean house?

Starbucks?

Visiting other cities Targets?

My 2 year old who asks to pray when we are tucking her baby sister in?

A good book series in the mail due to arrive in 3 days?

This is just a small list of some fabulous things that I have gotten to enjoy very recently or will be in the very near future. If you are wondering what book series I am talking about it is the Twilight Saga... I caved! I haven't had even the slightest desire to read them bc I am not into the vampire senario, but I have had a couple friends tell me they are so good and I trust them so we will see! My books are arriving on the 11th so if you don't hear from me for a while you will know why ; ). I love reading a good fiction series but I don't do it too often because what will happen is I will get so hooked and I won't do anything else until they are all read. I am looking forward to it. It has been a long time since I read my last series.


I will let you know how they turn out!

Due to the fact that I will be spending most of my time reading and some minor technical "challenges", I am getting my friend Carissa to redesign my blog for me. She is launching a new blog designing business and I will have to be passing that information on to you all. Happy Friday night to you!

Uh-Oh...

So you might notice a few changes to my blog.... enjoy them while they last because I am about to revamp my blog. Hopefully, I hope I am not speaking to soon. This is assuming I can accomplish the task! Still some work to be done but I purchased some "blogwear" from Scrap Matters.
I hope this one will last me longer. I am really excited tho.

Check out my new signature at the bottom of this post. So exciting. Learned how from the Sneaky Momma Blog Design blog. I also added a post divider and learned how from the shabby blog tutorial.

I am going to be really annoyed if these links don't work. I have the worst time with them. If you are thinking about blogging...BEWARE, it can become an obsession. I call myself a blogaholic. But I really think that once I get my design the way I want it then I will be much less involved! It is a fun hobby for me though for now.

A Time to Celebrate!

You might ask, "What's the occasion!?!"

I finally got a comment from someone else besides Carissa! It is so ridiculous that this put such a big smile on my face! I mean this whole post is me making fun of myself! This blog could almost be my third child. If you know me I LOVE accessorizing. So what is the point of a blog if not to just accessorize a page!?! So anyway on that note...I am seriously considering purchasing a premade blog design. I like mine okay it it took me having to learn so much just to make it what it is but you know what I like about other blog designs???? The bigger space in the middle. This may not make any sense but I mean the background isn't so wide and the middle section is bigger. When I go from other blogs to this one then I feel like mine looks squished. Anyway, I am def on the hunt for a cute premade blog design that fits me. ORRRRR maybe I should just add a signature and post divider and see if that satisfies my need to accessorize for right now. What to do, what to do?? Thanks Kellie for your much needed comment because I thought well I could just call Carissa and tell her all of this stuff! Ha ha, I am really just kidding. But if you do follow you can let me know by "following" me or dropping me a line every once and a while. I should also give my sis Amanda a special thank you for signing up to "follow" me a few days ago....just to see the third follower made me smile too. It makes me feel like my blog has a purpose and is growing = ). I just hope that you don't notice what hour I am writing this blog because then you may be concerned about how much of a purpose this blog might be to me ; ).

The Cutest Things

I am "allowed" to blog again bc I am at a stand still with my Christmas cards. I realized the other night that I need more ink in my return address stamp. That can be fixed on Monday and I can drop them in the mailbox at the post office and be done! Thats a relief. But that leads me to my first cutest thing!

My Three Designing Women Return address stamp!



I couldn't find a picture of what mine looks like but even since I bought mine a while ago they have come out with several more designs so here are a couple other designs I think are fun:



You can find more and lots more cute stuff at www.threedesigningwomen.com/productcart/pc/viewcontent.asp?idpage=4.

The next cutest thing (i'm not talking in order from most cutest to least just the next thing on my list) is my cute 2 yr old! She says things that make me laugh! Today she wanted to call her daddy on the phone so I called him, put it on speaker, and gave the phone to her. He didn't answer so she had to leave a message which she only semi understands that concept. So when she didn't hear him talking back she said, "oh no mommy I need speaker phone on". Oh my goodness, she is so cute to me!

I interupt this blog to put a CUTE picture of Darby and Carson. Carson is either kissing Darby or eating her...I don't know? They love each other!



The next cutest thing is my baby Carson! I enjoy her sooooo much. What I love and think is the absolute cutest is when she gets so excited and kicks her legs and flails her arms and smiles so big and just breathes in and out loudly or laughs. I mean that is SO cute!

My last cutest thing in my blog are these sanitizer bottles that I made last night at a girls night with my community group ladies! I am so pleased with how they turned out! I got the idea from the idea room blog. Her picture came out much better than I can get mine to, but here are mine anyways. It is such a CUTE little gift. I am giving them to little Darby's preschool teachers for christmas gifts.

About My Blog!

It didn't really take me anytime to come up with my blog title. I would say that what God is doing the most in me right now is giving me an eternal and everlasting perspective. For a year and a quarter now I have been walking through some hard times in life. I got pregnant with my sweet Carson in August 08 and since then the only way to describe my life is difficult. I'm not complaining (although I do sometimes), it has been great to learn and grow and has produced MUCH joy! I understand (somewhat) what it means to do as paul says and "consider it pure joy when you face sufferings of many kinds". Someone who I consider to be very wise illustrated to me that trials and temptations are absolutely necessary for our santification. So I want to be santified right? Of course! So why would I (or do I) grumble against them? The answer to that would BEEEEE bc I live on this side of heaven!

So this is a blog of my life...this side of heaven. Oh how it is filled with great blessings. Things I don't deserve! A fabulous family, fabulous friends, a fabulous roof over my head, clothes on my back, and food in my belly! HE has also provided fun things for my enjoyment and entertainment. My blog is going to be about these things! The sweet glimpses of God's sweet grace, mercy and love.

It will be a great reminder for me too of God's goodness and faithfulness in ALL circumstances! I hope it will encourage myself and all of its readers to press on toward eternal glory with Jesus in heaven! This life is fleeting.

This has got to be my blog verse: Phillipians 3: 12-14

.."I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."
.."Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Here are some other relevant truths to my blog:

Psalm 27: 13-14 "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord"

John 16:33 Jesus speaking...."In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Soon I will have some pictures and more info up...baby steps people...baby steps! = )

A Blog For How To Blog?

This is not at all what I want my blog to look like. I have a LONG way to go! I am so stoked about getting into this project. It doesn't come as natural to me as it seems to come to some of my fellow bloggers...oh well. I will learn I know...eh, I hope = ). I wanted to decorate my blog for Christmas using some great backgrounds and things from www.shabbyblogs.com but I figured that was getting WAY too far ahead of myself for right now. I chose this background because it is called RIDICULOUSLY FABULOUS. That title could not suit me any better. I mean fabulous is my most favorite word right now! So I am happy I found it. It will be my background for now I suppose. I wonder if there is a blog for how to blog!?!