The Hayes' Happenins'

Happy Monday

2012-02-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ok everyone time really flies by! Micah is 18 months!!! Micah started walking around 16 months. And now he is walking all around!! And so I feel like he grew up so much in just these last 2 months! He understand soo much! A couple of weeks ago I asked him to put something in the trash for me and he took my trash and proudly took it to the trash can and threw it in! I was like wow he can follow directions.
Some of his new words in his own language: "shesh" = shoes, "broosh" = brush, "caca" = cracker, and trash. He discovered PLAYDOUGH and LOVES it! Here is pictures of his first time using it. And also some pictures of our first snow here in IL and so far we haven't had anymore snow...kinda crazy but mommy isn't complaining!

He is becoming VERY interactive! I love seeing his little personality come out!

Playing in attic with sissy and she dressed me up

Love this guy!

starting to ask to wear hats!

Molly is also growing all up! And she is VERY hilarious! And she loves to make others laugh :) When she speaks she talks ALOT with her hands and is very expressive in her expressions! I love the age she is at. She absolutely LOVES being a big sister and wants to help out in anyway with Micah.
One thing we have been discussing a lot lately is who Jesus is. This is the first year that she was understanding more indepth what Christmas was all about. And she knows it's all about Jesus but she wasn't sure she "knew" Jesus. She told me she wanted me to tell her all about Jesus. So we have been talking all about who Jesus is and why He is so important to me and her daddy. She is beginning to understand that she is a sinner, for example we talk about how when she disobeys me she has an "ugly heart" and that is sin. And how God desires us to have "pretty hearts" ALL the time. And how she can't have a "pretty heart" ALL the time. And that's why God sent Jesus to die for our sins and take our "spankings" on Himself and give us His "pretty heart". This discussion is ongoing here at the Hayes household because I am continually falling short and sinning and so is everyone in my household. So we are continually discussing this truth. And this truth brings me such GREAT Joy! I am sooo thankful to have Christ in my life! I cannot Praise God enough for the riches He has given me in Christ! I am free from all my sins! I am completely forgiven, because I have a gracious Father who allowed His Son to suffer so that I could be given life in Christ!
"For OUR sake He made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21

I am really enjoying these ages of the children. Hopefully I can do a better job updating you all on our lives! Happy Monday!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T13:02:00.001-08:00

It is so fun having little ones in this season. They keep things simple. And help me to truly remember the reason for this season, Jesus Christ. I thank God so much for giving me the greatest gift of all, Christ, and through Him I receive so much like forgiveness from all my sins past, present, future, reconciliation with God, eternal life, the Holy Spirit...
May you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.
10 And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

10 years...a story of true friendship final post

2011-12-07T20:08:00.001-08:00

Ten years ago today Kristin went home to be with our heavenly Father. So today will be the last post ending this series. I have enjoyed remembering our little moments and what God did through her life. Though it can be painful to remember at times because I dearly miss her, I desire to remember because it encourages me to fix my eyes on Jesus and live for Christ alone. It gives me eternal perspective and grows my passion to serve others that they may know Christ. Thanks for reading along. I hope it encourages you to examine your life and make sure your trust is in Christ alone. Kristin was always eager to serve and desired to see others receive Christ. The ministry where she served in college has a scholarship created in memory of Kristin to help someone financially to serve in missions. Here is a link to learn more about that KDSF.

I thought I would end with these verses that display the truth about how God uses hard times to reveal his mercy and provides us hope for the future.

2 Corinthians 4 (NIV)

Present Weakness and Resurrection Life

¹ Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. ² Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
¹³ It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. ¹⁵ All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

We have been given the greatest treasure Christ. And I am but a jar of clay nothing special and with no power, but God made His light shine in my heart and gave me the knowledge of the glory of God! In my own strength I cannot walk in hardships and praise God, but by God's grace I find hope in God alone. Join with me today and pray for Kristin's family that they may find rest in God alone.

I will end with this song from Psalm 62 (ESV) which says:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation.

2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

3 How long will all of you attack a man

to batter him,

like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

4 They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.

They take pleasure in falsehood.

They bless with their mouths,

but inwardly they curse. Selah

5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him.

6 He only is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

7 On God rests my salvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

8 Trust in him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us. Selah

9 Those of low estate are but a breath;

those of high estate are a delusion;

in the balances they go up;

they are together lighter than a breath.

10 Put no trust in extortion;

set no vain hopes on robbery;

if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

11 Once God has spoken;

twice have I heard this:

that power belongs to God,

12 and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.

For you will render to a man

according to his work.

Oh Praise Him, Hallelujah, My Delight and My Reward, Everlasting, Never Failing, My Redeemer,

My God!

10 years...a story of true friendship part 7

2011-12-06T21:01:00.001-08:00

I have seen that when hard times come they test your faith and they show you what you really do believe. Whether it be the hard times of middle school where people make fun of you, the peer pressure of high school, the hard exams in college, the sleepless nights as a young mom, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a job. Whatever the trial no matter how big or small these trials reveal what is truly in your heart. These times reveal where you place your trust.
The only way to walk in a manner pleasing to God is to seek Him daily so when trials come we can see clearly His way and walk in it. "Since, then, your have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Colossians 3:1-4
One specific thing God taught me is that when trials come God does reveal your heart through them, and you can choose to learn from it and mature or wallow in your sin. I was wallowing (woe is me attitude), I lost my best friend, she knew me better than anyone in this world, how would I ever have that again, how would I go on...you see the pattern...the sin of selfishness. God convicted me of this sin of being "me" centered. And instead showed me the true GIFT He had blessed me with and this grew my heart with Love and Gratitude to God and helped me grow clarity of His purpose for my life. He had blessed me with a inexpressible loving friend that He used to reveal Christ to me. And now He was calling me to be that friend to others so that He could use my life to reveal Himself to those He placed in my life.
To end today here is a song that encourages me, hope it encourages you.

10 years... a story of true friendship part 6

2011-12-05T22:07:00.001-08:00

Once school started back fall of 2000 I don't remember how much we saw each other. But I do remember spending lots of time together over Christmas break. That year I remember my dad working on Christmas eve. So we packed up the presents and took them to his work and Kristin came along. (her family celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day, so that Christmas eve we hung out). Kristin and I always tried to spend New Years together. This last New Years we went to Stephanie's house, a friend of mine from college. Kristin was able to meet some of my encouraging Christian friends. And she really loved Steph and Christina :) I am glad we got to spend this last New Years together. Here is a pic from our last New Years

Kristin, Stephanie, Christina, and myself

2001 was her last year here as she went home Dec. 8th. I do have sweet memories from that year, like my birthday she bought me a thinline bible my first "small" bible and she had my name engraved and we went to eat at Merchants in Nashville she treated me..and for some reason I even remember what we ate (figured that may be a bit much on the details)! I also met my husband that year (though I don't think I thought we would be married someday haha) Kenny and so that summer the three of us went out together. We went to eat at Fudruckers and then went to Dancin in the District. Kristin told me she liked Kenny, so today I am thankful Kenny was able to meet her.
That year for her birthday I wrote Kristin a poem and framed it for her with my cheesy art... But I thought I would end today's post with that poem I wrote her.

Kristin

Your friendship means so much to me

I don't know where I would be

Your faith has been an inspiration to me

And a light for all to see

You have always been the fearless one

Not even knowing what is yet to come

Because though the faith you display

You know He will show you the way

We may not always be near

Yet we have nothing to fear

For we pray-

For one another each day

Thank you for always being there

Thank you for always showing that you care

Most of all thank you for sharing your faith each day

For He used you to show me the way.

When you go through the hardship of a loss you grow and you change. When she went home I had a million emotions and the most pain I had ever experienced. But also I experienced God and His word became more real to me than ever before and I held on to it and God held on to me. For the next 2 days I will share some of the things God taught me through those days, months, even years and still today that God is growing me in and showing me. I pray this is all an encouragement to you to KNOW God the One and Only the True and Living God.

10 years...a story of true friendship part 5

2011-12-04T21:19:00.001-08:00

I just thought I would start off today by saying the more I think about my friendship with Kristin the more I am overwhelmed and cannot even express it enough just how THANKFUL to God I am that He blessed me with such an amazing friend.
Yesterday I left off around Feb. of 2000. Her last years were so sweet for me. We both kept pretty busy schedules during college. So we would just try and make it a point to hang out when we were in town together, and go and visit each other. When we were out of school for the summer we decided to take a fun weekend getaway trip to St. Louis, MO. You may be asking why St. Louis :) It was not terribly far, we found a good hotel rate, and there was lots of free stuff to do there :) So we went and had a wonderful time! Our friendship truly went deeper because of the bond we now shared being sisters in Christ. Here is a photo of my scrapbook from that year...I am truly sentimental I even saved the metro link stub :)

That summer Kristin served God through the TN Baptist Collegiate Summer Mission Team and I stayed home that summer. So we kept in touch through good ole' snail mail and an occasional call. She had a weekend off and so I was able to visit her I remember at a hotel in Brentwood, TN. I am so thankful for those letters that summer. They still encourage me today everytime I read them. I want to share one letter she wrote me for my birthday. [one thing I would like to add is I am not putting this out there for you to think highly of me, but I just want you to see how she loved me and how she was focused on me knowing GOD and making Him known!]

God truly used Kristin in my life in a huge way. But even today her words encourage me to fix my eyes on Christ and to fight the good fight and to finish the race and stand firm in Christ. May her life encourage you today to fight to Know Christ passionately and may that Passion for Him pour out to those around you.

10 years...a story of true friendship part 4

2011-12-03T21:39:00.001-08:00

OK let me gather my thoughts of where we were. I looked at the bible last night that Kristin bought me and she wrote the date in it, January 1, 2000 :) Ringing in the new year with God's word. She also wrote me a little note and the verse "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26

When I got back to college I began reading the bible daily. Not because I wanted to be good, but honestly I had never read the bible and so I had no idea what was in it. A lot of it didn't make any sense to me but I read it and just wrote out the questions I was having. God was placing friendships in my life and through those friendships I began seeking answers to my questions. Some of the things I wrestled through was the validity of the bible. I could write probably for years on this topic but if that is something you wonder about I linked some articles to my blog if you go to my Resource page. God worked in my heart and showed me His Word IS true. Then I began to explore the truth in the scriptures. And the gospel message became amazing to me! I HAD believed that I was not an evil person I just did bad things every now and then. The condition of my heart was that of a very prideful person. And so God had to humble me. I realized I AM a sinner and He is Holy and so I need Him to help me with this sin problem that I have. Psalm 5:4-5 says "You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence, you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors."

I could never see my need for Jesus until I could see that I needed to deal with my sin. And if you are a "good" person then why would you need Jesus? I just thought God was pleased with me because I was this "good" person...so where did Jesus fit in the equation? But for the first time in my life I saw the real state I was in. I saw I was evil in God's eyes. Jesus put it clear in Luke 5:31-32 "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance." All my life I was like the "healthy" person and so I saw no need for Christ the "doctor". But God opened my eyes to my sin disease and I realized I desperately need Christ to be my doctor and save me from this sin disease. Christ's message is simple John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

So February 2000 GOD changed me! I believe in Christ and so I believe God has forgiven me of all my sins - past, present, and future. I believe that God will allow me into heaven because of Christ's work on the cross, not because of anything I have done or can do. John 5:24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life." God has crossed me over from death to life. I also attached an article on what it means to "believe" on my Resource page because this was also something I had to understand and would take me tooo long to write on here.
Lastly I will share I called Kristin in February to tell her how I had decided to put my trust in Christ alone and for the first time I understood her love for God! And here are a couple of sweet notes she sent me.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given (not earned) us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith (trust in Christ, not your works) are shielded by God's power..." -1 Peter 1:3-5

Tomorrow I will share more about how our friendship grew so much before she went to heaven as I began to understand her passion for Jesus. And more about how her life continues to impact me everyday. I would also love to share more letters she wrote me that reveal her love for God. Here are a few more fun pictures my dad sent me that he had previously scanned! Thanks Papa! :)

4th grade when our friendship began

monkey bar fun! we were here often!

8th grade

high school

Jr Prom

Sr. Prom

Aruba!

