Mr. Personality

I entered the picture below into the week 38 photo challenge for iheartfaces.com. This weeks challenge was "smirk" and I couldn't resist sharing this sweet little picture I took of Seth when he was but one week old.

I am SO Blessed!

I love it how you can be having "one of those days"... (you know, the kind where your running low on energy and patience and running high on emotions, tears, and frustration ready to boil over at any second) when all of a sudden something out of the blue pretty much smacks you in the face with how blessed of a life you truly have. Today, I had one of those moments. I went from having that feeling that I just wanted to pull every last hair out of my head to having a deep rooted appreciation for my life.

Ansley had her first homework assignment and it was to draw a picture of her family. I had her sitting at the table working on it and the puppy goes to the bathroom in his crate about the same time that Eli slams a door which caused a glass vase to fall off a shelf and shatter while Ansley comes up and is tugging on my shirt saying "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. MOM-EEEEEEEEE."

At this point I'm ready to scream. "What?" I turn around and ask Ansley. "Mommy is trying to clean up this glass so you guys don't get hurt. Will you PUH-LEASEEEE just wait a second." I hurt her feelings. But she went back to the table and waited.

When I finally got the glass cleaned up, I went over to see what she needed and she told me she needed help making some stars because she didn't know how to do it. At which point I tell her she didn't need stars because she was supposed to be drawing picture of her family... not stars.

This is where I got God pretty much smacked me upside the head.

"But Mommy," Ansley said, "I have to draw the stars that Wyatt plays with in heaven! I need you to draw them for me!". As I looked at her picture of our family, this is what I saw...

She explained that our family was on the ground because that is where we live and we are holding hands because we love each other. She said that Wyatt lived in heaven on a cloud and was playing with the stars (that I drew for her), but that we were going to send him a red balloon because heaven was too far to hold his hand too, but we wanted Wyatt to know that we love him so that's why we sent him the red balloon with all of our hugs and kisses in it. Oh, and baby Seth is so small and he wasn't allowed to have a nose because he is "so so little". However, Ansley informed me that baby Seth can have a nose when he is bigger like Eli.

Wow! Could a mother's heart be any more full? What a sweet and thoughtful little girl I have. I am truly thankful for my family and I'm blessed to have those trying moments where I want to pull my hair out because that means I still have three of my children here to love and take care of. These children of mine are the reason I get out of bed in the morning and I need to take better care to remember that when I feel myself getting frustrated.

On a different note, today was Ansley's very first picture day at school. The picture will go in the yearbook and I can't wait to see it! She looked soooo cute this morning. I even let her wear some make-up because according to her "she had to look like a beautiful princess for the picture man".

This sweet looking little Eli has been stirring up all kinds of trouble lately. I know, how could a face like this...

... stir up any kind of mischief? He looks like such an angel... oh wait... this is more like it...

Anyways, I think this cute little monster has hit his terrible two's a little late. Or maybe I just got lucky and he skipped the terrible two's but is moving on the trying three's a little early. What's funny is that Joseph and I can't help but laugh when he's being a stinker, because he looks so darn cute doing it! Here's an example of his handy work. He took away baby Seth's pacifier and decided he was going to "make baby Seth pretty".

I stopped him after the first sticker, but he had a whole pack ready to go. And he kept trying to sneak them on Seth when I wasn't looking.

Speaking of cute, guess what Eli and I saw across from our yard this morning after dropping Ansley off at school. DEER! And I happened to have my camera! Picture one is of the deer just standing there. Picture two they start running off, and in picture three, you'll see why they run away!

Don't worry, the deer were too fast for Mr. Gunny!

For good measure, this is always a great way to end a post...

Project 52- Week 2

The highlight of this past week has been an ice cream cupcake party with Ansley's class on Friday, Joseph's last day as a Marine, and lots of time being silly and enjoying each others company. I am really blessed with a wonderful family!

Ansley

Oh miss Ansley Joy! You are becoming such a big girl...

Your making friends...

Roping mommy into making special ice cream cone cupcakes for your class this past Friday...

Eli got to join in too!

Getting your first boyfriend (If you listen closely you'll hear Joseph breaking into a cold sweat!), and then having mommy find out from your teacher that you two were trying to hold hands and had to be told that was a no-no...

According to your little boyfriends mother, H thinks you walk on water and you have him wrapped around your little finger! It looks like you think he's pretty great too...

