Obsessed

Notice what # puzzle I am on.  Ya...little obsessed.  It's called Unblock Me Free and it has a bazillion levels, which is awesome for a free game on the iPhone.  And I just noticed that I got caught :-)  This pic also captured the time that I was playing the game.  Yes, I am a night owl.  If I want to play a game on my iPhone at 2:06am then that's my perogitive! :-)

What are your favorite free or cheap games on the iPhone??  I need some new obsessions!

And on a non-related note...I finished another nametag board for the children's ministry at church.  This one is for the flower room where all the babies will be.  (Someone else painted the fun flower on for me)

Our New Church Home

Our church (CrossPointe Church Orlando) has just moved into a new building!  We are so excited that God has blessed our church with an actual building.  We've been meeting in a YMCA gym for the last 7+ years. 

Here is our new building!

We're having our first service in the new building this Sunday at 9:30am and 11am.  Come join us!

I've been on the Creative Team that is helping plan what the children's wing will look like.  A couple weekends ago the painting started and it looks amazing!  The concept is God is Bigger.  Each room depicts something that is "big" to the children in that class, but God is Bigger.  Here's a sneak peek:

I have been working on making nametag boards that will sit outside each classroom and hold all the kid's nametags on them.  They are decorated/designed to coordinate with the theme of each room.  Here's two that I have done so far.

for the Mountain Room

for the Jungle Room

Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Bites

Monday was Hubby's birthday!  He had worship team practice that night (he plays bass at our church) so we surprised him and showed up at his practice!  I brought yummy treats for everyone.  Kinda like when you were little and your mom brought cupcakes in to your class on your birthday :-)

The treats were a big hit!  I made Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Bites.  I got the recipe on my allrecipes.com App.  I modified it a little by using 2 cups of Graham cracker crumbs mixed with a stick of butter for the crust.  And then I topped them with some caramel ice cream topping and pecans.  It was pretty easy and super yummy!  Definitely reccomend this recipe if you're looking for something cute and sweet.

Did you know I love circles?

Cheryl at 12

I found this "story" at my parent's house this week.  I didn't remember being such an amazing writer at 12 years old. :-)  Enjoy!

Nesting Themed Baby Shower

My friend Liz and I hosted a baby shower for our friend Andi.  We had such a fun time planning this shower and coming up with cute creative ideas to go with the Nesting theme Liz chose.

Here are some pics of what we came up with.

Andi's Nesting Shower

I made the sign for the front door.  I did not make the wreath ;-)  The sign isn't centered...that bothers me.

close-up of the sign

close up of our bird's nest

yummy chocolate bird's nests -made by Liz

Favor Tags -made by me

cake to match my sign -made by Liz

the cutest little birdy cupcakes ever!  -made by Liz

Birdy Brownies - I made them with a bird cookie cutter

The Gift Table (before most of the gifts arrived)

- I painted the two little birdhouses

close-up of the birdhouses-
the one on the right was painted to match Eden's bedding,
the one on the left was a prize for a game we played
(that Andi won anyways :-))

Thanks for having a baby Andi so I had a reason to be creative!!  Can't wait to meet Eden!

Flying Alone with Kids

The Girl's and I took a trip up to Ohio to visit with my family this week.  I flew ALONE with 2 kids!  When Anna was little I vowed to never fly alone with her, because it was hard enough with 2 adults...then I flew alone with her while 7 months pregnant...now I flew alone with 2!  I guess I've eaten my words.

The flight went great!  I've learned the key with Anna is to bring a GIANT bag of snacks and just let her have at it.  This time she's finally old enough that videos entertain her too...which is awesome BTW!  I gladly and unapoligetically use tv/videos as a babysitter in certain situations.  Any mom who doesn't is a better woman than me! :-)

Anna's ready for her flight

Ellie playing on the plane - I'm still convinced that those links are one of the best toys for a baby!

How Anna spent most of the flight :-)

What are your tips and tricks for flying alone with little ones?

A Quick Pic of the Kids

I'd like to call this "Let's take a quick picture of your matching shirts to show your Aunt Sharon how cute you are in them."

"say Cheese Anna...no, look at the camera"

"What's over there?"

Anna left so we'll just take some of the baby

let's try one without the paci

Anna got jealous of the attention the baby was getting and decided to come back
failed attempt at a smile
meanwhile the baby is getting irritated

"oh Ellie...it's ok...I'll give you some love whether you want it or not"

"oh I forgot...it's all about ME"

Ellie had been patient...but just can't wait any longer for sister to cooperate

Anna leaves again

maybe if Mommy is in it she can control the children

lets try one holding Anna so she can't run away again

still trying to get away...see the annoyance on my face?

"Ellie...over here"

oh my goodness gracious...everyone is looking and no one is crying
Thank You Aunt Sharon for the cute matching shirts :-)...hope you like the picture :-)

Wedding Dress Party

I had the most amazing idea for a Girl's Night.  How many women out there have their wedding dress still hanging in a garment bag in the back of their closet? I do! I've always wanted to try it on again before I get it preserved in one of those boxes (if that ever happens...it's already been 5 years...doesn't seem likely).