College - visiting her at UTC

10 yrs...a story of true friendship part 3

2011-12-02T21:37:00.001-08:00

Thanks for reading along as I share more of this gift of friendship God gave me through my relationship with Kristin. And how God used Kristin to impact my life for all eternity. If you haven't read the previous post you may want to so this all makes sense to you.
When college came we decided to go to separate colleges. There really wasn't any real reason why we didn't go to the same college. I just wanted to cheer and I made TTU's squad so I just decided that is where I would go. I wrote earlier I see now this was all part of God's plan and I will share a little more about what went on in my life for you to see all this. When I went to college I cheered and joined a sorority. In HS I was pretty "low key" when it came to involvement, so when I went to college I was eager to get involved. As I got more involved on campus and in these social groups my commitment to my morality went down. For example: I said I would never get drunk, and that was thrown out the window. I share that to show you how God used this to show me that the "good" person I thought I was...I wasn't really as "good" as I believed I was. I felt bad about it but then was quick to justify it in my mind, hey this is normal this is what you do in college, I just need to "loosen" up. And so what if you do "wrong" things every now and then as long as I do good things to balance it out.
This is a big reason I think God sent us to different colleges. Rebellion and sin is in my heart but I had never acknowledged it or acted on any "big" sins because I didn't want to compromise my friendship with Kristin and I knew she would never be into this kind of stuff. So by God removing her from my day to day life my true heart came out for me to see. And the sinner I am became a true reality.
During this time (this is over a year and half into my sophomore yr of college) I kept in contact through phone and letters (snail mail mostly!) with Kristin. (I am thankful for that snail mail as I have kept every letter and will share some of her words in future posts) It's crazy to think about I never had a cell phone in college or we hardly used e-mail much. Kristin would come and visit me she was much more faithful about this than me coming to see her. I remember one day breaking down and confessing my sin to Kristin. I wasn't sure what she would think. I remember her acknowledging I was a sinner and she never tried to justify it by saying but look at all these good things you do. Instead she saw my heart was growing more open to considering Christ and His work and so she suggested she buy me a bible. I was open to her buying me a bible. So we went to the book store and she picked out a bible for me. The fact that she was willing to buy me one was loving to me but I was thinking she would buy me a cheap one. But she spent over $40 on this bible! To me the sacrifice to buy me a nice bible spoke so much love to me, I had no idea they could be that expensive. That may seem like not a big deal to you but to me I knew she didn't have just extra money to throw around all the time. This was during my winter break from college. So I will stop here and start tomorrow with the Spring semester of my sophomore year.

my freshman yr in my old dorm room

10 years...a story of true friendship part 2

2011-12-01T22:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I shared how I met my best friend Kristin. And just how perfect God knit our lives together. So if you missed it check it out first before reading this. Our middle school and high school years were alot of fun. That is one thing I remember about those days. Some fun memories are the younger years playing in her neighbors corn field. For some reason I remember that being a blast. Also I remember in 5th grade we thought it would be cool if Aaron was my boyfriend and if I ended up marrying him then we could be "real" sisters :) Haha...so there you have it folks Aaron was my "first" boyfriend, but that wasn't meant to be I think it only lasted like a week, but God has blessed us both with wonderful spouses today :) Another thing I remember about those years were fried green tomatoes. Random I know but her mom made them and I had never heard of them and I thought they were awesome! My mom and I enjoy them still today! Oh yes I also remember we were into the American dolls. She had Samantha and I had Molly. And we enjoyed playing with those together. I have actually had friends that knew me then ask me if I named my daughter after that doll! Definitely didn't mean too but I will share that Molly is named after Kristin. My daughters name is Molly Kristin Hayes. And we decided on that name because I wanted her to have Kristin's name and Molly actually means Joyful and Kristin means Christian. And Kristin was a Joyful Christian to me and I pray my Molly will grow into a joyful Christian as well :)

notice the art work to make this photo frame :) those days digital framing wasn't available haha :)


beginning of our friendship

Also during the middle school/high school days I would occasionally go to church with Kristin, sometimes for a fun hang out times or to the worship service. I will be honest I never really felt comfortable there mainly because I had never been exposed to such friendly people in a church environment and people openly talking about God. Also the worship service was way different than anything I had ever seen. So I was just uncomfortable in this new environment. I always viewed myself as a good person, so if anyone ever asked me about if I was a Christian I would say yes, because I thought the definition of a Christian was a good person, someone who had morals. It may have been a "small" thing spiritually to bring me to church but I see it was these seeds that soften my heart to consider true Christianity and be open to investigating it in college.

In high school we had a habit of writing each other notes. For some reason I kept a few. I am a bit of a sentimental personality so I suppose that is why but I am grateful today to have these to remind me of our sweet friendship.

notes I saved

movie stubs I saved..even the ones from Aruba!

Also in high school once I was driving we would save our money and then go get dinner and see a movie together. This may not sound awesome to you but I LOVED doing this with her! I remember loving going to Chili's together and splitting their peppercorn burger! Still today when I go there I think of her if I ever order a burger. It's kinda funny for me to think about now, but I remember one time a guy asked me out when we had planned to go out and I turned him down and then Kristin suggested I invite him to come with us, haha...and he actually did come hang out with us for dinner! Another thing I always admired about Kristin was she was always so loving to everyone. Even if I would share how I disliked someone she would never join in with me. She always had the best smile and was so friendly!

When we graduated we took a trip just the two of us to Aruba. Her aunt was living there and also was very open about talking about God. So more exposure to the thought of having a relationship with God I saw there. We had a wonderful fun time! And one thing we did I still can't believe I did was we went scuba diving! If you know me I am a chicken! I am still amazed she got me to do that with her! But we really had a memory filled time there. Once we graduated from HS we went to different colleges. For a long time I really wondered why we did that! Seemed unbelievably crazy to me not to go through that season together. But I really see now God was up to something and this was all part of His plan :) And I will share our college life story of friendship with you tomorrow :)

Praising God and thanking Him for this gift of friendship :)

10 Years...a story of true friendship

2011-11-30T21:15:00.001-08:00

Today is Dec. 1, 2011 and on Dec. 8, 2011 it will have been Ten Years since my best friend Kristin went home to be with our Lord. When Kenny and I were married he suggested with celebrate Dec. 8th as Kristin's Memorial Day. On this day we reflect on her life and we want to share the ways she glorified God here on earth and we desire this to be a day we worship God for His goodness in allowing me to have her as my best friend for 12 yrs of my life. And I want my children to learn from our hero's of our faith and she is one of mine. For the next 8 days come and sit back and worship God with us and celebrate with us this gift of friendship.

Our story... in 1989 my family moved out to Pleasant View, TN. And I began a new chapter of life in a new house and a new school. This was my first move and I was a shy little girl. I met my neighbor and she was a very outgoing fun girl, her name was Emmy. And she was going into the same grade as me. So I was happy to think I would know someone when school started. But when school started Emmy was in the other 4th grade class. So I was bummed not to have that safety net of someone I knew. When we had our first recess I excitedly ran to meet up with Emmy and she introduced me to Kristin. Kristin had also moved to our little town and was also a new student! So our bond began as we were both in a new world of people and so that was nice to have a friend to go through it together. I also met her twin brother Aaron who just so happened to actually be in my class. Guess they wanted to keep the twins separated :) I can honestly see how God was stitching this friendship together and so strategically and purposefully. That year I also learned that my parents had already met Kristin's parents and Kristin 9 years earlier when she was born. She was born early and so she had to go to the NICU, and it just so happened that the NICU she was in was where my dad was the doctor. So at a parent teacher conference I remember when Kristin's parents put the pieces together as they thought my dad looked so familiar. Was that chance, I think not, this was another tool God was using to grow our bond of friendship. We have a BIG God and He loves His children and He is purposefully building His Kingdom and it warms my heart toward Him to stop and remember and see how He began to draw me to know Him.
And I will share more tomorrow.

And the Winner is...

2011-11-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Melanie Smith for winning the My Memories Giveaway! I hope you enjoy the software. Thanks for participating :) Let me know what you think! I will send you an email with the information on how to download your free software. Enjoy!

My Memories Suite Giveaway!

2011-11-19T21:28:00.001-08:00

I thought I would start off by showing an album I made of Molly's 3yr old birthday party using the My Memories software. And after you see these fun pages then I will share with you my review of this software.

I downloaded the software from the my memories site and that was easy to download and install. Then the fun began to create an album! It took me a little bit of time to figure out how to use it. But it wasn't hard at all I just don't have a lot of time so I would try a little here and there. It comes with a number of templates and background paper options as well as "embellishments" which are fun to use. And I was looking at the site and you can purchase many more background paper, embellishments, ect... and they also have a lot of free ones you can get as well. I tried to use a number of background papers in this album just so you could get an idea of the options. It doesn't come with a ton of designs for the background paper, but the one design comes in a number of color choices. For example the first page has the random polka dot and so does the last page but they are in different colors. That is also how the embellishments are as well, like some of the bows, rick rack and ribbon you see in this album they come in a number of color choices too.
I have used snapfish and shutterfly in the past to make albums. And I always love the finished product. This software pretty much allows you to make albums like those. But the great part is you have the file stored on your computer. And you can print your own album or share them with family and friends in a number of ways like I posted this album on my blog using a jpeg file. You can also do more than just make albums, you can make fun calendars or greeting cards. The My Memories site also has more info about all this software can do. I am still learning and enjoying it :)
So far my only con I see thus far is the limited background paper choices and embellishments. Snapfish and shutterfly seem to always have the cutest choices and are always modern. Some of these on this software are dated. But like I said I can update things as I go downloading newer "scrapbook kits", I just downloaded for FREE embellishment monogramed alphabet, and some background paper and holiday gift tags. So maybe my con can be supplemented and not be so bad after all :)

To enter the giveaway here is what to do:
1. Visit the site www.MyMemories.com and
choose your favorite digital scrapbooking kits then comment on myblog telling me which ones you choose.

2. For another entry you can visit my Del Valle Designs facebook page and like it and post here that you liked it.

You can also learn more about My Memories here:
Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

** And My Memories wanted me to tell you when their FB page gets to 10,000 fans they are giving
away an iPad, you just have to LIKE their page to be eligible to win!**

Also if you are interested in purchasing the My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software you can use my coupon code for $10 discount plus $10 to use in the My Memories online store: STMMMS31044

The Giveaway will end Tues. Nov. 29th and the Winner will be Announced Wednesday Nov. 30th 2011. So you have 1 week to post your comments!! And you will want to win this software!! . Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Fun Giveaway :)

2011-11-18T14:35:00.001-08:00

Hey friends and family,
Hope everyone is doing good. We are slowly getting back on track here. With our little sick bug hanging out for a good week :) Some things we have been up to around here. Molly has been working through a book that teaches her the alphabets sounds and also has place for her to practice writing her letters a bit. We have gone through the letters A thru H and she is really enjoying it. Micah had a fever for three days and now he still has a little cough, but he seems to be a jolly little guy. He is almost walking, but enjoys crawling more because he can get to places much faster this way :)
I am working on using a new software My Memories Suite. I was given this to review. And also they are giving me one to giveaway! I will be posting my review next week so keep an eye out :) and then there will be one week for you to enter the giveaway. Also if you get interested in purchasing this software let me know I put the coupon code already on my blog, you can use that and get $10 off. Looking forward to learning what all this software can do. Have a good weekend!

Sick Bug has arrived

2011-11-12T20:33:00.001-08:00

Well it's officially November and I started to feel sick last Sunday and this cold has been yucky. Finally went to the doctor Thursday and he said I had a sinus infection. It's now Sat night and I am feeling a little better I think but not great and now Micah is sick :(. He started with a fever this afternoon and hasn't had an appetite all evening. Praying he can get a good nights rest and get over this quicker than me. And praying no one else gets sick. So yea that be what's happenin at the Hayes'.

A Hot Chocolate Morning

2011-11-07T07:55:00.001-08:00

Well I have a cold and I am not feeling great. So this morning I wanted something hot on the throat so Hot Chocolate it is but had to share the goodies and Molly is very much enjoying it! Have a good day!

Fall Fun Picture Day

2011-10-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Like I said I would I took some pictures today on our "nature walk" as Molly called it. So I thought I would share them with you. Enjoy :)

I just LOVE our neighborhood, isn't it beautiful!

Molly and her baby Emily :)

ok so this little guy was scary! he looked like he was ready to jump on us!

the original :)

black & white playing in Picasa

Saturation in Picasa

Sepia in Picasa

Molly and Micah

my sweet boy

trying to get a shot of us..my arm isn't long enough! :)

this was even trickier

so Molly took a pic for me :)

Hayes' News

2011-10-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,
How are you all doing today. Things have been good and very busy around here. I am planning on taking alot of pictures this week :) we will see and so I can post some on here. Because it has been very pretty outside and the leaves are all changing. So I need to capture this beautiful fall before the winter comes snow and all :)
A few fun quotes from my Molly:

Molly - "Mom you know why the leaves are changing color"
Me- "why" Molly- "Because snow is coming, my friend Casey told me that and she knows everything"

OK now for this one I have to give you the scenario, I was watching a 10 yr old girl (Katie-Beth) and her brother 12 yr old (Knox) and it was time to give the kiddos a bath. Knox decided to chill in the living room and Katie Beth came in to help me.
Molly says, "Mom where is Knox?" I say "He is just waiting in the living room" Molly says, "Oh he probably doesn't want to see my belly button." I say.."Oh yes you are probably right :)"

Things are going in a nice routine lately. Kiddos are napping at the same time :) Molly has her Joy Kids preschool every Wed morning and LOVES it so much. Everyday she is like "is it time for Joy Kids!", I explain the Week and tell her it is on Wed. Now I am thinking I need to make her a calender so she can see when Wed is. Wed and Sunday's are her highlights. She loves Joy Kids and she loves church. She has been learning the Catechism and we are now on question 21 "Who is the redeemer of God's chosen ones?" and the answer is "The only redeemer of God's chosen is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, Who became man. He was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever." It's fun for her to learn these, she looks forward to doing the questions as she says. We usually talk about and review them after dinner. This particular question has been fun to talk about. I will have to video her sometime :) I have been trying to get a little more regular about teaching her things, my goal is 4X's a week. She can recognize all her letters, so now we are working on the sound for each letter. I was thinking maybe she can learn to write them. She can write the letter H, but that is the extent of her letter writing skills. So I am slowly trying to figure out how to teach her that. And in numbers she can recognize 1 - 10 but sometimes mixes her 6's and 9's. So we are learning also 11 - 20.

