It's the Little Things

There's nothing like a 2 year old to remind you to slow down and enjoy the little things in life. Sometimes we get so caught up in the challenges that life sends our way we don't notice the smaller things that can bring us joy.

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with the delivery of all of our presents from Santa. The kids had fun opening up their new toys, clothes, and candy. Most of their gifts were need related (socks, underwear, pj's, books, etc.) but they did get their fair share of toys.

But it was one thing, one very small thing that Bailey received that day that brought her the most joy. An orange. Not her Leap Pad, or the new baby doll, or the stroller, or the Minnie Mouse but an orange. A small piece of fruit mixed in with a bag full of candy that resulted in the squeals of joy and the picture below.

We've had a very trying few years year with little miss independent. She is full of spunk and attitude and spends most of her days throwing tantrums which often makes it difficult to enjoy everyday life. But this face, this excitement over something so simple reminds me to slow down. To find the little things that can bring joy to us. The "I uv you's," random kisses, little smirks, and all of her little quirks that can so easily drive me insane.

My goal for 2014 is to look for the positive in all aspects of our life. When the kids at school are driving me crazy, when I've asked Tyler 15 times to stop running through the house, when I'm on 2 hours of sleep with a brand new baby, and when Bailey is throwing tantrum number 1,024,103 for the day I'm going to stop and remember what makes life so special. To find the things that will make me smile.

It's time to say so long to 2013, and bring it on to 2014. I'm ready and waiting to see what joy and challenges you bring to us! 

Our Week At A Glance

We've had a very busy and fun filled week! But before I share I would like to send a prayer for my friends and family back home in Michigan, many of which are without power and have been for several days. Part of me is glad we didn't make the trip up since we would have been one more thing for them to deal with and worry about, and the other part wishes we were there to help. Love you all and hope everything is back to normal soon!

We started by making Christmas cookies for Santa on Sunday-

And moved on to our gingerbread train Monday-

 Both kids were up WAY too early Wednesday morning, but enjoyed opening their Santa presents!

Later they opened more presents from Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Curt who came over for Christmas dinner.

We had a wonderful holiday and look forward to celebrating the new year in a few days. Merry Christmas to all!

Half-Way!

This week I hit the 20 week mark, which means that we're half-way through this pregnancy! With this being our last, I'm trying my best to enjoy all of the stages but this is most definitely my most difficult pregnancy yet. I don't know if it's because I have 2 kids already, a high stress job, or if it's the difference in age (23 with #1 and 30 with #3) but I'm more tired than ever before.

Hopefully my energy will pick up soon! So far, everything else has gone well. Our ultra sound looked great and baby is measuring within a few days of it's gestational age. We opted not to find out what this baby is again. I'll be a nervous wreck for the next 20 weeks!

Here's a summary of what's happening so far:

Due Date:  May 3, 2014 but they are considering me for induction a week early

Food Cravings:  Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

Gender:  Unknown, but my guess is boy!

Movements:  Inconsistent still but when he/she does move, it shocks me and tends to make my eyes water

Aversions:  None at this time.

What I miss:  Sleeping on my stomach and having energy

Names:  We are pretty solid on a name for a boy, but don't have any names for a girl yet!

Here's to 20 more wonderful weeks!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs: 12-14-13

This week has been all about getting back into routines after Bailey spent a week with Grandma and both kids were gone for the weekend. For the most part everything is back to normal, but we are all looking forward to Christmas vacation!

Linking up with Melissa over at The Mommyhood Chronicles, stop on by her page for a few more laughs!

5.  Bailey refuses to touch our live Christmas tree. She says it's yucky.

4.  I've been busily sewing Bailey's "big girl quilt" over the last several weeks and now have my very own sewing buddy.

I can't sit at the table to work on it with out her climbing up next to me!

3.  Going along with #4, as I start the machine she squeals "Go Mommy! Go go go go!" until I've finished the piece.

2.  Tyler has been having a hard time narrowing down what he wants for Christmas this year. He finally decided to tell Santa that he wants whatever he brings him!

1.  Bailey loves to irritate her brother in any way she can. By following him, looking at him, touching him.... This morning I asked Tyler if he wanted the lights on or off in the bedroom. He said off and she quickly said "No, on!"

18 Week Baby Update!

It's hard to believe we're at 18 weeks already! We went in for a check up on Friday which was the first one since I went in at 11 weeks making it even more exciting. Since the appointment was on the day after Thanksgiving, the entire family was able to go!