I want to have a Wedding Dress Party!  Everyone gets another chance to show off their beautiful dress and bring back memories of that special day. We could have wedding cake and a sparkling cider toast :-). Have you heard of anyone doing this before? I can't be the first to have this idea. So who's with me?!

I swear I come up with the best ideas at 2am :-)

Getting My Craft On

I have been getting some serious craft on lately...and I love it!  One of my favorite classes in high school was Crafts and Printmaking.  My teacher even kept one of my art pieces to show as an example to future classes :-)  I went back 4-5 years later and it was still in his classroom!  I'm awesome.  Whoops...did I say that out loud ;-)

All my craftiness lately is for my friend Andi's baby shower on tomorrow.  So be on the lookout for pictures next week.  It's a Nesting theme...pink birds and all.  Here's a sneak peak...

Anna Asks Jesus for Help

To piggyback off my "Anna's Prayer" post, I wanted to share another fun story about Anna praying.  We were driving home from a night of dinner and shopping and Anna had been quite "challenging."  She was saying that she was bad (because we had mentioned earlier that her behavior was bad).  I decided it was an oppurtunity to teach her a Sunday School Lesson, as I like to call it :-) 

I told her that everyone is bad and that's called our Sin Nature.  I had her repeat it to me.  I told her that everyone has a sin nature and we have to ask Jesus to help us be good, and that Jesus can help us with lots of things.  She was tracking with me, as much as any 2 year old would.

Well a few minutes later Ellie starts wailing in the car.  Steve and I can't reach her to give her her paci, so we're all just listening to the crying till we get to a stoplight.  Then our cute little girl in the back seat says "Jesus can help Ellie calm down."  I asked her if she wanted to pray.  And so she did.  "Dear Jesus, please help Ellie calm down and be good.  Amen."

Wow!  Steve and I looked at eachother "Did she just apply that lesson in real life?"  It's moments like that that help us get through this "challenging" time with her.

Free Printable Alphabet Bunting

How cute is this?!

You can download and print these free Alphabet Bunting pdf's and make cute banners :-)  This just makes me smile.  This is so great for those of us who either have no designing skill or no time for designing something like this. 
 
Let me know if you make a Bunting Sign with these super cute letters!

Thank you Ruffled Blog!

Weekly Meal Plans

First of all, I would like to just say that I am not a cook.  I don't particularly like to cook, I'm not creative with cooking, I just don't enjoy any of it that much.  With that being said, I have found a way to motivate myself to cook dinner and thought I'd share it with you.

I've started planning our meals out for the week.  Whoa!  I know...it's mindblowingly genius.  But I can't take credit for it...lots of people do this.  I am a huge planner and love lists and schedules and being organized.  So this totally fulfills a need I have.

Every week I sit down with my little weekly notepad and my grocery list notepad.  I also have my calendar open so I can take in to account if we need to make a quick meal one night, because we have something to do after dinner.  I then write down what meals we are going to have each night. I usually enlist Steve's help with making the choices.  Then I write down all the ingredients needed for the week on my grocery list notepad. 

Every day I can look at my pretty little notepad on my refrigerator and know what's expected of me and I like that :-)

Can you find my weekly notepad and grocery list??  We like things...ummm eclectic here :-)

FYI - those of you with iPhones... There is a great free App called allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner that makes it super easy to find meal options.

Anna's Prayer

We always pray with Anna before she goes to bed (and before nap and meals).  She doesn't let us forget either!  She is a creature of habit!  She usually has us pray and she interjects who she wants to pray for.  Her list is always Autie, Macey, Uncle Scott, Jude (friend, friend, friend's dad, friends's brother).  In that order :-)

One night, Anna prayed her very first prayer all by herself.  "Dear God, thank you for Anna. Amen."

Isn't that a great look into the selfishness we are born with?  Anna is not an unusually selfish child.  She actually is very inclusive and wants to make sure no one is left out.  But that night, she prayed what was on her heart :-)

I'm finally going to be cool

I'm getting an iPhone tomorrow!  I've been tracking it on FedEx all day :-)  I never thought that I would jump on the i(fill in the blank) band wagon...but here I am, ready to plan my day around picking up my shiny new ultracool trendy phone tomorrow.  I feel like I'm going to be a part of pop culture now.  When I'm sitting down with my great grandkids I can tell them stories of when I first got my iPhone 4 and trying to explain what an App is to children so far more technologically advanced than that.

I'm planning on sharing some of my fav Apps on here soon.  So be on the look out.

BTW...the coolest thing about this iPhone is that I'm actually going to be paying $5-$10 less per month than what I'm currently paying...and I don't have internet on my phone right now.  Joining my parents family plan...why didn't I think of this sooner!

Fun Stuff

So here I go...doing the blog thing.  We'll see how much I get into it and how much content I can come up with.  Although my children never leave me with nothing to talk about.  Goodness...they are an adventure! 

My goal on this blog is to share fun stuff with you.  Maybe some crafty stuff, maybe some cooking stuff, most definitely some kiddo stuff, and probably lots of other stuff.  I hope you like stuff.