Micah is cruisin along furniture and stuff these days. And he is into pointing and grunting when he sees something he wants. So we are trying to teach him to say words. He says Ball very clearly now, and that IS his favorite toy. Along with Molly's broom, but we have decided to Micah it is no pink broom but his valient sword! haha :) He is a giggly guy, he laughs at everything. I have been trying to exercise more and one of the videos I am doing has me do jumping jacks and boy does he think I look hilarious when I do that! He busts out laughing at me, so cute!

Miss all our friends! Hope everyone is doing well. And hope to hear from you soon! Have a wonderful Columbus Day :)

Still Getting Organized :)

2011-09-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

So just thought I would share some of the internet resources I have been using lately to get my life organized. If you don't know I do have a smartphone a Palm Pre. And so all these internet resources are able to be linked to my phone which I have with me alot. (not going to say always..haha). Anyhow just started trying out Toodledo to organize all my TO DO's! I like this internet site because it falls in line with the Getting Things Done system that Kenny has slowly been introducing me to. So check it out if your to do lists seem to just be growing and growing as mine do! And then I plan out my meals weekly and I have been using Say Mmm. One of the greatest things I love about this site is you can save your recipes (up to 100 for free) and then you can have your friends join and share recipes with each other! But it has a real easy way to PLAN your meals and shopping list. So while I am at the store I can use my phone with my shopping list on it and while I am cooking I can pull up my recipe for the day. Makes my life quite simple :) That's all for today! If you sign up to Say Mmm and wanna share recipes let me know!!

Monday is here

2011-09-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

HELLO ALL!

Hey there, it's Monday the start of another week. I just finished planning my week and thought I would just share a few snap shots I took with my phone this past week. Molly and Micah have been doing a great job playing together lately. One thing that is apparent is Micah is growing up and has an opinion! No longer can Molly rule how things are going to flow. He will scream if she takes anything from him. So we are learning alot about sharing.
But I am enjoying seeing the two together. I really do love being a mom and feel very blessed. Here are a couple of other pics of the two kiddos.

matchy outfits

sweet kiddos


diva

Ok so that last pic of my Molly diva. She is extremely observant and we were walking into a store and she said mom I wanna wear my sunglasses like Casey (one of our good friends here). Next thing I know she is putting her sunglasses into her shirt to hang. Classic...
This last week we went and checked out Tanner's Apple Orchard. They have a great kids play area. All kinds of fun things for children to climb on. Here are a couple of snap shots from that day. That is all for my Monday post. Life in the Hayes' Happenins' :)


checking out the goats


riding in the train


on the Ship's slide

Fun Times with Kiddos

2011-09-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

This last week has been full of fun times with my kiddos. I am really so very thankful to God for them. Micah is changing and growing up every day! It's so fun to watch his little personality come out. One of his biggest accomplishments recently has been him pulling up in his crib. It is a fun greeting for me to come in and see him standing all up with his big grin!

Molly and I worked together to make our first baby doll. Here are some pics

we stuffed her with "clouds"


and she was having fun!

all done

she loved her!

and she named her Ella

And one more fun time from our week. While Molly was at her Joy Kids preschool. Micah and I had a fun time with our friend Casey at Steak n Shake. Who knew they had breakfast. So here is my boy sportin this cool hat :)

That's some of our fun this last week. Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Summer Fun Memories

2011-08-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe August is almost over!! This month has really flown by! I was going through my pictures from August and I was thinking how summertime is almost over. Thought I would just share a few pictures of our summertime fun.


he loved being in charge of the hose


our neighbors let us borrow their cool pool


silly daddy

he has begun cheesin' up for pics

they love playing together in the tent

park swing fun


even though its summertime, she had to sport her stylish hat and scarf


loves the tunnel

Molly's First Day of Joy Kids

2011-08-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

First thought I would say I am back! Nice little week break there, and I am praising God that I do not have a hernia, woohoo! I do have stomach muscles that are separated from the last 2 pregnancies, doc said this happens often in petite women. Just need to get back in shape and exercise! Thankfully my kind brother who is a physical therapist is going to be sending me some exercises to start strengthening those abs!
And thought I would just share a couple of pic's of Molly's first day at her preschool Joy Kids. She LOVED it! And is asking is it Wed yet? She knows she goes to school on Wed.

at home getting ready to go

she is super excited!!

so excited!

in front of school, getting ready to go in!

learned all about Sunflowers!

like her name tag!

it was so much fun!

a break...

2011-08-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

I am really wanting to try and keep everyone updated here on the Hayes' Happenins' but haven't really written much the last week. I have a few pictures I would love to share. But for the rest of this week I will be taking a break from on here. Things are busy right now at the Hayes'. Bradley University has started back up and the students moved in on Sat. so Kenny's days have been jammed packed. So please keep him and his ministry in your prayers. That God would raise up men and women who would wholeheartedly be committed to building God's kingdom. As for me I have been having some soreness in my stomach area for a while now. And yesterday I saw a doctor and they believe I have an umbilical hernia. So tomorrow I will be heading to see a surgeon to be consulted on whether surgical repair will be needed. Please pray for no surgery needed, and if surgery is needed that it would be a quick and easy recovery. Molly and Micah are doing well. They both have runny noses right now. It doesn't seem to phase Molly but Micah is not too happy about it. I just recently found on Craiglist a fun playhouse for Molly. She is SUPER pumped about this! I do have a couple of pic's to end my post today of that. So enjoy :) Love and Miss everyone!


she can fix you a meal :)


here is the other side


Micah plays ball while Molly plays in her house


Since Micah is a bit under the weather he is enjoying cuddle time with me!:)

Getting Things Done and tidbits

2011-08-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Fam,
If you have some time to read this then please leave a comment of how you like to schedule. When you schedule do you schedule out your day hour by hour? Do you know what you will be doing every hour from when you get up to when you go to bed? Especially for my stay at home mom friends? I would love to hear?

My husband has been reading a book about a life management system. The book is called Getting Things Done. We have been discussing this system and I am slowly creating a system for me as a homemaker that applies some of his principles from Getting Things Done. One of the major things is for me to schedule out my time. I have been kinda a halfway scheduler. For example my schedule consists of the things I "have to" do, like doctors appointments, lunches, dinners, family time. But for the time when there is nothing actually planned it's just blank to do my to do's. This week I have decided to take it a step further and plan out every hour. I just finished making my schedule. I will blog later about how this is going. Have any of you ever heard or read about this system?

On another note...next week Molly will be going to a preschool once a week for 2 1/2hrs. It is called Joy Kids. A woman from our church runs it and keeps her class small. So I am looking forward for her to have this opportunity. I hope she enjoys it! She LOVES to "play school" so much. We have been finally getting a regular routine where we "play school" every day. She is a real sponge and soaks up everything. I hope she continues to be an eager learner. I just got a book today in the mail I ordered called The Well-Trained Mind a Guide to Classical Education and am looking forward to learning more about Classical Education. Everything I have learned about this way of educating has been challenging and encouraging. With Molly being so excited to learn I am also excited to learn more about teaching her.
What FUN activity have you done with your toddler?? I also just bought about book called Sewing For Children and I am looking forward to teaching Molly some basic sewing :) I think this will be a fun activity for us to do together.
Well that is all for today. Have a Great Weekend!

Happy 30th Birthday!

2011-08-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

So Today is the most wonderful husband in the whole world's 30th birthday!
Some of the reasons he is so wonderful:

He LOVES Jesus with his whole heart! And He is committed to a deep relationship with God and to telling other people about the wonderful relationship they can have in Christ.

He is a WONDERFUL husband...oh did I say that already! He is! He truly displays the word of God when he is called to lead me and our family. He leads us to be a family that pursues Christ and to make Christ known in this world. He leads us to confess our sin and rely on Christ's strength to overcome our sinful flesh. He leads us in the way of God's word. He Loves me and truly cherishes me and makes me feel like a Queen. I don't deserve that and I praise God for His love overflowed through my husbands life.

He is an AMAZING father. He LOVES his children! I won't repeat myself so look at #2 for more specifics on he leads us. You should just see the guy with his kiddos. Makes my heart melt.

He can organize anything! It really is impressive. He is the most organized guy I have ever met. It challenges me to grow in becoming more organized. His organization helps him be super productive, which brings me to...

He is a HARD worker. I don't think there is a lazy bone in his body:) This is also challenging. He may work all day but always when he is home he is eager to serve and help me and the children out in any way. He knows that "Christ came to not be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many" and this is what I see in my husbands life.

He truly desires Righteousness. He desires to become more like Christ to pursue Holiness. To flee from evil, to overcome sin. All in full dependence on Christ. Because only through Christ can we have true victory over sin. But I love discussing life with my husband. He challenges me to desire to become more like Christ and to reflect Christ to those around us.

at Peoria Zoo July 2011

In Chicago's Children Museum March 2011

Oh Sippy Cup

2011-08-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

One of Micah's newest milestones since turning one is he learned how to use a straw! This little guy is one determined fellow, determined to NOT drink from a sippy cup. I bought him all different styles trying to get him to drink from a cup. He was finally getting the hang of the nuby sippy cup. And then one day bam he just started sucking from a straw! And so I caught him with my phone the FIRST time he has drunk from a straw sippy cup. So just for fun here ya go :)

"I think I can figure this out"

"Oh ya here I go"

"not sure about this mom"

"tryin it again...not bad"

"hurray I can drink using a straw"

And by the way...the only thing he will drink from his cup is water...hoping to get him to like milk soon. Molly took forever to like milk and now she loves it...patience I say :)

Del Valle Designs is OPEN

2011-08-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today is August 1st and so I have officially opened up shop. Over the next few weeks I hope to find time to post more of our items. I think it will all get easier for me now that I finally understand how to use etsy. There was definitely a little learning curve for me!
I can't remember who all I have told about the shop. But just for a little info about it. My mom can sew just about anything, but really loves to make children and baby clothes. And I love to sew and make Greek Letter Shirts for college students. And I am trying to learn anything and everything from my mom so I can also get better at making children/baby clothes. She taught me how to smock the last time I was home visiting, now for me to find time to practice :) We decided back in April that we would go into business together. I am officially the "manager" of the shop and mom is the baby/children clothes making specialist. Hope you stop in a visit us at Del Valle Designs!


Just one of the many beautiful dresses my mom made for Molly

Thinking about a few things...

2011-07-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

Hey friends and family,
Hope this finds everyone well. A few things we have been talking about at the Hayes' home are:
1. Food/Health
2. Catechism

1. Kenny and I have watched a couple of documentaries lately. One called Food Inc and the other Food Matters both were interesting to watch so I wasn't bored. (if you are like me I usually hear "documentary" and think boring..." but these definitely kept your interest. Since we have been married we have tried to grow to be healthier eaters but it is always fun to learn more about it. The main book we have used over the last 6 yrs has been the World's Healthiest Foods, I LOVE this book. It's been helpful to learn about the health benefits you receive from foods and also shows you how to cook these healthy foods to keep most of the nutrients. It has a lot of practical things in it like recipes, how to pick your produce at the store, how to store your produce, and on and on. I am going to try and really use this book more and grow in cooking more healthy and eating more healthy. Just one of the many things I am trying to do as I get my life back organized since my little one is sleeping through the night again and things seem to be smoothing out.

2. The The Shorter Catechism is something our Sunday School class has begun using. This Sunday school class just started at our church and we have been enjoying doing this with Molly. It is a family oriented class where families come together. Every week our Sunday school teacher goes through one of the questions and helps explain it to the children and also he encourages the parents to keep persevering. Molly has surprised us both by how much she can memorize! We are through the first 13 question and she is able to memorize each answer. We weren't sure what we thought about it at first, but decided it was hard to really form an opinion without trying it out. Through this time of "trying it out" we have seen many benefits like: a) Molly's ability to grow in learning to sit still and focus and learn, she is learning self-control at age 3 b) she is already applying the knowledge in small ways, she heard our pastor talk about the Holy Spirit and was quickly able to refer to her knowledge on the Holy Spirit. c) give us a consistent tool to use every evening in family devotions which is making our family devotion time more routine d) it's FUN, Molly really enjoys learning and Kenny does a wonderful job making it a fun experience for all of us - I could probably give many other reasons, but I need to wrap this post up! So I will write more on this the further we get into the question, got about 107 total to go!

Would love to hear any thoughts you have on any of these subjects!

Micah is 1!