Your drawing your shapes so well...

And very soon, you will be a cheerleader for your school. (Pray for me please, I will be a cheerleading coach for pre-k through 1st grade with the help of another mom who is almost 7 months pregnant!)

And look at you with your daddy. I love the way your eyes sparkle when you look at him.

They don't stay little long...

Last Day as a Marine

Joseph will no longer be in the Marine Corps. as of tonight at 11:59 pm (on September 11, 2010).

(UPDATE: I wrote this last night but couldn't get pictures to post due to weather so he is already officially out of the Marine Corps... but that doesn't mean you have to stop reading!)

It's hard to believe that Joseph's six years has already gone by. It's kind of sad to think that I will no longer be able to say, "My husband is a Marine". I've always been so proud of my husband for serving even though the deployments scare me to death and the separations during training and schooling is hard on our family. Even when he was gone, I always felt a sense of security for knowing that my husband was out there somewhere helping to keep myself, my kids, my family, my friends, and complete strangers safe and free. It takes a special person to be in the military and that quality is part of the reason I fell in love with him. Well, that and the fact that on a sad day for Joseph, he still thought to surprise me with a beautiful red rose! Who wouldn't fall in love with a man in uniform showing up to your door with a rose and a sincere embrace? Thank you honey! You still take my breath away. I love you.

In honor of Joseph's last official day as a Marine (although I thoroughly believe in the motto "Once a Marine, always a Marine"), I drug him outside to do a 5 minute mini photo shoot.

Don't think Joseph is through with the military though. Although Joseph's heart will always be in the Marine Corps, he will be going active duty in the Navy within the next month or so. Wow! That will take some getting used to. I'm sssooooo going to miss Joseph's dress blues :( However, I'm proud of Joseph for getting out of the branch he loves to go to go to a different branch where he has the opportunity to get some free schooling and life skills he can use after his career in the military. He's either going to nuclear engineering school or going the medical route. Please, if you don't mind, can you head over to my husbands blog (yes, he has a blog that he NEVER writes on) and leave him some encouragement(I'll have him check his blog tonight). He's been kind of down since he got home yesterday. I'd appreciate it, and I know he will too.

So let me end with saying for the last official time... I love my Marine!

Projects and Elephants

I have always wanted to learn how to sew. It seemed like such a practical skill to have. I was so disappointed in high school that they didn't offer Home Ec. or sewing classes. I've even tried to find places around the area that offered sewing classes to no avail.

So I took matters into my own hands and have been teaching myself through youtube videos how to sew. And I'm so glad I have! I'm really enjoying it. It's so neat to turn nothing but fabric into something useful.

I'm especially loving that I can turn Joseph's old polo shirts into shirts for Eli and you can't even tell it used to be a mans shirt! And it melts my heart a little bit to see Joseph's old shirts on his mimi me. I swear Eli is Joseph's clone 20 years later. Anyways, he's Eli wearing one of Joseph's repurposed shirts...

I've also taken one of Joseph's old dress shirts and turned it into a dress for Ansley! (Don't worry, Joseph still has clothes to wear. These were shirts that were destined for Goodwill)

Here's the before. (Sorry, I had already started hacking away before I thought to take a picture)

And the after.

But I wasn't thrilled. It was too plain for my little diva. So I made some fabric rose embellishments and a coordinating headband and Voila!

I couldn't have a happier 4 year old! She's already begging to wear her "beautiful daddy's shirt" to school tomorrow :)

I've also made some other skirts and dresses for Ansley. (I don't have pics of them all)

And I've tried my hand with some embellishing to make Seth this super cute tie onesie.

But my favorite of all is the skirt I made Ansley that I was able to make coordinating ties for all the boys. Yes, I made a tie for Eli, Seth, and Wyatt's elephant! Oh, and I also made a coordinating headband for Ansley. I can't wait to do a photo shoot in these! I'm thinking khaki pants with white shirts and the boys in their ties...

Next on my list are some tops for Ansley to wear to school and maybe an apron for yours truly. Either way, I'm a sewing machine! Ha. Get it? Sewing Machine. Me.

I know, I 'm really not that funny... I get points for trying though, right?!

Anyways, This is kind of off topic, but I wanted to share my growing elephant collection with you.

I've added this adorable tea pot.

This elephant statue.

And this set for sugar and creamer.

Hope you have a blessed day. Thanks for stopping by!