Handmade Birthday Decorations!   The "Silly Monsters" were for Jude's 2nd birthday! They were amazing! I will have to find more pics to show you the details that went into this!

 (Sorry the pictures aren't more specific!)

I am working on a princess theme this week for a friend and wanted to post up here what I have done so far for other themes and then I will post my Princess stuff when it is done, before this Saturday! I am super excited about it!   Overall LOTS of cool stuff for Jude's Monster theme! More pics of this to come!

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Next is the DINO theme for our friends little boy's FIRST BIRTHDAY! They turned out fun and were all whipped up the day OF! I was pretty proud of myself! :)

 The Stegosaurus is definitely my favorite! :)

 As you can see I had a lot of fun with them! I am thinking this could be a thing for me!

For the Princess theme I am making a PRINCESS (obviously), a pink, green, and yellow heart garland, and a rainbow with clouds on both ends and one being bigger and having Happy Birthday on it! Its this Saturday for my new friends little girl and I am super glad I can help out a friend!

Also... I will be doing another theme for ANOTHER friends little boy's 2nd birthday in March---- Hungry, Hungry CATAPILLAR!! I am SUPER excited about this one as that used to be a favorite book of mine! I don't know what all we will do, but I will be posting that as well! Oh yeah!

Let the good times roll! :)

Love # 4

Germany. 

Germany. Speicher. Our home. I just LOVE having the opportunity to travel and see the world... well little by little! We are just finally getting everything really set up in our house and I have to say that Germany has really become home to us! I realize that as part of the military we will have a new home every few years, but I do believe I will be heart broken to leave this place! The first picture here is our neighborhood! I love coming up and down the street! It is lined with old fashioned German homes that really set a mood! Love it!
<-----OUR house! :) It is HUGE and more space than we could possibly need, but it is perfect! It is old and has squeaky wood floors upstairs, but it has a large kitchen, a PANTRY (NOT normal at all for German homes!) It has a huge front living room and dining room with extrordinary front windows! So much light comes in that we actually have to keep the rolladins (German metal blinds) half way closed most of the time, a) so the room doesn't over heat from all the sunlight, and b) so people can't see EVERYTHING as they walk by our house at night! It is lovely! I will definitely have to post pics of the inside very soon!



 This is out Landlord's home, just across the street from our own house! It has been in his family for generations and has so much beauty inside AND out! Inside he has all kinds of tile work, and crown molding! The architecture and decor is just breathtaking! I at first assumed it was a church turned into a house! No. Just his house! Apparently the smaller of his 3! He is a surgeon, a gentleman, and a scholar! Just the sweetest man, and his wife is just as lovely! A genuine pleasure!
  I love driving in Germany. I love the rolling hills, the fields, the farm animals! I love the old homes, the tall trees! I love the history! OH how I LOVE GERMANY!
<-- Speicher

 Speicher--------------------->

We see these views everyday between home and the Air Base!

This is the road between Speicher and Dudeldorf! It is twisted, and long, and beautiful. And now as the leaves are changing to Autumn reds, yellows, and oranges it is breathtaking!---> 

These last 2 pictures are of Dudeldorf! An absolutely BEAUTIFUL town just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our village! Just gorgeous! And THIS---->
passageway has scratch marks all down its inside from where General________ drove his tank through it during WWII! (I hear this story nearly every time we go through it, but I can't remember who it was! haha! I will ask Cameron and come back!.. Or someone who sees and knows can tell me!)

What an incredible blessing to be immersed in a culture, a history that I might not have known had I not taken that step into the darkness, into the unknown and ventured out into the world! I am so grateful to be here! LOVE GERMANY!

Loves: Photo Challenge continued...

So the tomato thing was day 2! :) I love that Jude is so much like me that he even eats similar odd snacks, including but not limited to eating whole tomatoes! 

Now at this point I think I would like to change the parameters of this challenge! Instead of 1 Love per day for 100 days... I am going to post 100 Loves in 30 DAYS!!... Mostly because I have a lot of things I love, and the 1 a day just isn't cutting it for me! SO....
Love # 3: My guitar.

It is new, it is pretty, and it makes pretty sounds! :) I am learning how to play via SKYPE with my sister, Deedee! Its pretty intense, but exceedingly awesome at the same time! My first song I am learning is Arms, by Christina Perri. Lets just say.... It speaks to me. :) I am just a few weeks away from being a total ROCK STAR! :) haha.... Ok not really... but one day at a time I am really excited about learning how to play! I may just have to post a video of how beautifully I play NOW so I can do another later when I am AWESOME! HaHA! More details to come on that!

Phone Post TEST!

...Blah blah blah! This is Jude eating a tomato! :) ...Whole. :) ...He got it from his Momma!

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Early morning love/hate in the air!