2011-07-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Today Micah turned 1 yr old! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. Things I would like to write in his scrapbook about what he was like at 12 months are:

-You started crawling at 11 months, and now you do sorta this crab crawling thing where you crawl on one knee and on one foot. You are getting around really well and beginning to pull up on things.
-You are very "into things" like today you were supposed to be sleeping but I hear a CRASH from you room and I come running up and you had pulled off the screen from your vent and it fell on the floor. It actually gave you quite a scare and you were crying, and you kinda gave me a scare to as I had no idea what made the crashing noise :) You are very curious and check everything out and touch and pull it with your fingers and sometimes you like to taste it, whatever it may be :)
-You are not much of a napper...like today you took no nap...(instead somehow reach your vent screen). If you have napped it's only one time and for about 1 hr some days if we are lucky it's 2 hrs. But we are working on this. And you can sleep 10 to 12 hrs at nights,you have done this, but you aren't very consistent. So we are working to get you more consistent with this.
-You are nursing 3 times a day morning, after lunch, and before bedtime. But I am going to work hard to wean you very soon. You aren't much into food. The most you would eat at a sitting would be about 1 of those regular size jars of baby food (like a stage 1 or 2). You like sweet potato fries, but seemed to play with them more than eat them.
-You can say Mama and Dada. And the only other word I think you say pretty regularly is Ball. You really LOVE balls.
-You have a very sweet personality. When you meet someone new and I "say hi", you wave your hand and give a big smile but also kinda lean into me like you are shy. It's super cute! One friend called you a little flirt:)
-You are very cuddly to me. You LOVE to be held and you LOVE to cuddle. I enjoy it too:)
-You also LOVE your big sister. Laugh at her when she plays with you and watch her everywhere she goes. She also LOVES you and is happy you are getting bigger. Today she said "now that Micah is 1 he will start walking and talking. And soon he will be talking to me!" I love to see you two playing together.
-Molly was VERY excited to bake you a cake for your birthday today. And she was happy to help you blow out your candle today. She LOVES birthdays:) So finally it was someone's "real" birthday.

Micah we LOVE you so very much and thank God sooo much for blessing our lives with you. My biggest prayer for you is that you will grow up to be a man, like your father, who loves God with All your heart and desires to glorify God in all you do! I love you!


grocery cart fun


your sis loves you!


eatin sweet potato fries

Tuesday Fun

2011-07-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends,
Do you ever get excited about trying this or trying that it just explodes into tooo many ideas! Haha happens to me all the time. I have projects to finish on my sewing table right now (4 Greek Letter Shirts). Then I am wanting to try to embroider some new greek fonts onto fabric to try out those fonts. And also my mom was teaching me how to smock while I was at home last. So I want to keep practicing that so I don't forget how! Whew... but with unpacking from our SMP travels and trying to get my almost 1 yr old (Micah's Birthday is the 20th!!) back on some sorta schedule, organize our home again, back to laundry and cooking. My time for sewing is umm tiny :) But that's ok just taking it all one day at a time.
It is really HOT outside. So we have been beginning our mornings with a little pool action. The sun is some good vitamin D for all of us. And well the heat and splashing is good to get the lil one's energies out! Then we need well baths because we were all pretty gross from the bugs diving into the pool, leaves, and grass, and not to mention all that sticky sunscreen. Then playtime, Molly is still learning how to share her toys and Micah is starting to get more interested in toys, so this was fun for me to watch. Then we have lunch and Micah is SOO sleepy he is almost falling asleep eating, so he goes right for a nap after lunch. This was great for me because I get some good 1 on 1 time with Molly. I really do LOVE being a mom. It is busy and there is little time for "me time", but who ever said I deserve "me time" anyhow:) God has give me the wonderful blessing of children to continue to grow me and make me more selfless like Christ was to me. So even though there isn't much time to sew, the blessings I have in being a mom is worth every minute.


Playing with the lil kitchen

Molly "teaching" Micah how to play with the kitchen:)


Molly watering our grass:)


Micah LOVES floating in this guy and it offers nice shade:)

Well, gotta go back to work. Making some hummus, yum yum! I just realized not only is it good with tortilla chips and pita bread but it is soo yummy as a dip for veggies!! This makes me want to eat more veggies, so I figured that was a good thing! Love you all and miss all my friends in TN!

Getting Organized

2011-07-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

So I am assuming most people get organized at the beginning of the year. But I am always "catching up" trying to "BE" organized. I definitely do not think I am very naturally gifted in being organized. But life comes at you fast and I have determined that if you are not planning, scheduling, ect then you really will not make the most of the time God has given you. My husband on the other hand is much more organized and just efficient when it comes to knowing the best way to organize life. So I am always learning from him and he is always a wonderful help to me in this area. Anyhow I say all that because we are getting ready for another school year here and the planning and organizing is beginning for me! I LOVE reading from one of my friends blog Lacy at: Tatum Tales she is always very encouraging when it comes to planning.
One tool my husband uses and I always go back to is our Roles/Goals/Objectives. Basically you write out all the roles God has give you. For me I have the Role of 1. Christ Follower 2. Wife 3. Mother and then you write out for each area your goals and then from the goals you write out how you will get there (your objectives). This has always been the most helpful tool for me because it keeps me on track and shows me when I begin living for the things of this world rather than for things that honor Christ.
Thought I would just share that snipet so you could know how I start off my planning for the school year to begin.
Also if you don't know I am soon to open my first etsy shop. My mom sews soooo wonderfully! I am always blown away by what she can do. So we are opening up a shop together. It will feature many of the wonderful baby and children items she creates and some of the college and greek apparel I make. And just for a sneak peak I will share one of the many dresses she has made for Molly.

All of this dress was hand made by her. I have just begun to learn how to smock and let me tell you the time and precision it takes is unbelievable. She truly is very talented. Our grand opening for our shop will be August 2011, just around the corner, so please come back to check it out!

It's been too long...

2011-07-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends!
I have had a busy couple of months and so I haven't been taking time to write on here. And today I don't have a whole lot of time to write. But I thought I would drop a little note, since it's been TOO long! Things are going well for us. Molly is growing leaps and bounds...it's amazing how much she is changing since she turned 3! She is able to write actual letters now! Crazyness! And she can do a front roll and she is growing into quite the independent little girl. My baby girl is growing up too fast! Micah is also growing fast. I am enjoying him as a little baby, since I know this will fly by. He will be turning 1 on July 20th! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. He is almost crawling, he gets around but it's like a lunge rather than a crawl. He always gives a sweet smile to everyone he meets.
And just for fun, which font is your favorite? 1, 2, or 3?

Have a Happy 4th of July!

Secularism

2011-04-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

This poem from English journalist, Steve Turner, was recently brought to my attention by Ravi Zacharias in his podcast, "Just Thinking" I thought it was pretty interesting and truthful of how many people think today.

Creed
by Steve Turner

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin

We believe everything is OK

as long as you don't hurt anyone

to the best of your definition of hurt,

and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and

after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin.

We believe that adultery is fun.

We believe that sodomy’s OK.

We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better

despite evidence to the contrary.

The evidence must be investigated

And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes

UFO's and bent spoons.

Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,

Mohammed, and ourselves.

He was a good moral teacher though we think

His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same-

at least the one that we read was.

They all believe in love and goodness.

They only differ on matters of creation,

sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing

Because when you ask the dead what happens

they say nothing.

If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then its

compulsory heaven for all

excepting perhaps

Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn

We believe in Masters and Johnson

What's selected is average.

What's average is normal.

What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.

We believe there are direct links between warfare and

bloodshed.

Americans should beat their guns into tractors .

And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.

It's only his behavior that lets him down.

This is the fault of society.

Society is the fault of conditions.

Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that

is right for him.

Reality will adapt accordingly.

The universe will readjust.

History will alter.

We believe that there is no absolute truth

excepting the truth

that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,

And the flowering of individual thought.

If chance be

the Father of all flesh,

disaster is his rainbow in the sky

and when you hear

State of Emergency!

Sniper Kills Ten!

Troops on Rampage!

Whites go Looting!

Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man

worshipping his maker.

Molly Kristin is 3!!

2011-04-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

This year Molly's birthday landed right on a Sat. so that was easy day for a party! We had family and friends come over to celebrate her birthday with us. We had lunch together, ate birthday cake, watched Molly open her presents and hit some pinatas! Oh and let's not forget we also had balloon animals! Bet you didn't know my husbands secret talent of making balloon animals :) These were a big hit especially the balloon swords for the little boys! My mom used to make pinata's for my birthday parties. So she coached me over the phone on making my first pinata and she also helped me out and made 2 more for the party! So we had 3 pinata's to enjoy hitting to pieces! Molly wasn't quite sure about hitting the pinata, so she decided she would just "poke" it, she bragged to me later how she poked it. But she had no problem cheering her friends on from the sideline to give them a good hit. Thanks to everyone who was able to come it was a special and fun day for Molly she loved it. I cannot believe that she is 3!!

Daddy at work

Mommy sportin the balloon hat

Happy Birthday Girl

blow out the candles!

opening presents

pokin the strawberry pinata nonna made

the bug pinata mommy made

needed daddy to get this one!

ah the candy!

Lovely Days...

2011-03-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

Hey friends and family,
It almost feels as if Spring is here! And boy am I glad! It refreshes me to see such wonderful sunny days! This week has been a fun week for us. We took our first family mini vacation as a fam of 4. We spent one night in Chicago and Kenny showed us some sites. I had never been there but Kenny had been there a few times with students. The first day there we went to the children's museum and spent most of our time there (it was indoors and it was a little chilly that day). Molly LOVED it and Micah too for that matter. I really liked that place! I think as the kids grow it will be a fun place to continue to go back to and visit. This museum was on the Navy Pier in Chicago. Our hotel was a great location because we could walk everywhere we wanted to visit. The second day we spent our time outside enjoying the beautiful weather and seeing Millennium park and Chicago's big bean. And some other parks one that had a fun playground that Molly really enjoyed. It is just priceless being together as a family :) I hope you are enjoying these beautiful Spring like days!
P.S. pictures to come :)

The Joy of Motherhood

2011-03-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

It's my weekly Wednesday post time :) Micah is unfortunately sick again with a yucky cold, major cough and lots of congestion. Please be praying for a quick recovery! I don't have much time to write today so thought I would just share a couple of video's that reflect how much joy God brings me from my children. Enjoy!
This was last week before he got sick. He just gets tickled so easily :)

Molly LOVES this song and sings it throughout the day and gets super excited when she hears it on the radio!

Micah's 7 Month Memories and such

2011-03-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

Hello yall...I don't hear that phrase much up here in these parts so I thought I would start off with that :) I hope you are all doing well. I am moving right along learning day by day how to manage my time better and how to raise up my children in a God honoring way. One thing I am thinking about investing in is a separate laundry basket for the kids! It seems like Micah with his spitting up ways runs through more clothes than I can keep up with. And Molly with her "accidents"...it just keeps piling up! Laundry is something I am trying to get my hands around...but it's pretty much becoming a daily task around here.

Micah is 7 months!! Here are some fun things going on with him. He has started on foods...but he is pretty much disinterested. Just like his big sister was. He has tasted sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet peas, and green beans. He hasn't taken to any of it yet, he only eats like 4 or 5 bites a meal. I think I am going to have to drop some more feedings before he gets any more interested. Oh well, with Molly I think I was worried about it, but Micah being number 2 it hasn't been much of a surprise so I am not too worried about it. Micah has also got his two bottom teeth coming in! He was being extremely fussy Friday Feb. 18th when my friend Mary Leslie was visiting me. And she said how one of her friends baby's teeth were coming in, so I thought well let me check him and wow there was a tooth there! This was 2 days before he turned 7 months!! So early compared to Molly! And then the next day when I looked there was 2 teeth coming in!! So that explained the fussyness. He is getting more content now that he can sit up and grab things. He is into grabbing anything and chewing on it! He especially loves the tags on his toys and blankets. He is VERY ticklish! It is so funny how when I am drying him off under his arms he always starts to giggle. He absolutely LOVES his big sister and she loves to entertain. So that is our month 7 so far. I am enjoying getting to know his little personality, but he is growing up soo fast!

And well I can't leave without a picture or something fun...so here is a little video of my sweet entertaining Molly moo.

Sew Greek

2011-02-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hey Friends,
I just thought I would share my newest blogging endeavor is my journey into my small "tiny" actually home business. I am just getting started and most of the things I have made thus far have been given to Greek College students just as a trial run. Things have been going pretty well (when I find time to sew, haha) and I thought I would share about my newest items through a blog. Maybe one day I will get brave and open up an Etsy shop (a dream). But for now here is my newest blog to share with everyone how things are progressing in that area of my life. And if you know of any interested customers please send them my way :) Lots of love!
Here is the Link:
Sew Greek

Micah's 6 month Pictures

2011-02-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

Hey friends..My wonderful neighbors offered to take a few pictures of my baby boy. He had a rough 6 month since he got RSV. So these were taken 2 weeks before he turned 7 months. I can't believe he is 7 months old!! Time is going tooo fast! Anyhow I still have to edit these a bit. Crop and such and then I will be printing from shutterfly. But here are a few of the original shots.

Not in the mood for pic's :)

Big sis LOVES baby brother

isn't he sweet :)

so still tips over when sitting up!