At our last appointment the baby was still pretty low because it was so early and we could only catch a quick, very quiet, heart beat. She found it long enough to know that it was strong but we couldn't hear it well enough for the kids to know what it was. This time, we were all able to hear it's little flutter a little louder after she pinned it's wiggly self down! I sure hope this one doesn't take after their big sister!

I did learn that because I have a history of "rapid labor" that I will possibly be induced around 39 weeks. Apparently a 45 minute labor isn't normal? ;0) I really should get around to writing the kids' birth stories! Long story short I went from very weak, uneven contractions to a baby in my arms in less than an hour. I'm not sure how I feel about an induction at this point, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there!

They also scheduled our ultrasound already which will be later this week. Hubs and I have been back and forth on finding out the gender this time. I still don't know what we're going to do!

Thoughts?

Craft-Along Monday: It's Christmas Time!

It's time for another Craft-Along Blog Hop! Feel free to take my button and link up below!

I love the holiday season! It's a great time to have fun creating things for the home and with the kids. I made my first attempt at a grapevine wreath earlier in the week. It was easier than I thought it would be, but I'm not certain that it's complete.

The kids loved watching my craft, so I picked up some materials for them to make their own wreaths!

What you need:

-Mini grapevine wreaths (I picked up a pack of 2 from Hobby Lobby for $1.99)

-A couple of bunches of Christmas flowers (these came from the dollar store and we used 3 to make both wreaths)

-Hot glue gun

-Whatever else you would like to decorate them with (I picked up a string of plastic bells from the dollar store)

-Twist ties

-3M Command Strip Hooks to hang them on

The kids put the flowers where they wanted them and I went back through and glued them on. We added a plastic bell from the dollar store to both for a little twinkle! On the back I twisted in a twist tie to hang them from and done! Super simple, fun, and festive!

Bailey's wreath

Tyler's wreath

Top 5 Saturday Laughs: 11-30-2013

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We've enjoyed some much needed family time over the last several days. This week is a bit of a Bailey overload as she has become increasingly vocal and is letting her personality shine through!

5.  We took a trip down to B's favorite store, Food Lion one evening. They were out of the carts with the cars hooked to the front so she immediately informed the nearest clerk that they needed to buy more.

4.  As I stated, little miss is really starting to talk. Non stop. Brandon says to me one night "All she does is talk!" B's response, "Me? Nooooo...."

3.  Tyler was talking about going the beach again next summer. B informed us that she wants to go to the beach too. But she doesn't want sand on her toes and we need to carry her.

This is how we spent our trip to the
beach this summer.

2.  I got the stockings out to hang on the mantle. B grabbed one up said it was hers and stuck her foot in it!

1.  We are in full on toddler nose picking territory over here! It's constant, and if you correct her she'll go hide around the corner to continue the dig for gold. Tyler explained today that "Bailey can pick her nose if she wants to. It's her nose!" EWWWWW!!!!!!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs: 11-23-2013

Is Thanksgiving really only a few days away? This year has gone by so fast! Time needs to slow down, just a little! Linking up with Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles!

5.  Ask Bailey what her name is and you're sure to get the response of "Me!"

4.  Bailey is ALL girl! This last week she has become even more obsessed with her baby doll. Everywhere she goes, it goes along with it's car seat, bottle, blanket and whatever else she is dragging with her.

3.  Tyler is too smart for his own good. We were at the fabric store and Bailey wouldn't follow us. So he said "Bailey, look Mini Mouse is over here!" and off she went!

2.  Do not mention food lion in this house or you will have a 2 year old with shoes and coat on waiting by the door!

1.  This is how Bailey wanted to eat dinner the other night:

Have a great weekend!!

Craft Along Monday: Gobble Gobble

With Thanksgiving right around the corner and my desperately wanting to share with the world our upcoming bundle of joy, I thought why not have the kids make turkeys? They made 3 of them to use for our special announcement and boy did they have fun!

What you need:

paper towel or toilet paper rolls, brown and orange construction paper,
feathers, google eyes, glue, and small rubber bands

The first step was to cover the rolls with brown paper which I had already cut to size.

Watching intently as big brother shows her how to work the glue.

A master already! Who knew glue was so much fun?

Trying his best to roll the paper on. I had to help a little with this step.

After covering the rolls in brown paper, we glued the feathers, eyes, and noses on using the white glue. I used the small rubber bands to help hold the paper and feathers in place while they were drying. I was hoping to get pictures of each of these stages as well, but my fingers were covered in glue from helping the kids. I kind of like my camera and didn't want the shutter button to be glued down so you're going to have to use your imagination! 