O. my. goodness. How does the morning come SO EARLY!? How can I stay up until 1 am touting how much I LOVE my children and then loath them so entirely when they wake me up by 6 am!? It seems I have to prioritize! I love/NEED my own quiet, alone time, but I probably need sleep MORE! :) I have been trying to choose how to spend my time wisely as counseled in this talk by a personal favorite:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2007/10/good-better-best?lang=eng

Good, Better, Best by Dallin H. Oaks (General Conference, October 2007)

"We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families."

So WHAT is more important here?? That is my dilema! As a young mother of 2 I feel like if I don't have some alone time my head might EXPLODE! Then again if I don't get sleep, my already tired and sore body my just revolt against me, go on PROTEST! I kinda need my body to be on par... but I need my mind too! How do you find a happy medium when it seems there is never enough time for SLEEP-- OR QUIET ALONE TIME!!!???!!!??? Ugh.

This morning Cooper woke up to eat at 5:45 and so I got up out of bed, as that is what I am doing now, to breast feed him in the recliner and put him back to bed! Well, Jude heard the commotion and decided to join us... He had a nasty, wet poopy diaper so I can understand... but seriously... I was like, "What is going on in the world that drives these babies to be awake at the same time, at THIS HOUR!?!" I fed and laid down Cooper, and changed Jude's diaper, gave him a drink and put him back to bed... He of course laid there and cried because he didnt want to go back to sleep and he knows that on the nights when Daddy isn't there at night he doesn't HAVE to go back to sleep! As soon as Daddy gets home he is home free! Daddy has to sleep, and Mommy has NO choice, but to do exactly what he wants. Get. out. of. bed. Booooooooooo. Ugh. So. I stayed in bed, as a form of protest until I absolutely had to get out of bed. 7:30. My love came home and kissed me and snuggled me until I could breath evenly, despite my frustrations... and then I got up! We came downstairs to eat and I already could hardly look at Jude. He was too awake. Too needy. Too demanding. Too... TWO! We sat down for breakfast, of course this entails getting Cooper his food and a spoon, Jude and myself a bowl and spoon, Trix Cereal, Nesquik- Strawberry flavor, milk, and... wipes! :) I fumbled through all that while Jude hollared about wanting this and that, and finally sat down, ready to ROOOOAAAAARRRR at him just to show how frustrated I was and to shut him up. Then I decided to pray instead. :) Jude cried through the entire thing, but it went something like this: Please Lord, bless me with patience. Please give me patience. Please give me patience. Please bless Jude that he may have mercy on me and know that I love him. Bless Cooper that he may be content. Bless these babies that they may have MERCY on me this morning! Please Lord, bless me with patience. Bless me with patience... and so the prayer continued as I fed the boys. And somehow... despite my very strong urge to pour the box of Trix Cereal over Jude's head, despite my desire to let them both sit there and to go off and cry... I fed them. They ate. Now we are all sitting in the living room, Jude watching Sesame Street and Cooper bouncing happily in his Exersaucer, and here I sit. Blogging. SO... the moral of the story. Sleep comes first. THEN me time. I can find me time through out the day in the in between moments, courtesy of my loving Heavenly Father. :)

Now-- I have MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) in about 30 minutes. Free child care and mommy time. I should get going. :) Thank heavens for our military family and the programs provided to us! I am in NEED this morning!

Motherhood is HARD!!--- Can I get an AMEN!?!?! :)

100 Days of Love: Photo Challenge

As I have decided to make this a habit for myself I have decided to get crazy. I am setting a challenge to EVERY DAY post a picture of something I love for 100 days. This should do a couple things for me including allowing me to become more familiar with my camera, a simple Samsung digital something, formulate a habit, and also to perk up my soul! I could use the reminder that I have much to be grateful for!  So HERE WE GO!

Day 1:

 These are my boys! <3

Cameron-- He is the tall one. ;) He is the pulse in my veins and the song in my heart! He makes me more happy than any one person, place, or thing (with the exception of God himself) has EVER made me! I have had a lot of things to be happy about and HE is by far the greatest source of happiness in my life!

In a close second are my children! Both of them on the same level as I truly cannot decide whom I love more for they both take up equally HUGE portions of my bosom! :)

Jude-- my elder, on the swing is about 2 and a half and is learning to do more and say more EACH day! This of course is a joy AND a trial as he is JUST LIKE ME and I am certain we will drive each other completely mad before he is a teenager! His smile, his laugh, his dance moves... all of him makes me want to be so much more! He is truly a blessing from God! What an incredibly SWEET child he is! And funny to boot! O how I LOVE him!

Cooper--my younger, more bald child. :) He is such a pure soul. I find such great joy in nursing him, cuddling and sleeping with him! He hates to be put down, but when he is down on his tummy he is in his own happy place! He is his a tiny version of the man I love in SO many ways! He has his eyes, his smile, and a personality to make a mother melt! <3

<3 I LOVE THESE BOYS!  xoxoxoxoxo

Blogging... the new frontier. B)

So I genuinely have sucked at blogging as of yet, but from this point I have decided to look at it in a different light. This is not me keeping people posted, but rather a journal for myself, a testament to all that I am capable of, to all that I love doing, and to all those whom I love. Let the fun begin... :)