Managing Time

2011-02-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

Hey friends...I just thought I would write a little update since it's been a week since my last one. And I thought I would just share about something God is growing me in. How I spend my time. I tell you I was talking to my friend Rachel the other day about her new role as a wife and how she asked if it was hard for me to manage my new role and still be active on the campus. Well the answer was yes. But I also laugh when I think about it because it seems right when I was starting to get the hang of it God brought Molly into our lives. So I had a new season I'd entered and a new challenge of juggling my roles of disciple of Christ, wife and mom. Then I begin to wrap my hands around it and God gives us another baby. So now as a mother of 2 I am in the process of learning my capacity and how to juggle all my roles again. And this is causing me to evaluate every aspect of my time and see if there is anything in my life that is not the best use of my time. I am not the best time manager but I am trying to grow and really maximize every minute with my time with God and my family. God's word says "A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please His sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:7-9 Let us maximize our time for the Glory of God!

Titus 2 Women!

2011-02-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

I just thought I would drop in a share how encouraged I am by a woman named Carolyn. She is an older woman who loves the Lord and who is giving her life away to younger women daily! She is a mother of 4 her youngest is 20, a former Navigator staff and now her husband is a professor here at Bradley University. Their vision is still to impact the college generation and they are! She is leading two growth groups with college women and she is zealous for Jesus!! (one of her groups has some KD ladies..for all my KD friends out there) Recently she has offered to be an encouragement to me (and our other CO staff girls) and has been graciously coming to my home. Today she brought me a recipe that I could use to feed students and another recipe that her family loves that I am excited to try. She also shared with me some tips on planning my meals and shopping around town for the best meat deals (since I feel as if I am still trying to figure out Peoria). And another thing I am SUPER excited about is she has made some nursery rhymes that share the truth from God's word. Next time we meet she is going to teach Molly and I her Genesis rhyme! I am super pumped about this. Just thought I would encourage everyone to be praying for God to provide someone in their lives to spur them on to know Christ more and to BE that person in younger womens lives! Because it truly is encouraging and truly is growing my zeal for Jesus!
LOVE!
""train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." Titus 2:4-5

More Cloth News...

2011-02-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

Here is more of my learning experience on cloth diapering. I have been learning ALOT... I am not sure I could have realized some of this stuff without taking the plunge. But I will just pass on to you what I have learned and so maybe it can be helpful if you decide to use cloth or are using it already this may be helpful.

Register for Cloth if that is something you are EVER thinking of attempting. The front expense can be pricey and quite frankly not worth it depending on the type you choose. Even if you don't do cloth full time if you get some as a gift when you use them it's ALL savings in your pocket.
If you or your spouse have Sensitive skin stay away from synthetic fibers, mainly microfiber. Stick with cotton, hemp, bamboo, or a combination of those. This I have learned has been our issue. Getting advice from the owner of Lulu's detergent and For Mom and Keiki I have bought some remnant fleece (which is still a synthetic fiber but from their knowledge works better than the microfiber for sensitive bums) at our local Joann's store really inexpensive. And just cut them up to fit over my microfiber inserts so his bum isn't in direct contact with the microfiber. Seems to be helping. And with this liner I can use diaper rash cream if I need be. Because if the fleece ever begins to repel no biggie just toss in the trash and make a new liner out of some other scrap fleece. CHEAP easy fix. Another plus of the liner is ALL the big mess ends up on it and seems to preserve your diaper better. But a downside if you use diaper rash cream with your liner then you don't want to wash your liner with your diapers because that could spread the cream to them which can cause repelling of your diapers.

If you are making the investment in cloth diapers. I would buy the type you feel is best for you but only enough for one day. Try it for at least 1 month before making more purchases. Because I didn't experience any rashes till that second month. Or do a little modpodge of types before decided on the one. It's just so hard to know till you take the plunge! haha The main types of cloth diapers are: AIO (all in ones) pretty much just like a disposable but washable. This is the most expensive system to use. Pocket Diapers - this is also pretty pricey, but very convenient if you don't mind stuffing your diapers. Covers with inserts - this is very economical, expecially if your cover is a one size so you can use the same cover their whole diapering life. Prefolds and covers - like the cover insert system. But these are the "old fashion" way where you must pin the prefold on then put on the cover. Also an economical system but I think the Cover with inserts are cheaper if you get a one size system (like the Flip) because with prefolds even though they can be cheap you have to buy different sizes which can add up.

The MOST helpful place I have found to learn about cloth diapers and detergent. Is the For Mom and Keiki I cannot tell you enough how great she has been. So check out her website and she has the best prices with free shipping!
Cloth wipes are easypeasy. I prefer a squirt bottle from a spray bottle to moisten my wipes. (with a spray bottle seems to take tooo many sprays). I just mix a few drops of Dr. Bronner's soap (unscented baby formula) with warm water and there is my solution. But just remember if you use any diaper rash cream and are removing it with the wipes then you should wash them separate from the diapers. I just cut up some of my excess flannel blankets I had and there was my free wipes.

Ok that is all for today. Hope you found it helpful. I think this is my new hobby...can cloth diapering be a hobby! haha just trying to get it "right" for our family. If we are ever blessed with another child I think the second go around with cloth will be smoother...such a lil learning curve. :)

Hello Friends

2011-01-22T20:09:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update been kinda busy around here because we have had a yucky virus in our home. First Molly was sick with a fever of 103 for about 3 days. And then she kicked it and was back to normal, but then her brother got sick and just kept getting worse. So on day 3 of him being sick I took him to the doctors to find out he had RSV. A yucky little virus, it isn't too bad for children over the age of 2. Just a bad cold like symptoms. But for a baby it can get serious because it can affect their breathing. I got pretty nervous about it when the doctor was telling me everything to do and how I need to keep an eye on him to make sure his breathing doesn't get worse. So for the next 2 days I or Kenny pretty much stayed with the little guy at all times (hence little sleep through the night). He had such a difficult time sleeping that we pretty much held him up on our shoulder the entire time. So he rested in our arms and pretty much slept for 3 days straight, just waking him up to eat so that he could remain hydrated. Today at day 5 the little guy seemed to have some energy back and was even smiling!! And his breathing didn't sound as coarse. He has been having a "breathing treatment" for the last few days we had to purchase a nebulizer and the doctor gave him xopenex. That seemed to help him relax and breath easier. I am hoping for a little more rest tonight. As he is now sleeping in his car seat upright. I am so thankful to all my friends for all your prayers for Micah. Your prayers gave me comfort as I knew I had an army lifting him up to our loving Father. Praise God for His great power and love! The evenings I stayed up with Micah I spent praying and praising God. I needed that extra time in prayer and praise to get my heart focused on God and to feel His comfort as I felt worry for Micah. I am so grateful to have a God I can run to for comfort and strength. I enjoyed this song :)

More Cloth Diapering....

2011-01-16T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hey there...well if you are ever interested in cloth diapering here is another post on my journey into this world. If not then...umm don't read :) Anyhow I had my first BIG bump in the road of cloth. My kiddos began getting rashes from my cloth diapers. I did some reading into this and well concluded it was probably the detergent I had chosen to use. I had been using the detergent Planet. It was one of the detergents that were safe for cloth diapering and I could buy it at my local grocery store so it was convenient. But it doesn't seem to be working out. Also with cloth diapers you can't use your ole handy dandy diaper rash cream because it can ruin your diapers and cause them to repel water. I have read about some cloth diaper rash creams but didn't really want to get into this because my diapers warranty is void if I use rash creams. I have a good friend that said she was having the same problem as me until she switched laundry detergent to Rockin Green. I figured I would go this route. As I was searching online where to purchase this I found an awesome online store that has free shipping (hard to find for detergent). And she gives free samples of detergent. Here is the link: For Mom and Keiki So I e-mailed her for a sample of the Rockin Green. Well she was out of those samples so she sent me another detergent that she said was good called Lulu's in the Fluff.

So I washed all my diapers in this free sample I received and I am waiting to see if rashes appear. I really am hoping it works out. If not then my next stop will be Rockin Green. Well that is all about my journey in cloth today.

2011 A New Year

2011-01-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

Wow! It is a New Year! I really think time is flying by soo fast these days! I can't believe Micah is soon to be 6 months on the 20th! I have been reading a lot of my friends blogs lately and have been encouraged by their ideas for planning for this new year. One friend Alicia came up with a theme check it out on her blog: Alicia's Cup of Tea My other friend Lacy came up with a goals list check it out on her blog: Tatum Tales
I haven't gotten there yet on thinking about any of these things. But I am hoping too soon! Right now I am just trying to get our house in order! But I am looking forward to thinking of my goals for the year and coming up with a theme, I know this is something my hubby will love!
Well, I have LOTS I would love to share but I need to go to sleep. So I am looking forward to getting back into blogging as my life gets back into order. Much Love!

oh yucky sickness

2010-12-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

Things happenin here at the Hayes' is lots of icky colds. We had a great time visiting family over thanksgiving but as soon as we got back it was like everyone was sick. Molly got us started with her big cough and runny nose. Then Micah came down with some major congestion. Last Wed. night he was so congested he really had us worried as he was having difficulty breathing. Thursday I took him to the doctor and she has had me have him sleep upright in his car seat which has helped alot. Poor fellow he has been pretty miserable. Kenny is also run down with a cold, but thankfully out of the 4 of us he is the only one who can take medicine. I am also sick but since I am nursing no cold meds for me. So I am trying to rest here and there when I can. Micah hasn't been sleeping through the night since he has gotten sick. He has been getting up 2 times in the night. This has been VERY draining for me. I am hopeful we are on the upswing. Molly seems to be back to normal. Micah is eating better again (actually he is eating more than ever...so I am hoping this slows down a bit...figured he is trying to catch up what he lost). And his congestion is getting better, he is still coughing some but that seems to be decreasing as well. So if you think of the Hayes' this week please send up a prayer for everyone to get back healthy soon. Thanks.

Cloth Diapering Update #3

2010-11-29T20:29:00.000-08:00

Hello friends... OK so you may be wondering if I ever started cloth. Well I did. On Nov. 15th my stash arrived. I ordered 2 FLIP day packs, a day pack includes 2 covers and 6 inserts. And I had already bought 2 covers from a friend and 4 inserts. So my total Flip system is up to 6 covers and 16 inserts. I bought this from Kelly's Closet and she was giving free shipping and a free diaper for purchases over $30. I split up my purchase and received 2 free Kawaii pocket diapers.
I wasn't sure what all the rave about pocket diapers were since you can only use them once and then have to wash the whole thing. Where as the covers can be used all day unless it gets soiled...usually just the insert gets soiled and you remove it and then place a new one. But oh now I see it's all about the convenience. If you stuff your pocket diaper ahead of time then it's pretty much just like throwing on a disposable you put it on easily and then just take off and toss it into your pail. But with the Flip cover system it takes a little getting used to to make sure the insert doesn't move while putting it on and then when you take off the diaper you have to remove insert, wipe down the cover, and then let it air out. So a little more time. I have come up with a system though that I think makes it quicker:

I have 3 covers in rotation. One being used, one with the insert in it ready to go, and one airing out. And so I just rotate this all day unless one gets soiled. This works pretty great for me since I have 2 in diapers. They each get 3 covers and if any of them get soiled well the rotation goes slower...and then when none is left...time to wash :)

The biggest downer I have seen about my 2 freebie pocket diapers is that they are definitely way more bulkier than the Flip. I don't really like all that bulkiness messes up their cute outfits :) But that may be just this type of pocket diaper. Because I have heard awesome things about the BumGenius pocket diapers. I am hoping to add a couple of these in to my stash for the times when convenience may be needed (like making it easier on a babysitter)
Overall I am very satisfied with the Flip system. I have not had ANY of these diapers leak! So may be doing more laundry for washing the diaper but not for washing soiled clothes!! :)
Hope that all made sense. Just ask if you have any more questions.

Day in the Life...

2010-11-22T14:15:00.000-08:00


Basically I wake up in the morning whenever Micah wakes me. Sometimes it's as early as 6 or as late as 9...I ended up taking pictures of a typical Tuesday. I realized every day of my week is different! So anyhow this Tues Micah woke me up at 7:30am (which happens to be my favorite time)

So I fed Micah and then he goes right back to sleep by 8am. Then that gives me an hour to get ready. We leave the house by 9am to head to church for my bible study and Molly's little lambs class. Kenny always gets Molly ready on Tuesday mornings. Here is Molly eating her breakfast.

on the way to church! Molly LOVES her class!

Micah hangs with me at my bible study b/c he likes to eat around 10:30

Ok so Tuesday morning bible study is over at 11:30am. So then we truck it on back home. And usually eat lunch. Forgot to take pictures of lunch. My staple though is a turkey, salami, pepper jack cheese sandwich. And Molly doesn't like salami so just does turkey and she prefers colby jack cheese. And I have my faithful Dr. Pepper (side note my sister bought me some caffeine free Dr. Peppers...apparently they sell them in AL!). By the time lunch is over around 1:30pm it's time to go upstairs to get ready for naps.