The final product:

I hope you enjoyed our project! Feel free to link up any craft activities you have completed with your family!

Welcome To The Family

It's time to announce to the world that we will be welcoming another bundle of joy into our hearts in early May of 2014, and we couldn't be more thrilled! 

Tyler was the first to find out other than myself and my husband. He did such a great job of keeping it a secret from the teachers and kids at school for several weeks. He has had a blast finally being able to tell all of his friends and family as well as the ladies at school. My amazing principal thought since he had to keep such a giant secret that we should let him tell the staff at our next meeting, and that he did. It was priceless! He stood up in front of 40+ women and said "Mrs. Stickney is pregnant. And the baby will be here on May the 4th." It was absolutely adorable and everyone was taken by surprise!

Everything has been going wonderfully. I am finally past the morning sickness stage and am hoping to get some energy back soon. We go in for our next checkup in a week and a half. Sorry I've been neglecting my blog and have been absent from commenting on your blogs, hopefully as my energy picks up a little again I'll be on here more.

Here is the announcement the kids helped me to make.

I'm hoping to put up my Craft-Along Monday tomorrow with our turkey creations!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs 11-9-2013

It's been a very busy couple of months. Our school district has adopted several new initiatives this year which has kept me more than busy, but I have been blessed this year with an amazing group of students. Without them, I don't know how I would be surviving right now! Hopefully things will start to slow down a little so I can get on here more often again!

As always, I'm linking up with Melissa over at The Mommyhood Chronicles. Head on over and check out her Saturday Laughs as well!

5.  Tyler told Daddy the other day to call his boss and tell him to take the day off. His reasoning, he could be Daddy's boss for the day.

4.  I asked Tyler what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said, "I want to be like Grandma. I'll stay at home while my wife goes to work." Somehow, I don't think this plan will work for him...

3.  Bailey refuses to hold my hand while walking now. She will only hold Tyler's.

2.  We put Bailey to bed one night and she REFUSED to go to sleep. She finally told us she would go to bed unless she could have one of my pillows, which she has slept on nightly ever since.

1.  Bailey was eating french fries and ketchup with her dinner one night and watched her stick her finger in the ketchup and play with it. I asked her what she was doing and she told me "I painting!"

Have a great weekend!! :0) 

Halloween Traditions

My family was full of traditions growing up. Every Halloween we would bake cookies, carve pumpkins, and mom would make our costumes. We would also go to the local farmers market with Grandma and pick up some fresh apple cider. Times have changed. We are now a full days drive from Grandma, but we're doing our best to make the holidays just as memorable for our babies.

Starting with- pumpkin carving!

I'm feeling a bit unambitious so we're skipping the traditional Halloween cookies this year. We did however make it to the Denver-Downs pumpkin patch (by the way, Mom I still need those pictures!) and will be going trick-or-treating through our neighborhood.

Happy Halloween!!

Craft-Along Monday

Welcome to the Craft-Along Monday Blog Hop! Feel free to link up any craft/activity posts below, and if you would like, take my button! :0)

After a whirl-wind family vacation this past weekend to Myrtle Beach, and a little laziness on my part (shhh...), I chose keep it simple this week. So back to the basics we went. There's nothing right with that, right? I dug through the closet, found some old water colors, construction paper, and brushes and away they went!

All SMILES!

Proud Momma Moment~ Check out that grip!! Almost have it
perfected, and we're only 2!

Tyler's self-portrait

Concentration is key.

Simple, easy, and well worth the time! I'm loving forcing myself into letting them get more crafty by hosting this blog hop! Please leave a link below to any craft/activity that you have completed with your little one's over the past week!

Wordless Wednesday: 9-11-2013

A trip to the local fair!

Whoohoo! My First Award!

You know you've hit it big time in blogging when you receive your first blogger award. I'm finally hanging with the cool kids! ;0)

Which award did I receive? Well, for your viewing pleasure here it is:

I would like to thank Sarah, from over at My Story, God's Plan for recognizing my blog. She is a fabulous blogger and an amazing person. Sarah is the mother of 3 adorable children here on earth, and 2 precious angels. On her blog she writes stories about balancing her family, her faith, and the world around her. Definitely a must read!

Now, onto the award!