Micah doesn't like to lay on the bed he wants to be HELD! haha...

Molly likes her green Flip...she says she likes cloth now :)

We read a book, Micah gets to sit in my lap so now he is happy.

We sing a song and pray then she goes to sleep. She is pretty good about taking her naps. Every now and then she will sing and play and needs some reminding to GO TO SLEEP! :)

the faithful nursing chair

Then Micah and I go to his room and he eats again....and I like to read my lil devotion I have and look out his window and think and pray while he eats.

devo

pretty japanese maple leaves changing color

Then Micah gets his diaper changed (oh this occurs pretty much after every feeding)

Preferably after this feeding I would like him to take a nap. But alot of times he just comes with me wherever I go since I haven't gotten him to take any type of consistent naps...since everyday of my week is different this has been a challenge.

so he sits in his bouncy...this goes with me all over the house

and i fold some laundry

Kenny gets home on Tuesdays around 5pm and he wakes Molly from her nap (she take a 3 hr nap from 2 till 5) Micah will usually sleep at least 1 hr in this span. Oh and Molly likes to put "fun" clothes on. Here she is wearing a nightgown that is too big...but it has princesses :)

we all head to the kitchen to get dinner ready

Molly plays with Micah

Kenny helps out getting dinner ready alot these days because Micah likes to eat around 5. (he pretty much goes every 3 hrs...so about 6 times a day)

After dinner we hang out as a family. Different every day...if the weather is nice sometimes we go on a walk. Other times we just play at the house and some nights we give baths to the kiddos. Just whatever....but around 8pm we get the kiddos ready for bed.
Bedtime routine with a bath starts around 7:45...without a bath around 8pm. We bath..then brush Molly's teeth. Then we read a book and then the bible together as a family on Molly's BIG bed. And then sing some songs and pray. Then Molly gives HUGS and KISSES to all of us. We all get 2 kisses on on each cheek and a big squeeze of a hug. Even Micah gets hugs and kisses from Molly :) Then Kenny lays with Molly a few minutes and go to feed Micah :)
Kenny then heads back out to campus with the students and Micah and I hang out. This night I was working on making myself a wet bag for my cloth diapers.

working on making wet bag

Then at around 10:30pm Micah eats his last feeding of the day. And his last diaper change.

and he goes to bed usually around 11pm

So by 11pm Micah is asleep and then I usually do whatever I need to do around the house from 11 till midnight. I use this hour for many things. From cleaning to sewing. It's just my very productive hour (I am very energized at night) Then I try and make it my goal to be in bed no later than 12:15. Because 7:30 I know is right around the corner :) I like staying up till midnight because Kenny usually gets back around that time. And I like to see him before going to bed. But sometimes he has a later night and so thats when I gotta just be disciplined to still go to sleep!!!
There are TONS of variation to my days. ALOT of Tuesday nights we have students over for dinner. So in that case I wouldn't be doing laundry during Molly's nap but preparing that meal. Anyhow that gives you a little peak into my life. I feel like I almost need to give you a week since none of my days are the same! haha! But oh well this will have to do!! My biggest consistencies are: Everyone is up by 9am, Micah eats 6 times, Molly naps 3 hrs, we eat 3 meals, spend time with Kenny at some point in the day, spend some time with God praying/reading the word, and try to go to bed around midnight.

Can't wait to read about everyone else's days!

Oh I meant to put on here...the Reason I wrote about a day in the life...is because a friend of mine Lacy wanted to see what all our different days looked like and so we all linked it up to her blog here: http://tatumfam.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/day-in-the-life-2/

My update on my Cloth Diapering

2010-11-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

Hey friends figured I would let you know what I decided about cloth diapering. I LOVE IT! Ok...so my next step is to make my big purchase and get the supplies I need to do it full time. I am planning on buying 2 Flip day packs. These packs include 2 covers and 6 inserts. I already have 2 covers and 4 inserts that I purchased from a friend for my trial period. So I figured with the 2 kiddos in diapers 6 covers and 16 inserts would be a stretch for 2 days but a great amount to get me going and then later maybe get some more inserts. Eventually I would like to get a washable pail liner and some wet bags for my diaper bag to carry the soiled diapers in. But I gots to take it one step at a time :) Just have to use walmart bags for the moment :)

If you have any questions feel free to ask me...cloth diapering has been on my mind! (almost too much!!) Its really not going to be that much work (because with disposables I am washing extra clothes of Micah anyhow with all his blowouts) and I will probably save more money than I originally calculated. A year from now I will be able to really write out a more accurate calculations as I will be keeping an eye on the water bill and how much detergent I use. But I can already see the detergent is going to stretch further than I thought as my diaper load isn't a full load..and so only have used a tablespoon of detergent per load!
And here is just a fun pic! Have a great day!

First time sucking his thumb...will he be a thumb sucker? Molly began sucking her thumb at 2 months...he 3 1/2 months and really doesn't do it much...interested to see :)

Part 2 Cloth Diapering

2010-11-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello friend...the Flip diaper on Molly worked great. I really had no problems. (except that she wasn't sure if she liked the "blue"...she said she wants a pink one haha) I started them on Micah yesterday and the first thing I tried on him was the organic insert made for the Flip diaper. And well it was BULKY...but it did it's job. I think this insert has potential to be a great nighttime solution...but for daytime activity seems a bit too bulky for me.


organic insert

Then today I tried the stay dry insert on him and LOVED it! It fit so much nicer. And seemed to contain all the goods inside wonderfully.

stay dry insert

close up of stay dry insert

I put the diaper setting on small and it fits him great. He is about 13lbs. I only have one stay dry insert at the moment. So the rest of today I have been using some of my "burp clothes" (I have a ton of these!) and so far so good. I have gone through 2 of my cheapo burp clothes and the mess has all stayed on the cloth and none has gotten on the cover and I haven't had any leaks. I have been just changing him when he feeds (just like I do with disposables) and it's been great today. I am liking this Flip cover more and more :) I was interested in trying out the gdiaper, because it looks so trim and cute, but it doesn't come in one size. So I feel like these Flip covers are more bang for the buck.
Well that's my update for today on my cloth diapering experimentation!

Cloth Diapers...how much cheaper are they really? My 1st day experiment

2010-11-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

Ok...so you all know I have been checking into the world of cloth diapering. And one thing I have seen is how much people rave about how much money you could be saving if you switched to cloth. I have done some extended calculations and you will be saving money not spending extra...but it is definitely NOT a TON as I thought it would be. I have just come to realize that disposables really are very cheap! Well..unless of course you have to use some special name brand (and i understand some people must do to diaper rash issues and such). Here are some of those calculations (all estimated from my 2 kiddos) -

Disposable	Diapers per day	Diaper Price	Unit	Unit Price	Daily Price	Annual Price
Molly	4.5	14.39	82	0.175487805	0.789695122	288.2387195
Micah	10	14.39	96	0.149895833	1.498958333	547.1197917

Ok here you can gather I estimated that Molly goes thru about 4.5 diapers a day and Micah 10. This estimation is actually on the higher side...but I was trying to see what the MOST expensive scenario with disposables for me could be. Using this annual price for them I estimate in 2 years of a childs life you could spend around $835 on disposable diapers. That is my estimate for 1 child.

Now lets say you receive ALL your supplies for cloth diapering as gifts. You think wow I will save $835 in 2 years. Which would be $35 a month. Well thats not totally true. Your water bill would increase and you would have to buy more detergent. If your water bill increase $6 a month/$72 a yr (this is estimated at 3 loads a week of diapers) and you spent around $30 a year on detergent (which is $0.21 a load). Then your savings end up being $26 dollars a month. ($835 2yr disposables - $204 water/detergent 2 yr = $631/2 = $315.5yr/12 = $26 month). Don't get me wrong $26 a month is nice...but I was kinda disappointed to see it wouldn't be more after everything I was reading online about all the savings I would have!

Still even if you invest some money into different diapering systems you shouldn't be spending more than disposables in 2 years. Here were some of the diapers I was considering and my calculations for savings.

System	1st year	2nd year	Total	Savings	Monthly Savings
Disposables	$547	$288	$835
g Diapers	$343	$102	$445	$390	$16.25
pocket diapers	$550	$102	$652	$183	$7.63
Flip/Prefolds	$316.40	$102	$418.40	$416.60	$17.36

Well ok with all that said. If you have multiple children in diapers (as I do right now) your savings go up. Hence the monthly savings are practically doubled. And the longer duration that you are using diapers (like my 2.5yr old not being potty trained yet) the more savings increase, as the calculations were done using 2 yrs.

ALL THAT SAID:
Today I have been trying out the Flip cover system on Molly. We used the microfiber stay dry insert this mornings and it worked great. (pee only though) And for her nap we are using the organic insert (it fits her a bit bulkier...hoping it absorbs more though since using it for naptime :)


Molly in her first Flip cloth diaper

And I decided to cut up an old flannel receiving blanket for wipes. Figured if you are going to do laundry anyhow might as well go to cloth wipes too. So here is a pic of that. And I made a solution in a squirt bottle of Dr. Bronners soap and water. Just going to spray and wipe as I go.
Well that is it for today on my cloth diapering experimentation. I will be trying out the Flip diaper on Micah next time and I will let you know how it goes. One thing I would add about Molly is this is a one size diaper and she is in the large setting. And there is not much more room left. So...if you have a child bigger than her it probably wouldn't fit. Okdoky! I am enjoying this experimentation :) who knew it could be so fun :) Ta ta!

Hello Friends

2010-10-31T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! Sorry it has been a while. Now that Micah is 3 months I am hoping to get my life on more of a consistent routine. But who am I kidding :) we have the most inconsistent schedule being in college ministry :) So I will just try to update short snippets weekly! This last weekend we had a fall retreat in Indianapolis. This was my first retreat with both kiddos. It went really well...they were both great. Molly had fun playing with two other girls whose parents are on staff. And it was quite an adventure for her to stay in a big "house" :) Overall they both did great...and it didn't seem to throw them off too much. At least since they were an hour ahead it seems like Micah has moved back his bedtime from 11pm to 10pm tonight...so that I am excited about as well.
Something I have been researching ALOT lately is cloth diapering. I have a friend here who has ventured into that world and so I have been learning from her and by the millions of websites/blogs/ect..online. This week I am going to be trying out the Flip system. I think I may try it out on Molly first and see how that goes. The flip system is basically a cover (that is one size fits all - newborn to toddler) and then they have their own inserts that are made to fit into their cover. The idea then is for the inserts to be soiled and washed and then you can just keep reusing the cover unless they get soiled as well then you just wash it all. I have also read of people putting prefolds (thats the "old timy diapers") into these covers and that working as well. I should be getting them on Tuesday...so I'll tell you how it goes later this week. If you are interested in this cloth diapering system check out their website at http://www.flipdiapers.com/

will cloth diapering be in his future? only time will tell...haha

I miss all my friends! I hope if you are reading this that you are doing great! Leave a note and say hey if you get the chance! Sometimes I wonder why I am writing on here....not sure if anyone ever checks this thing. I love facebook because I can keep in touch with my friends on there and see fun pictures. But I like reading everyones blogs because I feel like you all write more on here and I can feel apart of what is going on in your life even if I am living 10 or so hours away from you :) Hope you had a fun Halloween.

Do they look alike?

2010-10-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well I was trying to place this pictures side by side...but this blogging business wasn't working with me. So I gots to go and this is the best I can do. Hopefully you can figure out by the attire who is who. I think some of their features are similar...but then sometimes I think they look sooo different. Anyhow what do you think?


Micah sleeping


Molly sleeping

hello

2010-10-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well hello friends it has been a WHILE! I have contemplated whether to just give up all together on blogging. But it was a little difficult to blog at all when I didn't have a computer. My computer finally went dead...so I have been computerless the last few months. But now I have a new one thanks to my Papa. :)
Things here have been settling down. I am started to get into a little routine with the 2 little ones. Micah is now 2 and 1/2 months. He began to sleep through the night around 8 weeks...which was the same as Molly. So that has made me feel much better. I still don't have a consistent nap time for the little guy during the day. He just naps at different hours everyday. Since we do things a little different everyday. Molly still naps 3 hours a day. And that is always from 2 till 5. So usually Micah will nap some of that time. So that is helpful as well!
This weekend we went to my lil sisters wedding! I can't believe she is married! It was so fun to be with my family. And we also got to see my brothers new house, which is awesome. And we got to spend a day with Kenny's fam as well. So it was a busy fun packed weekend. I feel like I am slowly getting back to normal from that busy weekend.
We are having our house painted this week. They started yesterday. It was really an answer to prayer. We knew it was about time to get it painted. And then we heard about this lead paint removal program here in Peoria. Kenny checked into it and we qualified. So they came and checked our home for lead paint and our exterior had some and so they are painting our house for us!!! And also there were a few other places indoors and so they are going to fix those areas as well! Praise God! It kinda freaked me out a bit when I heard we had some lead paint so I got Molly tested. But thankfully she is ok!
Can't think of anymore new news for today. I will be talking to you later. I love reading everyone else's posts so keep them coming :)

Hello World

2010-08-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

It has been 3 weeks since Micah was born so I figured I would try an attempt to post something :) I thought I would tell ya how the day Micah was born went. I was scheduled to be induced at 12noon. And the reason I was scheduled to be induced at 39 weeks was because my amniotic fluid was low. The hospital told me to call before coming in to be induced just in case they had a lot of deliveries that day. So I called and well what do you know they were full! So I was told to come in at 3pm instead. We dropped off Molly at the Jacksons and headed to the hospital. We were there by 3pm...but there was still more waiting. The hospital is a learning place so it seemed everyone had a shadow. Our nurse had a helper that was in nursing school. Then there was a resident that was checking everything. Finally they started the medicine Pitosin to begin my labor at 6pm. So from 6pm till 9pm I was having contractions every 3 minutes but they didn't hurt that bad. They were waiting to see if my water would break by itself. But it did not...so at 9pm my doctor came in to break my water. And this is when the action began. My doctor actually left the hospital and went home after breaking my water. He didn't think I would be ready to deliver till midnight. Well at 10pm I told the nurse I was ready to push...she didn't believe me, but checked and yes I was! So they called the doctor. Then this is where the real pain came...I wanted to push but couldn't till the doctor got there...so I had Kenny helping me breath through all those contractions! But once the doctor came and I could push the pain wasn't as bad. Pushing took about 20 min and then he came out sunny side up (which means he was looking up rather than down...which apparently makes it more painful since the bigger side of his head comes out first and he definitely bruised my tailbone!)
Ok well that's it. I was trying to leave out any gross detail...so if you want to know anything else just call me :) Things have been a lot smoother now that its our second time around. It's nice having a little bit of experience under our belts. Micah has been doing great at nights. So I usually get about 6 to 8 hours of rest...but of course in 3 hour increments :) Nursing has been going well...we had a little spell of a day where he had a hard time eating. But now things are smoothing out and he seems to be getting the hang of it. The reality of having a toddler and a newborn haven't really hit yet. Since we have been so blessed with people bringing us dinner and family visiting. So I have had a lot of help with Molly so I have been able to get plenty of rest and spend time nursing Micah knowing Molly is taken care of. I think once all the help leaves then I will experience the reality...but I am enjoying this season of adjustment :) And enjoying my two gifts from God!

Our First Family Photo

For My Friend Melissa

2010-07-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

So... Melissa asked me to post a pic of the belly. Kenny took a few pics for me last week at 37 weeks pregnant. Here they are for you to see how Micah is growing :)

Also...one more thing I wanted to show you today. Is this awesome rug we found at Big Lots! I was super excited about it. This should be the last addition to Micah's room :) Have a wonderful day!

OH my lovely hubby :)

Micah's Room Complete

2010-07-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

We've been traveling for the last 5 weeks and we are now finally home!! Yeah! The doctor wanted us back by 36 weeks...so it has worked out just great. When we got back from the Summer Mountain Project we had an ultrasound of Micah. Everything looked great and it looks like my body is moving forward gearing up for labor. So now we just get the house back in order from all our travels and we finally finished putting things up on Micah's walls. So I figured I would give you a little picture tour of his room.

Here is his door:

Then when you walk in the wall to your left is his changing station. Our good friends Will & Alicia found us this great wall decor. A fun shadow box and some sporty wall hangers! We love it! The colors matched everything wonderfully!

Then over his crib we hung up his quilt that matched all his bedding and curtains. It was made with a slit in it so you could use it as wall decor. So we hung it up and I like it. Also Kenny and I got some letters and a shelf from hobby lobby and painted it and I think it turned out cute!

In this room there is no light installed. So Micah gets a lamp for now. But it is one we got when we got married and I like it a lot. So here is a picture of it.

on the shelf is his diaper bag that my mom made for him (which is ready now and packed for the hospital) and a little book she made him

There is a recliner that we used to have in Molly's room that is now moved to Micah's. And the fun blanket on it is one his Aunt Julia made him. And the sweet bear is a tummy time mat his Aunt Melanie gave him. And if you see a fun jacket hanging it's one my sweet friend Melissa gave him..I love it!

Well there is your tour for today of Micah's room. It is a small room but I think the perfect size for a nursery! And one day it will fit a twin bed just nicely :)

A few recent pic's

2010-05-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a dress I actually wore when I was Molly's age. My mom gave me a handful of these super cute knit dresses that my Aunt made.

Here is my sweet Molly giving you a sweet smile :)

Here is Molly playing with her new princess wand and wearing her crown. She had busted her lip the day before...so still kinda swollen.

You can't tell by the pic...but she is looking at herself in the mirror! So lots of fun expressions..here is her mean look!

And back to sweetness :)

Got to ride Ricky the donkey while visiting WABC

more riding...

she LOVES animals!

Got to have fun swimming (or should I say "splashing" as Molly puts it) with her friend Mrs. Janice!

Just a fun face

That's all for today. I am feeling better from that awful cold. I can tell I have entered the third trimester...or maybe it's because the weather has heated up...anyhow I have been getting sooo tired..good thing Molly takes a nap...because I have been joining her!

Feeling blue...

2010-05-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Just thought I would let ya know haven't been on here lately because I am sick. It's "just a head cold" but I am definitely feeling miserable. I am soo congested. So, if you think about me just pray for this to go away soon :) Molly was sick last week. She ran a fever and had croup. I suppose that is where my cold came from. But she seems to be feeling better. Still has a bit of a runny nose and a cough but running around playing and eating much better. I am very glad she is doing better. My achy body wants desperately to sleep...but with all this congestion it just isn't easy. Hopefully tonight will be a better rest than last night. Oh and pray that Kenny doesn't get sick. He is beginning to feel it coming on as well, but has been takin some zycam. Hopefully that will help!!
Once things settle around here with all this yucky sickness then I'll have some fun pictures soon to post!
Till then!

Hello Again

2010-05-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

Continuing on from yesterday's post...since I didn't get to finish. Had another customer and I thought her shirt turned out so cute! So here are a few pic's:

This is where I spend my time sewing. Our bedroom has a little nook that fit my sewing table perfectly!

And just for fun here is our bedroom. We have had this bedding since we got married and I just love it!

Lastly here is a pic of the belly. It's funny how people say I am soo low. This seems to me the same as last time. Because I remember people asking me if I was having a boy last time because I was carrying so low..but it was Molly. But this time I am like yuppers.
Have a great day!

Weekly Update

2010-05-04T14:31:00.001-07:00

Hello family and friends,
Just thought I would share a few pic's of stuff around the house. I am really sooo thankful to God for this house. I just love it! And getting Micah's room all ready has been fun. So I have taken some pictures of that. Don't pay too much attention to the wall decor...haven't changed it yet. This room was our guest room and now we are changing it into Micah's room. Anyhow here are a few pic's I just took: His crib bedding all put together
So this piece of furniture I am going to use as his changing table. Just gotta get a new cover for my changing pad...not sure "pink" goes with his decor :)

His curtains:
So...as you can see it is all coming along:) And I am getting excited about his arrival!

I am continuing to make Greek letter shirts for students at Bradley. I thought this one was cute and so here is a pic:Well had some other pictures to share. But Molly has woken up from her nap. So I best be going :) Adios!

A dress for Molly

2010-04-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

So, i decided to be brave and venture out in an attempt to make Molly a summer dress. I have had a few practice baby outfits that I have made. But I have always worked on these projects with my mom. She can sew amazingly! Today I finished this summer dress. And I am so excited!! I was very excited that it actually fit Molly! So..I took a couple of pictures. It was hard to get a great photo as she took off dancing in it..but once I got her on her phone..she stood still enough for these shots!

It was fun to make! I would get stuck trying to understand the pattern at times...but my mom was a great coach over the phone and helped me to figure things out. I really liked how it turned out and am looking forward to making many more :)

Our Baby Boy's Name

2010-04-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

HELLO!! We finally came to a decision on our little baby boy's FIRST name. Here is a picture, one of my good friends (Rachel) made me, which will reveal the name!

Yeah!! I am excited to have little Micah to come here (well in a few months:) I really like the flow of Molly and Micah together :) Once we come to a decision on the middle name I will let ya know (we do have some top choices...just gotta decide)

Have a wonderful day!!

Our Happenins'

2010-04-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
I have decided to try to always at least post one blog a week. If I get more great :) We have had a busy week. We had Molly's 2 year party last Sat. It was so much fun..she REALLY enjoyed it. Pictures to come soon of that event. Then Sunday was Easter. We enjoyed celebrating our Risen Lord at church and after church spent some time with some friends. Molly looked super cute in her dress my mom made her. Here is a little pic.

Also one of her favorite birthday presents was bubbles! So Kenny blew them and she chased them around. She tried to blow them...but hasn't quite figured it out. Here is a pic.

Another fun present was my mom made her a comforter for her bed to match all the previous decor she has. It turned out sooo cute!! Here is a pic.

Another fun going to bed pic:

Also this week I have been making some more Greek Letter shirts for some guys in Kenny's bible study. I really enjoy making them now that I have figured it all out. Basically having the right material makes ALL the difference!! Poly Twill is the best stuff for applique letters for sure!! So here is a quick pic of my most recent!

This morning when I went to get Molly up. I found that she had taken her baby dolls pjs off and she was proceeding to put them on herself! She knew it was quite funny :) Here is some proof:

Well there is a quick snipit of our week. I am really enjoying this 2 year age of Molly. I am trying to just soak her all in since soon I will have another bundle of joy and the reality is my time will be divided so I am just enjoying all this time with her :) It's fun to see as she understands things. Our biggest lesson for this week that we have been working with her on how to ask nicely for things. Rather than just repeating milk, milK, miLK, mILK, MILK...till we are yelling. We are learning to say Mommy milk please. It's funny almost when she forgets and resorts back to the repetitive yelling...and I look at her and say what do you need. And when she remembers it's soooo precious to hear Mommy milk please.
We miss all our friends :) but love reading your blogs and hearing how things are going for you. Keep on posting :)

Molly's Dancing and Singing :)

2010-03-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone,
This is a big week for little Molly. Her birthday is Friday and she will be 2!!! We are going to be having a birthday party on Saturday! I am really looking forward to this. Having some friends over and hopefully if the weather cooperates we will be able to have a fun egg hunt outside!!
If you know Molly she loves to dance and her new thing is she also loves to sing! So thought I would share a couple of fun videos with you of her singing and dancing!!

The weather here is beautiful!! So hopefully you can enjoy some beautiful weather outside as well!!

Molly is in a "BIG" bed! And our last week :)

2010-03-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
It's been a while since I have blogged because we did a little traveling. Last week we went to TN to visit my parents. We had a wonderful trip. Here are a few pictures of Molly with my dad looking at the horses. She loves to go and see them and the donkeys. She definitely can tell the difference between a horse and donkey.

My mom and dad with Molly

Kenny took a spring break trip with some college students. And on his way back to Peoria he picked up some furniture that his grandma had given us. He had some help moving it into our house and during that process decided to swap some furniture around and put the crib and crib matching furniture in our guest room which will now be the new nursery for our little boy. Then moved our guest bed (which is a queen) into Molly's room with some of the new furniture from his grandma. So when Molly and I came back from TN...it was time to go to a BED for Molly!

I really didn't know how she would do...I was kinda nervous about it. But thankfully she was SOOO excited!! It was too cute to see her excitement!! It's now been 3 nights in the bed and 3 naps and so far so good :) Here are a few pics:
Her first night..she looks soo tiny in that BIG bed!

As you may notice she is using her ity bity crib comforter...well while I was at home visiting my mom we began working on a comforter quilt for her bed. But we didn't get done..so mom is so kind to finish it up and then shortly we will have it. It was looking great..wanted to keep her Bazoople's animal theme going...so made her a quilt to match :)
Molly will be turning 2 on April 2nd!!! I can't believe how fast these last 2 years have gone!! Her little sweet personality just keeps coming out. It's fun to see her learning so much...she is starting to put short sentences together, it's so crazy how language is learned!!
Lastly wanted to share with you the decor for our baby boy's room. Mom and I were going to make it like we did Molly's. But fun themed baby boy fabric is not all that. And so I couldn't find anything we liked. Kenny kinda wanted a sports theme. SO we looked and looked and couldn't find anything great. Finally I began checking out already made beddings. And I found one I liked. It has the sports theme but still baby boy as well. So here is a pic:

Ordered from: http://www.maternityandbabyshoppingmart.com/champsnoopybabycribbeddingsetbybedtimeoriginals.aspx They have a lot of cute stuff on this site!
We are still brainstorming names...so that is still to come!!

Growing Belly...and such

2010-03-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

Well I have had a request from several friends to see the belly. So today after church (since I looked more presentable) I got a picture taken from my hubby to share the growing belly with you. This is also an exciting week for us as we have reached 20 weeks and so we will be having our 20 week ultrasound this Tues. Hopefully if the lil baby cooperates we will find out whether we are having a boy or girl. You may be wondering if we have names chosen yet...but hate to disappoint you but not quite yet :) But you will know when we do :)

Since we had the ol camera out we got a couple of fun pics I thought I would also share.
Daddy and Molly

Mommy and Molly

Our Family

One more fun thing about Molly moo that I will leave you with is... Well she likes to throw on a hat and then tell me how cold it is and that she is going "out"...and she waves bye bye and then off she goes pushing her little stroller with her baby. Then she makes a loop (as our kitchen, living room, foyer makes a loop) then comes back tells me hello...and then it all starts over...this can go on forever!! But I never get tired of it :)

Have a great week!