After receiving the nomination, the blogger must:

• Acknowledge the nominating blogger;
• Share 11 random facts about yourself;
• Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you;
• List 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers (as best as you can tell based on the info provided!). They should be bloggers that you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!
• Post 11 questions for the bloggers that you nominated to answer; and
• Let all of the bloggers know that they have been nominated.  You cannot nominate the blogger that nominated you.

11 Random Facts about me!

1.  I'm a total math geek. I took every math class possible in high school and continued that trend through college. I find solving problems more interesting than watching tv!

2.  If I could be a stay at home mom, I would have at least 12 kids. I love big families!

3.  I am obsessed with hair bows. I can't seem to buy enough or make enough of them. Now, if I could convince my toddler to keep them in her hair, that would be wonderful.

4.  I was actively involved in Girl Scouts throughout all of my schooling and I can't wait to start my own troop when Bailey get's old enough.

5.  I am a Michigan girl. I miss the mitten state like crazy, but I know that it just wasn't the place for my family.Maybe someday we'll be able to move back.

6.  My favorite animal is a turtle. They are so cute, and one day I plan on having another one for a pet.

7.  My dream vacation destination is Hawaii. Someday, maybe for our 30th wedding anniversary, we will make it there!

8.  Win or lose, I am a Detroit Tigers fan. I am patiently waiting for them to play in Atlanta again so we can go watch them!

9.  My husband dreams of living in the mountains of Colorado, I dream of living on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean and I'm not sure how we're going to make that work when we retire. It's a good thing we have 30+ years to continue this discussion!

10.  We are planning on selling our house in the next couple of years to buy a larger piece of property where we can have our own garden and the dogs have room to run.

11.  I don't know how to swim, not even dog paddle. Pathetic, I know.

11 Questions

1.  What's your favorite meal of the day?  Dinner, I love being able to sit down with our entire family and enjoy a meal together.

2.  What's your favorite fruit?  Watermelon, there's nothing more enjoyable then a fresh picked watermelon in the summer.

3.  When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up? A teacher. I've wanted to be a teacher for as far back as I can remember.  But there were a few years when I wanted to be a pilot, a lawyer, and a veterinarian.

4.   What quality do you find most attractive in others? A sense of humor. People are no fun if they can't laugh at a joke.

5.  What's your favorite sport? Hands down, baseball!

6.  Gold or Silver? Silver. 

7.  What's your favorite candy?  Anything involving chocolate!

8.  What's your favorite online shopping website?  Amazon.com but that's also pretty much the only website I buy through for now.

9.  What' your pet peeve? Noise, I can't stand noises when it's supposed to be quiet. It might be a good thing that the 12 kids I would love to have aren't going to happen!

10.  Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall?  Spring, I love the smell, the new flowers and pretty much everything about it! If we were still in MI though, it would be Summer.

11.  How many pairs of shoes do you have?  2 pairs of flip flops, 2 pairs of tennis shoes, and 1 pair of dress shoes so 5. But those are only the shoes that I wear. I know there are a few pairs of dress shoes that were purchased and worn for a special occasion at some point.

My nominees:
Feel free to participate if you wish, you won't hurt my feelings if you choose not too!

We Got The Funk

Our Journey As Rookie Parents

And Then There Were Three
A Sorta Fairytale

And for your 11 questions, answer the same 11 questions that I answered! :0)

Craft-Along Monday: Bubble Paint

I'm excited for today's first edition of Craft-Along Monday!! 

I chose a craft this weekend that I remember doing as a young girl in Girl Scouts, bubble painting. It was simple, fun, and inexpensive. I had less than $5 into the entire activity!

Supplies:

Bubbles-I got this giant bottle from the dollar store

Acrylic Paint- We used 2 different colors. They can be found at any craft store for around a dollar a bottle.

Straws

Bowls

Something to protect your work area

Card stock or paper (I used white, but any color should work)

To Mix:

Mix 1/2 cup of bubble mix with 1/2 to 3/4 of a small (2 oz) bottle of paint.

Stir!

This was my 2 year old's favorite part!

Then:

We used a straw to blow into the paint mix,

and placed a piece of paper on top of the paint bubbles.

 The Final Result:

Tyler's Masterpiece

Bailey's Masterpiece

The kids had a blast with this activity! Bailey had some difficulty remembering to blow into the straw and may or may not have drank a small amount of the bubble mixture. She had more fun putting the paper on the bubble paint and letting big brother take care of the rest.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with their masterpieces, but I have a few ideas!

If you have a project that you and your babies have completed recently, feel free to link it up, grab my button, and spread the word!