Getting Dressed?!?

2010-02-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

So this morning after Molly's PJ's came off. She decided to do a little boogie. So once again I got out my handy dandy phone and took a small clip to share with everyone. Oh have I mentioned how she LOVES hats. You never know which hat will be the "hat of the day" but out of her several choices she randomly will wear one in the house throughout the day. So here ya go:

Have a great weekend!

Our Weekend

2010-02-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a busy weekend for the BU ministry. They had there spring retreat in KY with TTU. There ended up being around 45 students who went. Kenny said it was a great weekend and had some great conversations with many of the students. We will send more details later. But here is a group picture from the retreat.

Molly and I stayed here in Peoria while Kenny went to the retreat. We both were recovering from some sickness. She had croup this past week and I had a fun head cold. We are both feeling much better though. We did a lot of cleaning to the house while daddy was gone. We dusted the whole house (which Molly really does love to help) so she gets her own rag. And then we cleaned all the bathrooms. And once again she is not shy to helping...it was funny thinking how eager she was to help clean the toilets...I thought one day this won't be so true :) Trying to figure a way for her to help was a bit of a challenge. She ended up using the toilet bowl scrubber and getting to swish around all the toilet cleaner. That was fun for her. And last but not least we organized all of Molly's toys. Put up the baby ones and bought some baskets from the dollar tree and went to town. This was actually quite fun for me. Here is a picture of the shelf in Molly's room:

And then here is our organization of her toy shelf in the play room:

And how about one last picture of Molly's cheesy smile with some squinty eyes

That is all for today!! Have a wonderful week everyone!

Jacob's Birthday!

2010-02-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Today is a good friend of ours birthday, Jacob Sluder! So since the staff has their meeting at our home today Molly and I decided to bake some cookies for them in celebration of Jacob's birthday! Molly REALLY enjoyed it. She loved stirring up the ingredients. And she LOVED putting all the ingredients in the bowl...she actually got carried away on the baking powder and put in an extra 1/4 teaspoon...which no biggie I just scraped it out! Then as they went in the oven she excitedly watched through the oven window as they cooked (i turned the oven light on for her so she could watch them cook!)
Also while cooking we worked on saying "Happy Birthday"! So when Jacob came in the door this afternoon she ran to him and said "Happy Happy Happy Happy"...she kinda left out the birthday all together. But she has the "Happy" down! And then Molly happily gave all the staff a cookie...she loved handing them out!
Well, that has been our fun cooking for today! Here are a couple of pictures! (again from my phone...since it's always right with me)

Molly....day by day

2010-02-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
I was just thinking today about how many pictures I take throughout my day with my phone of Molly. It's just so convenient...I always have the phone around...and so there ya go I just take little snap shots throughout my day of fun precious moments. And I like to share them with my family. So I always then proceed to send them via text message to my family. But I was thinking some of my friends may like to see a few of these daily snap shots taken by my little Palm Pre. So here is a little snap shot of the joy of being Molly's mother!

Here she is looking out at all the snow falling

Here she is chillaxing on her recliner

So here she has her doll on her horse and is trying to get on now as well

Isn't she cute?!

So her Nonna AKA(Grandma Rojas) made her this scarf,hat,gloves set..and she is enjoying them!

And last but not least...my coolio Molly yo!

Have a great day!

Molly is soo entertaining! Gotta love it!

2010-01-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Just thought I would share a few of the funny things that crack me up about Molly these days. I am also going to attach a few videos taken by Kenny's phone for proof. One thing she has begun doing is singing into a microphone. The "microphone" comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes it's her hand..or maybe a bottle of lotion..or a spoon...or the best one yet...

Also here is her singing in action!

Another thing that is super cute to watch Molly do is watch her read her books! She loves to just go through her books and she "reads" them. In her room she sits on her little recliner and puts her baby doll beside her and "reads" to her...it's so fun for me to watch. Here is a little video of her "reading" to Kenny and I.
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I love my sweet little Molly! She is growing up sooo fast!! I think she is going to be a wonderful big sister! She is getting in a lot of practice with her baby dolls. It is really fun for me to watch her play with her dolls.

Well, there are a couple of the fun entertaining things Molly moo is into these days. I could go on and on..but I'll save that for another day! Toodle doodles!

Pregnancy & Holidays

2010-01-02T12:57:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to drop off a little update on this pregnancy. I am now around 10 weeks. This pregnancy has so far been drastically different from the last one. With Molly I was terribly sick and couldn't go anywhere without a trash can...get the picture :) This time I have gotten sick...and when it hits it feels miserable. But I have also gone days where I feel nauseated all day but am able to eat and function and it really isn't too bad at all. Some of the things I have noticed during this first trimester..is that when I eat fresh fruits and vegetables I get very sick...and feel terrible. So unfortunately even though this is very nutritious for this first trimester I haven't eaten much of this. Also...what seems to settle the best is meat and potatoes. So I am guessing I am having a boy...but won't find out for another 10 weeks! Oh and by the way..the belly is coming out already!

This holiday season has been great. We spent a couple of days visiting Kenny's family in St. Louis. It was great to see them all and for them to meet little Molly.

Kenny, Molly, and Grandma Hayes

Aunt Joyce and Molly

Molly and her stylish glasses

Molly listening in at the restaurant

Then we spent some time with my family. And that was so nice to see all my siblings and parents. My family is growing as well since my little sister Julia is engaged!! I will let you know when she sets the date! She has a very beautiful ring..Andrew did good :)

My little bro is moving out to Colorado Springs for his new job as a physical therapist. So..I am forseeing some fun vacations out there :) Here is a picture of Molly wearing my brothers hat!

And my older sister is still enjoying her job as a nurse. So it was very great to see them. Molly enjoyed them very much and all the dogs in the house! We spend Christmas eve with my family and open all our presents. And then Christmas day we go and spend it with Kenny's family.
After Christmas we had our New Years Conference in Nashville, TN. It went really well with around 1800 college students. I think all the Bradley students really enjoyed it. Now we are spending a little time with Kenny's family and then we will be heading home :)

New Blessing on the Way!

2009-12-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

Well, if you haven't heard by now. We are expecting a new baby!! I am due July 28th. Today we had our first sonogram and so it was the first time we could see the little baby (I mean little measuring at .84 cm...not even quite 1 cm yet!) but we could see the baby's heartbeat so that was very fun to see. The baby measured today at 6 weeks 5 days. We are very excited about this new addition to the familiy.
This pregnancy has been different than the last one. A little easier..and I am very thankful since I have little Molly running around. I am nauseas all day long..but am able to keep some foods down so that is nice. I have also been having several migraines. And I am oh so tired :) good thing Molly naps :)
Please be praying for this little baby to continue to grow healthy and for a smooth pregnancy.
Here is the picture they took of this sweet baby today:

The dotted line is where they are measuring the baby.

Christmas time is coming :)

2009-11-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

So...just want you to know in our 4 years of marriage we have yet to put up a tree. Mostly because the old house we rented didn't have space for it...and it wasn't the prettyist house and so never felt much like decorating. And we didn't have a tree. Well...we have a tree now...provided by Kenny's mom - thank you so much! And I LOVE LOVE our home...so I was super excited to decorate it for the holidays! So...up early so we can enjoy it longer our FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE is here!!

With light still outside

The look through the window...light still outside

another

nite time

closer up

OK..I could go on and on...but here is the last one:)

So there ya go:) We also hung a couple of stocking on the window...just because there were these random hooks there...so we thought it looked festive...so don't think we forgot about Molly..there was just only 2 hooks.

Get ready for the Holiday's! They are coming!! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

oh the Potty!

2009-11-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

Well, just thought I would give you a little update on my sweet Molly moo. She is growing and changing rapidly. I had been reading that around 18 months you could start exploring the world of potty training. So...I got the potty out and had it in our bathroom and Molly would love to go and sit on it. She thought it was just a fun little seat for herself. Well, after talking about it over the last month and explaining her poop and pee...when we would see it in the diaper. She began to tell me when she was peeing and pooping....kinda crazy. Anyhow usually before her bath I just plop her on her potty and she loves to sit there while I get her bath ready.
Yesterday I wasn't going to give her a bath...but she still really wanted to sit on her potty. I didn't think anything of it...until...as she was sitting there I said,"ok you all done" (it had been like 5 min. already) and she said, "no". So I was like are you going to pee. And she said pee pee...so I continued to let her sit there..and what do you know...the pee pee came:) We had a little victory dance and she was super excited...clapping her hands and saying pee pee! Who knew potty training could be so fun :)

victory woohoo!!

p.s. Molly loves to read her book about the potty while on the potty :)

It's Friday!

2009-11-06T10:45:00.000-08:00

It's FRIDAY! This week has flown by too fast! I am slowly catching up on laundry...for some reason being gone last weekend through me completely off when it came to house work. So already done 2 loads and I am afraid there are about 4 more left...trying to wash all sheets and towels as well :) Fun stuff huh...aren't you glad you are reading this today:)

Thought you might like to know a little bit about Molly's schedule these days.. She is now 19 months old! I can't believe how fast the months have gone by. On a day that we don't go anywhere...

she wakes up at 9am and we eat breakfast. Her favorite breakfast lately has been a scrambled egg and some cereal (she has liked Honey Kix lately)
Then we play together from 10 till 11 (sometimes we do some coloring...she is sorta getting the hang of it with crayons....but her toddler markers are another story)
From 11 till 12:30 she plays in her room all by herself :) This is great for me to have a little time to do things around the house. She always asks me to turn on the music..so she listens to the radio the whole time she is playing...sometimes when I walk by it's hilarious to watch sometimes she is just dancing away! Other things she does is she likes to grab books and sit in her recliner and just read away. But usually after this hour and half every toy has been grabbed from the basket and it looks like a tornado hit! So when I come back in to get her we pick up the mess.
Now it's lunch time. Our newest favorite is peanut butter. She likes it on bread and on crackers. So sometimes that is one thing she likes for lunch. We do a lot of leftovers also for lunch (mainly because I love hot lunches...but we also have sandwiches) We try to throw some fruit in there as well.
After lunch I clean and she plays in the kitchen/living room.
Now it is NAP Time....she sleeps from 2 till 5... sometimes not that long...but most days she likes to sleep the whole 3 hours. Another great time for me to do alot!
5 we get up and Daddy is here and so we get to play with him. Good weather sometimes we go on a walk or play outside.
6:30 we eat dinner
Then she plays after dinner
Then at 8pm she gets a bath...and gets all ready for bed. Then we read books that she picks out...And lately her favorite has been AHH Spider (thanks to her Tia Julia) She always points and says AHH.. And then she goes to sleep...usually completely asleep by 9pm. (she has quite a few friends she likes to sleep with...her beany puppy, mickey & minnie mouse, and her stuffed baby doll)

Watching Molly grow and her schedule change so much from the first days of nursing every 3 hours and napping all the time..to 2 naps...and now we are down to 1...it's so amazing how much they grow and how fast!

Here are a couple of pictures of Molly....just wanted you to know if you say SMILE...the eyes quickly squint...I think at first she was preparing for the flash...but now I think she thinks Smile means squint!

Have a great weekend!

More Pic's from Fall Retreat

2009-11-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

discussion time after a talk

Molly came to join but then wasn't so sure...

getting ready to play in the flag football tournament

the group of Bradley students

It was a very good weekend for the students to all learn more about who Christ is and how we are in need of Him. All the staff had some great conversations with the students. And the students seemed to really enjoy the weekend. Thank you for all your prayers. Please continue to pray that the seeds planted this weekend would grow.

Just a preview :)

2009-11-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

So this weekend was our fall retreat and once I get all my pictures sorted off the camera I will definitely give you an update on that. A quick update is that it went really well and I think many students learned a lot about who God is and what it means to be a Christian.

Here are a couple of pictures from my phone that I thought I would share of the family at the halloween party at the fall retreat.

So there was some cheese and the mouse was after it and then there was this cat that was chasing the mouse all night long ;)

I think i look way more excited here!

Have a good day and we will talk again soon!

A Beautiful Fall

2009-10-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

We went out on a walk yesterday and took the camera along to take some pictures of the beautiful fall trees and leaves around our neighborhood. We also raked up the leaves in our yard and Molly enjoyed that very much as you will see in these pictures!

daddy and molly getting ready to rake up the leaves

now playing in their pile!

Molly is loving this!

this tree is in front of our house and it's such a pretty red color!

just walking on the sidewalk :)

wow look at how big that tree trunk is!

she loves running through the leaves!

Our family :)

This weekend we went to a social with the sunday school class I have been going to. It was good to be able to get to know some more people. They had all the children dress up and so Molly wore her little mouse outfit she has. Here is a picture of that:

Have a wonderful week!